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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37451132 | Schools in Sri Lanka have been banned from imposing dress codes on parents visiting the premises.
It comes after a poster outside one elite private school, which dictated what women should wear when picking up their children, sparked an outcry.
The notice said that saris and loose dresses were allowed - but not skirts, or strappy or sleeveless tops.
Several state and private schools in Sri Lanka have been known to turn away parents because of their outfits.
Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, Sri Lanka's education minister, told the BBC that many parents, especially mothers, had complained to him about the restrictions.
"Schools cannot decide what attire parents should wear," he said.
"Mothers especially were facing problems because of these dress codes... Most working mothers don't always wear saris. Some have uniforms, and they are compelled to wear a sari in the morning just to drop their children off at school, and then change to go to work."
Why did a boys' school tell women what to wear?
Mr Kariyawasam said he had sent a circular to all schools, telling principals they could not place restrictions on what parents wore.
He said: "Any mother will know how to dress to attend a school, and a dress that is appropriate to the school environment should be fine.
"The world has changed now. We should also adapt with that. We should have laws that help the public, not hassle them."
The poster was put up last week by St Joseph's College in the capital, Colombo. It showed 16 pictures of women in a variety of outfits, with tick marks against half and crosses against the rest.
Another leading private school, St Peter's College, said it also had a similar notice outside its gates.
"This is a boy's school after all and we have a notice so that women know what they should and should not be wearing," an office member said.
The poster attracted widespread criticism online, with many feeling the rules were unfair to women.
"Do they realise we live in a tropical country? Moreover, where is the board for dads?" one user wrote on Facebook.
Others defended the dress codes. One teacher said they were needed because "a lot of parents, particularly young mothers today, wear inappropriate clothing to boy's schools". |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/6514009.stm | Knock-out club football found a home at the Millennium Stadium in 2001 after work started on building the new Wembley Stadium.
Sunday's Johnstone's Paint Trophy thriller between Bristol Rovers and Doncaster - Doncaster winning 3-2 in extra time - served as a fitting last chapter to six years and 46 finals of footballing drama in Cardiff.
The Football Association and the Football League have already confirmed that this season's FA Cup and divisional play-offs will be held in north London.
When Wales' 74,500-capacity national stadium, built for the 1999 rugby union World Cup, was given the role of Wembley stand-in, it was only meant to be for three years.
What are your best Millennium moments?
But delays and overruns on the new Wembley development have meant that the cream of knock-out football has stayed in Cardiff for twice that length of time.
Robbie Fowler had the honour of scoring the first goal at the stadium in a final when he helped Liverpool to victory over Birmingham City in the then Worthington Cup final, which was decided on penalties.
Early misgivings ranged from the quality of the pitch - its pallet system prone to cutting up - to traditionalists fretting over whether the FA Cup should be played outside England for the first time in its history.
There was even the curse of the south changing room to be overcome, which led to the first 12 major cup and play-off finals being won by the team using the north end of the ground.
Eventually a combination of feng shui and Stoke City, in the 2002 Division Two play-off final, ended the jinx.
Visiting fans have largely come to love the Millennium Stadium, appreciating not only the venue itself but also its proximity to major transport links and the best of Cardiff's pubs, bars and eateries.
But the best entertainment always took place on the pitch, so here BBC Sport looks back at some of the most memorable matches from six years of Millennium magic.
The FA Cup final arrived in Cardiff with a bang as Michael Owen whisked the trophy out from under Arsenal's nose.
The Gunners had controlled the match for long spells and Freddie Ljungberg's 70th-minute strike seemed destined to give Arsene Wenger's side the win.
But Owen struck twice in the last eight minutes to ensure the FA Cup went north to Anfield.
This season proved a bumper one for the Football League's finale, with Bournemouth setting the tone against Lincoln in the then Division Three final on the Saturday.
A physically imposing and direct Lincoln side had been tipped to sweep the Cherries aside but found themselves on the wrong end of a 5-2 thumping as Bournemouth turned on the style.
Wade Elliott tormented the Imps with his forays down the flank and, fittingly, Bournemouth captain Carl Fletcher, the Wales midfielder, popped up with two of his side's goals.
The Division Two play-off final the following day had a special resonance because it involved local side Cardiff City, who saw off Queens Park Rangers 1-0 in extra time.
QPR's defensive pair of Danny Shittu and Clark Carlisle were outstanding but the Londoners could not take advantage up the other end of the park.
A nerve-wracking match was finally settled in the 114th minute as substitute striker Andy Campbell's lob sent the Bluebirds back into the second tier after an 18-year absence.
Wolves had been out of the top flight even longer, 19 years, but Dave Jones' side claimed a Premiership place in style with a 3-0 win over Sheffield United.
Both sides set out with the intent to attack but the Blades were simply swept aside by the men in gold during a first-half blitz on the Bank Holiday Monday.
Mark Kennedy set things rolling with a stunning strike before Nathan Blake and Kenny Miller struck to kill off the match before half-time.
Both FA Cup semi-finals as well as the final were played in Cardiff this season but it was the Football League Trophy that produced one of the best stories.
North Wales side Wrexham were deep in the financial trouble that would eventually lead them into administration and fall down a league.
But for this afternoon the Dragons were in their pomp as they invaded Cardiff, beating Southend 2-0 in extra time thanks to goals from Juan Ugarte and Darren Ferguson.
The last FA Cup match to be played in the Millennium Stadium proved a fitting send-off in one of the classic finals.
West Ham took the lead through Jamie Carragher's own goal and Dean Ashton's close-range strike before Djibril Cisse and Steven Gerrard drew Liverpool level.
Paul Konchesky's cross-shot seemed to have won it for the Hammers but Gerrard produced a brilliant last-minute strike to force extra-time, the Reds going on to win on penalties after a breathless period of additional action.
Swansea were the last of the three Welsh clubs in the Football League to appear at the Millennium Stadium - but became the only one to lose.
Paul Hayes gave Barnsley an early lead but the Swans, roared on by a huge travelling support, took the lead through Rory Fallon and Andy Robinson.
Any thoughts the Swans had that they were destined to win this one were dispelled by Daniel Nardiello's free-kick to send the match into extra time, with the Tykes holding their nerve in the penalty shoot-out.
Cardiff was treated to an absorbing last major final between London rivals, who were full of flair, running and endeavour.
Theo Walcott opened the scoring for the Gunners but two strikes from Didier Drogba enabled Chelsea to come from behind to clinch it.
But the final moments were marred by a brawl between the two rival sets of players that ended with Mikel Jon Obi, Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor being sent off. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/122234.stm | The electricity generator, PowerGen, is to buy East Midlands Electricity for �9bn. ($3.15bn).
It will pay �1m in cash and assume �05bn in debt for the deal.
East Midlands, which supplies electricity to over two million homes and businesses, was bought by its current owner, the American power company Dominion Resources, in 1996 for �3bn.
With headquarters in Nottingham, it employs 4,500 people.
PowerGen, which is Britain's third largest generator, operates 11 power stations in England and Wales, supplying just under 20% of electricity capacity.
The move creates an integrated energy supply and distribution company which will be able to take advantage of the deregulation of the domestic electricity market in the autumn.
Ed Wallis, Chairman of PowerGen, said the deal would be good for shareholders, customers and employees of the two companies. "This transaction represents a significant step forward, structurally, the move creates a strong growth platform in the converging electricity and gas markets."
The deal will need the approval of regulators, but PowerGen says it believes competition issues can be resolved by the company selling some of its generating capacity.
It is believed that the company plans to sell at least one of its coal-fired power stations, possibly at Ferrybridge, Yorkshire. It has already said it will dispose of its oil and gas assets, which could raise around �0m.
It says it will be making submissions to the Office of Fair Trading and the industry regulator, Offer.
The deal comes at a sensitive time, as the government is trying to encourage the generators to sell capacity as part of its energy review.
PowerGen and its slightly larger rival National Power hold 40% of the generating market between them. The industry regulator Stephen Littlechild has said that at least one-fifth of that generating capacity should go in order to encourage more competition. National Power has been resisting calls to sell any of its plants.
PowerGen tried to buy Midlands Electricity, a neighbour of East Midlands, two years ago but the deal was blocked by the previous Conservative government. It is rumoured to be in talks with Midlands' American owners, Houston Industries, for a full-scale merger.
In early trading PowerGen shares were down 8p to �42. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-41728709 | A Cardiff dentist who breached "basic and fundamental standards of care and hygiene" has been struck off.
Mark Roberts ran the Splott Road Dental Surgery until 2014 and left in 2015.
Following his departure, health officials contacted 3,000 patients to offer precautionary blood tests.
On Monday, the General Dental Council (GDC) found more than 20 examples of failings including reusing single-use equipment, not cleaning instruments and not disposing of waste properly.
Mr Roberts did not attend the hearing but the GDC found his fitness to practise was impaired and struck Mr Roberts off "for the protection of the public".
The GDC's professional conduct committee heard evidence from dental nurses who reported that Mr Roberts' everyday practice was poor.
There was also photographic evidence of the drawers where Mr Roberts kept the tools and equipment he used for treating patients every day. These showed visibly soiled equipment placed in dirty drawers.
The committee found "a wide ranging list of serious clinical failings over a protracted period of time" and said Mr Roberts "failed in his duty as a dental practitioner to provide the basic standard of care to his patients".
Its report added: "The dental records demonstrated a high level of supervised neglect by Mr Roberts and a blatant disregard for the standards of the profession.
"Given the serious and wide-ranging failings found, the ongoing risk to the public and the need to safeguard public confidence in the dental profession, the committee was of the view that an immediate order of suspension is necessary for the protection of the public and otherwise." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-16411358 | The Duchess of Cambridge has become the patron of four charities.
She has accepted honorary positions with Action on Addiction, East Anglia's Children's Hospices, the Art Room and the National Portrait Gallery.
Kate will also become a volunteer in the Scout Association, mostly working near her North Wales home.
St James's Palace said the choices reflected her interests in the arts, promotion of outdoor activity and supporting people in need of all ages.
"The duchess has chosen to support organisations that complement the charitable work already undertaken by her husband," it added.
Supporting charities is an important role for members of the Royal Family as they can help promote the profile of good causes on to the national stage.
The Art Room, which uses art therapy to help children with issues like low self-esteem and Asperger's syndrome at centres in Oxford and London, said it would make a great difference.
For the five organisations - selected, in part, from the hundreds who wrote asking for her support - the benefits are obvious. With the duchess on board they can gain nationwide attention for their causes and, where needed, the possibility of extra funding.
For the Royal Family's most high profile new recruit, a role continues to be carved out. She is, like Prince William, still tiptoeing towards her destiny. Time is on her side. She has four patronages, not 400.
With a working husband, and no children to distract, she intends to be a hands-on patron - when she's not building campfires with the beavers and cubs.
The Royal Family have been taking on patronages since the reign of George III. This is a significant step for the former Kate Middleton. But it is just a first step for a future queen.
Founder and director Juli Beattie said: "We're absolutely delighted, we're overwhelmed and thrilled. "This is just fantastic, it will raise the profile of the charity and get people to see the work we are doing."
Kate is already patron of the charitable foundation William founded with his brother Prince Harry, but these are her first external patronages.
She will make private and public visits across the UK to her new organisations over the coming months.
Action on Addiction - which has its headquarters in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and helps people with a range of addictions at its treatment centres across England - welcomed her choice.
In November, Kate privately visited East Anglia's Children's Hospices (EACH) which provides care and support to children with life-threatening conditions and their families across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.
There she met Grant and Charlotte Clemence whose daughter Fleur died soon after being born last May from a rare heart condition. The couple were supported by EACH in her final days.
Mr Clemence said: "The Duchess showed genuine interest to all the families and staff she met and it really will be a great boost for EACH."
Media captionWhat do the Scouts think of the Duchess of Cambridge's decision to volunteer?
The duchess has also accepted a role with London's National Portrait Gallery, which said it was looking forward to working with her.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are living in north Wales, near to where William is based at RAF Valley on Anglesey.
Kate, who was a Brownie as a child, will volunteer with younger members of the Scout Association primarily at groups based around her home but also in other areas when opportunities arise.
UK chief scout Bear Grylls said: "The duchess has an incredibly busy life, which makes it all the more inspiring that she has chosen to volunteer alongside us." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/13/newsid_2503000/2503093.stm | Ten army officers involved in an aborted coup in Morocco have been executed.
Four generals, five colonels and one major faced a firing squad without trial or court martial less than 72 hours after they had led a surprise attack.
About 250 rebels - mainly from the Ahermoumou cadet training school - stormed the royal palace at Sikharat where King Hassan II was hosting a grand reception for his 42nd birthday on Saturday.
Ten miles away there were successful assaults on Rabat radio, the Interior Ministry and the Army headquarters.
Dissident soldiers had claimed to have seized power and killed the King. But the Moroccan news agency later confirmed he was unharmed as loyalist troops sealed off government buildings and patrolled Rabat's streets in tanks.
A total of 92 people were killed, including Belgian ambassador Marcel Dupret. The King's brother, Moulay Abdullah, was among the 133 injured.
The coup leaders were shot in the courtyard of a military barracks in Rabat this morning, witnessed by military officers, who spat on the corpses, and Moroccan journalists.
King Hassan was at the state funeral for his supporters killed at the summer palace in the two-and-a-half hour gun battle there.
Among the victims were the Minister of Justice Muhammed Lazrak, the Minister of Tourism Ahmed Bahnini and the King's 80-year-old surgeon.
A further four generals and four colonels who had been loyal were also killed and the Moroccan authorities - under the temporary direction of General Muhammed Oufkir - are keen to stabilise the military as quickly as possible.
In a press conference today, the King identified the leaders of the coup and said the 1,400 rebels involved had been killed or rounded up.
He dismissed the challenge to his authority, saying, "It was all very under-developed," and he pointed to foreign interference as 600 Moroccans had attempted to renew their passports in Cairo on the day of the attack.
Many believed the rebels did not intend to kill the King but simply wanted to reform the political system.
General Muhammed Medbouh was widely believed to have led the coup and had spoken out against corruption. He was accidentally killed by his own forces.
Since inheriting the crown in 1961 King Hassan II had continued the pro-western, personal rule of his father. He was also a devout Muslim.
From 1946 to 1969 Morocco received more aid from the US than anywhere else in Africa - �304m.
There was a rising tide of Arab nationalism in the region, which had seen Egypt, Iraq, Yemen and Libya succumb to revolution in the past 20 years.
The King survived several assassination attempts after Morocco gained independence from France in the early 1950s. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6923915.stm | The humble office laser printer can damage lungs in much the same way as smoke particles from cigarettes, a team of Australian scientists has found.
An investigation of a range of printer models showed that almost a third emit potentially dangerous levels of toner into the air.
The Queensland University of Technology scientists have called on ministers to regulate these kinds of emissions.
They say some printers should come with a health warning.
The researchers carried out tests on more than 60 machines.
Almost one-third were found to emit ultra-tiny particles of toner-like material, so small that they can infiltrate the lungs and cause a range of health problems from respiratory irritation to more chronic illnesses.
Conducted in an open-plan office, the test revealed that particle levels increased five-fold during working hours, a rise blamed on printer use.
The problem was worse when new cartridges were used and when graphics and images required higher quantities of toner.
The researchers have called on governments to regulate air quality in offices.
They also want companies to ensure that printers are based in well-ventilated areas so that particles disperse. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/p/peterborough_united/2404115.stm | Peterborough United and Victoria Beckham are squaring up for a fight over the right to use the nickname 'Posh'.
The UK Patents Office confirmed that Victoria Beckham had lodged a counter-claim to the football club's application to register the nickname, 'The Posh', which they have used since the 1920s.
But Peterborough chief executive Geoff Davey is ready for a battle - and warned that the club faced serious financial implications if they were prevented from using the 'Posh' name on merchandising.
A statement from her publicity company said: "The name Posh is inexorably associated with Victoria Beckham in the public's mind."
It added: "The concern from her team is that they (the public) would think she had in some way endorsed products she had no knowledge of.
"Whilst Victoria accepts that the football club are nicknamed Posh, and might want to use the name in association with football products, there is no conceivable reason why they should need blanket coverage for every class of goods."
Davey said: "I was absolutely stunned when I got the letter [confirming the counter-claim].
"Mrs Beckham's opposition alleges that since the launch of the first Spice Girls CD in 1996, she has been commonly referred to as Posh or Posh Spice.
"She claims the nickname 'Posh' has become synonymous with her on a worldwide basis.
"Although she has not registered the name 'Posh' or 'Posh Spice', it is alleged that 'Posh' is a well-known trademark, at least in relation to musical performances, printed publications, musical recordings and other licensed goods.
"Our argument will be that Posh has been associated with the club since the 1920s."
An impressed director eyeing up the players' appearance in their new kit said they looked 'Posh'.
A former manager said he wanted "posh players for a posh team" to play at the club's new ground.
"In 1998 we registered 'Posh' and 'The Posh' under the chairman's name," Davey told BBC Radio Five Live.
A Patents Office spokesman confirmed that Peterborough chairman Peter Boizot applied to register the club's use of the name in August 1998.
Trademark registration rules say that any application must be advertised for three months.
Peterborough's application was advertised in June this year, and a counter-claim was received in September.
"I just hope it doesn't come down to who has got the most money," said Davey.
Peterborough are currently up for sale, with a price tag of around �1.5m on the London Road club.
"I was staggered to hear this" |
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-11961964 | A mixture of musical genres, including opera, jazz, bell-ringing and beatboxing, have been chosen to feature in the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
The 20 works will each last 12 minutes and "offer a snapshot of the quality and diversity of new music in the UK", according to organisers.
BBC Radio 3 boss Roger Wright chaired the panel that selected the pieces for the "New Music 20x12" project.
He said they were impressed by the "quality and range" of music submitted.
The pieces will be broadcast on Radio 3 and may also feature at official events linked to the 2012 London Olympics.
Organisers said the music reflected "the energy, hope and excitement that will emanate from across the Cultural Olympiad and the Games themselves."
One of the pieces - Wild Bells to a Wild Sky - will be created by the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers.
Composer Howard Skempton said he wanted to use bells because they "proclaim moments of public gathering, celebration and of important news".
Composer Anna Meredith, meanwhile, is teaming up with the National Youth Orchestra to create HandsFree, a piece using the percussive skill of beatboxing and clapping.
Other pieces include one put together by inmates at Lowdham Grange prison in Nottinghamsire and another exploring the sounds and rhythms of table tennis.
New Music 20x12 will be delivered by the PRS for Music Foundation in partnership with the BBC, the organisers of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games and Sound and Music.
The Cultural Olympiad started in 2008 and will culminate in a London festival running from 21 June to 9 September 2012.
Actress Cate Blanchett, Blur's Damon Albarn and artist David Hockney are among the celebrities whose involvement was announced earlier this week.
Poetry lovers are also being asked to get involved by submitting verses that they think will help boost participating athletes in the 2012 games.
A panel of judges, including poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and author Sebastian Faulks, will determine the chosen lines, which will eventually be engraved on a wall in the Athletes' Village. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-19893896/sir-roger-moore-sir-sean-connery-is-the-best-bond | Dame Judi Dench on Bond at 50 Jump to media player Dame Judi Dench, who is set to return in her seventh 007 film as Bond's boss M in Skyfall, says Bond's is a "national hero".
'Bond love scenes were awful' Jump to media player Former Bond girl Gemma Arterton has described her experience filming a love scene with Daniel Craig for 2008's Quantum of Solace.
Adele's Bond song leaks online Jump to media player The official Skyfall track is leaked on the internet a day after Adele confirmed she had recorded the song.
The longest serving actor to play the role of James Bond, Sir Roger Moore, has praised his predecessor Sir Sean Connery as "the best Bond".
Sir Roger spent 13 years playing 007. He has also written a book about his time on the series.
He spoke to BBC Breakfast's Susanna Reid about the producers' doubts over casting him as Bond. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/if/3487048.stm | Will power cuts be a way of life in the future?
Could Britain be facing a widespread, catastrophic power cut in the future? The short answer is yes.
"Unless we make decisions now our electricity will start to run out within five years," Professor Ian Fells, World Energy Council.
In our scenario, set in the winter of 2010, Britain is struggling to generate enough electricity to cope with demand.
Click here to watch a special Newsnight debate on the issue.
We've used most of our reserves in the North Sea and are already heavily dependent on imported gas to generate electricity, the majority of which we buy from Russia.
But a terrorist attack on a gas pipeline in Russia has a disastrous effect on Britain.
We see the crisis from the point of view of Bill McAllister, the newly-appointed energy minister, who thought back-up systems were in place.
However, after the Russian gas pipeline goes down, he finds he quickly runs out of options.
By evening rush-hour, whole sections of the country begin to lose power, including the capital city London.
Very quickly the south east of England is plunged into darkness; householders are left with no water or electricity, traffic is gridlocked, tube trains are stranded underground and airports closed.
As the situation worsens emergency services are affected and people's lives are put at risk.
"The effect in the UK could be very quick indeed.
"This is a very, very difficult problem to solve, and we just have never attempted to solve a problem of this magnitude in this country ever before," says Kelvin Beer, Gas Strategist, Deloitte Petroleum Services.
Has the deregulated electricity industry put us at greater risk of black-outs?
Do the current crises in coal-fired and nuclear power generation - and the fact that Britain's reserves of gas are running out - mean that power cuts will be a way of life in the future?
During the programme, we interview today's energy experts who give us their view on what's happening in energy policy.
They explain how falling prices, rising consumption, industry regulation and privatisation have, and could, affect Britain's electricity business.
"The trouble is there's no clear line of authority, there's no clarity as to who exactly is responsible," says energy economist Dieter Helm.
"If you want the lights to stay on, if you want security of supply, if you want what a modern economy needs you have to be absolutely clear what your priorities are, who has the right powers and how they will be exercised, then the market works.
"But we're a long way from that point yet, and that is the challenge that should be at the Department of Trade and Industry's door morning, noon and night. "
If... the lights go out was broadcast on BBC Two on Wednesday, 10 March, 2004.
The government and Ofgem have a statutory responsibility to ensure security of energy supplies.
The recent Energy White Paper made clear that maintaining security of supply is one of the four goals of government energy policy.
"Contrary to what has been reported, the market-driven approach to delivering energy supplies works.
NGT asked for greater capacity over the winter. Prices rose and this encouraged companies to bring plant back into service so that it was available to generate more electricity if it was needed.
The margin rose from 16% in the autumn to over 20% throughout the winter thanks to this approach and, since privatisation, there has never been an occasion when supply has not been sufficient to meet demand.
Ofgem is the regulator for Britain's gas and electricity industries. In these factsheets, Ofgem explains how our gas and electricity is supplied. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tees-41713203 | A museum dedicated to artworks created by coal miners has opened its doors.
The Mining Art Gallery in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, has 420 pieces including works by Norman Cornish, Tom McGuinness and Bob Olley.
It part of a project aimed at creating a "a world-class visitor destination" in the market town.
A colliery band played at Saturday's opening ceremony as the ribbon was cut by Dr Robert McManners and Gillian Wales, who donated hundreds of works.
Dr McManners said: "Coal mining wasn't just a job, it was a way of life and in this gallery are the underground scenes the miners wanted to articulate alongside the community life, the long term-friendships and pride.
"Heritage doesn't have to be something which is fossilised in the past, it's something we can take to the future and tell people about in this new gallery."
Jonathan Ruffer, Chairman of The Auckland Project, said: "This is a very exciting day for Bishop Auckland and for The Auckland Project.
"To understand why this area is so special we need to look back into its past and the miners were a significant part of that." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15637244 | Gas has begun to flow along a major new pipeline connecting Russia and the EU.
The Nord Stream project was formally opened at a ceremony in Germany attended by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The pipeline allows Siberian gas to flow directly to Germany, via twin pipelines under the Baltic Sea.
The new route means Russia can bypass traditional transit countries such as Ukraine and Poland, which have strained relations with Moscow.
The pipeline's opening ceremony took place in the Geman town of Lubmin, where heads of state involved in the project opened a tap to release the first of the gas into the European grid.
Chanceller Merkel described the project as a "milestone in energy co-operation" and the "basis of a reliable partnership" between Russia and Europe.
Although the project will only reach full capacity next year, it is already politically sensitive. Russia is Europe's primary energy supplier, and the new pipeline is likely to increase that dependence.
The new route also has strategic implications for Moscow.
At present, 80% of Russian gas exports to the EU flow through pipelines across Ukrainian soil, a source of ongoing tension. In 2009, disputes between Moscow and Kiev over the status of this network led Russia to cut off gas to Ukraine during a bitterly cold winter.
Poland, another transit country for Russian pipelines, is also in dispute with Moscow over gas. On 7 November, Polish gas monopoly PGNiG filed an arbitration procedure against Russia's gas giant Gazprom to demand a discount on gas imports. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_div_3/4322298.stm | Bury celebrated Chris Casper's appointment as the League's youngest manager with victory over Darlington.
Nicky Adams, playing as a makeshift striker, scored the winner after wrong-footing keeper Sam Russell.
Quakers defender David Duke was taken to hospital with a suspected broken ankle sustained in the opening half.
Darlington might have equalised late in the match through Matt Clarke, but his strike went just wide of Bury keeper Neil Edwards' goal.
Bury: Edwards, Scott, Challinor, Woodthorpe, Kennedy, Whaley, Flitcroft, Mattis (Sedgemore 82), Buchanan, Tipton (Barlow 72), Adams (Fitzgerald 90).
Subs Not Used: Dootson, Youngs.
Darlington: Russell, Duke (Thomas 41), Clarke, Martis, Valentine, Johnson, Appleby (Jameson 59), Hutchinson, Webster, Wainwright, Ndumbu-Nsungu (Sodje 60).
Subs Not Used: Kendrick, Parkin.Booked: Ndumbu-Nsungu, Clarke, Webster, Hutchinson.
Ref: A Hall (W Midlands). |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12685408 | More than half of California's children are now of Hispanic origin, according to the US Census Bureau.
The latest data from the 2010 census shows that Latinos and Asians accounted for most of the population growth in California over the past decade.
The number of Hispanics rose 28% to 14 million, reaching near parity with non-Hispanic whites, while Asians grew 31%.
California remains the biggest state, growing to 37.3 million, but not enough for additional seats in Congress.
The detailed figures from the 2010 US Census shows that Hispanics now account for 38% of California's population, almost equal with the 40% of non-Hispanic whites.
These number 15 million, a drop of 5% on the previous census.
The Asian population now stands at 4.8 million, while the non-Hispanic black population is down 1% at 2.2 million.
The state's Hispanic population under 18 years of age increased 17%, while the number of non-Hispanic white children fell 21% over the past decade.
"Hispanics are the future of California," William Frey from the Brookings Institution told the Washington Post.
"Any local or state initiatives that have to do with education need to reach out to this population."
California grew by some 10% over the past decade, on par with the national average.
But it was not enough for the state to pick up more seats in the House of Representatives.
This contrasts with the next biggest state, Texas, whose population grew nearly 19% to 25 million and has gained an extra four congressional seats.
The figures released on Tuesday also show a shift in population within California.
Inland areas registered more growth rather than the traditional centres such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The census figures are also used to redraw legislative and congressional districts within states.
The 2010 Census figures will have more impact than before because for the first time an independent body, the Citizens Redistricting Commission, will be responsible for setting the boundaries for districts represented in California's Senate and Assembly.
Previously, districts were redrawn by politicians. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24371575 | There should be a ban on teaching creationism as a science in schools, according to a group campaigning for the separation of church and state.
The Scottish Secular Society called for clear guidance on how religious theories about the origins of life are taught.
It highlighted concerns over two recent incidents in Scottish schools.
The Scottish government said it was for headteachers to decide what links schools should have with faith groups.
The Scottish Secular Society said it had no problem with students understanding that not everyone accepts the theory of evolution, and that there are other beliefs about the origins of the universe, the earth and life.
But it said the only place for creationism and intelligent design in Scottish schools was "within a discussion context in religious and moral education classes".
The society said clear guidance would bring Scotland into line with England and Wales, where the presentation of creationism, intelligent design and similar ideas as scientific theories is already prohibited in schools.
Its letter followed two recent unrelated incidents which, the society argued, demonstrated there was a risk of such theories being presented to children as scientific fact.
Children at a primary school in South Lanarkshire were given books donated by the Church of Christ as a gift to take home.
The books debunked evolution and advocated the Church of Christ's belief that the earth is a few thousand years old.
Illustrations in the book showed humans and dinosaurs living alongside each other.
After protests from parents, the council launched an investigation into management practices at the school. The headteacher and her deputy were moved to other duties in the education department.
Separately, a parent in Midlothian complained after a physics teacher at a secondary school was alleged to have told a student he did not accept some of the science he was expected to teach because of his Christian faith.
The teacher is due to retire in a few months.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: "It is for a head teacher to decide, in full consultation with the local authority and wishes of parents, what links a school should have with its local faith communities." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-47321221 | A teenager has pleaded guilty after driving a car into a bus that then crashed into a house.
Brett Woodhouse, 18, admitted driving uninsured and without a licence when the Trentbarton bus hit a home in Radcliffe-on-Trent on 26 January.
Police said there were about 15 people on board and at least one woman was injured.
Woodhouse also pleaded guilty to failing to stop for police before and after the crash.
Woodhouse, of Loughborough Road in West Bridgford, pleaded guilty to four charges in total at Nottingham Magistrates' Court.
"Causing injury to a female" was added to the charge of failing to stop after the crash, which Woodhouse admitted.
Woodhouse was granted conditional bail and will be sentenced at the same court on 1 March. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47622579 | Ocado's revenue grew by 11.2% in the 13 weeks to 13 March compared with the same period last year, although the online food retailer's income was hit by a fire in its warehouse in February.
It brought in £404m during the period, but the fire in its Andover base had a 1.2% impact on its sales.
The firm had more orders per week, but their average size was slightly lower.
Last month, Ocado announced a deal with Marks & Spencer to give the department store its first home delivery service.
It will start in September 2020 at the latest, once Ocado's current deal with Waitrose has expired.
More than 30,000 orders - 10% of Ocado's capacity - were processed at the Andover warehouse, which was on fire for four days.
Chief executive Tim Steiner said: "The fire has been a setback, but it will only be a temporary one.
"Our teams have been working hard to minimise any disruption to our customers and we will build a state-of-the-art replacement facility that reflects all the innovations and improvements we have made since Andover opened in November 2016."
Ocado also said that the initial investigation into the causes of the fire did not suggest there was any risk relating to its model, which relies on robotic warehouse machines to pack orders.
Meanwhile, a temporary delivery outpost is being set up in Andover and capacity at another customer fulfilment centre in Erith is being increased faster than planned to cope with the disruption.
Ocado is selling the operating system to other retailers and there was concern it could affect the other parts of its business.
Mr Steiner said that with the Marks & Spencer deal, he felt that "Ocado Retail has never been in a stronger position".
He added: "We are looking forward to the future with excitement and determination."
Sophie Lund-Yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Today's announcement leaves no doubt Ocado has its eyes firmly on the future, with the group letting investors know last month's warehouse fire will be nothing more than a temporary setback.
"The first quarter has gone about as well as can be expected and it's looking more and more like Ocado will make it over this bump in the road." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23377948 | Image caption Police in New York have dubbed instances of phone theft as "Apple-picking"
New measures to curb soaring levels of mobile phone theft worldwide are to be tested in New York and San Francisco.
Prosecutors will test measures on Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S4 to measure effectiveness against common tactics used by thieves.
Various cities across the world have called on manufacturers to do more to deter phone theft.
London Mayor Boris Johnson has written to firms saying they must "take this issue seriously".
In a letter to Apple, Samsung, Google and other mobile makers, Mr Johnson wrote: "If we are to deter theft and help prevent crimes that victimise your customers and the residents and visitors to our city, we need meaningful engagement from business and a clear demonstration that your company is serious about your corporate responsibility to help solve this problem."
Prosecutors in the US are following a similar line - last month meeting representatives from the technology firms to discuss the matter.
They are calling for a "kill switch", a method of rendering a handset completely useless if it is stolen, rendering a theft pointless.
Statistics from the US Federal Trade Commission suggest that almost one in three robberies nationwide involves the theft of a mobile phone.
In New York, 40% of robberies are phone thefts - a crime so common it has been dubbed "Apple-picking" by police.
London has seen a "troubling" rise in mobile phone theft, the mayor's office said, with 75% of all "theft from person" offences involving a phone - 10,000 handsets a month.
The firms have offered theft solutions to help combat the problem.
Apple's Activation Lock - which will be part of the next major iPhone and iPad software update - is to come under close scrutiny.
Thieves will often deactivate a phone immediately to stop it being tracked after a theft. Activation Lock is designed to make it harder to then reactivate, as it requires the entry of the log-in details used to register the phone originally.
For Samsung and other handsets, prosecutors, aided by security professionals, will be testing theft recovery system Lojack.
"We are not going to take them at their word," the prosecutors in New York and San Francisco said in a joint statement.
"Today we will assess the solutions they are proposing and see if they stand up to the tactics commonly employed by thieves." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/4743513.stm | Thousands of people have attended a re-enactment of the Trafalgar Dispatch in Falmouth - the main event of the Sea Britain 2005 festival.
Lieutenant John Lapenotiere arrived in Falmouth 200 years ago on board HMS Pickle bringing news of the battle of Trafalgar and the death of Lord Nelson.
Her Royal Highness Princess Anne welcomed the "intrepid sailors" home.
An 11-gun salute was fired as the ship entered Falmouth Harbour flanked by a flotilla of smaller boats.
Actor Alex Price will be recreating Lt John Lapenotiere's journey from Falmouth to London in a replica post chaise which has been built for the trip.
In the role of Lt Lapenotiere, he said he had to deliver the best of news and the worst of news.
"The best in the sense that we've won the battle and beaten the combined fleets of France and Spain under the command of Napoleon.
"But we have lost Lord Nelson, who died at the height of the battle. That is something I mourn greatly as I'm sure most of Britain will do.
"The news I bring back to Britain will change the face of Europe and will be taught from generation to generation as a defining moment in British history."
The actor will be accompanied by Sub Lt Mark Jones from Dartmouth Naval College, who said Nelson's fleet was well prepared for battle.
He said the training given to the French and Spanish was not comparable to the British.
"The British fleet had been at sea for years, constantly training and constantly practicing gunnery, compared to the Spanish and French fleets which had been anchored in Cadiz for most of the period of the war."
"The doctrine, the training and the spirit of the British Navy was far superior."
Lt Lapenotiere is buried in the churchyard at Menheniot near Liskeard in Cornwall. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4057919.stm | Bad weather is being blamed as the probable cause of a plane crash in Indonesia on Tuesday which left at least 25 people dead.
An MD-82 passenger plane belonging to budget airline Lion Air skidded off the runway in heavy rain and crashed into a nearby cemetery in Solo, central Java.
A spokesman for the airline said the plane had been hit by a strong tail wind as it landed.
It was the most deadly plane accident in Indonesia in several years.
The plane had flown from Jakarta with at least 140 passengers and seven crew on board.
The pilot, two flight attendants and a mechanic were reported to be among the dead.
About 40 people were reported injured.
Survivors told local television about their ordeal.
"People were screaming Allahu Akbar! (God is great) when it skidded off the runway. It finally came to a halt after hitting a graveyard next to the runway," one man said.
Indonesia's worst air disaster took place in 1997, when a Garuda Indonesia Airbus crashed on the island of Sumatra in poor visibility, killing all 234 people on board. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bradford/4451508.stm | The policewoman shot dead in Bradford on Friday was killed on her daughter's fourth birthday.
Sharon Beshenivsky, 38, a mother of three children and two stepchildren, had been a serving constable for only nine months.
Her colleague injured in the shooting was Teresa Milburn, 37, who joined the West Yorkshire force in April 2004.
Six people have been arrested in London in connection with the shootings outside a travel agents.
Eyewitnesses said an Asian man and two black men armed with guns fired shots as they escaped with cash from the premises in Morley Street shortly after 1525 GMT.
Pc Beshenivsky was an "enthusiastic, mature and very positive colleague" with an infectious laugh, said Chief Constable Colin Cramphorn.
"I think her inspector said it all for me when he said he would have liked 30 Sharons on the shift," he said.
Pc Beshenivsky had been a police community support officer for two years before joining the West Yorkshire force.
She died after being shot in the chest, the chief constable said.
He confirmed Pc Beshenivsky had been wearing body armour which provided limited ballistic protection, but the shot had penetrated her chest.
Mr Cramphorn said her husband Paul and family were "completely devastated by the loss".
The family lived in a converted barn in Keighley, West Yorkshire.
Former neighbour Shahid Ahmed, 38, said: "They seemed like a very happy family. There was always lots of laughter coming from over the fence."
Pc Teresa Milburn is married with a 16-year-old son. She was shot in the shoulder and remained under armed police guard in hospital.
She had previously been a machinist and was hoping for a "complete change" and "new opportunities" in joining the force, Mr Cramphorn said.
Giving details of the raid, Det Supt Andy Brennan said three men had inquired about buying tickets at the Universal Express travel agents in Morley Street, the same road where another armed robbery took place at a shop three weeks ago.
The three men jumped over the counter and one member of staff was struck with a firearm across the head. An unknown quantity of cash was stolen.
A witness saw the men going on to Edmund Street before getting into a silver vehicle.
Mr Brennan said: "It is crucial that anyone with any information no matter how slight contacts the police."
Officers were examining CCTV footage from the street where the shooting took place.
Tom McGhie, chairman of the West Yorkshire Police Federation, said there was a sense of "disbelief and shock" among officers in the force.
He said: "I can't imagine worse circumstances. It has a profound effect upon everybody and it touches a large number of people, not just police officers."
The Bishop of Bradford, David James, said: I'm sure the whole city will be in deep sympathy with the families and with police colleagues over what has happened."
Should the Police be armed? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/23/default.stm | The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, welcomes the resounding "yes" vote in the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement on Northern Ireland calling it "a day for joy".
More than 100 children and six teachers are taken hostage in a primary school in northern Holland.
A military court in Paris imposes a life sentence on Raoul Salan, leader of an extremist group violently opposed to Algerian independence.
At least four people are dead and dozens more injured in an explosion at a Lancashire water treatment plant.
The British government declares a state of emergency a week after the nation's seamen strike begins. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-47731729 | An appeal for the owner of a missing ring has sparked a plethora of puns on social media.
Gloucestershire police set out to find who owned the replica prop of the "One Ring" from The Lord of the Rings.
Nearly 3,000 people responded to the force's appeal with Middle Earth-based jokes, gifs and photos.
The ring in question is a replica of the "one to rule them all" from JRR Tolkien's novel, which was turned into a film trilogy by Peter Jackson.
It was famously held for many years by Gollum who called it his "preciousss".
In Tolkien's story it was taken to its final destruction by Frodo Baggins, which ensured the end to its creator - the evil Sauron.
But it appears the ring was not cast into Mount Doom to be destroyed as last thought, and somehow found its way to Gloucestershire.
Police set out to track down its owner by posting a photo online.
Matthew Martin was first to respond to the appeal, saying: "If Sauron phones up looking to claim the ring, DO NOT give it to him."
He added: "Gloucester's got enough problems without the Dark Lord wading in with his anti-social behaviour."
This prompted a slew of animated gifs, including wizard Gandalf nodding in agreement.
Steven Cherrett posted some of Gollum's classic quotes from the film, saying: "Curse them! WE hates them! it's ours it is, and we wants it! We wants it, we needs it."
Kerry King-Neale went for a play on words, saying the ring had been "Tolkien without owner's consent".
And Toby Maitland tried to explain to the force why telling people they had the ring was not good news.
"There are literally three films and a massive book explaining why handing this in was a bad idea," he said.
Others suggested that the books could have had a very different outcome had Facebook come to the Shires.
Craig Batham asked: "Does this mean Frodo is now officially a high risk misper?"
While Daniel Wright's comment must have taken the longest to think up: "You should be investigating first degree Mordor!"
The ring's owner has still not been traced. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47844810 | The lawyer for former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn has revealed the terms his client had to meet to secure his initial release from custody on bail.
Conditions the 65-year-old had faced included using a sole computer, in his lawyer's office, and one mobile phone.
A 24-hour surveillance camera also had to be installed at the entrance of his court-approved permanent residence.
Mr Ghosn was re-arrested in Tokyo last week, pending trial over claims of financial misconduct.
He has been detained over suspicions that he tried to enrich himself at the carmaker's expense.
In a statement, Mr Ghosn - who denies any wrongdoing - said his re-arrest was "outrageous and arbitrary".
Mr Ghosn's lawyer, Takashi Takano, issued a blog post (in Japanese) over the weekend where he outlined his client's bail conditions after he was released from custody on 6 March.
Mr Ghosn had been released on $9m (£6.8m) bail after 108 days in custody.
The conditions stated Mr Ghosn must not flee or hide, not travel abroad. Any travel within Japan of more than three days would have needed court sanctioning.
Any change of address also had to be approved by a court.
Mr Ghosn also had to keep a log of everyone he met - except his wife and legal counsel - as well as records of telephone calls and internet use.
He was also ordered not to make contact with a number of fellow defendants, including board member Greg Kelly, suspected of collaborating with Mr Ghosn.
Nissan is holding an extraordinary shareholders meeting on Monday, where the carmaker is expected to dismiss Mr Ghosn and his onetime-deputy Mr Kelly from the board of directors.
The motor executive had said on 3 April, in a newly created Twitter account, that he was planning a press conference on 11 April "to tell the truth about what's happening". |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-45494935 | Aberdeen bypass builder Galliford Try has reported strong financial results despite taking a multi-million pound hit on the delayed project.
Strong underlying performance saw profits at the London-based construction company surge by 145%.
Full-year results showed pre-tax profits jumped from £58.7m to £143.7m in the year to 30 June.
The figures accounted for extra costs of £45m on the bypass project after the collapse of former partner Carillion.
The 28-mile development - known as the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR) - is one of Scotland's biggest infrastructure projects and has a price tag of £745m.
Galliford Try had reported in May that additional weather-related costs associated with the bypass were likely to be in the region of £25m.
The project was due to be finished by the spring, but may now not open until late autumn.
The company, along with Balfour Beatty, are now covering the costs after Carillion went into liquidation in January.
In its report, London-based Galliford Try said significant sections of the road were open to the public.
It said an outstanding section was due to be completed in the autumn.
The company, which also worked on the new Queensferry Crossing, said much of its recent success was driven by strong figures in its home building division.
Chief executive Peter Truscott said: "The underlying construction business performed well and continues to see a pipeline of suitable opportunities, with new projects delivering improved margins.
"We have made good progress towards completion of the AWPR contract, with significant sections of the road open to traffic and the final section expected to be open by late autumn 2018." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8109327.stm | BBC NEWS | Americas | What happens when a pilot dies?
What happens when a pilot dies?
The fact that a Continental airlines flight from Brussels to Newark landed safely, despite the death of the pilot, is no surprise, says David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight International magazine.
That's what co-pilots are for, he says - to stand in for the pilot in case of emergency.
Do you need two pilots to land a passenger aeroplane?
Aeroplanes are always landed single-handed - you cannot have two pilots struggling with the controls. It's decided at the beginning of every leg which pilot is going to do the flying and which will do the supporting. Flying the plane, making the radio calls and handling all the systems is a very busy job, but it can be done - and air traffic control will give every assistance to a pilot flying on his own, making the job a lot easier.
A modern plane like the 777 can be flown from take-off to landing by a single pilot. In fact, all pilots are tested when they qualify to ensure they can handle a multi-engined jet on their own. The main reason for having two pilots is that something like this occasionally happens - though it's less common for a pilot to die than to be incapacitated by something like food-poisoning.
Pilots and co-pilots are required to choose different meals from the in-flight menu for precisely this reason.
Can a plane be landed without any pilots at the controls?
No. A system called autoland has been available to airlines since the 1960s but you have to tell it what to do next, where to go - up, down, left, right - you have to direct it. If there is someone on the flight deck to do that, the plane does not need to be flown - but it cannot be done from the ground. Also, planes cannot taxi and reach terminals by themselves.
If both pilots died, you would just have to hope that there was someone else on hand with some experience of flying an aeroplane.
In this case there were three pilots on board, a pilot and two co-pilots. How common is that?
It is essential on very long flights, Singapore to London say, to allow the pilot to have a break. It's not necessary on a regular transatlantic flight. It was probably just fortuitous they had an extra co-pilot, in this case.
Should the passengers have been told that the pilot had died?
There was no reason to tell them because they were not exposed to any risk. They were not going to face an emergency landing.
Would the request for a doctor to come forward have alarmed passengers?
Not necessarily. If the crew had drawn a curtain across the galley it may not have been obvious that the doctor was taken to the flight deck. It's another matter what the doctor would have told his neighbours when he returned to his seat.
The crew will also have faced a decision whether to leave the dead pilot harnessed in his seat, or in one of the jump seats behind the pilots' seats, or to move him from the flight deck. There is not much room on the flight deck, but moving the body could have caused passengers some consternation.
The pilot who died was aged 60. At what age do pilots retire?
They can keep flying until they are 65, but there is a rule that if one pilot is between 60 and 65 the other pilot has to be younger than 60. That is a standard set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation to reduce the risk of both pilots suffering health problems on the same flight.
How frequently do pilots undergo health checks?
They have annual medical tests until they are 60. After that it's every six months. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-birmingham-47399082/tyseley-tyre-factory-destroyed-in-blaze | A fire has torn through a tyre factory in Birmingham.
At its height, more than 100 firefighters tackled the blaze on Wharfdale Road, Tyseley.
It started just before 03:00 GMT and was brought under control by 07:30.
Although the response has been scaled back, crews are expected to remain at the scene for most of the day. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45450562 | A 68-year-old romance novelist has been accused of shooting and killing her husband in the north-western US state of Oregon.
Nancy Crampton Brophy was arraigned on Wednesday, months after her husband, chef Daniel Brophy, 63, was murdered.
A day after his death on 2 June, Mrs Brophy, a self-published author of steamy romance and suspense novels, spoke at a vigil for him.
Police did not reveal a motive or how they determined her to be a suspect.
She was charged with murder and unlawful use of a firearm, according to a police statement.
Mr Brophy was a respected teacher at the Oregon Culinary Institute. He was shot and killed in the kitchen area of the Institute.
His mother, Karen Brophy, told ABC News the family "is in shock".
Mrs Brophy's sister, Holly Crampton, told ABC: "None of us believe it. It's craziness and it's just not true."
After the shooting, neighbours told the Oregonian newspaper that Mrs Brophy seemed largely unaffected. She reportedly admitted that police had marked her as a suspect.
On Facebook, she described her husband as her "best friend" and said she was "struggling to make sense of everything" following his death.
Mrs Brophy also spoke at the vigil held for her late husband the day after the shooting.
The newspaper reported the couple had been married for over 25 years.
Mrs Brophy has authored several novels, including The Wrong Husband, The Wrong Hero and The Wrong Cop.
She called her husband "Mr Right" on her website biography page and said, "like all marriages, we've had our ups and downs, more good times than bad".
Mrs Brophy, who is currently being held at the Multnomah County Jail, is scheduled to appear in court on 17 September.
A judge has sealed a document detailing the prosecution's case at their request, the Oregonian reported. This document would have provided insight into possible motive.
A request to have her released until the trial was rejected due to enough probable cause, according to the newspaper.
On her site, she describes writing fiction as unearthing "portions of your own life that you've long forgotten or had purposely buried deep. Granted, sometimes it is smarter to change the ending".
She also detailed her life with her husband in the "beautiful, green" Portland area, raising chickens and turkeys in their backyard, adding: "For those of you who have longed for this, let me caution you.
"The old adage is true. Be careful what you wish for, when the gods are truly angry, they grant us our wishes." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/341402.stm | Kosovo Albanian refugees arriving in Manchester have spoken of the horrifying scenes back in their homeland.
The plane carrying 156 people, including several young children, arrived at the city's airport in the early hours of Wednesday. They are to be housed in the nearby boroughs of Trafford and Oldham.
Svirca Ramadan, a 43-year-old ticket inspector, wept along with his heavily pregnant wife as he described fleeing as his house burned.
"We left home about a month and a half ago and had to walk for a few days from place to place."
Mr Ramadan said the refugee camp in northern Macedonia was cold and wet without many basic facilities.
He said he was happy to be staying in Oldham, but added: "I would have been happier if we were back home. We want to go back as soon as possible, as long as it's safe."
Interpreter Naim Korenica said the refugees had all crossed the border into Macedonia.
"Some of their babies have been taken away," she said. "I heard that a baby of two months (old) had been taken away from her mother."
One elderly woman was taken to a local hospital for observation but otherwise the refugees were tired but healthy.
Another plane, carrying 200 refugees, is due in Manchester on Thursday night.
A cash hotline to raise money for the refugees has been set up by Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council's leader John Battye and the town's mayor Margaret Riley.
Mr Battye praised the efforts of all the groups that had prepared for the refugees.
The BBC's Sally Williams: "Despite their ordeal they managed a smile"
"It is a magnificent effort," he said. "The refugees appeared to be a little stronger than we all anticipated, particularly the children, who spend a long time last night running around the corridors of Chadderton Town Hall."
The authority is also looking for people who can break the language barriers by speaking Albanian or Serbo-Croat.
Donations can be sent to the council's Mayor Appeal or by telephoning 0161 911 4206 or 0161 911 4223.
The Home Office has given the refugees exceptional leave to remain in the UK for 12 months and says they can apply for asylum.
They will be able to claim full welfare benefits or find work. Efforts will be made to help them trace relatives and place the children in local schools.
The first refugees arrived in the UK at the end of April, a month after Nato first bombed Serb targets in Yugoslavia.
Refugees arrived in Scotland for the first time on Monday, and more than 300 refugees settled into temporary accommodation in Glasgow, Renfrew and North Berwick.
Police in Manchester are also dealing with nine Kosovo refugees who arrived in the city illicitly overnight.
The group, including a family of six, were found hiding in the back of a lorry by police after a tip-off.
The lorry driver, who had picked up his load on the continent, contacted police on his mobile phone after hearing noises behind him as he headed for the Trafford Park industrial estate.
The stowaways have been taken to temporary accommodation in Manchester after being interviewed by immigration authorities. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24836161 | Rugby Union is becoming an unlikely benefactor of the so-called data revolution by using information about players' health to predict injuries.
Rugby is perhaps one of the last industries you might expect to be embracing Big Data, but some clubs and coaches are finding ways to use it to their advantage.
Data analytics - the study of information with a view to using it to predict the future - could revolutionise the sport by helping coaches put together the strongest possible team based on such factors as a player's health or stress levels.
"We're very interested in the science; we're very interested in monitoring the players," says Bath Rugby's Head Coach Gary Gold, who is overseeing this new dawn of West Country rugby.
"The players are our biggest investment, they're the people we need to deliver the product."
The thinking behind data analytics is simple: the body sends messages about how it is.
You might not be aware of it, but almost every minute of your day you are adding to the world's vast reservoir of "big data"
Heartbeats that are irregular or fail to return to normal after exercise are heartbeats that are sending distress messages.
Other parts of the body also send out these calls, but until now we have not been able to use the information.
"We're working to catch information about the players so you can understand what their heart rate is like during a training session.
"If you monitor that heart rate over time you understand what norms are for an individual player, so you can start to see ahead of time whether that player might be fatigued or have an illness.
"What you can then do is address their levels of performance in a training session and stop them training if you think they might be susceptible to an illness."
"We would like to get a situation where the best preventative methods are put in place to ensure that a player is not going to have a stress fracture in three weeks' time, because we've been able to pick up that that joint is taking more of a load than it needs to and therefore we can do something."
"I had finger problems on both hands, I broke my right hand twice, I broke my right elbow and had it reconstructed, I had two further reconstructions on both my right and left shoulders."
"But apart from that things went swimmingly."
Rugby is of course a rough game and it will always hurt - that is the point - but Flatman's view is that some of his injuries could have been prevented if the information about his body had been to hand as it is for today's coaches.
Even current players are noticing a change in approach. Stuart Hooper, Bath's veteran captain, identified three stages he had played through.
"Compared to now, where it's: "We want you on the pitch at 100%, we do not want you on the pitch at anything less because it is not good enough."
The monitoring of players will likely become more and more intense as time goes on, but so will the amount of data that sports fans will have access to on match day on their mobile devices in the stands.
The other side of the big data revolution in rugby is the fans' enhanced fun. Nick Shaw from the Rugby Football Union says big changes are on the way.
"You'll be seeing in real time what that player is doing - the yardage they've run, the tackles they've made, the passes they've completed," he says.
"But what we'll do is we'll interpret that based on the position they're at on the pitch. So If you just took the raw data it wouldn't necessarily tell you the whole story of what is going on.
"A commentator may say that this person is the man of the match but actually the statistics and the data will say something different."
But maybe all of this misses the point of sport, which ought to be rooted in chance and risk and unpredictability and those glorious parts of being human that are not capable of being chopped into digital facts and spewed out by IBM.
The question is: will the big data revolution enhance or destroy a game who's essence still revolves around big men with odd shaped balls knocking each other over and shaking hands afterwards?
Based on a story first broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Video Could big data help the police predict crime? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4264614.stm | The Iraqi government has launched an inquiry into the events that led the British Army to stage a dramatic rescue of two UK soldiers detained by police.
Both men were members of the SAS elite special forces, sources told the BBC's Richard Galpin in Baghdad.
The soldiers were arrested by police and then handed over to a militia group, the British Army says.
Iraq's interior ministry ordered the police force in Basra to release the soldiers but that order was ignored.
Defence Secretary John Reid told reporters that a delegation of six British military personnel, including a legal officer, had been sent to the police station to ease the release of the men.
Mr Reid said surveillance had established the men were being moved to another location, while at the same time an angry crowd posed an obstacle to the departure of the six-strong team.
The British commander on the ground, Brigadier John Lorimer, ordered British forces to move into the police station to help the team.
Almost simultaneously, a separate operation was staged to rescue the men from the place where they had been moved to.
It is understood force was also used in this operation, although there were no casualties as the Shia militia holding the British soldiers fled.
The episode saw a wall flattened at the police station by a British armoured personnel carrier, but Mr Reid said the coalition was still going "in the right direction" in terms of its overall strategy in Iraq and said this incident was merely "local".
Basra governor Mohammed al-Waili said the men - possibly working undercover - were arrested for allegedly shooting dead a policeman and wounding another.
Richard Galpin said al-Jazeera news channel footage, purportedly of the equipment carried in the men's car, showed assault rifles, a light machine gun, an anti-tank weapon, radio gear and medical kit.
This is thought to be standard kit for the SAS operating in such a theatre of operations, he said.
The British rescue mission sparked angry protests from locals in which vehicles were attacked and set on fire.
Haydar al-Abadi, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said the British rescue had been "a very unfortunate development".
"It is a very unfortunate development that the British forces should try to release their soldiers the way it happened, it's very unfortunate."
Soon afterwards, the Iraqi prime minister's office released a statement insisting there was no crisis in relations with the British.
"In response to recent events in Basra, the Iraqi government wants to clarify that there is no 'crisis' - as some media have claimed - between it and the British government.
"Both governments are in close contact, and an inquiry will be conducted by the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior into the incident.
"We will await the outcome of that inquiry. In the meantime we urge all sides to remain calm."
Brigadier John Lorimer said it was of "deep concern" the men detained by police ended up held by Shia militia, something that put their lives in danger.
In a statement, Brig Lorimer said that under Iraqi law the soldiers should have been handed over to coalition authorities, but this failed to happen despite repeated requests.
The Conservatives' defence spokesman Michael Ancram has accused the government of "uncertainty" over its strategy in Iraq, while the Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy said Iraq was drifting towards civil war.
Tensions were already high in Basra on Monday morning following the detention on Sunday of a senior figure in the Shia Mehdi Army, suspected of being behind a series of attacks on British troops. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24612650 | A court in Qatar has upheld a 15-year prison sentence given to a poet found guilty of inciting people to overthrow the government and insulting the emir.
Mohammed al-Ajami's lawyer, Najib al-Nuami, said the Court of Cassation's ruling had been "political".
His only remaining option was to appeal to the Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for clemency, Mr Nuami added.
Mr Ajami was originally jailed for life last year but the sentence was reduced to 15 years on appeal in February.
Human rights group have criticised his conviction as a betrayal of free speech. They said his original trial was marred by irregularities, with court sessions held in secret.
The case against Mr Ajami was said to have been based on a poem he wrote in 2010 which criticised the former emir, Sheikh Hamad Al Thani. But activists believe the authorities were punishing him for a 2011 poem he wrote about authoritarian rule in the region.
In the poem Tunisian Jasmine, a private recitation of which was uploaded to the internet in January 2011, Mr Ajami expressed his support for the uprising in the North African state, saying: "We are all Tunisia in the face of the repressive elite."
He also denounced "all Arab governments" as "indiscriminate thieves".
The father of four, also known as Mohammed Ibn al-Dheeb, has said the poems were not meant to be offensive or seditious.
Mr Nuami, a former justice minister, argued at the Court of Cassation that the maximum sentence Mr Ajami should have received was five years.
He described Monday's ruling as "a political and not a judicial decision".
"I hope the emir will grant him an amnesty," he told the AFP news agency. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13890416 | Mozambique, which gained independence from Portugal in 1975, is still suffering from the effects of a 16-year civil war that ended in 1992.
Tensions remain between the ruling Frelimo party and the opposition former rebel movement Renamo and corruption has become a major concern.
The discovery of gas fields off Mozambique's coast in 2011 is set to transform the economy of one of Africa's poorest nations.
But despite recent economic growth, more than half of Mozambique's 24 million people continue to live below the poverty line.
Filipe Nyusi, of the ruling party Frelimo party, was sworn in as president in January 2015.
Two months later he succeeded former president Armando Guebuza as party leader, representing a change in guard in Frelimo, which has dominated politics in Mozambique since it won independence from Portugal in 1975.
During his election campaign, Mr Nyusi pledged to transform Mozambique, one of Africa's poorest nations.
He presides over a country on the cusp of tapping newly discovered offshore gas fields that could transform Mozambique's economy, although an Islamist insurgency in the far north has raised questions about the state's ability to guarantee security.
Television is a key medium. State-run radio operates alongside private FM stations.
Print media have limited influence.
Journalists who upset the authorities risk intimidation and threats and self-censorship is commonplace, says Reporters Without Borders.
1752 - Portugal colonizes Mozambique.
1891 - Portugal hands over the administration of the region to the Mozambique Company, a private business.
1962-74 Independence struggle: Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) formed.
1975 - Independence: Frelimo rules under single-party system with leader Samora Machel as president.
1986 - President Machel is killed in an air crash, Joachim Chissano installed as president.
1990 - Constitution amended allowing multi-party system.
1992 - UN-brokered peace deal ends fighting between Frelimo and the rebel Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo).
1994 - First multi-party elections, Joachim Chissano is re-elected president.
2004 - President Joaquim Chissano steps down after 18 years in office, succeeded by Armando Guebuza.
2011 - Discovery of natural gas set to transform Mozambique's economic landscape.
2015 - Mozambique declares itself free of landmines, a legacy of the civil war.
2017 - An Islamist insurgency begins in the north, putting the development of offshore gas fields. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cornwall/4494851.stm | The future of male voice choirs will be at the top of the agenda at a symposium in Cornwall on Friday.
Speakers from eight countries will focus on the declining numbers and advancing average age threatening the movement's long-term survival.
The event is being held in Truro with speakers from as far afield as Latvia and the Philippines.
The event is being held as part of the five-day Cornwall International Male Voice Choir Festival.
Cornwall is historically a stronghold of the male voice choir movement.
But many long-serving members are reaching their 70s and even 80s, with fewer and fewer men in their 20s and 30s joining the county's 35 choirs.
The symposium is being chaired by the festival director Dr Roy Wales.
"The festival aims to bring male voice choirs from outside Cornwall together to join with Cornish choirs in a spirit of musical friendship and song," said Dr Wales. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39252503 | Is this the most dangerous backwater in the world?
Across the world there has been a decline in piracy and sea robbery, but one precarious expanse of ocean waters in South East Asia is bucking that trend, as maritime defence expert Swee Lean Collin Koh explains.
There was a time when news of pirates and kidnap-for-ransom dramas in the waters off Somalia dominated global news headlines.
In 2011, at the height of the crisis, a total of 237 incidents were reported in the area. Since then, however, piracy has decreased significantly off the Horn of Africa, despite a recent attack against a Comoros-flagged tanker and one reported incident in the third quarter of last year.
In Asia, there are reasons to be optimistic: reported piracy and sea robbery incidents, including cases of fuel-oil siphoning, have more than halved from 2015 to 2016, due to measures undertaken by both government agencies and shippers.
But there is one small stretch of ocean waters in South East Asia that could potentially be one of the riskiest regions in the maritime world.
Few people will have heard of it and it has barely hit the global headlines, compared to key waterways such as the Malacca Strait, but the Sulu-Celebes Sea, encompassing the waters around Indonesia, Malaysia's eastern Sabah state and the Philippines, has become an area of growing concern.
Since March 2016, a spate of kidnap-for-ransom incidents have been reported there and in the waters off eastern Sabah.
These attacks were attributed mainly to the Abu Sayyaf militant group operating out of the southern Philippines, although some appear to be criminal groups.
What is worrying is their evolving modus operandi. They initially targeted slow-moving, low-freeboard vessels such as tugboats (typically towing barges laden with coal bound from Indonesia to the southern Philippines) and fishing trawlers.
But they have since become more brazen, making attempts on larger ships in the area. Notably, a South Korean-flagged heavy-load carrier was attacked in southern Philippine waters in October 2016.
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have held a series of high-level meetings and issued joint statements envisaging the creation of something called a Trilateral Co-operative Arrangement (TCA).
A four-point action plan was agreed between the three countries' foreign ministers back in May 2016, but progress has not been as swift as some might have expected, even though a model exists in the form of joint co-ordinated patrols in the Malacca Strait.
Jakarta initiated this proposal and has eagerly pushed for the TCA's implementation, given that many of the kidnap-for-ransom victims are Indonesians.
But frustration within the Indonesian government at the slow progress led to it imposing a moratorium on coal shipments to the Philippines, to be extended "until there is a guarantee for security from the Philippine government".
The two countries later forged an agreement - based on a 1975 border pact - which allows Indonesian forces to conduct "hot pursuit" into Philippine territory.
Successive joint statements continued to agree to explore measures such as co-ordinated patrols and a safe vessel transit corridor through the Sulu-Celebes Sea.
The growing threat posed by the Islamic State hastened moves by the three countries including, notably, an agreement to establish command posts in Bongao in the Philippines, Tawau in Malaysia and Tarakan in Indonesia.
Stop-gap measures were put in place while the three nations worked with their domestic institutions on a deal. For example, Jakarta and Manila formalised co-ordinated patrols to take place twice a year.
Following a spate of attacks on East Malaysia-registered fishing boats crewed by Indonesians late last year, Jakarta sought assurances from the Sabah local authorities regarding the safety of roughly 6,000 Indonesian fishing crew working in Malaysian waters.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte also chimed in, appearing to hint at his frustration about the slow progress in the TCA when he remarked "Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines [must] talk about this and once for all, come up with a solution".
"There's a need for us… to talk about this seriously and to put a stop to it because it has somehow paralysed the trade and commerce in that area," he added.
International shippers have shied away from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao because of the attacks, denying the Philippine region much-needed foreign investment.
In December, Malaysian security forces clashed for the first time with Filipino gunmen in waters off Semporna, killing three of them and capturing three others. This seems to have had an effect. Late that month, Kuala Lumpur revealed that it was in final talks with Jakarta and Manila on implementing the TCA.
But a spate of new attacks this year - on a Sabah-registered fishing vessel and a Vietnamese vessel - highlighted the urgent need to go beyond mere talks.
Manila has asked both China and the United States to contribute to maritime security in international waters in the area. And in March, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines finally agreed to begin patrolling the proposed transit corridor. Shippers could heave a sigh of relief, at last.
However, successfully carrying out this trilateral maritime security framework will require all three governments to sustain their commitments, including the need to put aside political concerns - such as the question of sovereignty between Kuala Lumpur and Manila over Sabah, since Mr Duterte has insisted that his administration "will stick to our claim".
If the TCA succeeds, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines would not only prove to the international community that the Sulu-Celebes Sea is not a "new Somalia", but also demonstrate their ability to put aside political and diplomatic concerns to pool their efforts to deal with a common threat.
Swee Lean Collin Koh is a research fellow with the Maritime Security Programme at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, part of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, based in Singapore. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-16945678 | An inquest on Nottingham Forest owner Nigel Doughty has been opened and adjourned.
Mr Doughty, 54, was found dead in the gym at his home in Skillington, Lincolnshire.
The inquest at Lincoln Cathedral Centre heard that post-mortem tests carried out on the life-long Forest fan had so far proved inconclusive.
The court heard he was found by his family "collapsed and lifeless" at 13:15 GMT.
Mr Doughty, who was described as fit and well by his family, bought the club in 1999 for £11m, saving them from administration, and took over as chairman from Eric Barnes three years later.
He is estimated to have invested more than £100m of his personal fortune into the club.
However, in October, he announced he would be stepping down from his post as chairman at the end of the season. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33754907 | Dozens of bra-wearing men and women have protested in Hong Kong after a woman was jailed for assaulting a senior policeman with her breast.
Ng Lai-ying, 30, had accused Chief Inspector Chan Ka-po of touching her breast during a protest in March.
But the court had ruled against her, saying she deliberately pushed her breast against him so she could accuse him of assault.
She was sentenced on Thursday to three months and 15 days in prison.
About 200 people joined the Breast Walk protest outside police headquarters in Wan Chai on Sunday - either wearing exposed bras or waving them - saying that a breast was "not a weapon".
Ng had been taking part in a protest in Yuen Long against Chinese mainlanders visiting Hong Kong to buy cheaper and better quality produce, a long-running controversial subject in the territory.
What are China's shoppers buying in Hong Kong?
She said that during scuffles with police, Chief Inspector Chan had tried to grab her bag, but his hand had landed on her breast.
She accused him of indecent assault, but he in turn accused her of using her breast to assault him.
The Tuen Mun court found her guilty in July, with magistrate Michael Chan Pik-kiu saying she had tried to damage the policeman's reputation.
She had used "her female identity to trump up the allegation that the officer had molested" her, the South China Morning Post quoted him as saying.
At her sentencing on Thursday, Mr Chan said that if he did not "hand down a deterring sentence, the public might mistakenly think it is a trivial matter to assault police officers during protests".
The magistrate has also said he received personal threats after the verdict.
Those protesting on Sunday said the ruling was "ridiculous".
Retired teacher James Hon, who noted it was his first time wearing a bra, told AFP news agency: "We have come to this rather odd method to tell the world how ridiculous it is."
"The ruling is absurd. How can breasts be a weapon?" said activist Ng Cheuk-ling, saying she feared it would deter women from taking part in political protest.
"Police must review their guidelines to handle female protesters," she told AFP.
Another man told the Post: "The way I dress today looks quite ugly as a male, but it is not as ugly as the judgment, which is like pointing at a deer and calling it a horse."
The Post said the protest was illegal, but those taking part left peacefully before handing over a petition.
What are China's Shenzhen shoppers buying in Hong Kong? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2720089.stm | Tuesday and Friday are the most popular days for releasing viruses and launching attacks against net using companies.
The preference of net vandals is revealed in a report by Symantec on the state of net security.
It reveals the sustained assault every company connected to the web constantly undergoes.
It also shows that most attacks are being made with just a few pernicious programs.
The report shows that, on average, every net-connected company is being attacked 30 times per week.
Power and energy companies are the favourite targets, with financial service firms coming second.
The number of attacks has stayed constant for the last 12 months, but the numbers of ways that companies can be attacked are growing rapidly.
During 2002, Symantec documented 2,524 new vulnerabilities over the past year, an 81.5% increase over 2001.
Worryingly, the time between a vulnerability's discovery and its exploitation by vandals and crackers is shrinking.
Richard Archdeacon, director of technical services at Symantec, said the time between discovery and exploit was now down to weeks. This meant that companies had to move to fast to patch programs and ensure they were well defended.
"There are a lot more windows and doors open that could be used," he said.
However, he said, that the sheer weight of discovered vulnerabilities was proving a headache for companies because it is hard to know which to address first.
"There are no rules," he said, "it is so volatile that we do not know what is going to hit us next week."
Mr Archdeacon said companies were realising that simply installing anti-virus software and firewalls was not enough.
Instead, he said, organisations needed to have a deep understanding of their networks, the software they are running in all parts of it so they know how vulnerable they are at all times.
"Companies have the technology," he said, "but no process or people to understand that or carry out the actions required."
One of the big trends revealed is the emergence of more so-called "blended threats" that merge scanning software with more malicious elements that carry out attacks.
The report, culled from the networks, firewalls and security software of Symantec customers, also showed that Tuesdays and Fridays during office hours are popular days for attacks to start.
Mr Archdeacon said Friday was possibly popular because many corporate network operators make changes to networks at the end of the week. Any hidden malicious programs could well strike as changes are made. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1702037.stm | Marconi's Atlantic experiment was the culmination of a scientific curiosity that began many years before in the attic of an Italian villa.
As the son of a wealthy Italian, Guiseppe Marconi, the young Guglielmo was able to indulge his passion for science at the family home near Bologna.
By the age of 20, he spent much of his time carrying out rudimentary experiments in two attic rooms of the country house, having become fascinated by electricity at school.
It was here that his dream of developing wireless telegraphy was kindled.
At the time, little was known about electricity. The Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell had predicted in 1864, 10 years before Marconi was born, that various types of rays, including light, were forms of electromagnetic waves. Maxwell had also predicted that changes in the amount of electricity in a wire could send out waves through the air.
A couple of decades later, the German scientist Heinrich Hertz developed equipment to send and detect electromagnetic waves. He was able to transmit waves over several metres.
In 1894, after reading about the work of Hertz during a holiday in the Alps, Marconi had an idea. He wondered whether electromagnetic waves could send messages as signals through the air just as messages could be sent along wires in the telegraph and telephone.
He decided to work on the concept, setting up experiments in the attic. One night in 1895, Marconi called his mother to the makeshift laboratory.
He had set up a transmitter at one end of the room that sent out radio waves. About nine metres away, at the other end, was a receiver connected to a bell. When Marconi pressed a switch on the transmitter, it sent out electromagnetic waves that were detected by the receiver and the bell rang.
His mother, Annie Jameson of the Irish whisky distillery family, was impressed by the experiment, unlike his father. Nevertheless, Marconi moved on to the next stage of his work, setting up more powerful equipment in the garden of the villa.
He was soon able to send messages in Morse code between a transmitter and receiver that were two kilometres apart.
Click here to listen to Sir Ambrose Fleming, whose equipment was used in Marconi's Atlantic experiment - talking about the early days of wireless.
Marconi was quick to seize on the commercial applications of wireless telegraphy. The Italian Government already had a system of overhead telegraph lines and underwater cables and was not interested in his experiments - so he travelled to London with his mother.
On a visit to the General Post Office, he gained the support of the Engineer-in-chief, who arranged for Marconi to have an assistant. This was George Stephen Kemp, who became his life-long friend.
In 1896, Marconi obtained his first patent and in 1897, he formed the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Limited with his cousin Henry Jameson Davis. In 1900, the company became Marconi's Wireless Telegraphy Company, Ltd., the forerunner of Marconi plc.
Several milestones followed, which gave Marconi the confidence to carry out his costly (�50,000) Atlantic experiment.
The world's first pair of coastal radio stations were set up at a hotel near the Needles on the Isle of Wight and at another hotel in Bournemouth (later moved to a hotel near Poole, Dorset).
In 1898, Marconi's company set up two radio stations on the north coast of Ireland that were used to send information about passing ships to the mainland.
The same year, Marconi installed radio equipment on Queen Victoria's Royal Yacht so that the Queen, who was staying at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, could communicate with the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) who was convalescing on board.
In December 1898, the company opened the world's first wireless factory at Chelmsford in Essex.
The first messages across the Channel were sent in March 1899 from a radio station near Boulogne.
In 1900, Marconi patented improvements for transmitters and receivers that solved the problem of the jamming of wireless signals. The famous "Four Sevens" Patent was later challenged by other radio companies.
The radio station at Poldhu, Cornwall, was built in 1900, followed by the receiving station at St John's in Newfoundland.
Part of the apparatus used for the first experimental transmissions at Poldhu.
Marconi and his assistants travelled by sea to Canada where they set up their equipment on nearby Signal Hill. They used kites and balloons to try to hold up the aerial wires in the wind off the ocean.
At about 12.30 pm on 12 December, 1901, Marconi heard three faint clicks in his telephone connected to the radio receiver.
It was the Morse code for the letter "s" - dot...dot...dot - sent from Cornwall. The Atlantic Ocean had been bridged by radio for the first time.
Not everybody was convinced by Marconi's claims, questioning whether he might have picked up stray signals.
The Anglo-American Telegraph Company threatened legal action and long patent battles ensued.
But Marconi carried on with his work, improving the system and making radio more reliable. His dream was to see a network of radio stations linking the world.
In 1909, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, and finally won his legal battle over patent 7777.
In 1912, Marconi was accused of secret trading with the British Government to set up a string of radio stations in what was known as the "Marconi Scandal". Later in the year, Marconi lost an eye in a motoring accident in Italy.
During World War One, Marconi returned to Italy where he was in charge of wireless telegraphy for the army.
He later bought a yacht, Elettra, which he used as a floating laboratory. He lived aboard the yacht with his second wife, Countess Maria Cristina Bezzi-Scala.
Marconi began work on shortwave radio in 1924 and then turned his attention to beam transmitters.
In 1931, the 30th anniversary of his first transatlantic signal, his own voice circled the globe in a radio broadcast.
Marconi continued to work and travel on his yacht until his death in Rome in 1937 of a heart attack.
During his funeral, wireless stations around the world closed down and transmitters fell silent for two minutes.
When Marconi was born, in 1874, long distance communication was only possible by telegraph and telephones linked by wires. By the time of his death, global wireless communication was a reality.
Across the Atlantic and Beyond - a special programme on Marconi's historic transmission will be broadcast on Wednesday, 12 December, at 15.30 GMT on BBC Two in the South West.
"Marconi was a mysterious man"
What will the next 100 years bring? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7701812.stm | Japan's move to cut its main interest rate for the first time since 2001 comes in response to what the prime minister has called the "harshest economic storm in 100 years".
The Bank of Japan has lowered its key lending rate to 0.3% from 0.5%.
At the same time, the government has announced what it describes as a $51bn (£31bn) stimulus package.
Prime Minister Taro Aso says the money will be targeted at struggling small businesses and families.
However, the opposition says it is likely to be squandered on unnecessary projects with little long-term value.
The rate cut and spending programme are reminiscent of the policies Japan used during the 1990s to try to pull its economy out of a prolonged slump, with limited success.
Although the ultra low lending helped companies borrow to invest, it also meant that ordinary people received almost no return on their savings.
Part of the reason for the latest interest rate cut has been concern about the soaring value of the Japanese currency, the yen.
It has been rising just as the stock market has been falling.
Normally, low interest rates bring down a currency's value, but it showed little change following the latest announcement of a cut.
Major Japanese corporations such as Sony, Toshiba and Suzuki have all warned that their profits will suffer if the yen continues at its current level.
That has hurt their share price, causing a viscous circle in which the stock market falls, the yen rises and confidence suffers. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/motherwell/3680261.stm | Motherwell have unveiled Zoom Airlines as their new club sponsor.
The three-year deal is believed to be worth more than £200,000 to the Scottish Premier League club, which has just come out of administration.
Motherwell majority shareholder John Boyle - whose brother, Hugh, founded Zoom - said: "This is a tremendous boost for the club.
"It was important that we managed to secure a long-term sponsor. I'm sure it will be a great partnership."
Motherwell say the deal increases financial security for the club, which went into administration two years ago.
Zoom at the weekend began operating low-cost flights from Glasgow, Gatwick and Stansted to six destinations in Canada.
And Zoom chairman Hugh Boyle said: "This is a great opportunity for Zoom Airlines.
"I'm delighted to see the airline supporting the club John and I grew up with and, when he suggested that Zoom get involved, we didn't have any hesitation."
Manager Terry Butcher added: "The team has done tremendously well this season and having a long-term sponsor in place helps us with our preparation for next season." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-40367326 | A "strong disciplinarian" is wanted by a school to dole out "tough love" to unruly students.
Magna Academy in Poole wants to recruit a Director of Isolations and Detentions to work in a "purpose-built behaviour correction unit".
A spokesman said the unit allows the school to continue teaching disruptive students separately so no learning time is "stolen" from other pupils.
Addressing bad behaviour helps students "become good citizens", he added.
The director's role attracts a salary of between £24,964 and £29,323.
The job advertisement says the academy adopts a "zero tolerance" approach to bad behaviour, adding: "If you think it is mean to give a detention when a student does not have a pen, Magna isn't the school for you."
It says students "walk in silence" with "30cm pencil cases in hand" but the rules create "a very orderly school where children are safe".
A statement from the school said: "The reason this post has been created is simply to allow all our teaching staff the freedom to teach 100% of the time and to ensure that no learning time is stolen from our students."
Last year, Magna Academy, which is part of the Aspirations multi-academy trust, came under the spotlight when it emerged that poorly behaved pupils would be required to apologise to classmates in assembly - a move described by some parents as "bullying".
Headteacher Richard Tutt defended the approach, saying pupils were rewarded more than they were punished.
Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: "In secondary schools it's usual to have an exclusion unit where they will have to work on their own for a day or two. It's more common than people realise.
"You can go too far but if you are going to get it wrong it's better to be too hard than too soft."
Magna Academy was rated Outstanding by Ofsted in its last inspection in 2015. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/514492.stm | It was 19 years ago that the first people arrived at what was to become Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp. The women's protests against cruise missiles being held at the American airbase dominated news headlines for the best part of the 1980s.
Now almost two decades on, the last of the peace protesters are preparing to leave.
Greenham Common Airbase was set up during World War II, and closed down soon after. But the Cold War ensured that it was opened again in the 1950s.
From 1981 through to the end of the decade, tens of thousands of women either lived at or visited Greenham Common airbase.
Veteran peace campaigner Jean Hutchinson is one of the last women living at Greenham Common. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4649866.stm | The editor of a campaigning Chinese newspaper supplement has denounced the authorities' decision to shut it down.
In an open letter circulated on the internet, Li Datong said he did not know whether to laugh or cry.
The publication, Freezing Point or Bingdian, was well-known for its investigative reporting and analysis.
The move is the latest of several interventions against Chinese media. The editor of the progressive Beijing News was recently removed from his job.
"When one does not have the truth, one is afraid of debates; when one does not have the truth, one is afraid of openness," Mr Li wrote in the letter.
"They [the Central Propaganda Department] are so disgusting that I don't know whether to cry or laugh," he said.
He said Freezing Point, a supplement of The China Youth Daily, had incurred the wrath of the government on several occasions over the last few months.
Articles the authorities had objected to included one on Taiwan's developments entitled The Taiwan that you may not know and a tribute to the reformist ex-Party leader Hu Yaobang, whose death sparked the Tiananmen Square protests.
Mr Li told the BBC's Chinese Service that the excuse the authorities gave for shutting down the supplement was the publication of an article on 11 January by Yuan Weishi, a professor at Zhongshan University, on the way history is taught in China.
Mr Yuan wrote that Chinese text books never acknowledge the culpability of the government, but blame others instead. "We were raised on wolf's milk," he wrote in the article, meaning a culture of hatred and violence.
The Beijing News, whose senior editors were sacked late last year, had also reported on sensitive topics, including incidents of rural unrest. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3582802.stm | BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | How can it rain fish?
How can it rain fish?
The latest in a series of bizarre British weather phenomena is a rain of fish. It may sound like the stuff of legend, but such events are increasingly well documented.
On Wednesday, the village of Knighton, in Powys, was reported to have endured such a fishy deluge. Not a story easily believed - an odd site for a Biblical-style plague, one might think, perhaps to be followed by the waters of the nearby River Teme running red with blood?
But in fact, as the Met Office explains, such occurrences are not as uncommon as they may sound. Not only are they not quite the miraculous events that they seem, rains of fish - and other even more surprising objects - are reported with some frequency.
They even provided the inspiration for some of the events in the 1999 Paul Anderson film Magnolia, which went to the extreme of having a diver falling from the sky.
That may be going too far, assures a Met Office spokesman. Fish are the most common thing to have rained down on you - other than rain itself, of course. Rains of frogs have also been known, as have such strange items as tomatoes and even lumps of coal.
The phenomenon can be explained simply: given strong enough winds, in thunderstorms for example, small whirlwinds and mini-tornadoes may form. When these travel over water any small items of debris in their path, such as fish or frogs, may be picked up and carried for up to several miles.
Sooner or later, the clouds carrying them will open and drop their strange cargo - resulting in a hail of fish, frogs or whatever the winds happened to pick up.
Weird rains are not limited to Britain - they have been recorded all over the world, throughout the ages. Pliny the Elder, writing in the first century AD, mentioned storms of frogs and fish.
Some believe that these events may give a clue to the origin of the plague of frogs recorded in the Book of Exodus. Two US scientists have come up with an explanation of the 10 plagues of Egypt as a series of linked natural disasters - each following as a result of the other.
So perhaps the residents of Knighton should continue to keep a nervous eye on the river water. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40307918 | Helmut Kohl, Germany's ex-chancellor and architect of reunification in 1990, has died at 87.
Kohl led Germany for 16 years (from 1982 to 1998). He is credited with bringing East and West Germany together after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Together with his French ally President Francois Mitterrand, he was responsible for the introduction of the euro.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has ordered flags at EU institutions to be flown at half-mast.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Kohl's former protegee who later called for his resignation over a political funding scandal, said his death filled her with deep sadness.
"Helmut Kohl's efforts brought about the two greatest achievements in German politics of recent decades - German reunification and European unity," she said.
"Helmut Kohl understood that the two things were inseparable."
For his part, Mr Juncker said in a tweet: "Helmut's death hurts me deeply." "My mentor, my friend, the very essence of Europe, he will be greatly, greatly missed," he added.
Former US President George HW Bush paid tribute to the man he knew while in office from 1989 to 1993 as a "true friend of freedom" and "one of the greatest leaders in post-war Europe".
Kohl suffered a bad fall in 2008 and had been using a wheelchair.
He died at his house in Ludwigshafen, in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Bild newspaper reports.
Kohl, who led the centre-right Christian Democrats, was the longest-serving chancellor of the 20th Century.
A passionate believer in European integration, he persuaded Germans to give up their cherished deutschmark in favour of the European single currency.
In the UK, he is remembered for his differences over the EU with the late UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
In France, he is the German leader who held hands with Mitterrand at a service at the Verdun war memorial in 1984 to mark the 70th anniversary of World War One.
But for Germans he is above all the man who reunified a country divided by the allied powers after World War Two, promising the people of the ex-communist East "flourishing landscapes", in unity with the richer West.
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl was born on 3 April 1930 into a conservative, Catholic family.
His political outlook was shaped by his experiences in his hometown of Ludwigshafen in the Rhineland during World War Two.
Because of its huge chemical works, the town was heavily bombed and, at the age of 12, the young Helmut found himself helping to recover the charred bodies of his neighbours from the rubble. What he once described as "the blessing of a late birth" freed him from any taints of Nazism.
Kohl fell from grace when a funding scandal under his leadership of the Christian Democrats came to light after he left office in 1998.
Chancellor Merkel first entered government under Kohl's rule in 1991.
But she publicly denounced him and called for his resignation when it was revealed the party had received millions of dollars worth of illegal donations using secret bank accounts.
In 2011, in a series of interviews and statements, he spoke out against Mrs Merkel's policy of strict austerity to deal with the European debt crisis.
Kohl's later life was also marked by personal tragedy. His wife, Hannelore, killed herself in July 2001 after suffering from a rare skin condition and depression. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-latin-america-36065600/the-moment-a-78-magnitude-quake-struck-ecuador | The moment Ecuador earthquake struck Jump to media player A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake has killed more than 200 people in Ecuador, this is the moment it struck.
Death toll rises in Ecuador quake Jump to media player More than 200 people have been confirmed dead and over 1,500 people injured after Ecuador was hit by its most powerful earthquake in decades.
Car crushed by quake bridge collapse Jump to media player A man was killed when an overpass collapsed on his car as a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Ecuador.
Ecuador VP confirms quake deaths Jump to media player Ecuador's Vice-President Jorge Glas says at least 41 people died after in a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck in the north of the country.
A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake has killed more than 200 people in Ecuador.
A state of emergency has been declared in six provinces and the National Guard has been mobilised.
This is the moment the earthquake struck. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/skills/6137400.stm | Bat, bowl and field your way to Ashes glory in BBC Sport's Cricket Academy game. For those that completed training a while ago, your first Ashes Test password is "Monty". In order to get the latest version of this game, you may need to clear old versions that are stored in your temporary internet files. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30776182 | Who goes to German Pegida 'anti-Islamisation' rallies?
Every Monday since October big "anti-Islamisation" rallies have been staged in Dresden, eastern Germany, by a new grassroots organisation Pegida.
The numbers attending have grown, but so have counter-demonstrations by Germans alarmed by what they see as Islamophobia and who want to defend tolerance and diversity.
The terror attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris may boost support for Pegida, amid fear and anger over Islamist violence.
It stands for "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West" (in German: Patriotische Europaer Gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes).
Pegida supporters say people need to "wake up" to the threat from Islamist extremists. They want Germany to curb immigration, accusing the authorities of failing to enforce existing laws.
A record 25,000 attended the Pegida march in Dresden on 12 January.
Yet Dresden has far fewer immigrants than many other German cities.
Image caption Pegida march in Dresden: The slogan says "Saxony remains German"
Among the slogans at the rallies is "wir sind das Volk" (we are the people) - a deliberate echo of the anti-communist citizens' marches in former East Germany in 1989.
Pegida says it is defending "Judeo-Christian" values and its 19-point manifesto avoids racist language. It is against "preachers of hate, regardless of what religion" and against "radicalism, whether religiously or politically motivated".
It is against "anti-women political ideology that emphasises violence" but "not against integrated Muslims living here".
It challenges what it sees as liberal political correctness and multiculturalism in Germany - the values that dominated West German politics after World War Two.
It was launched as a Facebook group by Lutz Bachmann, 41, a chef-turned-graphic designer who insists that he is not racist. He has admitted to past criminal convictions, including for drug-dealing, and has spent time in jail.
The numbers swelled through social media, and soon the group attracted right-wing followers from some established political parties.
It has attracted a variety of right-wing and far-right groups, as well as ordinary citizens who worry about conservative Islam and its impact on German society. Supporters are generally fed up with establishment politicians.
Some neo-Nazi groups have praised Pegida. At the rallies some demonstrators have shouted "press liars!" at journalists - a phrase harking back to the Nazis.
Members of Alternative for Germany (AfD) - a new right-wing anti-euro party which also wants tougher immigration controls - support Pegida too. An AfD leader, Alexander Gauland, called Pegida supporters natural political allies.
AfD has members in some regional parliaments in Germany and may woo voters away from Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling centre-right Christian Democrats.
Some Germans have made long journeys to attend the Dresden rallies, and Pegida has also staged smaller rallies in other cities. Football hooligans linked to the far-right scene have also joined Pegida marches.
A Pegida march was due to be held in Oslo, Norway, on 12 January. And Pegida followers plan marches in Denmark in a week's time.
German mainstream politicians have criticised Pegida and thousands of Germans have joined counter-demonstrations to show support for tolerance and multiculturalism.
About 35,000 people rallied against Pegida in Dresden on 10 January, anxious to show that the city was open and tolerant.
In her New Year address Chancellor Merkel urged citizens to shun Pegida: "Do not follow people who organise these rallies, for their hearts are cold and often full of prejudice, and even hate."
Politicians and celebrities signed a petition in Bild, Germany's biggest-selling daily, to protest against Pegida. They included ex-Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and retired footballer Oliver Bierhoff.
The petition said "no" to xenophobia and "yes" to diversity and tolerance.
On 5 January the anti-Pegida demonstrations were massive - crowds thronged the streets of Cologne, Stuttgart and Berlin.
There were dramatic gestures of support for the marchers: the lights of Cologne Cathedral were switched off, as were the lights at the Volkswagen plant in Dresden.
Why is Islam an issue in Germany now?
German politicians have long been among the most vocal in Europe in support of tolerance and diversity.
That spirit of openness was partly a reaction against the evils of Nazism.
But in the 21st Century jihadist violence and urban deprivation have provided fertile ground for anti-immigration groups.
Even before Pegida's emergence, the wearing of Muslim headscarves in schools had already become a political issue. Many German states have banned teachers from wearing headscarves.
A recent Bertelsmann Foundation survey suggested that 57% of non-Muslim Germans consider Islam a threat.
Last year Germany received more than 180,000 asylum claims - compared with 127,000 in 2013. Germany accommodates more asylum seekers than any other European country. In areas with large immigrant communities there is often more pressure on housing and social services.
Germany's ethnic Turkish community is the largest immigrant group, numbering about three million, and most are Muslims. Many have lived in Germany for decades and many are well integrated.
But among the new asylum seekers are many Muslim refugees from war-torn Syria and Iraq. Muslim Chechens and Afghans have also sought refuge in Germany.
Pegida supporters believe that immigration and national identity are issues too long neglected by politicians - so they are trying to raise public awareness.
But there is anxiety now that, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo atrocity, such marches may stir up Islamophobia. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37541378 | Attempts to give the maximum level of international protection to all African elephants have foundered at a key species conference in Johannesburg.
A proposal put forward by Kenya was strongly supported but failed to gain the two-thirds majority required.
The opposition of the EU, which voted as a block, was pivotal in the defeat.
Other proposals that would have opened up new ivory markets were also rejected.
Proponents of the increased protection say it is a missed opportunity to safeguard the future of the species and end the current poaching crisis.
African nations have been split on the best approach to conserve elephant populations that have been reduced by around 30% over the past seven years, mainly due to poaching for ivory.
Many range states that have suffered big losses backed a resolution at this meeting that would see all elephants in every African country elevated to Cites Appendix I, meaning no trade at all is possible in these animals.
Four Southern African countries, Namibia, South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe have their elephants listed on Appendix II but with an annotation that prevents any trade in their ivory.
Three of them resolutely opposed the idea of an up-listing as they argue that their elephant populations are doing well and they want to renew the trade in ivory at some point in the future.
In a passionate debate, proponents of the uplisting said it was critical to send the strongest signal possible to poachers that all elephants in Africa were off limits.
Lee White, from Gabon, told the meeting that his country was "haemorrhaging" about one tonne of ivory per month as a result of poaching.
He said that one thousand African park rangers had lost their lives over the past decade in fighting against the illegal trade.
Uplisting all African elephants would send an "absolutely clear" message that the trade must stop.
Botswana made a dramatic intervention, suggesting that they would give up their Appendix II status and rejecting the idea that a trade in ivory could raise funds to protect the species.
"We now realises that we can no longer support sales, we can no longer deal with this in a vacuum," said Tshekedi Khama, Botwana's minister for the environment, wildlife and tourism.
Other southern African states didn't agree. They argued that uplisting depended on science, and that most of the populations in the Appendix II states were growing and not deserving to be on Appendix I.
"Parties must uphold the integrity of the Convention," said South African minister Edna Molewa.
The EU also took this line, stating that the southern African elephant populations didn't meet the biological criteria for uplisting.
This opposition proved crucial: the vote was 62 in favour with 44 against and 12 abstained.
With the EU voting as a block, this meant that their 28 votes went against the proposal and denied the two thirds majority that would put all populations on Appendix I.
Some delegates were not impressed by the European Union approach.
"The fault's at the EU door here, in my view they have the blood of elephants on their hands," said Dr Roz Reeve, senior adviser to the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation.
"I'm deeply frustrated and ashamed, if it hadn't been for the EU we'd have had elephants on Appendix I by now and that would send a massive signal to the world."
Other proposals to open up ivory markets by Namibia and Zimbabwe were also soundly defeated.
These countries argued that their elephant populations were robust and that their communities were not benefitting from these populations.
"If people are able to benefit from the ivory, they will not poach, they will protect - give us a reason to protect, not fear them," said Charles Jonga, a rural community representative from Zimbabwe.
Following a secret ballot, the Convention decided not to support the proposals. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23752418 | Physiotherapists and podiatrists have been given prescribing powers in the UK, meaning they can give medicines to their NHS patients.
The legislation should improve access and speed of treatment.
Staff will need to prove they have completed the necessary training before they can start handing out drugs.
Nurses and pharmacists are already allowed to prescribe under similar arrangements brought in by the government some years ago.
Until now, physiotherapists and podiatrists could prescribe medication, such as painkillers, only when working with the written authority of a doctor as a 'supplementary prescriber'.
Care and Support Minister Norman Lamb said the move would not only benefit patients by making it more convenient to get treatment, but would also free up valuable GP time.
"Physiotherapists and podiatrists are highly skilled professionals and these changes will allow them to give better care to the millions of people with acute and long-term conditions," he said.
Phil Gray, chief executive of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, said: "This is a landmark moment that will lead to patients receiving faster, more effective treatment for their condition.
"Physiotherapists being able to independently prescribe - for the first time anywhere in the world - will remove bureaucracy, free up time for doctors and save money for the NHS."
Around 15 million people are currently living with a long term condition which requires trips to hospital or to the GP.
Many of these could benefit from the new legislation. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2848097.stm | The future car mechanic could wear a hi-tech headset alongside the more traditional grubby overalls.
A German team belonging to the nationwide Fraunhofer research group has developed a system to bring augmented reality technology to the car repair workshop.
The mechanic dons a headset and then instructions for the job in hand are projected into his field of view.
The technique has been used in the aircraft building industry for years, but now Fraunhofer engineers believe that they have come up with a system which is a practical for car maintenance too.
They have developed a piece of software which allows them to put together an augmented reality system quickly without it being tailor made for the individual use.
It works as an ActiveX control, so it can be integrated into existing software as it stands.
The Fraunhofer system is on show at the CeBIT technology fair in Hanover.
Its designers are also working with Ikea to develop a system where customers can walk into a furniture shop with a picture of a room at home and have an augmented reality system display how a piece of furniture would look once they had put it together.
And in an EU-backed project, the developers have built a system for people touring ancient monuments which allows the tourist to see the site restored to its former glory. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/6226934.stm | The Nigeria Football Association has indefinitely suspended Mikel Jon Obi from all national teams.
The Chelsea midfielder opted out of the Nations Cup qualifier against Uganda three weeks ago citing injury.
And Chelsea sent a letter on behalf of the player confirming he was undergoing treatment in London.
But NFA spokesman Ademola Olajire said: "Mikel's gross act of indiscipline and lack of commitment towards national call-ups is totally unacceptable."
Olajire added: "Since Mikel prefers his club over his country, we can only wish him the best of luck.
As well as missing games for the senior side Mikel, 20, has also not responded to recent calls to play for the country's under-23 side.
Have Your Say: Loyalty to club or country?
"The fact that both coaches do not need him in their squads means his continuous invitation to the national teams is of no relevance," said Olajire.
A country v club row erupted after Chelsea failed to release the midfielder for independent assessment of the hamstring injury by Nigeria's doctors as mandated by Fifa.
Mikel's failure to turn up in Uganda for that assessment led to him being axed by coach Berti Vogts from the Nations Cup squad that defeated Niger 3-1 last weekend.
"The national coach said before the game against Niger that Mikel did not show any sign of commitment that he wanted to play so he left him out," Olajire said.
"The national under-23 coach Samson Siasia also says he does not need Mikel in his squad since he preferred to play for Chelsea rather than Nigeria.
"Siasia is embarrassed that Mikel who played under him - at the Fifa World Youth Championship two years ago - is being disrespectful and disinterested in playing for his country." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7231528.stm | Tajikistan is in the grip of emergency food shortages, the UN's World Food Programme is warning.
The deteriorating food situation is part of the energy crisis which hit the mountainous nation in the middle of its coldest winter for five decades.
The cost of food has tripled in recent months, partially because of rising world prices.
Some humanitarian agencies claim Central Asia's poorest nation is heading towards catastrophe.
It's well below zero in Tajikistan, but most people have no electricity, no heating and now, increasingly, many don't have enough food either.
One family in the village of Sagdyan, outside the capital Dushanbe, said their four children were surviving on milk and rice. Their next door neighbours could not afford even that.
Zlatan Milisic, the country director for the World Food Programme in Tajikistan, says it's not just the rural population that's being affected, but people in the cities too.
"We are seeing more and more people who are eating just one meal a day. And we only expect the food situation to deteriorate. This is already a real emergency," said Mr Milisic.
He added additional funding was urgently needed to assist the people.
Even at the best of times, tens of thousands of people are malnourished.
But this winter is affecting a huge proportion of the population. People are spending all they have on trying to keep warm.
And the worst is still to come - Tajikistan is currently using up its last energy resources, and it may face a total blackout. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/398526.stm | The United States has published a list of EU products that will be hit by 100% punitive tariffs to retaliate for the European import ban on its hormone-treated beef.
Chocolate, pork, onions and truffles are among the goods on the $116.8m blacklist, but UK exporters escape the wrath from Washington. They are specifically excluded from the list because the London government consistently argued against the beef ban.
All the 14 other EU members will see some of their exporters hit, with France, Germany, Denmark and Italy singled out for particularly painful import duties.
The sanctions will come into effect on 29 July.
The European Union has banned the beef, because its scientists are worried that hormone-treated meat carries health risks, possibly causing cancer and triggering reproductive disorders in men.
US scientists and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute this.
The United States has already imposed 100% tariffs on European imports worth $194.2m in a dispute involving trade barriers imposed on US banana companies producing in South and Central America.
The trade sanctions had been approved by the WTO, which ruled that the EU ban had cost US farmers about $117m.
Canada was also given the right to retaliate, with damage to farmers estimated to be about $7m.
US officials and farmers representatives had originally demanded penalties worth more than $900m.
Reacting to the sanctions, Franz Fischler, the EU's Agriculture Commissioner, said: "My reaction to this is deep regret. I thought up to now that the US wanted to expand trade, not restrict it."
The European Union has repeatedly offered to compensate US farmers for their losses.
Acting EU Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan said that compensation would be "a more constructive approach than these sanctions".
However, this approach has been rejected by Washington. The US government believes that only punitive tariffs can force the EU to open its market to hormone-treated beef.
US Special Trade Negotiator Peter Scher said earlier this month that the move's "main objective" would be to "maximise our leverage over the EU".
According to US officials, the list now published is designed to inflict the most economic damage on France, Germany, Italy and Denmark, as they believe that those nations hold the key to overturning the beef ban.
The European Union has blocked the import of beef treated with certain artificial and natural growth hormones, because of health worries.
The WTO, however, agrees with US scientists who say the beef is risk-free.
Many farmers in North America use a range of six artificial and natural growth hormones, that they implant in their cattle or add to their feed, to boost meat yields. The extra hormones make cattle grow muscle faster than untreated animals.
The dispute over beef imports has dragged on for more than a decade.
From all EU countries, 14 will be hit by the beef war tariffs. Only the UK, which has argued in favour of lifting the ban, will be exempt.
from France, Germany and Italy.
products suitable for use as glues or adhesives.
Ironically, European Union agriculture ministers on Monday approved a long-awaited meat standards pact with the United States, which was aimed at easing trans-atlantic tensions.
The "veterinary equivalency" agreement will set up a framework for solving disputes and provide for the mutual recognition of animal health rules.
However, it will not help in the current trade war over hormone-treated beef. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30869470 | Cherif Kouachi, one of the gunmen who launched a deadly attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, has been buried in an unmarked grave.
Kouachi was buried overnight in his hometown, Paris suburb Gennevilliers, amid tight security, an official said.
His brother Said Kouachi was buried on Friday in the eastern city of Reims.
The brothers killed 12 people in the 7 January attack in Paris. They were killed by police two days later during a standoff north of Paris.
They had claimed the attack - supported by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - was in response to Charlie Hebdo's publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The magazine's first edition after the attack features a new cartoon in which the Prophet is shown weeping, holding an "I am Charlie" sign - the message of support for the magazine - and saying "All is Forgiven".
There have been protests in several countries against the weekly magazine, which has issued a print run of seven million copies in view of extraordinary demand. Before the attack it distributed 60,000 issues.
A week after millions took to the streets of France to voice support for free speech, a new poll commissioned by Le Journal du Dimanche (in French) suggested 42% of French people thought Prophet Muhammad cartoons should not be published, 57% believed they should and 1% had no view.
Both Kouachi brothers have been buried in unmarked graves to prevent them from becoming shrines for Islamists.
There has been no announcement on plans for burying Amedy Coulibaly, who killed four people at a Jewish supermarket in Paris on 9 January and is suspected of killing a policewoman in the French capital a day earlier.
An official from the Gennevilliers mayor's office told AFP that no relatives had attended Cherif Kouachi's burial. The grave was unmarked amid concerns it could become "a pilgrimage site" for jihadists, the official said.
Earlier in the week, Reims mayor Arnaud Robinet said he would "categorically refuse" a family request for Said Kouachi to be buried in the city.
However on Saturday he said he had been forced by the government to accept the burial. The burial was conducted "in the most discreet, anonymous way possible," he told French TV.
French law gives residents of a town the right to a burial there.
A lawyer for Said Kouachi's widow said she had not attended the burial for fear that journalists would follow her and the location of the grave would be discovered.
Almost 15,000 extra police and troops have been mobilised to boost security across France since the attacks.
Soldiers have also been sent onto the streets in neighbouring Belgium, where officials said they had foiled a possible attack against the police when they shot dead two suspects on Thursday in the eastern city of Verviers.
Some 150 soldiers were deployed in Brussels and Antwerp on Saturday, a number that is expected to double over the coming week.
Meanwhile, there have been protests in several countries against a cartoon in this week's edition of Charlie Hebdo depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
In Niger, at least 10 people have been killed in violent protests against the magazine.
Churches were set on fire in the capital, Niamey, and in the city of Zinder. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-27974914 | A husband and wife have both been jailed for life for murdering her parents and burying them in their back garden.
Susan and Christopher Edwards were found guilty of shooting dead Patricia and William Wycherley and burying them at the Wycherleys' home in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, in 1998.
The bodies lay undiscovered until October last year.
They were each given a minimum 25-year sentence at Nottingham Crown Court.
The court heard the couple shot their victims at their home on the May Day Bank Holiday, then buried Mr and Mrs Wycherley in a metre-deep hole in their own back garden.
Over the next 15 years, they stole a total of £245,000 from the Wycherleys by siphoning off their pensions, benefits and selling their home.
A large amount of the stolen money was spent on Hollywood memorabilia, including autographs and photographs of movie star Gary Cooper and a £20,000 signed photograph of Frank Sinatra.
The debt-ridden pair gave themselves up in France in October.
Mrs Justice Thirlwall described the killings as "shocking crimes". She told them that, as far as they were concerned "only the two of you mattered".
She told Susan Edwards, 56, who sat in the dock wearing a patterned grey cardigan and glasses, she was "an accomplished liar and a fantasist".
"In May of 1998 the two of you planned to shoot and kill them in their own home and that is what you did," she said.
"Mr Wycherley was 86, Mrs Wycherley was nearly 64," she said.
"They were living a quiet, reclusive life in Mansfield. They knew no-one. They had as little contact as possible with other people. You knew they wouldn't be missed, if they disappeared and they weren't."
The judge accepted "on balance" Edwards had told the truth about being sexually abused by Mr Wycherley as a child and that had formed the basis of the hatred she felt for her father.
Susan Edwards's barrister David Howker QC described her abuse at her father's hands as "an ongoing feature" of her life "that created in her, some would say, the justifiable hatred of him and would be akin to a slow-burning, festering provocation that may explain in some way some part of why it happened".
Mrs Justice Thirlwall suggested another motive for the killings - that Susan Edwards had felt she was owed money after she invested an inheritance into her parents' London home in 1979.
She claimed she was later "emotionally blackmailed" into signing over full title of the house to her parents, who sold the property for profit without sharing the proceeds with their daughter.
The judge added she believed Christopher Edwards, who had an interest in military history, "held the gun" and shot the pensioners - not Susan Edwards, as the couple claimed.
Dafydd Enoch QC, representing Christopher Edwards, said: "They lived for each other and they retired into a world of autograph hunting - they are not ordinary folk."
"He could not help but be drawn in and I don't mean that to shift the blame in any way to Mrs Edwards," he added.
The judge said the facts of the case were "so serious and your culpability so high" she had no choice but impose minimum terms of 25 years each.
Neither defendant appeared to react as they were jailed.
Both denied murder but a jury unanimously found them guilty on Friday after a two-week trial.
Speaking outside court, Det Ch Insp Rob Griffin of East Midlands Major Crime Unit said the couple were "emotionless" throughout the trial.
He said the Wycherleys' family could see this "as an end".
"It's been a long and tough journey for them from the minute we had to approach them to tell them their relatives were buried in the back garden for all that time to see several months on, the people who are responsible for that brought to justice, gives them some comfort."
The current occupier of the house in Blenheim Close Sue Bramley has said, despite the bodies being found in her back garden, she and her teenage daughter were determined to stay in their "happy" home. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-40926916 | It's 50 years since peace-loving festival-goers gathered in Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire.
Painted, beaded and colourfully dressed, they descended on the new music festival held the grounds of Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire at the end of August 1967.
The Festival of the Flower Children was one of the earliest open air festivals, featuring performances from Eric Burdon of the Animals, the Small Faces, the Bee Gees and Marmalade.
Alan Whitehead, drummer from Marmalade, told the BBC: "I remember being dressed in my kaftan and everyone had mini spinning fireworks. All the musicians knew each other and there was a great, social atmosphere."
Festival-goers and hippies took over the grounds - the seat of the Duke of Bedford - between Saturday 26 August and Monday 28 August.
According to newspaper reports at the time, the rumour was that the Duchess of Bedford thought the event was a flower festival.
Whitehead, who played with Scottish pop-rockers Marmalade, said: "We did the festival after doing nine weeks at the Marquee Club. The music industry was very different then from now. When people were playing music, [it was] just because they loved doing it. The industry was not driven by money."
The Daily Telegraph at the time said the success of the festival made more than £20,000 in profit for the Duke of Bedford. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-41258332 | "I can't believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet... if there are any girls out there that stayed up late to watch - I may become the next woman president, but one of you is next." The words of Hillary Clinton on becoming the Democrat nominee in July 2016.
In the end she failed to smash the ceiling, but Hillary Clinton's choice of election night venue was anything but coincidental.
The Javits Center is thought to have the biggest glass ceiling in New York City, and would have been the perfect setting for her to become the first woman president in US history.
But Mrs Clinton's defeat bucked the trend - the number of elected women in power globally has doubled over the past decade.
There are 15 women currently in power, eight of whom are their country's first female leader, according to analysis by Pew Research Centre.
But that still means that women leaders represent fewer than 10% of the 193 United Nations member states.
These leaders are clearly breaking down barriers - but are they taking other women in their country along with them? The political quota system in Indian local government may yield a clue.
Since 1993, one in three randomly selected Indian villages has been required to reserve the role of chief councillor for a woman, creating a naturalised social experiment.
A 2012 study of thousands of Indian adolescents and their parents discovered that having a female leader correlated with higher aspirations for young women in the village.
When asked what they wanted for their children in terms of education, age when they had their first child and job prospects, parents generally had higher aspirations for their sons.
But once a village had a female leader for two election cycles, the parents' "aspiration gap" for boys and girls closed by 25% compared with those who had never had a woman leader.
For the adolescents themselves, it narrowed by 32%. Expectations for boys didn't fall when there was a woman in charge, so the smaller gap was entirely down to higher aspirations for girls.
The authors noted the female leaders had limited scope to change the situation of women and girls through the policy. But their presence as positive role models was enough to improve the aspirations and education of the young women around them.
A 2012 Swiss study also suggests role models inspire women's behaviour in leadership situations, even from a distance.
The authors invited male and female students to make a speech in a virtual reality environment in four groups: one saw a picture of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the wall, one saw Hillary Clinton (then US secretary of state), one saw Bill Clinton and a control group saw no picture at all.
Women spoke significantly longer when primed with a successful female politician than when primed with a male politician or no role model. And the longer they spoke, the more positively they rated their own performance.
"Not only is an increase in female politicians the goal of equality, it can also be (as our results show) the engine that drives it," the authors say in their report.
There is data to back up the idea that the mere existence of women in political roles can be linked with greater equality in everyday life.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranks countries in its Global Gender Gap Report based on four key factors - health and survival, educational attainment, participation in the economy and political participation.
In 2016, the countries that had the smallest overall gender gap - Iceland, Finland and Norway - were also the most likely to have women in politics. It suggests that women do better overall in countries where they are represented politically.
There are difficulties in making a concrete link between women leaders and an improvement in quality of life for their female counterparts. This is partly because equality has improved greatly over the past century in almost every country, regardless of whether or not it has had a female leader.
Also, because many women were either elected recently or were in positions of leadership for a short period of time, it's difficult to measure the direct impact of their policies.
However, the evidence we do have makes a case that women who are able to crack the glass ceiling raise the aspirations of their female citizens, and that their countries are also more likely to offer a better quality of life for women. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-45427106 | A grocery shop has been fined after an employee's fingers were mutilated when his hand got stuck in a meat mincer.
His hand could not be freed at the scene in MAS Bazaar Birmingham Ltd's shop and was removed from the mincer at hospital on 12 April 2017.
The store, in Lozells Road, admitted failing to ensure "as far is practicable" the health, safety and welfare of its employees.
It was fined £36,000 by Birmingham Magistrates' Court.
The mincer should have been fitted with a metal guard.
Birmingham City Council, which brought the charges against the business, said: "As he fed meat in to the machine with his left hand, it came into contact with the mincer's screw feed mechanism.
"His hand was so seriously injured that four of his fingers were mutilated."
As well as the £36,000 fine, MAS Bazaar Birmingham Ltd was also ordered to pay £3,268 in court costs and a £120 victim surcharge.
The BBC has approached MAS Bazaar Birmingham Ltd for comment. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-oxfordshire-47939769/app-crowdsources-info-to-help-disabled-access-oxford-venues | An Oxford student has launched an app crowdsourcing information to show the accessibility of social venues.
Wheelchair-user and entrepreneur Matt Pierri says the idea comes from his own experience of Oxford.
He said his app fills an "unmet need" to help disabled people find out if a venue is accessible.
The app, SociAbility, allows users to share details about pubs, cafes, bars and restaurants.
Users can then see information such as how many steps there are, if there is a ramp, how wide the doors are or how big the bathroom is. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8078657.stm | Workers at Opel and its UK brand Vauxhall will have to wait at least three months before they know which jobs are to go, the BBC has learned.
An Opel spokesman said no announcement would be made about redundancies before the carmaker's sale to Canadian car parts maker Magna is concluded.
An interim deal is expected in July, but the final agreement is not due until September, he said.
Magna has so far said it plans to cut 2,500 Opel jobs in Germany.
Opel has been unaffected by Monday's move into US bankruptcy protection by former owner General Motors.
This is because Opel's ownership has been temporarily transferred to a trust fund ahead of the Magna sale.
Opel also confirmed on Tuesday that it had received the first tranche of a bridging loan from the German government to help shore up its finances until the Magna sale is concluded.
It has been given 300m euros ($423m; £259m) out of the 1.5bn euros pledged by Germany in its rescue deal.
The German government is putting forward the money because Opel has its headquarters and three factories in the country, employing almost half of all the firm's workers.
Berlin is also directly involved in the sale of Opel to Magna, leading to union fears in the UK and Belgium that their Vauxhall and Opel factories will bare the brunt of job cuts.
UK Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said last week that he had gained assurances from Magna that it was committed to car production in the UK, but he added that some redundancies across Opel's entire European operations were inevitable.
Magna needs to cut jobs at Opel to return the firm to profitability and reduce overcapacity. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2174204.stm | Nicholas Soames was first elected to the Commons in 1983.
In becoming a politician, he was following in extremely distinguished family footsteps - he is the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill and his father, Christopher Soames, was governor of Rhodesia and leader of the House of Lords.
An Old Etonian, Mr Soames is a hunting, shooting and fishing country gentlemen who is a close friend of the Prince of Wales and is strongly constitutionally conservative.
He is also very interested in military matters as a former officer who served as minister for the armed forces for three years under John Major.
However, he eschews the right-wing Eurosceptic monetarism of some of his Tory colleagues in favour of "One Nation" Conservatism.
Mr Soames refused a place on the front bench under William Hague and backed Michael Portillo's leadership campaign.
In November 2003, he returned to the frontbench as shadow secretary of state for defence. In Howard's third reshuffle, he retained this role but was promoted to shadow cabinet status. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/7355960.stm | Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has announced that William Gallas will remain the club's captain next season.
Wenger said in April he was to reconsider the role that Gallas has occupied since August 2007.
A controversial first season as captain saw Gallas sit on the pitch after the Gunners' 2-2 draw at Birmingham and his style of leadership criticised.
"If he plays, he will be captain," Wenger told the club website. "William will be the club captain, yes."
When asked towards the end of last season if Gallas would retain the captain's armband, Wenger replied: "I cannot answer that question at the moment. I want to analyse the situation after the season."
During the draw at St Andrew's in February, Gallas, 30, kicked an advertising hoarding and stood in the other half of the pitch as James McFadden scored a last-minute penalty.
The two dropped points reduced Arsenal's then lead at the Premier League summit to two points and many believed Gallas' actions undermined Arsenal's title challenge.
They won just two out of 10 subsequent games as their league and Champions League challenges came to an end.
"You know I learnt a lot (last season)," Gallas told Arsenal TV. "You want to be the best captain and give good advice to your players, but sometimes you can make mistakes as well.
"This season I know what I'm going to do and I know I am ready to change my way of speaking to the players."
Last season Arsenal finished third in the Premier League and reached the Champions League quarter-finals but Wenger's men are still without silverware since 2005.
"We have to win something because the trophies are more important at the end of the season," added Gallas.
"Last season we were near to winning something, I hope this season it will be different." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4619700.stm | Cyclist Malcolm Wardlaw was spurred to write after taking exception to Lothian and Borders Police's autumn safety campaign. Malcolm says a more positive approach to cycling will prompt more people to use their bikes and reduce accidents.
Cast your mind back to the autumn safety campaign for Edinburgh cyclists: "Campaign to reduce cyclist deaths" (BBC news website, 20 September).
Police data showed that rising cycle use in Edinburgh had led to an increase in deaths, from one during 1995-2000 to nine during 2000-2005. That was pretty shocking stuff. The wisdom of getting people on bikes at all was in question.
Well, let me put your fears to rest. The police got their facts wrong.
The recent Leader's Report of Edinburgh City Council stated there were four cyclist deaths in the city during 1995-99 and four deaths during 2000-04.
So deaths (and serious injuries) in Edinburgh actually remained constant, while cycle use increased by at least 50%. More cyclists meant much safer cycling. But that was not the message the public got.
This kind of blundering contempt for the facts is poisoning the image of cycling.
Everyone is finding bad news because that is what they expect to find. Either they get their facts wrong, or else they read them in the worst possible way.
Even the belief that cycling is "dangerous" fails reality check; ordinary cycling is a low-risk mode of travel much like walking.
However, cycling is a minority pursuit. Look at what we are a minority in... panem et circenses spectaculaire. Can cyclists afford to take chances with their image?
There is nothing strange about more bikes making for safer cycling. On the contrary, it is the rule.
Since the Congestion Charge was introduced in London, there has been 40% more cycling, yet casualties have fallen.
The City of York has also got more folk on their bikes, with falling casualties. It is forgotten that after the Oil Crisis of the 1970s, cycle use in Britain grew by about 50% in 10 years, yet annual fatalities actually fell by 10%.
All cities and countries that have boosted cycling have enjoyed the power of the "safety in numbers" effect, along with better public health. The benefits of more cycling are a no-brainer.
Since the early 1980s, cycle use in Britain has been in chronic decline. I suspect this is one reason why cyclists have felt a sense of increasing danger.
Less cycling is dangerous. It is time to get that trend back to the upside. We must attract millions to get a bike and get some training and get out there. That's our pass to a better cycling future. So go bring them in!
We asked for your views on Mr Wardlaw and Chief Inspector Buchanan's articles. The following represents the balance of opinions we received.
Each person cycling to work, equals one less person driving to work, equals shorter traffic queues. Car drivers should be more appreciative of the efforts made by cycling commuters on their behalf rather than sitting on their backsides in their cars whining about cyclists not having lights.
Please note the incident which I was involved in only last night. Not one driver stopped to enquire about whether I was ok. My normal cycle route home between Glasgow and Paisley takes me along Paisley Road West/Glasgow Road. I was returning home last night at approximately 7pm adjacent to the top of Barshaw Park Hill when I noticed a sliver Ford Fiesta parked in the inside lane. The passenger had got out the car and was proceeding slowly across the road, or so I thought. As I approached the guy, 17/18 years old, he proceeded to grab my left arm and punch me in the back! Fortunately I was carrying enough speed uphill to keep a steady line. Stopping at the side of the road in astonishment, the Fiesta then started speeding towards me as I jumped onto the pavement out of the way. Just thought I'd make other fellow cycling commuters aware of this very bizarre and out of the blue occurrence.
As a teenager, I was introduced to road cycling by my father, joining a cycling club and eventually took part racing for my club. I don't feel it is safe nowadays to introduce my son to cycling in the same way. I observe drivers and recognise that many drive with no consideration for any other road users. On the other side, I see cyclists in many instances, putting themselves into dangerous situations. A road cycle test (done at school, as part of the driving test and a stand-alone test for existing drivers) covering both how to cycle and how to avoid hitting cyclists, may help to raise awareness on both sides.
Today I nearly got hit by a cyclist who decided to go through a red traffic light at a pedestrian crossing with the green man on outside Pret a Manger in St Vincent Street. He was cycling between a bus and van so there was no way I knew he was coming. This I find a total disgrace. I actually know his face as he is a courier and has previously delivered to my work building so I have a right mind to let the police or his place of work know how irresponsible he is.
I live in London and cycle to work every day. What the drivers who complain about cyclists not being liable for road tax appear to forget is that the majority of cyclists outwith London also own (& pay tax on) cars: the fact that they make a proportion of their journeys by bike saves wear and tear on the roads, decreases pollution and congestion and is therefore to the benefit of all and should be encouraged. There has been a huge increase in cycling here since the congestion charge's introduction. Not only can those who need to drive now get to their destinations quicker, but cyclists are enjoying the benefit of safety in numbers, and the air that Londoners breathe is cleaner. All we need now is for drivers to realise that the nice green strips we have at the edge of a few of the city's roads aren't parking spaces and we'll be laughing.
I would love to live in a country where cycling is accepted and encouraged by all age groups and professions, however until we have the proper cycle lanes the cyclists will always be a nuisance and danger to themselves, road users and pedestrians.
If the abuse I've received when cycling on the (obvious and green) designated cycle path along Cambridge Street and down past Cowcaddens Underground to "get off the pavement" is anything to go by, then maybe the ignorant commentators here might take a better look next time they decide to hurl insults before they make themselves look even more stupid.
Interested by Diane's comments that she has to drive, as her place of work is 16 miles away. I regularly make my 17.5 mile commute by bike and I know others cycle a good deal further daily.
As always in these debates, the car drivers who are not cyclists usually fail to see that they are part of the problem. Drivers flout the rules of the road at least as much as cyclists. I have a car and pay my road tax but I choose to cycle to work. Many drivers could do the same. This would improve their health, save them money, make the roads safer and make a positive contribution to the environment. Drivers please stop whinging and try and take a more balanced view. Ask yourselves what you can do to improve the situation on our roads and in our environment.
Interesting selection of comments, which reflect the difficulties encountered by cyclists every day. The lady who has taken against cyclists in a big way since learning to drive (big deal) sums up the general view of cyclists in the UK - that of hatred. No other country in the world regards cyclists with quite as much venom as the UK. We go on the pavement - pedestrians shout at us (even those of us going very slowly, allowing pedestrians right of way, using a bell, etc.) and call the cops. We go on the road - we get shouted at and abused by motorists too (that is if they don't knock us over first). Cyclists in this country have simply nowhere to go - no council is willing to commit enough resources to proper cycle lanes etc., and so long as this attitude of contempt prevails, we'll continue to poison our cities with more and more cars.
I have been an active cyclist for approximately 35 years. Within that period I have had two major accidents. In the first I was hit by an overtaking car (hit-and-run) on a blind bend. The result was a broken leg and collar bone. In the second I rode into a farm gate in the dark. Stupid. The result was a broken and now steel-plated, right forearm. The point I am trying to make is this. In an accident, if the cyclist is at fault, he or she gets hurt. If the cyclist is not at fault, he or she gets hurt. All cyclists therefore need to both protect themselves adequately both in terms of physical protection, increased visibility and to ride defensively. Additionally, all motorists need to be aware that their car, when travelling at even low speeds, is a lethal battering-ram that can smash the most robust of human bodies if there is a collision. Let's please all be more aware of the possible consequences of an accident, not bicker on about bike lanes, red light jumping et al, and act accordingly.
Separate cycling lanes - go lobby for it. Twenty per cent of children get to creche/school on the back of their parents' bikes, 15% of people cycle to work and home every day. Introduce on-the-spot fines for not having lights on your bike, skipping red lights, carrying furniture, walking your dog while sitting on your bike... that'll generate money to finance the separate lanes. Bikes are cleaner and safer for the long-term environment but people's circumstances often require using the car so push your councils for safer roads for everyone.
I cycle most of the year but drive through the depth of winter because I can see how easy it is not to notice cyclists on a cold dark Friday night when it's raining and the salt from the road smears your windscreen - my assessment of the risk puts me in my car from November to March. However, I still see cyclists in dark clothing with little or no lighting. I also regularly see the police drive right past these cyclists - unless the police start taking positive action little will change. On the other side of the fence I see motorists parking in cycle lanes [which is not illegal in most cases - but should be - they are there for a reason - to give cyclists some room - please paint double yellows on all cycle lanes]. I see drivers pay no regard to the advanced stop lines [how many drivers know what they are for?]. I see drivers pass cyclists and then instantly forget that they are there and cut back towards the kerb.
First of all helmets are not a legal requirement for a good reason - they're a waste of time. People don't die in collisions because of broken skulls, they die because the momentum change in the collision causes the brain to bounce around, leading to fatal trauma. Next, please understand that the cycling community condemns those who ride without lights, on the pavement, and those who routinely jump reds. The people that do these things are 'blokes on bikes', not 'cyclists', we like to say. Would you be happy if I disrespected you in your Volvo because a boy racer in an uninsured Nova hit me a month ago? No, you'd scream about how different you are from him. Well, I'm different from the guy that jumps reds. Don't tar us all with the same brush. Cyclists have if anything more right to use the roads. Road tax is not ring-fenced to the highways, it is a small levy designed to reimburse the Treasury for the damage motors cause to the roads. Motors are licensed, and as such are tolerated on the roads, with restrictions. Anyone is allowed to ride any bike on any road (bar motorways) without restriction. Bikes have a right to use the roads, motors are merely permitted to.
I cycle to work on a daily basis through the centre of Edinburgh and at least once a week end up in a near collision with a pedestrian who crosses the road when the pedestrian lights are red. As for the red boxes, I consider myself lucky to get into one, as they are normally filled with motor vehicles, or it is impossible to get through the traffic to reach them. The bike lanes which exist are good - except when people park (legally or not) in them. In that situation the cyclist has to pull out into the car lane anyway. I don't condone cyclists who break the rules, but I think if motorists were more considerate, fewer cyclists would feel that there was an advantage to do so.
I agree with all of the comments made about taxing cyclists and making them more responsible for their own actions on the road. I have to drive to work as my place of employment is 16 miles away. I invested a lot of time and money in learning to drive, whereas it takes a fraction of this and no official training course to get on a bike and cause a great deal of trouble to other road users. Tax cyclists and make them sit official tests - then I may sympathise with them!
I have had several close calls with impatient drivers who like to drive just two feet away from your back wheel. Overtaking by cars on residential streets is a very scary experience. I've had cars overtake me on blind corners. As I pull out to overtake a parked car on the street they just flash past in the small gap, speeding up suddenly as they drive past you, or getting far too close to me as they are overtaking within at least a foot of me. The green lanes in Edinburgh are not too bad in my experience, most bus drivers or lorry drivers give you a lot of room and respect but taxi drivers are the worst. Several times I've been clipped by a taxi wing mirror as they've overtaken me at great speed, I have the bumps and bruises to prove it. I follow the rules of the road and I know that some fellow cyclists who break rules only do so to ensure their own safety on the road. Drivers need to be educated to be more respectful of cyclists on the road, otherwise we will continue to flaunt the rules of the road to ensure our own safety. For cyclists the best thing to do is carry a mobile-camera-phone and photograph any offending cars if you can and take it to the police.
I can understand some of what Alan Green says, but I choose to dismount my bicycle and cross the road on foot when I arrive at roundabouts, simply because drivers have very little courtesy towards cyclists at the best of times, and roundabouts are notorious for near misses and accidents. Does he consider such behaviour to be worthy of police intervention, or is it not just common sense?
I got heckled by a pedestrian once for choosing to cycle on a wide, empty pavement rather than a busy road. He swore, telling me to "use a cycle path", despite the fact that, well, there wasn't one.
I agree with many people here frustrated by the minority of cyclists that jump red lights etc. but it really is a minor annoyance. I was hit twice by cars last year, once by a very apologetic cabby and once by someone that looked like a lawyer who saw the gap in stationary traffic on the Mound and drove through without looking, he then drove off. We need protection as well as persecution. I am an experienced cyclist and I worry a lot more for those starting being killed than for the minority damaging a car.
Cycling will remain dangerous while the roads are full of potholes causing cyclists to swerve unpredictably or cycle in the middle of the carriageway. The latter reduces car speed to 20mph or less, frustrates drivers and stimulates risky behaviour to overtake. Cycle lanes painted down the side of the road only work if accompanied by double yellow lines. One vehicle parked across the lane on a busy road and the cyclist is faced with a problem - an even bigger one if the vehicle blocks the pavement as well. Sharing pavements can work on rural roads but is lethal on pavements where pedestrians walk - many bikes these days do not have bells and they come up behind you very quietly. Teenagers quite often cycle in pairs and expect you to move - difficult if you are an OAP with Parkinsons like my mum. So the situation is not straightforward.
The so-called "facilities" for cyclists in Glasgow take some believing. Look at Lancefield Quay for instance: cyclists routed along a pavement shared with pedestrians which isn't wide enough for two cycles to pass. Paths are strewn with debris and constantly interrupted by street furniture; another cycle "route" in Pollok is sent along a pavement right in front of shop entrances and through the middle of a cashpoint queue; and so on ad-nauseam. So much for encouraging cycle use: these facilities are a danger in their own right.
I would love to cycle around town, however my attempt at a simple commute of 10 minutes would leave me so frustrated and scared by the number of drivers who were totally unaware of cyclists or would just assume they could try to hit me or cut me up, that I would soon have to stop. Also, does it seem strange to anyone else that the one mode of transport that doesn't always come with suspension is made to travel on the worst part of the road, the bit that once the buses have torn up they even avoid. I agree that there are a lot of cyclists out there who cycle badly and don't follow simple common sense but it doesn't excuse people trying to hit them with something that could kill them. My husband was recently hit by a bus and when he pointed out to the driver what had happened the driver told him he shouldn't be on the road anyway. The driver was lucky because if it had been me he had hit I would have fallen off and been under the wheels of his bus! Maybe it's time the government concentrated on educating drivers about cyclists too rather than putting all the blame on cyclists.
I think car drivers should be made to take a cycling test. As a walker, a cyclist and a driver, when I am in my car I am much more aware of cyclists - and other road users, too - since I started cycling. If cycling became part of the driving test, I am sure safety for cyclists would improve immeasurably.
If cycling is to be encouraged the cyclist needs to be treated with much more tolerance. Here in Strasbourg every pedestrian area is open to cyclists with no apparent problems and even the DfT advises that cycling should be allowed in pedestrian areas. Unfortunately anti-cycling prejudice seems a greater determinant of policy in the UK than simple facts. For example, there are only 60 or so recorded injuries to pedestrians involving a cyclist on a footway, shared path or similar each year in the whole of the UK and fatalities are exceedingly rare. However, each year around 3,400 people are injured, many very seriously, and 40 or so actually killed as a result of being hit by a motor vehicle as they walk on a footway. Despite this the press frequently whip up hysteria about the supposed 'danger' of pavement cyclists whilst ignoring the vastly greater danger posed to pedestrians by the users of motor vehicles.
I have been cycling in and around Glasgow almost every day for years. It is my preferred mode of transport for work and play. I almost always use a network of off-road cycle trails which cover the city. There are many advantages. Cycling is safe and pollution-free and the health benefits obviously far outweigh any perceived risks. I have yet to witness an incident of 'cycle rage' though I do know that many cyclists behave badly on the roads - cycling up on pavements, running red lights etc. Many do not wear a helmet or use lights or a bell. All of these should be mandatory. This is an education issue for both cyclists and motorists. I think that the Scottish Executive and local authorities in Scotland should continue to develop off-road cycling facilities and promote safe cycling. Additionally, I would like to see councils enforcing parking bans on roadside cycle lanes. In Glasgow many motorists continue to park on these lanes forcing cyclists into the main traffic stream. It seems that the council departments who manage the roads are simply not speaking to the likes of Sustrans and other agencies involved in developing and maintaining these cycle lanes.
Cyclists don't kill people - it's cars, lorries, etc. that have the power, weight and speed to do damage. Drivers flout the law (speeding, jumping lights, parking on pavements) yet write as if only cyclists act illegally. We need to drive with care and cycle with care. Cycling is great fun, good exercise and good for the environment. But most cyclists also use cars when appropriate so let's drive and cycle with care for each other.
I currently take the bus to work as I do not drive. I would like to travel by bike but I do not have the confidence to cycle on the busy roads between my home and work. Other road users seem to have no patience or tolerance for cyclists and I'm amazed that people are prepared to use their bikes in rush hour traffic. If there were dedicated cycle lanes I would be more likely to give it a go. Cycling is healthy and environmentally friendly and I think more should be done to encourage people to abandon their cars, and get on their bikes for the daily commute.
I live in Dundee but work in St Andrews and commute back and forth by car. I wish I lived close enough to my work so that I could cycle to my work and admire those who brave the elements and busy roads on these dark winter days. However what does annoy me about cyclists are those who ride on the car part of the road when there has been a cycle path provided for them. Between St Andrews and Leuchars station there is a great tarmac cycle path away from the road but people still have to queue behind cyclists who feel that they should stick to the main road. For a start it would be safer for the cyclists and less frustrating for the car drivers. We all want better cycle lanes and better public transport links but if we don't use what we've got how can we hope to improve the situation?
I'm sick, fed-up of cyclists claiming equal rights to the use of the roads and indeed demanding money be spent on extra provision for them. By law, motorists pay good money each year for the privilege of using the roads and have to shell out for insurance to pay for any damage they cause to others. As far as I can see, the majority of cyclists do not even invest in proper lights these days. Set up a level playing field, and maybe I'll take cycling in this country seriously.
In response to Ms Chapman's post, why do cyclists have as much right to roads as cars? Do they pay road tax? Do they obey the Highway Code? Do they concern themselves with their own safety? I'm sure most cyclists would claim that they do and it's a small minority that flaunt the rules. As a former motorcyclist I make sure that I look carefully for two-wheeled transport but am constantly amazed at the lack of care and attention they have on the road. If I drove my car without lights and without care and attention to other drivers then I would, quite rightly, be held to account. Many cyclists feel that they have a given right to do what they want, when they want and cars have to make way. A cyclist the other day crashed into my car, parked legally at the side of the road and then shouted at me when I challenged him. Why is it that no matter the state of repair of a bike that it is allowed onto the road? Take my advice, make sure your bike is roadworthy, get lights on, get a helmet, get insurance so that if you are in an accident you can pay for the damage and remember car drivers pay for the roads so we are not just an annoyance getting in your way.
David Brown - I take it you don't work in Glasgow? As I haven't seen any cycle lanes whatsoever in the city of Glasgow. I am glad though when I get back to Edinburgh and see the cycle lanes, even though most people park their cars on them!
I can't believe that other article from the police who are targeting the cyclists as the problem area. Sure there are some, but I commute to work and every day there's at least one incident that's very dangerous and in the last few months of cycling to my new work I've had one case of being driven off the road and into a wall. Not that the police care about that, a crime number raised on 14/11/2005 for this very incident remains open with no answer from the police. Presumably they are too busy teaching us cyclists how to protect ourselves from vehicles running us off the road. I am not the problem, the vehicles are. I wear everything I should and travel as any other road user, yet I'm cut up, pushed over the road, shouted at, have horns blasted at me, the list goes on.
I cycle, I drive, I can see both sides of argument. However, as a cyclist, can I ask if pedestrians with dogs have a duty to both their own and my safety (when cycling) to keep their dogs on leads whilst using the disused railway cycle paths? The most dangerous part of my cycle to work is on these cycle paths, judged by the number of collisions I have witnessed. In my experience avoiding accidents on the road is related to riding sensibly and following the basic rules of the road. These rules do not exist on the cycle paths.
It is about time the police started stopping cyclist's who flout the basic traffic laws. The number who have no lights, cycle on pavements, go through traffic lights on red or get off their bike and walk through the lights on red are numerous. It is also about time cyclist should have to have insurance so that they can pay for damage they do to other vehicles and pedestrians.
Whilst the police are right to target cyclists every so often, just as they do other road users, I have to question their campaign. Chief Inspector Buchanan once more proselytises helmet use. However, he fails to mention that it is not illegal to not wear a helmet and if I was stopped by a policeman and told to wear a helmet he would be getting a letter of complaint. He also fails to mention that a cyclist being hit by a car is not going to be saved by a helmet. Take last week's tragedy in Wales. Nor does he explain why cyclists disobey many road rules; many are plain dangerous. Cyclists jump red lights because it is safer than fighting with the cars they are competing with at that junction. Personally I don't condone law breaking. It gives drivers justification for taking pot shots at cyclists. But in the greater scheme of things it is irrelevant. Indeed, I commute by car down the A7 to Galashiels. I feel safer when I am on my bike than when I am facing constant attempts on my life by other drivers on that road. I'm sure many across Scotland would echo that sentiment.
Getting drivers used to cyclists is essential to their greater safety, as is curbing the enthusiastic excesses of some mountain bike riders who tent to ignore simple things like red lights and one way streets. As a mountain bike rider, one time cycle tourer, motorcyclist and car driver I do feel that some cyclists need to be stopped by the police for a quiet word on safety. The number of bikes at the moment being ridden in the city illuminated only by LED flashing lights is incredible. These LED beacons are very good at attracting momentary attention but they are not always effective at allowing drivers to judge distance in the dark, particularly on the A71 out of town for example. Safety works both ways, awareness and prosecutions for dozy drivers of trucks, buses and cars as well as the same for suicidal cyclists. As an aside, am I the only person that thinks putting buses, taxis and cycles on the same narrow green bit of road is a recipe for disaster?
The cycle lanes in Aberdeen were introduced as a traffic calming measure....nothing to do with promoting cycling or a healthier way to get to work. They are useless because people park in them and the cyclist has to weave in and out along the road. If dedicated cycle lanes were created nationwide and goods transportation returned to the rail network, then far more people would use their cycles. It's too dangerous otherwise. We have to think big and long term.
I agree that cycling is a great way to get around a town. What really annoys me are cyclists who do not have proper lights, reflective clothing and helmets. Coming to work this morning, I saw at least 10 people not wearing helmets. The UK should be taking a lead from other countries by making it illegal to cycle anywhere without a helmet. I am also shocked at the number of dangerous things that cyclists think they can do, such as just riding on a pavement when there are cycle lanes and riding on the inside of cars when the cars have their indicators on to turn left. We need laws for cyclists so that everyone knows what they should be doing because at the moment they just do what they please, especially teenagers who I never see wearing a helmet. The government needs to sort out the laws to protect the cyclists as well as the drivers and pedestrians.
Let's start with getting cyclists off the pavements and on to the roads. It is ridiculous the number of cyclists I have to dodge when walking from the railway station to my place of work. There are cycle tracks clearly marked on the roads, but they do not use them. Cyclists are subject to the rules of the Highway Code just the same as motorists and pedestrians.
Cycling is my primary and preferred mode of transport and it has been since 1998. In the last eight years, however, conditions for cyclists in Edinburgh appear to have worsened. Motorists seem to think that they have some divine right to use the road however they wish, with complete disregard for the inequality between a metal box on four wheels and a flimsy metal frame on two. I have frequently been sideswiped by motor cars, whose drivers obviously cannot bear to be behind someone who dares to use an alternative form of transport. Until motorists realise that cyclists have as much right to use the road as they, fewer people will be encouraged to use the most efficient, clean and energy neutral form of transport. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7268098.stm | Sicily's Mafia is rebuilding its networks in the US, according to an Italian parliamentary report.
The report says Cosa Nostra has been sending people to the US to form alliances with families with which it had lost contact in the 1980s.
It says that while the mob maintains a foothold in the lucrative drugs trade, it is now moving into new areas.
Although Cosa Nostra has its roots in Italian organised crime, it has long been a separate organisation in the US.
But this month in an operation codenamed Old Bridge, a reference to these long-standing links between Sicily and New York, the FBI revealed details of the new relationships being formed across the Atlantic.
They rounded up more than 80 gangsters in New York including the acting bosses of the Gambino crime family - known to have direct links with Sicily.
The Italian anti-mafia commission says Old Bridge was a remarkable success but it shows the Sicilian Cosa Nostra is "re-establishing its links with the American cousins".
The commission says it has evidence Cosa Nostra is sending its top members to New York while allowing those expelled by the mob during the clan wars of the 1980s to return home to Sicily.
Their report says that many US food distribution and construction firms are now controlled by the US Cosa Nostra, whose bosses are of Sicilian origin and have direct links.
And while Cosa Nostra still maintains its control over the lucrative drugs trade and its traditional activities of extortion and racketeering, it is now diversifying into new industries like online gambling.
Angela Napoli, a member of the anti-mafia commission, says the work to defeat Cosa Nostra falls on the Italian politicians - who must do more - and on the very brave witnesses who come forward to give evidence.
The commission says not enough is being done to help them.
Those under state protection say they feel abandoned.
And consequently the number now prepared to come forward is falling. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/26/newsid_3200000/3200703.stm | The new Prime Minister of Hungary, Imre Nagy, is appealing for calm as fighting between demonstrators and the Soviet Army enters its third day.
The fighting is worst in the capital, Budapest. Estimates of the number of dead vary from 2,000 to 5,000. Bodies still lie in the streets where they have fallen in what is already being called the Hungarian October Revolution.
The rebellion is reported to have spread into the eastern half of the country and towns like Debrecen, Miskolc, Szeged and Tatabanya.
Mr Nagy was dismissed last year for his liberal policies, but has since been re-admitted to the Hungarian Workers' Party.
Two days ago, the Central Committee of the Communist Party reinstated him as prime minister in an attempt to pacify the Hungarian protesters and end the uprising.
He has promised to meet the demonstrators' demands for economic reforms and the withdrawal of Soviet troops and tanks.
The trouble began with a rally in the capital, Budapest on Tuesday (23 October). About 100,000 students and workers took to the streets of the capital carrying pro-democracy banners.
Police moved in and began firing at the crowds. When they refused to disperse, Erno Gero, First Secretary of the Hungarian Workers' Party, ordered Soviet tanks onto the streets.
Reports received by the British Foreign Office say the tanks fired into the crowds at point blank range, causing hundreds of casualties. But the unarmed protesters refused to give way and eventually the tanks were forced to pull back.
The appointment in July of hardline Mr Gero increased tension in a country desperate to breakaway from its Stalinist past and adopt its own path to socialism.
One of the first western journalists to visit Budapest since the uprising has said clashes are continuing in the working-class district of Csepel and Soroksar. The Soviets are shooting into houses, the journalist said.
He said the Soviet headquarters in the Hotel Astoria were "all shot up".
Electricity, gas and water supplies are still functioning. A ban on alcohol is strictly enforced and people are queuing for bread.
Mr Nagy has issued an amnesty to all rebels who lay down their arms by 2200 local time. He has urged workers and party members to "liquidate all enemies" found with weapons after that hour.
Regular appeals for quiet and order are being broadcast. People have been warned - on pain of being shot - against being in the streets of the city between 1100 and 1600 local time.
Reports on 30 October said Soviet troops were beginning to pull out of the Hungarian capital and negotiations would begin shortly for their complete withdrawal from Hungary.
Mr Nagy promised free elections and a return to the multi-party system. He also announced Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact.
However, he was betrayed by Janos Kadar and the Soviet tanks returned on 4 November. Mr Nagy was overthrown, put on trial and executed in 1958.
Mr Kadar took control and ruled for the next 30 years.
He began by waging war on what he saw as the "counter-revolutionaries" and up to 200,000 Hungarians fled.
Later he adopted a more relaxed approach and allowed some private initiative with the result Hungary became one of the only Communist countries self-sufficient in food. However, industry suffered and eventually led to the creation of an opposition movement and the ousting of Mr Kadar in 1989.
That same year, 31 years after his execution, Mr Nagy was declared the victim of a show trial and his body officially reburied with full honours. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23845851 | Media captionNFU president Peter Kendall: "I've seen farming families moved to tears round kitchen tables"
A badger cull is under way in England despite protests, the National Farmers' Union has confirmed.
About 5,000 badgers are expected to be killed in controlled shootings over six weeks in Somerset and Gloucestershire.
Supporters say the cull is necessary to tackle bovine TB, which can be spread from infected badgers, but opponents say it is inhumane and ineffective.
The RSPCA said it was "saddened", while anti-cull protesters held a vigil as the pilot began, initially in Somerset.
It is understood the cull in Gloucestershire will start later this week.
In a letter to members, National Farmers' Union (NFU) president Peter Kendall said: "This is an important step not just for cattle farmers but for the whole farming industry.
"I know that many of you reading this will have suffered the misery of dealing with TB on farm - some of you for decades - and I hope now you will feel that something is finally being done to stem the cycle of infection between cattle and badgers."
He added that he hoped the culls would show a reduction in TB in cattle, and that more people would understand why they were "absolutely necessary".
But one activist from Forthampton, near Tewkesbury, who would only give her name as Lynne, said the cull was "utterly unacceptable" and described it as the "extermination of the badger on British soil".
She said activists would be calling on people from across England to join their demonstration, by "interfering with the cull" and protest walks.
Lynne said she did not believe the cull represented the democratic point of view, was "completely unscientific" and would push infected badgers into cull-free zones.
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said the infection needed to be dealt with in both badgers and cattle.
"We have to use every tool in the box because TB is so difficult to eradicate and it is spreading rapidly," he said.
"If we had a workable vaccine we would use it... a vaccine is at least 10 years off."
Mr Paterson denied suggestions from anti-cull campaigners that the government was simply trying to appease the farming community.
"In the Republic of Ireland the disease was rocketing until they began to cull."
He said there had been a "significant reduction" in the disease in Ireland, where culling began in the 1980s.
Scotland is classified as being free of TB. In Wales, vaccination trials are under way. Northern Ireland is researching a mix of vaccination and culling.
Media captionOwen Paterson MP: "It is pointless vaccinating existing diseased animals"
"I want to end up with healthy cattle living alongside healthy wildlife," Mr Paterson added.
But Labour's Shadow Environment Secretary, Mary Creagh, said the cull was "not the answer".
"The government's own figures show it will cost more than it saves and it will spread bovine TB in the short term as the badgers are disturbed and spread infection to neighbouring herds.
"We agree with the scientists that it has no meaningful contribution to play in tackling bovine TB."
Lord Krebs, who led the Randomised Badger Culling Trial in the 1990s, said the two pilots "will not yield any useful information".
Farming minister David Heath admitted in correspondence with Lord Krebs that the cull would "not be able to statistically determine either the effectiveness (in terms of badgers removed) or humaneness of controlled shooting".
This was due to the small scale of the pilot culling programme.
Dominic Dyer, of Care for the Wild, which opposes the cull, described the start of the scheme as an "absolute scandal".
"There's no scientific or economic justification for the cull and it may make the spread (of TB) worse not better," he said.
"This is killing without protection - they're not even testing [the culled animals] for TB and they're only monitoring the cull of a small number."
The RSPCA said it was "deeply saddened" to learn that the cull had begun.
Chief executive Gavin Grant referred to the cull as a "misguided attempt to control bovine TB in cattle".
He said the organisation was seriously concerned the methods being used to kill the badgers were "not humane", and the extent of potential suffering was not known.
"It is very likely that many of them are lying injured, suffering a painful death," he added.
Mr Grant backed other opponents who say scientific evidence shows a cull is unnecessary.
"Science has shown that this cull is not the answer to bovine TB in cattle. In fact, it could make things a lot worse."
"Vaccination and better bio-security are the only sustainable and true ways forward."
David Barton runs a closed herd on his farm in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.
"I've lost a third of my herd in the last two years - it's completely devastating," he said.
"These are animals I know, they have characters, and I hear people being very passionate about badgers and I can empathise with them but they're not animals they deal with on a day-to-day basis and they have no idea what farmers like myself are going through.
"I understand people don't like the idea of it (the cull) - I don't like the idea of it but it has to be addressed.
"In this area over 50% of the badgers are carrying TB."
Avon and Somerset Chief Constable Nick Gargan said his force had been preparing for the start of the cull for some time.
"It's their [the government's] call not ours, but we understand we have a supporting role in ensuring that this democratically-elected government can push its programme forward... and similarly to ensure that people who want to protest within the law are able to do so."
Earlier, officers were sent out in Gloucestershire to provide "reassurance".
The cull will involve marksmen with high-velocity rifles using a mixture of controlled shooting and free shooting, with some badgers being trapped in cages first. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3806999.stm | Overcrowding is hampering improvements at a south London jail, according to the chief inspector of prisons.
Anne Owers said the number of inmates was stopping Brixton Prison reaching its full potential.
The prison, branded institutionally racist in 2000, was commended for improving prisoner and staff relations and arrangements for new prisoners.
But an inspection report said some basic needs, such as pillows, privacy and cleanliness, were not being met.
And it found while senior managers and many staff were trying to make improvements, they needed more support to get results.
Ms Owers described the prison as "an overcrowded, under resourced local prison with too many prisoners held only for short periods".
There were not enough spaces on activity programmes for the 798 prisoners, the inspection found.
While inmates were allowed out of cells once a day, timings varied so they could spend 24 hours in cells at a time, although measures have since been taken to address this.
Ms Owers also said "response to cell call bells, which could signal an emergency, was unacceptably lax", and "the kitchen was a health and safety risk".
But the inspection in February found staff and prisoner relationships were generally relaxed and most prisoners said they were treated with respect.
Ms Owers said the prison suffers from a "cramped and elderly site" and to fulfil its potential it needs a smaller and more stable population.
She added: "There should be a project team to manage the major change programme now under way to ensure the new developments are firmly bedded in."
Prison Service Director General Phil Wheatley welcomed the report's comments about progress in health and race relations made by staff and said he was confident improvements would continue. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-27363200 | Scotland has seven billionaires living in the country or with substantial business interests, according to the 2014 Sunday Times Rich List.
The number of billionaires recorded in the list has risen north of the border, from six last year.
The Grant-Gordon whisky family tops the Scottish element of the list with a fortune of £1.9bn.
There are now 104 billionaires based in the UK with a combined wealth of more than £301bn, the list says.
The Grant-Gordon Banffshire distilling family have ousted Mahdi-Al Tajir from the top spot in Scotland.
Al-Tajir, whose interests include a development of luxury homes at Gleneagles, is worth £1.67bn, according to the list.
Sir Brian Souter and Ann Gloag, the siblings who founded the Stagecoach transport empire, have become members of the billionaire club for the first time.
They share a fortune of £1bn - an increase of £270m on last year.
Other Scots on the super-rich list are Sir Ian Wood and family whose £1.32bn fortune comes from oil services and fishing, and the Thomson family, owners of publisher DC Thomson, who are worth £1.2bn.
Former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, who owns an estate in the Highlands, is estimated to be worth £1.3bn, while Jim McColl, of engineering business Clyde Blowers has an estimated fortune of £1bn.
The study found that Britain has more billionaires per head of population than any other country, while London's total of 72 sterling billionaires is more than any other city in the world.
Indian-born brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja top the list of the UK's wealthiest billionaires with a fortune of £11.9bn.
Do 85 rich people have same wealth as half the world? |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23870240 | Is Birmingham Library too expensive?
The new Library of Birmingham - opening next week - is believed to be Europe's largest public library. But despite striking modern architecture, a room from the 19th Century has been recreated inside to house one of the UK's most important Shakespeare collections.
For BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Nicola Stanbridge went to see if cutting edge architecture can inspire bookworms and playwrights alike.
The new Library of Birmingham opens on 3 September 2013 in Centenary Square, Birmingham.
All images subject to copyright. Photos by Ed Ram and Martin Barber. Audio by Nicola Stanbridge. Listen to her report in full on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Saturday 31 August.
Music by KPM Music. Slideshow production by Paul Kerley. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-45437740 | Police investigating the murder of a 21-year-old man stabbed to death believe people with information do not want to come forward because of "fear".
Dwayne Forrester died after being found injured in Little Garth, Pitsea, Basildon, at about 20:45 BST on 7 July.
No-one has been arrested on suspicion of his murder, but seven people were arrested after police executed warrants in connection with the death.
Det Insp Stuart Truss said inquiries were revealing "important leads".
CCTV footage was released last month showing Mr Forrester walking through Brundish, in Pitsea, minutes before the attack.
Mr Forrester's brother, Alton Brown, said his "stomach just fell out" when he heard of his brother's death.
"Since Dwayne died I feel like my heart has literally stopped," he said.
"We're going about our business and doing all the things we have to, but actually there's a big part of me that just feels frozen really."
Mr Forrester's mother, Jackie, said she "wouldn't wish this on anyone else" and appealed for information.
"That person could go out and do the same to somebody else. It could be your child, it could be your cousin, it could be someone dear to you," she said.
Det Insp Truss said there were people who he knew would "have the answers I need".
"I understand there'll be people out there who don't want to come forward out of fear or even some kind of loyalty," he said.
"However, what I need them to understand is that there's a grieving family who need answers."
The arrests were made after search warrants were carried out at three addresses in Buckerills and Stagden Cross.
Two boys were charged with offences unrelated to the death, while five others were released under investigation - four in relation to suspected drugs offences. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/wales/north_east_wales | Distance runner Gina Paletta warns how "under-fuelling" during training left her on crutches.
Supporters say they can make it easier for people in rural areas to get around.
Two people are cut from the car after it crashes into a former nightclub in Wrexham. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-12330017/bell-rock-lighthouse-celebrates-200-years-shining | Lighthouse celebrates 200 years shining Jump to media player It is 200 years to the day since Robert Stevenson's Bell Rock lighthouse first illuminated the North Sea, 11 miles from the Scottish coast.
Arctic blast covers lighthouse in ice Jump to media player Frozen water sprayed from a lake in the US state of Ohio transforms a lighthouse into something more like an ice sculpture.
Close-Up: Mombasa's lighthouse Jump to media player For the last forty years, hundreds of locals in Mombasa, Kenya have gathered in the city's lighthouse pier area on Sunday evenings.
It is 200 years to the day since Robert Stevenson's Bell Rock lighthouse first illuminated the North Sea, 11 miles from the Scottish coast.
The granite tower has saved countless ships from peril and still remains an essential life-saving aid to navigation despite advances in radio and satellite technology.
Scotland correspondent Glenn Campbell visited the Bell Rock to find out why it is so important. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6271226.stm | Businessman Simon Franks has said he is ready to buy Leeds United.
Although no exact financial details have been released, Mr Franks said his offer was substantially higher than that of the club's chairman Ken Bates.
The announcement by Mr Franks, a former investment banker, comes a day after HM Revenue & Customs said it would mount a legal challenge to Mr Bates' plans.
HM Revenue & Customs says Mr Bates' plan to exit Leeds from administration does not give enough cash to creditors.
Mr Franks aims to buy Leeds through his Redbus investment vehicle.
"We are absolutely committed to gaining control of Leeds United and to rebuilding the club," he said.
"We have already told the liquidator that we will cover short term liquidity problems and that will be standing by our bid and will increase it given certain information.
"Our bid was significantly better than Ken Bates' and we are in a position to move very quickly if we are offered the right commercial terms."
With club debts of £35m, Mr Bates wishes to pay Leeds' creditors just 8p in every £1 to take the club out of administration.
HM Revenue & Customs, which is owed £7.7m in unpaid taxes, will get its preliminary court hearing on Friday.
Mr Bates has already warned that the cost of the legal action could force the club into liquidation. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21825823 | A deal has been struck between the three main political parties on a new press regulation regime in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.
An independent regulator will be set up by royal charter with powers to impose million pound fines on UK publishers and demand upfront apologies from them.
Party leaders told MPs the charter would preserve press freedom and protect victims of press intrusion.
Many of the major newspapers said they needed time to study the details.
Press reform campaign group Hacked Off has welcomed the deal.
It follows Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry into press ethics, which found that journalists had hacked thousands of phones. He called for a new, independent regulator backed by legislation designed to assess whether it is doing its job properly.
Prime Minister David Cameron said the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour had agreed on a new system of "tough independent self-regulation that will deliver for victims and meet the principles set out in (Leveson's) report".
The charter defines publishers as newspapers, magazines or websites containing news-related material.
But there was confusion over how the plans would extend to the rest of the internet - with one Downing Street aide telling the BBC it would not cover blogs such as Guido Fawkes' political commentary.
While the charter is intended to cover organisations publishing in the UK, the Scottish government has asked Westminster to clarify the Scottish impact of plans for press regulation, which is a devolved matter.
To anyone outside Westminster this must all sound like not so much a dance, but more an enthusiastic disco on the head of a pin.
The political songs the leaders are playing demonstrate the shimmying under way over the ownership of this deal and the deft moves over the language to describe it.
It all revolves around a horrible phrase you would brace yourself for encountering on the instructions to a piece of flatpack furniture: "statutory underpinning".
It means a reliance on the law; an assault, many newspapers have long argued, on long-held freedoms of the press.
In the Commons, the prime minister was categoric: the royal charter that will oversee the new regulator will not be underpinned in law.
Labour leader Ed Miliband and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg were equally categoric too. It will, they said.
And if second best is the twin of compromise, victims of the press and lobbyists for its freedom appear to be meeting in the middle, but newspapers remain nervous.
Announcing the draft royal charter, Mr Cameron told MPs: "What happened to the Dowlers, to the McCanns, to Christopher Jeffries and to many other innocent people who've never sought the limelight was utterly despicable.
"It is right that we put in place a new system of press regulation to ensure such appalling acts can never happen again. We should do this without any further delay."
Labour leader Ed Miliband said the agreement satisfied the demands of protection for victims and freedom of the press.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said he hoped newspaper groups would see the logic of the deal and back it.
The charter will not be passed by MPs, but will need to be approved at the May meeting of the Queen's Privy Council - advisers to the Queen, mostly comprising senior politicians.
Meanwhile, a clause in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, which will mean that the charter cannot be amended without a two-thirds majority in Parliament, was approved in the Lords on Tuesday evening.
And a separate bill, the Crime and Courts Bill, will have amendments ensuring that newspapers who refused to join the new regulatory regime would be potentially liable for exemplary damages if a claim was upheld against them.
Media captionBrian Cathcart, Hacked Off: "An artfully crafted piece of legislation"
The three main parties differed over whether this amounted to bringing in a new law.
Mr Cameron said a press law had been avoided - although he conceded the clauses were "two very important but relatively small legislative changes" that needed to be made.
Mr Miliband said there was statute underpinning the charter, "which is actually protecting it from being changed".
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the press had been informed over the days and months of wrangling, with key players being Telegraph's Lord Black, Associated Newspapers' Peter Wright, the editor of the Times John Witherow and the editor of the FT Lionel Barber.
In a joint statement, the Mail and Telegraph groups, Northern and Shell, News International, the Newspaper Society and the Professional Publishers Association said the industry had not been represented in Sunday night's talks.
It said early drafts of the charter had contained "several deeply contentious issues" which had not been "resolved with the industry".
"We are not able to give any response on behalf of the industry to this afternoon's proposals until we have had time to study them," the statement concluded.
The Sun and others have previously said they would accept everything recommended by Lord Justice Leveson - except statutory legislation.
Evan Harris of campaign group Hacked Off was at the overnight talks with three other pressure group members. The group later said it believed the deal "can effectively deliver" Lord Justice Leveson's recommendations.
But the idea of a charter was criticised by free speech campaign group Index on Censorship. Chief executive Kirsty Hughes said the decision was a "sad day for press freedom in the UK".
She said: "Index is against the introduction of a royal charter that determines the details of establishing a press regulator in the UK - the involvement of politicians undermines the fundamental principle that the press holds politicians to account." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-11936272 | The US Treasury has sold its remaining stake in Citigroup, in a deal which it says will make a $12bn (£7.6bn) profit on its overall investment.
Citigroup was one of the worst victims of the financial crisis, and the US government stepped in with $45bn of bail-out cash in 2008 and 2009.
The money was part of the $700bn Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp).
On Monday, the government sold off its remaining shares in the bank for $4.35 (£2.75) each.
"By selling all the remaining Citigroup shares today, we had an opportunity to lock in substantial profits for the taxpayer," said Tim Massad, acting assistant secretary for financial stability.
"We have advanced our goals of recovering Tarp funds, protecting the taxpayer and getting the government out of the business of owning stakes in private companies," Mr. Massad said in a statement.
The US government support for Citigroup led it to end up with a stake of 27% in the bank, although this has been gradually reduced over the past year.
The bank repaid $20bn (£12.6bn) in December 2009.
"Citi is pleased that the US Department of the Treasury has finalised plans to exit from its remaining holdings of Citi stock," said Citigroup spokesman Jon Diat.
"We are very appreciative of the support provided by the Treasury during the financial crisis."
The US government is in line for further earnings from Citi through the sale of warrants and preferred securities it holds.
In parallel to Citi paying off its debts, carmaker General Motors is likewise shedding itself of government control.
And the US Treasury is expected to begin selling off its stake in insurance giant AIG next year.
It is now estimated that the cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program will cost the US taxpayer $25bn, much less than earlier estimates. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40633241 | The pay received by the BBC's biggest stars is to be revealed in the corporation's annual report later.
It is the first time this information will be made public.
The review, to be published at 11:00 BST, will list the 96 stars who earn more than £150,000 a year. Altogether, their earnings total almost £30m.
Only one third of the names on the list are women. BBC director general Lord Hall said it highlighted a need to "go further and faster" on gender issues.
However, he stressed the corporation was "pushing faster than any other major broadcaster".
Lord Hall said he wanted to close the gender pay gap and have equality on screen and radio by 2020, saying that over the last three years nearly two-thirds of new people and those promoted on TV and radio were women.
"Is this progress enough? It's absolutely not," he said.
The BBC said that its overall talent bill has been reduced by more than £4m over the last financial year, to £194m.
"I completely understand that to lots and lots of people these are very large sums but we are a global broadcaster, in a very competitive market," Lord Hall told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"And we have to be competitive but not foolishly.
"No-one would want us to be paying sums where it's not at a discount to the market. People expect us to have great broadcasters, great presenters, great stars but pay them less than they would get in the market."
He said he was "satisfied" that every one of the 96 top earners were worth the money.
The BBC's annual report looks back over the previous year's performance and publishes details about the corporation's finances and spending.
It will also look at TV and radio viewing figures, and online engagement. It may also examine the BBC's competition, such as Netflix.
Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said publishing the salaries of stars earning more than £150,000 would bring the BBC "in line with the civil service" on transparency.
She told the Commons last September that it would help ensure the BBC "produces value for money for the licence fee" and that more transparency could lead to savings that could be "invested in even more great programmes".
Lord Hall said the publication of top salaries, which he had fought, was a "bad idea" because it could tempt other broadcasters with deep pockets to poach stars creating an inflationary effect on pay.
He also urged caution when comparing rates paid to different individuals, saying their responsibilities may vary widely even if their on-air roles appeared similar.
ITV's programmes chief Kevin Lygo called the proposal a "mean-spirited, nosey way of looking at things" during last year's Edinburgh Television Festival.
The corporation already publishes data on how much it spends on talent including information about how many people earn above certain pay bands without naming them.
Former Conservative culture secretary John Whittingdale, who proposed the BBC should go further by revealing stars' pay, told the Today programme: "If somebody is earning the equivalent of 1,000 households' licence fees put together, going to one single person, then the licence fee payer deserves to know."
Who might be among the talent listed?
Presenters such as Graham Norton, Claudia Winkleman, Gary Lineker and Chris Evans are expected to be there.
Leading journalists Fiona Bruce, Andrew Marr, John Humphrys and political editor Laura Kuenssberg are also expected to be included.
The revelations are required under the BBC's new Royal Charter.
On the list, the stars' names will appear within £50,000 pay bands.
The sums will only include pay for work carried out directly for the BBC, not other production companies.
For example, Norton's will cover pay for his Radio 2 radio show and Eurovision, but not his chatshow which is produced by independent company, So Television.
According to last year's annual report, 109 TV and radio presenters earned more than £150,000 in the financial year 2015-16. But they were not named at the time.
From next year, any stars employed by the newly-formed BBC Studios, which produces Antiques Roadshow and Doctor Who, will not be included on the list.
This is because it will become a commercial operation and will operate and be treated in the same way as an independent production company.
Have the stars spoken out about the move?
Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker tweeted: "Happy BBC salary day. I blame my agent and the other TV channels that pay more. Now where did I put my tin helmet?"
In a Twitter exchange, he admitted that he has turned down a bigger salary from a privately-owned broadcaster in the past.
Asked why, he replied: "Because I love and value my job and BBC Sport."
Andrew Marr said it's "uncomfortable for all of us".
"I'm well paid but I'm much less overpaid, perhaps, than people working for rival organisations who won't go through this process," he said, according to reported the Telegraph last month.
But Strictly Come Dancing presenter Claudia Winkleman said last year: "I'm all for it. We get paid an awful lot of money and it's a marketplace. It's bonkers.
"I love working for the BBC. I know that commercial stations pay a whole lot more - double, three times, four times. But I totally understand why people would want to know."
What else might come out of the report?
We should also find out how the BBC's television and radio channels and stations have performed over the last year.
And it's also a chance to discover more about the BBC's audiences - who is tuning in to TV, radio and the websites, for instance. (The BBC is struggling to attract younger audiences, as it faces competition from YouTube, social media and gaming).
Trust issues in news and the rise of competition from the likes of Netflix (which released impressive growth numbers this week) and Amazon Prime could also feature. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-36570120 | A judge has rejected a challenge to Labour's decision to allow Jeremy Corbyn to automatically stand for re-election as leader.
Prime Minister Theresa May, visiting Bratislava, has said exit talks from the EU must address UK voters' concerns about migration, while getting "the best possible" trade deal.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, speaking in Paris, has said he hopes the UK will "be as close as possible" to France after the UK voted to leave the European Union.
Plans to build the first new UK nuclear plant in 20 years suffer an unexpected delay as the government postpones a final decision until the early autumn.
Friday's papers: Mail - What utter blindness!
Plans to build the first new UK nuclear plant in 20 years have suffered an unexpected delay after the government delayed a final decision until the early autumn.
French firm EDF, which is financing most of the £18bn Hinkley Point project in Somerset, approved the funding at a board meeting.
Contracts were to be signed on Friday.
But Business Secretary Greg Clark has said the government will "consider carefully" before backing it.
According to reports, EDF's chief executive Vincent de Rivaz has cancelled a trip to the UK on Friday following Mr Clark's comments.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has said she "wants and expects" to be able to protect the rights of Polish citizens in the UK - as long as the rights of British expats in other EU countries are guaranteed.
Speaking alongside Polish PM Beata Szydlo in Warsaw, she said she valued the contribution made by Polish citizens living and working in the UK.
The UK prime minister says she values the contribution made by Polish citizens to the UK and "fully expects" to be able to protect their rights - as long as British expats' rights are protected in EU states.
Theresa May has left Bratislava and headed to Warsaw as part of what the BBC's Tom Burridge calls her "charm offensive across Europe", following the UK's vote to leave the EU.
He says Poland is "lukewarm" towards the EU. There is not the level of Euroscepticism found in the UK but there is a view that more powers should return from Brussels to member states.
However, Tom adds, it's likely that Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło will "take a pretty tough stance... In terms of defending freedom of movement".
The International Monetary Fund was "overly optimistic" about economic growth in Eurozone countries that received bailouts.
That is one of the criticisms in a report from the IMF's Independent Evaluation Office (IEO).
It says the handling of the crisis raises issues of transparency and accountability.
The IEO acknowledged, however, that the crisis posed "extraordinary challenges" to policy makers.
Following reports that Conservative MP for Colchester, Will Quince, is crowdfunding an appearance on Britain's Got Talent for charity, here he is singing on BBC Essex back in January.
Mr Quince sang a rendition of Bring Him Home from Les Miserables after hosting a debate on the future of local theatre.
Mr Quince, who has performed on stage before, said regional theatre is the "grassroots of our world class theatre scene".
Is Colchester MP Will Quince set to have a Susan Boyle moment?
The Essex Chronicle reports that one of the county's MPs might be set for a musical side career.
"Will Quince, MP for Colchester, could have a Susan Boyle moment if a fundraising page up reaches £1,000," the paper says.
"The MP, who has sung on BBC Essex before, told one Twitter user, Scott Everest, that he would audition for ITV talent contest Britain's Got Talent, if £1,000 was raised for charity.
"He will now has to put his money where his mouth is, as Mr Everest set up the Crowdfunding page and has already raised £575.
"Mr Everest said: 'I recently learned about Will Quince's love for singing and in an act of foolishness challenged him to a wager of £250 on Twitter for him to appear on X Factor.
"'He replied, make it a £1,000 and will go on Britain's Got Talent.'"
The money will go to local charities, the paper says.
A paragraph from today's High Court judgement, rejecting a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn's automatic inclusion on the Labour leadership ballot, could be hinting that the party should clarify its rules to avoid such confusion.
Scotland's Education Secretary John Swinney says the Named Person scheme will go ahead with the Supreme Court's criticisms addressed.
Judges at the UK's highest court on Thursday ruled against the Scottish government's proposals to appoint a named person, such as a teacher or health visitor, to look after the welfare of every child.
Mr Swinney told presenter Martha Kearney the judgement recognised a "legitimacy to the policy in principle".
The Liberal Democrats have called for Turkey to be suspended from Nato, as a crackdown by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues following the failed coup on 15 July. The Lib Dems are also calling for the scrapping of an EU deal which enables refugees to be deported to Turkey.
The party's foreign affairs spokesperson, Tom Brake, said: “Erdogan’s ongoing purge of newspapers, academics, teachers and judges has nothing to do with Turkey’s security and everything to do with blocking any opposition to his increasingly authoritarian rule.
"Today’s news that dozens more media outlets have been shut should send shivers down the spine of any person who believes in a free and open society.
“The preamble to NATO’s founding treaty refers to it being 'founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law', all of which are under threat in Turkey currently.
Quote Message: If the UK and our Nato allies want to protect these core principles, it is time to make it clear to Erdogan that his actions will have lasting international consequences, and I am calling on Nato to urgently consider suspension of Turkey’s membership."
If the UK and our Nato allies want to protect these core principles, it is time to make it clear to Erdogan that his actions will have lasting international consequences, and I am calling on Nato to urgently consider suspension of Turkey’s membership." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/3025755.stm | An American company has bought what remains of a pioneering environmentally-friendly power station in North Yorkshire.
Biodevelopment International, which is based in New Hampshire, has taken over the Arbre power plant at Eggborough near Selby.
The plant was designed by burn willow grown by local farmers.
But in August 2002 the company behind the scheme went into liquidation before the plant was fully commissioned with the loss of 40 jobs.
Dozens of farmers who signed 16 year contracts to grow willow for Arbre were left out of pocket with acres of coppice on their hands.
Biodevelopment International have yet to announce what they intend doing with the Arbre plant.
The company's website says its philosophy is to "conserve and optimise the earth's natural resources".
But Selby MP John Grogan told BBC North Yorkshire this did not necessarily mean they would keep the factory open.
He said: "I have spoken to them and they admit freely that the futre (of Arbre) is up in the air."
Mr Grogan said they may decide to utilise the project's technology elsewhere.
He added: "We'd obviously prefer them to use the plant, not just in the interests of Selby, but renewable energy in this country."
Arbre was originally owned by the Kelda Group which also owns Yorkshire Water.
In April 2000 it sold its green energy division to Energy Power Resources Ltd (EPRL).
But Kelda agreed to continue funding the plant as long as it was considered viable. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/politics_show/8110357.stm | Taxpayers' money frozen in Icelandic banks is on its way back. Councils should get most of their investments back... though it could take several years.
Until they collapsed in October, names like Glitnir and Landsbanki were little known.
But they soon became notorious.
Frozen in their accounts was nearly a billion pounds of money from British local authorities.
Some feared it would never be seen again.
Across the West almost every area was affected: Bristol and North Somerset, Gloucestershire and five of the county's districts, Wiltshire, Somerset, and Dorset.
Leading the pursuit to get it back was the Local Government Association.
Officials visited Iceland, talking to ministers, the banks and their administrators.
The result: British councils were made a priority as assets are sold off to repay creditors.
The proportion coming back will vary, but they expect it will average 90% - and could be more.
"All this money has been secured against assets, and assets are now rising, as we all know the stock markets are rising, so we could get back more," says LGA Vice-Chairman Richard Kemp.
"It's not inconceivable that we would get all the money back into local government."
It is a big relief in Wiltshire - where a new unitary authority came into being in April 2009 with £12 million missing.
On present estimates they can expect to get nearly £10 million, with the money starting to arrive in July 2009.
Cllr Fleur de Rhe-Philipe : sense of relief?
"The news has got steadily better," says Cllr Fleur de Rhe-Philipe.
"I won't believe it all until it's actually in the bank - another bank - but on the other hand I think we are now quite confident that we will get most of our money back."
All local authorities want to ensure such financial calamity never happens again.
Bristol City Council is among many which have introduced new rules for investing.
Money will only be put in banks with top ratings from three credit rating agencies. Overall it will lend less and borrow less.
"We just need to be safe with our money, be very, very cautious, and be careful who we listen to in relation to the advice we receive," says Cllr Mike Popham.
Councils will need patience: getting the money back could take three years.
Watch the Politics Show West on Sunday at 11:00 GMT on BBC One (or watch again on the BBC iPlayer). |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-47740233 | How much sexism do women who play rugby in NI face?
Attitudes to women in rugby have hit the headlines in recent months after a female referee suffered verbal sexist abuse during a match and sexist jokes were made at a club dinner.
But what are the views of women who play the sport?
BBC News NI visited to City of Derry Rugby Football Club to find out.
The club attracts members from beyond Londonderry, with many players coming from areas outside the city like Coleraine and Letterkenny.
According to 1st XV captain Michelle Gormley-McLaughlin, the club has worked to improve the atmosphere around the sport.
"I think when we have aired our grievances, we have seen action, they [the club] have been proactive," she said.
"The members in the club are more than willing to help us change things and I can see improvements, compared to some other sports I play in."
The team has been steadily filling the silverware cabinet since it founded, thanks to team members achieving international glory with Ireland in the Six Nations.
The club is also building for the future with its growing girls' youth team, but player Maeve O'Neill feels there's still some distance to go.
"The publicity around women's sport in general is very important," said Ms O'Neill.
"In the last few years, it's really improved with the women's Six Nations being on the television, which has been excellent.
"But I remember as a child I was sport mad. I used to look at the paper and I would see no women in the sports section of the paper at all and I think not much has really changed there.
"It would be amazing to see more press given to women's sport, because then young women would have role models and they could see themselves in that in the future."
Image caption Referee Grainne Crabtree said she was subjected to a "tirade of profanities and sexual remarks"
Last year, City of Derry player and referee Grainne Crabtree experienced verbal sexist abuse from spectators during a men's match at Coleraine.
"I've certainly never had anything from the sidelines," said player Joanna Ha'unga, who has played here and at numerous clubs in England.
"But it's the same as every day, I don't think it's a rugby-specific problem. I don't think there's an issue more so than any other aspect of life."
"There's definitely still an element of sexism there with some sports.
"It is a running battle sometimes, people just don't think that you're up to the job, but you have to go out and prove yourself sort of twice as much as your male colleagues." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-44873161 | A controversial decision to ban street furniture from Monmouthshire's towns looks set to be scrapped.
The move was criticised by business owners, with 3,320 signing a petition saying it destroyed the "colour and vibrancy" of Monmouth's Church Street.
Council bosses said they wanted to make towns more accessible to wheelchairs, buggies and the visually impaired.
But after a backlash council leaders said they are minded to reverse the decision.
The new rules - which came in last month - banned items such as tables and chairs, fruit and veg stalls, advertising boards and potted plants from outside businesses.
To have these, traders would need to prove they were "safe and secure" and then pay hundreds of pounds for permits.
On Monday the council's cabinet said it was minded to scrap charges for the permits.
Shop owners will still need to comply with safety issues - but will not pay a fee for putting out street furniture.
"The policy giving the council control over street furniture will go ahead but we will ask officers to find other ways to meet the costs," said cabinet member Bryan Jones.
The council's deputy leader, Bob Greenland, said the change of heart followed representations from other councillors in the county.
Mr Greenland said the cabinet recognised that in very difficult times for town centres, even modest charges "might be the straw that broke the camel's back" for traders.
The original decision over street furniture led to some businesses in Monmouth refusing to pay a permit charge, and some threatened to close their shops in protest.
The council's deputy leader said the matter would now be resolved at the next available cabinet meeting, when the feedback from council members and scrutiny committees would be considered. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/welsh/9274588.stm | The Welsh Rugby Union are sympathetic to introducing central contracts for their international stars should they be approached by Wales' four regions.
BBC Sport understands there is support among WRU chiefs for central contracts representing a shift in attitude at Welsh rugby's governing body.
Ospreys boss Scott Johnson warned the regions might need "top-ups" from the union to keep Wales' stars in Wales.
Johnson spoke as Ospreys' James Hook is set for a big-money move to France.
The WRU would not consider any individual plea for a salary top-up to keep a player in Wales - such as Hook.
But the union would be looking for a consensus from all four regions and representations to be made through their umbrella body Regional Rugby Wales.
Hook is expected to join a French club next season after informing the Ospreys he will not be renewing his Liberty Stadium contract.
The versatile Welsh international back has been linked with a move to Perpignan amid reports the British and Irish Lion could be made one of the most lucrative offers in world rugby.
Hook's Ospreys and Wales colleague Lee Byrne has also been heavily linked with a move to France so Johnson, the Ospreys' director of coaching, has pleaded with the WRU to consider cash top-ups to keep their big stars in Wales.
Welsh rugby are keen for their top internationals to remain playing for Welsh clubs as the WRU have more freedom due to their Participation Agreement.
Under rules of this £6m-a-year agreement between the union and their four regions, Wales coach Warren Gatland can work with his players for longer periods in training camps and can select them for matches outside the International Rugby Board window.
"While the big fish lay abroad, it's very, very tempting," Johnson told BBC Wales' Scrum V show.
"But the commercial realities hit home that there may have to be top-ups to keep players locally.
"I think the national team needs the players to remain here.
"They've [WRU] got to be clear with their mandate: are they selected if they go abroad?
"If not, they've [the regions] got to be topped up to get somewhere close to the commercial realities that are out there.
"If we've developed the kid, we'd like to keep him."
Johnson insisted directors of Wales' four regions - Blues, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets - are paying above the grants they receive from the WRU to keep local talent in Wales.
The WRU are unlikely to force the issue.
But BBC Sport understands the WRU are be open to proposals or suggestions to discuss the concerns formally of the regions as long as they come through one channel, Regional Rugby Wales. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7967556.stm | The Kenyan police have released a man they wrongly detained on suspicion of being the alleged Bosnian Serb war criminal, Ratko Mladic.
The man was identified instead as a Croat, Igor Majeski, who works at the tourist resort of Mombasa.
Mr Majeski's mother told reporters that he was coping with health problems and also facing a bad tourist season.
She said the last thing he needed, in the circumstances, was to be falsely branded as a war criminal.
Officials at the international police organisation, Interpol, have confirmed that Igor Majeski's fingerprints did not match those of Ratko Mladic, the former commander of Bosnian Serb military forces who is being sought by a UN tribunal on charges of genocide and other crimes against humanity.
In particular, General Mladic is accused of leading the massacre of several thousand Muslim men at Srebrenica in 1995.
General Mladic's capture is a key requirement of the European Union for closer ties with Serbia. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-17357000 | Firefighters have tackled a blaze which ripped through a large pile of rubbish, sending thick black smoke into the skies above Edinburgh.
Locals reported seeing the plume from the fire, just off Bath Road in Leith, from miles around.
Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service said they were called out just before 15:45 and the blaze was extinguished at about 16:50.
The cause of the fire is not yet known and investigations are under way. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-33846457 | A UK court has rejected a bid to extradite Rwanda's spy chief to Spain to stand trial for his alleged role in massacres after the 1994 genocide.
Karenzi Karake was on bail in the UK following his arrest in June on a warrant issued by Spain.
His arrest strained diplomatic relations between the UK and Rwanda.
A Spanish judge indicted Gen Karake in 2008 for alleged war crimes. The UK ruling has been welcomed by Rwanda's Justice Minister Johnston Busingye.
Gen Karake had been the victim of "an unjust case", he said.
Rwanda's Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said she was "delighted" that Gen Karake was returning to Rwanda.
"This was an unnecessary and abusive process," she said in a tweet.
For an extradition to be made following a European arrest warrant, the alleged offence must be against the law of both the prosecuting country, in this case Spain, and the country of arrest (UK). There is, however, a list of 32 offences for which dual criminality is not required.
"Terrorism" is on that list but "war crimes" are not. It appears that Gen Karake's defence team successfully argued that he was facing war crimes charges in Spain, and so "dual criminality" did not apply.
In addition, Gen Karake cannot be charged for war crimes committed in another country under UK law, as he can in Spain. This is because of Spain's particular laws relating to "universal jurisdiction", which allow Spanish courts to indict those it believes have carried out crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide or torture.
Rwanda's President Paul Kagame had strongly condemned Gen Karake's arrest, saying the UK was showing a "colonial" mentality.
He was on an official visit to London when police arrested him.
Spanish investigative judge Andreu Merelles had indicted Gen Karake, along with 39 other current or former high-ranking Rwandan military officials.
He was accused of killing ethnic Hutu civilians in both Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo, after Mr Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) came to power in 1994.
There were angry scenes outside a London court after the ruling was made. Protesters threw water bottles towards Gen Karake and Rwanda's justice minster.
Police formed a heavy cordon around Gen Karake, and escorted him away. The demonstrators were of Congolese origin, and targeted anyone who was Rwandan.
They even attacked me when they saw on my BBC ID card that I had a Rwandan name. Some of the Rwandans outside court fled.
The ruling is a huge victory for Rwanda's government. It will also help ease diplomatic tensions with the UK following the spy chief's arrest.
The Tutsi-dominated RPF helped end the genocide, in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu extremists.
Gen Karake is also accused of ordering the killing in 1997 of three Spanish nationals working for a medical charity, Medicos del Mundo.
Rwanda has always maintained that Gen Karake was innocent, and the charges were politically motivated.
His defence team included Cherie Booth, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29199728 | Construction has begun on a giant observation tower in the heart of the Amazon basin to monitor climate change.
The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory is expected to rise 325m from the ground.
Its instruments will gather data on greenhouse gases, aerosol particles and the weather in one of the largest continuous rain forests on the planet.
Brazilian and German scientists hope to use the data to better understand sources of greenhouse gases and answer questions on climate change.
The tower is being constructed out of steel that was brought thousands of kilometres from the south of Brazil to the site, about 160km (100 miles) from the Amazonian city of Manaus.
Because of its height, the tower will make it possible to investigate the alteration and movement of air masses through the forest over a distance of several hundred kilometres.
"The measurement point is widely without direct human influence, and therefore ideal to investigate the meaning of the forest region for the chemistry and physics of the atmosphere," said Jurgen Kesselmeier, the project coordinator for the German side, quoted on the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz website.
The Amazon jungle is one of the world's most sensitive ecosystems, with a powerful influence on the intake and release of carbon into the atmosphere.
"The tower will help us answer innumerable questions related to global climate change," said Paulo Artaxo, from the University of Sao Paulo.
The tower will be integrated into an existing structure of smaller measuring towers in the region.
When finished, it will complement a similar observatory built in 2006 that already stands in Central Siberia. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-22157894 | Three spectators, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed when two pressure cooker bombs packed with nails, ball bearings and other shrapnel detonated at the 2013 Boston Marathon.
More than 260 people were also injured, with many losing limbs.
A police officer was killed and another seriously injured during the operation to catch the suspects, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
Here we look at the victims.
The eight-year-old was standing with his family, cheering the runners as they completed the race. The prime position near the finish line put him in the path of one of the bombs.
He was the first person killed in the attacks to be publicly named. He was described as "kind, caring and loving" by staff at his former school.
His younger sister Jane, six, suffered a serious injury to her leg, while his mother, Denise, sustained a head injury and required emergency surgery.
In an emailed statement, Martin's father, Bill, wrote: "My dear son Martin has died from injuries sustained in the attack on Boston. My wife and daughter are both recovering from serious injuries. We thank our family and friends, those we know and those we have never met, for their thoughts and prayers."
Media captionKrystle Campbell whose mother said her daughter was "the best you could wish for"
The restaurant manager, 29, had gone to watch a friend complete the race.
Her mother, Patty, shaking with emotion, told reporters: "You couldn't ask for a better daughter... I can't believe this has happened. She was such a hard worker in everything she did."
She had lived with and cared for her grandmother for almost two years after a medical procedure, according to the New York Times.
"My daughter was the most lovable girl," her father told Yahoo. "She helped everybody, and I'm just so shocked right now."
The Chinese graduate student was 23.
Old friends and Chinese state media said she was from the north-eastern city of Shenyang. Her Linked-in profile said she had studied economics at Beijing Institute of Technology before coming to study statistics at Boston University.
She was an eager cook who liked to blog about her meals and share new recipes.
Boston University's website said she was one of three friends who watched the race near the finishing line.
One of her friends, named as Zhou Danling by Chinese TV, was wounded. A statement from the university said: "Our hearts and thoughts go out to the family and friends of both victims."
On the Thursday after the bombings, with Boston on high alert, Sean Collier, a police officer at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was found by colleagues dead in his car.
The 26-year-old had been shot multiple times, allegedly by Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev as they tried to evade arrest.
Police ordered Boston into lockdown, eventually tracking the suspects down, killing the elder brother and wounding the other.
Paying tribute to Mr Collier, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said he believed "his murder led to our apprehension of these individuals".
MIT Police Chief John DiFava said in a statement that Mr Collier was "one of these guys who really looked at police work as a calling".
"He was born to be a police officer," he said. Students at the university said he had always made an effort to get to know them, so he "knew which students he was protecting every day when he came to work".
A second policeman, transport officer Richard Donohue, was shot in the thigh in a fire fight with the suspects when they were cornered later on that Thursday. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7895026.stm | Half of the charges levelled at the founders of the Pirate Bay file-sharing site have been dropped.
Swedish prosecutors dropped charges relating to "assisting copyright infringement" leaving the lesser charges of "assisting making available copyright material" on trial day two.
Pirate Bay co-founder Frederik Neij said it showed prosecutors had misunderstood the technology.
The music industry played down the changes as "simplifying the charges".
Peter Danowsky, legal counsel for the music companies in the case, said: "It's a largely technical issue that changes nothing in terms of our compensation claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay.
"In fact it simplifies the prosecutor's case by allowing him to focus on the main issue, which is the making available of copyrighted works."
The Pirate Bay was launched in 2003 and quickly established itself as the world's most high profile file-sharing website. In February 2009, it reported 22 million simultaneous users.
At the start of the trial in Stockholm, Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmsioppi and Carl Lundstrom were facing a large fine and up to two years in prison, if convicted.
"This is a sensation. It is very rare to win half the target in just one and a half days and it is clear that the prosecutor took strong note of what we said yesterday," defence lawyer Per E Samuelson told the TorrentFreak website, which reports on developments in the BitTorrent file-sharing community.
BitTorrent is a legal application used by many file-sharers to swap content because of the fast and efficient way it distributes files.
No copyright content is hosted on The Pirate Bay's web servers; instead the site hosts "torrent" links to TV, film and music files held on its users computers. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-11160794/obama-urges-mid-east-peace-deal | Obama urges Mid-East peace deal Jump to media player US President Barack Obama has urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders not to let the chance of a permanent peace deal "slip away".
Obama condemns West Bank shootings Jump to media player US President Barack Obama has condemned the killing of four Jewish settlers in the West Bank by the armed wing of Hamas.
The prospects of Mid-East peace Jump to media player The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes has been to the West Bank to see if there is any hope of bridging the gap between the two sides.
US President Barack Obama has urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders not to let the chance of a permanent peace deal "slip away".
"This moment of opportunity may not soon come again," he said, pledging US support for the new negotiations.
Mr Obama spoke the day before a new round of direct talks between Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was due to begin. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45983580 | Cesar Sayoc, 56, has been arrested after a number of suspected mail bombs were sent to critics of US President Donald Trump, authorities say.
The suspected bombs were found across the country, from New York to Los Angeles, and were reportedly crudely made and sent in similar envelopes.
None of the packages exploded, and the suspect has been taken into custody.
He faces five federal crime charges: interstate transportation of an explosive, illegal mailing of an explosive, threats against former presidents and other persons, threatening interstate communications and assaulting current and former federal officers.
Law enforcement officials say Cesar Sayoc is the principal suspect, and that fingerprint samples, DNA and mobile phone data were used to track him down.
He is a resident of south Florida and has a criminal record.
Mr Sayoc also reportedly has ties to New York.
At a news conference on Friday, Justice Department officials announced Mr Sayoc was in the custody of the FBI.
FBI Director Chris Wray said the nationwide investigation spanned "from New York to Delaware to Maryland to the District of Columbia to Florida to California".
Mr Sayoc was identified in the last 36 hours, the director said, after his fingerprint was discovered on a package sent to Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
Mr Wray also said they confirmed Mr Sayoc's DNA from two different devices mailed in different envelopes with a DNA sample from Mr Sayoc, collected from a previous arrest.
Late on Thursday night, the FBI confirmed this information with Florida law enforcement.
Electronic devices were used to ping and track his mobile phone, leading to his arrest in a car park in Plantation, Florida.
Mr Sayoc's Twitter account was also used by investigators to confirm his identity.
Several posts misspelled "Hillary" as "Hilary" and "Schultz" as "Shultz", which is the same spelling mistake that appeared on the envelopes that contained the explosives, officials say.
"We do believe we've caught the right guy," Mr Wray said. "But we also know that this is an ongoing investigation and there's a lot of work to be done - there are still plenty of unanswered questions."
The first device was found in a postbox near the New York home of billionaire businessman George Soros on 22 October.
Mr Soros, a major donor to the Democratic Party, has become a frequent target for criticism by right-wing groups because of his support for liberal causes.
The item was discovered by one of his employees and it was later destroyed by bomb squad officers.
Police said the package contained explosive powder and "had the components" of a bomb.
The following day, the Secret Service discovered a package addressed to former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
It was reportedly found during a routine screening of mail sent to the home she shares with her husband - former President Bill Clinton - in Chappaqua, New York.
A US official told the Associated Press that it was a "functional explosive device".
A third package, addressed to former President Barack Obama, was intercepted early on 24 October in Washington DC.
"[The] packages were intercepted prior to being delivered to their intended location," a statement from the Secret Service said of both incidents.
"The protectees did not receive the packages nor were they at risk of receiving them," it added.
The next development occurred when CNN's New York office was evacuated on Wednesday morning after a suspected bomb was sent to their mailroom.
It was addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, a vocal critic of Mr Trump, who was scheduled to appear on the network that day.
Police say they found an "envelope containing white powder" in the packaging of the device.
The network was on air when the package was discovered, and an alarm could be heard in the background as the presenters discussed the story.
Later that day, reports emerged that former Attorney General Eric Holder had been sent a suspected explosive device.
This was followed by news that another device, addressed to Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters, had been found at a mail sorting facility near Washington, DC.
A second suspicious package addressed to her was later discovered in Los Angeles.
On Thursday, shortly after 05:00 local time, another suspected explosive device was found in New York City.
It had been sent to the Tribeca Grill in Manhattan, a restaurant owned by the actor Robert De Niro.
De Niro - the star of films Raging Bull and Meet the Parents - is a vocal Trump opponent and once called him "a national disaster".
The package was similar to the previous examples, officials said.
The FBI later confirmed that two further suspicious devices had been sent to former Vice-President Joe Biden in Delaware.
On Friday, more packages were found.
One was located during a search of a Florida mail facility and was addressed to the Democratic Senator Cory Booker.
The other package was discovered at a post office in New York and the target was ex-national intelligence chief James Clapper.
Later, two more were discovered in California.
Billionaire and Democrat donor Tom Steyer said that a package sent to him had been intercepted at a mail facility in Burlingame, and another addressed to Democrat Senator Kamala Harris was reported in Sacramento.
What do we know about the packages?
None of the suspicious packages exploded and there have been no reports of injuries.
FBI Director Mr Wray described the devices as "roughly six inches of PVC pipe, a small clock, a battery, some wiring, and what is known as energetic material", which is material that can give off heat and energy as a reaction to heat, shock or friction.
"Though we're still analysing the devices in our lab, these are not hoax devices," Mr Wray said at a news conference on Friday.
They were all sent in manila envelopes with bubble wrap, addressed with computer-printed labels. Each listed Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, as the sender, although her name was misspelt.
The Florida congresswoman said she was "deeply disturbed" by the way her name was used.
The devices are suspected to be pipe bombs. The one sent to CNN - of which there are pictures - is wrapped in black tape and was about 6in (15 cm) long.
FBI Assistant Director William Sweeney has confirmed that the white powder found in this package "did not present a biological threat".
Investigators are working to establish whether they were capable of detonating.
An X-Ray of the package sent to De Niro reportedly showed it contained a device matching the others which resembled a pipe bomb.
All of the packages are now being examined at the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, outside Washington DC.
Unnamed officials told US media that investigators believe at least one was sent from Florida, and the FBI searched a mail facility near Miami late on Thursday.
The political fallout has been swift.
Conservatives claim Democrats, including those who were targeted in the bomb scare, have encouraged "angry mob" behaviour.
Mr Trump has called on the media "to stop the endless hostility" following the incidents.
But his critics say his comments are hypocritical, as he often uses vicious language against his opponents and the press.
Media captionDonald Trump: "Stop endless hostility"
CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker was one such voice. "There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media," he said on Wednesday.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders praised Mr Trump's reaction to the bomb scares on Fox News, saying: "The president, I think could not have been more presidential."
She added that "certainly the media has a role to play in this process" adding that "90% of the coverage of this president is negative despite the historic successes".
Some of Mr Trump's supporters have also said they believe the packages are part of a Democratic plot to win votes in the mid-terms, but there is no evidence for this.
What have the targets said about Trump?
Every person who has been sent a package is known to be a critic of the president.
Mr Soros, the target of the first package, branded Mr Trump "an imposter, a [political] conman and a would-be dictator" during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last year.
In return, Mr Trump has pinned a number of unsubstantiated accusations on the businessman. Most recently, he accused him of paying women to protest against Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court.
Senator Booker - a possible 2020 presidential hopeful - was a vocal opponent of Mr Kavanaugh's nomination and is a frequent critic of Mr Trump.
"We cannot surrender America to Trump," he tweeted last year. "We must fight."
In a similar vein, Mr Brennan and Mr Clapper have both made regular TV appearances in which they have criticised the president.
Mr Brennan's security clearance was revoked last year by Mr Trump, who described the ex-CIA director as a "political hack" and a "loudmouth".
De Niro, who has previously said he would like to punch Mr Trump, received a standing ovation for his verbal attack on him at this year's Tony Awards.
Mr Trump hit back on Twitter, describing De Niro as a "very Low IQ individual" who "has received to [sic] many shots to the head".
Video ‘Treasonous traitor’ Who’s talking about who? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cumbria-43441632 | Paddington Bear's favourite sandwich filling is being celebrated at a festival in Cumbria.
The Marmalade Festival at Dalemain, near Penrith, has attracted 2,700 entries from more than 30 countries, including Australia, Kenya, and Taiwan.
Hundreds were also submitted from Japan, where the preserve is popular.
Visitors included a delegation from Japan, with the Mayor of Yawatahama announcing plans to host a sister festival in his home city in 2019.
Anyone can enter their preserve at the event, which is now in its 13th year, and the winner will be sold at Fortnum & Mason.
The winner of the Double Gold title was Janice Miners from Cornwall, whose grapefruit and gin combination was described by judges as "zesty and fresh".
Veda Karlo, a marmalade maker from New York, won an award for the most inventive concoction, with the Seville orange, cranberry and horseradish flavours "working together effortlessly".
An annual feature pays a nod to the cricketing rivalry between Australia and England, with a group of marmalade makers from Buninyong in Victoria taking home the "Marmal-Ashes" trophy.
The weekend-long event attracted hundred of visitors, and even though snow on Sunday led to the closure of the estate's car park, visitors arrived via a shuttle-bus from Penrith.
The festival's founder Jane Hasell-McCosh said: "I think this is a very exciting time to be making preserves, as we are seeing how people's love for marmalade and creativity have led to a true embracing of the versatility of the preserve, with all sorts of interesting flavours and ingredients being incorporated.
"The Marmalade community has continued to grow and I am so delighted to be involved in plans for a new Japanese festival.
"I look forward to seeing the ways in which this festival will be both a showcase of Japanese-British friendship, and a wonderfully unique Japanese event." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/business-11960537/new-nam-theun-2-hydropower-dam-changes-life-in-laos | New dam changes life in Laos Jump to media player Laos's new hydropower dam cost more than $1.2bn to build and relocated thousands of people but could provide new prosperity.
China dam faces flood test Jump to media player The Three Gorges dam on China's longest river, the Yangtze, is standing up to its biggest flood control test since completion last year, officials have said.
One of the biggest hydropower dams in southeast Asia, the Nam Theun 2 project in Laos, has officially opened.
The dam, which cost more than $1.2bn, will provide electricity to neighbouring Thailand and much-needed income to one of the poorest countries in the region.
Thousands of people had to move to make way for the project, but as Guy De Launey reports, new opportunities seem to have softened the blow. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35953916 | Azerbaijan has announced a "unilateral ceasefire" in fighting with Armenian forces over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
A defence ministry spokesman said the Azeris were acting in response to international calls to halt violence.
But the Armenia-backed Karabakh forces said this was false and Azerbaijan was continuing to fire shells.
Nagorno-Karabakh has been in the hands of ethnic Armenian separatists since a war that ended in 1994.
Fighting had continued into Sunday, after clashes left 30 soldiers dead and caused civilian casualties.
"Azerbaijan, showing goodwill, has decided to unilaterally cease hostilities," the Azeri defence ministry said in a statement.
It warned it would strike back if its forces came under attack.
But David Babayan, a Karabakh military spokesman, told AFP news agency that fighting had not stopped.
"Fierce fighting is under way on south-eastern and north-eastern sectors of the Karabakh frontline," he said.
Another spokesman, Senor Hasratyan, was quoted by Armenian media as saying Azeri forces were using Grad missiles and heavy artillery to shell the northern Karabakh area of Martakert.
Other reports from Armenia said two Karabakh soldiers had been injured in the fighting.
Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said he backed Azerbaijan "to the end" in the clashes.
Turkey has close ties to Baku but does not have relations with Armenia because of the dispute over mass killings of Armenians during the Ottoman era, which Armenia says was a genocide. Turkey staunchly denies this.
On Saturday Armenia said 18 ethnic Armenian troops had died, while Azerbaijan said it had lost 12 troops.
There were also civilian casualties. The Karabakh defence ministry said a 12-year-old boy had been killed and two other children injured.
The Azeri authorities said two men had died, both passengers in separate vehicles which were struck by artillery fire. A further 10 people were injured, they added.
Azerbaijan accused the Armenians of firing on areas away from the front line, striking a primary school, houses and factories.
Each side blamed the other for starting the violence. Azerbaijan said its forces had taken over two strategic hills and a village but lost a helicopter.
Armenia's government said Azerbaijan had launched a "massive attack" with tanks, artillery and helicopters.
The BBC's Reyhan Demytrie in Tbilisi says there have long been fears that hostilities between the two nations, which are highly militarised and possess sophisticated weaponry, could spiral out of control.
Mr Erdogan also criticised the Minsk Group - a body under the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), chaired by the US, Russia and France and tasked with resolving the conflict.
He said it had "underestimated" the situation.
"If the Minsk Group had taken fair and decisive steps over this, such incidents would not have happened. However, the weaknesses of the Minsk Group unfortunately led the situation to this point," he told an Azeri reporter during his trip to the US, the presidency said.
Fighting between the two sides began in the late 1980s and escalated into full-scale war in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed, killing about 30,000 people before a ceasefire in 1994.
The region, which lies inside Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenians, has since run its own affairs with Armenian military and financial backing, but clashes break out on a regular basis.
BBC Azeri's Konul Khalilova says leaders on both sides have been blamed for stoking the conflict to stay in power rather than seeking peace.
Karabakh is the Russian rendering of an Azeri word meaning 'black garden', while Nagorno is a Russian word meaning "mountainous". |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-12400274 | A group of Jordanian tribal leaders has taken the unusual step of urging King Abdullah to curtail what they see as his wife's involvement in politics.
The 36 tribal leaders attacked Queen Rania's Palestinian origins and said she was "building power centres for her own interests".
Following uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the king has been under pressure to make political and economic reforms.
Last week, King Abdullah sacked his cabinet and appointed a new PM.
"She is building power centres for her interest that go against what Jordanians and Hashemites have agreed on in governing and is a danger to the nation and the structure the state... and the institution of the throne," the statement from the Bedouin chiefs said.
The tribes, from Jordan's East Bank, are usually supportive of the Hashemite monarchy, with members holding important positions in the military and government.
Queen Rania is of Palestinian, or West Bank, origin, like the majority of Jordanians. She has a prominent profile and has been supportive of women's rights.
Like other countries in the region, Jordan has seen large street protests calling for political and economic reforms. But the protesters have not called for the king to step down.
"We call for a modern electoral law based on consultations with all political forces in Jordan, enhancing freedoms and the formation of a national salvation government to oversee a transparent parliamentary election," the tribal leaders' statement said.
"Disregard for the content of the statement will throw us into what happened in Tunis and Egypt and what will happen in other Arab countries," the statement warned.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4730061.stm | Astronomers in the United States have announced the discovery of the "10th planet" to orbit our Sun.
The largest object found in our Solar System since Neptune in 1846, it was first seen in 2003 - but important details have only now been confirmed.
Designated 2003 UB313, it is about 2,800km across - a world of rock and ice and somewhat larger than Pluto.
Scientists say it is three times as far away as Pluto, in an orbit at an angle to the orbits of the main planets.
Astronomers think that at some point in its history, Neptune probably flung the small world into its highly inclined 44-degree orbit.
It is currently 97 Earth-Sun distances away - more than twice Pluto's average distance from the Sun.
Its discoverers are Michael Brown of Caltech, Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, and David Rabinowitz of Yale University.
It's not every day that you find something Pluto-sized or larger!
David Rabinowitz told the BBC News website: "It has been a remarkable day and a remarkable year. 2003 UB313 is probably larger than Pluto. It is fainter than Pluto, but three times farther away.
"Brought to the same distance from the Sun as Pluto, it would be brighter. So today, the world knows that Pluto is not unique. There are other Plutos, just farther out in the Solar System where they are a little harder to find."
It was picked up using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory and the 8m Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea.
Chad Trujillo told the BBC News website: "I feel extremely lucky to be part of a discovery as exciting as this. It's not every day that you find something Pluto-sized or larger!"
"The spectra that we took at the Gemini Observatory are particularly interesting because it shows that the surface of 2003 UB313 is very similar to that of Pluto."
The object was first observed on 21 October 2003, but the team did not see it move in the sky until looking at the same area 15 months later on 8 January 2005.
The researchers say they tried looking for it with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is sensitive to heat radiation, but failed to detect it.
This gives them an upper limit of its size of 3,000 km, they say. The lower limit still makes it larger than Pluto.
The discovery of 2003 UB313 comes just after the announcement of the finding of 2003 EL61, which appears to be a little smaller than Pluto.
The discoveries will once again ignite the debate about the qualifications of an object to be called a planet, an issue the International Astronomical Union is wrestling with as the official naming organisation for this area of science.
Modern techniques have revealed several far-off objects that approach Pluto's size, such as Quaoar (detected in 2002) and Sedna (found in 2004); and the promise of Brown and his colleagues is that more will soon be detected.
Some researchers suspect there could even be Mars-sized objects lurking in this region of the Solar System known as the Kuiper belt. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-47746795 | The Red Arrows have confirmed they will hold a display above the Isle of Man during the annual TT festival.
The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team will mark their 40th year of wowing visiting the island, with thousands of bikers and local residents set to enjoy the show.
Rob Callister MHK said the 4 June display above Douglas Bay on 4 June is "great news for the Isle of Man TT."
He said the Red Arrows spectacular "never fails to draw in huge crowds".
Mr Callister added: "It's fantastic that they have been performing for our island for 40 years and I look forward to seeing their latest tricks."
The Red Arrows team was formed in 1964 and replaced a number of unofficial teams that had been sponsored by RAF commands. |