The US economy grew at a 2.2% annualised rate in the second quarter, the fastest pace in nearly three years, as consumer spending and business investment picked up.
The economy grew at a 2.2% annualised rate in the second quarter, the fastest pace in nearly three years, as consumer spending

Asian markets headed lower after a survey of China's manufacturing sector indicated it is shrinking at the fastest pace for six-and-a-half years.

Article: Mike Johnson said the elite Fife institution had outreach programmes which connected with local communities.
Recent figures showed that the number of 18-year-olds from Scotland's poorest areas going to university was down.
Mr Johnson said a good university needed "diversity of thought" from its "diversity of students".
The admissions' director was speaking to BBC radio presenter Bill Whiteford who was hosting Thursday's Good Morning Scotland programme from St Andrews, Scotland's oldest university.
Mr Johnson said: "We meet our funded places allocation with Scottish students, we cannot go above that cap but we always meet that number in terms of Scottish students.
"What we want to see is the diversity of the student, wherever that student comes from.
"It shouldn't be seen as some charitable venture at universities - this is about the diversity of a student bringing diversity of thought, we want many world views.
"When students are in tutorials we want them to come from different backgrounds, this is good for universities, there is no doubt about that."
The Scottish government has placed a major focus on cutting the attainment gap between rich and poor, and increasing the number of Scots from the worst-off communities making it to university.
However, some politicians and education experts believe the cap on funded university places needs to be lifted if the system is going to target poorer students without impacting on the wider student population.
Convenor of Universities Scotland, Andrea Nolan, told the programme it was important to give "as many opportunities as we can to people who we believe have the potential and the ability to succeed".
She explained "In Scotland we have a fixed number of places for Scottish and EU domicile students and as we seek to widen access to people from communities that are underrepresented at universities that is going to put pressure in a fixed system."
Ms Nolan said lifting the cap on places was one way of "expanding the system".
She added: "There are other ways where we can...

Summary: The head of admissions at the University of St Andrews said it had a good "student diversity" policy without having to be a "charitable venture".
###
Article: Instead, a study concluded, the only way to prevent a hangover is to drink less alcohol.
More than 800 students were asked how they tried to relieve hangover symptoms, but neither food nor water was found to have any positive effect.
The findings are being presented at a conference in Amsterdam.
A team of international researchers from the Netherlands and Canada surveyed students' drinking habits to find out whether hangovers could be eased or if some people were immune to them.
Among 826 Dutch students, 54% ate food after drinking alcohol, including fatty food and heavy breakfasts, in the hope of staving off a hangover.
With the same aim, more than two-thirds drank water while drinking alcohol and more than half drank water before going to bed.
Although these groups showed a slight improvement in how they felt compared with those who hadn't drunk water, there was no real difference in the severity of their hangovers.
Previous research suggests that about 25% of drinkers claim never to get hangovers.
So the researchers questioned 789 Canadian students about their drinking in the previous month and the hangovers they experienced, finding that those who didn't get a hangover simply consumed "too little alcohol to develop a hangover in the first place".
Of those students who drank heavily, with an estimated blood alcohol concentration of more than 0.2%, almost no-one was immune to hangovers.
According to lead author Dr Joris Verster, from Utrecht University, the relationship was pretty straightforward.
"The more you drink, the more likely you are to get a hangover.
"Drinking water may help against thirst and a dry mouth, but it will not take away the misery, the headache and the nausea."
Dr Verster said part of the problem was that scientists still do not know what causes a hangover.
"Research has concluded that it's not simply dehydration - we know the immune system is involved, but before we know what causes it, it's very unlikely we'll find an effective cure."
He said the next step was to carry out more...

Summary: Raiding the fridge or downing glasses of water after a night of heavy drinking won't improve your sore head the next day, Dutch research suggests.
###
Article: The preliminary Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 47 in September, below forecasts of 47.5 and down from 47.3 in August.
A reading below 50 indicates contraction in the sector, while one above shows expansion.
The Shanghai Composite dropped 2.2% to 3,115.89 on the disappointing data.
The private survey also marked the seventh consecutive month of contraction in the sector.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index closed down 2.3% at 21,302.91.
Japanese markets are closed for a three-day public holiday and will reopen on Thursday.
In Australia, shares in mining companies were hit by falling commodity prices.
Oil prices continued to decline after US crude fell 2% overnight on global growth concerns, while copper prices slipped further on slowing Chinese demand.
Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 index closed down 2.1% at 4,998.10.
In South Korea, the Kospi index ended 1.9% lower at 1,944.64 following the release of the data from China.

Summary:


A man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering an 86-year-old woman found stabbed to death in her Cambridgeshire home.
Article: New forensic analysis on the teeth of the unidentified "Isdal woman" found chemical traces which may tell investigators where she grew up.
The results narrow the search to

Scientists at Oxford University have developed a machine that can lip-read better than humans.

Article: Widow Una Crown was found in her Magazine Lane home in Wisbech on 13 January. She had been stabbed and her body was burned.
A 58-year-old man was arrested in Wisbech earlier this week on suspicion of murder.
He has been released on bail pending further inquiries.
Mrs Crown was last seen alive on the morning of 11 January, but had spoken to a friend by telephone on the afternoon of the following day.

Summary: A man arrested on suspicion of murdering an 86-year-old woman found stabbed to death in her Cambridgeshire home has been released on bail.
###
Article: New forensic analysis on the teeth of the unidentified "Isdal woman" found chemical traces which may tell investigators where she grew up.
The results narrow the search to an area along the French-German border.
The case received fresh impetus after journalists from Norway's national broadcaster NRK began an inquiry.
The NRK team, which has been researching the case for over a year, hailed the new information as a "major breakthrough".
And a scientist at the Norwegian Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos) said the results were "much more specific than I could have dreamed of".
The unusual circumstances surrounding the case, and speculation over her mysterious past, have made it an enduring popular mystery for 46 years.
Someone had cut the labels off her clothes, and scraped distinctive marks off her belongings - as if to stop her from being identified.
And as police started investigating her death, they uncovered a trail of coded messages, disguises, and fake identities - but never cracked the case.
Forty-six years later, Norwegian police and NRK journalists have decided to reopen the investigation.
This is the story of the Isdal Woman - and the perplexing trail of clues she left behind.
NRK's investigation discovered the Isdal woman's jaw had been preserved in a forensic archive - opening up the chance that modern scientific methods could reveal more about her origins.
Investigators at Kripos and University of Bergen started an isotope analysis on her teeth - looking at the chemical "signature" left as her teeth were being formed.
It is the first time Norwegian police have used the technique - but the findings have been so specific they may now make it much easier to find people who knew the woman.
"It's actually quite a narrowed-down area that she most probably originated from," associate professor Jurian Hoogewerff at the University of Canberra in Australia - an expert in the technique - told NRK (in Norwegian).
Past analysis of her DNA and handwriting has already suggested the Isdal woman may have come...

Summary: Scientists believe they may have made a major breakthrough in efforts to solve a decades-long mystery of a burned body found in Norway 1970.
###
Article: The artificial intelligence system - LipNet - watches video of a person speaking and matches the text to the movement of their mouths with 93% accuracy, the researchers said.
Automating the process could help millions, they suggested.
But experts said the system needed to be tested in real-life situations.
Lip-reading is a notoriously tricky business with professionals only able to decipher what someone is saying up to 60% of the time.
"Machine lip-readers have enormous potential, with applications in improved hearing aids, silent dictation in public spaces, covert conversations, speech recognition in noisy environments, biometric identification and silent-movie processing," wrote the researchers.
They said that the AI system was provided with whole sentences so that it could teach itself which letter corresponded to which lip movement.
To train the AI, the team - from Oxford University's AI lab - fed it nearly 29,000 videos, labelled with the correct text. Each video was three seconds long and followed a similar grammatical pattern.
While human testers given similar videos had an error rate of 47.7%, the AI had one of just 6.6%.
The fact that the AI learned from specialist training videos led some on Twitter to criticise the research.
Writing in OpenReview, Neil Lawrence pointed out that the videos had "limited vocabulary and a single syntax grammar".
"While it's promising to perform well on this data, it's not really groundbreaking. While the model may be able to read my lips better than a human, it can only do so when I say a meaningless list of words from a highly constrained vocabulary in a specific order," he writes.
The project was partially funded by Google's artificial intelligence firm DeepMind.

Summary:

Article: {{document}}

Summary: ||| {{target}}


A fire in a wheelie bin in Craigton Place, Winchburgh, has been extinguished by firefighters.
The fire was reported at about 01:30 this morning.
The fire was extinguished by firefighters at about 06:30 this morning.
The fire was caused by a wheelie bin which had been resting

Thirty homes had to be evacuated after a gas pipe was damaged in a fire that was started deliberately.

Article: The state department says the agency supports or participates in a programme of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation in China.
But the UNFPA says this is an "erroneous claim", and that its work does not break any US laws.
In total $32.5m (Â£26m) in funds will be withdrawn for the 2017 financial year.
This is the first of the promised cuts to US financial contributions to the UN by the Trump administration.
Saving Mosul's mothers-to-be
The UNFPA, like other UN agencies, is funded by governments voluntarily.
In 2015, it received $979m in donations, with the US being its fourth-largest donor.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump reinstated a ban on US funding of any international organisation that provided any kind of abortion service or advice.
The state department referred to the presidential directive from January and a provision called the Kemp-Kasten Amendment in its statement on Monday.
"This determination was made based on the fact that China's family planning policies still involve the use of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilisation, and UNFPA partners on family planning activities with the Chinese government agency responsible for these coercive policies," the state department said.
The UNFPA calls those claims "erroneous" and says that "all of its work promotes the rights of individuals and couples to make their own decisions, free of coercion or discrimination".
It says its programmes have saved the lives of tens of thousands of women. Its works include:
The UN Population Fund has often been the target of conservative Republican administrations, the BBC's Nada Tawfik in New York reports. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and George W Bush withheld funding for the same reason.
The money that had been allocated to the UNFPA for the fiscal year 2017 will be "transferred and reprogrammed to the Global Health Programs account," the state department said.
The account will be used by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to support family planning, maternal and...

Summary: The US says it is withdrawing funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an agency that promotes family planning in more than 150 countries.
###
Article: The move follows years of briefings by the police and security sources which said that while dissidents had a high level of intent to mount attacks outside Northern Ireland, they lacked the capacity or capability to do so.
That has now changed.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) warned earlier this year that dissidents have shown a range of capabilities over the past 18 months which they described as deeply concerning.
These include the use of home made bombs, referred to by the police as Improvised Explosive Devices, improvised rocket launchers, close quarter shootings, and under vehicle bombs.
While the government announces updates on threat levels, the assessment is made by the security service MI5, with input from the PSNI.
This recalibration of the threat level clearly suggests they believe dissidents are actively planning to exploit their increased capabilities by exporting them to Great Britain, and that they have the capacity to do so.
No organisation was named in a written statement about the increased threat level by Home Secretary Theresa May on Wednesday, but it is understood this assessment reflects concerns about the activities of the group widely referred to as the New IRA.
It was formed in the summer of 2012, from the amalgamation of a number of dissident organisations.
The group killed prison officer Adrian Ismay using an under car bomb in March.
In a statement to the BBC at the time it warned that further attacks would follow.
Increasing the threat level from "moderate" to "substantial" means the likelihood of an attack in Great Britain has gone up from "possible but not likely" to "a strong possibility".
It does not mean MI5 has intelligence which suggests that a dissident republican attack on a target in England, Scotland or Wales is about to take place some time soon.
If that was the case, the threat level would have been raised to "severe", which means an attack is regarded as "highly likely."
The threat level dissidents pose in Northern Ireland has been characterised as...

Summary: The escalation of the level of threat dissident republicans pose to potential targets in Great Britain means that the security service MI5 believes their capacity and capability has grown significantly.
###
Article: Firefighters were called to the scene in Craigton Place, Winchburgh, at about 01:30 after a wheelie bin was set on fire.
The bin had been resting against the house, which caused the fire to take hold quickly.
Firefighters swiftly extinguished the blaze, when it was discovered that a gas pipe had been damaged in the fire.
Thirty homes in the area were evacuated, with 38 residents temporarily housed at a local community centre.
They were eventually allowed to return home at about 06:30.
'Young children'
Police are treating the blaze as wilful fire-raising and appealed for information about the West Lothian incident.
They are keen to trace anyone who may have seen someone in the area just before the bin was set alight.
Det Con Adrian Wallis said: "This was a serious incident which could have had devastating consequences.
"It also resulted in the evacuation of over 30 people, including young children and elderly residents. This caused much alarm and upset to those who had to leave their homes in the middle of the night.
"Anyone who saw anything suspicious at around 01:00, or has any other information regarding this incident, is asked to contact us immediately."

Summary:


Brazil's interim President Michel Temer has called an emergency meeting of state security ministers after a gang rape of a teenage girl in Rio de Janeiro triggered wide condemnation.

Article: The Londoner's role was announced on BBC One during half time of the FA Cup semi-final match between Everton and Manchester United.
Mackie, 28, replaces Jenna Coleman, whose character Clara Oswald left the show in 2015.
Filming for the next series of the long-running science fiction show will start this year but air in 2017.
Mackie, who graduated from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2010, played Anne-Marie Frasier in Doctors in 2014 and is currently performing in the National Theatre's West End production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.
"I'm incredibly excited to be joining the Doctor Who family," she said. "It's such an extraordinary British institution, I couldn't be prouder to call the Tardis my home."
She added: "Peter Capaldi is such a brilliant actor, and his Doctor is such a wacky and wonderful character, I can't wait to see what adventures are in store for him and Bill throughout time and space."
Mackie said her new character "Bill" was "wicked", describing her as "cool, strong, sharp, a little bit vulnerable with a bit of geekiness thrown in".
Capaldi said: "It is a genuine delight to welcome Pearl Mackie to Doctor Who. A fine, fine actress with a wonderful zest and charm, she's a refreshing addition to the Tardis and will bring a universe of exciting new possibilities to The Doctor's adventures."
Doctor Who, which was first shown in 1963, is heading for its 10th season since it was reintroduced to schedules in 2005 after a gap of nine years.
Coleman joined the show in 2012, and starred alongside two Doctors, Matt Smith and Capaldi, the 12th Doctor who joined in 2014.
She asked to be written out and left to take on the role of Queen Victoria in a major ITV drama series.
In January, it was announced that the head writer and executive producer of Doctor Who, Steven Moffat, was stepping down from the show.
The next series will be his last, after which he will be replaced by Broadchurch writer Chris Chibnall.

Summary: Pearl Mackie has been named as the new Doctor Who companion alongside Peter Capaldi's Time Lord in the Tardis.
###
Article: Anne Longfield says the current system can add to the trauma for children, with some facing hostile cross-examination by defence lawyers.
She wants to use "children's houses" - a system pioneered in Iceland - where complainants have a single interview.
She is due to meet with police and crime commissioners.
The children's house system, which is to be piloted in Greater London and County Durham, sees children testify to a trained psychotherapist while a judge, police, prosecution and defence lawyers watch via video link.
In Iceland, the single interview takes place in a children's house or "Barnahus", where it is used both by police to gather evidence, and prosecutors as witness testimony.
The house - one of which can be found in a quiet Reykjavik residential street - is where a child is taken within a week of an abuse allegation being made.
Bragi Gudbrandsson, the director of the Icelandic government's child protection agency, pioneered the Barnahus scheme, which began in 1998.
He said: "The basic idea is to ensure a child-friendly intervention in child sexual abuse cases with the aim of complying to the general principle of human rights.
"It's an environment that children are used to, familiar with, and is natural for them.
"We believe it can be harmful to take child victims to police stations because all children relate police stations to where people in conflict in the law are taken to.
"So we are really conveying a message to children by the place we are taking them to."
Inside the house, a specially trained interviewer asks questions, while other parties watch via a video link.
Any questions they have are fed through an earpiece to the interviewer.
Lawyers for the accused have to put all their questions at this point.
Ólöf Ásta Farestveit, who runs the Reykjavik Barnahus, says one benefit of the system is that children need only recount their ordeal once.
"If the parents have been asking them maybe two or three times, they get tired of answering the same questions so they say sometimes 'Ask Ma, she knows...

Summary: The children's commissioner for England will call for a radical rethink of the way children are interviewed in abuse cases, at a meeting later.
###
Article: He vowed to form a federal police unit to deal with violence against women.
The girl, 16, believes she was doped after going to her boyfriend's house last Saturday and says she woke up in a different house, surrounded by 30 men.
Hundreds of protesters on Friday demanded an end to sexual violence.
The video of the attack was put on social media, shocking Brazil.
Police are hunting more than 30 male suspects. Arrest warrants have been issued, including one for the boyfriend.
"I condemn most forcefully the rape of the teenager in Rio de Janeiro," Mr Temer said.
"It is absurd that in the 21st Century we should have to live with barbaric crimes such as this."
He said the authorities were working "to find those responsible" for the attack.
Rio police chief Fernando Veloso told a news conference that investigators will review forensic evidence.
"If these images hadn't been posted, maybe we wouldn't be here right now,'' he said, adding that many rapes go unreported.
The rape is said to have taken place in a poor community in western Rio over the weekend.
A 40-second-video was widely shared and followed by a wave of misogynistic comments, before the users' accounts were suspended.
In a message posted on Facebook, the victim said she was thankful for the support she had received and added: "I really thought I was going to be badly judged."
She later said: "All of us can go through this one day. It does not hurt the uterus but the soul because there are cruel people not being punished!! Thanks for the support."
The girl's grandmother told Brazilian media the family had watched the video and cried.
"I regretted watching it. When we heard the story we didn't believe what was happening. It's a great affliction. It's a depressing situation," she told Folha de S Paulo newspaper.
The assault has provoked an online campaign against what campaigners call a culture of rape in Brazil.
Experts say many cases of rape in Brazil go unreported as victims fear retaliation, shame, and blame for the violence they have suffered.
Hundreds...

Summary:


The RNLI has issued a warning to the public after a lifejacket was found to be unsafe.
The lifejacket was found to be unsafe after it was found to have a hole in the back.
The lifejacket was found to be unsafe after it was found to have a hole in the back

The family of a teenage girl who drowned on a sailing trip have launched a safety code in her memory.

Article: The move follows years of briefings by the police and security sources which said that while dissidents had a high level of intent to mount attacks outside Northern Ireland, they lacked the capacity or capability to do so.
That has now changed.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) warned earlier this year that dissidents have shown a range of capabilities over the past 18 months which they described as deeply concerning.
These include the use of home made bombs, referred to by the police as Improvised Explosive Devices, improvised rocket launchers, close quarter shootings, and under vehicle bombs.
While the government announces updates on threat levels, the assessment is made by the security service MI5, with input from the PSNI.
This recalibration of the threat level clearly suggests they believe dissidents are actively planning to exploit their increased capabilities by exporting them to Great Britain, and that they have the capacity to do so.
No organisation was named in a written statement about the increased threat level by Home Secretary Theresa May on Wednesday, but it is understood this assessment reflects concerns about the activities of the group widely referred to as the New IRA.
It was formed in the summer of 2012, from the amalgamation of a number of dissident organisations.
The group killed prison officer Adrian Ismay using an under car bomb in March.
In a statement to the BBC at the time it warned that further attacks would follow.
Increasing the threat level from "moderate" to "substantial" means the likelihood of an attack in Great Britain has gone up from "possible but not likely" to "a strong possibility".
It does not mean MI5 has intelligence which suggests that a dissident republican attack on a target in England, Scotland or Wales is about to take place some time soon.
If that was the case, the threat level would have been raised to "severe", which means an attack is regarded as "highly likely."
The threat level dissidents pose in Northern Ireland has been characterised as...

Summary: The escalation of the level of threat dissident republicans pose to potential targets in Great Britain means that the security service MI5 believes their capacity and capability has grown significantly.
###
Article: The breach came after the laptop of an employee at Hewlett Packard Enterprise working on a naval contract was "compromised", the Navy said.
It added that "unknown individuals" accessed the sensitive information on current and former sailors.
The data included names and social security numbers, but the Navy does not currently believe it was misused.
"The Navy takes this incident extremely seriously - this is a matter of trust for our sailors," said Vice Adm Robert Burke, the chief of naval personnel.
"We are in the early stages of investigating and are working quickly to identify and take care of those affected by this breach."
The US Navy has about 430,000 sailors on active duty or in ready reserve.
Sailors are being contacted in the coming weeks and the Navy said it was looking into credit monitoring services for those affected.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which separated from US computer firm HP last year, informed the Navy on 27 October about the laptop.
After a Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigation, it was found that the data of 134,386 sailors had been accessed.
A spokesman for Hewlett Packard Enterprise said: "This event has been reported to the Navy and because this is an ongoing investigation, HPE will not be commenting further out of respect for the privacy of our Navy personnel."

Summary: The US Navy is investigating a data breach after personal information of more than 130,000 sailors was accessed.
###
Article: Emily Gardner, 14, from Gloucester, drowned when an ill-fitting buoyancy aid snagged on a speedboat which capsized in Brixham, Devon in May 2015.
Parents Clive and Debbie Gardner set up Emily's Code to highlight safety issues for small boat owners and users.
They said something as simple as checking a buoyancy aid or lifejacket fits properly could save a life.
Emily was with two friends and her best friend's father, Paul Pritchard, on a 16ft (4.8m) speedboat when a wave hit the vessel, causing it to overturn.
An inquest into Emily's death heard all four were thrown into the water. Emily was trapped underneath the boat after one of the straps on her buoyancy aid caught on a cleat.
Mr and Mrs Gardner said: "Many parents like us have no awareness of recreational boating safety guidelines and have never used a boat before.
"When Emily went on a day trip with her friends we were reassured that safety was paramount and that the equipment was top notch.
"If just one family sees this and takes action to protect their children on the water, then Emily's Code will have succeeded and Emily's name will live on."
The code has the backing of the Royal Yachting Association, HM Coastguard, British Water Ski and Wakeboard, and the RNLI.
Emily's Code:

Summary:


The UK's inflation rate rose to 0.1% in November, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Transport costs, alcohol and tobacco prices were the main contributors to the rise in the rate, the ONS said.
However, this was partially offset by a drop in clothing prices, which

Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley has accused MPs of being "deliberately antagonistic" after he was threatened with being in contempt of Parliament.

Article: James Don took covert photographs and video recordings of two women at various locations in Dundee.
The 60-year-old recorded footage in one of his victim's homes, including her bedroom, and repeatedly followed her.
A sheriff told Don his actions were "particularly horrifying".
Don was found guilty of three charges by a jury at Dundee Sheriff Court.
One of the women told the trial that she felt "terrified, violated and in shock" following the incident.
She said: "I can't believe somebody had been in my house.
"I don't feel safe, even now.
"The thought that he was in there, in my living room, in my bedroom, I just don't know how he got in."
Defence solicitor Ian Houston said: "He is hoping that the period of imprisonment won't be so long to end his marriage."
Sheriff Lorna Drummond QC imposed a four-year extended sentence on Don, with three years to be served in jail and a year on licence.
He was also placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.
Sheriff Drummond said: "You went to the lengths of entering the privacy of one woman's home uninvited and videoed her bedroom and took photos of her underwear.
"That is particularly horrifying, that you invaded the sanctity of her home.
"It is clear to me that your behaviour has had a devastating impact on these women."

Summary: A serial stalker who left one of his victims "terrified and violated" after entering her home and taking pictures of her underwear has been jailed for three years.
###
Article: The rate as measured by the Consumer Prices Index rose to 0.1%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Transport costs, alcohol and tobacco prices were the main contributors to the rise in the rate, the ONS said.
However, this was partially offset by a drop in clothing prices, which for the first time fell between October and November.
This is usually the time prices rise as shoppers buy Christmas gifts. The ONS said that it logged prices before Black Friday sales discounts took effect.
Monthly inflation has been between -0.1% and 0.1% for the past 10 months, with low oil prices and a fiercely competitive environment for supermarkets keeping prices down for consumers.
November's inflation rate compares with a rate of -0.1% a month earlier. Analysts had expected a figure of about zero.
Last week, UK interest rates were left unchanged again at 0.5% by the Bank of England's rate-setters.
The nine policymakers on the Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-1 for no change, with the Bank predicting that inflation will stay below 1% until the second half of next year.
Inflation remains well below the Bank's 2% target, and the absence of inflationary pressures has led analysts to push back their estimates of when UK interest rates might rise.
"UK inflation remained largely absent in November, and looks set to remain weaker for longer than forecasters have recently been expecting," said Chris Williamson. chief economist at data firm Markit.
"Falling prices for oil and other commodities are helping drive down companies' costs.
"Weak wage pressures and fierce competition in the retail sector are also helping keep a lid on prices. Hence clothing prices showing a record fall between October and November."
Ben Brettell, senior economist at broker Hargreaves Lansdown, said that while core inflation - which strips out volatile components such as food and energy - had risen slightly, it "remained weak at 1.2%".
"This offers little suggestion that underlying inflationary pressures are building in the UK economy. Furthermore...

Summary: The UK's inflation rate turned positive in November for the first time in four months, official figures show.
###
Article: Mr Ashley failed to appear before a business select committee regarding working terms and conditions at the company's warehouse in Derbyshire.
In a letter, he accuses MPs of "abusing parliamentary procedures" in order to "create a media circus at Westminster".
Chris Bryant MP said the House could "force" Mr Ashley to attend a meeting.
The row follows a BBC investigation into the work practises at the company's warehouse in Shirebrook.
Updates on this story and more from Derbyshire
The Newcastle United FC owner was given a deadline of 21 March to respond to a letter from MP Iain Wright - who chairs the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) select committee - following his no-show.
The letter said the committee reserved the right to "take the matter further" should he not attend future dates.
In response, Mr Ashley said: "I was disgusted to learn that you have adopted a stance that is deliberately antagonistic.
"By refusing to visit Sports Direct to see things with your own eyes, you are missing out on a genuine opportunity to gain a detailed and balanced understanding of the matters you wish to discuss.
"I believe you are abusing parliamentary procedure in an attempt to create a media circus in Westminster, which is not in the best interests of any of the people who work at Sports Direct."
It is thought that no one has been charged with contempt of Parliament since the 1950s.
Mr Bryant said in the Commons on Thursday: "[Mr Ashley] may be the 22nd richest man in Britain, but he is running a modern day sweatshop and this House will get to the truth."
The committee is due to meet on Tuesday to discuss the next steps following Mr Ashley's correspondence.

Summary:


A former employee of the now defunct file-sharing site Megaupload has been sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit copyright infringement while working for the now defunct file-sharing site.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has alleged that Megaupload's staff had "operated websites

A blogger who launched a "campaign of harassment" against a council chief executive has had the criminal case against her dropped.

Article: Andrus Nomm was sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty on Friday to conspiracy to commit copyright infringement while working for the now defunct file-sharing site.
The US is currently trying to extradite Mr Dotcom, who founded Megaupload, from New Zealand to stand trial.
Mr Dotcom denies wrongdoing.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has alleged that Megaupload's staff had "operated websites that wilfully reproduced and distributed infringing copies of copyrighted works" over a period of five years, causing more than $400m (Â£260m) of harm to copyright owners.
Nomm - a 36-year-old Estonian citizen - agreed to this damages estimate as part of his plea, according to a press release from the DoJ. He had been living in the Netherlands before he travelled to Virginia to make the deal with the US authorities.
The DoJ added that Nomm had acknowledged that through his work as a computer programmer for Megaupload, he had become aware of copyright-infringing material being stored on its sites, including films and TV shows that had contained FBI anti-piracy warnings.
It said he had also admitted to having downloaded copyright-infringing files himself.
"This conviction is a significant step forward in the largest criminal copyright case in US history," said assistant attorney general Leslie Caldwell.
Hong Kong-based Megaupload was one of the world's most visited "cyber locker" sites when its domain names and assets were seized in January 2012, at the request of the US authorities.
Mr Dotcom has long maintained that he had not encouraged users to upload pirated material, and has said he cannot be held responsible for what others had stored on his service.
At the end of last week Friday he tweeted: "I have nothing but compassion and understanding for Andrus Nomm and I hope he will soon be reunited with his son."
In an interview with Radio New Zealand, Mr Dotcom's lawyer attempted to play down the significance of the latest development.
"Mr Nomm [was] interested in just getting one year and being done with this,...

Summary: Kim Dotcom's US lawyer has denied that a guilty plea by one of the Megaupload's former employees has major implications for his client's case.
###
Article: That military aide will be carrying a satchel over his or her shoulder containing a briefcase known as "the nuclear football". Inside will be a piece of digital hardware measuring 3in (7.3cm) by 5in, known as "the biscuit".
This contains the launch codes for a strategic nuclear strike. The briefing for the incoming president on how to activate them will have already taken place out of public sight, but the moment President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office that aide, and the satchel, will move quietly over to his side.
Donald Trump will then have sole authority to order an action that could result in the deaths of millions of people in under an hour. The question on a lot of people's minds right now is, given his thin skin and impulsive temperament, what are the safeguards, if any, to prevent an impetuous decision by one man with catastrophic consequences?
First off, it should be said that Donald Trump has rowed back on some of his earlier, provocative comments on the use of nuclear weapons. He has recently stated he would be "the last person to use them", although he has not ruled it out.
Other senior figures are also involved in the chain of command, such as the incoming US Secretary of Defence, retired US Marine Gen James Mattis, But Mark Fitzpatrick, a nuclear non-proliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington, says that ultimately, the sole authority to launch a strike rests with the president.
"There are no checks and balances on the president's authority to launch a nuclear strike," he says. "But between the time he authorises one and the time it's carried out there are other people involved."
The idea of a rogue president taking such a monumental decision on his own is unrealistic. He gives the order and the secretary of defence is constitutionally obliged to carry it out.
The secretary of defence could, in theory, refuse to obey the order if he had reason to doubt the president's sanity, but this would constitute mutiny and the president can then...

Summary: On 20 January, inauguration day in the United States, a nameless, unknown military aide will be seen accompanying President Barack Obama to the handover ceremony at the US Capitol in Washington.
###
Article: Jacqui Thompson was arrested in 2011 for filming a Carmarthenshire council meeting and sued Mark James for libel.
He counter-sued for posts made on her blog and received £25,000 in damages.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Mrs Thompson had been charged with an harassment offence but a decision was taken to discontinue her case.
Mrs Thompson, of Llanwrda, said she was "relieved" at the news and had been worried about her impending court case, which was due to take place on Thursday.
A CPS spokesman said: "Following a review, prosecutors were no longer satisfied there was a realistic prospect of conviction due to insufficient evidence and therefore made the decision to discontinue the case."
Mrs Thompson became embroiled in the legal row after she was arrested in June 2011 for refusing to stop filming a council meeting for her blog, in which she was critical of the authority.
She sued Mr James the following November and he successfully counter-sued in a private lawsuit.
In 2016, the High Court found Mrs Thompson had run a campaign of "harassment, defamation and intimidation" against Mr James.
She was told to pay back £250 a month to him over the next 10 years to cover the damages.
Carmarthenshire council covered Mr James' legal costs, a decision the Wales Audit Office later found to be unlawful.
But the authority is pursuing Mrs Thompson for £190,393 in legal costs.
The council would not comment on the latest development in the case, which it said was a private matter for Mr James.
Mr James has been asked to comment.

Summary:


A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a dog walker spotted the body in Vernatt's Drain, near the Pinchbeck Road bridge in Spalding, on Sunday.
Police recovered the body from the water after being alerted shortly after 14:00 GMT.
Officers had been initially treating the death

The death of a man found in a Lincolnshire waterway is not being treated as suspicious, police have said.

Article: Demos found that 63% had been born or educated within 20km (13 miles) of their seat, or had worked within this distance from it in the five years before seeking election.
It suggested the Lib Dems had the most "local" MPs of the main parties.
Labour came second and the Conservatives third, Demos said.
It was once common for MPs, particularly those who represented seats furthest from London, to return very rarely to meet their constituents.
But in recent years the nature of the job has changed so that weekly "surgeries" are normal and much political campaigning stresses candidates' links to the area.
Demos, seen as a centre-left think tank, has attempted to quantify the level of localness of the 650 current MPs.
Spokesman Ralph Scott described the 63% figure, based on the criteria of birth, education and work, as "pretty strong" but added that "perhaps not as many" MPs had long-lasting links "as the public would like".
The think tank said it had "trawled through" all the publicly available data, including Wikipedia and MPs' own websites, and found that 82% of Lib Dems were local, compared with 73% on the Labour benches and 51% of Conservatives.
Some MPs had been given "the benefit of the doubt" over their claims to localness, meaning that "if anything we have overestimated the number of local MPs".
Demos found that among all parties MPs were becoming more local, by comparing the figures available for the intake years of the current Parliament. This is not a direct comparison, as no such research exists for previous Parliaments.
The Conservatives were getting "rapidly more local", with 65% of the 2010 intake described as such, and just 30% of the remaining 1997 intake.
Mr Scott said that "these preliminary results show that, by our definition, the political class is perhaps more local than most people think".
He added: "However, unlike some other identities, 'localness' is more porous and more easily acquired - and therefore equally liable to being questioned and revoked.
"Most importantly, it is not identified...

Summary: Almost two-thirds of the UK's members of Parliament are "local" to the area they represent, research by a political think tank suggests.
###
Article: Leatherdale, 48, will leave New Road in March to end a 30-year association with the club as a player and administrator.
"It is a sad day for Worcestershire and a massive loss to the club," said chairman Stephen Taylor.
"It's one of those prestigious roles and I can fully understand David taking it."
An all-rounder, Leatherdale spent his entire playing career at New Road, making his debut in 1988 and helping the club win and retain the Championship title in his first two seasons.
In all, he won six major trophies, scored more than 15,000 runs and took more than 300 wickets in all forms of the game.
Leatherdale became commercial director after retiring in 2005 and replaced Mark Newton as CEO five years later.
With Leatherdale staying at New Road until mid-March, Taylor said there was no rush to find a successor - especially as the role may change.
"There are not many chief executives out there now who are past professional cricketers and, as a club, we will start the process of looking at finding the right person for the right role," Taylor added.
"The role may look slightly different to the current role is as these will be big shoes to fill."

Summary: David Leatherdale is to leave his post as chief executive of Worcestershire to take up a similar position with the Professional Cricketers' Association.
###
Article: A dog walker spotted the body in Vernatt's Drain, near the Pinchbeck Road bridge in Spalding, on Sunday.
Police recovered the body from the water after being alerted shortly after 14:00 GMT.
Officers had been initially treating the death as unexplained, but said they were now classing it as not suspicious.
The man's details are yet to be released.

Summary:


The Scottish Government has launched a new online resource to help schools improve the learning and wellbeing of children.
The resource details examples from around Scotland which have improved the wellbeing and learning of children in the classroom.
Approaches include parent questionnaires, a family breakfast club and a walk-to-school programme.

An online education resource showcasing the best way to increase attainment in Scotland's schools has been launched by the country's education secretary.

Article: Plans for a "power of recall" for MPs who have committed "serious wrongdoing" have been abandoned following a dispute between the Tories and Lib Dems.
Lib Dem Party President Tim Farron said the "modest" plan was blocked by the prime minister David Cameron.
But Tory MP Zac Goldsmith said he was "disgusted" by the Lib Dems' actions.
The Independent reported that the plans would not be included in May's Queen's Speech, the last chance for them to become law before the 2015 election.
The idea, which was proposed in response to the public anger about the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal, was included in both the Conservatives' and Lib Dems' last general election manifestos.
In their 2010 Coalition Agreement, both parties promised "early legislation" to allow voters to force a by-election "where an MP is found to have engaged in serious wrongdoing".
When a draft bill setting out plans was published in 2011, there was some criticism that the threshold for triggering the recall of an MP had been set too high.
As well as 10% of constituents having to sign a petition demanding it, a committee of MPs would first have to decide if serious wrongdoing had taken place.
But there were also concerns that a system of recall - which is in place in many US states - could lead to vexatious and politically-motivated campaigns against MPs.
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said it is understood the decision to drop the plan was taken following a meeting of the "quad" group of senior Lib Dem and Tory ministers, Prime Minister David Cameron, Chancellor George Osborne, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Chief Secretary Danny Alexander.
Mr Farron told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there was "no obvious excuse" for ditching the idea.
"We understand the prime minister has blocked it," he said.
He added: "It seems to me very wrong that an MP can get up to things that all of us would agree are inappropriate and be in a position where they would not be able to be held to account.
"It looks like certain MPs are running scared of...

Summary: Politicians look like they are "running scared", a senior Lib Dem has said, after plans to allow voters to remove MPs between elections were dropped.
###
Article: In a long-awaited report, the so-called Quartet said ongoing violence, Israeli settlement-building and Palestinian splits were undermining peace hopes.
Israel insisted it was a "myth" that settlements were an obstacle.
The Palestinians said responsibility should not be "equalised" between "people under occupation" and a "foreign military occupier".
The Quartet - made up of the US, UN, EU and Russia and formed in 2002 - called on both sides to take positive action and said only direct bilateral negotiations could end the conflict.
The last round of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians came to an end amid acrimony in April 2014.
Friday's report identifies three main areas driving the conflict:
The report comes at a time of heightened tension between Israel and the Palestinians, with a wave of deadly attacks by Palestinians on Israelis and a tightening by Israel of security measures against Palestinians.
Thirty-five Israelis have been killed in knife, gun and car-ramming attacks since October. More than 200 Palestinians - mostly attackers, Israel says - have also been killed in that period.
Israel says Palestinian incitement has fuelled the attacks. The Palestinian leadership has blamed frustration rooted in decades of Israeli occupation.
"Palestinian leaders have not consistently and clearly condemned specific terrorist attacks. And streets, squares and schools have been named after Palestinians who have committed acts of terrorism," the report says.
It called on the Palestinian Authority to "act decisively" against incitement "including by clearly condemning all acts of terrorism".
Israel's Prime Minister's Office welcomed "the Quartet's recognition of the centrality of Palestinian incitement and violence to the perpetuation of the conflict".
However, Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat was critical.
"It does not meet our expectations as a nation living under a foreign colonial military occupation; wherein it attempts to equalise the responsibilities between a people under occupation and a...

Summary: A group of key world powers has warned of "perpetual occupation and conflict" between Israelis and Palestinians.
###
Article: John Swinney said the tool would help "all of our children to succeed".
The resource details examples from around Scotland which have improved the wellbeing and learning of children in the classroom.
Approaches include parent questionnaires, a family breakfast club and a walk-to-school programme.
Mr Swinney said: The information now available gives teachers and school leaders access to effective interventions based on practice examples from around Scotland.
"This suite of materials will be developed further in the coming weeks and months to include successful approaches based on the best available international evidence as we work with the Education Endowment Foundation to develop a Scottish specific version of their highly-regarded Teaching and Learning toolkit."
The online resource will be added to in the coming weeks.
Bill Maxwell, chief executive of Education Scotland, hoped the tool would help schools make decisions about closing the attainment gap between their "most and least disadvantaged children".
He added: "The interventions highlighted in this resource represent the wide range of different approaches which have been developed in Scotland, and which have proved to be effective.
"Education Scotland has a key role in ensuring that schools have easy access to evidence about 'what works' as they plan to address the priorities of the Scottish Attainment Challenge and the National Improvement Framework."

Summary:


Police are investigating a man who was arrested in Rochdale after he was found with a crystallised and unrefined version of the drug Spice.
Ch Supt Neil Evans, described the development as "extremely worrying".
Ten people were admitted to hospital after taking the drug over the weekend, with four kept in

A man thought to have been killed by the drug MDMA had taken a "much more potent version" of Spice, Greater Manchester Police has said.

Article: Special Report: The Technology of Business
Taj Mahal comes to your living room
Sochi 2014: Hi-tech Winter Games
DIY apps and the rise of 'citizen developers'
Virtual games bring pinball to new audiences
China hopes to dispel 'copy others' reputation
It shows that there's still a place in the Â£40bn video games industry for independent makers, or indies, working alone.
And it's easier than you may think to build your own game that could potentially become a global hit, thanks to a growing number of marketplaces for off-the-peg games templates.
It turns out you don't even have to know how to write a single line of code to make a living selling mobile games on sites like Apple's App Store or Google's Play Android store.
Code marketplaces, like Binpress, Apptopia, Chupamobile and CodeCanyon, are offering game templates for a few hundred pounds.
These templates provide the program code required for a basic game, which buyers then flesh out by adding their own graphics, music and overall theme to make an app which is ready to be sold.
These types of games are usually offered as free apps, generating money through advertising included in the game. Even the code to display the ads, which are provided by online advertising networks, is included in the game template, so the buyer needs only add an account number with each network to start earning money.
"What you are buying with a template is a simple game mechanic - something like pressing on the screen to shoot something, or swiping the screen to slice," says Jonathan Kay, one of the founders of US-based code marketplace Apptopia. "That forms the basis of your app."
Buyers of a "swipe to slice" template could then create a fruit-slicing game similar to the popular Fruit Ninja app, or something with a different theme, like slicing the heads off leaping zombies, he says.
"If you have some design skills, then the only programming experience you need is knowing how to drop the graphics you create into the code."
"There are definitely still opportunities for independent...

Summary: Flappy Bird, the mobile-phone game that was making as much as $50,000 (Â£30,000) a day for its developer before he pulled it from online stores, took one man just two or three days to write.
###
Article: Bus operator Lothian Buses is to use a fleet of 30 new vehicles on the route through St John's Road in Edinburgh, an air quality management zone.
The Euro 6 Volvo double-deckers will operate on Service 26, which runs between the west of the capital and East Lothian.
All buses on the route will be low emission by the end of 2018.
A report published last year showed that 65 microgrammes of nitrogen dioxide per cubic metre were detected in St John's Road in 2015, making it the most polluted in Edinburgh.
The new vehicles are part of a Â£7m investment.
Lothian Buses said the fleet would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 25%, nitrous oxides by up to 98% and particulates by about 75% compared with the existing fleet.
The buses will also have USB charging points on board.
Richard Hall, managing director of Lothian Buses, said: "St John's Road has always been a main artery within the city that we had earmarked for improvement and investment.
"The introduction of 30 new low-emission buses to this route, combined with our ongoing fleet replacement strategy BUS2020, ensures that we as a business are doing our part to improve air quality across the city.
"Buses are the lifeblood of the city and economy, transporting thousands of customers every day."
The announcement was welcomed by City of Edinburgh Council and Friends of the Earth.
Charity campaigner Emilia Hanna said: "We welcome Lothian's launch of a cleaner 26 route along the St John's Road corridor, which is Edinburgh's most polluted street.
"Air pollution is still a public health crisis in Scotland, responsible for over 2,500 early deaths each year. Buses are a key part of the solution to air pollution and are essential for the majority of Edinburgh residents who do not travel by car.
"One full double-decker bus can hold the equivalent number of passengers as 75 cars can, so buses are a clear winner when it comes to tackling congestion and toxic air pollution, especially when they offer a clean and comfortable experience."

Summary: Low-emission buses are being introduced for journeys along one of Scotland's most polluted streets.
###
Article: Police now believe that the 26-year-old man from Rochdale took a crystallised and unrefined version of the drug Spice.
Ch Supt Neil Evans, described the development as "extremely worrying".
Ten people were admitted to hospital after taking the drug over the weekend, with four kept in intensive care.
A police spokesman said they were hospitalised after taking what was thought to be a new form of MDMA, known as "pink champagne".
But he added: "It is now believed that this substance was in fact a synthetic cannabinoid, like 'Spice', however it was sold as MDMA."
Ch Supt Neil Evans said: "This is the first time we have seen 'Spice' in crystallised, and much more potent and unrefined form and it's now being mistakenly taken as MDMA."
He added: "Anyone thinking of taking MDMA must seriously consider what they are doing.
"You may feel that you know and accept the risks of taking MDMA, but you never know what you are actually taking and the reaction your body could have to it."
A 26-year-old man, held on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs, was released while inquiries continue.

Summary:


The Tories have won a majority in Derbyshire, taking control of the county council.
The Tories won 37 of 64 seats to claim a majority and wipe out Labour's 22-seat majority from 2013.
Labour picked up 24 seats this time around, the Liberal Democrats won three and UKIP finished with none.

The Conservatives have taken control of Derbyshire County Council with a massive swing from Labour.

Article: Although less than originally suggested by regulator Ofcom, the price hike is likely to infuriate operators who have previously warned higher spectrum fees could put up consumer prices.
Ofcom defended the rise, saying it reflected the value of the spectrum.
Mobile companies said they were considering their response.
Fees are paid annually by mobile network operators for the 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum bands, used to provide voice and data services using a mix of 2G, 3G and 4G technologies.
Operators will now pay a combined annual total of £80.3m for the 900MHz and £119.3m for the 1800MHz band.
For Vodafone and O2, this will mean a tripling of spectrum costs - up from £15.6m a year to £49.8m. EE's charges will rise from £24.9m to £75m. Three will pay £25m, up from £8.3m.
In a statement Vodafone said: "We will be reviewing Ofcom's proposed spectrum fees over the coming days as they represent a significant increase when we are already investing around £1 billion on our network and services this year."
The new fees come into effect in two phases - one half of the increase will come into effect at the end of October this year, with the second half kicking in from October 2016.
Ofcom was asked by the government to revise licence fees back in 2010, but it did not begin a full consultation until after the 4G auction in 2013.
That auction provided £2.4bn for government coffers, less than the £3.5bn that it had hoped to raise.
Philip Marnick, Ofcom's director of spectrum, said: "We have listened carefully to the arguments and evidence put forward by industry, and conducted a complex and comprehensive analysis to determine the new fees.
"The mobile industry has not previously had to pay market value for access to this spectrum, which is a valuable and finite resource, and the new fees reflect that value."
Kester Mann, an analyst at mobile research firm CCS Insight, said that it was a pill "the providers are going to have to swallow".
"In one of Europe's most competitive markets, they have no choice but to continue to...

Summary: The amount the government charges mobile operators to use airwaves space - known as spectrum - has risen from £64.4m to £199.6m per year.
###
Article: PM Shinzo Abe's ruling bloc pushed it through the upper house early on Thursday, despite vocal opposition.
The government argues the law is needed to improve security ahead of the 2020 Olympics, and to comply with a UN agreement Japan has signed.
But critics say it weakens civil liberties and could be abused to monitor and target innocent citizens.
The law has sparked protests, including one on Wednesday night outside the parliament building which was attended by thousands of demonstrators.
The law, which criminalises the plotting and committing of 277 acts, amends an existing law against organised crime syndicates.
It bans the procurement of funds or supplies and the surveying of a location in preparation of any of these offences.
An entire group - defined as two or more people - can be charged if at least one member is found to have been plotting the crime.
It also bans the expansion or maintenance of illicit interests of organised crime groups.
Japan has signed a UN convention against transnational organised crime, but not yet ratified it. The government said the news law was needed for ratification to go ahead.
Mr Abe told reporters the law would allow Japan to "firmly cooperate with international society to prevent terrorism".
The ruling bloc has been attempting to push through the legislation for months. An earlier draft had listed 676 crimes, but it was pared down to 277.
The law bans the plotting of serious crimes such as terrorism but also lesser offences such as;
Though the government has promised that the law will not be used unfairly, critics remain unconvinced.
They say the law is too broadly worded and gives the authorities sweeping powers.
They have also questioned the inclusion of certain acts and asked how they could be linked to terrorism and organised crime.
The government argues some could be used in association with criminal operations - for example, a gang or terror cell could fund its operations from the sale of illegally picked mushrooms.
But an editorial by newspaper The Mainichi said...

Summary: Japan's lawmakers have passed a controversial bill allowing authorities to target terror conspiracies.
###
Article: The Tories won 37 of 64 seats to claim a majority and wipe out Labour's 22-seat majority from 2013.
Labour picked up 24 seats this time around, the Liberal Democrats won three and UKIP finished with none.
Towns where seats turned from red to blue included Swadlincote, Matlock, Glossop, Buxton, Ripley, Belper and Ilkeston.
Turnout was 38%.
Election 2017: Full results from across England
Conservative leader Barry Lewis described the result as "brilliant".
"We didn't think at this point in the electoral cycle we'd be taking control of Derbyshire County Council," he said.
"We fought a really good campaign on local issues and I think that's really helped. We got our manifesto out early and really hit the doorsteps."
This was Labour's last stand - its last county council to be defended in England. And its defences have proven to be weak.
The Conservatives have won across the south and centre of the county - in places like Heanor, Ilkeston and Ripley.
They've also taken seats off the Lib Dems. And it was a bad night too for UKIP - their share of the vote in Derbyshire collapsed.

Summary:


The RPA has called for a review of the length of the Premiership season, after the Rugby Football Union announced plans to extend the current 10-month campaign to 11 months.
The RPA has said the current 10-month campaign is "seriously detrimental to player welfare".
The RPA has previously said the

The Rugby Players' Association has "unanimously rejected" proposals for an extended 10-month Premiership season.

Article: The ex-News International chairman said he had thought hacking a "thing in the past" when he took over his father's UK newspaper operations in 2007.
It remained his position that he did not know of the "For Neville" email until 2010, he told the inquiry.
He was also asked about meeting David Cameron during News Corp's BSkyB bid.
Mr Murdoch's father, News Corporation head Rupert Murdoch, will appear before the inquiry on Wednesday and Thursday.
It is the first time either of them have appeared in front of the Leveson Inquiry.
James Murdoch, who resigned from News International in February, having been appointed to run the company in 2007.
The inquiry is tackling the Murdochs' awareness of allegations that the practice of illegally intercepting voicemails went beyond News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman, who was jailed in 2007.
Last year James Murdoch told MPs he had no prior knowledge of the scale of wrongdoing on the newspapers he controlled.
By Robert PestonBusiness editor
BBC News - Correspondents - Robert Peston
He told Lord Justice Leveson he had a "general awareness that a reporter had illegally intercepted voicemails, had gone to jail along with the private investigator involved".
"It was a general understanding of an event in the past."
The inquiry questioned Mr Murdoch in detail over the "For Neville" email, which was sent by a junior News of the World reporter to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire in 2008, and contained the illegally obtained transcripts of voicemails belonging to football union boss Gordon Taylor.
In December, another email from 2008 was released indicating Mr Murdoch had been copied into messages referring to the "rife" practice of phone hacking at the News of the World and also citing the "For Neville" email.
Mr Murdoch has said although he was copied into the email, he did not read it fully.
He told the inquiry: "I didn't read the email chain. It was a Saturday, I had just come back from Hong Kong, I was with my children. I responded in minutes."
He said he now accepts...

Summary: James Murdoch "stands by" testimony he never saw an email revealing phone hacking went beyond a single reporter, the Leveson Inquiry has heard.
###
Article: Scientists at the Messerli Research Institute's Clever Dog Lab in Vienna trained dogs to associate pictures of happy or angry faces with a reward.
In a subsequent test, the scientists showed the dogs images of human faces they had not seen in their training.
This suggested that dogs could spot the difference between the expressions.
This study, published in the journal Current Biology, is part of a larger project studying how humans and their canine companions interact.
"The main focus [of our research] is the big question of communication," lead researcher Prof Ludwig Huber said.
"How is it that dogs are so adapted to humans, and what's happened during the process of domestication?"
The scientists repeatedly showed 20 dogs half pictures - either the lower mouth region or the upper eye area - of happy or angry human faces.
Half the dogs received a treat when they touched an angry face with their nose. The other half were rewarded for touching happy faces.
Just over half the dogs learned the task well enough to be tested, and there were then a number of different tests to find out if they could tell the difference solely on the basis of facial expression.
"[In one test condition], we showed them new faces - faces they've never seen before," Prof Huber told BBC News.
"In another, we showed them different parts of the faces."
Showing dogs the opposite half of the face to the half they had learned to recognise in their training, showed they could "transfer their knowledge" of human facial expressions
"So, for example, in the training, they see the mouth region of the happy face," said Prof Huber, "and they associate that with what the eyes would look like."
Dr Kun Guo, a psychologist and expert in human-animal interaction from the University of Lincoln, said: "Showing dogs only half of the face and then the other half separately means they can't rely on the shape of the eyes or the mouth - they must have some sort of template in their mind.
"So it looks like they can really discriminate between happy and...

Summary: Research is now suggesting something dog-lovers have long suspected - man's best friend can tell the difference between our happy and angry faces.
###
Article: Following the announcement of the new global calendar in March, Premiership Rugby confirmed the 2019-20 domestic season will start in early September and finish at the end of June.
Leicester's Tom Youngs had said the proposal "fills players with dread".
The RPA has now said a shortened two-month off-season will be "seriously detrimental to player welfare".
Premiership Rugby has previously said the 10-month campaign will allow clubs to become "more sophisticated" in their management of players, with chief executive Mark McCafferty insisting player welfare remains the priority.
But an RPA statement on Monday read: "The Premiership season is already longer than comparable contact sports, including Super League, NFL and AFL.
"Extending an already arduous season from nine months to 10 has serious implications for players, given the potential increase to the game, training and psychological loads they face.
"The physical and mental strain placed on participants of professional contact sport cannot be underestimated."
England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland will all be playing international matches in June this summer, while the British and Irish Lions are also touring New Zealand.
The RPA has concerns that an extended season could overwork any players involved in future international summer tours - a worry shared by Tigers captain Youngs.
"Perhaps most worryingly is the incredible strain these proposals would place on international players," the statement continued.
"If the Premiership season retains its current start date, the addition of a July tour schedule will lead to an 11-month season for these players.
"This cannot be avoided unless these players start their domestic season later, which brings into question the need for the season extension."

Summary:


The Australian government has announced a new $1.5bn fund to help small businesses.
The Small Business Finance Fund will be managed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
The fund will be available to small businesses with a turnover of less than $10m.
The fund will be available to

The companies that own Domino's Pizza in the UK and Australia have set up a joint venture to buy Germany's biggest pizza chain.

Article: The DB4GT Coupe sold for £3,249,500 in the Bonham's auction at Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell.
The car, which retailed for about £4,500 when it was new, had been restored at the works by its last owner.
Bonham's said bidding was rising at increments of £100,000 at a time.
Aston Martin Works said the previous record was for an Aston Martin DB5, which was used in one of the James Bond films, which sold for £2.5m in 2010.
The record is for road cars and does not take racing cars into account as they can go for over £10m.
This record-breaking car, called The Jet, was the last DB4GT off the Newport Pagnell production line and was the only one with coachwork by Italian designers Bertone.
The sale also featured three "barn finds" which had been hidden in storage for over 30 years - a 1966 DB6 Vantage Sports Saloon Project, a 1964 DB5 Sports Saloon and a 1963 DB4 Series V Vantage Sports Saloon.
They fetched £609,300 between them, while overall the auction of 197 lots sold for £10m.
James Knight, Bonham's motoring director, said: "I really did not think we could eclipse the record-breaking total achieved at this sale last year, but I am thrilled that  in Aston Martin's centenary year we have achieved just that.
"To sell every lot in an auction is almost unprecedented."

Summary: An Aston Martin road car has fetched a record price at auction in Buckinghamshire - where it was made in 1960.
###
Article: The Scottish Sentencing Council will look at crimes committed by young people, death by driving and environmental and wildlife offences.
It will also begin research into the sentencing of sexual offences.
The council was established a year ago in an attempt to improve public confidence in the sentences passed by the courts.
Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian, who chairs the council, said: "The topics we have selected to begin preparing guidelines on are of importance to local communities and families across Scotland.
"We will take the time to properly research each area and consult widely, not only with our justice partners, but with relevant groups and the wider public.
"We welcome input from those interested and encourage you to have your say in helping to shape Scotland's first sentencing guidelines."
The council will now consider how young people should be sentenced and begin work on its first offence-specific topics.
In a statement, the council said: "Death by driving is a serious matter that affects people across Scotland. The circumstances are often complicated and this can lead to extremely difficult sentencing decisions. Fatalities have a huge impact on families and local communities.
"Environmental and wildlife issues have particular significance in Scotland relevant to tourism, rural industry and the local economy. Guidelines on environmental offences will be particularly helpful in setting down an approach to how corporations should be sentenced."
The council will also look ahead to considering theft, property offences and domestic abuse from 2018-2021.

Summary: Judges and sheriffs are to be given new guidelines in an attempt to ensure consistency in the sentences they pass.
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Article: Joey's Pizza has 212 stores across Germany with annual sales of â‚¬143m ($156.5m; Â£103.9m).
Germany is the world's fourth-biggest pizza market and the deal is worth up to A$120m ($86m).
The deal will increase the number of stores owned by Sydney-listed Domino's Pizza Enterprises to 1,870.
The joint venture will be two-thirds owned by the Australian company, with the remainder owned by the London-listed Domino's Pizza Group, which already has operations in Germany.
Don Meij, chief executive of Domino's Pizza Enterprises, said that entering the German market represented a long-term growth opportunity.
"The acquisition of the market-leading Joey's Pizza business provides immediate scale and marketing presence which we can build from," he said.
The company's Sydney-listed shares jumped more than 12% after the deal was announced. The stock has soared more than 125% in the past 12 months.
The Australian company also raised its profit outlook for the year to June by 30% -  to A$166.1m net income before tax and other items.
The Domino's brand globally is owned by the New York-listed Domino's Pizza Inc.
The London-listed company has more than 800 stores in the UK, and holds franchises in Ireland, Germany and Switzerland. Up to 15 of its German stores will be bought by the joint venture.
Shares in Domino's Pizza Group have risen by 38% this year and the company is valued at Â£1.6bn.
Domino's Australia is the world's largest franchisee for the pizza brand. It holds the Domino's brand network in Australia, Belgium, France, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Monaco.
The Joey's Pizza deal is expected to be completed early next year, subject to regulatory approval.

Summary:


A US judge has ruled that artists should receive higher royalty payments for digital downloads than they do when a CD or vinyl album is sold.
The difference is substantial. According to Billboard, artists get 15% of the money generated by the sale of a record. For downloads, which are counted as "licensed content",

Richard Carpenter has said he is owed at least $2m (Â£1.6m) in royalties for the hits he recorded in The Carpenters, including Yesterday Once More.

Article: Nick Higgs is jetting off to study the mysterious Osedax worms which eat bones and mainly live off the skeletons of whales deep on the ocean floor.
They are just one of a range of creatures that make their home around the carcasses of the giant mammals, in communities known as "whale falls".
Mr Higgs will join the research trip led by senior scientist Robert Vrijenhoek of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
He will take part in a week-long cruise in which they will survey four whale falls - three artificial and one natural.
By studying the worms, scientists hope to learn more about these communities evolved.
Whale falls occur when a whale dies in the deep ocean and sinks to the sea floor. Unlike whales that die in shallow waters (less than 200m deep), whose carcasses are quickly devoured by scavengers, the whale carcasses in the deep oceans can provide a feast for a complex community of organisms.
Species found around whale falls range from clams and shrimp to larger creatures like octopuses, lobsters and even sharks.
Osedax worms were not discovered until 2002 when they were observed living on the bones of a decaying grey whale in Monterey Bay, California.
The worms, named after the Latin osedax or "bone-eating", are commonly called bone worms or zombie worms because of their strange feeding practices.
Even though the worms have no mouth or stomach, they are able to burrow into the solid bone to feed and can eventually destroy an entire whale skeleton, leaving virtually no trace of the fossil record.
Nick is particularly interested in how they bore into the bone: "Because Osedax worms were only discovered a few years ago, there's still an awful lot we don't know about them.
"For example, different species of worm appear to like different parts of the bone, with some staying around the surface and others burrowing deep into the middle.
"I can also use CT scans to generate a 3D image of the bore holes and what they look like from the inside. Armed with this information, I hope to explore fossilized...

Summary: A University of Leeds PhD student is heading to California to study what have been termed "zombie worms".
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Article: Writers, experts and the city council have come together to submit an application.
It aims to celebrate Nottingham's past - which includes links to Lord Byron, DH Lawrence and Alan Sillitoe - as well as current and future writers.
Other cities which already hold the title include Edinburgh, Dublin and Norwich.
Performance poet Andrew Graves - who goes by the pen name Mullet Proof - said Nottingham's literary scene needed celebrating and nurturing.
Romantic poet Lord Byron lived at Newstead Abbey House, in Nottingham, on and off between 1808 and 1814. He was said to be "mad, bad and dangerous to know".
BBC History biography
DH Lawrence was born in Eastwood, the son of a miner. He became a notorious author, best known for Sons and Lovers and Lady Chatterley's Lover which was banned for its sexual content.
Watch The Culture Show on DH Lawrence
The Nottingham-born novelist emerged in the 1950s as one of the Angry Young Men of British fiction. His works included Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, both made into films.
Listen to Alan Sillitoe: My life as a smoker
"The one thing that frustrates me about Nottingham [is that] we don't make enough of our literary heritage," he said.
"I sometimes lie awake at night and wonder, 'what would Manchester do if they had DH Lawrence or Alan Sillitoe?' I just don't think we make enough of it."
Shelagh Gallagher, of Bromley House Library, an independent subscription-based library, said it would encourage work in schools and inspire children, helping to combat Nottingham's traditionally low literacy rates.
"The potential for activities [if we get it] is marvellous," she said.
"We want people and children in Nottingham to see they are part of a city of literature and to find out about our heritage. But it is more about the next generation, ways of increasing literacy through enjoying being part of Nottingham's heritage."
The bid has to be submitted to the United Nations Environmental, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) by...

Summary: Nottingham hopes to celebrate its literary past by becoming a United Nations City of Literature.
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Article: He claims Universal Music have only paid the band a "miniscule fraction" of the money they were owed from downloads on sites like iTunes and Amazon.
The musician is suing for compensation, according to legal documents filed in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
The claim is also filed on behalf of his sister, Karen, who died in 1983.
Carpenter hired accountants to examine financial statements from Universal Music and its subsidiary, A&M Records, which has released The Carpenters' music since their debut album in 1969.
He says they found multiple errors, and that the labels "improperly classified" revenue from digital downloads of The Carpenters' music as sales of physical records  - which attract a lower royalty rate. He also claims that digital downloads were undercounted.
In a statement, Carpenter said he had been unable to resolve the dispute without suing.
"The Carpenters recordings are among the best sellers in the history of popular music, and after 48 years continue to contribute a substantial amount to [Universal's] annual bottom line," he wrote. "It seems only fair that these companies account fairly to my sister's estate and to me."
Specialising in radio-friendly soft rock, The Carpenters sold millions of records in the 1970s. The brother-sister duo won three Grammy Awards in 1970 and 1971, including best new artist and best vocal performance for the ballad (They Long to Be) Close to You.
The band's career was cut short when Karen developed anorexia nervosa in 1975. Although they continued to record, the condition eventually led to her death, from heart failure.
Richard Carpenter's legal claim is one of many filed in the US after a 2010 court case involving Eminem, which resulted in a ruling that artists should receive higher royalty payments for digital downloads than they do when a CD or vinyl album is sold.
The difference is substantial. According to Billboard, artists get 15% of the money generated by the sale of a record. For downloads, which are counted as "licensed content",  the figure 50%.
Artists...

Summary:


The Welsh Conservatives have announced they will be fielding a candidate in the South Wales East by-election.
The party has opted not to automatically reselect Mohammad Asghar, prompting an open contest.
On Thursday night it was announced Mr Asghar had topped the poll.
A second AM forced to follow the

A Conservative AM forced to face a ballot of party members has come top of the South Wales East regional list for the 2016 assembly election.

Article: "Hedge" has been used as a verb meaning to "avoid commitment" since at least the 16th century; it's used in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, for example.
It started being used in relation to financial transactions in the early 17th century.
Technically it is a way of managing a financial price risk. But let's take it back to basics.
If you've ever packed an umbrella so you aren't caught out by the weather, you've adopted a hedge position. Chances are you have also taken out a financial hedge in the form of health or life insurance. You pay the premiums to cover yourself if something bad happens - it's a hedge on your health.
Businesses do the same thing. They will take steps to try to offset the possible losses that may be incurred by investments or by changes to financial markets.
Hedging is an important part of doing business. When investing in a company you expose your money to risks of fluctuations in many financial prices - foreign exchange rates, interest rates, commodity prices (oil and so on) and equity prices.
If a company makes sweet treats, the price of sugar is going to be watched closely. If a business relies on a fleet of lorries to move goods, then the price of petrol is key. More often than not, though, in today's global business world, the killer movers are currencies.
Foreign Exchange (FX) is by far the largest market in the world, dwarfing the size of stock and bond markets. The daily trading volume in FX markets is about $5 trillion (£4 trillion) - that's about four times more than all the trading in companies listed on the FTSE 100 for a whole year.
"It is often a good idea for companies to use hedging to protect themselves from swings in the exchange rate of a foreign country they are investing in," says Jasper Lawler, a markets analyst at CMC Markets.
The impact of changes to market prices can have a devastating effect on profits, so companies will seek to shield the sensitivities of their core business.
"Companies hedge for a variety of reasons, but they all come down the same...

Summary: We've all heard the phrase hedging your bets - but do you know what it actually means?
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Article: The IMF says it now expects the UK to grow by 1.5% this year, compared with the 1.1% it was previously forecasting.
Its prediction that the global economy will grow by 3.4% in 2017, and 3.6% in 2018, is unchanged.
But the possibility of more trade barriers could undermine the forecasts.
"Preliminary third-quarter growth figures were somewhat stronger than previously forecast in some economies, such as Spain and the United Kingdom, where domestic demand held up better than expected in the aftermath of the Brexit vote," said the IMF in its latest World Economic Outlook.
It added: "There is a wide dispersion of possible outcomes around the projections, given uncertainty surrounding the policy stance of the incoming US administration and its global ramifications."
For 2018, the organisation's forecast for UK economic growth has now been downgraded, from 1.7% last October to 1.4% now.
In producing this forecast, the IMF's economists have made some assumptions about the policies Donald Trump's administration will pursue, and they expect tax cuts and spending to boost the US economy.
The IMF now expects the US economy to grow by 2.3% this year, up from a previous estimate of 2.2%, while the forecast for 2018 has been raised to 2.5% from 2.1%.
In a statement, IMF chief economist Maurice Obstfeld cited Donald Trump's proposed tax cut and spending plans as an upside for growth.
However, he added there was "a wider than usual range of upside and downside risks to this forecast".
IMF forecasts (and everybody else's for that matter) always have to contend with uncertainty. But it is particularly pronounced this time.
The reason: the political change coming later this week in Washington. Just what policies will the Trump administration pursue?
That will be a lot clearer next time the IMF issues a forecast in April. For now the agency's economists have had to make some assumptions.
They assume there will be a boost to the US economy from the government finances. That means tax cuts and perhaps infrastructure investment...

Summary: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its forecast for the UK's economic growth this year, following a better than expected economic performance since the Brexit vote.
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Article: Party officials opted not to automatically reselect Mohammad Asghar, prompting an open contest.
On Thursday night it was announced Mr Asghar had topped the poll.
A second AM forced to follow the same procedure, William Graham, finished outside the top  four - meaning he is effectively de-selected.
Second on the list will be Laura Anne Jones, previously an AM between 2003-07.
In a statement, Mr Graham said: "Whilst I am personally disappointed that I will not be part of an expanding Welsh Conservative team after the elections in May, I remain as invested as any of my colleagues in the goal of bringing an end to this tired Labour government."
The Conservatives currently hold two of the available four seats in South Wales East.
The 60 AMs include 20 elected via regional lists, aimed to give a fairer reflection of support for each party.

Summary:


A man has been fined Â£150 for two offences under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday.
The conditions of the Asbo prevent him from entering land with a dog or with other people with a dog for 18 months.
Livingston was arrested near Pathhead, Midl

An exhibition showing thousands of blue nudes in Hull has been announced as the City of Culture's flagship exhibition.

Article: Sally Hunt, head of the University and College Union (UCU), said in a speech "every penny" should be donated.
Last week, union members took action over a 1.1% pay rise offered by universities, calling it "an insult".
The Universities and Colleges Employers' Association (UCEA) said students faced no major disruption.
Speaking at the UCU annual conference in Liverpool, Ms Hunt said: "Vice-chancellors and principals are so busy defending their own exorbitant pay that they have forgotten that universities and colleges are nothing without students and staff.
"Not so long ago, most institutions would give money docked from striking staff to their student hardship funds - these days it is far less likely.
"Therefore, today I am calling on all vice-chancellors and principals to do the right thing and commit every penny they took from our members for striking last week to their student hardship funds."
The UCU says the two-day strike over a 1.1%  pay rise for academic staff comes as vice-chancellors enjoy high salaries.
But UCEA said the offer to staff was generous when compared with that of public sector workers, such as those working in local government and the prison service, who received a rise of 1%.
A spokesman said: "Higher education institutions are reporting either no or low disruption on either of UCU's two strike days on 25 and 26 May.
"It is therefore not surprising that the number of UCU members actually declaring themselves to have been on strike appears to be very low, with the early reports averaging at less than 45 per institution.
"It is up to each institution to decide what they will do with pay withheld from those who did strike, though we know many have policies for making a donation to their student hardship fund or, for example, to support onsite nursery provision."
According to Ms Hunt, students supported the industrial action and she will thank them in her speech for their support.
She said "that this fight is their fight - and that we will support them when they defend education".
She also...

Summary: Any money universities saved by docking wages of lecturers who went on strike last week should be given to student hardship funds, a union says.
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Article: Keith Livingston, 54, was also fined Â£150 for two offences under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday.
The conditions of the Asbo prevent him from entering land with a dog or with other people with a dog for 18 months.
Livingston was arrested near Pathhead, Midlothian in October 2014.
PC Jamie Hood, of Police Scotland, said: "Hare coursing is a crime that has no consideration for wildlife or the impact on people who legitimately make a living from the land.
"People involved in this activity can also be involved in other criminal activity.
"This sentence should serve as a serious deterrent to anyone involved in hare coursing in Scotland."

Summary: A man caught hare coursing in East and Midlothian has received the first Anti Social Behaviour Order (Asbo) for the crime in Scotland.
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Article: Artist Spencer Tunick photographed 3,200 people at locations around Hull on 9 July for the Sea of Hull project.
The photos will be displayed alongside major works by Lucien Freud and Ron Mueck in the Ferens Art Gallery's SKIN exhibition from 22 April.
Sea of Hull featured people from around the world and is said to be the largest nude installation in the UK.
The models were painted blue to represent water.
New York-based Mr Tunick said he noted shades of blue from various maritime paintings at the Ferens gallery during a scouting trip in 2015 and made them into body paint.
He said: "By bringing the colours of the Ferens' canvases into the streets and on to the bodies, I was able to successfully realize my vision of recreating the lost waterways of Hull with the brilliant and vibrant colours of the water."
Ferens' art curator Kirsten Simister said the SKIN exhibition examines how the nude continues to fascinate and inspire artists.
She said it was a "very exciting, long-awaited moment" which had been planned for four years.
"The idea for SKIN was developed at the time of the bid for UK City of Culture and it's incredibly exciting to see this vision now becoming a reality," Ms Simister said.
"SKIN acts as a major centrepiece for the year and through a variety of partnerships we have secured works of the very highest quality.
Since reopening following refurbishment in January, Ms Simister said footfall at the Ferens had risen from 10,000 to 92,000 when compared to January and February 2016.
Hull City Council said visitor numbers at the city's other attractions had also increased.
SKIN is a free exhibition at the Ferens from 22 April to 13 August.

Summary:


The Old Town community council has welcomed the announcement of a £1.5m project to improve the Old Town's closes.
Edinburgh World Heritage has announced plans to improve the Old Town's closes.
The project will see the creation of a new route linking the Royal Mile to the Grassmarket, and the creation

Twelve of Edinburgh's "dilapidated and neglected" closes are to be transformed as part of a major project to improve the Old Town.

Article: Some 25,000 native and heritage bulbs are being planted at English Heritage gardens, including Queen Victoria's former home Osborne House.
The flowers are under threat from hybrids and non-native species such as the Spanish bluebell.
English Heritage wants people to join in by planting a native daffodil or bluebell bulb in their own gardens.
These can be collected for free from various English Heritage sites.
John Watkins, head of gardens and landscapes at English Heritage, said native daffodils and bluebells were a "vital part of our horticultural and cultural heritage".
He said: "Our native species and historic cultivars are increasingly under threat from cross-pollination with non-native species and hybrids that flower at the same time.
"The resulting offspring will be hybrids and likely to outperform and out-compete the native species.
"Historic gardens and landscapes are often the last refuge for ancient cultivars and native species.
"Our major spring bulb planting campaign - across some of the most important historic gardens in England - will help arrest that national decline and ensure that the daffodil celebrated by Wordsworth over 200 years ago can still be enjoyed by visitors today and in the future."
Other sites taking part in the scheme include Belsay Hall in Northumberland, Eltham Palace and Kenwood, both in London, and Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden in Warwickshire.

Summary: Gardeners are planting thousands of daffodils and bluebell bulbs in efforts to help save native spring blooms.
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Article: While about 200 live safely on the Rock of Gibraltar, they are experiencing rapid decline in their natural habitats in North Africa.
Hundreds of infants are illegally taken from the wild each year for European pet markets.
Countries banned any form of trade in the species.
The Barbary Macaque seems to specialise in isolation. It's the only African primate species north of the Sahara and the only macaque species in Africa.
Experts estimate that there are between 6,500 and 9,100 Barbary Macaques in fragmented populations strung across Morocco and Algeria. They were categorised as endangered in 2008 as their numbers plummeted by 50% in 24 years.
While destruction of habitat is a significant cause of their decline, another important factor is illegal trade.
About 200 infants are taken from the wild in Morocco each year. Some are used as photo props for tourists in North Africa. Most are bought by Europeans wanting to raise them as pets.
In Morocco, the animals sell for up to 450 euros each. In Europe they can fetch 2,000 euros.
"People actually think it will be a suitable pet, it isn't, it's horrible," said Rikkert Reijnen of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
"They need a lot of attention, they basically wreck your house and as they grow older they start to follow their natural behaviour, which is sometimes aggressive."
Most end up in animal sanctuaries. Between 2001 and 2015, there were 545 reports of Barbary Macaques being rescued and sent to sanctuaries, mostly in France, Belgium and Spain. It's ironic that while the numbers in the wild are going down fast, the Macaque sanctuaries are over stocked.
So great is the concern about the impact of this pet trade on their survival that Morocco, supported by the EU, asked the Cites meeting here to put the animals on Appendix I. It was the first time in 30 years that Cites considered increasing the level of protection for a monkey species.
"This Appendix I listing means that the animal gets more attention from the authorities," said Rikkert...

Summary: Europe's only non-human primate, the Barbary Macaque, has gained the highest level of species protection at the Cites meeting in Johannesburg.
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Article: Bakehouse Close and Riddle's Close - once home to philosopher David Hume - are among those selected for a makeover by Edinburgh World Heritage.
Fleshmarket Close, which is famously a setting for an Inspector Rebus novel, has also made the final list.
Lighting and artwork will be installed in the little-used closes.
The people behind the project hope the improvements will encourage more people to use the historic network of narrow streets.
Adam Wilkinson, the director of Edinburgh World Heritage, said: "Our aim is for this project to re-connect the people of Edinburgh with the closes of the Old Town.
"The intricate network of closes and courtyards that bind the Old Town together gives it a unique identity, is underused but has the opportunity to be revitalised, used and celebrated by all."
The closes date back to the medieval origins of the city.
Originally, individual plots of land were set up lining the main street, with paths to gain access to the land behind.
As each plot became built up over time, so they developed into narrow lanes connecting courtyards and streets behind the Royal Mile.
The Twelve Closes project was welcomed by city leaders, including John Thompson, of the Old Town community council.
He said: "This is a project to be welcomed, changing dilapidated and neglected closes into useful routes linking different parts of the Old Town.
"The closes were once busy thoroughfares, buzzing with all the life of the city, and it would be wonderful to see some of that atmosphere return."

Summary: