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Kvitova, 25, will not defend her title at the Sydney International - a warm-up event for the year's first Grand Slam - because of a stomach virus. Second seed Radwanska, 26, has also withdrawn because of a leg injury. The world's top-four ranked players - Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Simona Halep and Garbine Muguruza - have also had injuries this week. World number six Kvitova, seeded third for the Sydney tournament, also withdrew from the Shenzhen Open in China last week. "I'm really disappointed to have to withdraw from the Sydney International but unfortunately I am still not feeling well," the Czech said. Pole Radwanska, the world number five and second seed in Sydney, said she needed to rest her left leg. "I'm really sorry that I can't play in Sydney this week," she said. "I am feeling very confident in my game at the moment and the results are there, but after five matches in the past week my leg needs some recovery time." Earlier this week, world number one Williams retired with a knee injury when trailing Australia's Jarmila Wolfe in the second set of their Hopman Cup tie in Perth. The 34-year-old, who won the Australian Open last year, pulled out of the event before United States' final match of the round-robin tournament. Halep, ranked second in the world, withdrew from the Brisbane International with an inflamed Achilles, while world number three Muguruza quit the tournament because of a foot injury. World number four Sharapova retired from the same tournament with a forearm injury. The Australian Open begins on 18 January.
Petra Kvitova and Agnieszka Radwanska are the latest players to suffer setbacks before the Australian Open.
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The 35th meeting between the pair will also be the first time the season finale has ended with the number one spot on the line. Murray replaced Djokovic as number one earlier this month, and the Briton is on a 23-match winning streak. "I'm really privileged to be a part of history on Sunday," said the Serb. Djokovic has won the last four titles in London and will overtake Murray with another win. He added: "We've known each other for so many years. This is maybe one of the biggest matches we will ever play, so let's enjoy it." Murray said: "Sunday is the last day for a while, we get a break after that. I'll just give my best of what I've got. Hopefully it's enough." BBC Radio 5 live tennis correspondent Russell Fuller Murray has spent nearly three and a half hours more on court than Djokovic this week, and twice set a record for the longest match in tournament history. So his renowned resilience, fitness and mental strength will be sorely tested in the final against an old foe who is starting to play with real conviction again. The two have not met since June's French Open final, where Djokovic beat Murray for the 13th time in 15 matches. Since then, Murray has been by some margin the better player. He has won four titles in four different cities in the past six weeks: a fifth might just be considered his most remarkable triumph of the season. Media playback is not supported on this device Saturday's semi-final win over Milos Raonic brought Murray his best ever winning run of 23 matches, but it also came at a cost. At a gruelling three hours and 38 minutes it set a tournament record, and came just four days after Murray spent three hours and 20 minutes on court with Kei Nishikori. The Scot, 29, has spent a total of nine hours and 54 minutes on court during his four matches this week, compared to six hours and 31 minutes for Djokovic. "I don't know how I'll feel on Sunday," said Murray, who headed to a nearby hotel rather than his Surrey home after the win over Raonic. "The physical side, obviously the body is a bit sore after such a long match, but mentally it was tiring too." Murray will at least hope to enjoy the same rapturous reception each time he has stepped on court this week, with crowds of 17,000 eager to salute the new number one. "When you're out there competing, the atmosphere helps for sure," he said. "Playing in front of a pretty packed crowd at this stage of the year definitely gives you an extra boost, helps you to keep pushing right to the end." If Murray has been the leading force on the tour in the last six months, Djokovic has been utterly dominant at the O2 Arena for the last four years. The 66-minute semi-final victory over Nishikori took his record to 22 wins in 23 matches at the O2, and he is going for a fifth straight season-ending title and sixth overall, to tie Roger Federer's record. After beating Murray to win his first French Open title in June, the Serb suffered a slump in form, but he feels his best is not far away now. "It's been going in the right direction," said Djokovic. "I'm very glad that I get to experience this feeling on the court. "The last couple of matches have been pretty much flawless, and now we're coming up to the last match of the year that everyone anticipated and wanted." Djokovic leads the head-to-head 24-10 and has won 13 of their last 15 matches, including victories in the finals of the Australian Open, Madrid Open and French Open this year. However, Murray beat the Serb to win his first Italian Open title in May and surged past him in the rankings by winning his last four tournaments. Speaking earlier in the week, three-time Finals champion John McEnroe told BBC Sport: "Novak still has a decided edge in the bigger matches and a much better head-to-head. Find out how to get into tennis in our special guide. "That would lead me to believe that if they walk on the court on Sunday in the finals, he'd have a real chance to get things right in his mind and finish the year world number one. "But Murray has done a lot of really great things to get to this place, and has been playing the best overall the last six months, so if there was a time when he's ready to finally make this step, it would be a hell of a place to do it."
Andy Murray will face Novak Djokovic with the ATP World Tour Finals title and year-end number one ranking at stake on Sunday.
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Zdenko Turtak, who was extradited from Slovakia, had previously admitted rape and grievous bodily harm. Turtak attacked his victim at a bus stop in Beeston Road in March before dragging her behind a hedge and raping her. He later fled the UK. He will be sentenced on 19 October at Leeds Crown Court. Prosecutors did not to pursue the attempted murder charge at Leeds Crown Court on Thursday.
A 21-year-old man who raped and badly beat an 18-year-old woman in Leeds has had a charge of attempted murder against him dropped.
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It's never really had to do it before. The pay talks for all the big beasts of the public sector - health, education and local government - have always been carried out at a UK-level and everyone else follows suit. But something interesting has happened in the NHS. Up until now, pay in the NHS for everyone other than doctors and dentists has been resolved by an independent Pay Review Body (PRB). Its recommendation has been followed by the UK and the devolved governments. But this year the recommendation of a 1% rise by the PRB was rejected by the UK and Welsh governments. It was accepted in Scotland. There's already been strike action in England but it was suspended in Wales on Monday after the Welsh government put forward a two year offer. No such negotiation is happening in England. I'm told Mark Drakeford has found around £25m to put together an offer that includes a 1% rise next year. He's also going to bring in the living wage for the lowest paid workers in January. That means laundry workers and hospitals porters, for example, will no longer be earning less than £7.85 an hour. The 1% and the living wage are not being offered in England. What's happening in England is that those at the top of their pay bands in the NHS are being offered cash payments. It's been rejected by the unions and the situation remains unresolved. Unions don't like cash payments, they prefer consolidated pay rises because a 1% pay rise is permanent, as opposed to a cash payment which is a one-off. The unions are faced by a paradox: they are wedded to UK-agreements on pay because it's a fundamental belief for them that they're stronger together and easier to pick off if they become fragmented into the devolved nations. But at the same time they find the cuts imposed by the Conservative-led coalition at Westminster unpalatable. The key question will be whether they will call for the permanent devolution of pay if David Cameron is back in Number 10 after the general election. And it's an interesting one for the Welsh government as well which will now be entering the tortuous world of public sector pay negotiations for the first time. It's the nature of the beast that on the first occasion it puts together a Wales-only deal it's immediately embroiled in a dispute. There's an enormous test over the next week when the unions decide whether to accept the offer from Cardiff. Has a Pandora's box been opened up? Even if pay talks return to Westminster, the unions will now always be able to go to the Welsh government and ask it to intervene knowing that a precedent has been set. And what about the rest of the public sector? The teaching unions remain opposed to pay being devolved but attitudes appear to be softening in some quarters. The NUT has held informal talks on the issue with the Welsh government. There is a case for saying that teachers' pay is more suitable to being devolved than health as the education system has become so different in Wales than in England. A final thought on health. The Welsh government is under intense pressure to invest more in the NHS. If you add pay into the equation, it will have to deal with the question of whether extra money for the NHS goes on wages or on medical resources. With a workforce of around 80,000 in the Welsh NHS, it was no surprise that Mark Drakeford told Huw Edwards on the Wales Report on BBC One last night: "The real money in the health service is always in staff."
The Welsh government has been given a baptism of fire in settling pay disputes.
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The luxury brand said it would use the funds to help it expand in Asia and other new markets. The firm, which recorded sales of £282m last year, said it was confident shareholders would benefit from strong growth. "Our future as a public company can only extend our reputation," said Jimmy Choo chief executive Pierre Denis. It said it would continue to open 10 to 15 shops a year, and planned to float at least a quarter of the shares in the company. Jimmy Choo started as a bespoke shoe maker in London's East End in the 1990s. He joined forces with Tamara Mellon in 1986 to form the company, but left the business in 2001. Jimmy Choo's niece, Sandra Choi, remains creative director at the firm. The firm is now owned by investment firm JAB Luxury, and has 120 shops globally. It said it was now ready "to embark on its next phase of growth". Jimmy Choo plans to rapidly ramp up its expansion in China, where it said it was currently under-represented compared to peers. It said it would expand its current 10 stores to 30 over the medium term, as well as target growth in the Middle East, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. And the firm also plans to look at franchise opportunities in Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Designer shoe maker Jimmy Choo has announced plans to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange.
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But his charitable actions took him into the hands of Islamic State (IS), who took him hostage within minutes of him arriving in the country in December 2013. A video has now been released, apparently showing Mr Henning being killed. His kidnapping was not made public until nine months later when he became the fourth Western hostage - after US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David Haines - to be paraded in a video by the extremist organisation. The married father-of-two, known as "Gadget" or "Gadge" to friends because of his technical skills, had been on an informal convoy with British Muslims when he was kidnapped in Ad Dana, an area held by IS, on 27 December 2013. His colleagues were people he had got to know through his work as a taxi driver, and he had already travelled on three convoys before the one on which he was kidnapped. Prior to travelling to Syria for the fourth time, he told BBC News he was not a Muslim himself, but that visiting a refugee camp had changed his life and he had felt compelled to return. The group left the UK a week before Mr Henning's capture and had been intending to deliver aid to refugees. Volunteers had raised money to buy potentially vital medical equipment, including former NHS ambulances, which they planned to deliver to hospitals. Items such as baby milk, nappies and food were packed into the back of the ambulances in the UK and driven more than 3,000 miles overland, before crossing into Syria from Turkey. Mr Henning had been washing cars in the UK to raise money for donations. I met and filmed Alan Henning in Salford in October when he was packing up for an aid convoy. At this point, he had already travelled to Syria on three convoys. When I asked him why he was going back to such a dangerous country he told me he had been inspired by friends. After experiencing a refugee camp, life at home had never quite been the same for him. He described holding children and how it had affected him. When he came back to the UK he found it difficult - Syria was drawing him back. He told me he had to go back. He also said he was unwell and might not have the opportunity to get involved in that kind of aid work for much longer. Footage of him from Christmas Day 2013, taken on the convoy in Turkey, showed him discussing the presents he had received from his family. In it, he said how it was "hard" to be away from his family and that their Christmas presents included "smellies" - toiletries - and how the other members of the convoy had given him a T-shirt, aftershave, chocolates and biscuits. He also joked how someone on the convoy had made him a breakfast of "Asian eggs, beans and toast" which was "gratefully received". And he said: "More people should show a bit more charity. This way at least you see where it's going, to the right people." A week after the first IS video of Alan appeared online - the video in which the group threatened to kill him - his wife Barbara released a statement on behalf of the Henning family, pleading for his release. "When he was taken he was driving an ambulance full of food and water to be handed out to anyone in need," she said. "His purpose for being there was no more and no less. This was an act of sheer compassion." Three days later the family received an audio file of him "pleading for his life" and Barbara Henning issued a second message. "I have seen Muslims across the globe question Islamic State over Alan's fate," she said. "We are at a loss why those leading Islamic State cannot open their hearts and minds to the facts surrounding Alan's imprisonment and why they continue to threaten his life. "Please release Alan." The leader of the convoy on which Alan was travelling when he was kidnapped was Kasim Jameel who was also a close friend. Mr Jameel said receiving the message was difficult for everyone. "Receiving a message like that from a loved one - it's difficult for me but that's nothing compared to what the family are going through and that again is nothing compared to what Alan is," he said. "He is a big softie. What he's going through must be absolute hell - not knowing what's going to happen to him from one hour to the next." Fellow convoy member Majid Freeman, 26, described how at home Mr Henning had watched a video in which children had died because of a lack of power in a Syrian hospital. He went on to raise money to buy a generator and took it to the country. "That's the kind of person Gadget is," Mr Freeman said. IS captured Mr Henning and dozens of members of the convoy about 20 minutes after they entered Syria. They were questioned by militants and had their passports taken, but eventually the others - all British Muslims - were released. Mr Freeman, who was with Mr Henning at the time, said: "That's when we found out that Gadge was actually gone." IS accused Mr Henning of being a spy, saying the chip in his British passport was an indication of this, and took him away. At one point Mr Freeman handed over his own passport to show that everyone, British Muslims included, had this chip. But it was to no avail. Most of the convoy left Syria in a shaken state - but a small number stayed behind to help in the search for Mr Henning before eventually returning home. The other members of the convoy still believed he would be released within days. But on 13 September 2014, Mr Henning appeared at the end of an IS hostage video in which British aid worker Mr Haines was killed. Mr Freeman told the BBC seeing him in the video - dressed in orange as other IS hostages had been - was what he and other friends of Mr Henning had been dreading for some time. "He lost a lot of weight, he looked different and what can you do - it's just your worst nightmare," he said. "You hear about these things in the news all the time but you don't expect [it to happen to] someone you spent time with, someone you travelled with, someone you ate with, someone you know in real life." Dr Shameela Islam-Zulfiqar also travelled with Mr Henning on several convoys, including his most recent one, and kept a diary for BBC Radio 5 live, which was not fully broadcast because of his kidnapping. She said: "Alan is remarkable. He's such a compassionate and selfless human being. "It just simply wasn't enough for Alan to sit back and just donate or raise awareness. He had to get up and he had to do something about what he'd seen. "Every time the convoys went, he had this yearning to go. That really motivated him, to see, practically, first hand the difference he was making." Mr Henning was incredibly popular with other aid convoy members - just about everyone had a funny story about him. He was a fan of Phil Collins and while the convoy drove through Europe, the traditional Islamic nasheeds (vocal music) played en route would be replaced with Collins. Other convoy members recounted how - while driving to Syria - when some members wanted to take a rest in a Venice hotel Mr Henning insisted on sleeping in his ambulance, saving the money it would have cost so it could be donated to Syrians instead. The thing that made Mr Henning stand out for so many was what an ordinary man he was. A father, a taxi driver and a keen fisherman who just wanted to help the Syrian people.
When Alan Henning, a 47-year-old taxi driver from Eccles in Salford, was on his way to Syria in an aid convoy late last year, he said it was important to make sure aid was going to "the right people".
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The 35-year-old defender made one appearance for Rovers in 2001 after joining from Clyde, before moving to Kilmarnock in 2003. Greer was released by Brighton in May after their play-off semi-final loss to Sheffield Wednesday, having made 234 appearances in six seasons. The ex-Swindon and Doncaster centre-back has won 11 caps for Scotland. Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.
Blackburn Rovers have signed former Brighton captain Gordon Greer on a one-year deal.
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The Briton, 29, was knocked out in the sixth round when fighting for Alvarez's WBC middleweight crown in Las Vegas. Khan, who jumped two weight divisions to fight Alvarez on Saturday, is the mandatory challenger for Garcia's WBC welterweight belt. "It is the easiest fight to make and it's at my natural weight," said Khan. "It would be nice to make that fight in the UK but I don't think he'd come. But we have the same advisor in Al Haymon so we'll chat and take it from there. "I'm in the peak of my career, my stock has definitely risen and I still have a lot left in me. I didn't really take a lot of punishment, just that one big punch." 5 live podcast: 'Difficult for Khan to walk away' The morning after the fight, Khan was in a surprisingly relaxed mood talking to the assembled media from the comfort of his hotel room. Even the prospect of climbing into the ring with Garcia again did not seem to faze him, despite the American knocking him out when they met in 2012. Garcia, who remains unbeaten in 32 professional fights, stepped up to welterweight last year and won the vacant WBC belt with a points victory over Robert Guerrero. Other potential opponents mentioned were former four-weight world champion Miguel Cotto, who also lost to Alvarez last November, American Timothy Bradley, a former welterweight world champion, and former stable-mate and Philippine legend Manny Pacquiao, who Khan believes will fight again. Reflecting on his fourth defeat in 35 professional fights, Khan said he did not feel cheated, despite his opponent entering the ring almost 20 pounds heavier. The match was made at a catchweight of 155lb, five pounds under the normal middleweight limit, but there was no rehydration clause in the contract, meaning the champion could pile on the weight before fight night. "I'm not going to blame anyone or say they cheated in any way," said Khan. "I knew what I was getting into. I wanted to go in with the best and give the fans a big fight, but I jumped up a bit too high. "Up until the sixth round everything was going my way. I was leading the fight. But I was hitting him and he wasn't moving - I didn't expect him to be that big. "And if you make a little mistake against someone like Canelo, he'll make you pay. I've never been hit by a guy that hard before. That shot would have put down a lot of people." Commenting on the judges' scorecards - two had Alvarez ahead when the end came, one by four rounds to one - Khan suggested the early knockout might have been a blessing. "In a way I'm glad I got knocked out rather than went 12 rounds, took a lot of punishment and got cheated at the end of it," said Khan. "I'm safe and healthy and can fight another day."
Amir Khan will box on after his devastating defeat by Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and says a rematch against Danny Garcia is top of his wish list.
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The chart features eight songs from Bieber's new album Purpose, the first time a living artist has had so many simultaneous entries. However the Canadian singer failed to keep One Direction from the top of the UK album chart with Made in the AM. Their first record as a four piece is the fastest-selling album of the year. Made in the AM sold 93,189 copies in its first week, beating the record previously held by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds album Chasing Yesterday, and outselling Bieber by just over 3,000 copies. However Adele is expected to outstrip them all over the next week, after her third album 25 was released today. Adele's track Hello had kept Bieber from the top of the singles chart for three weeks, but he finally claimed the top spot with combined weekly sales of 104,000 - including 5.35 million streams. He dominated the top five, with three tracks including Love Yourself at three and former number one What Do You Mean? at five. His eight top 40 entries see him break a record set by Elvis Presley in 1957, when he had seven songs in the top 40 singles chart. Fleur East's Sax was at number four, while former X Factor winner Ben Haenow's debut album debuted in the top 10 in the album chart. One Direction's first album since the departure of Zayn Malik earlier this year is their fourth out of five albums to top the chart, following 2012's Take Me Home, 2013's Midnight Memories and 2014's Four. The boyband recently performed their final tour date before they take an extended break. Former UK number one album If I Can Dream by Elvis Presley was in third place this week, while Alone in the Universe by Jeff Lynne's ELO entered the chart at four. Little Mix's third album Get Weird rounded out the top five while Kylie Minogue's festive release Kylie Christmas debuted at 12. Despite a Facebook campaign to get US band Eagles of Death Metal into the singles chart, their cover of Duran Duran's Save A Prayer failed to make the top 40. The band were performing at Le Bataclan concert hall in Paris last Friday when gunmen opened fire, killing 89 of the 130 people left dead during attacks across the city.
Justin Bieber has topped the UK singles chart with Sorry, ending Adele's three-week run and breaking a chart record for the most tracks inside the top 40.
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Derek Lyle opened the scoring for the hosts with a right-footed strike before Stephen Dobbie doubled the lead just before the break. The Doonhamers extended their lead further when Lyle found the net for the second time. The visitors managed to pull one back through Kevin Nisbet before Lyndon Dykes sealed the victory for the hosts. Match ends, Queen of the South 4, Ayr United 1. Second Half ends, Queen of the South 4, Ayr United 1. Foul by Lyndon Dykes (Queen of the South). Daryll Meggatt (Ayr United) wins a free kick on the right wing. Substitution, Ayr United. Craig McGuffie replaces Gary Harkins. Substitution, Queen of the South. Steven Rigg replaces Stephen Dobbie. Attempt missed. Kevin Nisbet (Ayr United) right footed shot from very close range is too high. Attempt saved. Gary Harkins (Ayr United) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Attempt saved. Kevin Nisbet (Ayr United) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top left corner. Corner, Ayr United. Conceded by Jamie Hamill. Attempt saved. Stephen Dobbie (Queen of the South) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top right corner. Substitution, Queen of the South. Jake Pickard replaces Callum Tapping. Corner, Queen of the South. Conceded by Michael Rose. Andy Dowie (Queen of the South) wins a free kick in the attacking half. Foul by Gary Harkins (Ayr United). Attempt missed. Kyle Jacobs (Queen of the South) left footed shot from outside the box is too high. Stephen Dobbie (Queen of the South) wins a free kick in the attacking half. Foul by Jamie Adams (Ayr United). Goal! Queen of the South 4, Ayr United 1. Lyndon Dykes (Queen of the South) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Stephen Dobbie. Attempt blocked. Ross Docherty (Ayr United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Jamie Hamill (Queen of the South) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Foul by Jamie Hamill (Queen of the South). Ross Docherty (Ayr United) wins a free kick on the left wing. Lyndon Dykes (Queen of the South) wins a free kick in the attacking half. Foul by Jamie Adams (Ayr United). Callum Tapping (Queen of the South) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Foul by Callum Tapping (Queen of the South). Patrick Boyle (Ayr United) wins a free kick on the left wing. Substitution, Queen of the South. Dean Brotherston replaces Derek Lyle because of an injury. Jamie Hamill (Queen of the South) wins a free kick in the attacking half. Foul by Gary Harkins (Ayr United). Attempt saved. Stephen Dobbie (Queen of the South) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Attempt saved. Stephen Dobbie (Queen of the South) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Foul by Darren Brownlie (Queen of the South). Nicky Devlin (Ayr United) wins a free kick in the defensive half. Goal! Queen of the South 3, Ayr United 1. Kevin Nisbet (Ayr United) right footed shot from outside the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Gary Harkins. Substitution, Ayr United. Alan Forrest replaces Robbie Crawford. Substitution, Ayr United. Jamie Adams replaces Paul Cairney. Foul by Lyndon Dykes (Queen of the South). Ross Docherty (Ayr United) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Queen of the South recorded their first Championship victory of the season with a comfortable home win over Ayr United.
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The closure of the A38(M) Aston Expressway caused long delays for drivers, cancelled rail services and led to the evacuation of hundreds of homes. Residents slept in a gym overnight as a police cordon was put in place. Thirteen lorry loads of sand created an "igloo" around the 250kg device before it was detonated at about 15:30 BST. Exit and entry slip roads of the M6 at junction six, Spaghetti Junction, were closed on Monday morning after the discovery at a construction site. More updates on this story Traffic police also shut the motorway between junction four, near Coleshill, and seven at Great Barr - a distance of about 14 miles - while the detonation was carried out. Both the M6 and the A38 Aston Expressway have since reopened. A 500m-cordon was set up by police after the device was discovered in Priory Road, Aston, at about 09:45 BST on Monday. Homes and businesses were evacuated and London Midland rail services on the Cross City Line between Lichfield and Birmingham New Street were suspended. Rail services "may" resume on Wednesday, Network Rail said. About 80 people were forced to spend the night in a temporary rest centre, the Red Cross said. Mike Luedicke, deputy commander of the Army's UK bomb disposal unit who co-ordinated the operation, said the team was "very confident it was a classic Second World War German air drop bomb". He said it had been a particularly "complex" case because the fuses were "on the underside and pressed into the earth and so our process of identification and diagnostics has been a real challenge". After the explosion, people started using social media to say they heard the blast from several miles away. Police thanked residents and motorists for their patience and praised the bravery of the bomb disposal experts who had been at the site overnight making the device safe. About 250 tonnes of sand were put around the device, described as an SC2 50, with 139kg of high explosives. Residents said they had been told by police they could be out of their homes until about 18:00. Paige Collins, of Aston, and her 10-month-old daughter, were among those who spent the night at Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr. She slept for about "an hour" on a mat and sheet in a "dusty gym" after putting her daughter to sleep in her pushchair. Birmingham was a major munitions centre, as were Manchester and Coventry, and on 19 November 1940, the Germans attacked the city very heavily. At the time, Aston and Tyseley were very industrial areas. The raid carried on for nine hours on 19 November, but it could have been the next night when this device was dropped. On 20 November, nearby Queens Road was absolutely destroyed by a big bomb. Queens Road is right next to where this bomb was found.
A large World War Two bomb that forced a major route in Birmingham to close for almost two days has been detonated.
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Eight-time Olympic gold medallist Bolt was the star attraction as six teams of 12 male and 12 female athletes competed in a mixture of old and new events. Bolt raced in the mixed 4x100m relay, which his All-Stars won. "I was just enjoying myself from the start to the end," said Bolt, 30. "Everybody was just having fun. Everybody was trying to support their team-mates - going over to the long jump, to the javelin - that's something we're not really used to." During the meet, flame cannons shot fireballs into the air and there were dancers as pop music blared out, with a 7,000 crowd at the 8,500-capacity stadium. The All-Stars, Australia, England, New Zealand, Japan and China competed across 12 events, with points awarded for each athlete's placing. The 4x100m mixed relay featured two male and two female athletes, with Bolt handing over to American Jenna Prandini. "We just want to do something different," said Bolt. "I've never handed [a baton] over to a girl. For me that was exciting." There was a men's elimination mile, where the last-placed runner was eliminated at the end of each of the first three laps of the track. In the 2x300m mixed relay, England's Christine Ohuruogu and Theo Campbell finished third. The second of the three-event series will take place on Thursday, 9 February, with the final one on Saturday, 11 February. Full results and points table available here.
Usain Bolt's team of All-Stars won the first day of the inaugural Nitro Athletics event in Melbourne in a series IAAF president Lord Coe says will "revolutionise" the sport.
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Paul Campbell, 37, was arrested in Portadown railway station on Sunday. His address was given as The Mills, Coalisland. The charges relate to an IRA grenade attack on Coalisland police station in March 1997. Two men threw an improvised bomb at the station, but almost immediately an undercover unit of SAS soldiers returned fire. One of the pair, Gareth Doris, was wounded. Before the soldiers could detain him, they were surrounded by a crowd of several hundred people. They fired a number of warning shots before the RUC arrived and used baton rounds to push back the crowd, allowing the SAS men to leave the area. By this time, the second IRA man had escaped. He had apparently climbed into the back seat of a car being driven by a local priest, Fr Seamus Rice. A short distance away, he got out and continued his flight on foot. The police maintain that man was Paul Campbell. It is alleged he was identified by Irish police when he presented himself with gunshot wounds at Louth County Hospital using the false name of John Murphy. His alleged accomplice, Mr Doris, was later convicted of the attack and sentenced to 10 years in jail. He served two years before being released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, in 2000. Dungannon Magistrates' Court was told that, since his arrest on Sunday, Mr Campbell has made no comment in the course of 14 police interviews. On Wednesday, he refused to stand in the dock as the single charge of causing an explosion likely to endanger life was read out. Despite police objections, the district judge granted bail. The Public Prosecution Service, however, indicated immediately that they would be appealing that decision. The case will now be heard again in the High Court on Thursday.
A blood stain, found on the back seat of a County Tyrone priest's car, is the key evidence against a man accused of trying to bomb a police station, a court has heard.
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The coin, from 107 AD, bears the image of Emperor Augustus but was minted by Emperor Trajan. The only other example of such a coin is held in the British Museum. The hiker, Laurie Rimon, will be awarded a certificate of appreciation for good citizenship, Israel's antiquities authority says. Ms Rimon, a member of the Kefar Blum kibbutz, was hiking with friends in the eastern Galilee when she discovered a shiny object in the grass. The group's guide then contacted the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), who arrived within two hours. Ms Rimon then handed over the find, but said "it was not easy parting with the coin". "After all, it is not every day one discovers such an amazing object, but I hope I will see it displayed in a museum in the near future," she said. Danny Syon, a senior coin expert at the IAA, said the relic was "rare on a global level". It was, he said, "part of a series of nostalgic coins that Emperor Trajan minted and dedicated to the Roman emperors that ruled before him". The IAA said the recently unearthed coin was "the identical twin brother" to the one kept at the British Museum in London. The authority said members of the public would be able to enjoy the rare find "soon".
An Israeli hiker has found a Roman coin that is almost 2,000 years old and only the second of its kind found in the world, authorities say.
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Badruddin Haqqani died last Tuesday in North Waziristan, a relative said. The death has not been confirmed by US or Pakistani officials. The Haqqani network has carried out high-profile attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan. If confirmed, the death would be a major victory for US forces, correspondents say. In a separate development, Nato air strikes killed a regional commander of the Pakistani Taliban on Friday inside Afghanistan, officials said. Mullah Dadullah was killed along with a dozen of his fighters in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province. He had taken over as leader of the Taliban in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal area earlier this year. Badruddin Haqqani has been described as a senior operational commander with the Haqqani network - masterminding and directing ambitious attacks on high-profile targets. He was also responsible for training camps, and for extorting funds from contractors, the BBC's Orla Guerin in Islamabad says. Tribesmen in North Waziristan and sources in the local administration told the BBC he is now dead and buried. Local sources also told the BBC that his replacement had already been named. But experts think the death would affect operations by the Haqqani network, our correspondent says. North Waziristan - where the group is based - is seen as a haven for Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.
A key commander in the Pakistan-based militant Haqqani network has been killed in a US drone strike, according to a family member and local sources.
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The vote came during a council meeting despite a demonstration outside by campaigners fighting to prevent the Kent airport's redevelopment. Thanet District Council was considering a report which recommended no further action be taken on the site. Proposals could now be sent to the transport secretary for consideration. Earlier this week, Stephen DeNardo, chief executive of the US firm RiverOak Investments, which expressed an interest in buying the airport, said he was disappointed over the plans to drop the compulsory purchase order. Manston was sold to regeneration specialists in September, which will see the former airport redeveloped for manufacturing, housing and schools. Two local Conservative MPs earlier met a government minister to discuss the site's future. Roger Gale and Laura Sandys held a private meeting with transport minister John Hayes.
Thanet councillors have voted against pursuing the compulsory purchase of Manston Airport, which closed in May with the loss of 150 jobs.
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Costa was dropped after netting just one goal in his last eight Chelsea matches and reacted angrily by tossing his substitute's bib at Mourinho. But Blues boss Mourinho said: "For me his behaviour is normal. A top player on the bench will not be happy. "If he wants to hurt me it would not be with a bib. I have a good relationship with him." Media playback is not supported on this device Mourinho defended his decision to name Costa, 27, as a substitute for Sunday's goalless draw at White Hart Lane, despite the striker scoring the winner against Norwich last weekend. "I think Diego is very privileged," he said. "He is the last player to be on the bench. Everyone has been on the bench - the captain [John] Terry, [Branislav] Ivanovic, [Gary] Cahill, [Cesc] Fabregas, Pedro and player of the season [Eden] Hazard. "Diego is privileged to have been kept in the team for all these matches and today we thought our best strategy was to play with this. I am happy with my decision and the players. "[Today] Eden could play the 90 minutes and was so good and dangerous for us, I felt he could have scored a goal." But Mourinho said he had no problem with the attitude of Spain international Costa. "Diego is physically fine, no problems," he said. "He works well, every day his mood is positive, he is the positive guy in the team. "I do not expect to have a player on the bench jumping and shouting because he is not playing."
Jose Mourinho says there is "no issue" with Diego Costa after leaving the striker on the bench against Tottenham.
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Soares, 26, joined the Potters in 2008 but made just eight first-team starts in four years with the club. Ebanks-Landell, 19, is yet to feature for the first team at Molineux. He links up with who is also on loan at Bury. Both players go into the squad to Bury will be looking to extend their unbeaten sequence in all competitions to five games against Soares began his career at Crystal Palace, playing more than 100 times for the Eagles, but his £1.25m switch to the Britannia Stadium did not go as planned. After struggling to break into Tony Pulis's side, he went out on loan to Charlton, Sheffield Wednesday and Hibernian before being released by the Premier League club in the summer.
Bury have signed former Stoke City midfielder Tom Soares on non-contract terms and teenage defender Ethan Ebanks-Landell on loan from Wolves.
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The 25-year-old was a free agent following his release by Lyon, his first professional club, in June. Ghezzal received offers from several clubs across Europe but opted to continue his career in France. "I have the ambition to continue to play at the highest level so I chose Monaco," Ghezzal told the club's official website. "I believe in the Monaco project, that they are the French champions and also reached the semi-finals of the Champions League is fantastic. "After several years in Lyon, I needed a new challenge. Everything is readily available here to have a successful season." Ghezzal, who started his youth career at Lyon and signed a professional contract in 2010, went on to score 14 goals and provided 20 assists for the club in 119 appearances. Born in France, he represented his country of birth at youth level before switching allegiance to Algeria. He made his debut under former manager Christian Gourcuff in a friendly against Qatar in March 2015 and has scored once in 11 appearances for the Desert Foxes. Ghezzal played all three matches as Algeria exited the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations at the group stage.
French champions Monaco have signed Algeria international winger Rachid Ghezzal, on a deal until June 2021.
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Now in his 80s, Akbar Etemad remembers all too clearly the pressure the Americans tried to apply to him when he was head of Iran's nuclear programme between 1974 and 1978. Mr Etemad was the president of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation and it was under him that the country's nuclear project began and flourished. The Shah of Iran had announced that he wanted to build nuclear power plants in the country, a plan supported by the United States. The goal was for Iran to produce 23,000 megawatts of electrical power. But Mr Etemad says the US soon tried to impose conditions. The Americans, he recalls, were initially supportive "because they thought they were going to be a partner of Iran in the application of nuclear technology. "I had the impression that the Americans wanted to impose their views on Iran and I refused to deal with them. We were discussing for four years the terms of the bilateral agreement and we never came to a conclusion.'' He says that the Americans told him then that ''Iran is not a problem for us but the conditions we impose on Iran are those that we want to impose on other countries'' such as Yugoslavia and the Philippines. Between 1974 and 1978 Mr Etemad says there was regular contact with the US, and Iranian students went to study nuclear research there. And he reveals that the Shah wanted to leave all options on the table in terms of developing a nuclear bomb. "The Shah had the idea at the time that he's strong enough in the region and he can defend our interests in the region [and] he didn't want nuclear weapons. But he told me that if this changes 'we have to go for nuclear'. He had that in mind.'' ''My mission was to go for all the technologies imaginable in the field of nuclear technology,'' Mr Etemad explains. After the 1979 Iranian revolution the nuclear programme was stopped for a time. ''At the beginning the revolutionaries thought that nuclear technology [was] one of the tactics of the US to put [a] hand on Iran. Later on they realised it was a successful programme and they had to continue it.'' Iran's new rulers asked Mr Etemad, who had left the country, to return but he refused. At the time he was not sure what they wanted to do. At first, he explains, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini was suspicious of everything but then accepted the nuclear programme. Mr Etemad has been back to Iran since but has not got involved in the nuclear programme. ''It's too late for me to get back into that,'' he says. For years there have been rounds of talks trying to resolve Iran's nuclear question. Most recently negotiations have been held between Iran and the so-called P5+1 powers - the US, the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany. These countries want Iran to grant the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) far more access to its nuclear sites than it currently does and for Iran to answer questions and concerns the IAEA has about any possible military dimension to its nuclear programme They are also calling for Iran to stop 20% uranium enrichment and to limit its enrichment to below 5%. The most recent round of talks ended without a resolution. Commenting on the current deadlock, Mr Etemad says "there's no way out. I think Iran has the right to do the research that they are doing and I don't see why the Western countries impose sanctions against Iran. "They pressure Iran. Why didn't they do it with India, Pakistan with Israel?" he asks. Mr Etemad currently sees no solution but thinks that ''Iran should not give in". As for those who talk about striking Iran's nuclear facilities, he believes that "neither Israel or the US are in a position to attack Iran". After the revolution, Mr Etemad established an office in Paris as a consultant in the field of nuclear energy. At the time the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, whose country was at war with Iran, tried to persuade him to work in Iraq. He refused to go, telling Saddam Hussein that ''as long as you are fighting my people I wouldn't come to Iraq. You are my enemy." He says he refused offers from many countries to work on their nuclear programmes, preferring to remain in exile in Paris. Zubeida Malik's report was originally broadcast on the Today programme.
In a rare interview, the man dubbed "the father of Iran's nuclear programme" tells how the project began under the Shah, who wanted to leave the option for a bomb open.
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The leader of the Tories plans to visit all four parts of the UK on Tuesday. Elsewhere, First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon spoke about policies to reduce child poverty. Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has been talking about opportunities for young people while the Liberal Democrat theme is fairness in the tax system. There are 30 days left until voters go to the polls. Mr Cameron, who had breakfast with wife Samantha at the Edinburgh HQ of Scottish Widows, said: "Today, I am travelling to all four nations of our United Kingdom, to all four corners of our country, with one simple message: we have one month to save our economy from the disaster of an Ed Miliband government. "We have one month to save Britain from his mountain of debt; one month to save Britain from his punitive taxes; one month to save Britain, and British families, from his anti-business and anti-aspiration agenda. "These past five years we have got Britain back on its feet. All four nations are growing; jobs are being created the country over; taxes are coming down; the deficit has been halved as a share of our economy; and more families can look forward to a brighter future." Liberal Democrat deputy leader Sir Malcolm Bruce has been campaigning in Aberdeenshire. While speaking to staff at a local hotel, he highlighted his party's record in government on cutting taxes for workers. He said: "We want to cut taxes for working people - people on low and middle incomes. Not only do we want to do it, we've done it in government against the Conservatives. "We've had to fight it through and we've delivered it when they said it couldn't be done. And we can go on doing it and we have shown how we can fund it." What are the top issues for each political party at the 2015 general election? Policy guide: Where the parties stand Setting out her concerns, Ms Sturgeon told an audience in West Lothian: "Years of Westminster austerity have harmed the poorest ten per cent of households harder than anyone else - hitting families with children hard. That is only set to continue with all of the Westminster parties signed up to a further £30 billion of austerity cuts and the Tories planning to slash welfare spending by £12bn. "The absolute last people who should be paying the price of austerity cuts are children, yet that is precisely what is happening under the plans of all of the Westminster establishment parties. "The UK Government's current plans will see one million additional children across the UK grow up in poverty, 100,000 of whom will be in Scotland." Speaking to young activists in Glasgow, Mr Murphy spoke about opportunities for the young, confirming that this will be a theme in his contributions to this evening's STV leaders' debate. He said: ""I am proud that Scotland invests in those young people who continue to learn after school or who are lucky enough to get an apprenticeship. "But those who don't do either can feel abandoned, and their optimism of youth can be quickly ground down into hopelessness. Our future fund gives these young Scots a reason for optimism, it gives them hope for the future, and is an investment in our country's future." "That is why I am looking forward to the debate. It is a chance for Labour to share with the Scottish people our better plan for a fairer Scotland."
Prime Minister David Cameron was on an early morning visit to Scotland as the campaign north of the border picked up after the Easter holidays.
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At a BBC debate, Russ Timpson called for a conversation about how many people could live "on this island". The Tory, UKIP and Labour candidates on the panel said they understood him to mean limits on having children, respectively describing his comments as chilling, astonishing and "barmy". The Green Party said austerity had placed the country under pressure. All five candidates had been asked if Britain was full, by an audience member at the Radio Kent debate in Margate. Mr Timpson, a Liberal Democrat candidate in South Thanet, said there were too many cars and too many people, leading to pressure on schools and A&E, and he described a manifesto produced by Population Matters - which promotes "a sustainable family size and mindful consumption" - as "getting somewhere". But when quoted by other candidates as favouring limiting the number of children people had, he denied it and said he had called for a population growth debate. UKIP candidate for Rochester and Strood Mark Reckless said England was now the most densely-populated country in Europe. He called for controls on the pace of people coming in so young people could have opportunities and there could be a "more comfortable" pace of change. Dover Conservative candidate Charlie Elphicke also said migration had led to too much social change in too short a time and proper border controls were important - but he accused UKIP of talking about "bongo bongo land and ting tongs" and said there had to be a "serious debate". Labour candidate in South Thanet, Will Scobie, said the answer to the "strain on resources" was to tackle tax avoidance, reintroduce fairness into the immigration system, and grow the economy in an inclusive way, and not to adopt policies "out of a science fiction film". South Thanet Green Party candidate Ian Driver said pressure was not from immigration but rather down to austerity and cuts by both Labour and Conservative governments. He said the country faced a housing crisis going back 15 to 20 years. Dover candidates Rochester and Strood candidates South Thanet candidates
Calls for a debate on population growth have come from a Kent Liberal Democrat election candidate.
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The missing ball, which belongs to Dungloe Ladies GAA team in Donegal, was found by beach walker Arthur Heyes. It was swept several hundred miles north by the Atlantic current, surviving its journey in good nick. Mr Heyes has now emailed the club to try to reunite the team with the ball. "Its been two or three hundred miles in the open Atlantic and yet it's in perfect condition," he told BBC Radio Foyle. Mr Heyes and his brother were enjoying a walk along the western tip of North Uist when they noticed something white poking out of the sand. "It's a beautiful island with lovely beaches and I noticed a ball which appeared to have been washed up. "The thing I noticed first of all was the quality of the ball, it was perfectly inflated," said Mr Heyes. "I had a look at it and I saw the words Dungloe Ladies GAA and that stuck in my mind because I remember going on holiday to Dungloe when I was a child. "In the back of my mind I thought, GAA... I think that stands for Gaelic Athletic Association," he added. Mr Heyes said it was his brother's idea to try to get in touch with the Donegal club. "I sent them an email and they got back to me asking for a picture and I got my daughter to take it with me showing a map to demonstrate how far it came," he said. "I've been in touch with the club and one way or another I will return this ball to the club because that's its home and that's where it belongs." Dungloe Ladies GAA team told the BBC they were "delighted" to find their football, which has been missing since 5 May. "It is quite a surreal and unique story. Once a ball ends up in the sea, you don't expect it to make a journey and for the writing to remain intact," the club said. "We would welcome Arthur to come and visit us, as he is now an honorary member of Dungloe Ladies GAA. "We are going to get the ball returned and hopefully we will play a game with it this summer."
A football used by a Gaelic Athletic Association team in Ireland has been found washed up on a Scottish beach in the Outer Hebrides.
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The 21-year-old, Britain's highest-ranked female golfer, was part of the team that won in Colorado in 2013. But Hull was also present when the US came from 10-6 down to win in Germany two years ago, as Europe were accused of "breaking the game's moral code". "I love playing in front of big crowds," she told BBC Sport. Hull was involved in the 2013 controversy when the Americans were given a penalty stroke following a misunderstanding over a 'gimme' putt on the 17th. However, she says the European team have a "good mindset" as they prepare for the competition, which begins at Des Moines on Friday. "As the saying goes: 'Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will never hurt me,'" said Hull. "So if people shout things out I'll use it to my advantage and try to make lots of birdies." Team-mate and fellow Briton Melissa Reid added: "I'm sure the crowd will be extremely loud. As long as we accept what it's going to be like with the crowds there is no reason we can't win out here."
Charley Hull says she will use a hostile atmosphere in Iowa to her advantage when Europe face the USA in the Solheim Cup this week.
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The bank uprated Indonesian shares one notch to "neutral". Emerging-market volatility in the wake of Donald Trump's US election win had now subsided, it said. In November last year, the bank took its assessment down two levels from "overweight" to "underweight". In response, the Indonesian government stopped doing business with JP Morgan. In the month after the US presidential election, funds had sold large amounts of emerging-market countries' shares and bonds, bank researchers said in a note to clients. "Our tactical downgrade two months ago was driven by the risk of Indonesia underperforming the Asia Pacific ex-Japan," they said. "Bond volatility risks have now played out, in our view." However, it said there were still concerns about further volatility, hence the neutral rating. Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said the upgrade was "good", but made no further comment.
US investment bank JP Morgan Chase has upgraded its view of the Indonesian stock market, partially reversing a previous downgrade that prompted an angry reaction from the government.
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The three animals were each mauled around the neck area by at least one dog in their field in the eastern part of the forest on Thursday. They were treated by vets and underwent surgery for their wounds. They are all now in a stable condition. Hampshire police confirmed officers had been called to the scene following the attack and were investigating. An alpaca in the same field had also been the victim of a dog attack earlier in the year. The owner, Susan Sears, has farmed the animals for six years and has a herd of about 80 animals which are bred for their wool. "It's devastating. We've bred these animals and get to know them individually - they've all got their own characters," she said. She has set up a crowdfunding appeal to help raise money for the animals' treatment.
Three alpacas have been seriously injured in a dog attack in a field in the New Forest.
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Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, hopes to start testing a DNA vaccine by September. About 100 Americans have been diagnosed with Zika after returning from affected countries. Scientists at the institute helped develop a vaccine for Ebola. They are now trying to do the same for Zika, with a special focus on pregnant women because of the strongly suspected link between the virus and babies being born with under-developed brains. Dr Fauci said he's hoping human trials will start in America soon. "We will have a vaccine ready to go into humans to test - not to distribute - but to test for safety and whether it induces a response that you can predict will be protective. "That phase 1 trial I believe will likely start towards the end of this summer or early fall" But phase 1 trials are only the start of a potentially lengthy process. If the outbreak starts to wane, as happened in the advanced stages of the agency's Ebola vaccine trials, it will not be possible to conduct big enough studies to confirm how effective the vaccine is in at-risk populations. The Zika vaccine in development uses synthesised genetic information from the virus, rather than live virus, to trigger an immune response in the body. So if a person then becomes infected with the virus, their body is already primed to fight it. Developing new vaccines can take decades. But scientists working at the labs in Maryland believe they can fast-track the process because they had already been working on a vaccine for West Nile virus, which is spread by the same Aedes aegypti mosquito. Dr Barney Graham, deputy director of the National Institute of Health Vaccine Research Center, where the vaccine is being developed, said: "The challenge is that we don't know a lot about Zika, but we know a lot about other flaviviruses. Zika is one of the flaviviruses." "Vaccines are generally not made quickly. We still don't have a vaccine for some viruses that have been around for 70 or 80 years." But he added: "There are new technologies now. DNA vaccines can go quickly - we've done it before for West Nile, for H5N1 (bird flu) for Ebola and HIV." The vaccine being developed at the NIH in Bethesda, just outside Washington DC, is one of two of the most advanced Zika vaccines in development. The other is being developed by Bharat Biotech, an Indian company based in Hyderabad. Dr Fauci said the American vaccine would focus on pregnant women, and women of childbearing age, with a longer-term goal of offering a vaccine to everyone, particularly if that link to microcephaly is confirmed. He said the world had been in a similar situation in the early 1960s, when rubella was causing about 20,000 birth defects a year, after pregnant mothers became infected with the relatively mild German measles infection. "As soon as we developed a rubella vaccine and started vaccinating everyone when they were children, the incidence of congenital rubella syndrome essentially disappeared. "This is what we hope will happen with Zika." However, it is already too late for the thousands of babies thought to be affected by this mysterious virus. And despite the best efforts of scientists at the NIH, the very earliest a vaccine could be widely distributed is around 2018. follow @tulipmazumdar on Twitter
A Zika vaccine could be ready for human trials later this year, according to the man in charge of the US government's research programme.
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Imran Khan, 34, of Pendle Street in Accrington, Lancashire, admitted taking the girl from Nairne Street in Burnley on 26 March. He also admitted intending to commit a sexual offence and breaching a sexual offences' prevention order. Following the hearing at Preston Crown Court, Khan was remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced on 23 October. Police said the girl was bundled into the boot of Khan's car before being driven to Scarth Lane in Hapton where he exposed himself and tried to force her to commit a sexual act. Khan then dumped her in a wheelie bin before she later freed herself and was found wandering alone in distress by other children, the court heard. Det Insp Jim Elston of Lancashire Police said it was a "horrendous" and "terrifying offence". Khan was convicted in 2008 of a sexual offence involving a 12-year-old girl, police said. Mr Elston said: "While we have rigorous systems in place to manage sex offenders who have served a sentence and been released into the community, this cannot happen 24 hours a day and unfortunately on occasion an offender may go on to commit a further offence as happened in this case. "There is currently a review ongoing into this particular case and we will clearly look carefully at the results of that to see if there are any lessons we can learn."
A registered sex offender has pleaded guilty to abducting a six-year-old girl who was taken in a car from the street.
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She told the Mail on Sunday that "it's difficult to explain why I didn't do it." The singer added: "I prefer to do my charitable bit by donating actual money and not being lumped in a with a bunch of people like that. "It's like the success club and I'm not really in that club. I don't think I'm above it all - I'm way below it. But there's something a bit smug about it." The latest version of Do They Know It's Christmas? features acts including One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Jessie Ware and Rita Ora. Within two days of being released, the song had sold 206,000 and become the fastest-selling single of 2014 and is on course to be number one in this Sunday's top 40. However, Allen did go on to praise Band Aid organiser Bob Geldof saying "I actually don't mind Sir Bob" and that "he's grumpy like me". Speaking to Newsbeat following the recording of the track, Geldof confirmed Adele hadn't snubbed his call to take part. He said: "Adele won't pick up the phone to her manager. She's just out of it, which you respect. Nothing. She's not part of that anymore. That's absolutely her thing. "Some people just don't want to do it, some people say no. The singer's comments came less than 24 hours after Emeli Sande said "a whole new" Band Aid song is needed and that she's not fully satisfied by the lyrical changes made for this year's remake. In a message posted on Twitter, the 27-year-old said she and African singer Angelique Kidjo "made and sang our own edits" whilst recording Band Aid 30. She added: "Unfortunately, none of these made the final cut." Later in the post, Emeli apologised "if the lyrics of the song have caused offence" but that the new version of the track "came from a place of pure and respectful intent". Some of the lyrics have been rewritten for the fourth version of the charity single to reflect the track raising money for Ebola-hit west Africa. The virus has killed more than 5,000 people in the current outbreak, including 1,267 in Sierra Leone. Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube
Lily Allen has revealed why she turned down an invite to sing on Band Aid 30.
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Terry hurt himself on landing after an aerial challenge in the first half. Chelsea say the 35-year-old may have a small muscular injury to his hamstring and will undergo a scan on Sunday. Blues boss Guss Hiddink said: "We have just two days to recover and it is something to think about in the future as two days of recovery is not enough." Fellow central defender Kurt Zouma was ruled out for six months after injuring his anterior cruciate ligament against Manchester United last Sunday.
Chelsea skipper John Terry is a doubt for Tuesday's Champions League last-16 trip to Paris St-Germain after limping off in the 5-1 win over Newcastle.
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The Shanghai Composite closed up 4.5% at 3,877.80 after ending the previous session up nearly 6%. The government intervened after stocks had fallen by third since mid-June. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was closed up 2.08% to 24,901.28. Measures to stem the sell-off have included banning major investors from selling shares, and ordering others to buy, although there were a number of companies' shares that could not be traded at all as they were suspended during the rout. Other moves include a ban on short-selling, a suspension of initial public offerings along with injecting money into the market through margin lending. These strong moves by the government to restore order in the market could backfire, according to Evan Lucas, market strategist at trading firm IG: "[Its] firm response to the past 18 days of turmoil does "create perceptions that further liberalisations and free market principles will be abandoned as Beijing grapples with additional regulations". "This will create longer-term issues," he added, as analysts started to question what will happen to the market once those measures are removed. The rest of Asia was also higher after Greece proposed new reforms in its bid to strike a deal with creditors in the debt crisis. Greece's new measures to boost revenue included getting rid of tax breaks for islands - paving the way for a cash-for-reform deal with creditors. Japan's Nikkei 225 index finished down 0.4% to 19,779.83 - erasing earlier gains and ending with its biggest weekly fall since October - down 3.7%. The benchmark index was dragged down by Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing, whose stocks fell 6% on its weak domestic sales outlook for the current quarter. Australian shares, however, headed higher with mining stocks up on a jump in iron ore prices overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index ended up 0.4% to 5,492.00. The price of Australia's biggest export, iron ore, rose about 10% - but it still remains at half the level of a year ago. Shares of heavyweight miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were up 3.2% and 2.4%, respectively. In South Korea, shares headed higher despite data showing that import prices fell for the 34th consecutive month in June, but the pace of declines eased. The Bank of Korea said import prices in won terms fell 14% in June from a year ago - marking the smallest drop since December. The benchmark Kospi index closed up 0.2% to 2,031.17 - posting its worst week in over two years by losing 3.5%.
Chinese shares continued to rally on Friday, gaining momentum from Thursday's dramatic rebound as drastic government measures to support the volatile market started to have an impact.
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UK Coal plans to close the pits at Kellingley, North Yorkshire, and Thoresby, Nottinghamshire. Business Minister Michael Fallon said the taxpayer would face "significant losses and liabilities" in the event of UK Coal's immediate insolvency. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it was "a kick in the teeth". In a written statement to Parliament, Mr Fallon said: "There is no value-for-money case for a level of investment that would keep the deep mines open beyond this managed wind-down period to autumn 2015." Immediate insolvency, he said, would mean significant losses and liabilities relating to "redundancy and unpaid tax liabilities". "Considering this, the taxpayer is better served by supporting a managed closure of the mines," said Mr Fallon. The proposal, which ministers have been considering since 21 March, would see the two deep pits face a phased shutdown and UK Coal's six surface mines being sold off. Mr Fallon said the government's agreement to participate was subject to final terms "that provide adequate protection to taxpayers" as well as assurance of backing from all parties, including the trade unions. He said a "rapid response service" would be available to help employees try to find new work and retrain. Mr Fallon said the directors of UK Coal had approached the government at the end of January to report that a falling coal price, exchange rates and other factors meant that "the viability of the business was potentially in doubt". It is understood that private sector investment will come from rival mining group Hargreaves Services and Harworth Estates, landlord of the two mines. Mr Fallon said in a separate statement: "We are doing everything we can to help in this unique situation." Chris Kitchen, the general secretary of the NUM, said: "The union is disappointed with Michael Fallon's response while still insisting on strings attached. "No assistance has been given to coal, but the country will be reliant on coal for at least the next 10 years. "We feel we have been treated like the poor relation when compared to other industries that have received government support. It's a kick in the teeth." Kevin McCullough, chief executive of UK Coal, said in statement: "This proposal offers the best opportunities for our workforce, our customers and our suppliers. "Without the support to close the business on a phased basis to 2015, we would have been announcing an immediate insolvency and 2,000 job losses." Speaking during business questions in the House of Commons, Labour MP Dennis Skinner, who represents Bolsover in Derbyshire, told Business Minister Matthew Hancock: "Are you aware that one of the smallest businesses in Britain now is the mining industry? "There are three pits left - 1,300 miners are due to be sacked at two of those pits. That will make it a minuscule, small business." When told there was "a package of support" for the miners, Mr Skinner told the minister he had read it. "It's a load of crap," he said. Trades Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Frances O'Grady said the government's "refusal to fund a long-term rescue plan" would cost 2,000 jobs and leave UK businesses and householders "at the mercy of overseas energy suppliers". One option open to the government, said the TUC, was applying "to Europe to use £60m of taxpayers' money in state aid" which would have kept the pits open until 2018. "Faced with the choice between closing two of the UK's three remaining coal mines next year or of fighting for their future, the government has gone for the short-term option and taken the easy way out," said Ms O'Grady.
Two deep pits are to close next year with the loss of 1,300 jobs after the government announced it was loaning UK Coal £10m for "managed closure".
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Western Power Distribution confirmed 732 properties were affected when the power went down at about 15:45 GMT. Engineers restored power just before 17:15 after fixing the fault. The SA1 area covers parts of the city centre, waterfront restaurants, hotels, homes and apartments and the bay campus of Swansea University.
More than 700 properties in Swansea were without electricity for about an hour-and-a-half after a power cut in the SA1 area of the city.
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The shake-up has been designed to better reward one-day and Twenty20 international players. Previously, contracts were geared towards Test players and white-ball specialists would only receive partial contracts. Yorkshire's Root is one of four men to be awarded both contracts by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The others are Warwickshire pace bowler Chris Woakes, and all-rounders Moeen Ali (Worcestershire) and Ben Stokes (Durham). The way financial packages will be calculated will also see Root, 25, benefit. To decide how much players will earn, the ECB will rank them based on their performances on the pitch, "as well as a number of other factors, including off-field contribution, fielding and fitness". "For Root on the most senior grade, which also now reflects off-field contribution, fielding and fitness, this means an income from the ECB in the vicinity of £1m a year," BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew said. The new 12-month contracts - 10 of which have been given to Test players, and 11 in white-ball cricket - come into effect from 1 October. The ECB said it was making the changes in recognition of how limited-overs cricket was increasing in popularity. "I think the central contract system, it's great that it's taking white ball cricket seriously," England's wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler told BBC Sport. Media playback is not supported on this device "Andrew Strauss has said that he wants to treat the two games as equals and the results are starting to show from that change of mindset." Director of cricket Strauss added: "We believe the restructure of the central contract system will recognise the increased focus of the shorter format and the importance that we place on this. "It is undeniable that the introduction of central contracts in 2002 has greatly benefited the fortunes of the England Test team. During this period, the team has consistently performed well against the other Test nations around the world. We hope that continues over the next few years." Batsman Ian Bell, who last played for England in November 2015, is the only player with a full 2015-16 central contract to drop off the new list completely - meaning that his county Warwickshire must now take over his salary. Jonathan Agnew, BBC cricket correspondent The restructuring is designed to emphasise the ever-growing importance of one day cricket, with the Champions Trophy to be staged here next summer and the World Cup in 2019. Central contracts have revolutionised English cricket, at times causing friction with the counties as players are rested. Surely key to this structure will be the availability of players for the proposed city-based Twenty20 competition. Test contracts: Moeen Ali (Worcestershire); James Anderson (Lancashire); Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire); Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire); Alastair Cook (Essex); Steven Finn (Middlesex); Joe Root (Yorkshire); Ben Stokes (Durham); Chris Woakes (Warwickshire); Mark Wood (Durham) White-ball contracts: Moeen Ali (Worcestershire); Jos Buttler (Lancashire); Alex Hales (Nottinghamshire); Eoin Morgan (Middlesex); Liam Plunkett (Yorkshire); Joe Root(Yorkshire); Jason Roy (Surrey); Adil Rashid (Yorkshire); Ben Stokes (Durham); Chris Woakes (Warwickshire); David Willey (Yorkshire). Increment contracts: Gary Ballance (Yorkshire)
Batsman Joe Root is set to earn about £1m a year as part of a revamp of England's central contract system.
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The Welsh, needing only a draw to clinch the European title for the first time in five years, all but secured victory by half-time with a 22-0 lead. Dalton Grant, Lewis Reece, Steve Parry and Rhodri Lloyd scored first-half tries for John Kear's Wales side. Elliot Kear added a second-half try for the visitors with Callum Mulkeen replying for Ireland late on. Courtney Davies kicked 10 points for Wales, whose victory secured them the title at the expense of France, who defeated Scotland 32-18 earlier on Saturday. Grant's try edged Wales ahead after Davies kicked a penalty deep into Irish territory. And after Liam Finn and Elliot Cosgrove had both threatened the Wales line, the visitors broke away for a second try when Reece reacted first after Casey Dunne had dropped a high ball. With Ireland wasting further promising attacking opportunities, they were made to pay with Parry and Lloyd both crossing for the Welsh before the break. Kear punished more poor Irish defending in the second half as Davies added to his haul of kicked points. Ireland's sole score came in the 72nd minute as Mulkeen touched down in the corner, but it was scant consolation for the well-beaten home side as Wales celebrated. TEAMS Ireland: Grix, Hargreaves, Mulkeen, Cosgrove, Dunne, Johnston, Finn, Hadden, Beswick, Ambler, Bridge, Hope, Roberts Subs: Keyes, Mulhern, Peacock, Gill Wales: Kear, Williams, Channing, Roets, Drant, Olds, Davies, Walker, Parry, Kopczak, Lloyd, Reece, Joseph Subs: Evans, Farrer, Burke, Grace
Wales secured the European Championship Rugby League title by beating Ireland 30-4 in Bray on Saturday.
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From 8 September, the maximum draft - or depth in the water - will be cut to 39ft (11.89m), which may affect up to 20% of traffic. A similar restriction was imposed for the same reason in 1998. The authorities say a further cut could be imposed on 16 September if the situation does not improve. The authority has taken the action because water levels in the Gatun and Alhajuela lakes have fallen as a result of the El Nino weather phenomenon. The current draft limit is 39.5ft, which will be cut to 39ft on 8 September and then potentially to 38.5ft on 16 September. Shipping companies had been warned the cuts could be coming. The Panama Canal celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, having seen more than a million ships pass through. Panama took control of the canal from the US in 2000, and has since been widely praised with the way it has handled the operation. Transit fees now bring in about $1bn (£645m) a year for the government.
The Panama Canal Authority says it will temporarily cut the draft of ships allowed through because of drought caused by El Nino.
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Ten Wirral Cricket Club batsmen were out for ducks, only the number 11 troubled the scorers, with the other runs coming from two leg byes. It left Wirral some way short of the 109 they needed to beat Haslington in a Cheshire League Division Three fixture. While an embarrassing loss, it was not a world record lowest score - Somerset club Langport were dismissed for zero against Glastonbury in a 1913 match. The lowest score in a first-class match is six, made by "The B's" against England at the old Lord's ground in 1810. And the lowest total in a Test match is 26, posted by New Zealand against England in 1955. At one point Wirral were 0-8 after six overs before the pair of extras and Connor Hobson - who finished one not out - dragged the innings out until the 10th over. Unsurprisingly, Haslington needed only two bowlers. Ben Istead captured six wickets in his five overs for the concession of the solitary run, while new ball partner Tom Gledhill returned a rather economical 4-0 from 4.2 overs. Discussing Wirral's collapse, Matt Garrett, who came in at number nine with the score at 0-7, told BBC Radio 5 live Weekend Breakfast: "It all happened in a bit of a blur really. "I think I headed into the changing rooms to get my pads on when we were three down and got out to the middle just in time to take my guard when the seventh wicket fell. "The reaction in the back of your mind is, 'I think we can still do this' but, two balls later when you're following all your team-mates back to the clubhouse, you think perhaps it's not your day." Wirral CC tweeted: "1st XI lost by 105 runs today... Sadly the opposition only scored 108!" The club also used social media to ask former England internationals Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff, Phil Tufnell and David Lloyd for some coaching, adding the hashtag #weneedit.
A cricket team were humiliated after only scoring three runs between them.
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The repayments, and another for €4.2bn to the European Central Bank (ECB) due on Monday, came after the EU made Greece a short-term loan of €7bn. Cash-strapped Greece missed one repayment to the IMF in June and another earlier this month. Earlier on Monday, Greek banks reopened after being closed for three weeks. However, many restrictions remain and Greeks are facing price rises with an increase in Value Added Tax (VAT). Just because the doors of Greek banks are open today, don't be fooled into thinking they and the Greek economy are anywhere near back to recovery. There are still major restrictions on the ability of their customers to obtain their cash or move it around. The symbolic importance of the European Central Bank turning on the emergency lending tap again was important, but it has only been turned on a fraction. It has given enough additional Emergency Liquidity Assistance - €900m - to keep the banks alive in a technical sense. There is no possibility of them thriving for months and even possibly years. Read more from Robert IMF spokesman Gerry Rice confirmed in a statement that Greece had repaid the totality of its arrears. "As we have said, the fund stands ready to continue assisting Greece in its efforts to return to financial stability and growth," he said. Greece missed its first repayment to the IMF on 30 June and another on 13 July during deadlock over negotiations for a third bailout. The crisis brought Greece to the brink of economic collapse and an exit from the euro. The government has since reached a cash-for-reforms deal with its creditors and negotiations are due to begin on the proposed €86bn rescue package. For the past three weeks, Greeks have been waiting in line at cash machines to withdraw a maximum of €60 (£41) a day, a restriction imposed amid fear of a run on the banks. From Monday, the daily limit becomes a weekly one capped at €420 (£291), meaning Greeks will not have to queue every day. However, a block on transfers to foreign banks and a ban on cashing cheques remain in place. VAT is rising from 13% to 23% meaning Greeks will pay more on a range of goods and services, including taxis and restaurants. The rise was among a package of reforms demanded by Greece's creditors. Dimitris Chronis, an Athens kebab shop owner, said the new taxes were bad news for his business. "I can't put up my prices because I'll have no customers at all," he said. "We used to deliver to offices nearby but most of them have closed. People would order a lot and buy food for their colleagues on special occasions. That era is over." Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faced a rebellion from within his left-wing Syriza party over the tough austerity measures being demanded by other eurozone leaders, who are among Greece's creditors. But last week's vote in the Greek parliament paved the way for Greece to receive the €7bn bridging loan that enabled the reopening of the banks. Mr Tsipras has since replaced his rebel ministers but analysts say his government has been weakened and fresh elections may be held in September or October. The Greek parliament is due to hold a second vote on Wednesday on measures including justice and banking reforms. The government is again likely to scrape through, supported by opposition parties. Representatives from Greece's creditors - known as the Troika - are due to arrive in the country soon and talks on the new bailout are expected to last about a month. The tough negotiations over Greece have also revealed divisions within the eurozone about the future of the bloc. Germany, which is the largest contributor to Greek rescue funds, has taken a tough line on Greece, while other states, such as France, have appeared more conciliatory. On Monday, French President Francois Hollande put forward his ideas for a new parliament for the eurozone countries and a shared budget. The eurozone is currently managed by the Eurogroup, made up of the finance ministers of each nation.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has confirmed that Greece has cleared overdue debt repayments of €2.05bn (£1.4bn) and is no longer in arrears.
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16 January 2016 Last updated at 18:41 GMT As Maggie Taggart reports, the fire service has appealed for people to install and maintain smoke detectors in their homes.
A 19-year-old woman has died in a house fire in Castlewellan, County Down.
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The Indomitable Lions take on Ghana on Thursday in Franceville, Gabon, for a place in Sunday's final. "As a group, we are not happy with the bonus. There is a lack of respect, and I defend my players," Broos said. "Even though we are not happy with the money, we are still putting in good performances on the field." There is a history of disputes between the players and the Cameroon Football Federation over money. In 2011 Cameroon players refused to play in an international friendly and in 2014 their arrival at the World Cup in Brazil was delayed by a dispute over bonus payments. Broos, however, insists the players are not financially driven, but they want only to be respected. If we lose it will not be because the money is not good, it will be because Ghana was stronger than us "Don't think we are asking for the world, but what they give us now is not good, really," he said. "We have trained every day. I read in the papers that the players did not train but I had given them a free day so it is not because they are not happy with the money. "And even though we are not happy, we still have good performances on the field. This is very important it shows that the players are not here for the money, they are here to play for their country, for the supporters and for themselves. "But afterwards, you can be given a present if you win a game or get to the next stage. We don't come here for money. But if they give you money you have to feel the amount is respectful." Cameroon last won the Nations Cup in 2002 and lifting the trophy would be a huge return to form. Broos is adamant their off-the-field concerns will not derail them. "You can be sure that you will see a team that is motivated to beat Ghana," he said. "It is not only since Tuesday that we are not happy with the bonus, it is since the beginning of the tournament. And you have never seen on the field that the players are not happy. "This team is not playing for money. I see them every day in training, when they are eating and when they are together, they are not talking about money. "If we lose it will not be because the money is not good, it will be because Ghana was stronger than us."
Cameroon coach Hugo Broos says the bonus offer to his players is disrespectful ahead of their Africa Cup of Nations semi-final.
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But many residents are concerned it could create too much pressure on the town's infrastructure and lead to major traffic problems. The town, which has a population of 31,000, was previously notable for the former US Air Force base in nearby Upper Heyford but in recent years it has grown rapidly. Commuters are attracted by its location just off junction nine of the M40 and good train links to London, Birmingham and Oxford. Bicester Village - a retail outlet - is also a major draw and last week police warned motorists to avoid the area as its roads had become gridlocked with Black Friday shoppers. Carla Thomas, who lives in the town, said: "Providing they build the infrastructure first and get the new shopping facilities in, the new schools, they sort the roads out around Bicester, if they do that first I have absolutely no problem. "But if they don't, it's already chaos - look at what happened on Black Friday with Bicester Village. That isn't a singular occurrence, it was just the worst day. "That happens every weekend, and if you go and shove 13,000 new homes here you just make it worse. "People have got to live somewhere, I don't want to see people without homes. It's a nice place to live, but I don't want it to reach the point where we can't get out." Helen Bramley, who was born in Bicester, said she was also concerned about more traffic. "Before they consider this, they've got to improve the infrastructure because the roads at the moment can't even cope with the current traffic. "It was a small market town with a lot of character. "It's growing too fast, but I like the prospect of bringing more employment into the town." The garden city planning concept, by Sir Ebenezer Howard, was first used to create Letchworth Garden City at the start of the 20th century and Welwyn Garden City in the 1920s. The concept was adopted again when the New Towns Act resulted in the development of new communities following World War Two. The new communities were created to deal with an accommodation shortage caused by bomb damage, stagnation in the construction industry, returning service personnel and a baby boom. They were called Garden Cities because their layouts included large amounts of green space. Two years ago the government commissioned a report on the possibility of using Garden Cities to help deal with the housing shortage. Chancellor George Osborne announced funding earlier this year to create Ebbsfleet Garden City in Kent. Helen Marshall, of the Oxfordshire branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, said many people in the area would have mixed feelings. "It may bring relief for some of the infrastructure problems and it might be good for the local economy but, at the same time, they don't want to lose the character of the town as it stands or the fact that it is in a rural setting surrounded by very lovely rural villages - so it's going to be a balance," she said. Lynne Pratt, Mayor of Bicester, said she hoped a larger town would result in more jobs. "A lot of people commute out of Bicester these days for work," she said. "Let's try and get some more jobs here, perhaps more high spec jobs, so that people can stay in the town that they live in." Edward Aimsworth, who lives in the town, echoed the mayor's hopes. He said: "I've nothing against it as long as they bring employment with it. "We don't want all the new houses there and nowhere for people to work. They've got to go hand in glove haven't they?" Bicester resident Manpreet Singh said he thought the homes should go on the Calvert or Fringford side of town. He said: "I think there's going to be more problems for the traffic. There are international people coming here for Bicester Village, so if they keep extending the town like that it will get worse. "Garden cities, green cities, they're alright, but extending into the villages makes them more like cities so that's not very good because I like 'old England'. "It is a booming town. There loads of things happening and people are getting more into entertainment. There are media students here who see it as a happening, lively town." Source: Oxfordshire County Council
Bicester in Oxfordshire has been chosen as the site for the government's second new garden city, with 13,000 new homes due to be built on the edge of the town.
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Achilleas Kallakis and Alexander Williams, both 44, were sentenced to seven years and five years respectively, at Southwark Crown Court. Between 2003 and 2008, they duped the banks into lending them the money to buy properties and a super-yacht. Kallakis used the money to buy Bentleys, a plane and helicopter. The trial of the two men - both of whom had previous convictions for fraud - took four months. It was the second time they had faced this set of charges relating to the two banks. Their first trial in 2011 was brought to a halt when one of the two men fell ill. The two men operated from offices in Mayfair in London where Kallakis pretended to be a property tycoon and Williams posed as a financial consultant. Ronan Duff of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said: "This was an audacious, persistent fraud that enabled these defendants, Mr Kallakis in particular, to lead the lifestyle of the super-rich." "The SFO have been equally persistent in investigating this elaborate scam and in ensuring that justice has been delivered." Judge Andrew Goymer described Kallakis as the prime mover in the fraud. But he said the banks were partly to blame for their losses. "AIB and BoS have undoubtedly acted carelessly and imprudently by failing to make full inquiries before advancing the money," he told the court during sentencing. "Indeed the latter bank was given clear and precise warnings by its lawyers about the risks of accepting assurances in a letter from an alleged co-conspirator, a Swiss lawyer. "It almost beggars belief senior management chose to disregard that warning and rushed to complete the deal at all costs. "It is apparent from the evidence both the defendants took full advantage of the prevailing banking culture in which corners are cut, and checks on them superficial and cursory," Judge Goymer concluded. The losses to the two banks were dwarfed by the initial sums of money involved in the frauds. Claiming to operate as the Pacific Group, the two men used bogus documents over a period of five years to dupe Allied Irish Banks (AIB) into lending them £740m to buy a portfolio of 16 different commercial properties. The properties and their purchase were real, but their value was inflated, letting the fraudsters siphon off £60m for their own ends. The bank only realised it had been defrauded when it learned that Kallakis had a previous conviction under a false name. In a separate fraud, against the BoS, the two men persuaded it to agree a loan of 29m euros, supposedly to convert a former passenger ferry into a luxury super-yacht. Again, forged documents were used and the boat in question, on which the loan was secured, was in fact leaking and contaminated with asbestos. By the time this was discovered, only 5.7m euros of the loan had been handed over to the fraudsters.
Two men from London have been sent to jail after being found guilty of defrauding two banks, Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Scotland, of £61m.
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Marler apologised to Lee for calling him a "Gypsy boy" during Saturday's Six Nations match at Twickenham. Gatland made his comment on Tuesday, but, in a statement on Wednesday, said: "I don't condone racism of any kind." Lee added: "I personally believe the comments to have been intended as banter and accepted Joe's apology." After Gatland referred to Saturday's incident as "banter", ex-Wales captain Gareth Thomas tweeted: "I'm sorry, but I cannot agree with this as banter. Poor excuse." Romany Gypsy advocate and activist Shay Clipson earlier told BBC Radio Wales Gatland should be "held accountable" for his comment. Cardiff North Welsh Assembly member and former MP Julie Morgan said on Twitter: "Gatland dismissing 'gypsy boy' taunt as 'banter' has sent rugby backwards." Media playback is not supported on this device Gatland's statement continued: "I apologise for any offence my use of the word banter may have caused. "My intention was to take the focus away from Samson, a private individual, and enable him and the rest of squad to prepare for the final game of the championship. "My comments were made following a discussion with Samson about the incident." A Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) statement added: "The WRU does not condone racism of any kind. The incident is being investigated by the Six Nations and we would welcome a definitive and speedy conclusion to their investigation. "The WRU recognises that Warren's overriding intention was to protect Samson by playing down the incident and that his comments were made following a thorough consultation with Samson and with his support." In the same statement, Lee, who is from a Traveller background, added: "I stand beside Warren. "Warren is fiercely protective of the team and his comments were made based on conversations with me and with the intention of deflecting attention away from me."
Wales head coach Warren Gatland has apologised for referring to an abusive comment aimed at prop Samson Lee by England's Joe Marler as "just banter".
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Fairer Finance (FF) says airlines like Flybe, Monarch and Ryanair may be in breach of rules which say the charges should only reflect genuine costs. Flybe and Monarch are said to be the worst offenders, putting a surcharge of 3% on bookings. However, the airlines argue that their charges do accurately reflect the cost of processing the payments. FF also accuses some local authorities of charging too much for paying by credit card. James Daley, the managing director of FF, said there were hundreds of companies he believed were in breach of section four of the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharge) Regulations, which came into force in April 2013. "If they choose to charge for accepting credit card payments - in spite of the strong public sentiment against these charges - then the rules make it very clear that they can only pass on the cost," he said. Trading Standards teams across the country should be investigating the issue, Mr Daley added. Monarch told the BBC that its 3% surcharge did reflect its costs in processing the payments. And it said that those who paid via Paypal do not pay a surcharge. "Monarch's credit card surcharges are set to cover all of the related costs incurred by the company associated with taking payment by credit card," the airline said. "When booking a flight at www.monarch.co.uk, charges are added to the total price of the booking and clearly itemised in the running total from the moment a customer select flights, right up to point of payment." Ryanair said: "These claims are false. We fully comply with all EU regulations and our credit card charge reflects the cost of processing credit card payments, including bank charges." A Flybe spokesperson said the airline is "fully compliant with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Guide 'Consumer Protection Regulations March 2012' that very clearly explain the allowable costs that can be recovered through a payment surcharge". It claimed to have been ahead of other airlines in 2012 by scrapping debit card charges for all online bookings. Some other airlines, such as Jet2, have dropped credit card charges altogether. British Airways charges a flat fee of £5. However, FF believes that the cost of processing credit card payments should be covered by a 1% surcharge. One element of that cost is the so-called interchange fee: The amount that businesses or retailers have to pay to the bank or credit card company. Since December 2015 interchange fees have been capped at 0.3% of the transaction cost, under EU rules. Mr Daley said that should be the largest part of the cost - with other expenses making up a further 0.3%. "That should mean that consumers are being charged no more than around 0.6% by large companies - and certainly no more than 1%," he said. None of the councils contacted by the BBC were available for comment.
A consumer group is accusing airlines of charging passengers too much for paying with a credit card.
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The Holywood, County Down, golfer became the first UK player to win back-to-back majors after his victory at Valhalla, Kentucky, on Sunday. At one stage of his final round, McIlroy was three shots behind the leader. In a joint statement Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness congratulated him. "Rory has played stunning golf to claim his fourth major title," they said. "He is a sporting sensation and joins an impressive list of champions to win back-to-back majors. "We are incredibly proud to watch as he writes his story of golfing greatness and we look forward to the next chapter as these victories propel him towards being the golfer of his generation." Sports Minister Carál Ní Chuilín said McIlroy was in "dominant form". "He is an extraordinary local sportsman who is playing his way into the history books," she said. "As he enjoys his latest tournament win, I wish him continued success in his quest for golf's career grandslam." Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said McIlroy had taken another step towards greatness and had "once again shown the world what is great about Northern Ireland golf". "It should make us very proud that six of the last 19 major championships have been won by golfers from Northern Ireland," she said. "This will give golfers of all abilities even more reason to travel to Northern Ireland to find out for themselves what makes our golf courses the home of major champions." Ulster Unionist sports spokesman Michael McGimpsey also praised the Holywood golfer. "The whole of Northern Ireland will enjoy watching this 25-year-old write his own scripts in a fabulous future for many years to come," he said. "Rory's talent is recognised on the world stage, he is the world number one, he is one of the most popular golfers on the circuit, a credit to his family and a great ambassador for Northern Ireland." SDLP assembly member Karen McKevitt said that McIlroy's victory sealed his status as a legend of the game. "I, like many others, stayed up until the small hours of the morning to watch Rory claim his second major of the summer as he drove, chipped and putted his way to victory in difficult circumstances at the US PGA Championship," she said. "As Rory reinforces his return to the world number one spot I have no doubt that his dominance of the sport will see golfers flock to courses across the north." McIlroy's victory has also been celebrated at his home club in Holywood. Club general manager Paul Gray described the win as "legendary stuff". "To see someone who has grown up here on our own course do well is fantastic," he said. "To do what Rory has done is hard to believe, at times you have to pinch yourself."
Northern Ireland's first and deputy first ministers have described Rory McIlroy as "a sporting sensation" after his US PGA Championship victory.
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Muhammadu Buhari also called for a faster deployment of a regional military force to fight the Islamists. The gunmen have been launching attacks on remote villages in the north-eastern Borno state since Tuesday, targeting people attending evening prayers. Mr Buhari - who was sworn in in May - sees fighting Boko Haram as a priority. According to Amnesty International, at least 17,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since 2009, when Boko Haram launched its violent uprising to try to impose militant Islamist rule. Will new military HQ make a difference? Why Boko Haram remains a threat These are the worst Boko Haram attacks for many weeks, BBC Nigeria correspondent Will Ross reports. In a statement on Friday, President Buhari said the recent attacks were "inhuman and barbaric." He said they were "the last desperate acts of fleeing agents of terrorism". The assaults began on Tuesday, when the militants shot dead 48 men after they had finished prayers in two villages near the town of Monguno, a resident told BBC Hausa. He said he had heard gun shots at one of the villages attacked and saw it on fire. "They were praying in the mosque when Boko Haram attackers descended on the village. They waited till they finished the prayers. They gathered them in one place, separated men from women and opened fire on them," he said. On Wednesday, more than 50 gunmen killed 97 people in the village of Kukawa, near Lake Chad, eyewitness Babami Alhaji Kolo was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency. "The terrorists first descended on Muslim worshippers in various mosques who were observing the Maghrib prayer shortly after breaking their fast [for the Muslim month of Ramadan]," he said. "They... opened fire on the worshippers who were mostly men and young children. They spared nobody." On Thursday, two female suicide bombers blew themselves up in another Borno village, police said. No-one knows how many people were shot or had their throats slit by the jihadists who targeted several villages on Tuesday and Wednesday - it is impossible for people who are fleeing for their lives or rushing the injured away in wheelbarrows to stay back and count. The fact that it took as many as 48 hours for any news of the atrocities to reach the main city in Borno State, Maiduguri, points to just how cut off and vulnerable these communities are. Boko Haram may no longer hold territory but there is little to celebrate when large swathes of the north-east are clearly not under any kind of government control. Latest African news updates Boko Haram has carried out frequent bombings since it was weakened by a regional military offensive to recapture most of the territory it had controlled. The group is still holding many women, girls and children captive, including 219 schoolgirls it kidnapped from a school in Chibok in April last year.
Nigeria's president has described as a "heinous atrocity" the latest wave of attacks by Boko Haram militants that left more than 150 people dead.
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Alan Dale, of Tangley Farm in Hampshire, is accused of moving the vehicle in Pelican Lane, Newbury, on 29 December. He is also charged with obstructing emergency workers and moving an ambulance with no insurance. The 67-year-old will appear at Reading Magistrates' Court on 23 March.
A man has been charged with allegedly moving an ambulance while paramedics were treating a woman with a life-threatening condition.
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Media playback is not supported on this device In a rare interview with BBC sports editor Dan Roan, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha - the son of billionaire club owner and chairman Vichai - also talked about his family's future plans for the club. He also spoke of his relationship with "special" manager Claudio Ranieri and striker Jamie Vardy. Srivaddhanaprabha Sr owns the King Power duty free chain which lends its name to the club's stadium. The family have rarely spoken publicly since taking over the club in 2010. In the wide-ranging BBC Sport interview, his son reveals: Leicester won the Premier League title on Monday despite being 5,000-1 outsiders and tipped for relegation at the start of the season. Media playback is not supported on this device Ranieri was a surprise choice as manager, with many pundits tipping him for the sack at the start of the season. The 64-year-old Italian lost his previous job as head coach of Greece after a defeat by the Faroe Islands - but Srivaddhanaprabha said he was struck by the former Chelsea boss. "Claudio is a brilliant manager. The way he managed the media with the pressure of the team, he has so much experience with football," he said. "The way he managed the players and put them out on the field was something special. We saw that when we interviewed him. He has something special inside and has all the plans in his head. "We interviewed quite a number of managers and he was the one I chose the first time. When I met him, he was the first choice for me." Media playback is not supported on this device England striker Jamie Vardy, 29, is the top flight's second-top scorer and found the net 11 games in a row earlier in the season - a Premier League record. He is now one of the most sought after strikers in Europe - but was signed for £1m from the then non-league Fleetwood Town in 2012. "Steve Walsh [assistant manager] asked me to buy non-league players and I thought it was funny. Then when he showed me all the information about him, it was amazing. He scores 29 or 30 goals a year so we can see he can score and has a record. "When I met him, he was quite a special character. He wanted success, he had the hunger to be the best striker in the team, even though he came from non-league. "He talked to me openly about wanting to be in the Premier League and he said he will try anything to take the club to the Premier League. He said to me on the first day he wants to play for England, I said to him, 'I will help you. Anything you want, I will do it'." Media playback is not supported on this device The story of Leicester's unlikely Premier League title win has made headlines around the world. "Is it a miracle? It is. It is inspirational and people talk about it. We set the standard of the sport and inspiration for the whole world. "It is not just for the sport, it is life. If people use Leicester as the standard now, if they fight, they try - then they can achieve one day. Everything has to be right as well. "It is a miracle for the city, it is a miracle for the players but we have a job to do. They worked hard to be in this position. It is not just lucky. "All the middle clubs in the team will try now as they are inspired by Leicester. They will believe so it will be more difficult for the big clubs and for Leicester to try again." Media playback is not supported on this device Earlier on Thursday, the agent of Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year Riyad Mahrez - a £400,000 buy from French side Le Havre - said it was "50/50" whether the Algeria forward would be at the club next season. Other players have also been linked with moves to more established clubs. That prompted Ranieri to speak about his desire to keep the team together at his Thursday news conference - and his vice-chairman echoed that sentiment. "We will play in the Champions League next season, why would they want to move? I don't see the reason," said Srivaddhanaprabha. "We will try to keep them but it depends on the players as well. If they want to move, we will talk to them and ask why they have to move." Media playback is not supported on this device "Everything has turned to Leicester over the past seven months of the season. "Every team is doing well which is why the league has been so strange. All the teams try so hard to win every match so the big teams slip sometimes and we kept the momentum from last season. We tried to survive in the first half of the season and we achieved it earlier than we thought. "It was so nice to see the players try and the fans trying to support them and we have had the success now and it makes us so happy. It is difficult to say how we are feeling now to be the champions of the Premier League. "We have been in the first position from Christmas and New Year's Day and people were doubting, they thought we would slip to the middle of the table. We kept belief and dreaming. "There is no special secret but the team spirit is so great. They fight for each other and try to cover the mistakes for each other. They never stop and they kept believing. They are a special group of players and love each other. "When we bought the club, we said we love football and we will try everything to make the club successful. If you asked to if I believe can we win the league? Maybe not realistically. My father said he wanted the team to be in the Champions League one day, and we set the plan with all the staff. Media playback is not supported on this device "We will build the team to compete in the Premier League. We will compete in the Champions League next season and I am not saying we will win the big cup, but we will try. We want to keep our best players and we will add some quality players with the right people. I am not sure where we will finish next season. "We will try to win the league again. The target is the same, we want to build the squad and we try to stay in the Premier League as long as we can. To win the title again is so difficult. It will be super difficult from now. If we win, we win. "We are scouting for players now, we will see when we finish the season. We will talk with Claudio about how many players we want and in which position. I support everything they say. "If the scouting team ask me to spend, they need to have some reason. Claudio needs to support it as well. I can't as an owner say, 'you can go out and spend whatever you want. We are going to buy Ronaldo and Messi'. "As a club, we have to manage for the long term. Not just next season, but we need to build. The players have to be for the right position. We have to buy quality to add more for next season. Then we already have young players that we have bought like Demarai Gray and many others. Media playback is not supported on this device Twelve of the 20 Premier League clubs are now in the hands of foreign owners - and not all are seen as beneficial. While investment in Manchester City and Chelsea has been welcomed for bringing success, the Glazer family's handling of Manchester United has not always gone down well with fans despite some big money signings, while Randy Lerner's stewardship of Aston Villa has grown toxic at the relegated club. Srivaddhanaprabha, however, believes his family are doing "the right thing" - and the club's Thai fan base will grow as a result. "Thai people love football and the Premier League interests them the most. To be part of the owners, the Thai people are proud. They are waiting for the players to go to see them because they want to welcome and thank them. If Manchester United and Leicester play at the same time now, they will be switching the television. They want to see the team owned by Thais playing and they love it. "If you do the right thing, something good will come. We did last season and the season we got promoted. We supported the players, the staff, the fans. We do everything on and off the pitch. "If you have the foundation right, you can be good. Every owner tries to be successful in everything they do. They are devoted people and love sport. "We love football, we love sport and we know how important the fans are. I just need them to support the team. If they [the players] play at home, they feel safe - the support is there. Now even away, they feel the same. It is important for the performance. Now they play for the fans, for the support." Media playback is not supported on this device
Leicester City's Premier League title has set a new standard for the whole of football and provided "inspiration for the whole world", says the club's vice-chairman.
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The charges, which include indecent assault and sexual assault, involve four boys, who were aged between 11 and 14 at the time of the alleged offences. The ex-Crewe youth coach is accused of a total of 55 offences between 1979 and 1991 against young boys. The 63-year-old denied all accusations during previous court appearances. Mr Bennell - who also coached a number of junior teams in north-west England and the Midlands, some with associations to Manchester City and Stoke City - will appear at South Cheshire Magistrates' Court via video-link on 28 June. The latest accusations include four counts of indecent assault on a boy aged 11-14, four counts of indecent assault on a boy aged 11-12 and two counts of indecent assault on a boy aged 11-13. He is also charged with four counts of sexual assault on a boy aged 11-14. Last month, Bennell appeared at Crewe Magistrates' Court, where a further 21 child sex offences were put to him, but he did not enter a plea, and was remanded into custody.
Ex-football coach Barry Bennell has been charged with a further 14 counts of historical sex abuse against boys, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.
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It said such policies offer "poor value for money". "Firms must start putting consumers first, and stop seeing them as pound signs," said Christopher Woolard, director of policy at the FCA. The insurance industry rejected the accusations, calling some of them unhelpful. Add-on insurance is where a policy is sold alongside another product. For example, customers buying a mobile phone, or a holiday, are often offered insurance at the same time. Nearly 3,000 consumers have complained about such policies in the past nine months. The FCA found that a quarter of customers buying them were unaware that they could get similar products elsewhere. And more than half of such customers did not compare the different policies available. The FCA judged add-on policies by their "claims ratio". This measures the proportion of the initial cost of a product that is eventually paid out under the policy. In the case of add-on personal accident insurance it found that the claims ratio was just 9%. In the case of Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP) policies - often sold with cars - it found that just 10% of the full value was returned to claimants. In comparison, regular household or motor insurance policies paid out 64% of the original purchase price. As a result, the FCA said many consumers may be paying for policies which are poor value. But the industry said the claims ratio was not a good way of measuring performance. "The emphasis upon claims ratios is unhelpful; they are not an accurate benchmark of customer value, not least because they are affected by distribution costs for the insurer," said Hugh Savill, the director of regulation at the Association of British Insurers. The FCA is now proposing a number of changes, to protect consumers. These include: The FCA is now consulting on the proposals, and will accept comments up until 8 April, 2014.
The insurance regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has promised to crack down on so-called "add-on" policies.
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But this is not a practice session, even though the musician playing is an international performer. The pianist is stretching his hand out over the keyboard demonstrating to a software designer that he is working with how many notes one hand can span. "We have taught a computer to write musical scores," says Gustavo Diaz-Jerez, software consultant and pianist. "Now we can produce modern classical music at the touch of a button." The team working on the music project, known as Iamus - after the Greek mythological figure who could talk to birds - inputs only basic information. "We've just told the computer some very general technical things," Mr Diaz-Jerez says. "We have informed the computer that it is impossible for a pianist to play a 10 note chord with one hand. We only have five fingers on one hand." Instructing the computer to write musical scores is a milestone in the linkage between technology and music. An offshoot of artificial life research, the project uses evolution as its basis, according to Francisco Vico, professor of AI at the university. "Some people don't believe it is possible," he says. "Each composition has a musical core that becomes ever more complex and evolves automatically." The software enables Iamus to write countless scores without needing any human help - that is until the music needs to be performed. It is all down to mapping information. "It starts with very complex structures inside the computer," Mr Diaz-Jerez explains. "It is very different from other computer-generated music. When people hear the phrase they imagine that you can hear the computer playing music. "Iamus does something different, it projects the complexity we are growing in the computer into musical structures." Iamus is fed with specific information setting out, for example, which instruments have to be composed for and the desired duration. The activity is controlled by an algorithm inspired by biological processes. Just as human genomes mutated over time to create a multitude of unique people, Iamus alters and rearranges its source material to create complex pieces of music. The only restrictions placed on its output are determined by what can be realistically played by a musician and their instrument. "It evolves the composition inside the machine," says Francisco Vico. "Then a human selects from the set of compositions that Iamus provides." Compositions have been recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. Violinist and director Lennox McKenzie says it was a first for the organisation. "This piece is not the sort of thing that you listen to and then walk away whistling a tune," he says of the event. "It's really quite large in sound. It reminds me a bit of Varese or Frank Zappa." In a test British amateur musicologist Peter Russell also referred to the music as "artistic and delightful" after hearing it before being told of its origin. Iamus has the potential to compose in genres other than contemporary classical and for instruments to which it has not yet been introduced. Mr Díaz-Jerez explains that at present it uses what we call the tempered western scale - in which there are twelve notes in an octave. "But if we instruct the computer to use more notes, like for example in Hindu or Arabic music - they have more notes to the scale - then Iamus will be able to compose pieces that relate to those cultures," he says "So it's just a matter of extending the knowledge of the computer." It may strike an eerie note that a computer could become a more prodigious composer than Mozart, Haydn, Brahms and Beethoven combined. For now musicians can still take refuge in the knowledge that it still requires their own personal feelings and talent to interpret the machine's music and bring it alive. Meantime the innovation has opened up the door for a new kind of music sales. The commercial offshoot of Iamus, US-based Melomics Media, is offering the computer-created compositions at a similar rate to what it would cost to download a track from iTunes, Google Play or some other online store. But the big difference is that not only can purchasers get a copy of Iamus's creations but also their copyright. And with an limitless number of tracks there's no risk of running out of material.
The sound of keyboard music floats over the modern buildings in Malaga's Technology Park, commonly known as Spain's Silicon Valley.
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It happened on the 16:37 service from Glasgow Queen Street on Saturday. The men are described as being in their late 30s. One had a shaved head, another was wearing a white t-shirt and one of them had a moustache. BTP appealed for help in tracing the men who were said to have sang songs of a religiously offensive nature. PC Stephanie Crawford said: "This sort of behaviour is not acceptable and other passengers should not be forced to tolerate it during a train journey. "I am appealing for anyone who was on the train and can provide information which can help identify the men responsible to contact BTP as a matter of urgency."
Five men who shouted and sang offensive songs while drinking on a train from Glasgow to Oban are being sought by British Transport Police (BTP).
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Richard Moss, 39, died from a brain tumour in February. His ashes were put in silver bracelets made for his four sons. Chavez Robinson, 21, said the bracelet was of "massive sentimental value" and had been stolen from a van in Hull. Police said it was investigating the theft of a van. Mr Robinson said he was "absolutely heartbroken and gutted" to find his bracelet had been stolen. "All my brothers had identical bracelets, it's all silver with gemstones. We have it on all the time to remind us of him and so we can be closer to him," he added. "The first time I take it off to help a friend with some work - I put it on the seat in the van - and it's gone. "I'm so angry and upset." Mr Robinson said he was offering the reward for its safe return after the van was reported stolen on 16 June. "It's not like it's a normal bracelet, you can't just replace it. "It's the ashes inside that's of value." Mr Moss, who lived in South Ferriby, North Lincolnshire, died after he was diagnosed with three brain tumours earlier this year. In the days before his death, he wrote a personal letter to his family telling his sons to "keep strong" and "make the most" of their lives. Humberside Police said the van, which was parked on Victoria Gardens, near Cottingham Road, had "since been recovered" and its investigation was ongoing.
A man is offering a £500 reward for the return of a bracelet containing his dad's ashes which was stolen three months after he died from cancer.
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The company set its flotation price at 3,300 yen ($33; £25) per share, at the top end of the expected range. Line will list its shares in a dual offering in New York and Tokyo on 14 and 15 July. Line is the most popular messaging app in Japan, Thailand and Taiwan, and its flotation is set to be the world's biggest tech listing so far this year. The messenger app was started in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami to offer a communications platform when many phone services where down. Line is owned by South Korea's Naver Corporation and hopes the share sale will not only raise funds but also boost its profile to tie in with global expansion plans. While dominant in a number of Southeast Asian markets, the company has been struggling to expand its user base further. Line has about 218 million monthly active users and makes its money from advertising as well as selling its virtual stickers and games.
Japanese messaging app Line is set to raise up to $1.3bn (£1bn) when it lists its shares later this week.
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In a statement, the Scottish Premiership club said the 41-year-old's exit was "mutually agreed". It became clear on Saturday that McNamara had been relieved of his duties after the 2-1 defeat at 10-man St Johnstone. The club had already announced that development squad assistant boss Dave Bowman would be caretaker manager. Assistant coach Simon Donnelly, first-team coach Darren Jackson and goalkeeping coach Craig Hinchcliffe have also left the club. United chairman Stephen Thompson, who spoke with McNamara immediately after the defeat at McDiarmid Park, will hold a news conference at Tannadice on Tuesday. The Tannadice outfit said the club and McNamara "agreed that a change was required to improve the results", with United second from bottom of the Scottish Premiership after one win in nine games. In a personal statement, Thompson said: "I'd like to personally thank Jackie McNamara for his efforts during his tenure, which saw him become the longest-serving manager in the league. "Everyone at the club knows our recent run of results and current position in the league isn't good enough and we all want the club back to where it should be - challenging for silverware and European qualification. "We've finished in the top six for eight consecutive seasons and reached four cup finals in that time against a backdrop of reducing the club's debt significantly. "Although this has not been easy, it's the standard we have set here at United." McNamara, who took charge in January 2013 after leaving Partick Thistle, led United to two cup finals. Thompson added: "This is a big club with a large squad and playing budget, so we won't be short of interest from top managers within the game. "We have one of the most exciting young squads in British football and a lot to be upbeat about. "The next manager will be taking on a talented bunch of players at an exciting time." Caretaker Bowman, a former United midfielder who won six Scotland caps and had a spell as caretaker boss at Livingston in 2007, will be assisted by United captain Sean Dillon. United travel to bottom-of-the-table Partick Thistle on Saturday.
Dundee United have confirmed the departure of manager Jackie McNamara and his backroom team.
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Rose Ann Moir, of Montrose, was taken to Dundee's Ninewells Hospital on Monday 8 June, after her car collided with a lorry near Inverkeilor. Police Scotland has now confirmed that she died on Friday. Officers are continuing their investigations into the full circumstances of the crash and appealed for information.
A 66-year-old woman injured in a crash on the A92 Arbroath to Montrose road last week has died.
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Mr Hichilema's convoy allegedly refused to make way for President Edgar Lungu's convoy on Sunday, while travelling to a ceremony. A confrontation erupted between the two convoys, as the president's motorcade attempted to overtake Mr Hichilema's. Neither Mr Hichilema nor his lawyer has commented since he was charged. Police said Mr Hichilema's convoy endangered the president's life. Treason is a non-bailable offence in Zambia, with a minimum jail term of 15 years and a maximum sentence of death. Mr Hichilema was arrested on Tuesday after armed policemen raided his home in an affluent suburb in the capital, Lusaka. He accused police of firing tear gas into his home while his wife, Mutinta Hichilema, said they "wanted to kill my husband". Last year, Mr Lungu narrowly beat Mr Hichilema in presidential elections. Mr Hichilema's United Party for National Development (UNPD) says it does not recognise Mr Lungu as president. It alleges the poll was rigged. He has been charged with five of his aides, following the battle of the motorcades on the road between Limulunga and Mongus, some 500km (300 miles) west of Lusaka. "The opposition leader disobeyed police orders to give way to the presidential motorcade in an attempt to put the life of the republican president in danger," police chief Kakoma Kanganja told reporters. Mr Hichilema and his aides have also been charged with using insulting language, he added. Mr Hichilema is already facing charges of sedition dating from last October, a move his party said was an attempt by the ruling party to silence dissent. He was out on the bail when he was arrested on Tuesday.
Zambia's main opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has been charged with treason after allegedly obstructing the presidential motorcade.
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Originally an innovation for television coverage of cricket, Hawk-Eye has become a trusted tool for officials in cricket, tennis and now football. When the company was launched in 2001, it had two full-time employees based in Winchester. Fast-forward to 2013 and it is now owned by Sony, has 65 full-time staff and the technology is installed in 230 stadiums worldwide. Dr Paul Hawkins came up with the idea in 1999 and after 18 months of development, the technology made its debut during Channel 4's coverage of the 2001 Ashes series. A Royal Society Television Award for technical innovation followed, and the company Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd was established - with a focus on developing the technology for use in tennis. A year later, Hawk-Eye was used in this way for the first time during the BBC's Davis Cup coverage. It received two more TV awards for innovation in 2003 and 2004, including an Emmy. After some controversial line-calls in major tennis matches, some questioned whether the technology could be used for more than just the benefit of a TV audience. The International Tennis Federation eventually approved the use of Hawk-Eye as an aid to be used by umpires, should any judgements be disputed or too close to call. Hawk-Eye was first used in a tennis tournament in 2005, making its official Wimbledon debut in 2007. Despite being praised by many, not everyone has been in favour of the technology. Most notably, 17-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer has said in the past that Hawk-Eye is not accurate enough and has even called for it to be scrapped. But such criticism has not hindered the technology's global success, and in 2011 the company was bought by Sony for an undisclosed sum. The firm's staff and developers are now based at Sony's European headquarters in Basingstoke, Hampshire, where the units are put together in a warehouse on site. A number of staff are also based abroad, following tennis tours and working at international stadiums. The company had a setback in early 2013, when it missed out on the contract to supply goal-line technology for the 2014 World Cup to its German rival, GoalControl. But the Premier League deal confirms Hawk-Eye as a leading player in football's greater use of technology to assist officials. The company's accounts are private, but the agreement with the Premier League is reported to be worth millions of pounds.
Hawk-Eye's deal to provide Premier League goal-line technology marks another step in the company's rapid rise from a simple concept dreamed up by a sports fan with a PhD in artificial intelligence to an essential piece of kit used in major sporting events across the globe.
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Salah Abdeslam is angered at being placed under 24-hour video surveillance, Frank Berton told BFM TV. "We said from the beginning... that if our client remained silent we would quit his defence," he said alongside fellow lawyer Sven Mary. The attacks in Paris last November killed 130 people. So-called Islamic State said it was behind the coordinated assaults on bars, restaurants, a concert hall and the Stade de France Salah Abdeslam was arrested in Brussels in March and has kept silent since his transfer to France in April. He is being monitored 24 hours a day by video in his prison cell. Mr Berton said in May the suspect was "particularly disturbed" by the surveillance. He told BFM TV the decision to monitor Abdeslam was a "political" one. Abdeslam is thought to have played a key role in planning the Paris attacks and transporting the attackers, but investigators are yet to determine his specific role. The lawyers informed their client they would no longer represent him on 6 October, BFM TV reports (in French). It says that at present, he does not want to be represented by anyone else. Legal representation is not required while the investigation continues but will be at his trial. "The real victims of all of this are the victims of the Paris attacks, because they are entitled to this truth and they have the right to try to comprehend the incomprehensible," Sven Mary said.
Lawyers for the main suspect in last year's Islamist attacks in Paris say they will no longer defend him as he has chosen to remain silent.
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In a TV interview on Sunday, Mahfouz Saber said judges were "lofty and have status" and had to come from "a respectable milieu". The son a rubbish collector "would get depressed and would not continue" if he was appointed a judge, Mr Saber warned. Thousands of people took to social media to express anger at his comments. In those few words, Mr Saber encapsulated the system of patronage and privilege that brought so many Egyptians onto the streets back in 2011 to bring down Hosni Mubarak and the status quo, says the BBC's World Service Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher. His dismissal is a small victory for Egyptian liberals but also a bitter reminder for them of how little the system has changed, he adds. Mahfouz Saber faced a storm of criticism on social media, as well as demands for his resignation. "#Egypt's Minister of Justice says sons of garbage collectors cannot become judges. Yet another proof that justice in Egypt is just a farce," wrote blogger Mina Fayek on Twitter. Former Vice-President Mohamed ElBaradei meanwhile noted that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has "the right to equal access to public service in his country". "When the concept of justice is absent from a country, nothing remains," he added. Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab said in a statement that Mr Saber had resigned out of "respect for public opinion". The minister was quoted in the same statement as saying that the remarks had been "a slip of the tongue". In Cairo, a large Coptic Christian community of garbage collectors known as Zabbaleen (Egyptian Arabic for "rubbish people") collects by hand and sorts for recycling almost two-thirds of the 15,000 tonnes of rubbish thrown away by the capital's 18 million inhabitants. Egypt's constitution prohibits discrimination based on class or gender. However, the AFP news agency says the public prosecution turned down 138 applicants for jobs last year because their fathers did not have university degrees.
Egypt's prime minister says his justice minister has resigned amid outrage over his remark that the sons of rubbish collectors should not become judges.
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Environmental officials are investigating a "white substance" which can be seen in the Gwenfro river near Coedpoeth. A spokesman said: "Our officers are investigating a pollution in the Gwenfro river near Coedpoeth. "The pollutant may be dairy product."
A river near Wrexham has been polluted with what may be a dairy product, Natural Resources Wales has said.
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The former Bournemouth and Crawley striker, 31, joined National League Eastleigh on loan until the end of the season on Tuesday. Tubbs has not played for his parent club since the end of October following injury and not being selected. "Paul Cook told me that I don't suit the Portsmouth system, which is surprising," he told BBC Radio Solent. "I did my maths and worked out that I had played eight games in total minutes on the field and scored five goals. "That's quite a good return for someone who can't play that system." Tubbs made his Eastleigh debut just hours after joining the Spitfires, but could not prevent them falling to defeat at Kidderminster. "The last month has been really frustrating," he added. "I've been fit and there have been times when I was training on my own (at Portsmouth). "I just wanted to play football, whether that was at Portsmouth, at Eastleigh or somewhere else. "People say I shouldn't have dropped down a division, but I see this as a club with huge potential, who have a great chance of being in the Football League in a few months."
Matt Tubbs says he is surprised to have not been part of Portsmouth manager Paul Cook's plans.
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The injured teenager was found on Tagus Street, at the rear of Lodge Lane, Toxteth, at about 20:30 BST on Friday. Merseyside Police said he was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. His family have been informed. It follows two gun attacks in Seaforth and Fazakerley where two men were hurt in "linked" attacks in their homes. Both attacks happened within 25 minutes of each other on Thursday. Armed police attended the Toxteth murder scene. Chief Inspector Keith McLachlan said: "We are relentless in pursuing those who choose to bring firearms onto the streets of Merseyside. "I am sure local people will be appalled that this has taken place in daylight hours. "Information from the community will always be acted on, so help us remove those responsible and their weapons from the streets." A post-mortem examination is due to take place.
An 18-year-old man has died after being shot in Liverpool, prompting a murder investigation.
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Tanweer was a sports science graduate whose interests included cricket and ju-jitsu. In 2004, he was arrested for disorderly conduct and cautioned. Throughout the same year, Tanweer was working closely with Mohammad Sidique Khan on their joint plans to join the jihad in Pakistan and Afghanistan. MI5 saw the men meeting other known plotters four times in February and March of that year. The pair later left together for a Pakistan training camp in November. Within weeks, they sent a message back to Leeds that they would be returning - an indication they had been retasked with carrying out an atrocity in the UK. Speaking shortly after the bombings, Tanweer's uncle said his nephew and fellow bomber Khan spent a great deal of time together in the lead-up to their departure for Pakistan. Tahir Pervez said: "They used to be up all the night talking to each other whenever Khan visited Tanweer during this period." The greatest insights into Tanweer's life come from two people he was close to. Waheed Ali was one of three friends of the bombers acquitted of involvement in the attacks. Ali, who was separately convicted of planning to attend a terrorism training camp, told his trial that Tanweer was known to his close friends as "Kaki". Ali had planned to join Tanweer and Khan on their 2004 training camp trip - but when he got to Pakistan, he said he found the pair had moved to another location. He told the jury that when Tanweer returned to the UK, he was aloof and kept his distance. The trial also heard Ali recount how Tanweer's hair had bleached towards the end of June. The bomber said he had been swimming regularly in chlorinated water. The bleaching had been caused by the chemicals he had been mixing. However, "Witness A", a former secret girlfriend, told the inquests that Tanweer had told her the bleaching was an after-effect of Pakistan's sun. The woman had a close, but not intimate relationship with Tanweer which was explained in court in limited terms to protect her identity. The pair had been close, but then unspecified circumstances forced them apart. The pair clearly had feeling for each other - and they spent a secret night together in the days before the attacks. Witness A broke down in tears as she recounted the meeting at which she had no idea of what he about to do. Tanweer suggested they could have a future together - but he told her that he was first going to Scotland for a week. Shehzad Tanweer detonated a bomb on a Circle Line train between Aldgate and Liverpool Street stations, killing himself and seven people, and injuring more than 100. The night before the attacks, he had played cricket with local friends. He told his family he was going camping near Manchester for a few days. His remains were buried near his family's ancestral home town of Samundari in Punjab province, Pakistan, in October 2005.
Shehzad Tanweer was born in Bradford but lived most of his life in the Beeston area of Leeds - little over half a mile from his friend, the bus bomber Hasib Hussain.
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The west London schoolgirl beat nine-year-old Saffy by spelling the word "eleemosynary", meaning charitable. Rhea got through to the head-to-head after her mother contested an incorrect answer during her earlier specialist round about Florence Nightingale. Independent adjudicator Olivia van der Werff later ruled it was acceptable. The dispute centred on the question: "To which medical officer did Florence Nightingale report in the Crimea?" Rhea's answer Duncan Menzies was initially deemed incorrect. But her mother Sonal, who gave up her job as an obstetrician to help educate Rhea, successfully argued that Nightingale effectively reported to every medical officer. The programme was watched on Channel 4 on Tuesday by an average of 1.3 million viewers, not including +1, according to overnight ratings. Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram at bbcnewsents, or email [email protected].
Ten-year-old Rhea has been named Child Genius 2016 after her mother intervened to dispute one of the answers in the Channel 4 show's final.
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Rathlin Energy had wanted to drill a 2,700-metre borehole at Ballinlea, between Ballycastle and Bushmills. However, it said delays in securing planning permission meant it "could not justify further work" on the site. Its five-year licence was due to expire next January, but the firm said it had already given notice of termination. The company has held the onshore licence since 2008 to drill in what is known as the Rathlin Basin, a geological area that stretches from Ballycastle in County Antrim to Limavady in County Londonderry. The borehole it had planned would have been the second one to be drilled in the area by Rathlin Energy. During their initial explorations they found a small amount of crude oil. Rathlin Energy chairman David Montagu-Smith said it wanted to drill a second well to evaluate the results obtained from the first one. He said the "immediate cause" of its decision to quit was the "length and complexity of the process for securing planning permission for the second exploration well". "We submitted a planning application for the second well in June 2013 and, regrettably, we have no sense of knowing when there will be a determination of the application," he said. "The business of oil exploration in Northern Ireland, a region with little past history of the industry, was always going to be a technical challenge, and the risk of disappointment very high. "It is therefore particularly regrettable that, notwithstanding the encouraging signs of oil we have found at Ballinlea, we are not going to be able, for reasons which have nothing to do with geology or our technical operations, to continue our work." He added: "After all the work we have done, including a significant investment in the local economy, we very much regret that the conditions needed to support the development of oil and gas potential do not currently appear to be present in Northern Ireland." Campaigners opposed to the drilling of the second borehole said they feared it might lead to extraction using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
A Canadian-owned company that holds the licence for oil and gas exploration on the north coast of Northern Ireland is to withdraw from the area.
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But the issue of Scottish MPs voting on law that does not affect them will get "more pressing" if there is further devolution, Mr Cameron told the BBC. All the main Westminster parties have promised to devolve more power if Scotland votes against independence. The Yes campaign says only a vote for independence can guarantee more powers. Asked whether there should be an English parliament, Mr Cameron told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "I don't think we're remotely at that stage. On the status of Scottish MPs, he said: "Clearly this question will get more pressing with further devolution but nothing that would happen would change the fact that the people of Scotland are being offered a chance through their own parliament to set their own rules on tax and spending and welfare." The promise of a further transfer of powers to Scotland if it stays in the Union has prompted cross-party calls for the regions of England to get more say over tax and spending as well. Conservative MP John Redwood has said Scotland's MPs should not vote on matters relating solely to England, and that English MPs should meet to decide English-only issues. BBC political correspondent Ben Wright says there are huge constitutional questions about the governance of the whole UK that flow from Scotland's decision. Mr Cameron also defended the decision to put just one question to Scotland's voters in Thursday's referendum, and not to include an explicit option of more devolution on the ballot paper. "I think it was right to have one question, because if Scotland wants more devolution, and I think Scotland should have more devolution, you have to answer the prior question: 'Do you want to stay in the United Kingdom?'," he said. "That wasn't just my view, that was the view of the leaders of other United Kingdom parties who all thought it was important; let's settle the question of separation and then look at devolution. "In this campaign the individual parties have set out their proposals, they've been quite strikingly similar, so it's been possible to make progress."
The UK government is not "remotely" near creating an English parliament, as some Conservative MPs have called for, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
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Mr Schreyer, who previously worked for Audi and Volkswagen, will streamline the design operation and seek synergy between the two Korean brands. Three weeks ago the German was named Kia's first foreign president. Hyundai's Woong-Chul Yang said the move was "imperative to secure long-term competitiveness" and to help "enhance our brand value". Kia was bought by Hyundai Motor in 1998 during the Asian financial crisis, and has been expanding sales at a faster pace than Hyundai in the US and Europe. Mr Schreyer spent a decade with VW Group as head of Audi and head of Volkswagen design. "Mr. Schreyer brings a wealth of experience in design from the global auto industry and has a deep understanding of the Hyundai Motor Group." said Mr Yang. "These valuable qualities will help build the foundation needed to make Hyundai and Kia leading global top automakers," added Mr Yang. Hyundai-Kia sold a total of 7.12 million vehicles around the globe last year,, up 8% on 2011.
Kia's design boss Peter Schreyer has been named as the new chief designer for the wider Hyundai Motor Group.
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Juve went ahead when Dani Alves's side-footed volley bounced into the corner. Leonardo Bonucci sealed victory when he prodded in and Lazio, playing in their own stadium, could not find a way back. Serie A leaders Juve can clinch their sixth successive Scudetto this weekend and meet Real Madrid in the Champions League final on 3 June in Cardiff. Massimiliano Allegri's side settled the match in the opening 25 minutes as they became the first side to win the competition three times in a row. Lazio were competing in their third final in five years, hoping to inflict a measure of revenge after Juve beat them 2-1 after extra-time in 2015. The capital club have not won another major honour since they beat neighbours Roma in 2013, with manager Simone Inzaghi prioritising the final by resting several key players for Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Fiorentina. The fourth-placed Serie A side, who are 15 points behind leaders Juve, made an energetic start and saw young striker Keita Balde Diao hit the post early on. They created more chances after the break as Felipe Anderson and Ciro Immobile drew superb saves from Gianluigi Buffon's understudy Neto, but by that time Juve had already done enough to seal victory. Juventus manager Max Allegri: "We have to compliment the lads for a great game, an extraordinary first half and Lazio deserve compliments for their entire campaign. "Now we have another important game against Crotone to finish off the title. "The first half had a very high tempo and we made the most of our chances, so we did well defending in the second half. "It'll be tough against Crotone, we need one victory and on Sunday it'll be the decisive match of the season, so we need all our fans there. We have to play with the same determination we showed tonight." Lazio manager Simone Inzaghi: "We are talking about the Champions League finalists, but tonight they were up against a Lazio side that had its say and was unlucky. "In the first half, there was a handball to turn it on to the upright and that could've changed the game. A final is decided by incidents and tonight the incidents did not go our way. "My lads were extraordinary this season and it was a very good performance this evening. It was an emotional night, we have to thank the fans and with a little bit more luck it could've gone differently. My players had a great season."
Juventus secured the first part of a possible domestic and European treble with an efficient display against Lazio in the Coppa Italia final.
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Fell, 22, who had surgery in October for testicular cancer and missed the start of this season after chemotherapy, scored an unbeaten 116. Steven Croft top-scored with 78 as Lancashire registered 267-7 to drop to the bottom of the South group. Worcestershire's victory keeps their quarter-final hopes alive. They will need to overcome Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on Monday to stand a chance of sealing a spot in the last eight of the competition. Kyle Abbott led the way with the ball for Worcestershire in the must-win game, claiming the wickets of openers Tom Smith and Alviro Petersen on the way to figures of 3-56. Lancashire's Luke Procter (47) shared a 99-run fifth-wicket stand with Croft on a day in which each of the top six batsmen reached double figures, although only Croft managed to notch a half-century. While Worcestershire captain Daryl Mitchell lasted just three overs and five runs at the start of the hosts' response, his wicket saw Fell join the chase. He brought up his maiden limited-overs century from 104 balls in a knock that included 15 fours.
Tom Fell scored his first century since returning from cancer treatment to help Worcestershire beat Lancashire by four wickets in the One-Day Cup.
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Jeremy Corbyn unusually had the better of Theresa May in Prime Minister's Questions, brandishing leaked texts across the despatch box, claiming evidence that the Tories had given Surrey a special deal to avoid the chance of a damaging 15% council tax rise in a Conservative safe haven. The council, and ministers, denied there had been any stitch-up. But hours later, the government admitted they had agreed, in theory, that Surrey County Council could, like several others, try out keeping all of the business rates they raise from 2018, which could plug the gaps in funding in future. That change is due to be in force across in England by 2020. Technically therefore, Surrey County Council has not been offered any additional funding. But the prospect of more flexibility over their own income in future could help fill the council's coffers, and seems to have eased some of their concerns. But as a solution to easing the pressure in social care across the country now, the idea could fall far short. Where there is high need for care for the elderly, there is likely to be a lower local tax base. Conversely, in more prosperous areas where councils can raise a lot of tax, there is likely to be less need for financial help. One local government leader told me "all that would do is to lock in the existing iniquity to the system". And major changes to how councils pay their way could make a difference in the long term. Many argue, the social care crisis is now. Medics, NHS leaders, local government leaders, MPs, former ministers, and of course many members of the public are day after day reporting concerns about the creaks in the social care system, arguing for big changes or big extra money. There are though few signs of any extra cash on the way in the Budget next month. Privately ministers are hunting for solutions. The prime minister's allies say she is prepared to be "radical". A Tory council might have been appeased by a promise to change their future funding - others may not be so easily satisfied.
Deal or no deal?
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Bauerngarten (Farmhouse Garden) is now the highest-priced landscape by the Austrian artist. It is the first time in 20 years the oil-on-canvas had been auctioned. The painting, showing an "informal profusion of poppies, daisies and roses" sold for £47,971,250 at Sotheby's in London. It was part of a record-breaking sale totalling nearly £200m at the auction house on Wednesday. Helena Newman, chairman of of Sotheby's Europe, said of the work: "Innovative in its composition and jewel-like in its exquisite blaze of colours, it is one of the artist's greatest masterpieces ever to come to auction. "Most of the artist's oil paintings of this calibre are in major museums around the world with only a handful works of this importance having appeared at auction in the last decade." Bauerngarten was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Painting the Modern Garden exhibition last year. The most expensive artwork sold in Europe is Alberto Giacometti's Walking Man, which sold for £65,001,250 in 2010, followed by Peter Paul Rubens' The Massacre of the Innocents, which sold for £49,506,648 in 2002. Sotheby's said it was a new record total for any auction staged in London, with lots totalling £194.7m. Five lots sold for more than £10m each. Ms Newman said the result was "a new benchmark for London sales as much as it is a statement on the momentum of the global art market in 2017". Another record was also set at the auction. Pablo Picasso's Plant de tomates was expected to reach £10m to £15m, and sold for £17m - making it a record for a Picasso still life. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
A floral Gustav Klimt painting has sold for nearly £48m, making it the third most expensive piece of art ever sold in Europe.
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Three decades of data show the females of this species are being born smaller, and those that do survive to motherhood are breeding later in life. Subtle changes in their genetics are also being recorded. Researchers tell the journal Nature that a shift in a dominant climate pattern has affected the supply of the seals' primary food source - krill. "There has been a significant reduction in the size and the mass of the pups at birth," explained Dr Jaume Forcada from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). "Over 27 years, we see pups being born with 8% less body mass. We also see the females breeding later in age - at least by one or two years. "And when they start breeding, they are bigger than they used to be 30 years ago. This kind of thing has been seen before in all sorts of mammals, and is classically an indication of food stress." The study was centred on South Georgia, a British Overseas Territory (BOT) in the South Atlantic that falls within the influence of Antarctic waters. BAS has a long-term monitoring station on the territory's Bird Island, from where it has tracked the behaviour and health of the furs since the early 1980s. In their report, the researchers tie the declining performance of the population directly to the increasingly unreliable provision of krill. In particularly bad years when there are few krill at South Georgia, all the predators that depend on them will suffer poor breeding success, and the beaches will be littered with dead pups and penguin chicks. The krill come mostly from much further south, carried on currents to the BOT from the Antarctic Peninsula and the western side of the White Continent. The production of these little crustaceans is heavily dependent on sea ice, which they use for protection and as a food resource, eating the algae that grow on the undersides of floes. But sea ice in Antarctica's western sectors has been in sharp decline in recent years (in contrast to other sectors). The BAS team attributes this to a significant shift in an atmospheric pressure pattern known as the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), which, in its positive phase, will limit sea ice formation through more storms, higher winds, higher temperatures and more rain. "From the 1990s, it has been in the most positive phase of the historical record, and the record has now been reconstructed back through 1,000 years with ice cores; and what we know now is that the SAM is more positive than it has ever been," said Dr Forcada. "What you have to know is that the availability and predictability of krill at South Georgia is highly correlated with the SAM." The BAS team also examined the DNA of the seals and found mothers today to have a wider genetic diversity than 20 years ago. Ordinarily, greater genetic variation - or heterozygosity - is a good thing because it enables a population to better withstand disease and environmental stress. But the group records that this increased diversity is not seen in the pups being born each year on Bird Island, in part because that diversity is dependent also on the genetics of the male bulls, but also because the circumstances in which the seals now find themselves means that the weakest pups are being very effectively winnowed out. "If heterozygosity was inherited from these feeder mums to their pups and heterozygosity would prevail to the point where no more pups were being born homozygous (narrow diversity), you could think they were showing in the longterm an evolutionary response. But they're not showing that," explained Dr Forcada. "They're showing a selection process that acts mostly through the survival of the fit young females, and then at each generation the clock re-sets." Antarctic fur seals are currently an abundant species that has now fully recovered from the over-exploitation by humans at the turn of the 20th Century. But if the stresses continue, warns the team, South Georgia's population is likely to fall as breeding success dwindles and individuals disperse in search of more predictable krill supplies. [email protected] and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos
Changes in the Antarctic climate are showing up in the fur seal population, say scientists.
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Passport Office chief executive Paul Pugh said 170,000 passports had been issued in the past week, a slight increase on the previous seven days. But he admitted the number of passport applications in the system had gone up. He denied claims by a passport worker, to BBC Radio 4's PM, that the office was in "total crisis". Mr Pugh apologised last month for the distress caused by the backlog, which he said had been caused by an unexpected surge in demand for passports. He was hauled back in front of the committee earlier on Tuesday, to be quizzed on what progress had been made in clearing the backlog, amid claims by MPs that it was getting worse. He told the MPs: "Work in progress is falling and output is rising substantially. "We are now issuing over 170,000 passports each week. I expect that to continue and rise over the summer. For each week over the summer I expect us to be issuing in the region of 180,000 passports per week." When pressed by committee chairman Keith Vaz, he conceded that applications classed as "work in progress" had gone up since his last appearance from 483,000 at the start of June to 508,000 last week, but he stressed that this figure was now falling. Home Secretary Theresa May has ordered a series of emergency measures, including giving UK citizens living overseas an automatic one-year extension to their passports. People with an "urgent need" to travel can also upgrade to the fast-track service for free for a limited period. But an employee at the Passport Office, speaking anonymously to PM on Monday, said the emergency measures were "making things 10 times worse" and presented a "huge security risk". The whistleblower estimated about 100,000 passports did not appear in the official figures because they had not yet been scanned on to the system. She claimed the agency was "in total crisis, a total mess". People were being taken off their usual jobs and issuing passports with "a few days' training", presenting security risks because they might not be able to spot a fraudulent application and computers were crashing for up to half a day at a time. Mr Pugh hit back at the criticisms, telling the committee: "I completely disagree with the comments that are attributed to this anonymous member of staff." He added: "I think the vast majority of staff across the organisation would refute what that member of staff is saying. The organisation is not in chaos." He admitted that the "freakishly high" levels of overtime being carried out by staff to deal with the backlog could not continue, but he said extra staff were being recruited. He again admitted he did not know why there had been a sudden surge in demand for passport renewals, rejecting claims by Mr Vaz that it was down to the closure of seven overseas passports centres and the transfer of the work to the UK. He also rejected claims by some MPs that it was down to an upturn in the economy, saying there was "no evidence" for this, although, he added, the agency no longer took economic factors into account when forecasting demand. The Home Office's chief scientific adviser had launched an inquiry into why the Passport Office's forecasting system had failed to predict the surge in applications, Mr Pugh told the committee. Mr Pugh also admitted the increase in demand would lead to a boost in income from fees for his office and it was expected to make a surplus of £50m this year - the same as it had in 2013 - that would be handed to the Treasury. Mr Vaz handed Mr Pugh 180 emails from members of the public who were facing delays in their applications for his private office to deal with. The Home Office has said it is not unusual during peak periods for the Passport Office to operate with high numbers of applications in the system at any one time and insisted it was getting to grips with the problems.
The number of passports being issued is increasing as staff attempt to clear a large backlog, the home affairs committee has been told.
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The 28-year-old has played eight Tests, 31 one-day internationals and 19 Twenty20 matches for the national side since his debut in 2013. Jordan previously signed a deal until the end of 2017 in March. "I've gone from strength to strength and it's a club that really feels like home," Jordan said. "We're in a little bit of a transitional period, but the philosophy that the club has and the plans [head coach] Mark Davis and the team are implementing are moving us in the right direction." Jordan, who joined Sussex from Surrey ahead of the 2013 campaign, is currently in Australia preparing to play in the Big Bash League for Adelaide Strikers. The Barbados-born player featured five times in the County Championship for Sussex last season, and appeared 10 times in the T20 Blast and seven times in the One-Day Cup. Meanwhile, Charlotte Burton has left her post as head coach of Sussex Women for personal reasons and club chairman Jim May will stand down from his role in March next year.
England fast bowler Chris Jordan has signed a one-year extension to his contract at Sussex, and will remain at Hove until the end of the 2018 season.
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Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and Stamford NHS Trust have agreed to a review of "organisational form". Huntingdon MP Jonathan Djanogly said he feared they were "weasel words" for a takeover of Hinchingbrooke. The hospitals have announced they will be "working more collaboratively". The trusts said the review would focus on "back office" services, "organisational form" and would also investigate how they could "collaborate clinically". Hinchingbrooke's chairman Alan Burns said the two trusts would be looking at all possibilities, including a merger. But, he said: "Because [Peterborough and Stamford] are a foundation trust and we are not, if anything it would be an acquisition not a merger. "We are looking at making the best use of money without a diminution of services." Mr Djanogly said proposals to merge "back office functions" at a time when local health services were "haemorrhaging money" were "absolutely to be commended". "However, to move from that to an outright takeover of Hinchingbrooke by Peterborough is, as far as I and my constituents are concerned, out of the question," he added. "They say they are going to look at the 'potential organisational form' - at the very best that's NHS techno speak, but at the very worst it's weasel words for a takeover." Mr Burns said the trusts would deliver its proposed "outline business case" on the hospitals' future by April. In December, the National Audit Office revealed Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals' debt for 2014-2015 was £38.5 million, while Hinchingbrooke's deficit for the same period was £11.4m. The Huntingdon hospital was the first in the NHS to be run by a private company, but returned to NHS management in April.
The first NHS hospital to be privately run could be merged with another cash-strapped trust under a move to share services and save money, an MP claimed.
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South Wales Police along with Mid and West Fire Service are trying to find out what caused the blaze in Dynevor Road. Emergency services were called to the block of flats just after 20:40 BST on Tuesday. The victim, who is in his 50s, died at the scene.
An investigation has been launched after a man died following a flat fire in Skewen.
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More than 20 pinball machines have been set up at the Olive Tree pub in Cwmbran, Gwent. Other arcade and console games will also be available to play at the event, on Saturday and Sunday. Organiser Dave Wilcox told BBC Radio Wales competitors will have the chance to win themselves a position on the World Pinball Championship table.
About 100 retro gaming enthusiasts are expected to gather in south Wales to compete in the Welsh Pinball Cup.
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His interim world title bout against Bermane Stiverne in December was cancelled after he tested positive for the banned muscle-builder ostarine. That came after he tested positive for meldonium before a WBC world title fight against Deontay Wilder last May. The ban is only for bouts sanctioned by the World Boxing Council, which has also fined him $250,000 (£205,000). Povetkin, 37, avoided a sanction after the Wilder fight was cancelled as he said he had stopped taking meldonium in 2015, before it became a banned substance.
Russian heavyweight Alexander Povetkin has been banned indefinitely after failing a second drug test in a year.
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Naser Oric was detained in Geneva on an international arrest warrant issued by Belgrade, which now wants him extradited to face trial in Serbia. Serbia says he was involved in the deaths of nine ethnic Serbs in 1992. He commanded Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) troops in Srebrenica - scene of the worst massacre by Bosnian Serb forces. The latest dispute between Bosnia and Serbia comes at a sensitive time. On 11 July Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic is due to attend a commemoration in Srebrenica for the massacre victims. Nearly 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed there in 1995. Mr Oric was acquitted of war crimes by a UN tribunal in 2008. The Bosnian state prosecutor's office said it had asked Switzerland to hand him over so that he could face trial in his own country. The office said it would co-operate with Serbian prosecutors and would consider their allegations against him.
Bosnian prosecutors have urged Switzerland to hand over a former Bosnian Muslim commander arrested on 10 June - and not to send him to Serbia.
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Mr Trump plans to slash the US rate from 35% to 15% to get manufacturers to move work to the United States. Stephen Moore said the tax policy was mainly aimed at bringing work back from Asian countries. But he did not rule out an impact on Northern Ireland. "I wouldn't say it's nothing to worry about (for Northern Ireland)... I want to see jobs for America first," he said. US companies are major investors in Northern Ireland and include manufacturing firms such as Caterpillar, Terex, GE and Emerson. Mr Moore had previously talked about a "flood of companies" leaving the Republic of Ireland as a result of the planned tax change. In an interview with BBC Radio Ulster he was more measured saying: "It's not like all of a sudden all these companies are going to leave and come back to the US - some might." Mr Moore also agreed that US companies would continue to invest abroad. He praised the low corporation tax polices of the British and Irish governments and said the Northern Ireland Executive was right to pursue a policy of cutting the tax. "Capital flows to where its treated most kindly. Taxes aren't the only thing but they do matter," he said. He also played down the possibility of a trade war with China or other countries saying the US simply wanted to renegotiate existing agreements. Listen to the interview with Stephen Moore on BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster at 08:15 GMT on Tuesday.
One of Donald Trump's economic advisors has cautioned that a cut in the US corporate tax rate could have an impact on Northern Ireland jobs.
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Celebrity supporter Rod Stewart said after the end of Celtic's European campaign that he felt the Norwegian was out of his depth. Despite having won two trophies last season, Deila acknowledges he is not beyond criticism. "At Celtic, when you don't achieve what the demands are, you have to prove yourself," he said of his critics. "But you have to get the chance to do it and I will do everything I can to prove that and make them swallow their words." Deila, whose side could still complete a domestic treble this season, admitted he was a big admirer of singer Stewart. "He's a good ambassador for the club," said the manager. "I met him once when we won the league trophy, so hopefully I can meet him again in that (scenario). "When you don't get the result you want, of course people will be critical of what's happening and I have no problems with that. "I've had a lot of positive critics as well, before the European campaign this year, so this is also something I have to manage. "The only thing I think of now is to finish this season in a very good way and we need to make the improvements I know can make us successful."
Celtic manager Ronny Deila accepts he still has to prove the job is not too big for him.
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Paul Shoesmith, from Poynton, Cheshire died from multiple injuries after the crash on Sulby Straight on 4 June 2016. The inquest heard a "catastrophic" and "unforeseen" tyre failure led the 50-year-old to lose control of his machine at more than 160mph (250km/h). Coroner John Needham recorded a verdict of misadventure at Douglas courthouse. Riding a different bike, Mr Shoesmith had set his fastest-ever lap of the TT course and finished 29th in the Superbike race on the morning before the crash. Race marshal Joseph Bevans said Mr Shoesmith would have been travelling at between 160 and 190mph through what is one of the fastest parts of the Mountain Course when his tyre burst. Mr Bevans said he saw the front tyre lift about 12in (30cm) after Mr Shoesmith rode through a depression and then explode when it came back into contact with the road. The coroner said the crash was "inevitable" after the tyre burst. Two witnesses described how the experienced racer became parted from his motorbike and hit a kerb and tree. Recording his verdict, Mr Needham said the bike had passed race control ahead of the solo practice session and Mr Shoesmith had been "ultimately responsible" for the selection of the tyre. The father of four made his TT debut at the event in 2005. He achieved his best result of 15th in both the Superbike and Senior races held in 2011. The coroner said he had died "pursuing his dream".
A motorbike racer was killed when his front tyre burst and caused a high-speed crash during practice for the TT races, an inquest has heard.
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) said "clear evidence" showed Dr Sergei Portugalov doped athletes. A 2015 World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) report said he was "very active in the conspiracy to cover up athletes' positive tests in exchange for a percentage of their winnings". "As a consequence, a lifetime period of ineligibility has been imposed," Cas said. Last year's Wada-commissioned McLaren report said more than 1,000 Russia sportsmen and women had benefitted from a state-sponsored doping programme. Russian athletes are banned from competition by athletics' governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), until it is happy the country's anti-doping measures stand up to scrutiny. Russia's anti-doping agency, Rusada, is also working to have its credentials restored. Senior figures in athletics and at Wada have welcomed Russia's work on restoring its anti-doping programme but have stressed the country still has a lot to do. Speaking at a Wada conference on Monday, the organisation's president, Craig Reedie, said: "There remains significant work to do. It must demonstrate its processes are autonomous and independent from outside interference." Russia's sports minister Pavel Kolobkov also spoke at the meeting to outline progress made - including changes to legislation criminalising doping in sport. He added: "We are ready to pass any kind of external inspection."
A Russian doctor has been banned for life from any involvement in athletics.
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The 2007 Booker Prize shortlisted novel by Ian McEwan is set in 1962 and tells the story of young newly-weds on honeymoon on the Dorset coast. Ronan - up for the best actress Oscar for Brooklyn - will play the young wife Florence but her co-star, playing her husband Edward, is yet to be announced. The film will be Ronan's second McEwan adaptation after 2007's Atonement. Atonement, which also starred Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, won Ronan her first Oscar nomination and was directed by Joe Wright. She was up for best supporting actress for playing the little Briony Tallis whose misunderstanding of a situation she unwittingly witnesses leads to the tragic events that drive the story on. On Chesil Beach will be led by the theatre director Dominic Cooke, who was formerly the artistic director of London's Royal Court theatre. And the production company will be Number 9 Films, the team behind the award-winning Carol, whose star Cate Blanchett and co-star Rooney Mara are also in the running for best actress and best supporting actress Academy Awards. Producers Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley said of their new project: "It's an extremely exciting prospect to be reunited with Saoirse Ronan on such a beautiful and heartbreaking project." Ronan previously worked with the production company on the 2012 film Byzantium, a drama also set in a remote coastal location. McEwan's story, which some class as a novella since it is only just over 200 pages long, is set on the laconic beach of the title, where Florence and Edward are staying in a modest hotel. Chesil Beach, a real and well-known location, is famous for its 18-mile length, of which much is separated from the mainland by a sea-salt lagoon, and the special quality of its stones. This is the first time McEwan's story has been adapted for the screen. The same is true of Brooklyn, which is a film taken from a novel by Irish author Colm Toibin. Filming for On Chesil Beach will begin this autumn. Before then, Ronan will next be seen on stage in The Crucible on Broadway from 1 March.
Oscar-nominated actress Saoirse Ronan is to star in a movie version of the bestselling novel On Chesil Beach.
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Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust agreed to balance its books after a critical report by NHS watchdog Monitor. The trust was put in special measures over a predicted deficit of £9.4m for the year 2015/16. Chief executive Michael Scott said savings would be made while maintaining the quality of patient services. The trust breached its licence by predicting the £9.4m deficit and not having an adequate recovery plan. Enforcement action by Monitor since February included special measures to improve patient services. An improvement director was appointed and the trust was partnered with Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Laura Mills from Monitor said: "These steps should enable the trust to balance its books and ensure patients are able to receive quality services." Mr Scott called the trust's plan "robust" and said £44m of savings had already been achieved over the past four years. "The focus for us is not only on balancing the books; it is on balancing cost savings against maintaining safe and high quality services. "We are doing this over a longer period to protect our staff and our service users from further cuts." The trust has spent £2.6m recruiting more staff for inpatient units and £950,000 for additional community workers. "We do all of this in the face of chronic under-funding of mental health services, and these life-saving services remain the 'Cinderella' of the NHS. "We are determined to continue to campaign for increased funding," he said.
The NHS trust providing mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk is to make savings of £36m over four years.
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The British Hospitality Association (BHA) said that thousands of businesses are facing having to drastically reduce their dependence on EU workers. Staff from the EU make up nearly a quarter of all jobs in the sector. Immigration is set to be one of the most controversial issues to be settled during the Brexit negotiations. The hospitality industry represents 3 million workers and about a tenth of the UK's economic wealth. In the first major business intervention since the triggering of Article 50, a report by KPMG for the BHA says that it will take 10 years to reduce the need for EU workers by training British staff, targeting older workers and encouraging younger people to take jobs in the sector. But with the UK economy approaching full employment, the report says that there are no easy pools of labour to exploit and that EU nationals will still make up a large part of the workforce. The KPMG study - which has been sent to Number 10 - says that 75% of waiting staff in the UK, 37% of house-keeping staff and a quarter of all chefs are from the EU. Last month the sandwich and coffee chain Pret a Manger revealed that only one in fifty of its applicants was British and 65% of its workforce were EU nationals. The company's head of human resources, Andrea Wareham, said it would be virtually impossible to recruit enough staff if heavy controls were applied to EU nationals wanting to work in the UK. "It is clear that hospitality and tourism face major problems in recruitment if there is any major cut in the number of workers allowed to enter from the EU," Ufi Ibrahim, head of the BHA, said. "We want to avoid there being any cliff edge but the government must be aware that in the medium to long term we will still need considerable numbers of EU workers, who have contributed so much to our industry and the UK economy in general. "We are aware of our responsibility to encourage more UK nationals to see the career opportunities available in hospitality and tourism. "We do need the government to play its part too, by recognising our employment needs and recognising how important this industry, the fourth largest, is to the country." Ms Ibrahim is meeting officials from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to discuss the report. Theresa May has been careful not to reveal the government's approach to immigration during the Brexit negotiations and has been reluctant to repeat an earlier government pledge that overall immigration would fall below 100,000. One option being considered by the Home Office is to allow for preferential access to EU nationals after Britain leaves the EU. I wrote about that last month and it was clear from Andrew Neil's interview with the Prime Minister on Wednesday that no decisions on the total number of EU nationals who will be able to come to Britain have been agreed. Senior industry figures said that the Home Office was "desperate for data" on which sectors would be most affected by limits on EU immigration. "They just don't have the information," one executive in the hospitality sector told me. Number 10 and the Treasury are well aware that sectors such as hospitality and agriculture rely on EU immigrants. However, critics have said that there has been an over-reliance on cheaper labour from Eastern Europe rather than using UK workers. And senior ministers have told me that allowing preferential access to EU nationals might give the UK better access to the single market, but would undermine efforts to strike trade deals with countries such as India which want to see a "level playing field" for all workers coming to the UK. The government said it had consulted with business leaders, including in the hospitality sector, over the last nine months about their concerns over Brexit. "We want businesses to have access to the skills they need which is why we are working with employers to invest in opportunities such as apprenticeships and high-quality technical education," a government spokesperson said. "While we will end free-movement as it is now, we will design a new immigration system that is in the national interest," they added.
The hospitality sector has warned it faces a shortfall of 60,000 workers a year if immigration from the European Union is too tightly controlled.
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Brierley Town Council needed a £1.3m loan to cope with its financial problems after Janet Cooper was jailed for eight years for theft and fraud in 2013. Residents voted to abolish the authority in a ballot in 2015. Its assets and liabilities have been taken over by Barnsley Council. In the referendum in September, about 1,200 people - 21% of the electorate - voted on the town council's future, with 983 calling to scrap it and 202 voting to retain it. Barnsley Council said the takeover would be carried out "without any additional costs for Barnsley council tax payers". The deal means that town council facilities, such as community halls, sports grounds and allotments, will remain open.
A South Yorkshire council that was left more than £1m in debt after a fraud committed by its town clerk has been abolished.
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Benoit de Juvigny said that "large international banks" have undertaken the due diligence needed to set up a subsidiary in the French capital. He also told Newsnight that "many other companies" had lodged informal inquiries about moving post-Brexit. He expects similar talks to be going on in Europe's other financial centres. Authorities in Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Amsterdam have said they would welcome banks moving operations from London for when the UK leaves the European Union. For many years, British-based financial services companies have been able to operate throughout Europe using so-called passporting rights. That scheme may end when Britain leaves the EU, with no guarantee that it will be replaced by a similar agreement. It is that uncertainty that had led many financial companies - and particularly international banks - to make contingency plans that would see them transfer a chunk of their business to an EU member country. Newsnight has learned that at least eight centres are now actively vying for this business - Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin, Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Madrid, Bratislava, and the Maltese capital, Valletta. But the extent to which these plans have been progressed has been hard to ascertain - until now. Mr de Juvigny's disclosure that major banks have gone as far as conducting due diligence shows an important milestone. Due diligence is the process of close scrutiny that major businesses go through prior to a major deal. It is detailed and expensive, and even wealthy banks don't undertake it lightly. What's more, if Mr du Juvigny is right, then it's being conducted in multiple cities around Europe. He said that the French regulatory department was likely to be expanded to cope with any influx of companies. However, he warned about the impact of regulators trying to compete to attract banks, saying: "The danger is the race that we could have for a more lenient regulation with a more lenient regulator." He said the risk of such leniency was lax regulation that could lead to another financial crisis, and called for Europe to stick "strictly" to existing legislation. "I don't believe that [lenient regulation] should be the choice of the UK, but nobody knows," he said.
Some major banks are in advanced stages of planning to shift some operations from London to Paris, France's leading financial regulator has told the BBC.
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Dumfries and Galloway Council is looking at the possibility of acquiring the collection for permanent display. It would be part of the proposed development of a new art gallery of national significance in the town. However, the council said raising the funds for the treasure was beyond its means and would need public backing. The hoard, which was uncovered by a metal detectorist in south west Scotland last September, is said to be one of the most significant finds of Viking treasure ever made in Scotland. It includes gold and silver artefacts such as armbands, a cross and brooches. The collection has yet to be valued but is thought to be worth between £500,000 and £1m. All accredited museums in the UK can apply to the Treasure Trove Unit to bid for ownership. Dumfries and Galloway Council is working to try to find £100,000 to kick start a public funding appeal. The authority wants the hoard to be a focal point for ambitious plans - which are seeking Heritage Lottery Fund support - to transform Kirkcudbright town hall into an art gallery. It is claimed the Viking artefacts would be a considerable draw for visitors and provide a significant boost for the local economy. However, the local authority is set to face competition for ownership of the hoard with the National Museum of Scotland having indicated that it also intends to bid for the collection. It has indicated a willingness to loan out the treasure assuming proper security could be put in place.
A public appeal could be launched to help raise up to £1m to bring one of Scotland's most important hoards of Viking treasure to Kirkcudbright.
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Ayeeshia Jane Smith's stepfather had reportedly threatened to torch the family home three weeks beforehand. A text to arrange a home visit was sent an hour before Ayeeshia died at a flat in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire. Her mother, Kathryn Smith, 23, and her partner Matthew Rigby, 22, both from Nottingham, deny murder. More on Ayeeshia Jane Smith and news from Stoke & Staffordshire Ayeeshia died on 1 May 2014 when her heart was ruptured by a forceful blow consistent with a stamp, Birmingham Crown Court was told. In the early hours of 4 April, Ms Smith, formerly of Swadlincote, Derbyshire, called 999 to report Mr Rigby had threatened to burn the flat down. Five days later, Stephen Crean, the senior Derbyshire County Council social worker responsible for Ayeeshia's case, met with his then manager, Alison O'Connor, to discuss options to place the girl in local authority care. It was concluded the "happy, smiley little girl" would stay with her mother while they investigated further. But they decided Smith should be asked to sign an agreement to stop seeing Mr Rigby. Mr Crean told the jury: "The agreement was asking her to not let Mr Rigby in the flat because the concern was, according to the police, there was a threat to set fire to the flat, so the agreement was to not have any contact." The next day, Mr Crean made an unannounced visit at 11:30 GMT when he found Ms Smith's front door ajar. When he raised the subject of the non-contact agreement she got angry and started shouting and later texted him refusing to sign it, he said. Ayeeshia appeared "completely calm" despite her mother's highly agitated state, said Mr Crean, who has taken early retirement. In the month leading up to Ayeeshia's death, Mr Crean carried out five planned and unannounced home visits. On 30 April, a multi-agency risk assessment meeting involving police and social services took place in Tamworth, Staffordshire, to discuss Ayeeshia's welfare. It was decided to arrange for a domestic abuse support worker to visit Ms Smith, according to Mr Crean. He sent a text to her that afternoon saying: "Hi Kat, I would like to visit you and AJ tomorrow at 10am, is that ok?" Just over an hour later, Ayeeshia had collapsed at her flat with fatal injuries. Ms Smith, of Sandfield Road, Nottingham and Mr Rigby, of Sloan Drive, Nottingham, also deny causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty. The trial continues.
Police and social services met to discuss taking a toddler into care the day before she died from a forceful blow to the heart, a court heard.
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Pulis's future has been in doubt for some time and he has been told the club feels the time is right for him to leave after seven years in charge. Pulis took over at Stoke in November 2002, but left at the end of the 2004-05 season. He returned to Stoke for the 2006-07 campaign. Division One was rebranded as the Championship for 2004-05. The 55-year-old was appointed Potters boss for a second time in 2006, and two years later he guided the club to the top flight after a 23-year absence. Stoke have just finished 13th in their fifth Premier League campaign. The Potters released a brief statement saying: "Stoke City and Tony Pulis confirm that they have mutually agreed that Tony will leave the club with immediate effect." Pulis was the subject of unrest from some fans towards the end of the season as Stoke flirted with relegation, but the Welshman stated on several occasions that Premier League survival remained the club's main objective. Stoke made a strong start to the campaign and were just four points off the top four on 1 December. However, they only managed four league wins in 23 subsequent league matches, suffering 11 defeats. Former England international Michael Owen, who has retired from playing after a season at Stoke, praised Pulis on Twitter, writing: "No denying he did a great job getting them to the Premier League and keeping them there." Pulis becomes the 56th Premier or Football League manager to leave his job since the start of the 2012-13 season. He first took over at Stoke in 2002 and stayed for three years before a season at Plymouth. He returned to the Potteries in 2006 and gained promotion to the Premier League in the second season of his second spell in charge. Stoke never finished lower than 14th in five top-flight campaigns under Pulis and he led the club to their first FA Cup final in 2011, when they lost 1-0 to Manchester City. The defeat still offered a route into the Europa League, where Stoke were beaten in the last 32 by Spanish side Valencia. When David Moyes officially leaves Everton for Manchester United, Newcastle's Alan Pardew will become the second longest-serving manager at a Premier League club - a mere two and a half years after taking charge. During his second spell at the club, the former Bournemouth and Bristol City manager guided his side to 122 wins in 333 games. Ahead of Stoke's 1-1 draw at Southampton on the final day of the season, Pulis expressed his desire to remain at the club next season. Stoke's direct and physical style of football often drew criticism from other supporters and managers, and the club appear to be set to embark on a new direction, with director of football John Rudge also leaving this summer.
Manager Tony Pulis has left Stoke City by mutual consent following talks with chairman Peter Coates on Tuesday.
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Officials are optimistic that the city will be recaptured by the weekend. But a spokesman for the US-led coalition has been more cautious, saying a tough fight is in prospect. Iraqi forces are heading towards the main government complex, and have come up against snipers and suicide bombers. Ramadi fell to IS in May in an embarrassing defeat for the Iraqi army. US-led coalition spokesman Col Steve Warren estimates that there are up to 350 IS fighters still in Ramadi in addition to possibly tens of thousands of civilians. There have been reports that IS has been rounding people up, possibly to use as human shields. BBC Middle East editor Sebastian Usher says that the offensive in Ramadi appears to be a more effective Iraqi military operation, helped by months of US training. Notable by their absence, our correspondent says, are powerful Shia militias, who helped recapture Tikrit earlier this year. Their presence would be too incendiary in the Sunni heartland of Ramadi and the surrounding province of Anbar, he adds. Security sources told the BBC troops and allied tribesmen, backed by US-led air strikes, had already retaken two districts, and entered two others. Last month, government forces completed their encirclement of the predominantly Sunni Arab city, about 90km (55 miles) west of Baghdad, cutting off militants inside the centre from strongholds elsewhere in Anbar province and in neighbouring Syria. How tactical change boosted offensive Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service spokesman Sabah al-Numani said its troops, supported by soldiers, police and Sunni tribesmen, begun the assault on central Ramadi at dawn on Tuesday. Sources in the Iraqi military's Anbar Operations Command told the BBC that engineers had built temporary bridges over the River Euphrates, which flows along the north and west of the city centre. This had enabled troops to enter directly the al-Haouz district, south-west of the government complex. By Tuesday afternoon, government forces had retaken the al-Thubat and al-Aramil districts, and entered nearby al-Malaab and Bakir, the sources said. The Iraqi defence ministry said the jihadists had prevented civilians leaving Ramadi since leaflets warning of an assault were dropped over the city last month. Sources inside Ramadi told the BBC IS had carried out a campaign of raids and mass arrests of residents in districts still under its control, in an attempt to prevent an uprising in support of the government offensive. IS has lost control of several key towns in Iraq to government and Kurdish forces since overrunning large swathes of the country's west and north in June 2014 and proclaiming the creation of a "caliphate" that also extended into neighbouring Syria. On Monday, analysis by IHS Jane's suggested that IS had lost 14% of its overall territory in Iraq and Syria, about 12,800 sq km (4,940 sq miles), over the past year. Despite this, the group has been able to capture new territory of strategic value over the same period, including Ramadi and Palmyra in Syria's Homs province. It also still controls the Iraqi cities of Falluja, east of Ramadi, and Mosul, in the north. A notoriously violent Islamist group which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq. It has declared its territory a caliphate - a state governed in accordance with Islamic law - under its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. IS demands allegiance from all Muslims, rejects national borders and seeks to expand its territory. It adheres to its own extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam and regards non-believers as deserving of death. IS projects a powerful image, partly through propaganda and sheer brutality, and is the world's richest insurgent group. It has about 30,000 fighters but is facing daily bombing by a US-led multinational coalition which has vowed to destroy it. More on Islamic State
The battle to drive so-called Islamic State (IS) fighters out of the centre of Ramadi is entering its second day as Iraqi special forces fight the militants street by street.
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The bird was found hanging from a cliff in Dunbar on Sunday and freed by three members of the public and the Scottish SPCA. They used a ladder and made an instrument to cut the seagull down. It is thought the bird became tangled while trying to eat the Kittiwake eggs or chicks on the cliffs. The bird is being looked after by the SSPCA. Scotland's animal welfare charity was alerted on Sunday 25 June after a seagull was discovered hanging 30ft up a cliff in Dunbar. Animal Rescue Officer Sarah Auldsmith said: "I think the gull got trapped whilst up there trying to eat the Kittiwake eggs or chicks as the whole wall is full of nests. "I wasn't sure how I was going to get it down until three very helpful members of the public, Joel, Neil and Finlay McIntosh, came to the rescue. They managed to get ladders and made an instrument to cut the seagull down whilst I waited at the bottom to catch the bird. "We successfully managed to untangle the seagull from the fishing line which was round its legs and wings and I was then able to take him to our National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Fishcross where he will get some rest before being released back into the wild. "Joel, Neil and Finlay were great, without their amazing help I would have had to call the fire brigade for assistance, so we'd like to say thanks very much for their quick thinking."
A seagull tangled in fishing wire 30ft up a cliff has been rescued in East Lothian.
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The Lisa Marie, named after his daughter, was bought by Presley in 1975 and refurbished to include a master suite with full-size bed and conference room. Neither plane is airworthy but have been on display at Graceland for more than 30 years for fans to tour. They are being auctioned off by Julien's by sealed bids. Presley bought the Convair 880 jet in 1975, two years before his death, and spent about $300,000, refitting it and renaming the Lisa Marie. It also features a bathroom with gold taps and a stereo system with 50 speakers. The tail is adorned with Presley's trademark TCB for Taking Care of Business. The last flight it took was to transport his former wife Priscilla Presley and actor George Hamilton to his funeral. It was sold by his father, Vernon, in 1978, and had two owners before being bought by a consortium in a joint venture with the owners of Graceland to allow it to be displayed at the tourist hotspot. The agreement with the owners and Graceland expires in 2015. The Hound Dog II, a Lockheed JetStar, was bought in 1975 as a stopgap while the Lisa Marie was being prepared. It arrived at Graceland in 1984. The planes are being sold as one lot, with the option to buy land next to Graceland to display them, independent of the Presley Museum.
Two private planes owned by Elvis Presley - the Lisa Marie and Hound Dog II - are going up for auction.
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He said the move would mean 360,000 firms offering on-the-job training. The Business Secretary said companies would be offered exemptions from National Insurance and apprenticeship grants as extra incentives. The other main parties have already made pledges to create more apprenticeships for young people. Labour says it would guarantee apprenticeships for every school leaver in England who "gets the grades" by 2020, while the Conservatives have promised three million new apprentices under a Tory government. David Cameron said earlier this month the coalition government had created 2.2 million apprenticeships since 2010. Main pledges Policy guide: Where the parties stand Mr Cable said: "The world is changing at an accelerated rate and we need to equip our young people with the skills they need for the future, to ensure they can compete in a global marketplace, in ever- changing technologies and the digital economy. "That is why the Liberal Democrats will double the number of employers providing apprenticeships over the next five years and create more apprenticeship starts per year than Germany. "To achieve these objectives requires significant investment in skills by both government and the private sector. As we grow our economy, the Liberal Democrats believe we must enhance adult skills training and our further education colleges."
The Lib Dems would double the number of employers offering apprenticeships to young people if the party wins its way back into government, Vince Cable says.
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Speaking from his hospital bed in Belfast, Matthew Bryce said he was grateful to be receiving treatment following his ordeal. The 22-year-old from Glasgow was picked up by a coastguard helicopter 13 miles off the Argyll coast on Monday night after going surfing on Sunday morning. He is now receiving treatment for the effects of hypothermia. In a statement, issued through Ulster Hospital, Mr Bryce said: "I am so grateful that I am now receiving treatment in hospital. "I can't thank those enough who rescued and cared for me - they are all heroes. "For now, I am not facilitating any interviews as I am exhausted. Please respect the privacy of myself and my family at this time as I recover." Mr Bryce was reported missing by his family after failing to return from a surfing trip on Sunday. He had last been seen at about 09:00 on Sunday in the St Catherines area. He was believed to be heading to Westport Beach near Campbeltown but is understood to have set off from Machrihanish beach. Police Scotland and the coastguard launched a large-scale search which eventually resulted in the surfer being spotted by a rescue helicopter at 19:30 on Monday, drifting 13 miles out to sea. Mr Bryce's father, John Bryce, described his son's rescue as "unbelievable" and said it was even better than a lottery win. He said: "The past 48 hours have been an absolute rollercoaster of emotions for our family and we are so grateful that Matthew has been found safe and well. "To get that call from the police last night to say that he was alive was unbelievable - it was better than a lottery win - you just can't describe it. "Matthew means the world to us, he is such a strong character both mentally and physically, and we are looking forward to being reunited with him." Mr Bryce said he had had limited contact with his son but that he was in good spirits. He added: "We've managed to speak to him briefly on the phone and he is obviously exhausted after his ordeal, but he is in good spirits and happy to be alive. "Our family cannot thank the Coastguard, RNLI volunteers and police officers involved in finding Matthew enough. I would also like to thank our friends and family as well as the hundreds of people who offered their support on social media. "We have been overwhelmed by your support and good wishes and we will be forever grateful to every single one of you." The coastguard said they believed Matthew Bryce's knowledge and wetsuit saved his life. Conditions in the Irish Sea were also "fairly benign" throughout Monday. Dawn Petrie, from the Belfast coastguard operations centre, said: "He'd been in the water for some 30 hours when the helicopter was delighted to spot him. "He was extremely lucky. "He was wearing the right equipment, had a very thick neoprene wetsuit on and did the right thing by staying with his surfboard. "That must have helped him to survive for so long." Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning
A surfer who was rescued after spending 32 hours in the sea has thanked the "heroes" who saved him.
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In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine (FP), Mr Hagel described long, tedious policy meetings that often concluded without decision. The moderate Republican served as Mr Obama's defence chief for two tumultuous years from 2013 to 2015. His tenure ended, he said, with backstabbing and character destruction. Mr Hagel believes that a coherent US strategy for Syria still has not been fleshed out. "The administration is still struggling with a political strategy, but Secretary Kerry is making some progress toward the right strategy," Mr Hagel tells the magazine, in reference to talks with Russian, Iranian and Arab leaders. Mr Hagel's tenure in the Obama administration was marked by contention from the start. Some of Mr Hagel's criticisms come across as minor or personal. "There were way too many meetings" at the White House, he says. And people there said mean things about him behind his back, "vilifying me in a gutless, off-the-record kind of way". But his criticism of Mr Obama's strategy towards Syria and the fight against the Islamic State group is sharp - and is likely to resonate. In short, says Hagel: "We don't have a policy." As Washington prepares to enter another election campaign, his remarks will provide fellow Republicans with yet more proof - from a trusted insider- that Mr Obama is a weak leader without a Middle East strategy. Among those Mr Hagel had the worst relationship with was National Security Advisor Susan Rice. He alleged that meetings chaired by Ms Rice, were long, frequent and fruitless. "We kept kind of deferring the tough decisions. And there were always too many people in the room," he is quoted as saying. He contrasted these meetings with those run by President Barack Obama, which he said were more effectual. However, Mr Hagel seemed to be most critical of Mr Obama's Syria policy. Joining his boss in opposing a large troop deployment to Syria or Iraq, he insisted however on a clearer diplomatic stance. In particular, he pointed to an embarrassing Senate hearing, where he was grilled over whether the US would defend the rebels it was training and equipping in Syria from attacks by Assad forces. "We had never come down on an answer or a conclusion in the White House," Mr Hagel told FP. "I couldn't say 'No'. Christ, every ally would have walked away from us in the Middle East". In a memo penned a month later, Mr Hagel called on the administration to formulate a clearer policy. He said memo was not well received. A month later, Mr Obama accepted his resignation amid reports of differences over policy. Some have suggested that those antagonistic relationships may have led to Mr Hagel being pushed out. The White House has declined a BBC request for comment on this story.
Former US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has criticised the Obama administration for lacking an overarching policy on Syria.
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The Captain America star read Even Superheroes Have Bad Days by Shelley Becker. "Watching CBeebies even though the wee one is in bed...wonder why?!" tweeted Fiona Moore-McGrath. And Lisa Prosser wrote: "Of course only watching this for my daughter... #HubbaHubba." The actor appeared on the BBC children's TV channel on Wednesday - six weeks after an appearance by fellow actor Tom Hardy. Many other mums - as well as those without children - took to Twitter to give their approval.
When Hollywood heart-throb Chris Evans read a bedtime story on CBeebies, the mums seemed to enjoy it more than the toddlers it was aimed it.
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The incident at Cullen Paper Shop in The Square took place at about 07:15 on Thursday. Police Scotland said no-one was injured. A 29-year-old man has been charged and is due to appear at Elgin Sheriff Court on Friday.
A man has been charged in connection with an armed robbery in a Moray village.
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