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Victory would see the Scottish Cup finalists draw level on points with The Bairns, who currently hold second spot.
Both are at home on Sunday - Hibs to Queen of the South, Falkirk to Morton - but Falkirk have a superior goal difference of +26 to Hibs' +19.
"If anything there is a lot more pressure on Falkirk now," Stubbs said.
"It is amazing how it flips round. It is all against us now to score eight goals (over their two games), and even if we did, that doesn't take into account that they might score more to add to that.
"We have to think that Falkirk are going to win their game but it is all to play for. There will be a real pressure on them to win and it won't be easy against Morton. As you saw on Saturday, they are a well organised team."
Hibs' failure to win at Cappielow means Falkirk are in pole position to claim second spot, which would put them straight into the promotion play-off semi-finals.
If Hibs have to settle for third, they would need to negotiate a quarter-final play-off against fourth-placed Raith Rovers, with the first leg next Wednesday, 4 May, and the second on Saturday, 7 May.
"I have said all along, playing extra games is not going to affect us because we have played extra games anyway," noted Stubbs, whose side could play another seven games after the end of the regular season on Sunday, including the Scottish Cup final on 21 May.
"We had 10 days' break last season (before the play-offs) and it didn't necessarily help or hinder us. Some people say if you win the two extra games, then you go into the next two with confidence and momentum.
"The most important thing is we have to win the game on Tuesday, first and foremost. If we can make inroads into the goal difference after that, fine, but it isn't as easy as that unfortunately.
"If we win, there is no pressure on us going into Sunday. All the pressure is on Falkirk because they desperately want to finish second."
Hibs have only scored more than three goals twice this season, although one of those was a 4-2 home win over Dumbarton back in October. But they lost both away games to The Sons, who are already safe from relegation.
Stubbs has defender Liam Fontaine available again while midfielder Dylan McGeouch could return on Sunday against Queen of the South, with Danny Carmichael also likely to be back for the play-offs.
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Hibernian manager Alan Stubbs says "all the pressure will be on Falkirk" if his side beat Dumbarton on Tuesday ahead of the final round of Championship games.
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About 150 people including faith leaders attended the Unity Vigil which promoted solidarity in the wake of Wednesday's Westminster attack.
It was organised by Birmingham Muslim Engagement & Development (MEND) and Birmingham Stand Up To Racism.
Even if we are different we are still brothers and sisters and friends and we are supposed to be one, one man said.
Read more news for Birmingham and the Black Country
Five people including the attacker died in Wednesday's incident. Fifty people were injured, with 31 receiving hospital treatment.
Fawn Goodwin, 20, who helped organise the event, said: "It's really important that we show solidarity with the people who are affected by it, but also that we are anti-racist and that's the main reason why I'm here.
"I don't want the attack that happened to reflect badly on the Muslim community. I think it's really important that we all stand together."
Gahlla Gebriel, 58, said the attack had made him feel "upset" and "sad".
He stated: "Even if we are different we are still brothers and sisters and friends and we are supposed to be one. It was a bad thing, Islam is about peace. I just don't know why he did it."
Israr Hussain, 20, from Bordesley Green, said: "I've come here to show support. We all need to stand together because what's going on isn't good.
"It makes me happy that people are at this event to bring people together."
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A crowd of people gathered in Birmingham's city centre with the aim of bringing communities together.
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The Turkish government has said its troops were responding - in line with their terms of engagement - to fire from members of the Popular Protection Units (YPG) as the militia advanced on the Syrian rebel-held town of Azaz, just 7km (4 miles) from the frontier.
But the international community is not convinced.
The US, France and EU have called on Turkey to hold fire, while the UN Security Council has urged it to "comply with international law".
Earlier this week, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the shelling had succeeded in halting the YPG advance on Azaz and promised the "harshest reaction" if it tried to march on the town again.
"We will not allow Azaz to fall," he declared, adding that "the whole world should know this".
So why is this small town so significant for Turkey?
"Azaz and its surrounding area are very important for Turkey's national security and the future of the Syrian war," says Can Acun, a researcher from the Turkish pro-government think tank SETA.
"This area is on the land corridor stretching from the Turkish border to the city of Aleppo," he adds. "So both for humanitarian aid to go through and for the rebel forces to hold on to the area, Azaz is of strategic importance."
But this supply route to Aleppo was severed on 3 February as a result of a government offensive, backed by Russian air strikes, that broke a rebel siege of two towns south of Azaz.
Since then, the government advance northwards towards the border has continued, while the YPG has exploited the situation and begun pushing eastwards from their enclave around Afrin, taking the Menagh airbase and the town of Tal Rifaat from the rebels.
"The Azaz-Aleppo supply route does not function any longer," says journalist Cengiz Candar, who thinks the strategic importance of Azaz for the Turkish government is the result of other concerns.
"Turkey wants to portray this area to the US and the international coalition as somewhere they also can act against the Islamic State group. Furthermore, [if they capture it] the Kurds can join their enclaves along the border, which Turkey sees as a security threat," Mr Candar says.
Turkey views the YPG, the military wing of the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD), as allied to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has carried out a decades-long armed campaign in Turkish territory.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and US. But Washington perceives the YPG and the PYD as the only effective force against IS on the ground in Syria.
Kurdish groups now control most of the Syrian border with Turkey, with only a 100km (62-mile) stretch remaining from Azaz to the IS-held town of Jarablus.
"Azaz is a symbol for Turkey," says Fabrice Balanche from the Washington Institute For Near East Policy.
"If the Kurds take Azaz, then they could join the land gap between their two enclaves, Kobane and Afrin. Prime Minister Davutoglu fears that if the Kurds capture Azaz, they could start a big offensive from Kobane to the west and from Afrin to the east," he explains.
But Cengiz Candar believes the YPG could join the enclaves without taking control of Azaz.
The demographic structure of Azaz is of importance to Turkey as well, since along with Arabs and Kurds, ethnic Turkmens live in the area too.
"Azaz is also of key significance because of the support provided for rebel groups from within Turkey," says Fabrice Balanche.
"If the Kurds capture Azaz, the rebel groups will not have an entry point into Syria. That's Russia's strategy. Very simple - let the Kurds take control of the border area and cut Turkey from Aleppo."
On Tuesday, the pro-government Turkish newspaper Sabah reported that about 500 rebels from Idlib province had travelled via Turkey to Azaz in the past few days.
So would Turkey risk getting involved unilaterally in the Syrian war, for the sake of protecting Azaz?
Turkish Defence Minister Ismet Yilmaz recently made it clear that there were no plans to send ground troops into Syria.
A Turkish official speaking to the BBC also reiterated that Turkey did not intend to act unilaterally unless there were major changes on the ground, but that it was trying to convince the US-led coalition against IS to send troops in.
"I think if Turkey and the Gulf countries are seriously determined, they can convince the US to change its position," says Can Acun.
"Such a step could provide a safe zone for [displaced Syrians] too, and could well get the support of the EU which has been facing an overwhelming refugee crisis," he says.
However, Fabrice Balanche thinks Washington is not interested in getting dragged further into the Syrian conflict, and that the proxy war would continue instead.
"The US wants to keep the Kurds by its side. But Washington knows if Ankara continues with the shelling, then the Kurds will shift towards Russia," he says. "So the US needs to negotiate between Turkey and the Kurds. But it's difficult because the US is weak at the moment - it's the election year."
"The Turks will probably wait until next year for a new US administration that would get more involved in Syria and more aggressive with Russia. Probably, they are dreaming of a new Ronald Reagan who says: 'America is back'," Mr Balanche says.
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Turkey is facing mounting criticism for shelling Kurdish forces across the border in northern Syria.
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The increase of 1.99% for Plymouth City Council is the maximum possible without triggering a local referendum.
The budget presented at the Labour-led council for 2015-16 was approved by a margin of one vote.
Councillors also approved £3.5m plans to upgrade the city's Pannier Market and shop fronts.
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A council tax rise of almost 2% and a £3.5m city centre investment have been approved by councillors in Plymouth.
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But total book sales including physical books rose 6% to £3.5bn, according to the data, led by non-fiction gains.
Readers flocked to fitness and self-help books, sending non-fiction sales up 9%, while fiction revenue fell 7%.
Exports rose 6% to £2.6bn, benefiting from a decline in the value of sterling, but also rising in line with domestic growth.
The gain reversed three previous years of export decline.
In 2015, adult colouring books and the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland helped the swell in physical book sales, while ebook sales fell 1.6%.
This time, books on the Danish concept of hygge, which is usually translated into English as "cosiness", assisted factual sales, as well as fitness books by personal trainer Joe Wicks.
While ebook sales took a hit, digital distribution helped other media.
Journals made a 10% gain last year to £1.2bn, led by a jump in electronic subscriptions, making the market for books and journals worth £4.8bn.
"Last year, one of the most eye-catching figures from our statistics was that physical book sales were increasing while digital book sales dropped," said chief executive Stephen Lotinga.
"While many will debate as to whether this trend will continue, we should not ignore the fact that digital sales beyond the domestic ebook market are growing."
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Sales of ebooks dropped 3% to £538m last year, according to the Publishers Association trade body.
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Launched on 2 June 2003, the probe went into orbit around the Red Planet in the December of that year.
Its most significant discovery is probably the detection of water-altered minerals at the surface.
A sample of these, clay minerals, were recently drilled and analysed for the first time by the Americans' latest rover, Curiosity.
MEx retains a full suite of working instruments and has sufficient fuel to keep operating deep into this decade, although hardware failure in the harsh environment of space is an ever-present threat.
Two years ago, engineers were challenged to find a new way to operate the satellite when it developed a serious memory glitch.
"It was our first mission to Mars. We actually planned for a two-year lifetime at the planet with a possible extension of another two years; and now here we are at 10 years and counting," said Alvaro Gimenez, Esa's science director.
"It's been a great success from an engineering point of view, but also from a science perspective because of the extraordinary global view it has given us of Mars," he told BBC News.
MEx's seven instruments allow it to study the atmosphere, the surface and sub-surface of the planet.
Its German-led camera system has imaged over 95% of Mars, with two-thirds mapped at a resolution of 20m per pixel or better. Much of this has been done in stereo, which has allowed scientists to build remarkable 3D views of the surface.
Key observations have included the detection of methane in Martian air, a potential signature of biology; and the identification of vast landforms cut by glacier activity in the distant past.
MEx has also seen evidence of relatively recent, geologically speaking, volcanic activity; and it has probed the polar caps with its radar to determine the presence of huge deposits of water ice.
At the south pole alone, there is enough water locked up in ice to cover the entire planet with a layer of liquid 11m deep.
But it is the mapping of clays and other hydrated minerals that is most frequently cited by Mars researchers as the probe's major contribution to their field of study.
Esa released new maps from MEx on Monday that detail not only the location of the clays, or phyllosilicates as they are often called, but other mineral types as well, including pyroxene, olivine, haematite (iron), and the weathered materials - the ubiquitous dust - that give Mars its red hue.
The information contained in these maps has allowed MEx scientists to construct a probable history for the planet.
This describes a very early wet phase when water was stable at the surface followed by a drying out as the Martian climate abruptly changed about four billion years ago.
It provides a guide to where Europe should send its 2018 ExoMars rover, says Prof Jean-Pierre Bibring, the principal investigator on MEx's Omega instrument.
"[The maps] give the prediction of where on Mars to find the relics that might have been habitable," he told a 10th anniversary MEx conference in Darmstadt, Germany.
"If life started elsewhere than on Earth, we know where to go to. We know the places; they have been identified. We have got to go to the Phyllosian, and ExoMars should do that."
The "Phyllosian" is the period in Mars history, some 4.2-4.5 billion years ago, when the clay beds seen by MEx are thought to have been formed.
Mars Express has some spectacular observations planned in the months ahead.
In December, it will attempt an extremely close flyby of the planet's moon Phobos, skimming 47km from the surface. And then in early 2014, it will turn its instruments on Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), which is passing within just a few hundred thousand km of the Red Planet.
The one major blemish on this European venture to Mars remains the loss of the Beagle2 lander.
The small British-built surface probe was carried to the planet by MEx and released just a few days before the scheduled touch-down. A picture of the disc-shaped Beagle2 disappearing into the distance is the last contact Esa had with the lander.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos
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The European Space Agency (Esa) is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Mars Express mission.
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The naval vessel is taking the cargo, including mustard gas and components of the nerve agents VX and sarin, to international waters to be destroyed.
The materials were transferred from a Danish vessel to the US ship earlier on Wednesday, at the port of Gioia Tauro.
Syria agreed to the destruction of its chemical weapons stockpile last year.
The deal - backed by the UN and brokered by the US and Russia - was struck amid the threat of US air strikes, triggered by a sarin gas attack on a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.
The shipment marks the closing phases in the operation to destroy Syria's toxic arsenal.
The Danish vessel, Ark Futara, docked on Wednesday morning, carrying the materials and accompanied by Italian coast guard ships and a military helicopter.
The transfer of the cargo to the US ship was completed amid tight security, with access roads to the port sealed off.
Cranes were seen lifting large containers on to the US navy ship, MV Cape Ray.
The US vessel is equipped with a plant where the bulk of the chemicals can be neutralised by the process of hydrolysis.
During hydrolysis, the chemical agents are broken down with hot water and then further neutralised with sodium hydroxide - also known as caustic soda or lye.
The BBC's Rome correspondent, Alan Johnston, says this process will only begin after the American ship has steamed far out to the sea - because of its hazardous cargo.
Any remaining waste is expected to be buried on land, in purpose-built facilities.
Italy's Environment Minister, Gian Luca Galletti, said on Twitter that he was proud of his country's "contribution to international security", adding that the operation at Gioia Tauro was transparent and environmentally safe.
However, a trade unionist at the port told AFP he was concerned about the transfer. "This is not a routine operation, it's a military operation and we are very worried," Domenico Macri said.
"If there's an accident, a container breaks or falls, the substances which would come out could do serious damage," he said.
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A US ship carrying deadly material from Syria's chemical weapons programme has left Italy in the final phases of the destruction of the arsenal.
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This compares to 94% in the previous quarter and is slightly worse than England's performance of 92.6%.
Scottish Government targets are for at least 95% of A&E patients to be seen, admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
NHS Lanarkshire had the worst average figure over the period - at 85.5%.
The figure for NHS Lanarkshire in November was just 83%.
The Scottish figure for October and November was 91.8% but that fell to 89.8% in December.
The numbers are below the overall performance in England, but above that in what are described as "core sites" in major cities south of the border.
In December, 89.9% of patients were seen within four hours in Scotland, compared to 90.2% in England and 81% in Wales.
At "core sites" in the same month, the performance was 88.6% in Scotland, 85.3% in England and 77.2% in Wales.
Scottish Health Secretary Shona Robison said this winter had seen "unprecedented pressures" in hospitals.
In December, NHS Forth Valley (84.2%) and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (84.5%) were the worst performers.
NHS Tayside was the best health board for waiting times with 99% seen within four hours.
There was a slight increase in attendances compared to previous years.
The number of attendances at A&E services across Scotland over the past three years were
During the final quarter of 2014, 4,028 patients spent more than eight hours in A&E and 517 spent more than 12 hours.
The statistics said 27% of attendances at A&E led to an admission to hospital.
The health secretary said: "Staff in Scotland's NHS have done a terrific job over what has been a very challenging time and I'd like to thank them for all their work as they cope with an increase in the number of patients and an increase in those being admitted.
"These factors have clearly impacted on performance and today's figures do not meet the demanding, world leading targets we have set and the standards that patients rightly demand.
"We are determined to improve performance, which is why we have been taking substantial action to ease pressure on the front door of the hospital, as well as concentrating on the timely discharge of patients."
Last month, the Scottish government announced £100m to help health boards and local authorities tackle bed blocking which it is hoped would help people move out of A&E and through the system.
Scottish Labour Leader Jim Murphy said the waiting time figures "expose the crisis in our NHS under the SNP".
He said: "Patients across Scotland are told regularly by SNP ministers that they should be grateful things aren't as bad as in England. Now we know that under the SNP things are even worse in Scotland. That's just not good enough and Scotland deserves better."
He said Scottish Labour planned to fund an extra 1,000 nurses in Scotland's NHS, using the money raised from a Mansion Tax on homes worth more than £2m if it was to get into power in Scotland.
Scottish Tory health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said: "Scottish Conservatives have long argued for 1,000 additional nurses to be the priority and a GP attached national health visiting services to be re-established along with a substantial investment and refocusing of GP practices.
"There is no justification for the SNP sneering at health services elsewhere in the UK when its own performance is rapidly failing before patients' eyes."
Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Jim Hume called on the Scottish government to take action to alleviate "pressure cooker conditions" at A&E units.
Theresa Fyffe, Scotland director of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "The longer waiting times at A&E are a symptom of a system that is struggling to cope with the ever-increasing demand it is under, so I'm glad the Scottish government is taking steps to address this."
Dr Peter Bennie, chairman of BMA Scotland, said, "For individual patients, waiting for treatment can be a particularly difficult and stressful time and it is important that those with the greatest clinical need receive appropriate care within a reasonable timescale.
"NHS staff are working incredibly hard to ensure that patients receive high quality, timely care, but they are struggling to cope. Pressure on NHS services is at a critical point and cracks are beginning to appear."
From next month the NHS in Scotland will be moving to monthly reporting of A&E waiting times.
Scots have been getting less information about the performance of their local emergency department than their counterparts in the rest of the UK, meaning the new figures are the first waiting time figures since September.
In England, hospitals publish A&E performance statistics weekly and by hospital, allowing more scrutiny of the performance of individual hospitals.
In Northern Ireland the public is given monthly performance figures by hospital.
Wales publishes monthly statistics by health board rather than hospital.
In Scotland the public has been only told how the NHS has performed every three months, and at health board level.
Because waiting times are combined over a three-month period, the poor performance of particular hospitals on particular days is sometimes not apparent, and figures relating to the busy New Year period are not included in Tuesday's release.
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New figures suggest Scotland's accident and emergency departments treated 91% of patients within four hours between October and December.
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Cryptosporidium is a parasite that is very common in young farm animals and can easily be passed to people.
Sixteen others are being monitored after regular attendance at the farm or being in contact with those who have.
Public Health Wales is continuing to work with Coleg Gwent, which has written to all students who may have been on the Usk farm in March.
It has also cancelled a series of upcoming open days with primary schools.
Investigations are continuing into the outbreak which causes diarrhoea, stomach pain, nausea and vomiting.
Healthy people will usually make a full recovery.
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Seven people have tested positive following a parasite outbreak at Coleg Gwent farm in Monmouthshire.
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The so-called Islamic State (IS) group has said it carried out the attack in Musayyib.
IS has long mounted a violent campaign against Iraqi Shia, denouncing them as heretics.
The group has increased its attacks on civilians in big cities in Iraq as increasingly loses territory.
Its main stronghold of Mosul is expected to be recaptured soon.
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A suicide bomber has struck a market in Iraq in a town near the Shia holy city of Karbala, killing at least 20 people.
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Ricky Hill walked out of Royal Derby Hospital where he was being treated for an overdose and hanged himself on site.
Coroner Dr Robert Hunter concluded there was no plan at the hospital to prevent him killing himself.
He told an inquest he would also write to Derbyshire police for a second time criticising its search procedures.
Dr Hunter returned a narrative conclusion at the inquest in Derby which found Mr Hill, 30, took his own life while an inpatient partly because "no effective measures were put in place to prevent him doing so".
Speaking after the hearing, his widow, Dawn Hill said: "I'm just glad that it's all over and we've got justice for Ricky because that's why we're all here."
The court heard Mr Hill walked out of hospital in September 2014 for a cigarette but never came back.
Security were alerted but took down an incorrect description which was then passed to police.
The first officer on the scene searched the site from a police car using the incorrect description.
Another officer later used an out of date satellite image from Google Earth to check the site, which still showed the hospital under construction.
Mr Hill's body was found by a local resident in a wooded area on hospital grounds in January 2015.
Although the coroner concluded he was dead before the police were called Dr Hunter still had "serious concerns" about the search and said he would write to the force's chief constable.
The court also heard nurses lacked training in dealing with mental health patients at the hospital and they had not been told about hospital guidelines.
Dr Hunter said he would write to the Department of Health raising concerns that changes should be made at all hospitals.
Following the conclusion of the hearing Deputy Ch Con Peter Goodman said: "We want to apologise to the family of Ricky Hill.
"We recognise we made mistakes at the time he went missing and subsequent in our search for him there were areas we could have done better."
He added the force would work with the coroner to address further concerns.
Cathy Winfield, chief nurse at the Royal Derby Hospital, also apologised to the family during the hearing and offered her condolences.
Speaking afterwards, she said: "We've run a robust teaching programme for doctors and nurses to help them identify [mental health needs] but also assess the level of risk patients might be facing."
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A coroner has criticised police and medics for a "catalogue of errors" after a man killed himself and was not found for three months.
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Read the reports from all of Tuesday's Championship matches:
Birmingham City 2-2 Preston North End
Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Charlton Athletic
Brentford 2-1 Cardiff City
Brighton & Hove Albion 4-0 QPR
Bristol City 2-3 Derby County
Burnley 1-1 Middlesbrough
Ipswich Town 1-1 Fulham
Leeds United 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Blackburn Rovers
Reading 1-2 Hull City
Rotherham United 1-1 Huddersfield Town
Sheffield Wednesday 0-0 MK Dons
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The top two drew, Brighton thrashed QPR to move closer to the automatic promotion places and Charlton were relegated.
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Kilmarnock rallied from two goals down to win 3-2 at League Two Berwick, but League One Peterhead upset Dundee 2-1.
An Iain Vigurs hat-trick helped Inverness Caledonian Thistle to a comfortable 5-1 victory at Dunfermline.
Motherwell stuttered before beating East Stirlingshire 3-0, while Partick enjoyed a 4-1 win at Stenhousemuir.
Peterhead shocked Premiership side Dundee with a 2-1 win at Balmoor, leaving Paul Hartley's men with an uphill battle to progress.
Rory McAllister put the League One side in front just after the hour, and grabbed what proved to be the winner from the penalty spot with two minutes remaining.
Greg Stewart pulled one back for Dundee in the 90th minute, but it was not enough to save them from a damaging defeat.
Paul Hartley's side must now beat Forfar on Saturday and hope Dumbarton beat Peterhead to have even a slim chance of grabbing a best runners-up spot.
Forfar got the better of group leaders East Fife 2-0 at Station Park.
James Lister gave the League two hosts the lead before Andy Munro doubled it five minutes after the break.
The result keeps both teams still in the hunt. East Fife have finished their group games but could still be overtaken for a top-two finish on goal difference.
Brechin and St Johnstone could not be separated after 90 minutes, with the home side prevailing 4-2 in the penalty shootout to claim the bonus point.
Andy Jackson's bullet header gave the League One side a first-half lead, but Chris Kane rescued a draw for Saints with an equaliser four minutes from time.
Kane and Michael Coulson missed from the spot for Saints as Brechin secured two points to move within a point of their opponents at the top of the group.
Read the full match report here.
Stirling thumped League Two rivals Elgin 4-1 at Forthbank Stadium to leave them needing to take something at St Johnstone on Saturday.
Kyle MacLeod brought Elgin level after Edward Ferns' opener, but a second-half hat-trick from Blair Henderson sealed an emphatic win for the home side.
A hat-trick from Iain Vigurs helped Inverness thump Dunfermline 5-1 at East End Park and move joint-top of Group C.
Vigurs punished a poor kick from Pars keeper David Hutton to score from distance, against the run of play, and despite Andy Geggan's fourth of the season for the hosts, Vigurs' free-kick put them ahead at the break.
Billy King extended Caley Thistle's lead in the second half and Vigurs completed his hat-trick with a well-placed header.
Carl Tremarco's late fifth put the icing on the cake for a potent Caley side.
Arbroath and Cowdenbeath meet on Wednesday in the other Group C match.
Holders Ross County are out of the Scottish League Cup after falling to defeat at Alloa at a rain-sodden Indodrill stadium.
The home made the better of the conditions and led 2-0 inside 11 minutes with strikes from Jordan Kirkpatrick and Jon Robertson.
But the holders responded emphatically and drew level within 10 minutes as Alex Schalk powered in County's second after Brian Graham had reduced the arrears.
The visitors looked the more likely to find a winner but Calum Waters' strike 18 minutes from time saw County fall at the first hurdle.
Read the full match report here.
Cove Rangers host Montrose on Wednesday.
Partick Thistle edged a step closer to the last 16 with a comfortable 4-1 win at Stenhousemuir.
Mathias Pogba headed in from close range before Sean Welsh doubled their lead from the penalty spot.
Stenny gave themselves a fighting chance when Liam McCroary blasted home from the edge of the box to halve the deficit.
But David Amoo and Ade Azeeez fired in late strikes to preserve the Premiership side's 100% record at the top of Group E.
Queen's Park rallied from 3-1 down to rescue a point against Airdrieonians at Hampden, but lost the penalty shootout 8-7.
Adam Cummins put Queen's in front after just three minutes, but three goals in 12 minutes from Andy Ryan, Adam Brown and Iain Russell put the visitors in charge.
Aiden Malone reduced the arrears for the home side just after the break with Sean Burns equalising 11 minutes from the end, but it was Airdrie who claimed the bonus point with victory in the shootout.
Motherwell had to wait until the 53rd minute for a breakthrough against Lowland League East Stirling, beforeMarvin Johnson, Scott McDonald and Chris Cadden all struck in an ultimately comfortable 3-0 win which keeps alive their hopes of finishing second behind Rangers, who have already won the group.
Another victory at Stranraer on Saturday should see Mark McGhee's side progress as one of the best runners-up.
Read the full match report here.
Championship side Ayr made their superiority count with a 2-0 win at League One side Livingston.
Peter Murphy gave the visitors the lead on 19 minutes before Craig McGuffie completed the job 12 minutes from time.
Ayr top the table on nine points having completed their four games, but could still be overtaken by Hamilton, who visit Edinburgh City on Wednesday, and St Mirren.
Souleymane Coulibaly inspired a thrilling comeback as Kilmarnock avoided a cup shock against League Two outfit Berwick Rangers.
Goals from Jonny Fairbairn and on-loan Hibs youngster Sean Mackie had Lee Clark's charges staring down the barrel of a chastening defeat at Shielfield Park, following their home humbling by Morton.
But Coulibaly responded with two superb instinctive finishes in five minutes to restore parity, and the turnaround was complete after 85 minutes when Rory McKenzie headed home the winner to make it 3-2.
Killie are now likely to qualify if they beat Albion at home on Saturday, with leaders Morton hosting Berwick.
League Two side Clyde came from a goal down to register a victory at League One Albion.
Ross Davidson gave Albion the lead just before the hour mark, but Ewan McNeil and a 90th-minute Dylan Easton penalty gave Barry Ferguson's men their first win of the competition.
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Just four months after they lifted the Scottish League Cup, Ross County are out of this season's competition after a 3-2 defeat at League One side Alloa.
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Mark Beamish, 35, had just stepped off the train at Maelbeek on his way to work on Tuesday when the blast hit.
He said he has "no memory" of the explosion itself, which left him with cuts to his head and burns to his hands.
The explosion hit the station near the EU headquarters at about 08:00 GMT.
More on this story and others from Birmingham
"I was travelling with a friend so I remember shaking his hand goodbye as I stepped off the train," said the European Parliament worker, originally from King's Heath, Birmingham.
"And that's the last thing I remember. I don't remember a blast. I don't remember any sound or vision.
"I have one static image of me crouching on some stairs covered in dust.
"The next thing I remember was being outside the station being looked after by a bystander."
Brussels attacks: Victims and survivors
He said his glasses must have been blown off but had protected his eyes from injury.
He said: "I remember being helped down to the floor by a bystander and then a paramedic coming along who called my wife for me to tell her that I was injured but I would be fine.
"Then there was some panic about 20 minutes after the blast.
"The bystander who was helping me said 'get up, get up, they're telling us to run."
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A British survivor of the Brussels terror attacks has described the aftermath of an explosion at a metro station which killed 20 people.
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36,761,766 |
Four properties were targeted between 22:00 on 8 July and 05:00 BST on 9 July.
A 19-year-old woman from Bedford arrested at the time has been bailed.
Three men aged 19, 21 and 22 were arrested on suspicion of firearms offences on Sunday and bailed. A further 19-year-old man arrested on Monday remains in custody.
The first shooting was at 22:00 in Faraday Square, in which a woman was shot in the arm and taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Shots were then reportedly fired in Lovell Road at about 01:00, Foxglove Way at 01:20 and in Romsey Way at 05:00. They are being linked by police.
Bedfordshire Police said they "may have been targeted attacks".
Det Insp Katie Dounias said: "The investigation is on-going and we will pursue a number of lines of enquiry.
"We are continuing to urge the public to come forward with any information they may have about the shootings."
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Four more people have been arrested in relation to shots being fired in Bedford at the weekend.
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35,693,597 |
The on-loan Benfica striker finished off a fine counter attack to score into an empty net before the break.
Ryan Mendes should have made it 2-0 but headed Chris Cohen's free-kick over the bar and also fired an effort wide.
Preston, who stay 10th, four points above Forest in 13th, almost levelled through Jordan Hugill's header.
However, he was denied by Reds keeper Dorus De Vries, who made a superb low diving stop to scoop the ball off the line.
And although Mendes missed another chance that would have avoided a nervy finale, the hosts were able to see out a victory which takes them to within 11 points of the play-off places.
Nottingham Forest boss Dougie Freedman:
"I am very pleased - I thought we deserved to win.
"We could have scored a few more, we created a few chances, although it was a bit nervy towards the end and credit to Preston for that.
"I thought we threatened their goal all night from start to finish, but we had to make sure we got the win after four defeats and we did that."
Preston boss Simon Grayson:
"There wasn't much in the first half, I thought we looked quite comfortable and they didn't threaten us too often.
"We were unfortunate for the goal - they broke quickly on the counter and before you know it the ball's in the net.
"We changed it at half-time to give us a bit of a threat going forward because we have to try and win games at this stage of the season."
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Nelson Oliveira's ninth goal of the season was enough to earn victory over Preston North End and halt Nottingham Forest's four-game losing streak.
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40,013,507 |
As a result, Nato members recently agreed to change its procedures, allowing partnerships to go ahead on a country-by-country basis.
Austria is not in Nato, but co-operates closely with it and has more than 400 troops serving in Kosovo.
Turkey is angry with Austria for trying to block its bid to join the EU.
It has the second-largest military in Nato, after the United States. Austria has condemned the Turkish action, calling it "irresponsible".
A well-informed source told the BBC that heightened tensions between Turkey and Austria had essentially blocked Nato co-operation with the government in Vienna for the past year.
The veto originally affected all the Western alliance's partnership activities, which include several ex-Soviet states.
But a Nato official, who asked not to be named, later said that the 28 Nato nations had agreed on Monday to change the system to work around the diplomatic spat.
"This will substantially reduce the risk of blockages to cooperation with partners across the board," the official said.
The procedural reform was already planned before Turkey's blocking manoeuvre, and was pushed through in time to allow co-operation with other countries to continue.
But Turkey is expected to maintain its veto on Austria's involvement in operations.
A Nato meeting is planned for Thursday, at the 28-nation alliance's Brussels headquarters.
Officials said the main topics would be the fight against terrorism, and fairer burden-sharing.
US President Donald Trump has criticised Nato members who fail to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defence. Besides the US and UK only Poland, Greece and Estonia currently meet that target.
In a statement sent to the BBC, Austria's Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil lambasted Turkey for its veto.
"I strongly condemn Turkey's course of action in Nato. It is irresponsible behaviour against Austria and strengthens my position that Turkey is very far from being part of the EU," he said.
"In this, Turkey is endangering the security interests of Europe. The blockade has a long-term impact on the peace missions in the Western Balkans."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed Austria for frosty relations with the EU, amid tensions over illegal immigration via Turkey and his huge crackdown on political opponents.
Austria is one of the main contributors to the Kosovo security mission.
A Nato official said the alliance was "not ending its co-operation with Austria".
"We greatly appreciate its valuable contributions to our shared security. We hope the bilateral issues between Austria and Turkey will be solved as quickly as possible," he told the BBC.
Mr Erdogan has not only lashed out at Austria. His anger at Germany has prompted Berlin to reconsider its air force deployment at Turkey's Incirlik airbase.
He was enraged when Austria, Germany and the Netherlands barred Turkish ministers from campaigning on their soil in the run-up to last month's referendum, in which he narrowly won a mandate for sweeping new powers.
Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern has spoken out against President Erdogan's purge of public servants suspected of backing last July's failed coup. He said the EU should respond by halting talks on Turkey joining.
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Turkey has vetoed Nato's co-operation with Austria, a move which had blocked the alliance's partnership activities with 41 countries.
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34,961,497 |
A verdict on a third defendant, a 31-year-old Israeli man, was postponed for a mental health review.
Mohammad Abu Khdair, 16, was killed in apparent revenge for the murders of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.
The killings were part of an escalating cycle of violence, culminating in a war between Israel and militants in Gaza.
The story of two brutal killings
Interview with Mohammad Abu Khdair's mother
Mohammad Abu Khdair's body was found in a forest in West Jerusalem on 2 July 2014, two days after the bodies of the Israeli teenagers abducted and murdered by Hamas militants that June were found.
The two minors, whose names have not been released, and 31-year-old Yosef Haim Ben David were subsequently charged with Abu Khdair's murder.
On Monday, the panel of three judges at the Jerusalem District Court found the minors guilty. They will be sentenced in mid-January.
The judges found that Mr Ben David, who was portrayed as the ringleader, had participated in the abduction and murder, but said a formal verdict would be postponed until a psychiatric evaluation had been carried out.
Mr Ben David's lawyer, Asher Ohayon, submitted at the last minute a psychiatric opinion which stated that he was not responsible for his actions at the time of the murder. Prosecutors had presented evidence they said showed he was.
In their ruling, the judges determined that the three defendants abducted Abu Khdair at random as he stood on a road in the Shufat district of East Jerusalem.
The two accomplices, who were 16 at the time, then beat the Palestinian unconscious in the back of a car being driven by Mr Ben David, the judges said.
One of the minors helped douse Mohammad Abu Khdair with petrol while he was still alive, before Mr Ben David lit a match and set him on fire, they added.
The two teenagers confessed to the abduction in court, though one testified that he was not involved in the killing. Mr Ben David chose not to testify.
Mohammad Abu Khdair's father, Hussein, said Mr Ben David was trying to mislead the court.
"How can the defendant, two days ago, a year-and-a-half after the crime, bring a document claiming insanity?" he told reporters. "It's all lies and I worry that the court will free them in the end."
Prosecutor Uri Corb vowed to contest any insanity plea.
"When we try to claim that we are better than our enemies - and I think that we are better than them - we should look at this event as a mirror," he said. "As a society we will continue to fight all avengers and lynchers, as we did in this case."
Two Palestinians suspected of the murder of the three Israeli teenagers - Naftali Fraenkel and Gilad Shaar, both aged 16, and 19-year-old Eyal Yifrach - were killed by Israeli forces in a gun-battle at their hideout in Hebron in September 2014.
A third man, Hussam Qawasmeh, was sentenced to three life terms in prison in January after being found guilty by an Israeli court of several charges including three counts of accessory to murder.
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Two 17-year-old Israelis have been convicted of the murder of Palestinian youth Mohammad Abu Khdair, abducted and burned to death in Jerusalem in 2014.
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40,071,031 |
Steven Barry Ellis was arrested for public order offences on Friday.
He appeared before Wrexham magistrates on Saturday.
Supt Rob Kirman said: "The immediate sentencing of this man demonstrates that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated in north Wales."
Bomber Salman Abedi killed 22 people when he blew himself up as the victims left an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena on Monday.
A total of 11 people have been arrested in the UK, including Abedi's 24-year-old brother Ismail, but two were later released.
Meanwhile, US singer Grande has said she will return to the "incredibly brave city" for a benefit concert.
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A 49-year-old man has been sentenced to 14 weeks in prison for shouting obscenities during a vigil in Wrexham for the victims of the Manchester bombing.
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31,068,723 |
Privates Derek Smallhorne and Thomas Barrett were on UN peacekeeping duty in Lebanon when they were murdered.
Lebanese national Mahmoud Bazzi, 71, has been sent back to his home country after admitting immigration fraud.
The Irish defence minister said the deportation was a "significant step in the pursuit of justice" for the troops.
A third Irish soldier was injured in the incident near the Israeli border on 18 April 1980.
All three were serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) when their convoy was stopped and they were captured.
Mr Bazzi reportedly entered the United States about 20 years ago and had recently been living in Detroit.
Officers from the US Enforcement and Removal Operations agency escorted him on a flight to Beirut on Friday and handed him over to the Lebanese authorities.
Campaigners are hoping he will be questioned about the soldiers' murders.
Irish Minister for Defence Simon Coveney said: "I believe that this is a significant step in the pursuit of justice for Privates Thomas Barrett and Derek Smallhorne who lost their lives while on United Nations peace-keeping duty in Lebanon almost 35 years ago.
"It is an important day for the families and I wish to commend them for their continued commitment to securing justice for their loved ones."
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A suspect in the 1980 murder of two Irish soldiers who were killed on United Nations duty has been deported from the United States to Lebanon.
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33,953,071 |
The section, called Lower Block 04, is the largest part of the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.
It is 20 metres high, 80 metres long and comprises a fifth of the overall vessel.
It will take about five days to reach Rosyth in Fife, travelling around the north of Scotland.
The section, which contains the warship's hangar, machinery space, mission systems compartments and accommodation, will arrive at the dockyard in Fife next Friday afternoon.
It began its journey from BAE Systems' Govan shipyard on Sunday morning and passed under the Erskine bridge at about noon.
The section, floating on a sea-going barge, arrived at Greenock at about 15:30 and will be pulled by a sea-going tug, the Carlo Martello.
The Prince of Wales is the second of the new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier to be built for the UK.
Each 65,000 tonne aircraft carrier will provide the armed forces with a four-acre military operating base which can be deployed worldwide.
Even the hull section is bigger than the Type 45 destroyers which were the last vessels to be delivered to the Royal Navy from Glasgow.
The final two smaller sections of HMS Prince of Wales are scheduled for delivery by the end of the year.
The Prince of Wales is due to be completed at Rosyth dockyard in 2017.
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A massive 11,200-tonne section of an aircraft carrier built on the Clyde has begun its journey around the coast of Scotland to Rosyth for final assembly.
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21,579,484 |
Last year the chance of someone born in October becoming an Oxbridge undergraduate was more than 30% higher than for someone born in July.
In seasonal terms, compared to the summer-born applicants, autumn births were 25% more likely to get an Oxbridge place, while for winter and spring births the figures were 17% and 15% more likely respectively.
This is according to data obtained from both universities under freedom of information and analysed by the BBC.
It raises the issue of whether universities should start to consider applicants' dates of birth when deciding who to give places to.
It is a well established fact in educational research that children who are younger in their year group at school tend on average to do significantly worse in terms of educational attainment. Known sometimes as the "birthdate effect" or "relative age effect", this generally diminishes as children get older but does not vanish.
Less research has been done on the implications for later life, but what these Oxbridge admissions statistics now demonstrate is that the impact on life outcomes can persist beyond school.
The birthdate effect is also a recognised phenomenon in sport.
We obtained figures from both universities for the months of birth of undergraduate applicants for places in 2012. This data only refers to applicants resident in the UK, not international students. The statistics for both universities reveal a similar monthly pattern for those accepted.
This fits with the birthdate effect. The vast majority of UK applicants to Oxbridge are from England and Wales, where school year groups are formed on a September-August basis. Thus those who have been older within their year groups are more likely to reach Oxbridge than their younger classmates.
(In Scotland, school year groups are formed on a March-February basis, and in Northern Ireland on a July-June basis. But only about 3 to 4% of UK-domiciled Oxbridge students are from Scotland or Northern Ireland, so the general picture is still valid.)
Of course the number of people actually born in each month also varies, but this does not explain the variation in Oxbridge admissions. For comparison I have included in the table above the numbers of births by month in the UK in 1993/94, which is the year of birth for more than 80% of the students accepted in 2012.
The final column measures the relative impact for Oxbridge entrance of being born in that month compared to August.
This means that on this basis for someone born in September, say, the likelihood of an Oxbridge place in 2012 was 1.12 times (or 12% higher than) for someone born in August.
It takes into account the overall numbers born in that month 18 years previously. This is a simplified and quick analysis, which ignores various details. But none of these factors should alter the broad overall picture of the strong presence of a birthdate effect.
However, in all this it is very important to note that for both universities a similar pattern - weighted towards birthdays earlier in the September-August academic year - applies to all applicants, not just those who were accepted.
This suggests the birthdate effect (like some other inequalities) is already present in influencing which pupils are doing well enough at school to apply to Oxbridge.
In other words, the Oxbridge admissions process is probably reflecting a pre-established pattern of educational disadvantage, not creating it.
Both Oxford and Cambridge routinely issue a broad collection of statistics relating to admissions, such as gender, ethnicity, disability, region and school type of candidates. However neither proactively publishes the data on month of birth, which we therefore obtained through requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
Both universities state they do not take an applicant's month of birth into account in the admissions process. A Cambridge spokesperson said that an analysis of admissions statistics should examine a range of variables over several years. Neither university wanted to issue any further reaction.
The impact of month of birth on a wide range of child and adult outcomes is currently the subject of a major research project conducted by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, which is expected to report in May.
Ellen Greaves, one of the IFS researchers, commented: "The data obtained by the BBC show that universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, may be missing out on some of the brightest students by accepting disproportionate numbers of pupils born earlier in the academic year."
"Although much could and should be done to address these inequalities earlier in the education system, it is in each university's interest to make sure that they consider a pupil's month of birth in their admissions process."
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The likelihood of becoming a student at Oxford or Cambridge Universities can be strongly influenced by date of birth.
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34,800,712 |
The Times reports that he wants to strip the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of the £40bn project to build four new nuclear missile-carrying submarines.
He is said to have given an "ultimatum" that he will sign off the funds, but only if the Treasury has oversight.
The government said it did not comment on the contents of a "leaked document".
A spokesman said the government was committed to "maintaining a continuous at-sea deterrent", and more details would be provided at the Strategic Security and Defence Review, expected on 23 November.
A decision on whether to renew Trident - the UK's sea-based nuclear weapons system, made up of submarines, missiles and warheads - is due to be taken in 2016.
The Times quoted a "defence industry source" as saying there was a "tug of war" between the Treasury and the MoD, run by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, over Trident renewal.
The chancellor is said to want the project to be given to a new body that reports to the Treasury, if he is to support the funding for it.
The unnamed source suggested Mr Osborne was concerned about the MoD's ability to deliver the new submarines on time.
"The MoD has a poor record on delivering submarines on time," said the source.
Asked about the reports, a government spokesman said: "While we are not prepared to comment on the contents of a leaked document, the government remains committed to maintaining a continuous at-sea deterrent, and to replacing the current Vanguard class of nuclear armed submarines with four Successor submarines."
"We will set out more detail with the publication of the Strategic Defence and Security Review."
The Prospect union, which represents defence specialists in the private and public sector, said it was "fanciful" to think the Treasury could take on the project.
"The idea that the Treasury - or indeed the Cabinet Office - has the skills to manage such a complex and technologically-challenging project as the Successor Programme is fanciful and needs to be fiercely challenged.
"Mr Osborne's land-grab will send shivers across Whitehall. Many will be wondering which major project will be next in his cross-hairs."
The Conservative government supports replacing Trident in its current form.
Labour has also been in favour, although leader Jeremy Corbyn opposes nuclear weapons and the party's policy is being reviewed.
Scottish Labour party delegates backed a vote to scrap the nuclear missile system, at the party's autumn conference.
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The government has refused to confirm or deny reports that Chancellor George Osborne wants the Treasury to take charge of Trident renewal.
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18,693,773 |
Sharp is joined by fellow Scots Lee McConnell (400m and 4x400m relay), Eilish McColgan (3,000m steeplechase) and Eilidh Child (400m hurdles).
But she was chosen ahead of four women who had recorded faster times.
"I feel it was a really brave decision. I am absolutely determined not to let them down," said the 21-year-old.
"I'm absolutetly delighted that the selectors have had faith in me.
Media playback is not supported on this device
"They have looked at my recent form and decided I was the one to go with for the Olympics."
Sharp ran a personal best in winning the silver medal at the European Championships but failed to make the 'A' qualifying time by 0.62 seconds.
Her inclusion in Team GB could yet be challenged, with head coach Charles van Commenee admitting he is bracing himself for a "heap of appeals" from athletes in a variety of disciplines after Tuesday's announcement.
However, Jenny Meadows, the 2009 world bronze medallist and a former European 800m bronze medallist, now says she will not appeal despite previously threatening to do so.
Marilyn Okoro and Emma Jackson have also run the 'A' standard this year but finished fifth and seventh respectively at the Olympic trials won by Sharp.
Jemma Simpson competed in Helsinki but finished seventh in the final behind the Scot, while Meadows was forced to pull out before her European Championships race after aggravating an Achilles injury.
International rules mean an athlete who has achieved the 'B' standard can only be selected if there are no 'A' standard athletes in that event selected to the team.
Van Commenee revealed that two of the six hours spent making the selections were spent on the 800m women and that they had decided to go with the woman on form.
"I feel bad about those athletes who have missed out," said Sharp. "I know I don't need to, but I can't help it.
"But I won the trials and I got a silver medal at the European and ran a PB when I was there, so clearly I am in great form and I've beaten all the girls that were in the picture, so I guess that's what the selectors have looked at and I'm really grateful for that."
Sharp follows in the footsteps of a famous parent, sprinter Cameron having competed at the 1980 Moscow Games.
"My dad got a silver at the Europeans and I got a silver at the Europeans at the weekend," she told BBC Scotland.
"So it is really nice that I am following in his footsteps. He was 21 when he went to the Olympics and I am 21 now, so it's really special."
The 21-year-old McColgan, who won the 3000m steeplechase at the same event, follows in the footsteps of her mother, Liz, the former 10,000m world champion who won silver at the 1988 Games in Seoul.
Child, 25, qualified for the team after a second-place finish at the Aviva 2012 Trials in Birmingham, a stumble at the final hurdle allowing English rival Perri Shakes-Drayton to win.
McConnell also had not achieved the 'A' standard in the individual 400m but was delighted to be one of Van Commenee's three discretionary picks.
"I was always confident about the relay place but was pleasantly surprised to get the pick for the individual," said the 33-year-old.
"To go to one Olympics is very special, but with this one being in London, I just didn't want to miss out on it."
There was disappointment for Steph Twell, who competed in the 1500m at the Beijing Olympics, who missed out after being unable to run in Helsinki and was discounted for selection on fitness grounds.
Freya Murray could yet land a slot in the marathon, with the Scot unofficially on stand-by in case of an injury to the three British picks in that event.
As expected, there were no Scottish men in the Team GB squad.
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Lynsey Sharp is determined to justify her controversial selection in the 800m for Team GB's athletics squad for the Olympics in London.
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35,737,773 |
Seanie Johnston and Gearoid McKiernan each hit 1-5, with David Givney netting the other goal, as the hosts stunned Armagh in a one-sided league clash.
Johnston scored 1-4 in the first half, helping Cavan to a 1-11 to 0-5 advantage at half time.
Armagh are facing a relegation battle after picking up just one win from four league games.
The visitors settled quickly and made a bright start by scoring the opening three points, all from play, in the first five minutes through Ciaran O'Hanlon, Stephen Sheridan and Micheal McKenna.
The game turned on a scruffy goal by Johnston in the sixth minute with Cavan's first purposeful attack - Michael Argue's ball in was collected by Givney and he passed to Johnston, who bundled it home from close range.
The strike woke Cavan up and they hit the next eight unanswered points, while Armagh failed to score for 25 minutes.
Johnston hit four points, two from play, with McKiernan converting two frees.
With Cavan first to most breaking ball, the home side continued to capitalise with Jason McLoughlin also scoring a memorable point from an acute angle.
Trailing 1-8 to 0-3, Armagh finally ended their scoring drought with Stefan Campbell nailing the first of his two first-half frees in the 30th minute.
But Cavan finished with a flourish with the last three points of the half to hold a commanding interval lead.
Ethan Rafferty, who came on 10 minutes before the break, was Armagh's one ray of hope as he landed a long-range free followed by a point early in the second half.
However, he picked up a very harsh black card for a supposed body check on Johnston and with his dismissal Armagh's mini fightback was over.
Cavan rattled up 1-3 without reply in a seven-minute spell after Rafferty went off, the points coming from Givney, McKiernan and a superb point hooked by Johnston over his left shoulder.
Worse was to follow for Armagh with Givney palming home a second goal following a great run and unselfish pass from Martin Reilly after 52 minutes.
McKiernan drilled home a third, his low left-footed finish in the 59th minute.
Cavan: R Galligan; P Faulkner (0-1), K Clarke, J McLoughlin (0-2); C Brady, C Moynagh, K Brady; T Corr, L Buchanan; D McVeety (0-1), G McKiernan (1-5, 3f), M Reilly (0-1); D Givney (1-1), M Argue (0-2), S Johnston (1-5, 2f).
Subs: N Murray for McVeety (BC, 13), R Dunne for Buchanan (48), P O'Connor for Johnston 53), C Mackey for Dunne (BC, 55), J Hayes for McLoughlin (62), B Sankey for Faulkner (65).
Armagh: M McNeice; A Mallon, C Vernon, S Connell; M Shields, S Heffron, S Sheridan (0-1); A Findon, S Campbell (0-3, 3f); N Grimley, A Forker, T Kernan; C Watters, C O'Hanlon (0-1), M McKenna (0-1).
Subs: E Rafferty (0-2, 1f) for Watters (25), A Murnin for Grimley (HT), J McElroy for Rafferty (BC, 46), N McConville for Forker (49), G McParland (0-2, 1f) for Kernan (58), J Hall for O'Hanlon (63).
Referee: Maurice Deegan (Laois)
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Cavan crushed Armagh in a rout at Kingspan Breffni Park to boost their chances of staying in Division Two.
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37,628,639 |
Giving his east London address, Stephen Port said about 23-year-old Anthony Walgate: "Appears a young boy looks like he's collapsed outside."
Mr Port then went to sleep rather than wait for paramedics, the jury heard.
He denies 29 charges including four counts of murder, as well as drugging, rape and sexual assault.
The 41-year-old chef allegedly plied his four young murder victims with the drug GHB at his Barking home so he could have sex with them while they were unconscious.
The Old Bailey trial has heard that Mr Port was jailed for eight months for perverting the course of justice by lying to police about the circumstances of the death of Mr Walgate, a fashion student.
They had made contact online in June 2014 and Mr Walgate agreed to go to the chef's home for a sleepover, the court heard.
Mr Walgate had told friends he was going to meet a man named Joe Dean in Barking who was going to pay £800 to spend the night with him.
His university friends said the photo they were shown of "Joe Dean" was the man they now know as Stephen Port, the jury was told.
In the 999 call played in court, Mr Port told the operator: "Looks like he has collapsed or had a seizure or something - or just drunk."
The accused was no longer on the line when he was asked for his number, and the operator had to call Mr Port back to ask if the person was breathing.
In a statement, paramedic Anthony Neil said he arrived to find Mr Walgate was already dead and was "in a sitting position against something".
He covered him in a red blanket and alerted police, the court heard.
Police officers tracked Mr Port down to his flat through his number, noting him as a witness and took his statement.
The jury has heard how officers later realised Mr Port had hired Mr Walgate as an escort and had been lying about the events of that night.
Pathologist Olaf Biedrzycki told the court the student's death was due to GHB intoxication and said he had been informed that Mr Walgate's jeans zip was undone and his underwear was "inside out and back to front".
There were also 14 separate injuries on the body including grazes and bruising to the inside upper left arm.
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC told the court that the second alleged murder victim, Gabriel Kovari, had been Mr Port's temporary flatmate.
The court heard how, before moving in, the Slovakian national had reassured a friend who asked him: "Are you sure he's safe? There are some crazy people out there lol."
Mr Kovari's body was found by a dog walker in a churchyard near Mr Port's home on 28 August 2014.
The trial continues.
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An alleged serial killer's 999 call to report that he had found a man - said to be his first murder victim - outside his flat has been played to a jury.
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40,211,163 |
Boston Dynamics, known for its robots such as Atlas and BigDog, has struggled to commercialise its inventions and was put up for sale more than a year ago.
Softbank also announced it is buying robotics group Schaft.
The terms of the deals were not disclosed. Softbank shares rose by more than 7% in Tokyo.
Softbank began as a Japanese telecoms company but moved into robotics and developed the human-like Pepper in 2014.
Founder Masayoshi Son has since built the Japanese firm into a massive technology conglomerate through some big deals.
They range from buying UK chip firm ARM Holdings for £24bn ($32bn), investing $1bn in satellite startup OneWeb, to setting up a venture fund with Saudi Arabia.
Mr Son is known to have an eye for potentially transformative industries and trends. He was an early investor in Alibaba and saw the potential in e-commerce many others did.
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Shares of Japan's Softbank have surged to their highest in nearly two decades after the firm bought robot-maker Boston Dynamics from Google's Alphabet.
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39,735,237 |
Yn ôl yr elusennau mae toriadau i'w cyllidebau yn golygu nad yw'r corff yn gwarchod nac yn gwella pysgodfeydd - sydd yn un o'i ddyletswyddau.
Mae lefelau llygredd, yn enwedig gan ffermydd, nawr "allan o reolaeth" meddai Afonydd Cymru a'r Ymddiriedolaeth Pysgota.
Dywedodd llefarydd CNC bod "llygredd wedi bod yn broblem dros y blynydde diwethaf", ond eu bod hefyd yn gweithio gyda ffermwyr yn ogystal â chymryd camau cyfreithiol.
Dywedodd llefarydd ar ran Llywodraeth Cymru bod taclo llygredd yn "hollbwysig" wrth wella ansawdd dwr Cymru, ond ychwanegodd nad oedd toriadau i CNC wedi "effeithio ar y gallu i gwblhau eu dyletswyddau statudol".
'Anhrefnus a biwrocrataidd'
Cafodd CNC ei sefydlu yn 2013 wedi i Gyngor Cefn Gwlad Cymru, Comisiwn Coedwigaeth Cymru ac Asiantaeth yr Amgylchedd Cymru uno.
Un o'i ddyletswyddau yw monitro cyflwr afonydd Cymru a gweithredu'n erbyn unigolion neu gwmnïau sy'n eu llygru.
Gall pridd, gwrtaith a llaid, yn ogystal â gwastraff gael eu canfod yn yr afonydd, ac mae hyn yn lladd pysgod a'r pryfed sy'n eu bwydo.
Mae ffigyrau swyddogol ddaeth i law BBC Cymru yn dangos bod CNC wedi derbyn 6,886 adroddiad o lygredd rhwng Ebrill 2013 a Rhagfyr 2016.
Dylai'r corff fod yn fwy llym meddai Prif Weithredwr yr Ymddiriedolaeth Bysgota, Mark Lloyd. Ond mae'n dweud nad oes ganddyn nhw'r "adnoddau i ymchwilio yn gywir".
Mae cyllideb Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru wedi ei wasgu yn gyson gan Lywodraeth Cymru. Mae disgwyl i'w hincwm leihau o £20m dros y tair blynedd nesaf, os fydd toriadau'n 5% y flwyddyn.
Dywedodd Mr Lloyd: "Maen nhw wedi colli llawer o'i staff ar y rheng flaen ac yn methu gweithredu ar y cyd.
"Mae'r mudiad yn anhrefnus, yn rhy fiwrocrataidd a dyw hi ddim yn ymddangos bod gyda nhw strategaeth. Dwi'n credu eu bod nhw'n methu yn eu dyletswydd i amddiffyn yr amgylchedd."
Ym mis Rhagfyr y llynedd cafodd miloedd o bysgod eu lladd yn Afon Teifi yng Ngheredigion wedi llygredd yn yr afon.
Ysgrifennodd Mr Lloyd at Ysgrifennydd yr Amgylchedd, Lesely Griffiths wedi'r digwyddiad i fynegi ei bryder, gan ddweud bod "nifer o ddigwyddiadau llygredd tebyg wedi bod yng Nghymru yn y blynyddoedd diwethaf".
Ychwanegodd bod yr afonydd "mwyaf pwysig" ar gyfer pysgota a bioamrywiaeth wedi eu heffeithio, a bod hynny'n tanlinellu "methiant ar lefel genedlaethol Llywodraeth Cymru" i daclo'r broblem.
Dywedodd Prif Weithredwr Afonydd Cymru, y corff sy'n cynrychioli'r chwe ymddiriedolaeth afon yng Nghymru, ei fod yn cytuno gyda'r sylwadau yn y llythyr.
Dywedodd Dr Stephen Marsh-Smith: "Rydyn ni wedi gweld trychinebau ofnadwy yng Nghymru, nid dim ond o ffynhonnell penodol ond llygredd gwasgaredig a'r cynnyrch gwreiddiol yn mynd i'r afonydd ac yn eu dirywio yn wael iawn."
Dywedodd bod yr effaith ar bysgod wedi bod yn "ofnadwy", a bod goblygiadau i'r economi wledig yn ogystal â'r amgylchedd.
Mewn prosiect ar draws y ffin yn Henffordd, mae Asiantaeth Amgylchedd Lloegr yn cymryd "agwedd proactif" yn ôl Dr Marsh-Smith, gan weithio ar y cyd gyda Sefydliad Wysg a Gwy.
Mae'r rheoleiddwyr yn ymweld yn gyson gyda ffermwyr sydd mewn perygl o lygru'r afon yn yr ardal. Mae ffermwyr yna'n cael cyngor cyfrinachol am ddim i geisio atal y broblem.
Dywedodd Kate Adams o Sefydliad Wysg a Gwy bod y cynllun yn gweithio yn "dda iawn" a bod "gwelliant yn lleol i ansawdd y dŵr a chynnydd yn nifer y brithyll afon".
Dywedodd Dr Marsh-Smith mai'r gwahaniaeth "allweddol" yn Lloegr yw "rheoleiddiwr sydd yn gwneud ei brif waith, sef rheoleiddio, ac mae'n bwrw ymlaen i wneud hynny".
Ychwanegodd: "Mae yna angen am hynny yng Nghymru ar frys."
Dywedodd Huwel Manley, Rheolwr Gweithrediadau i CNC bod "llygredd wedi bod yn broblem dros y blynydde diwethaf".
Ychwanegodd bod nifer o opsiynau er mwyn delio gydag achosion, yn cynnwys rhoi rhybuddion, cynnig cyngor neu ddechrau camau cyfreithiol.
"Mae'r sector gyhoeddus drwy Gymru wedi gweld toriadau tebyg," meddai, gan ychwanegu bod hynny'n cael ei ystyried yn y ffordd o weithio.
Pwysleisiodd yr angen i weithio mewn "partneriaeth" gyda sectorau eraill er mwyn datrys problemau "gyda'n gilydd".
Dywedodd llefarydd ar ran Llywodraeth Cymru bod taclo llygredd yn "hollbwysig" wrth wella ansawdd dwr Cymru, a bod angen i ffermwyr "adnabod y cyfrifoldeb pwysig sydd ganddyn nhw wrth ddelio gyda'r broblem".
Ychwanegodd y llefarydd nad oedd toriadau i CNC wedi "effeithio ar y gallu i gwblhau eu dyletswyddau statudol", a bod "disgwyliad" i'r corff gymryd camau lle mae tystiolaeth o dorri rheolau.
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Dyw'r rheoleiddiwr amgylcheddol Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru (CNC) bellach "ddim yn gwneud ei waith yn iawn", yn ôl grwpiau pysgota ac afonydd.
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35,938,231 |
The 31-year-old is set to miss his side's first four Championship games.
Bresnan played for the champions in their defeat by the MCC last week.
"He will now start an intense period of rehabilitation on his torn calf and we hope to have him back fit and strong during the middle of May," physio Kunwar Bansil told the club website.
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Yorkshire and England all-rounder Tim Bresnan will miss the opening six weeks of the County Championship season with a torn lower calf.
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27,216,172 |
The contest has been brought about by Tuesday's resignation from Parliament of former Tory MP Patrick Mercer over a cash-for-questions scandal.
Mr Farage said he did not want to look like an "opportunist" by entering the contest, as he did not "have any links with the East Midlands".
He added that he wanted to focus on UKIP's European elections campaign.
Although the Conservatives have a majority of 16,000 in Newark, UKIP is currently doing well in opinion polls.
But John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said UKIP would be "trying to succeed on the back of no particular local support at all".
Mr Farage told BBC One's Breakfast: "I haven't had long to think about it but I have thought about it, and we're just over three weeks away from a European election at which I think UKIP could cause an earthquake in British politics, from which we can go on and win not just one parliamentary seat but quite a lot of parliamentary seats.
"For that reason I don't want to do anything that deflects from the European election campaign, so I'm not going to stand in this by-election.
"I want to focus the next three weeks on winning the European elections and also I don't have any links with the East Midlands. I would just look like an opportunist, and I don't think that would work."
Asked whether he had decided not to run for fear of losing, Mr Farage replied: "I have shown some courage over the years…
"It's about choosing the right battles. It's about prioritising and I know that if I were to have said yes to standing in Newark the next three weeks would be dominated by am I going to win, am I not going to win, and we wouldn't be talking about open-door immigration, EU membership and that most of our laws being made somewhere else."
Mr Farage referred to the former leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party, once a fixture at such contests, saying: "I'm not Screaming Lord Sutch. I don't stand in every by-election."
Ken Clarke, seen as the most Europhile of the Conservative members of the cabinet, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Mr Farage had been right to decide not to run, saying: "I am not really surprised. Whatever else Nigel is, he is not an idiot, and I don't think he'd have the faintest chance of winning in Newark."
He accused UKIP, which advocates leaving the European Union, of "peddling a total nonsense that our economic problems have been caused by immigration".
Mr Clarke, who is a Nottinghamshire MP, said: "I don't think the residents of Newark, some of whom I know because I used to represent some of the villages there, they're not going to vote for a card, larking about, trying to get protest votes."
For the Liberal Democrats, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said: "Nigel Farage is clearly frightened to put himself forward to try and actually get a seat in the UK Parliament.
"He's very happily heckling from the sidelines doing his thing in the European Parliament ,and I think many people will look at this and say it's not really that impressive."
Mr Mercer, who has represented the Nottinghamshire constituency since 2001, is due to be suspended from the Commons for six months for allegedly asking questions in Parliament in return for money.
He was filmed by undercover reporters from the BBC's Panorama last year apparently agreeing to set up a parliamentary group to push for Fiji to return to the Commonwealth.
The MP had already said he would not contest the general election next year, having served as an independent since May 2013.
In a short statement, the former soldier said he would not contest the findings of a report into his conduct, to be published on Thursday, which will call for him to be barred from Parliament for six months.
He said he was resigning with "a great heaviness of heart" for the sake of his family, adding: "I am an ex-soldier, I believe that when you have got something wrong, you have got to 'fess up and get on with it."
The MP, a prominent critic of David Cameron, who sacked him as a shadow minister in 2007, said he hoped his successor would be a Conservative.
The party has selected Robert Jenrick to contest Newark. Labour - which held the seat between 1997 and 2001 - has chosen Michael Payne as its candidate. The Liberal Democrats have yet to make a selection.
At the 2010 general election, Mr Mercer won 27,590 votes. Labour came second with 11,438 votes, the Lib Dems third with 10,246 and UKIP fourth with 1,954.
Meanwhile, an ITV/ComRes poll suggests that, of people who insist they will definitely vote in the European elections, 38% say they will back UKIP.
The survey puts Labour in second place on 27%, the Conservatives third on 18% and the Lib Dems fourth on 8%.
ComRes interviewed 2,052 British adults between 25 and 27 April.
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UKIP leader Nigel Farage has said he will not stand in the forthcoming Newark by-election.
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28,091,890 |
The 26-year-old was released by the Easter Road side at the end of last season.
Cairney started his career at Queen's Park and moved to Partick Thistle in 2008, scoring 20 goals during a four year spell at Firhill.
He switched to Hibs in 2012 under then manager Pat Fenlon and made 53 appearances in two years.
Meanwhile, full back Sean Clohessy has left Killie after the final year of his deal was cancelled by mutual consent.
The 27-year-old Englishman, who moved to Rugby Park from Southend last summer, played 26 times for Allan Johnston's side last season, scoring two goals.
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Kilmarnock have signed former Hibernian midfielder Paul Cairney on a two year contract.
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40,437,957 |
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In an unprecedented challenge to elite performance funding agency UK Sport, the group have joined forces to call for an urgent review of what they call "a two-class system that runs counter to Olympic ideals".
National Lottery money is currently allocated on the basis of medal potential, helping to transform the country's sporting fortunes.
But amid an athlete welfare crisis and various governance problems, UK Sport has faced mounting criticism over its approach.
The 11 sports - archery, badminton, baseball/softball, basketball, fencing, handball, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, wheelchair rugby and table tennis - were all left without funding when UK Sport announced its £345m plan last December.
This was despite badminton meeting its medal target at Rio 2016 and table tennis and weightlifting showing signs of progress.
Instead of UK Sport's "no compromise" approach to picking winners, the unfunded sports want a "tiered support structure" that would guarantee every Olympic and Paralympic sport a base level of funding.
Incoming UK Sport chair Dame Katherine Grainger told BBC Sport she understood why the sports had taken a stand, but said: "It's not fair to say we're narrowly focusing on a few sports."
The unfunded sports believe they can all be backed if UK Sport cuts the amount it spends on bringing major events to this country, its budget for getting British administrators into international federations and the £67.4m it gives to the English Institute of Sport (EIS), the organisation that provides sports-science services to most Olympic and Paralympic sports.
The EIS's headcount has been growing and will top 300 next year, but it has taken on more responsibilities, works with the vast majority of British athletes and is considered to be a world-leading service.
In a joint manifesto calling for "a new approach" to investment, the 11 sports - which include Archery GB, British Basketball, British Weightlifting, Badminton England, GB Wheelchair Rugby and Table Tennis England - all of which have suffered funding cuts - said the existing approach to National Lottery investment "has been conspicuously successful in winning medals, but has disenfranchised many of the country's elite sportsmen and women, creating a two-class system that runs counter to Olympic ideals.
"Providing opportunities for elite British athletes in all relevant sports to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics need not run counter to the pursuit of medals, and will make the nation even prouder of TeamGB's and ParaGB's triumphs.
"We call on Dame Katherine Grainger to recognise the dangers inherent in the current direction of travel. We urge UK Sport to recognise that medal targets alone should not be the sole criteria for its funding.
"We believe UK Sport should adopt a revised investment model that embraces every Olympic and Paralympic sport, with a tiered support structure".
The sports say their new approach is "readily affordable from economies within UK Sport's support costs, and from within the English Institute of Sport. Time is pressing and debate must begin now".
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Adrian Christy, the chief executive of Badminton England - which lost all of its £5.74m funding from UK Sport this year in the wake of Rio 2016 - told BBC Sport: "We have a very clear view that every sport in this country matters.
"We've seen lots of sports that have lost their funding, we're one of those. And as a consequence of that it's really difficult to see how your long-term development of athletes can continue to inspire a nation. We've made a third of our staff redundant in the last several months, we've cut our performance programme in half.
"This is a demand for UK Sport to take a long hard look and say 'are medals and medallists the only metric which investments into sports can be made?' We don't believe it is."
With Team GB winning 67 medals in Rio, and Para GB then claiming 147 medals, many are reluctant to change a system that has transformed British success since 1996 when the country finished 36th in the medal table.
But Christy disagrees.
"We are not for one second asking to take money away from sports," he said. "The target around medals would still be the same. We believe there are opportunities for UK Sport to look within their own budgets and save money elsewhere. We've been thrown under a bus.
"We don't believe the cost of funding the sports is more than 4% of the overall total pots of money of UK sport. 4% to say another 11 sports, the maths of that is about another 100 athletes in a position to represent Great Britain - and who knows, add to the medal table that we won in Rio."
Former rower Dame Katherine Grainger, who takes up her new role as chair of UK Sport on Saturday, said: "If I were in their shoes I'd be doing the same. In any organisation, you do everything you can to protect the athletes. So when that funding is cut you'd do anything to get that back.
"So calling for a review is a very realistic and credible thing to do and I'm not surprised they've done it now.
"There will be a review, there is every four years. Obviously, things change, the climate changes, sports change, pressure of resources changes, so that's why it's always worth looking at again and I'm very confident to see that it will be reviewed again, it just won't happen instantly."
However, Britain's most decorated female Olympian added: "If you look at the success of Rio, then we got more medals across more sports than we've done before. Our actual breadth of success is growing all the time, so it's not fair to say that we're narrowly focusing on a few sports.
"What is fair to say is that our money is finite and it's not stretching. As more sports are more successful, the irony is that the money can't go as far.
"If there is anything that can be cut, but not at the expense of success, then it will be. But right now that's the situation we're in.
"People I've met in my short time here so far are really passionate about improving things, so actually if 11 sports do come and say 'we want things done differently, is there a better way to do this?' then actually let's look at it."
Ed Warner, who recently stepped down after a decade as chair of UK Athletics, said: "Winning medals is important, but more important still is winning them in the right way.
"Katherine Grainger's arrival at UK Sport is a wonderful opportunity for her to challenge the groupthink that constrains the current system and to put in place a new funding structure that embraces all Olympic and Paralympic sports, because every one of them matters."
But Grainger also added a cautionary tale from her own experience.
"I started rowing at a time when we kept our boats on scaffolding poles under a bridge - we didn't have the set-up we have now. The facilities have been transformed," she said.
"So you look not just at the medal success but at the level of support we have, the coaches, the training camps. I don't think many athletes would like that to slip back to a stage where we just wouldn't be competitive internationally."
A British Olympic Association spokesperson said: "We fully understand the anxiety of those sports as they face the reality of current funding decisions.
"We are constantly looking at ways to support unfunded sports within our membership, including through the allocation of Olympic Solidarity funds to athletes where possible.
"If we are to increase third party funding of sport then we must work to protect our country's stellar performances in the medal table, and in doing so the work of our colleagues at UK Sport in developing an acclaimed World Class Programme."
A British Paralympic Association spokesperson said: "We are very proud of the success of the ParalympicsGB team - second in the medal table at Rio 2016 and winning medals across more sports than ever before - which has provided the inspiration not only to get more people engaged in sport but fundamentally to challenge and change attitudes to disability in society.
"We must look at the overall public funding system for sport at all levels and at what alternative streams can be developed to ensure that sports can continue to maximise their opportunity and impact."
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Eleven sport governing bodies are demanding an overhaul of the way Britain invests in the pursuit of Olympic and Paralympic medals.
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32,289,930 |
Wales head coach Warren Gatland favours Welsh-based players for his squad.
Priestland, 28, says he is happy with the move despite the expected adverse impact on his Wales chances.
"I'm comfortable with my decision, but I think it will have a negative effect on my international career. It's something I'll have to live with," said Priestland.
Priestland came off the bench to earn Scarlets a last-gasp win away against bottom-side Zebre in the Pro12 on Saturday with the final kick of the match.
He says leaving the region will be difficult, particularly seeing former outside-half rival Stephen Jones returning to Parc y Scarlets as attack coach next season.
"I'm not going to lie, I would have loved to have worked with Steve [Stephen Jones]," said Priestland.
"I think he's a very knowledgeable man, especially about rugby and he's a great guy as well.
"It was a shame when I found out he was coming back, but I'd already made my decision and I've just got to stick with that."
Priestland believes former Wales and British Lions fly-half Jones is the right man to take over from Mark Jones.
"I'm sure Steve will do a great job with the Scarlets," he said.
"There's a lot of quality players down there and I'm sure he's the right man to sort of mould them and get the team playing they way I know that they can potentially.
"Hopefully Steve has a lot of success as a coach as he did as a player down there."
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Scarlets fly-half Rhys Priestland says moving to English club Bath this summer may harm his Wales career.
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39,369,569 |
The copy of the 1559 Thomas Gemini anatomy book is going on display at a University of Cambridge exhibition.
A triangular piece of a page depicting female genitals was removed by the book's original owner.
Curator Shelley Hughes said it showed religion and superstition delayed understanding of the female anatomy.
She said the book's owner was "disturbed by its depiction of a semi-dissected female torso".
"The offending part, a neat triangle of paper on which the vagina would have been drawn, has been carefully cut away.
"Sin and female flesh were held in close association in 16th Century society with naked women often portrayed as the servants of Satan."
The book will be displayed at St John's College on Saturday 25 March as part of an exhibition called Under The Knife At St John's: A Medical History Of Disease And Dissection.
The 16th Century was a time of medical revolution with scientists improving their understanding of the body from human dissections.
The exhibition shows how knowledge of the body's structure emerged as the power of superstition and religion weakened.
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A censored, 16th Century book suggests that scientific knowledge of the female body was held back by social taboos, researchers have said.
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35,169,226 |
India's telecoms regulator has asked the mobile network that partnered with the US firm to put their Free Basics offer on hold.
Data fees are relatively expensive in India, and the initiative aims to prevent this being a deterrent.
But critics of the Free Basics service say it runs contrary to net neutrality principles.
They suggest data providers should not favour some online services over others by offering cheaper or faster access.
A spokesman for Reliance Communications - the mobile network that had supported the scheme - confirmed it would comply with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's demand.
"As directed by TRAI, the commercial launch of Free Basics has been kept in abeyance, until they consider all details and convey a specific approval," a spokesman told the BBC.
He added that the watchdog had only explained its decision by saying it wanted to "examine the details and intrinsics" of the offer, but had not provided further detail.
However, the Times of India quoted a source who confirmed the decision was indeed related to the net neutrality controversy.
"The question has arisen whether a telecom operator should be allowed to have differential pricing for different kinds of content," they said.
"Unless that question is answered, it will not be appropriate for us to continue to make that happen."
Facebook said that it would continue to lobby for its scheme.
"We are committed to Free Basics and to working with Reliance and the relevant authorities to help people in India get connected," a spokeswoman said.
Facebook launched Internet.org as a partnership with several mobile operators in emerging economies in 2013 as a means to "introduce people to the benefits of the internet".
The associated app, which provides access to selected services, was renamed as Free Basics earlier this year.
Content includes pages from selected local news and weather forecast providers, the BBC, Wikipedia and various health services.
It is offered in 36 countries and Facebook says it believes more than 15 million people have been brought online who would otherwise not be using the net.
Reliance began offering the scheme in February and then extended it to all its subscribers in November, but it has faced criticism.
Local start-ups complained they risked being disadvantaged because they were not included, and in April several larger groups that had initially signed up to the scheme - including the media conglomerate Times Group and the travel booking site Cleartrip - pulled their services, citing concerns about it failing to provide a "fair, level playing field".
Facebook attempted to address such concerns by saying it would allow more services to join, but the firm's founder Mark Zuckerberg warned it was "not sustainable to offer the whole internet for free".
Part of the attraction for the mobile networks was their expectation that users would see the benefits of the internet and want to pay for fuller access.
In recent weeks Facebook has stepped up its campaign by paying for billboard adverts and full-page ads in newspapers.
In addition, it has texted users and shown a notice when locals sign into its platform urging them to contact TRAI and tell it they support the Free Basics initiative.
The regulator is set to hold a hearing into net neutrality in January.
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Facebook's effort to provide Indians with free access to a limited number of internet services has run into trouble.
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32,492,843 |
According to one charity, Unicef, one million of those affected are children.
Help and supplies from all over the world are being flown into the country in South Asia. Nepal's government says it's doing all it can to help.
There's a lot to do: it's thought 1.4 million people are in need of food, the UN says.
Thousands in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, spent a third night outside and water and electricity are in short supply.
The Nepal government has pleaded for overseas aid - everything from blankets and helicopters to doctors and drivers.
"We urge foreign countries to give us special relief materials and medical teams. We are really desperate for more foreign expertise to pull through this crisis," said a senior official.
Advice if you're upset by the news
The country was hit by a massive earthquake on Saturday. At least 5,000 people have died and many people have been left homeless.
Nepal is a small country between India and China and is home to Mount Everest, one of the tallest mountains in the world.
It is also a very poor country and many of the houses there were not built to cope with an earthquake of this size.
Guide: Why do earthquakes happen?
Aid agencies are using helicopters to get help and supplies to people who live in more remote mountainous areas, which are difficult to get to.
The priority for rescue agencies is to reach people who are trapped and injured, and provide shelter and protection to those who have lost their homes.
It's not just the towns and villages where people are in need of help. Hundreds have been rescued from near Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain.
Even though the centre of the earthquake struck more than 120 miles away from the mountain it's had a major impact on climbers there.
Avalanches caused by the tremors have killed at least 18 climbers and injured more than 60.
Helicopters have been used to rescue mountaineers trapped on Everest.
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Eight million people have been affected by the massive earthquake in Nepal - more than a quarter of the country's population - the United Nations says.
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36,685,690 |
They have now won the event every time since its introduction in 1988, although Russia won the World Championships in 2015.
But the favourites proved too strong, only dropping points in the final set.
Beforehand, Chinese Taipei took the bronze, beating Italy by five set points to three.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox.
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South Korea won their eighth straight women's team archery gold, beating Russia five set points to one in the final.
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30,838,763 |
"I've been told about that but I don't really follow Twitter so I don't know what means," he says.
He's taking Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs' slip-up - which sparked thousands of comments and jokes - in good humour.
"What did they say? Dick Poop. Well, I'm going to change my name to Dick Poop," he jokes.
"I'm going to change my name to it and I think they'll be so embarrassed at the Academy, they'll give me the Oscar anyway. That would be great."
He was hopeful however that they would get his name right at the actual ceremony, which takes place on 22 February.
Dick is nominated in the best cinematography category for his work on Mike Leigh's film Mr Turner.
It's been his job to manage the camera and lighting crews on the film, which is based on the life of British artist J. M. W. Turner, and he's already won awards for his work.
As if it was meant to be, Pope was in an art gallery at a Turner exhibition when the nominations were announced. He'd gone there in part to "avoid" the hype.
It's Dick's second Oscar nomination.
But he tells Newsbeat the last time he attended the big night, with his wife, they didn't attract much attention.
"When you're behind the camera the paparazzi aren't storming you for interviews. We went kind of unrecognised.
"We didn't go to any parties, we just had a very mellow evening which was very nice."
With Dick's new found fame however, we predict that he may need to prepare for a bigger slice of the spotlight this time around.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube
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When Newsbeat spoke to Dick Pope about the fact he was trending on Twitter worldwide, he was slightly bemused.
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39,856,734 |
The former Rangers and Sunderland boss, 70, announced in March he would be leaving Turkish side Fenerbahce at the end of this season.
Advocaat, who will be assisted by ex-Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit, replaces the sacked Danny Blind.
Blind lost his job after a 2-0 loss to Bulgaria left the Netherlands fourth in their World Cup qualifying group.
The team also failed to reach last summer's European Championships.
The Dutch Football Association (KNVB) confirmed the appointments of Advocaat and Gullit at a news conference on Tuesday.
In his previous spells as national team coach, Advocaat led the Netherlands to the 1994 World Cup quarter-finals and the semi-finals of Euro 2004.
Fenerbahce are third in the Super Lig, eight points behind leaders Besiktas, with four games to go.
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The Netherlands have appointed Dick Advocaat as head coach for a third time.
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40,084,531 |
They have only lost once in 12 games in any form of cricket in 2017.
As well as reaching the One-Day Cup semi-finals, four straight Championship wins adds up to their best start since the title-winning year of 1964.
"Twelve months ago we were playing pretty similar cricket and hadn't won a game," 26-year-old Leach said.
"This time, we've managed to kill teams off when we've put ourselves in a position to win. Four from four shows that."
Director of cricket Steve Rhodes made the big decision last September to change his captain, replacing Daryl Mitchell with Leach.
"We're trying to enjoy our successes. Equally we're making sure we keep putting in the hard yards to win games," Rhodes told BBC Hereford & Worcester.
"Apart from one bad day at Old Trafford, it has been an amazing effort.
"The bowlers are sharing the wickets around, the batsmen are dovetailing and sharing the runs and we've been excellent in the field."
Going back to the final two County Championship games of last season under Mitchell's captaincy, Worcestershire have won six on the trot - the county's best run since seven straight Championship victories in July and August 1961.
That six-game winning run started last September at Hove when, inspired by the new arrival of West Indian fast bowler Miguel Cummins, who took 12 wickets in the match, Worcestershire beat Sussex by 11 runs.
Now they must go to Hove again on Friday for another meeting with a Sussex side who have already this season used five foreign-born players in Championship Division Two, Jofra Archer (Barbados) and Steve Magoffin (Australia), as well as their three South Africans, Stiaan Van Zyl, Vernon Philander and David Wiese.
"They're an interesting side with quite an international flavour to them as they're got quite a few overseas players," said Rhodes, who has never been an advocate of signing Kolpak players.
"We're a small club and we like to play our young academy players. We don't venture off too much with the non-English players."
Worcestershire have used just one overseas player in Championship matches this season, all-rounder John Hastings.
He played in the first two games before being replaced by fellow Australian Nathan Lyon after Hastings was called up for the Champions Trophy.
In only his second first-class appearances in two months, since Australia lost their series 2-1 to India in March, Lyon bowled 29 overs in the second innings at Northampton to take 3-94 - and Rhodes hopes the 29-year-old spinner has bowled himself into some form.
"It was really important to get overs under his belt and blow any cobwebs away," said Rhodes.
"Young Josh Tongue also showed he's got some good pace at Northampton and the way our batsmen are sharing the runs around, it wouldn't surprise me if Tom Fell now gets a good score down at Hove.
"We're going to find it quite tough. In their own backyard, they're not a side that will roll over. We've got to get into a winning position and try to ram it home."
BBC Hereford & Worcester's Dave Bradley
"Worcestershire have had an amazing start, having won their first four County Championship matches of the season for the first time since 1964, when they went on to win the first of their five county titles.
"They also lost only once in eight qualifying games in the One-Day Cup to top the North Group, bypass the quarter-finals and earn a semi-final at New Road for the first time in 13 years.
"All this has been done with basically a home-grown squad. Worcestershire's success is down to hard work and a great team spirit. 10 of the County Championship team have come through the Academy and Second XI structure - and are English.
"Some of these lads have been playing together for a few seasons now. Steve Rhodes and the coaching team at the club have worked hard to develop what they called 'the Worcester way'.
"They have also been very selective about the character of the overseas players they have bought in, Australians John Hastings and Nathan Lyon this season being great examples."
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Worcestershire captain Joe Leach says his side's superb winning start to the season is simply down to having found the knack of finishing teams off.
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32,147,161 |
Prosecutors also charged Kim Ki-Jong, a nationalist activist, with assaulting a foreign envoy and obstruction of duty.
Police say Mr Kim wanted to highlight his opposition to joint military exercises with the US.
Mr Kim denies attempting to kill ambassador Mark Lippert, who received 80 stitches after the attack in March.
The envoy was targeted at a breakfast event in Seoul and spent several days in hospital, recovering from gashes to his face and hand.
Doctors said Mr Lippert's injuries could have been life-threatening if the cuts had been any deeper.
Mr Kim was tackled at the scene and arrested. Under South Korean law, the trial has to start within 14 days.
He could face life in prison if convicted of attempted murder, or even the death penalty, though that is rarely used in South Korea.
Prosecutors are also examining whether Mr Kim can be charged under a controversial National Security Law, which bans any praise or assistance for North Korea.
However, Mr Kim insists he was acting alone, rather than on the orders of Pyongyang.
Many anti-US activists such as Mr Kim favour reunification with North Korea and regard the massive US troop presence in South Korea as an obstacle to their aims.
The attack on Mr Lippert prompted rallies and prayer sessions in his support and in support of US-South Korea relations.
Kim Ki-jong's militant past
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A South Korean man who attacked the US ambassador to Seoul with a knife, slashing his face and arms, has been formally charged with attempted murder.
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35,749,130 |
Zahoor Hussain, 38, Muserat Khan, 36, Mohammed Anser Khan, 31, and Ateek Khan, 27, all from West Bromwich in the West Midlands are each accused of four counts of kidnap.
The charges relate to an incident in Oswestry in Shropshire on Friday.
The men were remanded in custody by magistrates in Telford to appear at Shrewsbury Crown Court on 4 April.
Muserat Khan, of Greets Green Road, and Mohammed Khan, of Whitehall Road, are also charged with assault.
The pair, along with Mr Hussain, of Whitehall Road, and Ateek Khan, of Oak Road, were charged on Sunday, police said.
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Four men have appeared in court accused of kidnapping a woman and three children.
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35,259,630 |
The BBC asks what can be done to reduce the impact of the fires, and whether the threat is getting worse.
It's no mystery. A simple combination of "lots of fuel, plus the dry, warm conditions in summer, and source of ignition," Dr Grant Wardell-Johnson of Australia's Curtin University told the BBC.
Human carelessness - and sometimes deliberate arson - are sometimes the source. But in the case of the fire burning around Yarloop, it is thought to have been a lightning strike that ignited dry ground.
There can be "as many as a thousand lightning strikes" during the course of a single storm, said Inspector Rolf Poole of the New South Wales Fire Service to the BBC.
Many analysts blame climate change for hotter, drier summers and a drop in the water table in many areas of Australia. Last year was one of the hottest on record and a bad fire season had been expected.
"The whole soil profile is very dry," says Dr Wardell-Johnson.
Inspector Rolf Poole concurs: "There is sufficient scientific evidence that Australian fires are becoming more intense and more frequent" - a change he says many fire fighters have experienced for themselves.
"We are in a new world where we have to accept losses," says Dr Wardell-Johnson.
Fires are a natural part of the Australian ecosystem. They help regenerate areas, and plants and animals have long adapted to the occasional destruction they cause.
Melbourne University's Prof Alan March, an expert in bushfire planning and urban design, told the BBC people used to think of fires as "as a force of nature that we could only respond to when it happened".
But he says "that's changed radically and we've realised that there is no such thing as a natural disaster, in a sense".
Reducing their impact of fires on humans and property is the crucial thing, while the frequency can be lessened by careful planning.
People living in fire-prone areas are well aware of the dangers - they are used to restrictions and Total Fire Bans being put in place to prevent accidental blazes.
Controlled burning to reduce the amount of vegetation available to fuel a potential bushfire is used in many vulnerable areas, including Western Australia, but it is no panacea.
Building fewer homes in especially fire-prone areas - and making those that are built more fire-resistant - is another step. Prof March says entire towns can be built to be more fire-resistant.
"Probably the biggest risk factor is older settlements," he says. That is true of historic Yarloop, which lost nearly 100 of its mostly wooden buildings.
New homes can also be rated to see if they meet their area's "bushfire attack level".
California, southern Europe and other parts of the world with similar climate to Australia also experience wildfires - but there are some differences.
Fires in eucalyptus forests, which cover huge areas of Australia, can be particularly intense.
Those trees have "very high biomass, are very flammable, and have a lot of oil," Dr Grant Wardell-Johnson.
In fact, the trees' oil, and their hard, drought-resistant leaves, are thought to be ways the trees have evolved to encourage fires, which eliminate competition while providing a fertile environment for the trees' quick regrowth.
The ferocity of fires also depends on factors like climate and topography - fires burn more quickly on slopes, for example.
It depends on the severity of the fire.
Less fast-moving fires can be fought by "direct attack" - ground forces simply going in with hoses.
More dangerous situations have to be fought strategically, by dropping water, for example, or "back-burning" - controlled burning to clear an area of brush ahead of an advancing fire, in order to starve it of material to burn when it gets there.
Above all else: prevention and preparation.
Clearing gutters and removing other flammable vegetation from around homes is a useful step, as is preparing fire fighting equipment, and ensuring it can reach all areas of your home and surrounding area.
Preparing a "defendable space area" in which you can stay even after losing your home, is also worth doing, says Prof Alan March.
Above all, you must "sit down with your family and discuss what you will do" in the event of a fire, insists Inspector Rolf Poole. Whether you want to, or are even capable of, fighting a fire. What you will do if you stay, and how you will escape if you leave.
And whatever you decide, everyone needs an escape plan - or several.
"When they are properly prepared, we do sometimes advise them to stay," he adds. But when it is severe enough, "it is much like trying to stand on a beach to stop a tsunami."
Reporting by Simeon Paterson
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Wildfires like the one which has destroyed nearly 100 home near Perth are a part of life in Australia, but can be devastating and deadly.
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Karen McArthur, a director at Ashers, took the order for the cake from Gareth Lee, a gay rights activist.
The cake was to have a slogan on it supporting gay marriage.
Although she accepted the order initially, Mrs McArthur said: "In my heart, I knew I would not be able to put that (slogan) on the cake."
Asked why she accepted money for it and expressed no concern about it to Mr Lee at the time, she said she did not "want to embarrass him or have a confrontation in the bakery".
It was more than 48 hours later, after consultations with her family that Mrs McArthur told Mr Lee that the order could not be fulfilled.
His money was returned.
Ashers Baking Company faces a discrimination case, brought with the support of the Equality Commission.
A barrister representing Ashers told the court that the County Antrim firm did not know, or care, about the sexual orientation of the customer who ordered the cake.
"The issue here was the content of the cake, and not a characteristic of the customer," he said.
"It was the cake not the customer."
The lawyer said that when Mr Lee was told his order had been cancelled, it was explained to him "courteously and sensitively" that the problem was simply the message on the cake.
Earlier, the general manager of Ashers, Daniel McArthur, gave evidence.
He was asked about a leaflet produced for the firm which indicated they baked Halloween cakes with witches on them.
Mr McArthur said it was no longer used by Ashers.
Asked if his church approved of Halloween celebrations, Mr McArthur said: "I've never talked to anyone in the church about it."
On how his faith impacted upon his work, he said: "We believe the business has been given to us by God and how we use it is on our shoulders."
The court was told Mr McArthur was appointed general manager at his parents' company two years ago.
He said the family had not taken legal advice before his mother Karen McArthur told the customer that the order would not be completed.
However, he said that that he had telephoned a church elder to "ask his thoughts" on the matter.
"We were not doing it in defiance of the law," Mr McArthur said.
"I think it is quite obvious that we do not know a lot of the ins and outs of the law.
"Our Christian faith is of utmost importance to us. It is how we run our lives; it is how we live our lives; it is how we bring up our families.
"Before God, this is something we couldn't make."
The case will resume on Monday.
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The woman who took an order for a 'gay cake' in Belfast has told a court she initially accepted it to avoid a "confrontation" in the bakery.
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The Freedom Party candidate faces an independent, Alexander Van der Bellen, who has the backing of the Greens.
Mr Hofer topped the first vote but fell well short of an outright majority.
For the first time since World War Two, both the main centrist parties were knocked out in the first round, amid concerns over the migrant crisis.
Ninety-thousand people claimed asylum in Austria last year, equivalent to about 1% of the Austrian population, and the Freedom Party has run a campaign against immigration.
While the presidency is a largely ceremonial post, the president has powers to dismiss the government.
Austria is faced with a stark choice for its head of state: a Green Party professor, Alexander Van der Bellen, or Norbert Hofer of the far-right Freedom Party - a soft-spoken, charismatic gun enthusiast who won a decisive victory in the first round of voting in April.
For the first time since the Second World War, the traditional parties of the centre left and centre right were knocked out of the race.
Support for the Freedom Party has risen because of deep frustration with the established parties and, more recently, because of fears about the migrant crisis.
Rightwing parties are gaining strength in a number of EU countries. European leaders will be watching the result closely.
Read more from Bethany
Country profile
In the first round, Mr Hofer secured 35% of the votes, while Mr Van der Bellen, polled 21%.
At his final election rally on Friday in Vienna, Mr Hofer, 45, sought to hammer home his message that immigrants needed to integrate.
"Those people who respect and love Austria and have found a new home here are warmly welcome," he said to applause.
"But those, it has to be said, those who do not value our country, who fight for Islamic State, or who rape women, I say to these people: this is not your homeland. You cannot stay in Austria."
The presidents of the European Commission and the European Parliament, Jean-Claude Juncker and Martin Schulz, have both expressed concern that Mr Hofer could win.
"I say to them very politely but firmly: we don't take orders from Brussels or Berlin," Mr Hofer said at the rally.
Mr Van der Bellen, 72, told his final rally in Vienna that it was likely to be a close race.
"I think it could be on a knife edge - fifty-fifty who will win, so this time, as with previous votes, but more than ever for this important election, every vote will count," he said.
At a news conference, he reflected: "As you know, I am 72 years old and I've experienced how Austria rose from the ruins of World War Two, caused by the madness of nationalism."
The two rivals had engaged in an angry TV debate earlier in the week, described as "political mud-wrestling" by commentators.
Such was the political shock at the far right's first-round win that the Chancellor (prime minister), Werner Faymann, resigned after losing the support of his Social Democratic party colleagues.
The Social Democrats and the People's Party have governed Austria for decades, either alone or in coalition.
At the last general election in 2013, they together won just enough votes to govern in a "grand coalition".
Incumbent President Heinz Fischer, 77, could not run again after two terms in office.
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The European Union could see its first far-right president if Norbert Hofer wins the second, run-off round of the Austrian election.
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Prof Angus Dalgleish said his stance sounded "paradoxical" given his party's support for "smoking rooms" in pubs.
UKIP said a park smoking ban was not party policy and that Prof Dalgleish, who is based at St George's hospital in London, was giving a personal opinion.
He was speaking in a BBC health policy debate alongside representatives of the Tories, Labour, Lib Dems and Greens.
During the Daily Politics clash, Conservative Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the government's NHS reforms "weren't very popular".
And Labour's Andy Burnham said his party had gone too far on private sector involvement with the service.
They were joined on the panel by Lib Dem Care Minister Norman Lamb and Jillian Creasy from the Green Party.
During the debate, each panellist was asked whether the smoking ban should be extended to private parks. They each said no apart from Mr Dalgleish, who said it should.
"I am thinking of parks where there are lots of children around," he added.
UKIP has pledged to amend the smoking ban to allow pubs to open "smoking rooms", provided they are well ventilated and separate from the rest of the premises.
In October, the party's deputy leader Paul Nuttall described a proposal to ban smoking in public parks as "nonsense" and a "gross infringement of people's liberties".
A party spokeswoman said: "There is no written policy from UKIP on banning smoking in parks. Prof Dalgleish, as one of the country's leading oncologists, was giving his personal opinion as he is more than entitled to do".
This issue includes NHS funding, GP access and social care, particularly of older people.
Policy guide: Where the parties stand
Each party representative agreed that 24-hour alcohol licensing, introduced by the Labour government, had been a "mistake", while Prof Dalgleish agreed with the Green Party's Jillian Creasy on the need for a "sugar tax".
In another part of the debate, Mr Hunt said the Health and Social Care Act, put in place by his predecessor Andrew Lansley, should have been better communicated. But he said the changes had "disbanded huge bureaucracies" in the shape of primary care trusts and strategic health authorities, and led to more doctors and nurses.
Labour's Andy Burnham said the 2012 Act had "pulled the rug from under the NHS" and gone back on a commitment of no "top-down reorganisations of the NHS" from the Conservatives.
Mr Burnham, who has repeatedly attacked the government over the extent of private sector involvement in the NHS, was asked about his party's record in government, when 5% of services were contracted out. He said he had "changed Labour's policy" since taking over as health secretary.
Lib Dem Care Minister Mr Lamb said independent exerts had found claims of privatisation resulting from the government's reforms had "not been borne out".
Ms Creasy called for the removal of private firms in the provision of services in the NHS, saying the "bureaucracy of the market system" was to blame for the pressures on the health service.
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A cancer expert who is standing for UKIP says the smoking ban should be extended to public parks.
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28,619,288 |
The landslide has blocked the Sunkoshi river, east of the capital Kathmandu, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes and move to higher ground.
Officials said army technicians were trying to unblock the river and allow the water to run off.
There are fears that the death toll will rise, as rescue work continues in the district of Sindhupalchowk.
Sindhupalchowk is 120 km (75 miles) east of Kathmandu.
"Police and army officials are trying to find the missing people and evacuate the villages on the riverside" a police official told AFP.
Officials said dozens of people were still missing.
The Arniko highway to Tibet has been closed and the area declared a "flood crisis zone" by the government.
Landslides are common during the June-September monsoon season in Nepal. Dozens of people die every year from flooding and landslides.
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A massive landslide has buried dozens of homes in Nepal, with eight people confirmed dead and many missing.
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31,110,603 |
Juan Watterson was seeking approval to introduce a private member's bill aimed at changing Manx law.
But Members of the House of Keys voted 17 to five against the motion.
"I am disappointed," said Mr Watterson. "I thought the vote would be a lot closer than that but that is the democratic process - it is what it is and you have to respect that."
Millie Blenkinsop-French, from Douglas, who has suffered two mini strokes, said: "I am bitterly disappointed but I won't give up.
"I'm not afraid of dying, but it's how I die that worries me. It should be my choice."
The 71-year-old added: "If nothing else I will make it my business to go around and give talks. We need to learn to talk about death as well as living."
Peter Murcott, who campaigns against assisted dying, said Mr Watterson's plan goes "against Christian beliefs".
He said: "If you kill someone intentionally then in law it is murder and that is what euthanasia is."
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Isle of Man politicians have rejected a call to introduce a bill to allow assisted dying.
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38,769,697 |
They've discovered a new way in which warming increases levels of the toxin in sea creatures.
In experiments, they found that extra rainfall drives up the amount of organic material flowing into the seas.
This alters the food chain, adding another layer of complex organisms which boosts the concentrations of mercury up the line.
The study has been published in the journal, Science Advances.
Mercury is one of the world's most toxic metals, and according to the World Health Organization, is one of the top ten threats to public health. The substance at high levels has been linked to damage to the nervous system, paralysis and mental impairment in children.
The most common form of exposure to mercury is by eating fish containing methylmercury, an organic form of the chemical which forms when bacteria react with mercury in water, soil or plants.
Levels of mercury in the world's ecosystems have increased by between 200 and 500%, since the industrial revolution say experts, driven up by the use of fossil fuels such as coal.
In recent years there are have been concentrated efforts to limit the amount of mercury entering the environment, with an international treaty, called the Minamata Convention, signed by 136 countries in place since 2013.
But this new study suggests that climate change could be driving up levels of methylmercury in a manner not previously recognised.
In a large laboratory, Swedish researchers recreated the conditions found in the Bothnian sea estuary. They discovered that as temperatures increase, there is an increased run-off of organic matter into the world's oceans and lakes. This encourages the growth of bacteria at the expense of phytoplankton.
"When bacteria become abundant in the water there is also a growth of a new type of predators that feed on bacteria," lead author Dr Erik Bjorn from Umea University in Sweden told BBC News.
"You basically get one extra step in the food chain and methylmercury is enriched by about a factor of ten in each such step in the food web."
Under the warmest climate scenario suggested by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there would be an increase in organic matter run-off of 15-20% by the end of this century. This in turn would see levels of methylmercury in zooplankton, the bottom link in the food chain, grow by between two and seven fold.
Different parts of the world will suffer different impacts say the researchers, with lakes and coastal waters in the northern hemisphere being the most likely to have significant increases in methylmercury levels in fish, while the Mediterranean, the central US and Southern Africa will likely see reductions.
Researchers hope that the Minamata treaty will be successful and countries reduce the amount of mercury that is being produced. Otherwise this discovery of a previously unknown source could have impacts for human health.
"If we reduce mercury emissions, then we need to know how fast will ecosystems recover," said Dr Bjorn.
"If we don't do anything and mercury doesn't decrease, and we add this on top then the implications would be severe."
Other researchers in the field say that the new study highlights important issues that have previously been little known.
"This work experimentally proves that climate change will have a significant effect of methylmercury budgets in coastal waters and its concentrations in fish," said Milena Horvat from the Jozef Stefan Institute in Slovenia.
"This work will also have an important impact on future scenario simulations on the presence of mercury in fish in response to global mercury reductions from emission sources (primarily industrial)."
Follow Matt on Twitter and on Facebook
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Rising temperatures could boost mercury levels in fish by up to seven times the current rates, say Swedish researchers.
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36,357,617 |
Post-War politics, built on a moderate consensus, is under strain.
The centre is holding but only just.
Austrians in large numbers voted for a far-right candidate in the face of much of Europe warning against allowing the first right-wing populist to become head of state since World War Two.
The strong showing of a candidate from the Austrian Freedom Party joins the anti-establishment success of Donald Trump in America.
In France, Marine Le Pen's National Front party has regularly topped some of the polls.
Although traditional parties appear embattled, the mainstream has proved resilient.
The London mayoral elections and the general election outside of Scotland were old-fashioned contests between Labour and Conservative.
In the last European elections, there were successes for anti-establishment parties - but power firmly remains with the centre-right European People's Party and the Socialists and Liberals.
In the Netherlands, the populist politician Geert Wilders topped the polls but stumbled in the general election.
In France, the National Front performed strongly in the recent regional elections but failed to make a breakthrough in the all-important second round of voting.
More often than not, the story in Europe is of the outsiders, the upstarts, the captains of the resentful rattling the gates but rarely being entrusted with power.
In Greece, there have been often violent protests against austerity, seen as imposed from Brussels - but when asked whether they wanted to leave the EU, fewer than 40% agreed.
In Hungary and Poland, however, there are now parties in power prepared to challenge the European consensus and politics as usual.
Austria 'rejects far-right president'
Is Europe lurching to the far right?
Guide to nationalist parties challenging Europe
And, in America, Donald Trump has tapped into the current mood of discontent.
He has defied all those who believed that the former Reality TV star would flame out and old politics would resume.
It hasn't, and politicians in Europe are watching America anxiously.
So what is driving this?
First, the politics of 2016 are still being defined by the financial crash of 2008.
Many middle-class Americans are working longer for less income than they earned decades before.
The numbers who call themselves middle-class are shrinking.
In the past six years, the US has created an impressive 14 million new jobs - but it is what those jobs are paying that gives politicians such as Mr Trump his opening.
In a time of economic insecurity, inequality has increased.
Inequality fosters mistrust of the elite.
In the US, there is a residual dislike of Wall Street and the bankers.
It has fuelled the success of the campaign of Bernie Sanders, an outsider candidate, who describes himself as a democratic socialist.
One of the marks of this new politics is a hostility to trade agreements that are seen as having stripped out jobs from America.
Even Hillary Clinton has had to appear lukewarm about signing future trade deals.
All the indications are of an electorate losing faith in public institutions.
Europe has been less successful at creating new jobs, and youth unemployment in many countries has remained stubbornly high.
It has stoked fears of Europe as a low-growth region.
Here, too, there is a protectionist streak running through the anti-establishment campaigns.
And the migrant crisis has fed the mood of insecurity.
There are really two narratives competing with each other.
One sees itself as outward-looking, internationalist, at ease with a globalised world.
It is more inclined to embrace migration as the mark of an open culture.
In place of one identity linked to a nation state, they speak of multiple identities.
It believes that globalisation cannot be slowed or reversed.
Three decades ago, there were no smart phones.
Now, there are more than billion, and technology is both connecting and shrinking how we live.
They tend to see institutions such as the EU protecting smaller countries and giving them influence.
Even though many manufacturing jobs have migrated to Asia, they argue that international trade benefits consumers and producers.
The other narrative is that globalisation has damaged the interests of working people, with jobs moving elsewhere.
Migration, for them, puts pressure on wages, increases demand for public services and dilutes the identity of long-standing communities.
They believe democracy has been undermined and that parliaments need to recover their authority.
The restlessness among voters on both sides of the Atlantic is rooted in the powerlessness of those in power.
Politicians seem unable to respond to demands of the voters.
In Europe, they struggle to deliver new jobs for young people.
Those in power often doubt the policy of austerity, in private, but have to enforce it.
Increasingly, it seems that decisions are decided by remote masters.
These same politicians are no longer trusted to deal with implications of automation and robotics on the world of work.
The populists at the gates of power, with their offer of "strong" leadership, promise to regain control of decisions made and that the certainties of the past can be reclaimed.
The challenge for mainstream parties is to convince voters they can deliver security in the face of global challenges; that migration can be managed; that institutions can protect voters from the harsh winds of globalisation; that identity will not be threatened.
In this debate, Donald Trump understands that social media gives him the opportunity to amplify the culture of complaint without the cross-examination of the mainstream media.
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On both sides of the Atlantic, liberal democracy is on the defensive.
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The Poland striker had gone five league matches without finding the net but scored either side of half-time.
Lewandowski put Bayern ahead when he latched on to Arjen Robben's clever pass before he turned provider with a low cross for the Dutch winger to net.
Robben's intelligent through ball allowed Lewandowski to score his second before Ja-Cheol Koo's consolation goal.
Bayern's victory was emphatic although Carlo Ancelotti's side benefitted from some poor defending by the home side.
It was Bayern's second Bavarian derby success over Augsburg in the space three days following a 3-1 win in the German Cup on Wednesday.
Bayern, the defending Bundesliga champions, remain two points clear of second-placed RB Leipzig, who claimed a 2-0 away win over Darmstadt.
Austria midfielder Marcel Sabitzer secured the points for Leipzig with two goals in the second half.
Match ends, FC Augsburg 1, FC Bayern München 3.
Second Half ends, FC Augsburg 1, FC Bayern München 3.
Attempt saved. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Joshua Kimmich.
Offside, FC Augsburg. Philipp Max tries a through ball, but Dong-Won Ji is caught offside.
Corner, FC Augsburg. Conceded by Holger Badstuber.
Attempt blocked. Martin Hinteregger (FC Augsburg) left footed shot from the right side of the six yard box is blocked. Assisted by Paul Verhaegh with a cross.
Corner, FC Augsburg. Conceded by David Alaba.
Attempt blocked. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Philipp Lahm with a cross.
Foul by Thiago Alcántara (FC Bayern München).
Konstantinos Stafylidis (FC Augsburg) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Douglas Costa (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Paul Verhaegh (FC Augsburg).
Douglas Costa (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Jan Morávek (FC Augsburg).
Joshua Kimmich (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Philipp Max (FC Augsburg).
Substitution, FC Augsburg. Jan Morávek replaces Gojko Kacar.
Attempt missed. Philipp Lahm (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Douglas Costa.
Corner, FC Bayern München. Conceded by Georg Teigl.
Xabi Alonso (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Ja-Cheol Koo (FC Augsburg).
Substitution, FC Bayern München. Joshua Kimmich replaces Arjen Robben.
Georg Teigl (FC Augsburg) is shown the yellow card.
David Alaba (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Georg Teigl (FC Augsburg).
Offside, FC Bayern München. Manuel Neuer tries a through ball, but Douglas Costa is caught offside.
Attempt missed. Gojko Kacar (FC Augsburg) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Ja-Cheol Koo with a headed pass.
Attempt missed. Mats Hummels (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Douglas Costa with a cross following a corner.
Attempt saved. Mats Hummels (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Arjen Robben with a cross.
Corner, FC Bayern München. Conceded by Konstantinos Stafylidis.
Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Christoph Janker (FC Augsburg).
Corner, FC Bayern München. Conceded by Ja-Cheol Koo.
Attempt saved. Mats Hummels (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Arjen Robben with a cross.
Corner, FC Bayern München. Conceded by Konstantinos Stafylidis.
Goal! FC Augsburg 1, FC Bayern München 3. Ja-Cheol Koo (FC Augsburg) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Daniel Baier.
Hand ball by Douglas Costa (FC Bayern München).
Foul by Thiago Alcántara (FC Bayern München).
Daniel Baier (FC Augsburg) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, FC Augsburg. Georg Teigl replaces Halil Altintop.
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Robert Lewandowski ended his Bundesliga goal drought to help leaders Bayern Munich ease to victory over Augsburg.
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It has emerged that the aircraft in question was flown into power lines on Monday, knocking one to the ground.
About 650 people lost access to electricity for about three hours, according to a local report.
The incident occurred weeks after Los Angeles City Council introduced tougher laws on the use of personal drones.
One of the eye witnesses to the accident was a producer for ABC News.
"All of the sudden [I saw] a flash - like a boom," said Chris Gordon.
"And then sparks and you could see the drone dropping to the ground.
"It landed right over here in the middle of the intersection and cars were actually driving around the drone and it was smoking in the middle of the street."
No one was injured, but the event highlights the risks posed by the increasing popularity of such remote controlled aircraft.
Other recent problems have included a drone crashing into seats during a tennis match at the US Open in New York and a Californian fire department having to temporarily ground helicopters it wanted to use to fight a wildfire because people were using video camera-equipped drones to film the blaze.
On 14 October, LA City Council voted to make it a misdemeanour to violate new drone-related laws that forbid the flight of an aircraft within 25ft (7.6m) of another person or closer than five miles (8km) to an airport.
But elsewhere in the US, some people have taken the matter into their own hands.
In one case a Kentucky man shot down a neighbour's drone that he said had flown over his property.
Earlier this week, a judge dismissed charges against William Meredith of first degree criminal mischief and first degree wanton endangerment.
However, the Ars Technica new site reports that prosecutors still have an opportunity to try to bring the case before a grand jury.
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Police are hunting for a drone operator who caused an electricity blackout in West Hollywood, California.
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The cause of the widespread extinction has provoked much debate, with climate change being one theory.
However, scientists studied dung samples from 130,000 and 41,000 years ago, when humans arrived, and concluded hunting and fire were the cause.
The extinction in turn caused major ecological changes to the landscape.
The scientists looked at pollen and charcoal from Lynch's Crater, a sediment-filled volcanic crater in Queensland that was surrounded by tropical rainforest until European settlement.
They found Sporormiella spores, which grow in herbivore dung, virtually disappeared around 41,000 years ago, a time when no known climate transformation was taking place.
At the same time, the incidence of fire increased, as shown by a steep rise in charcoal fragments.
It appears that humans, who arrived in Australia around this time,hunted the megafauna to extinction, the scientists said.
The megafauna included three-metre tall giant kangaroos and marsupial lions, as well as giant birds and reptiles.
Susan Rule of the Australian National University in Canberra and her colleagues concluded that vegetation also changed with the arrival of humans.
Mixed rainforest was replaced by leathery-leaved, scrubby vegetation called sclerophyll.
But these changes to the landscape took place after the animal extinctions, indicating that they were the result of the extinction and not its cause, they said.
Human-lit fire - deliberately targeted and more frequent than lightning - had a devastating effect of plants that had previously been protected.
"Any climate change at those times was modest and highly unlikely to affect the outcome," author Matt McGlone wrote in Science.
Lead research author Chris Johnson, from the School of Zoology at the University of Tasmania, said the research raised further questions about the ecological impact of the extinction.
"Big animals have big impacts on plants. It follows that removing big animals should produce significant changes in vegetation."
The removal of large herbivores altered the structure and composition of vegetation, making it more dense and uniform, he said.
"Getting a better understanding of how environments across Australia changed as a result of megafaunal extinction is a big and interesting challenge, and will help us to understand the dynamics of contemporary Australian ecosystems."
Dr John Alroy, from the Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science at Macquarie University, New South Wales, said the debate about whether humans contributed to widespread extinction should "be over now".
"But it has dragged on for nearly a half-century now because the idea that stone age hunters could cause such utter havoc across three entire continents over very short time spans strikes many people as incredible.
"Like it or not, though, it's the truth, and it's time for us to all confront it."
However, Gavin Prideaux, a lecturer in vertebrate palaeontology in the School of Biological Sciences at Flinders University, South Australia, said further research was necessary.
He said the latest study "supports a mounting number of studies that have argued that climate change was not primarily responsible for the Late Pleistocene extinctions in other parts of the continent.
"To test the inferences from this paper we might look at similar lake records from other regions of Australia and seek fossil deposits in the northeast that preserve bones of the giant animals themselves."
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Humans hunted Australia's giant vertebrates to extinction about 40,000 years ago, the latest research published in Science has concluded.
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Last week, Coursera, a rival Silicon Valley-based platform, announced 12 more universities were joining.
UC Berkeley will add two courses to the edX online offering this autumn.
The edX partnership is also promising to add further universities from "around the world".
Edinburgh University emerged last week as the first UK university to join in this current race to establish online university platforms.
The Scottish university joined the Coursera project, which has partners including Stanford and Princeton.
This year has seen major US universities pushing ahead with rival plans to make courses available for free on the internet.
It has been hailed as a first step towards a major shift in higher education - with implications for the current constraints on time, capacity and funding.
It raises the prospect of giving prestigious institutions a global reach and access to students around the world.
The edX project followed from a MIT prototype, called MITx, that launched with a single electronics course, entirely taught and assessed online.
The addition of UC Berkeley maintains the position of elite institutions offering a small number of courses customised for online delivery.
The two courses from UC Berkeley, free to users, will be in software and artificial intelligence.
MIT will offer courses in chemistry and computer science and Harvard will run courses in health statistics and computer science.
The promise to announce further international partners will raise speculation about whether any more leading universities in the UK are set to join.
There have been earlier pioneers in this online education field, but in recent months this has gathered momentum - and with such big university brands it is becoming much more mainstream.
Among the factors helping to push this growth have been advances in the technology, such as tablet computers and video on broadband, the expanding global demand for higher education and deepening financial pressures.
Online university courses have the potential to reach large numbers of people currently unable to access higher education.
It also allows individual institutions to globalise their courses and "scale up" their potential reach.
MIT has pointed out it would have taken 40 years to teach the number of students who successfully completed its prototype online course.
The rising cost of tuition fees, worries about student debt and stretched university budgets have also raised the idea of online courses providing a more affordable model.
The edX alliance is based on a not-for-profit principle - with the funding being drawn from Harvard and MIT.
Coursera is backed by investors and aims to generate revenue from its online visitors, rather than charging directly for services, following the pattern of Google.
Both of these university partnerships are making a distinction between a fully fledged campus-based degree and these online courses where certificates are awarded rather than a formal qualification.
This highlights two areas that will need to be resolved as the experiments develop - how students can be assessed for online qualifications and how they should be accredited.
The president of edX, Anant Agarwal, welcomed the addition of UC Berkeley.
"EdX is about revolutionising learning, and we have received a tremendous outpouring of excitement and interest from universities around the world.
"UC Berkeley is an extraordinary public institution known not only for its academic excellence but also for its innovativeness.
"With this collaboration, edX is now positioned to improve education more rapidly, both online and on-campus worldwide."
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The emerging format war between online universities has accelerated, with the University of California, Berkeley signing up to Harvard and MIT's edX partnership.
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The 20-year-old's body was discovered in a Peugeot 106 in Yateley, Hampshire, at 08:00 GMT.
Police said it was thought the car had been involved in a "traffic incident" at about 02:00 in Cricket Hill Lane, at the junction with Carrick Road.
The car was found in undergrowth nearby. Officers said someone had reported hearing a bang.
Hampshire Constabulary said the man's next of kin had been informed but formal identification was yet to take place.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the force.
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A man has been found dead in a car police believe may have been involved in a crash six hours earlier.
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39,773,405 |
Kevin O'Brien made 75 and Simi Singh 70 not out as Leinster scored 286 off 49.2 overs, with Craig Young taking 4-50.
North West were all out for 181 off 44.2 overs in reply, Sri Lankan Irosh Samaraasooriya top-scoring with 77.
Ricki-Lee Dougherty contributed 42, while Ireland international George Dockrell ended with figures of 3-37.
Leinster are attempting to make it a treble of clean sweeps in the interprovincial tournaments this season and this victory gives them the start they had hoped for in the Inter-Pro Cup.
They will face North West Warriors again in a Twenty20 fixture at Bready on 26 May, with Munster Reds facing Northern Knights on the same date.
Ireland's Interprovincial Championship, plus their Twenty20 and 50-over formats were granted first-class status by the ICC in October.
It was the first time a domestic competition had been given first-class status outside a Test-playing country.
Monday's NCU Twenty20 results
North Down v Waringstown
North Down 146-6 R Pretorius 60
Waringstown 149-3 (17.2 overs) J Hall 47
Waringstown won by seven wickets
Carrickfergus v CIYMS
Carrickfergus 154 R Eagleson 30 no
CIYMS 156-1 (19.2 overs) C Dougherty 83
CIYMS won by nine wickets
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Leinster Lightning began the defence of their interprovincial titles by beating North West Warriors by 105 runs in a 50-over match at The Hills on Monday.
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19,710,040 |
The 300m (990ft) Liaoning - named after the province where it was refitted - is a refurbished Soviet ship purchased from Ukraine.
For now the carrier has no operational aircraft and will be used for training.
But China says the vessel, which has undergone extensive sea trials, will increase its capacity to defend state interests.
China's Premier Wen Jiabao said the ship would have "a mighty and deep significance". It would be "a cause for patriotic passion", he said at a ceremony attended by top Chinese leaders at Dalian Port.
By Jonathan MarcusBBC Defence Correspondent
The commissioning of China's first aircraft carrier - the Liaoning (a former Soviet vessel, the Varyag) - sends a signal to other countries in the region that Beijing's maritime ambitions are growing.
The fact that this comes at a time of heightened tensions in the East China Sea only underlines the message.
But China's new carrier is more a symbol of a future capability than a potent naval threat itself.
Getting into the carrier business takes time; a whole range of skills has to be learnt; and carriers have to operate with other ships, requiring a new mindset across the navy as a whole.
It could be a steep learning curve, but China is moving ahead steadily, taking the first steps on the path to having a fully-fledged carrier force.
The delivery of the aircraft carrier comes at a time when Japan and other countries in the region have expressed concern at China's growing naval strength.
China and Japan are embroiled in a row over disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Several South-east Asian nations are also at odds with China over overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea.
It also comes weeks ahead of a party congress expected to see the transition of power to a new generation of Chinese leaders.
The Liaoning was formally handed over to the navy at a ceremony in Dalian, state-run Xinhua news agency said.
"Having the aircraft carrier enter the ranks will be of important significance in raising the overall fighting capacity of our nation's navy to a modern level," the defence ministry said in a statement.
The vessel will "increase [China's] capacity to defend, develop its capacity to co-operate on the high seas in dealing with non-traditional security threats and will be effective in defending the interests of state sovereignty, security and development", it added.
The official commissioning of the country's first aircraft carrier signals China's status as a rising power, says the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing.
The country's Communist leaders are spending billions modernising their armed forces so they can project military power far beyond China's borders.
But China does not yet have a fleet of aircraft or pilots ready for carrier operations. So the Liaoning will be used to test and train them, a task that will probably take several years, our correspondent adds.
The Liaoning, formerly known as the Varyag, was constructed in the 1980s for the Soviet navy but was never completed.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Varyag sat in Ukraine's dockyards.
A Chinese company with links to China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) bought the ship just as Soviet warships were being cut for scrap.
Does anybody still need aircraft carriers?
It said it wanted to turn the Varyag into a floating casino in Macau and in 2001 the ship was towed to China.
The Chinese military confirmed in June 2011 that it was being refitted to serve as the nation's first aircraft carrier.
Analysts say it will take years to outfit the carrier with aircraft and make it fully operational. But Chinese officials say that the Liaoning advances the country's military modernisation.
"The development of aircraft carriers is an important part of China's national defence modernisation, in particular its naval forces, and this aircraft carrier is an essential stepping stone toward its own more advanced aircraft carriers in the future," China's Rear Admiral Yang Yi wrote in the state-run China Daily newspaper.
The carrier will be mostly used "for scientific research and training missions" so China could build "a more advanced aircraft carrier platform in the future", he added.
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China's first aircraft carrier has entered into service, the defence ministry says.
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If evacuation takes place, officials say up to 8,000 people could be removed each day from the government-held town, which has no water or electricity.
Shelling and the deaths of several more people were reported by both sides on Tuesday.
Each blames the other for the upsurge in violence.
It erupted despite an attempt to renew a ceasefire last month.
Ukrainian forces say the outbreak began when rebels launched an attack on Avdiivka, which borders land controlled by the separatists.
Seven soldiers and a number of rebels have been killed in recent days, and there have been civilian casualties on both sides but precise numbers are unclear.
For several hours 200 coal miners were trapped underground on Tuesday when shelling cut power at a pit in the rebel-run area of Donetsk.
Engineers at Zasyadko eventually managed to get generators working and started bringing the miners back to the surface.
"Everything is going bad," a resident in Avdiivka told the BBC. "People are scared and try to go out. It's very cold. There are bread queues. Only a few shops are open," said the woman, who identified herself as Nadiya.
On Tuesday, the head of the Kiev-appointed administration, Pavlo Zhebrivsky, said plans were being made for an evacuation of residents.
More stories from Ukraine:
"As of now, we can evacuate up to 8,000 people in the course of the day. The region's towns are ready to receive up to 9,000 people," he was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
The population of the town is uncertain but is believed to range between 16,000 and 22,000.
Officials say the evacuation will go ahead if the fighting escalates further. About 10 tonnes of food will soon arrive in the city, they add.
Recaptured from pro-Russian rebels in 2014, Avdiivka is a key stronghold for the Ukrainian army which it is desperately trying to retain.
The town is close to rebel-controlled Donetsk and important roads and intersections used by the rebels to transport machinery and ammunition.
Just as important is the town's coking and chemical plant - the biggest of its kind in Europe. If it fell into rebel hands it would cut much-needed supplies to Ukraine's steel industry.
The renewed violence coincided with President Donald Trump's first phone-call with Russian President Vladimir Putin since he took office.
The government in Kiev fears it may lose US support during Mr Trump's presidency. According to the Kremlin, Mr Trump and the Russian leader agreed to a "partner-like co-operation" on issues including Ukraine.
While Ukraine accuses rebels of starting the violence, Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday blamed government forces.
"Such aggressive actions, supported by the armed forces of Ukraine, undermine the aims and the task of realising the Minsk accords," he said on Tuesday.
A ceasefire was agreed in Minsk in February 2015 but there have been frequent violations. The latest truce began on 23 December.
More than 9,700 people have died since the conflict erupted in 2014, as Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula, and pro-Russian rebels later launched an insurgency in the east.
The US and EU imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its actions in eastern Ukraine. Russia has denied backing the rebels.
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Ukrainian officials are preparing for a possible evacuation of the eastern frontline town of Avdiivka amid renewed fighting with pro-Russian rebels.
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32,873,635 |
The squad paraded down Victoria Avenue in Southend at lunchtime before turning into London Road.
The honour came after the squad won 7-6 on penalties against Wycombe Wanderers.
Blues' club boss Phil Brown said it had been "a phenomenal season" and the team had shown "their never-say-die attitude again".
He added: "The last time I was at Wembley in a play-off final was with Hull City. Winning that day was special, but this feels even better.
"The young lads and the old lads did themselves proud."
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Southend United are holding an open-top bus parade to celebrate promotion to League One after the play-off final at Wembley.
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35,804,474 |
Florida is one of five key states holding primary elections on the same day. Full results are available here after polls close, provided by the Associated Press.
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Voters in Florida go to the polls on Tuesday to choose their preferred candidate to contest the presidential election.
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35,604,190 |
Sendles-White joined the Robins on a free transfer after being released by Scottish Premiership side Hamilton Academical.
The 21-year-old started his career at QPR, and has also had loan spells with Colchester United and Mansfield.
"I think for sure I need to make an impact," he told BBC Radio Wiltshire.
"Obviously I'm still young, I'm still 21 so it's a lot about learning at this stage. I think for me now I just need to get settled at a club and go from there.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.
"You just have to look at the players that have gone on from this club to bigger clubs, and last year they got to the play-off final, so it's obviously a good club."
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Swindon Town defender Jamie Sendles-White is hoping for stability after signing for the League One club until the end of the season.
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40,534,761 |
The Barcelona star must pay €252,000 ($288,000, £223,000), equating to €400 for each day of the sentence, the court said in a statement.
Messi, along with his father Jorge, was found guilty of defrauding Spain of €4.1m between 2007 and 2009.
His father's 15-month sentence was replaced with a €180,000 fine.
The pair had been found guilty of using tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to conceal earnings from image rights.
As well as the suspended jail terms, the Argentina international was fined about €2m and his father €1.5m. They made a voluntary €5m "corrective payment", equal to the alleged unpaid tax plus interest, in August 2013.
Messi's appeal against the sentence was rejected by Spain's Supreme Court last month, but his father's jail time was reduced because he had paid some of the taxes.
The footballer was never expected to serve time in jail as under the Spanish system, prison terms of under two years can be served under probation.
Lionel Messi's highs and lows
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Football star Lionel Messi's 21-month prison sentence for tax fraud has been changed to a fine by the Spanish courts.
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41,012,314 |
In a statement, the team said they had renewed their "technical and racing agreement" with the Finn, extending his stay into a fifth consecutive year.
The 37-year-old was also with Ferrari for three years from 2007-09.
He is fifth in the championship standings, with team-mate Sebastian Vettel leading Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton by 14 points.
Raikkonen won Ferrari's last drivers' title in 2007.
Vettel, 30, is out of contract at Ferrari at the end of the year.
BBC Sport's chief F1 writer Andrew Benson
Kimi Raikkonen staying at Ferrari is no surprise at all, despite president Sergio Marchionne calling the Finn "a laggard" earlier this season.
The decision almost certainly means number one driver Sebastian Vettel is also staying. This has not been announced yet but Raikkonen has been a good back-up to the German this season - surrendering two victory chances relatively uncomplainingly in Monaco and Hungary to aid his team-mate's title chances.
The two men get on well and a team would no longer sign Raikkonen as a number one driver - from time to time there are glimpses of the electrifying form that won him so many fans in the mid-2000s, but usually he is a beat or two behind the absolute pace these days.
But he does a job for Ferrari and, with no obvious better option for that support role, retaining him makes sense for a team with an inherently conservative approach to the driver market.
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Ferrari have extended former world champion Kimi Raikkonen's contract until the end of the 2018 season.
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37,206,888 |
The champions moved to the top of the Scottish Premiership with a 4-1 victory over Aberdeen, last season's runners-up, at Celtic Park.
"No, I don't think they can," said the striker when asked if other teams could cope with Celtic's forward line.
"We go forward at pace and hurt teams. It's great to have those attacking options."
Griffiths set Celtic on their way to victory with a superb opening goal against the Dons.
Adam Rooney hauled the visitors level, but goals from James Forrest, Scott Sinclair and Tom Rogic ensured Brendan Rodgers's men moved a point clear at the top with a game in hand over second-top Rangers.
It was Griffiths' seventh goal of the season and Celtic's 10th in three Premiership matches on top of the five they got against Motherwell in the League Cup. The Scotland striker relishes playing in an attacking unit that is thriving domestically.
"When we break at pace with me, Moussa (Dembele), Scott (Sinclair), James (Forrest), Patrick (Roberts), Tom (Rogic) and Ryan (Christie), who was on the bench, it's formidable."
Griffiths saluted midfielder Rogic, who scored Celtic's fourth from a free-kick against the over-run Dons.
"We know what Tom can do," he said. "He just glides along the floor and his touch at times is phenomenal. His all-round game is different class.
"It must have been disappointing for him during the week (against Hapoel Beer-Sheva) to not start the game, but he came back and was man of the match."
The former Hibernian man revealed that he has been playing with a sore hamstring since before the home game with Hapoel and will be assessed by Scotland's medics in the coming days.
Gordon Strachan's side begin their World Cup qualifying campaign in Malta a week on Sunday.
"I've managed to battle through it," said Griffiths. "I'll go away with Scotland now and see the physios. I always want to play for my country. I don't want to let anybody down.
"Hopefully I can pull through and get a chance. I've managed to play 60 minutes against Aberdeen and 55 minutes during the week."
Griffiths is Scotland's form striker but has had limited starting opportunities under Strachan.
"It's not my decision to make, it's Gordon's decision," the striker added. "If he sees that I'm ready to go then I'll be delighted.
"I've said it before - I'll sit on the bench and wait my turn. If I get called up, I'll give 100%."
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Leigh Griffiths says no team in Scotland can cope with Celtic's attacking threat.
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19,389,401 |
Remote access was still restricted "as a precaution" the group said.
Oil production was not affected by the virus which struck on 15 August, Saudi Aramco added.
The company took its website offline after the attack and now carries a message on its front page apologising for any inconvenience.
"We have isolated all our electronic systems from outside access as an early precautionary measure that was taken following a sudden disruption which affected some sectors of our network," the message reads.
Most of the damage has now been repaired, it added.
A group named the Cutting Sword of Justice has claimed responsibility for the attack in an online forum.
It blamed the Saudi government for "crimes and atrocities" in several countries. It said the state-run oil firm was hit because it was a key source of income for the government.
"This was not the first nor will it be the last illegal attempt to intrude into our systems," said Khalid al-Falih, president and chief executive of Saudi Aramco.
Last week a virus called Shamoon, which targeted companies in the energy industry, was reported by security experts. Saudi Aramco has not said whether this was the malware involved.
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About 30,000 workstation computers are back online at Saudi Aramco after a virus hit the world's largest oil producer.
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38,589,306 |
Conservatives are putting Jeremy Corbyn at the centre of their Copeland by-election campaign.
His image is all over Tory leaflets, and their logic is very simple.
Copeland relies on the nuclear industry and Jeremy Corbyn has opposed new nuclear power stations.
It means that when a by-election date is set, the contest in Cumbria could reveal a lot about how national politics will play out in the coming months.
Tories will highlight an issue that divides Mr Corbyn and his colleagues.
But amid a huge local row about hospitals, Labour may discover how much damage troubles in the NHS have done to the Conservatives.
Chat to voters in the constituency and you hear two concerns: jobs and healthcare.
In the butcher's in Whitehaven, one customer, Geoffrey Boyle, says: "This spot's dead enough already. There's hardly any life around here now. If nuclear goes, this town will be dead."
The economy revolves around Sellafield, and job numbers are set to fall there as reprocessing work ends. A new nuclear power station is proposed.
Labour backs new nuclear energy, and local politicians certainly do. But Mr Corbyn has made plain in the past that he disagrees.
A policy document for his leadership campaign in 2015 says plainly: "I am opposed to fracking and to new nuclear on the basis of the dangers posed to our ecosystems."
In a 2011 speech in the wake of the Fukushima disaster he went further, suggesting existing nuclear power stations should be decommissioned.
Sources close to Mr Corbyn say he no longer believes that's practical but Tories campaigning in Copeland have seized on his words.
Councillor, local Labour party secretary and would-be candidate Gillian Troughton says: "Jeremy Corbyn is not the entire Labour party and Labour policy is for the green, low-carbon energy policy of which nuclear power is a key part."
UKIP, which came third here at the last election, boasts that it can take Labour votes. Fiona Mills - who has been UKIP's candidate in Carlisle - is hoping to contest Copeland. She says: "When I stood in the general election I definitely took voters away from Labour because people told me that."
But while people here are worried about nuclear jobs, many are furious about healthcare.
There is a proposal to move services, including a consultant-led maternity unit, from the hospital in Whitehaven 40 miles down a slow, twisting road to Carlisle.
Michelle, who works in the butcher's, says: "Why don't we stick a fellow in the back of an ambulance whose making these decisions and stick a monitor on him that creates the pain the same as labour and see how he feels about that?"
Labour's message is that only it will care for the local NHS.
Conservative councillor Kevin Beaty says what happens to the hospital is a decision for the local NHS and blames "a PFI in the north set up under the last Labour government that is really difficult from a financial point of view for them".
But with a decision about the hospital due in March, potentially before a by-election date, it's a clear and present danger to Tory hopes.
If the Conservatives win, it will be the first time since 1982 the governing party has gained a seat in a by-election. Should that happen, Jamie Reed - the departing Labour MP - will in prompting the contest have done deeper damage to Mr Corbyn than he ever managed in many months criticising his leader. If Labour fails here blame will be piled deep at the door of the party leader.
Yet speculation about an electoral upset has raised Tory expectations in a patch that has been Labour since 1935. Merely holding on to a seat that even Margaret Thatcher couldn't seize could yet wind up feeling like a win for Labour.
If it's successful, a Labour strategy of responding to relentless attacks on Mr Corbyn with an equally relentless focus on the NHS may provide a model for the opposition in the years ahead.
2015 Copeland General Election result
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Ross Hawkins visits Copeland in Cumbria where the outgoing Labour MP is yet to leave his job but campaigning to elect his replacement has already begun in earnest.
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39,576,394 |
The unsupervised inmates later hid the PCs in the ceiling of a training room.
Investigators found software, pornography and articles about making drugs and explosives on the machines.
The discovery came after IT staff flagged unusual levels of internet activity on a contractor's account.
The PCs were found in 2015 but the case has only just been made public.
A report on the incident has been published by the Ohio Inspector General's Office and forwarded to the Ohio Ethics Commission and local officials.
It describes the series of events that led to the discovery of the computers in the ceiling of a training room at Marion Correctional Institution.
On 3 July 2015, an email alert told IT staff that the daily internet threshold for a user account had been exceeded.
But that account belonged to a contractor who was not scheduled to work on the day in question.
The mysterious user had tried to access certain file-sharing sites but had been blocked by the prison network's proxy server, which denies access to certain online content.
The user "then spent the next three hours straight trying to find sites that would circumvent the proxy and our policies," an email to IT employees noted.
After investigating the source of the network traffic, a member of the IT staff and two other inmates who were with him found a network cable leading up into the ceiling.
"When I removed the ceiling tiles I found two PCs hidden in the ceiling on two pieces of plywood," the staff member wrote in an incident report.
One of the inmates who had set up the computers later described how he had used components from other PCs that were part of a computer waste recycling programme.
He then plugged his machine into an internet connection device in the prison, according to the Inspector General's report.
"And then... bam, I'm on the network," he told investigators.
A trove of data was discovered on the machines, including records of passes being issued for inmates so they could access various parts of the prison.
Forensic analysis of the hard drives also found pornography, articles about making drugs, explosives and credit cards.
One IT employee was found to have breached inventory and crime scene protection policies.
"We will thoroughly review the reports and take any additional steps necessary to prevent these types of things from happening again," the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said in a statement.
"It is of critical importance that we provide necessary safeguards in regards to the use of technology while still providing opportunities for offenders to participate in meaningful and rehabilitative programming."
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A prison work programme has backfired, after two inmates in the US state of Ohio built computers from PCs they were supposed to be dismantling for recycling.
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39,417,715 |
A source said Labour chairman Hilary Benn had tried to "bounce" members into agreeing a 155-page report into the government's Brexit White Paper.
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said the source had told her the report could not be allowed to stand.
The committee's press spokesman declined to comment on the claims.
According to the source, there had been no consultation on the committee's report - drawn up after a number of evidence sessions held in Parliament - before Mr Benn put it forward to a vote.
The report, which has yet to be published, was into the White Paper which sets out the themes of the government's goals for its negotiations with the EU.
These include:
The Exiting the European Union Committee was appointed by the House of Commons to scrutinise the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Exiting the European Union.
It has a 21-strong membership, made up of MPs from all parties, including Labour, the Conservatives - including ex-cabinet ministers Michael Gove and John Whittingdale - the Scottish National Party, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Democratic Unionist Party.
Mr Benn - a Remain supporter during the referendum - was elected to lead the new select committee last October, beating Leave campaigner and fellow Labour MP Kate Hoey to the job.
The role of select committees, which interview witnesses and produce reports to check the work of different areas of government, has increased in profile in recent years.
Committees are often split along party lines and in some cases have been known to publish "minority reports" where a faction disagree with the majority view on an issue.
It is not known yet whether those who disagree with the proposed report will produce their own one.
Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning
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A number of Brexit-backing MPs walked out of a private meeting of the Commons Brexit Select Committee in protest at a report they claimed was "too gloomy".
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40,397,492 |
Wagg is the only survivor from Glamorgan's eight-wicket victory over Kent at Canterbury.
"It'll be interesting to see whether they've improved the quality of the ball since then" said Wagg.
The trial is designed to give England players practice for a Test match.
The game against the West Indies at Edgbaston in August is a first for the UK, with the pink ball intended to be more visible than a red one during the evening session under flood-lights.
Cardiff's SSE Swalec Stadium will be one of nine venues hosting a first-ever full round of Championship games starting at 14:00 BST.
The one-off match against Kent in September 2011 is the only previous Championship game to have been staged as a day-night affair, with the time of year making conditions unpleasant for a very sparse crowd.
"The balls are different, it's going to be different and I can see the reasons why the ECB is trying it out," Wagg told BBC Wales Sport.
The 34 year-old all-rounder, who joined Glamorgan from Derbyshire, claimed five wickets in the previous four-day match under lights.
"The ball itself wasn't great, they do swing to start with but it's almost a sort of paint on the ball rather than leather, whether that's improved since 2011 I don't know," he said.
"It was horrible and cold at that time of year, and there was no atmosphere, but hopefully people will come along and support us."
Glamorgan chief executive Hugh Morris believes the novelty will boost the profile of the Championship.
"It makes the game more accessible to the public by allowing supporters to watch their team after work or school, and experience something new and exciting" he said.
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Glamorgan's Graham Wagg hopes the pink ball being used in a day-night Championship match against Derbyshire is better than for a pioneering game in 2011.
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37,923,878 |
The win effectively clinches a place for Great Britain at the 2018 Winter Paralympics, subject to ratification.
Scotland's victory in the World Wheelchair Curling B Championship semi-final in Finland came after a surprise 6-2 loss to England when the sides met in the round-robin phase.
Scotland collect points on behalf of GB during Winter Paralympic qualification.
Eleven teams plus hosts South Korea will take part in the Games in Pyeongchang in 2018.
At present, Great Britain are 11th in the qualification standings, but South Korea are eighth, meaning a place is also set to go to the 12th-ranked team after the A Championships in Korea in March.
Only teams in the A Championship can earn qualification points.
The Scottish team, led by Aileen Neilson with fellow Sochi bronze medallists Gregor Ewan, Rob McPherson and Angie Malone, plus Hugh Nibloe, won six of their seven round-robin matches to top their pool, losing only to the English.
England, made up of Rosemary Lenton, Stephen McGarry, Gary Logan and Edward Bidgood beat Sweden 8-3 on Wednesday in a tie-breaker for third place in the group and secured their place in the last four with a 5-2 success over Poland.
British wheelchair curling lost its UK Sport funding earlier this year after it was "unable to demonstrate credible medal potential".
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Scotland won promotion to wheelchair curling's A Championship with a 13-3 victory over England.
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29,472,339 |
Jose Correia Agrela, 29, of no fixed address, is accused of killing Colin Evans, 39, whose body was found at a flat in Broomfield Road, Chelmsford on Tuesday.
He had been stabbed multiple times.
Mr Agrela appeared before Chelmsford magistrates and was remanded in custody. He is due to appear at Chelmsford Crown Court on 6 October.
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A man has appeared in court charged with murder after a man was stabbed to death in Essex.
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33,861,865 |
A Sky News investigation claims that individuals are being recruited by so-called Islamic State as "lone wolf" bombers in the UK.
Using fake identities reporters said they were told about a woman in Glasgow who was "ready to attack".
Police Scotland said it was working with the Metropolitan Police.
Officers have urged communities to report any suspicious activity.
Sky News said journalists created fictional characters online who were able to interact with so-called Islamic State recruiters.
The Sky team reported getting in touch with a married couple who are from the UK but based in Syria.
The undercover reporters said they were sent terror guidebooks by senior jihadists - including advice on raising funds and making weapons.
They said the female jihadist told them that this Saturday's VJ commemorations involving the Queen and the Royal Family were a target.
She is also said to have told them she had a potential female bomber in Glasgow.
Assistant Chief Constable Ruaraidh Nicolson, from Police Scotland's organised crime, counter terrorism and safer communities team, said: "Police Scotland is working with the Metropolitan Police following media reporting about potential terrorist activity in the United Kingdom.
"The threat level in the UK remains at 'severe' which means an attack is highly likely.
"Against that backdrop Police Scotland constantly assesses and reviews its response to the threat from terrorism with policing operations being shaped appropriately and based on the latest intelligence analysis."
He added: "I would like to reassure the public that we are working closely with our security partners and we remain alert to all terrorist threats that may manifest here or where individuals overseas may seek to direct or inspire others to commit attacks in and against the UK.
"I would ask that communities remain alert for any suspicious activity and report it to the police so we can take the appropriate action required.
"Communities are our biggest ally in the threat against terrorism."
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Police in Scotland have said they remain alert to all terrorist threats after a report that a woman in Glasgow may be poised to carry out an attack.
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36,230,416 |
She said the SNP's haul of 63 seats gave "a clear and unequivocal mandate" to govern as a minority administration.
The Conservatives came second with 31 seats. Leader Ruth Davidson said the SNP had no case for another referendum.
Labour slumped to third place with 24 seats followed by the Scottish Greens on six and Liberal Democrats on five.
Speaking in Edinburgh following the SNP's victory, Ms Sturgeon said "the SNP made history" by becoming "the first party to win a third consecutive Scottish Parliament election".
She said: "We won the highest share of the constituency vote and the largest number of constituency seats ever achieved in a Scottish Parliament election.
"And we are the first party in the era of devolution to poll more than one million votes in constituencies across the country.
"The result of the election was emphatic...we won a clear and unequivocal mandate."
Some of the main headlines from the night:
Ms Sturgeon said she had secured a "personal mandate" and would seek formal re-election as First Minister when the parliament reconvenes.
She added: "It will then be my intention to form and to lead an SNP government.
"With such a large number of MSPs elected I do not intend to seek any formal arrangement with any other party."
The SNP leader said she would lead an "inclusive" government and "reach out and seek to work with others across the parliament to find common ground and build consensus".
Party vote share by constituency
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With the Conservatives now the largest opposition party at Holyrood, Ms Davidson used her post-election address to call on the SNP to rule out another referendum on independence.
Speaking in Edinburgh, she said: "As I said during the election campaign, the SNP manifesto does not give Nicola Sturgeon a mandate for a second independence referendum.
"Now that she has failed to win a majority, whatever claims the SNP were pursuing with regard to constitutional brinkmanship over the next five years have now been utterly shredded.
"No mandate, no majority, no cause - the SNP must now let Scotland move on."
Ms Davidson said she was "very, very proud" that the Conservatives had recorded their best-ever Holyrood result by securing 31 MSPs to overtake Labour.
Their previous best result was 18 MSPs, a total the party achieved in both 1999 and 2003.
Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie also said the SNP must ditch the prospect of another independence referendum if they hoped to attract support from his party.
Speaking after the Lib Dems secured five seats - unchanged from 2011 - he said: "They have got to make a clear and unambiguous statement that another referendum must be off the table for the next five years in order to respect the referendum result.
"That's what they need to go just to get over the starting line and I think it's going to be pretty hard for them, but that's what they'll need to do in order to make sure that we can work in partnership."
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has written to party members saying they "must continue to fight for what we believe in" despite a "heartbreaking" result in the Holyrood election.
Labour finished third with 24 seats - down 13 from 2011 - its worst-ever result in the Scottish Parliament vote.
In an email, Ms Dugdale said the need for a party arguing for "using the power of government to invest in people" was more important than ever.
She wrote: "We could have fought an election that was about the arguments of two years ago but we chose to stand up for what we believe in.
"We will keep standing for our belief that we can choose to be better than this. Despite the disappointment of the final results, hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens stood with us.
"I'll keep fighting for our values."
Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie hailed his party's success after it trebled the number of MSPs from two to six and beat the Liberal Democrats into fifth place.
"It's clear with the continued decline of Labour and the lack of an overall SNP majority that we have an opportunity to increase our influence in the next parliament," he said.
"Greens have already proved ourselves to be a constructive yet challenging opposition group, delivering results on housing, fracking, fuel poverty and fan ownership of football clubs among many other issues."
For Scottish Labour, arguments over their manifesto or personalities are to miss the point. This election was clearly about the constitution.
Scottish politics are still totally dominated by the independence question which was certainly not settled on 18 September 2014 and still seems to take precedence in voters' minds over any other issue.
And it's an issue on which Labour cannot win.
So where does that leave Labour?
If the SNP are the party of independence and the Tories the party of the union, what is the point of the Labour Party?
They will continue to argue that they care most about social justice and poverty. But as long as voters remain split over the constitution that may not win back many voters.
Read more from Sarah
Scotland's Additional Member System sees 73 constituency MSPs elected through first-past-the-post and 56 regional MSPs elected, from eight electoral regions, through a form of proportional representation.
The SNP dominated the constituency vote taking 59 of the 73 seats - an increase of six on the 2011 election.
The Conservatives won seven, four up on last time, and the Liberal Democrats took four, an increase of two. The big loser was Labour which won three seats - down 12.
The SNP's dominance was not reflected in the proportional regional system.
The SNP has four regional MSPs - down 12; the Conservatives have 24, up 12; Labour was down one, to 21; the Scottish Greens have six, up four; and the Liberal Democrats won one regional seat, down two on their previous result.
The constituency seats which changed hands
The gains and losses
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SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has ruled out coalition talks after falling two seats short of an overall majority in the 2016 Holyrood election.
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29,175,607 |
Work on the controversial 15-mile (25km) Thames Tideway Tunnel, which has been proposed by Thames Water, will start in 2016 and finish in 2023.
The company says it is needed because the city's current Victorian drainage system cannot cope.
Opponents say the work will cause major disruption near tunnelling sites and insist there are better options.
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The tunnel will run from Acton Storm Tanks in west London to the Abbey Mills pumping station, in east London, and have a storage capacity of 1.25 million cubic metres.
It would eventually add up to £80 a year to Thames Water customers' bills.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: "This is a challenging infrastructure project, but it is clear that the Thames Tunnel will help modernise London's ageing Victorian sewerage system, and make the River Thames cleaner and safer."
Thames Water has said the current systems overflow on a weekly basis, flushing 39 million tonnes of raw sewage straight into the Thames each year. The company said in 2013, 55 million tonnes of sewage polluted the river.
"If the tunnel had been in operation last year, it would have captured 97% of the sewage that poured into London's river," Thames Water's Andy Mitchell said.
"Hardly a week goes by when untreated sewage isn't pouring in to London's river and we are pleased that we can now start to tackle this archaic problem.
"This is a huge project but it's a huge problem, and we can now get on with tackling it."
But several London councils and environmental groups have criticised the project.
Southwark Council leader Peter John described it as a "ludicrous and evil decision".
And Christian Sarrasin, from the environmental group, Clean Thames Now and Always, said much of the building work would take place around the clock, causing "mayhem" for people who lived near the tunnelling sites.
"We've concreted over all the cities and that's why we've got this issue with the Thames Tunnel," he said.
He said there were cheaper, greener alternatives to it that involved preventing stormwater flooding into the sewers in the first place, such as green roofs and porous asphalt roads that soaked up or stored water.
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Plans for a £4.2bn "super sewer" under London have been given the go-ahead by the government.
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32,124,685 |
She was speaking to BBC Scotland on day two of the general election campaign.
Elsewhere, Scottish Labour launched a £175m Scottish anti-poverty fund.
The Scottish Lib Dems pledged £800m to improve the NHS in Scotland and the Scottish Conservatives criticised changes to stamp duty.
Voters across the UK go to the polls on 7 May.
On day two of the campaign, the main parties in Scotland will be pushing hard on their key messages.
Speaking on BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme, Ms Sturgeon said another referendum was not an issue in this general election, but Trident remained a deal-breaker.
She said: "The general election is not about independence, it's about giving Scotland a louder voice in Westminster, making sure that Scotland's interests are protected and that the issues that matter to us are up the agenda.
"We're not going to get a referendum as a result of this Westminster election and that's not one of the issues that we would be seeking to secure."
But she insisted the renewal of Trident remained a "red line" issue for the SNP in any post-election deal with Labour.
Ms Sturgeon said: "Under no circumstance would we ever vote for the renewal of Trident or the spending of money on the renewal of Trident.
"In terms of any formal arrangement with Labour, I've made clear and I can't make clearer, Trident is a red line."
Labour leader Ed Miliband said earlier this month there would not be a Labour/SNP coalition in the event of a hung parliament.
Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy pledged to establish a £175m fund aimed at "waging a war on poverty" during a visit to a food bank distribution centre in Edinburgh.
Mr Murphy said: "If it was not for the generosity of their fellow Scots, tens of thousands of people, including thousands of children, would be going hungry tonight.
"Scottish Labour promises to end the need for food banks. The causes of poverty are complex, which is why our plan is wide-ranging, from capping energy bills and banning rip-off rents to setting up a Scottish anti-poverty fund to provide practical help."
Ruth Davidson, Scottish Conservative leader, was also in the capital where she criticised the Scottish government's change to stamp duty and highlighted new figures which the Tories claim reveal the "true impact" of the new Land and Building Transaction Tax on home-buyers.
She said: "The Scottish Conservatives are the only party at this election which will campaign for a fair deal on tax for Scots. John Swinney has the funds to afford a tax cut for all homebuyers in Scotland.
"It's time he passed it on and ditched his tax on aspiration."
Meanwhile, healthcare was the focus for the Liberal Democrats' Scotland spokesman Alistair Carmichael as he visited a distillery in Inverurie.
He pledged an extra £800m for the NHS in Scotland, saying it was needed to tackle the extra pressures facing the health service from new treatments being available and people living longer.
But Mr Carmichael recognised that, because health is a devolved issue, it would be up the the Scottish government to decide whether the extra money would be spent on the NHS.
He said: "We value the NHS. We want to see it grown and adapt to the community it serves. That's why we're prepared to put our money where our mouth is."
What are the top issues for each political party at the 2015 general election?
Policy guide: Where the parties stand
Subscribe to the BBC Election 2015 newsletter to get a round-up of the day's campaign news sent to your inbox every weekday afternoon.
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SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said another independence referendum would not form any part of a post-election deal with Labour, but the renewal of Trident remained a "red line".
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33,336,988 |
Janet and John Stocker, aged 63 and 74, were killed in Sousse on Friday their family confirmed.
The couple, who had five children and 10 grandchildren, "tragically lost their lives as a result of Friday's atrocities" a statement said.
A minute's silence will be held on Friday to remember all the victims.
The family statement said: "Mum and dad were the happiest, most loving couple who enjoyed life's simple pleasures as well as the pleasures and love of their extensive family and their many friends.
"But most of all they were still very much in love with each other."
It said they were "both young at heart" and enjoyed "travelling to new places, exploring and appreciating local cultures, and they died together doing what they enjoyed most; sunbathing side by side".
Mr Stocker was a retired printer "born and bred in Peckham" while his wife came from Fulham and was a "fun-loving and devoted mother".
The family said: "They made a huge impact on our lives, and touched the hearts of so many people and they will both be sorely missed and never forgotten."
Britons killed by the gunman have started being repatriated to RAF Brize Norton ahead of a joint inquest being opened by the West London coroner.
One Belgian and one German are also thought to be among the dead.
Tunisian authorities have arrested several people on suspicion of helping the gunman Seifeddine Rezgui, who had links to the jihadist group Islamic State (IS). Rezgui was shot dead by police.
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A couple who were "born and bred" Londoners have been named among the 38 people killed in the Tunisian beach attack.
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36,828,325 |
Kean joined the Canaries in July 2015 following his departure from Blackburn, but never played for the club.
The 25-year-old made a total of eight appearances in loan spells with Colchester and Swindon last season.
"There is a lot of competition but any competition is good competition," Kean told the club website.
"It's up to me to come here and have a go and try to get that number one shirt, but it's Keiren Westwood's at the minute and if I can provide more competition for him and make him play better, then great."
The length of Kean's deal at Hillsborough has not been disclosed.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.
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Championship side Sheffield Wednesday have signed goalkeeper Jake Kean after his contract with Norwich City was terminated by mutual consent.
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32,053,872 |
Ronnie Coulter, 46, from Wishaw, is accused of killing the 32-year-old while acting with two other men.
His QC Donald Findlay said further time was needed "as to when - or indeed if - Mr Coulter will be fit to stand trial or whether we will proceed by an examination of facts hearing".
At the High Court in Glasgow, judge Lord Bannatyne continued the case.
Prosecutors allege that Mr Coulter was acting with two other men - Andrew Coulter and David Montgomery - at the time of the alleged attack.
The murder charge includes claims that Mr Chhokar was punched and prevented from defending himself.
He is then said to have been hit with a wooden baton before Mr Coulter repeatedly struck him with a knife and killed him.
It is further alleged that Mr Coulter did previously "envince malice and ill-will" towards Mr Chhokar.
He is then accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice - which include claims he got another person to hide clothes worn during the alleged murder and a case of knives.
Mr Coulter is further accused of later attempting to pervert the course of justice with "intent to avoid "detection, arrest, prosecution and conviction".
He also faces earlier claims that on the day of the alleged murder, he forged the signature of Mr Chhokar to help cash a £100 giro cheque.
He is then accused of joining Andrew Coulter to break into Mr Chhokar's home in Wishaw and steal a cooker.
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A man has appeared in court charged with the 1998 murder of Surjit Singh Chhokar in Overtown, North Lanarkshire.
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35,570,383 |
She has now won four World Cup golds this season and in all disciplines and has reached the podium seven times.
There was also GB success in the men's 500m with Paul Stanley clinching a silver medal.
Christie, 25, is also the reigning European champion having skated to victory in her three races in Sochi.
Dordercht in the Netherlands held the final World Cup races. The World Championships are in Seoul in March.
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British short track speed skater Elise Christie won two gold medals in the final World Cup of the season, triumphing in the 500m and 1,000m.
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36,158,645 |
Crazy, strange and unsteady are a few of the adjectives used as pundits try to work out what a Trump foreign policy might look like, though one Israeli newspaper seems reassured.
Several German commentators admit to being flummoxed by the speech. "It's not very easy to follow him," writes Der Spiegel's Washington correspondent, Veit Medick.
The candidate's comments can "hardly be called a coherent plan", he adds.
Die Welt's Clemens Wergin sees Mr Trump as a security risk, saying his speech confirmed many experts' view that "we are dealing with an unsteady character".
France's business daily Les Echos asks whether the speech is "a return to isolationism", reporting that Mr Trump wants to point the US in "a less interventionist direction".
The speech also makes the front page of the Spanish daily, El Pais.
Washington correspondent Marc Bassets says Mr Trump's foreign policy doctrine could be summed up as a mix of "isolationism, realpolitik and militarism".
Two heavyweight US papers are unimpressed with the speech, with The New York Times headlining its scathing editorial: "Donald Trump's Strange World View."
It argues that he "did not exhibit much grasp of the complexity of the world, understanding of the balance or exercise of power, or even a careful reading of history."
In the Washington Post, Dana Milbank writes about "Trump's crazy attempt not to sound crazy".
"Trump did not offer more detail on how he would 'bring peace to the world,' but he gave strongman promises that everything would be fine", he laments.
"Perhaps the most unnerving promise Trump made was his determination to be erratic", he continues.
"On this vow, Trump has already made good - and that's just the problem."
Nahum Barnea, writing in Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth, says Mr Trump "took his foreign policy inspiration from the Westerns" and calls it "cowboy diplomacy".
Boaz Bismuth has a different view in Yisrael Hayom, calling the speech "firm, focused".
"Trump wants a decent, strong, loyal America, but he is also not a sucker. And he sees in Israel the most loyal ally of the United States," he writes.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.
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Donald Trump's foreign policy speech on Wednesday leaves a few media commentators scratching their heads.
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39,289,594 |
Appointed in 2014, he led the side to two Muratti titles, as well as their first Island Games gold medal in 2015.
However, in a statement Petulla said disagreements with the JFA on how women's football should progress in the island made his position "untenable".
He added: "It's become clear that the priorities of the JFA differ from those of the current management team."
Assistant boss Charlie Petulla, goalkeeping coach Jason Carpenter and performance coach Jimmy Kelly have also stepped down.
Former Wales international Jodie Botterill, who has been named in the squad for this summer's Island Games in Gotland, will take charge of the side for their friendly against the Royal Navy on Saturday, alongside JFA community coach Daniel Seviour.
Speaking to BBC Radio Jersey, Simon Petulla added that the controversial cancellation of this year's Muratti match between Jersey and Guernsey had contributed to his decision.
"That's one of the main reasons - as a management team we felt the JFA should've fought tooth and nail to get that Muratti, instead of backing the GFA (Guernsey Football Association).
"Before we won the gold medal, people just left us alone to get on with our own thing, but as soon as we won the medal we had to run everything through the JFA, and things didn't get done."
Petulla's resignation comes exactly 100 days before the start of the Gotland Games, where Jersey will look to defend their women's football crown.
"There are some good people at the JFA as well, but there were certain people that we'd fallen out with over a period of time," he added.
"It shows me that they're not really out to keep the improvement that we've made over the years with the women's game and they're concentrating more on the men's game, and I think that's not fair in this day and age.
"I think with equality and the FA in England trying to really promote women's football, I think we need to be doing the same over here as well."
JFA chief executive Neville Davidson said in a statement: "Our immediate focus is on Saturday's fixture against the Navy. Thereafter we will look to appoint a new management team."
Analysis
Tim Pryor, BBC Radio Jersey sports editor
What a huge blow this is for women's football in Jersey, on the back of the cancellation of the Muratti.
Petulla and his coaching staff have raised the profile of the women's game in the island to the extent that there's as much of a buzz around their fixtures as the men's matches.
The team's first ever Island Games gold medal, achieved on home turf at Jersey 2015, was for many the standout, defining moment of the Games.
They leave behind a big hole that the Jersey FA will now need to fill at short notice, with the defence of the gold in Gotland this summer.
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Simon Petulla has resigned as Jersey women's manager after falling out with the island's Football Association.
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39,694,075 |
Research by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) found two-thirds of small Scottish firms with EU staff were worried about future skills shortages.
A total of 37% said they would consider reducing operations if Brexit led to extra barriers on hiring EU citizens.
Almost a fifth said they might close their business, while 12% would consider moving their business abroad.
FSB said EU workers helped to plug chronic skills gaps across a range of sectors.
The UK-wide research found 26% of Scottish small employers currently had a member of staff from elsewhere in the EU, with this figure rising to 41% in the Highlands.
By comparison, about a fifth of UK firms employed an EU worker.
Almost 90% of those surveyed said they had recruited their EU staff when they were already living in the UK.
The vast majority of UK respondents (95%) said they had no experience of using the UK's points-based immigration system to recruit non-EU workers.
FSB national chairman Mike Cherry said: "There is real concern among small firms with EU staff that they will lose access to the skills and labour their business needs to survive and grow.
"EU workers are a vital part of our economy, helping to plug chronic skills gaps across a wide range of sectors, and filling jobs in an already tight labour market.
"From packers, to mechanics, to graphic designers, small employers need to be able to hire the right person, for the right job at the right time."
Scottish policy convener Andy Willox said: "Our data shows that our members predominantly recruit non-UK EU citizens because they're the best candidates.
"If our immigration system is set to change, then our skills system needs to do the same."
The survey included responses from 577 Scottish respondents between 31 March and 12 April.
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Small firms have raised fresh concerns about the impact of Brexit on employing EU workers.
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11,521,789 |
Gordon Brown had waited many years to take his bow at prime minister's questions.
Tony Blair had remarked on his successor's "clunking fist" and pundits wondered whether he would be able to land a knockout blow on David Cameron, who had impressed in his two years as opposition leader.
But some were already worried whether Mr Brown was quick enough on his feet to glide through the weekly Commons clash.
The encounter, taking place days after attempted suicide bombings in London and Glasgow, was dominated by security issues.
Mr Brown sought to strike a consensual note by saying all parties should "show unity in the face of terror" but the two leaders clashed over the need for identity cards and the banning of extremist groups.
The prime minister announced a number of security-related initiatives but was jeered by the opposition when, in response to one question, he said he had "only been in the job for five days".
Verdict: Tory MPs were jubilant after the session while Labour MPs, although less upbeat, said the match was a draw. Gordon Brown never did land that clunking blow during their three years of clashes before he resigned after losing the 2010 General Election.
David Cameron became the fifth Tory leader to take on Tony Blair at PMQs.
He began the exchanges with a question on schools, offering to support the "best bits" of Tony Blair's academies legislation, which he knew many Labour MPs were opposed to.
As Labour MPs tried to shout him down, he chided the party's chief whip Hilary Armstrong for "shouting like a child".
But what the session was really remembered for was his taunting of Mr Blair. To huge cheers from the Conservative benches, he gestured towards the prime minister and said: "He was the future once."
Verdict: Conservative-supporting papers loved his performance, saying he had wrong-footed Mr Blair but other papers were less sure, saying it was knockabout stuff and his inexperience might catch him out. Mr Cameron, who became PM after 2010 election, was said by commentators to have generally held his own against Blair and to have regularly outperformed Gordon Brown.
The new Tory leader was always regarded as a tough debater but how would he fare in the bearpit of PMQs?
Taking on Tony Blair, he accused the prime minister of running an incompetent and wasteful government and derided the PM's answers, saying at one point: "Two questions asked, neither answered: not a very good start I'm afraid."
Although the atmosphere was electric, the clash was largely nostalgic in flavour.
Mr Blair attacked Mr Howard's own record in government and his support for the poll tax but Mr Howard responded by saying he had a dossier on Mr Blair's policy inconsistencies which he did not need to "sex up" - a reference to the continuing row over the UK government's case for war in Iraq.
Verdict: This first performance was well received by Tory MPs, and by commentators, long frustrated over Iain Duncan Smith's efforts. Although Mr Howard continued to land some blows on Mr Blair - famously telling him "this grammar school boy will not take any lessons from that public school boy" - it did not help him get into power and he quit after the 2005 election.
After his surprise victory in the Tory leadership contest, Iain Duncan Smith's debut outing was eagerly awaited, although it took place in a sombre atmosphere, just weeks after the 9/11 attacks.
He opted to spread his six questions into two segments. The first three concerned the situation in Afghanistan, where he backed the UK-supported military action against the Taliban and urged Tony Blair to "see it through".
The second exchange, in which he attacked Labour's proposed NHS reforms, was far more heated.
Raising the case of a constituent who had died after spending nine hours on a hospital trolley, the Tory leader said all Labour's "promises of a better tomorrow" would sound "hollow" to their family and many others.
Mr Blair said such failings were "unacceptable" but hit out at the Tories for not supporting their investment in the NHS.
Verdict: This was seen as a low-key debut and things did not get much better for the Tory leader with commentators calling his performances wooden, and focusing on his tendency to develop a frog in his throat at key moments. He sought to flip the criticism, warning people not to underestimate the determination "of the quiet man" but he was toppled two years later, with his PM's questions performances said to be partly to blame.
A youthful William Hague faced an exceedingly tough task, taking on the leadership of a party which had just been battered at the polls and lost many of its big names.
At his first PMQs - now being held once a week - he seized on reports that a Labour MP had been threatened with expulsion from the party for campaigning against proposals for a Welsh Assembly.
He said this showed the "arrogant behaviour" of a government which could not tolerate "honest and open" debate.
New prime minister Tony Blair said the claims had been proved to be untrue and urged Mr Hague to withdraw them.
Verdict: Mr Hague's confident performance set the tone for his period as leader in which he regularly shone in Parliament. His humour and ability to think on his feet regularly boosted the morale of Conservative MPs. However, it was ultimately to no avail as the Conservatives were trounced at the 2001 election and he stepped down.
Tony Blair has spoken of the excruciating nerves he felt as prime minister ahead of the weekly session but when he was leader of the opposition, he often made it look like plain sailing.
Facing John Major for the first time, he attacked what he said were serious divisions at the top of the government over Europe, particularly over the single currency and whether a referendum would be needed before joining the euro.
A "divided government was a weak government", he told MPs.
Mr Major responded by saying that Labour would "slavishly follow" everything coming out of Brussels if it came to power.
Verdict: This set the tone for Tony Blair's confrontations with John Major in the final years of the Tory government. He regularly emerged on top, memorably accusing the prime minister on one occasion of being "weak, weak, weak". When he became PM in 1997 he changed the twice weekly 15 minute sessions into the single half hour clash it currently is. Mr Blair got a standing ovation from MPs when he finished his last PMQs in 2007.
John Smith faced his first PMQs soon after becoming opposition leader and in the wake of Labour's demoralising election defeat.
He called on the government to have an independent review before any further pit closures, suggesting Prime Minister John Major and Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine were at odds over the issue.
Ministers had nothing to "be afraid of" in doing so and if they declined to act, he called for the future of pits to be referred to a cross-party select committee.
In response, Mr Major said there would be a consultation on the future of "uneconomic" mines which had been earmarked for closure and said Labour's outrage was "bogus" as many mines had closed while it was in office.
Verdict: John Smith was well respected on all sides of the House of Commons for his intelligence and skills as an orator. His death in 1994 robbed Parliament of one of its best performers. His successor Tony Blair went on to win a landslide victory at the 1997 election.
John Major faced PM's questions on his second day as prime minister, having never done it before.
The session began in humorous fashion when, as Mr Major rose to answer his first question, Labour MP Dennis Skinner shouted "resign". Mr Kinnock then offered the new prime minister his "personal congratulations" on his election as leader.
The future of the poll tax dominated exchanges. Mr Kinnock said it would save a lot of "time and money" to just abolish it.
Mr Major steered a middle course, saying a thorough review of the controversial tax was the right action to take. But he also claimed that Labour's support for local rates would be more regressive.
Verdict: John Major's understated style was a striking contrast to both his predecessor and his opponent Neil Kinnock. Many Conservative MPs appreciated the more measured approach and this certainly helped him at the 1992 election. But it failed to halt the slide in his fortunes as he headed to defeat and resignation in 1997.
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As Ed Miliband faces his first Prime Minister's questions, here's a look at his predecessors' debuts.
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The revelations, made in the Sunday Times newspaper, are based on an interview with ex-CIA agent Donald Rickard shortly before he died.
Mandela served 27 years in jail for resisting white minority rule before being released in 1990.
He was subsequently elected as South Africa's first black president.
Rickard, who died earlier this year, was never formally associated with the CIA but worked as a diplomat in South Africa before retiring in the late 70s.
The interview was conducted by British film director John Irvin, who has made a film, Mandela's Gun, about his brief career as an armed rebel, the Sunday Times said.
The events leading up the the arrest of Nelson Mandela, on a dark night near Durban in 1962, have always been murky. In the era of Cold War politics, Mandela, then leader of the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), was considered a terrorist and a threat to the West.
As Mr Rickard put it, he was "the most dangerous communist" outside of the Soviet Union, although Mandela always denied being a member of the party.
Rumours have circulated for years that the CIA trailed Mandela but the agency resisted previous attempts to shine a light on its alleged involvement in his arrest. Rickard's admission will bring renewed pressure to declassify documents from the time.
The ANC's spokesman Zizi Kodwa said he believed the CIA was still meddling in South African affairs and collaborating with those wanting "regime change".
The future president led the armed resistance movement of the banned ANC, and was one of the most wanted men in South Africa at the time of his arrest.
His ability to evade the security services had earned him the nickname "the black Pimpernel".
He was posing as a chauffeur when his car was stopped at a roadblock by the police in the eastern city of Durban in 1962 and he was detained.
"I found out when he was coming down and how he was coming... that's where I was involved and that's where Mandela was caught," Rickard is quoted as saying.
ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said: "That revelation confirms what we have always known, that they are working against [us], even today.
"It's not thumb sucked, it's not a conspiracy [theory]. It is now confirmed that it did not only start now, there is a pattern in history."
Mandela, president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, was on a US terror watch list until 2008.
Before that, along with other former ANC leaders, he was only able to visit the US with special permission from the secretary of state, because the ANC had been designated a terrorist organisation by the former apartheid government.
The bill scrapping the designation was introduced by Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, who promised to "wipe away" the "indignity".
President Ronald Reagan had originally placed the ANC on the list in the 1980s.
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Nelson Mandela's arrest in 1962 came as a result of a tip-off from an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a report says.
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It was spotted by a walker on Tal y Foel, near Dwyran, at about 13:40 BST on Tuesday.
The item has now been sent for forensic examination, while the coroner will be informed.
North Wales Police said it was continuing to look into the circumstances surrounding the discovery.
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An object believed to be a human foot has been found on a beach on Anglesey, police have confirmed.
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The algae blooms often form during mid to late summer and can cause rashes, joint and muscle pain, diarrhoea and vomiting.
South Lakeland District Council said it was aware a large area of Windermere was currently affected.
A council spokesman said people in the area should be "vigilant", especially with their pets.
The Environment Agency has warned affected landowners and notices have been put up on the council owned land.
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Potentially harmful blue-green algae has been found in a "significant area" of Windermere.
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Capel Iwan school near Newcastle Emlyn said goodbye to its last 12 children in July.
But education officials say the school must be ready to open in the autumn - with a fully paid head teacher.
The assembly government says the local authority must go through the correct procedures before it can be shut.
Those processes includes a lengthy statutory consultation period with people in the area, before the issue can be fully discussed by Carmarthenshire council.
If there are any objections, then the whole matter must be passed to the assembly government's education minister to consider.
The whole process could take more than a year to complete.
In the meantime, it would be illegal for the school to shut - even though not a single pupil will be taught in the classrooms at Capel Iwan.
Councillor Gwynne Woolridge, who is responsible for education on the executive of Carmarthenshire council, described the situation as "unfortunate".
He said: "Legally, the Welsh Assembly [Government] requires a statutory process of discussion with the governors, with the community, with the parents and with the teachers, and this is the situation that prevails.
"When situations like this arise, it is very difficult. It does cost us money and you have just got to carry on with the consultation process and keep the school open until that process is finished.
"This is the legal situation and we have to work within the law."
As well as retaining its head teacher, Capel Iwan will still be paying for a school caretaker and also has a full governing body.
Carmarthenshire council said it had set aside a budget of £110,000 for the school, on the basis that it would officially remain open until at least the end of March 2011.
The council said that the head teacher would remain employed by the school until the end of December, however the head teacher would be deployed to other duties within the authority during that time.
Chairman of the governors, Mark Vincent said the current situation has arisen because the school only learned at the end of the last term that five pupils who were due to return were being sent to other schools in the area.
The other children who were pupils in July are now due to start secondary school.
"Parents have looked at the number of children in their particular child's age group and thought maybe their individual child's education would be better served in another school," he said.
"Every parent has made their decision based on individual circumstances.
"We didn't have final confirmation that parents were going to do this until days before the end of term."
Mr Vincent said as governors, they would not be objecting to the school's closure.
"From the point of view of the governing body our main concerns were educational, and if you've got no children to educate it's a fait accompli. We won't object to proposals when consultation comes about," he said.
'Unlawful'
A spokesperson for the assembly government confirmed that the Carmarthenshire education authority must keep the school open.
"If a local authority wants to close a school they must follow statutory procedures," said the spokesperson.
"We have advised the local authority that they need to take this step in respect of Capel Iwan although there are no pupils in attendance. The closure of the school without such procedures would be unlawful."
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A Carmarthenshire primary school is being told it must stay open at the cost of up to £110,000 - despite not having a single pupil.
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As the national side sees out what appears to be another failed attempt to reach a major championship, former international Andy McLaren feels the game has abandoned a once rich source of talent.
He's providing football sessions in some of the most deprived areas of Glasgow, to kids who can't afford to pay to play.
"Football, in my opinion, has become middle class," McLaren told BBC Radio Scotland's Sportsound programme in an interview to be broadcast on Monday evening.
"It's an absolute disgrace that kids are being priced out of football in this country.
"It's meant to be our national sport. It's meant to be all-inclusive. At the moment it's not.
"I would have been priced out of football just now.
"I grew up in Castlemilk, a housing estate on the south side of Glasgow. Up until I was 15, I thought that was the way everybody grew up.
"Crime, heroin, drink - football was my escape route from all of that. Football was important, took me away from an area that was hard growing up in. It gave me something to focus on."
McLaren is part of a charitable organisation trying to give young people opportunity, particularly through football but in other ways too, in order to tackle the stark disadvantage that simply being born into a certain postcode can bring.
He feels the game he loves, which did so much for him, is now leaving those kids behind.
"I've been working in these areas for seven, eight years and I think I've seen an SFA coach once," he said.
"Remember these are areas guys like Kenny Dalglish, Frank McAvennie, Bertie Auld (came from); really we could be missing out on the next Kenny Dalglish because he's not got a fiver a week.
"For me that's wrong; it's meant to be our national sport."
That's the nub of the problem as far as he sees it. Families in these areas simply can't afford to pay for their children to participate in football.
"I keep hearing that kids don't want to play football," he explained.
"Come up and see us on a Friday night or come to one of our camps and see 200-250 boys running about and tell me kids don't want to play football.
"People keep telling me that cost isn't an issue - 100% cost is an issue.
"We're not getting the same kids from the same areas. Growing up in Castlemilk I genuinely can't remember paying for football. Maybe it was 10 pence or you sold a football card now and again.
"People are struggling out there. We started eight years ago and very quickly we'd see young people with holes in their shoes and things like that.
"Some would turn up for camps with no packed lunch. Very quickly we learned we had to feed them because the coaches were having to give them their lunches.
"People will go to me, 'it's the parents' fault' but people out there are struggling with mental health issues or addiction issues.
"I think we're easy in this country to blame people. If you see someone struggling it's our job to help the less fortunate.
"As a society, I think we can do a lot more.
"Areas we work in are areas of high deprivation, the top 5% of every poverty chart you can get.
"If we charged £1 we wouldn't have the same success because the money is not there."
As a former professional with Dundee United, Kilmarnock, Reading and Morton, McLaren is keen not only to give children of a similar background to his a chance, he also wants them to learn from his mistakes.
Those mistakes took the form of a reliance on alcohol and drugs through much of his playing career. He did that as he couldn't cope with a harrowing experience as a child.
McLaren was abused at a young age by someone in his local community. Ultimately, it brought him to the point of almost taking his own life.
Shame, fear, embarrassment, blaming himself and the dressing room environment had all prevented him from unburdening himself for decades.
Football was his salvation rather than part of the problem.
"Some nights I'd be struggling," he admitted. "I didn't know how to deal with what I was dealing with.
"I wasn't taking them (drugs and alcohol) socially. I was taking them for effect.
"It wasn't as if anyone forced me to do anything. I was a willing participant. I enjoyed it."
McLaren believes a failed drug test while playing at Reading saved his life, as did the support of the English FA who paid for him to rehabilitate at the Priory clinic.
He was talented, won a Scottish Cup with Dundee United, and remarkably battled back after falling from grace to win a Scotland cap. He may have had more.
Thankfully, for all the negatives of his own experience, there's a positive outcome which is benefiting children growing up in areas like he did.
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Scotland widely bemoans a lack of footballing talent emerging to match the stars of yesteryear.
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A coroner ruled bullying and the "lingering" effect of an alleged rape were factors in the suicide of Cpl Anne-Marie Ellement, 30, in 2011.
Now, ex-Cpl Thomas Fulton and ex-Cpl Jeremy Jones have each been charged with two counts of rape.
In 2009 the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA) ruled there was not enough evidence to prosecute them.
But the director of service prosecutions, Andrew Cayley, said he has now concluded that decision was wrong.
Cpl Ellement alleged she was raped by two soldiers during a posting in Germany in 2009.
She was found dead at Bulford Barracks in Wiltshire.
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Two men have been charged with raping a Bournemouth soldier who was found hanged in her barracks.
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Jonathan Anthony, 50, strangled his wife Lisa, 47, and suffocated his daughter Ava, 14, at their home in Esher, Surrey on 17 June.
He then laid out their bodies in the master bedroom, hand in hand, Woking Coroner's Court was told.
Verdicts of unlawful killing were recorded on both mother and daughter.
His body was found in Aix-en-Provence on 28 June.
The inquest was told that 24 hours before the killings the family were together at a pub in Ockham for a birthday party, where members of the extended family said they seemed fine.
Coroner Simon Wickens said that after the killings, the businessman, who ran an event management company with his wife, told friends and family and Ava's school they would be away for a week.
He then went to France and spent a week in Paris and Nice with his girlfriend.
He had falsely told the woman he was the boss of the Hugo Boss clothing company.
He also lied to a friend in France, saying his wife and daughter, a pupil at Guildford High School, had been killed in a car crash.
Surrey Police found the bodies at the house, in a gated community, 12 days after the killings.
The court heard he cut his own throat but that his death was being dealt with by the French authorities.
The case was initially referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) because someone who knew Mrs Anthony called Surrey Police on 24 June because of concerns for her welfare.
A spokesman for the IPCC said the matter had been passed back to the force.
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A businessman who had been having an affair killed his wife and teenage daughter before escaping to France and killing himself, an inquest has heard.
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Quantum computing is widely seen as an evolution of computer technology, which may allow for much faster calculations than today's machines.
The technology is still in its infancy, but one expert said it was a "small step" towards a useful quantum computer.
IBM said it hoped to see processors up to 20 times larger in the next decade.
Traditional computers process all their information using bits - information stored in tiny transistors that can either be on or off - interpreted as values of one and zero.
Quantum computing instead takes advantage of a mechanic called superpositioning that allows quantum bits - or "qubits" - to have values of one, zero, or both at the same time.
Researchers believe this core difference will eventually lead to powerful devices with processing power that will exceed the limits of classic computers.
IBM's quantum processor is located in its TJ Watson Research Centre in New York. Quantum processors are notoriously sensitive, so it is being kept at supercooled temperatures in a cryogenic refrigerator.
It has just five qubits that can be manipulated, but the company expects processors of 50-100 qubits to emerge within the next decade. General-purpose machines, which IBM calls "universal" quantum computers, will eventually use more than 100,000 qubits.
IBM's cloud solution allows users to drag and drop logic gates - a core principle of processors - on to the individual qubits to form algorithms or experiments. Those can then be sent to a simulator, or added to a queue for the real quantum processor to work on.
People wishing to access the processors must request an invitation through a web form that asks for a user's institution details and level of computing experience.
A spokesman for IBM said the invite system was to prevent bots from swarming the system, and told the BBC that anyone would be granted access regardless of experience.
The complexity of quantum computing means that most users are likely to have a basic background in the subject.
"IBM has made a small but very significant step towards a useful quantum computer," said Chris Ford, Professor of Quantum Electronics at Cambridge University.
"This will only be useful for experts who know what they are doing, but the very idea that it's available to all may bring quantum computing to the attention of the general public, and encourage more people to be interested in how physics makes this new form of computing possible."
The potential power of quantum computing to perform advanced calculations is also a concern for the security industry, as it may make it possible to easily crack existing encryption methods.
Current security standards rely on the extreme complexity of encryption - something advanced quantum processing may be able to handle.
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology has announced it will hold a public competition for new encryption standards that will be more difficult to crack - hoping for a quantum-proof standard by 2023.
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IBM has made a functioning quantum processor available to the public over the internet.
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Khalid Alahmadi, 23, of Cardiff, was arrested following allegations of assault in Gorsedd Gardens on Thursday.
The court heard Mr Alahmadi was a student at the University of South Wales in Treforest.
He was remanded in custody and will appear in Cardiff Crown Court on 12 October.
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A man has appeared in Cardiff Magistrates' Court charged with the attempted rape of a 19-year-old student in the city centre.
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Dr Robert Nagle was appearing as a witness in the trial of Angus Sinclair at the High Court in Livingston.
Mr Sinclair denies raping and murdering Helen Scott and Christine Eadie, who were last seen at the World's End pub in Edinburgh on 15 October 1977.
Dr Nagle said that someone had knelt on Ms Eadie and throttled her.
He told the court that he and a colleague carried out post-mortem examinations on both girls a few days after their bodies had been discovered.
Reports they compiled in both cases detailed the girls' injuries, internally and externally.
He said the injuries on the murdered 17-year-olds were consistent with someone who had been repeatedly punched and subjected to blunt force injuries.
In Ms Eadie's case, they included pinpoint haemorrhaging, abrasions, scratches, a "ligature track" around the neck, bruising to the mouth and pressure marks on the upper thighs, the court heard.
In most cases, the injuries would have been caused by an assailant, he told the court.
The pathologists' report, read to the court by Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland, who is prosecuting the case, concluded in Ms Eadie's case: "From our examination we are of the opinion that death was due to asphyxia due to strangulation with a ligature and by gagging of the mouth."
Mr Mulholland went on to ask the witness: "Are the injuries consistent with Christine Eadie being repeatedly punched, subjected to blunt force injury, someone kneeling on her with their hands around her neck, throttling her and placing a ligature around her neck, with a gag in her mouth and asphyxiating and strangling her?"
Dr Nagle agreed.
The court also heard details of Ms Scott's injuries, including scratches, a ligature mark and one injury consistent with a shoe "stomping on the left side of her head".
The report on her post-mortem examination, also read to the jury, concluded: "As a result of our examination, we are of the opinion that the death was due to asphyxia, consequent upon strangulation."
Questioning the witness, Mr Mulholland asked: "She had injuries consistent with repeated punching, injuries consistent with stomping, an injury which could be consistent with kicking, is that correct?"
"Yes," replied Dr Nagle.
The prosecutor continued: "She also had injuries consistent with throttling, someone placing their hands around her neck, and also injuries consistent with the application of a ligature around her wrists during life and also around her neck during life?
"And as a result of asphyxia, throttling, strangling, has caused her death?"
Again, Dr Nagle agreed.
Later the court heard from forensic pathologist Professor Anthony Busuttil, 68, who prepared a report after studying post-mortem and toxicology analysis carried out by others on both girls.
He stressed that he was not directly involved in the post-mortem process.
He concluded it was "very likely" that the two murders were committed by the same person.
Factors such as the way the bodies were disposed of, the use of ligatures, the damage to the bodies, helped him reach that conclusion, he told the jury.
"It's likely that the two murders were perpetrated in a similar way, very likely by the same person or persons," he said.
Mr Sinclair is alleged to have gagged the girls, bound their wrists and tied a ligature around their necks.
He denies inflicting blunt force injuries on Ms Eadie by repeatedly punching and kicking her on the body and biting her.
He also denies forcing Ms Scott to walk barefoot into a field, ripping the strap from her handbag, repeatedly punching and kicking her on the head and body and stamping on her head.
And he denies stealing clothing, footwear, jewellery and other personal effects from the teenagers in an attempt to pervert the course of justice.
Mr Sinclair has lodged three special defences, of incrimination, consent and alibi.
The trial continues.
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A 90-year-old retired forensic pathologist has given evidence in the trial of a man accused of murdering two teenage girls 37 years ago.
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30,843,811 |
On the first full day of his five-day visit, he called for politicians to show commitment to the "common good".
But President Benigno Aquino responded that many Catholic clergy had been silent about the abuses conducted under former President Gloria Arroyo.
And he said some clergymen were now too quick to criticise him.
"In contrast to their previous silence, some members of the clergy now seem to think that the way to be true to the faith means finding something to criticise," he said.
"Even to the extent that one prelate admonished me to do something about my hair, as if it were a mortal sin."
The pontiff arrived in the majority Catholic country on Thursday and is due to travel to the typhoon-hit city of Tacloban on Saturday.
The centre-piece of his visit is an open-air Mass in Manila on Sunday, which is expected to attract millions.
The Pope is on a six-day tour of Asia. Earlier in the week he visited Sri Lanka.
Speaking at a welcome ceremony in the presidential palace, Pope Francis called for leaders "to reject every form of corruption, which diverts resources from the poor".
He said it was a Christian duty to "break the bonds of injustice and oppression which give rise to glaring, and indeed scandalous, social inequalities".
The Philippines, like many countries in Asia, has corruption issues.
Corruption activist group Transparency International put the Philippines at 85 in its latest Corruption Perceptions Index, level with India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Under Mr Aquino, the Philippines' record has slowly improved.
Mr Aquino suggested the Church had not done enough to fight corruption under Mrs Arroyo, who is facing charges of plundering state funds and election fixing.
"There was a true test of faith when many members of the Church, once advocates for the poor, the marginalised, and the helpless, suddenly became silent in the face of the previous administration's abuses, which we are still trying to rectify to this very day," Mr Aquino said.
Pope Francis' Philippines schedule
Dancing inmates and Jeepney Popemobile
The BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Manila says there was an atmosphere of celebration on the streets of Manila when the Pope arrived.
Roads in the city centre were shut off, and big screens erected to show the Mass at the Cathedral.
National holidays have been declared in the capital for the duration of the Pope's visit.
Security is very tight, with tens of thousands of soldiers and police deployed, after failed attempts to kill two previous popes in the Philippines.
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Pope Francis has urged Philippine leaders to end "scandalous social inequalities" and corruption during a welcome ceremony in Manila.
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The Bank of Scotland's new happiness index attempts to quantify how happy people are in the communities in which they live.
The study found that women were far more content with their lives than men.
The survey results also revealed that those aged 18 to 24 were the unhappiest age group, with a score below the Scotland average.
According to the index, people's happiness increased in the 25-34 age bracket, but then dipped slightly during the 35-44s, before rising sharply for the 45-54 age group.
But it is the retirement age of over 65 when people were happiest in life, the survey found.
Of those living in the Highlands and Islands, two-fifths reportedly confessed to being "very happy" with their lives there.
Just under a third (30%) of Dundonians said the same which put Dundee in second place.
Aberdeen, Fife and Central Scotland appeared to be the least happy regions, having happiness scores four points below the Scottish average.
The index found that 5% of respondents in both Fife and Central said they were "very unhappy" with life in their community.
When it comes to money, those with the highest happiness score had a personal income of more than £60,000 while those with a household income of up to £14,999 had the lowest score.
Second happiest were those in the £40,000-£59,999 bracket for both personal and household income.
Scots with a personal income of £25,000-£39,999 rank third, although this is not the case for household income.
Third in this category were those with a household income of £15,000-£24,999, while those earning a bit more - the £25,000- £39,999 category - were considered to be less happy.
Robin Bulloch, managing director at Bank of Scotland Community Bank, said: "The happiness index has highlighted some fairly obvious points, like the more money people have the happier they tend to be.
"But it's also raised some intriguing questions about why the happiness score dips for the 35-44 age group and why women, in general, are happier than men."
The findings are based on 3,215 online interviews, conducted by YouGov, with a nationally representative sample of adults aged 18 and over living in Scotland.
The index was created by assigning a score between 100 and -100 to people's responses to the question: "Taking everything into account, how happy or unhappy would you say you are living in your community?"
The average happiness score was then calculated using the values: -100 for a response of "Very unhappy", -50 for "Somewhat unhappy", a score of zero for "Neither happy nor unhappy", +50 for "Somewhat happy" and +100 for a response of "Very happy".
Happiest by region
Average across Scotland: 39.02
Happiest by age
Happiest by income
The information was gathered between 12 December 2014 and 5 January 2015.
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The happiest people in Scotland are women aged over 65 who live in the Highlands, according to a report.
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40,564,628 |
Arnautovic played 45 minutes of a 1-0 pre-season win over Neuchatel Xamax on Monday, but limped off as Mark Hughes rotated his entire team at half-time.
The 28-year-old joined Stoke from Werder Bremen for £2m in 2013 and signed a new four-year deal in 2016.
Arnautovic, who has played 62 times for his country, has scored 26 goals in 145 appearances for the Potters.
He scored seven times in 35 matches in all competitions in 2016-17.
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Stoke City have rejected an offer from West Ham for striker Marko Arnautovic, who has handed in a transfer request.
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34,896,319 |
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Two goals from Harry Kane and one each for Toby Alderweireld and Kyle Walker gave Spurs a 4-1 home win on Sunday.
"It is one of our best performances and results this season," said Pochettino.
West Ham boss Slaven Bilic apologised to Hammers fans for the defeat - only their second in 10 games.
"It hurts more because it was Tottenham," Bilic told the club's website. "I want to apologise to the fans because it's a special kind of game and tomorrow it's not going to be very good for our fans to go to work with the Spurs teasing them.
"The performance matches the result to be fair. They were better than us. They wanted it more than in a normal game, but we simply were not good enough to get anything, other than being defeated."
Bilic was without his "best player" Dimitri Payet, who has scored five goals and assisted three more this season but will be out for the next three months with an ankle injury.
"We knew we would miss Payet and we will be without him for a long time but we didn't lose 4-1 because he wasn't playing," added the Croat.
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Sunday showcased another high-pressing, energetic performance from Tottenham, who led 2-0 at the break thanks to Kane's neat close-range finish and Alderweireld's header from a corner.
Kane's second, soon after the break, essentially sealed the win before Walker added a well-taken fourth and Manuel Lanzini fired in a late consolation for the Hammers.
"I am very pleased with the performance and with the players. Congratulations to them," Pochettino told BBC Sport. "It was an amazing show and I feel very proud. We all feel very proud.
"The most important thing is that the players believe in the way we play and we share the same philosophy. Today was a big step forward because it was a very good example of how we want to play, and how we want to play in the future."
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Mauricio Pochettino said he was proud of his Tottenham players after they produced an "amazing" display to beat West Ham and equal a club record of 12 Premier League matches without defeat.
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40,054,629 |
He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors.
Kohlhepp admitted killing four people at a motorcycle shop in 2003, and a married couple on his property in 2015.
In 2016 he was arrested for kidnapping a woman and killing her boyfriend.
As part of his plea agreement, which allowed him to avoid facing the death penalty, he also received a 30-year sentence for criminal sexual conduct and a 30 years for kidnapping.
Kohlhepp, 44, is a registered sex offender who had built a successful real estate business in Woodruff, South Carolina, 80 miles northwest of the state capital of Columbia.
In November 2016, investigators found a woman locked inside a metal shipping container on his 95-acre estate, after receiving a signal from her mobile phone.
It was described at the time by Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright as "a hellish place to be locked in hot weather. No lights, no windows, no air flow".
Kala Brown, who met Kohlhepp after he offered her work through Facebook, told officers that he had shot and killed her boyfriend in front of her.
She had been kept in chains for more than two months as Kohlhepp tried to convince her to fall in love with him, she described to US media.
On Friday, the Spartanburg County judge summoned the relatives of the victims in court, where they learned of the plea deal.
Police discovered human remains on his property belonging to her boyfriend, Charles David Carver, 32, as well as married couple Meagan Coxie, 25, and Johnny Coxie, 29, who had been buried there for more than a year.
The Coxies, who were identified by their tattoos, had a newborn child. They too had been hired to work on Kohlhepp's property.
During sentencing, Cindy Coxie - Johnny's mother - called the killer's actions "incomprehensible evil".
"Ultimately, good will triumph over evil," she continued, "God has put his finger on this. God has put a period."
Kohlhepp also confessed to killing four people at Superbike Motorsports in Spartanburg County after becoming enraged by an employee who mocked his experience as a biker.
Scott Ponder, Beverly Guy, Brian Lucas and Chris Sherbert were all shot and killed.
Court records show he had previously served a 15-year sentence in Arizona for kidnapping and raping his neighbour when he was a teenager.
"This is a big day, a long time coming," said Sheriff Wright, after the sentence was handed down on Friday.
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Todd Kohlhepp, who was arrested after a woman was found "chained like a dog" on his property in South Carolina, has pleaded guilty to seven murders.
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38,346,941 |
The Scottish actor will lead a cast of comedians in the cartoon tale of the richest duck in the world.
American actors Danny Pudi, Ben Schwartz and Bobby Moynihan will voice the parts of Scrooge's great-nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie.
DuckTales originally ran from 1987 to 1990. The revival will air in 2017.
Scrooge's nephew Donald Duck will also make appearances in the new show, along with fellow returning characters Launchpad McQuack and Webby Vanderquack.
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Former Doctor Who star David Tennant is to be the new voice of Scrooge McDuck in a remake of the animated Disney series DuckTales.
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36,581,449 |
That stalemate arguably ended with the government's decision to revoke the citizenship of Sheikh Isa Qassim, the kingdom's most prominent Shia Muslim cleric and spiritual inspiration behind the main opposition bloc Wefaq.
The move is but the coup de grace in a series of recent crackdowns on dissent.
These included the re-arrest of outspoken government critic Nabeel Rajab and a travel ban on activists planning to attend this month's UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The government has also imposed an extended nine-year prison sentence for Wefaq's longstanding secretary-general Sheikh Ali Salman, introduced a new law barring religious leaders from membership in political societies, and has enforced the wholesale suspension of Wefaq's activities.
On the face of it, such decisions would seem to point to an emboldened regime finally willing to throw off the pretence of entertaining serious reform - one confident in its ability to handle the inevitable domestic and international fallout of redoubled political repression.
And, on the diplomatic front at least, such a conclusion is undoubtedly correct. Since Wefaq's boycott of 2014 parliamentary elections in protest at a lack of meaningful concessions by the state, its one-time interlocutors at the US and British embassies have all but shunned the group.
The UK Foreign Office in particular has communicated bluntly that the opposition made its own bed by refusing to participate within the existing political framework, however flawed, and now will have to sleep in it.
Around the same time at the regional level, the unforeseen rise of so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq meant that the US and its allies found themselves in immediate material need of Bahrain and the other Arab Gulf states, rather than the usual reverse relationship.
In return for their diplomatic and (nominal) military assistance, Gulf leaders demanded greater leeway in managing domestic politics. In the case of Bahrain, Western criticism and engagement have been noticeably muted since.
What is less clear, however, is whether Bahrain's latest measures against the opposition are evidence of a position of domestic strength, or of perceived vulnerability. At least three separate factors are at play. Notably, two of the three have more to do with economics than politics.
The first is Bahrain's Sunni Muslim community, which gave vital support to the ruling family in 2011 by organising counter-rallies that helped arrest the momentum of the uprising.
But rather than fading away with the end of mass demonstrations, many of these populist Sunni coalitions transformed into political movements in their own right, making demands upon the state, often vocally, for higher wages and a harsher security response to lingering protests.
Fearful that these groups could potentially give rise to a new phenomenon of Sunni opposition, the state redrew electoral boundaries in time for the 2014 elections in a way that disadvantaged their candidates, who failed to win a single seat.
These electoral machinations, combined with the government's new disqualification of religious leaders from politics, makes it clear that it is not simply Shia who are the target of the state's clampdown, but politically active Sunnis as well.
This bodes ill for the country's two largest and most established political societies after Wefaq, which represent Salafists and followers of the Muslim Brotherhood respectively. For ordinary Sunnis, such suspicion is seen as poor repayment for their loyalty in the state's hour of need.
A second factor that could help explain the timing of Bahrain's authoritarian turn is the fiscal crisis presently facing the state as a result of low oil prices.
Already poor by Gulf standards, in the past six months alone Bahrainis have had to endure a string of cost-cutting measures that have seen dramatic overnight increases in the prices of food, water and electricity, and vehicle fuel.
The state has promised even further fiscal tightening in the form of a GCC-wide value-added tax, increased fees on government services and even changes to state pension benefits.
In Saudi Arabia, similarly painful economic reforms announced in January were famously preceded by the surprise execution of dissident Shia cleric Sheikh Norm al-Nimr, which most observers interpreted as a transparent attempt at appeasing the regime's core Sunni supporters. Might Bahrain be taking a page from the Saudi playbook?
Finally, it is possible that Bahrain's steps toward authoritarian retrenchment reflect a struggle for influence within the fractured ruling Khalifa family itself.
Specifically, the immediacy of the country's economic challenges has thrust back into the limelight Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad, a moderate who was marginalised after an embarrassing failed attempt at negotiating with Wefaq leaders in February 2011.
The crown prince's economic reform agenda is strongly opposed by his powerful uncle, Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman, whose influence is rooted in vast patronage networks.
The bold steps against the opposition may thus be a message to the reform-minded Salman that he should not expect the newfound demand for his economic expertise to present an entry into the political realm.
Equally likely, perhaps, the experience of the past five years may have brought the Crown Prince closer to the thinking of more conservative members of his family: that engagement with the opposition is at best a waste of time, at worst a repeat of a grave mistake. And far better, then, to do away with it altogether.
Justin Gengler is Research Programme Manager at the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute of Qatar University. He is the author of Group Conflict and Political Mobilization in Bahrain and the Arab Gulf.
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The story of Bahrain's 14 February uprising in 2011 can be told in four broad chapters:
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