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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-41030640 | Campaigners have lost their battle against plans for a huge poultry factory in Wiltshire after the proposal was approved by councillors.
The farm between Sutton Veny and Longbridge Deverill, near Warminster, will house nearly 180,000 chickens.
Villagers say the factory will cause unacceptable levels of noise, smell and traffic.
The company behind the scheme insists it will improve the local environment.
Plans for a massive chicken farm on the site were first proposed in 2012 to replace a smaller, derelict factory.
A decision was deferred by Wiltshire Council but a new application was submitted by Amber Real Estates Investment Ltd earlier this year.
This company names one of its directors as Ranjit Singh Boparan, known as "The Chicken King" after founding the 2 Sisters Food Group.
Four 100m-long buildings holding more than 40,000 broiler chickens were proposed on a site in an area of outstanding natural beauty about 150m from neighbouring homes.
Wiltshire Council officers recommended it for approval, saying it "would not have an adverse impact on the character or appearance of the locality and in particular the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty".
But the plans have outraged residents living nearby, who formed the campaign group Spitting Feathers five years ago to fight the first proposal.
They said the farm would cause "unacceptable" levels of noise, odour and traffic, citing the "nauseating stench which blighted the village when the previous small-scale chicken farm was running on the site".
They were supported by Sutton Veny Parish Council which said: "Many villagers remember the pungent odour which blighted our village.
"People were forced to close all their windows and remain inside to avoid the acrid, ammonia-laden odour."
Amber Real Estates said the factory would "provide significant improvements both environmentally and aesthetically". |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38798309 | Parents' views are not considered enough over their children's education, according to a survey of parents.
More than eight out of 10 parents want to be consulted more, according to an annual survey from PTA UK, representing parents groups in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The biggest concern for parents was about bullying in school.
PTA UK head Emma Williams said: "Parents want to have a say in education."
"Many of the decisions made by government and schools affect parents one way or another, so it's only right that they should be able to contribute their views," said Ms Williams.
She said without proper engagement, parents would remain an "untapped resource" for schools.
According to the survey, almost half of parents did not expect the government to listen to them on school policy.
Bullying and cyber-bullying were the top issues where parents wanted schools to take action.
There were also concerns about the costs associated with school - with almost three-quarters saying parental payments were increasing for costs such as school trips and uniforms.
More than a third had been asked to make donations to school funds.
The parent-teacher organisations said the education system needed to pay closer attention to the views of parents on such issues of costs and funding.
"PTA UK calls on the government, education authorities and schools to redouble their efforts to involve and engage all parents," said Ms Williams. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3873483.stm | Conditional dealings in Virgin Mobile will begin on 21 July with shares given a 235p-285p price range, the firm said.
The move values the company, which will announce a final price for its global offering on 20 July, at £588m to £713m($1.08 to $1.32bn).
Virgin Mobile is the UK's fifth largest mobile operator with 4.1 million customers. It was launched in 1999.
As much as £279m raised by the listing will fund expansion within the Virgin group of businesses.
The company is selling 37% of the shares in Virgin Mobile in the initial public offering.
It is the first time Sir Richard Branson has listed one of his businesses in the UK in 18 years.
The company had been expected to come to the market after it gained full control from former partner T-Mobile in January.
T-Mobile sold its 50% stake in the firm to the Virgin Group to end a long-running legal row between the two sides. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/business-46434250/how-5g-connectivity-could-keep-these-hi-tech-cows-healthy | Meet the hi-tech healthy cows Jump to media player How superfast mobile connectivity will help dairy farmers monitor the health of their cows.
Window washing drone takes flight Jump to media player A huge drone that can wash buildings and put out fires is being developed in Latvia.
Will superfast 5G mobile be worth it? Jump to media player Superfast 5G mobile promises lots of benefits, but will it be worth the money?
Thermal drone rescues woodland wanderers Jump to media player Researchers in Latvia are developing drones that can find people who are lost in the forest.
5G - the next mobile revolution Jump to media player The next-generation 5G mobile network causes lots of excitement at the Mobile World Congress trade show.
What is 5G? Jump to media player The BBC's Robin Markwell explains the next generation of mobile connectivity.
At an experimental hi-tech dairy farm in Somerset, cows are treated to automated milking and feeding as well as collars that beam health and behavioural data to farmers.
Superfast 5G connectivity will facilitate video and satellite data being sent and analysed much more quickly, enabling "precision grazing" and earlier intervention by vets when cows fall ill.
Reporter: Matthew Wall; video editor: Hannah Gelbart. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-39956866/trump-supporters-people-are-sick-and-tired-of-media | Trump voters back him amid scandal Jump to media player In Nashville, Trump voters say they need to see the facts about Russia and don't trust the media.
A wild week for Trump in Washington Jump to media player What started with the president firing the FBI chief ended with alleged leaks to Russian officials.
Trump's love-hate relationship with Comey Jump to media player As a candidate and president, his views on the FBI boss have varied dramatically, over an eventful year.
'Why now' asks sceptical Democrat Jump to media player US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer reacts to the news that Donald Trump has fired the FBI director James Comey.
Comey defends his actions Jump to media player FBI Director James Comey agonised over whether to reveal investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.
Trump voters in Nashville say they need to see the facts about Russia before they can form an opinion and they don't trust the media to deliver the truth.
Produced by Nada Tawfik, Andrew Sarge Herbert and Abdujalil Abdurasulov. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/athletics/7333768.stm | Doris Changeywo and Abraham Chebii claimed a Kenyan double in Sunday's Great Ireland Run in Dublin.
Changeywo was seven seconds ahead of Jo Pavey in the women's event while Chebii repeated his victory of 12 months ago.
Chebii held off his former Kenyan team-mate Abdullah Ahmad Hassan, who now represents Qatar, by three seconds.
Hungary's Aniko Kalovics was third in the women's race while Ukraine's Sergiy Lebid took third in the men's event ahead of top Briton Nick McCormick.
Pavey was more than happy at recording a time of 32 minutes 22 seconds in the wintry conditions.
Australia's Benita Johnson faded to seventh, a place ahead of her fellow Australian and last year's winner Victoria Mitchell.
Britain's Kate Reed (32.50) was fourth while Maria McCambridge (35.13) was top Irishwoman in ninth, a place ahead of Sonia O'Sullivan (35.33).
Pavey and 23-three-year-old Changeywo, fourth at last weekend's World Cross-Country Championships, broke away from the field after the halfway stage.
"Doris was obviously in good shape given her position at the World Cross Country and it showed when she just pulled away from me on the steepest part of the course," said Pavey.
Chebii clocked a time of 28 minutes and 48 seconds to win the men's race.
"He made me fight all of the way before I put in a sprint in the last 300 metres," said Chebii of his rival, formerly known as Albert Chepkurui but who has represented Qatar for the last five years.
Lebid put up a strong performance to finish just eight seconds behind Hassan while McCormick clocked a respectable time of 29 minutes and 18 seconds. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-32317002 | Preliminary murder and kidnapping charges have been filed against police in India's Andhra Pradesh state after the killing of at least 20 suspected red sandalwood smugglers last week.
A case has been lodged against members of the Anti-Smuggling Task Force.
Police say the shooting happened when they were attacked by loggers near the holy town of Tirupati.
But they are accused of using excessive force against the suspects, who were from neighbouring Tamil Nadu state.
It is not clear how many police officers are being charged with carrying out the attack.
The city of Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu was shut down by protests over the killings on Wednesday.
Two witnesses to the killings have told India's National Human Rights Commission that the men were pulled off a bus and shot while in custody.
Police however insist that they were forced to open fire after they were attacked by men "with axes and other sharp-edged weapons", who were cutting down trees in the remote forests near Tirupati on 7 April.
The Andhra Pradesh government informed the state's high court on Wednesday that a First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against the police task force. Initial charges drawn up against suspects are usually done through the issue of FIRs in India.
Sandalwood smuggling is rampant throughout the south of the country, with a ton selling for tens of thousands of dollars on the international black market.
Red sandalwood, or red sanders, is a species of tree endemic to the Western Ghats of India.
Correspondents say the loggers are often tribes people or other poor migrant workers from Tamil Nadu. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23501389 | The UK government has been accused of creating "appalling delays" to the outlawing of caste discrimination.
Ministers have announced they do not expect to introduce measures to Parliament until the summer of 2015.
The Anti-Caste Discrimination Alliance said it was "shocked" by the length of the timetable for protecting people known as "untouchables".
But the government said the issue was "sensitive" and "comprehensive consultation" was needed.
The caste system, developed in India, divides people into separate groups based on birth, marriage and occupation.
The House of Lords has voted twice for legal protection to be given to the estimated 400,000 Dalits - widely known as "untouchables" - who are regarded as being beneath the caste system, living in the UK.
Campaigners say people suffer abuse and prejudice because they are considered to be part of this group, affecting work, education and social life. This is outlawed in India.
The government opposed peers' call for caste discrimination to be added to the Equality Act, but after the second Lords defeat Business Secretary Vince Cable announced it would be made illegal, being treated in future as an "aspect of race" under equality law.
A document published by the Government Equalities Office on Monday promises a "full public consultation" starting in March next year and running for 12 weeks.
This will follow an inquiry by the the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Next summer, the coalition says it will carry out "sector-specific engagement" with groups including employers, public authorities and the judiciary, who "almost certainly lack" familiarity with the caste system.
The government then expects to issue a "draft Affirmative Order outlawing caste discrimination" in autumn next year, to undergo further public consultation ending in February 2015.
The final draft order will be introduced to Parliament "during summer 2015", after the next general election.
Raj Chand, chairman of the Anti-Caste Discriminatory Alliance, told the BBC: "The timescales are ridiculous. It's clear this government doesn't want to do anything in relation to bringing it into force and implementing it in the near future.
"They are not treating this particular group like any other."
He added: "We know there's a very strong anti-legislation lobby that's been in touch with the government. Without doubt, the government has been listening.
"It's a really appalling show by the government. They say they are pushing for equality, but it seems some groups are far more equal than others."
However, a government spokesman said: "It is entirely wrong to suggest ministers have acted inappropriately in regard to the issue of caste discrimination.
"We want to ensure the issue of caste in the UK is fully understood, and therefore it is right that the government and its ministers discuss the issue of caste with a wide range of groups and encourage everyone to participate in the consultation.
"There was strong agreement in both the House of Lords and the House of Commons that this is a sensitive and complex issue, and a comprehensive consultation is needed before any legislation can be implemented. "
Does the caste system still linger in the UK? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/759262.stm | Foreign embassies have been evacuating their staff from the Eritrean captial, Asmara, in anticipation of an Ethiopian advance.
But indications are that a march on Asmara is not a high priority for the Ethiopian army.
Ethiopian tactics so far appear to be consistent with Addis Ababa's stated objective - that is, to recapture what it believes to be the Ethiopian territory that is currently under Eritrean occupation - even if this has meant moving its forces far into territory which is indisputably Eritrean.
What last week appeared to be a rapid advance towards Asmara - via the towns of Akordat and Keren - has now halted.
The Ethiopians took Barentu relatively quickly. But there are reports that a bridge has been destroyed between Barentu and Akordat, preventing the Ethiopians from advancing any further.
And further along the road, the town of Keren lies at the top of an escarpment, making it an easily defensible position for the Eritrean army.
But even if there were no obstacles to an Ethiopian advance, it is far from certain that Ethiopia would commit infantry to an attack on the capital.
Judging by Ethiopia's strategy so far, the Ethiopian army would attack Asmara only if such an assault would futher the aim of damaging the defensive capacity of the Eritrean military.
There are air bases and military barracks in Asmara which might be possible Ethiopian targets - but if Ethiopia intends to damage military installations in Asmara, air raids would probably serve its purpose better than diverting infantry to the capital.
Ethiopia has already conducted air attacks close to Eritrea's main port, Massawa, and on the Sawa military base in the west of the country.
Reports that the Ethiopian soldiers are less than 100km from Asmara are correct - but at the point where the Ethiopians are closest to Asmara, they are heading eastwards towards the town of Mendefera, rather than northwards to the capital.
Observers say that Mendefera is likely to be the site of the next major battle in the current war, since capturing the town would open the way for an Ethiopian offensive on the central portion of the front line, around the town of Zalambessa.
The recapture of Zalambessa and the surrounding area is a priority for the Ethiopian Government, which was outraged last year when Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki declared the town sovereign Eritrean territory.
There have even been suggestions that Ethiopia would push beyond Bure to take the Red Sea port of Assab.
On the face of it, this would make strategic sense for Ethiopia - which lost its entire coastline when Eritrea became independent in 1993.
However, the annexation of a port which is indisputably Eritrean territory would have damaging diplomatic consequences for Ethiopia.
Several commentators have suggested that one of Ethiopia's real objectives in pursuing the war could be to weaken support for President Isaias.
If Mr Isaias were to be replaced by a president more sympathetic to his Ethiopian neighbours, it would enable the Ethiopians to import and export goods through Assab without the complications which bedevilled relations between Addis Ababa and Asmara for several years before the war began.
Will arms ban slow war? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-41651441 | Powys council is talking to the police about the potential manipulation of performance data in its children's services, chief executive Jeremy Patterson has said.
It comes after a watchdog warned that Powys children are at risk of harm because of social services failures.
The Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW) raised "serious concerns".
Powys has 90 days to improve, or face being taken over by ministers.
The council has apologised and accepted CSSIW's recommendations.
Mr Patterson said he had called his own review when problems were discovered.
He said that "in the last few weeks it appears that information in respect of some of the issues in the service was being withheld and that some of the performance data may have been manipulated".
"We are taking forward a formal investigation in consultation with the police," he said.
He said the council had acted "immediately" on the CSSIW's review and extra staff had been brought in.
The inspectorate's report said there was evidence of missed opportunities to safeguard children.
It said: "The lack of assessment, intervention and support, together with poor follow up and oversight has and is placing children at considerable risk."
The inspectorate found an "inconsistent approach" towards following child sexual exploitation guidance and risk assessments which "placed children at risk of harm".
"Risks were not being appropriately and robustly assessed and there is no effective system to identify and manage risks," the report added.
Chief Inspector Gillian Baranski said: "It is clear from this report that we have serious concerns about the way children's services are run by Powys County Council.
"Whilst we have recognised the significant contribution staff have made under very difficult circumstances, we have serious concerns about leadership and management arrangements.
"We have made this clear to Powys County Council and expect to see rapid improvement to ensure that children are safeguarded and families in Powys receive the level of service they deserve.
"We are monitoring this closely."
During First Minister's Questions, Carwyn Jones told AMs it was open to ministers to "take over the authority's social services functions".
"That of course is an option if the authority fails to deliver under the terms of the warning notice."
Earlier, Social Services Minister Rebecca Evans said she had met the council's leader and chief executive to "emphasise the seriousness with which the Welsh Government is approaching this situation".
She said: "If I am not satisfied with Powys County Council's progress... I will not hesitate to use the powers provided to Welsh Government under the Social Services and Wellbeing Act to intervene more directly."
Responding to the report, Rosemarie Harris, leader of the independent-Conservative council, said: "We fully accept the regulators' recommendations - their report is both hard hitting and challenging.
"We are sorry that we failed to meet the high standards residents deserve and apologise for our shortcomings.
"The council is totally committed to safeguarding children in our county, and I will be leading the council's response to the recommendations of the inspection from the front as a top priority and that ensuring that the resources are in place to underpin this work."
The report's findings will be discussed by the full council on Thursday.
The Welsh Conservatives said the council needed to work to avoid direct intervention by the Welsh Government "at all costs.
The party said there were questions over whether chances had been missed in the past to make improvements.
Plaid Cymru AM Simon Thomas said: "The priority must be the protection of children in Powys and the lack of leadership at the top of the council can only be addressed by a team from outside the authority to get the improvements needed."
Children's Commissioner Sally Holland told BBC Radio Wales she was "pleased to see strong action was being taken" over the report. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/6/newsid_4270000/4270617.stm | More than 350 people have died in a battle between Unita rebels and Angolan government forces in the city of Huambo, according to Angolan army reports.
The government of the southern African country also said that up to 1,500 people had been injured in the fighting.
Diplomats say the battle is "vicious", with neither side taking many prisoners.
According to the radio station of Angola's rebel movement Unita, government troops are fleeing from the city and large amounts of arms and ammunition have been seized, including several Russian-built tanks.
The government garrison in the city has been cut off for several weeks and is being supplied by occasional air drops.
Fighting around Huambo has intensified after Unita brought in troop reinforcements from Bie province, which is around 165km away to the east of the city.
Unita radio also reported that its leader, Dr Jonas Savimbi, would address the nation on the search for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
Since January there has been no running water or electricity in Huambo, which is home to 400,000 people, and many areas have been flattened by artillery shells.
The battle for the key city is seen as more symbolic than strategic.
The fighting in Huambo comes after the breakdown of a 1991 peace agreement which was aimed at ending 16 years of civil war in the former Portuguese colony.
Huambo is home to the Ovimbundu, the people who gave Mr Savimbi's Unita (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) movement its main support.
Earlier, UN officials admitted defeat in their diplomatic attempts to halt renewed civil war in Angola, calling the outcome a "bitter disappointment".
Unita failed to attend UN-sponsored peace talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, last week, but proposed fresh talks in Geneva.
Local aid agencies have described the health situation in Angola as "dramatic" - with a child dying every two hours in the paediatric hospital in the capital Luanda.
Most of the main aid agencies have left the country after Unita launched an abortive coup attempt in Luanda last November.
Two days after the gun battle started in Huambo, Unita announced it had seized the country's second city and was in complete control after capturing government positions.
More than 10,000 people are estimated to have died in the two-month battle for Huambo.
The rebel leader of Unita, Jonas Savimbi, died in a gun battle with government forces in February 2002.
Unita went on to become a political party and signed a ceasefire with the Angolan government in April 2002.
In 2003, Unita apologised for its part in Angola's 27-year civil war and asked for forgiveness.
Unita's secretary for political affairs, Abilio Camalata Numa, said his movement took responsibility for the many lives lost but he defended what he called the "political project" which had been the reason for the war. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-47774889 | Two men who tried to get into Islamic State-controlled Syria have been found guilty of preparing terrorist acts.
Hanzalah Patel and Safwaan Mansur, both 22, were arrested at an Istanbul hotel in June 2017, after contacting a US agent posing as an IS sympathiser.
Birmingham Crown Court heard the pair, who denied the charges, claimed the talk was just "thoughts and banter".
The jury returned its verdicts after less than an hour of deliberation and the pair will be sentenced on 25 April.
The court heard Patel, of Frederick Road in Leicester, and Mansur, of Hampton Road in Birmingham, first travelled to Istanbul in 2016, with the aim of getting into Syria.
They returned home after a contact failed to answer calls but went back the following year.
The court heard in May 2017, Mansur was in contact with a user of the encrypted messaging site Telegram - who was in fact working for the US government - to discuss crossing the border into Syria.
When the two men arrived in Istanbul, the contact told them he would send someone to help but once they revealed their whereabouts they were arrested.
A search of their luggage revealed camping equipment and outdoor survival gear, the court heard.
Patel said he wanted to go there to "big myself up" on returning after taking some pictures and talking to local people. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/charlton_athletic/1689171.stm | Charlton have signed Portuguese central defender Jorge Costa and Nottingham Forest midfielder Chris Bart-Williams.
Costa has joined on an initial five-month loan deal but his signing could be made permanent in the summer at a cost of �4m.
Bart-Williams, who is out of contract with Forest at the end of the season, has signed on a month's loan.
Costa, who has joined the club from Porto, said: "I didn't know very much about Charlton, but since they contacted me, I tried to find out more about Charlton - and I know more now than I knew last week."
The defender has not played for Porto since September following a clash with coach Octavio Machado and has left Portugal to find first-team football and thus secure his selection in the Portuguese World Cup squad.
"I hope he comes into our club and gives us the leadership and defensive qualities he undoubtedly has," said Charlton manager Alan Curbishley.
"I hope he enjoys his time here so much he wants to stay.
"He hasn't played for Porto for six or seven weeks. He has come here with one or two things to prove - and we want to help him to achieve that.
"The marriage is perfect for both sides. I hope he is successful with us and then goes to the World Cup, because that is the plan."
Meanwhile, Forest midfielder Bart-Williams has joined Charlton on loan and could sign for the club permanently.
"He knows it's a possibility that he could end up staying here," said Curbishley.
Bart-Williams, who has turned down moves to Birmingham and Southampton this season, has been left out of Forest's starting line-up for their last four games.
He is out of contract at the end of the season and has made no secret of his desire to play Premiership football.
The former Sheffield Wednesday star has been told he will not be offered a new contract by Forest and will be entitled to leave The City Ground on a free transfer in the summer.
Charlton boss Alan Curbishley made a move for Bart-Williams after discovering that his Republic of Ireland star Mark Kinsella will be sidelined until the new year.
"I'm so lucky that I've been able to bring two players of the quality we have done"
"I feel as if I'm capable of playing in the Premiership"
Links to more Charlton Athletic stories are at the foot of the page. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47638608 | Researchers have produced unprecedented images of a baby's heart while it is still inside the womb.
Pregnant women were scanned in an MRI machine and powerful computers built 3D models of the tiny beating hearts inside their unborn children.
The team at King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas's says it will improve the care of babies with congenital heart disease.
The researchers say their approach could easily be adopted by hospitals.
Violet-Vienna developed life-threatening abnormalities in the blood vessels around her heart while she was still inside her mother.
Problems were first detected when Kirbi-Lea Pettitt went for a routine ultrasound scan 20 weeks into her pregnancy.
She then took part in the study to look at her baby's heart in vivid detail.
It showed a narrowing of the main artery coming from the heart - the aorta - which would block the blood vessel after birth. Her daughter also had two holes in her heart.
"It was very scary, I was just shell-shocked really," Kirbi-Lea told the BBC.
But it allowed doctors to plan how to save Violet-Vienna's life after she arrived in the world.
"I wasn't allowed to hold her, they had to take her straight away to put her on medication to keep her aorta open," said Kirbi-Lea.
Her baby had heart surgery a week later, but after a tricky start is now a healthy 11-month-old.
Kirbi-Lea said: "She's doted on by everyone and she's just thriving - and it's all down to these specialists and this technology.
"It's amazing what they do, it's lifesaving."
A series of 2D pictures of the heart are taken from different angles using an MRI machine.
But the foetal heart is tiny, beats incredibly quickly, and the baby moves around inside the womb so the images of the heart look like a fuzzy blur.
But then comes the really clever bit.
Sophisticated computer software pieces the images together, adjusts for the beating of the heart and then builds an unprecedented 3D image of the heart.
It gives doctors a clear view of the abnormality.
Congenital heart diseases affect up to eight in every 1,000 babies born in the UK.
They can be caused by infections and some medicines, and can run in families.
Prof Reza Razavi, consultant paediatric cardiologist, wanted to improve the diagnosis of the birth defects after his daughter was born with one.
"We thought we were going to lose her, that was a strong motivator... we should be able to pick up the problem in the womb."
Image caption Prof Reza Razavi nearly lost his daughter to congenital heart disease.
He describes the 3D images as "beautiful" and says they let doctors clearly see the problem and improve care.
He told the BBC: "We can have complete certainty and plan ahead what treatment is needed, what's the operation we need to do.
"It really helps the parents to have the right support to know what's going to happen.
"But it also really helps the babies because they get the right operation at the right time and have the best outcomes."
The study, published in the Lancet, shows the 3D imaging worked in 85 pregnant women, but has now been tested on more than 200 patients.
Dr David Lloyd, a clinical research fellow at King's College London, said: "Our hope is this approach will now become standard practice for the Evelina foetal cardiology team, who make a prenatal diagnosis in 400 babies each year.
"This will also improve the care of over 150 babies each year who deliver at St Thomas's Hospital with known congenital heart disease."
He says the technology would be easy to adopt if a hospital already has an MRI machine, because the only new equipment needed would be a computer with a decent graphics card.
The future of baby scans?
The research is part of the iFind project to increase the number of health problems picked up during standard pregnancy scans.
If they are diagnosed only after birth then vital time can be lost in trying to make a diagnosis.
Another approach is to use four ultrasound probes at the same time - current scans use one - to get a more detailed picture. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/6627799.stm | Three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann was abducted from a Mark Warner resort in Portugal's popular holiday area, the Algarve.
The holiday firm had just one chalet when it began 33 years ago, but now takes about 50,000 people abroad every year, and has developed a family-friendly reputation.
The Ocean Club in the village of Praia da Luz is Mark Warner's only resort in Portugal.
It was from an apartment there that Madeleine McCann, from Leicestershire, was taken on Thursday evening.
The resort offers babysitting and creche services but Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate, dining just yards away, were popping back regularly to check on their three children.
Mark Warner describes the Ocean Club as offering individual villa-style accommodation, set around a series of private areas with their own pool and bar, cafe, and restaurant facilities.
Its childcare services include a creche with an outdoor play area, and nannies who organise supervised activities for children.
There is also babysitting, and a "dining-out" creche service in the evenings for children aged four months to nine years - parents eating in the resort's restaurants drop the children off and pick them up later.
Prices for a fortnight at Ocean Club rise to £1,675 per adult at the height of the season.
Paul and Susan Moyse, who are regular holidaymakers at Ocean Club, have always regarded the resort as a safe place.
Mr Moyse said: "It's an idyllic resort. Fantastic place."
Mrs Moyse added: "It's paradise. Nothing ever happens here, never."
Simon Calder, travel editor for the Independent newspaper, says Mark Warner has developed a reputation for "extremely family-friendly" holidays, offering "everything from giving face-painting classes to younger children, to teaching older children snorkelling and windsurfing".
"It's not quite an all-inclusive resort in the traditional sense but it is a very relaxed, very British-focused place, English-speaking staff - many of them have professional child-care qualifications," he said.
He added: "The situation at the Ocean Club in Portugal is that this is part of a larger complex, so it's not exclusively Mark Warner, but what the company does provide is a couple of services.
"First of all they've got something called a drop-off creche which means if you're dining in one of the resort restaurants you just leave your children there.
"A lot of parents will think 'Well, we don't actually want to do that because we don't want to disturb them when we're taking them home'.
"There is also baby-sitting available at an extra charge."
Mr Calder said Mark Warner had a "flawless record", and like any British tour operator had a legal and moral obligation to keep the highest standards.
"But this is a holiday resort, it's not a prison camp. This is somewhere where people go to relax and it is a very lovely part of the world," he said.
"You can completely understand people maybe being off their guard, and certainly you don't get the high fences that you might find in some other resorts with security guards, simply because nobody would imagine you would ever need them."
James Wilkinson and his wife, from Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, will be going to Mark Warner in Greece for the fourth year running this summer, with their two children aged four and two.
Mr Wilkinson said: "Mark Warner is a fantastic family holiday where parents can get some time to themselves.
"The facilities for the children are probably better than the facilities for the adults. They know if the children are happy the parents will be happy.
"What I do know about this Portugal resort is it is quite different from other Mark Warner resorts.
"All the resorts we've been to have been pretty much self-contained and away from the local town.
"I've never once had any concern at all about safety and security."
Mark Warner was founded in 1974 with just one chalet in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier.
Originally the idea was to offer activity-based breaks for adults, but over the years facilities have been developed to improve accommodation and offer better childcare.
Its summer destinations feature 10 beach resorts in Corsica, Egypt, Greece, Portugal, Mauritius, Sardinia and Sri Lanka, plus two in the French Alps.
The firm, which is based in London, says it is committed to doing all it can to support the McCanns.
It has sent out two counsellors, while directors of Mark Warner are also in the resort to help "in any way possible". |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23620373 | At least 14 suspected al-Qaeda militants have been killed in Yemen in three drone strikes, officials say.
The number of such strikes in Yemen, presumably launched by the US, has been stepped up over the past month.
The latest attacks come a day after Yemeni authorities said they had foiled a major al-Qaeda plot against oil pipelines and ports.
Yemen is deemed a stronghold of an al-Qaeda offshoot considered by Washington to be the most dangerous to the West.
In the latest strike on Thursday evening, Yemeni officials told BBC Arabic that a drone targeted a group of suspected militants, killing four of them in Wadi al-Jadd in the southern province of Hadramout.
Two strikes earlier in the day in Marib and Hadramout provinces killed 10 suspected militants, the security officials said.
On Wednesday, another seven people died in a drone attack.
While the US has acknowledged targeting militants in Yemen with drones, it does not comment publicly on its policy or the raids.
About 30 suspected militants have been killed in a series of such raids in Yemen since 28 July, news agencies report.
Earlier this week Yemeni security forces were placed on high alert amid fears of an al-Qaeda-linked attack that prompted Western embassies to close.
Both the US and UK withdrew diplomatic staff and urged their nationals to leave the country.
On Thursday, Yemeni counter-terrorism forces raided a number of addresses north of the capital Sanaa after a tip-off that they were being used by operatives of al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula (AQAP), a Yemeni security source told BBC Arabic.
In another development, a Yemeni diplomatic source told BBC Arabic that the US had suspended arrangements to return about 100 Yemeni detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
However a White House official said there had been no policy change and that President Barack Obama's May decision to lift a moratorium on transferring Guantanamo detainees to Yemen remained in effect.
"He lifted the moratorium on transfers in favour of a case-by-case evaluation. That evaluation necessarily will take into account security conditions. The security situation is always taken into account," the official told the BBC. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36573291 | China has accused the Indonesian navy of opening fire on a Chinese fishing boat in disputed fishing grounds.
China's foreign ministry said on Sunday that one fisherman was injured and several detained.
The incident happened on Friday near the Natuna islands, off the coast of Borneo in the South China Sea.
Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla said on Monday that China would be asked to respect his country's sovereignty around the islands.
"This is not a clash, but we are protecting the area," Mr Kalla told Reuters news agency.
Indonesian Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti tweeted that the navy "made the right move by maintaining the sovereignty of our seas".
"Stealing fish is a crime," she said.
A spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry described Indonesia's actions as an "indiscriminate use of force", adding: "We urge the Indonesian side to refrain from any action that complicates or magnifies the dispute, or impacts the peace and stability of the region."
The ministry said the incident had happened in a "traditional Chinese fishing ground".
It is unclear whether the fishermen are still being detained by Indonesian authorities.
China claims most of the South China Sea, where it is building islands and extending its infrastructure, and there are often flare-ups with regional neighbours with competing claims.
Unlike other South East Asian countries, Indonesia is not involved in the territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
China accepts the Natuna islands and the seas around them belong to Indonesia, but the two sides have confronted one another there before, typically over illegal fishing.
Friday's incident was the third altercation between Indonesia and China in waters near Natuna this year.
In March, Indonesia lodged an official protest after an Indonesian patrol ship tried to detain a Chinese fishing boat in the Natuna Sea, but was prevented from doing so by the Chinese coastguard.
Video South China Sea: Does a book prove China's claim? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/774116.stm | "Security forces must continue assessing the threat"
Work to dismantle two British Army observation posts in Belfast is under way as part of a process of scaling down its presence in Northern Ireland.
Preliminary work to remove two other bases in County Tyrone and in south Armagh has already begun.
The decision to remove the observation posts was taken following the IRA offer to put its "arms beyond use" on 6 May.
The army has occupied the high ground above Maeve House in the nationalist New Lodge area of north Belfast for three decades.
A similar post sits high above west Belfast on top of a nurses' home at Broadway.
The soldiers who have manned them will be leaving their posts, and preparations are under way for their departure.
It is expected to take a number of weeks before the sites are handed back to their original owners.
Preliminary work to dismantle bases in Cookstown in County Tyrone and at Cloghogue in south Armagh has also begun.
The scaling down of the army presence in Northern Ireland came as a result of an security assessment which indicated a reduced threat from terrorism.
The security forces believe the IRA statement, in which it set a context for putting weapons and explosives completely beyond use, signalled a reduction in that threat.
But Newry and Armagh Ulster Unionist assembly member Danny Kennedy has warned against moving too quickly to remove security bases.
"We have to remember that all these installations have been, and will continue to be, extremely important," said Mr Kennedy.
"There is the issue of republican splinter groups and careful assessment has to be made."
However, Belfast Sinn Fein councillor Bobby Lavery has welcomed the removal of the posts.
"They weren't there to protect the area.
"They were there for the sole purpose of observing republican activity - no other reason and that's why the populous here would be absolutely delighted to see this removed."
It is understood the status of an observation post in the square in Crossmaglen, County Armagh, is to be kept under review.
North Belfast Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly said the move was "long overdue" and called on the government to make further speedy advances on the demilitarisation process.
The government hopes to take "substantial measures" to normalise security arrangements by June 2001, the new deadline by which both London and Dublin aim to secure full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-46343503 | The great-great-great-grandson of Andrew Carnegie is to play the Scottish philanthropist when a musical about his life is staged in Dunfermline.
Joe Whiteman, is descended from the Dunfermline-born business man on his mother's side.
The 28 year-old music teacher will reprise the role in Carnegie - The Star Spangled Scotchman, after playing the part at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2016.
The show will have a two-night run at Carnegie Theatre from 17 May next year.
Carnegie, who died in Massachusetts in 1919, is said to have given almost 90% of his fortune to charities, foundations, and universities - about £273m ($350m).
The musical tells the story of his life from the perspective of a steelworker killed in the controversial homestead steel plant dispute of 1892. He has returned from the afterlife to decide on Carnegie's eternal fate in the last two hours of his life.
The show was developed by Ian Hammond Brown, who won a development grant from Creative Scotland in 2013.
He said: "It's a great opportunity to work with a fantastic cast again, a number of whom appeared in the Fringe production, as well as support the local community.
"It's always been my dream to perform the show at the Carnegie Hall and it's particularly poignant in 2019 as it's the centenary year. Many thanks to Fife Cultural Trust for its support."
Fife Cultural Trust donated the hire of the theatre free of charge in tribute to the legacy of Carnegie. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7393078.stm | With the two main parties in Pakistan's ruling coalition deadlocked over the reinstatement of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf, the BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad explains the complex political machinations underlying the issue.
Everyone in Pakistan agrees that President Pervez Musharraf's dismissal of Supreme and High Court judges under emergency rule last year was unconstitutional.
Even he has admitted this.
And the country's new, democratically-elected government has vowed to restore the sacked judges.
So why is the issue dragging on without resolution?
The controversy has focused on the deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.
Mr Chaudhry stepped on a lot of toes while head of the Supreme Court.
He held the ruling elite to account. He rattled the security establishment by pursuing the case of the "missing" - alleged terror suspects abducted and held incommunicado by Pakistan's intelligence services.
And he took up legal challenges to President Musharraf's re-election.
That was his biggest sin in the eyes of Pakistan's military establishment.
Last November, the president used emergency rule to get rid of him and other troublesome judges.
Mr Chaudhry's critics say he played politics. His supporters say he stood up to interference from a military ruler. For them, his reinstatement has become the symbol of judicial independence.
"If we compromised on the chief justice then we wouldn't have a principled stand!" says Tariq Mehmood, a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
"How can we digest this? That you restore the rest of the judges and you do not restore the chief justice - and he was the head of the institution. We cannot ignore him!"
The case became a live issue in February's elections. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif staked his campaign on a promise to restore the sacked judges, including the chief justice. Now Mr Sharif and his Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) have to deliver.
"It's the word of the PML-N, the credibility of the PML-N, the commitment that they've been fighting for, a free judiciary," says member of parliament Ayaz Amir.
Nawaz Sharif did much better at the ballot box than expected. So well, in fact, that the main election winner, Asif Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), had to form a coalition with him. Mr Sharif had one condition: reinstate the judges.
Of course President Musharraf is against this. He fears a reconstituted Supreme Court would rule his election and/or state of emergency unconstitutional.
It's believed Mr Sharif is counting on the restored judges to do so. He's said Mr Musharraf should be impeached.
The president has been weakened, but he's not ready to go just yet.
According to reports he's prepared to give up certain of his powers if the authority of the chief justice is also clipped. Political sources say Mr Musharraf's strongest backers - the Americans and the army - think that's a fair trade.
Certainly, the Pakistan People's Party doesn't want any more political turmoil.
"We need to be sure that we don't plunge Pakistan into another constitutional crisis that will lead to further instability and chaos," says Information Minister Sherry Rehman.
"We are going to see to it that we pursue the policies of moderation and a peaceful transition."
But many believe there's more to it than that. A peaceful transition from military to civilian rule was part of a Western-backed plan that brought the PPP's late leader Benazir Bhutto back from exile last year.
Under the terms of the deal, the then General Musharraf was to grant senior PPP leaders amnesty from corruption charges, step down as army chief and allow the party to contest relatively free and fair elections.
In exchange, Ms Bhutto agreed to support him as a civilian president.
Since President Musharraf delivered his side of the bargain, there is pressure on Ms Bhutto's widower, Asif Zardari, to deliver hers, says political analyst Rasul Baksh Rais.
"I think there's been an understanding between Pervez Musharraf and Asif Zardari on the one hand, and on the other, between Mr Zardari and Nawaz Sharif," he says.
"The understanding between the latter is that the judges would be restored, and the understanding between the former is that Mr Musharraf would continue as president, but there is a complex contradiction between the two."
There is personal animus too. In an interview with the BBC Mr Zardari has accused Iftikhar Chaudhry of complicity in a campaign to victimise him while imprisoned on what he says were trumped up murder and corruption charges in the 1990s and early part of this decade.
He's also said he remains committed to his pledge to reinstate the judges. But how to do so without either breaking up the coalition or challenging the president?
For lawyers and civil activists the issue is simple: President Musharraf has acted illegally and unconstitutionally, and must suffer the consequences. The chief justice took a principled stand and must be restored.
In the corridors of power, however, there are tortuous negotiations to try and square the circle, to reach a compromise that's "acceptable to all the stakeholders", according to one senior PPP source.
A difficult task indeed, in a country where many of the stakeholders are unacceptable to each other. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-34171736 | A city council has launched what it says is the first local authority energy company in the UK.
Officials of Nottingham City Council said they hoped Robin Hood Energy would take on mainstream suppliers.
Three tariffs are on offer, one for city residents only, with claims many customers could save £200 a year.
Councillor Alan Clark admitted there was a risk of the council losing money, but said the plan had passed all regulatory inspections.
Robin Hood Energy was a not-for-profit business, said the council. It said the directors were not paid a salary and other employees did not receive bonuses.
It differs from other arrangements as the council is acting as administrator and supplier buying directly from the grid, with no third party involved.
Mr Clark admitted that, as a business, it could lose money: "It is a possibility we have to look at and the regulator has to monitor that and we don't want people having their supplies cut off through any failure.
"But in broad terms, when you buy the energy and sell it, you make some sort of return on the sale, so if you can't sell enough you don't buy as much."
Independent energy market commentator Nigel Cornwall said many local authorities were looking at the idea.
"There is increased competition in the market and a desire for some councils to reconnect on this level.
"Wholesale prices are low at the moment and companies which have come in recently have held their own, and this company has the same chance as them." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/5111554.stm | School leaders in England are concerned at the new way the government is assessing students' progress.
They say the "contextual value added" measure - already being used by Ofsted inspectors - disadvantages schools with previously high performance.
The CVA will also be one of the main ways schools are compared in this year's league tables.
Ministers have said it is "strong and robust" - but they are going to "refine and improve" it during the year.
The way CVA is calculated is highly complex. It involves adjusting pupils' test results by taking account of such things as gender, ethnicity and poverty.
The general secretary of the Association of School and College leaders, John Dunford, told BBC News it was the latest example of the way ministers "thrash around from year to year" as they were "desperately trying to find a way to make the tables more acceptable".
He set out his members' concerns in a letter to the school standards minister.
"Any accountability device which depends on a rank order is ultimately self-defeating," he wrote.
"It cannot be a valid aspiration for our school system that every school is better than all other schools (or 50% of other schools, or whatever).
"This produces the reductio ad absurdum that all schools do equally well, achieve a value added score of 1000, and are graded by Ofsted as 'satisfactory'."
Dr Dunford added: "It is our strongly held conviction that the CVA - or indeed any other single measure - is not strong enough to bear the weight of accountability being placed on it.
"In particular, it cannot be acceptable to you or to school leaders (and I know that it is not acceptable to senior Ofsted staff) that inspectors arrive at schools and say 'Your CVA [report] prevents me from grading your school higher than x.' But this is happening."
In reply the minister, Jim Knight, said CVA provided a real opportunity for a "fair, consistent and transparent" measure of school performance.
It was "strong and robust", he said.
But it had to be "as accurate and sensitive as possible".
He was therefore "determined that we continue to refine and improve" it - drawing on a pilot version in last year's secondary school tables and a similar one being carried out this year for primary schools.
He also said: "I accept that no test or examination is 100% reliable."
It was well known that some pupils would perform better or worse than their "true" level of attainment on any particular day.
But at school, local and national level these effects balanced each other out so test results were a good indicator of overall performance, he said.
Mr Knight said that - in light of head teachers' concerns - Ofsted had stressed to inspectors that performance data "should inform, but do not determine" their judgements.
It would continue to "review and develop" this guidance. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26916299 | Labour MSP and former health minister Malcolm Chisholm has announced he will step down at the next Holyrood election.
Mr Chisholm, member for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, said he wanted to spend more time with his family.
Former Edinburgh lord provost Lesley Hinds has been lined up to fight the seat in 2016.
Mr Chisholm, 65, said serving his constituents had been "the greatest privilege of my life".
He said: "Representing people in the north of Edinburgh and Leith has been the greatest privilege of my life, but I won't be fighting the next election.
"Politicians sometimes say they want to spend more time with their family, and in this case it is true, as I have young grandchildren who play a big part in my life.
"I have served as the MP and then MSP for our area for over 20 years, and we've seen huge progress in that time but there is still a great deal more to do.
"I can think of nobody who is better placed than Lesley Hinds to campaign on the issues that matter to local people and hopefully to represent the constituency in the Scottish Parliament in due course."
Edinburgh councillor Ms Hinds currently represents the Inverleith ward and as convenor of the transport committee has overseen the city's trams project.
She said: "I am honoured to be selected by members.
"Leith and the north of Edinburgh needs a powerful voice in the Scottish Parliament, fighting for the things that really matter to people here.
"If elected, I will campaign tirelessly for better housing, more childcare, and jobs, jobs, jobs - because that is what we need and, if we work together, we can make them happen.
"Malcolm Chisholm has been an outstanding public servant for our area, both as our MP and MSP, and we wish him a long and happy retirement when he steps down in 2016. I know he will be working hard every single day until then." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4262509.stm | The Windsor Building blaze eerily lit up the Madrid night sky.
Bars, restaurants and nearby buildings were evacuated as the fire intensified.
In the morning light, clouds of smoke hung over the capital as firefighters continued their efforts.
Firefighters take a break after spending the night battling the blaze.
It is now feared that the entire structure could be at risk of collapse.
Investigators must wait until Wednesday before they can enter the building.
Madrid's mayor has said the remains of the building will have to be demolished.
About 10,000 people must wait until the travel restrictions are lifted before they can return to work. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/cardiff_city/7538385.stm | New striker Jay Bothroyd was set to make his Cardiff City debut against Chasetown on Wednesday despite Hull City's late bid to hijack the deal.
BBC Sport Wales understands the Premier League new boys made a last-gasp effort to take Bothroyd to Humberside.
But Bothroyd stuck by his word to join from Wolves and was set to be included in the Bluebirds' final friendly.
The Wolves striker, 26, signed a three-year deal on Monday after passing a medical and agreeing terms.
He was a guest of chairman Peter Ridsdale at Friday's friendly with Ajax after a fee of about £300,000 was agreed with Wolves.
It brings boss Dave Jones' long search for a second striker to an end with the new season just days away.
Is Jay Bothroyd a good signing?
First they lost the services of Robbie Fowler, who turned down a new deal at the last minute in favour of a move to Blackburn.
Then Marcus Bent called off his move from Charlton at the 11th hour to join Birmingham.
And Jones pulled the plug on Kenny Cooper's proposed move from FC Dallas, saying it had been "dragging on too long".
But he said of Bothroyd: "I think Jay is a great acquisition for us and we're still on the look-out for more.
"He's had maybe one or two seasons where people say he's not fulfilled his potential.
"Hopefully we can turn that around for him. We seem to be a club that thrives on doing that with players.
"I think he's a quality player and he'd give us something we haven't got and would bring great competition."
Ex-Arsenal trainee Bothroyd has played for Coventry City, Perugia, Blackburn Rovers and Charlton Athletic and ended last season on loan at Stoke. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40933491 | Freetown: A disaster waiting to happen?
Freetown is a city squeezing itself into the small space between the mountains and the sea, in a country with the highest annual rainfall in Africa.
In August - the height of the rainy season - an average of 539.9mm falls on Sierra Leone's capital.
So it comes as no surprise that Freetown is a city used to flooding.
But Monday's rain brought with it a disaster which left hundreds dead, and will no doubt be followed by finger-pointing and blame shifting.
Was it simply the effects of climate change and geography, or something more avoidable?
"Yes, the floods and mudslide were caused by nature. But they could have been avoided or at least mitigated," the BBC's Umaru Fofana wrote on his Facebook page.
"If we hurt the environment, the environment will fight back. If we fail to plan, we plan to fail. It's that simple."
Freetown was first established in the late 1700s, a home for freed slaves from the US and UK.
Its position was chosen not for what was on land, however, but what the sea could offer: the world's third largest natural harbour.
As a result, Freetown ended up in an area of heavily-forested mountains, which has not been accommodating for a growing population - currently around the million mark.
"It is the highest density of people I have ever seen," said Olivia Acland, a freelance journalist based in Freetown. "The amount of people when you walk through the streets, and the traffic. There are just people everywhere."
Many of those people live in the city's informal settlements, of which there are more than 60, according to Slum Dwellers International.
Here, tiny tin homes packed with large families can be seen squeezed on the banks of rivers, the sides of mountains, on the edge of the sea.
But, says Jamie Hitchen, of the Africa Research Institute, it is not just the city's poorest residents who are building their homes in areas which are contributing to the flooding risk.
Some of the city's wealthier residents are also responsible for the deforestation destabilising the soil, tempted higher into the hills by the cooler air and impressive views of the Peninsula Forest area, near to where the mudslide occurred.
"It is happening at both levels," Mr Hitchen said. "Unfortunately, the impact [of disasters] is on the poorer residents."
The government is aware of the problem - and how it might increase as the effects of climate change begin to take hold.
Two years ago, Mohamed Bah, deputy director of Sierra Leone's Environment Protection Agency (EPA), warned "irresponsible actions taken on the hills will affect the city greatly".
"Until we stop dumping waste into drainages, until we stop clearing the trees, we will always face severe consequences of climate change," he told Sierra Leone's Standard Times Newspaper.
And yet, Mr Hitchen feels there is a lack of political will to deal with the issue head on.
"The ideas have been put forward, the failure has been in terms of political action," he said.
Mr Hitchen added: "There is technically a moratorium on building in the area of the Peninsula Forest. That is there in writing, but not in any kind of enforcement."
Abdulai Baraytay, a spokesperson for Sierra Leone's president, told the BBC's Newsday programme the EPA had spoken to residents about the danger two weeks earlier, and tried to put some trees in - but said they had been chased away.
Mr Baraytay also pointed to earlier attempts to move people out of harm's way. After the last major flooding in 2015, Sierra Leone's government did make an effort to move people living in one settlement to somewhere safer and more spacious on the outskirts of the city.
"But they rented [the homes] out and came back to the slum," he said.
Mr Hitchen had a different view on why they returned: to find work.
"They provided houses, but they did not connect them to the grid - they did not connect them to jobs," Mr Hitchen said.
There is another problem contributing to the flooding: the rubbish blocking the drains.
"There is no clearing of waste, the drains fill up. Everyone is saying it's not our responsibility," Mr Hitchen said.
"But even if they addressed the issue of waste collection, there is nowhere for it to go. Both Freetown's dump sites should have been closed in 2009."
But despite the unique challenges of Freetown. this is not just a problem in Sierra Leone.
The 2009 Unjust Water report found examples of worsening floods in Ghana, Uganda, Mozambique and Kenya.
It was generally, the report concluded, caused by "the growing occupation of floodplains, increased runoff from hard surfaces, inadequate waste management and silted up drainage" - all factors said to contribute to the problem in Freetown.
Professor Ian Douglas, co-author of the report and University of Manchester professor, told the BBC: "You have several related problems about vulnerability relating to informal settlements.
"Two, urban development up stream increases the rate at which the water rushes down in to the flood plain, exacerbating the danger by excavating in to hillsides.
"Three, encroachment on the flood plan by municipal works and major developments leads to the waters being left with narrow spaces to flow through, therefore flowing more quickly and with more energy to pick up debris."
When it comes to flooding then. climate change is simply another contributing factor. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-16913656 | Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating 60 years on the throne. She became queen on the death of her father, King George VI, this day in 1952.
She usually spends Accession Day privately but this year had the two engagements in Norfolk. Her first was at Kings Lynn Town Hall.
She did a walkabout for waiting crowds, many of whom have only ever known her as their monarch.
She also visited Dersingham Infant and Nursery School in Dersingham. The main celebrations of her reign will be held in June.
The official start of celebrations were marked by gun salutes across the country. The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery travelled from St John's Wood, London, to Hyde Park to perform a 41-gun salute.
The weekend's snow provided a wintery backdrop to mounted troops in their ceremonial uniforms.
The basic salute is 21 rounds with an extra 20 rounds added because it was carried out in a royal park.
The 21-gun salute was fired at Edinburgh Castle by gunners from 105 Regiment Royal Artillery (Volunteers). |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26045864 | Pop star Prince has played two secret shows in London with his new band 3rd Eye Girl.
An intimate performance for 10 people, held in the living room of his friend, singer Lianne La Havas, was accompanied by a small press conference to announce a series of upcoming UK shows.
Prince announced he wanted to charge "about $10" (£6) for each ticket.
It was followed by a late-night show at Camden's Electric Ballroom, billed by the singer as a "sound check".
Matt Everitt of BBC 6 Music News was one of the few in attendance at the first event on Tuesday and here gives his impressions of what took place.
Lianne La Havas's front room in Leyton, east London, had been turned into a venue, with purple stage lights and acoustic instruments.
It is only about 9ft by 18ft and there was just me, two other journalists, Lianne, her two housemates and Prince's crew - serious-looking sound guys and security (who numbered about 10) - all waiting for the man to turn up. And at 20:15 GMT, he did.
He led his new band - the three piece 3rd Eye Girl - through two new songs from the upcoming album Plectrum Electrum, including the new single PretzelBodyLogic. He described the new tunes as "funk 'n' roll".
Lianne didn't perform with Prince. But she did do a stripped-down performance of the Little Dragon song Twice and a brand new unfinished song off her next album, which has the working title of Shapes.
"I probably feel just as gobsmacked as you and everyone else here. What we've witnessed is very special," she said afterwards.
"I feel very honoured to just know someone who's that great at playing music," she continued.
"And [Prince is] sharing music in the way it should be shared. Just off the cuff, whenever you feel, just let people know, tell your friends and then… play."
1. He looks phenomenal - afro, huge round purple-tinted sunglasses, black furry jerkin, skin-tight black roll-neck and flares.
2. Prince smells great - I presume he uses Princense.
3. Prince does not like being recorded during interviews. He didn't want to speak into the mic, and there were no photos allowed in the house. That said, he was happy to discuss anything. There were no rules from management about what we could ask.
4. He LOVES his new band. "We've been together for over a year and it's perfect. The more we play, the more fun it is, and addictive it is.'' Much of the new album came out of numerous day-long jamming sessions at his Paisley Park recording studios.
5. Prince doesn't sleep much. He'd appeared at a club in New York to launch the single PretzelBodyLogic at 2am then flown to the UK, landed in London, dropped his bags off at an undisclosed location and then come to Lianne's house.
6. Technically it was the first gig of a UK tour of sorts - or at least the first in a series of shows that Prince intends to play around London, in what he described as "iconic venues". While nothing was confirmed in terms of dates or specifics, he did say he was interested in maybe playing places like Ronnie Scott's, the Bag O'Nails Club (the legendary Soho '60s hang-out that's only recently re-opened) and the Electric Ballroom in London - which is where he played later that night. There were about 100 people there, but as word spread on Twitter more and more turned up.
7. He won't be doing a series of large O2-scale shows like he did in 2007: "That was a different time, this is a different band." But he did say he and his band would "work our way up, if people like us, to bigger venues". When asked how long he'd be here he said his trip was "open-ended", explaining "we're going to be here until people don't want to hear us anymore."
8. It's Purple Rain's 30th anniversary this year but Prince wasn't even aware of that. He looked surprised to be told about it, saying "I hadn't even realised", and was not that interested in looking back at the making of the record. "Everything looks different to me, because I was there. I wrote those songs, I don't need to know what happened," he explained.
9. He's going to keep tickets for the shows cheap. "We want to charge about $10 a ticket. This is a new band, people are getting something new."
10. He likes tea. With lots of Manuka honey. A lot of honey.
11. I asked him about Glastonbury and he has heard of it. "Do you want me to play there tomorrow?" he joked before insisting he was "concentrating on these shows in London, I don't know what's happening after". To which I asked "That's not a no though?", to which he said, "No!"
12. He's looking at recording all the shows he does in London. He loves the new record, but live "is a different thing" with these musicians. "There's a certain feeling that we get when we play - this is perfection. This is just perfect." He said their relationship is "friends first" and they don't have any contracts; "They're not signed to me and I'm not signed to them. This is the way it always should have been. I've had my issues with labels in the past, but that all happened for a reason."
13. Legend says that every room in his famous Paisley Park recording studio complex is wired for sound - the hallway, the bathroom, the bedrooms - so that wherever he is in the building he can just start recording if he feels like it. Sadly, this isn't true.
14. But there is a huge amount of unreleased music in the Paisley Park vaults - and there's a treasure trove of old recordings to which he owns the rights that may see the light of day. He'd rather people wait to hear that than listen to bootlegs. "When you hear something [on bootleg] you're just hearing something that's not finished," he explained. "A song from 1985 might come out in 2021. I have a whole organisation who look after stuff."
15. There was a story last week saying he was taking a $22m (£13m) legal action against 22 internet users who allegedly posted copies of his live performances online. In response to that he simply said "Nobody sues their fans", before adding: "I have some bootlegs of Lianne [La Havas] but I wouldn't sell them. But fans sharing music with each other, that's cool."
16. On his last trip to London he did record some songs. "Bryan Ferry let us use his studio very kindly, we went there," he explained. "I was listening to a lot of Cocteau Twins at the time."
17. He loves ping pong. He and his band play a lot of ping pong on tour. Prince is apparently VERY good at ping pong. But of course he is. He's Prince. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7281156.stm | It was meant to be the future of housing.
But nearly 36 years after it was built, the Robin Hood Gardens estate in Poplar, east London, is destined for demolition.
For most of the current residents, the end of the concrete blocks cannot come soon enough.
Yet for many well-known architects, the building represents a shining example of modern buildings and have signed up to an online petition in a bid to save it.
Robin Hood Gardens was designed by architects Alison and Peter Smithson and finished 1972.
The estate covers about two hectares and consists of two long blocks, one of 10 floors, the other of seven.
It was described at the time as "streets in the sky" social housing.
Mr Smithson said: "It is a model, it is an exemplar of a new mode of urbanisation."
But the estate developed problems with crime and there were concerns with its quality and design.
"People live in Robin Hood Gardens, like they live in a prison," said resident Charles Alison.
"You could be walking along and all of a sudden you find something has hit you - an egg, a stone, a drink or cup thrown from the top."
Fellow resident Obadiah Chambers said: "They should pull it down, without a doubt.
"They would not be pulling my home down because I don't call it a home."
Obadiah Chambers: "Robin Hood Gardens cannot be called a home"
On Wednesday night, Tower Hamlets Council agreed to demolish it and replace it with new homes as a part of regeneration of what is known as the Blackwall Reach area.
During the consultation, more than 75% of residents said they would like to see Robin Hood Gardens knocked down and replaced.
But a host of well known architects are fighting to save it.
The Building Design website has begun a petition which it hopes to present to English Heritage to get the "seminal" building listed.
The petitioners include Lord Rogers, Zaha Hadid and Stuart Lipton.
Lord Rogers, who designed he Lloyd's of London building and the Millennium Dome, has written to the culture secretary Andy Burnham.
In the letter he says: "Peter and Alison Smithson built two seminal buildings in London - the Economist Building in St James' Street and Robin Hood Gardens in Tower Hamlets - both as good, if not better, than any other modern building in Britain.
"Whilst the Economist Building has been maintained and upgraded, Robin Hood Gardens has been appallingly neglected and, from the beginning, has been used as a sink estate to house those least capable of looking after themselves - much less their environment.
"It would be a real tragedy and a terrible mistake to demolish this important and extraordinary piece of modern architecture." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4381048.stm | The Movement for Democratic Change was always going to be a broad church.
From its foundation in 1999, it has brought together city workers and farm labourers, small businessmen and big landowners, Zimbabwe's Shona majority and the Ndebele minority, as well as a small number of white Zimbabweans.
What united these people was their dissatisfaction with President Robert Mugabe's government, be it on the grounds of human rights abuses or the steady collapse of the economy with its consequent job losses, shortages and growing poverty.
From the start, sceptics predicted that this alliance would collapse under the weight of the conflicting interests of its broad constituency, as soon as its focus moved beyond the immediate wish to replace Mr Mugabe.
But with Mr Mugabe still firmly in power, the strains are starting to show - and the fundamental differences seem to be over strategy.
The current crisis began when the ruling Zanu-PF party changed the constitution to reintroduce a Senate, an institution that was abolished in 1987.
Fifty senators are to be elected on a constituency basis on 26 November; the new upper house will also include a further six senators appointed by the president, and 10 traditional chiefs.
Mr Tsvangirai wants the party to stay out of the Senate elections. The other five of the party's six top officials, led by secretary general Welshman Ncube, want to participate - and 26 party members have gone ahead and registered their candidacy.
The Ncube faction says that in declaring a boycott, Mr Tsvangirai overrode a decision taken democratically by the party's structures.
Although Mr Tsvangirai's stance has left him looking isolated among the party leadership, his views resonate with those of many Zimbabweans who feel the Senate is a waste of money, and exists mainly for President Mugabe to hand out jobs to more of his political allies.
The National Constitutional Assembly - a coalition of pro-democracy civil society groups - is also supporting a boycott of the Senate elections, believing it was conceived only as the result of an undemocratic constitutional change.
At the moment, neither faction is prepared to concede that the other side might have a point.
Party spokesman Paul Themba-Nyathi - who favours participation - earlier this week described Mr Tsvangirai's views as "unfortunate", as though the opinions of the party leader were not particularly relevant.
Mr Tsvangirai's spokesman, William Bango, insisted that the 26 MDC members who had registered their candidacy had done so in their personal capacity - and that to have registered in the name of the MDC was an act of fraud.
He said that while the party leader was seeking a "political solution" to the crisis, disciplinary action against those who had registered could not be ruled.
Some commentators speak of an ethnic split - and it is true that Mr Tsvangirai is from the majority Shona ethnic group, and his five most prominent opponents within the party are from the Ndebele minority.
But in another sense, the split represents a philosophical difference: can structures like the Senate be a valuable platform for the MDC to put its views, or will the presence of the opposition simply grant legitimacy to an electoral system which in the past has been manipulated by the ruling party to its own advantage?
In the western Ndebele heartland, the MDC already controls the city of Bulawayo and is an established political force - it is perhaps understandable that party members in the region are more confident about being able to work within the system than is the case with their colleagues elsewhere in the country.
But whatever real differences may exist, there are signs that the Zimbabwean state is doing its best to exploit them, and to turn a disagreement over strategy into a full-blown crisis.
Since the MDC is the only party that has ever posed a serious challenge to Zanu-PF rule, the current mess has obvious benefits for the ruling party.
Mr Tsvangirai believes the nominations court - the body responsible for registering candidates - came under pressure from the state security services to register candidates in the name of the MDC, against the party leader's own instructions.
The Tsvangirai camp maintains that the Central Intelligence Organisation is actively supporting the electoral ambitions of the 26 candidates.
"What is particularly worrying is the information we received indicating that some of these candidates were brought into the city by the CIO and driven to the nomination court a few minutes before 4pm yesterday [Monday, the nomination deadline]," Last Maengahama, MDC secretary for Harare province, said in a statement.
The state-controlled media has made much of the divisions within the MDC, running headlines such as "The people versus Morgan Tsvangirai".
MDC officials admit that the row has already damaged the party's prospects.
Even if MDC candidates were to win all 26 seats that they are contesting - itself an unlikely outcome - Zanu-PF would still control the senate.
MDC activists remain optimistic that they can overcome their differences.
But for the moment, both sides are sticking firmly to their positions - and there is no indication of who will blink first. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37047456 | "I've gone from being a 16-year-old waitress to being a business owner and senior executive, and I couldn't have done that without my online network."
Jess Ratty is a woman with a mission. She wants us all to get better at promoting ourselves professionally online - and creating our own career opportunities along the way.
Given that changing jobs can be one of the hardest things we do, many of us might welcome anything that makes switching jobs easier.
According to a survey by Hired, eight in 10 of us say we find changing jobs stressful - and more stressful than moving house, planning a wedding or even having root canal work.
When it comes to job-hunting, Jess says the key is not to let your stress stop you from taking action: "Don't fret about things so much, or worry about how you might come across."
It's something she has put into practice in her own career.
Now a senior executive at Crowdfunder, the UK's biggest crowd-funding platform which raises funds from small investors, Jess says she's come a long way since dropping out of school.
She started work at the Eden Project in Cornwall as a waitress, and says it was her colleagues who helped her realise she "could maybe start achieving great things myself."
So she set about creating an online professional profile as a shop window for herself - and says having an active online presence has been crucial for her career.
"Crowdfunder found me through LinkedIn and went on to offer me a job."
Crowdfunder's Dawn Bebe, who recruited Jess, says what's important for her when recruiting someone "is getting a sense of what they are like and what they are passionate about".
Jess's experience is increasingly common, says Darain Faraz of LinkedIn.
"A lot of the time, most people aren't looking for work, they are what we call passive candidates. But LinkedIn can help jobs look for you."
Yet this only works if you have a complete profile, and sadly us Brits are not very good at self-promotion.
We're more likely to share food pictures on our social media channels than our work successes or announcements of a new job.
"People do make judgements based on our online profiles," says Darain.
And be assured, recruiters will also check your Twitter activity and Facebook profile as well: "Make sure that how you position yourself online is how you want to be seen," he adds.
"You don't want your Saturday night becoming your Monday morning."
The mistake many of us make is to only use professional networking sites when we're looking for a new role, says Darain.
But what recruiters want to see is a track record, so that they can judge whether or not we are right for a job.
"One of the first things we do is check [online] for potential candidates in the right geographical area who have the skills and interests that we think would work for us," says Crowdfunder's Dawn Bebe.
The jobs recruitment sector has changed markedly in the past few years, with a vast amount of job searching and head-hunting now done online with sites such as Monster, Reed, Viadeo and Xing.
LinkedIn has about 400 million members worldwide (in the UK it has 20 million members - some 60% of Britain's working population and students) and last year Microsoft paid over $26bn (£18bn) for LinkedIn.
Now Facebook, with more than a billion monthly active users, has launched Workplace; it's a platform designed to help workers talk to each other, in-house.
Image caption Could Facebook come to challenge LinkedIn?
While it is currently for use within firms, given Facebook's size it has the potential to be a serious rival to LinkedIn.
Jess has her own tip for young professionals.
"You need to be creative and inventive with your online profile if you want to stand out," she says.
"You need to be consistent if you are using it to develop your career."
Jess says she always wanted to make her career in her home county - Cornwall.
Besides working for Crowdfunder, she and her partner have now set up the Cornwall Camper Company, hiring out restored VW campervans to holidaymakers.
She points out that thanks to online networking sites, "you can make a big impact wherever you are".
But she also has this important piece of advice. Merely being online is no substitute for professional knowledge and commitment, she cautions: "You've got to know your stuff." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-39089308/how-free-running-helps-the-health-of-an-older-generation | Pensioner parkour: 'I feel perky' Jump to media player Find out how parkour is helping an older generation avoid falls in later life.
The one-armed parkour artist Jump to media player James Rudge was born with one arm and is earning a reputation online for doing parkour around Bristol, the city he loves.
Parkour transforms pupils' wellbeing Jump to media player An Aberdeen school says the introduction of parkour is transforming the health and wellbeing of its pupils.
Andri's amazing acrobatics Jump to media player Teenage skier's jaw-dropping parkour routine impresses millions.
Parkour's official sport status toasted Jump to media player Participants in parkour, or free-running, have celebrated the UK's recognition of it as a sport as a purpose-built course opens.
The sport of free running or parkour has been seen as a daring activity for young adrenaline seekers.
However there are now classes being run for the over 60s - with those attending finding that it improves their balance and spacial awareness, therefore reducing their risk of falling in later life.
Mike Bushell reports from a class in east London.
If you'd like to find out more about getting into Parkour, you can find out how in our guide to adventure sports. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-39296625/are-we-seeing-the-rise-of-the-postmodern-politician | The rise of the postmodern politician Jump to media player Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin share one thing in common, one writer argues: a disdain for facts.
Are we seeing the rise of the postmodern politician?
Is Donald Trump a postmodern president?
In this opinion piece, journalist and writer Peter Pomerantsev argues that President Trump and President Putin share a disdain for facts - and that this is part of their appeal.
This is the first of two animations on President Trump from BBC Newsnight. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11594322 | Russian musician Yulianna Avdeeva has become the first woman in 45 years to win the prestigious Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland.
Ms Avdeeva, 25, who won £26,506, said she had been working towards winning the competition her "whole life".
Held every five years, the contest for young pianists is one of the most important in the classical music world.
Martha Argerich, a past winner and member of the jury, caller Ms Avdeeva a "harmonious artist".
She added: "I am extremely happy about Yulianna, and particularly because she is the first woman after 45 years. After me there was no lady, so I am very happy."
Previous winners, including Maurizio Pollini and Martha Argerich, have gone on to become the greatest pianists in modern times.
The contestants spent three weeks playing works by Frederic Chopin during a series of concerts.
"Chopin's music is so very special, I was enjoying every performance because I was not thinking about the competition, but was thinking about the music only," Ms Avdeeva said.
The runner-up prize was shared between Ingolf Wunder, a 25-year-old Austrian, and Moscow-born Lithuanian Lukas Geniusas, 20.
The competition started in 1927 and has been held every five years since, except for a hiatus during World War II. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43894484 | Philip Hammond has rejected claims the government has been too slow to support tenants trying to have dangerous cladding removed from their properties.
Labour MP Rushanara Ali said many residents were fighting legal battles with their landlords and did not believe ministers were "on the side".
She asked the chancellor if he could "live with" another Grenfell tragedy.
He said the claims were "unfair" and the government was ready to fund all urgent cases involving social housing.
Cladding on 228 buildings failed safety tests after the Grenfell Tower fire, in which 71 people lost their lives.
During a hearing of the Treasury select committee, Ms Ali suggested only seven out of 160 social housing blocks with flammable cladding similar to that used in the west London tower block had so far had it replaced.
She said some housing associations and councils did not have sufficient funds to do the work while others were finding it to difficult to access money and the government should simply "underwrite" the cost.
"The government is shirking responsibility," she said. "The question is are you going to be able to live with yourself if this happens again when these properties have not had the work done."
The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, in east London, said ministers were not aware of how many private blocks were similarly affected and their residents should not have to "wait years" before the work is done.
"The government has to be on the side of people who have to live in these properties and, at the moment, they don't think feel they are... not only on social housing but in private blocks."
Ministers, she said, should "go after" private landlords "rather than leaving residents and leaseholders to fight these battles in order to live safely without fear of dying in fires?"
Mr Hammond said social landlords had a duty to ensure their properties were safe and that lack of finance should not prevent urgent safety work from taking place.
He said claims of government complacency were "unfair" as the Housing Secretary Sajid Javid was "all over" the issue.
Any social landlord whose property needed urgent repairs should approach the Ministry of Housing which could, Mr Hammond said, potentially relax council borrowing rules or spending caps to fund repair work.
"It is a very challenging issue and obviously these blocks need to be re-clad. In some cases the work is urgent and needs to be done urgently but we have to be led by the expert professional advice," he said.
And he acknowledged that the situation in relation to private blocks was "more complicated".
"I accept it is a challenge. But there is only a certain amount of finance available and diverting public housing funding to leaseholders in private blocks would be a very significant decision."
A public inquiry into the June 2017 Grenfell blaze is continuing.
A review of building regulations ordered after the tragedy found the system was "not fit for purpose" and open to abuse by those trying to save money, according to an interim report in December. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cornwall/4216780.stm | Three beaches in Cornwall are to have specially designed wheelchairs which can be pushed on sand from next summer.
The sand chairs have been bought by the Cornwall Disability Forum with money from the Local Network Fund of the Cornwall Community Foundation.
The chairs, costing £2,500 each, have four wide wheels, enabling them to move across beaches and not get bogged down.
They will be at Porthminster Beach at St Ives, Gyllingvase in Falmouth and Summerleaze at Bude.
The forum hopes to get three more chairs in the future.
Wheelchair users have welcomed the purchases, saying it is virtually impossible to push traditional wheelchairs across beaches because their narrow wheels get stuck in the sand. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/4448646.stm | Swansea eased into the LDV Vans Trophy southern area quarter-finals at the expense of Rushden and Diamonds.
Despite making nine changes the home side bossed the game, with Andy Robinson heading in Marc Goodfellow's cross to give Swansea the lead.
Robinson struck again after the break, thumping home after Goodfellow and Shaun MacDonald worked a short corner.
Gary Monk headed in his first ever goal for Swansea, with Paul Connor rounding things off with a low left-footed shot.
Swansea: Murphy, Fisken, O'Leary (Tudur-Jones 77), Monk, Austin, MacDonald, Martinez, Robinson (Bond 82), Connor, Forbes, Goodfellow. Subs Not Used: Pritchard, Britton, Gueret.
Goals: Robinson 20, 65, Monk 76, Connor 89.
Rushden & D'monds: Ruddy, Gier, Gulliver, Dempster, Hawkins, Burgess, McCafferty, Mills, Kelly, O'Grady (Taylor 72), Armstrong (Tomlin 68). Subs Not Used: Young, Savage, Kennedy.
Ref: A Marriner (W Midlands). |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/stories-42372174/one-culture-two-generations | In this series BBC Stories will be talking to British families and exploring the differences between first and second generation immigrants. It will delve into the cultural nuances that shape their relationships.
In the first episode we meet a Ghanaian father who has only recently come to terms with his son's criminal past. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/iran_power/html/ | Iran's complex and unusual political system combines elements of a modern Islamic theocracy with democracy. A network of unelected institutions controlled by the highly powerful conservative Supreme Leader is countered by a president and parliament elected by the people.
For much of the last decade, Iranian politics has been characterised by continued wrangling between these elected and unelected institutions as a reformist president - and, at times, parliament - struggled against the conservative establishment.
But with hardliners' regaining control of the parliament in 2004 and the presidency in 2005, all the organs of government are now dominated by conservatives.
The BBC News Website looks at how Iran's political system works and who wields the power. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12639025 | Syria: Why is there no Egypt-style revolution?
As Syrians eagerly follow developments in the Middle East, they are - for the first time in almost four decades - also loudly discussing the politics at home.
Everyone in Syria seems to be watching and waiting; people from all sections of society and every political stripe.
"One thing everyone agrees on is that change should be fast and tangible, it cannot wait," says Kais Zakaria, a 35-year-old dentist.
There are signs that the wave of change in the Middle East is having an effect here.
Last month, a demonstration took place in the old market in Damascus.
Angered by an altercation between the police and a market trader, hundreds gathered around to stop the policemen's heavy handed response.
The video quickly made the rounds on YouTube.
"Thieves, thieves," people shouted at the police.
"Syrians shouldn't be humiliated," they chanted.
Scenes like this are almost unheard of here, but Syrians - especially the youth - seem to have a newfound confidence.
They are unhappy with the tough economic outlook and the lack of political freedoms.
On the day of the demonstration, the minister of interior personally went over to talk to the protesters.
The policemen who attacked the trader were punished.
"There is a wide gap between the government and the people in Syria," says Mr Zakaria, while sipping his coffee and surfing the news at a downtown internet cafe.
"We need to regain trust in the government… To start with, we need better living conditions and fair distribution of the country's wealth," he adds.
At a nearby fruit and vegetable market, buyers and sellers are fighting over food prices. No one is satisfied.
"I can barely get my bread," one of the sellers shouts above his customers.
"I fought the Israelis in 1973, and now I am humiliated by the police.
"Why should I take it?"
The government has taken several measures in the wake of Tunisia and Egypt to reduce the cost of basic goods, especially food.
There have been grants for the poor, and reports that civil servants have been instructed to treat citizens with respect.
But Syria suffers from corruption that goes all the way up the system.
The government is stepping up campaigns to fight it, but some figures close to the regime remain untouched.
The US Treasury has accused Syria's most powerful businessman, Rami Makhlouf, of involvement in corruption.
It describes him as a "regime insider [who] improperly benefits from and aids the public corruption of Syrian regime officials".
Mr Makhlouf, who is the president's cousin, has rejected the accusations.
But many here believe that, without the rule of law, any change will be cosmetic.
Still, there is the sense on the streets of Damascus that demonstrations will not be seen in the capital anytime soon.
There were calls last month for a "day of rage" - mainly organised by exiled opposition groups - but no-one showed up.
Recently, a second call for a day of rage was sent out on Facebook. No date has been set.
The absence of any real opposition inside the country and fear of the security services were blamed for their lack of success.
So far, there have been few calls for President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Although Syria faces similar problems as Egypt and Tunisia, the young president enjoys popularity here.
Since inheriting power from his father in 2000, he has introduced gradual reforms that have helped to revive the once stagnant economy and open up the media.
That has been enough to satisfy many.
"Any change should come from inside and according to people's needs, not from any external pressure," says Wadah Abed Rabboh, editor-in-chief of the pro-government al-Watan newspaper.
He admits that change was slow to come, but says more reform is in the works, including a new multi-party system.
Currently, Syria is run by a one-party system and has been under emergency law since 1963.
Political activity and freedom of expression are severely curtailed.
Thousands are reported to be imprisoned for their political views and many others are banned from travelling.
Last week, dozens of young sympathisers of the Libyan protests held a peaceful demonstration in Damascus.
It only took one person to violate the security instructions and several people were brutally beaten by the police.
Some were arrested, but released shortly after.
"We need political reforms, fair and free elections, and we need to be part of building our country," says Mr Zakaria.
President Assad's second term will end in 2014.
And this year, Syria is due to hold municipal and parliamentary elections.
Many people now believe there is a golden opportunity for change and for a peaceful transition to a democratic system. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7531260.stm | David Heather buys North Korean propaganda posters to sell to art collectors overseas. The hand-painted posters are produced at a studio complex in Pyongyang, where about 1,000 artists work.
Some posters have the obvious anti-imperialist themes. But David Heather says these are less common nowadays, as relations between North Korea and the US improve.
David Heather says there are two main types of poster - those that are depicting the day-to-day lives of ordinary people and those which are anti-imperialist in nature.
The caption on this poster reads "Look! The face of American imperialism."
This poster encourages a healthy lifestyle. It says "Let's learn to swim at an early age."
Some posters encourage hard work. David Heather says this one translates as "Let's give a bigger part to the advantages of the socialist treatment system through greater effort."
The posters have proved so popular with art collectors that a book has been published and an exhibition in New York is planned. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7051235.stm | A large majority of the population support the idea of presumed consent for organ donation, survey findings have suggested.
Two-thirds of more than 2,000 people surveyed by the British Medical Association said the UK should move to an opt-out system.
At present organs can only be taken from people who have actively chosen to be donors, and carry donor cards.
Every year hundreds of people die because of a shortage of donor organs.
Just over a quarter of the more than 2,000 people surveyed in England, Scotland and Wales, said they were on the NHS Organ Donor Register.
Yet nearly two-thirds said they would be willing to donate their organs for transplantation after their death.
Under the presumed consent system, everybody would be viewed as a potential donor unless they had registered an objection or "opted out" before death.
Dr Tony Calland, chairman of the BMA's Medical Ethics Committee said surveys show many people who are willing to donate organs never make their wishes known, and that this inevitably results in unnecessary deaths.
"Every year in the UK hundreds of people die because there are not enough organs available for transplantation.
"The BMA believes that moving to a system of presumed consent, where it is assumed that people are willing to donate their organs after death unless they opt out, combined with other reforms to the transplant infrastructure, would play an important part in improving the organ donation system so that more lives can be saved.
"These figures demonstrate that support amongst the public is growing for presumed consent.
"We hope the government will take note of the growing level of public support for this change."
There are 7,234 UK patients waiting for an organ transplant.
Last year, 3,086 organ transplants were carried out, thanks to the generosity of 1,495 donors.
A spokesman from UK Transplant said: "We welcome any kind of announcement that creates debate about the system in place. At the moment, donors need to remember to sign up.
"People should discuss their wishes with their family and loved ones."
Health secretary, Alan Johnson said: "We know there is a shortage of organ donors and I am committed to trying to improve the situation.
"Following the recommendation of Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, I have asked the organ donation taskforce to look into the issue of presumed consent, taking into account all views to determine whether this is the way forward." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7460162.stm | The body overseeing UK astronomy and physics is to commission an independent review of its operations.
The probe into the effectiveness of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) follows widespread concern over the status of its budget.
The council says its settlement from government has left it no choice but to find £80m of savings through to 2011.
This puts at risk a number of current science projects and the recent growth in research grants.
An assessment of where the STFC's yearly half-a-billion-pound budget should be focussed is currently under way and will be published next month.
Disciplines such as solar-terrestrial physics, which studies the connection between the Sun and Earth, fear they will be subjected to major cuts.
The announcement on Tuesday of the independent review was made as the government responded to MPs' misgivings over the activities of the STFC.
In April, the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee had criticised the STFC for not consulting the scientific community adequately. It also said that some of the council's decisions - particularly on the issue of membership of international science programmes - had left the UK looking like an "unreliable" and "incompetent" partner.
The government, in its formal response, acknowledged a number of the committee's observations but robustly rejected others. It disagreed with the notion that ministers had been trying to "micromanage" some programmes and described the MPs' criticism of the STFC's peer review system as "unhelpful and damaging".
"Government funding for science has more than doubled over the last decade, rising to more than £4bn by 2010/11," a spokesman in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) said.
"While it is right that government sets the overarching strategy, the research community and scientists themselves set priorities and distribute funds through a process of peer review."
One of the explanations the STFC has given for its current predicament is the move towards the funding of university research grants at their "full economic cost" (FEC).
This means that grants now take into account lab space, lighting, heating, technical support, etc. In the past, universities covered these costs, effectively subsidising research.
The MPs, in their report, said the government should have put extra money into the STFC settlement to cover FEC.
In its response, the government said: "[The committee] is entitled to argue that there should have been an even bigger increase but the government regard that an average increase of 2.7% per year in real terms [in the science budget] over the next three years is a strong settlement in a tight fiscal environment."
Committee chairman Phil Willis commented that he would have liked to have seen a clear commitment to hold off any cuts until the Wakeham Review into physics funding reported its findings in the Autumn.
"I am somewhat disappointed that the government has shelved responsibility for the whole affair to the STFC," he told BBC News. "But to balance that, I am pleased with the general tone of their response - that they accept that all is not well at the council, and that they have put the chief executive and the board on notice."
The independent STFC review will also report in the autumn. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-46493319/gilets-jaunes-are-nationalists-infiltrating-the-yellow-vests | Violence mars Paris May Day rally Jump to media player Masked protesters clash with police during a annual May Day rally in the French capital, Paris.
Macron defends Europe defence plan Jump to media player Mr Macron and Mr Trump spoke warmly of the friendship between their countries and the briefing ended with Macron patting Trump's leg.
The ups and downs of Trump and Macron Jump to media player France's president visits his US counterpart this week, but their relationship hasn't always been steady.
Gilets jaunes: Are nationalists infiltrating the 'yellow vests'?
Protesters from all sides of the French political spectrum have found a home in the "yellow vest" movement.
BBC Newsnight's James Clayton travelled to Paris to meet members of the "gilets jaunes". |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-47963091/off-road-biker-survives-30ft-quarry-fall-in-merthyr-tydfil | Biker survives 30ft quarry fall Jump to media player Adrian Owen was riding off-road on his bike when he accidentally drove over the edge of a cliff.
Off-piste skiers swallowed by avalanche Jump to media player A group of skiers were caught by surprise after being trapped in an off-piste avalanche in Austria.
Cyclist luckily escapes falling tree Jump to media player Lewisham Council says it is "deeply concerned" by the video which shows the tree narrowly missing the cyclist.
Climber airlifted to safety after avalanche Jump to media player The RAF and Coastguard assisted Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team in bringing the climber to safety.
This is the moment an off-road biker accidentally drove off the edge of a 30ft (10m) quarry cliff in Merthyr Tydfil county.
Adrian Owen was riding his motorbike on Sunday, when he went in the wrong direction and drove off the edge of the cliff.
After hitting a rock below and rolling several times, Mr Owen was attended to by the Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team, who said he had suffered "significant injuries" before he was taken to hospital by air ambulance.
Mr Owen said on Facebook he was "very lucky to be alive". |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26351457 | Victorian crime drama Ripper Street is to return to screens via Amazon's video on demand service.
The BBC cancelled the show in December due to poor ratings, but Amazon has now commissioned a third season for its Prime Instant Video service - formerly known as Lovefilm Instant.
The show will premiere on Amazon and screen on the BBC a few months later.
Amazon has also acquired the UK subscription streaming rights of the first two series of the show.
The BBC will continue to make a contribution to production costs of the new season, while other broadcast partners - including BBC America and the Irish Film Board - will remain on board as part of the new arrangement.
Filming on the new series - which will continue to be produced by Tiger Aspect and Lookout Point - will begin in May.
A date for its premiere on Amazon Prime has yet to be determined.
The programme's makers said the third series would go ahead as originally planned with eight episodes, the same budget and "slightly more bells and whistles" than the previous two series.
The existing principal cast - including Matthew Macfayden and Jerome Flynn - will return to the show's purpose-built set in Dublin, with some filming in the UK for the first time.
Macfadyen, who plays Det Insp Edmund Reid in the drama, said he was "delighted" Ripper Street had been saved.
"We all thought that it had legs," he said. "We didn't feel like it was petering out."
The actor joked he was looking forward to wearing his bowler hat again - the defining feature of his character.
Executive producer Will Gould said the show's cancellation "shocked" him and it felt like "unfinished work".
"We had more to do, It feels right to be going back. There are stories left to tell," he added.
Series creator and writer Richard Warlow said the story would pick up four years after the drama's last outing in December, adding he would continue to work with creatives at the BBC on the project.
He said there was scope for more series of the drama, set in the sharp-edged streets of 19th Century east London.
"It feels that the potential of what I can do is broader than it was," added the writer, in reference to the new deal with Amazon.
Ben Stephenson, the BBC's controller of drama commissioning, said: "This is an exceptional opportunity to bring back Ripper Street for a third series by working with the right partners.
"This deal gives fans another series of the show they love at excellent value to the licence fee payer."
Similar deals of its kind are not expected to follow.
However, Amazon's Tim Leslie said if audiences loved a cancelled show and wanted to bring it back, they would consider it.
The first series of Ripper Street, set in Whitechapel following the notorious killings of Jack the Ripper, attracted nearly eight million viewers when it launched in 2012.
However the second series averaged 4.8 million viewers across the eight episodes, struggling to compete against ITV's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! which attracted a series average of 11.1 million viewers.
The cancellation triggered a social media campaign to have the drama reinstated.
Responding to the show's reprieve, the Save Ripper Street team tweeted: "We #SaveRipperStreet fans may have been little more than a flea in the ear of BBC One in the greater scheme of things. But what a flea!"
Actress MyAnna Buring, who plays Long Susan, said fan reaction was "incredibly moving" in response to the BBC's decision not to recommission the show.
"I don't think without that kind of response everyone would have been inspired to create a deal like this," she added. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/fa_cup/6397219.stm | Three goals in the first six minutes handed Manchester United victory over Reading in a remarkable FA Cup fifth-round replay.
Gabriel Heinze opened the scoring after two minutes when his 25-yard shot squirmed under Adam Federici's body.
Louis Saha rifled in an angled volley for 2-0, before Ole Gunnar Solksjaer slotted in the third.
Reading pulled one back through Dave Kitson's header before Leroy Lita's late strike ensured a thrilling finish.
It was nothing less than a sensational start at the Madejski Stadium.
As well as the visitors did with the chances that came their way, each goal was a gift courtesy of the generous and, frankly, awful Reading defence.
The calamity began with just two minutes of the match played. A break on the right saw O'Shea's pull-back arrive at the feet of full-back Heinze.
The Argentine steadied himself and fired in a low shot that squeezed under the body of the flapping Federici - who, ironically, was handed the Man of the Round award after his sterling efforts at Old Trafford.
Almost straight after the restart United were 2-0 up when the lively Saha chested down Rio Ferdinand's raking pass and struck his angled volley past the Australian keeper.
And Solskjaer rubbed salt in the most open of Reading wounds when he collected Kieran Richardson's pass, sprung the offside trap, and planted an eight-yard shot with the outside of his boot past the demoralised Federici.
Royals boss Steve Coppell did eventually realise things were not going right for his team after 15 minutes, changing from having three at the back to a 4-4-2 formation. It steadied the rocky ship and stemmed the United tide.
Reading reduced the deficit midway through the half when Ivar Ingimarsson flicked on John Oster's corner to Kitson, who nodded in from two yards.
Game on? Not at that point. Oster, who was very lively down the right, was giving the United defence a tough time and keeper Edwin van der Sar had to be alert to a handful of teasing crosses - but the Manchester side were coping well.
However, Sir Alex Ferguson's midfield became increasingly sloppy in the second half and Reading took advantage.
They gave their supporters some hope six minutes from time when Lita converted Ulises de la Cruz's cross from 12 yards.
And with just a few seconds remaining of the match, Brynjar Gunnarsson almost took the tie into extra time when his 20-yarder beat Van der Sar, but rattled off the crossbar.
"It was obviously the worst start possible. You talk about starting well and keeping it tight but it wasn't long before we were 3-0 down.
"Then you think what can you gain from the game.
"It was a great second half and respect for my players. We have proud players who didn't want to be humuliated."
"Our side made the best start I've ever seen them make with three goals in the first six minutes.
"Reading's first goal gave them a lifeline and then their balls into the box gave my defence a hard time.
"After they scored their second I thought it was going to extra time. It was going that way."
Reading: Federici, De la Cruz, Gunnarsson, Bikey, Ingimarsson, Shorey, Ki-Hyeon (Little 68), Sidwell, Oster, Kitson, Doyle (Lita 71).
Subs Not Used: Hahnemann, Hunt, Sodje.
Booked: De la Cruz, Bikey.
Goals: Kitson 23, Lita 84.
Man Utd: Van der Sar, Silvestre, Brown, Ferdinand, Heinze, Park, O'Shea, Fletcher, Richardson, Saha (Rooney 76), Solskjaer (Ronaldo 89).
Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Smith, Scholes.
Goals: Heinze 2, Saha 4, Solskjaer 6. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1559787.stm | Polish voters have handed victory to the opposition Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), a party with roots in the country's former communist regime, exit polls show.
Exit polls suggest the Democratic Left is set to take around 41% of the vote, which would leave it just short of an outright majority in parliament.
The elections also marked the political extinction of the Solidarity bloc (AWS), which failed to win any seats, according to two separate exit polls.
Solidarity was the party that led Poland out of communism, but a BBC correspondent in Warsaw says its four-year rule has been marked by lower economic growth, higher unemployment and a series of scandals.
A combination of exit polls and a sampling of results from voting stations released early Monday by the private polling agency PBS showed the SLD winning 41.5% of the vote, enough for 221 seats in the 460-seat parliament, the Sejm.
The opposition is now made up of a clutch of small parties.
Civic Platform, which like the Democratic Left strongly supports Poland's bid to join the European Union, came second with about 13% of the vote.
But the exit polls suggest that about a quarter of seats will go to parties opposed to EU membership.
In a sign of disillusionment with mainstream politics, two notoriously radical parties initially given little chance got enough votes to enter parliament.
Self-Defence, a noisy farmers group that bitterly opposes European Union membership, won 9% of the vote. The party has a history of organising roadblocks to protest government policies.
And the League of Polish Families, a party of ultraconservative Roman Catholics, took 6.7%.
The Peasant Party, a long-established farmers grouping garnered 8.4%, while Solidarity won just 5.5% - it needed 8% to stay in parliament.
Turnout appeared low reflecting a docile campaign which was overshadowed by the recent attacks in the US, which led to political parties cancelling major rallies and other events.
PBS put the turnout at under 46%.
The result, which was met with enormous cheers at the headquarters of the Democratic Left party, represents an enormous shift in the country's political landscape.
The country's likely new Finance Minister Marek Belka said that the result had given the Democratic Left a strong mandate to revive economic growth.
"Today the SLD can say that it will have a strong mandate to heal public finances and boost economic growth," he said.
But the BBC's correspondent in Poland says that the new government has a tough job ahead, curbing a growing budget deficit, reducing mass unemployment and speeding-up stalled EU entrance talks.
"It's made electoral history in Poland"
"It is definitely the end of a political era"
Poisoned chalice for Poland's left? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35840137 | A very hungry caterpillar that devours hedges has been named "top pest" by the Royal Horticultural Society.
The box tree caterpillar - the larva of a moth - is native to Asia and feeds on box plants, commonly used in formal gardens for hedges and shrubbery.
First found in the UK in 2011, it was initially limited to London but is now spreading across south-east England.
It is the first time in nearly a decade that slugs and snails are not top of the society's most-unwanted list.
The list is based on the enquiries about pests received by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) entomology team (insect experts) in 2015, of which the box tree caterpillar accounted for 433 (17%).
Box tree caterpillars (Diaphania perspectalis) feed within webbing and can completely defoliate box (Buxus) plants.
The moths lay overlapping sheets of pale yellow eggs on the underside of box leaves. Once hatched, the larvae begin chomping their way through their host plant.
Reaching around 4cm long, they spin webs around leaves and twigs to conceal and protect themselves.
The RHS says gardeners can physically remove the caterpillars by hand or use a biological control or insecticide.
While the adult moth was first reported in the UK in 2008, caterpillars were not found in private gardens until 2011. By the end of 2014 the moth had become established in parts of London and surrounding counties.
Experts believe the moth originated in China and either flew across the English Channel or stowed away in containers of imported plants.
However, the caterpillar has nothing to do with the disease known as box blight, caused by a fungus that attacks plants, leaving them with bare patches and dieback - a condition where it dies from the tip of its leaves backwards.
Last year was a bad year for box plants, as box blight was one of the most commonly reported garden diseases, the RHS said.
Box blight poses a serious risk to UK horticultural heritage as box plants provide the structure of many historic formal gardens, according to experts.
The experts said high temperatures and rainfall in the spring led to a spike in enquiries about box blight as the weather created perfect conditions for the disease.
And the warmest, wettest December on record meant there was an unexpected rise in enquiries about the disease when it would normally be suppressed by cold conditions. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6387975.stm | Behind several kinds of environmental damage lurks the hand of the farmer. The key to better prospects for them and the environment, argues Michel Pimbert in the Green Room, is giving them more control over what they do.
Farmers and other citizens in various parts of the world are engaging in a major effort to change the nature of agriculture.
The key phrase is "food sovereignty"; and this weekend, many of the interested parties are gathering for a conference in Mali, one of two countries (the other being Bolivia) which have adopted it as their overarching policy framework for food and farming.
Food sovereignty is all about ensuring that farmers, rather than transnational corporations, are in control of what they farm and how they farm it; ensuring too that communities have the right to define their own agricultural, pastoral, labour, fishing, food and land policies to suit their own ecological, social, economic and cultural circumstances.
Why is it needed? From the social point of view, because everyone has an unconditional human right to food, and it is simply unacceptable to allow over 850 million people go to bed hungry in a world that produces more than enough food for all.
The progress of this growing food sovereignty movement could have profound implications for scientific research, politics, trade and the twin curses of poverty and environmental degradation.
Within the food sovereignty approach, the environmental ills outlined above are avoided by developing production systems that mimic the biodiversity levels and functioning of natural ecosystems.
These systems seek to combine the modern science of ecology with the experiential knowledge of farmers and indigenous peoples.
Combinations of indigenous and modern methods lead to more environmentally sustainable agriculture, as well as reducing dependence on expensive external inputs, reducing the cost-price squeeze and debt trap in which the world's farmers are increasingly caught.
Ecological agriculture has been shown to be productive, economic and sustainable for farmers, whether their external inputs are low or high.
Scientists recently reported that a series of large-scale experimental projects around the world using agro-ecological methods such as crop rotation, intercropping, natural pest control, use of mulches and compost, terracing, nutrient concentration, water harvesting and management of micro-environments yielded spectacular results.
For example, in southern Brazil, the use of cover crops to increase soil fertility and water retention allowed 400,000 farmers to raise maize and soybean yields by more than 60%. Farmers earned more as beneficial soil biodiversity was regenerated.
Food sovereignty is not against trade and science. But it does argue for a fundamental shift away from "business as usual", emphasising the need to support domestic markets and small-scale agricultural production based on resilient farming systems rich in biological and cultural diversity.
Networks of local food systems are favoured because they reduce the distance between producers and consumers, limiting food miles and enhancing citizen control and democratic decision-making.
Can food sovereignity lead farmers to greener pastures?
Equitable access to land and other resources is vital, because a significant cause of hunger and environmental degradation is local people's loss of rights to access and control natural resources such as land, water, trees and seeds.
This severely reduces their incentive to conserve the environment; the displacement of farming peoples from fertile lands to steep, rocky slopes, desert margins, and infertile rainforest soils lead to more environmental degradation.
Trade and markets must be made to work for people and the environment; current trade policies for agriculture are failing the environment and leading to the economic genocide of unprecedented numbers of farmers.
New governance systems must ensure that negative impacts of international trade such as dumping are stopped, and local markets given priority; commodity agreements must restrict overproduction and guarantee small-scale producers equitable prices that cover the costs of producing food in socially and environmentally sustainable ways.
We need too a radical shift from the existing top-down and increasingly corporate-controlled research system to an approach which devolves more power to the local level.
The process should lead to the democratisation of research, and more diverse forms of inquiry based on specialist and non-specialist knowledge.
If unchecked, neo-liberal agricultural policies will aggravate the many worrying environmental trends identified by the recent Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Grossly unfair market prices will continue to drive ever more farmers and owners of local food business to despair and bankruptcy.
This will fuel human tragedies and conflicts associated with cross-border migrations everywhere.
The good news is that all this is not inevitable. The political choices made by governments and their corporate friends can still be decisively rejected and reversed.
But this depends on creating inclusive alliances between farmers, fisher-folk, indigenous peoples, scholars and other citizens to exert countervailing power - which is perhaps the biggest challenge facing the food sovereignty movement. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_league/6955628.stm | St Helens powered to victory in the Challenge Cup final after wearing down battling Catalans Dragons at Wembley.
Tries from James Roby and Ade Gardner, either side of a Younes Khattabi reply, gave Saints a 12-4 half-time lead.
Paul Wellens capitalised on a fumble to stretch Saints' lead just after the break before Paul Clough also crossed.
Dragons were given hope by Justin Murphy's score but Gardner added a late try for Saints, with Sean Long booting five goals to seal the win.
A cagey opening was punctuated by some brutal defending, and the closest either side came to scoring in the stifling heat came after 20 minutes.
Saints centre Matthew Gidley was denied a certain-looking try when he was blocked by a superb pincer-tackle by Stacey Jones and Clint Greenshields.
Catalans second row Jason Crocker then thought he had scored three minutes later when he chased a kick-through and grounded, although his left hand was over the ball and the referee signalled no-try.
A superb tackle from Luke Quigley then denied Leon Pryce a try on the line. And Pryce was robbed again when Gregory Mounis rolled the Saints stand-off over in the tackle just as he seemed poised to score.
The breakthrough finally came after 33 minutes when Roby shimmied through the Catalans defence and five miss-tackles for a brilliant solo effort, which Long converted.
Catalans bravely hit back when a Saints fumble was picked up and whipped out to Khattabi via Adam Mogg's mis-pass, although Jones's conversion attempt missed the target.
Controversially, though, St Helens went further ahead when Gardner crossed wide out, although the final pass looked slightly forward from Gidley.
Long fired over a sweet conversion from the touch line to build a 12-4 lead at the break.
And Wellens picked up his 23rd touchdown of the year just after the restart when Long's kick-through was fumbled by Greenshields and the fullback gathered to run in under the posts, giving Long an easy conversion.
The English team then turned the screw as gaps started to appear in the Catalans defence and Clough was handed an overlap wide out on 52 minutes to run in unopposed.
Six minutes later, Catalans were given hope when a poor pass was fumbled by Wellens out wide and Murphy was able to pick up and dash to the line for his 36th try in 45 matches.
Saints regrouped and Gardner set off on a long sprint to the line, only to be hauled down just inside the Catalans' half. But from the resultant penalty chance, Long punted over to make it 24-8.
And Gardner wrapped up the victory when he added his second try of the afternoon as the Dragons' defence wilted in the heat, with Long adding the extra points.
Catalans Dragons: Greenshields, Murphy, Wilson, Raguin, Khattabi, Mogg, Jones, Guisset, Quigley, Chan, Croker, Gossard, Mounis.
Replacements: Casty, Ferriol, Duport, K. Bentley.
St Helens: Wellens, Gardner, Gidley, Talau, Meli, Pryce, Long, Fozzard, Cunningham, Cayless, Gilmour, Bennett, Wilkin.
Replacements: Roby, Graham, Clough, Fa'asavalu. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3020243.stm | The resounding "yes" given by Lithuanian voters in the weekend's referendum on EU membership has been welcomed in the country's press as a landmark in the country's history.
"Lithuania has woken up in the European Union this morning", says Lietuvos Rytas, the daily with the largest circulation.
A commentary in the same paper is captioned "Two long days: the making of a miracle".
The paper speaks of "tension reaching a climax" on Saturday when the initially low turn-out prompted both President Rolandas Paksas and Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas to go on national TV to urge citizens to use their vote.
It suggested that the apparent reluctance - particularly of the country's large rural electorate - to go to the polling stations was a feeling that "the gentlemen in Vilnius can wait until we have planted our potatoes".
But "people started voting en masse yesterday", the paper reports, "going to the ballot boxes as if to a war - for the future of our children and grandchildren".
The daily Kauno Diena says: "The nation has opened the door to Lithuania's membership of the EU."
Another leading daily, Lietuvos Aidas, spoke of "a historic decision for our country".
With around 90% of those who turned out voting in favour of membership, an editorial in Kauno Diena notes that while the vote was convincing, the country had "not yet reached the finishing line".
It warns pro-Europe campaigners against excessive optimism, saying that the effort expended in convincing voters to go to the polls now needs to be matched by comparable efforts and funds invested in "helping Lithuania to prepare for life under European Union standards".
Another commentator in Lietuvos Rytas also heaves a sigh of relief.
If the vote had gone against EU membership, Ramune Sotvariene writes, "we would have been better off not waking up this morning - just sleep through an absurd Monday and start all over again tomorrow".
In neighbouring Latvia and Estonia, which are due to hold referendums in September, there was an equally upbeat reaction.
An editorial in Estonia's Postimees predicts that Lithuania's "yes" means "a boundary marker has been crossed for Estonia that will take it, too, closer to the EU". |
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42692673 | America's SpaceX company has conducted a key test ahead of the maiden flight of its new rocket - the Falcon Heavy.
In what is known as a static firing, all 27 engines on the launcher's first stage were ignited together to check they are flight-ready.
The procedure, conducted in Florida, lasted only seconds and the rocket was clamped to keep it on the ground.
The Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful launcher in the world when it eventually lifts off.
Depending on the analysis of Wednesday's test, that could occur within the next fortnight.
Company CEO and chief designer, Elon Musk, tweeted: "Falcon Heavy hold-down firing this morning was good. Generated quite a thunderhead of steam. Launching in a week or so."
The Falcon Heavy is essentially three of SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 vehicles strapped together.
But the triple-booster configuration has demanded a number of specific alterations, including a strengthening of the central core booster.
The 27 Merlin engines at the base of the rocket should be capable of generating almost 23,000 kilonewtons of thrust - slightly more than double that of the world's current most powerful rocket, the Delta IV Heavy, which is operated by US competitor United Launch Alliance.
The 70m-tall Falcon Heavy is designed to put up to a maximum of 64 tonnes in low-Earth orbit, although in reality it will be rare that the vehicle lofts this much mass.
SpaceX intends to land the rocket's boosters back on Earth after launch - as is the company's usual practice today with the Falcon 9 - and that necessarily negates some performance.
But the new capability would mean the firm in future has no difficulty launching the biggest military and commercial telecommunications satellites - and is still able to recover all three first-stage boosters.
The introduction of the rocket should also open up some fascinating possibilities to send much bigger payloads beyond Earth orbit than is currently possible. This could include sending astronaut capsules to the Moon, or bigger robots to Mars.
Because the maiden flight of any rocket carries a higher degree of risk, the Falcon Heavy will not take up a meaningful payload when it finally launches.
Instead, Mr Musk has decided to put his old sportscar on the top of the Falcon Heavy. His idea is to send this red roadster towards the orbit Mars takes around the Sun. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-47947155 | Drake is gifted at many things - rapping, random acts of kindness, bringing back cancelled TV shows. But, for many football fans, he's also becoming a bit of a pain.
Paris Saint-Germain's Layvin Kurzawa is the latest footballer to pose for a photo with the Canadian star and have his team lose their very next game.
PSG's spectacular 5-1 loss to Lille has reignited suspicions that Drake, while obviously multi-talented, is a curse on every sports star he meets.
And AS Roma want nothing to do with it.
Obviously Roma are joking, but a number of clubs across England and Europe might be wishing they'd banned their players from posing for pictures with Drake over recent weeks.
The rapper has spent the past month travelling the UK and Europe on his Assassination Vacation tour.
And a fair number of footballers have been among the thousands who've flocked to see him perform.
Paul Pogba saw Drake perform at the Manchester Arena and got a picture taken with him - not long before Manchester United lost 2-1 to Wolves in the FA Cup.
It was a similar story for Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who was at one of Drake's seven shows at the O2 in London.
After losing 1-0 to Everton the following weekend, plenty of Gooners will probably be wishing he'd never posed for a picture.
Sergio Aguero is the third Premier League player people think Drake has cursed in recent weeks.
He missed a penalty in the Champions League as Man City lost 1-0 to Tottenham earlier this month, not long after he'd been photographed with Drake at a show.
And could the rapper also be to blame for Borussia Dortmund losing 5-0 to Bayern Munich, after hanging out with their English rising star Jadon Sancho? At this point, why not?
The Drake Curse has become a bit of a social media phenomenon in recent years.
In a way, it kicked off with Drake's beloved NBA team the Toronto Raptors. He became a global ambassador for the club in 2013, and can be seen cheering them on from the sidelines whenever they've got a big game.
Unfortunately though, the last six years have seen the Raptors develop a bit of a reputation for choking in those big games.
In 2015 Serena Williams was trying to become the first woman to win all four tennis Grand Slams in a calendar year since Steffi Graf did it in 1988.
But 2015 was also the year that Drake was spotted watching a lot of her games.
Roberta Vinci was a 300-1 underdog when she faced Serena in the US Open - but we're pretty sure by now you can guess what the outcome of the match was.
And if you still need more evidence, last year Conor McGregor tapped out in the fourth round of his fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Any guesses who he'd been hanging out with beforehand?
With so many infamous examples, it's unsurprising that Drake has got in on the joke.
Ahead of the game that decided who'd be playing in the most recent Super Bowl, Drake wore a jumper featuring the logos of all four teams that were in with a chance.
Two teams had to make it to the final, so surely that was the end of the curse?
What followed was the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in history - a curse in the eyes of everyone who watched it.
Drake's tour is about to come to an end - so it looks like, for now, Roma might be in the clear. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-39998519 | Three men have been found guilty of killing a rival drug dealer in a gang-related revenge attack.
Mark Mason, 48, of Rhyl, Denbighshire, was stabbed to death in the car park of the town's Home Bargains on 27 October.
James Davies, 20, was convicted of murder, and Anthony Baines, 30, and Mark Ennis, 30 were convicted of manslaughter at Mold Crown Court.
Jake Melia, 21, previously admitted the charges and the four will be sentenced in June.
Davies, Baines and Ennis, all from Liverpool, denied murdering Mr Mason.
They also denied maliciously wounding Justin Trickett and Sam Illidge - who were in the same vehicle as Mr Mason - with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm.
Mr Trickett and Mr Illidge were also stabbed in the attack, but their wounds were less severe.
Baines was found guilty of one count of wounding, but Davies and Ennis were cleared of those charges.
Mrs Justice Nicola Davies remanded all three in custody until sentencing, which she said would take place over three days.
The trial heard the attack was the result of a turf war which had erupted between two rival gangs over the control of the drugs trade in Rhyl.
Paul Lewis QC, prosecuting, told the trial Mr Mason, a father of two, was "repeatedly and fatally stabbed" by the three defendants and Melia as he sat in the passenger seat of a van in the car park.
He was stabbed 22 times in less than a minute.
The four killers were members of the "Pensarn Crew", sometimes called "Ste's Crew", Mr Lewis said.
Mr Mason, Mr Trickett and Mr Illidge were members of "Mark's Crew", or "Marco's Crew" - although it was not suggested Mr Mason was the leader.
"The fatal attack appears to have been an act of retribution on the part of the defendants and Melia," said Mr Lewis.
Jurors were shown CCTV footage of a white Renault van near The Cob area of Rhyl on the afternoon of 27 October which showed the white van being stopped by a black BMW 4X4.
Shouts of "stab him" and "kill him" could be heard.
The prosecution said the killing was retribution for an earlier incident when Melia and Davies were said to have been chased by masked armed men while drug dealing in the area. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/d/derby_county/6904571.stm | Wales defender Lewin Nyatanga has signed a new four-year contract at Derby - but could be loaned out by the Premier League newcomers this season.
He had one more year on his previous deal, but is now contracted until 2011.
Nyatanga, 18, started just five league games for the Rams last season, and was loaned out to Sunderland and Barnsley.
But with experienced defenders Andy Todd and Claude Davis joining this summer, Nyatanga could well find himself loaned out again this term.
However, he missed Tuesday's 2-0 win over Italian side FC Chiasso with a calf problem.
Dean Leacock and David Jones were on target for the Rams. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/9/newsid_2998000/2998214.stm | Actress Sharon Tate has been found brutally murdered in her Los Angeles home, along with three high-society friends and a fifth, as yet un-named, victim.
All five died from shooting and multiple stab wounds.
Sharon Tate, 26, was the wife of film director Roman Polanski and was eight months pregnant.
In what police said appeared to be a "ritualistic" murder, she was found tied together with her former fianc�, hair stylist Jay Sebring.
Police said both had nylon nooses around their necks, and Mr Sebring's head was covered with a black hood.
They said both probably died of stab wounds.
The bodies of Abigail Folger, 25, a member of a wealthy coffee-manufacturing family, and her boyfriend Voyteck Frykowski, 32, were found sprawled on the lawn outside. Both had been shot.
The fifth victim, a man, was found slumped over the wheel of a car with multiple gunshot wounds.
Police described a horrific scene at the hilltop house in the wealthy Bel Air district of the city.
Some of the bodies had been mutilated, with blood smeared everywhere and the word "Pig" scrawled on the front door in blood. Police said the phone and electricity lines had been cut.
It's believed that Miss Folger and Mr Frykowsky, as well as Mr Sebring, had come from San Francisco to spend the weekend at the house.
The bungalow-style property, in an isolated area between Beverly Hills and the San Fernando Valley, is owned by Terry Melcher, son of film star Doris Day.
It was being rented by Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate who had recently returned there to have her baby after working in London.
Mr Polanski was still in Europe directing his latest film, but left immediately for Los Angeles on hearing the news.
Immediately after the discovery of the bodies, police arrested a houseboy, William Garretson, 19, who was living in a guest house behind the house. After five hours of questioning, he was charged with five counts of murder.
Sharon Tate began her acting career in the television series, Beverly Hillbillies. She also had parts in the films Valley of the Dolls, the Americanisation of Emily, and The Sandpiper.
The fifth victim was later identified as Steven Parent, 18, a local boy who had been visiting William Garretson.
The bodies of another wealthy couple were found 36 hours later not far from the scene of the Tate murders.
Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary had also been brutally murdered in their own home. The crime scene bore striking similarities to the Tate murders.
William Garretson was released without charge on the same day. The LAPD were reluctant to link the Tate murders and the LaBianca killings, until mid-October when another similar murder led the police to a hippie group calling itself the Manson family.
In January 1971, Charles Manson and three of his followers - Susan Atkins, 22, Patricia Krenwinkel, 23 and Leslie Van Houten, 21 - were convicted of the Tate-LaBianca murders, after the longest murder trial in US history.
They were all sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life imprisonment after California abolished the death penalty in 1972. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/5348210.stm | If you are a parent you will know that there is nothing more important than the health and well-being of your children, and of course the web is littered with great resources to help you keep them happy and healthy.
What I like about KidsHealth is that it is split from the very start into three very distinct sections - For Parents, For Kids, for Teens, addressing each audience in a style and language that is wholly appropriate.
Laid out in a magazine-style, each section is packed full of articles and features.
Heat sickness and bullying are dealt with in the parenting section, and bike safety and weight issues are addressed for teens.
The site also loads nice and fast, which is always the sign of good programming when you are looking at a graphics driven website like this.
As well as all the advice, there are recipes and activities your kids and teens can try for themselves, which is ideal for keeping them occupied during the school holidays.
And The Games Closet in the Kids' section has some great educational games and movies geared towards teaching them more about their own health needs.
Robotic dogs and cats were the new craze a few years ago, swiftly followed up by little virtual pets that you keep inside your gaming console. But now the world of designer pets just got even weirder.
Genpets.com is a website where you can read all about these genetically produced playthings. They come in a box, are allergen-free, kid safe, and they come in seven personality types.
Before you all start rushing out to buy one, this is just a joke website.
There is nothing real about the concept of scientifically developed creatures that come in a shrink-wrapped box.
But it is really well put together and wholly believable, and makes a great joke if you want to forward the URL to some of your more gullible friends.
Just do not tell them I told you to do so.
Finally, a brilliant concept that plays on the idea that the human race is subconsciously connected through one global pool of thought.
On opening the page of Global Consciousness you will have to wait for the map to load and then you will begin to see the viewpoint moving about the globe until it centres on a pulsing circle. The text message displayed on the screen at this moment has been written by a person sitting somewhere under that dot.
I could sit and watch the thoughts of the world unfold for hours, but you can also add your own to the mix.
Just type a thought in the box provided and click to send anonymously.
If you register, your name will be added to your thought, and you can add more than the one an hour you are restricted to as anonymous.
There is quite a bit more to explore on this site, so do have a browse.
Also, please bear in mind that this is an unmoderated process, so the usual caveats about some people not playing the game nicely apply. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/27/newsid_2539000/2539525.stm | Sprinter Ben Johnson has been sent home from the Seoul Olympic Games in disgrace.
The Canadian has also been stripped of his 100m gold medal after testing positive for drugs.
Johnson has just arrived home in Toronto and has said he will appeal against the International Olympics Committee's verdict.
But the IOC has already said the athlete's intended defence - that a herbal drink he consumed before the race had been spiked - will not be accepted.
Samples of Johnson's urine were tested for drugs immediately after the 100m final three days ago which he won in a world record time of 9.79 seconds.
And Olympic officials confirmed last night that traces of the anabolic steroid, Stanozol, had been detected.
The sprinter was woken in the early hours of the morning to be told the IOC had decided to send him home.
Canada's Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said it was the correct decision, but a tragedy for Johnson and a great sadness for all Canadians.
But the athlete's sister, Clare Rodney, told reporters she was convinced the drug testers had made a mistake.
"I can really tell anybody from the depths of my heart that he is not guilty," she said.
The Canadian media has labelled Johnson a cheat, but there was also sympathy for the man who said he valued a gold medal over a world record because no one could take it away from him.
Britain's Linford Christie - who was awarded the silver medal after Johnson's disqualification - said he felt sorry for someone who had been a "great ambassador" for the sport.
"I'm also sad for athletics because this has been a bad day for us," he said.
Ben Johnson was banned from competing for two years and stripped of all the other world records and medals he held.
He began racing again in January 1991, but never regained the form that had made him the fastest man in the world.
In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics he did not even make the final of the 100m.
In January 1993 he tested positive again for steroids at an indoor meeting in Montreal, Canada.
A unanimous decision by the International Association of Athletics Federations banned him from competition for life. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2286724.stm | A woman has been bitten by a bat which has tested positive for a strain of rabies that can affect humans.
The volunteer bat warden has been vaccinated against the disease after she was bitten on the hand while caring for the animal on 11 September in north Lancashire.
Initial tests on a Daubenton's bat have proved positive for a strain of rabies not seen in Britain since 1996, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed.
But experts are waiting for the results of further tests.
Five other people who came into contact with the animal have also received medical treatment.
The strain of rabies, thought to be the most likely virus, is known as EBL and has killed three people in Europe since 1977.
EBL - the European Bat Lyssavirus - is a strain common in bats across northern Europe.
All pet animals in the house have been put into isolation.
Nick Gent, a consultant with the department of health, said the woman was fit and well.
"She was bitten and subsequently was examined by infectious disease specialists who say she does not appear to be suffering from any symptoms of rabies."
He said: "She had a short stay in hospital and is now being treated as an outpatient.
"We have identified five other people who had any involvement in the handling of the bat and are beginning post-exposure treatment. Probably this is over the top."
Dr Frank Atherton, director of public health in Morecambe Bay, said: "There is no threat to the general public from what has happened in north Lancashire."
He described the incident as a "one-off".
Sick and dead bats, are being sent by conservationists to veterinary authorities for analysis.
It is hoped tests will confirm whether or not any of the bats are carrying the rabies strain by early next week.
Defra said anyone who finds a sick or ailing bat should not approach or handle it but should seek advice from a local bat conservation group.
If this case is confirmed it will be the second known case of this strain of rabies being found in Britain.
In June 1996 a pregnant woman Sheila Wright and another woman, were bitten on the hand by a bat carrying the strain.
There have been only two documented cases of human beings dying after contracting this strain, with the last being in Finland in 1985. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3834807.stm | The US has appointed Navy Secretary Gordon England to head a review to see if any of the 600 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can be released.
Mr England said prisoners would be freed if they do not pose a threat to the US and that in some cases there would be a quick solution.
The process is due to begin in the next couple of weeks.
So far, only three detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been charged and several dozen have been sent back home.
The reviews, which will be conducted in secret by a panel consisting of three military officers, will give prisoners the chance to provide facts to support their case for release.
"The question is: Are they still threats to America? " Mr England said.
"It's not guilt or innocence."
Most of the detainees were captured in Afghanistan in late 2001 during the US-led invasion to oust the Taleban regime.
There has been much criticism of the legal limbo the detainees have found themselves in.
Not included in the review are the prisoners that US President George W Bush has said will face a military tribunal.
"It is essentially a parole board" |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1331686.stm | The last communist leader of Poland, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, has gone on trial in Warsaw charged with ordering troops to fire on striking shipyard workers in 1970.
Forty-four protesters died, and 1,000 were injured - 200 of them seriously.
The 77-year-old general, who denies the charges, appeared in court in his trademark sunglasses, using a stick to help him walk.
He was Poland's defence minister when the workers were shot dead as they protested against food price rises.
Most of the protesters were shipyard workers who had gone on strike in the northern cities of Gdansk and Gdynia, protesting at steep rises in the cost of food and other consumer goods.
General Jaruzelski, looking frail, made no comment as he walked past reporters to enter the Warsaw courtroom.
His health is so poor that the trial - originally opened in 1996 - has been repeatedly delayed.
This time, the court has agreed to limit hearings to three or four hours at a stretch, and doctors are expected to monitor his health throughout.
Outside the court, a small group of retired servicemen had gathered to offer him support, insisting that he was innocent.
"When he was defence minister, he did everything to avoid bloodshed," one of the supporters told journalists.
More than a decade after the shootings, General Jaruzelski become Poland's prime minister, staying in office from 1981 to 1989.
He imposed martial law soon after taking power, in a bid to quash the Solidarity workers' movement - also born in the shipyards of Gdansk.
But by the end of his time in office, he had authorised talks with Solidarity, and accepted Poland's transition to democracy under Lech Walesa's leadership.
The trial is expected to last at least a year.
The general faces a maximum prison sentence of 25 years if convicted.
He insists that the then Polish leader, Wladyslaw Gomulka, did not involve him in key decisions.
Justice or mercy for ex-communists? |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43623919 | The US justice department is to set increase pressure on judges in an attempt to speed up the processing of immigration cases, US media report.
Judges will need to clear at least 700 cases a year in order to receive a "satisfactory" performance rating.
But critics warn the plan could see hearings rushed and compromised, with an estimated 600,000 currently waiting to have their immigration cases heard.
President Trump has demanded "tough" new legislation in recent days.
He has posted several tweets pressing lawmakers to "act now".
Administration officials say they are working on a new legislative package to close "loopholes" in current US immigration law, and may use the so-called "nuclear option" to push it through Congress with a smaller majority if necessary, the Associated Press reports.
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been working on new policies to help clear the backlog of pending cases in immigration courts.
In its guidelines, the justice department said that setting an annual minimum on the number cases processed will ensure that hearings are completed in a "timely, efficient and effective manner".
Image caption The president is demanding changes to stop people crossing what he dubs America's "Weak Laws border"
Department spokesman Devin O'Malley said judges completed an average of 678 cases a year, but some judges completed more than 1,000 cases, the Washington Post reports.
But the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) told the Post that the system could lead to legal challenges.
"It could call into question the integrity and impartiality of the court if a judge's decision is influenced by factors outside the facts of the case, or if motions are denied out of a judge's concern about keeping his or her job," NAIJ President Ashley Tabaddor said.
How did Melania Trump get 'Einstein visa'?
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) told the Daily Beast website that judges should not be put under undue pressure to clear the backlog of cases.
"We're very concerned that cases will be rushed through the system and due process will be circumvented with these new quotas," AILA Senior Policy Counsel Laura Lynch said.
Daca Dreamers: What is this immigration debate all about? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12007142 | Image caption Grace Mugabe's lawyer said the claims were "scandalous and malicious"
Grace Mugabe is suing a Zimbabwean newspaper over its reporting of claims released by Wikileaks she had made "tremendous profits" from the country's diamond mines.
The president's wife is demanding $15m (£9.6m) from the Standard newspaper.
The Marange fields in eastern Zimbabwe are said to be among the world's richest.
Army commanders and allies of President Robert Mugabe have been accused of profiting from diamond sales.
The Standard, a weekly paper, on Sunday reported the claims quoting a US diplomatic cable released by the whistle-blowing website, Wikileaks.
It quoted former US ambassador James McGee as reporting Andrew Cranswick, head of a British mining firm as saying: "There is a small group of high-ranking Zimbabwean officials who have been extracting tremendous diamond profits from Chiadzwa [mine]".
The cable names them as Grace Mugabe and Central Bank governor Gideon Gono, among other officials from the military and President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.
Mrs Mugabe's lawyer called the reports "false, scandalous and malicious".
"The imputation of such conduct on a person of such high standing, the mother of the nation, is to lower the respect with which is held by all right-thinking persons, to a point of disappearance," said the court summons, according to the state-owned Herald newspaper.
Campaign groups have long accused military officials of forcing local people to mine the diamonds, killing those who refused and not passing the profits to the treasury.
Military and government officials have always dismissed such accusations.
The BBC's Karen Allen in Harare says that, as delegates embark on Zanu-PF's annual party conference, the Wikileaks saga is likely to fuel calls from the party to break ties with its partners in the fragile unity government, and push for elections next year.
President Mugabe agreed to share power with his former rival Morgan Tsvangirai after disputed elections in 2008.
Mr Mugabe's government has had a troubled history with The Standard.
The paper's editor was arrested earlier this month over a separate article which claimed that police were recruiting veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s war of independence ahead of the possible elections. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-shropshire-47423184 | Rochdale started life after Keith Hill with victory against fellow strugglers Shrewsbury.
More than £500,000 was raised for Zac Oliver's treatment - including £50,000 from Simon Cowell.
Telford teenager Simran Kaur says she feels like she is "representing" Asians and females as she aims to become the first female Asian boxer to represent Great Britain at the Olympics.
The 17-year-old is a five-time national champion and European silver medallist in the 51kg category.
An appeal's been launched to get some vital equipment for a hospital - remote controls!
One ward at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital had 40 TVs, but just the one remote control, leaving nurses run off their feet and taken away from more vital work, according to a charity.
The Severn Hospice Furniture Store in Shrewsbury, however, has come to the rescue - handing over 40 remote controls to desperate staff.
Since then, the shop says it's had more requests from other wards at the hospital so it's now started an appeal for people to donate their unwanted remotes.
It might not seem much about a remote control but if you're lying there in bed, not feeling very well and you can't change the channel it's pretty frustrating but it's even more frustrating for the nurses as they're getting called away from doing vital work to change somebody's TV channel."
As well as weather-related photos, our local BBC Weather Watchers often snap pictures of wildlife in the West Midlands.
More than 60 children in the Shropshire Council area have been highlighted as being at risk of child sexual exploitation (CSE).
The local authority's Health and Wellbeing board heard how 20% come from outside the county and are in care in Shropshire.
The report from Shropshire Safeguarding Children Board said none are currently being exploited but 15 are classed as "high risk".
The board said it was confident overall understanding of CSE is improving, but there are still some parts of the country where referral rates are low.
The Telford Steam Railway has been given three wrought-iron roof trusses from Paddington station, thought to have been designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel around 1840.
The chairman of the railway, Paul Hughes, said they originally supported "an elaborate roof" over an entrance to the station and that it was a glass construction to "let lots of light in".
Mr Hughes explained they'd become available because part of the station was being redeveloped as part of London's Crossrail project.
The heritage railway group had to bid for the arches, which are expected to be put up over the planned new station at Lawley.
As part of the developments the developer has had to save any historic fabric and then offer to get it reused in different locations."
The leader of Telford and Wrekin Council has promised to send a formal request within days asking the government to review a planned reorganisation of hospital services in Shropshire.
Yesterday, on a tour of Telford's hospital, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he couldn't intervene over the decision to move the main emergency care centre and maternity services to Shrewsbury as he hadn't been formally asked to.
Shaun Davies, leader of the Labour-run council, told BBC Shropshire the legal request would be sent off, but people in the borough "would not thank me if we rushed those technical papers".
However, the chief executive of the NHS trust running the hospitals in Shrewsbury and Telford says he doesn't want any further delays to the scheme.
Simon Wright said: "The public have been very consistent in one answer all the way through consultation which is just get on with it."
The RAF is threatening to pull out of a training camp in Shropshire if plans for a new crematorium nearby are approved.
The new building's proposed for land north of Nesscliffe, between Oswestry and Shrewsbury, and plans are recommended for approval when councillors meet next Thursday.
But the RAF Helicopter Noise Liaison Group said a new crematorium "would have irreversible and detrimental effects" on helicopter training from RAF Shawbury.
In its written objection, it adds having to avoid flying over funerals at the site in future would potentially mean the Nesscliffe camp could be deemed "unsuitable in the future".
However, the planning report states RAF activity in the area has been taken into account in deciding the proposals should be approved.
There is the chance of a few showers this evening before a dry night with lows of 1C (34F).
A former college is set to be bought by a local council which wants to turn it into a base for housing, officers and small businesses.
Telford and Wrekin Council says it's going to go ahead with the purchase of New College and will spend £200,000 drawing up a detailed masterplan and to get planning approval.
The authority says it's making the move so it doesn't get snapped up by another developer.
It is also considering having a special school on the site.
The health secretary says he's not in a position to intervene at the moment in the row about the reorganisation of hospital services in Shropshire because he hasn't yet been formally asked to do so.
Health bosses want to downgrade Telford's A&E to an urgent care centre with all critical care cases being treated at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
However, during a visit to the Telford hospital today, Matt Hancock says he's currently powerless to act.
I'm not yet in a position to intervene because, despite receiving a letter from the council, I don't know why they haven't written to me formally yet to ask me to look at this. I'm expecting them to, because they've written to say that they will, but I haven't had a formal correspondence from the council yet for me to look at this decision."
Nearly £500,000 is to be spent on a new CCTV system made up of more than 250 cameras in part of Shropshire.
Telford and Wrekin Council and West Mercia Police are spending the cash and say it'll use a secure wireless network instead of cables.
They add that it'll go live later this year and will also see mobile cameras used that can be sent to crime and anti-social behaviour hot spots to gather evidence.
Another part of Telford's set to be officially classed as a nature reserve.
Telford and Wrekin Council says it will officially adopt Lilleshall Hill on 14 March at a cabinet meeting.
The move will mean the authority will have doubled its number of nature reserves from eight in 2016 to 16.
The council says the new reserve is a haven for wildlife such as sparrowhawks, wrens and woodpeckers.
The collapse of an oak tree, believed to be almost 1,000 years old, has been described by an expert as a "tragedy".
The Moor Park Oak, as it was known, was near Ludlow, Shropshire, and had stood through centuries of English history.
But local tree expert Andy Gordon says he discovered it had collapsed in the past few days and that it was probably brought down by high winds over the winter.
We have so many of them [oak trees] and it's just a tragedy that they're slowly disappearing. There's nothing really one can do to preserve them it's just old age finally catching up with them." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/5194578.stm | Birmingham have signed striker Gary McSheffrey from Championship rivals Coventry for £4m.
Coventry have finally accepted a bid from the St Andrews club after rejecting four earlier offers for the 24-year-old.
McSheffrey passed a Blues medical on Tuesday and has signed a four-year deal with the option of a further two years.
McSheffrey has come through the ranks at Coventry and scored 17 goals for the Sky Blues last season.
Coventry managing director Paul Fletcher says the decision was made after consultations between the "board, manager and the player himself".
"It was never our intention to let Gary go but we have made a decision which we believe is in the best interests of the club," he told the club's website.
"Gary has been a tremendous servant to the club but there comes a time in everyone's career when they have the opportunity to move on.
"Although I understand that this decision will be unpopular with many of our supporters, I would urge all of our fans to look long-termn towards our goal of reaching the Premiership within the next three years.
"This money will help manager Micky Adams to strengthen the squad and create a better team to get us there." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7748959.stm | The government's science think tank has proposed that homes in the UK should have regular MOT-type energy check ups.
The think tank, Foresight, is to release a report suggesting a number of radical ways to meet the UK's green goals over the next 50 years.
The report calls for less centralised, more small-scale energy production.
It will also suggests using "intelligent metering" in homes and businesses, to show the real-time costs of different types of energy.
Energy efficiency assessments of buildings - which account for half of all energy use - would also help meet the targets for CO2 emissions.
The report says that the UK is "locked-in" to using certain forms of energy, and leading energy experts say that radical solutions are needed if the UK is to diversify its energy use, to meet its target of reducing CO2 emissions by 2020.
Buildings account for about half the country's energy use - and so should be the government's main focus in trying to reduce CO2 emissions. But it has had limited success in persuading businesses and home owners to become more energy efficient.
The Foresight report says this is down to inertia. Customers and suppliers they say are locked in to centralised energy production and inefficient consumption.
The report calls for incentives to encourage greener local energy production and more effective measures to get consumers to use less energy.
Options put forward include intelligent metering which show the true cost of gas and electricity and more regular energy efficiency assessments of homes and businesses, which the report describes as "an MOT for buildings".
"Rather than making roads safer, these would make our future climate safer," says Professor Yvonne Rydin from University College London and one of the report's authors.
"One of the problems is that people are not fully aware of the energy they are using and the cost of that energy to themselves and to the planet."
The Foresight team is led by Professor John Beddington, the government's chief scientist. He says that an MOT-type energy assessment could be tied to penalties and incentives to encourage homeowners and businesses to adopt energy-saving technologies.
"There's potential for a stick-and-carrot approach perhaps regulation that links rateable values [of homes and commercial premises] to energy emissions," he says.
The report looks specifically at ways of making energy use much more visible. As well as energy assessments, the expert committee recommended greater and better use of smart metering of energy use.
But the problem, according to Professor Jim Watson of Sussex University, is that currently smart meters aren't very smart.
"You can have the most exciting digital display you like but if it can't display what the electricity or gas costs are at different times of day - which they can't at the moment - then it's a 'dumb' smart meter," he says.
"In order for it to be fully smart you need meters connected to the electricity supply network getting real-time information about energy costs."
The report also says that current regulations suit big energy companies rather than encouraging smaller, local providers - a concept they call "lock-in".
According to Professor Beddington, imaginative and radical ideas need to be explored if CO2 levels are to be cut 80% by 2050. As well as harnessing technology, he says, policy makers need to think about encouraging a cultural shift in attitudes to make wasting energy as anti-social as smoking.
"I think there is scope for changing this," Professor Beddington says.
"I think with the appreciation of the population of the real issues of climate change - and the real dangers that the failure to address it bring with it - there is a potential that you will get a change in social attitudes and I think that will be enormously important". |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4604379.stm | The transformation of banking in the last half-century has been one of the biggest changes in the world of business.
I grew up in small towns in rural Lincolnshire.
It was the late 1950s and early 1960s, but it could have been the 19th century.
My father was a Midland Bank manager, and we lived over the shop, in freezing high-ceilinged bank houses with dozens of rooms and bells for the servants.
They had gone, but there next to the marketplace in the town centre we still had a secret walled garden, an orchard, a big asparagus bed, and stables where horses had been kept to take staff to sub-branches nearby.
The man who drove the staff van which replaced the horses did the garden in the afternoon when he got back from the villages.
Every evening, my father would walk the 20 yards from the bank front door to ours, come in, sit down, and start the daily ritual of checking through the cheques.
He'd thumb through every one of his customers' cleared cheques, sent overnight in the big branch postal packet from London.
He'd know every regular payment every customer made - and when there was a sudden irregularity.
Little had changed since Britain's national joint stock banks emerged in the mid 1800s.
Although national brand name banks replaced the hundreds of local ones (ours incorporated the Lincoln and Lindsey bank which used to issue its own notes) nothing disturbed the single-minded localness of banking and being a banker.
"They were giants," a distinguished customer later remarked to me of the Midland Bank managers of the 1960s in his home town, York.
It's a world we have lost.
My nostalgia has been provoked by a vivid new book - "Other People's Money" - by the Financial Times' former banking correspondent, David Lascelles.
It's published by the Institute of Financial Services (known in my father's day as the Institute of Bankers) to celebrate its 125th anniversary.
It charts the banking revolution of the past 50 years.
Among these upheavals was the disappearance of the local bank manager, who once stood on a social par with the doctor, the solicitor, and even the vicar.
There was nothing competitive about banking in the 1950s.
Midland's long-running seasonal ads celebrated what it called "Life's Simple Pleasures" (such as riding downhill on a bicycle or blackberrying) with never a mention of interest rates or cheque cashing out of hours.
But behind the scenes, banks were gearing up for growing post-war prosperity and meeting the needs of what were insultingly called "the great unbanked".
The UK's High Street banks started marketing themselves in the late 1950s with personal loans, and then credit cards.
Competition on interest rates was ushered in by the Government White Paper on Competition on Credit Control in 1971, the same year as decimalisation.
About this time, banks poured money into computerising their operations to abolish the need for the daily parcel of cleared cheques from head office.
But the banks tied the new machinery to their branch structure, prolonging town centre banks for another generation.
At the same time, banking was being professionalised. University graduates were being taken on for the first time as Old Etonians began to disappear from the boardrooms.
An Economist survey found 25% of the 220 clearing bank directors in 1961 had been at Eton - little changed from the 1930s.
Banks began to disclose the true extent of their profits and bad loans. Until well into the 1970s, this was considered too sensitive to be released to the public, who might worry their money was not safe.
High Street banks bought their way into the City of London, and the two cultures of branch banking and investment banking curdled and gnawed away at each other.
Many building societies seized the opportunity to turn themselves into banks.
And the bank manager, lord of the tiny world he surveyed, disappeared.
Banking became another branded supplier to the marketplace, driven by special offers and mechanised services.
It is now a hard-nosed international industry, with little sign of those once life-long customers (recruited at birth like those old Etonians).
These days customers follow the highest returns, and bankers refer to those who move their accounts for a quarter percent more as "interest rate tarts".
It's difficult to mourn the passing of the stodgy old bank manager, so respectful of local connections and reputations, and so conservative in his lending policy (the first woman manager was not appointed until 1958).
But branch banking was a series of local entrepreneurships of a kind many modern corporations would love to recreate, if they knew how. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8272113.stm | An experimental HIV vaccine has for the first time cut the risk of infection, researchers say.
The vaccine - a combination of two earlier experimental vaccines - was given to 16,000 people in Thailand, in the largest ever such vaccine trial.
Researchers found that it reduced by nearly a third the risk of contracting HIV, the virus that leads to Aids.
It has been hailed as a significant, scientific breakthrough, but a global vaccine is still some way off.
The study was carried out by the US army and the Thai government over seven years on volunteers - all HIV-negative men and women aged between 18 and 30 - in parts of Thailand.
Eric G. John, US Ambassador to Thailand: "(It has) brought us one step closer to an HIV vaccine"
The vaccine was a combination of two older vaccines that on their own had not cut infection rates.
Half of the volunteers were given the vaccine, while the other half were given a placebo - and all were given counselling on HIV/Aids prevention.
Participants were tested for HIV infection every six months for three years.
The results found that the chances of catching HIV were 31.2% less for those who had taken the vaccine - with 74 people who did not get the vaccine infected and 51 of the vaccinated group infected.
The vaccine is based on B and E strains of HIV that most commonly circulate in Thailand not the C strain which predominates in Africa.
"This result is tantalisingly encouraging. The numbers are small and the difference may have been due to chance, but this finding is the first positive news in the Aids vaccine field for a decade," said Dr Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet medical journal.
"We should be cautious, but hopeful. The discovery needs urgent replication and investigation."
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said: "For the first time, an investigational HIV vaccine has demonstrated some ability to prevent HIV infection among vaccinated individuals.
"Additional research is needed to better understand how this vaccine regimen reduced the risk of HIV infection, but this is certainly an encouraging advance for the HIV vaccine field."
The findings were hailed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UN/Aids).
They said while the results were "characterised as modestly protective... [they] have instilled new hope in the HIV vaccine research field".
Some 33 million people around the world have HIV. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12089225 | Two groups of iPhone and iPad users are suing Apple saying apps for the gadgets leak personally identifiable data.
The groups want to stop personal data being passed around without owners being notified or compensated.
Apple is just one of six application makers being pursued by the two groups of consumers.
The legal firm putting together one class action lawsuit said it might also take action against Google over data leaking from Android applications.
Backflip Studios, the Weather Channel, Dictionary.com and others were named in court papers supporting the lawsuits.
The papers allege that many applications collect so much personal data that users can be individually identified. This is despite Apple operating a policy that allows data to be shared with third parties only if an app requires the information to keep running.
Apple has yet to respond to requests for comment.
The law firm behind one of the class action lawsuits said it was considering whether to prepare a case against Google, saying that many Android applications leak personal data too.
Despite the filing of separate lawsuits, some experts suggest the court cases will not succeed.
"If this were a major issue, all web browsers would have to shut down and there would not be any advertising on the internet," Trip Chowdhry, Global Equities research analyst, told Reuters. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47776965 | Image caption The delay is seen as a reversal, after calls last week for an immediate healthcare replacement.
US President Donald Trump has said he wants to wait until after the 2020 election to draft a new healthcare plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.
The move reverses Mr Trump's call last week to quickly scrap ex-President Obama's signature law, which surprised some Republicans in Congress.
It comes as the justice department backed a lawsuit aiming to strike down the healthcare law as unconstitutional.
At least 20 million people could lose health coverage if the law is scrapped.
It is unclear with what Republicans would replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, if the courts rule to abolish the law before the 2020 presidential election.
In a series of tweets on Monday evening, Mr Trump wrote that a "vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans hold the Senate & win back the House".
Many political pundits say that healthcare was a galvanising issue for Democrats, who won control of the House of Representatives, during the mid-term elections in 2018.
The president's decision comes a week after he called for an immediate replacement to the existing law, declaring the Republican Party would be "the party of healthcare".
Mr Trump met Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, some of whom later said the White House did not offer any plan for a new law during their talks.
"Do we have a plan? What's our plan?" Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said after their meeting.
"He didn't offer a plan," Senator Marco Rubio of Florida also said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is up for re-election in 2020, told reporters: "I look forward to seeing what the president is proposing and what he can work out with the speaker."
The announcement followed the Department of Justice decision to back a federal judge's December ruling that found all of Obamacare unconstitutional.
The move was seen as a dramatic reversal, as the White House had previously only called for stripping the law of some provisions.
Has Trump managed to kill off Obamacare?
On Wednesday, former White House legislative affairs director Marc Short, who is currently working for Vice-President Mike Pence, told CNN that "the president will be putting forward plans this year" to replace Obamacare.
Republicans had attempted to "repeal and replace" Obamacare on several occasions in 2017 when Mr Trump's party controlled both chambers of Congress, but failed after Republicans were unable to reach a consensus over what law should replace it.
Eliminating Obamacare has long been on the Republican party's wishlist, and was a key campaign promise from Mr Trump.
For six years Republicans promised their supporters that action on healthcare - full Obamacare repeal and a cheaper, better replacement - was just a winning election away. They needed to take the House, then the Senate, then the presidency. Then in 2016 they won - everything - and ran into a brick wall, as attempts at "repeal and replace" foundered.
Now, much to the dismay of congressional Republicans, Donald Trump wants to try again. First he signed his administration on to a long-shot lawsuit to get the entire Obamacare system invalidated. Then he announced that healthcare reform would be a priority for his party.
For Republicans, this is a bridge too far. Memories of their 2018 mid-term defeats, in which Democrats ran on protecting Obamacare, are still fresh. The last thing they want is to refight those battles - with the added possibility of a court decision throwing the whole system into chaos.
Perhaps that's why the president on Tuesday backed away from his promises of a new plan soon, instead announcing that an excellent, but still undefined, healthcare reform would be passed as soon as Republicans won total control of the government in 2020.
Conservative healthcare reform is only an election away. Again.
Speaking at a rally outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer told the crowd that Republicans will not have a healthcare proposal until 2021.
"Translation: they have no health care plan. It's the same old song they've been singing. They're for repeal. They have no replace."
"What a ruse. What a shame. What a disgrace... The American people will not stand for the president playing cynical games with health care," he continued.
Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, the second highest ranking Republican in the chamber, said Mr Trump's announcement does not remove the pressure on his party to come up with a replacement.
"That's one man's timetable," he told the Washington Post. "But I intend to continue to try to find ways to provide more affordable choices for people when it comes to their health care."
South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune said the decision was "just probably a realistic assessment of what the field looks like for the next couple of years," in a reference to the Democrats' control of the House of Representatives. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_div_2/3482159.stm | Paul Heffernan scored all four goals in Notts County's rout of Stockport.
The striker fired the home side into an early lead after John Hardiker had cleared off the line.
Heffernan stretched County's lead midway through the first-half before Stockport hit back with a fine goal from Michael Byrne.
Heffernan grabbed his second hat-trick of the season when he tucked away a penalty after Ali Gibb handled, before a shot on the turn gave him his fourth.
Notts County: Garden, Fenton, Barras, Richardson, Boertien, Pipe, Caskey, Bolland, Oakes, Antoine-Curier, Heffernan.
Subs: Deeney, Scoffham, McHugh, McGoldrick, Scully.
Stockport: Spencer, Griffin, Hardiker, Walton, Jackman, Lambert, Robertson, Gibb, Byrne, Welsh, Barlow.
Subs: Anthony Williams, Clare, Wilbraham, McLachlan, Cartwright. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19270299 | Here's the statistic that Britain's finest economic brains simply cannot explain: the number of people in work in the UK has risen by 201,000 in the three months to June, a period in which our national output is supposed to have shrunk, by 0.7%.
It's good news that there are more people in work, and that unemployment has fallen by 46,000 in those months as well. But it's not necessarily good news that collectively, as a nation, we seem to be needing to hire a lot more people, to make less stuff.
I have discussed this many times before, because it's a puzzle that has been with us for a long time (see, for example, this article from June 2011).
You might ask why it's so important to get to the bottom of this. If there's one part of the economy that's producing some good news - why not just sit back, and enjoy the novelty? The trouble is that the longer the puzzle continues, the more potentially worrying it becomes, because it becomes less and less likely that simple measurement error explains it.
It is quite possible that the economy is stronger than the official statistics suggest: in fact, we already know that construction and industrial output were stronger in June than the ONS expected when they came up with their first estimate for the change in GDP in the second quarter. Other things equal, that could see them revise up their numbers later this month, to show the economy shrinking by 0.5%, instead of 0.7%.
But that's a pretty small revision. Even if the extra Bank Holiday also pulled down the numbers temporarily, we'd still be looking at a flat economy, which somehow produced more than 200,000 jobs.
And, to state the obvious, it's not just the past few months that needs explaining. The latest figures suggest there were 501,000 more people in work in the UK in the second quarter of 2012 than there were two years earlier, when our economy is supposed to have been slightly larger than it is now.
To get rid of that longer term mystery, the ONS would have to decide that everything it had said about GDP in the past two years was wildly wrong -that instead of being flat, we actually grew by more than 2%.
That is possible. But implausible, even to those - like the Bank of England - who believe the ONS does tend to understate growth. You don't find that amount of missing output behind the sofa.
Of course, there is the other possible explanation, that the jobs figures are actually worse than they look. It is true that about a quarter of the rise in private sector employment in the past two years has been part-time work. Today we saw the number of people reporting they were in part-time work because they couldn't get a full-time job reach another record high.
More than 1 in 4 of the new private sector jobs created in that time were self-employed. Here at the BBC we have interviewed many self-employed people in recent months, including for tonight's piece for the television bulletins. Many say they are barely working at all - certainly a lot less than they would like. There are some who look and feel like budding entrepreneurs. But quite a lot of them would not describe themselves in this way at all.
Still, that leaves a roughly 280,000 increase in the number of people working full-time for a private sector employer during the past two years, when the economy has been weak, at best.
Pay may be part of it: today's figures show average earnings are still not keeping up with inflation. Wages for most workers have been falling, in real terms, for several years. That has made it easier for companies to keep people on or hire more workers to do the same job. But again, it can't be the whole story.
Some say the simplest explanation is also the right one. There is no puzzle. We're just a lot less productive than we were before the crisis, because we've ended up shrinking our highly productive sectors, and expanding our less productive ones. But, as the Bank of England points out in its latest Inflation Report, the figures don't really support this explanation either. About two-thirds of the increase in private sector employment has been in high-skilled occupations.
Another common explanation is that companies have been "hoarding" staff, taking a hit during the slump for fear of not being able to re-hire good people when the economy picks up. But the latest figures don't really back that up either: figures from the Labour Force Survey don't show any fall in the number of people leaving their jobs, relative to the years before the crunch. Quite the contrary.
Finally we're left with the explanation favoured by Britain's finest economic detectives at the moment (not to mention senior policy makers): it's a mixture of all of these possible factors, plus, maybe "something else".
That's a pretty unsatisfying conclusion. If it were the last page of a detective novel, you'd be asking for your money back. But this isn't a novel. Economic mysteries usually get solved, eventually, you just have to "let the data run long enough". That's economist-speak for waiting to see what happens.
We know that the Olympics and other one-offs have distorted the recent figures: London accounts for nearly half the rise in employment. In Yorkshire, Midlands and Northern Ireland - unemployment actually went up last month.
Many analysts think the rest of the country will also see unemployment tick up again in the next few months: the latest private surveys of employers have been pretty gloomy. But the curious case of the UK labour market that wouldn't quit is likely to keep Britain's economic minds enthralled for some time to come. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-45185884 | Image caption Jasmine's school said she was "a beautiful, intelligent, bright and happy girl"
A man who bludgeoned to death his 11-year-old great-niece, was suffering from a brain tumour, a court heard.
Delroy Forrester, 51, admits killing Jasmine Forrester at a Wolverhampton house in February, but denies murder on the basis he was "legally insane".
The city's crown court heard Mr Forrester had a brain tumour removed in 1999 but it had re-grown.
Psychiatrist Dr Dinesh Maganty told the court the tumour meant Mr Forrester had a lack of control over his actions.
He said on the trial's second day the tumour had taken over the rational part of his brain.
"Because the frontal lobe controls his inhibitions, he had a complete lack of control over his actions and emotions.
"There is clear evidence of a brain tumour. Clear evidence of epilepsy and psychosis."
On Monday, the court heard Mr Forrester's daughter, Tyler, had called the crisis team at Penn Hospital in Wolverhampton hours before the killing to ask for help as he had been acting strangely.
As Mr Forrester was not present or considered a risk to others, she was told there was nothing they could do.
She told the crisis team: "You had better make sure that he doesn't kill my Nan tonight."
Police were called to the house of the 79-year-old defendant's mother, Jasmine's great-grandmother, in Kent Road.
Mr Forrester, formerly of Lower Villiers Street, Blakenhall, used five table legs and inflicted over 100 wounds on his great-niece.
The court heard he was heard to say by an officer at the scene "the devil had to die, I kill her blud" and "the devil is dead". |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-18523891 | A 44-year-old man has been jailed for six years for setting fire to a flat in Balsall Heath.
Alphonso Wickham of Thynne Street, West Bromwich, set fire to the top floor flat of a converted house in June 2011.
He pleaded guilty to arson, being reckless as to whether life is endangered, at Birmingham Crown Court.
Speaking after the hearing police said one 60-year-old man was seriously hurt after he jumped 25ft (7.62m) to escape the flames.
Five other people also had to escape the fire.
Police said Wickham went to the flat in Raglan Road at 16:30 BST on 15 June 2011 and set fire to the staircase and internal door before throwing accelerant over one of the occupants.
The injured man was on a life support machine for some time and two more people were treated for smoke inhalation.
Det Con Phil Caldwell from Force CID said: "This could have easily have been a murder enquiry."
Police said those injured had since made a full recovery.
Wickham was also given an additional 12 month sentence, to be served consecutively, for four counts of taking class A drugs into or out of prison. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/stories-45398184/a-clever-way-to-make-a-living-out-of-rubbish | The project putting Brazil's rubbish collectors on the map.
A film by Fernando Cavalcanti and Richard Kenny for BBC World Hacks. Like, Share, Engage. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4350958.stm | Few people would find it acceptable for a quarter of consumers to steal, rather than buy, their new car from a dealer's forecourt.
Yet, says Robert Holleyman, president of the anti-piracy trade group the Business Software Alliance (BSA), this is what many people seem to be happy to do when it comes to software.
In the UK and US about 25% of those using business software do so with an unlicensed, counterfeit or pirated copy.
"There's something about a digital product that allows very smart, rational people to come up with seemingly good reasons to make a copy," he said.
Mr Holleyman speculated that it was the intangibility of software that convinces people it is okay to make and distribute copies.
In some respects you would expect Mr Holleyman to take such a line because, as head of the BSA, he is charged by its many members to do something about software piracy.
Most often, he said, the BSA tackles companies that do not have enough licences for the software they use. Though, he added, there are plenty that have bought pirated programs too.
In such cases offending firms cannot escape punishment just by agreeing to buy the missing licences or by purchasing legitimate copies.
Instead they must erase the offending software if it is pirated, pay a penalty fee and buy the software legitimately. They also have to put in place tools to make sure they have enough licences for their users.
In the past some have argued that the low rates of piracy in many developed nations is the "price" of innovation. The argument runs that software makers must tolerate a certain amount of misuse to give the market a taste of their wares. It is a kind of viral marketing.
Unsurprisingly, it is a viewpoint that Mr Holleyman rejects.
"I unequivocally oppose any notion that any level of software piracy is or should be tolerated," he told the BBC News website. "In every other industry people do not just tolerate the theft of their products."
He also rejects the idea that all those people either using software illegally or using illegal software are buyers in waiting ready to plonk down the cash for a proper copy.
Most are just trying to get something for nothing, he says, and there is no doubt that people do get significant value from the unlicensed software they run in their businesses.
But convincing people to buy instead of try is not easy in nations were piracy rates are stubbornly stuck around the 25% mark. It is far more difficult in nations such as China where piracy is running at 92%.
Thanks to this rampant piracy, China is now the world's second largest market for PCs but is only the 25th largest market for software.
But, said Mr Holleyman, lately China has pledged to improve its record on piracy. The first step is a commitment to ensure all government departments are using legitimate software by the end of 2005. In 2006 this policy will be extended to cover all government controlled companies.
Alongside this goes the creation and enforcement of laws that impose tough punishments on software pirates.
China has made this commitment, he said, because it realises that it cannot build a vibrant technology industry if everything it produces is stolen.
Pirate or harmless computer buff? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-37823047 | France is ending its military mission in the Central African Republic (CAR), three years after it intervened to stop mass killing after a rebellion ousted former president Francois Bozize.
The withdrawal of the 2,000 French troops comes as a fresh wave of killings has rocked CAR.
France says Sangaris succeeded in its mission to stop fighting in CAR.
Some 350 French soldiers will remain in the country to provide back up to Minusca, the UN mission in the country.
With the end of Operation Sangaris, Minusca will be left in sole charge of security in CAR.
Minusca has more than 10,000 troops on the ground but it has failed to disarm militia groups and there have been fresh clashes in different parts of the country.
On Thursday, 15 people died in clashes between the mainly Muslim former Seleka rebels and the largely Christian vigilante anti-Balaka group, Minusca said.
While six police officers and four civilians died in an ambush on Friday.
This came a week after four people were killed during protests calling for the withdrawal of Minusca from the country.
France's Defence Minister Jean Yves Le Drian says French troops have had a successful deployment, achieving their aims of ending the fighting, transitioning with the UN peacekeeping mission and ensuring that CAR had peaceful elections.
The problem though is that it leaves Minusca alone in charge. Judging by sentiments over time, including last week's anti-UN protests in the capital Bangui, Minusca has little goodwill from the people.
It has been accused of not doing enough to protect civilians from militia attacks and of course there are the allegations of sexual abuse by its peacekeepers.
CAR's national armed forces remain under an arms embargo until next January and need to be rebuilt to carry out defence and security duties.
So the country is still heavily reliant on international support. Armed groups still control large areas of the country and show little sign of fear or respect for Minusca.
So it is quite a tall order for the peacekeepers at this point to replicate the strong presence the French forces had. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/matches_wallchart/saudi_arabia_v_rep_of_ireland/default.stm | Have your say: How far can Ireland go?
The Republic of Ireland's World Cup odyssey continued after they overcame a spirited Saudi Arabia to claim a place in the last 16 with victory in Yokohama.
Robbie Keane fired the Irish into an early lead, but it was not until Gary Breen scored the all-important second goal in the 62nd minute that Mick McCarthy's men could breathe easy.
Ireland were not at their fluent best against the Saudis, understandably displaying nerves in such a crucial tie.
Yet they did enough to finish second in Group E behind Germany, with Damien Duff scoring a deserved third, and will now face Spain, Paraguay or South Africa on Sunday.
With Ireland knowing that victory by a two-goal margin would make sure of their passage to the last 16, the emphasis was placed firmly on attack.
Ireland's adventurous approach soon paid dividends when Keane fired them into a seventh-minute lead.
A sweeping crossfield pass by Steve Staunton fell to Gary Kelly, who quickly dispatched a left-foot cross.
Keane had already started to shape up for the volley and he duly applied the finish.
The goal should have proved the springboard for more of the same from Ireland, but the Saudis acquitted themselves well to thwart any further threat.
Abdulaziz Al-Khathran, Nawaf Al-Temyat and Al-Hassan Al-Yami were particularly impressive for the Saudis.
And just before the interval they fired a timely reminder to the Irish.
Nawaf Al-Temyat's beautifully-weighted pass found Mohammed Al-Jahani, who rifled in a low shot which Shay Given fisted clear.
McCarthy brought on target man Niall Quinn for the ineffective Ian Harte at the start of the second half.
With Irish nerves finally settled, they went on to dominate the remainder of the game.
And the highly impressive Duff was rewarded for his tireless endeavour, blasting his ball through the fingers of Saudi keeper Mohammed Al-Daeyea with three minutes remaining.
Saudi Arabia: Mohammed Al-Daeyea (capt), Mohammed Al-Jahani (Ahmed Al Dossari 78), Redha Tokar, Abdullah Suleiman Al-Zubromawi (Abdallah Al Dossari 68), Fouzi Al-Shehri, Ibrahim Al-Shahrani, Hussein Al-Sulimani, Abdulaziz Al-Khathran (Al Shlhoub 67), Khamis Al-Owairan Al Dossari, Nawaf Al-Temyat, Al-Hassan Al-Yami.
Subs Not Used: Obeid Al-Dossary, Omar Al-Ghamdi, Sami Al-Jaber, Abdullah Al-Waked Al-Shahrani, Mansour Al-Thagafi, Babkr, Mohsin Harthi, Mohammed Noor, Mabrouk Zayed.
Rep of Ireland: Shay Given, Steve Finnan, Steve Staunton (capt), Gary Breen, Ian Harte (Niall Quinn 46), Gary Kelly (Jason McAteer 80), Mark Kinsella (Lee Carsley 89), Matt Holland, Kevin Kilbane, Robbie Keane, Damien Duff.
Subs Not Used: David Connolly, Kenny Cunningham, Richard Dunne, Alan Kelly, Dean Kiely, Clinton Morrison, Andy O'Brien, Steven Reid.
Goals: Robbie Keane 7, Gary Breen 62, Damien Duff 87.
"An emphatic win for Ireland"
"We were excellent in the second-half"
"Hopefully we can keep the fans smiling" |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40769593 | A man has been arrested after punching a female MP from President Emmanuel Macron's party in the head in a southern Paris suburb.
Laurianne Rossi, 33, was confronted by the man as she distributed leaflets in Bagneux market.
He expressed anger at Macron government policy before punching her in the right temple, Ms Rossi told local media.
It is the second attack on a female French politician in a public place in recent months.
In the latest attack, the man, in his 50s, was quickly overpowered by activists and market stallholders.
Ms Rossi told Le Parisien newspaper she had been left "stunned and a bit shocked".
"This man was clearly hostile to government and majority policy. He was speaking vehemently but was not immediately aggressive," she said.
The man described the MPs of Mr Macron's La République en Marche (LREM) party as "yes men" and accused the media of giving the party favourable coverage.
"I began to respond but did not have time to finish as he punched me hard in the right temple and ran off," Ms Rossi said.
The incident "showed a sense of exasperation on the part of citizens", Ms Rossi told BFMTV.
She later tweeted that "no political disagreement can justify violence, even less so when it is against MPs and women".
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe condemned the "cowardly attack".
In June, then MP Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet from the centre-right Republicans party was knocked unconscious in a Paris market when a man pushed leaflets in her face and she fell and hit the ground.
The man reportedly called Ms Kosciusko-Morizet a "crappy bobo" - a derogatory term for an urban hipster. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8252932.stm | President Robert Mugabe, sprightly and smiling, welcomed the European Union delegation "with open arms and great expectations" to State House, near the centre of Harare.
Two stuffed lions observed proceedings from either side of the red carpet.
This is the first such visit by the EU in seven years - and there is much talk here of "thawing" and "icebreaking" and, in the words of one European official, "re-injecting dynamism into the relationship".
But behind the optimistic talk looms a mountain of scepticism and mistrust.
President Mugabe made it clear his priority was the lifting of targeted EU sanctions against him and more than 200 of his political allies and related businesses. He and his Zanu-PF party have for years loudly argued that these measures are directly responsible for Zimbabwe's economic collapse.
But the EU does not buy that argument, and is not even putting the sanctions issue on the negotiating table at this stage.
Instead, the delegation - led by Sweden's International Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson and Karel De Gucht, Europe's Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid - focused on their concerns about the power-sharing agreement between Mr Mugabe and his political rivals from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The deal, known as the Global Political Agreement (GPA), is a year old now. But Zanu-PF's commitment remains in question.
Economically, Zimbabwe has undoubtedly started to improve under the new unity government's watch. But politically, things remain very murky.
The EU raised concerns about continuing human-rights violations, the arrest and harassment of MDC MPs, the rule of law, governance, property rights and the media.
Although the EU is already spending some $90m a year on humanitarian and development projects here, far bigger sums will not be forthcoming until the political climate improves.
After their talks, President Mugabe seemed to acknowledge that the power-sharing agreement was not always being conducted in the right "spirit" but he insisted these were minor issues and that "we have done everything we've been asked to do under the GPA".
So what happens now? This visit was never likely to produce any major breakthrough.
Instead the EU is talking of its determination to show "flexibility" in what will, inevitably, by a long and difficult process of re-engagement.
After the delegation had left State House, President Mugabe turned and strolled back inside, past the two stuffed lions.
Standing in a scrum of journalists on the red carpet, I asked him if he felt any responsibility for all Zimbabwe's troubles.
He shook his head. And did he have any plans to retire?
"That is a regime change question," he said to loud laughter. "I am still young." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-11992967 | The BNP broke party funding laws by failing to keep a proper record of who was giving it money, the Electoral Commission has ruled.
But the watchdog said it was unable to punish the party as it lacked sufficient powers.
The BNP was fined £1,000 for late submission of its 2008 accounts.
The Commission then launched an investigation after it found the financial statement did not give a "true and fair view" of its affairs.
It was concerned the party, which received £662,000 in donations during 2008, could be receiving money from impermissible donors.
The BNP could not provide any information on 45 donors, who gave the party a total of £21,250, saying the details had been "irretrievably lost" when it transferred its manual records to a new computer system.
The Commission also found 1,479 entries on a spreadsheet listing donor names and addresses but with no donation value.
It said the party had breached party funding law by not keeping adequate financial records - but it was "frustrating" for the watchdog that it was not able to take any action because "there are no sanctions available to us in relation to this breach".
Electoral Commission chief executive Peter Wardle said: "Political parties are required by law to keep accurate financial records, and this clear failure to do so is a serious matter.
"It undermines the party's ability to demonstrate, and the Commission's ability to verify, that the party is complying with the law."
He said the watchdog had been given beefed-up powers that would have allowed to take action if the offences had taken place after 1 December 2010.
He said the Electoral Commission had written to the BNP setting out its concerns and planned to meet senior party officials as soon as possible "to ensure that their procedures for complying with the law are adequate" and they had taken steps to improve their procedures.
The BNP is facing financial difficulties following a series of expensive court cases, with leader Nick Griffin saying it has debts of around £250,000 and "very little money" in the bank.
It is due to find out in the next few days if it has won a long-running court battle over its membership rules.
The party voted to change its rules after facing a court injunction over its "whites only" membership.
But the Equality and Human Rights Commission has argued the new rules were still "indirectly discriminatory". Mr Griffin has applied for the case to be thrown out. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/team_pages/senegal/default.stm | Senegal's FA vice president denies rumours that coach Bruno Metsu may terminate his contract with the Lions.
Senegal striker El Hadji Diouf is named in Fifa's World Cup All Stars team.
Aime Jacquet pays tribute to El Hadji Diouf after the striker was named one of the World Cup's top ten players.
The progress of the emerging nations make the World Cup in Korea and Japan one to remember.
As Senegal head home from the World Cup, James Copnall reflects on their performance and looks ahead to the future.
Pictures from Osaka, where Turkey finally beat Senegal to reach the semi-finals thanks to a golden goal from Ilhan Mansiz.
The Senegal national team touches down in Dakar with their World Cup adventure finally over.
Senegal's El Hadji Diouf trains with Liverpool after completing his �10m move from Lens.
The Taiwanese foreign ministry attacks Senegal's players for failing to provide a "demonstration" for expectant fans.
Senegal coach Bruno Metsu comes in for strong criticism after the Dakar Lions' World Cup dream ends.
Birmingham secure the services of Senegal captain Aliou Cisse in a �4.5m deal.
Lions fans in Dakar, Europe and the USA are in despair as Senegal exit the World Cup at the hands of Turkey. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40123180 | The most powerful commercial broadband satellite ever built has just gone into orbit on an Ariane rocket.
ViaSat-2, which is to be stationed above the Americas, has a total throughput capacity of about 300 gigabits per second.
The spacecraft was part of a dual payload on the Ariane flight. It was joined by Eutelsat 172B, a UK/French-built platform to go over the Pacific.
Both satellites will be chasing the rampant market for wi-fi on aeroplanes.
Airlines are currently in a headlong rush to equip their fleets with connections that will allow passengers to use their mobile devices in mid-air.
More than 6,000 commercial aircraft worldwide were offering an onboard wi-fi service in 2016; it is expected more than 17,000 will be doing so by 2021.
In-flight internet has traditionally had a terrible reputation, but there is a feeling now that the latest technology really can give passengers a meaningful slice of bandwidth and at a competitive price.
The Ariane left the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 20:45 local time, Thursday (23:45 GMT), ejecting the satellites into their transfer orbits about half an hour later.
Both must now get themselves into their final positions. Noteworthy is the fact that ViaSat-2 and 172B will be using electric engines to do this.
These work by accelerating and expelling ions at high speed. The process provides less thrust than a standard chemical engine, but saves substantially on propellant mass.
That saving can be traded to get either a lower-priced launch ticket, or to pack even greater capacity into the satellite's communications payload for no additional weight.
The US, Boeing-built ViaSat-2 uses a mix of chemical and electric propulsion, but Eutelsat's platform is all-electric - the first such design to come from Europe's biggest space manufacturer, Airbus.
ViaSat-2 will be providing broadband services to fixed customers across North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and a portion of northern South America.
But the satellite is also configured to service planes and ships, and in particular it is looking to grab a significant share of business out over the Atlantic.
The aviation sector currently is a key battleground for satellite operators; it is where they are seeing double-digit growth.
In the US, working with airlines such as JetBlue, ViaSat has already found success through its existing high-throughput ViaSat-1 spacecraft.
With the extra capacity on ViaSat-2, it aims to do better still.
"We think people want to use their devices in the air the way they do on the ground; that's the bet we've made," said ViaSat Chief Operating Officer Rick Baldridge.
"JetBlue delayed their in-flight wi-fi offering, waiting for us, and now they're giving it away for free and we're providing 12 megabits per second to every seat, including streaming video," he told BBC News.
ViaSat-2's "footprint" touches the western coast of Europe, but aeroplanes travelling further east will be handed seamlessly to a better-positioned Eutelsat spacecraft, which should enable passengers to stay connected all the way across to Turkey if needs be.
This is one of the benefits of the strategic alliance that the two satellite companies have formed. And in time this will see the pair operate a ViaSat-3 platform together over Europe. This spacecraft is being built to have a total throughput capacity of one terabit per second.
From its position very close to the International Date Line, Eutelsat's 172B spacecraft is going to target - amongst other business - the flight corridors of the Asia-Pacific region. And it has some very smart British technology to do this in the form of a multi port amplifier.
This can flexibly switch power between the satellite's 11 spot beams to make sure the available bandwidth is always focused where it is needed most - whether that be on the planes moving east-west from Japan to California, say, or when they go in the other direction as a cluster at a different time of day.
"To oversimplify, in-flight connectivity has mostly been restricted to the US. But now it is expanding into the Asia-Pacific region and it's also coming to Europe," said Rodolphe Belmer, Eutelsat's chief executive officer.
"We see spontaneous demand from airlines and it's booming. It's true the technology hasn't always delivered, but you will see with the introduction of very high throughput satellites in the next few years that we will be able to… bring a massive quantity of bandwidth onboard the plane, meaning you can stream Netflix in HD. That's a game-changer."
Euroconsult is one of the world's leading analyst groups following the satellite industry. Its research confirms the rapid growth now taking place, and says this will only accelerate.
Euroconsult's recent report on in-flight-connectivity (IFC) predicted nearly half of all commercial planes would be enabled by 2021, pushing revenues for the suppliers of onboard services from $1bn to $6.5bn inside 10 years. But Euroconsult's CEO, Pacôme Revillon, said there will be winners and losers in this IFC race and this would likely be decided in the very near future.
"Going to 2020, approximately 50% of aircraft could have opted for their chosen connectivity solutions, and certainly all of the major airlines will have made that choice. By that stage the market share could decide who are the winners and losers, and we anticipate seeing some consolidation in this sector, with two to three companies coming to dominate the market," he told BBC News. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46984333 | Media captionCharlotte Brown's sister Katie says Jack Shepherd has shown "unbelievable arrogance"
The family of a woman who died in a speedboat crash on the Thames believe her killer showed "unbelievable arrogance" when he appeared on TV.
Jack Shepherd went into hiding in Georgia before a trial where he was found guilty of the manslaughter of 24-year-old Charlotte Brown.
Ms Brown's sister Katie said her family felt "increasingly angry" after he told reporters he was innocent.
Shepherd is expected to make his first court appearance in Tbilisi on Friday.
He told a Georgian TV channel he hoped "justice will be done... and that everyone can move forward with their lives", before handing himself in to police in Tbilisi.
But Ms Brown said she believed her sister's killer had given himself up "for purely selfish reasons".
"All he's thinking about is himself and his feelings," she said.
Shepherd's lawyer confirmed the 31-year-old will appear at Tbilisi City Court at 13:00 local time (09:00 GMT) on Friday.
While the family were "relieved" to see Shepherd in custody, Ms Brown said they felt "shocked" to see him "just stroll into the police station smiling and waving, it was unbelievable arrogance".
"Whilst he's been off in Georgia, he claims that he went to see friends and he has always wanted to see the scenery there - almost like he was claiming it was a holiday.
"He is not thinking about Charli, us, respect for the legal system, all he is thinking about is himself and his feelings," Ms Brown said.
Shepherd was sentenced in his absence to six years jail in July for the manslaughter of Charlotte Brown.
They had met online and on their first date on 8 December 2015, the pair had dinner then went on the web designer's speedboat.
They were both thrown from the boat near Wandsworth Bridge at about midnight.
Shepherd was found clinging to the hull while Ms Brown, from Clacton in Essex, was pulled from the water unconscious and unresponsive.
In his TV interview, Shepherd said UK authorities had "rightly" treated the crash as an accident initially, but "after significant pressure by her father, the police decided to prosecute me for manslaughter".
However, Graham Brown told the Victoria Derbyshire programme that was "very misleading and inaccurate".
"It was totally out of my control. The CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] made the decision to get the case reviewed, because of its complexities, by the serious homicide squad," he said.
The CPS said it was "not accurate that we ever made a decision not to charge Mr Shepherd" and it was "not unusual to instruct Queen's Counsel to provide advice".
Tariel Kakabadze, Shepherd's lawyer in Georgia, said his client was "extremely sad" about Charlotte Brown's death but believed he was innocent.
Shepherd is currently being held in a pre-trial detention centre ahead of his court appearance.
Speaking about whether Shepherd will contest extradition, Mr Kakabadze said he would "discuss it with my client... after we carefully study all the possibilities and options".
BBC correspondent Rayhan Demytrie said the process was expected to take "several weeks" because there were numerous formalities involved with it.
Don't be surprised if Shepherd is not chalking up the days of his sentence in a British cell for some time to come.
If Shepherd were in an EU state, the European Arrest Warrant system would have seen him bundled onto a plane almost as fast as it takes anyone to read the 599-page Brexit withdrawal agreement.
Georgia, not being an EU state, is a signatory to a secondary and far slower international extradition deal. While it is by no means as efficient as the EAW, it at least sets out the principles of how to proceed with the UK's request for Shepherd's return.
British diplomats will confirm what documents Georgia's judges need to see from our prosecutors and courts - that's expected to be a legal explanation of what Shepherd was accused of and an account of his trial and conviction.
Manslaughter is is an internationally-recognised serious crime - so the UK's request for the return of a killer should be automatically recognised as valid, in the same way that such a request from Georgia would be acted on.
It's then down to how long Georgia's courts need to reach a final decision, including considering any appeal that Shepherd mounts.
So things will take a little longer - and possibly a lot longer if he tries to convince a judge that a man who went on the run from his own trial is a victim of an injustice.
The CPS is currently drafting an extradition request to bring Shepherd back to the UK.
The British Embassy in Georgia said authorities from both countries were "cooperating closely" over the case.
Under the terms of extradition from Georgia, a person "shall be extradited to a foreign state for such crimes that both under the legislation of Georgia and that of the foreign state concerned are punishable by at least imprisonment for one year or by a stricter punishment".
"In the case of a convicted person, it is necessary that the person be sentenced to at least four months of imprisonment."
He was released on unconditional bail by Judge Richard Marks QC, but failed to show up for his trial in July.
After his conviction an international arrest warrant was issued. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45598112 | The US Republican Party has apologised to Hindus after an advertisement meant to woo them ended up offending instead.
The ad, published to celebrate a Hindu festival for the elephant-headed deity Ganesha, also included the political message: "Would you worship a donkey or an elephant? The choice is yours."
The donkey is the political symbol for the Democrats while the elephant is the symbol for the Republicans.
The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) called the ad "problematic".
It asked the party's branch in Texas's Fort Bend County, which published the ad in a local newspaper, for clarification.
"While we appreciate the Fort Bend County GOP's attempt to reach out to Hindus on an important Hindu festival, its ad — equating Hindus' veneration of the Lord Ganesha with choosing a political party based on its animal symbol — is problematic and offensive," said HAF Board Member Rishi Bhutada in an official statement.
Many other Hindus shared the ad on Twitter and asked the party to retract it.
In response to the outrage, the party said that the ad was "not meant to disparage Hindu customs or traditions".
Dark is divine: What colour are Indian gods and goddesses?
"We offer our sincerest apologies to anyone that was offended by the ad. Obviously, that was not the intent," Jacey Jetton, chairman of the Fort Bend County Republican Party told local reporters.
Soon after the party released its apology, the HAF updated their statement accepting the apology.
"How they plan to not make a similar mistake in the future in their outreach to the Hindu community, and all communities in Fort Bend, remains an open question," Mr Bhutada said. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2126648.stm | Louis Farrakhan, leader of the US Nation of Islam organisation, has backed Zimbabwe's controversial land reform programme at the start of a three-day visit to the troubled country.
Mr Farrakhan told the state-owned Herald newspaper that he was in "full support" of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's policies "as it was aimed at correcting a historical injustice".
The paper in turn praised Mr Farrakhan for his "stance against Western manoeuvres to undermine the sovereignty of Zimbabwe," the Associated Press news agency reported.
The controversial leader arrived in Zimbabwe on Saturday from South Africa, where he had attended the launch of the new African Union.
His trip was in defiance of the US authorities, who have imposed sanctions against Mr Mugabe's regime which is accused of rigging the country's elections in March and intimidating political opponents.
Mr Farrakhan, known for his controversial opinions on race relations and notorious for alleged anti-Semitic comments, is scheduled to meet Mr Mugabe later on Saturday, French news agency AFP reported.
Banned from entering Britain, Mr Farrakhan recently travelled to Iraq in what he said was a bid to avert war between the country and the US.
Mr Mugabe's government has targeted about 95% of white-owned farms for confiscation after passing laws giving farmers 45 days to halt work on the land and then 45 days to leave the property.
But the farmers, along with economists and foreign donors, say that the land redistribution programme will worsen the country's food crisis.
Mr Mugabe counters that giving land to poor black families will increase living standards.
Should Mugabe be allowed to travel? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-47679176 | Blackpool is to get further government funding towards plans for a new museum telling the story of the resort.
The council has been successful in obtaining £1.75m from the government's Coastal Communities Fund to help develop tourist attractions.
The government pledged £4m last year for the museum, which has a working title name of Amuseum.
The museum, set to open in 2020, will be located on the world-famous Golden Mile in the former Sands Venue.
Amuseum in Blackpool will feature artefacts, film, music and performance to tell the story of the resort and would be a "blend of museum and visitor attraction", the council said.
It is hoped it will attract 300,000 visitors a year and is aimed of "engaging younger audiences in the history of Blackpool". |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-47322473 | Three stunt motorbikes have been stolen from a circus, Merseyside Police said.
The adapted bikes were taken from Gandeys, currently based at Aintree Racecourse, by thieves who broke through a fence on Wednesday night.
The motorbikes are used to race around the circus's metal "thunder dome" during the show's finale.
A £500 reward has been offered for any information which leads to the conviction of the thieves and the return of the motorbikes.
Merseyside Police confirmed they had received a report of three 125cc Crosser bikes - two red Hondas and a green-and-white Kuba - being stolen.
The bikes, which are "impossible to replace easily", have odd-sized wheels and are "not for road use", the circus warned.
They are raced at speeds of more than 35mph, "exerting the same G force as a fighter jet", by the Gerling family from Colombia, said a spokesman.
Gandeys Circus is performing at Aintree Racecourse until 3 March. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4831840.stm | A state of emergency has been declared in five of Ecuador's provinces as indigenous groups continue protests against free trade talks with the US.
Peasants have been blocking roads in highland areas since last week in an action which has cost millions of dollars in lost trade.
Protesters fear the trade deal to be negotiated in Washington this week will damage their way of life.
The state of emergency bans public meetings and imposes a curfew.
It was declared by President Alfredo Palacio in the highland provinces of Cotopaxi, Canar, Chimborazo and Imbabura, as well as parts of Pichincha, where the capital Quito is located.
"The president took this decision after exhausting all other options for dialogue," said Interior Minister Felipe Vega.
A final round of talks about the free trade deal is scheduled to begin in Washington on 23 March, with a deal expected to be concluded in early April.
Ecuador's neighbours Colombia and Peru have already signed deals with the US. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-42084518 | Scotland Yard is investigating a new allegation of sexual assault made against Kevin Spacey.
The claim was made on Friday and alleges an assault took place on a man in Lambeth in 2005.
It was made the same day the Old Vic released the results of an internal investigation - the theatre said it received 20 personal testimonies of alleged inappropriate behaviour.
The BBC has contacted Spacey's legal representatives for comment.
This new claim is in addition to a 2008 assault being investigated by the Met.
Scotland Yard confirmed officers from the Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command are investigating the complaint.
Kevin Spacey was artistic director between 2004 and 2015 at the Old Vic, which is based in Lambeth.
The theatre said it "truly apologises" for not creating a culture where people felt able to speak freely after those affected said they "felt unable to raise concerns", and he that "operated without sufficient accountability".
The Old Vic's announcement follows recent allegations of sexual harassment and predatory behaviour made against the double Oscar winner and former House of Cards actor while at the theatre and elsewhere in the entertainment industry. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30873059 | At least 35 Syrian soldiers have been killed in a cargo plane crash in north-western Idlib province, officials say.
State media said the crash was due to "weather conditions and heavy fog" as the plane was attempting to land at Abu al-Duhur military airport on Saturday.
But al-Nusra rebels, linked to al-Qaeda, said they had shot it down.
Militants have shot down several government planes in the past. In December, Islamic State (IS) militants captured a Jordanian pilot in Syria.
The year 2014 was the deadliest year yet in Syria's four-year conflict, with over 76,000 killed, activists say.
The air forces of Jordan, the US, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain have carried out hundreds of air strikes on IS in Syria in the past few months to "degrade and destroy" the IS. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/education-47870531/casualty-s-amanda-mealing-on-finding-out-she-was-adopted | Casualty actor: Finding out I am adopted Jump to media player Amanda Mealing has told BBC Radio 5 Live that she felt 'shock and relief' when a cousin told her at a wedding.
'You will always be my mum' Jump to media player Daniel Coole writes an emotional letter thanking his adopted mum on Mother's Day.
'I found out I'm not my kids' biological dad' Jump to media player Richard Mason was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, meaning he had been infertile since birth.
How I found my biological mother Jump to media player Andre Kuik, 40, was a baby when he was adopted by a Dutch family and spent years looking for his birth mother.
Casualty actor Amanda Mealing has told BBC Radio 5 Live about finding out that she was adopted.
The actor, who plays Connie Beauchamp in the BBC One show, began hunting for her biological family 20 years ago after her cousin revealed the truth at a wedding. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-39271105/don-draper-s-pitch-for-an-advertising-campaign-has-been-brought-to-life-by-heinz | Stars at Mad Men season premiere Jump to media player Cast members, including Jon Hamm who plays Don Draper, were out in force at the US premiere of the fourth season of Mad Men. The series starts in July and will be heading to UK screens later in the year.
What will be next for Mad Men? Jump to media player Front Row's John Wilson speaks to actor Jon Hamm, about what is in store for Don Draper in the fifth season of Mad Men.
Don Draper's pitch for an advertising campaign in the TV series Mad Men has been brought to life.
Heinz has released three ads, exactly as shown in the 1960's-set programme. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21280101 | A 15-year-old Icelandic girl has won the right to use the name given her by her mother, after a court battle against the authorities.
Blaer Bjarkardottir will now be able to use her first name, which means "light breeze", officially.
Icelandic authorities had objected, saying it was not a proper feminine name.
The country has very strict laws on names which must fit Icelandic grammar and pronunciation rules.
"I'm very happy," Blaer said after the ruling.
"I'm glad this is over. Now I expect I'll have to get new identity papers. Finally, I'll have the name Blaer in my passport."
Reykjavik District Court's decision overturns an earlier rejection of the name by Icelandic authorities.
Until now, Blaer Bjarkardottir had been identified simply as "Girl" in communications with officials.
Like Germany and Denmark, Iceland has rigid limitations about how a baby can be named. The names like Carolina and Christa, for example, are not allowed because the letter "c" is not part of Iceland's alphabet. Names cannot be unisex either.
Blaer's mother, Bjork Eidsdottir, has said that she had no idea that Blaer was not on the list of accepted female names when she gave it to her daughter.
The panel rejected the name because they said it was too masculine for a girl.
There are some 1,853 approved female names on the Icelandic Naming Committee's list.
It was not immediately clear whether the government would appeal against the district court's decision in the Supreme Court. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-41735397 | Three men have been charged with the murder of a man who was found in a lane outside an Edinburgh pub.
Mark Squires, 44, from Edinburgh, was found with serious injuries next to the Longstone Inn on Longstone Road at 01:30 on Sunday. He later died.
The men, aged 21, 23 and 24, are in custody and are due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Wednesday.
Two women who detectives wanted to trace have been assisting with inquiries.
Det Insp Dave Pinkney, of Police Scotland, said: "I am very grateful for the assistance of the local community, who have showed great support to the family and friends of Mark Squires and to my team whilst carrying out our inquiries locally. Our deepest sympathies remain with Mark's family and friends at this time.
"I would also like to thank the Longstone Inn and the Jaflong Tandoori for their patience whilst we examined the scene of the incident which happened outside their premises whilst they were closed.
"I'm still keen to hear from anyone who may have information about the disturbance and there will be additional patrols in the area to offer further reassurance and for people to speak to should they be able to assist the investigation." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-35371403 | A new Scottish tourist trail showcasing the country's best gin distilleries and bars has been launched in a bid to capitalise on a revival in its popularity.
No longer dismissed as "mother's ruin", British gin is experiencing an international renaissance and Scotland's craft gin industry is flourishing.
The spirit is worth £1.76bn to the UK economy and about 70% of it is produced in Scotland.
Now the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) hope the new Scotland Gin Trail could boost the industry's fortunes further.
It features distilleries as far afield as Shetland, Moray and Perthshire as well as specialist bars in the Central Belt.
However the map is not comprehensive and the WSTA want to hear from more distillers keen to feature in the trail.
The Crossbill Distillery, which is based on the Inshriach estate near Aviemore, is one of those which is on the map.
Although it has been run commercially for just 18 months, owner and master distiller Jonathan Engels said the business is doing exceptionally well.
But he believes the gin revival is not just a fad, instead the industry has benefited from a change in shopping habits.
"People used to go to Tesco and get all their shopping," he said. "Now they get Ocado to deliver it and they go out and buy their luxuries.
"The boom in independent shops has been caused by the change in people's shopping habits. That's accelerated or even enabled the [gin] sector."
Mr Engels has seen the evidence first-hand.
Before Christmas he made a batch of gin from a single 200-year-old juniper tree. Despite the £85 price tag, all 200 50cl bottles sold out in advance.
Organisers of the gin map hope the new initiative can mirror the success of the well-established whisky trails in Scotland.
Last year research revealed that there were around 1.5 million visits to Scotch whisky distillery visitor centres in 2014.
Incredibly, they spent a total of almost £50m on tours and in their shops and cafes - up from £27m in 2010.
And Elizabeth Truss, the UK government's Environment Secretary, has revealed ambitions for UK gin exports to rival the success of whisky, which reached £4bn last year.
She said: "There has never been a more exciting time for the industry, with the UK being the biggest exporter of gin in the world, selling enough to make 1.6bn gin and tonics.
"I want to the harness the ambition of our Scottish gin-trepreneurs, helping them to grow the UK's reputation for quality gin both here and abroad.
"I want to see it up there with Scotch whisky in terms of global sales."
In addition to sampling the product, visitors to the Scotland Gin Trail will be able to learn more about the art of gin-making.
They will be introduced to the distinctive taste of each gin - including one from St Andrews which is flavoured with retired golf clubs.
Mike Beale, chief executive of the WSTA, said: "This is a hugely exciting time for everyone involved in the UK gin industry and our gin trail is the start of a fascinating venture to share the origins, art and innovations involved in producing this Great British spirit.
"British gin has a strong, vibrant history. By publishing the gin trail map we hope to mark its renaissance and ensure its future as a quintessentially British, internationally spirit."
The "hard work and ingenuity" of the distillers has also been praised by Scottish Secretary David Mundell.
"Our distillers are creating some unique gins by experimenting with techniques from the whisky industry and using new blends of local botanicals - it is really exciting to see such innovation within out great tradition of gin distilling," he added. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1818561.stm | Forty Muslim pilgrims travelling from the United Arab Emirates to Mecca for the annual Hajj - or pilgrimage - have been killed in a road accident in eastern Saudi Arabia.
The victims included 37 Pakistanis, one Saudi, one Egyptian and one Syrian, the official SPA news agency reported.
The accident occurred on the road leading from the Saudi-Emirates border in the eastern Al-Ihsaa province when the bus they were travelling in collided with a truck and caught fire.
Ten other people were injured in the accident and 12 passengers escaped uninjured.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Supreme Judicial Council announced on Wednesday that the annual pilgrimage will climax on 21 February, ushering in the biggest Muslim holiday of the year, the Eid Al-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice), the next day.
On 21 February more than 2.5 million pilgrims are expected to gather on Mount Arafat, a hill some 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) west of Mecca, where the Prophet Mohammed delivered his last sermon 14 centuries ago.
The Hajj to Mecca - birthplace of Islam's seventh century prophet Mohammed and home of Islam's holiest shrine - is one of the pillars of Islam.
Muslims who are able-bodied and can afford the journey are obliged to do it at least once in their lifetime.
More than 945,000 pilgrims from outside of Saudi Arabia have already arrived in the kingdom.
Hundreds of thousands more are expected to arrive before the 17 February deadline. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-45424882 | The cordon around Belfast city centre's Primark store is likely to be in place for at least four months, after a major fire devastated the listed building.
A blaze burned for three days at the retailer's flagship store in Bank Buildings.
Fourteen businesses within the safety cordon are currently unable to trade.
Speaking after a meeting of traders at Belfast City Hall, Lord Mayor Deirdre Hargey said that "any opportunity to shrink this timeline will be taken".
Businesses have reacted with anger and disbelief to the announcement.
Peter Boyle, founder and CEO of Argento, a jewellery store in Royal Avenue, told the BBC News NI he "just can't believe" that the cordon will remain in place for four months.
"Disbelief and anger and frustration and worry...we just can't believe that it would take four months to stabilise that building.
"I would have got a ball on the end of a chain and put it through the front of the building immediately and we could have got on with tidying up afterwards.
"But we are at the point now as retailers where we're going off to get a second opinion from demolition crews that if the decision was made to knock it down tomorrow morning, how quickly could they get it down?," he added.
Rajesh Rana, President of Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce, described the restrictions as "totally unacceptable".
"Traders are reporting a serious decline in takings over the past seven days," he said.
"We call for Belfast City Council and Primark to find an urgent alternative to this cordon to allow pedestrians to access the area safely.
"Some kind of temporary structure through the area is one idea we have put to them.
Aodhán Connolly, director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, said that the news "is simply devastating".
"We are in the run up to the busiest time of the year for retailers and not being open for the Christmas period will be make or break for some retailers. We need the cordon lifted, access to shops and for consumers to keep coming back to the city centre. Belfast is still open for business," he said.
Engineers are to assess the site over the coming days to determine if the building's façade can be saved."
On Thursday, Belfast City Council will start erecting signs in the area, with no through access down Royal Avenue.
"Businesses remaining within the Primark safety exclusion zone have been advised that the current cordon is likely to be in place for a minimum of four months," said Ms Hargey.
"The four-month period is not solely defined by the fact this is a listed building. Any opportunity to shrink this timeline will be taken.
"While it is imperative that the safety cordon remains, we recognise it is having a serious impact - not just on the traders within the cordon, but for those in the immediate area who are suffering due to a reduction in footfall."
She said the council would be putting measures in place to help businesses who are struggling.
It comes as Primark said it remains committed to trading in Belfast as "soon as possible".
On Tuesday, hundreds of workers from the store attended a meeting with the company's management.
At the time of the fire, the Primark store was being refurbished and extended at an estimated cost of £30m. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-24308586/obama-attacks-republican-grandstanding | Obama: Republicans 'grandstanding' Jump to media player President Barack Obama criticises Republicans for "grandstanding" on a possible government shutdown, saying it was already having a negative impact on the US economy.
Reid: 'This is it, time is gone' Jump to media player Mr Reid tells reporters "time is gone" for Republican efforts to stall a spending bill as the government hurdles toward a shutdown on 1 October.
'All we'll shut down is Obamacare' Jump to media player Three Republican senators tell reporters they will not give up in their attempt to block President Obama's health law, sometimes known as "Obamacare".
At the White House on Friday, President Barack Obama criticised House Republicans for threatening to shut down the US government if Democrats refused to strip his 2010 healthcare law of funding.
He said the "grandstanding has real effects on real people".
And he repeated his refusal to negotiate over the debt ceiling, the limit to which the US is authorised to borrow to pay its obligations.
"Voting for the treasury to pay America's bills is not a concession to me." Mr Obama said. "That's not doing me a favour, that's simply carrying out the solemn responsibilities of holding office." |
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