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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4788762.stm | A US radio giant took payment from record companies in exchange for playing songs on air, New York's attorney general has said.
Eliot Spitzer has taken legal action against Entercom Communications, which operates more than 105 US radio stations, in a crackdown on "payola".
Mr Spitzer said the firm sold air time for $1,000 (£575) or more per song.
Entercom, based in Pennsylvania, denied the accusation. A spokesman said: "We have firm policies prohibiting payola."
US regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began to investigate "pay-for-play" practices in the music industry - also known as payola - last year.
Last July music firm Sony BMG agreed to pay $10m (£5.75m) and stop paying radio station employees to play its artists' songs.
In November Warner Music Group agreed to pay $5m (£2.87m) to settle a "pay-for-play" investigation.
Mr Spitzer said on Wednesday: "We have moved from the label side, those who put out the records and are forced to pay for air time, and switched to the radio conglomerates... that are extracting money."
In his legal action he said he had evidence that Entercom executives discussed strategies for supplementing radio station budgets with payola cash from record companies.
Mr Spitzer said one of Entercom's country music stations was given a $2,500 (£1,400) laptop computer in exchange for playing songs by artists Joe Nichols, McHayes and Liz Phair.
He said payola violated New York state civil law and radio station licences, and sometimes resulted in the same song being played on air every hour.
"The decisions are being made as to what to put on the airwaves based on bribes to be paid and extracted, rather than on judgments based on artistic merit," Mr Spitzer said.
Entercom spokesman Adam Miller said: "Now that the attorney general has filed this civil action, we are confident that the issues will be fully and fairly resolved by the court." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7024919.stm | David Cameron has challenged Gordon Brown to call an immediate general election and "let the people decide".
In a rallying end-of-conference speech, the Tory leader said the Conservatives were ready for a snap poll, adding: "We will fight, and Britain will win."
He said he wanted his party to inspire people with a message of optimism and hope for Britain in the "new world".
Speaking without notes, he contrasted the "modern" Tories with Labour's "cynical... old politics".
He reminded party members he had last addressed them in Blackpool when he had made his pitch to be their leader in 2005 - a speech which famously propelled him from outsider to favourite for the job.
"Today I want to make a speech about why I want to lead our country," he said.
"I'm afraid it's going to be a bit longer and I haven't got an autocue. I haven't got a script. I have just got a few notes. It might be a bit messy, but it will be me."
The Conservatives have used their week in Blackpool to set out the policies they believe can win them the next election - including lifting the ceiling on inheritance tax from £300,000 to £1m and cutting stamp duty for first-time buyers.
With the party trailing in the opinion polls, Mr Cameron was hoping to convince voters the Tories have what it takes to deliver changes in health, education, law and order and security.
Unlike Mr Brown, who did not mention him at all in his Labour conference speech last week, the Conservative leader devoted a chunk of his address to the Labour leader.
He said: "Boy, has this guy got a plan. It's to appeal to those 4% of people in the marginal seats with a dog-whistle about immigration here, about crime there, wrap yourself up in the flag and maybe you convince people you are on their side.
"But I say, 'God, we have got to do better than that'. What about the 40% of our fellow citizens who have just given up on politics?
"We have got to inspire them. People want the politics of belief and that means politics they can really believe in."
Mr Cameron said the party would not be lurching to the right or the left. "We are going to provide the good solid leadership this country needs.
"We need change for the long term, hope for our country and optimism for the next generation. That's what this week has been about and that's what I am about."
Mr Cameron said Mr Brown's "worst legacy" had been "his destruction of Britain's pension system and we in this party will never let him forget it".
In government, the Tories would create a "lifeboat fund" to give 125,000 people the support they deserve "after being let down so badly by this government".
His party would end the "revolving door" of the benefits system and seek the involvement of charities, voluntary bodies and private companies to help run it.
"We will say to people that if you are offered a job and it's a fair job and it's one that you can do and you refuse it, you shouldn't get any welfare," he said.
Describing the Tories as being "the party of the family", he said they would end the "couple penalty" on benefits, recognise marriage in the tax system and give time and flexible working to employees with children.
On health, Mr Cameron said his party would "scrap top down targets and trust our professionals in the NHS".
It would get rid of paperwork and targets and concentrate on "beat-based zero-tolerance policing".
Mr Cameron hit out at the government's treatment of the armed forces, accusing ministers of having "broken" its covenant with military personnel.
And in a dig at Mr Brown's repeated references to his upbringing as the son of a manse, the Eton-educated Tory leader said he could not "give you some hard luck story" about his background.
He said his mother, a magistrate, had instilled in him the belief in public service, and it was now time to introduce "national citizen service" to teach young people about self respect and responsibility.
He said despite the internet age the political system was still "stuck in the dark ages" with voters having "to take what we are given and put up with it".
A prime example was the refusal by Mr Brown to accept demands for a referendum on the European Union treaty, which Mr Cameron said was "one of the most blatant breaches of trust in modern politics".
For Labour, Cabinet Office Minister Ed Miliband said the Tory leader had "tried to give the appearance that the Conservative Party has changed - the truth is this is the same old Tory Party making billions of pounds of tax and spending commitments they cannot pay for". |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41929307 | The maker of Pokemon Go has revealed it is working on a Harry Potter-themed follow-up that will also include augmented reality features.
Niantic said players would find and fight fantasy beasts in real-world neighbourhoods in the smartphone game, which has yet to get a release date.
Pokemon Go reportedly had about 45 million daily players at its peak and generated more than $1.2bn (£915m) in sales.
One expert said the Harry Potter brand had the potential for similar success.
Publisher Warner Bros Interactive owns the video game rights to the Harry Potter series. It has previously developed Lego-branded tie-in titles via its TT Games subsidiary as well partnering with Electronic Arts to create action-adventures that launched alongside the movies.
Warner said Niantic's Harry Potter: Wizards Unite was just one of several new games based on JK Rowling's characters that are planned. They will all be released under a new label - Portkey Games - so-named because Portkeys transport wizards from place to place in the books.
Claims that Niantic would make a Harry Potter-themed game were first reported in July 2016 but were dismissed as a hoax, not least because the San Francisco-based developer was still rolling out Pokemon Go at the time.
The Pokemon title became the first mainstream hit for augmented reality, in which real-world views captured via a camera are mixed together with computer graphics on the screen.
Niantic had previously attempted to popularise AR with Ingress, a location-based sci-fi game released in 2012. But it was only after it took on an established brand that it caught the wider public's attention.
"I think the Harry Potter game is a huge deal," commented Piers Harding-Rolls from the IHS Markit consultancy.
"If you look at the different major franchises out there, I don't think there are many that could do Pokemon Go justice as a follow-up."
Relatively few details have been provided at this point about the forthcoming game, except that it will involve players learning spells before exploring their neighbourhoods to search for mysterious artefacts and fight "legendary beasts" with the option to team up with others to "take down powerful enemies".
Potter fans have been told they will have to wait until next year to discover more.
The title is likely to take advantage of enhanced augmented reality features provided by Apple and Google via their ARKit and ARCore developer tools, which were not available when Pokemon Go launched.
But Niantic may be mindful that many of Pokemon Go's remaining fans play it with its AR features switched off because it makes the game easier to play and helps save battery life.
"I expect the Harry Potter augmented reality experiences will be more robust and complex than they were in Pokemon Go, which should make the game more dynamic and the experience more engaging," Mr Harding-Rolls predicted.
"But I still don't think they will be essential to the experience." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8349368.stm | People should get takeaways instead of cooking while drunk, a senior fire officer has warned.
It follows an early morning rescue from a house fire of a 24-year-old man in Prestatyn, Denbighshire.
Neighbours saw the smoke and dialled 999. The fire service said the man had fallen asleep while cooking.
Tom Pye from the brigade said: "Our advice is to never cook after drinking - please prepare a sandwich before you go out or get a takeaway instead."
He said firefighters entered the property and led the man, the only occupant, outside to safety.
The man had not been woken by the alarm and appeared to have been drinking, he said.
Crews used four sets of breathing apparatus and two hose reel jets in extinguishing the fire.
The man was was treated by paramedics at the scene for smoke inhalation.
The fire was caused by a grill left unattended, the fire service said.
Tom Pye of North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, said: "With the run up to the Christmas party season quickly approaching, this incident acts as a clear warning that drinking and cooking simply don't mix.
"It appears that this man has switched on the grill to cook himself something to eat but has fallen asleep.
"High levels of inebriation can cause individuals to become oblivious to danger, and in this case, even the activation of the alarm did not rouse the occupant.
"Had the neighbour not been alerted by the sound of the smoke alarm and contacted North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, we could very easily have been dealing with another fire death in north Wales." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6284350.stm | Four men have been found guilty of plotting to bomb London's transport network on 21 July 2005.
Muktar Ibrahim, 29, Yassin Omar, 26, Ramzi Mohammed, 25, and Hussain Osman, 28, were convicted at Woolwich Crown Court of conspiracy to murder.
The men had tried to detonate rucksacks laden with explosives on the Tube and a bus, killing themselves and passengers.
But the bombs failed to go off sparing the city a repeat of the horrors of the 7/7 attacks, two weeks earlier.
The events of 21 July followed a fortnight of apprehension for Londoners and a period of high alert for emergency services.
Widespread chaos and panic were brought to the capital, with the London transport network brought to a standstill.
The jury heard the four defendants claimed the bombs covered in shrapnel were fakes, and their actions had been intended as a protest against the war in Iraq.
After a six-month trial, the jury unanimously found Ibrahim, Omar, Mohammed and Osman guilty of conspiracy to murder.
Jurors will continue their deliberations on the two other defendants, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 34, and Adel Yahya, 24, on Tuesday.
The judge, Mr Justice Fulford QC, has said he would accept a majority verdict of 10 to 2.
The guilty four, who were all born in East Africa and came to the UK in the 1990s, stocked up on large quantities of hydrogen peroxide from hairdressing suppliers, ahead of 21 July 2005.
Omar's eighth-floor flat in New Southgate, north London, was turned into a bomb factory.
The devices - to be carried in rucksacks - were made of chapati flour and a similar hydrogen peroxide mixture used by the men behind the 7 July attacks in which 52 people died.
Mohammed targeted a train at Oval station in south London, Omar was on board a train at Warren Street in central London and Osman travelled on a Hammersmith and City line service to Shepherd's Bush in west London.
Ibrahim, the prime mover in the conspiracy, boarded a bus in Shoreditch, east London.
The jury heard that had the suicide bombs detonated properly, dozens of people would have been killed.
The attacks, and the subsequent escape of the four guilty men, sparked the UK's largest ever manhunt.
Their movements were captured on thousands of hours of CCTV film, with seven hours worth proving to be crucial evidence.
One of the plotters, Mohammed, left a suicide note intended for his girlfriend and their two young children urging them to "rejoice in happiness".
He and Ibrahim - who was believed to have undertaken jihadi training in Pakistan - were captured a week later after armed police surrounded a flat in west London.
Omar was arrested in Birmingham after travelling there disguised as a woman in a burka, while Osman was detained in Rome and extradited back to Britain.
But in their efforts to track down those behind the attempts, the police mistook an innocent man for one of the suspects.
Jean Charles de Menezes, an electrician from Brazil, was shot dead at Stockwell Tube station a day after the failed attacks.
It later emerged that the defendants had been photographed by police surveillance officers while on a 2004 camping trip in the Lake District.
Nigel Sweeney QC, prosecutor, had told the trial the men chose a date "just 14 days after the carnage of July 7".
The trial heard evidence that the conspiracy "had been in existence long before the events of July 7" and was not a "hastily-arranged copycat" operation.
Mr Sweeney said: "The failure of those bombs to explode owed nothing to the intention of these defendants, rather it was simply the good fortune of the travelling public that day that they were spared." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-42329904 | Planning permission has been granted for a new Inverurie Academy campus.
Aberdeenshire Council's Garioch area committee gave consent for the development, which also includes a community sports facility.
The project will be now be considered by full council in January.
The plan is to open in March 2020. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6598953.stm | The UK Met Office has released figures showing that this month is likely to be the warmest April since records began.
The provisional mean temperature for the UK is 10.0C (50.0F), beating the previous historical high of 9.2C (48.6), recorded in 1943.
Forecasters say this month is on course to set new records in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Meteorologists also expect this month to be the warmest April in central England for more than 300 years.
The provisional mean figure in the region for April 2007 is 11.1C (52.0F) - that is 3.2C (5.8F) above the long-term average.
The data has been compiled from observations that go into the Central England Temperature record, which covers a triangular area stretching from the west of London across to Bristol and south of Lancashire.
This series, which dates back to 1659, is the world's longest running temperature series.
The current spell of warm weather, set to continue across the weekend, has prompted the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to issue its first "summer smog" warning for 2007.
It forecasts moderate ground-level ozone levels from Saturday across south-east England and the Midlands. On Sunday, high ozone levels are likely to extend to the rest of England and Wales, officials warn.
They have urged people that are sensitive to ozone to take precautions, such as avoiding exercising outdoors in the afternoon.
Ecologists say the unseasonable weather could leave wildlife vulnerable if the dry spell continues into the summer.
Tim Sparks, from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said the below-average rainfall in some areas was causing concern among scientists.
"It has not been the month of showers," he told BBC News. "If it is this dry in April, it does not bode well for the summer.
"Shallow root species will be especially vulnerable if we do have a dry summer."
Dr Sparks was one of the lead authors of a Europe-wide study, published last August, which provided "conclusive proof" that the seasons were changing.
The researchers found that spring was beginning on average six to eight days earlier than it was 30 years ago.
He said that the latest figures from the Met Office came as no real surprise, and were consistent with climate models that projected a rise in temperatures.
"Certainly, this year is going to see a very early spring; there is no doubt about that. We have seen lots of things leafing or flowering a lot earlier that we would expect to see them appear.
"This spring has demonstrated that different species change at different rates to temperature," he added.
The Earth has been through all of this before, lets just adapt and enjoy the warmer weather!
"The most obvious sign of this at the moment is that oak trees have come out into leaf very well, but many ash trees are still quite bare.
This could present problems for local food chains, he observed.
"You may have a situation where an insect relies on a particular plant, and birds or other animals rely on that insect further up the food chain.
"If there is a breakdown in the synchrony between them then it could be disastrous," Dr Sparks warned. "We may have a butterfly species, for example, whose caterpillars feed on only a very narrow range of plants.
"They must maintain synchrony with those plants; if they don't then that species will suffer badly." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-47763316/the-cheerleader-competing-with-a-hole-in-her-heart | England's world champion cheerleaders Jump to media player England's Coed Elite cheer team tells Newsbeat what got them to their gold medal.
'Cheerleading is not just for women' Jump to media player Despite movie stereotypes, there are very few all-female cheerleading teams in Brazil.
Test to spot baby heart defects Jump to media player A quick and cheap test could save the lives of babies born with congenital heart defects, doctors say.
View the vest helping heart patients Jump to media player Doctors have praised a new vest which enables them to treat patients more successfully by detecting heart defects.
What you don't know about cheerleaders Jump to media player So all Cheerleaders are exactly like the cast of Bring it On right? Not according to the NFL's Oakland Raiderettes.
From working as a nursing assistant to training for the cheerleading world championships, Holly is taking on both with a heart condition that has led to two strokes and could threaten her life.
A patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a small flap-like opening between the top two chambers of the heart. In most cases it closes when you're a baby but for some it stays open. This usually doesn't cause any problems but it did for Holly when a blood clot passed through it.
She's now crowdfunding to try and raise £16,000 for an operation to close the hole, alongside training with Team England ParaCheer – a combination of disabled and non-disabled athletes - for the ICU World Championships. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22222582 | Two British ministers are mounting a charm offensive in Latin America to try to attract potential students to come to universities in the UK.
Business Secretary Vince Cable and universities minister David Willetts travel to the emerging economies of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia on Monday.
UK universities have seen big falls in the number of students coming from countries such as India, which have traditionally been the biggest players.
Many blame tighter student visa rules.
UK universities are increasingly reliant on the income they command from the higher fees charged to non-EU students.
And many have been concerned about a fall in international recruitment after a crackdown on immigration.
Last year's decision to strip London Metropolitan University of its licence to sponsor foreign students over immigration concerns prompted fears that potential foreign students would feel they were not welcome in the UK. That license has now been reinstated.
Now ministers are turning to Latin America to attract students to come to study for an undergraduate degree or a PhD in one of the UK's world-leading universities.
Mr Cable is visiting Brazil, which has made it clear it wants to increase its number of graduates, with many being educated in the West.
He will highlight the success of the Science Without Borders scheme, a Brazilian government scholarship programme which aims to send 101,000 Brazilian students on higher education courses in different parts of the world including the UK.
The programme allows Brazilian students to spend three months in industrial placements with businesses such as Ford UK, GlaxoSmithKline and Unilever as part of a degree course.
So far more than 1,100 undergraduates have benefited from the programme.
The number of Brazilian students coming to the UK has traditionally not been as high as many other countries. Despite its vast population, it is 38th in the international league table of countries sending students to the UK, below much smaller countries such as Kuwait and Jordan.
In 2011-12 just 1,340 students from Brazil were studying in the UK. But that is expected to grow considerably as a result of the Science Without Borders initiative.
At the same time as Mr Cable's Brazil trip, Mr Willetts is to visit Mexico and Colombia in a bid to raise the profile of higher education in the UK.
Before the visit, he said: "Few countries are able to match the UK for providing a top-quality university education. The success of Science Without Borders in attracting Brazilian students is testament to this, and although the programme will generate over £200m for the UK economy, its impact goes far beyond the financial.
"Attracting more students from emerging economies like Mexico and Colombia will lead to other forms of engagement between them and the UK in the future, such as study exchanges for UK students and research collaborations."
A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills spokesman said Mexico and Colombia were two growing economies who were seen as "big players" in Latin America.
Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, said she was very encouraged that the government was using these visits to promote the UK's world-leading university system.
"There are a number of exciting higher education initiatives underway to increase links between countries in Latin American and the UK.
"It highlights the importance of international students to the UK and provides another opportunity to repeat the message that there is no cap on the number of genuine university students who can study here.
"We welcome many students from around the world, and a growing number from Latin America. The UK remains second only to the United States in terms of the strength of its university system and we attract more overseas students than almost any other country in the world. UK universities have a worldwide reputation for excellence in research and teaching, offering a rich and diverse range of courses." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-46865515/ces-2019-virtual-reality-shoes-are-exhausting-to-use | A pair of shoes has been demoed that tracks the wearer's movements in real life and mirrors their steps in virtual worlds.
The Cybershoes product is currently compatible with virtual reality games on the PC gaming platform Steam. But there is one big limitation - the owner's endurance level.
BBC Click’s Omar Mehtab tried out the footwear at the CES tech trade show in Las Vegas last week for as long as he could manage. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4697939.stm | US chemicals giant DuPont is facing a lawsuit accusing the company of failing to warn consumers about the health hazards of Teflon non-stick coatings.
Two Florida law firms said they were filing the suit on behalf of 14 people who bought and used Teflon cookware.
DuPont denied the claims, stating its products were safe and has vowed to vigorously defend itself.
Plaintiffs want DuPont to spend $5bn to replace million of people's pots and pans and to issue Teflon warnings.
They also want a fund to be created for medical monitoring of people who bought Teflon products.
Teflon was invented in the 1930s by DuPont, the US firm which uses it today to make non-stick cookware, and also markets it as a coating for clothes and carpets.
It contains perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a chemical which some scientists say is "likely" to be carcinogenic to humans.
"DuPont has known for over 20 years that the Teflon product and the PFOA chemical it contains causes cancer in laboratory animals," said Miami-based lawyer Alan Kluger.
"I don't have to prove that it causes cancer. I only have to prove that DuPont lied in a massive attempt to continue selling their product."
However DuPont, denied the claims. "Consumers using products sold under the Teflon brand are safe," a spokesman said.
"Cookware coated with DuPont Teflon non-stick coatings does not contain PFOA."
Last year, the company agreed an out-of-court settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by about 50,000 residents who lived near its West Virginia plant.
The residents, who lived along the Ohio river south of Parkersburg, West Virginia, claimed the company had contaminated local water supplies with PFOA.
They alleged the chemical was linked to birth defects and other health hazards.
DuPont eventually agreed to pay $50m in cash to the plaintiffs, plus $22m in legal costs. It also agreed to spend $10m on special water treatment facilities to filter out PFOA.
But DuPont did not accept liability and has maintained that PFOA does not pose any danger to the public.
In May this year, DuPont received a subpoena from the US Environmental Crimes Section to turn over documents about PFOA.
That followed an agreement from DuPont to settle allegations by the Environmental Protection Agency that it had failed to disclose heath data about PFOA for 20 years. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11448829 | The Avenue Verte is a planned cycle route between London and Paris. The idea is that it should be traffic-free, or stick to little-used country roads, and be safe enough for families to use. However, at present the route still includes a few busy roads.
The British side of the route, from St Paul's Cathedral to the Newhaven ferry port is about 160km (100 miles) long.
In France, the route divides, giving the rider two options. The shorter of the two routes, via Gisors, is about 240km long (150 miles). The other route, via Beauvais, is about 70km (44 miles) longer.
In total that comes to 400km (250 miles) for the shorter option and 470km (294 miles) for the longer one.
How long does it take to ride?
This depends on how fast you cycle, which in turn depends on how fit you are, how much weight you are carrying and how good your bike is. You also have to factor in a four-hour ferry crossing between Newhaven and Dieppe.
Most cyclists will probably take between four days and a week to complete the shorter (400km / 250-mile) route.
Once in Paris, how do you get back?
One possibility is to return via Eurostar. Reserve a place for your bicycle in advance, for which there is an extra charge.
It's a work in progress. The outline of the route has already been decided. Signposts will be in place by 2012, at least in France. Further off-road sections will be added to the French route between now and 2020. It's likely further improvements, including signposting, will be made on the British side too, but the timescale is more uncertain.
For the time being, yes.
In the UK, outside central London, the route follows mostly the Wandle Trail (the northern section of National Cycle route 20) and National Cycle Routes 21 and 2. These are quite well signposted - but not well enough to prevent our reporter getting lost from time to time. Also, the Avenue Verte will leave Route 20 near Coulsdon, south London, and join Route 21 south of the M25, near Merstham. This 8km (5 mile) stretch is not signposted at all.
In Dieppe, you need a detailed map to get from the ferry port to the start of the Dieppe-Forges les Eaux cycle route (known as the Avenue Verte). The Seine-Maritime region Voie Verte website is some help.
The start of the cycle route from Gisors to Bray et Lu, meanwhile, can be located with the help of the Eure region Voie Verte website.
For the rest of the route in France, you are on your own.
Is there a more direct low-traffic route to Paris?
Yes a more direct route to Newhaven is National Cycle Route 20 to Brighton (branching off to the east before Ditchling Beacon). This saves about 50-55km (31-35 miles).
In France, Donald Hirsch's popular route from Dieppe to the Eiffel Tower, which comes with a regularly updated printable guide, is about 53km (33 miles) shorter than the shorter Avenue Verte.
Adding these alternative routes together, you end up with an overall distance of about 300km (190 miles) - about 100km (62 miles) shorter than the shorter version of the Avenue Verte.
What kind of bicycle do you need?
Our reporter completed the route on a road bike with 23mm-wide tyres, without suffering a puncture. However, large sections of the route in the UK, and the Seine towpaths in France, are more suited to a robust hybrid or mountain bike.
What age groups is the route suitable for?
There are only a few challenging climbs (the toughest would be the scarp face of the North Downs for those travelling north, from Paris to London). A fit and healthy pensioner with plenty of cycling experience would have no major problems.
There are at present, however, a few sections where cyclists share roads with heavy traffic, for example the A259 near Seaford, and around the Port of Gennevilliers in Paris. These sections will not be appropriate for children until new cycle paths are created.
A brochure with some accommodation suggestions has been created for the Dieppe-Forges les Eaux section of the Avenue Verte.
Donald Hirsch also summarises recommendations that have been made by cyclists using his route (see the final page of the pdf).
Tourist information centres also exist in a number of towns along the route. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15592921 | Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by a Governor-General.
Parliament endorsed Peter O'Neill as prime minister in August 2012, finally drawing the line under a prolonged power struggle with his rival Sir Michael Somare, the founding father of independent Papua New Guinea.
Prior to national elections in June 2012, both men had declared themselves to be the rightful prime minister.
Mr O'Neill was first chosen by parliament to be acting Prime Minister in August 2011 after Sir Michael, who had by then been absent from the house for several months due to illness, was declared to be no longer eligible.
Sir Michael subsequently challenged this decision and the rivalry between the two men developed into a standoff between lawmakers, the overwhelming majority of whom continued to back Mr O'Neill, and the Supreme Court, which ruled that Mr O'Neill's election was illegal and that Sir Michael should be reinstated.
After Transparency International ranked Papua New Guinea one of the most corrupt countries in the world in 2012, Mr O'Neill declared that his government's priority would be to crack down on corruption.
One of his first acts after being sworn in as prime minister in August 2012 was to approve the formation of a new anti-corruption task force as part of efforts to win the confidence of potential foreign investors.
However, in June 2014 Mr O'Neill was himself accused of fraud by the national anti-corruption watchdog, which issued a warrant for his arrest. He has challenged the warrant in court and it has so far not been carried out.
In November, Mr O'Neill was referred to a tribunal of judges over separate allegations of misconduct in office relating to a $1.3 billion loan. The hearing is scheduled for January 2015.
Born in the Southern Highlands Province in 1965, Mr O'Neill was a businessman before being elected to parliament in 2002. Two years later, he became leader of the opposition before crossing the floor in 2007 to join Sir Michael Somare's government as finance, treasury and works minister. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34312108 | To an outsider, it can often look like mob rule in Pakistan. There are public lynchings and frequent attacks on religious minorities and nobody ever seems to get arrested or go to jail. But running and renting out mobs is also an organised business in the country, where the men organising the mobs insist they are providing a vital public service and anything is available - at the right price.
An old man with fiery red hair, Khwaja, lounges on a rickety rope-woven bed and speaks to a rapt audience. These are all men from the area, many of them wearing prayer caps and sporting beards. He has gathered more than a dozen in just a few minutes, armed only with a cell phone and a little black book full of numbers.
"Gathering a mob - what's so difficult about that?" he says. "One phone call and a hundred people will come, they can throw stones till nothing is left and if that doesn't work, it costs very little to buy 10 litres of petrol and set things on fire."
A few months ago, Khwaja brought together a protest mob that blocked the railway lines till the authorities were forced to accept their demands. What looked like a mass protest against gas shortages was organised by one influential man. In a country where many of the people still don't have access to basic necessities, there is power in numbers, and men like Khwaja claim to wield this power.
"When government officials fail to deliver on the legitimate needs of the people, then they come to me for solutions. Now the people of my area have more trust in me than the government."
Religion is often used as a rallying cry to stir up sentiments among people influenced by increasing religious radicalism in the country. Khwaja's huge compound contains the only mosque in the area and he chooses the prayer leader himself. His mosque, his cleric, his rules, he says.
Men like Khwaja are known as patrons or "Dera daars". Khwaja insists that he uses his religious influence, connections and political clout for the good of his community, but admits others have exploited mob power for their own purposes.
He explains: "It doesn't take much to gather hundreds against someone you may have a personal enmity with. If they are from a religious minority, you just say they committed blasphemy or burned the Koran, and everyone will follow, no one will verify the truth of it."
Last year an angry mob attacked the homes of Gujranwala's Ahmadiyya religious minority, not too far from Khwaja's area. Locals say it started as a fight over a game of cricket but as tempers flared, a young Ahmadi boy was accused of religious blasphemy, a crime punishable by death under Pakistani laws.
But the matter never went to court as hundreds of people burned down more than a dozen houses of the community in retribution. Three little girls and their grandmother were burnt to death as the police failed to control the violence. The scorched houses lie abandoned, huge padlocks on the doors, as survivors are too afraid to return home.
Mob violence and public lynchings have become a common form of persecution, particularly against religious minorities in Pakistan.
Last November, a young Christian couple in the Punjabi village of Kot Radha Kishan was attacked by a mob after accusations of blasphemy. They were publicly lynched and thrown into the furnace of the brick kiln where they worked.
Similar incidents are on the rise across Punjab, but there are few arrests and fewer convictions. Police officials often stand by, unable or unwilling to control angry religious mobs, preferring to deal with the aftermath.
Punjab Police Superintendent Sohail Sukhera says: "It starts off as 10 angry people, then 20 and finally hundreds… the situation now is that mobs are burning people alive in front of the police, which I think is a failure of the police, the state and our society."
The BBC secured exclusive access to one of the many crime dens that claims to be running a "mob for hire" business, renting out people to instigate and participate in mob violence.
We are led into a compound on the outskirts of the city where some muscular men are sitting down to a hearty breakfast. Others are cleaning their Kalashnikovs.
Surrounded by armed men, the leader of the group or "mob boss" as he is called here, is closing a deal on an expensive cell phone.
"Hard cash only," he is heard saying. "It takes cash to arrange for the men and the vehicles, and they need weapons."
He tells me his clients need his services mostly to settle personal vendettas or for land grabbing, but it is easier to give everything a religious overtone to gain popular support and pressurise the police into doing nothing.
"We are often hired by religious militant organisations for various tasks - if they want to straighten someone out or send a message, we can find the men to do that. Our men are used in political protests or to fill out political rallies, whatever is needed."
Many militant Islamic organisations have been banned in the Punjab as part of the government's efforts to curb terrorism and radicalisation - but the mob boss says it is easier to operate behind the scenes, by hiring mercenaries like him, with no direct links or affiliations.
Like any professional business, he has a list of services, and prices go up with the intensity of violence.
"Burning and lynching will cost extra, we have to pay off all kinds of people to avoid trouble," he says.
Another individual involved in the business says: "We recruit desperate men, poor labourers sitting at road junctions seeking daily wages. We offer them up to 1,000 rupees ($10; £6), food, transport and the reassurance that we will get them out if they are arrested. We have those connections."
Image caption Police Superintendent Sohail Sukhera says the mob violence is "a failure of the police, the state and our society"
Police Superintendent Sukhera admits such backchannels to local mobsters exist. These mobsters often have strong political support and stronger influence than the authorities.
He says: "What we are seeing is a parallel system of governance. The police are often helpless, because we do not get the protection to apprehend these mobs.
"When we try to stop them through the means necessary, often cases are lodged against the police officers themselves. Why would a police officer put his life and livelihood at risk for others, if he gets no support?"
Psychological experts believe that social unrest is on the rise and tolerance diminishing in a country dealing with the impact of decades of terrorism and growing religious radicalism.
As public confidence in the government's ability to tackle rampant socio-economic problems is eroded, a sense of frustration and anger has emerged. And harnessing that anger to serve ulterior motives appears to have become big business. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-47272662 | A man has been charged in connection with the death of a 29-year-old mother in Greater Manchester.
Margaret Smythe was last seen at home in Swinside Road, Bolton on 26 January.
Her body was found nearby at the rear of the Red Bridge Pub on Red Lane, Breightmet, Bolton on 1 February.
Brian Ottley, 29, of no fixed address, is accused of assisting an offender and perverting the course of justice. He was remanded in custody and is due to appear before magistrates on Monday.
Christopher Taylor, 39, of Greenroyd Avenue, Bolton, is accused of murdering Ms Smythe. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-jersey-44860740/page/2 | Jersey's Chief Police Officer Rob Bastable has died aged 54.
The States of Jersey Police said he died on Saturday after battling an illness for the past 18 months.
Mr Bastable had held the role of chief officer since July 2017. He leaves behind a wife and two sons. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10194949 | President Obama's top energy adviser says the Gulf of Mexico oil leak is "probably the biggest environmental disaster" ever in US history.
Oil has been gushing into the Gulf for nearly six weeks, causing a spill bigger than that in the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaskan waters.
Carol Browner told NBC's Meet The Press it was "certainly the biggest oil spill", and the government was committed to the "biggest environmental response". |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/h/hibernian/9372385.stm | Colin Calderwood insists he would consider asking Hibernian to break their transfer record should the right player become available to the club.
That record is £700,000 paid in 2001 to Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito for Equador defender Ulises de la Cruz.
"I haven't been told they are not there," the Hibs boss said when asked if such resources were available.
"If there was a player at that level, I am sure we could. That wouldn't stop me if that availability was about."
Calderwood is poised to make his first signing should Nottingham Forest midfielder Matt Thornhill make his expected recovery from an ankle injury.
With Hibs having failed to score in five games, a striker is viewed as a priority by many supporters, but Calderwood stressed that he was looking to improve the whole team.
"We are looking at every area," he said. "We are looking at the short term, but we are also looking beyond this season.
"Hopefully there will be one or two we can take in between now and the end of the season on a loan basis.
"We have addressed all the areas because we have got to be secure, come February, that we have enough to get us results going forward and we have got to have an improvement in those results and give people a lift in the dressing-room."
Calderwood stressed that he would like to retain the services of Derek Riordan, the forward who is out of contract in the summer and has been linked with a move to Burnley.
The Hibs boss dismissed those reports and others suggesting that Swindon Town defender Jean-Francois Lescinel, who previously had a spell with Falkirk, was a target for the Edinburgh club.
"There has been a conversation about him," said Calderwood. "The name was mentioned, as were probably 150 others, and it's an agent not doing his job properly.
"It's been very busy and the first thing you do after a training session is pick up your phone and there's always one or two messages.
"There's been lots of contact with agents, but a lot of it is pie in the sky."
Calderwood, who took over from the sacked John Hughes on October, was far from relieved by the latest vote of confidence issued by the Easter Road board.
Hibs chief executive Scott Lindsay last week reiterated the board's support for the manager who has now led Hibs to only two wins and 10 defeats in his 15 games in charge.
Asked whether he was happy with the comments, the manager said: "Not particularly, no.
"The only reason you're hearing it is because of the sequence of results.
"I know exactly where I stand with the board.
"I've got a good relationship with them. They understand and they're very helpful." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/low/dates/stories/december/20/newsid_2539000/2539173.stm | A desperate search is underway for eight members of a life boat crew missing feared dead off the Cornish coast.
All contact has been lost with the crew of RNLI Penlee lifeboat, Soloman Browne, which was answering a distress call in treacherous weather conditions last night.
The men were giving assistance to Union Star whose crew reported engine failure eight miles east of Wolf Rock Lighthouse, south-west Cornwall.
Last contact with the Penlee crew was made last night shortly after reports it had rescued four of the eight people aboard the Union Star.
But this morning the vessel was found broken into small pieces.
Seven bodies have been recovered from the water.
The rescue attempt was taking place in winds coming from the south east at hurricane force 12, gusting to 90 knots and the sea reaching 60ft high.
Many of the crew, volunteers made up of fishermen among others, were from the close-knit fishing community of Mousehole.
Local men and those from neighbouring stations have joined a major sea and air search alongside a naval helicopter, life boats and fishing vessels.
They have been searching since the early hours of this morning and pledged to continue indefinitely despite waning hopes the men will be found alive.
The community is described as being 'numb with shock' as the Penlee lifeboat has been on station for 21 years and the crew were all experienced.
But the conditions last night were so poor that in spite many attempts a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter was unable to lift off any of the coaster's crew.
This morning the Union Star is upturned and washed ashore at the bottom of cliffs.
It is understood she launched from Denmark ten days ago and was travelling to Ireland with a cargo of fertilisers.
There is speculation the Solomon Browne may have collided with the hull of the Union Star, with many ruling out a capsize because this type of boat is subject to regular checks.
The crews of both vessels were lost and some bodies were never recovered.
Many of the Penlee crew had been socialising in the British Legion club when the alarm was raised.
Only one volunteer per family was chosen because the weather was so treacherous.
Reports suggest the Solomon Browne crew kept moving alongside the Union Star, at least twice it was thrown on the coaster's deck, and on another occasion slammed into its side.
But it appeared to move away under control and its last message confirmed four people had been rescued.
A helicopter crew saw Solomon Browne, only 50 yards off shore, apparently turn back perhaps in another rescue bid.
There was no further radio contact with the lifeboat and her lights disappeared 10 minutes later.
Posthumous awards of gallantry were made to the coxswain, crew and station and the Queen sent a message of sympathy to the bereaved families. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23417025 | Nine people have died in Cairo in overnight clashes between supporters and opponents of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, officials say.
Most of the victims were killed at a sit-in held by pro-Morsi demonstrators near Cairo University.
Mr Morsi's family earlier accused the military of abducting him.
He has been held at an undisclosed location without charge since army chief General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi announced his removal on 3 July.
Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement has refused to recognise the new military-backed administration and continues to hold almost daily street protests.
Demonstrators, many of them from the Muslim Brotherhood, have been staging large rallies across Egypt.
The violence has claimed at least 100 lives since Mr Morsi was deposed.
Pro-Morsi supporters claimed they had been shot at by snipers on rooftops during the clashes at the sit-in, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville, in Cairo, reports.
They alleged the gunmen had received protection from security forces, our correspondent adds.
Meanwhile, one protester was killed at Cairo's Tahrir Square, while two more people died outside the capital.
On Monday, at least one person died and dozens of protesters were wounded during the unrest in central Cairo, medical officials said.
Egyptian state TV reported that seven pro-Morsi protesters had been arrested for possession of illegal weapons.
More deaths were reported in separate clashes in Qalyubiya province, north of Cairo.
On Monday, Mr Morsi's family said they had had no contact with him and confirmed they were appealing to the International Criminal Court to launch an investigation into the events leading up to his overthrow.
"We are taking local and international legal measures against Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the leader of the bloody military coup, and his putschist group," his daughter, Shaimaa Morsi, told reporters.
Earlier this month, the Egyptian public prosecutor's office said it had launched an investigation into complaints against ousted Mr Morsi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
These complaints included allegations of spying, inciting violence, attacking military barracks and damaging the economy. The prosecutor did not specify who had filed the complaints.
Several countries, including the United States, have called for Mr Morsi's release.
But Egypt's caretaker authorities insist he is being held in a "safe place".
Interim President Adly Mansour repeated calls for reconciliation in a nationally televised speech on Monday evening.
"We want to turn a new page in the nation's book of history, without rancour, hatred or confrontation," he said.
Mr Mansour has appointed a panel of experts tasked with amending the constitution, which was suspended when Mr Morsi was deposed. The interim leader plans to hold fresh parliamentary elections by early 2014.
But the Muslim Brotherhood has rejected any "national dialogue" with the army unless Mr Morsi is reinstated, along with the now-dissolved upper house of parliament and the suspended constitution. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bristol/somerset/6127630.stm | A BBC drama, based on a group of students who investigate miscarriages of justice, begins on Thursday.
The Innocence Project, starring Lloyd Owen, is inspired by the work of real law students in the US and UK.
The first project - a legal clinic that usually looks at post-conviction DNA testing - was set up in the US in 1992.
There are now similar projects running at universities throughout the US, and attached to UK universities including Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff and Bristol.
The drama is described by the BBC as being about "failures in the process and cracks in the system."
Lloyd Owen, who plays Dr Jon Ford, said: "When I read the script, I thought that it was absolutely intelligent.
"I compare it, at its ambitious best, to The West Wing: that feeling that I am being a bit challenged when watching it."
Bristol University lecturer Dr Michael Naughton, told BBC Radio Bristol: "The project came out of research on how people can be wrongfully convicted and the limitations on overturning this."
His student Gabe Tan, who has worked on the project, said: "We choose cases in order of the sources available. It's based on the merits of the case."
And her peer Madeline Williams added: "We're mainly looking at murder cases. We review case material and we do our own investigations." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-47769121 | Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó has acknowledged that there can only be a change of government with the support of the armed forces.
Military chiefs have so far remained loyal to President Nicolás Maduro.
Mr Guaidó declared himself interim leader in January and says he is supported by "almost 90%" of Venezuelans. He also has US backing.
On Sunday Venezuelan authorities said they would shorten the working day and keep schools closed due to power cuts.
Offices would stop working at 14:00 local time "to achieve consistency in the provision of electricity", Communications Minister Jorge Rodríguez said on state TV.
Mr Guaidó told the BBC's Leonardo Rocha that the frequent power cuts and water shortages - which have hit hospitals, public transport and other services - were driving intense public anger against Mr Maduro's government.
"We have a situation now with protests in more than 20 districts of the capital, Caracas, and in all Venezuelan states. People are demanding that power and water supplies be restored, but also for the usurper, Nicolás Maduro, to go, which is the main message," he said.
The government has claimed the blackouts are the result of sabotage to force Mr Maduro from office.
However, Mr Guaidó said Mr Maduro could not be removed unless Venezuela's military switched allegiance.
"The support and the backing of the armed forces will be necessary in order to achieve democratic and peaceful change in Venezuela in all areas, including to protect protesters from the pro-government armed militias," he said.
Mr Guaidó - who the government says will be barred from holding further public office for 15 years - dismissed the recent reported arrival of Russian troops in Venezuela as a "provocation" by Mr Maduro to "try to show some sort of support that he really doesn't have".
"The Russians haven't made any concrete moves. They haven't shown any real support apart from, perhaps, some diplomatic statements," he said.
On Saturday the Red Cross (IFRC) said it could begin distributing aid to Venezuela in two weeks. IFRC head Francesco Rocca said the group could initially help 650,000 suffering from shortages of food and medicine.
In February, the government blocked the delivery of US-backed aid convoys, calling them a veiled US invasion. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-33871143 | A temporary export ban on an ancient Egyptian statue sold by a council has been extended by the government.
The 4,000-year-old Sekhemka was sold at auction by Northampton Borough Council for £15.76m to fund an extension to Northampton Museum and Art Gallery.
But the government stopped it leaving the country because it was so unique. The deadline for a UK buyer coming forward has now moved to 28 August.
It added the ban could also be extended further until next year.
The statue represents an ancient Egyptian official surrounded by his wife, son and seven offering bearers.
Spencer Compton, the second Marquis of Northampton, acquired it during a trip to Egypt in 1850. It was presented to Northampton Museum by his son some years later.
But it was not put on display for a number of years and the borough council chose to put it up for auction last July, selling it to an unknown bidder abroad.
However, Culture Minister Ed Vaizey placed the temporary export bar on the statue because it is considered to be the finest example of its kind anywhere in the world.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has now confirmed the export ban has been extended until later this month.
"We have decided to allow a final opportunity for a buyer to put forward a serious expression of interest to raise funds to keep the Sekhemka statue in the UK," a statement said.
"This period may be extended until 29th March 2016 if a serious intention to raise funds to purchase the statue is made."
The Egyptian ambassador to Britain has previously said the council should have handed the statue back if it did not want it.
Sekhemka statue export: PM David Cameron urged to "intervene" |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7833033.stm | It's a Thursday morning at Fairfield High School in Bristol and lessons are getting underway.
This morning's class - knife wounds, and what to do if you come across someone who's been stabbed.
It might seem like a radical step to start teaching children as young as 12 how to deal with such incidents, but there is evidence to suggest that the number of attacks involving knives is on the rise, and especially amongst young people.
Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show a rise of a third in five years in the number of people admitted to hospital with stab wounds, with the sharpest rise involving people under eighteen.
There isn't a particular problem with knife crime in Bristol - it's not one of the government's so-called knife "hot spots" that have been targeted by the Home Office - but even so those on the front line say the problems are getting worse.
Gary Smart has been a paramedic for thirty years and is the head of paramedic science at the University of the West of England.
It was his idea to start the classes, which are given by trainee paramedics.
"It's going to be very useful if young people are trained to look after each other, to help each other, not to run away when they see someone be stabbed."
"Over the last five years or so, through personal experience and talking to my colleagues, stabbings have definitely gone up," he said.
"It's unusual for a child to be stabbed, but we know, as with some of the big stories that hit the papers and the media that it does happen.
"We can think back to Damilola Taylor, he, unfortunately succumbed to blood loss.
"If one of the young people in that group that was involved in the stabbing had a knowledge of first aid perhaps they could have made a difference there."
Now Mr Smart and his students are taking that knowledge into the classroom, teaching children as young as 12 how to stem blood loss, bandage a wound, and hopefully give the victim a better chance of survival.
The mood in the classroom is upbeat as Mark Kinsella, a student paramedic moulds a fake stab wound onto the arm of one of the pupils.
This time around it's nothing more threatening than plasticine, fake blood and a pen for a knife.
But the message behind the course is serious - that people who carry knives are more likely to be stabbed themselves, and that such wounds can be fatal.
The hope is that by teaching pupils how to deal with the consequences of knives they'll also realise the risks involved.
The scheme has won the support of Richard Taylor, whose son Damilola was stabbed and died from blood loss in a stairwell in Peckham, south London in November 2000.
"There are incidents where life can be saved though the use of this scheme which would be very positive," he said.
"It's going to be very useful if young people are trained to look after each other, to help each other, not to run away when they see someone be stabbed.
"The pilot programme can be tested, and see and then it can be rolled out.
"I would like to see it be rolled out because it is going to be useful if it is tested and found to be very useful."
At Fairfield High School it's the end of the day and the paramedics are running a feedback session to see what pupils have learnt.
Gary Smart says the reaction wherever they run it is overwhelmingly positive, and the pupils in this class feel confident about what they've learnt.
"I think it was a really good thing to learn how to cope with situations and know what to do," says Will, aged 11.
But it's very different in the classroom compared with out on the street. Would he still be able to cope?
"Yeah, I think so," he said.
"I hope so. I think I will be able to cope with it when it does actually happen."
The reality is that most of these children will probably never come across someone who has been stabbed.
Even now such incidents are relatively rare.
But it is perhaps a sign of the level of concern that knife crime now generates amongst both teachers and pupils that Gary Smart has been inundated with requests to bring his plasticine and fake blood into classrooms across the city. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-41049600 | The head of a drugs gang who spent months on the run after skipping bail has been jailed for nine years and eight months.
Sonny Elms, 25, and his associates flooded Scarborough with heroin and cocaine between 2013 and 2014.
Elms, of Mansfield Avenue, Manchester, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs in April 2016 but failed to turn up to be sentenced in February.
He was arrested in July and sentenced at at York Crown Court earlier.
Elms was sentenced to eight years and eight months for the drugs offences and ordered to serve a further 12-months for failing to surrender.
Five members of the gang were jailed in February for between six years and three months and 18 months after admitting drugs offences.
Det Sgt Ryan Chapman said: "This gang looked to target vulnerable people in Scarborough without any care for the damage drugs cause.
"Elms seemed to think that he would disappear from our radar if he didn't attend court. But it doesn't work like that."
A seventh man, 26-year-old Paul Heaton, from Manchester, remains at large after absconding before sentencing. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4603740.stm | BBC NEWS | Health | NHS reforms - a case of deja-vu?
NHS reforms - a case of deja-vu?
There needs to be a shift away from hospital treatment towards more community-based services, the Labour health secretary said.
But these were not the words of Patricia Hewitt, rather her predecessor from 30 years previously, Barbara Castle.
Ms Castle was presenting a consultation paper in 1976 calling for a greater focus on primary care just as Ms Hewitt is expected to do with the forthcoming white paper on out-of-hospital care.
The truth is the vision to be set out by Ms Hewitt to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions by improving access to community services from GPs to mental health clinics is a message that has been repeated by ministers for the last three decades.
Alan Maynard, professor of health economics at York University, said: "We have to get admissions down, but that is what we have been saying for years.
"It is remarkable that it has still not been solved. I always joke it needs Sooty to come and wave his magic wand."
While the 1976 Priorities for Health and Social Service document - published during Harold Wilson prime ministership - was unequivocal in its call for hospital stays to shorten and more treatment carried out in the community, particularly for those with long-term conditions, the changes did not materialise.
The Black Report, an inquiry into health inequalities in 1980, blamed a lack of clear objectives and responsibility to ensure the shift took place.
But the failures did not stop subsequent Tory administrations and Tony Blair's Labour government from attempting to alter the hospital bias that has existed ever since the NHS sprang into life after the Second World War.
1984 Griffiths Report - Called for GPs to get more involved with budgets and commissioning services so that care could be built around community services.
The 1984 Griffiths Report on the NHS called for GPs to be given more autonomy to help build up community services.
This was subsequently done in the 1987 white paper, Promoting Better Health, which gave dentists, nurses and GPs more control of funds to set up their own services.
Social care was given its own boost two years later when a white paper called for extra investment to allow people to be cared for for longer in their own homes.
During the 1990s, ministers went one step further by giving GPs their own budgets - GP fundholding - to commission services, a scheme scrapped by Labour in 1997 only to be reintroduced seven years later under the guise of practice-based commissioning.
The 1996 Choice and Opportunity White Paper called for alternative providers to be set loose in primary care, prompting headlines that Boots and Tesco would get involved in NHS community services.
But there was little momentum to the push as the Tory government was in its last throes and in the end only nurse-led practices offered a challenge to the GP hegemony.
Not to be outdone, Blair's government has been no stranger to primary care reform.
A white paper in 1997 attempted to put New Labour's stamp on the NHS by dismantling much of the so-called internal market and setting up primary care groups, later to become the 300 primary care trusts in existence today, with the aim of building the NHS around local services.
GP autonomy once again became fashionable with the introduction on the GP contract in 2004, which offered the incentive of extra money for providing specialist services - a move which is expected to be built on with the white paper.
But the long-battle to redefine community services prompts the question - why should this attempt be any different?
Some believe the government's latest policies are more sophisticated that past attempts.
King's Fund researcher Richard Lewis said there is much to be proud of about primary care - pointing out satisfaction ratings are at high levels - but believes schemes such as practice-based commissioning will not repeat the mistakes of GP fundholding which set doctor against doctor, creating a two-tier system.
"People complained patients of fundholders would get quicker treatment than those down the road. I suppose the difference this time is that we are seeing doctors who have got their own budgets getting on board in clusters which means the differences are less noticeable."
And Dr Mike Dixon, chairman of the NHS Alliance, which represents primary care professionals, believes the medical profession - traditionally a conservative beast - is more prepared to adopt changes across the board.
"In the past, the good schemes have only been taken up in certain areas. The difference I get at the moment is that the NHS as a collective group is moving in the same direction."
Dr John Chisholm, a former chairman of the British Medical Association's GPs committee, accepted family doctors were conservative and had failed to grasp the nettle on occasions, preferring to concentrate on clinical rather management responsibilities.
But he said bad policies had also played their part. "Doctors have been pitted against doctors as policies have been badly thought out.
"I can't see what this white paper can offer that has not been tried before."
However, Dr Hamish Meldrum, the current chairman of the BMA's GPs committee, had more sympathy for the government.
"Situations change. People are living longer today than they once were which means more people are living with multiple long-term conditions. It is only right we try to design a health service which can respond to that." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/northern_ireland/2010/bloody_sunday/default.stm | Some of the paratroopers who served in Londonderry on Bloody Sunday have attacked criticism of their commander.
How to deal with NI's past?
Will inquiry that explored the past affect the future?
What lessons will be learned from Saville?
On 30th January 1972, 13 people died when British soldiers opened fire on civil rights marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland.
The day became known as Bloody Sunday.
The Widgery Inquiry in 1972 inquiry was regarded as a whitewash by nationalists.
In 1998 a fresh investigation was announced. The Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday became the longest-running and costliest inquiry in British legal history.
15 June 2010 PM David Cameron tells MPs the Saville report shows the shooting dead of 13 marchers on Bloody Sunday was "unjustified and unjustifiable". |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8885000/8885314.stm | The UK's first poo-powered VW Beetle has taken to the streets of Bristol in what has been hailed as a "breakthrough in the drive to encourage sustainable power"
The Bio-Bug runs on methane gas generated during the sewage treatment process - waste flushed down the toilets of just 70 homes in Bristol is enough to power the Bio-Bug for a year, based on 10,000 miles a year.
GENeco (a Wessex Water-owned company) imported specialist equipment to treat gas generated at Bristol sewage treatment works in Avonmouth to power the VW Beetle in a way that doesn't affect its performance.
Enough Biogas is produced at Avonmouth to send a car to the moon and back 119 times or around the world 2,287 times - the Bio-Bug does 5.3 miles per cubic metre of biogas.
Bristol treatment works treats waste from about 1 million people living in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. About 18 million cubic metres of biogas is produced at Bristol sewage treatment works a year.
Countries including India and China use compressed natural gas (CNG) to power vehicles and in Sweden, more than 11,500 vehicles run on methane produced from sewage plants. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/election-2017-40125166/general-election-2017-lib-dem-leader-pushed-on-brexit | Farron's heated interview over Brexit Jump to media player The BBC's Andrew Neil pushes Lib Dem leader Tim Farron on whether he would campaign to stay in the EU.
Leaders go head-to-head in TV debate Jump to media player Politicians from the five main parties in Wales clashed over Brexit in the BBC Wales TV Leaders' Debate.
'We want to be a full member of the EU' Jump to media player An independent Scotland under the SNP would want to be a "full member" of the EU, says Nicola Sturgeon.
The UK will not be able to get a better deal in Brexit talks than it has as a full EU member, says the Lib Dem leader.
In heated exchanges where Andrew Neil told his interviewee not to "heckle" him, Tim Farron said he could not see how Theresa May, or Jeremy Corbyn, could "get a deal better than the one we currently have." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-england-sussex-40130885/page/2 | After seven years and £3m of community funding, Saltdean Lido will re-open its doors tomorrow.
Built in the 1930s, it's Britain's only Grade-II listed outdoor swimming pool and one of just three remaining outdoor seaside pools in the country.
It's hoped that as many as 300,000 people a year will use the lido once it re-opens.
A24 West Sussex northbound severe accident, between A272 and Mill Straight.
A24 West Sussex - A24 Worthing Road in Southwater blocked and slow traffic northbound between Buckbarn Crossroads and Southwater Turn off, because of an accident.
The Brighton family who say the Grenfell Tower disaster, and terrifying experience of their own, has made them afraid to stay in their home.
Video caption: Residents of Brighton tower block speak of their fears.Residents of Brighton tower block speak of their fears.
Here's the moment Jeremy Vine met Bjorn Again at the unveiling of a plaque to ABBA at the Brighton Dome last night.
It's going to be warm today - but over the weekend it's going to get close to boiling.
Video caption: Georgina Burnett has this morning's weather forecast for the South East.Georgina Burnett has this morning's weather forecast for the South East.
The scene of a famous Eurovision victory, a shopping centre in Maidstone and Woking town centre - the region's musical legends and iconic venues have been honoured on BBC Music Day.
Welcome to Friday. The weekend is nearly here.
This lovely image of Eastbourne beach was taken by Kristie Heath. It's our #PhotoOfTheDay.
We'll be here with all your latest news, travel, sport and weather for Sussex until 22:00 BST. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-21583942 | Philippines President Benigno Aquino has warned a clan leader that he must end a stand-off involving armed supporters who are occupying a remote part of Malaysia's Sabah province.
In a TV address, Mr Aquino said Sultan Jamalul Kiram III would face the "full force of the law" if the men were not withdrawn from Lahad Datu, on Borneo.
Some 180 people travelled by boat to the district earlier this month.
They were aiming to fortify the sultan's historical claim to the land.
Calling themselves the Royal Army of Sulu, and about 30 of them carrying arms, they had set up camp on the small area of disputed territory, but were soon surrounded by Malaysian police.
"If you choose not to co-operate, the full force of the laws of the state will be used to achieve justice for all who have been put in harm's way," Mr Aquino told the sultan in his statement.
"This is a situation that cannot persist. If you are truly the leader of your people, you should be one with us in ordering your followers to return home peacefully."
He also warned that an investigation was under way into whether any laws had been broken in this "foolhardy act".
However the sultan's younger brother, Agbinuddin Kiram - who is with the group - said they had not violated any laws as "Sabah is owned by the Sultan of Sulu".
"We're not invading this place because it is ours,'' he told the Associated Press, but said that they were running out of food.
He added: "If the Malaysian police come with guns, we have to defend ourselves."
Malaysia and the Philippines have agreed the stand-off will be settled peacefully. The Philippines has sent a navy ship to the region, carrying food and medical supplies and also social workers and Muslim leaders, in the hope of persuading the sultan's supporters to abandon their goal.
Malaysia's Sabah state shares a sea border with the southern Philippines, which is home to a number of Islamic militant and kidnap-for ransom groups. The journey between the two can take only a few hours.
It formed part of the Sulu Sultanate - which once spread over several southern Philippine islands as well as parts of Borneo - before it was designated a British protectorate in the 1800s. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4156808.stm | BBC NEWS | South Asia | Who's afraid of the six-party alliance?
Who's afraid of the six-party alliance?
Four years ago, Pakistan's largest religious alliance - the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) - was under fire from secular parties for being the blue-eyed boy of the country's powerful military establishment.
The unprecedented success of the six-party alliance in October 2001 general elections was attributed by their rivals to the support lent by Gen Pervez Musharraf's government.
Today the alliance is accusing the government of trying to hound it out of the political arena.
Over the past two weeks, President Musharraf has repeatedly urged people to "shun retrogressive and orthodox politicians".
In the run-up to local elections, being held on 18 and 25 August, his pleas have been interpreted to mean the MMA has clearly fallen out of favour with the military government.
"The government needs to be seen to be dumping its religious allies, so it is doing just that," says Dr Asad Sayeed, a political economist.
"Whether it is a tactical move or a strategic one - to use military parlance - remains to be seen," he says.
Dr Sayeed believes that the "military and the mullahs remain long-term bedfellows" and the apparent tensions between the two are temporary in nature.
But his contention is contested by the MMA.
"We are facing a situation where President Musharraf has himself emerged as our greatest adversary," says Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, a senior Jamaat leader.
"There is little doubt now that we will soon be facing the wrath of his administration."
Many are inclined to believe that Prof Ahmed's apprehensions are not mere political rhetoric.
On Monday evening, Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil said that four terror suspects arrested over the weekend had admitted to being members of the Jamaat-e-Islami - a key member of the MMA.
Mr Jamil said the four suspects were part of a 21-member gang which also included activists of the party's student wing, the Islami Jamiat-e-Tulaba.
The gang had planned to carry out attacks in Karachi during local elections, he said.
The Jamaat denied these claims, arguing that if the government was confident then it should prove the linkage in a court of law.
Leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the Jamaat's main rival in Karachi, were quick to seize the opportunity.
Farooq Sattar, MQM leader, said that the police chief's statement had established Jamaat's links with al-Qaeda, and called for an immediate ban on the party.
MQM has been accusing Karachi's former mayor, Naimatullah Khan, of corruption.
Besides a barrage of daily press statements, the party has put up billboards all over the city detailing expenses of the Jamaat-backed Mr Khan when he was mayor.
Few of these allegations have stuck - given Mr Khan's clean reputation - but the venom in the MQM's campaign has increased steadily in the run up to the polls.
In a newspaper interview last week, President Musharraf accused the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam of aiding the Taleban in Pakistan's border belt with Afghanistan.
It was the first direct reference that he has made to possible linkages between Islamic militants and mainstream religious parties.
Observers believe that the three-year understanding between religious parties and the military government - which allowed the two to coexist despite differing views - may be nearing its end.
Some argue that if the MMA loses a majority of the districts in local elections in North-West Frontier Province it may be only a matter of time before the religious parties find themselves in the political wilderness again. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/7517841.stm | Controversial plans to nearly double the size of Rochester Prison have caused more anger because of the number of floodlights proposed.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) now wants more than 210 security lights on the young offenders' institution instead of the 127 on the original plans.
Neighbours claim they will be living in almost permanent daylight if plans are approved by Medway Council next month.
The MoJ said it was having discussions with residents and planning officers.
The government wants to increase the size of the Kent jail from 392 to 700 inmates.
Building work began in March 2007, but was suspended because planning permission had not yet been granted by the council.
The changes to the lighting and a reduction in landscaping have appeared in a planning application to be considered by the council next month.
Resident Samantha Clay said the extra light pollution would have a huge impact on the prison's neighbours.
She said: "It would affect the health of residents and the quality of our lives generally to have these security lights shining on the back of our homes."
Councillor Mark Reckless said the MoJ had made some concessions.
"Within the prison we have had a lot of the buildings reconfigured and a huge sports hall moved so it is not as close to residents," he said.
"Some residents have been able to expand their gardens, which has been popular.
"We are just asking the MoJ to take residents' concerns into account and not ride roughshod over them."
The Home Office said in a statement: "We are having ongoing discussions with the local planning officers, the residents and their lighting engineer about the lighting scheme.
"We hope to reach a satisfactory outcome in due course." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42100283 | Media captionPresident Mnangagwa called Robert Mugabe "a father, mentor, comrade-in-arms and my leader"
Zimbabwe's new President Emmerson Mnangagwa has addressed a packed stadium, vowing to serve all citizens.
He said he felt "deeply humbled" to take the role.
And he said he was "not oblivious to the many Zimbabweans from across the political and racial divide who have helped make this day."
He paid tribute to his predecessor Robert Mugabe - to muted applause - calling him "a father, mentor, comrade-in-arms and my leader".
Mr Mugabe left office dramatically this week after 37 years of authoritarian rule. His departure followed a power struggle in which Mr Mnangagwa was sacked as vice president to pave the way for Grace Mugabe, the then-first lady, to take up the presidency.
Mr Mnangagwa fled the country but returned to a hero's welcome and on Friday struck a conciliatory tone.
"The task at hand is that of rebuilding our country," he said.
"I am required to serve our country as the president of all citizens regardless of colour, creed, religion, tribe, totem or political affiliation."
Although Mr Mnangagwa has unseated Zimbabwe's long-time ruler, he is still associated by many with some of the worst atrocities committed under the ruling Zanu-PF party since the country gained independence in 1980.
He was the country's spymaster during the 1980s civil conflict, in which thousands of civilians were killed. But he has denied any role in the massacres, blaming the army.
How did the inauguration unfold?
Tens of thousands of people packed the National Sports Stadium in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, to witness the inauguration. Pop singer Jah Prayzer provided the entertainment and, as people in the crowd danced, the atmosphere was closer to that of a concert.
Dignitaries, including leaders from various African countries, filed in to cheers.
Opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Joice Mujuru - who both had their sights on the presidency at various times - were there.
Will Mnangagwa be different from Mugabe?
Mr Mnangagwa was led in the oath of office by Chief Justice Luke Malaba, saying he would "be faithful to Zimbabwe", "protect and promote the rights and people of Zimbabwe" and discharge his duties to the best of his abilities.
Mr Mnangagwa was accompanied by his wife Auxilia and gave her a kiss after the green presidential sash was placed around his neck.
No - and the official reason given was that at 93, the former president needed to rest.
But the fact he is not attending is a reminder that this is no ordinary transition, the BBC's Andrew Harding reports, and that despite Mr Mugabe's official resignation he was forced out by the military.
On Thursday, several reports suggested Mr Mugabe had been granted immunity from prosecution.
Local media are reporting that Mr Mnangagwa has offered the Mugabe family "maximum security and welfare".
The former president "expressed his good wishes and support for the incoming president," the Herald newspaper reports.
How did Zimbabwe get to this point?
The news on Tuesday that Mr Mugabe was stepping down sparked wild celebrations.
It came in the form of a letter read out in parliament, abruptly halting impeachment proceedings against him.
He had been under pressure since the military took control of the country a week before, seizing the headquarters of the national broadcaster.
Although Mr Mugabe was largely under house arrest for several days, he appeared to be resisting pressure to stand down.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of Zimbabweans took to the streets of Harare to urge him to go. The demonstration was led by veterans of the country's war of independence, who last year turned against him.
On Sunday, Zanu-PF sacked Mr Mugabe as its leader. Two days later, he resigned as president.
In his letter, he said he was resigning to allow a smooth and peaceful transfer of power, and that his decision was voluntary.
Will the change be good for the economy?
Zimbabwe's economy is in a very bad state. It has not recovered fully from crises in the last decade, when rampant inflation grew so bad the country had to abandon its own currency. Now, according to some estimates, 90% of people there are unemployed.
Its main industrial index has slumped by 40% since last week's military intervention and the stock market has shed $6bn (£4.5bn) in a week.
Analysts say the market is now correcting itself, optimistic of a change of economic policy under Mr Mnangagwa.
However, the International Monetary Fund has warned that Zimbabwe must act quickly to dig its economy out of a hole and access international financial aid.
In his speech, Mr Mnangagwa said he would base a new economic policy on agriculture and foreign direct investment. He has pledged to create jobs.
He also said the country's land reform programme would not be reversed, but pledged to compensate farmers for the land that was confiscated from them.
The seizure of land from white farmers is seen as a key factor in the country's economic meltdown.
On Thursday, Zimbabwe's main opposition MDC party called for deep-rooted political reform to dismantle the repressive apparatus that sustained Mr Mugabe's regime.
Media captionLeader of the opposition MDC party, Morgan Tsvangirai, warns of a "power retention agenda"
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said the "culture of violence" and "culture of corruption" had to be changed after "after so many years of Zanu-PF misrule".
It is unclear whether Zanu-PF will govern alone ahead of scheduled elections next year, or whether a coalition government of national unity that includes opposition groups will be formed.
Mr Mnangagwa confirmed in his speech that elections would be held as planned.
Zimbabwe after Mugabe: What happens next? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-47725440/pinch-of-nom-bloggers-on-their-record-breaking-book | The homeless man who set up a book club Jump to media player Lee Ayres has set up his own book group supported by a library.
It sold 210,506 copies in its first three days on sale.
"We went to our local weight loss group and we came away kind of shocked that people just didn't know how to cook," creator Kay Featherstone told BBC Radio 5 Live's Emma Barnett. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-12025303 | Gordon Brown has accused the coalition government of making "immoral" cuts to education that would leave the UK with a major youth unemployment problem.
Writing in the Daily Mirror, the former Labour prime minister said removing state help for less well-off pupils to stay in education after 16 was an act of "economic vandalism".
He called for more apprenticeships to avert a "decade of youth unemployment".
Official figures suggest 2.5 million people are unemployed in the UK.
The information, released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) earlier this week, revealed the number of people out of work increased by 35,000 in the three months to October.
It is the first time that the jobless measure has risen for six months.
The rise is thought to be driven by public sector job losses and pushed the unemployment rate up to 7.9%.
Mr Brown said the UK should follow the lead of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Australia in boosting apprenticeship places to train young people to help the UK exploit fast-growing Asian consumer markets.
The former Labour leader, who has written a book about the global economic crisis, predicted that youth unemployment would rise to more than 20% - with one in three out of work in the worst-hit areas.
He wrote: "We are still paying the price for the lost generation of wasted lives of the 1980s. Now we have a new social time bomb in the making."
Mr Brown suggested saving the Future Jobs Programme from being scrapped would keep 50,000 young people "off the streets" and rather than reducing funding for universities - made up by rises in tuition fees - the government should ensure they "do a better job".
He argued that by "cutting education", ministers were "writing off half a generation of young people", which he described as "immoral and an economic waste".
"We need to invest in British genius, in the innovations, the science, the technology that will build the best future - and help small businesses to employ skilled young people.
"That's the way to avoid another lost generation of wasted young lives." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_east/8426267.stm | The second Severn crossing has re-opened, four hours after being closed because of falling ice.
It first reopened eastbound to motorists travelling out of south Wales into south west England, clearing six mile tail-backs on the M4.
The westbound carriageway reopened at 1445 GMT, after queuing as far back as the M5 interchange at Almondsbury.
The old Severn Bridge was also closed eastbound for a couple of hours but now has one lane open in each direction.
Both motorway crossings were shut in similar circumstances during wintry weather last February, when car windscreens were smashed.
Again, falling ice from overhead gantries on the motorways and the danger to motorists was the reason for the closures.
Queues soon formed around Newport with delays of an hour reported.
Gwent Police had closed the M4 carriageway at the Coldra roundabout, where vehicles were being diverted, causing queues through the Brynglas tunnels.
The second crossing carries the M4 between south Wales and Avon, while the M48 goes over the old Severn bridge.
Jim Clune, general manager of Severn River Crossing, said for the bridges to be affected for the second time in a year was very unusual.
"We are aware of what's happening and we're in touch with the Highways Agency regional traffic control centre in Avonmouth," he said earlier.
"Health and safety is paramount and we're hoping that the bridges get back to normal as quickly as possible."
An Assembly Government spokesperson said it was "very disappointing" that the second Severn crossing had been closed but the safety of drivers had to be "the first priority".
"The decision by the UK Highways Agency to close the bridge is likely to cause inconvenience to drivers and we hope the issue will be resolved as quickly as possible," said the spokesperson.
"We have asked the UK Highways Agency to meet with the bridge owners as soon as possible to find out why this problem has apparently occurred again."
The bad weather also led to more than 80 school closures, mainly in south Wales, while motorists have been urged to take care on roads.
Temperatures plummeted below zero, leading to warnings of ice on roads.
There were two crashes on the M4, one involving four vehicles eastbound near Margam, which closed one lane, and earlier westbound between J44-45.
A car was reported to have hit the central reservation between junctions 44 at Llansamlet and 45 at Ynysforgan, at 06.40 GMT.
Then later, four vehicles were involved in a collision, which initially closed two lanes of the motorway eastbound between junction 38 near Margam and junction 37 at Pyle.
Bus firm First Cymru said services in Neath were expected to run normally, apart from the 158 service which is not serving Caewathan due to icy road conditions.
In the Swansea Valley, services were missing out Godrergraig and Alltwen, while in Bridgend county services were running to Nantymoel but not via Wyndham and so were turning at Pricetown Clock.
Motorists in the Vale of Glamorgan are being urged to take extra care when travelling on a section of the A48 in Cowbridge.
The council's highways department is warning of a particularly bad stretch of black ice on the town's bypass.
One lane of the A48 westbound at Nantycaws Hill, Carmarthenshire, is closed due to accident between the B4310 (and A484/A40. Drivers are advised to approach with care.
Horse racing at Bangor-on-Dee has already been abandoned due to a frozen track after an inspection on Monday. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/7790201.stm | In a HARDtalk programme broadcast on December 17, Stephen Sackur talks to Ojo Maduekwe , Nigeria's Foreign Minister.
Nigeria should be one of Africa's most influential nations. It is the most populous, a key player in regional diplomacy and is endowed with large oil reserves.
But its influence is curtailed by internal weakness -- a government wrestling with the long-running problem of communal violence and corruption now sees its revenues hammered by a plummeting oil price.
Ojo Maduekwe is Nigeria's Foreign Minister. Stephen Sackur asks if his country is in any position to punch its weight in Africa.
HARDtalk is also broadcast on the BBC News Channel Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 0430 and 2330. All times are GMT. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12785906 | A French judge has filed preliminary manslaughter charges against Air France over a crash in 2009.
All the 228 people on board were killed when the airline's Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris came down in the Atlantic Ocean on 1 June that year.
The preliminary charges pave the way for further investigation.
The move comes a day after the judge filed similar charges against Airbus, which manufactured the plane. The cause of the accident is still unknown.
Sensors on the aircraft sent faulty speed readings to pilots, but Airbus says no one can know for sure what happened as the so-called "black boxes", which monitored events during the flight, have not been recovered.
Next week, a fourth attempt to find the voice and data recorders will get under way.
The search, financed jointly by Air France and Airbus, will involve dives to depths of up to 4,000m (13,120ft) and use special robots to examine the ocean floor between Brazil and West Africa. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/558674.stm | Astute followers of pop will know there's nothing better than combining music and the internet to get the media in a spin.
The Cuban Boys know this - and their cunningly-promoted single Cognoscenti Vs Intelligentsia, to be released on Monday, is now heavily tipped to be this year's Christmas number one.
The idea is simple enough - it's a sample of the music from the cult Hamster Dance website. In the gimmick-heavy Christmas chart, it is bound to be a hit.
But they are old hands to creating a stir with the press - in the summer of 1998, they set up a website and put a track on it entitled Diophantus Arithmetica. It was encoded with the name "Noel Gallagher", and it was heavily rumoured that the Oasis songwriter - no stranger to dance music himself - had teamed up with Paul Weller to create a secret dance track. The mysterious act played along with the rumours, teasing journalists with e-mails.
The rumours were nonsense, but it didn't stop Radio 1's champion of alternative sounds, John Peel, from loving the record. A follow-up, Oh My God! They Killed Kenny, capitalised on the South Park cartoon for its title, and made number six in his Festive 50 - an annual poll to find his listeners' favourite tracks. Only after the success in the Peel poll was the track released, with just 500 copies printed.
In April 1998 the band sent a further selection of tracks to John Peel, and he immediately played Cognoscenti Vs Intelligentsia. In the summer, the group signed with EMI, and now a new version of the track is set to be their debut single.
The group started in early 1998 when Sussex-based schoolfriends Skreen B and BL Underwood, who were running a fanzine at the time, were contacted by brother and sister Jenny McLaren, and "Ricardo Autobahn", from Preston, Lancashire.
The four kept in touch, and e-mailed ideas about music to each other.
Skreen B, 20, said: "At every step of the way the internet played a part. If it hadn't been for e-mail we would never have even met because Jenny and Ricardo live in Preston and BL and I are from Eastbourne.
"We have to laugh when people say we are now going to beat Cliff Richard to number one. I mean, we are all only in our 20s and we just did the single as a bit of a joke. It was never meant to be a huge hit."
The single's success proves how the power of internet marketing has become a huge force - and reminds record companies they need to be able to harness this power if they want to survive.
Sir Cliff Richard may have said the success of his Millennium Prayer single - which was thanks, in part, to internet promotion - broke "every marketing rule in the book", but nowadays, getting yourself onto the web is among the first things new acts do of all genres do.
Baz Luhrmann's Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) may - like Cognoscenti Vs Intelligentsia - have been panned by critics, but it also grew from an internet site.
Webcasts of bands' concerts are an almost-daily event now, and downloading music from the internet is now a practical reality for many.
Record companies are spending thousands on commissioning websites for their acts, or - such as Virgin in the UK - employing in-house teams to create sites and promote their acts on the web.
With the Christmas charts set to contain two singles (Cuban Boys and Sir Cliff Richard) promoted through the internet, and two inspired by mobile phones (Solid Gold Chartbusters' I Want To 1-2-1 With You and Mario Piu's Communication), then it is clear that something is happening to the music industry.
If 1969 brought flower power, 1979 showed off punk and 1989 spawned acid house, then 1999 has truly proved that new media really is the new rock 'n' roll. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-47278142 | Four men, who were earlier arrested for vandalising a Unesco World Heritage site in the southern Indian town of Hampi, have been made to fix the pillar that they pulled down.
In a video clip that went viral earlier this month, three of them are seen shoving a pillar, causing it to break.
A court ordered the men to fix the structure after fining them 70,000 rupees ($980; £760) each.
Hampi is famous for its 16th Century ruins and is a popular tourist spot.
"They took about four or five hours with the assistance of our workers to re-erect it," Muthaiah Kalimuthu, an official from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), told BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi.
After it surfaced on social media, the video prompted widespread outrage.
On 8 February, police arrested four men, including the three who pushed the pillar located outside a temple and a fourth man who was filming the incident.
Mr Kalimuthu said the ASI was reinforcing the pillars at the temple so that they would not be easy to vandalise. "It will take us around a week to finish this project," he added. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-28059337 | A task force has been set up at Wrexham's Glyndwr University aimed at lifting its suspension from recruiting overseas students.
It follows a Home Office inquiry into alleged visa fraud which found some may have obtained fraudulent English language certificates.
The university said senior staff were looking to "explore and implement solutions" to issues raised.
Two unions have passed no confidence motions in university heads.
An inquiry found nearly 50,000 immigrants across the UK may have obtained English language certificates required for a student visas, despite not being able to speak it.
A university spokesperson said the task force was working to overcome challenges raised by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) and was "cooperating and engaging fully".
"We are committed to addressing any concerns raised by the Home Office and eliminating any abuse of the student visa route," he said.
Meanwhile, Unison members have joined the University College Union (UCU) in passing a vote of no confidence in vice chancellor Prof Michael Scott and the chair of the board of governors, Sir Jon Shortridge.
Geoff Edkins, Unison's regional organiser, wants the Welsh government and Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) to step in.
"The university was already grappling with financial difficulties following poor managerial decisions," he said.
"Staff and students are already facing an uncertain future with the threat of compulsory redundancies and the suspension by UKVI of Glyndwr's licence will leave a massive hole in Glyndwr's finances."
Education Minister Huw Lewis has already asked HEFCW to look into the matter, saying it had "potentially serious implications not just for the institution but for the reputation of the higher education sector as a whole". |
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-45639433 | She says she's a "black Bill Gates in the making" who "ain't never seen a ceiling in my whole damn life".
So it's hardly surprising that Beyoncé has been named music's most powerful woman by BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.
The superstar came first in a list of the industry's 40 most influential women, thanks to her feminism, activism and empowering musical messages.
Taylor Swift, Adele and Dua Lipa were also included on the power list, which was unveiled as part of BBC Music Day.
The top 40 didn't just recognise big-sellers and global stars, making room for the unsung heroes who work behind the scenes to champion women.
Third place went to Vanessa Reed who, as CEO of the PRS Foundation, has persuaded more than 100 festivals to sign up to a 50:50 gender balance on their line-ups by 2022.
The top 10 also includes Marin Alsop, who became the first female conductor to lead the Last Night of the Proms in 2013, and Chi-chi Nwanoku, who founded Europe's first professional majority black and minority ethnic orchestra, Chineke!
Gender diversity in the music industry is notoriously poor, especially in technical jobs like engineering and production. And even with artists like Cardi B, Adele and Dua Lipa devouring the charts, recent research shows that men account for 78% of hit singles.
Woman's Hour said it hoped publishing the power list would lead to better representation.
"It's a celebration of 40 incredible women but hopefully it doesn't stop there," said broadcaster Tina Daheley, who led the panel of judges.
"A lot of the people on the list are coming on to the programme, and I think that's where the conversation will start."
Daheley said the top 40 was whittled down from a longlist of 100 names, with judges looking for women "who've had an impact over the last 12 months".
Beyoncé "absolutely deserves to be number one", she added.
"She's one of those people who's absolutely in charge of her own destiny and she's using that platform in a way that makes a difference: empowering black people in America, addressing injustice head-on and championing women.
"It's not just the lyrics and activism in her music which, you could cynically say, sells music," she continues. "She puts her money where her mouth is and she's contributed to Black Lives Matter and the people affected by Hurricane Katrina."
Taylor Swift was praised by the panel for standing up to streaming companies like Apple and Spotify over royalties, and for successfully winning a sexual assault case against a US ex-radio DJ, over an incident in 2013.
"When I see young girls and how she empowers them to be strong women, I see how much she's influenced them and her impact on these girls who will be the activists of the future," said judge Jasmine Dotiwala, a music TV producer and columnist.
Daheley was also keen to highlight figures like Fiona Stewart who, at the age of 18, was a single mum living in homeless shelters - but now runs the Green Man Festival.
"Her story's incredible - but it's also her attitude to music festivals. She refuses corporate sponsorship and she won't have a VIP area. She's very impressive. She's lower down the list, but still being celebrated."
"I never thought consciously of my gender as something that limited me in any way until this year," Stennett told BBC News.
"I was just too busy trying to push forward and survive in the cut-throat environment of the male-dominated entertainment business.
"It took an essay my daughter wrote on the effects women face from subconscious patriarchal oppression for me to finally stop and realise that it was that oppression itself which was part of my relentless drive not to fail and which has, in fact, helped me achieve a level of success that has enabled me to be part of this list.
"I hope that any success achieved will help other women close the gap on the gender imbalance in business."
Woman's Hour publishes its Power List annually, focusing on a different theme each time.
As well as Daheley and Dotiwala, this year's panel included novelist Jessica Duchen, record producer Catherine Marks and musician Kate Nash.
Why are female record producers so rare? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-21107440 | The Burmese army has launched a fresh attack on rebel Kachin forces in the north of the country, breaking a short-lived government ceasefire.
Burmese troops attacked a Kachin base just a few kilometres from Laiza, the biggest town controlled by rebels in the state, near the Chinese border.
Hundreds of Burmese troops could be seen crawling through the trees up the slopes, says the BBC's Jonathan Head.
Kachin fighters are fighting for greater autonomy in Burma.
The base was hit by sustained mortar and artillery fire, our correspondent, who is in the area, says.
If the base falls, there are few defences left to prevent the fall of Laiza, should the Burmese military decide to take it, he adds, and a Burmese military advance would certainly force the flight of many thousands of civilians.
The government announced a ceasefire on Friday, but the Kachin Independence Army claimed that attacks continued regardless.
The Kachin Independence Army is the only major ethnic rebel group not to have agreed a long-standing ceasefire with the government.
The rebels are seeking greater autonomy within Burma for ethnic Kachins who have had de facto control over a part of northern Burma for more than 50 years.
Burma's new military-backed civilian government has pledged to resolve conflicts in border areas with ethnic minority groups.
But the Burmese army began a new offensive last month, after a 17-year truce with the rebels ended in mid-2011.
The latest fighting flared after the Kachin rebels refused to stop attacking Burmese army convoys delivering supplies to a base near Laiza.
On Sunday the Burmese president Thein Sein repeated his call for dialogue with rebels to resolve the long-running conflict. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8633786.stm | A consortium of nine companies has won the right to build a hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Amazon in Brazil.
Brazil's electricity regulator said the Norte Energia consortium would build the Belo Monte dam, to which indigenous groups and environmentalists object.
It is led by the state-owned Companhia Hidro Eletrica do Sao Francisco.
Officials say the dam on the Xingu River is crucial for development, but critics argue thousands of people will be displaced and an ecosystem damaged.
The bidding had been halted three times before a final appeal by the government allowed the winning bidder to be announced.
About 500 people gathered on Tuesday outside the offices of the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (Aneel) in the capital, Brasilia, to protest against the auction.
About 80% of the energy in Brazil comes from hydroelectric dams and the government is serious about building new ones. The state-owned Energy Research Company estimates that only a third of the hydroelectric potential of the country has been tapped into. And most of the remaining sites lie in the Amazon basin.
Hydroelectric power is often praised as renewable and low-emission, but it often causes disruption to nature and people. Environmentalists say Brazil should be looking into increasing the efficiency of current power plants and using alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar, instead of building dams.
But the government says that it has to produce a lot of energy to feed a booming economy and that burning oil, gas or coal in conventional power plants would be the only other viable option. With the Belo Monte dam and other similar projects moving forward, the debate over where development conflicts with conservation is likely to grow just as aggressively.
The environmentalist group, Greenpeace, dumped several tonnes of manure at the door to demonstrate what it said was "the legacy that the Lula government is leaving by insisting on this project".
But after a last-minute injunction was lifted, Aneel announced that Norte Energia had won the rights to develop the Belo Monte dam with an offer of 77.97 reals ($57.12) per megawatt produced.
There was only one other competitor - the Belo Monte consortium. Earlier this month, two of Brazil's biggest construction companies walked away from the bidding process, saying the financial returns were too low.
The government had set a maximum price of 83 reals per megawatt.
The proposal to build a hydro-electric dam on the Xingu river, a tributary of the Amazon in the northern state of Para, has long been a source of controversy.
The initial project was abandoned in the 1990s amid widespread protests both in Brazil and around the world.
Environmental groups say the Belo Monte dam will threaten the survival of indigenous groups, and the lives of up to 40,000 people could be affected as 500 sq km of land would be flooded.
Luis Xipaya, an indigenous leader in the city of Altamira, near the proposed dam, said 150 Xikrin Kayapo Indians would move to the construction site by Wednesday.
"There will be bloodshed and the government will be responsible for that," he told the Reuters news agency.
The government has dismissed the criticism and promised the winning consortium would pay $800m to protect the environment.
The 11,000 MW dam would be third largest in the world, after the Three Gorges in China and Itaipu, which is jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay. It is expected to provide electricity to 23 million homes.
With Brazil's economy continuing to show signs of growth, ministers say hydro-electric plants are a vital way to ensure power supplies over the next decade - and at least 70 dams are said to be planned for the Amazon region.
Critics say the Belo Monte plant will be hugely inefficient, generating less than 10% of its capacity during the three to four months of the year when water levels are low. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25305254 | Ukraine is in political crisis again.
Since its "Orange Revolution" nine years ago, pro-Western and pro-Russian groups have contended for political power. The current president, Viktor Yanukovych, stands accused by protesters of turning his back on Europe, after refusing to sign a partnership agreement with the EU.
They also accuse him of conducting a vendetta against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was imprisoned more than two years ago for abuse of power.
Outside General Clinic No 5, in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the incongruity of it all was striking.
The hospital, in which opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko is held, is something out of Soviet times - an ugly, concrete monstrosity where security men in plain clothes patrol the grounds, keeping prying eyes away from a woman regarded by millions of supporters as a political prisoner.
Sitting in the hospital car park was a black Range Rover surrounded by bodyguards, and inside it we interviewed Mrs Tymoshenko's daughter Eugenia.
She was clad in designer black, she speaks English fluently after schooling and university education in the UK, and looks more like Natalie Portman about to step out on to a Hollywood red carpet than the average person's idea of a political dissident.
That is the Tymoshenko contradiction. Yulia Tymoshenko's imprisonment by the government of Mr Yanukovych causes European human rights groups to denounce him for persecuting a political opponent and turns her into an opposition idol.
Yet others claim the abuse of office conviction is just the tip of the iceberg and they allege that she lined her pockets while betraying the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine.
When I asked her whether her mother was an honest woman, Eugenia argued: "Yanukovych spent millions on these audit companies and they all stated they couldn't find one penny of her corruption or abuse of power."
Back in the mid-1990s, when former state industries were being privatised in post-Soviet republics and there were fortunes to be made, Yulia Tymoshenko went into the gas business. The family says that's the origin of her wealth.
However Sergei Leshchenko, the deputy editor of Ukrainian Pravda, alleges that she entered parliament in 1996 to gain immunity from prosecution after allegations of financial irregularities.
As to the scale of the possible problems, he points to claims that Yulia Tymoshenko sent $100m (£60m) to former Ukrainian prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko, which emerged in a US court that convicted him of corruption charges in 2006.
When I asked her about the Lazarenko case, Eugenia Tymoshenko insisted that the American court had not indicted her mother or found her guilty of any offence.
"It's just something that pro-Yanukovych people use against her," she said, although Mr Leshchenko, who has written a book about the Lazarenko affair, is certainly no friend of the president.
Yulia Tymoshenko was convicted in a Ukrainian court, but in a process widely condemned by opposition groups as politically motivated.
What's striking though is that her supporters do not care about the mud-slinging and accusations. Eugenia's expensive clothes, bodyguards, and upmarket vehicles don't seem to bother them either. These are the everyday features of those who wield power and money in a post-Soviet republic.
When I asked Mr Leshchenko, who's extensively investigated official corruption in Ukraine, whether anyone has come through the country's recent upheavals with clean hands, he suggested it was possible since "not everyone wanted to be a billionaire".
Could Yulia Tymoshenko still become president one day? Mr Leshchenko thinks it's feasible given her "charisma", although he thinks it likely that a younger, less compromised figure will eventually come through. Eugenia said "I hope so" when I asked the same question.
The interview with her concluded, Eugenia and her bodyguards sped off into the swirling snow and I was left to contemplate the Tymoshenko phenomenon.
It's a measure of how broken and cynical politics in Ukraine has become that corruption allegations and a criminal conviction do not apparently put paid to someone's political career.
Many Ukrainians suggested to me that President Yanukovych's misdemeanours in office have been far worse than Yulia Tymoshenko's and indeed it is his behaviour, in imprisoning the former prime minister, that has revived her political fortunes.
You can watch Mark's report for Newsnight on the BBC iPlayer or via the Newsnight website. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-latin-america-39871689/brazil-s-ex-president-lula-goes-on-trial | Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected in court on Wednesday to face corruption charges.
The verdict could see him going to jail, or, if cleared, he could run for the presidency again.
How did things change so much for Lula? Julia Carneiro brings us the background. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10505263 | Police were told suspected gunman Raoul Moat had threatened to seriously harm his former girlfriend the day before she was shot and her boyfriend killed.
Samantha Stobbart, 22, was shot in Birtley, Gateshead, on Saturday along with boyfriend Chris Brown, 29.
A police officer was also shot in his patrol car in Newcastle on Sunday.
Northumbria Police said Durham Prison had told them of Moat's comments a day after his release on Thursday. The case has been referred to the IPCC.
Professor David Wilson, a former prison governor, told the BBC: "If there was intelligence which suggested that Moat was threatening his ex-partner and other members of the public, that matter should have been taken very seriously by Northumbria Police."
The force voluntarily referred the case to the IPCC.
Det Ch Supt Neil Adamson also revealed police had received a hand-written letter in the past 24 hours, purportedly from Moat, outlining a number of "grievances".
Miss Stobbart is said to be improving in hospital. Pc David Rathband, 42, remains in a critical condition after undergoing surgery for face and chest wounds.
He is said to be "in remarkable spirits". Mr Rathband was shot in the face and upper body with what is believed to be a shot-gun type weapon.
Mr Adamson said there were indications that other people may be at risk and a number of them had been given police protection.
He said he believed Moat was still in the north-east of England, but that he probably had access to a vehicle.
He told a news conference at Northumbria Police headquarters in Ponteland that Miss Stobbart had appealed to Moat, saying: "Please give yourself up.
"If you still loved me and our baby you would not be doing this."
Temporary Chief Constable Sue Sim said the force had been told on Friday that Moat had threatened to harm Miss Stobbart and voluntarily referred the matter to the Independent Police Complaints commission (IPCC).
She said the force would "fully co-operate" with any IPCC investigation.
Detectives believe the triple shooting was sparked by a grudge against Mr Brown and Miss Stobbart, which developed into a vendetta against the police.
Before the attacks began Moat's Facebook status was changed to read: "Just got out of jail, I've lost everything, my business, my property and to top it all off my lass has gone off with someone else.
"Watch and see what happens."
The former nightclub doorman is understood to have shot and killed Mr Brown outside a house in the Scafell area of Birtley, just a few yards from the front door.
Moments later, shots were fired at Miss Stobbart - with whom Moat had a six-year on-off relationship - through the living room window of the property.
Friends have paid tribute to Mr Brown, nicknamed "Brownie", on a special Facebook page set up in his memory.
Early on Sunday, a man identified as Moat was linked to the shooting of Pc Rathband in East Denton, Newcastle.
Detectives said the married father-of-two, with 10 years' experience on the force, was shot through the passenger window of his car in an "unprovoked" attack. He had been parked at a roundabout.
Police said extra firearms officers from forces including Cleveland, Humberside, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Cumbria, had been brought in overnight to aid in the hunt for Moat.
During the press conference Mr Adamson revealed that when Moat came out of jail, Miss Stobbart told him she was in a relationship with a police officer because she was "frightened".
He said: "We've spoken to Sam and she has asked us to say the following to you: "When you came out of jail I told you I was seeing a police officer.
'I said this because I was frightened. I have not been seeing a police officer."
Mr Adamson went on: "Mr Moat, I know you don't trust the police because you've told us that. So you know that this message is genuinely from Sam, she's told us about the Links of London chain bracelet that you bought her for Christmas.
"Please make contact with us."
He added that Miss Stobbart was being "appropriately protected".
As well as receiving a letter said to be from Moat, police said they had also received a telephone call minutes before Pc Rathband was shot warning that a police officer had been "targeted".
Ms Sim said police were not told that Moat planned to shoot Miss Stobbart, but admitted Durham Prison had alerted them to possible "serious harm".
She said: "We were informed on Friday afternoon by Durham Prison that Mr Moat may intend to cause serious harm to his partner.
"We will, of course, fully co-operate with the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
"However, as important as these matters may prove to be, the vitally important issue now is the safety of the public and our efforts to secure that by finding Mr Moat."
Before the press conference began it emerged that armed police had seized a man resembling Raoul Moat in Sunderland city centre. He was later released. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8449895.stm | Doctor Who actor David Tennant, who made his final appearance as the Time Lord earlier this month, has backed Gordon Brown as Prime Minister.
"I would still rather have Gordon Brown than David Cameron," Tennant told the latest edition of Doctor Who magazine.
"I would rather have a prime minister who is the cleverest person in the room, than a prime minister who looks good in a suit."
"I think David Cameron is a terrifying prospect," added the 38-year-old star.
The Scottish actor, a long-term Labour supporter who appeared in a party political broadcast in 2005, likened the Conservative leader to "a regional newsreader who will jump on whatever bandwagon flies past".
"I get quite panicked at the notion that people are buying his rhetoric, because it seems very manipulative to me."
"Clearly, the Labour Party is not without some issues right now and I do get frustrated. They need to sort some stuff out, but they are still a better bet than the Tories."
The Conservatives declined to comment.
He is being replaced on the show by actor Matt Smith, 27, who made his debut as the 11th Doctor in Tennant's final show, ahead of a new series in the spring. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-12116778 | Media captionNew House speaker John Boehner: "This is the people's House"
Republicans have formally taken control of the US House of Representatives, pledging to cut government spending and repeal President Obama's health reform.
New House Speaker John Boehner struck a humble tone in his opening address, but analysts foresee two years of fierce political battle ahead.
"The people voted to end business as usual," said Mr Boehner of Ohio.
With Democrats controlling the Senate and White House, Republicans stand little chance of enacting their agenda.
The Republican Party took power in the House on Wednesday after winning a majority in the November mid-term elections, thanks in part to the anti-government Tea Party movement.
The party had lost control of the House in 2006 amid Republican President George W Bush's fading popularity with many voters.
Mr Boehner, a staunch conservative and the son of a bar owner, was sworn in after spending the past two years as one of Mr Obama's fiercest opponents in Washington.
At the opening of the 112th Congress, outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a liberal San Francisco Democrat, passed him the speaker's gavel, calling the transition a "strong symbol of peaceful democracy".
In his opening remarks, Mr Boehner said the objective of Republicans was to give government back to citizens of the US and provide honesty and accountability.
"No longer can we fall short, no longer can we kick the can down the road," he said. "The people voted to end business as usual, and today we begin to carry out their instructions."
Meanwhile, in the Senate, Democratic Leader Harry Reid seemed to acknowledge upcoming Republican challenges, and spoke of the need for reform to ensure legislation is not blocked in the chamber.
"We have to do even more to help middle-class families, to create jobs, to hasten our energy independence, to improve our children's education and to fix our broken immigration system," he said.
The BBC's Paul Adams, in Washington, says there are tough fights ahead as the president, determined to press ahead with his reform agenda, locks horns with a Republican Party emboldened by its successes in November.
Republican leaders have vowed to slash spending by as much as $100bn, scrap "job-killing" government regulations, crack down on undocumented immigration, cut diplomatic and foreign aid funds, and investigate the administration.
But the Democrats retain control of the US Senate, and Mr Obama wields the presidential veto pen, so any legislation passed in the next two years will have to be the product of careful compromise and deal-making, analysts say.
The Republicans' opening move, however, is far from conciliatory. Next week, they will hold a purely symbolic vote to repeal Mr Obama and the Democrats' healthcare reform law, their signature achievement of the past two years.
The move is expected to pass in the House, but fail in the Senate, but will be followed by a protracted attempt to pick the reform to pieces, our correspondent says.
Add to this a series of bitter debates over spending and how to control the country's budget deficits, and the scene is set for a tempestuous political season, our correspondent adds.
On Thursday, the Republicans will have the US Constitution read aloud in the House chamber as it gets down to business, a gesture in line with many conservatives' view that Democrats have overstepped their constitutional authority in passing sweeping regulations. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12857441 | Something small is brewing for nuclear power in the US, it seems.
At the American Physical Society meeting this week, a session that was planned months ago to address the "US nuclear Renaissance" has had its tone changed in light of the ongoing nuclear crisis at Japan's Fukushima plant.
What you can frequently hear in the talks and discussions is the phrase "small modular reactors".
The ethos of going smaller is surprising in light of the move toward ever-bigger plants globally - at the Olkiluoto plant in Finland a record-beating 1.6GW plant is under construction.
But here it is an idea that has been gaining ground in the industry and in the halls of power for some time.
Even as the Fukushima situation was at its peak, the US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu told reporters grilling him about the 2012 budget that the US position of backing small modular reactors "has not been changed" - a position he made clear in a 2010 op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal.
Attendees of the conference - ranging from nuclear physicists to policy experts - all seem to agree on the merits of SMRs.
But in a country that has struggled for decades to get its nuclear Renaissance to a critical mass, talk turns quickly to economics.
"Probably the biggest issue for the industry is that the upfront capital construction costs are extremely high," said Bob Rosner, professor of physics at the University of Chicago and former director of Argonne National Laboratory, the spiritual home of the nuclear reactor.
"How do you reduce the upfront cost? Make them much smaller - we're talking about 100 megawatts, a power a tenth of one of the plants at Fukushima," he told BBC News.
"They would be factory-built, not built on site. You could combine them, gang them together - put 10 together and you get a gigawatt plant. The point is the utility could buy into nuclear power in stages, they wouldn't have to come up with the entire cost of a gigawatt plant."
What the Fukushima crisis casts light on, though, is that the SMR idea takes safety into account from the outset, said Victor Reis, senior adviser in the Office of the Undersecretary of Energy for Science.
"This is a reactor that is designed safety first, not one that you do the physics first and then add the safety on," he told the conference.
SMR designs all run on the idea of "passive safety" - that is, protective measures run without human intervention and even without power; cooling is done by natural convection, rather than with the kinds of pumps that were at the heart of the Fukushima plant's problems.
They are also small enough to be built underground, making them less vulnerable to severe weather, unauthorised access, impacts, and to some degree, seismic events.
These safety measures are being introduced into the latest, large-scale Generation III reactors already, and the concept is quickly becoming an industry standard.
"I think the argument is less toward a small reactor per se than a reactor that is truly passively safe," said Jay Davis, president of the Hertz Foundation and former nuclear weapons inspector.
"That might not be as small as the current small designs, but you're certainly going to see a push toward passive safety," he told BBC News.
As much as SMRs address the large capital expenditure question, what remains to be seen is how expensive they may actually be. It is not yet clear how much, in early stages, the cost of a plant with a tenth the power output will have a price tag more than a tenth that of a conventional, large plant.
"It's not obvious whether it's going to be more or less expensive," said Professor Rosner. "The fact of the matter is the only way we'll know for sure is if they're built."
That will only happen if the designs get approval of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission - and firms are poised to start building if and when that approval comes.
Moreover, Dr Reis told BBC News, some of the financial risk could be borne in the early days by the government.
"That's where I think the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense can play a role," he said.
"We can do what we did with massively parallel computing - [the US government] did the first one, we helped with the R&D, and then we were the first buyer at a sufficient scale of buying to answer the question of economies of scale."
The one issue that Professor Rosner said is conspicuously absent from much of the discussion was that of the security of the nuclear material at SMRs; here again, Dr Davis says the full picture remains an unknown.
"You've got to a full systems analysis, which includes going to the question: is the terrorism problem better or worse if you have multiple small reactors? You have to put all that on the table at the same time."
Will Japanese crisis curb the rise of nuclear power? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-12076788 | Flood protection grants worth £1.85m have been allocated to councils in the West Midlands region.
The money is designed to help local authorities comply with their new responsibilities set out in the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.
Grants were allocated according to the risk each authority faced, the Environment Secretary said.
Staffordshire Council received the most, £164,000, while Telford & Wrekin Council was given the least, £117,000.
The money could be used to produce flood maps, draw up risk management plans and to promote flood awareness, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said.
Funding for 2011/12 would total £21m rising to £36m a year between 2012 and 2016.
A breakdown of the figures has been published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Ms Spelman, the Conservative MP for Meriden, said: "This money will go a long way to help local flood authorities identify and deal with the risk of flooding in their own communities.
"Each local authority can decide where the money will be of most use." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20256047 | Is cycling getting more dangerous?
After cycling champion Bradley Wiggins and British cycling head coach Shane Sutton were caught up in collisions with cars within hours of each other, how sure can cyclists be that they are safe on Britain's roads? And what can they do to protect themselves?
Just hours apart, two high-profile cyclists experienced first hand the dangerous side of the sport they love.
Reports came in on Wednesday night that Bradley Wiggins, the Olympic gold medallist and Tour de France winner, had been involved in a crash near a petrol station near Wigan, Lancashire. He suffered bruising.
And on Thursday came the news that Shane Sutton, the GB cycling head coach, had bleeding on the brain after a bike crash in the Manchester suburb of Levenshulme. He is still in hospital.
BBC sports news correspondent Dan Roan says it is "astonishing" that the pair suffered the same fate in separate incidents within hours of each other.
And cycling fans agree - many have taken to Twitter in the past 24 hours to describe their shock that two cyclists at the top of their game could be left in hospital.
Although this was undoubtedly an unfortunate coincidence, the incidents suggest that even the most experienced cyclists are not immune to the dangers of Britain's roads.
But just how dangerous is cycling? And is it becoming less safe?
John Meudell, South East representative for CTC, the national cycling charity, says: "Cycling has become more dangerous because of the number of vehicles on the road - it has become more intimidating because motorists give you less and less room.
"One thing it isn't these days is pleasant."
Nigel Barclay, 45, from Banstead, Surrey, suffered life-threatening injuries when he was knocked off his bike by a car in March this year.
"I sustained two broken legs, my pelvis was broken in two places, my arm was broken, my elbow was smashed and I had multiple skull fractures," he says.
Mr Barclay suffered brain damage and is now deaf in one ear and partially sighted in one eye.
"I spent 12 days on life support. They were saying to my wife that they didn't know if I would survive or not," he says.
The teenage driver's punishment was four points on his licence, and Mr Barclay says the magistrates "let us down horrendously".
He adds: "The message it puts out is that it's OK to knock a cyclist off."
Figures from the Department for Transport (DfT) show that last year 107 cyclists were killed on British roads. In 2010, that figure was 111. It is likely most were male, the DfT says.
But since 2004, the figures show a gradual decline in the number of fatalities, which would suggest that the roads are becoming a safer place for those on two wheels.
However, a look at the figures for deaths and injuries combined paints a slightly different picture.
Although that figure hovered at about 16,000 between 2004 and 2008, since then it has steadily risen. Last year it was 19,215 - 2,030 more than in 2010.
And, according to figures collated by the Times - which has run a high-profile cycle safety campaign since one of its reporters was hit by a lorry and left in a coma - 104 cyclists have been killed so far this year. It is a figure the DfT cannot confirm but the newspaper says that this year's death toll looks set to overtake last year's.
Mr Meudell, who lives in Dorking, Surrey, and has been cycling for 50 years, says he believes a lack of interest "at all levels of government" has caused the roads to become increasingly dangerous.
"It is complacency on the part of the highways establishment," he says.
"Despite all the statements that they are improving, they are doing the opposite. The only way we are going to have progress is to have an independent inspectorate of roads like they have in America."
Roger Geffen, campaigns and policies director at the same charity, is concerned about a different type of complacency - among drivers.
"We see this sort of attitude that when drivers hit cyclists or indeed pedestrians... that it's just somehow an accident, it's somehow carelessness," he says.
"The legal system doesn't adequately respond. I know so many cases - whether it's eight-year-olds, 80-year-olds, champions, children, whatever - cyclists of all ages and backgrounds and all levels of skill, being hit by drivers who then sort of say, 'Sorry mate, I didn't see you'."
He says the courts treat it as such and drivers "get slapped wrists".
"We shouldn't be accepting that sort of attitude," he says.
However, cyclists can also be to blame, sometimes by breaking the law.
The Institute of Advanced Motorists found that 57% of cyclists had jumped a red light at least once, with 14% doing it regularly or sometimes, in an online poll of 1,600 people earlier this year.
It found the main reason given was because it was safer to get ahead of other traffic but more than half of those polled (54%) also felt cyclists needed to improve their behaviour.
Brian MacDowall, spokesman for the Association of British Drivers, says safety depends on respect and responsibility on the part of all road users.
"Putting blame on one type of road user will not help make the roads safer," says Mr MacDowall, himself an avid cycling fan.
Former British cyclist Michael Hutchinson, now a journalist at Cycling Weekly, highlights a different approach.
"There have been suggestions that perhaps the driving test could include not only more instruction on cyclists but perhaps even a cycling module where new drivers have to pass a cycling test before they're allowed to drive a car," he says.
According to CTC, the national cycling charity, which quotes figures from the 2001 census, 43% of the population own or have access to a bicycle, while about 750,000 use a bike to get to work. However, these figures are no doubt much higher now.
Kaya Burgess, who is leading the Times's Cities Fit for Cycling campaign, is in no doubt that much more needs to be done to keep cyclists safe.
"It's awful that it takes such high-profile accidents for cycling safety to be so high up the agenda, but what we are calling for is that the roads in Britain just need to be improved for cyclists," he says.
He says that until this happens we will only see more incidents.
Road Safety Minister Stephen Hammond says cycle safety is "very much at the heart of transport policy".
"The government is fully committed to encouraging cycling and improving safety and recently launched the first THINK! cyclist campaign," he says.
"We have also invested £30m to tackle dangerous junctions for cyclists and are giving more than £1bn to councils to design solutions appropriate to their local transport challenges, including improving their road infrastructure to encourage cycling.
"We have also made it simpler for councils to put in place 20mph limits and install mirrors to improve the visibility of cyclists at junctions. We will continue to work with our partners, including British Cycling, to do everything possible to encourage cycling and improve safety."
Is dangerous cycling a problem? |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47642335 | US President Donald Trump has attacked the late Senator John McCain, complaining that he "didn't get a thank you" for his state funeral.
"We sent him on the way, but I wasn't a fan of John McCain," the president said during a visit to an Ohio tank factory.
"I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as president I had to approve," he told workers at the factory.
"I don't care about this, I didn't get a thank you. That's OK."
Mr Trump approved the military flight of McCain's remains from Arizona to Washington, but it was Congress that accorded the late senator the honour of lying in state.
The US president said McCain "didn't get the job done for our great vets and the VA" by refusing to repeal Obamacare and attacked him for "a war in the Middle East", in reference to the senator's support for the Iraq War.
"Not my kind of guy," the president said. "But some people like him and I think that's great."
On Sunday, Mr Trump went after McCain again, saying the "last in his class" senator had sent "the Fake Dossier to the FBI".
Asked by a reporter about his attacks while hosting the Brazilian president at the White House on Tuesday, Mr Trump said: "I was never a fan of John McCain and I never will be."
Donald Trump is feuding with a dead man.
It all began in 2015 when John McCain condemned then-candidate Trump's allegation that Mexico was sending rapists into the US.
Mr Trump responded by questioning the Arizona senator's heroism as a prisoner during the Vietnam War.
At the time there was a chorus of condemnation from across the Republican Party and predictions that the New York businessman's White House hopes were ruined.
It didn't turn out that way, of course. Mr Trump not only won the White House, he has moulded the Republican Party in his own populist, pugilistic image.
Now Mr Trump's outbursts against the late senator are met mostly with silence from within his own party. Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson stands out as one of the few to sharply rebuke the president's remarks.
Mr Trump clearly believes leaning into this now one-sided fight benefits him politically. There are plenty of conservatives who never liked McCain, and they will love the president even more for not backing down.
The feud helped launch Mr Trump's presidential bid, and it's a wave he will ride till the very end.
Mr Trump's attacks this week on McCain have drawn sharp condemnation from across the political spectrum, with Republican Senator Johnny Isakson calling the remarks "deplorable".
"The country deserves better, the McCain family deserves better," Mr Isakson told the conservative Bulwark news site, arguing that when the president insults "the most decorated senator in history... it just sets the worst tone possible".
His Republican colleague, Senator Lindsay Graham, called McCain "an American hero" and said Mr Trump's comments "hurt him more than they hurt the legacy of Senator McCain".
The late senator's family have also assailed Mr Trump.
His daughter, Meghan McCain, told ABC's daytime talk show The View that her father would find it "hilarious that our president was so jealous of him that he was dominating the news cycle in death".
McCain's widow Cindy told the BBC in the months after her husband's funeral that she may never get over the president's attack on his status as a war hero. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-47935291 | Police will not carry out their own investigation into expenses claims made by the former chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire.
Sir Gary Verity paid back £40,000 before resigning on health grounds last month.
West Yorkshire Police said it would await the findings of an independent investigation commissioned by the tourism company.
Lib Dem peer Lord Scriven said he was "astounded" by the force's decision.
Last month the former leader of Sheffield City Council wrote to the chief constable of West Yorkshire, asking for the force to investigate expenses claims made by Sir Gary.
A force spokesman said that following a meeting with Welcome to Yorkshire representatives it had agreed the full findings of an independent review will be shared with the force.
It added that if any evidence was identified of criminal offences it would be brought to their "immediate attention".
Responding to the decision, Lord Scriven said the force had "taken at face value the word of the very organisation who have overseen the poor governance and financial control that has led to at least £40,000 being claimed when it shouldn't have.
"I feel the force haven't carried out their duties in full and I will now consider referring this matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct."
Earlier this month, Welcome to Yorkshire announced it would commission two independent investigations into Sir Gary's tenure at the company, which has received millions of pounds of public funding.
At the time of his resignation, it said Sir Gary resigned on health grounds but an investigation found he had "made errors of judgement regarding his expenses".
Responding to the claim he repaid £40,000 in expenses before quitting, a spokeswoman for Sir Gary said: "Expenses were submitted in the ordinary course and signed off.
"However, on review it was agreed that some errors had been made and Sir Gary was content to agree to voluntarily reimburse Welcome to Yorkshire for monies owed." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-38093019 | The British National Party's only district councillor in the United Kingdom has returned to the party - a day after he quit.
Brian Parker, who represents Marsden ward, told Pendle Council he wanted to sit as an independent on Wednesday.
The Lancashire councillor, who won his seat in 2006, has told the BBC he is now again representing the BNP.
The BNP said it was "pleased to reassure members" that the councillor "has taken up the party whip again".
In a statement, the BNP said Mr Parker "remains the most successful record-breaking BNP councillor in history".
Pendle Council confirmed the development but said it was not commenting on the matter. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7314336.stm | Letters written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming, due to be sold at auction next month, reveal a close relationship with his typist Jean Frampton.
In one letter, dated 31 March, 1960, he asks her to use her "keen mind" to help get his novel Thunderball "into shape".
"Anything your quick eye falls upon... would be endlessly welcome," he adds.
"You can look on Mrs Frampton as Ian Fleming's Miss Moneypenny," said Amy Brenan of Duke's auctioneers in Dorset, which is offering the letters for sale.
The auction will take place on 10 April to mark the centenary year of the writer's birth.
The entire collection, which includes four signed letters by Fleming, is expected to fetch between £2,000 and £3,000.
Also included are letters written by Mrs Frampton and Fleming's secretaries, Una Trueblood and Beryl Griffie-Williams.
Hired to type the manuscripts of Fleming's books, Frampton found herself called upon to offer pointers on plot and literary style.
"Your occasional comments on the work you have done for me have been so helpful," the author writes.
Frampton, who lived in the Dorset town of Christchurch, is believed never to have actually met Fleming.
Their correspondence, however, reveals a close relationship that extended to such Bond novels as You Only Live Twice and The Man with the Golden Gun.
"The collection is interesting because it details how the James Bond books were put together in the early 1960s," said Ms Brenan. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-44462424/stella-mccartney-meghan-markle-s-evening-dress-reflected-her-human-side | 'Meghan's dress reflected her human side' Jump to media player Stella McCartney says she feels "very proud" Meghan Markle asked her to design her evening gown.
How Harry and Meghan boosted gospel music Jump to media player The royal wedding choir conductor says the event created a surge in bookings for gospel choirs.
Plastic pollution: 'We have to try and provide solutions' Jump to media player Fashion designer Stella McCartney talks to the BBC about combating plastic pollution.
Kids recreate royal wedding Jump to media player Stories you may have missed this week, including a mini Meghan and Harry.
Whole lotta hugs: Harry and Meghan so far Jump to media player Since their first public appearance in September, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been busy.
Royal wedding crowds love dancing cop Jump to media player PC Jake Freeman says the response to his dancing on the day of the Royal Wedding was "overwhelming".
Designer Stella McCartney says she feels "very proud" she was asked by Meghan Markle to make her evening gown for the royal wedding. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-35763382 | A privately-owned film studio in North Lanarkshire used by the TV series Outlander is hoping to secure up to £4m public money for a massive expansion.
Wardpark Studios has four sound stages across 48,000 sq ft. It wants to add two more stages, a back lot and offices in a 30,000 sq ft development.
Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said that a planning application for the Cumbernauld site was imminent.
Opposition MPs remain critical over the lack of film studio facilities.
Ms Hyslop told Holyrood's Economy Committee that ministers could provide up to £4m to help with the project - including £1.5m in grant funding and up to £2.5m of loan cash.
"Wardpark Studios Limited's decision to seek planning consent for new studio facilities in Cumbernauld marks an important milestone in our work to strengthen the Scottish screen sector," she said.
Opposition MSPs questioned Ms Hyslop on the scale of the development.
Former Labour leader Johann Lamont said: "It doesn't seem like it's huge amounts of money and and it seems to have taken a long time to get to that point."
Committee convener Murdo Fraser said figures from Creative Scotland showed Wales has 51,000 sq ft of purpose-built studio space, with Northern Ireland having 42,000 sq ft, while Scotland currently has only 5,800 sq ft.
The Conservative MSP said: "The 30,000 sq ft you are talking about sounds a lot, but if that is a purpose-built studio that leaves us still quite a long way behind Wales and Northern Ireland.
"It seems to me that there has been a lot of heat around this issue, the government's been under pressure, there's an election coming up in eight weeks' time, and what you have done is produce a rabbit from a hat.
"Except it's not a very large rabbit, it's actually quite a small rabbit."
Ms Hyslop insisted: "In terms of the announcement, I think it's good news for Scotland and good news for the film industry."
She hinted at more development to come, saying: "For a period we had no prospect of any studios and now we have got prospects for not just one, but a number of studios, depending on different decisions made by either ministers or other developers in other areas."
Terry Thomson, chairman of Wardpark Studios Limited, said the planned expansion of the Cumbernauld site reflected its success.
"Our existing facility has been a major success for Scotland, attracting Sony's award-winning historical drama Outlander's first and second series," he said.
"We want to enhance the existing four sound stages with a further two stages to expand and grow productions using the facility.
"Our planning application seeks to make the most of the existing facilities and land available. While we've reached agreement in principle with Scottish Enterprise and the Film Studio Delivery Group on possible financial support, there remain a few commercial details still to be finalised before we can move ahead with our plans."
Ms Hyslop also told MSPs that there had been "significantly increased activity" during 2014 with film and TV productions spending "an unprecedented £45.8m shooting on location" - an increase of almost £12m on 2013. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23063018 | The schools budget for England will remain protected from budget cuts in the government's spending review.
Chancellor George Osborne also announced plans for a fairer funding formula for schools to remove inequalities between different areas.
There will be funding for 180 more free schools and 20 university technical colleges and 20 studio schools.
Mr Osborne told MPs that spending on education was the "single best investment".
The education budget for 2015-16 will "increase to £53bn and school spending will be protected in real terms", the chancellor announced.
Mr Osborne promised that a consultation would begin for a national funding formula to address the way that money is not "equally distributed" between schools, the chancellor told the House of Commons.
He announced extra support for the creation of 180 more free schools in 2015-16, which are set up by parents or other groups. There are already more than 80 open with a further 200 in the pipeline.
There will also be 20 more studio schools which young people can attend part-time while working.
There will be 20 more university technical colleges which are intended to provide a stronger vocational education.
The protection of the school budget was welcomed by head teachers' leader Russell Hobby.
He also supported plans for a fairer national funding formula, saying that "budgets can differ by thousands of pounds per pupil for no good reason".
But Mr Hobby, leader of the National Association of Head Teachers, was critical of extra spending on free schools, describing it as an "inefficient use of a limited capital budget" when there was such a pressure to create more primary school places.
Mr Osborne's package of spending cuts include an end to annual progression payments in the public sector, a move that had already been announced for teachers.
There were warnings that cuts to local government would have a knock-on effect for schools.
David Simmonds, chairman of the Local Government Association's Children and Young People Board, warned that a £200m cut to council funding for school improvement would make it harder for schools to raise standards.
"Government's promise to protect school budgets has been undermined by this disproportionate 20% cut to the vital support they receive from councils," said Mr Simmonds.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, responsible for universities, will face a 6% cut.
This will include not raising student maintenance grants in line with inflation, saving £60m.
The National Scholarship Programme, providing support for poorer undergraduates, will be cut from £150m to £50m, and switched to supporting postgraduate students.
Mr Osborne promised a greater commitment to science and research, saying that previous governments had put "short-term pressures over long-term needs".
He commended developments such as synthetic biology and graphene.
But the ring-fenced protection of school spending was challenged by Sir David Bell, vice chancellor of Reading University and former permanent secretary at the Department for Education.
School funding "ought to have been exposed to the same scrutiny as other aspects of government spending", said Sir David. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13882731 | 10th century - Phoenicians, Malays, Swahili and Arab seamen visit island but do not settle.
1510 - Portuguese navigator Pedro Mascarenhas visits the island and names it Cirné. It is used as a port of call, but the Portuguese do not establish a permanent settlement.
1598 - Dutch claim the uninhabited island and rename it after their head of state, Maurice, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau.
1664-1710 - Dutch withdraw after repeated attempts at colonisation. By this time the dodo - a unique bird found only on Mauritius - has become extinct.
1715 - French East India Company claims Mauritius for France.
1796 - Settlers break away from French control when the government in Paris attempts to abolish slavery.
1810 - British forces land in Mauritius after defeating the French in battle at Cap Malheureux.
1812 - Colonel Draper founds the Mauritius Turf Club, which opens the first racecourse in the southern hemisphere and the second oldest in the world.
1814 - Mauritius, Seychelles and Rodrigues ceded to Britain under Treaty of Paris.
1834 - British abolish slavery.
1835 - Indentured labour system introduced. In subsequent decades hundreds of thousands of workers arrive from India.
1926 - First Indo-Mauritians elected to government council.
1942 - Donald Mackenzie-Kennedy becomes governor. Introduces consultative committee which for the first time includes representatives from all Mauritian communities.
1957 - Internal self-government introduced, with an electoral system based on the Westminster model.
1959 - First elections under universal adult suffrage won by Labour Party of Seewoosagur Ramgoolam.
1960 - Cyclone Carol devastates island, leaving thousands homeless and prompting a housing revolution.
1966 - Britain expels some 2,000 residents of the Chagos archipelago, many to Mauritius, and leases islands to the US for 50 years. US builds a military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia.
1968 - 12 March - Independence.
1969 - Opposition Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) founded, advocates socialism, led by Paul Berenger.
1971 - First Export Processing Zone created. Textiles sector develops. Between 1971-77, 64,000 jobs are created.
1971 - MMM, backed by unions, calls a series of strikes. State of emergency declared, lasts until 1976. MMM party's leadership imprisoned.
1982 - Sir Anerood Jugnauth becomes prime minister.
1992 March - Prime Minister Jugnauth declares Mauritius a republic.
1995 December - Labour Party leader Navin Ramgoolam becomes prime minister.
1999 February - Creole singer Kaya dies in police custody, prompting four days of rioting among Creole community.
2000 - September - Militant Socialist Movement leader Sir Anerood Jugnauth becomes prime minister.
2002 February - Cassam Uteem resigns as president, refusing to sign controversial anti-terrorism bill. Vice president also refuses to sign and resigns. Head of legislature becomes acting president and passes legislation into law.
2002 - "Cyber Cities" plan launched to create concentrations of hi-tech facilities and boost economy.
2005 July - Labour Party returns to power under Navin Ramgoolam.
2008 - British House of Lords upholds government appeal against 2000 High Court court ruling that families expelled from the Chagos Islands are entitled to return home.
2010 June - Mauritius, France agree to jointly manage Tromelin, a tiny Indian Ocean island owned by France but claimed by Mauritius.
2012 December - European Court of Human Rights rejects claim by Chagos Islanders against Britain over their expulsion.
2014 December - Opposition alliance led by ex-President Anerood Jugnauth wins a landslide victory in parliamentary elections.
2018 March - President Ameenah Gurib steps down over an expenses scandal.
2019 February - The UN International Court of Justice says Britain should end its control over the Chagos Islands as soon as possible, in a non-binding legal opinion that they were not lawfully separated from Mauritius in 1965. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3548444.stm | BBC NEWS | Middle East | The Chalabis: Victims or villains?
The Chalabis: Victims or villains?
The warrants for Ahmed and Salem Chalabi mark one more twist to an extraordinary saga.
Back in May, in the dying days of the US-led administration in Baghdad, Iraqi and American security forces raided Ahmed's home in the Iraqi capital.
It was dramatic proof of the fall from grace of the man once tipped to succeed Saddam Hussein.
He stood accused of a range of offences including embezzlement, kidnapping and the theft of government property.
Privately, senior US officials accused their former protege of misleading them about Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction - and passing sensitive intelligence to neighbouring Iran.
Now the Iraqi authorities are taking matters further.
On Sunday, an Iraqi judge issued arrest warrants for Ahmed and his nephew, Salem.
Both men are currently outside Iraq, and both have vigorously denied the charges, which they say are part of a political vendetta against them.
To their supporters, Salem and Ahmed Chalabi are Iraqi patriots who fought long and hard against the Saddam Hussein dictatorship.
According to this view, they are now being victimised by their former friends in Washington and their rivals in the new interim Iraqi government.
To their critics they are politicians who will stop at nothing to gain power in Baghdad.
Given the accusations of corruption which have long dogged Ahmed Chalabi, this new charge will scarcely come as a big surprise to many Iraqis.
But equally it is no secret that he and Iraq's new interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, are long-time rivals.
During their long years in exile, as opponents of the Saddam regime, Mr Allawi built up close ties with US and British intelligence while Mr Chalabi became the favourite of the Pentagon and the Washington hawks.
So, whatever the truth of the allegations, there will inevitably be some suspicion in Baghdad that they are designed to neutralise a troublesome political opponent.
If Salem Chalabi, currently in Britain, returns to Baghdad and is formally charged, he seems certain to be removed from his position as the head of the special tribunal.
If his uncle, who is in Iran, returns home and is charged, this would presumably disqualify him from standing in crucial parliamentary elections due to take place in January. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/fa_cup/2607215.stm | A power cut forced the postponement of Norwich City's FA Cup third round tie against Brighton.
Brighton now face another long trip to East Anglia to get the match played against their First Division rivals played.
A power failure which meant the floodlights could not be operated caused the match to be called off.
Ground staff frantically tried to resolve the problem but, with Carrow Road in darkness, the game was eventually abandoned at 1540 GMT. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-40414127 | India's Supreme Court has rejected an attempt to stop the government making a controversial biometric identity card mandatory for social welfare schemes.
The government's policy was challenged over data security and privacy concerns.
Aadhaar, which means foundation, started out as a voluntary programme to help tackle benefit fraud.
However, it has become increasingly critical for any financial transactions and for access to welfare schemes.
Aadhaar: Are a billion identities at risk?
How did India get biometric data of 1bn people?
States have been using Aadhaar to transfer government pensions, scholarships, wages for a landmark rural jobs-for-work scheme and benefits for cooking fuel to targeted recipients, and distribute cheap food to the poor.
The government argues that Aadhaar has cut waste, removed fakes, curbed corruption and made substantial savings.
But questions have been raised about the moral authority of the government to force citizens to share biometric data. Activists say it is in breach of the UN's Fundamental Right of Privacy. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-39061811 | Iraqi security forces have recaptured Mosul airport, a key part of the government's offensive to drive the so-called Islamic State (IS) from the western half of the city.
The operation took four hours. IS continued to fire mortars at the airport from further inside the city after losing the ground to the army.
The jihadists have also entered a nearby military base amid further clashes, a military spokesman said.
Eastern Mosul was retaken last month.
Thursday's advance brings the army within less than a mile (1.6km) of western Mosul, where the militants are expected to launch attacks from densely populated neighbourhoods.
After darkness fell, government armour could be seen lining up for a new move forward, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville reports from the scene.
Thursday's assault began with air strikes by the US-led coalition before armoured columns advanced to the airport's perimeter.
An Iraqi lieutenant was killed by one of the roadside bombs planted in the area by IS, the BBC has learned.
Iraqi forces also came under fire from IS militants holed up inside airport buildings, reports said.
Foreign troops from the US-led coalition were with the attacking troops, officials told the Associated Press news agency, without specifying their nationality.
The airport's runway has been destroyed by IS but our correspondent, who is embedded with Iraqi federal police units, says it still has value.
It is a large piece of land and controlling it will help secure southern routes to west Mosul, our correspondent says.
The airport and the al-Ghazlani base are on Mosul's southern outskirts on the western side of the Tigris river.
Thousands of Iraqi troops, backed by artillery and air power, are involved in the assault to retake Mosul.
Leaflets warning residents of an imminent offensive were earlier dropped over western Mosul, where military officials say narrow winding streets could make retaking the area particularly difficult.
Although slightly smaller than the east, western Mosul is more densely populated and includes districts seen as pro-IS.
The UN has voiced concern about the welfare of civilians trapped in the city.
Aram Shakaram, the country deputy director for Save the Children in Iraq, told the BBC he believed relatively few people had been able to escape the city since Wednesday.
He said the charity believed that nearly 800,000 people were still trapped there.
We are very scared, and we are worried that the final stages are going to take long.
S will not give up and withdraw that easily and the whole operation might take as long as it did in east Mosul.
I won't lie, I am scared too and I don't know if I am going to die in an air strike or killed by an IS fighter.
More than 160,000 people have fled their homes in and around the city.
The UN said in late January that almost half of all the casualties in Mosul were civilians.
All bridges linking the east and west of the city, across the Tigris river, have been destroyed by air strikes.
IS jihadists overran Mosul as they spread across much of northern and western Iraq in 2014. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37376844 | Nearly 500 horseshoe crabs have washed up dead on Japan's southern beaches near Kitakyushu, mystifying experts.
The famously blue-blooded creatures come to the tidal flats in southern and western Japan each year to lay eggs, and some normally die off.
But this year conservationists say up to 10 crabs have died each day, eight times higher than normal, according to the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.
Some think the die-off means the crabs will lay fewer eggs next year.
The creatures are not true crabs, being most closely related to spiders and scorpions.
They are classified as an endangered species in Japan, where their habitat is being destroyed.
Experts cite the effects of global warming, a lack of places to lay eggs and disease as possible causes for the crabs' demise.
Horseshoe crabs are one of the world's oldest creatures and are prized for their blue blood.
Scientists have harvested the horseshoe's blue blood since the 1970s to test the sterility of medical equipment and intravenous drugs.
The blood coagulates around tiny amounts of bacteria, immobilising the pathogens.
One litre can sell for $15,000 (£11,360). |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/694409.stm | "Sir Alan Sugar has been very secretive about this product"
"This device is destined to stay for a long time"
After weeks of secrecy and hype, Amstrad and British Telecom have launched the 'e-m@iler', a telephone offering pay-as-you-go access to e-mail without a computer.
Only one in five UK households have e-mail access and the two firms believe that their product will change all that.
Without connection fees or subscription charges, consumers will pay for sending and receiving e-mail through their regular phone bill.
Amstrad hopes that the e-m@iler will repeat the success the company had in the late 1980s with its line of cheap personal computers.
The advanced telephone handset - priced at �79.99 ($127) will be equipped with a miniature screen, comes with voice mail, fax and an electronic note pad to store telephone numbers and email addresses.
The mystery over what kind of internet device Amstrad would launch had strongly boosted the firm's share price by more than 600%, from 83 pence at the end of September 1999 to 607 pence at the end of trading on Tuesday.
However, disappointment over the fact that the e-m@iler will not allow consumers to actually surf the internet made many investors to reconsider Amstrad's stock market valuation.
The firm's share price plunged by as much as 14% before recovering slightly.
The look of the e-m@iler is still under wraps and will be revealed later on Wednesday.
While Amstrad provides the hardware, BT will run the e-mail service.
The relatively low price of the e-m@ilers is made possible because Amstrad plans to sell them below cost. The company hopes to make up the shortfall by receiving a share of the revenues generated by e-mail phone calls.
The success of mobile phones was built on a similar cost model.
Consumers taking up the service may have to brace themselves for a flood of adverts, though. Amstrad says it hopes for additional revenues from sending ads to users.
It took the two firms 18 months to develop the service. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47439227 | Tributes have been paid to a "funny and intelligent" schoolgirl who was fatally stabbed in an east London park.
Jodie Chesney, 17, was stabbed in the back as she played music with friends in Harold Hill on Friday night.
The Metropolitan Police said officers' shifts had been extended amid a "tragic" 10 days of violence in the capital.
Police are searching for two suspects in connection with Jodie's death and have made no arrests yet.
The principal of Havering Sixth Form College, where Jodie was studying for her A-levels, said her loss was "devastating to staff and students".
Paul Wakeling said: "Jodie was an excellent, hard-working and focused student," he continued.
"Our focus for the next few days will be on providing support for the college community as a whole with additional help, as needed, for those who knew Jodie personally."
Jodie was a member of the Greater London North East Scouts.
Anna Skipworth, district explorer scout leader, said Jodie "blossomed into an amazing young woman" during her time with the Scouts.
"She always had a smile on her face, supporting the younger members where she could," she added.
"She was funny, intelligent and a joy to work with."
A school friend of Jodie's said she was "disgusted" by the killing.
"Jodie had no enemies, she was the nicest person," she added.
Graham McNulty, deputy assistant commissioner for the Met, said more officers were out on patrol as "one incident, one injury, one death is one too many".
"We have had a tragic 10 days in London where we have seen a number of high profile, violent incidents," he added.
He said officers had carried out 2,500 stop-and-searches in the past three days.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid condemned the "senseless violence" that has seen a rise in the number of teenagers being stabbed to death across the UK.
A day after Jodie's murder, 17-year-old Yousef Ghaleb Makki was stabbed to death in the village of Hale Barns in Greater Manchester. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42105436 | A boat carrying eight men claiming to be North Korean fishermen has washed ashore the coast in Japan.
Japanese police said the men were found at Yurihonjo city's marina late on Thursday, and taken into custody.
The men had told authorities that their boat experienced difficulties and they ended up drifting into Japanese waters.
Japan regularly sees North Korean fishing boats straying into its territory, and its coastguard has occasionally had to rescue fishermen.
But sometimes the boats - often simple or rickety vessels - are found with bodies onboard, indicating that the vessels had been drifting for some time.
In the latest incident, Japanese authorities said the men were able to walk unaided. A Korean interpreter has been brought in to help with obtaining details of their story, reported broadcaster NHK.
The Japanese government says it believes they are fishermen and not spies or asylum seekers.
Hachiro Okonogo, chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, told reporters that the men said they drifted over to Yurihonjo, in the north east of Japan, "after their ship experienced troubles".
Japanese media said the men were apparently fishing for squid. Photos of their boat showed the vessel kitted out with bare light bulb, which are often used by fishermen to attract fish at night.
According to some Japanese media outlets, the men have said they intend to return to North Korea.
Defections by boat to Japan are not common given the distance, though it has happened before - in 2011, nine North Koreans tried to sail to South Korea but ended up across the sea in Japan.
Over the summer North Korea fired two missiles over Japan, angering Tokyo. This month also saw the high profile defection of a North Korean soldier to South Korea across the Demilitarised Zone.
What's behind the N Korean 'ghost ships' washing up in Japan? |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-41222570 | Australians have come to the defence of PM Malcolm Turnbull after a photo of him holding his grandchild and a beer became a topic of much discussion.
It began innocuously enough: Mr Turnbull shared the photo of himself with his young granddaughter at an Australian Rules football final in Sydney on Saturday.
The image was posted on his Facebook page alongside the caption: "Multitasking at the footy."
But it prompted some comments criticising Mr Turnbull over the presence of the beer.
"Disgraceful holding a child with alcohol in hand!" wrote Marg Walker.
Another criticised it as "irresponsible", while one person said they found it "disgusting to see people breathing grog all over baby's [sic]".
The objections gained a wider audience when they were picked up by national media outlets. Descriptions of it ranged from a "minor storm" to a "huge backlash".
However, as quickly as the criticism emerged, so too did those defending Mr Turnbull as having done nothing wrong.
"What a beautiful photo. Mr Turnbull has every right to nurse and enjoy cuddling his grandchild," wrote Jan Robertson.
Caroline Overington wrote: "This is absurd. The PM is taking good care of the baby. It's a beautiful shot."
Others pointed out that it is common to sensibly enjoy an alcoholic beverage in Australian sporting stadiums. Some wondered what would have happened if Mr Turnbull had been pictured clasping a non-alcoholic beverage, such as a cup of tea.
The list of Mr Turnbull's defenders even grew to include his political rival, opposition leader Bill Shorten.
One government Senator, Matthew Canavan, responded with his own photo.
Another political opponent, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, told Channel Seven: "If anything this has made the prime minister look a bit more personable to the public."
Some said if there was any criticism of the photo it should be that it was potentially stage-managed. The nation's two dominant football codes, Australian Rules and rugby league, attract huge attention during their finals seasons in September.
By Monday, much of the anger was being directed at those who had sparked the discussion.
"[The photo is] lovely, and all these keyboard warriors need to get a life!" wrote one commenter, Fiona Deegan.
The sentiment was echoed by Mr Turnbull, who played down the debate in his first interview for the week.
"I think it's the craziness of social media when you see things like that," he told local radio station Triple M.
"As long as you're comfortable in your own skin and you're just being yourself, being natural, that's all you can do." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/6470297.stm | Poisoned peppers found in North Devon were meant for Lynton's infamous wild goats or Exmoor's famous ponies, the RSPCA fears.
The charity wants to find those responsible for leaving the vegetables near the Valley of Rocks in Lynton.
Twelve green peppers were found stuffed with what is believed to be caustic soda crystals and baited blue grain, similar to rat poison.
The goats have long divided villagers because of the damage they cause.
The 80-strong goat herd grazes in the 300-acre valley in Exmoor National Park.
The goats, which have roamed the Valley of Rocks for hundreds of years often cause trouble by eating flowers in the cemetery and damaging local gardens.
They are described as "destructive and dangerous pests" by some locals, while others have claimed they are an important draw to tourists.
The poisoned peppers were found near a shelter in a public area by a member of the public who was out walking in the Valley Of Rocks on Friday - in an area frequented by the wild goats and Exmoor ponies.
RSPCA Chief Inspector David Steele said whoever left the peppers probably believed the animals would mistake them for apples.
But he said they could easily have been consumed by birds and other wildlife.
The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has been informed and the poisoned peppers have been sent for analysis.
"As far as we are aware, no animals have been poisoned by this incident, but it could be a very different story," Ch Insp Steele said.
"It is vital we find out who is responsible for this incident so they don't attempt to do the same thing again."
In May 2005, the goats were given a reprieve when the town council abandoned its plans to cull them, in favour of installing a new cattle grid.
However in January this year, about a dozen billy goats managed to cross the £40,000 grid, again bringing havoc and damage to Lynton.
Town Clerk Geoff Dwyer said he was "disgusted" by the discovery of the peppers.
"If, and it's a big if, this is aimed at the goats, I think its absolutely appalling," he told BBC News.
Mr Dwyer said children, dogs, feral cats, badgers, foxes and birds - including a pair of nearby peregrine falcons - were also being put at risk. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40535801 | One of Japan's largest online retailers has banned the sale of ivory, closing a major marketplace for the controversial trade.
Rakuten is accused of being the world's largest online retailer for elephant ivory, but will now phase out its sale.
The trade is legal in Japan for items imported before 1989 - but no new stock can be brought into the country.
Many other countries have banned the trade outright over concerns that it contributes to elephant poaching.
Rakuten also banned the sale of sea turtle products on its site, telling AFP news agency it was responding to "growing international concern".
"We expect it will take 1-2 months for all listings of these prohibited products to be removed," it said.
Does burning actually destroy ivory?
On the day of the announcement, a large number of ivory items were still listed for sale, including many carved personal seals known as "hanko".
Sellers of such items are expected to maintain careful records of their origin, and use only government-regulated ivory stockpiles.
But activists believe the rules are often circumvented and the precious material is often smuggled across borders.
Yahoo Japan, another site which allows the sale of ivory, has previously come under fire for the practice.
However, a spokesman told Reuters it did not plan to halt the trade, saying: "We don't think that the legal ivory trade in Japan has any impact on African elephant numbers."
"It is important to recognise there are cultural differences between different countries," he added.
African elephant numbers have plummeted in the last century, and there are an estimated 500,000 remaining on the continent.
China, a traditional powerhouse in the ivory trade, announced in December that it would ban all ivory activities and trade by the end of 2017.
Conservation groups hailed the decision as "historic" and a "game-changer" - but ivory artists have lamented the loss of a traditional craft. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2233762.stm | The deaths of 15 children in a government - run hospital in the east Indian state of West Bengal has brought into focus a debate on health care facilities in the country's public sector hospitals.
The local government denies accusations by parents of the babies that hospital staff have been negligent.
Health campaigners, however, point to the larger issue of lack of health facilities available to the average Indian.
Basic health care is almost non-existent in rural areas. That puts a lot of pressure on city hospitals.
They say the state of health care in India has never been satisfactory but it has deteriorated alarmingly in the last decade.
Dr Amit Sen Gupta of India's Public Health Campaign (Jan Swasthya Abhiyan) says the problem being highlighted by the recent deaths is just the tip of the iceberg.
"The incident has taken place in a metropolitan city therefore there is so much of media attention. The main point is... that basic health care is almost non-existent in rural areas.
"That puts a lot of pressure on city hospitals, which cannot cope with the large number of patients as they are not equipped to deal with them" he told the BBC.
Overcrowding is a common feature in government hospitals.
In most such places - particularly in the children and maternity wards - on an average two to three patients are made to share beds.
Most hospitals have double or treble the number of patients than they have the capacity for.
Senior health officials say that, under the law, they cannot turn the patients away, and that the patients also have nowhere else to go.
"Most of those who come to government hospitals cannot afford the money charged by the private hospitals," a senior health officials at Delhi's Lal Bhadur Shastri hospital told the BBC earlier this year.
"So the choice for them is between inconvenience and discomfort or no treatment at all."
Health activists say public health services are creaking because of the constant squeeze on budgets by the central government.
"The government spends barely .09% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care. It is an incredibly small amount for such a large country as ours," Dr Sen Gupta says.
"The government's spending on health care amounts to 16% while the rest of the 84% comes from the private sector.
"Most people go to government hospitals rather than the private ones", he added.
Health experts say there is no political will to improve things.
They say the emphasis in the past decade has been on economic development rather than human development.
Nearly all political leaders in India emphasise the need to make health a priority.
India's constitution envisages the nation as a welfare state.
The Indian Supreme Court in its various rulings has observed that as a welfare state, the government is obliged to run hospitals and health care centres to provide efficient medical services.
But critics say the promise remains a distant dream.
Health campaigners say they have reworked their strategy by placing greater emphasis on raising awareness about health as a fundamental right for the citizens. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/p/port_vale/4271848.stm | Port Vale have signed 20-year-old Sheffield United striker Gary Mulligan on a month's loan to cover injury shortages in their striking department.
Boss Martin Foyle told Vale's website: "It gives us a striker while we wait for Lee Matthews to get fit.
"The lad comes with a good pedigree and hopefully we can throw him up front and he can have a say in our attack.
"There were three other clubs chasing him but Blades boss Neil Warnock has helped me out at a difficult time." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/education-47936211 | Where do you see yourself in five years' time? No longer working in education, 40% of UK teachers surveyed by a teachers' union replied.
It may sound like a cliched interview question, but the National Education Union says that the answer is evidence of a "culture of fear" in schools.
Its survey of 8,600 members found most of those leaving blamed "huge workloads and excessive accountability".
Education Secretary Damian Hinds has promised to tackle the workload issue.
One teacher, who responded to the union's State of Education survey published at its annual conference in Liverpool, said: "Working 70 hours a week for many years has meant my health and family life have suffered.
"I am getting out before the job kills me."
Another unnamed respondent said: "My job is no longer about children. It's about a 60-hour week with pressure to push children's data through."
More than half of respondents said their work-life balance had got worse in the past year, with one teacher saying: "With a young family, and despite working part-time, I have come to realise that a job in education is not conducive to family life."
Another said: "My personal life doesn't exist any more."
And the outlook was negative for a substantial minority of new teachers, with some 26% of those who had been in the job between two and five years, saying that they plan to quit the classroom altogether in five years' time.
NEU joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said: "The government is doing a far better job of driving teachers out of the profession than they are solving the issue of excessive workload."
He said that the main problem was one of excessive accountability, adding: "So long as the main drivers of a performance-based system are still in place, schools will continue to be in the grip of fear, over-regulation and a lack of trust."
Mr Hinds has acknowledged that long hours and red tape are among the "biggest threats" to recruiting and retaining staff.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said reducing teacher workload was a key part of its retention and recruitment strategy.
"We have worked with school leaders and teachers to create a workload reduction toolkit, which provides practical advice and resources that schools can use rather than creating new ones from scratch," he added.
"We are also tackling excessive data burdens in schools; simplifying the accountability system to target the associated burdens and working with Ofsted to ensure staff workload is considered as part of a school's inspection judgement."
Recruitment targets for teachers have been missed in England for five years in a row. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23930267 | A group of MPs is calling for a ring-fenced fund to pay for drugs for rare conditions.
The Parliamentary Group for Muscular Dystrophy says it is concerned about funding for high-cost drugs.
It comes after the special budget for treating rare diseases in England was merged into the overall NHS budget. Scotland has a fund in place for the so called "orphan drugs" until April 2014.
A UK-wide strategy for rare diseases will be published this year.
Overall it is estimated that 3.5 million people in the UK suffer from a rare disease, and that 70,000 of those have some form of the different muscle-wasting diseases known as muscular dystrophy.
The MPs say they are concerned that funds previously ear-marked for drugs for rare diseases have now been merged into the budget for all specialised services in England.
Decisions on how to spend a £100m fund for rare diseases, sometimes called orphan conditions, were made on the advice of a special committee but that power was transferred to NHS England in April.
At the same time, the cost and clinical advisory body, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), took over responsibility for assessing these drugs as part of the wider reorganisation of the health service in England.
Concerned MPs warn the way drugs are funded and assessed could lead to hundreds of children with life-shortening conditions being denied rapid access to new therapies.
They want a drugs fund for rare diseases, similar to the one in Scotland, and a rapid system for regulators to review cutting edge drugs.
The chairman of the all-party group, Dave Anderson MP, said: "We have seen that successfully developing an effective treatment is far from the end, with agonising waits for some families through licensing and funding issues."
Most of those affected by rare diseases are children, and the charity, Rare Disease UK, estimates that 30% die by their fifth birthday.
For the first time there are some promising developments on the horizon for one condition, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The results from some final-stage clinical trials of a genetic therapy are expected later this year, and may offer the hope of new treatments.
Robert Meadowcroft, chief executive of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, said they were gravely concerned at the lack of a dedicated fund or clear criteria for how new drugs might be assessed.
"We've got families setting great store by the treatments coming through. It would be heartbreaking and devastating if they're not available to children who need them."
NICE said it accepted it needed to develop a different approach for looking at rare conditions, adding: "Our process and methods for developing guidance for such drugs will ensure that patient and clinical experts are involved."
Negotiations are under way with the pharmaceutical industry on a new pricing regime which would include a new way of recognising the value of some new treatments.
A Department of Health spokesman said: "We are working closely with other health departments and stakeholders to develop a UK strategy for rare diseases. This will be published by the end of the year." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8583350.stm | US President Barack Obama has signed his landmark healthcare bill into law in a ceremony at the White House.
The new law will eventually extend health insurance cover to about 32 million Americans who currently do not have any.
Mr Obama said he was signing the bill for people like his mother "who argued with insurance companies even as she battled cancer in her final days".
The bill is strongly opposed by the Republicans, who say it is too costly.
Immediately after the signing, attorneys general from 13 states - 12 Republicans and one Democrat - began legal proceedings against the federal government seeking to stop the reforms on the grounds that they are unconstitutional.
Mr Obama was joined at the White House signing ceremony by healthcare reform supporters including Democrats from both Houses of Congress who supported the measure.
He said the bill's provisions were "desperately needed", adding: "The bill I'm signing will set in motion reforms that generations of Americans have fought for and marched for and hungered to see."
He hailed the "historic leadership and uncommon courage" of the Democratic leadership in Congress that secured the bill's passage, singling out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for particular praise.
He concluded: "Today after almost a century of trial, today after over a year of debate, today after all the votes have been tallied, health insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America. Today.
"All of the overheated rhetoric over reform will finally confront the reality of reform."
Mr Obama now has to sell the reforms to a divided American public before November's mid-term elections.
On Thursday, he will go to the state of Iowa to talk about how the new law will help to lower healthcare costs for small businesses and families.
Q&A: What next for health reform?
Now for a climate bill?
After a heated debate, the House of Representatives voted 219-212 late on Sunday to send the 10-year, $938bn bill to Mr Obama. Not one Republican voted for the bill, and some Democrats also voted against it.
The measure, which the Senate passed in December, is expected to expand health insurance coverage to about 95% of eligible Americans, compared with the 83% covered today.
It will ban insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people with existing medical problems.
Correspondents say the bill represents the biggest expansion of the federal government's social safety net since President Lyndon Johnson enacted the Medicare and Medicaid government-funded healthcare programmes for the elderly and poor in the 1960s.
Mr Obama's campaign to overhaul US healthcare seemed stalled in January, when a Republican won a special election to fill the late Edward Kennedy's Massachusetts Senate seat, and with it, enough Republican votes to prevent the bill from coming to a final vote in the Senate.
But Democrats came up with a plan that required the House to approve the Senate-passed measure - despite its opposition to many of its provisions - and then have both chambers pass a measure incorporating numerous changes after the president signed it into law. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2939448.stm | The Swiss authorities say they are investigating a number of recent cases in which people have been helped to commit suicide.
The Public Prosecutor's Office in the city of Zurich says it has been concerned for some time about a Swiss voluntary euthanasia charity, Dignitas.
The charity helped a British husband and wife, Robert and Jennifer, Stokes end their lives two months ago even though neither was thought to be terminally ill.
The prosecutor's office said it was particularly worried about the speed with which the assisted suicides took place - in many cases patients were dead within a day of arriving in Zurich.
Founded in 1998, Dignitas has helped more than 100 people die - at least two-thirds of them foreigners.
The case of Stokes caused an outcry in the UK when they travelled to Zurich at the end of March.
The Swiss authorities are also looking into the suicide of an elderly German woman who married a much younger man shortly before her death.
The German authorities are already investigating this case. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4152503.stm | Isolating patients with the hospital superbug MRSA does not stop other patients being infected, a study says.
Researchers monitored 866 intensive care patients over a year. Isolation was used for six months but not for the rest of the time, the Lancet said.
The team found MRSA infection and colonisation rates remained similar for the whole year - despite national guidelines recommending isolation.
Hospital-acquired infections kill thousands a year and cost the NHS £1bn.
For six months MRSA patients were isolated, but for the other six months they were not, The Lancet said.
A fifth of these infections are caused by MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus).
MRSA is particularly prevalent in intensive care wards with one in six patients getting it.
The teams, from University College London Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital, isolated patients with MRSA for the first three months and last three months of the study.
They also took the standard precautions such as hand washing, using disposable aprons and disposing of body fluids.
In the middle six months patients were not moved away from other patients but the other precautions were taken.
During the isolation period 443 patients were seen, 92 of which were MRSA-positive on admission. Another 54 subsequently acquired the bug.
Some 423 patients were seen during the non-move stage, of which 76 were had MRSA on admission. A further 42 got it.
Report co-author Dr Peter Wilson said: "Our findings challenge the prevailing view that isolation of intensive-care unit patients who are colonised or infected with MRSA in single rooms reduce the transmission of MRSA, over and above the use of standard precautions, in an environment in which it is endemic."
However, the researchers stopped short of saying this finding should be extended to general hospital wards and called for further research to be conducted.
Tony Field, chairman of MRSA Support, a support group for sufferers, said the findings were not a surprise.
"Isolation will only work if people tending to the patients are not carrying the bug.
"The cycle of infection had to be broken and that is best done at the wound site."
And Jean Lawrence, honorary chairman of the Infection Control Nurses Association, said while hospitals do use isolation to prevent the spread of MRSA, no health professional would rely on it alone.
"Other precautions such as washing hands are essential."
She said the demanding nature of the NHS already meant that not every patient with MRSA would be isolated anyway.
"Sometimes patients will be placed in a ward with other people but put at the end of the ward near a sink."
The Department of Health said: "This survey emphasises the importance of hand hygiene and the strict application of aseptic (no touch) methods for clinical procedures in preventing transmission."
And Simon Williams, director of policy at the Patients Association, added: "This Lancet report highlights the importance of an attack on all fronts to tackle MRSA, and not just via one route.
"Screening and isolating patients can only work if other aseptic techniques are also adhered to. " |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-35101130 | The luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital, Bamako, has reopened less than a month after it came under attack from Islamist militants.
"This is a victory of life over the jihadists," President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said at the opening ceremony, AFP news agency reports.
Twenty two people died in the siege, including the two attackers.
Mali's state prosecutor said on Monday the gunmen might have been been Somali but investigations were continuing.
Somalia's Islamist militant group al-Shabab has not commented on the allegation.
Three other jihadist groups have previously said they were behind the attack.
These include al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), its offshoot al-Murabitoun and the Macina Liberation Front from central Mali.
Last month, Malian forces in Bamako arrested two people in connection with the attack, but no further arrests have been made.
Security has been increased at the hotel and it is now not possible to drive in front of the building and the road surrounding it has become one-way only.
The hotel's manager, Gary Ellis, told the BBC there were now fences around the hotel, an automatic gate and a scanner for baggage.
"We are resuming our activities with a winner's spirit - we need to erase that terrible day of the attack." he said.
Abdourahmane Dia from the BBC French Service says that since the attack Bamako has remained on high alert.
Militant groups have become more active in southern Mali this year, he says.
On Sunday, armed men attacked a military barracks in the central town of Niono.
One soldier was injured and two others are still missing. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38299542 | Shares in UniCredit have jumped almost 15% after Italy's biggest bank said it would raise €13bn (£10.9bn) and cut 14,000 jobs to restore its fortunes.
The bank plans to use the record rights issue to help remove almost €18bn of bad debt from its balance sheet and boost profitability.
UniCredit also plans to close about a quarter of its 3,800 branches.
The move comes as Italy's third-largest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, tries to avoid a government bailout.
Shares in UniCredit, whose financial health is considerably worse than its European rivals, rose 35 cents to €2.78 on the Milan stock exchange.
However, the shares have fallen by almost half this year and the bank will be seeking to raise nearly as much as its market value.
Chief executive Jean Pierre Mustier said it was a "pragmatic plan based on conservative assumptions, with tangible and achievable targets".
He added: "We are taking decisive actions to deal with our [problem loan] legacy issues to improve and support recurring future profitability to become one of Europe's most attractive banks."
The former Societe Generale executive has sold assets including fund manager Pioneer and Polish unit Bank Pekao since joining five months ago.
"We've taken some bold actions because self-help is always the best thing to do," Mr Mustier told analysts.
He pledged to cut his fixed salary by 40% to €1.2m and has vowed not to take an annual bonus for the next three years.
Joseph Oughourlian, chief executive of Amber Capital, a shareholder in UniCredit, praised Mr Mustier.
"Sorting out UniCredit is huge service and a plus for the Italian banking sector. We now have the two largest banks in Italy well-capitalised," he said. Italy's other major bank is Intesa Sanpaolo.
Wealth manager Northern Trust Capital Markets said: "If one was to believe management can deliver on the plan ... and, should the environment turn in their favour, there is an argument to be said the shares look about 50% too cheap."
UniCredit's cash call will take place in the first three months of the new year, with the funds used to remove €17.7bn of bad debts from its balance sheet.
The bank aims to get its core capital ratio - a key measure of financial strength - above 12.5% by 2019, as well as post net profits of €4.7bn and resume dividend payments that year.
The job cuts will amount to about 11% of its workforce.
UniCredit's plans come as a new government takes office in Rome following the decision by prime minister Matteo Renzi to quit after losing a referendum vote over constitutional change. Elections are also expected next year. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1492359.stm | An Icelandic glacier has begun melting away to reveal the wreckage of a British war plane which crashed into it 60 years ago.
Local historian Hordur Geirsson has been harnessing the powers of global warming to bring the Royal Air Force Fairey Battle bomber plane to the surface.
In the most recent expedition which ended on Tuesday, he and a team of researchers found human remains, as well as one part of the landing gear, a steering pin and parts of the wheels.
They also found a third machine-gun, which presents something of a mystery as the bomber was supposed only to have two guns aboard.
The items found are displayed at the museum in Akureyri.
Four servicemen died in the crash: a New Zealand born Flight Officer Arthur Round and three British airmen, Flight Sergeant Keith Garrett, Flight Sergeant Reginald Hopkins and Pilot Officer Henry Talbot.
"Since 1995 the glacier has been getting smaller because of the warmer weather," Mr Geirsson told BBC News Online.
But to help nature on its way his team has placed netting over the crash site to concentrate the rays of the sun.
"It works unbelievably well. When the sun is highest here in Iceland, at that time by putting black herring net over the site it speeds up the melting of the snow," he said.
The nets not only melt through the layer of snow which gathers every winter on the glacier, but actually penetrate into the thick glacial ice which has built up over 100 or 200 years.
Water streams in creeks down the side of the glacier, as the wreckage emerges from the ice.
Mr Geirsson began his hunt 20 years ago, walking through the high mountains in search of the plane, which crashed in May 1941 shortly after take-off from Akureyri airport in northern Iceland.
But in 1999, a friend found a report from a wartime search party at the Public Records Office in London, giving the precise site of the crash.
"We walked straight to the location," he said.
At the time of the crash the hostile environment made it difficult for British forces to recover the plane.
"The site was covered with very deep winter snow at the time of the crash and the plane disappeared completely," Mr Geirsson said.
"Wartime clothing made it impossible for [the British forces]," he said.
A search party did reach the site in June 1941 and, declaring it a war grave, erected a cross there.
But it was not until 2000 that relatives of the airmen, including four from New Zealand, could travel to the site for a memorial service.
Mr Geirsson plans to carry on with his recovery of the wreck - with continued warming he envisages another 10 years of summer expeditions.
The priority, he says, is to recover all the human remains but he also expects to start to find the wings, part of the cockpit and the plane's motor in the coming trips.
He will be back at the site in September for a last look before it disappears under the winter snow once more. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics_2004/gymnastics/3589372.stm | Dimosthenis Tampakos claimed gold for host nation Greece in the final of the rings gymnastics competition.
Tampakos was under intense pressure to go one better than his silver in Sydney but he managed to remain composed and gave a near flawless exhibition.
He nailed his dismount and stood fists clinched until he was able to celebrate his winning score of 9.862.
Jordan Jovtchev, of Bulgaria, took the silver, while five-time world champion Yuri Chechi, of Italy, clinched bronze. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/826131.stm | The UK's Tradepoint Financial Services and the Swiss Exchange SWX are planning to set up a pan-European blue-chip exchange, called Virt-X.
Under the agreement, Tradepoint will be renamed Virt-X and SWX will transfer trading in all its blue-chip shares to Virt-X.
Virt-X will use the Swiss market's trading platform, and companies from Europe's leading stock market indexes will be traded on the platform.
The two expect to finalise the deal during the third quarter of this year. The new market will be based in London.
The pan-European share dealing platform adds 230 European blue chip stocks to its range of 2,000 UK equities.
Tradepoint's move is the first in a rush of rival bourses trying to offer true pan-European trading.
Euronext (Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam stock exchange), iX (London and Frankfurt), Easdaq and Jiway all have promised to offer trading in European shares.
Tradepoint is the first to deliver.
Europe's single currency is the driving force behind the quest for a pan-European stock exchange.
The euro allows companies to tap a huge capital market, while a string of cross-border mergers has made the concept of national exchanges and nationally listed stocks irrelevant.
Now Tradepoint is the first exchange to offer investors a one-stop shop to invest in European companies.
A few days ago the exchange got another boost, when the US Securities and Exchange Commission allowed American investors to trade directly in European shares through Tradepoint. There are still limits on trading volume, but no other market can offer this access.
Private investors, however, cannot enjoy the benefits directly. The trading platform is open only to Tradepoint's 250 members - big banks and stockbrokers across Europe and in the United States.
Retail investors will have to go through them to make use of the facility.
Trading - to take place between 0700 and 1730 UK time - will be limited to shares listed on major European indices, like the FTSE Eurotop 300, the Dow Jones Stoxx 50 and Euro Stoxx 50, Frankfurt's Dax 30, Paris' Cac 40 and Milan's Mib 30.
Other stocks are to be added later.
Trading will be done anonymously, through London Clearing House, using the euro for eurozone shares and domestic currencies for all others.
The success of Tradepoint's European blue chip exchange will depend on whether it can attract enough trading volume.
Without enough supply and demand in key stocks, prices will be volatile and scare away investors.
But Tradepoint has an in-built advantage.
Among its share holders are banking giants like Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and ABN Amro. If they decide to channel their in-house trading through Tradepoint, the exchange may have enough liquidity to attract other investors.
And to attract other investors, trading fees have been cut.
Alan Hodson of UBS Warburg, a Tradepoint shareholder, said: "We can only trade on Tradepoint if it's offering the best price at the time."
But there are doubts about the commitment of Tradepoint's shareholders. They may be reluctant to be guinea pigs for what is in effect an unproven business model.
Furthermore, it will take only a few more months before competitors will offer rival trading platforms.
Tradepoint is regulated by the British Financial Services Authority.
Its shareholders are ABN Amro, American Century, Archipelago, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Instinet, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS Warburg. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47375076 | A train that was stuck in the snow for nearly 40 hours with 183 passengers on board has resumed its journey - by going backwards.
The Amtrak service from Seattle to Los Angeles was stopped by a tree on the track in Oregon on Sunday evening.
Heavy snow and downed trees prevented crews from reaching the train until Tuesday morning. A locomotive then pulled it back to Eugene, Oregon.
No one was hurt but passengers said there was a lack of food and water.
Other items such as nappies and female sanitary products were also running out and people said stress levels were rising.
One passenger, Rebekah Dodson, told KTVL News: "We've gotten yelled at for opening windows. We can't get off the train because there's 4ft (1.2m) of snow in every direction. There's nowhere to go."
In a separate interview with CNN she said several students "panicked" because their university professors were refusing to accept their excuse for missing classes.
She added that the group includes about 20 students from Japan, and that there is poor mobile phone reception in the region.
Several American Red Cross volunteers were waiting to offer snacks and water to the passengers once the train reached Eugene.
The Coast Starlight Train 11 was stuck near Oakridge, a small town that lost power and saw roads blocked after it was covered in heavy snow.
Amtrak said no passengers would be charged for any food or water. They were working with the Union Pacific rail company to clear tracks.
Passenger Carly Bigby told the BBC a locomotive had arrived around 06:00 local time on Tuesday, though Amtrak informed them it was "going to be a slow go".
In a statement, Amtrak said the train was ultimately on its way back to its point of departure, Seattle, but "due to weather conditions, additional delays are to be expected along the route".
In a further statement from its chief executive, Amtrak expressed "sincere regret" and promised refunds.
Amtrak said that passengers were kept on board the train because of the power outages in Oakridge and to avoid separating passengers between the town's two small hotels.
Residents in Oakridge said the situation there was also growing dire, as local petrol stations and grocery stores shut due to lack of electricity.
"You can't get a hold of water, you can't get a hold of food, you can't get a hold of any sort of fuel to create heat or to cook with," Christina Mentzer told KPIC-TV.
"So people are looking for propane, people are looking for gasoline, people are looking for water.
"Today they're asking, but as of right now essentially what's going on is they're going around town finding where they can get stuff if it gets that bad."
Reality Check: When is a train on time?
UK snow: Why is my train cancelled in cold weather? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5408374.stm | The Dow Jones index of major US shares closed at an all-time high for the second consecutive day, after Tuesday saw the highest close since 2000.
The Dow leapt 123.27 points or 1.05% at 11,850.61, from 11,727.34 on Tuesday. Also for the second day the index saw a record intra-day high.
The Standard & Poor's 500 also hit its highest level in more than five years.
The rise was spurred by falling oil prices and signs that interest rates are likely to be left unchanged.
The Dow's new intraday high rose to 11,851.25, having hit 11,758.95 on Tuesday.
With the S&P up 8% for the year, and the Dow making new highs, "you have to remember the old Wall Street adage" said Mike Driscoll, a Bear Stearns trader.
"The Dow industrials are the generals, and once the generals push through to the fore, then the troops play catch up."
The Dow Jones new record came after lower-than-expected service sector growth for September, a sign of a cooling economy.
With the slowing services sector - which represents about 80% US economic activity - and a slow down in the housing market, analysts think it increasingly likely that the Federal Reserve will opt to maintain interest rates at 5.25%.
Oil prices fell below $58 a barrel - its lowest since mid February - before later climbing to $59.41.
Economists think lower oil prices could encourage consumer spending and buoy corporate profits.
However Federal Reserve head Ben Bernanke on Wednesday said inflation was still too high.
But he also confirmed a slower housing market and said this would continue to impact economic growth.
Until Tuesday the highest Dow Jones index close had been 11,722.98, which it set in January 2000.
When the index hit that peak, the internet boom was in full swing. But the index later dropped to 7,286.27 in October 2002 before recovering. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4404971.stm | World leaders have been paying tribute to Pope John Paul II who has died at the age of 84.
A great Pope - our most outstanding fellow countryman, the Holy Father, a good father to all of us, believers and non-believers, followers of different religions - is no more.
We are grateful to him for the tireless and difficult work he carried out unstintingly against all forms of totalitarianism, violence, oppression and moral degradation, all in the name of the values of the Catholic Church, which are the supreme values of human dignity and solidarity.
A good and faithful servant of God has been called home.
The world has lost a champion of peace and freedom.
I was deeply saddened by the death of Pope John Paul II.
Quite apart from his role as a spiritual guide to more than a billion men, women and children, he was a tireless advocate of peace, a true pioneer in interfaith dialogue and a strong force for critical self-evaluation by the Church itself.
Our people receive the news of his death with a deep sense of grief and loss.
He was a holy champion of the Filipino family and of profound Christian values that make everyone of us contemplate... what is just, moral and sacred in life.
We have always seen the Pope, and will always see him, as a friend who was concerned for the poor, who fought neoliberalism and strove for peace.
John Paul II was always on the side of the most poor, of the most unprotected, of the most unfortunate, those who were left behind in the development process.
Until the end of his life, John Paul II carried out his mission with energy and clarity. The suffering he did not hide in his last years never altered his determination.
John Paul II was an exceptional man, his legacy will transcend generations.
This mourning deeply marks France as well as every French person who identifies with the message of the Catholic Church.
For us Catholics, John Paul II will be remembered as a travelling Pope ... and we should also remember he preached world peace. When the United States invaded Iraq, for example, John Paul II said it was an illegal and immoral act.
The world has lost a religious leader who was revered across people of all faiths and none. He was an inspiration, a man of extraordinary faith, dignity and courage.
Throughout a hard and often difficult life, he stood for social justice and on the side of the oppressed, whether as a young man facing the Nazi occupation in Poland or later in challenging the Communist regime.
He never wavered, never flinched, in the struggle for what he thought was good and right.
The story of Pope John Paul II is that of a man of immense faith and conviction and, in latter years, great personal courage.
He engaged with human culture and civilisation in every aspect and in every corner of the world.
Pope John Paul II not only visited Nigeria twice but stood by the country in its fight against dictatorship and injustice.
It is with extreme sadness that we hear of the passing of the leader of the world's Catholics, His Holiness Pope John Paul II, who commanded the three paths of religious learning, philosophical thought and poetical and artistic creativity.
Israel, the Jewish people and the entire world, lost today a great champion of reconciliation and brotherhood between the faiths.
This is a great loss, first and foremost for the Catholic Church and its hundreds of millions of believers, but also for humanity as a whole.
We have lost a very important religious figure who dedicated his life to peace and justice for all.
The Pope was a great friend of Albania. He made a distinguished contribution to the setting up of the Catholic Church in Albania. Albanians are grateful to him for the beatification of Mother Theresa.
I am proud to say that I was a friend of the Pope, a great man. Kosovo and Albanians will remember him as a great Holy Father who did a lot for our country, Kosovo. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/fa_cup/4647326.stm | If Wolves' FA Cup fourth round tie with Manchester United provides the same entertainment as it did the last time the pair met in the competition, it will be well worth waiting for.
The two sides were thrown together in the sixth round back in the 1975-76 competition.
At that time, Manchester were a vibrant, young swashbuckling side under Tommy Docherty, fresh from bouncing back from relegation from the top flight.
Wolves were on the slide, and were in fact relegated at the end of the season.
John Richards' goal cancelled out Gerry Daly's strike and earned Wolves a replay at Molineux.
Wolves led 2-1 at half-time in the replay through goals from Richards and Steve Kindon, with Stuart Pearson scoring for United.
Brian Greenhoff's equaliser took the tie into extra-time, where Sammy McIlroy scored the winner.
But what happened to the players who lined up all those years ago?
Manager - Bill McGarry An abrasive tough-tackling England international wing-half as a player he took over as Wolves boss in 1968. Wolves struggled after this Cup tie and were relegated from the old Division One at the end of the 1976 season, prompting McGarry's departure. He died in March 2005 in South Africa after a long illness.
Phil Parkes Big towering keeper, who at any other time when the competition was not quite so hot, might have made a full England squad. Now working in the house construction and maintenance business in the West Midlands.
Derek Parkin A fine attacking full-back who came agonisingly close to full England honours. Holds Wolves appearance record with more than 600 games. After retiring as a player, worked in a market-gardening business.
Alan Sunderland Played at right-back for Wolves in this Cup run, but later moved to Arsenal in 1977, where Terry Neill employed him as a striker. Best remembered for the last-gasp FA Cup final winner for Arsenal in 1979 against Man Utd. Now coaching in Malta.
Frank Munro Big, rugged Scottish central defender who joined Celtic from Wolves. Settled in Australia before returning to the UK. Suffered a stroke a few years ago which has confined him to a wheelchair.
John McAlle Formed a solid central pairing with Munro, and left Wolves to join Sheffield United. After hanging up his boots, developed a very successful market-gardening business, but is now semi-retired.
Kenny Hibbitt A legend at Molineux, Hibbitt later moved to Birmingham and to Bristol Rovers where his career was ended by a broken leg. Went into coaching with the Pirates, but now assesses Premier League referees.
Steve Daley All-action midfielder who despite never winning a full England cap, became English football's most expensive player when Wolves sold him to Manchester City for £1.4m. Later played for Seattle Sounders in the USA, but now is a fixture on the West Midlands after-dinner speaking circuit.
Willie Carr Dynamic, flame-haired Scottish midfielder who joined Wolves from Coventry. Moved to Millwall from Wolves and is now working in sales.
Steve Kindon "Skippy" was a winger with searing pace. Signed from Burnley, he returned to Turf Moor after his spell at Wolves. After retiring worked for Huddersfield's commercial department, but now a firm favourite on the after-dinner circuit.
Bobby Gould Much-travelled striker, whose playing career took in Coventry, Arsenal, West Brom, Bristol City and West Ham as well as Wolves. His managerial career was equally nomadic, taking in two spells each at Bristol Rovers and Coventry, West Brom, Cardiff, Wimbledon (where he famously won the FA Cup) and the Wales national team. His last managerial post was Cheltenham and he is now involved in media work.
John Richards A prolific scorer for Wolves, wound his career down with Maritimo on the island of Madeira. Was invited on to Wolves' board on the death of Billy Wright and later served a spell as managing director at Molineux. Then carved another successful career in leisure services and now runs a website advising greenkeepers and groundsmen.
Mike Bailey: Substitute on the day, but a long-serving, reliable midfielder for Wolves. Coached at several clubs after his playing days ended, and has scouted for Wolves, Everton and Brighton.
Manager - Tommy Docherty Man Utd persuaded then Scotland manager Docherty to take over in December 1972. Presided over relegation from the top flight, but bounced United straight back up. Lost the 1976 Cup Final to Southampton but returned the following season to win the Cup. Sacked two months later he went on to manage Derby. Now rated among the best after-dinner speakers in the country.
Alex Stepney Long-serving goalkeeper who was a European Cup winner in 1968. Now works as a match-day host at Old Trafford, does media work for MUTV and is also on the after dinner speaking circuit.
Alex Forsyth Tough-tackling full-back who arrived from Partick Thistle. Now working as a bar manager in Scotland.
Stewart Houston Cultured full-back who arrived at United from Chelsea. When his playing days finished, he coached at Arsenal where he was also had two spells as caretaker manager, in the second leading the Gunners to the European Cup-Winners Cup final. Followed George Graham to Spurs, but left when he did. Last coaching job was at Walsall.
Gerry Daly Silky-skilled midfielder, followed manager Tommy Docherty when he moved to Derby. Now living and in business in the Derby area, where he also works to get his golf handicap down.
Brian Greenhoff Brother of United player Jimmy, Brian was a versatile England player who could operate in midfield or in the centre of defence. Left Man Utd for £350,000 to join Leeds. Now retired and living in Spain.
Martin Buchan An assured defender who made more than 370 league appearances for United. Captained United to FA Cup victory in 1977 and played in the World Cup finals for Scotland. Wound down his playing career at Oldham and had a short spell in management at Burnley. Now works as an executive for the Professional Footballers' Association.
Steve Coppell A pacy, intelligent player who won 42 England caps before injury curtailed his career. Destined for managership, he had four different spells at Crystal Palace, a short spell at Manchester City, and has also managed Brentford and Brighton. He is currently on the brink of guiding Reading into the Premiership.
Sammy McIlroy McIlroy won 88 international caps for Northern Ireland. Took over as manager of Macclesfield Town and guided them into the Football League for the first time in their history. Lured into the Northern Ireland manager's job, he spent three years in charge. Is currently caretaker manager of Conference club Morecambe.
Stuart Pearson Thrusting, brave striker with a nose for goal. Made 15 appearances for England and was sold by United to West Ham for £220,000. Now based in Spain, he does occasional pundit work for United's television station.
Lou Macari Made more than 300 appearances for United before moving to Swindon where he eventually took up the managerial reins. His success at Swindon tempted West Ham, and he also ejoyed managerial spells at Birmingham, Celtic, Stoke (two spells) and Huddersfield. Now works in the media, including Man Utd's TV station. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4242800.stm | Iranian dissident writer Akbar Ganji has been placed in solitary confinement after being transferred back to prison from hospital, his wife has said.
But Iran's judiciary later denied the claim, adding he was in "very good" health and was sharing a cell.
Mr Ganji, jailed in 2000 for writing articles in which he linked senior officials to the murder of dissidents, went on a hunger strike in June.
He resumed eating after allegedly being told he would be sent home.
But according to Massoumeh Shafii, his wife, he has now been put "in quarantine" for no apparent reason.
In an open letter published by the reformist website Emruz, she said there was no medical reason to keep him isolated from other prisoners.
She branded the decision "a two-way news quarantine or a political news blackout".
Ms Shafii, who has not been allowed to visit her husband for 18 days, said the decision to take him back to prison "went against some judicial officials' negotiations and agreements with Mr Ganji".
But Iranian Justice Minister Jamal Karimirad on Tuesday told journalists Mr Ganji had been returned to prison and was in a shared cell.
"His health condition is very good," he added.
Ganji ended his hunger strike last month while in hospital.
Ganji's lawyer, the Nobel prize-winner Shirin Ebadi, has said her client's release on parole is long overdue since he has already served almost all his six-year term.
Iran: Who holds the power? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-47444107 | An advert designed to run on the London Underground was rejected because it contained bacon, butter, eggs and jam, an online supermarket said.
Farmdrop submitted a photograph which included images of the meat, dairy products and spread.
Last month TfL issued a ban on all junk food advertising.
Foods found to be high in fat, sugar and salt are now not allowed to feature in advertisements on public transport.
Farmdrop said it cropped out the items entirely for the adverts so that they could run inside Tube trains.
It said it wanted to include these items to show that it was more than a "vegetable box" scheme.
Farmdrop boss Ben Pugh said: "Our ad was a mixture of balanced wholefoods, while McDonald's Happy Meals and chicken burgers are HFSS-compliant under these rules. It's crazy."
He added: "We support the [TfL junk food] ban, but it's being handled very unjustly."
TfL said: "Our advertising policy requires brands to demonstrate that any food or drink products featured in advertisements running on our network are not high in fat, sugar and salt, unless they have been granted an exception.
"In this case, Farmdrop chose not to apply for an exception and our advertising agent worked with them to amend the advertisement."
TfL insisted it had not stated that eggs did not comply with the policy.
McDonald's has recently said it never advertised products considered to be high in fat, salt or sugar to children.
The ban was introduced as London mayor Sadiq Khan said he wanted to tackle the "ticking time bomb" of child obesity in the city.
However, the Advertising Association has said the ban would have "little impact on the wider societal issues that drive obesity". |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39000389 | US President Donald Trump's choice for national security adviser has turned down the job offer.
Retired Vice-Admiral Robert Harward was widely tipped for the post after Mr Trump fired Michael Flynn on Monday.
A White House official said Mr Harward cited family and financial commitments, but US media said the sticking point was he wanted to bring in his own team.
Mr Flynn had misled US Vice-President Mike Pence over his conversations with Russia's ambassador to the US.
There are four people being considered as his replacement including the new acting national security adviser, General Keith Kellogg, the president said on Friday.
The latest setback concerning Mr Harward emerged hours after Mr Trump robustly denied media reports of White House disarray, insisting in a news conference that his administration was running like a "fine-tuned machine".
The White House is expected to name its new communications director on Friday, and US media say the job will go to Mike Dubke, the founder of Republican media group Crossroads Media.
Mr Harward told the Associated Press the Trump administration was "very accommodating to my needs, both professionally and personally".
"It's purely a personal issue," added the 60-year-old former Navy Seal who is currently based in Abu Dhabi as an executive for US defence contractor Lockheed Martin.
Asked about reports that he had asked to bring in his own staff at the National Security Council, Mr Harward said: "I think that's for the president to address."
Mr Flynn, a retired army lieutenant-general, was ousted amid claims that before he was even appointed as national security adviser he had discussed sanctions with a Russian envoy.
This would have potentially breached a law banning private citizens from engaging in diplomacy.
Mr Flynn initially denied having discussed sanctions with Sergei Kislyak, Moscow's ambassador to Washington.
But on Monday, Mr Trump asked for his resignation following revelations that Mr Flynn had misled the vice-president about his conversations with the diplomat.
Leading Republicans have called for an investigation into intelligence leaks that led to Mr Flynn's resignation.
General David Petraeus and acting national security adviser Keith Kellogg are among those who have been tipped for the job.
Mr Kellogg, a retired three-star general, was named acting national security adviser after Mr Flynn stepped down.
The 72-year-old had a long career in the US Army, serving in Vietnam and Iraq, before retiring in 2003 and becoming a security consultant for software giant Oracle Corp.
Mr Petraeus, a celebrated former four-star general, retired as CIA director in 2012 after it emerged he had given top-secret material to his biographer, with whom he was also having an extramarital affair.
He is still serving two years' probation after his conviction for mishandling classified information, and would need to notify his parole officer if he wished to move to Washington DC. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36008479 | A strike affecting all care by junior doctors will "irreparably damage" trust and the profession's reputation, NHS England's medical director has said.
Writing in the Observer, Sir Bruce Keogh said the planned walkout in England on 26 and 27 April would put significant strain on services.
Action in the row over a new contract has not affected emergency care so far.
The British Medical Association said disruption was avoidable if the government agreed to return to talks.
Ministers, however, are refusing to reopen discussions, arguing they made compromises earlier in the year but the BMA did not.
A spokesman for Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the strike was "disproportionate... damaging and unnecessary".
The fourth strike in the dispute ran for for 48 hours from 08:00 BST on 6 April. Junior doctors did not provide routine care and about 5,000 operations and procedures were postponed.
The strikes later this month will be escalated to include all forms of care including emergencies.
In his article, Sir Bruce says "junior doctors will be grappling with their consciences" as the new strike date approaches.
"This is a watershed moment for the NHS - and a difficult time for the medical profession," he writes.
Sir Bruce does note that junior doctors feel disengaged and powerless and that all parties have a responsibility to solve the "underlying issues".
"Whatever the rights and wrongs of this complex dispute, this is a very serious state of affairs."
The new action, says Sir Bruce, will put additional significant strain on A&E, intensive care and maternity services, particularly in smaller hospitals.
"I worry that the withdrawal of emergency cover will put our sickest, most vulnerable patients at greater risk."
He calls on doctors to "dig deep" and ask whether the action is fair to patients or compatible with the values and privilege of the profession.
The BMA urged the government to get back round the table and end the dispute through talks, reiterating that senior doctors would provide emergency care on the strike days.
It disputes the government's assertion that changes to doctors' contracts, which will see them paid less for working weekends while basic pay is increased, are needed to improve care at weekends.
The union's junior doctors' leader, Dr Johann Malawana, tells the Observer: "No junior doctor wants to take this action but we have been left with no choice.
"We regret any disruption caused to patients and have given trusts enough notice for them to plan ahead.
"It is disappointing that Bruce Keogh is attacking front-line doctors rather than echoing calls, from patients' groups to senior NHS managers, for the government to get back around the table and end this dispute through talks."
Mr Hunt's spokesman said: "Withdrawing emergency care poses huge risks to patient safety and will be very difficult for the consultants, nurses and other allied health professionals who will be stretched to provide cover.
"This action is disproportionate, so we urge the BMA to call their damaging and unnecessary strike off." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34168892 | The mayor of Romania's capital, Sorin Oprescu, has been arrested at home in an investigation into allegations of taking bribes.
Now serving his second term as Bucharest mayor, Mr Oprescu is accused of taking kickbacks from companies awarded contracts with the city.
Prosecutors allege he took a 10% cut from deals. He denies any wrongdoing.
It is the latest of several corruption scandals to engulf top political figures in Romania.
Mr Oprescu, 63, who is backed by Romania's governing Social Democrats, was taken into custody for an initial 24 hours.
Prosecutors will ask a court to extend this for a month while investigations continue.
Companies which won public works contracts kept up to 33% of the gross profit, prosecutors said in a statement.
"The rest was given as bribes to employees of the Bucharest mayor, with 10% of the contracts' value requested by the accused Sorin Oprescu."
The mayor was caught accepting a bribe from people who became informants, prosecutors allege.
His lawyer, Alexandru Chiciu, said his client had "never asked for money from anybody, directly or indirectly".
Several high-profile Romanians have lost their jobs recently over allegations of corruption.
Prime Minister Victor Ponta was charged in July with several counts of corruption in a long-running investigation.
He faces charges of fraud, tax evasion and money laundering dating back to when he was a lawyer before he became prime minister in 2012, the country's anti-corruption agency DNA said.
Mr Ponta, who resigned as Social Democratic party leader, also denies any wrongdoing but continues as PM despite opposition calls for him to quit.
Romania's reputation has suffered from allegations of corruption - it ranks 69th out of 175 on Transparency International's corruption perceptions index for 2014, where a low ranking suggests less corruption.
However, the DNA agency is stepping up efforts to combat corruption, earning praise from Romania's European partners, correspondents say. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2842249.stm | The world's biggest hotel group has successfully fought off a daring £5.5bn ($8.8bn) hostile takeover bid by corporate raider Hugh Osmond.
Mr Osmond has formally withdrawn his bid for Six Continents after the company's shareholders voted overwhelmingly to reject it at an extraordinary general meeting in London.
If the bid had succeeded it would have been the biggest reverse takeover ever seen in the UK.
But shareholders instead voted to back the Six Continents board who want to separate the company's pub business from its hotel division.
The demerger is expected to trigger a bidding war for the new companies, which will be known as Six Continents Hotels and Mitchells and Butler.
The two companies are expected to be listed on the London Stock Exchange on 15 April.
Six Continents shares closed down 16p at 575p.
Investors accepted the demerger plan on a show of hands.
Millions of proxy votes are still being counted but the company says about 90% of those so far cast are in favour of the demerger.
Mr Osmond's Aim-listed Capital Management & Investment vehicle estimated its costs in connection with the offer will be around £8.5m.
Mr Osmond said: "While we wait for the formal announcement, it seems clear that Six Continents' shareholders have expressed their wishes and we respect them.
"Our offer has revealed the real value of Six Continents that lies to be unlocked.
"It is now the business of Six Continents' management to release this for its shareholders."
He said CMI would "continue to explore opportunities for the benefit of its shareholders."
Mr Osmond could make a fresh approach for Six Continents' pubs business, to be renamed Mitchells & Butlers, after the demerger takes place.
He has also been linked to bid speculation for rival leisure group Whitbread.
Earlier, Mr Osmond failed in his bid to have Six Continents' egm delayed so investors could have more time to consider his offer.
Shareholders voted three-to-one to press ahead with the meeting.
Mr Osmond's case was that Six Continents management had squandered shareholder value and presided over a collapse in its share price.
"Leopards do not change their spots... and this demerger will not change the management," he told the meeting.
But Six Continents bosses appealed directly to shareholders to approve their plans.
"We do strongly believe the demerger closes no options," said Chairman Sir Ian Prosser.
Speaking after the meeting, chief executive Tim Clarke, who said both of thecompanies would consider seriously any bid made for them.
"We are obviously very pleased with the results," he added.
Finance director Richard North, who is chief executive designate for the separated hotels group, revealed the group had held a number of merger talks last year.
One of the deals came close to being signed, but all the talks fell down on valuing the hotels with pubs attached, he added.
Earlier this week, venture capital group CVC admitted it was considering a rival offer.
CVC said it had held talks with hotel firms and private equity groups about forming a consortium to bid for Six Continents.
At least two other potential bidders are thought to be waiting in the wings.
Sources quoted by the Reuters news agency said private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Blackstone Group, owner of London's upmarket Savoy hotel, were considering a joint offer.
Q&A: What is in store for Six Continents? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39532709 | The US Senate has confirmed President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, after a bitter, 14-month battle for control of the highest court in the land.
The chamber voted 54-45 on Friday to seal the confirmation of Denver appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch.
Republicans took the historic step this week of changing the chamber's rules in order to ram through their pick.
At stake is the final legal say on everything from gun control to abortion to election finance to workers' rights.
Mr Gorsuch, 49, was confirmed within 65 days of his nomination, but the battle to appoint another justice to the judicial bench began with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative darling, in February last year.
It was the longest period a seat has remained unfilled on the Supreme Court since during the American Civil War in 1862.
Though Mr Gorsuch proved evasive when questioned on legal matters during his confirmation hearings, he has a solidly conservative pedigree and is expected to rule accordingly.
Republicans hope Mr Gorsuch will hand the bench's bloc of conservative justices a winning 5-4 majority.
"He's going to make an incredible addition to the court," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who led the anti-Gorsuch opposition, said the court was "increasingly drifting towards becoming a more pro-corporate court that favours employers, corporations and special interests over working America".
On Thursday, Mr McConnell triggered a legislative manoeuvre known as the "nuclear option" when Republicans lacked the 60 votes required to end debate on Mr Gorsuch.
The chamber's majority leader tore up the rulebook after Democrats mounted the first filibuster of such a nominee in half a century.
The result is a triumph for Donald Trump's young presidency. For many of those who voted for him, getting a conservative judge on to America's highest court was a top priority.
"Congratulations to an exceptionally qualified and respected judge," the president tweeted.
Media captionSupreme Court fight: What's the 'nuclear option'?
The vacancy on the nine-judge bench had left the justices to pass over many controversial issues, possibly to avoid a 4-4 stalemate.
The Democrats were left fuming last year when Republicans refused to consider former President Barack Obama's nominee to the court.
Democrats used the "nuclear option" in 2013 to overturn Republican filibusters against executive branch and judicial nominees for lower courts.
But they left the filibuster in place for Supreme Court nominees.
Mr Gorsuch may be sworn in as early as Friday so he can start getting ready for the court's next session of oral arguments this month. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/england/6963925.stm | England have called up Jon Lewis to their squad for the next two one-day internationals against India following an injury scare to Andrew Flintoff.
Flintoff, who has just returned to action after a third operation on his left ankle, suffered stiffness in his right knee in Friday's loss in Bristol.
The all-rounder will be monitored by team doctors ahead of the third match of the series at Egbaston on Monday.
India levelled the best-of-seven series at 1-1 with a nine-run win on Friday.
Flintoff, keen to allay fears about his long-term fitness, has made an impressive return to international duty.
The Lancashire star returned career-best figures of 5-56 in only his second game back on Friday and has bowled with prolonged hostility.
The 29-year-old had missed the Test series against West Indies and India as he battled his way back to fitness after the surgery.
Lewis, 32 on Sunday, last played for England against New Zealand in January, although he was named in the World Cup squad but came home early for personal reasons.
The Gloucestershire seamer could be asked to stay with the squad if Nottinghamshire left-armer Ryan Sidebottom fails a fitness test on his side injury after Monday's match. |
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/berkshire/6303633.stm | Wokingham will soon be able to elect its first mayor after receiving Royal approval to become a borough.
The Berkshire district has successfully petitioned The Queen to grant a charter conferring borough status on it.
Council chairman Angus Ross said he hoped the decision would help to enhance the area's corporate image and create "a stronger unity".
The council will officially launch and celebrate its new status at a civic reception on 9 March.
Cllr Ross said: "Being granted the status of a borough and thereby having a mayor would bring us into line with the majority of Berkshire unitary authorities.
"It has become clear over the years that many people get confused over the role of the chairman of the council but they understand the functions of a mayor.
"The added status of being a borough would help the council to forge better links with business."
Wokingham District Council said it estimates the cost of the change of status would be "less than £1,500".
Borough status will give the council authority to honour people by granting them freedom of the borough. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10138928 | The picture of a priest waving a bloodstained handkerchief as one of the victims, Jackie Duddy, is carried to safety is perhaps one of the most enduring images of Bloody Sunday.
Father Edward Daly was then a 39-year-old curate at St Eugene's Cathedral in Derry.
On Bloody Sunday he joined the march it as it passed the cathedral on its way to the city centre.
He was standing near 17-year-old John "Jackie" Duddy when he was shot.
"We tried to help him. I said a prayer with him and I anointed him and gave him the last rites," he said.
"We decided to make a dash for it.
"I went in front with this handkerchief in my hand and they carried Jackie behind me.
"All hell was let loose.
"We were very nervous and frightened and when we laid him down on the pavement he had died."
In an interview with the BBC on Bloody Sunday, Fr Daly condemned the army's actions as "completely outrageous".
"They were firing lead bullets in all directions.
"They call themselves an army, it was utterly disgraceful.
"There was nothing fired at them, I can say that with absolute certainty because I was there.
"The people were running in all directions. Most of them had their backs to them and they just opened fire."
Dr Daly first arrived in Derry as a priest in June 1962. In 1974 he was appointed Bishop of Derry, a post he held for nearly 20 years before he retired after suffering a stroke.
In his evidence to the Saville Inquiry, Bishop Daly said he felt a personal duty to do what he could to establish beyond doubt the innocence of those whose death or injuries he witnessed on Bloody Sunday.
He became emotional as he described how he fled from the soldiers across the car park of Rossville Flats.
Jackie Duddy was beside him.
"A shot rang out. It was very clear over the general noise.
"Simultaneously he gasped and fell on his face behind me, just a few feet away from me.
"There was no threat posed to the army at the time they opened fire, none. I don't think there was any justification for it."
He spoke of scenes of chaos as "a mass of frightened and panic-stricken people" jammed the two entries of the high-rise flats to escape the troops."
Speaking to the BBC in 2000, Bishop Daly said he was "full of hope" for the Saville Inquiry.
"The inquiry means a great deal to the families of those who died and those who were wounded.
"It also means a great deal to those of us who were unfortunate enough to witness those events.
"The events of that day have haunted me for all these years," he said.
"I hope that the truth of what happened and the precise reason or reasons for what happened on that terrible afternoon are established beyond doubt." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-41484153 | The Scottish government has announced an "effective ban" on fracking.
Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse told MSPs that the practice "cannot and will not take place in Scotland".
He said an existing moratorium on the technique, which has been in place since 2015, would continue "indefinitely" after a consultation showed "overwhelming" opposition.
The government will seek Holyrood's endorsement for the ban in a vote following the October recess.
But with only the Conservatives now opposed to a ban, the vote is likely to be a formality.
The move was welcomed by environmental groups but has been slammed by Ineos, operators of the huge Grangemouth petrochemical plant, which holds fracking exploration licences across 700 square miles of the country.
The Scottish government has previously imposed a similar block on underground coal gasification (UCG) - a separate technique used to extract gas from coal seams deep underground - on environmental grounds.
It followed the introduction of a moratorium on both fracking and UCG in 2015, which saw a series of expert reports published on the potential health, environmental and economic impact of the controversial techniques, as well as a public consultation being carried out.
Mr Wheelhouse said the consultation came back with "overwhelming" opposition to fracking, with 99% of the 60,000 respondents supporting a ban. He said this showed that "there is no social licence for unconventional oil and gas to be taken forward at this time".
The move comes almost exactly a year on from the UK government giving the go-ahead to horizontal fracking in Lancashire.
Shale gas is currently processed in Scotland at a site in Grangemouth, having been shipped in from abroad, but cannot be extracted from beneath Scottish soil under the current moratorium, which is enforced through planning regulations.
Mr Wheelhouse said local authorities would be instructed to continue this moratorium "indefinitely" - calling this "action sufficient to effectively ban the development of unconventional oil and gas extraction in Scotland".
He said: "The decision I am announcing today means that fracking cannot and will not take place in Scotland."
Mr Wheelhouse's announcement was welcomed by environmental groups, with Friends of the Earth Scotland and WWF Scotland both hailing a victory for campaigners.
WWF Scotland official Sam Gardner said it was "excellent news", saying "the climate science is clear" that fossil fuels should be "left in the ground".
Mary Church from Friends of the Earth Scotland said it was a "huge win for the anti-fracking movement" which would be "warmly welcomed across the country and around the world".
However Ineos said the move could see "large numbers of Scottish workers leaving the country to find work".
Tom Pickering, operations director of Ineos Shale, said: "It is a sad day for those of us who believe in evidence-led decision making. The Scottish government has turned its back on a potential manufacturing and jobs renaissance and lessened Scottish academia's place in the world by ignoring its findings."
Ken Cronin of UK Onshore Oil and Gas also said it was a "poor decision", which ignored "extensive independent research" and was "based on dogma not evidence or geopolitical reality".
And the GMB Scotland trade union said the move was "mired in dishonesty" and "an abandonment of the national interest", saying Scotland would now be dependent on gas shipped in from "the likes of Qatar and Russia".
The Scottish Conservatives also said Scotland would miss out on a "much needed economic boost" and high-skilled jobs as a result of the decision.
Tory MSP Dean Lockhart said ministers had ignored scientific and economic evidence to take a "short-sighted and economically damaging decision which is nothing more than a bid to appease the green elements of the pro-independence movement".
However Labour MSP Claudia Beamish said the move did not go far enough, arguing that ministers were merely extending the existing moratorium which "could be overturned at any point at the whim of a minister".
Ms Beamish has a member's bill tabled at Holyrood calling for a "full legal ban", but Mr Wheelhouse said this would not be needed until his proposals.
The Scottish Greens said the announcement was "a step in the right direction". However, they also wanted a more permanent ban, with MSP Mark Ruskell saying the moratorium was "legally shaky" and open to challenge.
This was also echoed by Friends of the Earth Scotland, with Ms Church saying ministers should "go further than relying on planning powers" and "instead commit to passing a law to ban the fracking industry for good".
Scottish Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur welcomed the decision, saying that ministers had taken the "scenic route" but had ultimately decided "effectively to ban fracking".
MSPs have previously voted to support a ban on fracking, but SNP members abstained from that vote.
The extensive use of fracking in the US, where it has revolutionised the energy industry, has prompted environmental concerns.
The first is that fracking uses huge amounts of water that must be transported to the fracking site, at significant environmental cost.
The second is the worry that potentially carcinogenic chemicals used may escape and contaminate groundwater around the fracking site. |
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