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34,876,813 | 20 November 2015 Last updated at 12:44 GMT
The unusual creature was spotted in Grove Park, Dunstable, where Bedfordshire Wildlife Rescue has spent the past fortnight searching for it.
Dr Helen McRobie, a lecturer in biomedical science at the Anglia Ruskin University, said its lack of hair is probably caused by a genetic defect.
"This is very rare, I have been studying squirrels for years but I have never come across one without any hair," she said.
"Sadly, the squirrel is probably not going to survive the winter if it remains at large. It needs to be kept in the warm once the temperature drops."
BBC journalist Toby Friedner said he came across the squirrel on his way to the supermarket. | A bald squirrel that has evaded capture by animal experts concerned it could freeze has been caught on camera. |
39,634,471 | After tries by Ryan Shaw and George Lawley were cancelled out by Leigh, James Greenwood's converted late first-half try earned Rovers a 16-10 lead.
Victory was then sealed by a late drop-goal from ex-Leigh scrum-half Jamie Ellis, who also landed three kicks.
Winger Shaw's last-gasp converted put the icing on a hard-earned fifth-round win for the 2015 beaten finalists.
It was a sixth successive defeat in all competitions for twice Challenge Cup winners Leigh, who stand 10th in the table, having won just three of their 11 Super League matches this season.
Leigh had pulled back a 10-0 deficit with tries from Lachlan Burr and Curtis Naughton before Rovers edged ahead again by the interval.
But, after going behind again, once Leigh winger Naughton had seen a second try disallowed for a forward pass, the visitors' defence held out against the side they effectively swapped places with at the end of last season.
Rovers got off to a great start in only the second minute when Shaw was first to react to a wayward pass, racing over from halfway, before Ellis added the conversion.
Ellis was then involved again on eight minutes when he prodded a kick through for second rower Lawler to ground the ball, although Ellis was unable to kick the goal.
Leigh pulled one back on 19 minutes when Josh Drinkwater took on the Hull KR defensive line before sending a pass to Burr who charged in from close range. Ben Reynolds kicked the conversion, although he was unsuccessful minutes later after Naughton had gone in at the left corner to level the scores.
But, with only two minutes of the half left, stand-off Jordan Abdull's well-timed pass to Greenwood put Rovers back in front.
Ellis converted, then, after a long scoreless spell, kicked the drop goal which stretched the Robins two scores clear, before adding the conversion to Shaw's second late try.
Leigh coach Neil Jukes:
"It was a good effort and, although we worked hard, there was not enough quality. I don't like hammering the guys publicly but everyone is accountable and that starts with me at the top of the tree.
"We are not getting enough out of some players. We can look at the players who have not played and make excuses but the 17 we picked were good enough to win the game.
"We had enough ball in the second half to win but we were guilty of some poor last plays. Defensively we were not far off but there's not enough quality with the ball in hand."
"The bounce of the ball didn't always go our way but you sometimes get that when you're up against it. Hull KR smelled a bit of blood on us and went for our throats."
Hull KR coach Tim Sheens:
"It was a good win and we had to show a lot of courage. That's not their best side and it wasn't ours either but we had good support from our crowd.
"It pleased me that we were never behind at any stage and that we took the opportunities that came our way.
"I'm really happy with the result. We approached the game very professionally. Everyone did their jobs. But we have got some stuff to learn. We have got a long way to go as a team.
"My attitude has always been to deal with what's in front of you - but we are only halfway through the season."
Leigh: Ridyard; Hampshire, Crooks, Dawson, Naughton; Reynolds, Drinkwater; Acton, Hood, Weston, Vea, Stewart, Hansen.
Replacements: Pelissier, Tickle, Hopkins, Burr.
Hull KR: Quinlan; Shaw, Hefernan, Salter, Hodgson; Abdull, Ellis; Scruton, Lunt, Johnson, Lawler, Blair, Kavanagh.
Replacements: Greenwood, Dockar-Clay, Mulhern, Wardill.
Attendance: 9,152.
Referee: James Child (RFL). | Championship leaders Hull KR caused an upset by putting lowly Super League side Leigh out of the Challenge Cup. |
35,714,150 | Mukunda Wagh, a farmer, consumed pesticide in the cow shed at his village home in Maharashtra's Washim district.
Then he collapsed, frothing at the mouth, and lay unconscious until his wife, Babi, found him. She rushed him to a hospital, where doctors washed his stomach and saved him.
Three years later, in May 2012, Wagh's luck ran out.
The soybean crop on his two-acre farm had failed and he was drowning in a debt of 60,000 rupees ($890; £631), borrowed from friends and relatives. Villagers found his lifeless body outside a local gas plant. He was 38.
"Some say he drank himself to death, others say he was electrocuted. His body had turned black. I was at my parents' place when this happened. My children said, if I had stayed at home, their father wouldn't have taken his life," says Mrs Wagh, 38.
Over four years, Mrs Wagh has rebuilt her family - she has worked long hours, tilling the family plot and working on other people's farms; sent her son and daughter to polytechnic; bought livestock, repaid most of her husband's loan. Low interest loans from self-help groups have been a lifeline.
"I am lucky. Other widows are not so fortunate," she says, sitting in her tin-roofed home in Malegaon village.
One of them is Archana Burare, a 22-year-old widow, who now lives with her ageing parents and her baby boy in a village in Washim.
When her husband took his life after consuming pesticide in 2014, her in-laws abandoned her and locked up their home, forcing her to return to her landless father and homemaker mother.
Mrs Burare was 19 when she got married. Her husband had taken a 12-acre farm on rent after borrowing 50,000 rupees, and begun growing rice, groundnut and soybean. The crop was good the first year, and she also worked at another farm, and things were going fine.
"Then the rains stopped and the land dried up. The well ran out of water and the crops failed."
The family went into a downward spiral. Her husband, she says, began drinking and beating her up. Then he broke his leg in a road accident, and could not afford an expensive private surgery to set it right. Meanwhile, the debts kept mounting: 25,000 rupees for her sister's marriage; another 20,000 rupees for the failing farm.
"I had gone to my parents' place for a break. He was alone at home when he drank pesticide and killed himself," says Mrs Burare.
"I did not get any compensation [from the government] because the land did not belong to my husband. My in-laws do not keep in touch."
Mrs Burare works as a cook at a government childcare centre for a salary of 850 rupees a month, but she hasn't been paid for the past eight months. Her widow pension is still stuck in the bureaucracy. She struggles to feed her extended family by working on other people's farms.
"I am trying to secure my family a bit, buying a few goats and a buffalo after taking some loans from self-help groups. My three-year-old son had an accident, and every check up at the private hospital is expensive. Government hospitals are crowded, it takes three days to get a scan."
According to one estimate, more than 3,000 farmers in Maharashtra have taken their lives every year between 2004 and 2013. Last year, as many as 3,228 farmers took their lives, the highest in the last 14 years, a government minister informed the parliament recently. Widows of 1,818 victims were paid compensation of 100,000 rupees each; the rest were found to be ineligible.
The vast, rain-fed farms of Vidarbha region spread over 11 districts in Maharashtra are the worst affected.
Cash crops are expensive to grow and a global commodities downturn has meant a drop in demand and declining farm incomes. Access to formal credit is scanty, so farmers are forced to borrow at usurious rates from private lenders to buy seeds, fertilisers, water pumps, and pay for a marriage in the family. Two successive poor monsoons have led to some nine million farmers in the region facing near-drought conditions and crop failures.
That's not all. It is not easy for the widows to be eligible for compensation: tangled land deeds mean ownerships of plots are often disputed - there are some 80 cases related to property disputes after farm suicides in four districts - and payment is denied if alcohol is found in the viscera of a dead farmer. The paltry widow pension can take ages to process.
"The widows are the worst affected. Single women face discrimination in patriarchal village households anyway. If they are widowed, they are often thrown out, deprived of their land, and their children's future is jeopardised," says Kishore Tiwari, a prominent farm activist heading a government panel to curb suicides.
Mr Tiwari reckons 60% of some 10,000 farm widows in the Vidarbha region have received no compensation. What's keeping them going are dozens of non-profit and self-help groups networked to NGOs like Kisan Mitra (Farmer's Friend) which are counselling the widows, offering soft loans, making them aware of their property and legal rights and protecting them from sexual harassment.
The suicides mirror the state of India's ailing farms, which account for 14% of India's GDP, but on which more than half of its more than a billion people depend on for an uncertain living. Many farmers are simply not earning enough.
After the soybean and cotton crop on his three-acre plot failed, Mandha Alone's husband, Sharad, borrowed money to buy an auto-rickshaw, while she worked on the parched farm in Wardha district.
But, in 2011, he was injured seriously in a road accident, and had to sell his wife's jewellery and some of his land and take a loan of 200,000 rupees for a series of surgeries. He began defaulting.
"That completely broke him. He drank heavily, beat me up. Then on the day of Holi (festival of colours) in 2013, he simply walked into a river near our village and drowned."
Mrs Alone says she went into a depression for a year. She was not eligible for compensation because the autopsy found liquor in Sharad's body. Then a self-help group arrived at her door and gave her a small loan to buy a sewing machine. Now she stitches clothes, works on other people's farms, and rents out the family plot.
Life continues to be hard, and her husband's debts remain unpaid.
"I have told the bank and the debtors that I cannot pay anymore. I tell them, take the responsibility of my children and do what you want to do," says Mrs Alone.
"There's no future in farming anymore. In the villages, farmers are driving auto-rickshaws, working in brick kilns. Their daughters are sitting at home because they don't get good grooms.
"If you come here in 10 years time," says Ms Alone, "you will see many, many more widows." | He tried to take his life for the first time in 2009. |
37,008,775 | That is the biggest ever August box office opening, beating Guardians of the Galaxy's $94m (£56m) record.
Cinemagoers ignored critics who dismissed it as "boring and unfunny" and "the worst of the worst".
In the film, Will Smith and Margot Robbie team up with a gang of villains from the DC comic stable.
Jared Leto, Cara Delevingne, Karen Fukuhara and Viola Davis play other anti-heroes.
The box office takings "bested anything that we could have expected", Warner Bros distribution executive vice president Jeff Goldstein said.
"The elephant in the room is that the reviews were harsh. Clearly there's disconnect between audiences and critics."
The film took a further $132m (£101m) outside North America between Friday and Sunday, according to the studio estimates.
Fans also showed more enthusiasm than critics by giving it a B+ rating, according to audience trackers CinemaScore. Viewers under 18 gave it an A rating.
"You can't put reviews in the bank. You can put money in the bank," Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore, told the Associated Press.
"The long-term success of any movie is predicated on positive sentiment from the fans. For any movie, that's the most important aspect."
However after doing strong business on Thursday and Friday, its takings dropped sharply on Saturday, leading to suggestions that its earnings may decline steeply in the coming weeks.
Matt Damon's Jason Bourne dropped to a distant second in the weekend box office rankings with $22.7m (£17.4m).
The top five also featured raunchy comedy Bad Moms, fluffy family animation The Secret Life of Pets and Star Trek Beyond, the latest frontier in the series reboot.
Kevin Spacey's comedy Nine Lives, about a ruthless executive who gets turned into a cat, struggled to spring to life at the box office, opening in sixth place with $6.5m (£5m).
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. | All-star supervillain escapade Suicide Squad has shrugged off dire reviews to earn an estimated $135m (£103m) in North America in its first weekend. |
37,594,988 | Two members of staff went to the National Cycling Centre in Manchester on Friday, with reports saying investigators "targeted" the velodrome.
Ukad said the meeting was arranged with British Cycling's "full co-operation".
Former Team Sky rider Jonathan Tiernan-Locke said this week painkiller Tramadol was "freely offered" in 2012.
Tiernan-Locke told BBC Sport the controversial substance was available at the Road World Championships four years ago.
British Cycling, the national governing body, has put the allegation to the medic in question, doctor Richard Freeman, on the BBC's behalf. He has denied it.
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Separately, it is understood Ukad is also looking into an allegation in the Daily Mail that a medical package was delivered to Team Sky by a British Cycling coach in France in 2011.
It is claimed the alleged delivery was made on 12 June, 2011, the day Briton Sir Bradley Wiggins won the Criterium du Dauphine in La Toussuire.
Team Sky said it has been "a challenging few weeks" but they had conducted an internal review, informed British Cycling of the allegation and asked the organisation to contact Ukad.
"We welcome this investigation as we are confident there has been no wrongdoing," Team Sky said in a statement on Saturday.
"We take these issues seriously and we will co-operate fully with Ukad. We hope it can be completed as quickly and thoroughly as possible."
British Cycling, which shares its headquarters at the velodrome with Team Sky, said it has not identified the substance in the package.
It also released a statement which read: "British Cycling can confirm there is an ongoing Ukad investigation with which we are co-operating fully."
A spokeswoman for Ukad said: "UK Anti-Doping is investigating allegations of wrongdoing within cycling. In order to protect the integrity of the investigation, we will not comment further."
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Wiggins, Britain's most decorated Olympian, said: "I welcome this investigation."
He was granted a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) to take anti-inflammatory drug triamcinolone before the 2011 Tour de France, his 2012 Tour win and the 2013 Giro d'Italia. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Tiernan-Locke, who rode for Team Sky until he was sacked for a doping violation in 2014, said the timing of Wiggins' TUEs "definitely looks odd".
Wiggins' use of TUEs has come under scrutiny after computer hackers known as the Fancy Bears - thought to be from Russia - published athletes' private medical records stolen from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).
Wiggins' TUEs were approved by British authorities and cycling's world governing body, the UCI. There is no suggestion the 36-year-old or Team Sky, his team at the time, broke any rules.
Questions have been raised over why Wiggins apparently did not need the drug before 2011, or after 2013.
But Team Sky team principal Sir Dave Brailsford has defended his former rider, saying the medication was recommended by a specialist and that Team Sky "do not cross the line" over performance-enhancing drugs.
BBC sports editor Dan Roan
Already under fierce scrutiny over the TUEs leaked by Russian hackers last month, the sense of crisis swirling around Team Sky has now extended to British Cycling, Ukad's visit to Manchester's velodrome highlighting the intertwined relationship of the two organisations.
2016 has seen a third Tour de France win for Chris Froome and another bumper medal haul in Rio. Next week, Britain is favourite to win the right to host the 2019 Road World Championships.
But there has also been unprecedented controversy for the country's most successful Olympic sport, with a sexism storm seeing former head coach Shane Sutton resign, a positive drugs test for Simon Yates, and Lizzie Armitstead's missed drugs tests.
The fear now will be that this latest turbulence makes Sky reconsider its £35m-a-year team sponsorship, and disrupts British Cycling's preparation for Tokyo 2020. | UK Anti-Doping officials have visited British Cycling headquarters as part of an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing in the sport. |
40,987,976 | GB lead on 113.90, ahead of Germany (123.00) and Sweden (128.50) in Strzegom, going into Sunday's showjumping finale in Poland.
British rider Nicola Wilson, aboard Bulana, is fourth individually behind the German 1-2 of Ingrid Klimke and Michael Jung after the cross-country.
GB's Gemma Tattersall is fifth, with Tina Cook sixth and Ros Canter eighth.
Cook, who won individual European gold eight years ago, delivered a stunning clear round inside the time on Billy the Red.
Her fellow London 2012 team silver medallist Wilson collected just 0.4 of a time fault and Canter 1.6 aboard Allstar B.
It meant that Britain could discount Oliver Townend's score - he collected 40 jumping penalties on Cooley SRS.
"The team needed a clear round, and I am delighted that we delivered that," said Cook.
Britain, whose new coaching chief is former Germany team boss Chris Bartle, can afford to have two showjumping fences down between their team members and still win, even if the German riders all go clear.
German Bettina Hoy, the leader after the dressage stage, was eliminated in the cross-country after a fall, while France are out of the team competition after two of their riders fell.
Leading individual positions after cross-country: 1 Ingrid Klimke (Ger) (Horse: Horseware Hale Bob OLD) 30.30, 2 Michael Jung (Ger) (fischerRocana FST) 32.80, 3 Sara Algotsson Ostholt (Swe) (Reality 39) 35.00, 4 Nicola Watson (GB) (Bulana) 35.50, 5 Gemma Tattersall (GB) (Quicklook V) 36.70
Team standings:1 Great Britain 113.90, 2 Germany 123.00, 3 Sweden 128.50, 4 Italy 177.50, 5 Belgium 196.60 | Great Britain's eventers are in pole position to win a first European Championships team gold since 2009. |
27,678,013 | Under the deal, federal police agents will receive a 12% salary increase from July, and another 3.8% rise in January.
The agreement follows police strikes earlier this year in which an estimated 250,000 agents took part.
Preparations for the World Cup - which starts on 12 June - have been beset by anti-government protests and stoppages.
Brazil's federal police, which conducts criminal investigations and combats drug trafficking and terrorism, is also in charge of security at the country's borders and airports.
The trade union representing federal officers, Fenapef, welcomed the offer and said it had suspended its planned strike action "before, during and after the Cup and before the [general] election" on 5 October 2014.
Fenapef President Jones Borges Leal said the government had also agreed to set up a working group to discuss officers' career progression, another key demand.
The salary increase will also apply to typists and forensic teams, union officials said.
Last month state police forces went on strike over pay in at least 14 Brazilian states, and there have also been stoppages by teachers and civil servants.
The government has boosted security in all of the 12 host venues, with up to 20,000 security personnel deployed to Rio de Janeiro to guarantee safety during the World Cup final on 13 July.
The government is keen to prevent a repeat of the mass protests held during the Confederations Cup last year, many of which descended into violence.
More than a million people took to the streets at the time protesting against corruption and what they considered to be excessive spending on the preparations for the World Cup. | The Brazilian government is offering federal police officers a 15.8% pay rise to avert a strike during the forthcoming football World Cup. |
30,394,322 | Denbighshire councillors agreed a new round of cuts to reduce their spending by £17m over the next two years.
It includes cutting £100,000 to finance a music service helping youth ensembles like Denbighshire Youth Brass Band.
The conductor told the audience in Rhyl that the band's future was uncertain.
"No one asked us what should be done," John Powell told BBC Wales.
One parent, who did not want to be named, criticised the timing given the budget meeting earlier on Tuesday.
"The kids are devastated," she said before the concert. "And now they want them to come out and play Jingle Bells."
The brass band and Denbighshire Youth Choir played at the council fund raising carol service at St Thomas' Church.
In November parents presented Denbighshire council with a petition of nearly 4,000 names in support of the work of William Mathias Music Service to run the council's music service and ensembles for 190 children.
The council said the services were in addition to school music lessons, which all children will continue to receive.
It has also said it "would potentially consider alternative ways of providing this type of opportunity for children and young people" so it is not yet clear what the future holds for the ensembles.
On Tuesday, council chairman Brian Blakeley said he had received letters and social media messages from children and parents about the cuts.
He said his role as chairman was meant to be impartial and that although he shared their concerns, savings had to be found from somewhere.
But he said there may still be some hope as the budget will not be formally accepted until February.
He described the concert as "fantastic" and that while Mr Powell had been "very blunt" when they met for the first time at the concert, the pair were going to meet to try to move forward.
Meanwhile, protesters gathered outside the Scala cinema and arts centre in Prestatyn earlier on Tuesday to make their feelings known as the cutbacks mean it will lose its subsidy.
The council still needs to find £7m more savings over the next two years.
After the council meeting, Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, lead member for finance and assets, said: "The time has now come for us to start implementing some of the most difficult decisions we have ever needed to make as a council.
"We have done as much as we can through careful financial planning, through trimming services and protecting vital services to the public. " | Councillors have been criticised for voting through cash cuts affecting extra curricula music provision hours before a youth choir and band they fund performed at a council carol service. |
38,237,225 | Mr Reid, who won gold and silver medals at the Rio Olympics, as well as Australian Open and Wimbledon Grand Slam titles, grew up in Helensburgh.
The former Hermitage Academy pupil said he was looking forward to celebrating the "great honour" with the town.
Argyll and Bute Council provost Len Scoullar said Mr Reid was an "extremely deserving recipient" of the award.
He said: "The whole country is immensely proud of his achievements.
"The council is pleased that we are in a position to be able to recognise the wonderful national and international success in his chosen sport in this way."
Mr Reid said: "I know how much the local people support me when I am competing throughout the year, and I am proud to tell people I meet on my travels that this is the area I grew up in.
"I would like to say a huge thanks to everybody in Argyll and Bute, and especially Helensburgh, for all their continued support."
Mr Reid lost the use of his legs at the age of 13 after contracting Transverse Myelitis - a disease affecting the spinal cord.
He will be the second individual to receive the council's highest honour - former Provost Billy Petrie being the previous recipient.
The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders have also been given the accolade. | World number one wheelchair tennis player Gordon Reid has been made an honorary freeman of Argyll and Bute. |
37,560,704 | Over 70 countries attended the talks in Brussels, hosted by the EU.
Closing the meeting, European Commissioner for International Development Neven Mimica called the sum "a remarkable, impressive amount".
"Now is not the time to reduce our ambition or our investment in the people of Afghanistan," he added.
The amount pledged is only slightly less than the $4bn a year that the international community promised at the last Afghanistan conference in Tokyo in 2012.
Ahead of the meeting, the overseas countries were expected to pledge around $3bn in aid a year.
'We are helpless: Trapped by the Taliban in Kunduz
Afghanistan will be asked to do more to tackle corruption and to take back tens of thousands of failed asylum seekers.
The country faces a resurgent Taliban and remains reliant on foreign help, 15 years after the militants were ousted.
"We're buying four more years for Afghanistan," said EU special representative Franz-Michael Mellbin.
Who are the Taliban?
Last journey: The migrant who lost everything
US wasted millions on Afghan reconstruction, says watchdog
Battleground Kunduz: The city the Taliban seized
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told the conference that Afghanistan was making progress on the economy, corruption and human rights but needed constructive international support to see the changes through.
"Afghans can make peace, we will make peace, we are committed to constructive politics, not destructive politics," he said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry urged the Taliban to make an "honourable" peace with Kabul.
He said the militant group should follow the example of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the notorious Afghan warlord designated a "global terrorist" by the US, who signed a peace deal with the Afghan government in September.
"This is a model for what might be possible," Mr Kerry added.
The EU is promising Afghanistan $1.5bn annually and has signed a deal for Kabul to take back Afghans who fail in their bid for asylum. Both sides deny the deal is a condition for new aid.
Afghans make up the second largest group of asylum seekers in Europe, after Syrians.
The BBC's Lyse Doucet in Brussels says recent Taliban advances on the battlefield will only harden the determination of many Afghans to seek a better life elsewhere.
"We are with you for the long run" was the world's promise to Afghanistan in 2001. Aid still hasn't stopped.
That's partly because the same worries are still there. President Ghani has a vision for Afghanistan major donors can believe in.
But they - and Afghans - still need convincing it can be achieved by him in the Afghanistan of today.
For all the advances since 2001, there's rampant corruption, political infighting, and a battle against the Taliban taking a huge number of Afghan lives.
The unexpectedly high pledges seem to underline a recognition of the price Afghans, their neighbours, and the world beyond would pay if the Taliban gained ground, and Afghanistan sank into greater poverty and despair.
A record number of Afghans are already fleeing to Europe. This money is also meant to help create conditions to convince Afghans to stay, including the tens of thousands who will now be sent back under another deal struck in Brussels this week.
Taliban attacks this week on the cities of Kunduz in the north and Lashkar Gah in the south have underlined how fragile the security and development gains of recent years remain, despite all the money spent.
The United States and other international donors have pumped about $130bn into the country since 2002.
Efforts to rebuild after years of war began after US-led forces ousted the Taliban from power following the 9/11 attacks.
The figure is comparable to the Marshall Plan, a US initiative to rebuild a devastated Europe after World War Two, although the results have been much more limited.
Most of the money spent in Afghanistan has come from the US (about $115bn) - and official figures show that more than half of that was spent on security.
Nato pulled out combat forces in 2014 and the Taliban are now resurgent in many areas, prompting fears that hard-won, costly gains are at risk.
Fifteen years after the Taliban were toppled, Afghanistan still cannot survive without significant international support.
Despite all the money that's been poured in, it remains one of the poorest countries on earth, with 80% of its budget financed by aid.
The optimism of the early post-Taliban years - when new schools and hospitals were being built and Afghan refugees were returning - has been replaced in some quarters by donor fatigue and more and more questions about where the money will end up.
Major contributors are now indicating they expect to see greater Afghan success in tackling problems such as corruption and the lucrative narcotics trade, as well as progress on asylum seekers.
A more prosperous Afghanistan could mean fewer refugees in Europe - but hopes the country could become self-reliant one day seem many years away.
It is so serious that one of the main cities in the north, Kunduz, nearly fell to the militants again this week, a year after they briefly captured it in what was a major security embarrassment.
Afghan forces battled the Taliban for a third day in Kunduz on Wednesday, amid reports that food is running short and scores have fled the city.
Meanwhile in Kabul, a suicide bomber targeted a minibus carrying government officials, wounding four people, a day after a US soldier was killed by a bomb in the east.
In the southern province of Helmand, the Taliban have captured the administrative headquarters of Khan Nishin district, and are massed outside the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
Government troops were reported to be resisting their advance there, and in parts of the central province of Uruzgan, where fighting has also broken out. | International donors have pledged $15.2bn (€13.5bn ; £11.9bn) in aid to help Afghanistan until 2020. |
37,334,122 | American Johnson recovered from letting slip his three-shot overnight lead to card a five-under-par 67 and finish on 23 under.
Casey, who also went round in 67, was three shots back, with American Roberto Castro third on 17 under.
Defending champion and world number one Jason Day withdrew after eight holes with a lower back injury.
Scotland's Russell Knox, who shot a 71, finished tied for 17th on eight under and England's Justin Rose tied for 25th on six under after a 68.
Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell went round in level par to finish joint 42nd on three under.
Johnson's victory lifted him to the top of the FedEx Cup standings with one event to go.
It was the US Open champion's third win in his past eight tournaments and his 12th PGA title since 2008. Only Tiger Woods (18) has won more in that period, while Rory McIlroy has also claimed 12.
"I've got a lot of confidence in every part of my game - especially all the work I've put in on my wedges, which has really paid off this year - and this week a new putter that really worked," said Johnson.
After a second successive runner-up finish, Casey said he "ran into a buzz saw" against Johnson, who made six birdies and an eagle in his final round.
The top 30 players in the standings will now fight it out at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on 22-25 September for the $10m (£7.54m) winner's prize. | Dustin Johnson held off the challenge of England's Paul Casey to win the BMW Championship in Carmel, Indiana. |
17,370,640 | John Haruna, a deputy inspector general of police, was among four police personnel who were killed.
They were on a routine aerial patrol of Jos and the cause of the crash is not yet known.
Police are part of a special task force to contain inter-communal conflict in Jos, which has also been targeted by Islamist Boko Haram militants lately.
Jos is the capital of Plateau state, which lies on the fault line between Nigeria's mainly Muslim north and Christian and animist south.
Witnesses said the aircraft burst into flames when it crashed in the residential suburb of Rukuba.
Yushau Shuaib, the national spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency, says the helicopter crashed into homes, but no-one else was hurt, the AP news agency reports.
Nigeria, like many African countries, has a poor air safety record, though some efforts have been made to improve it since a spate of airline disasters in 2005.
On Tuesday, in Abuja there was a complete shutdown of operations at the capital's international airport, following a power surge that damaged lights on the runway. | One of Nigeria's most senior policemen has died in a helicopter crash in the central city of Jos, police have said. |
35,840,137 | The box tree caterpillar - the larva of a moth - is native to Asia and feeds on box plants, commonly used in formal gardens for hedges and shrubbery.
First found in the UK in 2011, it was initially limited to London but is now spreading across south-east England.
It is the first time in nearly a decade that slugs and snails are not top of the society's most-unwanted list.
Invasive bug 'could spread in UK'
The list is based on the enquiries about pests received by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) entomology team (insect experts) in 2015, of which the box tree caterpillar accounted for 433 (17%).
Slugs and snails were second in the list (122 enquiries) of the top 10 pests, followed by:
Box tree caterpillars (Diaphania perspectalis) feed within webbing and can completely defoliate box (Buxus) plants.
The moths lay overlapping sheets of pale yellow eggs on the underside of box leaves. Once hatched, the larvae begin chomping their way through their host plant.
Reaching around 4cm long, they spin webs around leaves and twigs to conceal and protect themselves.
The RHS says gardeners can physically remove the caterpillars by hand or use a biological control or insecticide.
While the adult moth was first reported in the UK in 2008, caterpillars were not found in private gardens until 2011. By the end of 2014 the moth had become established in parts of London and surrounding counties.
Experts believe the moth originated in China and either flew across the English Channel or stowed away in containers of imported plants.
However, the caterpillar has nothing to do with the disease known as box blight, caused by a fungus that attacks plants, leaving them with bare patches and dieback - a condition where it dies from the tip of its leaves backwards.
Last year was a bad year for box plants, as box blight was one of the most commonly reported garden diseases, the RHS said.
Box blight poses a serious risk to UK horticultural heritage as box plants provide the structure of many historic formal gardens, according to experts.
The experts said high temperatures and rainfall in the spring led to a spike in enquiries about box blight as the weather created perfect conditions for the disease.
And the warmest, wettest December on record meant there was an unexpected rise in enquiries about the disease when it would normally be suppressed by cold conditions. | A very hungry caterpillar that devours hedges has been named "top pest" by the Royal Horticultural Society. |
33,133,424 | The wilful fire-raising in Dalkeith happened on Sunday at about 02:50 at a house in Allan Terrace in Dalkeith.
Firefighters put out the blaze quickly and police officers have appealed for information.
Det Insp Mark Henderson, of Police Scotland, said: "We are appealing for any witnesses who may have seen suspicious activity in the Allan Terrace area on Sunday night." | A suspicious fire in a Midlothian house is being investigated by police. |
24,540,091 | The Electoral Reform Society and the UK's Changing Union project researched the assembly's size.
They found it had a much smaller number of AMs compared to similar law-making bodies around the world.
The Welsh government said it would be premature to speculate ahead of a decision on extra assembly powers.
The Scottish Parliament has 129 members, while Northern Ireland's Assembly has 108.
The report, Size Matters - Making the National Assembly more effective, says the backbench AMs are badly overstretched and are struggling to effectively scrutinise a "powerful and well-resourced" government.
It is not the first time the number of AMs has been questioned.
In 2004, the Richard Commission, which looked at expanding the assembly's powers, recommended 80 AMs once it received law-making powers.
Those recommendations were not implemented.
The Silk Commission, set up by the UK government, is currently looking at the devolution settlement in Wales and has already said ministers in Cardiff should be given the power to vary some tax rates.
The new report found 80 was "an arbitrary number", and said after an international comparison of similar bodies, the number of AMs should be 100.
An assembly expanded to this size would cost taxpayers about £10.1m per year, but the report's authors argued that with the number of MPs and local councillors both likely to be reduced, it was time for a "mature debate" about the balance of political representation.
Presiding officer Rosemary Butler has previously called for the number of AMs to increase, but the Welsh government said at the time there was "no appetite" among the public for more politicians.
Deputy presiding officer David Melding AM said: "I welcome this report which has, for the first time, provided us with some relevant international comparisons and analysis of the demands on assembly members.
"I am sure this report will play an important role in informing the current debate as we move towards the publication of the Silk Commission's inquiry."
Steve Brooks, director of the Electoral Reform Society in Wales, said: "As more and more powers are added to the assembly, AMs are buckling under the weight of devolution."
Chair of the UK's Changing Union project, Professor Richard Wyn Jones, said: "Few, if any serious observers would argue that just over 40 backbench assembly members is enough to do the job effectively.
"Indeed the evidence clearly shows that even without the additional financial powers already recommended by the Silk Commission, the National Assembly is overstretched."
A Welsh government spokesperson said: "It would be premature for us to speculate on what any additional powers might mean for the size of the National Assembly, given we do not yet know what the Silk Commission will recommend."
The Welsh Conservatives said: "Job creation for politicians would rightly be questioned by the public at what remains a challenging time for the Welsh economy.
"What is urgently needed is more scrutiny of legislation, better engagement with the public and more topical and extensive assembly proceedings."
Plaid Cymru AM Simon Thomas said with the prospect of financial and taxation powers becoming more real, there was a need to ensure that the assembly was able to "meet the increased demands".
Eluned Parrott AM said the Lib Dems supported a rise to 80 AMs.
"While I understand that increasing the number of politicians is never going to be popular, it's right that we should have an open and honest debate about the issue," she said, adding the people of Wales would get more capacity to scrutinise with additional AMs. | The number of AMs in the Welsh assembly needs to be increased from 60 to 100 in order for them to properly scrutinise the government, a report has said. |
32,394,170 | They are all success stories from the Isle of Man.
The small independent island in the middle of the Irish Sea is now hoping to give a wholesome boost to the bad boy of digital currencies, Bitcoin.
Bitcoin tends to hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons - the spectre of infamous Japanese exchange MtGox, which went bankrupt in 2013 after a spate of hacking resulted in the theft of around 650,000 of the virtual coins (today worth around £150/$223 each), still looms large.
It has also gained notoriety as the currency for choice for illegal activity because Bitcoin transactions can be carried out anonymously.
But the Isle of Man government believes a combination of regulation and encouragement can not only reverse Bitcoin's reputation, but also push it towards the mainstream.
Its attractively low taxes and relaxed legislation have already made the island a popular choice of headquarters for the e-gaming industry.
Over the last 12 months the government has been working on incorporating Bitcoin into its anti-money-laundering laws.
"We also passed through parliament the Designated Businesses Bill, which treats digital currency exchanges the same as any other company holding value for a client in escrow [a form of safe keeping]," said Peter Greenhill, head of e-gaming in the department of economic development.
"Be that a bank, estate agent or accountant - those come under registration with the Financial Supervision Commission."
The government is stopping short of offering customer protection on Bitcoin investments like the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA), which guarantees individual savings to the value of £80,000 in the event of a bank collapse.
"But if we look at the most innovative Bitcoin exchanges they are already putting coins into cold storage, and introducing multiple signatories on coin movement," Mr Greenhill added.
"What we've done here on the Isle of Man is to recognize there's an area here that's important to the rest of the world that we can move quickly on in regulation.
"As long as we do that in a concerted way, to protect individuals and keep crime out, we can respond to the needs of an industry that looks like it's going somewhere."
Entrepreneur Charlie Woolnough set up CoinCorner, the island's only Bitcoin exchange 12 months ago.
He claims that the exchange already has 10,000 global customers, and 500 merchants are using it to accept digital payments.
Mr Woolnough told the BBC the banks are still very wary of the digital currency industry.
"One big problem we have had as a Bitcoin business is getting access to mainstream banking. If you're being conspiratorial you could say banks view Bitcoin as a threat," he said.
"Maybe a more rational approach is that they view Bitcoin and fintech as high risk right now."
CoinCorner operates on a Know Your Customer (KYC) basis, meaning that in order to open an account you need to upload official ID, proof of address and have your credit or debit cards verified by the firm before you can buy or sell any Bitcoin.
Although the exchange has always operated that way, Mr Woolnough is candid about the baggage of legislation, and it certainly slows things down - it took three days for me to open an official account and even then I remained unable to use my cards to buy any currency.
"I don't think anyone wants to be regulated," he admitted.
"With regulation comes cost and there's a burden that comes with it.
"But we are acting in a fiduciary capacity - anyone who expects this industry to remain unregulated really is living in cloud cuckoo land. the Isle of Man has just been the first mover in this.
"Bitcoin is the currency of the internet and a leading part of fintech."
But outside that rather exclusive world of the financial technology industry, what do the more everyday businesses make of the drive to go digital?
The Thirsty Pigeon Pub on the Isle of Man town Douglas proudly accepts Bitcoin.
On the bar in front of the till sits a tablet computer for customers wishing to settle their tab with their digital wallet.
"Not many people really understand it I think," said landlord Robert Macleer, who admitted that not many Bitcoin payments had been made since a digital currency conference, held on the island last October, attracted Bitcoin enthusiasts in their droves.
"People need more information. and more people need to adopt it, more shops more bars."
Taxi driver Nula Perryn, who founded all-female cab company The Lady Chauffeurs, agreed.
"We do about 2 or 3 [Bitcoin payments] a week," she told the BBC.
"I think it's a bit of a gimmick... as a new firm it's something to get us noticed - however I do feel there's a very strong movement from e-gaming.
"The government is behind it... there's a lot of will behind it."
Island entrepreneur Adrian Forbes believes one solution may lie in making Bitcoin a lot less ephemeral.
His new start-up TGBex is selling physical coins (his lawyer is very keen to call them tokens, he insists, as they are not legal tender). Each coin comes with a QR code so that the owner can transfer the value into their digital wallet.
"Bitcoin for technophobes is what I like to call it," he said.
"I have three young kids and I wanted to buy them a bitcoin each - but [some of] the exchanges have failed or been hacked... for me I think offline storage is the safest at the the moment."
It is a high risk investment, he conceded - but he's not keen on the government getting too involved.
"I'm not a big fan [of legislation].
"I see Bitcoin as something very niche. I don't think it requires same licences as banks and stockbrokers and hedge funs that have a thousand times as much money at stake.
"Bitcoin will work best in the third world first. In the west, it's a novelty, niche technology, a bit of fun.
"It might be advantageous in terms of speed but there's no real need for it."
Hear more from Zoe Kleinman on the Isle of Man's plans for Bitcoin in the Business Daily podcast | What do Thomas the Tank Engine, lifeboats, pilates, and the Bee Gees have in common? |
34,638,897 | John Mellis said the cold and wet summer meant some hives had provided barely enough honey for the bees to survive on, let alone provide surplus.
He estimated that Scotland's honey production was only a quarter of what it should be, calling this year's yield a "total disaster".
Mr Mellis, a bee farmer, said he was "losing money" on this year's crop.
He is one of Scotland's 26 bee farm owners, running about 250 hives from a base in the Nith Valley, north of Dumfries.
His colonies started work in the spring making blossom honey from flowers and hedgerows. The bees were then moved on to pollinate summer crops such as oilseed rape and ended up in the autumn on heather-clad hills.
Each habitat gives a different, distinctive, honey. But overall, it has not been a productive year.
"This year has almost nationally been a disaster from top to bottom of the UK," he told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme. "In Scotland, our blossom crop is probably 25% of what it should be.
"That's just a total disaster because it means we're losing money."
However, Mr Mellis also produces heather honey which he said had given him a better return.
The UK is the fourth largest importer of honey in the world, and only 15% of the honey eaten - about 26,000 tonnes a year - is produced in the UK.
Mr Mellis added: "We have a huge market we cannot lead. There's a huge potential gap which we could fill."
Although about 2,500 Scots keep bees as a hobby, it takes at least £50,000 - and about 200 hives - to set up as a commercial bee farmer. | It has been a "disastrous" season for honey production in Scotland, according to a beekeeping expert. |
35,077,084 | The 37-year-old from Hong Kong compiled the fourth maximum of his career in the fifth frame of his 4-2 win over Sam Baird and will collect £3,500 of prize money if the score is not matched.
Victory took him into round five of the nine-round tournament.
"It feels great," said Fu, who made a 147 at the Masters in January. "It's every snooker player's dream to make a 147 in a professional tournament."
Fu's maximum came five days after Neil Robertson became the first player to make a 147 break in a UK Championship final - the Australian earning £44,000 - as he beat Liang Wenbo 10-5. | World number 14 Marco Fu made a maximum 147 break at the Gibraltar Open. |
34,089,127 | Thunder in the Glens could see as many as 5,000 bike owners arrive in Aviemore over Saturday and Sunday.
The event is hosted by Edinburgh's Dunedin Chapter of Harley Davidson owners.
Hundreds of bike enthusiasts were also expected to head for Aviemore to see the gathering. | One of Europe's largest annual gatherings of Harley Davidson motorcycles and their riders has begun in the Highlands. |
40,188,820 | Aaron Urquhart, 40 and formerly of Maryburgh, near Dingwall, subjected the woman to a decade of abuse, Inverness Sheriff Court heard.
He had earlier admitted to assaulting Hannah Gradin on numerous occasions between July 2014 and July 2016.
Urquhart punched, slapped, kicked and head-butted her.
She was also struck with a boot causing her to vomit.
The court Ms Gradin was repeatedly struck on the head with the boot in an assault that lasted half an hour.
Fiscal depute Michelle Molley said Ms Gradin thought she would die.
Urquhart also pleaded guilty to a charge that between 1 August 2015 and 2 August 2016 he was in illegal possession of a stun gun.
He admitted a further charge that he breached his bail condition by contacting his Swedish girlfriend by phone the day after he was granted bail at Inverness Sheriff Court on 1 August last year.
His solicitor advocate Shahid Latif told Sheriff Margaret Neilson that it was accepted a period of imprisonment was inevitable.
But he added: "When my client looks in his rear view mirror of his life, he is shocked and remorseful.
"There cannot be an excuse for his conduct. But there is an explanation. He was working in Sweden as an experienced tree surgeon which placed him under great stress and pressure.
"As a coping mechanism, he was drinking alcohol to excess. When he returned to this country, it all turned on its head as there was insufficient work and he again turned to alcohol.
"While in custody, he has embarked on the road to rehabilitation by participating in various programmes for domestic and alcohol abuse. These are important protective factors."
But Sheriff Neilson told Urquhart: "These are extremely serious charges which make unpleasant reading and give cause for concern."
She backdated the sentence to 12 August last year when Urquhart was first remanded. | A tree surgeon who beat his partner so severely with a boot that she thought she was going to die has been jailed for three years. |
27,866,183 | The Health, Social Security and Housing Scrutiny Panel held- a six month-long review of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
It said the service was failing to fully support patients and families and referral waiting times had increased.
The Health Department said it was considering the report.
The panel said it was calling for a service that was appropriate for the needs of the island and individuals after its investigations received more than 50 submissions from service users.
Source: Health Scrutiny Panel report
The report said parents "did not believe their child was on a pathway to get well".
The panel said the complexities of mental health meant it could not be viewed as a nine-to-five illness, which is currently when CAMHS operates on weekdays.
It said that, outside working hours - including 10:00 to 12:00 at weekends - parents had had to call police or the island's hospital emergency department for help.
Some children had been in cells or children's hospital wards because there was nowhere else for them to go.
The panel heard that, at times, patients prone to violent outbursts at home left parents with no choice but to call police.
Investigators were "alarmed" to discover that, on occasion, police cells had been used to hold them "due to a lack of adequate facilities".
The Health and Social Services Department said it would respond fully to the report after it had had a chance to discuss it.
The health minister was due to publish an official response within six weeks, the panel said. | Young mental health patients have been kept in police cells because of a lack of adequate facilities in Jersey, a report says. |
34,971,535 | The serial killer, 69, who was convicted of murdering 13 women, has been housed at high-security Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire since 1984.
The BBC understands a report by medical experts suggests he be moved from the psychiatric unit to prison.
The Ministry of Justice said the final decision would be made by Justice Secretary Michael Gove.
Decisions to move prisoners from secure hospitals are based on "clinical assessments" by independent medical staff, it said.
Any transfer back to prison is likely to take in the region of six months.
The son of Sutcliffe's first victim Wilma McCann said he was willing to leave the decision to medical experts and had let go the anger over what had happened to his mother.
Richard McCann said: "My initial thoughts were that, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really change a great deal for us; it does not bring Mum back.
"But, having thought about it, I've woken up thinking it's only right that he's returned to prison, as is any prisoner who is deemed fit to return to prison.
"There is a difference between Broadmoor and prison, but I'm not in a position where I'm full of anger and hatred and want to see him in a cell.
"I am not sure whether he needed to be in Broadmoor or not, but what I do believe is, he is ill, he must have been ill to have done the things that he did.
"It is 40 years since it happened and I'll let the professional make the decisions. Hopefully they've made the right one."
Former lorry driver Sutcliffe was originally held in HMP Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight following his conviction in 1981 for the murder of 13 women.
He was later moved to Broadmoor after he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
David K Ho, a consultant forensic psychiatrist who has previously worked at Broadmoor, said the decision would have been made by the staff who were treating Sutcliffe.
"Loosely speaking, schizophrenia is a little like diabetes in the sense that when you treat it its symptoms get less, when you stop treating it, it may recur," said Dr Ho.
"So I don't think it's the case that his mental disorder has completely been cured, but I think it perhaps has reached a stage where its symptoms are under control."
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a diagnosis doctors use if someone is experiencing a cluster of psychological symptoms.
These include "psychotic experiences, such as hearing voices or seeing things that don't exist (hallucinations) and having unusual beliefs that are not based on reality (delusions).
There are different subtypes of schizophrenia - paranoid schizophrenia is one example and this is when the person experiences false beliefs of being persecuted or plotted against.
Schizophrenia is a fairly common mental health condition, affecting about one in every 100 people.
He said it was not uncommon for patients to be returned to prison after a long period of assessment and treatment.
Dr Ho added that while a psychiatrist makes a recommendation pertaining to the Mental Health Act, the approval for a transfer needs to come from the Ministry of Justice.
In 2010, the High Court ordered that Sutcliffe, who was given 20 life sentences, should never be released.
Brian Dow, director of external affairs at the charity Rethink Mental Illness, said: "There's no cure as such. There's no medication that will make it go away, but people will often be able to manage their symptoms to a point where they can lead a very normal life.
"Presumably... he is sufficiently well that he no longer needs to be treated in a clinical setting.
"That's very possible as the treatments he may have had may have got him to a point where they deem him to be able to be incarcerated in a prison rather than a high-security ward." | Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe's mental health has improved and he could be returned to jail. |
37,858,681 | Ian McDiarmid plays the late politician in What Shadows, which examines his infamous anti-immigration Rivers of Blood speech from 1968.
The Telegraph's Dominic Cavendish wrote that it was "chilling" to hear his sentiments again "as if newly minted".
The Birmingham Repertory Theatre should be "applauded for opening the floodgates to serious debate", he said.
"Does this re-enactment... rank as the most provocative theatrical act of the decade? I'd say so," Cavendish wrote in his four-star review.
"Given the current, high levels of concern about immigration and how long a shadow that speech has cast, [this was] a depressingly necessary evening."
The production is partly set in 1992 and sees Caribbean immigrant Rose Cruickshank confront the MP about his views.
The play also flashes back to 1960s to see the influences that shaped the two main characters.
Ann Treneman of The Times also gave the show four stars, adding that McDiarmid "gives a standout performance".
"This play does not mince words," she wrote. "Some are offensive, yet [writer] Chris Hannan isn't interested in political correctness but in getting to the core of a story.
"Not just about Powell but of England - what does it mean to be English and who exactly are we anyway?"
The Financial Times described the play as "compelling" in its four-star review, while The Stage said the production was "timely and intelligent".
Michael Billington gave the production a slightly less warm review in The Guardian, awarding it three stars.
"While Hannan makes it clear that we are still obsessed with immigration and the nature of Englishness, his play is much better at exploring the paradoxes of Powell than those of the surrounding culture," he wrote.
Referring to the two main characters, he added: "Powell, whatever you think of him, is complex. His principal antagonist, Rose, is simply confusing."
WhatsOnStage also gave the show three stars. "Hannan brings history back to life: a black and white photo recoloured. It sheds light on the present," wrote Matt Trueman.
"Hannan's structure sets up eloquent and forceful head-to-heads, but in giving space to vital debates, each strand gives up its narrative drive."
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or if you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. | A new play about MP Enoch Powell has been described as "the most provocative theatre act in a decade" by one critic. |
21,289,953 | The authority will freeze council tax next year, but will cut 300 jobs and many services to balance the books.
They include closing Splott pool, selling Flat Holm Island in the Bristol Channel and ending the Big Weekend event.
There will be more money for schools and social services.
The Labour-led cabinet said cuts of £22m had to be found in the next budget and it needed to find £110m of savings during the lifetime of the current council.
It outlined some of its proposals in a full council meeting on Thursday evening.
Russell Goodway, who holds the finance portfolio in the Cardiff cabinet, told colleagues: The picture is far from rosy. I am not looking to put a gloss on it or spin. There is no escaping the pain."
Delivering proposals for the 2013-2014 budget, he said some service areas will see budgets cut by 90% by 2021.
He added that there would be "serious collateral damage", with jobs hit - including 300 post closures in the next year.
Savings that will be made include:
Mr Goodway said that the council did not intend to close the city's riding school, which had been feared.
Instead, it was working to find an alternative operator to run the riding school on its 30-acre site in Pontcanna.
Staff at the riding centre - who protested outside the meeting - claimed they were sent letters telling them that the school would close on 1 April.
But Mr Goodway told councillors that the school would remain open until a new partner was found.
He also said that there would be an increase in spending for schools - but it would mean they would have to buy some of the services the authority currently provides for them.
Social services would also get an increase in their total budget, he added.
The council did have the option of increasing council tax to bring in more money, but Labour in Cardiff pledged to freeze council tax during last year's elections.
Both Conservative and Liberal Democrat opposition councillors said they would wait to see "the devil in the detail" before coming to any firm decisions on the budget proposals.
But the Plaid Cymru group leader, Neil McEvoy, said the proposals were being delivered by a "right-wing Labour council" who were nothing more than "red Tories".
The budget will be put to a full council meeting at the end of February. | A swimming pool will be closed, school music subsidies stopped, library hours cut and even an island sold under plans to save Cardiff council £110m. |
36,110,944 | But Saints boss Tommy Wright remains hopeful of getting his summer transfer business done early and Alston remains in his sights.
"Fans think you want a player and it happens overnight," he said.
"But players and agents keep their cards close to their chest and want to keep their options open."
Wright told BBC Scotland that chairman Steve Brown had agreed to increase his playing budget for next season in light of Rangers' promotion and an expected increase in competition for a top-six finish in the Scottish Premiership.
The Saints boss already has York City midfielder Michael Coulson secured on a pre-contract agreement and has also had discussions with St Mirren full-back Keith Watson and Dundee United forward Ryan Dow.
Dow's present club are in danger of being relegated form the top flight, while Alston has the chance of helping Falkirk, with whom he came through the youth ranks, win promotion to the Premiership.
Bairns manager Peter Houston remains hopeful of persuading Alston, who is out of contract this summer, to remain at Falkirk Stadium but expects to lose the midfielder.
"People like Blair Alston, we have spoken to his agent and we are waiting for them to get back to us," said Wright.
"I was down in England again this week looking at players and talking to one or two.
"I have spoken to the chairman and we feel we need to invest more in recruitment this year and that's what he is planning to do.
"Hopefully we can get some fresh faces in and help the squad maintain the standards we have set over the last few years." | St Johnstone are still waiting to hear from Blair Alston about their approach for the midfielder - three months after speaking to the 24-year-old's agent. |
35,090,147 | Behind the closed doors of the negotiating rooms at the climate conference in Paris last week, the debates were all about subtle differences in the language used.
Indeed, a dispute over the words "shall" and "should" almost derailed the entire deal.
The distinction says a lot about the implications of the deal for developing nations like India.
Like the rest of the world, India hailed the global climate pact signed on Saturday as a rare triumph of global partnership.
"Outcome of #ParisAgreement has no winners or losers," tweeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Climate justice has won & we are all working towards a greener future."
But as the first flush of joy fades, the discussion is now all about what the deal really means - and the "shall/should" dichotomy is central.
It arose in the final hours before the historic deal was signed - and brought the momentum of negotiations to a juddering halt.
Lawyers working for the American negotiating team discovered a clause deep in the document had been tweaked.
Article 4 now read that wealthier countries "shall" set economy-wide targets for cutting their greenhouse gas emissions. Previous drafts had used the word "should".
John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, was unequivocal: "Either it changes or President Obama and the United States will not be able to support this document."
"Shall" was duly replaced with "should" and - to the relief of the US and the French organisers there was no outcry - the deal went ahead.
The change was very significant - "shall" implies a legal obligation, "should" does not.
Instead of concrete commitments to emissions cuts by the developed world, they are now just an aspiration.
It is just one of a number of ways in which the "differentiation" - another key word - between the developed and the developing world has been substantially diluted.
The idea of "common by differentiated responsibilities" was the central plank of the developing world's approach to the climate change issue, and was at the heart of the Indian demand for "climate justice".
The idea is that while tackling climate change is everyone's duty, the developed world has got rich using fossil fuels and, therefore, should bear more of the burden of making the change.
Both phrases are mentioned in the final document a number of times but not in a sense that involves any legal obligation.
Crucially the idea of "historical responsibilities" - another important phrase in the climate lexicon of the developing world - has been erased from the final version of the pact, says Chandra Bhushan, deputy director of the Indian environmental think-tank, the Centre for Science and Environment.
At the same time the Paris deal obliges developing countries to take publicly announced emission reduction actions - a major change from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol where only rich nations were required to do so.
To reflect that new obligation the Paris deal commits developed countries to provide $100bn (£65bn) a year to help finance new technologies and mitigation in developing nations.
But, again this pledge is not part of the legally binding section of the agreement.
That means that loans and bilateral development assistance may be counted as contributions to the total, worry some observers.
And there is another clause which is causing anxiety here in India. It says "finance flows should be consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate resilient development".
The fear is that it could be used to frustrate the ambitions of countries like India which plan to develop their economies with a huge increase in power generated from coal.
Now, of course, that is a good thing for the global climate, but not for Indian politicians who have always insisted that economic development must come before tackling climate change.
Yet despite these caveats there is a recognition here in India, as elsewhere in the developing world, that compromise was inevitable to get the deal.
President Obama put it best. "No agreement is perfect, including this one," he said. But "this agreement represents the best chance we have to save the one planet we've got".
Paris proves that those are words the entire world can agree with. | International agreements are really an exercise in applied etymology - the meaning of words. |
35,794,017 | Rea battled with Kawasaki team-mate Tom Sykes throughout Saturday's 20-lap race and two-tenths of a second separated the pair at the chequered flag.
The second race at the Buriram circuit will take place on Sunday.
Reigning champion Rea won the first two races of this year's championship at Phillip Island a fortnight ago.
The 29-year-old has accumulated a perfect total of 75 points and already enjoys a 23-point lead over nearest challenger Michael van der Mark (52), with Sykes third on 41 and Davies fourth on 39.
Pole position man Van der Mark took the final podium spot on his Honda, with Welshman Chaz Davies fending off the challenge of fellow Ducati rider Davide Giugliano to take fourth.
Sykes took the lead early in the race following an uncharacteristic error from Rea but the Northern Irishman regained his position at the front with four laps left, going under the Yorkshireman on the brakes into the last corner.
Former world champion Sykes made a last-ditch attempt to edge in front in the closing stages but was unable to get past the Isle of Man-based pacesetter, who set the fastest lap of the race at 1:33.936 on lap 14. | Jonathan Rea continued his winning start to the season by taking victory in the opening World Superbike race at the Thailand round of the series. |
27,042,665 | Federal authorities in charge of the football tournament told BBC Brasil they would consider using police or military staff should the need arise.
Military police are routinely used at local football matches in Brazil.
But the sport's world governing body, Fifa, stipulates the use of private security for the World Cup.
Private security personnel are supposed to be trained by 21 May, when Fifa takes over control of the stadiums.
The federal authorities told the BBC the training would be done "in time".
"The committee is overseeing this work and we are relaxed about that," said Hilario Medeiros, head of security at the Local Organising Committee.
"If there is not enough private security [during the tournament], we will use public security, armed security. But we are working to make sure we will not have this problem."
The opening game of the World Cup is on 12 June in Brazil's biggest city, Sao Paulo.
Brazil has approximately 220 private security schools, and they will have to train 20,000 stewards in less than 40 days.
The committee has asked for 25,000 private guards to work as stewards during the World Cup.
However, only 5,084 private guards in Brazil have so far received the specific training and documentation needed, according to Brazil's federal police.
Both Fifa and private security companies say there will be enough time to train all the staff and there will be no need for a contingency plan.
Brazilian legislation makes it clear that only professional security guards can act as stewards, and only after completing additional training for major events.
The federal police have said they will not allow stewards to work in World Cup stadiums without such training. | Brazil has so far trained only 20% of the private security guards needed at the 12 stadiums for the World Cup in June and July, the BBC has learned. |
35,687,542 | The 18-year-old marked his Premier League debut with two goals in three minutes as United beat Arsenal 3-2.
Rashford also scored twice on his first-team debut against Danish champions FC Midtjylland in the Europa League on Thursday.
With Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal calling Rashford a "special talent", Newsround looks at the teenage striker's career so far in numbers. | Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford's incredible start to his professional career continued at Old Trafford on Sunday against Arsenal. |
39,919,702 | When the driver crashed on Saturday evening in Aghalee, his Ford Fiesta alerted police to the accident.
"Some cars these days are pretty clever," said a PSNI Craigavon Facebook post.
"Did you know that some can even phone police automatically to let us know you've crashed?! That's a really good safely feature."
The post added that it was a "really bad feature to have if you're a drunk driver".
"That's right, you're picking this up correctly - a CAR phoned us to let us know about a crash last night when it turned out the driver was drunk," said the police message.
"You think you're having a rough weekend? At least your car hasn't touted on you!"
The driver was one of a number who were arrested in the area for drink-driving during the weekend, police said.
Anyone who suspects someone is drink-driving should contact police, they added. | The hi-tech features of a car helped alert police to a drunk driver in County Antrim. |
36,734,026 | Wales finished their first major tournament in 58 years at the semi-finials of the European Championships, losing 2-0 to Portugal on Wednesday.
Mr Jones said the "big change" was that people in continental Europe no longer do not know where Wales is.
The years of having to explain Wales is not in England have ended, he said.
Mr Jones, who was speaking on BBC Radio's Good Morning Wales programme, said: "The big change is instead of people saying in Europe 'Wales where's that?'
"It's going to be 'Wales, oh yes, we know where that is, the semi-finalists of the European Championships'.
"When I was in Paris last night, I didn't get to the game but I watched the game in Paris, all people could talk about was Wales.
"I was hearing people talking about Wales on the streets. The sort of profile that it's given us has been incredible.
"We've really got to cash in on this now.
"All those years when you go abroad and you have to explain where Wales is, that it wasn't part of England. In the space of a month, five weeks, all of that has turned on its head." | Wales should cash in on the higher profile the European Championships has given the country, First Minister Carwyn Jones has said. |
29,493,937 | Raina, 27, struck six fours and eight sixes in his 62-ball innings as the Super Kings chased a target of 181 with nine balls to spare in Bangalore.
Left-arm spinner Pawan Negi took 5-22 as Indian Premier League champions Kolkata were restricted to 180-6.
The win secured fellow IPL side Chennai their second Champions League title.
Gautam Gambhir (80) and Robin Uthappa (39) had earlier shared a 91-run opening partnership for Kolkata after they had lost the toss and been asked to bat.
But, Negi soon got on top of the batting and restricted the Knight Riders, picking up Utappa's wicket, as well as those of Jacques Kallis, Ryan ten Doeschate, Manish Pandey and Suryakumar Yadav.
Coming in at number three following the early loss of West Indian Dwayne Smith, India batsman Raina then set about dominating the Kolkata bowlers.
He was initially supported by New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum (39) in a second-wicket partnership of 118.
Raina reached his century off 59 balls and India captain Mahendra Dhoni joined him at the fall of the second wicket to hit a run-a-ball 23 to help his side to victory. | Suresh Raina powered Chennai Super Kings to an eight-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in the Champions League final with an unbeaten 109. |
36,551,380 | The 10-11 favourite came strong on the back straight to finish ahead of Mizzou in second and Sheikhzayedroad in third.
"I had to ride about four different races - it was a nightmare," said Moore. "He is a class horse and class horses win races."
The success was Moore and trainer Aidan O'Brien's second of the day after victory on favourite Even Song in the Ribblesdale Stakes.
Irishman O'Brien has now trained seven winners in the Gold Cup and 51 in total at the event.
He said: "I am delighted. It is a tough race - a long one at two and a half miles - but he is a horse that loves racing."
Order of St George secured his fifth straight win despite Mille Et Mille holding a 10-length lead at one stage.
Moore added: "He picked up very well and it was a very good performance."
14:30 Norfolk Stakes (Group 2) 5f - Prince of Lir 8-1
15:05 Tercentenary Stakes (Group 3) 1m 2f - Hawkbill 11-2
15:40 Ribblesdale Stakes (Fillies' Group 2) 1m 4f - 7 Even Song 15-8 fav
16:20 Gold Cup in honour of the Queen's 90th birthday (Group 1) 2m 4f - Order of St George 10-11 fav
17:00 Britannia Stakes (Heritage handicap) 1m - Defrocked 13-2
17:35 King George V Stakes (Handicap) 1m 4f - Primitivo 13-2
All racing results from Royal Ascot
Earlier on Thursday, Moore secured an impressive victory in the Ribblesdale Stakes as Even Song triumphed by one and a half lengths ahead of Ajman Princess, who led for almost all the race.
The Gold Cup win was 32-year-old Moore's 39th victory at Royal Ascot.
He said of O'Brien: "All the superlatives have been said about Aidan.
"This win has just endorsed what everyone knows and says - he is one of the great trainers."
In the final race of the day, jockey William Twiston-Davies rode 13-2 chance Primitivo to victory in the King George V Stakes.
But there was bad news as Guy Fawkes, a horse owned by the Queen and a leading contender in the race, was put down after suffering a compound fracture of a front leg.
Horse racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght
"'A small part of a big team' is how Aidan O'Brien, ever infuriatingly modest, reacted to his latest landmark, but the truth is that O'Brien is captain of the vast Coolmore ship, and all of them are a major part of the modern history of this flagship flat racing event.
"Of course he gets some of the best material with which to go to sea, but there are plenty of rocks to hit, and he rarely does.
"Order Of St George met trouble in running, and had to navigate out again through the last half-mile, but achieved it in the style of a real champion." | Order of St George, ridden by Ryan Moore, won the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot. |
40,360,058 | Footage of the moment Jessica Stirling swerved across a wet road, narrowly avoiding an oncoming lorry, has been viewed online more than 300,000 times.
The footage, captured by a dash board camera of a vehicle she overtook, was played to Limavady Magistrates' Court.
Stirling, 18, avoided jail with a four-month term suspended for two years.
She had not long passed her driving test and was still a "restricted" driver when she made the overtaking manoeuvre on the road between Coleraine and Limavady.
The teenager, from Grasmere Court in Coleraine, pulled out to pass traffic in wet conditions during the morning rush-hour earlier this year.
Faced with an oncoming lorry, she swerved on to the hard shoulder on the opposite side of the road, rather than pull back into the left-hand lane.
Stirling continued driving on the hard shoulder over the brow of a hill, passing three more vehicles, before returning to the correct side of the road.
The court heard that Stirling had described the incident as "the biggest mistake in her life".
She previously pleaded guilty to dangerous driving.
At Wednesday's sentencing, a defence solicitor said her client's driving on the date in question had been "awful" but put it down to the teenager's "inexperience".
She said when Stirling overtook the vehicles and met an oncoming vehicle she "panicked" and moved onto the hard shoulder.
"It was only afterwards that she realised the dangers she put herself and her passengers in," the lawyer added.
After watching the footage, the judge told Stirling that it was "one of the worst bits of driving" he had ever seen.
He said the offence merited a custodial sentence, but he had to take into account her guilty plea and previous clear record.
"If I had decided this was a joyriding-type exercise where you had no disregard for anyone else on the road I would have imposed an immediate custodial sentence," he said.
"You made a mistake when overtaking. You were very fortunate to escape without injuring yourself or anyone else," he added.
The judge also disqualified Stirling from driving for two years and said she would have to take an extended driving test to "ensure the public are safe" before she goes back on the road again. | A woman who drove the wrong way along a hard shoulder after swerving across oncoming traffic has heard it was among the "worst" driving a judge had seen. |
36,499,687 | The 26-year-old, a free transfer signing from Woking last summer, made 40 appearances as Rovers finished third in League Two to go up automatically.
"Last season the spirit around the place was the best I've experienced," Clarke told the club website.
"League One will be a step up for everyone, I can't wait to get started."
The length of Clarke's new deal has not been revealed.
He joins goalkeeper Steve Mildenhall, defender Daniel Leadbitter and striker Billy Bodin who had already agreed new contracts at the Memorial Stadium. | Defender James Clarke has become the latest member of Bristol Rovers' promotion-winning squad to agree a new contract with the club. |
36,259,237 | It is part of a major overhaul of how the BBC is run, which has been unveiled by the government.
The licence fee will continue for at least 11 years and will be linked to inflation - and viewers will need to pay it to use BBC iPlayer.
Mr Whittingdale made clear he was "emphatically not saying the BBC should not be popular".
The culture secretary was referring to earlier speculation that the corporation would not be allowed to schedule popular programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing in prime slots.
BBC charter: Key points at a glance:
Q&A: What is the BBC White Paper?
"Commissioning editors should ask consistently of new programming: 'Is this idea sufficiently innovative and high quality?' rather than simply 'How will it do in the ratings?'"
He also said the BBC will be "required to give greater focus to under-served audiences, in particular those from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds, and those in the nations and regions".
"We want the BBC to be the leading broadcaster in promoting diversity," he said.
Responding to Mr Whittingdale's statement, Maria Eagle, the shadow culture secretary, said: "We know the secretary of state is extremely hostile to the BBC. He wants it diminished in size."
She said the culture secretary's views were "totally out of step with the licence fee-payers who value and support the BBC".
Ms Eagle said she did "not agree that [Mr Whittingdale's] obsession with distinctiveness should be imported into the BBC's mission statement."
The White Paper states that the trust governing the BBC is being abolished and a board will be set up to run day-to-day matters, while Ofcom will become the corporation's external regulator.
The licence fee, which has been frozen at £145.50 since 2010, will now rise with inflation from next year.
Also announced was a requirement for all employees and freelancers who earn more than £450,000 to be named.
The move will affect some of the corporation's best-known names, such as Chris Evans, Gary Lineker and Graham Norton, although their actual salaries will not be revealed.
But a senior figure at the corporation cautioned against cutting the salaries of the highest-paid too much.
James Purnell, director of strategy and digital at the BBC, said "We pay less than the private sector already but we need to make sure that we don't go so low that we can't get brilliant people like Chris Evans to work for us."
He added the corporation had already cut its talent bill by 15%, adding: "It's been independently reviewed and been given a good bill of health.
"Clearly we need to get the balance between getting the right people to work for the BBC but also paying less than the private sector."
The culture secretary said he recognised the future of the licence fee was in doubt and urged the BBC to explore new subscription services beyond what it already offers.
He said: Although the licence fee remains the best way of funding the BBC for this charter period, it is likely to become less sustainable as the media landscape continues to evolve.
"The Government therefore welcomes the BBC's intention to explore whether additional revenue could be raised at home or abroad from additional subscription services, sitting alongside the core universal fee.
The licence fee will rise in line with inflation from next year, and will now also have to be paid by people who only consume BBC content online.
Previously, there was a loophole that allowed viewers to watch BBC content via the iPlayer without paying the licence fee.
That is because the fee only had to be paid by people who were viewing television live as it was being broadcast.
The changes will not affect people who currently pay the licence fee - they will continue to be able to access the iPlayer without any extra charges.
The BBC Trust will be abolished and Ofcom will be the external independent regulator of the BBC, Mr Whittingdale confirmed.
In addition, a new "unitary board" will be established, which will consist of 12-14 members. The BBC will appoint at least half of them.
Commenting on its new role as regulator of the BBC, Ofcom said: "We are confident that, with the right resources and planning, we can undertake our new responsibilities effectively and independently."
The White Paper will be debated by MPs in the autumn before the new charter is drafted and signed for the next 11 years.
The BBC's current Royal Charter - the agreement which sets the broadcaster's rules and purpose - expires at the end of December.
For an exercise billed as a far-reaching reform, what's striking about the white paper is how little will change fundamentally.
The licence fee remains, indexed to inflation rather than frozen as it has been for the past five years. It'll still be a criminal offence not to pay it, and it'll be extended to cover the growing numbers of people who watch the BBC's iPlayer catch-up service rather than live television broadcasts.
The proposal to abolish the BBC Trust and make Ofcom the corporation's regulator is largely uncontroversial - but where the BBC and the culture secretary are at odds is over the appointment by government of some members of the new BBC board.
The corporation thinks that represents a potential threat to its independence and the director-general Tony Hall said government and the BBC had "an honest difference" on the question.
The Shadow Culture Secretary, Maria Eagle, said most of what she called John Whittingdale's wilder proposals had been watered down or dumped and that he'd been overruled by the prime minister and chancellor.
If he was, that was perhaps to avoid a political row which might divide conservatives in the run up to the EU referendum.
More from Nick
Responding to the White Paper, BBC director-general Tony Hall said it "delivers a mandate for the strong, creative BBC the public believe in.
"At the end, we have an 11-year charter, a licence fee guaranteed for 11 years, and an endorsement of the scale and scope of what the BBC does today," he said.
But he added there were some areas where the BBC will continue to talk to the government to address remaining issues, including allowing the National Audit Office to be the BBC's auditor and how the new board is appointed.
He said: "We have an honest disagreement with the government on this. I do not believe that the appointments proposals for the new unitary board are yet right.
"We will continue to make the case to government. It is vital for the future of the BBC that its independence is fully preserved." | The BBC must put "distinctive content" at its heart, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale has said. |
36,683,828 | The federal police say Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, has refused to share the contents of messages sent by suspected drug smugglers.
They need the data to connect those captured with others based around the world, Reuters reported.
Facebook declined to comment.
The frozen money is the equivalent amount that the company has been fined for "disregarding the law" over a period of five months, reports local news agency G1.
The funds have been blocked from Facebook's account because WhatsApp doesn't have a bank account in the country, the report claims.
WhatsApp is hugely popular in Brazil, and is reported to have 93 million users.
In March Facebook's vice-president for Latin America, Diego Dzodan, was arrested after the firm failed to co-operate with court orders in a drug-trafficking case.
At the time Facebook described the arrest as an "extreme and disproportionate measure".
"Facebook has always been and will be available to address any questions Brazilian authorities may have," the company said. | A court in Brazil has frozen 19.5 million reais (£4.5m, $6.07m) of Facebook's funds in a dispute with secure messaging service WhatsApp over a criminal case. |
32,924,487 | Prosecutors pushed for his conviction, despite his legal team saying last week that a deal had been reached with the generals to drop the case.
A rights group said he had been sentenced after an "absurd process".
Rafael Marques de Morais is a long-standing critic of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos' 35-year rule.
He spent 43 days in prison, including 11 in solitary confinement, in 1999 after he published the article, The Lipstick of the Dictatorship, in a private Angolan newspaper.
The latest case against Mr Morais came after he wrote a book, Blood Diamonds: Torture and Corruption in Angola.
He accused seven generals of being linked to murder, torture and land grabs in Angola's lucrative diamond fields.
The generals denied the allegation, and sued Mr Morais.
Last week, his legal team said he had agreed not to republish the book, in exchange for the charges being dropped.
Campaign group Index on Censorship said on its website that it was "appalled to hear that Rafael has been sentenced after an absurd process".
"This is a clear violation of rights to free expression, to a free press and to a fair trial," its chief executive Jodie Ginsberg said.
In March, Index on Censorship gave Mr Morais a freedom of expression award for his work as a journalist and human rights activist in Angola. | A renowned Angolan journalist has been given a six-month suspended jail sentence for falsely linking military generals to the "blood diamond" trade. |
35,498,398 | The 29-year-old Northampton hooker, who has been banned for a total of 54 weeks, has succeeded Chris Robshaw as captain for the Six Nations.
"The captaincy thing, the whole media circus - the sideshow that I don't really want to do but I understand that I have got to do - and everyone wanting to see me muck up is making me prepared for this game in a good way," he said.
England coach Eddie Jones, who replaced Stuart Lancaster after the World Cup, made Hartley his captain, demoting Robshaw, who also starts at Murrayfield in the Six Nations opener.
"Everyone wants to see people fail, don't they?" said Hartley. "I just know it is out there, for whatever reason.
"It's my fault, I've created this story. But it isn't something I look back at. I'm pretty excited to be here. I'm prepared and not overplaying it."
Conor O'Shea, director of rugby at Harlequins, told BBC Radio 5 live he has been urging Robshaw to concentrate on his rugby and not dwell on the captaincy issue.
"I told him to stop apologising about things, be proud of what you've done and go back and prove what you are... the best back-row forward in England and Europe for some time," said O'Shea.
"I'm sure there are a few snipers who'll want to try to have a go at him again because he's an easy target. But Chris, for his whole life, has reacted to adversity.
"He's an incredible role model for people. I hope he's man of the match this weekend playing at six, where he's played for us for a number of years." | England captain Dylan Hartley says he has "never prepared for a game so well" as he has for the Scotland match because people want him to fail. |
34,512,838 | Sam Winnall came close for Barnsley in a quiet first half, but his close-range shot was scuffed wide.
Evans, who joined on loan from Manchester City hours earlier, fired a low strike across Nick Townsend in the second half to put Walsall ahead.
Former Barnsley man Milan Lalkovic scored from 15 yards to ensure the win which kept Walsall second in the table.
The Saddlers, who are unbeaten now in seven away league matches, remain two points behind league leaders Gillingham, while Barnsley slipped to 19th in the table.
Walsall manager Dean Smith told BBC WM:
"George Evans looked top notch. He is a really good footballer, someone we've been keeping tabs on for a while.
"We were outstanding in the second half. We played some really good football.
"It's a great away record and the players deserve it because they've been excellent. But, If I'm being really picky it could be six wins because we should have won at Peterborough." | George Evans scored on his Walsall debut to consign Barnsley to their fourth consecutive league defeat. |
38,773,740 | But the DUP leader said it should not be seen as a referendum on her handling of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme.
She made the comments to the BBC's Inside Politics programme on Friday.
She said Sinn Féin had used RHI as a "useful way to bring the assembly down" and re-run last year's election.
The former first minister claimed republicans wanted to weaken unionism and pursue their wider aims regarding the Irish language, Brexit and increasing the number of cross-border bodies.
She said there had been plenty of occasions when the DUP could have brought the assembly down, but had chosen not to in order to make politics work.
She accused Sinn Féin of walking away from an agreement made between the two parties in mid December on how to handle the controversy over the heating scheme.
Until mid December, Mrs Foster insisted, she and Martin McGuinness had "been working quite well together".
She said it was "absolutely wrong" to characterise her as someone who could not work with Sinn Féin and did not want to make devolution work and that after the election she would have "to try to put it (devolution) back together again".
Mrs Foster repeated her assertion that she had done nothing wrong with regards to RHI and said none of her friends or family "were even remotely connected with the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme, directly or indirectly".
She said rumours to the contrary on social media were incorrect and were "in the hands of my husband's solicitors".
Mrs Foster claimed there was now a "feeding frenzy" around the scheme, and she wishes a public inquiry had been put in place in mid December.
She also said she wishes the cost-cutting measures passed by the assembly earlier this week "had come to the fore sooner".
RHI was also the subject of an exchange between DUP party chairman Lord Morrow and Mrs Foster earlier on Friday.
In response to a comment about it being "a lovely sunny day", Lord Morrow said: "It's hot. Yes, the boilers are all working."
Mrs Foster replied: "Stop". | Arlene Foster has said the March election could be the most important since 1998 and would decide the future direction of Northern Ireland. |
35,192,049 | South Australia's Mount Lofty Botanic Garden has been growing the Amorphophallus titanium, more commonly called the Corpse Flower, for 10 years.
About two weeks ago the plant's famously pungent flower began to grow, before finally opening on Monday.
Matt Coulter, a horticulture curator at the garden, said the flower's "rotten fish smell" was overpowering.
"When I opened the door this morning it almost knocked me over, it was so strong," he said.
Mr Coulter, who has been tending the flower for the last eight years, said he was ecstatic that it had flowered for the first time.
"It's fantastic. I didn't think it would ever flower," he said.
"It comes from [the Indonesian island of] Sumatra, so we've been keeping it warm in winter and cool in summer, and keeping the humidity high.
The corpse flower cannot self-pollinate and its stench attracts sweat bees and carrion beetles that live on animal carcasses.
In the wild, these animals will carry the plant's pollen to other corpse flowers.
Queues of visitors have been lining up to see - and smell - the flower at Mount Lofty Botanic Garden since it began opening on Monday.
The flower will last for just 48 hours before it collapses in on itself.
Other flowers have been grown in botanical gardens around the world, attracting visitors when they bloom. | A 2m-tall flower, known for its pungent odour which has been likened to rotting flesh, has bloomed in Australia. |
34,981,901 | The crash happened at about 03:25 GMT near junction 16 northbound.
Northamptonshire Police, who had been investigating the theft of a vehicle, said the man stopped in the road and ran across the southbound carriageway when he was hit.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has been notified.
Live updates on the crash and other Northamptonshire stories at BBC Local Live.
The southbound carriageway remains shut between junctions 18 and 16, but two lanes have reopened northbound.
Queues southbound have been backed up to Lutterworth in Leicestershire, with knock-on effects also spreading to the nearby M6, A14, A5 and the M45.
One driver told the BBC he had been stuck in M1 queues for four hours.
Accident investigators were examining the closed section and oil was being cleared from a carriageway.
BBC Travel
Northamptonshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Adam Simmonds, said: "I am aware of the tragic incident on the M1 this morning and await the results of the police investigation and the view of the IPCC."
BBC reporter Martin Heath, who was close to junction 16, said the motorway was completely empty and there was stationary traffic on local roads "as far as the eye can see".
He added there was no immediate sign of the situation changing, adding "everyone is being affected by this". | A driver who police were chasing on the M1 near Northampton has died after he got out of the car and was hit by another vehicle. |
40,418,386 | The 27-year-old has scored 10 tries in 19 Super League appearances this term for the struggling Dragons.
The England international said: "I am delighted to have signed for the Rhinos and can't wait to get started when I join up with the boys at the end of the season.
"Leeds is a big club and a club that is always fighting for silverware." | Leeds Rhinos have signed Catalans Dragons half-back Richie Myler on a three-year deal, starting next season. |
34,799,462 | Only, they were not actually bird watchers - that was just a cover. These were socialists from all over Europe, meeting to discuss ways to bring peace to a continent ravaged by World War One.
Two of the most famous participants were Russian: Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, or Lenin, and Leon Trotsky.
Their peace campaign made secrecy necessary: opposing the war was viewed as treason in many countries.
Lenin and Trotsky were already political refugees. They were both living in neutral Switzerland - Trotsky in Geneva and Lenin in Berne, quietly planning the overthrow of Tsarist Russia.
Today, Zimmerwald is not much changed from that day in 1915.
It is a sleepy little place, population 1,100, with a few farms, a church, and the Alps soaring majestically across the valley.
And for 100 years there was no sign that the founders of the Bolshevik Revolution had ever set foot there.
Thousands of kilometres to the east, however, Zimmerwald gradually became famous.
In classrooms across the Soviet Union, the village was being celebrated as the birthplace of the revolution.
"In the Soviet Union, Zimmerwald was such a famous place. Every Soviet school child knew about Zimmerwald," explained Julia Richers, a historian at Berne University.
"But you can ask any Swiss school child, they would never know what Zimmerwald was about."
Julia describes Switzerland's attitude to its history as a kind of "forceful forgetting", especially in Zimmerwald itself, where, in the 1960s, plans to have a small plaque marking Lenin's presence were formally banned by the village council.
Switzerland's neutrality probably lies at the root of that reluctance to acknowledge the past.
During the Cold War the Swiss were extremely nervous about showing overt friendliness to either East or West, and spent billions on a vast army and on bunkers for every family, in the hope of sitting, neutrally, out of any future conflict.
But in Zimmerwald, reminders of Lenin's presence were dropping through the letter box every day.
Mayor Fritz Broennimann has a vast archive of earnest missives: postcards, drawings, and notes, from hundreds of Soviet schoolchildren, many of them addressed to the "President of Zimmerwald", all begging for information about their national hero Lenin.
"They asked for photographs, for booklets," he explained, showing a fraying postcard of a Lenin statue in Moscow.
"Some even sent their letters to the Lenin museum in Zimmerwald."
Of course, there was no museum, and there were no photographs or booklets.
Most of those letters were never answered.
But occasionally a Zimmerwald official, perhaps made anxious by the excessive amount of mail with Soviet stamps landing on his desk, tried to stem the flow.
And so, in 1945, this firm reply was sent:
"Sir, I have not been briefed on your political sympathies. However, I am not inclined to provide material to a political extremist, which could then be of use to enemies of the state."
Even in this centenary year, Zimmerwald has wrestled with the apparently agonising decision over whether to mark it.
"We had an idea [for an article] - 'A hundred years, a hundred opinions'," explained Mayor Broennimann.
"So we put an advertisement in the local paper. We got about six answers."
But just a few kilometres north of Zimmerwald in the Swiss capital Berne - one of the most left-leaning of Switzerland's cities - the significance of the Zimmerwald conference is getting a good deal of attention.
"Zimmerwald was actually a peace conference," said Fabian Molina, president of Switzerland's Young Socialists party.
"They were young leftists from the whole of Europe, discussing peace, discussing their strategy against war."
"A hundred years after Zimmerwald, we are in a similar situation, if we compare the wars that are going on, with 60 million people fleeing.
"We have a refugee crisis, it reminds us how violent the world is, and so it's important to remember there was once a conference of people uniting for peace."
Historian Julia Richers agrees, pointing out that the conference was the only gathering in Europe against the war, and that the final manifesto from Zimmerwald contained some fundamental principles.
"The Zimmerwald manifesto stated three important things," she explained. "That there should be a peace without annexations, a peace without war contributions, and the self-determination of people.
"If you look at the peace treaties of World War One, those three things were hardly considered, and we know that World War One led partially to the World War Two, and so I think the manifesto did state some very important points for a peaceful Europe."
A little-known fact is that that manifesto was not revolutionary enough for Lenin and Trotsky, who wanted it to contain references to replacing war between nations with an armed class struggle.
Their fellow socialists and social democrats in Zimmerwald outvoted them, but Lenin continued to harbour hopes that Switzerland might be fertile ground for staging a revolution.
"He once stated that the Swiss could have been the most revolutionary of all, because almost everybody had a gun at home," said Julia Richers.
"But he said that in the end the society was too bourgeois… so he gave up on the Swiss."
"I think he recognised after a few years that it was not a good idea to start a revolution in Switzerland," laughed Fabian Molina.
"Switzerland has always been a quite right-wing country, it… never had a left majority, and I think Lenin saw that the revolutionary potential here in Switzerland was quite small."
But back in Zimmerwald, that historic conference, and its most famous participants, have finally received some modest recognition.
On the spot where the hotel Lenin stayed in once stood (it was pulled down in the 1960s to make way for a bus stop) are two small signs.
Made only of plywood and cardboard, they will not last once winter begins, Fritz Broennimann admits, but they do at least commemorate the events of 1915.
And, after much discussion, the village held a memorial event, with speeches by historians and politicians.
It took place in the local church which, Mr Broennimann remarks with a wry smile, "was full for a change".
And Lenin? He carried on living in Berne, where he wrote some of his most important political treatises.
In 1916 he moved to Zurich, and in early 1917 he took the famous train from Zurich to St Petersburg, which was teetering on the edge of revolution.
The rest, as they say, is history. | On a crisp autumn day in 1915, 38 ornithologists gathered in the tiny Swiss village of Zimmerwald. |
36,734,518 | Instead 18-year-old Kieran "Kez" Brown joins the club as its first e-sports player.
He will represent the club at e-sports tournaments, playing popular computer game Fifa.
Premier League rivals West Ham signed their first Fifa player, Sean "Dragonn" Allen, in May and many other top flight clubs are keen to get involved.
"It's exciting, it's something new for the club and it's something new for me," said Mr Brown.
"I'm going to live stream on Twitch, I'm going to be making videos for Manchester City's YouTube channel and I'm going to be playing some City fans and representing City in future tournaments, which I'm looking forward to."
Diego Gigliani, vice-president of media and innovation at Manchester City, said: "As e-sports continues to gain momentum, it makes sense for our club to be part of the action and get closer to our fans, who love playing EA Sports Fifa as Manchester City.
"We will be a bigger presence at gaming tournaments, we will have more content through our digital channels and we will activate even more with our fans at matches and club events."
E-sports is increasingly being seen as a lucrative spin-off for football clubs.
Top ranking Fifa players, like those for other games such as League of Legends and Counter-Strike, travel around the world to compete for titles and cash prizes. | Manchester City Football Club have signed a new young player - but one who will never set foot on the pitch. |
39,387,251 | Guy Tomlinson, 37, caused the death of two men when he drove into a tipper truck during the chase in Leicester.
Passengers David Anger and Christopher Needham died in the crash on Fosse Road South, on 9 March 2016.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) concluded the pursuit was correctly authorised and in accordance with force policies.
Tomlinson was jailed for nine years after pleading guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving, two counts of causing death by driving while uninsured and two counts of causing death by driving while unlicensed.
Before the crash, an unmarked police car began to pursue Tomlinson's Peugeot after it was seen going through a red light on the B4114.
The IPCC report said CCTV footage showed the police car arriving at the crash six seconds after it happened.
There was also no indication Tomlinson was aware of the police vehicle travelling behind him at any point during the incident, the investigation concluded.
IPCC commissioner Derrick Campbell, said: "Tragically two men lost their lives and our thoughts are with the families and friends of Mr Anger and Mr Needham.
"Hopefully, the completion of our investigation and conclusion of court proceedings will have answered some of their questions." | A police force has been cleared of wrongdoing after a suspect caused a fatal crash as officers pursued him. |
37,379,566 | The UN is angry that its aid convoys remain stuck at the Turkish border because permits promised by the Syrian government have not materialised.
Russia, an ally of Syria's president, says government forces are now moving back from a key road into Aleppo.
But a US state department spokesman said he did not have "intelligence or facts" to confirm a withdrawal.
Getting humanitarian aid into besieged parts of the country was one of the agreements reached in the US and Russia-brokered ceasefire that began on Monday.
Some 20 lorries carrying food supplies for the estimated 250,000 people trapped in eastern Aleppo are in still in a buffer zone on the Turkish-Syrian border.
Staffan de Mistura, the UN's special envoy to Syria, said earlier that he had not yet had "facilitation letters" from the Syrian government that would allow the convoy to pass through army checkpoints.
Russia's deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov told the BBC that the Syrian government had concerns about the drivers of the lorries.
They "have no documents, no passport - not even driver's licence. It's not clear who they are," he said, but added that "I think we can resolve this issue very quickly".
As part of the truce agreement, both sides are expected to pull back and create a demilitarised zone around the Castello Road, considered the only route into the rebel-held east of Aleppo.
A senior Russian officer, Vladimir Savchenko, said later on Thursday that Syrian government forces had begun "a gradual withdrawal of military hardware and all personnel" - although this was denied by a rebel fighter on the ground.
State department spokesman Mark Toner said he could not confirm a pull-back by Syrian troops around Castello Road.
He said the truce was largely holding, although "we've seen violations on both sides".
Washington has not commented on accusations by Russia's defence ministry that it is failing to fulfil its obligations under the truce agreement.
Both sides have privately expressed doubts that the truce will hold.
Mr Bogdanov said "they key criteria, is action. It's important to see how things go on the ground, and what steps are taken. That will be the real test for everyone".
He urged the US to compel rebels to separate themselves on the ground from allied fighters from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham - a jihadist group known as al-Nusra Front until it formally broke off ties with al-Qaeda in July.
The move is necessary before the US and Russia can start conducting joint air strikes targeting Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and so-called Islamic State (IS).
Russia wants the truce deal agreed with the US to be endorsed in a resolution by the UN Security Council when it meets next week. | Syrians deprived of food in eastern Aleppo are still waiting for aid three days after a truce was agreed. |
38,554,180 | It has already agreed in principle to support the move by the Queens Trust.
The group needs the local authority to use its shareholding in the Dumfries club to get the issue discussed at its annual general meeting.
The supporter organisation hopes to secure a director's role or a place as a non-voting member of the board at the Scottish Championship side.
The Dumfries common good sub-committee is being asked to back a resolution being taken to the club's AGM.
The club has said that its door is "always open" for an "open and honest dialogue" with fans.
It has also appointed a supporter liaison officer to improve the relationship between fans and directors. | Dumfries and Galloway Council is being asked to back a fans' bid to get a seat on the board at Queen of the South. |
34,212,531 | Sturridge, 26, only made seven league starts last season because of injuries, and has not played at all since April.
The England forward is back in training, but will not be available for Saturday's game at Manchester United.
"He looked really sharp, probably the best he's looked fitness-wise for 18 months," said Rodgers.
Sturridge scored 24 goals in 33 appearances in the 2013-14 season as Liverpool finished second in the league, but was blighted by injuries last term.
The former Chelsea and Manchester City striker spent five months out with a thigh problem sustained on international duty, which was then followed by a calf strain.
He then had an operation on his hip in May, and spent the summer undergoing rehabilitation in the United States.
"I can never say that he is over the worst of his injuries because I don't want to sit here and something happens in a couple of months' time," added Rodgers.
"I can only look at what I see and from my experiences in the past I don't want to put any timeline on him coming back." | Daniel Sturridge is the fittest he has been for 18 months, says Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, as the injured striker closes in on a return. |
13,708,848 | "I have expressed only 10% - 90% is still inside. I don't think I will be able to do it, I think I have to take that with me to my grave," he told an interviewer last March.
His peers and admirers marvelled at the energy of this indefatigable painter - artist Anjolie Ela Menon says he "ran ahead of all of us - he had such energy".
So much so that he declared five years ago that he planned to work on "three major projects": histories of Indian civilisation, "other civilisations" and a history of "cinema which is close to my heart".
Husain was a protean maverick who embraced the free market, took to making cinema, angered Hindu radicals at home with his provocative work, gamely took leaving India in his stride, accepted Qatari nationality and loved fast cars, including a red Ferrari that he owned.
When his admirers in India got worked up about his self-imposed exile, he calmly told an interviewer: "Nothing is stopping me; I can return tomorrow. But please know I remain an Indian painter whether I am painting in Paris, London, New York or Qatar."
Husain was born in Pandharpur in Maharashtra in western India in 1915. His father was an accountant in a textile mill. His homemaker mother died when he was two years old.
Her passing made a strong impression on him "as seen in his portrayal of his mother", writes Najma Husain in her book, Husain's Art.
His artistic abilities were noticed by the family with his easy mastery of the Arabic calligraphy he had to learn as a young boy. Husain would sell his school books to buy painting materials and he loved to paint landscapes.
A self-taught artist, his impulses were awakened by the street art and the colours and sights he would observe as he rode his bicycle as a boy.
Husain travelled to Mumbai (then Bombay) from his home town as an 18-year-old to chase his dreams of being a filmmaker.
However his first job was painting cinema signboards to support his wife and family.
Working on billboards and hoardings helped him paint using bold lines and deep colours on large canvases when he turned to painting murals and large works of art.
He embraced the street around him, living in bazaar lanes where prostitutes and street vendors peddled their wares.
Husain rose to prominence as a painter in the 1940s.
Following India's independence he joined the Progressive Artist's Group, a bold new breed of artists like Francis Newton Souza, SH Raza and Akbar Padamsee.
The group wanted to break free from the traditions and sought freedom in content and technique.
Their bold themes were considered anarchic as they brought Indian elements to Expressionist styles and Cubist forms.
Artists were considered an elite group who enjoyed the patronage of the royals in pre-Independence India. Husain's arrival on the art scene soon after Independence in 1947 was hailed as both anarchic and liberating.
Until his last he was considered a maverick, instantly recognisable with his uncombed mane of hair. He chose to go barefoot, like most poor Indians, twirling an oversized paint brush at posh parties and coffee shops.
Husain remained a painter who enjoyed street art, and the colour and popular forms of art.
But he was most captivated by the cinema and loved the moving images that had an impact until the very end of his career.
His first film Through the Eyes of a Painter was made in 1967 and won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
The Bollywood-loving artist also made films in Hindi that celebrated Indian women, especially peasants and women in traditional dress.
His series of lithographs and oils on Madhuri Dixit, a Bollywood diva of the 1990s, were very popular. He directed the film Gaja Gamini as a tribute to the actress in whom he said he had found a muse.
He also directed a film, Meenaxi - A Tale of Three Cities. The lead was played by another Bollywood actress, Tabu, whose grace Husain said inspired him to make the film.
Husain belongs to the elite club of Indian painters like Tyeb Mehta and SH Raza whose works have sold for more than $1m.
In 2008, Husain's Battle of Ganga and Yamuna sold at Christies for $1.6m even as protesters lined outside the auction house condemning him.
His critics accused him of selling out to the market, but Husain remained unfazed.
He would paint a mural as a gift after a good meal at a small roadside cafeteria in Calcutta and also draw huge crowds to his painting of a mural set to Indian classical music that was bought for an exorbitant amount.
Towards the end of his life Husain was attacked and reviled by right-wing groups and people who found his paintings of bare-breasted Hindu goddesses offensive.
He was dejected and left the country following court orders targeting his properties across India.
But he never showed any bitterness towards his homeland. "What has happened with me is a small thing. We remain a free country," he told an interviewer last year.
Husain's enduring legacy would be of a liberal who embraced all forms of beauty and colour around him. India's streets and culture remained his enduring inspiration.
"Is your life like a red Ferrari?" an interviewer asked him as he took to the wheels of his favourite car some time ago.
"You can say so," said Husain of a life lived to the brim.
Sudha G Tilak is a Delhi-based writer on art and culture. | Maqbool Fida Husain was India's most iconic and prolific artist - and painted right up until two weeks before his death in London at the age of 95. |
40,671,738 | The lizards were found in Lynemouth, Northumberland, without food, water or heat, which the RSPCA warned is "essential" to their survival.
The organisation described it as "irresponsible".
Both lizards are being cared for by a vet in Stockton, Teesside, and will be transported to a specialist reptile centre to find a new home.
Collection officer Terry Haley, who found the pair, said: "This poor pair of beautiful beardies had been cruelly dumped like rubbish in just a cardboard box.
"It's such an irresponsible thing to do, as pet reptiles need to be kept in specific climate controlled enclosures to stay healthy and to carry out their normal behaviours."
Bearded dragons, which have a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years, are one of the most popular forms of lizard in captivity in the UK.
With a diet of insects and vegetables, they grow to about 45cm (18ins) in length, including their tail.
The RSPCA said it rescued more than 1,600 reptiles last year with a rise in the number of calls relating to abandoned ones. | Two bearded dragons have been found abandoned in a cardboard box "dumped like rubbish." |
30,767,376 | The 16-year-old was arrested as part of a policing operation to use stop and search powers.
The force said officers had been authorised to use the powers after receiving information that "serious disorder was being planned between hooligan elements of both clubs".
Eleven people in total were arrested.
A second man, aged 24, was charged with possession of an offensive weapon.
Both of those charged were also served with football banning notice applications and will appear before courts in the coming weeks.
The other eight men and one youth were arrested on suspicion of offences including affray, criminal damage and threats to damage, and remain in police custody.
In total, 87 people were stopped and searched.
Assistant Chief Constable Phil Kay, said: "As a result of the actions we took we were able to prevent serious disorder from taking place and allow law abiding supporters to enjoy the game." | A teenager has been charged with possession of a firework at Saturday's football match between Leicester City and Aston Villa. |
28,554,687 | That is more than triple the loss the company reported during the same period a year ago.
Twitter said it had 271 million monthly users - up 24% from a year ago - allaying investor fears that the service is not growing fast enough.
Shares in the firm soared over 35% in after-hours trading.
"Our strong financial and operating results for the second quarter show the continued momentum of our business," said chief executive Dick Costolo in a statement, noting Twitter's strong user figures during the World Cup.
However, in an interview with CNBC, Mr Costolo said that it was not just the World Cup that drove user growth, in an effort to allay fears that the company would not be able to keep the users it gained during the sporting event.
Twitter said it added 16 million new users during the March to June period - 13 million internationally and 3 million in the US.
Advertising revenue grew 129% from the same period a year earlier to $277m. Crucially for investors worried about shifting user habits, a majority of that advertising revenue came from mobile advertising.
Twitter said more than 78% of its clients access the service on their mobile devices. | Social networking service Twitter reported a loss of $145m (£86m) during the second-quarter period from March to June. |
32,117,019 | Questionnaires completed by 16,193 14 to 17-year-olds, published in BMC Public Health, showed one in five had tried or bought e-cigarettes.
The researchers said e-cigarettes were the "alcopops of the nicotine world" and needed tougher controls.
Experts said it was important to find out how many were becoming addicted.
Electronic cigarettes mimic the effects of real ones, producing a vapour that is less harmful than cigarette smoke, but the vapour usually contains nicotine, the addictive substance in cigarettes.
They divide opinion. Some see them as a vital tool for helping people to quit, while others argue they "normalise" smoking and may act as a gateway.
One major area of contention is the impact they have on children.
The analysis by Liverpool John Moores University showed that 19% of those who responded had tried "vaping".
E-cigarettes were used by 5% of teenagers who had never smoked, 50% of former smokers and 67% of light smokers.
The link was even stronger in children who drank alcohol or whose parents smoked.
Prof Mark Bellis told the BBC News website: "To many people the numbers we've identified might come as a bit of a shock.
"This is just being drawn into a repertoire - another drug that people can use to experiment with rather than being seen as an alternative to tobacco.
On nicotine, he said e-cigarettes were "providing a concentrated form of a highly addictive substance, with known problems associated with it, and we need to be very cautious about that and how we protect our young people."
A ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes to under-18s will be introduced in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Katherine Devlin, president of the Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association, told the BBC: "Obviously, teenagers accessing vaping products is a serious concern.
"[However] since the survey only records a single access, it doesn't provide any information about whether or not they go on to regular use.
"Other statistical data indicate that this is unlikely. Nevertheless, we hope that the newly introduced mandated age restrictions can reduce this number."
Data from the Office for National Statistics does suggest that those who use e-cigarettes are almost entirely current or former smokers.
Dr John Middleton, of the Faculty of Public Health, said: "We need to protect children and young people from the harms of nicotine by regulating electronic cigarettes.
"Our concern is that if we wait for proof that electronic cigarettes could act as a gateway to smoking cigarettes, it will already have happened and the tobacco industry will have been given the opportunity to recruit its next generation of smokers." | Many teenagers, even those who have never smoked, are experimenting with e-cigarettes, researchers in north-west England say. |
17,465,085 | Cadbury will be part of the newly-named firm, with estimated revenues of $32bn (£19.6bn), as well as other brands such as Trident gum and Oreo biscuits.
It had previously announced plans to split into two independent companies.
The other company, focusing on its North American food business, will retain the Kraft name.
The new name was chosen from suggestions by employees, with more than 1,000 employees submitting 1,700 names for consideration.
Mondelez apparently comes from "monde", the French word for world, and the made-up word "delez", intended to evoke the word "delicious".
"It's quite a job for a single word to capture everything about what we want the new global snacks company to stand for," said Mary Beth West, Kraft's chief marketing officer.
Kraft controversially bought Cadbury for £11.5bn in 2010.
The new Kraft Foods business will take in brands including Kraft and Philadelphia cheeses, as well as Capri Sun.
Kraft has made a number of acquisitions in recent years, including LU Biscuits, from French food group Danone, and Cadbury.
The former Cadbury factory in Bristol was closed in January 2011, with the loss of 600 jobs. | US giant Kraft Foods, owner of UK chocolate maker Cadbury, has decided to name its new global snacks business Mondelez. |
30,687,398 | The blaze needed 57 firefighters to bring it under control after it broke out in the early hours of 28 December at First Call Coaches in Pant Industrial Estate, Merthyr Tydfil.
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service confirmed it was treating the blaze as a "deliberate fire".
Investigators studied CCTV footage to help decide the cause.
The enormous blaze triggered a series of explosions.
The coaches were parked very close together, partly as a security measure to prevent anyone trying to steal fuel or batteries and parts.
However, firefighters said that had helped the fire spread quickly.
Describing the scene, Dewi Jones from South Wales Fire Service told BBC Wales: "There's total devastation.
"Prompt action prevented a fire from spreading to surrounding businesses." | A huge fire at a bus depot which destroyed 30 coaches, five minibuses and a car is being treated as arson. |
39,762,552 | The badly-burned body of Lauren Patterson, 24, from West Malling, was found in the desert in October 2013.
She had been working at the Newton British School in the capital Doha and disappeared after a night out.
Badr Hashim Khamis Abdallah Al-Jabr was found guilty of stabbing her. However, the conviction was later quashed and a retrial ordered. It ended on Sunday.
His accomplice Muhammad Abdullah Hassan Abdul Aziz was jailed for three years.
Ms Patterson's mother, Alison, had travelled to Qatar on several occasions to fight for justice for her daughter.
She was in court when the conviction was upheld and told BBC South East she was "very relieved".
The verdict was handed down after the judge asked Mrs Patterson what judgement she wanted.
"I told the judge I did not want to forgive," she said.
Al-Jabr now has 60 days in which to launch an appeal. | The death sentence for a man who murdered a Kent teacher in Qatar has been upheld following a retrial. |
36,451,653 | Ali died on Saturday after suffering from a respiratory illness, a condition complicated by Parkinson's disease.
Welshman Calzaghe admitted Ali, the first to win the world heavyweight title three times, inspired him to become a two-weight world champion.
"In a 1,000 years time people will look back and say he was the greatest," said Calzaghe, paying tribute to "his hero".
"He is the greatest boxing and greatest sporting icon of all time. He was my inspiration, I tried to copy some of his moves as soon a I started boxing at the age of 10 or 11.
"Boxing is the hardest sport in the world and in a time when he was champion, it wasn't a great sport - it was on a bit of a downward spiral but he transcended the sport with his personality and style.
"People loved him, he was someone completely different, he backed it up in the ring and everybody wanted to tune in and watch him fight."
I'm proud that my sport of boxing has probably the greatest all-round sportsman of all time
Ali's trilogy with fellow American heavyweight Joe Frazier is one of sport's greatest rivalries and the infamous third and final showdown, widely known as the Thrilla in Manila, is the favourite of Calzaghe, himself a record-breaking world champion.
"My favourite was the third fight with Joe Frazier," recalled Calzaghe.
" Frazier and Ali had won one apiece but in the Thrilla Frazier didn't get back up for the final round. No disrespect to the world heavyweight champions of today but compared to those guys, they were at a different level.
"They were unbelievable. That rivalry with Frazier was epic, I remember watching tapes of those fights and I wanted to be like Ali.
"And the Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman in 1974, he was against a guy who was number one in the division and Ali was a massive underdog.
"Everybody thought Ali wasn't just going to get beaten or hurt against Foreman, but they thought he was going to get killed.
"But Ali stood back, took incredible punishment and waited for Foreman to burn himself out before knocking him out in the eighth. That was incredible.
"It is a truly sad day hearing he has died. There'll never be another Muhammad Ali. He was a superstar. And although he has gone, his legacy will live on for what he has done for sport and humanity."
"I know he has been poorly with Parkinson's Disease for a long time but it still so upsetting as he is somebody that made such a big difference to my life and the lives of so many people around the world." | Joe Calzaghe has led British boxing's tributes to sport's 'The Greatest' Muhammad Ali, who has died aged 74. |
31,485,073 | Mr Varoufakis spoke after Greece rejected an EU offer to extend its current €240bn (£178bn) bailout, a plan he called "absurd" and "unacceptable".
He said he was prepared to agree a deal but under different conditions.
But the Dutch finance minister said there were just days left for talks.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs the Eurogroup of finance ministers, said it was now "up to Greece" to decide if it wanted more funding or not.
"My strong preference is and still is to get an extension of the programme, and I think it is still feasible," Mr Dijsselbloem told a news conference after the talks collapsed.
Greece's current bailout expires on 28 February. Any new agreement would need to be approved by national governments, so time is running out to reach a compromise.
Without a deal Greece is likely to run out of money.
Mr Varoufakis said there was still "substantial disagreement" on whether the task ahead was to complete the current programme, which Greece's newly elected government has pledged to scrap.
He dismissed the promise of "some flexibility" in the programme as "nebulous" and lacking in detail.
Speaking at a news conference after Mr Dijsselbloem, he said he had been presented with a draft communique by Pierre Moscovici, the EU's economics commissioner, which he had been ready to sign.
However, that draft had been withdrawn minutes before the meeting started, Mr Varoufakis said.
But he sought to play down the setback as a temporary hitch.
"Europe will do the usual trick: It will pull a good agreement or an honourable agreement out of what seems to be an impasse.'"
Two pressing financial issues loom over Greece: whether the government can pay its bills and the stability of the banks.
Greek officials have said the government could keep going for several months, but there are doubts. How long it takes depends to a great extent on Greek taxpayers.
The banks have already seen money being withdrawn and increasingly need central bank loans. If there is no bailout programme, the European Central Bank could pull the plug on the banks.
If it came to that, it really would mean a major financial crisis, with perhaps the imposition of extensive financial controls to prop up the banks and possibly even the re-introduction of a national currency.
It's hard to nail down a date by which an agreement must be done to avert some sort of financial Armageddon, because it depends on the actions of taxpayers, bank customers and the ECB. But time is getting short.
Does Greece have a plan?
Yanis Varoufakis: The finance minister as global celebrity
Before the meeting, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had already said he was not optimistic a deal would be reached.
"The problem is that Greece has lived beyond its means for a long time and that nobody wants to give Greece money any more without guarantees," he said.
But French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said European leaders needed to respect the political change in Athens. As he arrived in Brussels he urged the Greeks to extend their current deal to allow time for talks.
Greece has proposed a new bailout programme that involves a bridging loan to keep the country going for six months and help it repay €7bn (£5.2bn) of maturing bonds.
The second part of the plan would see the county's debt refinanced. Part of this might be through "GDP bonds" - bonds carrying an interest rate linked to economic growth.
Greece also wants to see a reduction in the primary surplus target - the surplus the government must generate (excluding interest payments on debt) - from 3% to 1.49% of GDP.
In Greece last week, two opinion polls indicated that 79% of Greeks supported the government's policies, and 74% believed its negotiating strategy would succeed. | Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis declared he was ready to do "whatever it takes" to reach agreement over its bailout after the collapse of talks with EU finance ministers. |
35,106,794 | Media playback is not supported on this device
He beat Novak Djokovic, Katie Ledecky, Usain Bolt, Jordan Spieth and Serena Williams after the award was decided by a public vote for the first time.
Carter, 33, was an integral part of the New Zealand team that beat Australia 34-17 to win the World Cup in October.
The highest ever points scorer in Test rugby, he won the World Player of the Year award for a third time in 2015.
"I'm thrilled to have been voted BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year by the UK public," said Carter.
"It's been an incredible year for me on British soil and the support has been phenomenal.
"It was an incredibly competitive shortlist and I'm honoured to have been recognised alongside these great sportsmen and women from around the world."
Fly-half Carter, who joined French side Racing 92 after the World Cup, missed the All Blacks' win in the 2011 final through injury but fought back to regain the number 10 shirt for the 2015 edition.
He went into the tournament, which took place in England in September and October, acknowledged as one of the greats of the game but with some doubts over his form and whether his body could still withstand the rigours of international rugby.
However, the longer the World Cup went on the better he played and, after landing a vital drop-goal in the edgy win over South Africa in the last four, a sublime performance in the final against the Wallabies saw him win the man of the match award.
In total he kicked 19 points, made 11 tackles and was an unruffled decision-making presence as New Zealand became the first team to defend the World Cup.
Carter, who retired from international rugby after the World Cup final, won 112 caps for the All Blacks in a Test career that started with victory over Wales in 2003.
He was born and raised in the town of Leeston, 30 miles south west of Christchurch in New Zealand's South Island.
The fly-half made his debut for the Christchurch-based Crusaders Super Rugby team in 2003 and, bar a brief injury-hit spell with Catalan side Perpignan, remained with them until his move to Parisians Racing 92, for whom he made his debut in the recent 33-3 European Champions Cup win over Northampton. | Rugby World Cup-winning fly-half Dan Carter has been named 2015 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year. |
32,667,807 | Army Col Steve Warren said the increase was not the result of a specific event.
He said it was the result of an increased threat climate, including the arrests of several suspected Islamic State sympathizers in the US.
The increase likely means more bag and vehicle checks at military facilities.
The military has four levels of security that are labelled A through D.
The decision moves the baseline level from A to B at all facilities, even though most were already engaging in stricter security measures individually.
It comes several days after two men tried to attack a conference in Texas which included a contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed; they were shot dead by police. | The US military has increased its threat level at facilities across North America, although most installations were already operating at a higher level of protection. |
40,396,449 | Having considered giving up his title, he finally decided he should remain and "work out a role for myself".
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, the prince - who is fifth in line to the throne - said being in the Army was "the best escape I've ever had".
And he said the royals "don't want to be just a bunch of celebrities but instead use our role for good".
Harry, 32, spent 10 years in the Army, serving twice in Afghanistan.
He had to leave when his presence there was revealed by the media in 2008.
"I felt very resentful. Being in the Army was the best escape I've ever had. I felt as though I was really achieving something.
"I have a deep understanding of all sorts of people from different backgrounds and felt I was part of a team."
He has since been closely involved with charity work, including supporting wounded veterans and mental health groups.
"We are incredibly passionate with our charities and they have been chosen because they are on the path shown to me by our mother," he said.
"I love charity stuff and meeting people."
Last week Newsweek magazine published an interview with the prince in which he said no one in the Royal Family wanted the throne.
"We are not doing this for ourselves but for the greater good of the people," he said.
"Is there any one of the Royal Family who wants to be king or queen? I don't think so, but we will carry out our duties at the right time."
Harry has also said he has thought about the future direction of the Royal Family.
"We want to make sure the monarchy lasts and are passionate about what it stands for.
"But it can't go on as it has done under the Queen. There will be changes and pressure to get them right.
"Things are moving so fast, especially because of social media, so we are involved in modernising the monarchy." | Prince Harry was once so disillusioned with being part of the Royal Family that he decided he "wanted out". |
39,885,249 | Captain Ian Bell made 98, aided by Jonathan Trott (70), Sam Hain (55) and Rikki Clarke's unbeaten 44 as the Bears reached 284-5 with 15 balls to spare.
Earlier, Yorkshire lost Adam Lyth to Keith Barker (2-39) to the first ball of the game before Joe Root scored 83.
Tim Bresnan made 65 and Matthew Waite 71 but the hosts, led by Grant Thornton (3-63), restricted Yorkshire to 281-8.
Yorkshire slip to second, replaced at the top of the North Group by Worcestershire, who beat Durham, but their 10 points from seven matches means they cannot now slip outside the top three.
One-Day Cup holders Warwickshire, who had previously won just once in seven group games, made the perfect start when Lyth was caught behind for a golden duck.
Jonny Bairstow fell to Clarke for eight and when England team-mate Root was fifth man out for a 98-ball 83, Yorkshire were 149-5.
But Bresnan and Waite shared a sixth-wicket stand of 116 to push the visitors to respectable total.
In reply, Trott and Hain put on 124 for the first wicket in 20 overs before Bell, fresh from his first century in 13 months against Worcestershire on Friday, hit a much more rapid 98 from 85 balls, including three sixes and 11 fours.
Despite Warwickshire's struggles, Bell has been in fine form in the One-Day Cup. He has passed 50 four times in eight games, having scored 51 against Notts, 93 at Derby and 104 at Worcester.
Clarke's 49-ball unbeaten 44 eased Warwickshire home to move off the bottom of the North Group in their final game.
Warwickshire spinner Jeetan Patel told BBC WM:
"We have come off a run of a few really bad losses and some that were quite tight but credit to the guys for the way they came out.
"We wanted to bowl well, field well and bat well and those three knocks from Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott and Sam Hain were fantastic.
"Keith Barker bowled 10 really good overs up front and got us two crucial wickets and then Rikki Clarke got that third one for us.
"Grant Thornton bowled really well which is where we need to get to. We are an ageing teams with a lot of experience but we need to be able to trust the younger guys."
Yorkshire all-rounder Matthew Waite told BBC Radio Leeds:
"It was disappointing to lose but we are still in a good position. We have got Leicestershire on Tuesday so hopefully we can beat them at Headingley.
"I enjoyed my innings. It was just a shame we didn't win. But it was nice to get my first 50 for Yorkshire. I got 40 last week against Northants and that gave me a bit of confidence coming in.
"It's just nice to be in a side with six internationals and pleasing to know I that I can play in a side that good. Tim Bresnan has given me a lot of help. He just told me to stand still and hit the ball. Just that little bit of advice can make all the difference" | Yorkshire have qualified for the One-Day Cup knockout stages despite a five-wicket defeat by Warwickshire. |
35,952,564 | The Belarusian won 6-3 6-2 in 77 minutes to add a third Miami title to her victories in 2009 and 2011.
The 26-year-old has now won 20 career WTA titles and will return to the world's top five next week.
Russian Kuznetsova, 30, was bidding for her second title of the year after her victory in Sydney in January.
Azarenka, a former world number one and twice a winner of the Australian Open, has rediscovered her best form this season after failing to win a WTA title throughout 2014 and 2015.
She began the year with victory in Brisbane in January and last month overcame Serena Williams to win at Indian Wells.
She becomes just the third woman to achieve the Indian Wells-Miami double after Steffi Graf (1994, 1996) and Kim Clijsters (2005). | Victoria Azarenka secured back-to-back WTA titles with a straight-set victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova in the Miami Open final. |
37,406,476 | The victim was pronounced dead at the scene in Dashwood Avenue, High Wycombe, at about 05:30 BST.
A man from the town has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
A second man has been arrested on suspicion of obstructing a police constable in the execution of his or her duty.
Thames Valley Police urged anyone with any information to contact the force. | Two men have been arrested following the death of a woman at a property in Buckinghamshire. |
37,196,698 | The 23-year-old made 14 league appearances for the Royals last season after moving to the Madejski Stadium from Watford.
Bond has been capped by England at Under-20 and Under-21 level, having previously represented Wales at youth international level.
He becomes Gillingham's 11th signing of the summer transfer window.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | League One side Gillingham have signed Reading goalkeeper Jonathan Bond on loan until 7 January 2017. |
24,919,056 | The UNODC report said the harvest was 36% up on last year, and if fully realised would outstrip global demand.
Most of the rise was in Helmand province, where British troops are preparing to withdraw.
One of the main reasons the UK sent troops to Helmand was to cut opium production.
The head of the UN office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Kabul, Jean-Luc Lemahieu, said that production was likely to rise again next year, amid uncertainty over the withdrawal of most foreign troops and the presidential election.
He said that the illegal economy was taking over in importance from legitimate business, and that prices remained high since there was a ready availability of cash in Afghanistan because of aid.
"As long as we think that we can have short-term, fast solutions for the counter-narcotics, we are continued to be doomed to fail," he added.
Mr Lemahieu said there had been some recent successes, including the arrest of leading figures in the drugs industry, but it could take 10-15 years to deal with Afghanistan's opium crisis, even if policies improved.
The report said the total area planted with poppies rose from 154,000 to 209,000 hectares, while potential production rose by 49% to 5,500 tonnes, more than the current global demand.
Half of the cultivation area is in Helmand province.
By David LoynBBC News, Islam Qala, near Afghan-Iran border
The consequences of Afghanistan's huge opium production have had an effect across society here. There are believed to be more than a million opium and heroin addicts - one of the largest levels in the world - taking advantage of plentiful supplies.
The amount of land given over to opium in 2013 was 209,000 hectares. The potential production from that is estimated to be more than annual global demand, according to the head of the UN office for Drugs and Crime in Kabul, Jean-Luc Lemahieu.
After rising sharply in the years after the Taliban successfully stopped production, the harvest last peaked in 2007 and is expected to continue rising.
Mr Lemahieu said that the rise since 2010 was caused principally by what he called a "hot political market" - uncertainty over the process of transition from US control. That uncertainty will continue with the end of foreign combat operations and the presidential election next year.
Meanwhile two northern provinces which had previously been declared poppy-free - Faryab and Balkh - lost that status.
The report called for an integrated, comprehensive response to the problem.
"If the drug problem is not taken more seriously by aid, development and security actors, the virus of opium will further reduce the resistance of its host, already suffering from dangerously low immune levels due to fragmentation, conflict, patronage, corruption and impunity," it said.
But the report said there were some encouraging signs, with police tripling their effectiveness to capture "well over 10%" of production and a growth in services set up to tackle addiction.
The findings of the latest report reverse a decline in production last year attributed to bad weather and disease.
However, cultivation has been rising yearly since 2010 despite government efforts to eradicate the crop.
More farmers have been trying to grow the poppy as the price of opium has been rising.
Afghanistan produces more than 90% of the world's opium. | Afghan opium cultivation has reached a record level, with more than 200,000 hectares planted with the poppy for the first time, the United Nations says. |
40,427,860 | Investors have agreed to swap their debt for a stake in the bank.
The bank also said it would to separate its pension fund from the Co-operative Group's scheme, which has £8bn of liabilities.
The Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority said it had accepted the plan to return the bank to a firm footing.
"Supervisors will remain closely engaged with the bank while the actions announced today are taken forward. Implementation is subject to certain regulatory approvals," said the PRA, which is responsible for supervising the UK's banks and insurance companies.
The debt-for-equity swap with hedge funds means that the Co-op Group's stake in the bank will fall from 20% to about 1%.
The Co-op also said that the relationship agreement between the group and the bank, covering the promotion of bank services to members of the wider business and other matters, "will naturally fall away and come to a formal end in 2020".
It added that it "is supportive of the plan and intends to vote in favour of the capital raising".
The Co-op Bank has been been struggling for four years since an abortive attempt to buy 632 branches from Lloyds revealed a £1.5bn hole in its finances.
After failing to find a buyer for the bank, the existing owners, which are predominantly US investment funds, have agreed to write off £443m they are owed and will sell £250m worth of new shares.
The bank, known for its ethical approach, has been under intense supervision from the Bank of England for many months. Wednesday's injection of fresh money will spare the regulator the job of stepping in to manage a wind-up of the bank.
The investors will also pump £100m into the bank's pension scheme over the next 10 years to secure its separation from the wider Co-op Group pension scheme.
Despite its troubles, Co-op Bank's customers have proved loyal, with nearly four million account holders and mortgage borrowers sticking with the bank despite its financial difficulties and a sex and drug scandal involving its former chairman, Methodist minister Paul Flowers.
The bank says it will continue to run itself with the ethical values it has observed since its founding in 1872. | The Co-operative Bank has secured a £700m rescue package to stop the lender from being wound up. |
36,029,860 | Gisela Stuart, the Labour MP who chairs Vote Leave, said a "daunting fiscal and demographic crunch" will require tax rises of 18% across the euro area.
Her speech came ahead of the Electoral Commission announcing Vote Leave as the official Out campaign.
Backers of EU exit have been boosted by news that a group of Tory donors is considering giving them up to £5m.
Britain Stronger In Europe has been designated as the lead campaign for the In side.
It and Vote Leave will each have a spending limit of £7m while other groups taking part in the campaign are limited to £700,000 expenditure.
In her speech, Ms Stuart cited research by Vote Leave which the group says shows spending on public pensions across the eurozone is estimated to rise by 2.1% of GDP by 2020, and the cost of debt interest payments to go up from 1.8% to 6.9% of GDP over the next 35 years.
It suggests that tax rises of 17.6% will be needed to plug the gap and that the UK, while outside the euro, will "inevitably" be affected.
"The priorities of the eurozone will gradually and inevitably take over Brussels institutions," Ms Stuart said. "If we don't want to be part of this we must vote Leave."
The government has said it has negotiated safeguards to ensure it will not have to contribute to any future bailouts across the eurozone while the International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that a UK exit from the EU could cause "severe economic damage".
The IMF - one of the main pillars of the global economic order - said a so-called Brexit would disrupt established trading relationships and cause "major challenges" for the UK and the rest of Europe.
But Ms Stuart said that her experience, as a former Labour minister, in negotiating the EU's Lisbon Treaty in 2009 exposed her to the EU's "mule-like refusal to listen to democratic concerns" or accept any "deviation from the orthodoxy of political integration".
Democratic accountability and economic competitiveness were "downgraded", said, "in case they become a diversion from the European project". "I call it integration at whatever the cost or consequences," she added.
Grassroots Out - another group campaigning for EU exit - has said it was "delighted" that the Midlands Industrial Council, a wealthy group of Conservative Party donors - are offering to help bankroll the Leave campaign.
The Council, which does not publish its accounts or the names of its supporters, have been one of the Tories' main financial backers, giving up to £2m to the party a year in recent times.
David Wall, its secretary who sits on the board of Grassroots Out, told the Daily Telegraph that the organisation was "incandescent with rage" about the government's decision to spend £9m on sending pro-EU leaflets to every UK household.
He told the paper that it could potentially give up to £5m to the campaign to leave the EU over the next two months.
Britain Stronger in Europe - the official In campaign - has claimed the support of more than 35 FTSE 100 company bosses.
Employers' group the CBI is highlighting the links between UK and European business, arguing EU membership has helped attract £377bn of investment from France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands alone.
"European businesses are clear that 40 years' worth of collaboration through the EU is critical to attracting investment to the UK - let's not turn our back on our closest partners," said the CBI's director general Carolyn Fairbairn.
Meanwhile, the EEF manufacturers' organisation is warning that the UK economy is "heavily reliant" on migrant labour, with EU nationals accounting for 10% of the workforce in the industrial sector "without whom it would not function". | The eurozone is a "ticking time bomb" that will harm the UK if it stays in the EU, Leave campaigners are warning. |
36,008,645 | It says more than 50 other soldiers were wounded on Saturday during the clashes with members of the Abu Sayyaf group on Basilan island.
Five militants including a Moroccan national were killed, the army said.
The army was reportedly targeting an Abu Sayyaf commander who has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
The US government has offered a reward of up to $5m (£3.5m) for information leading to the capture of Isnilon Hapilon.
The Islamic State threat in South East Asia
At least four of the soldiers were beheaded in the clashes with about 100 Abu Sayyaf militants, AFP quoted a regional military spokesman as saying.
"Our group was heading to attack them. On the way, they were ambushed," Colonel Benedict Manquiquis, spokesman for the army unit involved in the battle, told radio station DZRH.
"The enemy had the high ground so no matter where our soldiers fled to seek cover, they could still be hit by the heavy firepower and improvised explosive devices," he said.
Among the five militants killed were a Moroccan, Mohammed Khattab, and one of Hapilon's sons, Ubaida, Reuters reported.
Government forces had moved against Abu Sayyaf after a series of abductions of foreigners, regional military spokesman Major Filemon Tan said.
On Friday a retired Italian priest being held hostage by the group was released after six months in captivity.
Eighteen other foreign hostages including two Canadians and a Norwegian are being held in the Philippines.
Almost all are thought to be in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf group in encampments on Jolo island, near Basilan island.
The Abu Sayyaf group was set up in the early 1990s with money from al-Qaeda. | The Philippines military says 18 soldiers have been killed in fierce fighting with Islamist militants in the south of the country. |
35,942,862 | The 27-year-old has been out since suffering a serious knee playing for Wales in September 2015.
Halfpenny has been registered in Toulon's European Champions Cup squad, but will not play in their quarter-final against Racing 92 on 10 April.
"For Leigh Halfpenny, it's still too early," said Laporte.
"I think he'll be OK for the match against Pau. It's what we've planned."
The former Cardiff Blues back was injured during Wales' win over Italy and missed the World Cup.
The British and Irish Lion's return would put him in contention for Wales' June tour to New Zealand. | Wales full-back Leigh Halfpenny could make his return for Toulon against Pau on 16 April, says the French club's coach Bernard Laporte. |
24,645,947 | The family said they were "delighted" that their daughter had come home.
They also said they would be taking legal advice, and that serious questions have arisen over the procedures used in the case.
The blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl had been removed by police from her Tallaght home and taken into temporary care.
The family have supported calls from human rights group Pavee Point for an independent inquiry into the investigation.
In a statement issued through their solicitor the family said: "Her removal has been a cause of huge upset to her parents, her brothers and sisters, and the young girl herself.
"They now intend to concentrate on looking after their family and, in particular, in trying to reassure their daughter that she will be left in their care.
"Our clients also wish to say they do not believe that what has happened to their family over the few days should ever have happened.
"They do not accept that this was any proper or sufficient basis to take their daughter away from them.
"They believe that there are very serious questions arising about the procedures used in this case but are going to wait for things to settle down and consider their position and that of their daughter in light of recent events and will be taking legal advice in respect of this."
A 21-year-old sister of the child, who can not be identified for legal reasons, said their mother had not eaten for three days because she was so distraught.
"Everyone was very sad," she said. The sister added she hoped no other family would have to go through a similar ordeal.
Meanwhile, a two-year-old boy from a Roma family who was briefly taken into care in County Westmeath has been reunited with his parents.
The boy was taken from his family on Tuesday in Athlone and returned a day later.
Alan Shatter, the Irish minister for justice, said he will be asking the Garda (Police) Commissioner for a report on the two cases.
A Garda statement said: "Protecting vulnerable children is of paramount importance to An Garda Síochána and we continue to work in partnership with the HSE (Health Service Executive) and other agencies to ensure children's safety.
"An Garda Síochána want to assure the community that we take extremely serious all reports received from members of the public concerning child welfare issues."
The Irish police action took place against the background of international interest in the case of a blonde-haired child being taken from a Roma family in Greece last week.
Greek police are investigating whether the girl had been abducted. | DNA tests have proved that a seven-year-old girl taken from a Roma family in Dublin on Monday is their daughter. |
13,584,983 | Kroenke Sports Enterprises (KSE) bought additional shares last month to acquire a near 63% controlling interest in the Gunners' parent holding company.
As obliged, Kroenke made a formal offer for the remaining stock at £11,750 a share but has had no takers.
Kroenke has now given a formal 14 days' notice for the closure of the unconditional offer.
Uzbek oil magnate Alisher Usmanov, who owns 27% of the club through Red & White Holdings, has indicated he will not sell, while the Arsenal Supporters Trust have urged all minority shareholders not to cash in.
Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood said: "The club is very pleased to announce that the Premier League Board has confirmed that the change of control processes under the rules of the Premier League have been concluded to its satisfaction in relation to Stan Kroenke's control of the club.
"KSE's offer for Arsenal Holdings PLC is wholly unconditional and we now look forward to a new and exciting phase in the life of the club. The plan is to maintain the PLUS listing provided there are a sufficient number of shareholders for that to be permitted."
Kroenke first bought 9.9% of Arsenal's shares in 2007.
Arsenal is not about one shareholder, one player or one fan. It's a special institution and we look forward to celebrating that further during the 125th anniversary year of the club
He accepted an invitation to join the Arsenal board in September 2008 and increased his holding in the club with the acquisition of the stakes of Danny Fiszman (16.1%) and Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith (15.9%) in April.
Arsenal is only one of the sporting teams in his portolio, which also includes American outfits the St Louis Rams of the National Football League, the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association, the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League and the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.
"As the controlling shareholder of Arsenal football club, it will always be our intention to do what's necessary to assure success on the pitch, provide long-term stability and build on the accomplishments and history of the club," said Mr Kroenke.
"We recognise that overseeing the operations of the club is not only a privilege but a responsibility that will require attention and dedication as the club strives to reach all of our goals on and off the pitch.
"We will continue to grow the club's presence globally while also adhering to the club's self-sustaining economic model.
"The club has funds to invest and will do so wisely. Our constant aim will be to compete for silverware and championships.
"The long-term health of the club is of utmost importance and the board, chief executive, manager and the wider team will be working hard to achieve success for the club and our fans, and to play our part in our communities in north London and beyond.
"Arsenal is not about one shareholder, one player or one fan. It's a special institution and we look forward to celebrating that further during the 125th anniversary year of the club." | Arsenal say the Premier League has given approval to the takeover of the club by American Stan Kroenke. |
35,187,517 | The Warriors struggled to utilise their most potent attacking threats.
"We didn't look after the ball well enough," Townsend told BBC Scotland.
"We lost too many balls in the tackle area and gave away two or three penalties which gave them an easy way back into the game."
Townsend was impressed by the magnitude of the fixture, played before a record 23,642 crowd.
"I thought it was a great occasion, there was a real intensity, the atmosphere was fantastic," he said.
"To get over 20,000 to a club game in Scotland is a testament to the appetite for professional rugby in Scotland, and Edinburgh played well and deserved to win."
The Warriors' defence pleased their head coach, but it was their lack of accuracy with the possession they won that frustrated Townsend.
"I thought both teams showed a real intensity - it takes two teams to play like that," he stated. "I thought (flanker) John Hardie was outstanding and key in a lot of the balls Edinburgh won.
"In general, we defended well. I thought in parts of the first half, it was about the best we've defended this season. We just didn't build on that and didn't do enough with the balls we won back from Edinburgh." | Glasgow Warriors head coach Gregor Townsend was disappointed by his side's failure to retain possession and build phases as they slipped to a 23-11 loss to rivals Edinburgh at Murrayfield. |
35,386,669 | The 26-year-old, who has 80 Sweden caps, has also played at Linkopings, Chicago Red Stars and Kristianstad.
Asllani joins the Blues before the new Women's Super League season, which gets under way on Wednesday, 23 March.
"This team has a lot of potential and ambition. They want to win titles and I want to help them to do so," she said. | Manchester City Women have signed Sweden international striker Kosovare Asllani on a two-year deal from Paris St-Germain. |
33,322,208 | Gen Sean Swindell, leader of the unit training Afghan special forces, said that disgruntled Taliban fighters have established a "franchise".
But he added that IS in Afghanistan is not as serious as in Libya or Iraq.
There have been serious clashes between the new group and the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan in recent weeks.
Both sides have ignored appeals for unity and the fighting has spread across several districts in Nangarhar province, not far from the Tora Bora cave complex where former al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden once hid.
Part of the website of the main IS group is now reserved for material about "IS in Khorasan", using an old name for Afghanistan.
A recently posted statement threatens Taliban fighters with death if they do not join IS.
"Why are you fighting with the Islamic State? Do you want to dig your own grave? Do you want to be beheaded, and have your homes destroyed? Do you think you are stronger than those Iraqi militias behind whom the Americans are standing?" it says.
The statement appears to be a rebuff to a direct appeal by the Taliban for unity between the two groups.
In a statement to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Taliban said that there could not be "two flags" in the insurgency in Afghanistan.
It said that it would "result in mujahideen strength being fragmented."
But in contrast, during their offensive in Nangarhar, IS supporters have been seen urging people to kill the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
They argue that there is already one caliph - Baghdadi.
The first signs of "IS in Khorasan" were in Pakistan's frontier region in January.
A number of ex-Taliban fighters, including one Afghan commander, pledged allegiance to the new group.
Now, backing up IS threats, pictures of Taliban fighters being both beheaded and shot have appeared on social media in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The new battles are a complex security challenge for Afghan forces in their first summer of fighting without international combat support on the ground.
Gen Swindell said that Afghan special forces are conducting around 130 raids a week.
Only in a handful was there direct support by international troops. Even then, it was not in a combat role but involved advising in command and control centres.
Gen Swindell said that Farah province in the west is also facing threats from the new movement. They were in a "competition for resources" with the Taliban.
The fighting has led to renewed misery for Afghan civilians caught between the two sides.
Thousands of people have fled their homes to avoid the fighting in Nangarhar.
This year has seen more than 4,200 civilians killed or injured across the country. It look as if it will set a dismal new record of the highest casualties by the end of the year, topping even 2014. | A senior US commander in Afghanistan has said that fighters allied with Islamic State (IS) are in contact with the militants' Syrian headquarters. |
30,291,281 | NFU Scotland issued the warning as an estimated £328m in single farm payments is made to around 16,700 producers.
They said a leading bank has contacted them to raise fears that criminals may target farm accounts.
NFU President Nigel Miller said: "This year's payment run brings a more immediate threat that requires producer vigilance."
The single farm payment is an agricultural subsidy paid to farmers in the EU.
Mr Miller warned that bogus callers could pose as banks, the police or other trusted organisations in unsolicited calls to farmers and landowners.
He added: "The reminder is that your bank would never ask you over the phone to transfer money to protect your account from fraud.
"If you receive a call of this nature, or any call you are suspicious of, you should end the conversation and call your bank on a trusted number, using a different phone line if possible.
"The good cheer brought by having SFP safely in the farm account for Christmas would quickly dissipate were anyone to fall for this cruel scam." | Scotland's farmers have been warned that they could be targeted in telephone banking scams. |
36,121,081 | Uganda had planned to send the pipeline through Kenya, which wanted a joint facility for oil from its own fields that are under development.
The pipeline will now be routed further south, with concerns about possible attacks by Somalia's al-Shabab Islamists said to be a factor.
The group has attacked targets close to where the pipeline would have passed.
Uganda announced its decision in Kampala at a summit of the East African Community bloc, which groups Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan.
The 1,400km (800 miles) pipeline will connect Uganda's western region near Hoima, where big oil reserves have been discovered, with Tanzania's port of Tanga.
The project is expected to cost about $4bn (£2.8bn) and create 15,000 jobs.
The discovered oil reserves in Uganda are estimated at some 6.5bn barrels, and the country expects to start production in 2018.
France's Total, China's CNOOC and Britain's Tullow hold most of the licences.
Kenya, which has also struck oil, had wanted the pipeline to pass through its territory.
Uganda had initially signed such a deal, but Total later questioned the plan over security concerns, the BBC's Catherine Byaruhanga in Kampala reports.
Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa said on Saturday that the cost was also a factor in choosing the project.
"We considered Tanga oil pipeline route based on a number of aspects - among them it is the least cost," he told the AFP news agency.
Reports also suggest that Uganda backed the Tanzanian route because the country's port of Tanga is already fully operational, while Kenya's Lamu port is still being built.
When completed, it will be East Africa's first major oil pipeline.
Meanwhile, Kenya said it would build its own pipeline from Lokichar, in the north-east, to Lamu. | Landlocked Uganda has announced it will build a major pipeline to export its oil through Tanzania. |
35,557,222 | Kensuke Miyazaki apologised for "causing an uproar" at a news conference and resigned his seat.
Mr Miyazaki made waves last month when he became the first ever male MP in Japan to request paternity leave.
He faced strong opposition from people who saw it as neglecting his duties to his constituents.
Read more: Should a male politician be allowed to take paternity leave?
Japanese tabloid Shukan Bunshun had earlier this week published a photo of Mr Miyazaki with a woman, said to be a bikini model and professional kimono dresser, leaving his home in Kyoto.
The tabloid said the photo was taken days before his wife, fellow politician Megumi Kaneko, gave birth on 5 February.
Both Mr Miyazaki and Ms Kaneko are members of the ruling Liberal Democrat Party.
On Friday, Mr Miyazaki confirmed he had an affair and said he was stepping down as MP for Niigata prefecture.
He said he met the woman when she helped him and other lawmakers dress up in ceremonial kimonos for the opening of Japan's parliament, known as the Diet, on 4 January.
"I remember meeting her three times [after that]. The last time I saw her was in Kyoto. We don't contact each other anymore," he said
"I've explained everything to my wife. I deeply regret doing such a cruel thing to her just after giving birth... I sincerely apologise for causing an uproar," he told reporters as he bowed towards them.
When asked if he had had affairs with other women, he said he could not deny it. He also asked for privacy for his wife and child.
The admission drew immediate sharp criticism online, with many Japanese condemning his actions, and also reignited the debate on paternity leave.
Mr Miyazaki had told the BBC at the time that he wanted to apply for paternity leave to "set an example and cause a bit of a stir".
It did cause a stir with some saying that as an elected lawmaker he had a duty to continue serving the people.
Japan has one of the most generous entitlements for fathers among developed countries, but only 2.3% of fathers took paternity leave last year. | A Japanese MP who sparked a national debate about paternity leave has quit after admitting to having an affair as his wife was due to give birth. |
40,000,675 | Semi-finalists last time out, Senegal secured all three points with first half goals from Ibrahima Niane and Cavin Diagne.
With the United States and Ecuador drawing 3-3 in Group F's other game, Senegal are the early pacesetters in Incheon.
The Senegalese could have scored more goals but found the Saudi Arabian goalkeeper Mohammed Alyami in inspired form.
Senegal next face the US on Thursday while Ecuador takes on Saudi Arabia.
Sixteen of the 24 teams advance to the second round - the top two from each of the six groups and the four best third-place finishers.
The final is scheduled for 11 June in Suwon
Click here for U-20 World Cup results from the Fifa website | Senegal began their Fifa Under-20 World Cup campaign in triumphant fashion by beating Saudi Arabia 2-0 on Monday. |
23,574,784 | The trunk road drops from 150m (492ft) to 20m (65ft) as it enters a valley at the Berriedale Braes.
There is also a hairpin bend which lorry drivers can have difficulty negotiating.
Rob Gibson, SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, has welcomed planned improvements at Berriedale.
He said upgrading the stretch of road had been spoken about for 40 years.
"The issue of Berriedale Braes is one that has continually been raised with me," he said.
"I have, along with many others from the county, lobbied the Scottish government and the transport minister over making improvements to the Berriedale Braes."
The MSP added: "Realigning the Berriedale Braes will be a tricky job so it is important that every aspect of the process is carried out rigorously and in great detail."
The A9 is Scotland's longest trunk road.
The Scottish government has committed to upgrading the A9 between Perth and Inverness to dual carriageway.
Transport Scotland said the contract was for ground investigation (GI) work and formed part of the preparations for the upgrade of the Berriedale Braes.
A spokesperson said: "This GI work will include the sinking of boreholes both in soil and rock as well as in situ and laboratory tests, leading to the production of reports which will help inform the work to identify a possible solution to this stretch of the northernmost part of the A9.
"We hope to appoint a contractor for this work in September.
"We are determined to work with our partners to ensure that improvements to this strategic route through the Highlands are progressed as a matter of urgency." | Transport Scotland has put a contract out to tender for work preparing for the upgrading a notorious stretch of the A9 in Caithness. |
35,279,772 | The Briton has lost four finals in Melbourne - three to Serbia's Djokovic.
"You just have to keep trying to learn, watch his matches, see if there are any weaknesses you can capitalise on," said Murray, second in the ATP rankings.
"Maybe he has a drop-off. It's very difficult to maintain that level for such a long period."
Murray, 28, lost the 2010 final to Roger Federer, before suffering defeat by Djokovic in 2011, 2013 and 2015.
The Serb, also 28, holds three of the four Grand Slam titles, having won Wimbledon and the US Open in addition to the Australian Open.
He prepared for the first major of the season, which runs from January 18 to 31, by beating Rafael Nadal in straight sets to win the Qatar Open last week.
Murray has indicated he will leave Melbourne to return home if his wife Kim goes into labour early with their first baby, who is due in mid-February.
He said, though, that his priorities on the court are to win the Australian Open and to defend his Olympic title in Rio later this year.
"I've been close many times and that's my number one goal," he said.
"I won the gold in London four years ago so to try to defend that is another big goal for me. They would be the two main ones for me." | Andy Murray says he may need number one Novak Djokovic's form to dip to have a chance of victory in the Australian Open, which starts next week. |
38,470,872 | Ex-barrister Vera Baird said being made a dame for services to women gave equality "a boost".
Newcastle Eagles player-coach Fab Flournoy has been appointed MBE for services to basketball.
Retired Northumberland chief fire officer Alex Bennett has been awarded the Queen's Fire Service medal.
He was described as being "innovative" while leading the service through £2m budget cuts in the last two years and the closure of Haydon Bridge Fire Station.
Ms Baird, a former Labour MP for Redcar who is also Northumbria's Police and Crime Commissioner, acted for miners arrested during the 1984 strike.
She also represented Emma Humphreys, whose murder conviction was reduced to manslaughter in a case about the implications of the law of provocation for battered women who kill their violent partners.
Flournoy is the most successful coach in the British Basketball League with 22 trophies, including a third clean sweep in 2015. | A former equal rights lawyer and basketball coach have been recognised in the New Year Honours list. |
35,420,196 | Tens of thousands of children in the UK care for an adult in their life.
28 January is Young Carers Awareness Day so Newsround has been hearing from kids who care for relatives suffering from mental illness.
Many people don't realise the important and hard role young carers have, helping a parent or relative every day.
This can sometimes effect their normal life, and the extra responsibilities being a carer brings means many miss out on school, and free time with friends, to stay at home.
Often young carers do household jobs, such as cooking and cleaning, because their parent or guardian is too ill.
Charities like the Carer's Trust are worried that many young carers aren't getting enough support to help them cope.
If you are worried by any of these issues, you can find more info and advice on young carers here. | A young carer is someone who has to look after parents or siblings who struggle to care for themselves because of illness. |
40,315,134 | Since 2010, the four main banks have closed 193 branches, according to figures obtained by BBC Wales.
Fifty years since the first UK cash machine launched, banks said they were adapting to a rise in online banking.
But Ron Delnevo, of ATM Industry Association (ATMIA), said without access to cash "communities could die".
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said independent businesses relied on banks for services, and poor broadband in rural parts of Wales made it difficult for people to manage finances online.
By the end of 2017, 28 more banks will have closed in Wales - with Lloyds to shut 14, Natwest 12 and Barclays and HSBC one each - meaning 221 will have closed in seven years,
In comparison, since 2008, the number of cash machines has risen from 2,660 to 3,223 - up 21%, according to figures from cash machine network Link.
Mr Delnevo, ATMIA's executive director for Europe, said while banks were pushing for people to go digital, many transactions were still cash-based and businesses needed access to services to survive.
He said cash machines needed to provide more services - such as paying in, cashing cheques and offering financial advice - to help communities who have been, or will be in the future, left without access to a bank.
"The trouble is with bank branches closing, we are then going to see communities crushed," he said.
"We know that people then go elsewhere to get cash out. It is very important that we do not see dead communities, places where people just sleep."
In Dubai customers can withdraw gold from ATMs; in South Africa they are used to take out funeral plans; in Spain to pay property tax; in America stamps can be bought; while in Portugal applications can be made for fishing and hunting licences.
But Mr Delnevo said the range of services offered by ATMs in the UK was still very limited, with the terminals synonymous with cash withdrawal.
He said they should instead expand to become multi-purpose ATMs with facilities for depositing cash, similar to some other countries.
"Just because a bank isn't there, it doesn't mean that the community shouldn't have access to cash and other services," he said.
"We can't argue with the banks, they want to go digital, but people aren't ready for it. "
The banks said while the decisions to close branches were not taken lightly, demand for traditional branch-based services was falling.
Many traditional services can still be carried out at Post Office branches, through a partnership with the banks. | Cash machines must offer a wider range of services to prevent communities dying when their last bank closes, an expert has said. |
32,101,785 | The 25-year-old fusilier was killed outside Woolwich Barracks in London on 22 May 2013 by Islamist extremists.
His four-year-old son, Jack, was among those at the private ceremony in Middleton Memorial Gardens earlier.
He laid a floral tribute with his mother Rebecca. Its message read: "Me and Mummy Miss and Love You lots and lots. Jack xxx."
Also attending the dedication service for the bronze drum and plaque were Lee Rigby's mother Lyn, step father Ian and father Philip McClure.
The memorial symbolises the service of the drummer and machine gunner who served with the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
Col Mike Glover, regimental secretary of the Lancashire Fusiliers, told the ceremony the soldier's death sent "shockwaves through the country."
"The afternoon of May 22 2013 Fusilier Lee Rigby... paid the ultimate sacrifice when the horror of the battlefield was brought to the streets of Woolwich," he said.
"That day will forever be embedded in our nation's history and for many here today it will remain forever in our hearts.
Other service personnel from the borough who lose their lives will also be honoured with a memorial wall in the gardens.
Councillor Peter Williams, deputy leader of Rochdale Council, said: "It is very important that we honour him in a respectful way. We're very proud of him."
Welcoming the memorial, Fusilier Rigby's mother, Lyn, said: "It will be a lovely tribute to Lee who put his life on the line every day to serve his country."
His father, Philip McClure, added: "I am still coming to terms with what happened. Lee will never be forgotten and this memorial is keeping his memory alive in his hometown."
In October, Greenwich Council revealed a stone memorial would be placed in St George's Chapel garden, opposite Woolwich Barracks. | A memorial to murdered soldier Lee Rigby has been unveiled in his home town in Greater Manchester. |
39,151,842 | In an interview with fellow Oscar winner Brie Larson for The Edit, the 79-year-old also said she had once lost a job because she refused her boss's sexual advances.
The star added she thought being a young actress now was "terrifying" because of female sexualisation.
"You have to get naked so much. There is even more emphasis on how you look."
Fonda said she "felt diminished" growing up because the men in her life were "victims of a [patriarchal] belief system".
She also said she had been "brought up with the disease to please".
"To show you the extent to which a patriarchy takes a toll on females - I've been raped, I've been sexually abused as a child and I've been fired because I wouldn't sleep with my boss and I always thought it was my fault; that I didn't do or say the right thing.
"I know young girls who've been raped and didn't even know it was rape. They think, 'It must have been because I said no the wrong way'.
"One of the great things the women's movement has done is to make us realise that [rape and abuse is] not our fault. We were violated and it's not right."
Fonda has been a long-time activist and advocate for women's rights and supporter of the Rape Foundation and Rape Treatment Centre in Los Angeles.
She revealed at a benefit in 2014 that her mother, Frances Ford Seymour, was sexually abused as a child aged eight. She eventually took her own life at 42, when Fonda was 12.
Speaking to mark International Women's Day, the Grace and Frankie star said she was happy actresses were now fighting to close the gender pay gap in the entertainment industry, as it wasn't considered an issue 40 years ago.
"I never thought about it - I'm talking about at the height of my career in the '70s and '80s - I never got paid a huge amount of money. I never thought I was worth it," she said.
"For me, it was just the way things were. Guys earned more. I am so glad people are feeling righteous anger about it now."
The daughter of Oscar winner Henry Fonda, Jane has been Oscar-nominated seven times. She won the Academy Award for best actress twice - in 1971 for crime thriller Klute and in 1979 for war romance Coming Home.
She is also known for starring in cult film Barbarella, female centred-comedy 9 to 5 and On Golden Pond, in which she starred opposite her father.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. | Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda has revealed she is a rape survivor and suffered sexual abuse as a child. |
39,355,764 | Chilean forward Sanchez and German midfielder Ozil, both 28, have just over a year left on their deals.
Wenger says he has made up his mind about his own future, but is yet to sign the two-year extension on offer.
"At the moment we have not got an agreement," said Wenger when asked about the future of Sanchez.
Talking to BeIn Sports, the Frenchman, 67, added: "We have decided to focus on the end of the season and talk about it during the summer.
"It is the same situation with Ozil, because once you don't find an agreement and the negotiation lasts, it is not good.
"It is better you get it out and sit down in the summer."
Arsenal have slipped to sixth in the Premier League following four defeats in their past five games.
Regarding his own future, Wenger added: "No matter how long I stay I will be committed and completely focused as long as I stay at the club."
The Gunners return to Premier League action on Sunday, 2 April when they host Manchester City. | Contract negotiations with Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil have been put on hold until the summer, says Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. |
38,222,529 | 7 December 2016 Last updated at 00:02 GMT
Now residents are in a dispute over whether to replace the colonial-era name with a Nama name - ǃNamiǂNûs.
The BBC's Pumza Fihlani spoke to residents and tourists about the issue. | In colonial times in what is now Namibia, Germans forced Herero and Nama people to build the town of Luderitz. |
30,559,670 | The UN has asked Israel to compensate Lebanon before but this is the first time a figure has been given.
The assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour by 170 votes to six, but its resolutions are not legally binding.
Israel's UN mission said the resolution was biased.
The slick was created when Israeli jets bombed a power station, releasing about 15,000 tonnes of oil into the eastern Mediterranean sea.
At its peak, it stretched for 120km (75 miles) along the shore.
The resolution calls the incident an "environmental disaster'' which caused extensive pollution.
The Lebanese ambassador to the UN, Nawaf Salam, said the resolution was "major progress".
But Israel's UN mission attacked the move, saying the country had already responded to the slick by working with the UN and other organisations.
"This resolution has long outlived the effects of the oil slick, and serves no purpose other than to contribute to institutionalising an anti-Israel agenda at the UN," a statement quoted by AP said.
The 2006 conflict began when the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah launched a raid into Israel and captured two Israeli soldiers.
Israel launched massive air and sea attacks on targets all over Lebanon, then invaded the south of the country.
More than 1,000 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and about 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, died. | The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution asking Israel to pay Lebanon more than $850m (£544m) for a major oil spill during Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah. |
33,017,310 | The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed that both current and past employees had been affected.
The breach could potentially affect every federal agency, officials said.
US officials said the hackers were believed to be based in China. Beijing responded by calling such claims "irresponsible".
OPM said it became aware of the breach in April during an "aggressive effort" to update its cyber security systems.
It said it would be contacting all those individuals whose personal data may have been breached in the coming weeks, and offering them 18 months of free credit monitoring and identity theft insurance.
OPM serves as the human resource department for the federal government. The agency issues security clearances and compiles records of all federal government employees.
Information stored on OPM databases includes employee job assignments, performance reviews and training, according to officials.
The breach did not involve background checks and clearance investigations, officials said.
China military unit 'behind prolific hacking'
Sony Pictures hack: Whodunnit?
It is the scale of what the OPM calls a "cyber intrusion" in April this year that is breathtaking - the records of four million former and current government employees may have been breached.
The agency is contacting all of those potentially affected, offering to insure them against identity fraud. Of even greater concern may be the fact that security clearance information on government officials could have been targeted.
US officials are only too aware of the real damage caused by such virtual threats. In the past year, a growing number of government agencies and companies - most notoriously Sony Pictures - have fallen victim to such attacks.
Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the hackers were believed to be based in China.
She called the breach "yet another indication of a foreign power probing successfully and focusing on what appears to be data that would identify people with security clearances".
But China denied there was any official involvement in the attack.
"Cyber attacks are generally anonymous and conducted across borders and their origins are hard to trace," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular briefing.
"Not to carry out a deep investigation and keep using words such as 'possible' is irresponsible and unscientific."
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are investigating the latest breach.
Ken Ammon, chief strategy officer of Xceedium - a cyber security firm - warned that the hacked data could be used to impersonate or blackmail federal employees with access to sensitive information.
Congressman Adam Schiff has called for cyber databases to be upgraded.
Americans "expect that federal computer networks are maintained with state of the art defences", Mr Schiff said.
"The cyber threat from hackers, criminals, terrorists and state actors is one of the greatest challenges we face on a daily basis, and it's clear that a substantial improvement in our cyber databases and defences is perilously overdue."
Are you a current or former employee of the Office of Personnel Management? Have you been contacted by the agency? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
If you would be happy to speak further to a BBC journalist, please include a contact telephone number when emailing us your details. | Chinese hackers are suspected of carrying out a "massive breach" of the personal data of nearly four million US government workers, officials said. |
40,293,605 | Skipper Barry Middleton, making his 380th international appearance, opened the scoring in the 11th minute at the Lee Valley Hockey Centre in London.
Mark Gleghorne added a penalty stroke moments later to double the lead.
Scotland took an early lead through captain Chris Grassick but lost 4-1 to India in their opening Pool B match.
As well as attempting to reach the World League Finals later in the year, the top five teams qualify for the 2018 World Cup in India.
Scotland next come up against Netherlands while England face Malaysia, both on Saturday. | Hosts England moved top of Pool A after beginning their campaign in the men's Hockey World League semi-finals with a comfortable 2-0 victory over China. |
35,735,792 | Ronnie McFall, 69, was set to leave Portadown at the end of the season but resigned after his side's shock Irish Cup defeat by Lurgan Celtic.
He was appointed in December 1986 - six weeks after Sir Alex Ferguson joined Manchester United.
McFall won four league titles among more than 20 trophies during his time in charge at his hometown club.
He became the manager with the longest tenure in Europe after Ferguson left Old Trafford in 2013. Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has now taken the record.
McFall led Portadown to their first ever league title in 1990, with further successes coming in 1991, 1996 and 2002.
McFall's assistant Kieran Harding is also leaving the club after a difficult campaign which has seen the Ports slip to seventh in the league table.
It led to the club announcing in November that it was initiating a process to find a successor to McFall.
Portadown confirmed McFall's resignation and said its board would meet early next week "to discuss developments". | The reign of European football's longest-serving manager has come to an end after 29 years. |
36,835,921 | Mr Lamb, 79, was reported missing from the Abronhill area of Cumbernauld on Saturday 2 July, shortly after his wife died.
His body was found by a member of the public on the golf course at Palacerigg Country Park at about 14:50 on Monday.
Mr Lamb's son, Stephen Lamb, described him as a "homebody" who was grieving for his wife.
Insp Phil Rose, of Police Scotland, said: "We would like to thank members of the public and local businesses for their support during this investigation.
"Our thoughts are with the family of Mr Lamb at this difficult time." | The body of missing pensioner Thomas Lamb has been found on a golf course in Cumbernauld. |
34,075,573 | With President Salva Kiir finally signing a peace deal on Wednesday, the hope is that a step has been taken towards ending the conflict - though many question whether the agreement will be implemented as seven previous ceasefire deals have collapsed.
But the conflict - which has killed tens of thousands of people and left more than two million homeless - has not dampened the resilience of young people such as Rachael Aleko Aguer.
Based in the capital, Juba, she launched a lifestyle magazine, Real Woman, in February 2015, well over a year into the conflict.
She told the BBC that she had huge hopes for her country - which became independent in 2011 after splitting from Sudan - and thinks her publication can contribute towards its development.
But times are tough, and she could not afford to print the July issue.
"Business is not as good as it used to be," Ms Aguer told the BBC.
"There are increases in prices and in my case I do the printing of the magazine outside of my country because there are few printers here and they are expensive. I have skipped one publication because there were no dollars."
The scarcity of hard currency, particularly the US dollar, is a big problem, along with the sharp fall in the value of the South Sudanese pound. The official rate is 2.96 pounds for a dollar; on the black market it hovers around 14.
As a result, life is increasingly expensive because South Sudan relies heavily on imports.
Ms Aguer said both the fare for the motorbike taxi she uses to get to work and the cost of her lunch have doubled recently.
"I don't know how it'll be like by next week."
Before the war, South Sudan earned most of its money from selling oil. It accounted for 98% of government revenues. But since then production has halved because some oil fields have been taken over by the rebel forces or damaged.
And with global oil prices having fallen, the government is not getting much for the 160,000 barrels still being produced.
To make matters worse, the government also has to pay Sudan for the oil transported through its pipelines, as part of the deal reached during independence talks.
South Sudan economist Luol Deng says: "I do not want to be scaring people but the government is getting less than it should be getting.
"Out of every barrel passing through Sudan, Sudan gets $24.1 per barrel. So if the price is 30, the government of South Sudan will be getting 5.9."
Officials hope to revise this arrangement in negotiations due to start in September.
South Sudan: Key facts
Achieved independence in 2011
Population of more than 11 million
Conflict erupts in 2013
More than 2.2 million forced from homes
Almost all government revenue comes from oil
South Sudan profile
The tough economic situation is not just affecting South Sudanese businesses. Many of the businesses and workers in Juba are from neighbouring countries - including Eritrea, Ethiopian, Kenya and Uganda.
They do not go to commercial banks to send remittances back home or to buy dollars. Many banks, in fact, complain that the central bank does not give them access to dollars.
So, business people rely on the expensive rates on the black market.
Despite the difficulties in doing business, hardly any of them want to leave. South Sudan still offers them the hope of getting rich quick, as there is far less competition than in their home countries.
Big businesses also want to stick around.
When SAB Miller opened the country's only brewery in 2009, there was great celebration.
It was a sign of the optimism about the future of an independent South Sudan. But now it's also struggling to stay open, with its MD, Carlos Gomes saying it was only a matter of weeks before the plant closed down.
Some believe the government has diverted too much of its revenue into fighting the rebels, while much of the rest has been lost to corruption.
In a BBC interview, Finance Minister David Deng Athorbei acknowledged that corruption was a problem, but said the government was doing its best to root it out.
He said the government had also asked the IMF and World Bank for financial aid, but they were told to sign a peace deal first.
Mr Athorbei defended spending on the war, saying it was vital.
"Our number one priority now is security, then you come to delivery of services like education, health."
Nevertheless, it seems to have been enough to worsen South Sudan's economic crisis, dashing the hopes of many who had hoped that independence would lead to greater prosperity. | South Sudan has what many business people describe as a "war economy", as they battle to keep their companies afloat as a result of the brutal conflict which broke out between government and rebel forces in December 2013. |
36,865,493 | Liverpool have accepted an offer of around £13m from Stoke for the 26-year-old but Swans chairman Huw Jenkins suggests the club could match the bid.
Swansea's American takeover has been completed and Allen, who the club sold to Liverpool for £15m in 2012, could be the new board's first signing.
"Joe is one of our own players and if at all possible we would probably make that signing," said Jenkins.
Jenkins revealed the Swans have already spoken to Liverpool about re-signing Allen, who has one year left on his Anfield contract, and confirmed the club will "put in a little bit more effort" now their American takeover has been finalised.
The Swansea chief also confirmed the club's interest in signing Tottenham Hotspur's Belgium winger Nacer Chadli after being linked with a £15m bid.
Liverpool rejected an £8m offer from the Swans in June but Allen, who was named in Uefa's team of Euro 2016 as Wales reached their first semi-final at a major tournament, is keen on a return to Swansea.
"We discussed it with Liverpool a few weeks back," confirmed Jenkins.
"Stoke have made an offer. The player will decide where he wants to go. Liverpool are asking a fair fee for the fact he has one year left on his contract but they are entitled to."
Allen started only eight league games for Liverpool last season and wants regular first-team football following his impressive performances at Euro 2016.
New American investor Jason Levien confirmed Swansea's interest in Allen. "Thinking about how additions to the club will fit in with the current structure is something we spend a lot of time on, and he is someone who obviously has a great history here," he said.
"He is still a young player. He is someone who multiple clubs are interested in, us included.
"Huw and I are in ongoing discussions. We are leaning on his [Jenkins'] wisdom, and also the right kind of process to figure out whether that's the right addition for us, but he is someone we have our eye on."
Jenkins accepts Swansea "need two more strikers" and the clubs is "well down the line of looking at different options," including Spurs' Chadli.
The 26-year-old made just 10 starts in Spurs' Premier League title push last season and was left out of Belgium's Euro 2016 squad.
Chadli, however, is in Tottenham's squad to play in next week's International Champions Cup pre-season tournament in Australia where they face Italian champions Juventus in Melbourne on Tuesday.
"It has been publicised he is of interest to us," admitted Jenkins.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox. | Swansea City are considering a bid for Liverpool's Wales midfielder Joe Allen. |
36,265,558 | The 22-year-old's former club IFK Norrkoping said he had a heart defect.
DC United's general manager Dave Kasper said: "The MLS cardiology consultant and a heart specialist at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital determined he could resume playing.
"Kamara will undergo testing at the end of each season."
The Sierra Leone international's move to DC United comes at a time when two Cameroonian players Patrick Ekeng and Jeanine Christelle Djomnang died of suspected heart problems.
Kasper added: "The player had a potential cardiac issue that could have eliminated him from playing. He was evaluated and found this was not the case.
"We went through proper medical testing and approvals from two top cardiology specialists.
"Certainly we went through a rigorous process, but once they cleared him to play, it gave us peace of mind."
A transfer fee has not been paid for Kamara but Norrköping will be compensated if the player meets performance incentives or if he is sold in the future.
He was originally examined as part of a Uefa requirement because IFK Norrkoping are due to take part in the qualifiers for next season's Champions League.
'He is a strong guy'
Experts from both Uefa and Fifa had advised Kamara against continuing playing football.
This initially forced Norrkoping to remove Kamara from their 2016 season squad to stop him from playing more matches.
Kamara, who scored six goals to help Norrköping win the 2015 Swedish league, is delighted that his career can resume.
"He is so happy and excited to be able to play again," Kamara's local agent Chernor Musa Jalloh told BBC Sport.
"Physically and mentally he is prepared and he knows everything as he is a strong guy.
"He went through a difficult path and thanks to everyone who supported him." | Sierra Leonean striker Alhaji Kamara has been given medical clearance to resume his career after heart tests and has signed for DC United in MLS. |
39,222,566 | The Unite union said members had backed action following a "systematic campaign to undermine workers" by employer Babcock Marine.
It will now consult members over the timing and form of any action.
Babcock Marine said it was disappointed with the result of the ballot.
Unite said its members voted 96% in favour of strike action and 99% in favour of industrial action short of a strike.
The union represents a wide range of workers at the two bases, including cleaners, housekeepers, logistics operatives, drivers and mail staff.
They also have members in radiation monitoring and strategic weapons support roles.
The Faslane base on the Clyde is home to the UK's fleet of Trident nuclear submarines.
Unite leaders claimed the company had withdrawn facilities for shop steward meetings and was "failing to meaningfully consult and negotiate with the trade union".
Regional officer Stephen Deans said: "Babcock Marine has engineered a complete breakdown of normal relations between workers and management at Faslane and Coulport.
"Our members believe the company is deliberately trying to undermine their rights, so jobs and service quality can be cut through more outsourcing. It's all about money."
In a statement, Babcock said: "We regularly engage with our trade unions on a number of topics and view any concerns that are brought to our attention as a matter of importance.
"We are disappointed with this ballot result, as earlier this week we met with Unite and Acas where we had constructive discussions and are due to meet again at the end of this month."
In 2014, Unite members staged a mass walkout at the Faslane and Coulport bases in a dispute over pay. | Civilian staff at the Faslane and Coulport naval bases have voted in favour of industrial action in a dispute over workers' rights. |
35,025,597 | Deputy first minister John Swinney and the chief secretary to the Treasury, Greg Hands, met for the fifth time to discuss the fiscal framework.
The new devolved powers set out in the Scotland Bill cannot go ahead without an agreement being reached.
Mr Swinney has previously said he would veto any deal that was unfair.
At the moment, Holyrood is largely funded by a grant from the Treasury, which will be reduced when the Scottish government is given responsibility for income tax rates and bands.
The talks between Mr Swinney and Mr Hands aim to reach an agreement on the fairest way to calculate the reduction in future years.
Other issues that will need to be resolved include the scope of Holyrood's borrowing powers, as well as who pays the set-up costs for the new powers and how financial scrutiny should work.
What is the fiscal framework?
The Scottish and UK governments had hoped to reach a deal by the end of the autumn, but haggling over the details looks set to continue into the New Year.
Both sides have agreed not to provide a "running commentary" on the negotiations until they have been completed.
But Scotland Office minister Lord Dunlop told the House of Lords last month that the UK government hoped to have the Scotland Bill enacted ahead of May's Holyrood election.
And he said details of the fiscal framework would be available before the bill completes its passage.
Lord Dunlop also said he believed the Scottish government was negotiating on the fiscal framework "in good faith".
He added: "We are committed to reaching an agreement as soon as we can. We cannot guarantee when the negotiations will end.
"Both governments need time and space to reach an agreement that is right for Scotland, right for the UK as a whole, and built to last."
Lord Dunlop was responding to calls from peers for the Scotland Bill to be delayed until the fiscal framework had been published, with concerns being raised that the framework could become a recipe for disharmony between the two governments. | Further talks over the financial rules that will underpin Holyrood's new tax and welfare powers have been held in London. |
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