A memorial mass has been held for a man who died in hospital after he was knocked out in an unlicensed fight at the Tower Complex, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on 19 November.
A memorial mass has been held for a man who died in hospital after he was knocked out in an unlicensed fight at

Friends and family of a boxer with a "gentle smile", who died after being knocked out in his first fight, have attended a memorial mass.

Article: He accused Conservatives on both sides of the campaign of peddling the "politics of despair" and said voters wanted facts and "real vision".
In an appeal to Labour voters to back Remain, he warned that leaving the EU would expose UK workers to more "Tory cuts".
The in-out vote takes place on 23 June.
Voters will be asked whether they want the UK to stay in the European Union or leave it.
In a speech to union leaders at the TUC, Mr McDonnell attacked the Conservatives, saying the referendum had only come about because of "splits" in the party and "their fear of UKIP".
"As a result I think the debate has degenerated into the worst form of negativity and brought out the worst in Westminster politics. The negativity has been overwhelming at times," he said.
Mr McDonnell said voters had told him on the doorstep that they wanted "facts and real vision from politicians", and Labour needed to "rescue" the debate from the "Project Fear coming from all sides of the Tory party".
He added: "It's time to turn this debate around, drive out politics of despair and offer a vision for Britain in Europe."
Setting out what he described as a "positive" case for the EU, Mr McDonnell said it helped to protect workers' rights, tackle tax avoidance and climate change and to support British industries.
"This is a vision of Europe based upon hope and solidarity," he told the audience.
The Remain campaign sees Labour voters as crucial to winning the referendum, and it is trying to mobilise the party's supporters to turn out and vote on 23 June.
Pitching the referendum as a contest between left and right, Mr McDonnell said Labour voters considering backing Leave needed to know "what could be on the cards" if Britain quit the EU.
"In plain English, if we have a Tory Brexit then we have the likelihood of more Tory cuts to come," he said.
The shadow chancellor also defended the levels of immigration into the UK and accused EU exit campaigners of pedalling "anti migrant rubbish".
He said migrants were not to blame for the pressure on public...

Summary: The EU referendum has been "extremely negative" and brought out the worst in Westminster politics, Labour's shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has said.
###
Article: Kuba Moczyk, 22, died in hospital after he was knocked out in an unlicensed fight at the Tower Complex, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on 19 November.
A memorial mass has been held at St Mary's Church in the town.
Father Philip Shryane told the congregation Mr Moczyk' was a "good man" whose "life was boxing".
More on this story and others from Norfolk
He said Mr Moczyk was "a young man with a good heart, with so much to give and so much to look forward to... but always a gentle smile".
His uncle, Marcin Smigaj gave a tribute, in Polish, on behalf of the family. Mr Moczyk was due to be cremated.
Mr Moczyk, originally from Poland, worked at a chicken factory and lived in the town.
His trainer Scott Osinski said earlier that Mr Moczyk was winning the fight when he took the fatal blow.
His opponent is believed to be aged 17.

Summary:


The number of people on unemployment benefit in Northern Ireland is continuing to fall with the number of claims down by 800 in April.
The number of people on unemployment benefit in Northern Ireland is continuing to fall with the number of claims down by 800 in April. The number of people on unemployment benefit in Northern Ireland is continuing to

A man has been charged with murdering a man who was stabbed to death.

Article: It is the 15th consecutive monthly fall and the number now stands at 56,100.
The jobless figure has fallen by almost 9,000 over that 15 month period.
However, the percentage of the working age population claiming the benefit remains the highest in the UK. It is currently 6.2%.
The other measurement of unemployment, the Labour Force Survey, shows a quarterly rate of 7.2%, down by 0.1% on the previous quarter.
That remains above the UK average rate of 6.8% but is well below the Republic of Ireland rate of 11.9%.
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) questions a number of people every month on their employment status, and is the most widely used by labour market economists as it allows international comparisons.
The figures for April also point to a fall in long-term unemployment, down 13% over the year, and youth unemployment, down 2.5% over the year.
The economic inactivity rate, that is mainly people, who for a variety of reasons, are not looking for a job, stands at 26.8%.
It is unchanged over the quarter and down marginally over the year, remaining well above the UK average rate of 21.9%.
Last year, the Stormont Executive launched a strategy aimed at tackling the problem of economic inactivity.
It aims to get 30,000 more people into work over the next 10 years.
Part of the plan includes setting up a task force and incentive schemes for employers.

Summary: The number of people on unemployment benefit in Northern Ireland is continuing to fall with the number of claims down by 800 in April.
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Article: Kevin Paddick, 34, of Rosemary Road, Clacton, Essex, is accused of killing Danny Myers, 23, from Enfield.
Mr Myers died in hospital after he was stabbed at an address in Rochford Road, St Osyth, in the early hours of Monday.
The accused is expected to appear before magistrates later. A 29-year-old woman from Clacton, who was arrested on suspicion of murder, has been released without charge.

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The Electoral Commission has confirmed that the number of people who have been sent postal votes in the referendum has risen to more than 1,000.
The number of people who have been sent postal votes in the referendum has risen to more than 1,000.
The Electoral Commission said it had received more than 1,000

Polling cards were wrongly sent to at least 3,462 EU citizens who are not allowed to vote in the EU referendum, the Electoral Commission has announced.

Article: The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said nine inquiries were complete with 53 more ongoing.
It is currently investigating 211 allegations made against more than 90 South Yorkshire Police officers.
The complaints include alleged corruption and failure to act.
Rachel Cerfontyne, deputy chair of the IPCC, said: "We've certainly found things that have gone wrong and we've certainly found significant failings but in terms of the individuals, whilst we've got concerns around some performance, we've not found is any indication of misconduct."
She added that as a result of the inquiry at least one officer had been interviewed under caution but no charges had been brought.
An IPCC spokesperson said it had made "learning recommendations" to the force concerning the recording of information and the retention of archived materials."
Details of the nature of the allegations at the centre of the nine investigations have not been revealed.
However, Ms Cerfontyne said they related to "leadership, crime reporting and intelligence, as well as attitudes towards survivors and suspected offenders, and the ineffectiveness of police engagement with other agencies".
Inquiries began in November 2014 after South Yorkshire Police referred 13 officers to the IPCC and has now grown into the "the second largest operation" the IPCC has undertaken after the Hillsborough inquiry.
South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Dr Alan Billings, said the length of time the investigation is taking was "intolerable and unfair" on victims and officers and described it as a "denial of natural justice".
Ms Cerfontyne said Dr Billings concerns were "entirely understandable" but the IPCC's priority was to ensure all claims were carried out "rigorously and thoroughly".
She added the inquiry had been slowed down by a number of factors including the fact new allegations continue to be received, the most recent of which were lodged on Monday.
South Yorkshire Police has not responded to the IPCC's announcement.

Summary: The first inquiries into alleged misconduct by officers handling child sex abuse complaints in Rotherham have concluded there is "no case to answer", the police watchdog said.
###
Article: A software "issue" meant polling cards and some postal votes were sent out to some "non eligible" voters.
They are still awaiting responses from six councils so the number could rise.
Leave campaigners Iain Duncan Smith and Bernard Jenkin have expressed "serious concerns" about the "conduct of the EU referendum and its franchise".
They have written to the prime minister complaining of "many and varied" examples of EU nationals being sent polling cards.
On Friday, the Electoral Commission confirmed the numbers affected so far, and said the software provider had since "resolved the issue".
Any postal votes wrongly issued would be cancelled and none of those affected would appear as an eligible voter on the electoral registers used at polling stations, it said.
EU citizens from non-UK countries are not entitled to vote, unless they are citizens of the Irish Republic, Cyprus or Malta.
But Mr Duncan Smith has said a Nottingham City Council officer had emailed a Vote Leave supporter to say the council was unable to check whether people put their correct nationality on an application, and had to assume the information submitted was correct.
Kingston-upon-Thames council in south-west London said a Polish citizen in the area - whose case had been highlighted by the Guido Fawkes website - was sent a polling card because he had put "British" as his nationality on the electoral register.
British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens resident in the UK and many British citizens living abroad are entitled to vote in the referendum.
You can check with your local authority's electoral services team if you are worried that you are not on the register.
If you are not on the register you have until midnight on Tuesday, 7 June to submit an application for a vote. The deadlines for applying for a postal vote at the referendum are:
In England, Scotland or Wales, you can register to vote online anytime at gov.uk/register-to-vote. If you are a British citizen living abroad, you can register to vote online in the same way.
In Northern...

Summary:


The UUP will decide to join the next executive based on whether it has a progressive programme for government and a collective will to deliver it.
Article: The government said it wanted to ensure that militants with dual nationality who were fighting overseas could not return to Australia.
The laws would also strip citizenship from dual nationals who

Australia says it will reveal new laws stripping citizenship from dual nationals engaged in terrorism.

Article: The UUP left the executive last year due to issues surrounding IRA activity and paramilitarism.
Mr Nesbitt said his party had increased focus on the issue and "achieved what we want to achieve".
He also said he would meet with the three-strong panel set up as a result of the Fresh Start deal.
Mr Nesbitt was speaking at the launch of a document setting out his party's vision ahead of May's Assembly election.
It calls for a new era of belief - in Stormont, its politicians and their motivation.
The party intends to publish eight more documents before polling day on areas including health,  economy, education and animal welfare.

Summary: The UUP will decide to join the next executive based on whether it has a progressive programme for government and a collective will to deliver it.
###
Article: The government said it wanted to ensure that militants with dual nationality who were fighting overseas could not return to Australia.
The laws would also strip citizenship from dual nationals who engaged in terrorism inside Australia.
The government said changes to the Australian Citizenship Act would be introduced to parliament on Wednesday.
The new laws could be applied to up to half of the 120 Australians fighting in the Middle East with Islamic State (IS), said Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
"The legislation will update the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 to ensure dual nationals who serve or fight for terrorist groups, or engage in terrorism-related conduct inspired by terrorists groups, automatically lose their Australian citizenship," Mr Abbott said in a statement released on Tuesday.
"The Act will also be amended to ensure dual nationals who are convicted of specified terrorism-related offences automatically lose their Australian citizenship," he said.
Last month, the government said it would give the immigration minister the power to revoke citizenship in regards to terrorism activities but that option was attacked as unconstitutional by many legal experts.
Mr Abbott said on Monday the new laws would not leave anyone stateless and did not exclude the role of the courts.
"This will enable a person who has lost his or her citizenship to seek legal redress," Mr Abbott said.
"If you are convicted of a terrorist offence, again, there will be an assumption that your Australian citizenship is forfeited, should you be a dual national."
Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and Security will examine whether the law should be allowed to operate retrospectively.
"Given that we have a number of dual citizens currently in jail after terrorist convictions, the committee should consider whether it should have retrospective operation at least in those cases," said Mr Abbott.
He said another review would consider what to do with people engaged in terrorism who were solely Australian nationals.

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The UK's Information Commissioner has ruled that the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) must release the tenancy agreement it signed with West Ham United.
The decision comes ahead of West Ham moving into the Olympic Stadium for the start of the 2016-2017 football season.
In reaching a decision dated 3 September, the commissioner

The managers of the Olympic Stadium have been told to make public the details of a rental deal with West Ham.

Article: Prof Stefan Katzenbeisser made the claim at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.
The professor said that the systems which switch trains from one line to another could be shut down if encryption keys went astray.
He stressed that trains would not be in danger, but there could be delays.
Train-switching systems have historically been controlled by proprietary analogue systems.
At the end of the last century, more than 35 incompatible systems were used for railway communications across Europe.
A group of manufacturers met to address this and decided to switch to a single digital standard to ensure they could source replacement parts and make different companies' systems interoperable.
They developed GSM-Railway (GSM-R), a more secure version of the 2G wireless standard used by mobile phones.
It allows traffic controllers and train drivers to talk to each other, and for data to be transmitted recording the vehicle's speed and location.
When used with the European Train Control System, signallers can utilise the data to give the train permission to enter the next part of the track, theoretically making trackside signals unnecessary.
The technology is already being used in parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. Network Rail is rolling it out in the UK and aims to cover all Britain's rail lines by the end of 2014.
Prof Katzenbeisser believes the system is relatively secure from hackers under normal circumstances. However, the computer science expert from Technische Universitat Darmstadt warns that encryption keys, used to protect the communications, could pose risks.
"The main problem I see is a process of changing... keys. This will be a big issue in the future, how to manages these keys safely," he told Reuters news agency at the conference.
The news agency said the keys are downloaded to physical media such as USB sticks before being distributed for installation.
It said the risk would occur if one of them fell into the wrong hands. This could allow hackers to mount a denial of service attack by overwhelming...

Summary: A shift to a mobile communications technology could expose rail networks to hackers, according to a security expert.
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Article: Football supporters submitted a Freedom of Information request to obtain the tenancy agreement amid claims the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) would subsidise the rent.
An Information Commissioner has said LLDC, which denied the claims, must now comply with the FOI request.
LLDC had refused to reveal its rent on grounds of commercial sensitivity.
The decision comes ahead of West Ham moving into the stadium for the start of the 2016-2017 football season.
In reaching a decision dated 3 September, the commissioner said neither West Ham nor LLDC had been able to show how revealing the details of the tenancy agreement would place them at a commercial disadvantage or how this information could be exploited by a competitor.
The stadium was built using tax payers' money and is currently in public ownership.
LLDC manages the stadium and is believed to be considering whether to appeal against the independent commissioner's decision.
A coalition of 14 supporters' trusts from around the country called on LLDC head, London Mayor Boris Johnson, to waive its right to appeal.
They said an appeal would further delay the publication of the tenancy agreement, which they argue is in the public interest.
In a statement, the trusts said the deal raised issues over the apparent use of public money to "subsidise a commercial football business".
"It seems the taxpayer will be paying the cost of a series of overheads which every other club, rightly, has to pay for themselves," they said.
"It is important that the taxpayer is allowed to know exactly what has gone on here, and to judge whether it is a responsible and fair use of public money."
The supporters' trusts had argued the Olympic Stadium deal could give the Hammers a competitive advantage and asked the government to investigate in August, but the government said the deal had been "scrutinised" and rejected their request.
Previously a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: "West Ham United has a concession at the stadium and their...

Summary:


Sales and profits slipped at Boeing last year, driven largely by lower deliveries of its military aircraft.

Article: Shop Direct, which bought the Woolworths brand out of administration, said it had secured a legal settlement with the store in Dorchester, Dorset.
Wellworths will rebrand itself as Wellchester after failing to agree terms that would have let it keep the name but restrict its expansion.
Shop Direct said protecting its brand was of "paramount importance".
Wellworths, launched by former Woolworths manager Claire Robertson in March 2009, has been given two years to change its branding.
First-year profit
The branch was one of 815 that closed after Woolworths went bust in November 2008 with debts of Â£385m.
But Ms Robertson reopened the store, gave about 20 colleagues their jobs back and saw the business make a profit in its first year.
Wellworths said Shop Direct "initially supported the opening of the former Woolworths store in Dorchester as Wellworths, but then sought an agreement which would place limits on the growth of the business under the Wellworths name".
"Regretfully, rather than accept those limits, Wellworths have decided to replace the Wellworths name with Wellchester over the course of the next two years."
Ms Robertson said she was aiming to expand the brand across south and south-west England, in towns similar to Dorchester.
She announced her intentions in March, although other sites have yet to be found.
"We're really happy with the way things are going and have been extremely well supported by our customers in the first year-and-a-half," she added.
Mark Newton-Jones, chief executive of home shopping firm Shop Direct, said: "Protecting your brand is of paramount importance to every business and no less so to us with our Woolworths brand."

Summary: A former Woolworths store which reopened as Wellworths has been forced to change its name.
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Article: The world's number one aeroplane manufacturer made sales of $94.6bn, down 2%, and net earnings of $4.9bn, 5% lower.
It said revenues were likely to slip further in 2017, to between $90.5bn and $92.5bn.
But the US company also expects to deliver more commercial aircraft and to improve its earnings per share.
"Looking forward, our team is intent on accelerating productivity and programme execution," said chairman and chief executive Dennis Muilenburg.
In the period, Boeing made 748 commercial aircraft deliveries, down from 762 in 2015, claiming to have led the market for "the fifth consecutive year".
It also delivered fewer military planes - in particular, its new CH-47 Chinook helicopter and its F/A-18 fighter jet - while sales in the division slipped 7%.
Revenue also fell in the firm's space and services divisions because of weaker demand for satellites and aircraft modernisation.
However, overall group earnings surged 59% in the fourth quarter of the year as demand for the company's commercial planes ticked up.
Boeing also projected higher commercial deliveries this year of between 760 and 765 aircraft.
The company's shares were up by more than 2% in early trading in New York.

Summary:


The UK's biggest supermarket chain has warned that the cost of living is set to rise by more than £500 a year as a result of Brexit.
The warning comes as the supermarket giant reported a rise in profits for the first time in three years.
Tesco said it had seen a "strong start" to

The price of everyday essentials such as food, drink and clothing would rise if the UK votes to leave the EU, former retail bosses have warned.

Article: The legislation also bans the use of agents, or any promotion of women willing to carry babies for others.
Last year the case of a little boy born with Down's syndrome put Thailand's surrogacy industry in the spotlight.
His Thai surrogate mother said his Australian parents abandoned the boy but took his healthy twin sister home.
Under the new law, only married Thai couples or couples with one Thai partner who have been married at least three years can seek surrogacy, and commercial surrogacy is banned.
Anyone caught hiring a surrogate mother faces a maximum jail sentence of 10 years.
Agents touting surrogate mothers would also face imprisonment if caught.
The case of the Australian boy - named "baby Gammy" - made headlines around the world after his Australian parents took his healthy twin sister home and left him in Thailand.
He remained with surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua, 21, and was later granted Australian citizenship so he can have access to medical care.
Concern about the industry worsened when a Japanese man was found to have fathered more than a dozen babies by different Thai surrogates, a case later dubbed "the baby factory".
It has been nearly five years since Thailand began drafting a law on commercial surrogacy. The bill had been stalled by successive political crises, but the plight of Baby Gammy, and then the shocking revelation of Mitsutoki Shigeta's 16 or more surrogate babies, spurred the Thai government into action. They were shamed by the moniker 'Womb of Asia' that Thailand had earned from its booming surrogate business.
The yearning of childless couples for babies will now probably move on to less regulated countries. But will surrogacy end in Thailand? The money to be made is so tempting for poor families that the business may still survive as an underground, illegal one, with all the dangers to the women of exploitation and poor health facilities.
Law enforcement in Thailand is famously lax. And there is still a debate over whether legitimate surrogates should be paid something...

Summary: Thailand has passed a law banning foreigners from paying Thai women to be surrogates, after two high-profile cases sparked debate last year.
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Article: The ex-chief executives, who previously ran Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, M&S and B&Q, said a drop in the pound coupled with supply chain disruption would cause prices to spike.
The average household could be £580 a year worse off as a result, retail union USDAW has predicted.
Vote Leave rejected the claims.
"Independent experts are clear, EU membership and the meddling court that comes with it have put up prices and hurt our economic growth," said Vote Leave chief executive Matthew Elliott.
"The EU is costly, bureaucratic and blind to the impact it has had on people's wages and soaring energy bills."
But the retail bosses, which include former Marks and Spencer boss Marc Bolland and former Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King, insisted that a UK exit from the European Union would be "catastrophic for millions of ordinary families".
USDAW said it had calculated its £580 figure based on an expected fall in sterling in the event of the UK's exit from the EU, together with expected new tariffs imposed on imported EU goods including food, drink and clothing.
The former bosses of Tesco, M&S, Sainsbury's and B&Q already warned last month that prices would rise amid a so-called Brexit, but their ranks have swelled with the addition of the ex-chief executives of Asda and Morrisons.
Richard Lloyd, former executive director of consumer group Which?, said he was now "convinced that leaving the EU will give ordinary British families a worse deal for years to come".
"My advice to consumers is clear - this could be an expensive mistake, don't risk it," he said.
Tough competition from discount rivals together with low inflation means that overall the prices of groceries has steadily fallen.
According to consumer research firm Kantar Worldpanel the price of groceries has fallen every month since September 2014, with the average household now spending £78.10 a week in the supermarket.

Summary:


The BBC's political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, has been suspended for three months after she was filmed saying she was "not a racist" and "not a bigot" during a live broadcast.
The BBC said it had suspended Ms Kuenssberg for three months after it was "concerned" about

Smoking could play a direct role in the development of schizophrenia and needs to be investigated, researchers say.

Article: Such a public  display of state brutality is unprecedented, but the ultra-secretive nature of the state means that observers can never really claim to know exactly what happened and when.
This is how the news came out.
When Kim Jong-il died in 2011 it was Chang Song-thaek, the man who married his sister, who stood right behind the young new leader Kim Jong-un flanking the hearse as it processed through Pyongyang.
He is thought to have mentored his nephew during that crucial transition. Analysts believed he was a powerful force, advising his nephew as he took the helm.
The extraordinary news coming from North Korea was promptly leaked to the media by an opposition lawmaker. South Korean spies told a parliamentary committee that he had been removed from key posts and that two of his close confidantes had been publicly executed in mid-November.
Within hours South Korean intelligence told media that they had indeed heard that Chang Song-Thaek had been removed as vice-chairman of the North's top military body, the National Defence Commission  and as a department head of the ruling Workers' Party.
Still without official confirmation from the north, it became clear that he had at least fallen out of favour when state TV edited him out of a documentary that had reportedly been broadcast nine times already.
When The Great Comrade aired the weekend after news filtered out of Chang's dismissal, it was without pictures of the leader's uncle.  He had been comprehensively cut out the film.
Finally, on 9 December, North Korea provided confirmation in an unprecedented manner by releasing images of Chang Song-thaek being removed from a public meeting.  Pictures released by the KCNA state news agency show uniformed guards approaching Chang Song-thaek.
The guards then appear to remove Mr Chang from his seat in full view of his former colleagues - some stare impassively at the proceedings  while others keep their eyes downturned.
The series of images played out on KCNA that day focused heavily on Kim Jong-un.
Some analysts...

Summary: News of the fall from grace and execution of the once powerful uncle of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un emerged in the space of 10 days.
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Article: The team at King's College London say smokers are more likely to develop the disorder and at a younger age.
Published in the Lancet Psychiatry, their analysis of 61 separate studies suggests nicotine in cigarette smoke may be altering the brain.
Experts said it was a "pretty strong case" but needed more research.
Smoking has long been associated with psychosis, but it has often been believed that schizophrenia patients are more likely to smoke because they use cigarettes as a form of self-medication to ease the distress of hearing voices or having hallucinations.
The team at King's looked at data involving 14,555 smokers and 273,162 non-smokers.
It indicated:
The argument is that if there is a higher rate of smoking before schizophrenia is diagnosed, then smoking is not simply a case of self-medication.
Dr James MacCabe, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's, said: "It's very difficult to establish causation [with this style of study], what we're hoping that this does is really open our eyes to the possibility that tobacco could be a causative agent in psychosis, and we hope this will then lead to other research and clinical trials that would help to provide firmer evidence."
Clearly most smokers do not develop schizophrenia, but the researchers believe it is increasing the risk.
The overall incidence of the condition is one in every 100 people normally, which may be increased to two per 100 by smoking.
The researchers said nicotine altered levels of the brain chemical dopamine, which has already been implicated in the psychosis.
Prof Michael Owen, the director of the Institute of Psychological Medicine at Cardiff University, said the researchers had made a "pretty strong case" that smoking may increase the risk of schizophrenia.
"The fact is that it is very hard to prove causation without a randomised trial, but there are plenty of good reasons already for targeting public health measures very energetically at the mentally ill."
The charity Rethink Mental Illness said: "We...

Summary:


The Royal Mail has painted more than 50 postboxes gold following Team GB's gold medal haul at London 2012.
The town is holding a victory bus parade for more than 24 Olympians on 25 August, along with a civic reception.
The Royal Mail has painted more than 50 postboxes gold following Team GB's gold

The Royal Mail has painted a postbox gold in the Oxfordshire town of Henley-on-Thames - in recognition of its medal winning rowing club.

Article: In a statement,the US Department of Agriculture saidschools buying beef from a central government scheme could now choose from a range of options.
The term has become used to describe a type of beef trimming commonly found in school and restaurant beef in the US.
Reports it was widely used in schools prompted a popular outcry, although the beef is certified as safe to eat.
Social media campaigns and an online petition sprung up to oppose the use of the product. The beef's producerled a campaignto explain it was nutritional and safe.
Last year, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver publicly criticised the product on his now-defunct US TV show, and McDonald's recently said it would phase out the use of "pink slime" in its burgers.
The US agriculture department said on Thursday it would now offer alternatives to the beef - officially called lean finely textured beef - for schools buying meat through its programmes.
The department (USDA) said the change was "due to customer demand".
"USDA continues to affirm the safety of Lean Finely Textured Beef product for all consumers and urges customers to consult science based information on the safety and quality of this product," it added.
School administrators reacted positively to the change.
"Our district has long advocated for purity and disclosure in food products. And we will definitely be moving to the pure ground beef when that becomes available," John Schuster, spokesman for Florida's Miami-Dade school system, told the Associated Press.
"Pink slime" - a term reportedly coined by a microbiologist working for the US government - is a form of lean beef formed by reclaiming the small parts of meat from leftover cuts with a high fat content.
The beef is spun in a centrifuge to separate the meat from the fat, before the final product is treated with a puff of ammonium hydroxide gas to kill any bacteria.
Produced in bulk by a firm in South Dakota, the pejorative nature of the term "pink slime" has coloured the debate, some experts say.
It is "unappetising", Sarah Klein,...

Summary: Schools across the US are to be allowed to stop serving so-called "pink slime" beef to their pupils at mealtimes.
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Article: The town is home to the prestigious Leander Club, which has trained more than 100 Olympic medal-winning rowers.
Prime Minister David Cameron previously said the plan was a "very good idea".
Royal Mail spokesman Simon Fellman said: "We're delighted to do it and we're pleased so many people are delighted about it."
The Royal Mail has painted more than 50 postboxes gold following Team GB's gold medal haul at London 2012.
Originally it said it was only painting them in "winners' home towns, or towns with which they are closely associated".
Town mayor Elizabeth Hodgkin said: "We are the home of rowing... I feel very excited about it.
"I think it's wonderful news, it's a great thing for the town."
Mr Fellman said: "It's almost like the torch has come again. It's a piece of the Olympics coming back to people's doorsteps.
"The support for the boxes, it's kind of like the new tourist attraction. It's fantastic and I think people have really taken it to their hearts."
The Henley-on-Thames postbox was painted on Friday.
The town is holding a victory bus parade for more than 24 Olympians on 25 August, along with a civic reception.

Summary:


Guernsey's shooting team has won gold in the shooting competition at the 2015 Island Games.
Guernsey's shooting team has won gold in the shooting competition at the 2015 Island Games.
Guernsey's shooting team has won gold in the shooting competition at the 2015 Island Games. Guernsey's shooting

Guernsey have retained their Island Games team table tennis title after beating Gotland 4-2 in Jersey.

Article: A number of options are being considered to improve care in the north of the county, including removing consultant-led services from Whitehaven's West Cumberland Hospital.
The boss of North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust said it does not look like Whitehaven has the "infrastructure" to maintain services.
Midwives have raised safety concerns.
They have warned mothers and babies "may die" if consultant-led maternity services are removed from Whitehaven and concentrated at Carlisle Cumberland Infirmary.
Trust chief executive Stephen Eames told BBC Cumbria: "The options we are looking at are likely to mean there will be changes in maternity services and they're likely to mean we'll need to concentrate our expertise in our consultant staff in one place.
"Everybody involved would prefer a consultant-led service in both, but I think the reality is it isn't just about maternity, it's about the other clinical services that support it.
"So while we've made some improvements in children's services recruitment it doesn't look like we can recruit the infrastructure to support two independent consultant-led services."
Midwives at Whitehaven are concerned mothers facing unexpected problems would need a potentially risky 40-mile (64km) transfer across the county.
Earlier this month, Bernadette Bowness said: "We're going to become a third world area because of our inaccessibility to a consultant-led unit.
"If ladies have to be transferred, mothers may die, babies may die.
"If babies have foetal distress, what with the transfer time they may end up brain damaged."
A public consultation exercise will be launched next month to gauge opinion on the future direction of services provided by the trust.
The organisation has been in special measures since 2014 after Care Quality Commission inspectors judged it to be failing to provide a sufficiently high level of care in a number of areas.

Summary: Further doubt has been cast over the future of specialist-led maternity care at a Cumbrian hospital.
###
Article: Guernsey won gold in 2011, the last time table tennis was included in the sports programme for the Island Games.
Alice Loveridge won her women's singles match and teamed up with Dawn Morgan and Garry Dodd for doubles wins.
Dodd beat Bjorn Axelsson 3-1 in the singles, but lost to Nisse Lundberg, who also beat Alex Robinson 3-0 in the opening men's singles match.
Gotland and Guernsey have shared the table tennis gold medals between them for the past decade.
Gotland took gold in 2009, when Guernsey were third, and beat the Sarnians in the 2007 final.
That victory was revenge for the 2005 final, when Guernsey beat the Swedish island.Island hotshots increase medal tally
Jonathan De La Haye won Jersey's seventh shooting gold medal at the 2015 Island Games.
De La Haye took top spot in the men's individual sport trap, beating Dan Bishop of the Isle of Wight by a single point with Guernsey's Andrew Ashplant getting the bronze.
Sarah Campion and Susan De Gruchy won silver in the women's 100 yards prone rifle team event, finishing 15 points behind eventual winners Isle of Man.
Fellow Jersey shooter Caroline De La Haye won bronze in the women's individual sport trap.
Guernsey's Jacek Hanca has won silver in the 50m free pistol, finishing 13 points off Matthew Reed from the Isle of Wight.
Sark celebrated a second shooting medal as Nick Dewe returned to the podium. Dewe, who won team automatic ball trap bronze on Monday, took silver in the individual event.

Summary:


The Land Registry has released its latest house price index, which shows that house prices rose by 7.1% in the year to the end of January, with the typical home costing Â£191,812.
The average price of a home in England and Wales rose by 2.6% in the 12

The population of Northern Ireland is projected to rise by 5.3% to 1,938,700 by 2024.

Article: Property prices rose by 7.1% on average in the year to the end of January, with the typical home costing Â£191,812, the Land Registry said.
The fastest increase was a 13.9% rise in London, compared with the slowest of 0.2% in the North East of England.
Official figures showed the average cost of renting rose at a slower pace.
Private rental prices paid by tenants in Britain rose by 2.6% in the 12 months to the end of January, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Rents rose by 2.7% in England, 0.3% in Wales and 0.8% in Scotland, it concluded.
These figures include new instructions and people already in a rental arrangement. Agents say that the cost of new rental agreements is going up much faster than that.
The Land Registry said that the North East and North West of England recorded falls in property prices in January compared with December.
All other regions saw a month-on-month rise in prices ranging from a 3.7% increase in Wales to a 0.6% rise in Yorkshire and the Humber.
These monthly figures can be relatively volatile and the way these changes are calculated varies between house price surveys.
The Land Registry said that, in the year to the end of January, the cost of flats and maisonettes rose faster than any other type of property, up by 8.2%.
Many commentators are predicting further house price increases in many areas of the UK, owing to the number of homes on the market failing to match demand.

Summary: House prices rose in every region of England and Wales in the past year - but the pace of increase was vastly different, figures show.
###
Article: The figures come from a report produced by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra).
It uses assumptions about births, deaths and migration to project population changes.
It predicts that the working-age population will rise by less than 1% but the population aged 65 and over is projected to increase by almost 26%.
The report also assumes that the level of migration to Northern Ireland will continue to be very low.
It breaks down population changes by local government district and predicts the largest rise of 10.4%, or 21,400 people, in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon.
The smallest increase is predicted for Derry City and Strabane, up by 1.5% or 2,200 people.
Derry City and Strabane is one of seven out of 11 areas projected to see a decline in their work-age populations.
Over the longer term, the population of Northern Ireland is projected to reach two million by mid-2034.
By mid-2038, annual population growth is projected to fall below 0.2% for the first time since mid-1999, due to a falling number of births and rising number of deaths as a result of an ageing population.
The population aged 65 and over is projected to increase by 74.4%, or 498,500 people, from mid-2014 to mid-2039, with the result that one in four people (24.7%) will be in this age category.
The report does not attempt to predict the impact that future government policies or changing economic circumstances might have on demographic behaviour.

Summary:


The Conservative Party has announced that it will not be fielding a candidate in the Ealing Central and Acton constituency.
The party said it had decided to withdraw from the seat after the local Conservative Association decided to field a candidate.
The Conservative Party said it had decided to withdraw from the seat after the local Conservative Association

Ealing Central and Acton is one of about 20 seats that could shape the outcome of the election.

Article: The business lobby group said the UK's dependence on consumer spending and mortgages meant it was "particularly sensitive" to interest rates.
The warning came as the BCC trimmed its growth forecast for 2014 to 3% from 3.2% and for 2015 to 2.6% from 2.8%.
It said the lowered forecast was an "ominous warning sign".
The group blamed lower-than-expected growth in services, household consumption and exports for the cut in its growth forecast.
"Downgrades to our growth forecast are a warning sign that we still face a number of hurdles to securing a balanced and sustainable recovery," said BCC director general John Longworth.
He warned that factors such as the weak eurozone economy, slowing growth in emerging markets and political uncertainty in Ukraine and the Middle East were hitting both business and consumer confidence.
The BCC's chief economist David Kern said the impact of these "unavoidable factors" meant low interest rates were important to "minimise the risk of the recovery stalling".
Interest rates have been at their historic low of 0.5% for more than five years, with just two out of the Bank of England's nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee voting to increase rates in recent months.
The BCC expects a first interest rise to 0.75% in the third quarter of next year, with rates reaching 1.75% by the end of 2016.
Its prediction for growth this year is in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)'s recent Autumn Statement forecast.
The government's independent forecaster expects 3% growth this year and 2.4% next year.
Despite the downgrade, if the predictions are correct, 2014 will mark the UK's fastest rate of growth for seven years.

Summary: A premature interest rate rise could present a "huge risk" to the British economy, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has warned.
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Article: Media playback is unsupported on your device
7 April 2015 Last updated at 08:39 BST
Labour needs a swing of 3.9% to oust the Conservative candidate in the west London constituency.
Some residents are concerned that local services cannot support the extra residents that house building will attract.
BBC London's Victoria Hollins reports.
The known candidates for the 2015 General Election for Ealing Central and Acton are:
Angie Bray Conservative Party, Jon Ball Liberal Democrats, Peter Florence UK Independence Party, Rupa Huq Labour Party, Tom Sharman Green Party

Summary:


Scores of local authorities in England plan to increase council tax by up to 5% in 2017-8, according to research.

Article: The 17-year-old attacked Gordon Friel, 40, in Paisley last September, leaving him with a string of injuries including bleeding on the brain.
He had earlier pled guilty to assaulting Mr Friel to his severe injury and to danger of his life.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed for three years and four months.
He was initially charged with attempted murder for what the judge described as a "savage assault".
Two girls - aged 17 and 16 - have also admitted a charge of assaulting the tannery worker.
The 17-year-old girl was ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and the 16-year-old 100 hours. Neither of the girls can be identified.
The High Court in Glasgow heard the victim was set upon after he tried to act as a peacemaker when two teenagers began arguing.
Mr Friel had been standing in Paisley's High Street eating a takeaway when the row broke out.
He approached the pair and told the bigger of the two the smaller one did not want a fight.
Prosecutor David Taylor said: "At this point the 17-year-old girl became involved, dragging Gordon to the ground and punching and kicking him on the body.
"She was joined by the 16-year-old girl who shouted 'get him' and began punching him."
Mr Friel managed to get away before the 17-year-old boy arrived, the court was told.
The boy - who wrongly believed Mr Friel had attacked the older girl - and others then chased him to Forbes Place.
The group went on to stamp on the victim's head, leaving a "footwear mark" on his head.
He suffered bleeding in the brain, a liver injury and rib fractures, and needed three operations.
Mr Taylor said: "Before the incident Mr Friel weighed around 11 stone. On his discharge from hospital his weight was five-and-a-half stone.
"He was so weak he had to use a Zimmer frame to aid walking."
The court was told Mr Friel is now back at work and is expected to make a full recovery, although he has no memory of his ordeal.
The 17-year-old boy's lawyer, Billy Lavelle, said his client was now "ashamed of his actions".

Summary: A teenager who stamped on a man who was trying to break up a fight has been jailed.
###
Article: The Local Government Information Unit said 94% of the 131 councils it spoke to were intending to put up bills, with their finances at "breaking point".
A third of these, 34% in total, intend to hike bills by more than 2% in April.
Councils, many of whom have frozen bills in recent years, say it will not be enough to plug the funding "gap" exacerbated by the cost of social care.
But the government says council tax is expected to be lower in real terms at the end of this Parliament than it was in 2010.
Although councils in Wales were included in the survey, the Welsh government has said it will not allow councils to raise bills to pay for social care.
Ministers say they are bringing forward money to help councils pay for social care by increasing the "precept" - a supplement that councils are able to charge on bills - from 2% to 5% over the next two years.
Years of cuts to central government funding since 2011 have put pressure on the budgets of the 375 councils in England and Wales, with many paring back core services. Financial pressures on county councils and unitary authorities that provide adult social care have become particularly acute in the past year.
Surrey County Council abandoned controversial plans this week to hold a referendum on a 15% rise in council tax which it said was needed to pay for social care. It will now increase bills by 4.99% - the maximum it can do without holding a public vote.
Labour have accused the government of doing a sweetheart deal with the Tory-controlled council to call off the referendum - claims it denies.
Publishing its research, the Local Government Information Unit said five district councils which do not provide social care had wanted to hold local referendums to sanction council tax rises above 2% but had "thought better" of it in recent weeks.
Inflation, as measured by the CPI index, currently stands at 1.6% but is projected to rise to 2.7% next year.
The LGIU said there was growing concern in town halls that the current system of funding local authorities -...

Summary:


A Derbyshire police officer has been cleared of murdering a woman in 1973.
The Home Office said it would send any new criminal evidence to the police.
Evidence of police misconduct would be referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the Home Office added.
Derbyshire police said the case was closed

A retired police officer has reported Derbyshire police to the Home Office over claims they withheld evidence in a 1973 murder case.

Article: Thistle say that, if not, the two clubs and Hamilton would be due compensation for having fewer guaranteed games with Celtic and Rangers next season.
"That means an expected loss in revenues for the club of £120,000," Thistle suggested in a statement.
The Scottish Professional Football League has yet to comment.
Since the top flight was expanded to 12 clubs in 2013, the league has split into two sections of six teams for the final five fixtures.
"In previous seasons, where both Rangers and Celtic were in the Premiership, pre-split fixtures have been organised to ensure that every club plays three home games against the Old Firm," said Thistle.
"Without any notification from the SPFL to the contrary, we had expected that this practice would continue this season and that is the basis on which we and other clubs have budgeted.
"Having had no communication from the SPFL explaining these changes prior to this morning's announcement, Partick Thistle intends to seek compensation from the SPFL for all clubs concerned, or that they reconsider the fixture list to ensure a level playing field for all."
Thistle point out that Dundee, Hearts and Inverness Caledonian Thistle will have four home games each against the Old Firm before the split.
Expressing "anger and frustration", the Glasgow club say this will hand each of those clubs "an unexpected bonus" of around £120,000 each for the coming season.
Thistle, who had been looking forward to extra city derbies following Rangers' return to the top flight after a gap of four years, argue that this will also hamper them, Accies and Well in their quest for league points.
"Financial implications aside, we believe there is a significant sporting disadvantage created by the fixture list as it stands," they state.
"Pre-split, we will make four trips away to the two biggest clubs in the country while some clubs will only make two."
Thistle's statement was followed by Motherwell's board expressing its "extreme anger", saying it was a situation that had never occurred under the...

Summary: Motherwell and Partick Thistle have expressed their anger at new Scottish Premiership fixtures and are demanding an amended schedule.
###
Article: Bakewell man Stephen Downing was convicted in 1974 for killing Wendy Sewell but that was overturned in 2002.
Chris Clark said he has uncovered a crucial pathology report showing she was strangled, which was never told to the jury.
The Home Office said it would send any new criminal evidence to the police.
Evidence of police misconduct would be referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the Home Office added.
Derbyshire police said the case was closed after a reinvestigation in 2002.
Mr Clark, a retired Norfolk police officer, said he has sent his findings to the Home Office after obtaining the original pathology report last month.
He said he believed the report showed Mrs Sewell had clear signs of being strangled.
She was found battered in a Bakewell cemetery in 1973 and died in hospital two days later.
Mr Downing admitted beating her with a pickaxe handle but later retracted that statement, only to be found guilty by a jury.
"I'm reporting the facts as I see them. The pathologist had evidence in his report that could have exonerated Stephen Downing," Mr Clark said.
He said the pathologist's report showed bruising on her neck consistent with a "knotted ligature" used to garrotte her and a rash in her lungs and airways, possibly caused by strangulation.
Mr Clark said none of this was used in Mr Downing's trial. He added the evidence may mean her death was linked to the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe.
Mr Downing was 17 at the time of Mrs Sewell's murder but was assessed as having a mental age of 11.
His father Ray Downing and Matlock Mercury editor Don Hale campaigned for his release and in 2002 the Court of Appeal found his conviction unsafe because of "procedural reasons".
Mr Hale said the pathology report directly conflicted with the evidence the police presented at the time and called for an independent investigation into the murder.
"This information was available within two or three days of Mr Downing being arrested and it completely contradicts this so-called confession," he said.
But...

Summary:


The ONS said sales volumes increased by 1.7% in November from the month before, the Office for National Statistics said.
Compared with the same month last year, sales were up by 5%.
However, Keith Richardson from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking said it was "too early" to say whether Black

UK retail sales rose by more than expected in November, as shops offered promotions at the end of the month in the run up to Black Friday.

Article: Letter combinations such as HJ or NS - denoting Hitler Youth and National Socialism - have long been prohibited on personalised plates in Austria.
Now transport officials have published a list of more than 30 more cryptic codes that have been banned.
They include number combinations such as 88, which represents "Heil Hitler".
New legislation, which came into force on Thursday, also outlaws the use of IS or ISIS on personalised number plates in a bid to stop people showing their support for the Islamic State group.
"It has been forbidden to have obvious Nazi number plates since personalised plates went on sale in 1989," a spokeswoman for Austria's transport ministry told the BBC.
"But then we learned that the far-right scene is moving away from the more obvious codes to more hidden ones.
"So we had to change the law. Civil servants deciding if someone can choose a certain number plate now know which codes are being used by the far-right scene."
Combinations no longer allowed include:
Only new number plates will be affected by the change in the law.
Abbreviations now outlawed include FG, which stands for "Fuehrer's Geburtstag", meaning "leader's birthday", and WP for "white power".
Number combinations have not previously been included, but now codes such as 18 - meaning 'Adolf Hitler' because of where A and H come in the alphabet - are also now prohibited.
The new list was compiled in co-operation with the Mauthausen Committee, an organisation representing former concentration camp prisoners. Officials say it is not exhaustive.
Austrian Transport Minister Alois Stoeger, who pushed for the law change, has said: "National Socialist ideology has no place in our society."
More than half a million Austrians have currently personalised licence plates, according to Austria's public broadcaster, ORF.
The move in Austria follows similar efforts in Germany to crack down on neo-Nazi symbols.
In Germany, the law says that number plates must not offend public morals. Each state has its own list of banned combinations, and...

Summary: Austria is cracking down on personalised number plates used by neo-Nazis, by banning lesser-known codes with hidden far-right symbolism.
###
Article: Sales volumes increased by 1.7% in November from the month before, the Office for National Statistics said.
Compared with the same month last year, sales were up by 5%.
However, Keith Richardson from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking said it was "too early" to say whether Black Friday was really a success for retailers.
"Retailers were better prepared this year and adapted the US-style Black Friday to better reflect British culture. Some chose not to take part while many others spread the discounts over several days to better protect margins and ease the burden on their websites and IT platforms."
The ONS said the amount spent by shoppers was up 1.4% in November compared with the month before, and was also up 1.4% from the same point a year earlier.
The value of online sales increased by 4.9% in November from October, and were 12.7% higher compared with last year.
"Retailers may see some pay-back after the Black Friday promotions led shoppers to pull-forward spending that would otherwise have taken place in December, but the underlying sales trend looks set to remain strong as we head into 2016," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.
He added that spending was not just being driven by discounts. "Households are benefitting from improved job security, low inflation and falling energy prices, the latter helping free-up more income to boost retail sales."

Summary:


The owners of Dunsfold Park aerodrome in Surrey have been ordered to pay £1.5m to the council after a planning inspector ruled that the site was not suitable for unrestricted aviation use.
The owners of Dunsfold Park aerodrome in Surrey have been ordered to pay £1.5m

The owners of Dunsfold Park aerodrome, which is home to the BBC's Top Gear, have lost their latest fight for unrestricted flying.

Article: The show at the Cartwright Hall gallery will focus on his early life and work.
Hockney was born in Bradford in 1937. As a teenager, he would use a pram loaded with paints and brushes as a mobile art studio on the city streets.
He went on to find fame at the Royal College of Art in London in the 1960s.
A major show of Hockney's landscapes at the Royal Academy earlier this year, titled A Bigger Picture, attracted more than 600,000 people.
Cartwright Hall is asking Bradford residents to take items including paintings, drawings, photographs and Christmas cards to a drop-in day on Wednesday 26 September between 11:00 and 15:00 BST, or to contact curators directly.
The gallery said it hoped the exhibition, which will run from December until next April, would be "a truly, uniquely Bradford exhibition".
Hockney studied at Bradford College of Art in the mid-1950s.
Cartwright Hall's collection includes Hockney's Bolton Junction, Eccleshill, which was painted while he was at art college and which was featured in the Royal Academy show.
Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Bradford Council's executive member for culture, said: "David Hockney is one of Bradford's most famous sons.
"It's therefore fitting that this exhibition will have a local perspective with valuable contributions from the district's residents."

Summary: A gallery in David Hockney's home town of Bradford is asking people who met him at the start of his career to dig out works of art or pieces of memorabilia for a new exhibition.
###
Article: The aerodrome's owners had claimed that "permanent unrestricted planning permission" was granted in 1951.
However, this was rejected by Waverley Borough Council in July 2011 and the planning inspector in April 2012.
A judge at the High Court said the 1951 permission did not grant permission for unrestricted flying.
Lord Justice Sullivan said the permission for "flight testing" did not amount to consent for unrestricted flying of aircraft.
He said the certificate sought by the owners was pursued on the alleged basis that there was no material difference, in land use terms, between unrestricted numbers of passenger or cargo flights, and flight testing.
He said: "The use of land as a bus station is not the same thing as use of land for the testing of buses."
He added: "There can be no doubt that, properly construed, the 1951 planning permission does not permit the airfield to be used for unrestricted aviation activities."
Dunsfold Park was constructed during World War Two by the Canadian Army. It is now used by about 100 commercial operators and most famously as the venue for the filming of Top Gear.
The owners have the right to appeal the latest decision to the Supreme Court.

Summary:


The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the UK's "whole-life" tariff on prisoners is incompatible with human rights.
The court said the UK's "whole-life" tariff on prisoners was "unjustifiable" and "unjustifiable in the light of the European Convention on Human Rights

The former leader of the Alliance party Lord Alderdice has criticised plans contained in the "Fresh Start" deal.

Article: The court had said in 2013 that whole-life sentences breached human rights because it was not clear if there was the chance of a review of such cases.
Judges have now said this is not the case with murderer Arthur Hutchinson, who challenged his whole-life sentence.
The UK was considered to be in line with human rights laws, they added.
The European court had previously said there had to be the possibility of a review at some stage and that current laws allowing for release in exceptional circumstances were unclear.
The Court of Appeal in the UK then said in 2014 that the law in England and Wales "is clear as to 'possible exceptional release of whole-life prisoners'".
It said the justice secretary had the power to release a prisoner on licence if they were satisfied exceptional circumstances existed that justified it on compassionate grounds.
The Strasbourg-based court ruled that in Hutchinson's case there had been no violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which relates to inhuman and degrading treatment.
The judges said in a written ruling: "In the circumstances of this case where, following the Grand Chamber's judgment in which it expressed doubts about the clarity of domestic law, the national court has specifically addressed those doubts and set out an unequivocal statement of the legal position, the court must accept the national court's interpretation of domestic law."
The ruling is perhaps more significant politically than it is legally.
In 2013, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled that whole-life sentences passed on the most heinous murderers were incompatible with human rights and amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment. The reason was the lack of a proper review and so the lack of hope, however remote, of eventual release.
That caused political ructions. It was cited by the Conservatives in proposals published last year to scrap the Human Rights Act in favour of a British Bill of Rights and to ensure that Parliament was not bound by Strasbourg...

Summary: British courts do have the right to impose whole-life tariffs on prisoners who are jailed for life, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.
###
Article: Lord Alderdice said proposals for a new international body to monitor paramilitary activity would have "much less power" than the panel he sat on.
He was a member of the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) which operated from 2004 to 2011.
The Liberal Democrat peer said the new body would only be able to produce a few proposals for the Executive.
"Which will then fall into disagreement about how they should be implemented," he said.
Lord Alderdice spoke on Tuesday's debate on the Northern Ireland Welfare Reform Bill in the House of Lords.
The former Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Robin Eames also used the debate to express his disappointment that the "Fresh Start" deal did not include any agreement on the legacy of the troubles.
Lord Eames, who was co-chair of a consultative group on the past, told peers he was well aware of the "desperate plight" of troubles' victims.
He urged the government to publish the legacy papers prepared during the inter-party negotiations, arguing that the victims "deserve nothing less".
Lord Eames expressed the hope that legacy issues might yet be tackled, adding that "perhaps the situation is not as bleak as it seems".
The government spokesman, Lord Dunlop, said the establishment of a new monitoring body to assess the impact of paramilitary activity on local communities is "a crucial part" of the "Fresh Start" deal.
Lord Dunlop said the government regretted the fact that an agreement on legacy issues could not be reached, and remained committed to continuing to work to build a consensus.

Summary:


The Scottish Government has announced a £1.5m fund to help small businesses in Scotland to develop their export potential.
The Scottish Government has announced a £1.5m fund to help small businesses in Scotland to develop their export potential.
The Scottish Government has announced a £1.5m fund to help

New rules are urgently needed to protect the open seas, scientists have warned.

Article: They will include Aberfeldy-based furniture maker Angus Ross, Edinburgh designer Jennifer Gray and Fife-based creative studio Tom Pigeon.
Others taking part will be Linlithgow's Method Studio, Glasgow's Scotland Re:Designed and Scottish silversmiths.
National body, Craft Scotland, has arranged a showcase event for Ross and Gray.
Ross' products included the Unstable Stool, which is made from a single length of wood which is steamed and then bent into shape. The design was shortlisted for The Wood Awards in 2009.
Gray's jewellery has included a bracelet made to mark 20 years since the creation of Dolly the Sheep, a cloned sheep created at the Roslin Institute just outside Edinburgh.

Summary: Scottish makers are to exhibit their work at London Craft Week, which opens on Wednesday.
###
Article: A report to a UN ocean conference in New York points out that more than 60% of the ocean has no rules because it’s outside national jurisdiction.
It says the open ocean is at risk from climate change, over-fishing, deep sea mining, farm pollution and plastics.
The authors say one area – the Bay of Bengal - is at a tipping point which could impact on global fish stocks.
The report was commissioned to inform delegates preparing a UN resolution on governance of the open ocean.
Representatives in New York are preparing a text that could cover everything from establishing marine protected areas to distributing the benefits of valuable biotech products generated from the seas.
One of the report’s authors, Prof Alex Rogers from Oxford University, told BBC News: “This is very, very important. A lot of states are looking towards developing industrial activities in the ocean – fishing, deep-sea mining, renewable energy… even aquaculture offshore.
“It’s really vital that we come to some international agreement on how to protect or manage biodiversity on high seas in the face of all these pressures.”
The UN is focusing discussion on three areas:
Together they are categorised under a new UN acronym – BBNJ. That’s Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction.
Prof Rogers’ report is a review of new science over the past five years. He says he realises how little is known about some essential ocean processes, and mentions the Bay of Bengal issue as a source of great concern.
The issue there is nitrogen, which performs an positive role in fertilising algae at the bottom of the food chain, but can also have negative effects if there’s too much of it in the water.
At the moment, nitrogen fertilisers in the Bay of Bengal are running off farmland and over-fertilising algae. This in turn encourages bacteria, which capture oxygen. Slowly marine life in the area disappears.
But the Bay of Bengal is now on the verge of going one destructive stage more.
The report says if oxygen levels decrease further as a result of run-off or...

Summary:


A man has been jailed for life for the murder of his wife after she was found dead in their home.
The court heard that Mr Constant, 87, had been suffering from dementia and had been living in a care home in Wisbech.
He had been granted bail and had been living with his wife,

A man charged with murdering his wife at a care home has died before his court case could be heard.

Article: He was found guilty of bribery, abuse of power and "intentionally disclosing national secrets", China's official Xinhua news agency reports.
Until his retirement in 2012, Zhou was one of China's most powerful men.
He was put under investigation one year later as part of President Xi Jinping's major anti-corruption campaign.
State TV showed a clip of Zhou, 72, pleading guilty at a closed-door trial in the northern city of Tianjin. When responding to the judge, he said he would not launch an appeal.
"I've realised the harm I've caused to the party and the people. I plead guilty and I regret my crimes," he said.
BBC China editor Carrie Gracie: Power politics exposed by fall of security boss
How China is reacting
The verdict caught many people off guard.
It was expected that Zhou Yongkang's trial would be played out for the Chinese public; his failings strung out for every citizen to see.
In similar high-profile cases, like that of Zhou's protege, Bo Xilai, the foreign and Chinese media were given 48 hours' notice that Bo's trial would begin. Reporters camped outside the courthouse for days, breathlessly waiting for updates.
In March, the head of China's Supreme People's Court had promised that Zhou Yongkang's trial would be "open in accordance with the law". The trial was set to take place in the eastern port city of Tianjin. It seemed Zhou was set to follow Bo's pattern. Like other senior officials convicted of serious crimes, it was expected he would receive a suspended death sentence.
Months passed without any word. Some guessed that Zhou Yongkang was not co-operating with prosecutors. Others believed that his crimes were too much of an embarrassment for the government.
After all, Zhou Yongkang had held a seat at the very top of the Chinese government pyramid. If he was thoroughly corrupt, some in China might ask whether others at the top were rotten too.
In the end, the decision to keep Zhou Yongkang's trial secret matches the case surrounding him, and Zhou's own public persona: inaccessible and...

Summary: China's ex-security chief Zhou Yongkang has been jailed for life - the most senior politician to face corruption charges under Communist rule.
###
Article: Brendon Constant, 87, was accused of smothering his 86-year-old wife Jean with a plastic bag at Poppyfields care home in Eynesbury, near St Neots.
He died in hospital after suffering "catastrophic" head injuries in a fall at home, Cambridge Crown Court heard.
Mr Constant, of Richmond Road, Wisbech, did not enter a plea to the murder charge before his death.
Cambridge Crown Court heard he had attempted to kill himself at the same time as his wife was killed last August but survived and faced court proceedings.
His barrister, Sally Hobson, said he suffered a fall at home on April 27 after celebrating his grandson's birthday and that there was "no suggestion he took his own life".
She said: "When he retired to bed, he spoke briefly to his great-granddaughter, then went upstairs and fell and suffered catastrophic head injuries."
Mr Constant was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and his family agreed to switch off his life support machine the following day.
"He had hoped to end his life together with his wife in August last year in circumstances they hoped would cause the least distress and discomfort," Mrs Hobson said.
Judge David Farrell voiced concerns over the fact Mr Constant had been granted bail and fell at home.
He said: "Everyone thought he was in a safe environment so I'm concerned all proper care was given to him."
A post-mortem examination concluded that Mrs Constant died of asphyxia in association with heart disease.
Her body was discovered by police who were called to Poppyfields care home in Chapman Way, Eynesbury, near St Neots, on August 22.

Summary:


Hereford United have been expelled from the Football Conference following the club's failure to pay their bills.

Article: The royal couple were among the guests invited to attend the global financial firm ICAP's 23rd annual charity day.
Traders in London taught them how to close deals at the Central European interest rates desk.
ICAP gives away one day's revenue and commissions every year, which enables them to fund philanthropic projects and research around the world.
The event raises millions each year for charities that the duke and duchess are patrons of such as SkillForce, Place2Be and Sports Aid.
Since ICAP's fundraising day was started in 1993, nearly Â£120m has been raised for charity.
The duchess danced in celebration after the couple closed deals worth millions of euros over the phone.
The duke later joked about the "dodgy" outfits worn by some of the staff, which ranged from gangsters and molls to belly dancers and comic book characters such as Batman and Iron Man.
He was guided through the trade by broker Dan Lebeau, who was wearing three-inch heels.
Mr Lebeau said: "He was saying to me, basically 'where did you get them from?'
"It was very difficult to find size 10 high heels in a normal shop."
Also at the event were the prime minister's wife, Samantha Cameron, actor Jeremy Irons and broadcaster Jeremy Paxman.

Summary: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have joined City brokers in fancy dress on the trading floor at a charity event.
###
Article: The Bulls' fate has been in the balance since the full extent of their financial worries emerged in the weeks since their dramatic final-day escape sent Chester down instead.
Chester have been reinstated as a Conference Premier club and Hayes & Yeading will stay in Conference South.
"Hereford United can have no complaints. The Conference bent over backwards to help them.
"I described the news of the board's offer of an extension on Friday evening as not so much 'last chance saloon', but rather 'last orders in last chance saloon' and United have seemingly chosen not to offer the league the assurances they were seeking.
"It is a desperately sad day for all Hereford supporters, but the Bulls have nobody to blame but themselves.
"You have to feel very sorry for those players who gave their all at Aldershot on the last day of the season to keep Hereford in the Conference Premier. Sadly, those efforts now count for nothing."
The Conference had originally offered a payment deadline of Thursday, 5 June.
The club's debt to their football creditors, including former boss Martin Foyle, members of the current squad, other club staff and clubs from whom the Bulls loaned players during the 2013-14 season, added up to £148,000.
That deadline was extended three times, to Friday, 6 June, then again to Saturday, 7 June and for a third time until Thursday, 12 June.
But it became clear on Tuesday that the Bulls, taken over last week by London businessman Tommy Agombar, would not make that deadline - and the Conference has now acted.
The last team to be expelled from the Conference was Chester City in February 2010.
They reformed as Chester FC two months later - and it is now they who have taken the Bulls' place, following a dramatic final day of the season when, almost simultaneously, a late Hereford winning goal at Aldershot and a Salisbury equaliser at Chester kept the Bulls up.
By way of an added twist, Chester announced on Tuesday that Kingsley James, who was in Hereford's team that day, has moved to Bumpers Lane.
26 April -...

Summary:


Europe has begun to roll out a data superhighway in orbit above the Earth.

Article: In a speech read on his behalf at the ceremony in Sweden, he said he thought his odds of winning were as likely as him "standing on the moon".
The songwriter told those at the event in Sweden he was there "in spirit" and thanked the Academy for seeing his songs as works of literature.
Patti Smith performed his song A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall at the ceremony.
But the singer, who is a friend of Dylan's, had to apologise during her rendition after nerves got the better of her and she forgot the lyrics.
"Sorry, can we stop that section," she said as the audience began to applaud her. "I apologise, I'm so nervous."
In the speech, read out by the US ambassador in Sweden, Azita Raji, Dylan said he had joined the "rare company" of Nobel-winning writers.
He said from an early age he had read and absorbed the works of past winners and giants of literature such as Kipling, Shaw, Thomas Mann, Pearl Buck, and Ernest Hemingway.
But he said it was "truly beyond words" that he was joining those names on the winners list.
"If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel prize, I would have to think that I'd have about the same odds as standing on the moon," he wrote.
He said his win was surprising because he was a songwriter, rather than a writer of books and poems "taught in the schoolroom, housed in libraries across the world."
"Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, 'Are my songs literature?'" he told attendees at the dinner, before thanking the prize-givers for "providing such a wonderful answer".
The folk singer explained that Shakespeare, the "great literary figure", probably thought of himself a dramatist.
"The thought that he was writing literature couldn't have entered his head," he said. "His words were written for the stage. Meant to be spoken not read."
Few predicted that Dylan would be awarded the prize when the announcement was made in October.
The 75-year-old singer waited two weeks to acknowledge the win and later said he would not travel to Sweden due to...

Summary: Bob Dylan said it was "truly beyond words" to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
###
Article: The first node in the network is a telecommunications satellite that was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
It will use a laser to gather pictures of the planet taken by other spacecraft and then relay them to the ground.
One benefit will be to put information on natural disasters, such as flooding and earthquakes, into the hands of emergency responders far faster than has previously been possible.
Currently, it can take hours to get the pictures taken by Earth observation satellites down on the ground.
Part of the reason is that spacecraft can only transmit their images when they pass over a receiving dish, and they will have visibility of this antenna for just 10 minutes in most cases during every 90-minute tour around the globe.
The European Space Agency's (Esa) answer is to fire the pictures upwards instead, via laser, to another satellite much higher in the sky that has a constant view of the ground station.
The agency recently put up two Earth observers that are equipped with optical transmission equipment. These will now be able to offload their data through the new relay satellite, which is to be positioned 36,000km above the equator at 9 degrees East.
Testing by Esa's industrial partner, Airbus Defence and Space, shows it should be possible for the system to put pictures on the desks of the people who need them within 20 minutes of those images being acquired.
For some applications - such as the monitoring of pollution incidents, or illegal fishing or ocean piracy - the time saved could be critical to achieving an effective response.
"Some important shipping routes go through the North Pole region, where thick ice flows can cause damage to vessels and even threaten human life," explained Magali Vaissiere, Esa's director of telecoms.
"It's also an environment in constant motion which means that data that is two days old is not only unhelpful - it could even be unsafe.
"We have already demonstrated quasi real-time performance of below 20 minutes for bringing monitoring information from the coast of...

Summary:


The European Court of Justice has ruled that airlines must pay compensation for delayed flights, but a number of airlines in the UK are still arguing that some technical problems should be classified as extraordinary circumstances, and as such, no compensation should be due.
Article: The ruling is likely to encourage thousands of passengers with similar claims in

A county court judge has ruled that airline Jet2.com cannot delay the payment of compensation due to passengers for delayed flights.

Article: Yorkshire Water said it was targeting seven locations across the city where there were build-ups of fat deposits.
The firm is deploying organically grown bacillus bacteria, which is commonly found in the human gut, to eat the fat, oils and grease.
The blockages are caused by waste cooking oils from homes being poured down plug holes.
As the fat cools it hardens and deposits gradually build up.
According to Yorkshire Water, in the past six months maintenance crews have attended 1,700 jobs in Hull to remove blockages in local sewers, with 350 jobs carried out in February 2012 alone.
Last year, across its entire 33,500 mile (54,000km) sewer network the firm said it had removed 2,000 tonnes of grease.
Patrick Killgallon, pollution manager at Yorkshire Water, said: "We continue to encourage customers to think before they pour things like fat down their sink, we're also looking at new and innovative approaches to tackling this age old problem to support current practices such as jetting sewers with a high pressure hose.
"The deployment of fat-busting bugs in our sewer network is an example of this, with these 'good' bacteria literally feasting on solidified fat in our sewer.
"And because these bacteria constantly multiply in the right environment, we can leave them to get on with their job in our sewers, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, without the need for regular dosing."

Summary: Fat-eating bacteria are being put into Hull's sewers to try to get rid of fat blockages.
###
Article: The ruling is likely to encourage thousands of passengers with similar claims in the UK.
Jet2 argued the compensation payments should be delayed pending the outcome of a similar case in the Netherlands.
But the judge at Liverpool County Court ruled that "a line should now be drawn. Justice delayed is justice denied".
The EU has ruled that airlines must pay compensation for delayed flights, but a number of airlines have yet to pay out.
Four airlines in the UK have made applications to delay payments: Jet2, Thomas Cook, Ryanair and WizzAir.
The Jet2 case heard in Liverpool involved Kim Allen, who claimed â‚¬400 (Â£292) compensation after an almost seven-hour delay when flying from Manchester to Malaga in 2012.
"We've all been kept waiting for so long, but I'm really happy with today's decision," she said after the judge's ruling.
"Hopefully now it's time for the airlines to pay us what the law says they should."
Her solicitor, Kevin Clarke from Bott & Co, said he hoped "the airlines will now finally face up to their obligations to passengers and to settle the hundreds of thousands of legitimate claims outstanding.
"Sadly, the history of their conduct over the last decade would tell us to expect yet another legal challenge."
The issue stems from the 2004 European regulations that oblige airlines, in some cases, to pay compensation to passengers for cancellations and delays, if they are not due to extraordinary circumstances.
A further ruling by the European Court of Justice in 2009 confirmed that delayed passengers should be treated as if their flights had been cancelled, if the delay was longer than three hours, entitling them to cash compensation.
Despite the ruling, a number of airlines in the UK are still arguing that some technical problems should be classified as extraordinary circumstances, and as such, no compensation should be due.
They have also argued that paying compensation for delays of three hours or more is disproportionate and too great a burden.

Summary:


The Scottish Government has announced a new £1.5m fund to help schools and early years settings improve the quality of their outdoor play spaces.
The Scottish Government has announced a new £1.5m fund to help schools and early years settings improve the quality of their outdoor play spaces.
The funding will be

The deputy first minister is due to make a statement on the Scottish government's Named Person scheme later.

Article: Educational psychologist Prof Sir Godfrey Thomson tested the intelligence of almost every Scottish 11 year old in 1932, and again in 1947.
The research was recorded in 69 ledgers that were almost destroyed when the Thomson's family home in Edinburgh was demolished in 2008.
They will be displayed by Edinburgh University from 29 July to 29 October.
Despite his pioneering work, Prof Thomson - who advocated comprehensive education and firmly believed a child's chances should not be linked to status - faded from public view.
The results of the IQ tests in 1932 and 1947 were recorded in the Scottish Mental Survey ledgers, which hold the world's only record of IQ-type scores from full national year-of-birth cohorts.
Prof Thomson's findings have gone on to form the basis for much of the research into brain aging at the University of Edinburgh since the late 1990s, led by Prof Ian Deary.
His team now studies those who took part in the original surveys.
Prof Deary said: "Godfrey Thomson saw mental ability tests as an imperfect but useful means to give poor children a chance in life.
"He was determined to look past pupils' social status, and try to see their underlying ability.
"By all accounts he was modest, not motivated by money, and happy to share academic wins, which in part led him to fade from the history books."
The ledgers will go on show to the public from 29 July to 29 October at the University's Main Library Exhibition Gallery.

Summary: Rare ledgers by the man who pioneered the world's only nationwide IQ tests in the 1930s are to go on public display.
###
Article: John Swinney will address MSPs over a legal challenge to information sharing proposals within the Act.
The system would appoint a named person - usually a teacher or health visitor - to ensure the wellbeing of every child.
But judges at the UK's highest court ruled against the scheme in July 2016, citing concerns over information sharing.
The Supreme Court judges said some proposals breached rights to privacy and a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, the court said the aim of the Act, which is intended to promote and safeguard the rights and wellbeing of children and young people, was legitimate.
Speaking ahead of his statement to the Scottish Parliament, Mr Swinney said the Scottish government remained "absolutely committed" to the Named Person service as a way to support children and their families.
"Last year the Supreme Court ruled definitively that the intention of providing a Named Person for every child to promote and safeguard their wellbeing was 'unquestionably legitimate and benign'," he said.
"Their judgement did, however, require us to change the provisions relating to information sharing.
"Since the judgement, we have undertaken an intensive period of engagement with children, young people, parents, carers, practitioners and professionals.
"I will now update parliament on the next steps in this vital means of supporting, safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of our children and young people."
The judges said in July that specific proposals about information-sharing were "not within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament".
And they said the legislation made it "perfectly possible" that confidential information about a young person could be disclosed to a "wide range of public authorities without either the child or young person or her parents being aware".
The appeal was brought by the No to Named Persons (NO2NP) coalition, which includes the Christian Institute, Care (Christian Action Research and Education), Tyme Trust and the Family Education...

Summary:


The closure of Hatfield Colliery in Doncaster has been announced.
The closure of the Doncaster mine will result in the loss of 430 jobs.
The closure of the Doncaster mine will result in the loss of 430 jobs.
The closure of the Doncaster mine will result in the loss of 430 jobs

The last lump of coal mined in South Yorkshire has been presented to Doncaster's mayor at a ceremony marking the end of mining in the region.

Article: The National Association of Head Teachers said reducing the per-place funding for such units from £10,000 to £6,000 a year would be "disastrous".
It also said the plans would not address the wide disparity in funding for children with similar needs.
The government says it has boosted high needs funding by £90m this year.
In its report, Getting it right: Funding pupils with complex needs, the NAHT looks at the impact of the proposed changes to the funding for children with high special educational needs.
The changes include basing the way funds are allocated to local authorities on the number of two- to 18-year-olds in the area.
This will then be modified by three factors - the number of children in bad health or on a disability benefit, low attainment and deprivation levels in the area.
But the NAHT says the proposals do not address the so-called "top up" funding for children with very complex needs, where there are big differences in funding.
The variability in funding levels means children with very similar needs could attract £2,000 of education funding in one local authority but £20,000 in another.
"This is clearly unacceptable and the DfE needs to develop parameters and controls to ensure that funding is fairly distributed within local authorities," the NAHT said.
Kim Johnson, president of NAHT and principal of Bradfields Specialist SEN Academy, says: "Those of us who are passionate about the education of children with high and complex needs have been pressing for this review of high needs funding for a long time.
"We desperately need a new approach that creates greater consistency and transparency.
"But we also need to be mindful that local authorities have taken very different approaches and that the transition to such an approach could result in some significant changes."
The NAHT also opposes plans to cut funding for special units within mainstream schools from £10,000 to £6,000 per pupil.
"Such a move would be disastrous for such units, leading to potential closures," the heads' union said.
Heads...

Summary: Plans to shake up special educational needs funding could see special units in mainstream schools close, a teaching union says.
###
Article: Hatfield Colliery closed in June with the loss of 430 jobs after almost a century of production.
The short ceremony took place at the mine, near Doncaster.
John Grogan, chairman of the Hatfield Employee Benefit Trust, which has run the mine since 2013, said it was "the end of an era".
He said: "On Monday the company will be wound up in the High Court and that will represent the end of coal mining in South Yorkshire after many generations.
"In 1980 there were 50,000 miners in South Yorkshire. On Monday morning when we're in the High Court there will be none.
"We're presenting this piece of coal as a symbol of our respect for all the miners who have gone before us in South Yorkshire and helped build the economy of our country and keep the lights on for many decades."
Accepting the gift the Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones said: "On behalf of Doncaster and South Yorkshire I'm humbled to accept this."
The only remaining deep coal mine in England, Kellingley colliery in North Yorkshire, is due to close later this year.

Summary:


A man has been jailed for life after he was found guilty of murdering his wife and her lover in a "despicable" attack.
The court heard how the couple were found dead in their home in the early hours of the morning in July last year.
The court heard how the couple had been living together

The man accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend whispered to a friend "she'll pay for what she's done" five days before she was killed, a court heard.

Article: Up in the hills of central Laos, it shimmers to the horizon, punctuated by treetops breaking the surface and long-tail fishing boats buzzing past.
"I think they could turn this place into a tourist attraction," says 75 year old Kam Kong, as he untangles his nets on the edge of the water.
This postcard-perfect scene is actually the reservoir for the Nam Theun 2 dam - one of the biggest hydroelectric projects in Southeast Asia.
Its opening may mark a turning point for Laos as it hopes to move from being the sleepy, under-developed backwater of Indochina to, as its government has put it, the "battery" for this increasingly power-hungry region.
As the water is released from the reservoir, it rushes downhill and into a rather utilitarian white-and-green power station, where turbines hum as they produce more than a thousand megawatts of electricity.
Pylons march across the hill into neighbouring Thailand, which is taking almost all the power produced by Nam Theun 2.
In theory, the figures should add up nicely for Laos. Revenue from the project may bring the government some $2bn over the next 25 years, a serious amount for one of the world's least-developed countries.
According to one of the project's backers, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Nam Theun 2 could provide almost a tenth of the national budget in a good year.
But the spectre of the so-called "resource curse" hangs over any developing country that suddenly gains a windfall from energy, with funds siphoned off by a greedy few instead of being used for the greater good.
Laos insists that is not going to happen this time, despite its low ranking on Transparency International's "perceptions of corruption" index.
"Nam Theun 2 is business, but we need the revenue for the development of the country," says Sivixay Soukkharath, a government worker in charge of resettling villagers affected by the dam.
"The government will give people education, healthcare and infrastructure, and it will allow us to protect the environment throughout the country."
The financial...

Summary: At first glance, the vast body of water stretching across the Nakai plateau does not seem to have much in common with a set of Duracells.
###
Article: Shana Grice ended her relationship with "obsessed" Michael Lane who stalked her when she started up a new relationship, Lewes Crown Court has heard.
The 19-year-old's body was discovered with her throat slit in her bedroom, which had been set alight, in August.
Mr Lane denies murder.
Giving evidence, his friend Natalie Fines said she bumped into him during an evening out with her parents on Saturday, 20 August.
Ms Fines told the court: "He told me she'd dumped him and gone back to her ex. He wasn't very happy about it, he told me he was depressed.
"As we were all leaving and hugging goodbye, he whispered in my ear 'she'll pay for what she's done'."
During cross-examination by Simon Russell Flint QC, defending, she added: "I didn't think that much of it. He'd often say things like that.
"For example, that he'd kill himself, and do it that night, but he didn't act on it."
The trial has previously heard Mr Lane, of Thornhill Rise, Portslade, East Sussex, put a tracker device on Miss Grice's car after hearing about her rekindling of the relationship with Ashley Cooke.
He was also cautioned by police after he stole a key to her back door before letting himself into her bedroom in Chrisdory Road, Portslade, to watch her sleep.
The trial continues.

Summary:


The Conservatives have gained two seats in North Yorkshire.
Article: The Conservatives have gained two seats in North Yorkshire.
Summary: The Conservatives have gained two seats in North Yorkshire.
Article: The Conservatives have gained two seats in North Yorkshire.
Summary: The Conservatives have gained two seats in North Yorkshire.
Article

The number of marriages in Gretna topped 3,500 last year - a slight rise compared with the previous 12 months.

Article: The gains came at the expense of all the other parties though it lost one seat - Tadcaster - to an independent.
UKIP failed to hold its two seats on the authority whilst the Liberal Party lost its two county councillors.
The Conservatives now have 55 of the 72 seats. There are 10 councillors who are independent and have no party affiliation.
Labour lost three of the seven seats it was defending and the Liberal Democrats lost two of the five seats they held previously.
Election 2017: Full results from across England
Conservative leader of the council, Carl Les, said: "It is a vindication of the way the party has been leading the council now for almost a quarter of a century.
"I do not believe we have a monopoly on wisdom and we will listen to other parties and other members if they come forward with practical and reasonable suggestions for us to consider.
"We have not finished with austerity, we will still have to find savings and we will do that."

Summary: The Conservatives have strengthened their hold of North Yorkshire County Council gaining 10 seats.
###
Article: A National Records of Scotland report said the Dumfries and Galloway village remained a "popular venue".
There were 3,511 marriages registered in 2015 compared with 3,499 in 2014.
However, last year's total is more than a third down on the record total for Gretna which dates back to 2004 when there were 5,555 weddings.
Nonetheless, it can still claim to be the "marriage capital" of Scotland and accounts for 12% of all weddings.
It is particularly popular for "tourism marriages" and some 84% of the weddings held in Gretna last year did not involve a resident in Scotland.

Summary: