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Thousands vie for Naked Man title in Japan - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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Thousands of men wearing just loincloths gathered at the Saidaiji Kannon-in Temple, Okayama, Japan for an annual festival.
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Thousands of men wearing just loincloths gathered at the Saidaiji Kannon-in Temple, Okayama, Japan for an annual festival.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39019390
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Wrong national anthem played for gold medallists - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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Russian gold medallists at the biathlon world championship in Austria had to sing their national anthem after the wrong one was played.
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Russian gold medal winners at the biathlon world championship in Austria had to sing their national anthem after an old, Yeltsin-era anthem was played by mistake.
Aleksei Volkov, Maksim Tsvetkov, Anton Babikov, and Anton Shipulin were handed the microphone when organisers played the old anthem.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39020854
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Olympics & Paralympics 2020: Badminton among seven sports to lose funding appeals - BBC Sport
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2017-02-20
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Badminton is one of seven sports to lose its appeal against UK Sport funding cuts for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic cycle.
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Badminton is one of seven sports to have lost appeals against UK Sport funding cuts for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic cycle.
The decision comes despite Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge winning bronze for Great Britain in the men's doubles at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Archery, goalball, fencing, table tennis, weightlifting and wheelchair rugby will also receive no funding.
However, powerlifting was successful in its appeal to UK Sport.
It means the sport's £1.3m funding will be managed by British Weightlifting and not the English Institute of Sport, as was the case before the 2016 Olympics.
GB Badminton said it was "staggered" by the decision to reject its appeal.
But UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl said none of the seven sports had provided "critically compelling new evidence" that changed the assessment of their medal potential.
Mike Reilly, CEO of Goalball UK, said his organisation was hopeful UK Sport would find "other ways to help us secure a clear and sustained talent pathway" to Tokyo 2020.
Wheelchair rugby has been stripped of £750,000, and BBC Sport understands the Rugby Football Union (RFU) will not step in to increase support for its disability counterpart.
The RFU gives about £100,000 per year to the sport known as 'murderball', and England full-back Mike Brown headed a recent campaign to help raise funds, but there are now fears its elite team could fold.
'It's going to be tough for the sport'
Compared with the four-year build-up to the Rio Games, badminton is the biggest loser in cash terms, as it was given £5.7m last time.
The cut comes despite the sport hitting its medal target thanks to Ellis and Langridge winning only Britain's third Olympic badminton medal.
It is heart-wrenching - we're super devastated Gail Emms, who won an Olympic badminton silver medal in 2004
GB Badminton said in a statement: "Given the strength of evidence we were able to present to justify investment, we cannot believe UK Sport has concluded they should stand by their decision and award zero funding to our GB programme.
"We have players who are on track to win medals for the nation at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and our belief in those players remains as great as it's ever been. We will now take some time to consider our next steps."
Gail Emms, a silver medallist for Great Britain at Athens 2004, said she was "gutted".
She said: "It is heart-wrenching. It was bad enough in December when the initial decision was made but now we are super devastated.
"The players out there were really pinning their hopes on this. I was such an optimist; I thought it was going to be OK. We put forward a strong case. It is going to be tough now for the sport."
UK Sport's money has transformed Britain into an Olympic and Paralympic superpower, but its 'no-compromise' approach is under more scrutiny than ever.
With falling ticket sales hitting crucial National Lottery funding, resources are undoubtedly stretched but, for the first time, sports with real podium potential are being excluded from funding, and many are now asking whether the focus on medals has gone too far.
How have the other sports reacted?
Table tennis was another sport to be disappointed, despite Britain winning a bronze medal at the 2016 World Team Championships.
Sara Sutcliffe, Table Tennis England chief executive, said: "We're naturally disappointed, having made what we believe was a very strong case for a relatively small amount of funding.
"We overachieved on everything we were asked to do in the 2016 cycle, and did so without funding. We were left without funding because, effectively, the goalposts were moved. We will take time to absorb this decision before we decide on the best course of action."
Georgina Usher, chief executive of British Fencing, said the organisation would try to hold fundraising events to support its athletes.
"This has been an incredibly difficult period for the athletes and programme staff," she said.
"Our staff, coaches and athletes have worked incredibly hard to have got to the point where we are absolutely good enough to target an Olympic medal. Having to explain to them why the programme funding will be coming to an end is extremely tough.
"We will be appealing against this decision as we owe it to our athletes to pursue every avenue open to us to challenge this funding decision process."
Goalball chief executive Reilly was more upbeat, saying: "Though we did not fit the UK Sport criteria to move up categories, and so secure funding, we were very much encouraged by their response to our representation.
"There is certainly a sense of the board understanding the difficulties we face and an acknowledgement of our incredible success."
'We don't take these decisions lightly' - UK Sport's reaction
Nicholl said: "The sports that made representations were unable to provide any critically compelling new evidence that changed our assessment of their medal potential for Tokyo.
"Their position in our meritocratic table therefore remains unchanged and they remain in a band we cannot afford to invest in.
"This is the first time we've been unable to support every sport that has athletes with the potential to deliver medals at the next Games. We don't take these decisions lightly as we're acutely aware of the impact they have on sports, athletes and support personnel.
"To support those affected, we have put in place a comprehensive transition and support package and are working closely with these sports to help staff and athletes move out of UK Sport funding."
What is the background?
In December, UK Sport announced the funding for the cycles for the Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo in 2020.
Archery, badminton, fencing, goalball, table tennis, weightlifting and wheelchair rugby appealed to UK Sport to review the decision on what they had been awarded.
UK Sport says it must prioritise sports with the strongest medal potential for Tokyo and the appeal process was essentially a second opportunity for officials to demonstrate why they deserve funding.
A total of £345m will be invested in 31 Olympic and Paralympic sports - £2m less than the record £347m allocated for the Rio Games.
UK Sport has set Team GB a target of winning between 51 and 85 Olympic medals, and 115 to 162 Paralympic medals in 2020.
Understandably, the headlines will be dominated by news of the seven sports - including British Weightlifting's Olympics team - who have not been able to overturn UK Sport's initial funding decisions.
However, the victory for British Weightlifting's Paralympic programme should not be overlooked. UK Sport had planned to move control of the funding award for the disability sport set-up to the English Institute of Sport (EIS). This would not only have seen the closure of the entire GB Weightlifting programme (for Olympic and Paralympic athletes), but also potentially set a new precedent for how funding could be allocated in the future.
The EIS is essentially an extended arm of UK Sport - looking after anything from nutrition to physiotherapy and athlete lifestyle/welfare. Figures from several other Olympic and Paralympic sports have told me of their concerns about what giving EIS greater power would have meant for future funding decisions beyond Tokyo.
As it stands, those concerns will have been allayed somewhat - but it will be interesting to see whether UK Sport will continue to push in this direction and essentially seek greater control and governance of the funding it awards over each four-year-cycle.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/39027138
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Sister of Paris police 'rape victim' speaks out - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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The sister of the young man who was allegedly sexually assaulted by French police, calls for justice in a BBC interview.
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The sister of the young man who was allegedly sexually assaulted by French police, has spoken to the BBC.
Eleanor has said that there will be further violence unless justice is seen to be done.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39020154
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This 14-year-old made the best Facebook Messenger chatbot - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A simple-yet-clever chatbot gives Dave Lee hope that this immature technology will be worth while.
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Technology
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Alec Jones aspires to one day work for 'exciting' tech giants
It's been nearly a year since Microsoft's Satya Nadella proclaimed "bots are the new apps".
Yet despite the promise of a revolution in how we interact with services and companies online, progress has been utterly miserable - the vast majority of chatbots are gimmicky, pointless or just flat out broken.
But this week I was given great cause for optimism, in the form of Alec Jones, a 14-year-old from Victoria, Canada.
For the past six months, Alec been working on Christopher Bot, a chatbot that helps students keep track of homework they've been given over the course of a week.
To set things up, a student shares his or her schedule with Christopher Bot, and from then on it will send a quick message at the end of each lesson asking if any homework had been set.
"Do you have homework for maths?" it asked 30-year-old me pretending to be a child for the sake of this piece.
"Your teacher needs to chill out on the homework," came the auto-response, adding, "what homework do you have?"
The chatbot takes answers in from messages and adds it to a homework schedule
Through this interface, I'm able easily insert "algebra" - urgh - into a weekly schedule that I can then refer back to at any point to see what I need to get done.
Once I complete a piece of homework, I tell Christopher Bot, and it congratulates me, automatically removing the homework from my list of things to do. The best bit? The bot keeps quiet during the holidays.
What makes me so impressed by this is that, of all the experiments I've seen so far, it is the first time a chatbot has genuinely been the best way to tackle a problem.
Other chatbots are a lesser experience of something else. The CNN news chatbot, for example, is worse at giving you the news than any of CNN’s other products.
And popular weather bot Poncho, while cute and well-branded, has a habit of telling me it's about to rain five minutes after water started falling on my head.
But Christopher Bot shows the potential for producing a service that is completely at home within chat - removing the need for students to access some extra tool to keep track of what needs doing, and interacting in a way that (slightly) lessens the unavoidable chore of homework.
"I wanted it to not just sound like a robot," Alec told me.
"I wanted it to sound kind of like my friends would. If you get homework, everyone always just shakes their heads and says 'that sucks'."
And it does this within an app his friends are already likely using (though perhaps Snapchat would be a more useful place for it, one day).
In short, it's a product those companies banking on chatbots being a winner should seek to emulate.
It's extremely difficult, for now, to measure the success of chatbots. Ad industry magazine AdAge noted that: "Bot analytics and bot-building software companies all have shortcomings, largely because this technology is in its infancy.
"Few benchmarks exist, especially when trying to compare data across platforms."
So without data, we can't say what's working just yet - though there are some clues to what isn't.
Google's AI-powered messaging app Allo, since being launched to much fanfare last year, has failed to make even a minor dent in a messaging app market dominated by Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger.
And that's because there's no compelling reason to bother with Allo. None of its features - like asking it for directions - provide enough of a benefit beyond what you'd get from just tapping in your request the "old fashioned" way. Users have an incredibly short fuse for chatbots not working exactly as we expect.
Most big companies are missing the point, Alec told me. "There are a lot of chatbots made by these big companies that are supposed to help you interact with their service more and give you more functionality," he said.
"But it feels like they just saw this new platform, bots, and thought 'oh that's cool, people are looking at these now, let's build a bot'.
"It feels like they've just made a compromised version of what they're actually trying to build."
Earlier this week, Alec's bot was shared on Product Hunt, a website I profiled recently, where it gained rave reviews and a fair share of feature requests.
"You're solving a problem many students have," read one reply.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mark Zuckerberg said bots offered advantages over using dozens of specialised apps
"Fellow 14 year old here," began another. "Great job man! That's sick that you’re my age and made such a cool and useful product. Awesome!"
Like any good developer, Alec has aspirations to build on the what he’s made - he wants to make it work for people in the working world, too.
But first he feels Facebook and others must do more to prove the usefuless of chatbots to people.
"I think that the real problem is that not enough people on Facebook who aren't 'techies' don't know what a bot is, and then they don't use it. More people need to know what a bot is," he said.
When Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage in front of his developers last year, he said he was opening up Messenger so that anybody could make great apps. I bet he didn’t think it would be a 14-year-old who would show him how it’s done.
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC and on Facebook
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39013950
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'Enemies of the people': Trump remark echoes history's worst tyrants - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The US president calls the media "enemies of the people" - a phrase favoured by Stalin and Mao.
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US & Canada
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At a different time, in another country, it was effectively a death sentence.
Being branded an "enemy of the people" by the likes of Stalin or Mao brought at best suspicion and stigma, at worst hard labour or death.
Now the chilling phrase - which is at least as old as Emperor Nero, who was called "hostis publicus", enemy of the public, by the Senate in AD 68 - is making something of a comeback.
In November, the UK Daily Mail used its entire front page to brand three judges "enemies of the people" following a legal ruling on the Brexit process.
Then on Friday, President Donald Trump deployed the epithet against mainstream US media outlets that he sees as hostile.
"The FAKE NEWS media (failing New York Times, NBC News, ABC, CBS, CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!" he wrote on Twitter.
The reaction was swift. "Every president is irritated by the news media. No other president would have described the media as 'the enemy of the people'", tweeted David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama.
Gabriel Sherman, national affairs editor at New York magazine, called the phrase a "chilling" example of "full-on dictator speak".
Steve Silberman, an award-winning writer and journalist, wondered whether the remark would prompt Trump supporters to shoot at journalists.
And that might not be a far-fetched concern. Late last year, a Trump supporter opened fire in a pizza restaurant at the centre of a bizarre conspiracy theory about child abuse.
The US president's use of "enemies of the people" raises unavoidable echoes of some of history's most murderous dictators.
Under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, out-of-favour artists and politicians were designated enemies and many were sent to hard labour camps or killed. Others were stigmatised and denied access to education and employment.
And Chairman Mao, the leader of China who presided over the deaths of millions of people in a famine brought about by his Great Leap Forward, was also known to use the phrase against anyone who opposed him, with terrible consequences.
The president was widely criticised for his choice of words.
"Charming that our uneducated President manages to channel the words of Stalin and fails to hear the historical resonance of this phrase," tweeted Mitchell Orenstein, a professor of Russian and East European studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Carl Bernstein, a reporter who helped to bring down Richard Nixon with his reporting on the Watergate scandal, tweeted: "The most dangerous 'enemy of the people' is presidential lying - always. Attacks on press by Donald Trump more treacherous than Nixon's."
Mr Trump is not the first US president to have an antagonistic relationship with the media - Nixon is known to have privately referred to the press as "the enemy" - but his latest broadside, with all its attendant historical echoes, is unprecedented.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39015559
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Newcastle United 2-0 Aston Villa - BBC Sport
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2017-02-20
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Newcastle United move one point clear at the top of the Championship, scoring in each half to defeat Aston Villa.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Newcastle United scored a goal in each half to beat Aston Villa and go a point clear at the top of the Championship.
Yoan Gouffran netted the opener from four yards and another goalmouth scramble resulted in Henri Lansbury turning the ball into his own net.
But Newcastle's victory was soured by the loss of top scorer Dwight Gayle, who limped off after 33 minutes.
Villa striker Scott Hogan was carried off on a stretcher late on and they are now winless in nine league matches.
Hogan, who cost £12m from Brentford in January, landed awkwardly after challenging for a header at a late Villa corner.
Gayle - the Championship's leading scorer with 20 league goals this season - appeared to suffer a recurrence of the hamstring problem which had kept him out for six matches.
Villa remain six points above the relegation zone, having collected only one point in 2017, although Steve Bruce's side had more than matched the Magpies until they fell behind.
Iceland midfielder Birkir Bjarnason went closest for the visitors, failing to hook in Hogan's flick-on from close range and later having a shot saved by Karl Darlow.
Newcastle's opening goal came soon after Gayle's departure, with Villa failing to properly clear a Matt Ritchie cross and French winger Gouffran tapping in.
After that, the hosts took control and often looked likely to extend their lead, although the second goal which took them above Brighton in the table came in fortunate circumstances.
Jamaal Lascelles met Jonjo Shelvey's corner and his effort hit Lansbury, who was stationed at the near post, before ricocheting into the net.
Newcastle manager Rafael Benitez told BBC Radio Newcastle: "This is a very difficult division. Every game is tough and we were playing against a good team with very good players.
"They pressed well at the beginning and it wasn't easy for us to play how we wanted. We needed to score to open up the game, and after the second goal it was more open. We had more chances and more control of the game.
"Dwight Gayle seemed like he wasn't comfortable from the beginning and then he said he was feeling something in his hamstring. We don't know how serious it is. We have to wait."
Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce told BBC WM: "Scott's injury compounded the night, because we obviously fear the worst.
"He's definitely turned his ankle over and we don't know how serious it is until we see X-rays and scans. The consequences of losing him are huge, but let's hope it's not as bad as what we think.
"I thought we were decent in the first half, Newcastle hadn't been near our goal, and yet we gave a poor goal away. After the restart, we've given another one away and the second one was comical.
"And the two or three opportunities we've had, we've not taken them. That's where we are at the moment."
• None Attempt missed. Jonjo Shelvey (Newcastle United) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Matt Ritchie.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Scott Hogan went off injured after Aston Villa had used all subs.
• None Delay in match Scott Hogan (Aston Villa) because of an injury.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Jonathan Kodjia (Aston Villa) because of an injury. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38952759
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David Baddiel on impact of dad's dementia - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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Comedian David Baddiel has made a documentary about the impact of his father's rare form of dementia.
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Stand-up comedian David Baddiel has invited cameras to film his father over the past year – to show the reality of his life living with a rare form of dementia called Pick’s disease.
Symptoms include excessive swearing and inappropriate sexual behaviour, which means the comedian had to stop his children visiting their grandfather.
The Trouble With Dad is on Channel 4 on Monday 20 February at 9pm.
The Victoria Derbyshire programme is broadcast on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39029945
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Migrant workers join labour boycott - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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Migrant workers have signed up to a labour boycott to highlight the role they play in British society.
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Migrant workers have signed up to a labour boycott to highlight the role they play in British society.
Peers are debating the bill to pave the way for the start of Brexit.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39031171
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Iran 'will not instigate hostilities' - foreign minister - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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The Iranian Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, has called on the United States to stop threatening Iran.
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The Iranian Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, has called on the United States to stop threatening Iran.
In an interview with the BBC's Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet, he said moves in Washington to prepare new sanctions were an effort to provoke and agitate his country.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-39024115
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Trump: 'I'm only worried he's gonna give me a kiss' - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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The US president invited a supporter on to the stage at his rally in Florida.
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US President Trump invited one of his supporters on stage during his "campaign rally for America" event in Florida.
While the Republican was giving a speech, he recognised the man in the crowd that he had seen "on television just now", and let him deliver a few words at the podium to the Trump supporters.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39018776
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Facebook bereavement leave: How long is long enough? - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Facebook last week doubled its bereavement leave allowance for its staff. Employees can now take up to 20 days off on full pay. Is it enough?
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Business
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Facebook's new bereavement leave policy was announced by Sheryl Sandberg
Facebook last week doubled its bereavement leave allowance for its staff. Employees can now take up to 20 days off with pay to mourn the death of an immediate family member.
The new policy was announced by Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, who has spoken publicly about mourning her husband, Dave Goldberg, who died in 2015.
"We need public policies that make it easier for people to care for their children and aging parents and for families to mourn and heal after loss," Ms Sandberg posted on Facebook.
She added that companies that stand by the people who work for them do the right thing and "improve their bottom line by increasing the loyalty and performance of their workforce".
The move has sparked huge debate on social media and has been lauded as extremely generous. Is it enough? We asked the views of four people dealing with grief in the workplace.
Chad Andrews and his family returned home from an Alaskan cruise three years ago when his eight-year-old son, Connor, was rushed to hospital a few days later.
Connor had mild flu symptoms that suddenly worsened. He was placed in intensive care but deteriorated rapidly.
In June 2014, he died of myocarditis - an inflammation of the heart stemming from a virus.
Mr Andrews told the BBC that his life became a blur. He had lost an "exceptional, brilliant and beautiful" son and was left in shock.
But he forced himself to return to work a fortnight later even though he admits he wasn't very productive.
"When you're paralysed by grief and it's all your mind can absorb, the last thing you care about is work," he says. "I had no capacity to be in control or function in the everyday world."
Mr Andrews works at IBM where he builds technology platforms for video content. Officially, the company gives staff three days of bereavement leave but he says there was never any pressure for him to return.
After many stops and starts, it took him seven weeks to resume work full-time.
While he believes there is no magic formula, he says Facebook's 20 days bereavement leave "seems like a good best effort to set an effective benchmark".
But he adds that it depends on when the individual can function again.
Chad Andrews and his family on holiday in Alaska. His son Connor (right) died a week later
Chan Lay Lin has been a social worker and family therapist for more than 20 years.
She is a principal medical social worker at Singapore's Institute of Mental Health and says most organisations in Singapore will allow about three days of compassionate leave when a staff member suffers a bereavement.
In her experience, this is adequate when the circumstances are not overly traumatic. But she says in exceptional cases experienced by around one in seven people, a longer grieving period may be needed, with the approval of a doctor or therapist.
The factors considered, she says, include the relationship with the deceased, the level of attachment and dependency and the nature of the death. Sudden and unexpected deaths are all the more traumatic.
Ms Chan says in severe cases some people may never feel like they get back to normal and can fall into depression, making them unable to go back to work for a long time.
For those people the grief may never end, even if it gets easier to bear. But she stresses these are very rare and extreme cases.
Peter Wilson believes 20 days bereavement leave would be "excessive" if it became law
Peter Wilson has been a boss working in human resources for 33 years, and is the chairman of the Australian Human Resources Institute.
According to him, the standard for bereavement leave in democratic, Western cultures is between two and five days.
When his own parents died he used compassionate leave to take one day off for the funeral and another to grieve with his family. He took an extra week of annual leave in each instance, which he describes as a "fair balance".
Mr Wilson believes Facebook's bereavement leave policy is unusual and doubts it will be adopted widely. Twenty days amounts to nearly 10% of the working year, which he says would be "excessive" if it became law.
His concern is that it would put pressure on employers to increase other categories of leave too. "This could have a knock-on effect which could make companies uncompetitive," he says.
He favours a "sensible, minimum standard which the government prescribes and the discretion to give more leave on a case-by-case basis".
Ten years ago, he granted three months' paid leave to an indigenous employee on cultural grounds.
Mr Wilson says most employers will extend leave provisions where there's a good case for it.
A company's compassionate leave policy can give an insight into its ethics, says headhunter Dan Clements
Dan Clements is the managing director of the technology executive recruitment firm, Identify, and says most people probably do not factor in bereavement leave when they are deciding whether to join a company.
However, he believes a firm's compassionate leave policy could give potential employees insight into its culture and ethics. Firms that take a mature and humane approach stand to attract great talent because employees want to be treated fairly and with kindness, he says.
Mr Clements surveyed the compassionate leave policies of 10 multinational companies. They all offered between three and 10 days, with five days being the most common.
One firm went further, giving its managers discretion to grant staff more days off for a bereavement.
But he says companies can do more by offering flexible working arrangements such as remote or part-time working, as well as job sharing to help staff in need of more time to grieve.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38915693
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Could Glasgow Prestwick airport host UK's first spaceport? - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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Could the UK be going where it has never been before? Detailed plans to create the country's first spaceports are set to be unveiled.
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Could the UK be going where it has never been before? Detailed plans to create the country's first spaceports are set to be unveiled.
They could see commercial satellites being launched within three years, and even lead to the start of space tourism.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-39025200
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First scheduled steam train service used by 5,500 people - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Tornado, the newest steam locomotive in Britain, pulled 12 Northern services over three days.
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Cumbria
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
More than 5,000 people travelled on the first timetabled steam train service on the Settle to Carlisle railway line in 50 years, Northern Rail has said.
Tornado, the newest steam locomotive in Britain, pulled 12 Northern services over three days from 14 -16 February.
The company described the event as "a remarkable success" and has not ruled out running similar services again.
It was part of celebrations to mark the upcoming reopening of the line after landslides closed a long stretch.
Paul Barnfield, Northern Rail regional director, said: "During the three days just over 5,500 people travelled on the steam services and it was great to see so many entering into the spirit of the celebration.
"This was the first timetabled steam service in England for almost 50 years and to be able to bring Tornado to such an iconic and visually stunning line, as a way of saying thank you, was a genuine pleasure."
Graeme Bunker, of the Darlington-based A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, which built Tornado, said: "To see the many thousands who travelled and many thousands more enjoying the event at the line side made the endeavour very worthwhile and delivered a welcome boost to the local community after recent challenges.
"I am very proud of my team for their part in ensuring the services ran so successfully."
The landslip was caused by heavy rain
Douglas Hodgins, of the Friends of Settle to Carlisle Line, added: "There must be lessons here about the demand for steam, scenery and rail travel in general. It was the perfect curtain-raiser for the reopening of the line on 31 March."
It took 18 years for the trust to build the £3m Tornado 60163, which can achieve speeds of 75mph (120km/h). It was completed in 2008.
The Appleby to Carlisle stretch of line closed in February 2016 after a 500,000-tonne landslip at Armathwaite.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-39020181
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FA Cup: Best fifth-round goals include Rudy Gestede's acrobatic volley - BBC Sport
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2017-02-20
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Watch the FA Cup fifth round's best goals, including Rudy Gestede's acrobatic volley for Middlesbrough and a lovely finish from Blackburn's Danny Graham.
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Watch the best of the goals from the FA Cup fifth round, including Rudy Gestede's acrobatic volley for Middlesbrough, a cheeky free-kick from Oxford's Chris Maguire and a lovely finish from Blackburn's Danny Graham.
Watch all the best action from the FA Cup fifth round here.
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39018249
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Newspaper headlines: Brexit 'blackmail' and 'plotting' peers - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Stories on pre-negotiation warnings from European politicians and to "remainer" peers make the front pages.
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The Papers
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As peers begin debating the Brexit legislation, the Guardian says it has been told by European politicians that British attempts to "blackmail and divide" EU countries in the run-up to Brexit negotiations will lead to a disastrous "crash landing" out of the bloc.
They say the approach being pursued by Theresa May's government will leave the UK without a free trade deal and facing perilous consequences, reports the paper.
The Daily Express is concerned there is a plot by "remainer" Lords to delay Britain's exit from the EU.
It leads with a warning from Tory MP Philip Davies that any attempt by peers to block Brexit could lead to the demise of the House of Lords.
Elsewhere, there are divergent views on the value of advice from New Labour's elder statesmen after Lord Mandelson urged the House of Lords not to "throw in the towel" over Brexit.
According to the Sun, Lord Mandelson may think it fine to treat voters as an annoying irrelevance, but for them, that is exactly what he has become.
The Daily Mail accuses him of acting like an 18th Century aristocrat planning a last stand against the peasantry.
But Matthew d'Ancona in the Guardian welcomes Tony Blair's earlier decision to take on Brexit. "If not him, then who?" he asks.
And the Daily Telegraph reports Brexit could lead Oxford University to break with more than 700 years of tradition by establishing its first foreign campus.
The paper says French officials met senior staff at Oxford to discuss proposals that they hope will guarantee future EU funding for a satellite base in Paris. Other universities, including Warwick, are also said to have been approached.
The Times says ministers risked enraging small businesses over April's business rate revaluation.
It says it has seen a private letter to Conservative MPs in which ministers claim that a growing revolt over changes to business rates is being fuelled by lies.
The Daily Telegraph says Theresa May is facing a Cabinet split over the issue. An unnamed cabinet source tells the paper: "The last thing you want to do is whack the confidence of small businesses."
Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror reports Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has paid for what it describes as "a massive secret opinion poll on his leadership" as rumours grow that he might quit before 2020.
It says he has ordered a 10,000 person survey but will keep the results secret from all but his closest ally, the shadow chancellor John McDonnell.
The Mirror believes it is a legitimate exercise, but that keeping the findings confidential is less defensible, saying they should be shared, "warts and all".
The main news in the Daily Telegraph is a warning from Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon that millions of refugees will head to Europe from Afghanistan unless British troops maintain their roles in training local forces.
His words, says the Telegraph, are a stark reminder that, whether we like it or not, the consequences of previous Western interventions continue to this day.
According to the lead in the Daily Mail, a report has revealed that the NHS in England has cut 15,000 beds over the past six years.
The paper says that amounts to the equivalent of closing 24 hospitals at the same time as demand for beds is soaring due to the pressures of the social care crisis, immigration and an ageing population.
But ministers are disputing the accuracy of the British Medical Association's findings and NHS England tells the paper that modern treatment advances mean patients need to spend less time in hospital.
Finally, the Daily Mail, reports on research carried out by Hungarian scientists studying the effects of separating young people from their mobile phones.
More than 80 18 to 26-year-olds were wired up to heart monitors.
The paper says researchers found that if their phones were taken away for even a short time they exhibited heartbeat patterns usually associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-39023937
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Sutton United 0-2 Arsenal - BBC Sport
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2017-02-20
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Arsenal reach the FA Cup quarter-finals as goals from Lucas Perez and Theo Walcott beat non-league Sutton United.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Arsenal avoided an FA Cup giant-killing and spared manager Arsene Wenger further pressure with a hard-fought fifth-round victory over non-league Sutton United at Gander Green Lane.
Wenger made seven changes from the side thrashed 5-1 at Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie - and his players had enough to see off a team 105 places below them on English football's ladder.
Lucas Perez's cross-shot gave Arsenal the lead after 26 minutes and Theo Walcott doubled the advantage from close range 10 minutes after the break with his 100th goal for the club.
Victory set up a home quarter-final with another National League side, Lincoln City, who beat Burnley on Saturday.
Sutton had their moments, particularly when Adam May wasted a first-half chance from keeper David Ospina's poor clearance, and Roarie Deacon's fierce 25-yard drive struck the bar in the second half.
The result may have gone against them but the hosts emerged from this tie, and this FA Cup run, with huge credit.
• None 'Sutton players will go down in history'
Arsenal get the job done
Arsenal were on a hiding to nothing after a turbulent week in the wake of their Champions League mauling in Munich, which leaves them on the brink of elimination in the last 16 once more.
The Gunners walked out here with speculation mounting over the future of Wenger and familiar questions being asked about Arsenal's stomach for the fight when the season reaches its pressure points.
Their performance was uncertain and hardly designed to banish the criticism, although allowances must be made for a tricky artificial surface that was heavily saturated before kick-off and again at half-time.
It was simply a question of getting the job done and avoiding embarrassment. There was never going to be any credit in this for Arsenal. And on that basis this can be judged a satisfactory night.
Wenger's troubles were illustrated by the swarm of photographers that surrounded his dugout when he made his entrance - usually the sign of a manager under scrutiny.
The Frenchman, like his players, just needed to get out of Gander Green Lane unscathed and not fall victim to any further humiliation after the harrowing encounter in Munich's Allianz Arena.
This was not a sparkling Arsenal show but they now have what looks like an inviting path to Wembley.
Lincoln may have ousted Burnley, but it takes a huge leap of the imagination to see them denying Arsenal and Wenger a place in the FA Cup semi-finals.
Arsenal still have the chance to add to their tally of 12 FA Cup wins - and Wenger to his total of six.
Sutton United's FA Cup adventure may have ended at the fifth round - but the club, players and staff will have stories that will be part of their history forever.
They are struggling to make an impact in English football's fifth tier but have left an indelible mark on this year's FA Cup with their victory here against Championship giants Leeds United and this meeting with a member of the Premier League elite.
Inevitably, they did not possess the class to rattle Arsenal for long periods but they stuck to their task and even had moments when they gave the Gunners serious concerns in the first half, notably when May failed to take advantage of Ospina's poor clearance.
And even when Walcott gave Arsenal a two-goal advantage, Sutton refused to go quietly, as Jamie Collins headed narrowly over and Deacon rattled the woodwork.
The fairytale was unlikely to materialise but Sutton's approach to the game, not just the team but the entire club, did them great credit.
The atmosphere was buzzing hours before kick-off, the organisation was excellent and everyone entered into the spirit of what was, for them, a huge occasion.
Sutton now return to the more routine business of a trip to Torquay United next weekend before welcoming Boreham Wood.
It was a shame a rather pointless pitch invasion at the end was allowed to linger, but this should be placed in context. The moment of glory may have passed but the memories will remain.
What they said
Sutton manager Paul Doswell: "The support we've had has been amazing. Everyone here is a volunteer, remember that. We're not a League Two club in non-league, we're a traditional non-league club.
"Lincoln and Sutton have done our competition very proud. Best wishes to Lincoln. Go and have your day in the sun like we have."
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger: "We did the job. It is very different on this kind of pitch. It was not an easy game at all. We have to give them credit because every error we made they took advantage of. They played very well.
"It is basically division five and when I arrived here 20 years ago, in division five they were not as fit physically as they were today. They were organised and had a huge desire. If we were not mentally prepared we would not have gone through."
• None Walcott became the 18th player to score 100 goals in all competitions for Arsenal.
• None Walcott has scored six times in his past three away FA Cup games for the Gunners.
• None Arsenal have won 10 and lost none of their past 12 FA Cup matches against non-league sides.
• None The Gunners have reached the sixth round for the fourth season in a row; a feat they last achieved in 2005 (five in succession).
• None Arsenal have lost just one of their past 20 FA Cup games, winning 17 (D2 L1).
• None Sutton United have won as many FA Cup games (excluding qualifiers) this season (four), as QPR have in the past 20 years.
• None Sutton midfielder Nicky Bailey made more tackles (eight) and interceptions (six) than any other player.
While Sutton visit Torquay in the National League on Saturday, the Gunners are not in action until 4 March, when they travel to Liverpool in the Premier League.
• None Attempt blocked. Lucas Pérez (Arsenal) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Alexis Sánchez.
• None Offside, Sutton United. Ross Worner tries a through ball, but Bradley Hudson-Odoi is caught offside.
• None Offside, Arsenal. David Ospina tries a through ball, but Lucas Pérez is caught offside.
• None Attempt missed. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Theo Walcott following a corner.
• None Attempt blocked. Gabriel (Arsenal) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Lucas Pérez.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Simon Downer (Sutton United) because of an injury.
• None Attempt blocked. Bradley Hudson-Odoi (Sutton United) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Roarie Deacon.
• None Attempt missed. Alexis Sánchez (Arsenal) right footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Gabriel.
• None Attempt saved. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Alexis Sánchez. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38952752
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How far into the red will the NHS sink? - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The financial picture for the NHS in England is worse than it looked last November.
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Health
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Call it overspending, underfunding or deficits, the latest news from NHS Improvement involves plenty of red ink on the books of hospitals and other trusts.
And the picture is worse than it looked last November, which will lead to speculation that NHS finances in England are close to being out of control.
As recently as November, Jim Mackey, head of the regulator NHS Improvement, was saying that trusts in England would run up a total deficit of £580m for the full financial year.
Now that has been revised up to a range of £750m to £850m. That will hardly win him many friends at the Department of Health where ministers are anxious to demonstrate that a tighter grip has been applied to the NHS purse strings.
NHS Improvement is pointing the finger at higher than expected patient demand, with emergency hospital admissions 3.5% higher in the final three months of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015. The regulator had anticipated an increase of more like 2%.
Social care problems are also being blamed. NHS Improvement says there was a 28% jump in the number of "bed days" lost because of problems discharging medically fit patients, who had to be kept in hospital when they were medically fit to leave. Difficulties finding the right community or social care were cited as reasons for that increase.
Rising numbers of non-urgent operations and procedures were cancelled because of bed shortages. That hit hospital finances as trusts lost the flow of income they would normally have received for carrying out the operations.
It's easy to see why NHS England leaders and hospital chiefs have been calling for urgent action on social care. A delayed transfer is bad news for the patient stuck in the hospital bed, frustrating for the patient who has an operation postponed, and a real headache for hospital finance directors who lose income.
NHS Improvement argues that more cost controls have been applied, resulting in a 24% lower bill for agency staff in December compared to 12 months earlier.
Paul Briddock, of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, said staff had done a "remarkable job in trying to keep services going while also delivering over £2bn of efficiencies".
A deficit overshoot of a few hundred million pounds should of course been seen in the context of total trust revenue of nearly £80bn and annual NHS spending in England of more than £100bn.
To get to the real picture, though, you need to take into account the £1.8bn "sustainability fund" run by NHS Improvement. This, in effect, is financial support for trusts who follow the regulator's plans for cost reduction. Add that to the possible year end deficit of £850m, as already stated, and you get to a total overspend of around £2.6bn which would be higher than last year.
A year ago we reported the pressure being exerted from on high on trusts to ensure they did not end the year too far into the red. The Department of Health has to ensure that trust deficits are covered by surpluses elsewhere so it does not overspend the budget agreed by Parliament. The process went to the wire last year and seems set to do so again.
Remember this was supposed to be the "year of plenty" for NHS funding with annual increases tailing off in future years.
The fact that trusts are struggling now is alarming.
The government will argue the NHS could be more efficient and make better use of its resources. Critics will say the service in England is underfunded.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39032655
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Gibraltar seizes Russian's superyacht over German debt claim - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Billionaire owner Andrey Melnichenko is alleged to owe 15.3m euros to the shipbuilder.
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Europe
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The seized Sailing Yacht A is among the creme de la creme of private yachts - seen here off Denmark
Gibraltar has impounded a Russian billionaire's superyacht - one of the world's biggest - because the German shipbuilder says he still owes 15.3m euros (£13.3m; $16.3m) in fees.
The claim has kept Andrey Melnichenko's Sailing Yacht A stuck in Gibraltar, a British territory, since Wednesday.
His spokesman voiced confidence that the order would be lifted soon.
The Bermuda-registered vessel, built by Nobiskrug, left the Kiel shipyard in northern Germany two weeks ago.
It is 143m (469ft) long and has three masts, the main one 100m high.
The superyacht, boasting a gross tonnage of 12,600, is reported to have cost at least €400m. Nobiskrug says it has an underwater observation pod, hybrid diesel-electric propulsion and "state-of-the-art" navigation systems. It was designed by Philippe Starck.
According to documents seen by Germany's NDR news, Nobiskrug is demanding an outstanding payment of €9.8m, as well as €5.5m for subcontractors and interest charges. Valla Yachts Ltd, a Bermuda company, is the yacht's registered owner.
A top Gibraltar court official, Admiralty Marshal Liam Yeats, told the BBC on Monday: "The vessel is under arrest and is currently at anchor in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters."
A spokesman for Mr Melnichenko described it as "a technical problem".
He told the BBC: "We are confident that the yacht will be handed over to the owner's project team in the coming days and this unfortunate episode will be over."
The wealthy Russian also owns Motor Yacht A - seen here next to HMS Belfast on the Thames
Motor Yacht A was an imposing sight on the Thames last September
Mr Melnichenko, an industrialist with big stakes in Russia's fertiliser, coal and energy sectors, has a $13.2bn fortune, business website Forbes reports.
Mr Melnichenko also owns a 5,500-tonne superyacht called Motor Yacht A, which is reportedly up for sale. It was built by Germany's Blohm & Voss shipyard and launched in 2008.
It is 119m long - smaller than Sailing Yacht A - and was also designed by Philippe Starck. In September 2016 it moored alongside the old British light cruiser HMS Belfast on the River Thames, in central London.
What happens when a ship is arrested?
The Gibraltar Port Authority says ship arrests happen when "banks and creditors seek recompense from shipowners who find themselves unable to pay up on mortgages or loans".
"Most arrested ships are sold in a sealed-bids auction within six to eight weeks, once the claim has been proved and judgment given."
In a statement on its website, it says "we put 'ship keepers' on board - two security guards to protect the vessel and its contents.
"We provide the crew with everything, from bunkers (fuel storage compartments) so they can keep the generators going, to provisions of food and water."
A launch is also arranged "so that the crew, who would otherwise be stuck onboard, can have some shore leave".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39026845
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Sutton v Arsenal: Clem tours the Gunners' dressing room - BBC Sport
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2017-02-20
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Mark Clemmit is shown around the away dressing room at Sutton United by manager Paul Doswell, which Premier League side Arsenal will be using during their FA Cup fifth-round match on Monday.
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Mark Clemmit is shown around the away dressing room at Sutton United by manager Paul Doswell, which Premier League side Arsenal will be using during their FA Cup fifth-round match on Monday.
Watch live coverage of Sutton v Arsenal, Monday 20 February, 19:30 GMT on BBC One and the BBC Sport website.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39006470
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Hitler's phone sold for $243,000 at US auction - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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The red phone, which has the Nazi leader's name engraved on it, was sold to an anonymous bidder.
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US & Canada
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A telephone used by Adolf Hitler during World War Two has been sold for $243,000 (£195,744) at a US auction.
The identity of the buyer, who bid by phone, has not been revealed. The bidding in Chesapeake City, Maryland, started at $100,000.
The red phone, which has the Nazi leader's name engraved on it, was found in his Berlin bunker in 1945.
Soviet soldiers gave it to British officer Sir Ralph Rayner as a souvenir shortly after Germany surrendered.
The phone was sold by auction house Alexander Historical Auctions.
Auction house officials said the phone was a "weapon of mass destruction", as it was used by Hitler to give orders that took many lives during the war.
A porcelain figure of an Alsatian dog, also owned by Hitler, fetched $24,300. It was bought by a different bidder.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39024237
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Munich Security Conference: Europe's concerns with Trump government far from over - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Vice-President Mike Pence represents the new Donald Trump administration at the Munich Security Conference.
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Europe
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Germany's Angela Merkel, seen here with US Vice-President Mike Pence, asked in a speech whether countries would return to "parochial policies"
The Munich Security Conference is at one and the same time an annual jamboree for senior officials and think-tankers and a place where former officials and corporate movers-and-shakers meet up.
But it also affords an opportunity for a whole series of behind the scenes bilateral meetings. And once every four years it is the place where Europe takes stock of a new US administration.
This year the meeting had added significance since the man in the White House, Donald Trump, is unlike any other president in living memory.
His supporters believe he is the man to overturn the "establishment" in Washington and to get things done.
His detractors believe he is unfit for high office, his erratic behaviour leading some even to question his mental state.
Remember this was a man who on the campaign trail described Nato as "obsolete" and who said that he would end the free ride that he believed many allies - especially in Europe - were taking at the American taxpayers' expense.
So this encounter in Munich was an opportunity for Nato allies to weigh up the new Trump team and to try to gauge the new administration's likely direction. Mr Trump sent his Vice-President Mike Pence to Munich to deliver a series of clearly worded messages.
And to avoid any doubt his new defence chief, General James Mattis, provided a warm-up act at Nato headquarters at the end of last week - and to ensure nobody mistakes the message Mr Pence himself will be heading to Brussels, the seat of Nato, once the Munich conference is over.
Mr Pence used his Munich speech to bring a message of reassurance from the new president. "The US," he said, strongly supports Nato and will be "unwavering in its commitment to the trans-Atlantic alliance" .
Mike Pence's words were an attempt to calm nerves ruffled when President Trump called the alliance 'obsolete'
But with so few allies actually meeting the agreed target for defence spending, there was a warning too.
"Let me be clear on this point," he stressed, "the president of the United States expects our allies to keep their word to fulfil this commitment and for most that means the time has come to do more".
This statement was met with hesitant applause - an indication that many Europeans do not welcome being bullied by the Trump White House.
Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had emphasised that military spending alone was not the only measure of the Europeans' commitment to security.
She calmly - but pointedly - took issue with many of the Trump team's putative policies, noting the importance of international multilateral institutions like the EU and the UN (both of which have been condemned by Mr Trump).
Indeed at the end of her speech she seemed to take on the central tenet of the Trump campaign - enshrined in the slogan "America First!" Looking to the future she posed a fundamental question. "Will we be able," she asked, "to act in concert together or (will we) fall back into parochial policies?"
One of Europe's greatest fears has been Mr Trump's apparent willingness to do a deal with Moscow - not to mention his evident admiration for Russia's leader Vladimir Putin. Mr Trump's emissaries pretty much convinced their European hosts that on key issues - at least for now - there would be no change.
General Mattis insisted that Russia had to abide by international law and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, on a recent visit to Bonn, stressed that agreements like the Minsk accords to end the fighting in Ukraine had to be fully implemented by all sides - including Moscow.
Sergei Lavrov, represented Russia, who were almost bystanders at this Nato conference
Vice-President Pence emphasised the message saying here in Munich that the US would continue to hold Russia to account, even as it searched for areas of common ground.
The Russians have almost been bystanders here watching the internal Nato debate from the sidelines. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov returned to a familiar theme - that Nato was essentially an institution of the past. The expansion of the Atlantic Alliance, he said, had led to an unprecedented level of tensions. What was now needed was what he called a "post-western world order".
So there seems little chance here for President Trump's hope for fresh understanding with Moscow - or at the very least that it will not come at the expense of the European Nato allies, or perhaps even of Ukraine. If there is a deal to be done between Washington and Moscow it will lie elsewhere, perhaps over Syria.
This Munich conference will end on Sunday with many of the concerns of the Europeans only partially stilled. For they relate more to the character and outlook of the new US president himself.
One of his tweets can undermine policies that have received bipartisan support in Washington for decades. And its not just a style thing: many of Mr Trump's policies remain unclear, even as so many positions inside his team remain unfilled.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39017879
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FA Cup quarter-final draw: Lincoln City to play Arsenal - BBC Sport
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2017-02-20
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Lincoln City will play Arsenal in the FA Cup quarter-finals as reward for their fifth-round victory over Burnley.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Lincoln City will play Arsenal in the FA Cup quarter-finals as reward for their stunning fifth-round victory over Burnley.
The fifth-tier club became the first non-league team in 103 years to reach the last eight with the biggest shock of the competition so far on Saturday.
Middlesbrough face Manchester City or Huddersfield, who drew 0-0 on Saturday.
Arsenal reached the last eight with a 2-0 win at Sutton.
The replay between Manchester City and Huddersfield is provisionally set for Tuesday, 28 February at Etihad Stadium.
The quarter-final matches will take place on the weekend of Saturday, 11 March.
There are 88 places between National League leaders Lincoln and Arsenal.
Lincoln boss Cowley said his side had achieved a "football miracle" after beating Burnley 1-0 at Turf Moor with an 89th-minute winner.
It is the first time in the club's 133-year history that they have reached the quarter-finals.
Their next match is away to North Ferriby United on Tuesday, while they are also still in the FA Trophy and play Boreham Wood for a semi-final place on Saturday.
Queens Park Rangers, who joined the Football League in 1920, were the last non-league team to make the FA Cup last eight, in 1914. They were beaten 2-1 by Liverpool in their quarter-final at Anfield.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39018105
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SpaceX successfully launches rocket after Saturday setback - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The US rocket company sends a cargo ship to resupply the International Space Station.
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Science & Environment
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The SpaceX rocket was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida
Private rocket firm SpaceX has successfully launched a rocket carrying a cargo ship for the International Space Station following the postponement of take-off on Saturday because of technical problems.
Witnesses said the rocket was only briefly visible before making its way into the clouds.
The launch was made from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The rocket booster successfully landed nine minutes after taking off.
The touchdown is part of the company's strategy of returning rockets to earth so they can be reused rather than jettisoning them in the ocean after a single launch.
Moments after the rocket landed, the SpaceX Dragon supply ship successfully reached orbit, prompting cheers inside the SpaceX Mission Control room.
Witnesses said the rocket was only briefly visible before making its way into the clouds
The Dragon is now making its way to the International Space Station, and is expected to arrive on Wednesday.
On 14 January SpaceX resumed flights by launching a Falcon 9 vehicle from the Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast.
It was the first mission by the company since one of its vehicles exploded on the launch pad in September.
Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, wants his company to be at the forefront of the race involving several companies to deploy satellite-based internet services over the next few years.
The company also has a long queue of customers all waiting for a ride to orbit - including America's civil space agency (Nasa), the US military and multiple outfits in the commercial sector.
But September's launch pad mishap was a spectacular reminder of just how unpredictable rockets can be sometimes.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39021729
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Ben Stokes: IPL record as Rising Pune Supergiants buy England all-rounder - BBC Sport
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2017-02-20
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England all-rounder Ben Stokes becomes the most expensive foreign player in IPL history as he is bought for £1.7m by Rising Pune Supergiants.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
England all-rounder Ben Stokes became the Indian Premier League's most expensive foreign player when Rising Pune Supergiant bought him for £1.7m.
Tymal Mills went for £1.4m to Royal Challengers Bangalore, while fellow England bowler Chris Woakes was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for £504,140.
England one-day captain Eoin Morgan has gone to Kings XI Punjab for £240,066.
International team-mates Jason Roy and Chris Jordan were sold to Gujarat Lions and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively.
• Read more: Where the IPL contract money goes (Telegraph)
Stokes, 25, had a base price of £240,000 (20 million rupees) but was the subject of bids from Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad before Pune emerged successful.
His fee overtakes that of former England duo Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, who were sold for $1.55m (£1.1m) each in 2009.
Stokes, Roy, 24-year-old Mills and Woakes, 27, will be playing in the eight-team Twenty20 competition - which takes place between 5 April and 21 May - for the first time.
"It's a life-changing amount of money," said Stokes. "Seven times my base amount - that's mental but pretty cool to think about.
"It was hard to follow on Twitter. I wasn't sure how much a Crore [Indian unit of measurement] was - people were retweeting stuff, and it was complete carnage.
"I'm just seriously excited about getting going."
Jos Buttler was retained by Mumbai Indians and Sam Billings was kept on by Delhi Daredevils during the first round of 2017 IPL auction held in Bangalore, but batsmen Alex Hales and Jonny Bairstow went unsold.
"Great day for English cricket and a few lads in particular. Congrats boys," said Buttler.
Left-arm pace bowler Mills will be available for the whole tournament as he is limited to playing T20 cricket because of back pain.
"When it finished I did not know how much it was worth," he said. "When I worked it out I could not believe it - it did not seem real.
"It's an amount of money that can change your life. It will for me."
England's other players may not be available for the 10th edition of the competition because of international commitments as England host Ireland in one-day matches on 5 and 7 May.
They then host South Africa in a three-match ODI series, with the games scheduled to take place on 24, 27 and 29 May, before the ICC Champions Trophy starts in England on 1 June.
We've been lacking this one genre of player," he said. "We have many heroes but this is the one hero that we were lacking.
"We knew he was going to be expensive. We do believe he is going to be there for the first 14 games."
Stokes helped England reach the final of the World Twenty20 in 2016, but they were beaten by the West Indies after the all-rounder was hit for four consecutive sixes in the final over by Carlos Brathwaite.
The Durham player was also part of England's winter tour of India and were beaten 4-0 in the Tests series, 2-1 in the ODIs and 2-1 in the T20 series.
He has become one of England's best performers and was named vice-captain of England's Test team after Joe Root took over as skipper from Alastair Cook earlier this month.
Mills is England's fastest bowler but has played only four T20 games at international level.
"We really needed bowlers, especially with Mitchell Starc not being available for this edition and, therefore, Tymal Mills was a great buy," said RCB chairman Amrit Thomas.
"He suits the playing conditions in Bangalore and we would have done absolutely whatever was required to get him."
In other notable highlights from the auction, all-rounder Mohammad Nabi became the first Afghanistan player to be bought in the IPL, with Sunrisers Hyderabad picking him up for £36,000.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/39025307
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US student grades his ex-girlfriend's apology letter and posts it on Twitter - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A US college student "regrets" grading an apology letter sent to him by his ex-girlfriend and posting it on Twitter with a mark.
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Newsbeat
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An American student who graded his ex-girlfriend's break-up letter says he now regrets that it went viral.
Nick Lutz decided to get a red marker out and critique the four-page note before sending it back to his former partner.
"I feel a little but guilty but at the same time, I don't believe the letter at all," he told Newsbeat. "I've been lied to before by her.
"I feel like it was another way to make me feel like I was stupid."
When Newsbeat asked him if he regretted sharing the personal letter on social media, Nick said: "Yes I do. I would say so."
Nick who studies at the University of Central Florida, says he received the apology shortly after calling time on the relationship and admits it probably wasn't the best decision to tweet it.
In his critique, he starts off by saying the introduction is too long and that there's lots of repetition.
The 20-year-old says his ex needs to show reasoning when saying she ended up failing to keep the relationship working.
He also says she needs to back her claims up with proof, like saying she never cheated on him.
"It came to an end after she told me she was going to a theme park with her best friend, who's a girl, but I later found out she went with a dude," he said.
"I haven't spoken to her since this happened but I am not planning on talking to her anytime soon.
"We started dating in February of last year and dated for about eight months.
"Four months in she started hiding her phone and I heard she had code names for guys in her contacts list."
The second page calls for his ex-girlfriend to provide more details after this line: "I took all the promises we had and broke them."
Then there's a spelling mistake with "loose" changed to "lose".
Nick then calls his ex out when she says she has "no reason to hide, lie or hold anything back" from him.
He writes in the margin: "If there is no reason to lie, why isn't the truth being told?"
Nick says he decided to annotate the letter as a "joke" between him and his friends.
But his original tweet where he graded the letter has been shared more than 100,000 times.
"She's not the happiest but I didn't expect it to go viral. She talks to my mum but I haven't spoken to her and I'm not sure I will."
He says he hasn't thought about her when she asks if he has and again accuses her of "using useless fillers" to pad out her letter.
Nick even says she used "lackadaisical" handwriting near the end of her note.
The final page contains a question mark after "I love you" and also the rest of Nick's final conclusion.
"If you want to be believed, back it up with proof," he writes.
"You claimed that cheating never occurred, but place blame on yourself - then what for?
"Need to stop contradicting your own story and pick a side. While this gesture is appreciated, I would prefer details over statements.
"Revision for half credit will be accepted."
Other people pointed out other mistakes in the letter too.
After posting the note on Twitter, Nick was asked out on a date.
Nick also told another Twitter user that his ex-girlfriend had seen the changes and was "okay with her grade".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/articles/39025091
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World Club Challenge: Wigan Warriors 22-6 Cronulla Sharks - BBC Sport
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2017-02-20
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Joe Burgess scores a hat-trick of tries as Wigan beat Cronulla Sharks to win a record fourth World Club Challenge.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby League
Joe Burgess scored a hat-trick of tries as Wigan beat Cronulla Sharks to win a record fourth World Club Challenge.
Victory for the Warriors also completed a 2-0 World Club Series win for Super League over Australia's NRL.
Oliver Gildart also crossed as an English club became world champions for the first time since Leeds in 2012.
Wigan's success was aided by a superb defensive effort, with Cronulla's only score coming from Jesse Ramien midway through the second period.
However, the Sharks had two marginal video referee decisions go against them when claiming tries of their own during the first half.
National Rugby League clubs had won all six matches since the inception of the expanded World Club Series in 2015, but Super League champions Wigan followed up Warrington's victory over Brisbane Broncos to secure a first series win for the northern hemisphere's domestic competition.
Wigan won three of the first five World Club Challenge contests but had not been victorious in the annual fixture since 1994.
Burgess, in his first home match since returning to the club following a year playing in Australia, enjoyed the perfect homecoming for the Cherry and Whites.
He is only the second player to score a hat-trick in a World Club Challenge, following Michael Jennings' treble for Sydney Roosters against Wigan in 2014.
England winger Burgess, a scorer for the Warriors in that loss three years earlier, acrobatically touched down for their opening score and he grabbed his second at the end of a thrilling passage of play.
The home side survived two punishing sets of six tackles near their own try line, before going the length of the field to establish a 10-0 lead.
Sharks second-rower Luke Lewis had already seen his effort ruled out for offside and there was more disappointment for the reigning NRL champions as Kurt Capewell was deemed to have scraped the whitewash with the ball as he grounded it in the corner.
Gildart's score, adding to his try in last season's Grand Final victory over Warrington, gave Wigan some valuable breathing space but any hopes of becoming the third World Club Challenge winners to prevent their opponents from scoring were ended when Ramien touched down a grubber kick in the corner.
As well as Wigan's defence performed, Cronulla - who do not begin their league season until the start of March - were guilty of several handling errors and the Warriors were able to see out time with little alarm.
And Burgess was able to produce a dream finale, getting a fingertip onto a low kick in the last minute to complete his hat-trick.
Wigan Warriors head coach Shaun Wane told BBC Radio 5 live sports extra: "It's a fantastic feeling and I'm so pleased. The staff work hard but the players do their business out on the park.
"We did too much defending. I'm trying to stay positive and not think about how we played. I'm just glad to get the win.
"One thing we're good at in this country is looking for negatives. Let's be positive. Tony Smith did a great job with Warrington on Saturday and we won fair and square. Let's give Super League a pat on the back."
Cronulla head coach Shane Flanagan: "Wigan played really well and I thought it was a good game of footy. I wasn't happy with the refereeing, but Wigan took their opportunities and good luck to them.
"It's a great experience to come over here and play. The hospitality we've been shown has been fantastic and the game's in good shape when we can get games like this on in a packed stadium.
"We've had a great time. A lot of our players have never been to the UK and they'll be better players for it."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/38971535
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Perfect storm: The agency for disabled talent - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Tackling an industry that trades on perfection with a talent agency for disabled actors and models.
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Disability
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Model Jillian Mercado has broken the mould and is signed to a mainstream agency
Acting and modelling are notoriously fickle industries often trading on perfection, but in the 1990s one woman challenged the status quo by setting up a professional talent agency for disabled people.
It was 1993 when Louise Dyson's agency was approached by Sunrise Medical for disabled models to promote its wheelchairs.
She was stumped. At that time the Louise Dyson Agency Ltd dealt only in providing flawless models for clients such as Rolls-Royce and Laura Ashley.
"We didn't know any models with a disability and I immediately thought that was such an obvious thing for advertising - to be representative of the consumer," she says. "But until that point it had never crossed my mind."
The request led to Dyson helping to organise the Sunrise Model in a Million competition - the UK's first professional modelling contest for people with disabilities - which was won by Sharron Murray and Jason Ward who both received modelling contracts.
The popularity of the contest piqued Dyson's interest and she put out a call for disabled models and actors interested in representation - she was flooded with more than 600 requests.
Emboldened by the response she took a leap of faith, sold shares in her first agency and established VisABLE - an agency for disabled actors, presenters and models.
But the doors were not as open as she had anticipated.
"Although everybody said all the right things I knew they thought I'd gone mad and no one gave us any business in advertising for a long time.
"We really had to make a business case as to why to include disabled people in advertising."
It's a situation she is still perplexed by given that the market surrounding disability - known as the Purple Pound - is worth an estimated £249bn in the UK.
"If you use a disabled actor in a campaign it means not only will disabled people support a company, so will friends and relatives." Crucially, she says, "It's a way of distinguishing against your competition."
Signed to Dyson's books is Shannon Murray, the original winner of the Sunrise competition. She took the crown aged 17, three years after she was paralysed from the waist down in a diving accident.
Shannon Murray has appeared in series such as Co-Owner Of A Lonely Heart
Murray had harboured dreams of becoming an actress but gave up on them after her accident "because there weren't any actors in wheelchairs on TV".
The modelling career thrust upon her gave her a chance to challenge that.
"I loved doing shoots but I wanted to put out a much stronger message, that fashion should be inclusive.
"I was very aware that the teenagers I was meeting in the spinal injuries unit were still young, fashionable, wanting to go to nightclubs and had dilemmas over boys but that wasn't what I saw in the media."
Her moment in the spotlight, which challenged perceptions, was warmly received, but she says, only because the fashion houses had requested a model in a wheelchair. "If I'd turned up wanting to walk down the runway it would have been a slightly different reaction."
It is this exclusive inclusivity that is the challenge facing the industry in 2017.
Shannon Murray continues to work both in the modelling and acting industries
The notion that a fashion house or casting agent would request a woman in her 40s to play a mother, regardless of whether she is disabled or not is the ideal they are aiming for.
Murray says: "Lots of people are talking about it and saying they're prepared to do it, but it hasn't happened yet.
"It's the place we want to be in, the same way that black or Asian actors would like colour-blind casting, so we're chosen on our skill."
In New York model Jillian Mercado seems to have cracked the surface. The 29-year-old, who has muscular dystrophy, is signed to the mainstream IMG Models and was used by Beyonce in a recent merchandise campaign which Murray describes as "brilliant" and proves "we're getting there".
Murray, a model-turned-actress, who has appeared in the likes of CLASS and Casualty, says the acting world is a little ahead of the fashion industry.
"Fashion is about trying to sell an aspirational view but in acting there's much less focus on looks, it's what you can do to bring the character off the page, and writers are finally waking up to the fact that there is drama in disabled lives."
Dyson agrees that TV was more open with a greater "desire to embrace diversity" and many of her clients have appeared in dramas including Casualty, Silent Witness and Downton Abbey.
Jillian Mercado during a fashion shoot ahead of New York Fashion Week
But VisABLE's aim remains to seek work for its clients where their disability is "incidental".
''The whole point of VisABLE is to persuade advertisers and producers to offer bookings to artists irrespective of the fact that they have characteristics," Murray says.
"If someone's advertising a product like shampoo and they happen to have a disability which is not directly relevant it's the perfect form of inclusivity."
Twenty-three years into the business and Dyson says the situation has "improved massively" since her first days with the business expanding globally with recent work in Mexico, South Africa and France.
"It began to improve just before the Paralympics," she says. "That gave a boost to everybody regarding preconceptions and disability."
Drama schools and theatre spaces have also been brought up to date and made much more accessible, but Dyson says improvements still need to be made.
"The biggest obstacle in everything we're trying to do is that people still tend to think of a disabled role and who they can put into that role instead of seeing it the other way round.
Eddie Redmayne received praise from many for his depiction of Stephen Hawking but should a disabled actor have been given a shot at the role?
"They should see everyone for every role and filter out people because of their unsuitability. If they need a 70-year-old, everyone under 70 is unsuitable. Disability shouldn't be the reason to exclude people, everyone should be considered for each role.
"Then if the person isn't good enough, fair enough."
Broadcasters have set up initiatives over the years aimed at improving the on-screen presence of disabled people.
The BBC is hoping to hit a target of quadrupling the number of people on screen by the end of the year and 2016 was the Year of Disability for Channel Four.
"There are some moves in that direction but in practice it hasn't happened much yet," Dyson says.
"I try to stun them with the professionalism and capabilities of artists from VisABLE and leave them reviewing their own preconceptions."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-39002345
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Roadkill and lawnmower exhibitions: The weird ways museums are finding funding - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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As our arts centres and museums suffer funding cuts, several are seeking innovative ways to increase their income and footfall. But can quirky fundraisers keep our tourist attractions afloat?
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England
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Museums are searching for unusual ways to raise money
Fancy learning how to practise taxidermy on roadkill? Or visiting the lawnmowers of the rich and famous? As our arts centres and museums suffer funding cuts, several are seeking innovative ways to increase income and footfall. But can quirky fundraisers keep our tourist attractions afloat?
Years ago, a day out at a museum may have meant trawling round glass cases full of dusty but worthy exhibits, before stopping in the teashop for a stale scone and a lukewarm drink.
But pitch up at some of England's museums nowadays and you could find yourself wandering into a film set or a cocktail bar.
The former head of Arts Council England, Sir Peter Bazalgette, suggests arts venues need to be imaginative about raising funds
Funding cuts have meant England's 1,300 accredited museums have had to find imaginative ways to raise money.
Indeed, the former head of Arts Council England, Sir Peter Bazalgette, suggested museums go even further if they want to survive.
He said theatres should open charity shops, art galleries should run bed and breakfasts and museums should become film sets to make more money.
Sir Peter pointed to examples such as the Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury, which runs a charity shop and Islington Mill, an arts centre in Salford, which runs a B&B.
Some museums say they might have limited appeal as a B&B
Alistair Brown, policy officer for the Museums Association, the sector's membership organisation, said: "Lots of museums are looking at new ways to generate income and are being quite creative about it.
"But it's probably a mistake to think that is the best way of saving them. The levels of income they are losing through cuts are greater than the amount they are able, in the short term, to raise through entrepreneurial activities."
So what are the quirkiest ways museums have found of raising funds? And is opening a guesthouse or running as a film set feasible for all of them?
The Grant Museum is not, at first glance, an obvious stand-up comedy venue
An Edwardian library jam-packed with animal skeletons and jars of pickled frogs might not seem, on the face of it, a barrel of laughs.
But the Grant Museum of Zoology, in London, decided its quirky setting was the perfect location to stage stand-up comedy gigs.
"It's a cabaret-style comedy night. We hold three of them a year and they are hugely popular," said Jack Ashby, the museum manager.
"The events are compèred by a professional comedian who introduces different members of staff to the audience. We have people working here who get particularly nerdy about animals nobody has ever heard of - and audiences find that pretty entertaining."
The museum holds other events, such as improvised opera nights and animal adoption schemes, to raise funds and make its displays of everything from elephant skulls to jars of tapeworms slightly more accessible.
But Mr Ashby has a word of caution as museums try to diversify.
"Museums have to think very carefully about what they can do to make money," he said.
"Some museums take a significant amount from weddings or corporate hire but you really have to invest in the staff to support those events. And realistically, you can only offer your venue as a film set if there is a film industry in your town or city."
Outdoor museums make ideal film sets, as the Black Country Living Museum has found
Several museums have sought extra funds by offering up their locations as film sets.
"We've always had filming at the museum," said Laura Wakelin, deputy chief executive of the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley. "But previously it was much more sporadic.
"When I arrived in 2013, we decided we needed to start actively promoting the museum as a unique venue for filming."
Since then, the museum has famously been the backdrop for BBC drama Peaky Blinders and the ITV period adaptation Arthur and George, as well as reality shows and a Bollywood movie.
In 2015 alone, filming raised about £50,000 for the museum, which has also capitalised on its raised profile in other ways.
The museum is capitalising on its appeal by holding themed weekends for visitors
"As Peaky Blinders took off, we started to see flat caps in our gift shop and we run Peaky Blinders nights," said Miss Wakelin. "They usually sell out and bring in a slightly younger demographic.
"It's about finding what works for your venue. Yes, we have wonderful assets here but we are in the middle of quite an economically disadvantaged area so we do have to pitch these things right."
The Pathology Museum, in London, is hosting taxidermy workshops
The idea of setting up as a bed and breakfast or a film set might be tempting if your attraction is charmingly photogenic.
But such ventures would not work for every location, explains Carla Valentine, technical curator of the Pathology Museum, in London.
"This isn't the kind of museum that has space to be a B&B and we couldn't do that anyway as it contains human remains," she said.
However, the museum, which showcases medical specimens owned by Queen Mary University London, does put on macabre fundraising events.
The classes have a wide appeal, according to the museum
Among the most successful have been its Stuff and Nonsense beginners' taxidermy classes.
Amanda Sutton, who runs them, said: "They are very popular and tend to sell out. I think it's the experience of doing something so unusual that appeals to people.
"We are running a special class for Valentine's Day. People come as couples and work together on their animals, which is quite sweet in a weird kind of way.
"When we set these classes up, some other London museums didn't seem to think it was very appropriate but they have now started running their own weird events. I don't think museums can just run stuffy events for academics - they need to appeal to the general public."
The Museum of Curiosities venue includes a cocktail bar that it hires out
Of course, online communities bring added scope for museums to reach out to like-minded enthusiasts and nowhere is this better demonstrated than in a Hackney basement, which plays home to London's Museum of Curiosities.
The museum, which revels in the incoherence of its collections - ranging from dodo bones to fast food collectables - was initially funded by 500 people on Kickstarter and it has also used crowdfunding to add to its displays, most notably with a mummy.
Its premises include a small cocktail bar, which it hires out to raise funds. Mr Wynd also meets running costs via sponsorship.
Viktor Wynd says it is important museums are self-reliant
Founder Viktor Wynd is passionate about such enterprises being relatively self-reliant.
"The government's involvement in the arts is often disastrous," he said. "It creates vast bureaucracies and the money would be better spent on the police or NHS.
"Museum culture in the UK has centred around the misguided idea that funding should only come from the government, meaning that most cultural bodies put huge amounts of resource into getting grants - resources that if applied successfully to raising money from the private sector would probably do just as well.
"I believe the government ought to support a handful of major national collections - but even those should be encouraged to generate as much of their revenue as possible."
Celebrity donations, such as comedian Lee Mack's dibber, helped the museum broaden its appeal
Diversifying some museums would be a push too far, according to Brian Radam, the curator of the British Lawnmower Museum in Southport.
"I can't see the British Lawnmower Museum becoming the latest blockbuster set - especially as most of our exhibits were destined for the scrapyard," he said.
"As for the idea of a B&B - well, they would be extremely uncomfortable to sleep on."
Finding funding to keep the museum going is exhausting work, Mr Radam says.
"Over the last 25 years we have become experts on saving money, running the museum on a shoestring," he said.
Brian Radam says keeping the museum going is exhausting work
The venue does not receive public funding so relies on its visitors and innovative ideas to secure its future.
As well as ticket sales, the museum also makes money through restoring beloved family grass-cutting heirlooms.
"One of our ideas was to create an exhibition of lawnmowers of the rich and famous," said Mr Radam.
"We had Prince Charles and Princess Diana's mower, Brian May's and Albert Pierrepont's on display," he said.
"Lawnmowers are not the sexiest of subjects but the exhibition created a lot of interest and revenue."
But as museums and public arts venues face significant financial pressures, is it realistic to say that all can find ways to raise funds independently?
The Museums Association believes there are more than 2,500 museums across the UK but says more than 60 have closed in the past 10 years.
"The bulk of closures are happening in areas that are less well-off, where there has been a severe decline in public spending," said Mr Brown.
"We have also seen several museums opening over that time - these tend to be small, independent museums that are volunteer-run.
Dozens of museums have closed over the past decade
"A lot of our museums date from the 19th Century at a time of great national and civic pride.
"I don't think the number of museums is unsustainable but clearly there is a trend for some types of museums - particularly those run by local authorities - to close at the moment.
"It feels as if museums are being asked to make an extremely quick transformation into business organisations, but that can't take place overnight.
"There's also a philosophical question about what the role of museums is and the extent to which they should be focusing their energies on generating income or on their public role of inspiring and educating people."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38920364
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Leicester rugby players push ambulance stuck in mud - BBC News
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2017-02-20
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The ambulance got stuck after being called to help an an injured Aylestone St James player in Leicester.
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There was a good team effort from players at a Leicester rugby club who had to push an ambulance off the pitch when it got stuck in the mud.
Players from Aylestone Athletic and Aylestone St James dug in to move the ambulance which had been called for an injured player.
The man suffered head and neck injuries on Saturday afternoon but his team mates were on hand to ensure the ambulance got off the muddy pitch.
A spokeswoman for East Midlands Ambulance Service said: "Thanks to the help of the rugby team we were not stuck for long and it did not cause any delay to the patient."
He was eventually taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary as a "precautionary measure" but is now "fine", a spokesperson from Aylestone St James RFC said.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-39029385
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FA Cup: Theo Walcott scores 100th Arsenal goal - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Theo Walcott scores his 100th goal for Arsenal as he doubles the Gunners' lead in their FA Cup fifth-round tie against non-league Sutton United at Gander Green Lane.
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Theo Walcott scores his 100th goal for Arsenal as he doubles the Gunners' lead in their FA Cup fifth-round tie against non-league Sutton United at Gander Green Lane.
Watch all the best action from the FA Cup fifth round here.
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39034268
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Wayne Rooney not guaranteed to stay at Manchester United, says Jose Mourinho - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has not ruled out captain Wayne Rooney leaving the club this month.
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Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has not ruled out the prospect of Wayne Rooney leaving the club this month.
The 31-year-old England forward, who scored his 250th United goal last month to become the club's record scorer, has been linked with a move to China in recent weeks.
The Chinese Super League's transfer window shuts next week and Mourinho was asked if the club captain would still be at Old Trafford by then.
"You have to ask him," Mourinho said.
"Of course I can't guarantee [he will be here]. I can't guarantee that I'm here next week, how can I guarantee that a player is here next season?"
Rooney is contracted to United until 2019 and had previously said he was committed to seeing out his deal.
He has not been a first-team regular this season and has scored just five goals.
However, Mourinho said in October that Rooney was "going nowhere" and reiterated on Tuesday that he did not want him to leave.
"I would never push - or try to push - a legend of this club to another destiny," added the Portuguese coach.
"So you have to ask him if he sees himself staying in the club for the rest of his career or if he sees himself moving.
"It is not a question for me because I am happy to have him. I don't want him to leave."
There is a clear sense now that time is ticking down on Rooney's Manchester United career.
Less than a month after Rooney eclipsed Sir Bobby Charlton to become the club's record goalscorer, manager Jose Mourinho delivered the kind of response he came out with when he was asked about the futures of Morgan Schneiderlin and Memphis Depay during the January transfer window.
Schneiderlin and Depay ended up leaving for Everton and Lyon respectively. And at 31, with 549 United appearances and 250 goals to his name, Rooney seems destined to experience the same fate.
It might not happen now. Rooney is known to be coveted by the Chinese Super League, who would offer vast sums to get the England captain to join Carlos Tevez and Oscar in the exodus east, but twice over the past few days I have been told such a move before the 28 February deadline is unlikely. The summer window in China runs from 19 June to 14 July.
However, the end is in sight and Rooney's camp will doubtless spend the next few months exploring options.
Rooney has the carrot of knowing if he can remain in the England fold until next year's World Cup, he is likely to become his country's most-capped player, in addition to its record goalscorer.
Whether he can do that from China is doubtful, and though former team-mate David Beckham eked out the end of his England days in Major League Soccer with LA Galaxy, it is by no means certain Gareth Southgate would offer the same opportunity to a player who has plenty of competition for his number 10 role.
This is the reality that is likely to focus minds because, four years after it seemed to be happening under Sir Alex Ferguson, it now seems a question of when, not if, Rooney leaves Old Trafford for good.
Martial determined to stay at Old Trafford
Meanwhile, Rooney's team-mate Anthony Martial insists he wants to stay at the club "for as long as possible".
The 21-year-old has struggled to recapture the form shown during his debut season at Old Trafford and was linked with a loan move to Sevilla in December.
"I love Manchester, I love the club and I love the fans," Martial said.
"The fans give me a lot of joy and I really enjoy having them backing me. I try to be as good as possible to make them happy, to satisfy them."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39044833
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These are the London Fashion Week designers shaping the way we see gender - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Meet the London Fashion Week designers using clothes to shape how we see gender.
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Newsbeat
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London Fashion Week has traditionally only been aimed at women, but seven of the major catwalk shows this season have mixed in menswear.
Added to that, we've seen men modelling women's wear, unisex clothing brands and androgynous designs that would work on anyone.
It seems like British fashion is going through a gender revolution at the moment.
Newsbeat meets the designers leading the way.
Irish-born designer Jonathan Anderson started his J. W. Anderson brand as menswear in 2008, before launching his first women's collection two years later.
He designs with the idea that men can borrow clothes from women and vice versa.
"It's something that we play with each season, this idea," he tells Newsbeat backstage at his London Fashion Week show.
"We'll do a mac on a guy and a mac on a woman. They are the same thing, but on a man and a woman they can mean different things."
J. W. Anderson used androgynous looks in both his men's and women's collections
Anderson is seen by many in the fashion world as a pioneer for taking this unisex approach years ago.
Although he now presents his women's and menswear collections separately, he says he doesn't want to dictate who should wear what.
"I can give you an idea of how I see it on both a man and a woman, but I'm not going to tell you if it's for a man or a woman."
The artistic director of Diesel, and founder of the unisex range Nicopanda, Nicola Formichetti was also Lady Gaga's stylist for three years (yes, he was responsible for the meat dress).
"Fashion has always been about mixing gender, but now it's becoming such an issue," he tells Newsbeat.
"Now there are products like jeans and hoodies and military jackets that are becoming very very unisex."
He thinks designers have a "duty" to create clothes that every gender can feel comfortable in.
"We have a voice and we need to use it."
Julien Macdonald's sequin-studded ball gowns are a favourite with some of the world's most glamorous women, including Beyonce and Gigi Hadid.
So it surprised some in the fashion world when he launched a menswear collection in 2015.
And at this London Fashion Week, male models walked alongside women in tight-fitting sequin jackets and lycra bodysuits - looks that would traditionally be considered very feminine.
He says men are becoming more comfortable experimenting with the way they dress.
"We live in a metrosexual community," he tells Newsbeat.
"When you see your girlfriend going out in an amazing dress, you think, 'I want to look just as good as you,' so men do want to have fun.
Julien Macdonald featured men and women together on his catwalk
"Nobody cares if you look camp or gay - you know what? Now everybody's got a mixed community of friends. It doesn't matter."
Robert and Oliver are both menswear designers who presented their debut collections as part of the Central Saint Martins MA show at London Fashion Week.
Robert Sanders, 25, uses layers of recycled fabric to create tunics, skirts and shorts that drape over the models in an androgynous way.
"I grew up dressing up in my mum's clothes, and getting negative feedback off people," he tells Newsbeat.
Oliver Thame's collection featured bold clashing prints, and tops with cut outs that revealed the torsos of his male models.
"I presented it on men, but I feel like it could've been just as well presented on women," says the 25-year-old.
"I think in this day and age, is there really such a thing as gender specific fashion?"
Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/articles/39025086
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Meet the plasterers, teachers and builders taking on Arsenal - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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Meet Sutton United's team as they prepare to take on Arsenal in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
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Newsbeat
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Sutton United are getting ready to take on Arsenal in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
The teams will meet for the first time in their history at Gander Green Lane in front of 5,000 fans. Millions more will be tuning in to watch it on BBC One.
Arsenal players are paid millions but Sutton's players get £600 a week.
That means many of them have other jobs including teachers, carers, personal trainers and builders.
Dan Spence plays fullback for Sutton but he also works at a special needs school as a teaching assistant.
"It's completely different but it opens your eyes and it's very rewarding.
"There's a good bunch of 15 and 16-year-old boys who love football.
"Every playtime it's like we're going to do Sutton versus Leeds or Sutton versus Arsenal."
Dan says his students are fully behind his team too.
"It's a great buzz around the place - a few posters are up - they're really supporting us.
"The day after training normally you go into work and you speak to work colleagues about what you've been up to.
"To go in after playing Arsenal and telling them stories about the game... it's going to be amazing."
Dan Fitchett works in an office and sells life insurance.
"I work there full time apart from training here twice a week in the mornings.
"It is what it is and it works well with football."
The striker admits playing for Sutton United - and playing against a Premier League side - helps him get on well with his clients.
"I ask them if they like football - and I might mention I'm playing Arsenal - it kind of helps with my sales definitely.
"And there are quite a few Arsenal fans in the office.
"It's quite a comedown when you're back into the office after playing such big games."
Goalkeeper Ross Worner is on to a good thing.
He frames football shirts for a living and is hoping to cash in on his club's big game against Arsenal.
"I've been framing all the boys' shirts from all the cup games.
"It's something I quite enjoy doing, being a footballer myself I had shirts I wanted framed, so I got into it.
"If I can get a few (Arsenal) shirts in, it'll help the cash flow.
"All the boys already said whatever shirt they get they want it framed, so work should be good for the next couple of weeks after the game."
Jamie Collins plays centre back for Sutton United but for three days a week he's a building supervisor.
"Sometimes I get my hands dirty and do a little bit of labouring for the lads if we're short on people.
"It's a lot different from the football days but it's a good break.
"You work one day then train the next - so it's a good mix.
"My boss has been sympathetic and has given me some days off before the game.
"He's a Tottenham fan so he's hoping we do him a favour and beat Arsenal."
Arsene Wenger gets paid £8.9m but Sutton United manager Paul Doswell manages Sutton United for free.
In fact he even took out a personal loan to pay for the club's pitch.
Paul has a property business with 100 employees so he says he doesn't need another job.
He loves football that much.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/articles/38997208
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FA Cup: Sutton players will go down in history for FA Cup run, says manager - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Sutton's players will "go down in history" despite missing out on a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals, says manager Paul Doswell.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Sutton United's players will "go down in history" despite missing out on a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals, said manager Paul Doswell.
The National League side were beaten 2-0 by Premier League visitors Arsenal, who are 105 places above Sutton on English football's ladder.
The home side had several chances, with Adam May wasting a chance and Roarie Deacon hitting the crossbar.
"This was our cup final," said Doswell. "I'm very, very proud."
The 50-year-old said it was "a dream" to watch his side play Arsenal, who will face another non-league team - Lincoln City - in the last eight.
"We were disappointed not to get a goal for the supporters here but the overriding emotion is pride," he added.
Sutton, who famously beat Coventry in the FA Cup in 1989, had overcome league sides AFC Wimbledon and Leeds United on their way to the fifth round.
But they could not get the better of an Arsenal team who had lost three of their previous four games.
Sutton held their own against 12-time FA Cup winners Arsenal, who are fourth in the Premier League, before Lucas Perez's 26th-minute cross-shot gave Arsene Wenger's side the lead.
Theo Walcott's 100th goal for the club sealed victory at Gander Green Lane.
Wenger, who made seven changes to the team beaten 5-1 by Bayern Munich last week, said Sutton's performance surprised him.
"I don't really enjoy tonight because we absolutely had to do the job and it is tricky," he said.
"They played very well. It is basically division five and when I arrived here in England 20 years ago, in division five they were not as fit physically as they were today.
"They were organised and had a huge desire. If we were not mentally prepared, we would not have gone through."
'Why are they not playing at a higher level?'
Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown was surprised to see Deacon, who came through the Gunners' youth system, playing at non-league level.
"You wonder, looking at Roarie Deacon, if the game has failed him," he said.
"He should be playing at a higher level. He has great quality with both feet and he was really unlucky with that shot that hit the bar."
Former England striker Alan Shearer said the Sutton players can be very proud of their performance throughout the competition.
"It has been one heck of a run," he said. "There were some very, very positive performances out there."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39034850
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Which pop stars deserve a blue plaque in their honour? - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Forty blue plaques will be unveiled on BBC Music Day this year - and you can decide who gets one.
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Entertainment & Arts
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David Bowie already has a plaque but who else deserves one?
Rock and pop's most influential figures are to be honoured with blue plaques on BBC Music Day this year - and you can decide who gets one.
Over the next week, every BBC local radio station in England and the Channel Islands is accepting nominations for a local artist (or venue) that changed the course of musical history.
The winners will be honoured with a plaque on a building where they lived or a venue where they became famous.
To be considered the nominee must be:
The candidates will be submitted to The British Plaque Trust - and the 40 recipients will be unveiled on Friday, 9 June as part of BBC Music Day.
Surprisingly few pop musicians have one - with a notable exception being David Bowie, who is honoured at the location of the photoshoot for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust in London's West End.
But who else deserves one? To get you thinking, here are five people and places that could benefit from a blue plaque.
Long before he could grow that designer stubble, George Michael met Andrew Ridgeley at Bushey Meads school and pop history changed forever.
Bonding over a love of music, the duo initially formed a five-piece band called The Executive, who played everything from ska to Beethoven's Fur Elise.
Their friendship was vital in sustaining George through the whirlwind success of Wham! and eventually giving him the courage to go solo.
Estimated to be more than 100 million years old, Peak Cavern is undoubtedly the oldest music venue in the UK.
The natural limestone cavern has hosted gigs by the likes of Richard Hawley, Mystery Jets and The Vaccines, who all benefit from the site's remarkable acoustics.
Fun fact: It used to be called The Devil's Arse (because of the flatulent sound caused by flood water draining from the cave) but received a more demure name in 1880, so Queen Victoria wouldn't be offended when she visited for a concert.
While Queen were still a struggling young pop band, Freddie Mercury ran a stall in London's Kensington Market with drummer Roger Taylor.
They sold clothes and bric-a-brac, as well as a thesis Freddie had written about Jimi Hendrix while attending Ealing College.
The stall did well enough to fund the band in their early days - so much so that they kept it going after Queen released their first album.
Delia Derbyshire is one of the earliest and most influential pioneers of electronic sound.
Working in a time before synthesisers, samplers and multi-track tape recorders, the musician, assisted by her engineer Dick Mills, created not only the original Dr Who theme but countless other experimental and ground-breaking recordings.
She was born in Coventry, but was evacuated to Preston, Lancashire, during World War Two. A blue plaque at either of her childhood homes would be a fitting memorial.
Not the most rock'n'roll of locations, Beachy Head nonetheless deserves its place in music history.
David Bowie filmed elements of the video for Ashes to Ashes there; and The Cure used it as the backdrop for both Just Like Heaven and Close To Me.
Industrial noise terrorists Throbbing Gristle used it in the deeply-ironic cover for their album, 20 Jazz Funk Greats; and, most famously of all, it stars in the final scene of The Who's Quadrophenia, where the young Jimmy throws his scooter over the edge of those chalky cliffs.
To make your suggestion for a musical blue plaque, you can contact your BBC local radio station via email, Twitter or Facebook; or email localmusiclegends@bbc.co.uk. You can also share suggestions on social media using #localmusiclegends.
The British Plaque Trust criteria is to commemorate innovative, influential and successful people who have died - but any genre of music is permissible, and significant locations which have played a part in our musical heritage are also eligible.
The initiative is not a vote - so the final decision on who or what the plaques commemorate, and where they are located, will not be based on the number of suggestions received.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38991904
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Stormzy: 'Awards don't define you' - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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Grime star Stormzy talks to BBC News about his music and global recognition ahead of the Brit Awards.
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Grime star Stormzy talks to BBC News about his music and global recognition ahead of the Brit Awards.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39046587
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Unilever: Profile of a consumer goods giant - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Profile of Unilever, the business behind brands from Marmite to Pot Noodle and Persil.
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Business
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Unilever is behind some of Britain's best-known brands
UK-based household goods maker Unilever has rejected a takeover bid of about $143bn (£115bn), one of the biggest in corporate history, from US giant Kraft Heinz.
The deal - if it was to eventually succeed - would be the biggest acquisition of a British company on record, based on offer value.
Steve Clayton, fund manager at Hargreaves Lansdown, said such a deal would create enormous cost savings.
"Putting portfolios of brands together can create huge synergies across marketing, manufacturing and distribution, even before you think about cutting the combined HQ back to size," he said.
"Kraft Heinz are attempting a massive push on the fast forward button, for to acquire the sheer scale of brands that Unilever represents through one-off acquisitions could take decades.
"With debt cheap and abundant right now, Kraft have spotted their opportunity."
Globally, it would be the second-biggest deal behind Vodafone Airtouch's takeover of Germany's Mannesmann AG for $172bn (£138bn) in 1999.
Unilever announced last month that annual pre-tax profit rose to 7.47bn euro (£6.3bn) from 7.2bn euro (£6.1bn) last year, but revenues dropped 1% to 52.7bn euros (£44.7bn), while underlying sales rose by a lower-than-expected 3.7%.
Unilever clashed with supermarket Tesco in October over its attempts to raise prices to compensate for the steep drop in the value of the pound.
William Hesketh Lever, founder of Lever Brothers, wrote down his ideas for Sunlight Soap in the 1890s.
It was "to make cleanliness commonplace; to lessen work for women; to foster health and contribute to personal attractiveness, that life may be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use our products".
In 1887, William Lever bought the site where Port Sunlight would be built, a large factory on the banks of the Mersey opposite Liverpool with a purpose-built village for its workers providing a high standard of housing, amenities and leisure facilities.
Lever Brothers and Dutch business Margarine Unie signed an agreement to create Unilever in 1929.
Kraft merged with Heinz in 2015 to create one of the US's biggest food companies.
• None Marmite owner: 'No merit' in US takeover
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39009072
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FA Cup: Wayne Shaw's pie resignation 'a nightmare' says Sutton boss Paul Doswell - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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The resignation of pie-eating goalkeeper Wayne Shaw following Sutton United's FA Cup heroics is devastating, says manager Paul Doswell.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Sutton United's FA Cup fairytale turned into a "nightmare" with the resignation of goalkeeper Wayne Shaw on Tuesday, says manager Paul Doswell.
Shaw, 45, was seen to eat a pie on the bench during Monday's FA Cup loss to Arsenal, after a bookmaker offered odds of 8-1 that he would do so on camera.
The Gambling Commission and Football Association are investigating if there was a breach of betting regulations.
Shaw resigned from the National League side less than 24 hours after the cup tie.
"I spoke to him on the phone and he was crying. In the end we had to almost stop talking to each other because it was that type of conversation," added Doswell.
"We are going to be investigated, and it has turned into a bit of a nightmare."
The bookmaker involved tweeted that it had paid out a "five-figure sum" on the bet.
• None 5 live In Short: Lawyer says pie eating should be "treated in the same light as spot-fixing"
Shaw, who first joined Sutton in 2009, said he had been aware of the betting promotion before the match but insisted the incident in which he ate the pie - which he later insisted was a pasty - was "a bit of fun".
BBC Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker claimed the incident showed "football has lost its sense of humour".
But Doswell said that while he had sympathy for Shaw, he also felt he had been "naive".
"He's been caught in this mad world over the last month that has enveloped us. His profile has got bigger and bigger, I think he embraced that," said Doswell.
"Whilst we were very much concentrating on the football, I think Wayne was almost becoming like a superstar.
"The team were magnificent against Arsenal, but to think someone's openly eating a pie behind them reflects very much away from what they did. I know Wayne regrets it, he is very, very sorry about the whole situation."
Shaw, who began his football career as a striker at Southampton in the same youth team as Alan Shearer, also had a coaching role at Sutton and carried out other jobs for the club such as sweeping the 3G pitch.
It is not the first time he has been sacked by Sutton - he was dismissed in 2013 after an altercation with Kingstonian fans, but returned to the club two years later.
"I'm devastated for him," added Doswell. "This is someone who's got a family to support.
"My overriding wish is he'd have asked my advice because very clearly I'd have advised him not to do it. I wouldn't have allowed him to do it."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39046962
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Kim Jong-nam killing: Footage shows airport 'attack' - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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Footage from an airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is said to show the moments before Kim Jong-nam died.
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CCTV footage from an airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, apparently shows the killing of Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un.
He is believed to have been attacked in the airport departure hall last Monday by two women, using some form of chemical.
Police believe he was poisoned and are looking for four North Koreans.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39034093
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Angelina Jolie exclusive: Cooking bugs in Cambodia - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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Angelina Jolie and her family try some of Cambodia's delicacies.
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Angelina Jolie is in Cambodia to promote her new film First They Killed My Father, which is based on the country's genocide.
Yalda Hakim met up with the actress and her children to try some of Cambodia's unusual delicacies.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39030811
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Singapore 'fire rainbow' cloud phenomenon lights up sky - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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The multi-coloured glow appeared in the late afternoon, to the delight of people in the city-state.
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Asia
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A rare cloud phenomenon over Singapore has delighted people in the city-state.
The multi-coloured glow appeared in the sky on Monday in the late afternoon, lasting for about 15 minutes, and was seen across the island.
Media reports said it was likely a fire rainbow, which occurs when sunlight refracts through ice-crystal clouds.
Others have also said it could have been cloud iridescence, which happens when water droplets or crystals scatter light.
Fazidah Mokhtar, who works in a childcare centre, told the BBC that she spotted it around 17:10 on Monday (09:10 GMT).
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"It started as a small orange circle and then grew bigger and bigger till all the colours came out... It lasted for about 15 minutes and it slowly went off.
She said "all the children in the school, some parents, and other staff were very excited and commenting that it was very, very rare to see such a beautiful and unique rainbow".
The phenomenon prompted jokes online, with many comparing it to a Paddle Pop, a rainbow-coloured frozen dessert popular in Australia and Asia.
"The rainbow bridge is broken," joked one Facebook user, while another person asked: "Is this a case of Monday Rainbows?!"
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39036138
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Battle for western Mosul will be toughest fight yet - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Losing its most cherished prize will present IS with an existential challenge, says Renad Mansour.
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Middle East
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The battle for western Mosul is expected to be slow and difficult
Iraq's campaign to take back the western section of its second-largest city, Mosul, from so-called Islamic State (IS) will be Baghdad's last major showdown with the group, which, at its height, had controlled a third of the country's territory.
This will also be the toughest fight yet, as losing its most cherished prize will present IS with an existential challenge incomparable to any other loss it has suffered over the past two years.
Four months ago, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the official start of comprehensive operations to retake all of Mosul - east and west.
The timing of the announcement of the latest phase of the campaign has more to do with rallying the morale of his beleaguered forces than any significant changes in military strategy.
The fight for the east proved more difficult and time consuming than the Iraqi government had predicted.
The initial hope from the Barack Obama administration had been that Mosul would be liberated before the handover of power in Washington.
It is becoming clear that liberating all of Mosul will take several more months.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared at the Great Mosque in west Mosul in July 2014
In taking the east of Mosul, the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) suffered considerable losses. According to Pentagon insiders, the casualty rates for certain forces on the front line was as high as 50%.
While this figure is denied by Iraqi military personnel in Baghdad, the government is concerned with attrition rates.
In battle, a winning side could be expected to suffer a much lower casualty rate. Incurring considerably more losses would heighten the risk of combat ineffectiveness.
For Prime Minister Abadi, just as important as weapons and funding is ensuring that his fighters on the frontline maintain battlefield morale and so far they have done so.
Time, however, is not on his side, as a prolonged campaign could erode troop resolve.
Mosul is the IS heartland. It was here, in the west, that the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, made his first and only public appearance, at al-Nuri mosque.
What has become clear from the battle thus far is that IS fighters will not retreat as easily from Mosul as they did in Falluja and Ramadi.
To them, losing the city means losing a capital.
Even before the group declared its caliphate, it was an underground organisation with a strong presence in western Mosul.
Residents recall that its fighters began performing public executions in the old market long before June 2014, without any punitive action from the provincial council.
Another challenge for the ISF will be the risk of civilian casualties. As many as 800,000 residents could be trapped in the densely populated and narrow streets. They are staying put as the battle rages.
Rather than fighting in the outskirt villages, IS is looking to draw the ISF to the urban centres of the west.
For the ISF, this means having to go door-to-door to flush out IS fighters, who are hiding among the population. The battle is already being dubbed the "war of the streets".
IS fighters are also relying on car bombs, which drive towards ISF troops and checkpoints. The jihadists would send up to 10 suicide bombers per day in the east.
To divert attention away from looming defeat, the IS leadership is looking to make a show of strength elsewhere.
When the ISF began operations in western Mosul, IS fighters launched attacks in the east, which Iraqi forces liberated over a month ago.
By doing this, IS looks to discredit ISF victories, and challenge the idea that Iraqi government forces are truly in control there.
Beyond Mosul, IS has also increased its attacks in other Iraqi cities. This includes recently liberated cities such as Falluja, but also, the capital, Baghdad.
The July 2016 bombing in Karada district, for instance, left more than 300 dead - becoming one of the largest attacks since 2003.
Since the beginning of this year, IS has killed almost 100 people in bombings in Baghdad alone.
Although challenging, short-term military successes are the easy part. The key to a sustainable victory is the political settlement.
Unlike most battles raging in the Middle East, in Mosul everyone bar IS is on the same side, albeit as uneasy bedfellows in some cases.
This includes Shia and Sunni Muslims and Kurds, as well as Iranians, Americans and others.
The various anti-IS groups in Mosul are uneasy bedfellows
Despite that, each party is looking to gain the most out of a victory. This contest for power may squander successes.
IS emerged not only because of its military prowess, but also because a considerable portion of Iraq's Sunni Arabs felt disenfranchised by the Shia-led government in Baghdad, as well as their own Sunni leaders.
Although many of these original supporters have since grown wary of the harsh IS rule, they will cautiously re-engage with their liberators, in hope of a better settlement.
Political infighting is the fuel that IS needs to survive, as military power alone will not do it for them.
At the moment, though, there are no clear signs of this settlement, as Prime Minister Abadi will have to juggle powerful competing forces all vying for influence in a post-IS Iraq.
Renad Mansour is an Academy Fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Iraq Institute for Strategic Studies, and lectures on the Middle East at the London School of Economics (LSE).
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-39026040
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Syria crisis: Footage shows girl 'Aya' rescue - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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Footage released by Syria Civil Defence shows a girl being pulled alive from rubble, apparently in Damascus amid reported air strikes.
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Footage released by Syria Civil Defence - also known as the White Helmets - shows a girl being pulled alive from rubble, apparently in Damascus' Tishreen neighbourhood on Sunday.
Activists have reported air strikes in two other neighbourhoods, Qabun and Barzeh, over the weekend.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-39031258
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Ireland target first Test appearance in 2018 - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Ireland aim to play their first Test in 2018 rather than this year, according to Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
Ireland are aiming to play their first Test in 2018, according to Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) said earlier in February that the Irish would gain Test status this year, and that they could play their first match before then.
"There are no plans to play Tests in 2017 - we are looking towards 2018," Deutrom told BBC Sport.
"I don't see any reason why that can't happen. I'd be surprised if we didn't."
The ICC's plans come after a lengthy debate over the future of Test cricket, including how to spread the game and give each series more context.
The agreed solution is for a nine-team Test league, running over a two-year cycle - starting in 2019 - with every side playing each other once.
Three more teams - probably current Test side Zimbabwe and likely newcomers Ireland and Afghanistan - would be guaranteed a schedule of matches over the same two-year period.
The ICC said it will make a decision on granting Test status to Ireland and Afghanistan at its next board meeting in April, with that likely to be ratified at the annual general meeting in June.
It is thought there would be no barrier to both sides being able to play Test cricket immediately, but the schedules of other nations would probably mean a wait is necessary.
Deutrom admitted that, ideally, a first Irish Test would be at home, but that it would be difficult to turn down a "dream" scenario of an away match against England.
Even then, finding space in England's summer would be incredibly difficult, with Pakistan and India set to tour in 2018.
England's future programme could be linked to that of the Irish, with the ICC expressing its desire for teams that tour the country to also play at least one Test against Ireland.
Ireland first announced plans to gain Test status in 2012, a year after earning a famous victory over England at the 2011 World Cup.
They had already beaten Pakistan at the 2007 tournament and, in 2015, beat West Indies and Zimbabwe before narrowly failing to qualify from the group stage.
In October, Ireland's Inter-Provincial competition became the first domestic tournament outside of a Test nation to be granted first-class status.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/39033729
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Pie-eating Sutton keeper Wayne Shaw resigns - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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Sutton United have accepted the resignation of reserve goalkeeper Wayne Shaw, who is under investigation for potentially breaching betting rules.
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Sutton United have accepted the resignation of reserve goalkeeper Wayne Shaw, who is under investigation for potentially breaching betting rules.
A bookmaker had offered odds of 8-1 that Shaw would eat a pie on camera. Shaw, who said he was aware of the betting promotion prior to the match, played the incident down as "a bit of fun".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39046583
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Former US law chief leads Uber probe - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Uber has hired Barack Obama's attorney general Eric Holder to lead an investigation into claims of sexual harassment at the firm.
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Technology
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Uber said it would publish diversity figures in the 'coming months'
On Monday Uber boss Travis Kalanick sent an email to his employees with more information about the probe - and further plans the company has to address the issue.
“It’s been a tough 24 hours,” he began, adding that the company was “hurting”.
The investigation will be lead by former US attorney general Eric Holder, who served under President Obama between 2009 and 2015, and Tammy Albarran - both partners at law firm Covington and Burling.
Arianna Huffington, best known for being the founder of the Huffington Post, will also help carry out the review. Ms Huffington has been on Uber’s board since April last year. Also conducting the review will be Uber’s new head of human resources, Liane Hornsey, and Angela Padilla, Uber’s associate general counsel.
After coming into widespread criticism for never having published statistics on diversity at the company, Mr Kalanick said he would deliver figures in the "coming months". He said that of the employees working as engineers, product managers or data scientists, 15.1% are women - a number which he said hadn’t changed significantly in the past year.
“As points of reference,” he wrote, “Facebook is at 17%, Google at 18% and Twitter at 10%.”
Until now, Uber had been standing firm on not publishing its diversity figures. Most major technology companies make public their EEO-1 - a government filing that breaks down employees by race, religion, gender and other factors.
Uber has not specified if it will publish its entire EEO-1, or just post select figures from the company.
In her blog post, Susan Fowler cited anecdotal figures of women leaving Uber in droves.
Speaking specifically about the site reliability engineering team, which she worked on for a year, she said that by the time she left, “out of over 150 engineers in the SRE teams, only 3% were women”. She now works at San Francisco-based payment firm Stripe.
Uber said it would be holding an “all hands" meeting on Tuesday to tell its employees what its “next steps” will be.
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC and on Facebook.
If you are an Uber employee, you can reach Dave directly and anonymously on encrypted messaging app Signal using +1 (628) 400-7370.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39035512
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Migrant workers join labour boycott - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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Migrant workers have signed up to a labour boycott to highlight the role they play in British society.
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Migrant workers have signed up to a labour boycott to highlight the role they play in British society.
Peers are debating the bill to pave the way for the start of Brexit.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39031171
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Reality Check: Are business rates figures misleading? - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Aggregate figures exclude inflation and an adjustment for successful appeals.
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UK Politics
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The claim: The government's figures on business rates are misleading because they exclude inflation and an appeals adjustment.
Reality Check verdict: The figures do exclude both those things, but government publications specify that they do. The government's figures are for the situation after any appeals have been completed, so they depend on how accurately it has predicted their outcome.
The government has produced tables showing how much business rates would rise or fall in the coming year, broken down by region of the country and type of business.
The overall effect of all the changes comes to zero, which means that the policy is revenue neutral.
But there is a key caveat at the bottom of the table, which is that the figures are: "Before inflation and the adjustment to the multiplier for future appeal outcomes."
The inflation part is widely known. The measure of inflation used will become CPI (Consumer Price Index) instead of RPI (Retail Price Index), which will usually mean the increase is smaller, but that change will not happen until 2020. Increasing rates for RPI will add about 2% per year.
But the other part is a bit more complicated - it is the adjustment required to make sure that the changes in rates are revenue neutral even after some businesses have appealed against the rated value of their premises and won.
Analysis from the property consultants Gerald Eve suggested that the adjustment would be between four and five percentage points. They did that by working out how much business rates would change across the country to find out what adjustment would then be needed to make the policy revenue neutral again.
They add that including both the inflation and the appeals adjustment means that business rates will fall in 135 of the 326 local authorities in England, not 259 as the government claimed.
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has strongly disputed suggestions that it has misled people with its figures, but has not disputed the suggestion that the appeals adjustment is between four and five percentage points.
Speaking on the Today Programme, Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said he thought the figures provided, "might not be giving the picture that businesses in the real world are going to get when they get their bills".
This is certainly true. The DCLG has been clear that its figures are before inflation and the appeals adjustment.
The government's figures are for the situation after any appeals have been completed, so they depend on how accurately it has predicted their outcome.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39041300
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The riddle of Europe's election season - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Might voters in three key countries hold the future of the European project in their hands?
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Europe
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Many Europeans eye the months ahead with foreboding. They see anti-establishment parties on the ascendancy. Angela Merkel - for so long Frau Europe - may lose power. And the financial markets are skittish over the possibility of a Marine Le Pen victory in France. Every edge up in her poll ratings sends bond yields rising.
And yet an entirely different scenario may play out. It is quite possible that before the end of the year observers will declare that the Brexit-Trump tide has turned and that European integration has found new champions.
First to the politics: in the Netherlands Geert Wilders has a history of under-performing at the polls. Even if he emerges as the leader of the largest party after the elections in March, he will struggle to get a foothold in government.
The contest that preoccupies Europe's political class, however, is France. The conventional wisdom is that Marine Le Pen will win the first round in the presidential elections but be substantially defeated in round two. But France is on edge, gloomy and unsure of itself.
She has expanded her lead in the polls and closed the gap on her most likely challenger in the second round, Emmanuel Macron. Still, he retains a 16% poll lead.
Marine Le Pen supporters: Many believe she will win the first round of the election
But observers no longer trust the polls, and they fear the unforeseen event that could turn even more voters against governing elites.
Yet if Marine Le Pen loses, as seems most likely, Europe could be facing an entirely different future. Currently the candidate most likely to win in France is Mr Macron. Yes, he's a novice: a man who has never been elected to high office. He has been drawing the crowds because he has sold himself as a new politician, neither left nor right.
As the campaign gets under way, Marine Le Pen will be scathing, dismissing Mr Macron as an international banker, the epitome of the failed global elite, and the man who was Economy Minister under Francois Hollande.
Mr Macron has yet to define himself, and he may yet stumble. But if he made it to the Elysee Palace, Europe and France would have a pro-European president, committed to the survival of the euro and the alliance with Germany.
Emmanuel Macron has faced accusations that he is part of a governing elite
At the same time, Germany has grown more restless and more open to change. Some see Angela Merkel, who is hoping for a fourth term as chancellor, as weary and burnt-out. Some of her zeal for power has gone. And many Germans will forever blame her for allowing more than a million refugees into the country.
Her main political opponent, the Social Democratic Party, has a new standard bearer in Martin Schulz. In the past month, the SPD has surged 12 points, even surpassing Mrs Merkel's Christian Democratic Union.
Mr Schulz is a former President of the European Parliament. For a long time in German politics, he has been known as "Mr Europe". He has a good back-story: he's a former bookseller without a high school degree. He is a straight-talker, passionate about Europe and further integration.
Angela Merkel is standing for a fourth term as Chancellor of Germany
His greatest strength is his unbridled passion to succeed, his weakness is a love of power and some of its trappings, which he demonstrated in Brussels. He also may stumble, having not yet declared his policy on refugees. And never underestimate the appeal of Angela Merkel and her safe pair of hands.
But the crowds are turning out for Mr Schulz, much as they have done for Mr Macron in France. If both men were to win, the outlook in Europe would change suddenly and dramatically.
Both are European integrationists who would look to deepen and strengthen the European project. Together, they would breathe new life into the Franco-German relationship that has always been the engine room of the EU.
Martin Schulz is a former President of the European Parliament
Both, politicians from the centre-left, would loosen austerity further and favour spending on infrastructure projects to help countries such as Italy escape stagnation.
There would be little generosity from either man towards Britain as it starts to negotiate its exit from the European Union.
Mr Macron has said that it will be "pretty tough" on the UK and Mr Schulz would want to see the UK pays a price for its departure.
As this European election season begins, no-one yet knows what the Trump effect will be on Europe.
Will US President Donald Trump's victory encourage voters that they can support anti-immigration candidates who want powers returned to the nation states and, in the case of France, have a vote on membership of the European Union?
Or will President Trump deter voters from taking further risks?
Will voters turn away from the United States - whose president has openly discussed which country would leave the EU next - and incline towards building a Europe more confident in its own values and security?
The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has said Europe wants the US's "wholehearted and unequivocal support for the idea of a united Europe".
It may not be forthcoming, and the insecurity may yet prompt some voters to back deeper European integration rather the outsiders, the insurgents, the challengers.
For Europe, the script for 2017 is a long way from being written and the outcome may yet surprise.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39032192
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Sutton United 0-2 Arsenal - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Arsenal reach the FA Cup quarter-finals as goals from Lucas Perez and Theo Walcott beat non-league Sutton United.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Arsenal avoided an FA Cup giant-killing and spared manager Arsene Wenger further pressure with a hard-fought fifth-round victory over non-league Sutton United at Gander Green Lane.
Wenger made seven changes from the side thrashed 5-1 at Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie - and his players had enough to see off a team 105 places below them on English football's ladder.
Lucas Perez's cross-shot gave Arsenal the lead after 26 minutes and Theo Walcott doubled the advantage from close range 10 minutes after the break with his 100th goal for the club.
Victory set up a home quarter-final with another National League side, Lincoln City, who beat Burnley on Saturday.
Sutton had their moments, particularly when Adam May wasted a first-half chance from keeper David Ospina's poor clearance, and Roarie Deacon's fierce 25-yard drive struck the bar in the second half.
The result may have gone against them but the hosts emerged from this tie, and this FA Cup run, with huge credit.
• None 'Sutton players will go down in history'
Arsenal get the job done
Arsenal were on a hiding to nothing after a turbulent week in the wake of their Champions League mauling in Munich, which leaves them on the brink of elimination in the last 16 once more.
The Gunners walked out here with speculation mounting over the future of Wenger and familiar questions being asked about Arsenal's stomach for the fight when the season reaches its pressure points.
Their performance was uncertain and hardly designed to banish the criticism, although allowances must be made for a tricky artificial surface that was heavily saturated before kick-off and again at half-time.
It was simply a question of getting the job done and avoiding embarrassment. There was never going to be any credit in this for Arsenal. And on that basis this can be judged a satisfactory night.
Wenger's troubles were illustrated by the swarm of photographers that surrounded his dugout when he made his entrance - usually the sign of a manager under scrutiny.
The Frenchman, like his players, just needed to get out of Gander Green Lane unscathed and not fall victim to any further humiliation after the harrowing encounter in Munich's Allianz Arena.
This was not a sparkling Arsenal show but they now have what looks like an inviting path to Wembley.
Lincoln may have ousted Burnley, but it takes a huge leap of the imagination to see them denying Arsenal and Wenger a place in the FA Cup semi-finals.
Arsenal still have the chance to add to their tally of 12 FA Cup wins - and Wenger to his total of six.
Sutton United's FA Cup adventure may have ended at the fifth round - but the club, players and staff will have stories that will be part of their history forever.
They are struggling to make an impact in English football's fifth tier but have left an indelible mark on this year's FA Cup with their victory here against Championship giants Leeds United and this meeting with a member of the Premier League elite.
Inevitably, they did not possess the class to rattle Arsenal for long periods but they stuck to their task and even had moments when they gave the Gunners serious concerns in the first half, notably when May failed to take advantage of Ospina's poor clearance.
And even when Walcott gave Arsenal a two-goal advantage, Sutton refused to go quietly, as Jamie Collins headed narrowly over and Deacon rattled the woodwork.
The fairytale was unlikely to materialise but Sutton's approach to the game, not just the team but the entire club, did them great credit.
The atmosphere was buzzing hours before kick-off, the organisation was excellent and everyone entered into the spirit of what was, for them, a huge occasion.
Sutton now return to the more routine business of a trip to Torquay United next weekend before welcoming Boreham Wood.
It was a shame a rather pointless pitch invasion at the end was allowed to linger, but this should be placed in context. The moment of glory may have passed but the memories will remain.
What they said
Sutton manager Paul Doswell: "The support we've had has been amazing. Everyone here is a volunteer, remember that. We're not a League Two club in non-league, we're a traditional non-league club.
"Lincoln and Sutton have done our competition very proud. Best wishes to Lincoln. Go and have your day in the sun like we have."
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger: "We did the job. It is very different on this kind of pitch. It was not an easy game at all. We have to give them credit because every error we made they took advantage of. They played very well.
"It is basically division five and when I arrived here 20 years ago, in division five they were not as fit physically as they were today. They were organised and had a huge desire. If we were not mentally prepared we would not have gone through."
• None Walcott became the 18th player to score 100 goals in all competitions for Arsenal.
• None Walcott has scored six times in his past three away FA Cup games for the Gunners.
• None Arsenal have won 10 and lost none of their past 12 FA Cup matches against non-league sides.
• None The Gunners have reached the sixth round for the fourth season in a row; a feat they last achieved in 2005 (five in succession).
• None Arsenal have lost just one of their past 20 FA Cup games, winning 17 (D2 L1).
• None Sutton United have won as many FA Cup games (excluding qualifiers) this season (four), as QPR have in the past 20 years.
• None Sutton midfielder Nicky Bailey made more tackles (eight) and interceptions (six) than any other player.
While Sutton visit Torquay in the National League on Saturday, the Gunners are not in action until 4 March, when they travel to Liverpool in the Premier League.
• None Attempt blocked. Lucas Pérez (Arsenal) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Alexis Sánchez.
• None Offside, Sutton United. Ross Worner tries a through ball, but Bradley Hudson-Odoi is caught offside.
• None Offside, Arsenal. David Ospina tries a through ball, but Lucas Pérez is caught offside.
• None Attempt missed. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Theo Walcott following a corner.
• None Attempt blocked. Gabriel (Arsenal) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Lucas Pérez.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Simon Downer (Sutton United) because of an injury.
• None Attempt blocked. Bradley Hudson-Odoi (Sutton United) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Roarie Deacon.
• None Attempt missed. Alexis Sánchez (Arsenal) right footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Gabriel.
• None Attempt saved. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Alexis Sánchez. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38952752
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European Indoor Championships 2017: Laura Muir heads GB line-up - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Laura Muir will attempt to win 1500m and 3,000m gold at the European Indoor Championships in Serbia in March as GB announces its team.
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Last updated on .From the section Athletics
Coverage: Watch live on BBC Two, Connected TV, Red Button and the BBC Sport website.
Laura Muir will attempt to win 1500m and 3,000m gold at the European Indoor Championships in Serbia in March.
The 23-year-old Scot has already broken the European 3,000m, British 5,000m and British 1,000m indoor records this year.
She will be part of a Great Britain team that also includes defending 60m champion Richard Kilty.
Also competing are Andrew Pozzi, fastest in the world this year over 60m hurdles, and Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
Johnson-Thompson will be looking to claim Britain's first European indoor medal for 33 years in the women's long jump, but will face competition from world indoor medallist and British champion Lorraine Ugen as well as European medallist Jazmin Sawyers.
British Athletics performance director Neil Black said: "I'm pleased with the blend of this team.
"With a home World Championships in London, 2017 is an even bigger year for us than 2016, so starting it off in a positive manner is essential and I am expecting to see a number of medal-winning performances in Belgrade."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/39040088
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The house changing lives in memory of Amy Winehouse - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Amy's Place is the UK's only recovery house dedicated to helping young women overcome their addictions.
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UK
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Grace, a recovering alcoholic, is one of 16 young women living in Amy's Place
Set up in memory of the late singer Amy Winehouse, Amy's Place is the UK's only recovery house dedicated to helping young women overcome their addictions. The BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme is the first to go inside and meet the women aiming to go clean for good.
"I'm not that long sober, but I've come so far. You forget that my life was sitting in a homeless hostel planning how to kill myself," Grace says.
The 19-year-old is one of the first occupants of Amy's Place - a recovery house established by the Amy Winehouse Foundation.
She is a recovering alcoholic, and has been dry for just over a year. It is a marked turnaround from the life she used to lead.
"It started when I had my first drink aged eight, and by 12, I was sneaking around doing things that I shouldn't have been doing," she says.
"Between 13 and 14 I went into care, and that's where [the drinking] took off and I could be more sneaky about it, as I didn't have my parents around."
Grace says she drank as a coping mechanism, but it soon became a habit.
The problem "rocketed" when she began living in a homeless hostel, until one incident shook her into realising the full extent of the damage being caused.
"It was in November 2015, when I took 57 antidepressants on a litre of vodka and a litre of [liqueur], and nearly died. I woke up frothing at the mouth, terrified.
"They were detoxing me in 'resus' [resuscitation area] in hospital and they told me, 'It's a waiting game now to see if your organs are failing or not.'
"It was four days of me sitting in resus hoping and praying I wasn't dying."
Watch Jean Mackenzie's full film about Amy's Place on the Victoria Derbyshire website.
Grace decided to take steps to overcome her addiction but living in a homeless hostel meant it wasn't easy.
"When your room was next to somebody who is selling drugs, you can never get well in a sense," she says.
"You're always stuck in the conundrum of, 'Do I go back to my old habits or do I go to a [support] meeting?'
"I was living a life of recovery in a using and drinking world."
Jane Winehouse says the house's potential to change lives is a "wonderful thing"
It is stories like Grace's that motivated Amy Winehouse's step-mother, Jane Winehouse, to set up the house - designed to help young women stay clean while taking their first steps without drugs and alcohol once they have left rehab.
"We met people in treatment who were scared to death of what was going to happen when they finished treatment [in rehab]," she says.
"For a lot of them, all they could think about was, 'If I have to go back to where I was before, I'm just not going to stand a chance.'"
Set up in partnership with the housing provider Centra, Amy's Place is the only recovery house in the UK designed specifically to help women under 30.
Winehouse died aged 27 in July 2011 from alcohol poisoning. She had previously struggled with drug addiction for many years and had spent time in rehab.
In the London house each of the 16 occupants gets her own flat, paid for using housing benefit. They can stay for up to two years.
There is a strict policy of no drugs, no alcohol and no overnight guests and they must agree to random drugs tests - Grace passed her latest one.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Amy Winehouse home 'has given me a future'
Another resident, 26-year-old Judith Heryka, is also working towards a more stable future, without drugs.
Her main motivation is her children, aged five and seven. The catalyst for her deciding to seek help came when she was told proceedings would begin to take them into the adoption system. She says it saved her life.
Judith had become hooked on crack cocaine and says she had become "very depressed… bitterly, bitterly, bitterly, like suicidal, depressed".
As part of the programme at Amy's Place, the women must take part in activities outside the house that can help them stay clean and prepare them for living by themselves.
It could be re-entering education, doing voluntary work or - in Judith's case - finding a passion, such as kickboxing.
"I can really zone out, do something that I love," she explains, while taking part in a local class.
Judith says the house is "100%" the reason why she is managing to stay clean and the first time she has lived somewhere and felt safe.
House manager Hannah Crystal says she is "really excited" to see the women progress.
"I think the girls here are going to get to a point where they're ready to move on," she adds. "And we'll have new arrivals, and I think we'll keep growing from strength to strength."
The road to recovery, however, is not without its difficulties. Some of the women in the house have relapsed, and Grace admits she recently came close to drinking.
The house is working with Grace to help her achieve her ambitions. She hopes to become a forensic psychologist one day and at the moment she's learning woodwork with the charity the Spitalfields Crypt Trust.
"Before, [the future looked] very black, without anything I was looking forward to. Now I realise I've got a very long life ahead of me," she says.
For Jane Winehouse, giving the women the tools to change their lives "is the most wonderful thing".
Especially, as she says, the house is "in Amy's memory".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38992373
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Shopper's lucky escape as car crashes through window - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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A man had an extraordinary escape when a car crashed through a shop window in New York.
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A man had an extraordinary escape when a car crashed through a shop window in New York.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39038417
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Thistlecrack: Gold Cup favourite out for season with tendon tear - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Cheltenham Gold Cup favourite Thistlecrack is ruled out for the rest of the season with a slight tendon tear.
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Last updated on .From the section Horse Racing
Cheltenham Gold Cup favourite Thistlecrack has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a slight tendon tear.
The nine-year-old won his first four starts over fences, including a three-length victory over Cue Card in the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day.
"The vet scanned him this morning and it's a slight tendon tear," said trainer Colin Tizzard.
"We've seen it at every yard and it happens every year."
Native River, the Hennessy Gold Cup and Welsh Grand National winner and Thistlecrack's stable-mate at Tizzard's yard, is now favourite for the Festival showpiece on 17 March.
Cue Card, another Tizzard-trained prospect, and 2015 Gold Cup runner-up Djakadam are also challengers.
Thistlecrack has won eight times in 11 starts over hurdles, but came second to Many Clouds in the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham at the end of January.
Many Clouds subsequently collapsed and died after the winning post.
What a blow for his owners, the Tizzard Team, Tom Scudamore and the horse's fans - but also for jump racing.
Thistlecrack really was the new star turn, and we had come to hang our coat on him in terms of generating interest.
He is also the latest big-name for the sport's Cheltenham Festival in March to fall by the wayside - after Annie Power, Faugheen, Sprinter Sacre, Don Cossack and Coneygree - and none of the winners of the main races from 2016 will be back this time.
As for Thistlecrack, there's no reason he will not return, although the big question is when. A defence of the King George in December looks touch and go, so maybe in time for the 2018 Gold Cup.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/39042339
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Who spends $150,000 on a kid's birthday party? - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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Children's birthday parties are getting expensive in some countries - but how much would you spend keeping up with the Joneses?
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Children's birthday parties can be an expensive affair.
In some parts of Asia, where disposable incomes are high, families are happy to fork out a fortune. As part of our Business of Kids series, we met some top-notch party planners cashing in on the opportunity .
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39001801
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Newspaper review: The '£1m bomber' and 'storm chaos' - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A British suicide bomber makes many of the front pages, while others warn of the incoming Storm Doris.
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The Papers
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A picture of Ronald Fiddler was released by the so-called Islamic State group
The Brexit Secretary David Davis has said Britain will stay open to EU immigration many years after leaving the EU, according to The Times.
Speaking in the Estonian capital, Tallin, Mr Davis is quoted as saying: "Don't expect just because we're changing who makes the decision on the policy, the door will suddenly shut. It won't".
Brexit Secretary David Davis was speaking on a visit to eastern Europe
According to the Guardian, the City of London has warned that the loss of banking jobs to EU countries because of Brexit could threaten British and European financial stability.
Interviews with several senior bankers and business leaders are said to reveal growing certainty that there will be a wave of relocations this year.
The front of the Daily Mail carries a picture of the former Guantanamo Bay detainee from Manchester, Ronald Fiddler - also known as Abu-Zakariya al-Britani - who is believed to have carried out a suicide bombing in Mosul over the weekend.
Referring to compensation he received after being released in 2004, the Mail tells readers: "You paid him one million pounds."
His brother, Leon Jameson, tells the Times: "It is him, I can tell by his smile". He says his brother "wasted his life".
"UK roads are ruined" says a headline in The Times. A leading economics consultancy has found that Britain's roads are in a worse state than those of many other developed nations - despite high fuel taxes.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research ranks UK roads 27th in the world and claims our main highways are in a worse state than those in poorer countries such as Malaysia, Namibia and Ecuador.
The lead in the i says the dream of owning a home is fading for young families. Figures apparently show that house-buying rates among the "just about managing" have fallen far behind their foreign counterparts.
For those with incomes slightly below the national average, Britain is placed 32nd out of 37 countries - behind Romania, Croatia and Mexico.
The paper claims the figures have brought charges that ministers are failing a whole generation of aspiring home owners. But the government says its halted a decline in home ownership, which began in 2003.
A couple of the papers lead on the storm heading for Britain. The Express predicts plunging thermometers and "chaos". "Batten down the hatches," says the Mirror, "here comes Doris".
A picture of the Queen presenting poet Gillian Allnutt with a medal at Buckingham Palace shows an electric fire
And the Sun wonders if Her Majesty has been trying to save on the heating bills this winter. A picture in several papers of her handing The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry to to Gillian Allnutt at Buckingham Palace yesterday reveals the room is being heated by a portable two bar electric fire. The Mail calls the Queen "the thriftiest royal.... bar none".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-39047697
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Driver proves Southampton Central station parking bays 'too small' - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Jago Lawless has had an £80 fine overturned and some parking spaces will now be repainted.
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Hampshire & Isle of Wight
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Jago Lawless said drivers have to adjust their parking to get in and out of their cars, which resulted in his front wheel being "an inch, two inches over the line"
A motorist has had a fine for parking over the line of a bay overturned after he proved the spaces were "too small".
Jago Lawless, 46, was fined £80 for not parking his Hyundai i10 within a bay at Southampton Central station about a week ago.
After receiving the ticket, the naval architect measured the space and said it was "too small for an average-size car".
South West Trains said some spaces at the station would now be repainted.
According to the British Parking Association, there is no legal minimum size for parking bays, but there is a design standard which is 15.7ft (4.8m) in length and 7.8ft (2.4m) in width.
"When I first measured the entrance into the car parking bay, it measured at about 2.4m," Mr Lawless said.
"But because they've angled the parking bar over, the parallel width between the lines is actually only 1.978m wide, which is too small for an average-size car."
Mr Lawless measured the space after receiving an £80 fine for not parking within the white lines
Mr Lawless added: "I couldn't believe that, having parked such a small car, that I could not have parked it properly.
"Because they are at an angle, they are too small - they're far too narrow and they're not long enough.
"You have to adjust parking your car to enable you to get in and out of the car."
South West Trains said the 21 angled spaces at the 182-space car park would be repainted
South West Trains said the spaces at the car park were set up prior to any recommendations on parking bays being issued.
In a statement, it said: "Now this issue has been raised, we will be re-marking the small number of angled spaces in this car park to increase their width."
It said the penalty issued to Mr Lawless had also been withdrawn.
There is no legal minimum size for parking bays, but there is a design standard which is 15.7ft (4.8m) in length and 7.8ft (2.4m) in width
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-39037547
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Cake or biscuit? Why Jaffa Cakes excite philosophers - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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It's a delicious structure consisting of sponge, chocolate and orange jelly. But is a Jaffa Cake actually a biscuit? And what can it teach us about philosophy?
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Magazine
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It's a delicious structure consisting of a small sponge with a chocolate cap covering a veneer of orange jelly. It is arguably Britain's greatest invention after the steam engine and the light bulb. But is a Jaffa Cake actually a biscuit, asks David Edmonds.
This question reheats a confectionery conundrum first raised in 1991. A tax is charged on chocolate-covered biscuits, but not on cakes. The manufacturer, McVities, had always categorised them as cakes and to boost their revenue the tax authorities wanted them recategorised as biscuits.
A legal case was fought in front of a brilliant adjudicator, Mr D C Potter. For McVities, this produced a sweet result. The Jaffa Cake has both cake-like qualities and biscuit-like qualities, but Mr Potter's verdict was that, on balance, a Jaffa Cake is a cake.
He examined a dozen possible criteria. There was, for example, the name. They are called Jaffa Cakes, not Jaffa Biscuits. This, Mr Potter concluded, was a trifling consideration, though he noted that Jaffa Cakes are more biscuit than cake in several ways. They are packaged like biscuits, and they are marketed like biscuits: they are usually found in the biscuit aisle in shops.
On the other hand, they have fundamental cake-esque qualities. Thus, they have ingredients of a traditional sponge cake: eggs, flour and sugar. And when Jaffa Cakes go stale they become hard, unlike biscuits, which become soft.
Does size matter? Jaffa Cakes are more biscuit-sized than cake-sized. Linked to this, cakes are often eaten with a fork, while biscuits tend to be held in the hand. To test the significance of size, I asked the winner of The Great British Bake Off 2013, Frances Quinn, to bake the most ginormous Jaffa Cake the world has ever seen - the size of a flying saucer, at 124cm in diameter, weighing in at 50kg, and containing 120 eggs and 30 litres of jelly.
Tim Crane, Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University, does not believe that this XXXXXXXXXXXL Jaffa Cake is any more cake-like than its normal-sized Jaffa Cake sibling. "These days you see all sorts of tiny cakes for sale, some of them much smaller than Jaffa Cakes," he says. "And there's nothing incoherent about a giant biscuit."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How do you make the world's biggest Jaffa Cake?
The immediate implication of Mr Potter's ruling was financial. But Prof Crane says the question "Cake or Biscuit?" touches on a profound philosophical problem. "How do our concepts relate to reality?" Which aspects of our classification of the world come from the world itself and which come from us?
There is no record of the 20th Century philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein, ever tasting a Jaffa Cake, though there is evidence that he was partial towards a bun. But his ideas are relevant to the Jaffa Cake puzzle.
We are tempted to think that every concept must have a strict definition to be useable. But Wittgenstein pointed out that there are many "family-resemblance" concepts, as he called them. Family members can look alike without sharing a single characteristic. Some might have distinctive cheek bones, others a prominent nose, etc. Equally, some concepts can operate with overlapping similarities. Take the concept of "game". Some games involve a ball, some don't. Some involve teams, some don't. Some are competitive, some are not. There is no characteristic that all games have in common.
And there is no strict definition of "cake" or "biscuit" that compels us to place the Jaffa Cake under either category.
Ponder the philosophy of the Jaffa Cake in the Philosopher's Arms on BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 on Monday 20 February
Another temptation is to believe that all that is at stake here is an arbitrary issue of semantics. It is, the thought goes, a mere verbal convention whether one labels a Jaffa Cake a cake or a biscuit. It has nothing to do with the real world.
The distinction between statements that are true as a matter of convention or language ("All triangles have three sides"), and those that make a claim about the empirical world ("It is possible to eat 13 Jaffa Cakes in a minute") - is a longstanding one in philosophy. But in the middle of the last century the American philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine disputed whether such a rigid distinction could be maintained - and Tim Crane agrees with him that it cannot.
"Do you know what an Umiak is?" Tim Crane asks? "No? Well, it's a flat-bottomed Inuit canoe. So have I told you something about the word, or have I told you something about the world? Well, I think you've learned something about both." And if it's true to say, "a Jaffa Cake is a cake" (or "a Jaffa Cake is a biscuit") then that also tells us something about the world, i.e. about the properties of a Jaffa Cake, as well as about the meaning of the word "cake".
But could Jaffa Cakes be neither cakes nor biscuits - and instead something in between?
It may be interesting to compare Jaffa Cakes with people here, even though they differ in several ways - most Jaffa Cakes have no opinion about how they should be identified, for example, and most humans are not topped by a thin but scrumptious layer of chocolate.
Until recently, people have not been free to choose their gender, and have been restricted to being described as either male or female.
More and more discoveries in science are undermining this binary mapping. It used to be thought that men were defined by their having a Y chromosome. Now we know that whether an embryo develops as a male depends upon a single gene: the SRY gene. It's possible for a person with XY chromosomes to have the appearance of a woman if they are lacking this gene. Similarly, a person with XX chromosomes can have the appearance of a male if they carry this gene.
There are many genes at play when it comes to the male versus female development. Genetics, hormones, chromosomes can all combine to complicate a complicated picture. As a result, says Dr Helen O'Neill, a geneticist at University College London, "I think we should revise our definitions of male and female, there are many gradations in between". In fact, for some purposes, she thinks we should get rid of the male-female distinction, for example on passports. After all, she says, we are all homo sapiens.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Is it a cake or is it a biscuit?
Multifaceted expressions of identity inject a further layer of complexity. Mx Pips Bunce, who is married with two children and works for Credit Suisse as head of Global Markets Integration Components, identifies as "gender-fluid". Sometimes Pips wakes up choosing to express as Pippa and other times as Phil.
The world at present is set up for binary categorisation despite as many as 4% of people now identifying as non-binary, according to some studies. Two obvious and tricky areas are bathrooms and sport. Pips uses the female bathrooms as Pippa and the male ones as Phil, whereas some people who identify as non-binary or trans would rather bathrooms were intersex. The topic of which bathrooms transgender people use is highly contentious.
Equally contentious are intersex athletes in sport, like the South African Olympic 800m champion, Caster Semenya, who competes as a woman. Is it possible, or desirable, to break down the binary categories in sport - to introduce new categories perhaps? The idea is not preposterous. Boxing, with its different weights - flyweight, heavyweight etc. - is one of several sports carved up into more nuanced groupings than simply male/female.
But back to the Jaffa Cake mystery. Cake or biscuit? "Definitely cake," says Tim Crane, echoing the judgement of Mr Potter. This is an assertion about the world, not just about language. A Jaffa Cake, in its essence, is more cake-like than biscuit like. Its cake features are more elemental than its biscuit features.
And with that riddle solved, the Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy shrinks the world's largest Jaffa Cake by taking a giant bite.
David Edmonds is the producer of The Philosopher's Arms on BBC Radio 4
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38985820
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How drug development is speeding up in the cloud - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How cloud computing is speeding up the development of potentially life-saving drugs.
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Business
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Developing new drugs to fight major diseases can take years and cost billions of dollars
Developing a drug from a promising molecule to a potential life-saver can take more than a decade and cost billions of dollars.
Speeding this process up - without compromising on safety or efficacy - would seem to be in everyone's interests.
And cloud computing is helping to do just that.
"Cloud platforms are globally accessible and easily available," says Kevin Julian, managing director at Accenture Life Sciences, Accelerated R&D Services division.
"This allows for real-time collection of data from around the world, providing better access to data from inside life sciences companies, as well as from the many partners they work with in the drug development process."
All pharmaceutical drugs are tested on animals first before humans
Clinical trials - testing how a new drug works on people once you've tested it on animals - are a crucial part of this process. But they can be very complex to organise and run.
There are three main phases, starting with a small group of healthy volunteers, then widening out to larger groups who would benefit from the drug.
"A big phase three trial will cost anything from $30m-$60m (£24m-£48m) for a pharma company," says Steve Rosenberg, general manager of Oracle Health Sciences Global Business Unit.
These trials may be conducted over 30 to 50 countries and involve hundreds or even thousands of patients - this takes a lot of time and money.
Genomics is driving the development of more targeted drugs rather than "blockbusters"
"Patient recruitment has always been the number one problem," says Mr Rosenberg.
And as drug development targets more specific groups of people, largely thanks to the insights coming from genomics, finding the right patients for such clinical studies is becoming even harder.
This is where the cloud can help.
"With cloud and related technologies, we are now able to mine real-world data to find patient populations better, and utilise globally available technology to conduct trials in an even more distributed and inclusive manner," says Mr Julian.
Cloud and increasing digitalisation is also helping to improve the efficiency of data collection and analysis.
"Data collection used to be very inefficient, with data being written on paper forms, faxed and then entered into computers manually," explains Tarek Sherif, co-founder and chief executive of Medidata, a company that has developed a cloud platform for clinical trials.
"Then it had to be double-checked for errors. It could take up to a year before you could draw any conclusions from the patient data."
The demand for cheap medicines is often at odds with drug companies' need to make a profit
Digitising the process and automating the checking process in the cloud has reduced this time to "one to two weeks," says Mr Sherif.
And cloud offers many additional advantages to pharma companies, says Mr Rosenberg.
"These days health data is coming from a wide variety of sources, like labs, wearable devices, electronic diaries, health records. Pharma companies can't necessarily handle all the data that's coming in to them.
"So cloud computing helps them do that and gives them a whole bunch of other advantages - the technology is kept up to date, you get the latest security, the latest features and so on."
A spokesman for pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) told the BBC: "Advances in computing and data analytics are providing new opportunities to improve the efficiency of our research and increase our understanding of a disease or a patient's response to medication."
Finding the right patients for a clinical trial is time-consuming and costly
Speeding up the clinical trial process also cuts costs.
"We were able to save one of our clients about 30% on the cost of running a trial," says Mr Sherif, whose firm facilitates nearly half of all clinical trials in the world and counts 17 of the top 25 pharma companies as clients.
And Accenture's Mr Julian says: "We've seen overall savings of 50% - in some cases up to 75% - on the historically labour-intensive parts of the drug development process."
Of course, not all prospective drugs work, or they're shown to work but not any better than existing drugs on the market.
"So the Holy Grail is to fail faster so you're not failing in the very final phases of drug development when you've already spent most of your money," says Mr Sherif.
Winning regulatory approval for a drug is only half the battle. Pharma companies also have to convince health services and insurance companies that's it's worth paying for.
In the past, patients were often asked to keep written diaries of their experiences with a drug being tested, but these were "horribly inefficient", says Mr Sherif.
So the rise of electronic diaries and wearable devices is helping to improve the evidence a pharma company can present in defence of their latest drug.
With this is mind, Oracle is helping add "mHealth" capability to Accenture Life Sciences' cloud platform.
And GSK says: "We've been conducting clinical studies with biosensors and mobile devices for some time.
"Today's digital technology is enabling us to collect and analyse data in new ways - monitoring activity and vital signs in patients, and collecting patient feedback in real time, improving the quality of data we use in the development of new medicines."
The cloud is also encouraging more pharma companies to co-operate on molecule development [the building blocks of a potential drug], says Mr Rosenberg, as well as on data analysis.
And all this anonymised patient data - historical and recent - can potentially be shared in the battle to combat disease.
Discovering new molecules that could be developed in to drugs is still very difficult
"We are seeing clients increasingly use 'virtual studies' - using external and historical data to perform advanced statistical analysis and reduce the need for complicated, costly site-based study activity," says Accenture's Mr Julian, citing a collaborative Alzheimer's project between some of its clients and the Coalition Against Major Disease.
But while efficiencies in the drug development process are undoubtedly being found, discovering the initial molecule is still very difficult, experts warn.
Cloud computing is having a big practical impact, but won't necessarily result in a flurry of "miracle" cures.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39026239
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Ordsall Chord: Manchester rail link bridge lifted into place - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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The 600 tonne bridge across the River Irwell will link Manchester's Victoria and Piccadilly stations.
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Two giant railway arches have been lifted into place linking Manchester's Victoria and Piccadilly stations as part of the Ordsall Chord scheme.
The 600-tonne structure was lifted into place across the River Irwell using one of the largest cranes in Europe on Tuesday.
The scheme is part of the multi-million pound Northern Hub upgrade for rail services across the North of England.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-39045147
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Campaign for David Bowie Brixton memorial launched - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The proposed art installation takes its inspiration from the flash on Bowie's sixth album, Aladdin Sane.
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London
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The proposed memorial would stand 9m high opposite the entrance to Brixton Tube station
A crowdfunding campaign to erect a permanent memorial to David Bowie has been launched by a team of south London designers.
The campaign aims to raise just under £1m in the next 28 days to fund the art installation opposite Brixton Tube station.
It follows calls for various memorials to be erected to the musician, who died in January 2016.
Thousands of pounds was pledged within hours of the launch of the campaign.
Bowie's last live performance was in 2006
The proposed memorial takes its inspiration from the flash on Bowie's sixth album, Aladdin Sane, which was released in 1973.
The artists said the blue and red steel memorial - nicknamed the ZiggyZag - would be "embedded in the Brixton pavement" and rise to three-storeys - or 9m - high.
The Bowie mural in Brixton has become a focal point for fans since the singer's death last year
The proposed site would be five streets from Bowie's Stansfield Road birthplace and next to Jimmy C's internationally famous Aladdin Sane mural, which has become a focal point for tributes since the artist's death.
Situated on Tunstall Road, opposite Brixton Tube station, it would be likely to be the first thing most visitors to Brixton would see when completed.
The artists worked with Bowie's team in London and New York.
It also has the support of Lambeth Council, which began discussing the possibility of a permanent memorial with Bowie's family last year.
She added: "Brixton has become central to David Bowie's huge legacy, so what better place for this stunning and imaginative memorial to this locally-born legend."
The crowdfunding campaign hopes to raise just under £1m within 28 days in order to create the memorial
The design team behind the project, This Ain't Rock'n'Roll, previously designed the "Brixton Pound".
The currency, which features David Bowie on its £10 note, was launched in 2009 to support businesses in the area.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-39044933
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Pie-eating Sutton keeper Wayne Shaw resigns as FA launches investigation - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Sutton accept the resignation of pie-eating keeper Wayne Shaw, who is under investigation for potentially breaching betting rules.
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Sutton United have accepted the resignation of reserve goalkeeper Wayne Shaw, who is under investigation for potentially breaching betting rules.
The Gambling Commission and Football Association are investigating if there was a breach of betting regulations after the 45-year-old ate a pie during Monday's FA Cup loss to Arsenal.
A bookmaker had offered odds of 8-1 that Shaw would eat a pie on camera.
"What happened didn't make us look very professional," said boss Paul Doswell.
"It's something that we've dealt with quickly as a club," he told Sky News on Monday. "Wayne himself offered his resignation to the chairman this afternoon, which has been accepted.
"It's a very sad end to what has been a very good story."
Shaw, who said he was aware of the betting promotion prior to the match, played the incident - in which he ate the pie while standing by the substitutes' bench - down as "a bit of fun".
"We are told we are not allowed to gamble as it is full-time professional football," Shaw told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme. "In no way did I put anyone in jeopardy of that - this is not the case here, this is just a bit of fun and me being hungry."
However, the Gambling Commission confirmed it was looking into whether there was any "irregularity in the betting market and establishing whether the operator has met its licence requirement to conduct its business with integrity".
• None 5 live In Short: Lawyer says pie eating should be "treated in the same light as spot-fixing"
"It's clear in FA rules that you're not allowed to bet - and whether it was a fun bet, or whatever it was, it wasn't acceptable," added Doswell.
"Obviously we were very concerned with the implication that the club, myself, my assistant Ian Baird or anyone else had been involved in the decision-making.
"It's been very disappointing, there's no doubt about that. I woke up this morning to this storm of criticism.
"It's with a very heavy heart, because he was a good friend of mine, but I think the board felt they had no other choice."
What happened at Sutton United might have seemed like a joke but it's clear that both the FA and the Gambling Commission are taking 'piegate' very seriously.
Wayne Shaw has stated that he didn't place a bet himself, but it's also clear than somebody must have done. Sun Bets used their own Twitter account to publicise that they had "paid out a five figure sum". The fact that Mr Shaw might have consumed a pasty rather than a pie (as he maintains) clearly was not a barrier to paying out for the betting company.
Anyone in Sutton United's playing and non-playing staff is covered by the FA's rules which forbid betting on any football match. The FA also makes it clear its rules cover 'football related' bets and the passing on of any insider information.
Typically any breaking of these rules results in a fine. for example in November Newcastle United midfielder Jack Colback was fined £25,000 after accepting a Football Association misconduct charge related to betting.
In information provided by The Professional Footballers Association for its members there is also a warning that breaking rules in regard to betting could be a criminal offence.
There is then the responsibility of betting companies to report any suspicious or unusual betting activity. This is the way all sports would seek to guard against a manipulation of their matches and outcomes, to prevent a collusion between players and fixers.
The gambling commission regulates the betting industry in Great Britain. In regard to the Sutton United v Arsenal match it is ''…looking into any irregularity in the betting market and establishing whether the operator has met its licence requirement to conduct its business with integrity".
The 'novelty market' is a general trend which concerns the Gambling Commission. In June last year it sent a general letter to bookmakers warning that standards should be upheld as it was concerned novelty bets could be "harmful to the wider perception of gambling in Great Britain".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39045017
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Gibraltar seizes Russian's superyacht over German debt claim - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Billionaire owner Andrey Melnichenko is alleged to owe 15.3m euros to the shipbuilder.
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Europe
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The seized Sailing Yacht A is among the creme de la creme of private yachts - seen here off Denmark
Gibraltar has impounded a Russian billionaire's superyacht - one of the world's biggest - because the German shipbuilder says he still owes 15.3m euros (£13.3m; $16.3m) in fees.
The claim has kept Andrey Melnichenko's Sailing Yacht A stuck in Gibraltar, a British territory, since Wednesday.
His spokesman voiced confidence that the order would be lifted soon.
The Bermuda-registered vessel, built by Nobiskrug, left the Kiel shipyard in northern Germany two weeks ago.
It is 143m (469ft) long and has three masts, the main one 100m high.
The superyacht, boasting a gross tonnage of 12,600, is reported to have cost at least €400m. Nobiskrug says it has an underwater observation pod, hybrid diesel-electric propulsion and "state-of-the-art" navigation systems. It was designed by Philippe Starck.
According to documents seen by Germany's NDR news, Nobiskrug is demanding an outstanding payment of €9.8m, as well as €5.5m for subcontractors and interest charges. Valla Yachts Ltd, a Bermuda company, is the yacht's registered owner.
A top Gibraltar court official, Admiralty Marshal Liam Yeats, told the BBC on Monday: "The vessel is under arrest and is currently at anchor in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters."
A spokesman for Mr Melnichenko described it as "a technical problem".
He told the BBC: "We are confident that the yacht will be handed over to the owner's project team in the coming days and this unfortunate episode will be over."
The wealthy Russian also owns Motor Yacht A - seen here next to HMS Belfast on the Thames
Motor Yacht A was an imposing sight on the Thames last September
Mr Melnichenko, an industrialist with big stakes in Russia's fertiliser, coal and energy sectors, has a $13.2bn fortune, business website Forbes reports.
Mr Melnichenko also owns a 5,500-tonne superyacht called Motor Yacht A, which is reportedly up for sale. It was built by Germany's Blohm & Voss shipyard and launched in 2008.
It is 119m long - smaller than Sailing Yacht A - and was also designed by Philippe Starck. In September 2016 it moored alongside the old British light cruiser HMS Belfast on the River Thames, in central London.
What happens when a ship is arrested?
The Gibraltar Port Authority says ship arrests happen when "banks and creditors seek recompense from shipowners who find themselves unable to pay up on mortgages or loans".
"Most arrested ships are sold in a sealed-bids auction within six to eight weeks, once the claim has been proved and judgment given."
In a statement on its website, it says "we put 'ship keepers' on board - two security guards to protect the vessel and its contents.
"We provide the crew with everything, from bunkers (fuel storage compartments) so they can keep the generators going, to provisions of food and water."
A launch is also arranged "so that the crew, who would otherwise be stuck onboard, can have some shore leave".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39026845
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The woman who's baking big news stories - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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The Nobel Prize, viral videos, Beyonce's pregnancy photo... Amber Spiegel has covered them all - on cookies.
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You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39004782
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Facing the robotic revolution - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Why machines and AI are set to transform the way we live and work.
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Technology
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Pepper awakes. "Hi, I am a humanoid robot, and I am 1.2m [4ft] tall. I was born at Aldebaran in Paris. You can keep on asking me questions if you want."
Michael Szollosy, who looks at the social impact and cultural influence of robots, has just switched on the new arrival at the Sheffield Robotics centre, at the University of Sheffield.
He asks: "What do you do, Pepper?"
"Of course not," says Pepper, "but that shouldn't keep us from chatting."
I say indeed not, and ask what he thought of Paris.
"You can caress my head or hands for example," is the reply. "Very Parisian," I observe, stroking the sensors atop of Pepper.
"I like it when you touch my head. Ah, miaow."
Pepper is slim white robot, with skeletal hands, a plastic body and big black eyes.
Mr Szollosy says: "Human beings don't need very much to identify something as alive.
"So a couple of black dots and a line underneath and we see a face every time.
"People say, 'Oh he's smiling at me,' - his mouth doesn't move. But that's what humans bring to the equation.
"We invent these things. I say robots were invented in the imagination long before they were built in labs."
This project is less about developing the technology and more about examining the way we relate to it - most people working in this field are convinced Pepper and and his kind will have huge implications for all of us, changing the way we work, the way we live, even the way we relate to each other.
"I think it is going to be increasingly the case that robots do more and more of the jobs that people used to do," says the centre's director, Prof Tony Prescott.
"We have lots of Eastern Europeans weeding fields because nobody in the UK wants to do that. It could be automated. It's a perfect job for a robot to do."
We are now at a tipping point.
The advances in AI (artificial intelligence) mean robots can now do much more.
But it hasn't developed in the way people might have expected 50 years ago.
A computer can do really clever stuff - beating a chess grandmaster with ease, and now winning at Go.
But a robot butler, which could make you a cup of coffee and run your bath, remains out of reach.
Taking jobs, not terminating humans, may be the biggest threat posed by robots
The very idea of robots excites and scares. It is part of the reason behind this centre.
After the development of genetically modified (GM) food, also known in the tabloids as "Frankenstein food", and the backlash against it, they decided some education was called for.
Mr Szollosy says people are frightened by the wrong things. He bemoans the fact that any story about robotics is accompanied by a picture of the Terminator.
"If artificial intelligence does want to take over the world, eradicate the human race, there are much more efficient ways of doing it," he says.
"Gun-wielding bipedal robots - we could beat them no problem. Daleks can't go upstairs.
"My job is to make people understand what not to fear but also explain that robots may well take 60% of the jobs in 20 years' time and that is of deep concern, if we don't restructure society to go along with that."
Prof Prescott hopes robots are part of the solution to a problem that haunts politicians.
"We have a shortage of trained carers, and it is often migrant labour," he says.
"Those jobs are very poorly paid.
"The quality of life for people in care is low, the quality of life for the carers is also low.
"I would like to protect the right to human contact in law, but people with dementia may need a lot of physical help and a lot of that can be provided by robots."
Milo, with a chunky body and a mobile face under anime-style hair, is designed to mimic human expressions to help autistic children.
But some of those he manages I've never seen on a real person.
MiRo is much cuter, looking somewhat like a dog, a donkey or a rabbit.
"It's designed to mimic the behaviour of animals," says Sheffield Robotics' senior experimental officer Dr James Law.
"For patients, particularly the elderly, particularly with Alzheimer's and dementia it is akin to pet therapy, which can have a lot of value for people who need more social interaction in their lives."
Still MiRo is not very cuddly. Unlike Paro.
I would say he's a very sophisticated furry toy seal, squeaking as you stroke his sensors, flashing big black eyes as you caress him.
Dr Emily Collins is interested in using such robots in children's wards, where real animals and even fur is a danger.
"I'm very interested in what mechanism is going on between a human and an animal which results in increased neuropeptide release, so they need less pain medication," she says.
"Being able to replicate that in paediatric wards, where you cannot have animals, would be fantastic.
"I don't see the point in a humanoid robot, apart from the fact people like the form and the shape.
"As soon as you make a robot look like a human analogue, people have expectations that the robot is going to do the same as a person, and we can't replicate that."
Many car production lines have been automated, but what next?
It is a really interesting debate, and one that maybe one day we'll have to face. But there are far more pressing problem.
If Mr Szollosy is right and robots take 60% of the jobs by 2037, what does he think will happen?
"The jobs are going to go," he says.
"There is going to be greater unemployment. Maybe we need to recast our society so that becomes a good thing, not a bad thing."
Prof Prescott says: "If people aren't able to sell their labour, then the whole market struggles because the people producing still need people to buy.
"So maybe we need to pay people to consume, maybe through some basic income.
"I think it is inevitable that we go in that direction. It's good news.
"The possibility now exists we can put over a lot of the work we don't like to robots and AIs."
The idea of "the basic" would face huge political opposition.
But it's worth noting that many who work in the field think there are few alternatives, even if there has to be an economic crisis before it's taken seriously.
This is not the same as interesting questions for the future about robot rights or consciousness - these problems are coming toward us with, well, the speed and ferocity of the Terminator.
Mainstream politicians are only just beginning to take notice.
You can hear Mark Mardell's report for The World This Weekend, plus a debate about what the future holds for robots and jobs, via BBC iPlayer.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39028030
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Met Police Commissioner: Who will be Britain's next top cop? - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The UK's next top police officer will be chosen on Wednesday - who are the contenders?
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UK
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The UK's next top police officer will be chosen on Wednesday.
The final four candidates for Metropolitan Police Commissioner will face interviews with Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Policing Minister Brandon Lewis.
The Commissioner is not only the head of policing in London. He or she also has a range of national responsibilities including leading on counter-terrorism, national security policing, protection of the royal family and parliamentarians and major public events.
That means the job is not just about how to deploy the 31,000 police officers across the capital - but also how to deal with the complex challenges of keeping Britain and London's streets safe.
So who are the final four candidates for one of the toughest jobs in policing anywhere in the world?
Cressida Dick is one of the country's most experienced and well-known chief police officers who isn't actually working as one.
In 2014 she left Scotland Yard to take up a highly sensitive and undisclosed director-general post at the Foreign Office.
If the 56-year-old is selected to be the next commissioner, it will mean for the first time that all three top policing jobs in the UK are held by women: the Met Commissioner, the head of the National Crime Agency and the president of the National Police Chief's Council.
Ms Dick joined the Met in 1983 after graduating from Oxford University. She first came to public prominence when she was the senior officer in charge of the operation in July 2005 that led to the mistaken killing of Jean Charles de Menezes as a suspected suicide bomber.
When the force was later prosecuted for breaching health and safety laws, the jury in the case said they believed there was "no personal culpability" for then Commander Dick after listening to her evidence.
In 2009 she became the first woman to be appointed an assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan Police, becoming the national lead for counter-terrorism across the UK.
Her other experience includes taking on internal reforms of Scotland Yard and being one of the two senior officers in charge of security at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Sara Thornton became the first chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) in 2015 when it replaced the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo).
It is the co-ordinating body for all of the police forces in England and Wales, bringing together all the chief officers to thrash out national policies on everything from investigating murders to modernising the workforce.
That means that she has been at the heart of the extremely complex challenges of changing the way police are recruited, trained and prepared for how their role is changing as crime does in the 21st century.
She joined the Metropolitan Police in 1986 after studying at Durham University and in 2000 went to neighbouring Thames Valley Police as an assistant chief constable. Seven years later she was made chief constable before becoming vice-president of the NPCC in 2011.
Shortly after taking over at the NPCC she warned that in the future the public should not expect to see a police officer after some burglaries.
She told the BBC that budget cuts and the changing nature of criminality meant the police had to prioritise and there had to be a conversation with the public about where limited police resources should be focused.
Stephen Kavanagh is the chief constable of Essex. He began his policing career with the Metropolitan Police Service in 1985 as a constable in Leyton in East London.
As a detective sergeant he worked in homicide and the then anti-terrorist branches and rose up the ranks to become area commander for North London.
Before that, he was part of the team that had to come up with the force's action plan and response to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, which had branded the Met institutionally racist.
His other roles inside Scotland Yard have included working as a commander in counter-terrorism after the 2005 attacks on London and designing anti-corruption plans to root out crooked officers.
In 2011 he became the public face of the Metropolitan Police during the August riots that followed the shooting of Mark Duggan. As deputy assistant commissioner he also had responsibility for the politically-charged investigations into phone hacking and payments to public officials by journalists.
Mark Rowley is the only one of the four candidates currently working inside Scotland Yard - and the only one to have started his career with another force.
After graduating from Cambridge, he joined West Midlands Police in 1987 and, after serving as a detective, joined the then National Criminal Intelligence Service, one of the predecessors of the National Crime Agency.
While he was there, Mr Rowley worked on developing covert techniques to target major organised crime gangs that work across the UK and other countries.
In 2009 he was appointed chief constable of Surrey, nine years after joining the force and having been in the chair temporarily since 2008.
Two years later he was recruited to the Metropolitan Police as an assistant commissioner - the rank inside the force broadly equivalent to a chief constable outside of London.
During his five years inside Scotland Yard he has been one of the public faces of the force. He has talked widely about terrorism threats - including the changes to counter-terrorism strategy in the wake of the Paris attacks.
When an inquest jury concluded that Mark Duggan had been lawfully killed by firearms officers in 2011, AC Rowley was the officer who gave a statement outside the court amid a barrage of chants from the dead man's supporters.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39034391
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Scientists 'solve' the ketchup problem - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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A super-slippery coating for bottles could make getting liquids out much easier, US scientists say.
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Scientists in the US may have found a solution to one of the classic dinner table problems - getting every drop of ketchup out of a bottle.
As the BBC's Pallab Ghosh reports, they say it is down to a non-toxic coating that makes the inside of bottles super-slippery.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39032105
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The rising risk of showdown between Trump and Iran - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The new Trump presidency could have profound implications for US relations with Iran, says the BBC's Kambiz Fattahi.
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Middle East
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Iran-US hostility eased under President Obama but is threatening to intensify again
Are the US and Iran heading for a new confrontation? After a turbulent first three weeks in which President Donald Trump described Iran as "the world's number one terrorist state" and put it "on notice", it is a question many are asking.
For Iranians with connections in the United States, these are worrying times.
Of the seven majority Muslim countries named in President Trump's January travel ban (frozen pending a legal review), Iran is the one with the largest US-based diaspora, the most overseas students and the highest number of people travelling on visitor visas.
After the ban was announced, BBC Persian received hundreds of messages from anxious Iranians whose lives have been plunged into uncertainty.
They come from all walks of life - research students, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) refugees and grandparents on family visits - and many are worried the story is far from over.
"Last year our family applied to migrate to the US," wrote Bardia, a 16-year-old from the persecuted Bahai religious minority. "Now there's a big hold-up in the process."
But since President Trump moved into the White House it is not just Iranians with travel plans who are feeling unsettled.
Across the country people are asking themselves if he will really deliver on his promise to "rip up" the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and "triple-up" sanctions.
And if the war of words between Washington and Tehran continues, what will the impact be on Iran's presidential elections this May?
On the campaign trail Donald Trump dismissed the Iran nuclear deal as "disastrous", but Iran experts say comments by his new Secretary of Defence James Mattis are probably the best indicator of what lies ahead.
"I think it is an imperfect arms control agreement," Mr Mattis told a Senate committee in January. "But when America gives her word, we have to live up to it."
It is possible the Trump administration could push to toughen up the deal, says Gary Samore, former Obama White House Co-ordinator for Arms Control,
"But they will quickly find out any renegotiation of the agreement will require the US to offer additional sanctions relief."
The Isfahan uranium conversion plant - the US has vowed to robustly police the nuclear deal
Many point out the US is not the only signatory to the deal.
If Mr Trump walks away he will risk alienating the European Union, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China and Russia, which would make enforcing any new sanctions more difficult.
But there are more subtle ways of undermining the agreement, says Nader Hashemi, of the Centre for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver.
"I suspect Trump will try to strictly enforce the nuclear deal, hoping that Iran will break the agreement and thus be blamed internationally for it."
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and his hardline supporters have been relatively muted in their response to President Trump.
It has lead some to suggest it might actually suit them to have a more confrontational president in the White House.
For someone used to rallying his supporters with denunciations of the "Great Satan", Mr Khamenei clearly feels on familiar ground responding to tougher rhetoric from Washington.
"We appreciate Trump! Because he largely did the job for us in revealing true face of America," he Tweeted recently.
Some hardliners actually see Mr Trump as a man they could do business with, says Mohsen Milani, an Iran specialist at the University of South Florida.
"They believe he is a practical, non-ideological businessman and a good deal-maker who would be willing to negotiate with Tehran."
One person for whom Mr Trump's ascendancy is less welcome is President Hassan Rouhani.
He is standing for re-election in May, and the accelerating war of words between Washington and Tehran casts a long shadow over his two biggest achievements - securing the nuclear deal and improving relations with the US.
As the election campaign gets under way Mr Rouhani's hardline opponents will seek to use the Trump administration's actions to undermine him.
"If the [travel] ban is a sign of a general line towards Iran with additional measures, then it certainly could affect the elections," says Trita Parsi, of the National Iranian-American Council.
But whether the hardliners will succeed is open to question.
Even if the tangible benefits of the end of sanctions have yet to be widely felt in Iran, the prospect of the country returning to the international stage and opening up for business has given hope to millions of ordinary voters.
It is clear they do not want to see these achievements reversed.
Since Mr Trump's travel ban thousands of young Iranians have taken to Twitter using the hashtag #LoveBeyondFlags to reach out to Americans.
And among the traditional anti-American slogans on display at the annual rally to commemorate the Revolution in Tehran last week there were some in English with a rather different message: "Americans are welcome and invited to Iran".
In the months to come foreign policy concerns will also influence US-Iranian relations.
Both the US and Iran are currently supporting Iraqi forces in the crucial battle to recapture Iraq's second city of Mosul from so-called Islamic State. It is not in the interests of either side to jeopardise this.
If President Trump delivers on his pledge to mend fences with Russia that could also impact on the US relationship with Iran.
Trump has warned Iran over its long-range missile tests (file photo)
"Tehran's biggest fear is that Trump will seek to move Russia away from Iran in order to open space for Russia-America co-operation in Syria and across the Middle East," says Alex Vatanka of the Middle East Institute.
Going forward there will be many possible flashpoints for tension between Iran and the US.
Iranian ballistic missile tests, more unilateral US sanctions, stand-offs between the Iranian and US navies in the Gulf, and between US-backed and Iran-backed militia forces in Iraq will all test the relationship.
"Over time the [nuclear] deal may unravel because of these," says Gary Samore.
"But I think it's unlikely either side will immediately abrogate the agreement. The US benefits from the constraint on Iran's nuclear programme and Iran benefits from the sanctions relief."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38961027
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Owen Coyle: Blackburn boss leaves club by mutual consent - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Blackburn Rovers manager Owen Coyle leaves the Championship side by mutual consent with the club in relegation trouble.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Blackburn Rovers manager Owen Coyle has left the Championship side by mutual consent after eight months in charge.
The 50-year-old took over at Rovers in June 2016, but won just 11 of 37 games.
Blackburn are 23rd in the table, three points from safety, in a season which has also been marred by fan protests against the club's owners, Venky's.
"The decision has been taken to give the club the best possible chance of climbing to a position of safety in the Championship," said a club statement.
Coyle's last game was the 2-1 defeat in the FA Cup fifth round by Manchester United on Sunday.
Assistant manager Sandy Stewart, first-team coach John Henry and goalkeeping coach Phil Hughes have also left Ewood Park.
Blackburn's next game is away to fellow Championship strugglers Burton Albion on Friday - with Rovers winless on the road since November.
The club have said that the search for new manager will begin with "immediate effect".
Owen Coyle's appointment was never going to be a success in the eyes of the supporters. The abuse from the travelling support directed at him in the recent draw with Rotherham was vociferous and I understand that his position was very much hanging in the balance from then on.
Coyle can rightly claim that he wasn't backed in terms of budget. He was given £250,000 to spend in the summer while he recouped in excess of £10m and the January transfer window saw him frustrated that the club failed to land his list of potential targets.
The fact that Rovers haven't been higher than 20th all season is the reason behind his departure. Financially they can ill afford relegation to League One, and whoever comes in has 15 games to save them.
Since the takeover of the club by Venky's in November 2010, the club are now looking to appoint a seventh permanent manager.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39044853
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Delray Beach Open: Kyle Edmund through as Adrian Mannarino defaults - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Adrian Mannarino becomes Kyle Edmund's second opponent in succession to default after an angry outburst at Delray Beach.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
British number three Kyle Edmund went through at the Delray Beach Open as Adrian Mannarino became the Briton's second opponent in succession to default following an angry outburst.
Edmund, 22, led 6-3 5-0 15-0 when the Frenchman was penalised a game for smashing a ball out of the court.
Mannarino had earlier kicked a chair, and hit a ball towards a ball boy.
Edmund's previous match, against Dennis Shapovalov in the Davis Cup, ended with the Canadian being defaulted.
The 17-year-old angrily smashed a ball which hit umpire Arnaud Gabas, who later required surgery to repair a fractured eye socket.
Edmund, the world number 49, had lost to 60th-ranked Mannarino in straight sets at Wimbledon last year, and the Yorkshireman goes on to face American Bjorn Fratangelo or Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan in the second round.
Canada's Milos Raonic, the world number four, is the top seed at Delray Beach and a potential quarter-final opponent for Edmund.
Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro is making his first appearance of 2017 after extending his off-season following victory in the Davis Cup in November.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/39034201
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Newcastle United 2-0 Aston Villa - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Newcastle United move one point clear at the top of the Championship, scoring in each half to defeat Aston Villa.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Newcastle United scored a goal in each half to beat Aston Villa and go a point clear at the top of the Championship.
Yoan Gouffran netted the opener from four yards and another goalmouth scramble resulted in Henri Lansbury turning the ball into his own net.
But Newcastle's victory was soured by the loss of top scorer Dwight Gayle, who limped off after 33 minutes.
Villa striker Scott Hogan was carried off on a stretcher late on and they are now winless in nine league matches.
Hogan, who cost £12m from Brentford in January, landed awkwardly after challenging for a header at a late Villa corner.
Gayle - the Championship's leading scorer with 20 league goals this season - appeared to suffer a recurrence of the hamstring problem which had kept him out for six matches.
Villa remain six points above the relegation zone, having collected only one point in 2017, although Steve Bruce's side had more than matched the Magpies until they fell behind.
Iceland midfielder Birkir Bjarnason went closest for the visitors, failing to hook in Hogan's flick-on from close range and later having a shot saved by Karl Darlow.
Newcastle's opening goal came soon after Gayle's departure, with Villa failing to properly clear a Matt Ritchie cross and French winger Gouffran tapping in.
After that, the hosts took control and often looked likely to extend their lead, although the second goal which took them above Brighton in the table came in fortunate circumstances.
Jamaal Lascelles met Jonjo Shelvey's corner and his effort hit Lansbury, who was stationed at the near post, before ricocheting into the net.
Newcastle manager Rafael Benitez told BBC Radio Newcastle: "This is a very difficult division. Every game is tough and we were playing against a good team with very good players.
"They pressed well at the beginning and it wasn't easy for us to play how we wanted. We needed to score to open up the game, and after the second goal it was more open. We had more chances and more control of the game.
"Dwight Gayle seemed like he wasn't comfortable from the beginning and then he said he was feeling something in his hamstring. We don't know how serious it is. We have to wait."
Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce told BBC WM: "Scott's injury compounded the night, because we obviously fear the worst.
"He's definitely turned his ankle over and we don't know how serious it is until we see X-rays and scans. The consequences of losing him are huge, but let's hope it's not as bad as what we think.
"I thought we were decent in the first half, Newcastle hadn't been near our goal, and yet we gave a poor goal away. After the restart, we've given another one away and the second one was comical.
"And the two or three opportunities we've had, we've not taken them. That's where we are at the moment."
• None Attempt missed. Jonjo Shelvey (Newcastle United) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Matt Ritchie.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Scott Hogan went off injured after Aston Villa had used all subs.
• None Delay in match Scott Hogan (Aston Villa) because of an injury.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Jonathan Kodjia (Aston Villa) because of an injury. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38952759
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Six Nations 2017: Sexton 'set to start for Ireland' against France - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Johnny Sexton and Rob Kearney look set to be fit for Ireland's Six Nations game with France on Saturday after training on Tuesday.
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Last updated on .From the section Irish Rugby
Coverage: Live on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra, BBC Radio Ulster & BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app, plus live text commentary
Johnny Sexton and Rob Kearney are set to play in Ireland's Six Nations game against France on Saturday after taking a full part in training on Tuesday.
Sexton, 31, missed the games against Scotland and Italy with a calf strain but is now available for selection.
The Leinster fly-half is expected to be named ahead of Ulster's Paddy Jackson, who started both those matches.
Full-back Kearney (biceps) and scrum-half Conor Murray (hip) also came through training in Kildare unscathed.
The fitness of the pair has been carefully managed since the 63-10 mauling of Italy in Rome on 11 February.
Sexton likely to be replace Jackson
Jackson deputised impressively for Sexton at Murrayfield and in Rome, while Munster fly-half Ian Keatley also remains in Joe Schmidt's squad despite Joey Carbery's return to fitness.
Schmidt said after the Italy game that Jackson was putting Sexton under genuine pressure for the number 10 jersey, but the Leinster player is still tipped to return this weekend.
"Johnny gets picked like everyone else; he has no divine right to get picked. Will he get picked? That is a decision that has to be made," said coach Richie Murphy on Tuesday.
"I am not trying to create any confusion. All I am saying is that there will be a decision made on the back of how he has performed over the last two days.
"Paddy Jackson has been brilliant. We have been very lucky that while Johnny has been out Paddy has been stepping in and filling that gap really well, since probably last summer.
"He has really stepped up to the mark and he's improving all the time.
"He is still only 25 and Johnny was only getting capped for the first time at the age that Paddy is at now, so he has worked really hard with Johnny off the pitch in order to help him drive things.
"It is starting to come to a stage where there are other options there."
Ireland in the 2017 Six Nations
If full-back Kearney is not deemed ready by the time the team is announced at lunchtime on Thursday, Simon Zebo could be switched from the wing, while Connacht's Tiernan O'Halloran is another option for the number 15 shirt.
Murray missed training on Friday because of a hip problem but looks to have recovered fully in time to take on the French in Dublin.
Josh van der Flier's absence because of a shoulder injury is offset by Peter O'Mahony's return to the squad. Van der Flier's injury looks set to rule him out of the remainder of the tournament.
Munster flanker O'Mahony missed Ireland's opening two games because of a hamstring injury.
Van der Flier came on as a second-half replacement for Sean O'Brien in both the Scotland and Italy games.
Schmidt is faced with the decision of whether to recall Jack McGrath at loose-head prop in place of his Leinster provincial team-mate Cian Healy, who started in Rome.
Centre Mathieu Bastareaud and flanker Damien Chouly have been ruled out for France, who lost to England in their opening fixture, but then overcame Scotland.
Toulon's Bastareaud was drafted back into France's squad for the Dublin game but has now been ruled out by concussion after taking a blow to the head in the Top 14 match against Lyon on Saturday.
Chouly, a replacement in the 22-16 win over Scotland, suffered an ankle injury in France training on Monday and has been replaced in the squad by Stade Francais' Raphael Lakafia.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39030183
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Sutton v Arsenal: Wayne Shaw's pie-eating investigated by FA & Gambling Commission - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Sutton goalkeeper Wayne Shaw is being investigated by the Football Association for potentially breaching betting rules during Monday's FA Cup loss to Arsenal.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Sutton reserve goalkeeper Wayne Shaw is under investigation by the Football Association for potentially breaching betting rules during Monday's FA Cup loss to Arsenal.
The Gambling Commission is also investigating if there was a breach of betting regulations after Shaw ate a pie in the 83rd minute of the game.
Before Monday's game, a bookmaker offered odds of 8-1 that Shaw would eat a pie on camera during the match.
He later said it was "a bit of fun".
Shaw, 46, ate the pie while standing by the substitutes' bench.
He told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme that the pie was in fact a pasty and he ate it as he was "light-headed".
"We are told we are not allowed to gamble as it is full-time professional football," he added. "In no way did I put anyone in jeopardy of that - this is not the case here, this is just a bit of fun and me being hungry."
Asked whether he knew if anyone had taken up the bet, he told the Daily Mail: "I think there were a few people. I think a few mates and a few of the fans."
The Gambling Commission, which licenses and regulates gambling in Britain, says it is looking into whether there was any "irregularity in the betting market and establishing whether the operator has met its licence requirement to conduct its business with integrity".
It warned operators in June last year about the integrity of taking bets on novelty markets.
"Integrity in sport is not a joke and we have opened an investigation to establish exactly what happened," said enforcement and intelligence director Richard Watson.
'I don't think it shows us in the best light'
Sun Bets, who sponsored the club on Monday for the fifth-round tie, tweeted that it had paid out a "five-figure sum" on the bet.
Sutton manager Paul Doswell said after the game: "I don't think it shows us in the best light."
Club chairman Bruce Elliott told 5 live: "I didn't know anything about it. He has got himself in the papers again and the fame obviously has gone to his head a little bit, but we will soon bring him back down to earth, don't worry about that."
Shaw said he was told about the betting promotion before the game.
"I thought I would give them a bit of banter and let's do it," he added. "All the subs were on and we were 2-0 down.
"It was just a bit of banter for them. It is something to make the occasion as well and you can look back and say it was part of it and we got our ticket money back."
A worldwide ban on betting in football was introduced in 2014 and covers everyone involved in the game, from the players and managers to the match officials and club staff.
It prevents participants covered by the ban from betting, either directly or indirectly, on any football match or competition, including the passing of "inside information".
The FA website defines that as "information that you are aware of due to your position in the game and which is not publicly available".
It adds: "You are not allowed to pass inside information on to someone else which they use for betting."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39037401
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Trafficking victim: 'I was raped and blindfolded underground' - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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'Anna' was trafficked from Albania into the UK last year by someone pretending to be her boyfriend.
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'Anna' was trafficked from Albania into the UK last year by someone pretending to be her boyfriend.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39046337
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Newspaper headlines: 'Business rates battle' and the £6bn bill - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Accusations over the proposed changes to business rates make the front pages.
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The Papers
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The Prime Minister Theresa May makes several of the front pages after her surprise appearance at the Brexit debate in the House of Lords on Monday.
The Daily Express says she "dramatically confronted peers over a plot to delay Brexit" and the Sun says she "stunned" the upper house by "staring down rebellious Lords in person".
Writing in the Daily Mail, Quentin Letts says Mrs May "scowled, she shook her head, she scratched her knee. She was watching them and her tail was swishing".
The House of Lords also makes The Daily Mirror front page, which says that peers are facing a new clocking-in scandal. It picks up an allegation in a BBC TV programme - that one lord signed in to claim his £300 allowance - then returned to his taxi which was waiting outside.
The paper itself reported similar claims four years ago and its scathing editorial accuses some lords of a "scandalous abuse of public funds", describing them as "vermin in ermine".
Several papers highlight conflict within the Conservative Party over changes to business rates in England and Wales.
The Times says the Communities Secretary, Sajid Javid, is being accused of "misleading" his own MPs with an analysis of the revaluation he sent to them at the weekend to try to head off a backbench rebellion.
The Mail views his attempts to reassure the rebels as a "Dodgy Business Rates Dossier" that underestimated the rate rises faced by small firms.
Most people have heard of a "granny annexe" for elderly relatives but the Times reports on a new phenomenon in home extensions.
The paper says so many university graduates are moving back in with their parents that there's been a surge in what architects have dubbed the "graddy annexe". It puts the trend down to high rents and the difficulties in saving for a deposit to get on the property ladder.
The Guardian leads with its analysis that crashing out of the EU with no trade deal would saddle British exporters with £6bn a year in extra costs.
As part of a series on the implications of Brexit, it says its work "reveals the limited options facing UK negotiators just weeks before Brexit talks start". The paper says the £6bn figure is what would happen if Theresa May fell back on World Trade Organisation rules and their resulting tariffs.
It suggests the implications of this Plan B "remain poorly understood within Whitehall".
And a woman who claims to be using Britain's oldest carrier bag is featured in several papers including the Daily Express. It has a photo of 65-year-old Sue O'Dowd, who's a grandmother from Shropshire, proudly holding the Tesco bag which celebrates the store's 50th anniversary - in 1981.
She has kept it for 36 years, through five house moves, and now uses it to store her knitting wool.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-39034653
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'Stubborn' swan blocks M27 at Fareham - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A traffic camera captures the moment an officer chases a swan down the M27 in Hampshire.
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Hampshire & Isle of Wight
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After a failed attempt to fly away the swan was captured
This is the moment a traffic officer chased a "stubborn" swan down a motorway.
The obstinate bird caused a bottleneck on the M27 in Hampshire when it swanned onto the eastbound carriageway, blocking two lanes.
After a failed attempt to fly away, the swan was rescued and "safely taken away", Highways England said.
Swan Lifeline said the birds can often mistake roads for rivers in wet weather.
Highways England tweeted a picture of the bird holding up traffic at junction 11, near Fareham, at about 08:00 GMT.
The agency tweeted: "Two lanes are closed on the #M27 eastbound within J11 due to a stubborn swan on the carriageway!"
The bird blocked two lanes on the eastbound carriageway
Swan Lifeline said the birds can often mistake roads for rivers in wet weather
Swan Lifeline is working with the RSPCA and Hampshire Police, which sent officers to the scene.
It has advised the force to take the swan to a rescue centre near Portsmouth.
Manager Richard Stokes said: "Swans think the motorway is a river when it has been raining and the tarmac is wet, which is why it was running up and down the carriageway."
Recently, the rescue of a swan from a motorway in Gloucestershire by two police officers was likened to something out of spoof film Hot Fuzz, after they posted a selfie with the bird in their vehicle.
Other animals have also caused chaos by wandering into unexpected places, including last month when a cow blocked a rail line between Southampton and Brockenhurst.
It is not just swans that can cause travel chaos - this cow blocked a rail line last month between Southampton and Brockenhurst
• None The strangest spillages on our roads
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-39038175
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Slippery bottle solves ketchup problem - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Scientists in Boston have found a way to get every last drop of ketchup out of the bottle.
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Science & Environment
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Pallab Ghosh reports: The invention means the ketchup "just glides out"
Scientists in Boston have found a way to get every last drop of ketchup out of the bottle.
They have developed a coating that makes bottle interiors super slippery.
The coating can also be used to make it easier to squeeze out the contents of other containers, such as those holding toothpaste, cosmetics and even glue.
The researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believe that their innovation could dramatically reduce waste.
It is always an effort getting that last drop of ketchup out of the bottle.
Everyone has their own technique. Some karate chop the bottle, others furiously shake it and many simply bash it.
But the MIT team has developed a system that banishes all that frustration.
When incorporated into the bottle, it enables the ketchup or any other liquid to just slide out without leaving a trace.
In its manufacture, the container must first be coated on the inside with a rough surface.
A very thin layer is then placed over this. And, finally, a liquid is added that fills in any troughs to form a very slippery surface - like an oily floor.
The ketchup hovers on top and just glides out of the bottle.
According to Prof Kripa Varanasi, who developed the slippery surface, the technology is completely safe.
"The cool thing about it is that because the coating is a composite of solid and liquid, it can be tailored to the product. So for food, we make the coating out of food-based materials and so you can actually eat it."
The technology's co-inventor Dr David Smith told me that it could also help reduce waste.
"With the manufacture of these sticky products there is about 200 million gallons of material each year that gets stuck to tanks and then gets washed off and thrown away. And in packages there are about 40 billion packs with material stuck in packages so the technology has the potential to significantly reduce waste."
Some people may miss the ritual struggle with their ketchup. But like it or not when the super slippery bottle becomes available in a few years' time, meal times will be a little less tricky.
In this demonstration, the paint container on the left is untreated; on the right, the paint in the treated container slips easily off the sides to the bottom
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39030055
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Steve Hewlett: Eddie Mair announces broadcaster's death - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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Eddie Mair of BBC Radio 4's PM programme announces the death of fellow Radio 4 presenter Steve Hewlett.
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Eddie Mair of BBC Radio 4's PM programme announces the death from cancer of fellow Radio 4 presenter Steve Hewlett at the age of 58.
He was diagnosed last March with cancer of the oesophagus.
He was frequently interviewed by Eddie Mair during his treatment, and after he was told it was no longer effective.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39032110
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Manchester City 5-3 Monaco - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Man City twice come from behind to beat Monaco in a thrilling Champions League last 16 first-leg tie at the Etihad Stadium.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Manchester City came from behind twice to secure a crucial two-goal advantage after a classic Champions League last-16 tie against Monaco at Etihad Stadium.
On a night of fluctuating fortunes and thrilling football, Pep Guardiola's side were on the precipice in this tournament before dragging themselves back to ensure they go into the return in Monaco with a priceless lead.
Raheem Sterling gave Manchester City a 26th-minute advantage after fine work by Leroy Sane but Monaco proved their threat to lead before half-time through Radamel Falcao's header and Kylian Mbappe's powerful rising drive.
Falcao then saw a penalty saved by Willy Caballero just after the break before Monaco keeper Danijel Subasic's blunder gave Sergio Aguero his first goal.
Colombian Falcao, back to his best after failed loan spells at Manchester United and Chelsea, then lifted a brilliant chip over Caballero to put Monaco back in front - but this was the signal for City to launch an enthralling attacking salvo.
Aguero - who felt he was denied a first-half penalty after he tumbled under a challenge from Subasic - volleyed in another equaliser before John Stones made amends for poor defending in the build-up to Falcao's second by putting City ahead on the night with a sliding finish at the far post after 77 minutes.
Man of the match Sane handed City that two-goal cushion with a simple tap-in from Aguero's pass eight minutes from time - but Monaco's vibrant attacking ambition means this tie is far from over.
Aguero's Manchester City future has been the subject of debate with recent arrival Gabriel Jesus appearing to find greater favour with manager Guardiola - but how can they seriously consider life without this world-class striker?
City may have been rattling at the back but Aguero was in magnificent form throughout, terrorising Monaco with his prodigious work-rate and sheer menace.
Aguero was denied a penalty in the first half when he was booked for diving after he was upended by Monaco keeper Subasic but he was not to be denied and was a key component of City's enthralling fightback.
He enjoyed some deserved good fortune when his shot went straight through Subasic for his first goal but he delivered a sumptuous right-foot volley to make it 3-3 and then set up Sane for the crucial fifth goal that gave City that two-goal advantage.
Aguero was substituted to a standing ovation and a kiss on top of the head from his manager with four minutes left - this was the night he delivered proof, as if it were needed, that he is the man City and Guardiola cannot do without.
Falcao looked a lost soul in two seasons on loan from Monaco to Manchester United and Chelsea - but this was a master striker back to his best.
The Colombian marred his display with a horribly hesitant penalty that was saved by Caballero and would have put Monaco 3-1 up, but there was so much about his and the visitors' display to admire.
Falcao looked nothing like the demoralised figure who made 26 league appearances for United, scoring only four goals, and who got one goal in 10 league games for Chelsea.
He pounced like the poacher supreme to head his first but his second was a work of the striker's art, dismissing Stones from his presence before having the composure and class to deliver a lofted finish that left Caballero helpless.
And in those moments, he and Monaco delivered the message to Manchester City that this tie is not over. Monaco looked a side packed with threat and goals and they will still feel they can claw this back.
Mbappe has the sleek elegance of a young Thierry Henry while Bernardo Silva is a player of the highest quality. Monaco still represent a danger.
Manchester City deservedly celebrated at the final whistle, the moment of triumph after a demonstration of resilience and attacking verve that brought a memorable win.
Guardiola, however, will not be fooled - and his agitated body language was a giveaway when it came to their defensive frailties.
Caballero helped Monaco equalise with poor distribution and Mbappe's second was the result of routine long ball. Stones was too weak in the physical exchanges with Falcao for Monaco's third.
And throughout, Nicolas Otamendi cut a nervous, uncertain figure whose weaknesses were probed relentlessly by Monaco.
Manchester City are in the driving seat - but they will need to make sure the back doors are firmly locked in the return leg in Monaco.
What they said
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola: "I am so happy for the result, we are still alive. These kind of things help this club to achieve another step. We attacked in small spaces. That's why they wanted me to come here. Everybody has to be congratulated.
"We are going to fly to Monaco to score as many goals as possible. If we don't score in Monaco we will be eliminated."
Monaco boss Leonardo Jardim: "It was perhaps one of the most exciting games of this year's Champions League. A great game of football.
"The key to the game was the missed penalty to make it 3-1 but there's 90 minutes with us. Nothing is finished."
• None Manchester City scored five goals in a Champions League game for just the second time (the other was 5-2 v CSKA Moscow in 2013, excluding qualifiers).
• None This game is the first time eight goals have been scored in the first leg of a Champions League knockout game.
• None Raheem Sterling has had a hand in 10 goals in his past nine Champions League starts (five goals, five assists).
• None Kylian Mbappe is the second youngest French scorer in the Champions League, following Karim Benzema (17 years 352 days) who scored for Lyon against Rosenborg in December 2005.
• None Falcao scored as many goals at the Etihad (two) as he managed in 15 appearances at Old Trafford for Manchester United.
• None Fabinho assisted more goals (two) than he had in his previous 15 appearances in the Champions League (one).
• None Sergio Aguero's first goal was Manchester City's 200th European goal (203 at the end of this game). He has scored five goals in his last three Champions League games at the Etihad.
• None Manchester City have saved each of their past five penalties in the Champions League (two from Caballero, three from Joe Hart).
• None Monaco are the highest scorers in the top five European leagues this season in all competitions with 111 goals.
• None There were 10 yellow cards handed out - the most in a Champions League game this season.
Manchester City are not in action this weekend because Manchester United's involvement in the EFL Cup final has led to the Manchester derby being postponed, so the Blues' next game is an FA Cup fifth-round replay with Huddersfield at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, 1 March.
Monaco, meanwhile, travel to Guingamp on Saturday looking strengthen their place at the top of Ligue 1.
• None Attempt blocked. Fabinho (Monaco) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
• None Attempt saved. Falcao (Monaco) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Benjamin Mendy. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39030973
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7 moments to watch for at the Brits 2017 - BBC Music
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2017-02-21
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Glitz, glamour, oddballs and glitterballs: The Brits are back.
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Glitz, glamour, oddballs and glitterballs: The Brits are back. The annual music awards take place on Wednesday 22 February, live from the O2 Arena – and BBC Music will be there, bringing you all the gossip from the red carpet and backstage. You can follow the action on Music News LIVE from 15:00. In the meantime, here are some of the big themes and talking points to get you prepared...
1. Will it be the year of grime?
Skepta performs on Later... with Jools Holland
There were calls for a Brits boycott last year, after black artists were omitted from every category (except the international ones). In response, organisers overhauled the voting system, improving the representation of both women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds amongst the judges. Perhaps as a consequence, all but one of the best British male nominees this year is from a BAME background: with Kano, Skepta, Michael Kiwanuka and Craig David pitted against David Bowie. "This is a dream come true and the increase in diversity is a great thing,” Kiwanuka told BBC News – but Craig David said he wasn’t expecting to win. “David Bowie’s career has been so epic,” he said. “He influenced me and so many other artists. There's no competition." With grime entering its imperial phase, it would be remiss of the Brits not to recognise the genre. The best chance for a win comes in the best breakthrough category, where Skepta and Stormzy lead the field.
Sometimes in life, you just have to put a goldfish in a handbag. Or at least that’s what Clean Bandit’s Grace Chatto thought the first time she attended the Brits. And who can blame her? If you’re not at the top of the celebrity tree, “going weird” is a sure-fire way to make it into the papers the next day. This year’s red carpet walkers have some heavy competition from history. Here are some of our favourite outfits from years gone by.
Labrinth turned up last year looking like a human Magic Eye picture; Lady Gaga chose “nightmare ballerina” as the theme for her 2010 outfit; and Jess Glynne helpfully let us know her favourite Quality Street is the Green Triangle.
Girls Aloud made it to the 2005 Brit Awards after surviving an explosion in a Kleenex factory.
And JLS were forced to choose their clothes blindfold in a jumble sale before attending the 2010 ceremony.
With 17 nominations and zero wins, Radiohead are the unluckiest band ever at the Brits. They were first nominated in 1994, when Creep was up for best single, losing out to Take That’s Pray. Since then, landmark albums like The Bends, OK Computer and In Rainbows have all been overlooked; while Robbie Williams has hogged 18 trophies. Eighteen! So, could this finally be Radiohead’s year? The best group category isn’t the strongest, which plays in their favour, but two of the nominees out-performed Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool. That would be Little Mix, whose Glory Days was the seventh best-selling album of 2016; and The 1975, who topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with their breakthrough, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It.
4. Will Katy Perry throw up again?
Moments after Lionel Richie handed over 2009’s best international female award, Katy Perry ran backstage and threw up in a bucket. Not because she was overwhelmed or nervous - but because she was really, really poorly. "I'm so sick right now," she croaked in her acceptance speech. "But they said I should show up to the Brits because something special might happen. "Thank you to everyone at my record label. Obviously, I've worked pretty hard because I want to die right now." Katy’s back this year to give one of the night’s biggest performances. Let's hope she holds down her lunch.
5. What will people do with their trophies?
Zaha Hadid’s bendy Brits statue is sure to draw some comments from the winners.
Ever since Adele brought the nation to a standstill with her performance of Someone Like You at the 2011 Brit Awards, the ceremony has been one big blubfest. While we used to get Geri Halliwell emerging from a giant pair of Styrofoam legs; or Justin Timberlake (consensually) groping Kylie Minogue, these days everyone wants to stand in a solitary spotlight, emoting their lungs out. Thankfully, this year’s performers are known for their bangers – Skepta, Little Mix, Katy Perry and Bruno Mars should keep the tempo above “induced coma” (although Bruno has set alarm bells ringing with his performance of the boudoir ballad That’s What I Like at last week’s Grammys). That means Ed Sheeran is the most likely candidate. His release, How Would You Feel (Paean) is a swoonsome love song cut from the same cloth as Thinking Out Loud, and set to chart at No.1 this Friday. We’re hoping he does Shape Of You instead.
7. Could it be Rag N’ Bone Man’s big night?
It might be Rag N’ Bone Man’s first ever Brit Awards but he’s already a winner. Back in December, the singer bagged the Critics’ Choice award – which tips a new artist for success - joining the ranks of Adele, Sam Smith and Florence + The Machine. But for the first time ever, a Critics’ Choice winner is also up for Best Breakthrough Artist. The man born Rory Graham faces strong competition in that category from Skepta and Stormzy - but if he wins, he could go home with the biggest haul of the night. Only two artists are up for more awards – Little Mix have three, but will struggle in the best group category; while Skepta, as we mentioned earlier, is unlikely to win best male over David Bowie. Find out if we’re right on BBC Music News LIVE (and Radio 1 and Radio 2).
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/15d753be-7502-4ebe-88d0-3281e4a841d2
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Kevin Pietersen says IPL auction is a 'slap in Test cricket's face' - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen says the IPL auction on Monday delivered "another slap in Test cricket's face".
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen says Monday's auction for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 competition was "another slap in Test cricket's face".
England duo Ben Stokes and Tymal Mills were bought for £1.7m and £1.4m by Rising Pune Supergiants and Royal Challengers Bangalore respectively.
Pace bowler Mills only plays Twenty20 cricket because of back pains.
"A T20 specialist becomes one of the current England team's richest players," said Pietersen.
Pietersen has not played an international match since he was sacked by England in 2014.
He has since become a T20 specialist and played in competitions in Australia, India, South Africa, the West Indies and in the Pakistani T20 tournament held in the UAE.
"I embraced [T20] eight years ago and it's what caused me my P45," said the 36-year-old on social media. "I absolutely love how all these youngsters are now benefiting.
"I love how T20 is growing the game. I'm just saying that Tests are falling way behind at the moment. The ICC [International Cricket Council] needs to act and quick."
'I'm struggling to put it into words'
England players Chris Woakes, Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy and Chris Jordan were also bought in the auction, while Jos Buttler and Sam Billings were retained by their franchises.
The fee paid for 25-year-old all-rounder Stokes made him the the most expensive overseas player in IPL history.
"It's a life-changing amount of money," said Stokes. "I'm struggling to put it into words.
"I hadn't thought about how much I would go for. I guess having more than one team wanting me was probably the best position to be in.
"I just wanted to get picked up and play. I haven't been able to play in the past so that was the main thing, anything else was just a bonus.
"I'm looking forward to getting out there and getting involved."
• Read more: Where the IPL contract money goes (Daily Telegraph)
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/39037925
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Hospital saves dehydrated baby hippo at Cincinnati Zoo - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Cincinnati Zoo's premature baby hippo Fiona needed urgent treatment for dehydration.
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US & Canada
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Doctors from a children's hospital have helped save the life of a premature baby hippo at Cincinnati Zoo.
The ailing baby, named Fiona, had become dehydrated after refusing milk and required an urgent intravenous drip.
Fiona was born six weeks early to 17-year-old hippo Bibi on 24 January.
At birth she weighed 13 kg (29 lbs), which the zoo says is about half the previous lowest recorded birth weight for her species.
The normal range is 25-54 kg and at almost a month old she does not yet weigh 25 kg.
Zoo staff, who have been blogging about the little hippo's progress, said last week that she was teething.
The discomfort may have made her bottle feeding uncomfortable, they said.
When she grew sick and lethargic, the local Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center stepped in to help rehydrate her.
"Preemies have very tiny and unstable veins, and even though our vet team was able to get multiple IVs placed, the veins could not sustain the IV and would blow," said the zoo's curator of mammals Christina Gorsuch.
"Lucky for us, we're right next door to a world-class facility with a whole department dedicated to working with difficult veins."
Staff from Cincinnati Children's Hospital joined zoo carers to help revive Fiona
Two members of the hospital's vascular team brought ultrasound equipment to the zoo on Friday and put an IV catheter into Fiona.
It lasted just 30 minutes before her vein ruptured, but the team were able to secure a line into one of her deep leg veins.
Keepers have been monitoring the IV round the clock since then.
"Five bags of fluid later, Fiona is showing signs of recovery," Ms Gorsuch said.
"She is still sleeping a lot but has started to take bottles again and has periods of carefully-supervised activity. The catheter is still in place."
Baby Fiona is being cared for close to her mother Bibi and father Henry, so the family can hear and smell each other.
She made the history books even before her arrival, when scientists at the zoo captured the first ever ultrasound image of a Nile hippo foetus.
The Vascular Access Team were delighted to help the diminutive beast, whose growing pains have charmed fans online.
"Like many people, we are rooting for Fiona!" said clinical director Sylvia Rineair.
Zoo staff have been bottle feeding Fiona to help her gain strength
The hippo calf is being kept near her parents so they can hear and smell each other
Cincinnati Zoo was in the news last year over the fatal shooting of gorilla Harambe after the animal grabbed a four-year-old boy who had fallen into his enclosure.
The shooting last May sparked angry reaction and prompted a social media backlash that saw the zoo temporarily delete its Twitter account.
Fiona isn't the first of Cincinnati's animal residents to get help from the local children's hospital.
In 2015, Ali the aardvark had CT and MRI scans at Cincinnati Children's after suffering from eye trouble.
The multi-talented team have also helped baby gorillas, and consulted on a polar bear pregnancy test.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39037249
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Chancellor Hammond’s £10bn of green shoots - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Ahead of the Budget, the chancellor may have more money to play with than he thought. He’s likely to save it up for what the Treasury still believes could be a Brexit rainy day.
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Business
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Philip Hammond is not a man known for political surprises.
Spreadsheet Phil, as he probably doesn't like to be called, prefers to keep any rabbits that might be hopping around Whitehall stuffed deep in the Treasury's public spending hat.
So, anyone thinking that today's better news on the state of government's finances will lead to any Budget largesse is likely to be disappointed.
The public sector net borrowing numbers showed a surplus in January, a month when the government receives a significant proportion of its tax receipts.
With those receipts higher than expected and economic growth stronger than expected, the government earned more than it spent to the tune of £9.4bn.
Taking a year to date comparison, these are the best borrowing numbers the government has achieved since the financial crisis.
A little bit of that roof has been fixed, and the sun is still shining.
Mr Hammond is now likely to undershoot his end of year deficit target by £10bn, borrowing less over the year, around £60bn, than the Office for Budget Responsibility expected last autumn.
Though it should be remembered that target was significantly loosened following the referendum result.
On the surface, a £10bn undershoot may appear good news, and is likely to lead to calls that the Treasury could loosen the public spending purse strings.
The chancellor could spread a bit of salve on that toxic issue of the day - business rate increases due in April which are leaving some firms with significantly higher bills - and still hit his deficit target.
Business rate relief could be made more generous and transition periods extended so that any abrupt increases are put on a smoother trajectory.
Which might be good politically.
And Mr Hammond could offer something for the National Health Service and social care.
Which might also be good politically.
But, Mr Hammond does not want to be a "political chancellor" in the style of one George Osborne, moving rapidly to plug political holes with Treasury gold.
Those close to him are making clear, there may be some minor tweaks but there will not be major changes of direction on Budget day on 8 March.
Brexit is still, in the Treasury's mind, a risk to the economy that looms large and any buffers built up now are likely to be kept back for future rainy days - if they come - rather than be spent now.
And January's strong numbers have been flattered by the recent sale of government shares in Lloyds Bank and the fact that self-assessment receipts from individual tax returns have come in earlier this year compared to last.
The chancellor has set himself two tasks ahead of the next general election.
Prove that the Treasury is the nation's cautious chief financial officer, focused on "balancing the books" and reducing the deficit (the amount the government spends over the amount it earns) to zero.
And second, reboot the economy by improving private sector growth with a focus on productivity and infrastructure spending.
In Mr Hammond's mind, one month's good figures do not change that sober to-do list.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39041086
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Olympics & Paralympics 2020: Badminton among seven sports to lose funding appeals - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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Badminton is one of seven sports to lose its appeal against UK Sport funding cuts for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic cycle.
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Badminton is one of seven sports to have lost appeals against UK Sport funding cuts for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic cycle.
The decision comes despite Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge winning bronze for Great Britain in the men's doubles at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Archery, goalball, fencing, table tennis, weightlifting and wheelchair rugby will also receive no funding.
However, powerlifting was successful in its appeal to UK Sport.
It means the sport's £1.3m funding will be managed by British Weightlifting and not the English Institute of Sport, as was the case before the 2016 Olympics.
GB Badminton said it was "staggered" by the decision to reject its appeal.
But UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl said none of the seven sports had provided "critically compelling new evidence" that changed the assessment of their medal potential.
Mike Reilly, CEO of Goalball UK, said his organisation was hopeful UK Sport would find "other ways to help us secure a clear and sustained talent pathway" to Tokyo 2020.
Wheelchair rugby has been stripped of £750,000, and BBC Sport understands the Rugby Football Union (RFU) will not step in to increase support for its disability counterpart.
The RFU gives about £100,000 per year to the sport known as 'murderball', and England full-back Mike Brown headed a recent campaign to help raise funds, but there are now fears its elite team could fold.
'It's going to be tough for the sport'
Compared with the four-year build-up to the Rio Games, badminton is the biggest loser in cash terms, as it was given £5.7m last time.
The cut comes despite the sport hitting its medal target thanks to Ellis and Langridge winning only Britain's third Olympic badminton medal.
It is heart-wrenching - we're super devastated Gail Emms, who won an Olympic badminton silver medal in 2004
GB Badminton said in a statement: "Given the strength of evidence we were able to present to justify investment, we cannot believe UK Sport has concluded they should stand by their decision and award zero funding to our GB programme.
"We have players who are on track to win medals for the nation at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and our belief in those players remains as great as it's ever been. We will now take some time to consider our next steps."
Gail Emms, a silver medallist for Great Britain at Athens 2004, said she was "gutted".
She said: "It is heart-wrenching. It was bad enough in December when the initial decision was made but now we are super devastated.
"The players out there were really pinning their hopes on this. I was such an optimist; I thought it was going to be OK. We put forward a strong case. It is going to be tough now for the sport."
UK Sport's money has transformed Britain into an Olympic and Paralympic superpower, but its 'no-compromise' approach is under more scrutiny than ever.
With falling ticket sales hitting crucial National Lottery funding, resources are undoubtedly stretched but, for the first time, sports with real podium potential are being excluded from funding, and many are now asking whether the focus on medals has gone too far.
How have the other sports reacted?
Table tennis was another sport to be disappointed, despite Britain winning a bronze medal at the 2016 World Team Championships.
Sara Sutcliffe, Table Tennis England chief executive, said: "We're naturally disappointed, having made what we believe was a very strong case for a relatively small amount of funding.
"We overachieved on everything we were asked to do in the 2016 cycle, and did so without funding. We were left without funding because, effectively, the goalposts were moved. We will take time to absorb this decision before we decide on the best course of action."
Georgina Usher, chief executive of British Fencing, said the organisation would try to hold fundraising events to support its athletes.
"This has been an incredibly difficult period for the athletes and programme staff," she said.
"Our staff, coaches and athletes have worked incredibly hard to have got to the point where we are absolutely good enough to target an Olympic medal. Having to explain to them why the programme funding will be coming to an end is extremely tough.
"We will be appealing against this decision as we owe it to our athletes to pursue every avenue open to us to challenge this funding decision process."
Goalball chief executive Reilly was more upbeat, saying: "Though we did not fit the UK Sport criteria to move up categories, and so secure funding, we were very much encouraged by their response to our representation.
"There is certainly a sense of the board understanding the difficulties we face and an acknowledgement of our incredible success."
'We don't take these decisions lightly' - UK Sport's reaction
Nicholl said: "The sports that made representations were unable to provide any critically compelling new evidence that changed our assessment of their medal potential for Tokyo.
"Their position in our meritocratic table therefore remains unchanged and they remain in a band we cannot afford to invest in.
"This is the first time we've been unable to support every sport that has athletes with the potential to deliver medals at the next Games. We don't take these decisions lightly as we're acutely aware of the impact they have on sports, athletes and support personnel.
"To support those affected, we have put in place a comprehensive transition and support package and are working closely with these sports to help staff and athletes move out of UK Sport funding."
What is the background?
In December, UK Sport announced the funding for the cycles for the Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo in 2020.
Archery, badminton, fencing, goalball, table tennis, weightlifting and wheelchair rugby appealed to UK Sport to review the decision on what they had been awarded.
UK Sport says it must prioritise sports with the strongest medal potential for Tokyo and the appeal process was essentially a second opportunity for officials to demonstrate why they deserve funding.
A total of £345m will be invested in 31 Olympic and Paralympic sports - £2m less than the record £347m allocated for the Rio Games.
UK Sport has set Team GB a target of winning between 51 and 85 Olympic medals, and 115 to 162 Paralympic medals in 2020.
Understandably, the headlines will be dominated by news of the seven sports - including British Weightlifting's Olympics team - who have not been able to overturn UK Sport's initial funding decisions.
However, the victory for British Weightlifting's Paralympic programme should not be overlooked. UK Sport had planned to move control of the funding award for the disability sport set-up to the English Institute of Sport (EIS). This would not only have seen the closure of the entire GB Weightlifting programme (for Olympic and Paralympic athletes), but also potentially set a new precedent for how funding could be allocated in the future.
The EIS is essentially an extended arm of UK Sport - looking after anything from nutrition to physiotherapy and athlete lifestyle/welfare. Figures from several other Olympic and Paralympic sports have told me of their concerns about what giving EIS greater power would have meant for future funding decisions beyond Tokyo.
As it stands, those concerns will have been allayed somewhat - but it will be interesting to see whether UK Sport will continue to push in this direction and essentially seek greater control and governance of the funding it awards over each four-year-cycle.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/39027138
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Ohio policeman helps girl, 10, with maths homework - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Brave Lt BJ Gruber, of Marion, Ohio, offered up his help without realising the subject was maths.
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US & Canada
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Lt BJ Gruber (right) went above and beyond the call of duty when he answered this appeal for help (left) from Lena Draper, 10
Every child knows when you are in trouble, you call the cops.
But it is fair to say, no police officer expects that trouble to be related to the complexities of a 10-year-old's maths homework.
Yet when faced with just such an issue, one brave officer in Marion, Ohio, stepped up to the mark.
Lena Draper decided to use Facebook to get in touch with her local police force, sending them an appeal for help at the weekend.
"I am having trouble with my homework. Could you help me?" she asked.
"What's up?" asked officer BJ Gruber, who told the BBC he was hoping "for something in the realm of history".
Unfortunately for him it was maths, with the added complication of a few brackets.
Undeterred, Lt Gruber threw himself into the challenge.
Unfortunately, Lt Gruber's second answer was less correct
"I felt pretty confident with my answers on both questions and perhaps that worked against me with the second equation," Lt Gruber admitted.
Indeed, more than a few people have pointed out the answer he gave to the second, more complicated question, was incorrect - but the Police Department in Marion, Ohio, are still seeing the episode as a win.
"We are nailing our goals of increasing trust, transparency & being approachable. Still a work in product on the math skills," the force wrote on its Twitter page after Lena's mum Molly uploaded screenshots of the conversation to Facebook.
The post has now been liked more than 2,300 times.
"We really hope that are are not flooded with homework requests... so far, so good," Lt Gruber said.
"We really see this not different that a child walking up to an officer on the street and asking for help. This is just a 21st Century version of that interaction. We do however encourage kids to communicate with parents, teachers, siblings and fellow students before asking us."
As for Lena, she knows she can't always rely on the police to help her with her homework. But she does have a backup plan.
"Well, I'd call Ghostbusters then," she told Inside Edition.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39045906
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'Enemies of the people': Trump remark echoes history's worst tyrants - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The US president calls the media "enemies of the people" - a phrase favoured by Stalin and Mao.
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US & Canada
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At a different time, in another country, it was effectively a death sentence.
Being branded an "enemy of the people" by the likes of Stalin or Mao brought at best suspicion and stigma, at worst hard labour or death.
Now the chilling phrase - which is at least as old as Emperor Nero, who was called "hostis publicus", enemy of the public, by the Senate in AD 68 - is making something of a comeback.
In November, the UK Daily Mail used its entire front page to brand three judges "enemies of the people" following a legal ruling on the Brexit process.
Then on Friday, President Donald Trump deployed the epithet against mainstream US media outlets that he sees as hostile.
"The FAKE NEWS media (failing New York Times, NBC News, ABC, CBS, CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!" he wrote on Twitter.
The reaction was swift. "Every president is irritated by the news media. No other president would have described the media as 'the enemy of the people'", tweeted David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama.
Gabriel Sherman, national affairs editor at New York magazine, called the phrase a "chilling" example of "full-on dictator speak".
Steve Silberman, an award-winning writer and journalist, wondered whether the remark would prompt Trump supporters to shoot at journalists.
And that might not be a far-fetched concern. Late last year, a Trump supporter opened fire in a pizza restaurant at the centre of a bizarre conspiracy theory about child abuse.
The US president's use of "enemies of the people" raises unavoidable echoes of some of history's most murderous dictators.
Under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, out-of-favour artists and politicians were designated enemies and many were sent to hard labour camps or killed. Others were stigmatised and denied access to education and employment.
And Chairman Mao, the leader of China who presided over the deaths of millions of people in a famine brought about by his Great Leap Forward, was also known to use the phrase against anyone who opposed him, with terrible consequences.
The president was widely criticised for his choice of words.
"Charming that our uneducated President manages to channel the words of Stalin and fails to hear the historical resonance of this phrase," tweeted Mitchell Orenstein, a professor of Russian and East European studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Carl Bernstein, a reporter who helped to bring down Richard Nixon with his reporting on the Watergate scandal, tweeted: "The most dangerous 'enemy of the people' is presidential lying - always. Attacks on press by Donald Trump more treacherous than Nixon's."
Mr Trump is not the first US president to have an antagonistic relationship with the media - Nixon is known to have privately referred to the press as "the enemy" - but his latest broadside, with all its attendant historical echoes, is unprecedented.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39015559
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David Baddiel on impact of dad's dementia - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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Comedian David Baddiel has made a documentary about the impact of his father's rare form of dementia.
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Stand-up comedian David Baddiel has invited cameras to film his father over the past year – to show the reality of his life living with a rare form of dementia called Pick’s disease.
Symptoms include excessive swearing and inappropriate sexual behaviour, which means the comedian had to stop his children visiting their grandfather.
The Trouble With Dad is on Channel 4 on Monday 20 February at 9pm.
The Victoria Derbyshire programme is broadcast on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39029945
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Snapchat of Muslim teacher escorted off US-bound plane - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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A Muslim teacher on a school trip posts a video to Snapchat of him being escorted off a US-bound plane.
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A Muslim teacher denied entry to the United States while on a school trip said he has still not been told why.
Juhel Miah, 25, had flown to Reykjavik, Iceland, with the party from Llangatwg Community School in Aberdulais, Neath, before boarding an onward flight to New York on 16 February.
But before the plane took off, he was escorted off by security staff.
Mr Miah posted a video of him being escorted off the plane on Snapchat.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-39042968
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Light plane crashes into Melbourne shopping complex - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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A plane carrying five people has crashed into a Melbourne shopping complex, Australian authorities say.
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A plane carrying five people has crashed into a Melbourne shopping complex, Australian authorities say.
A retailer in the complex said the plane crashed into its rear warehouse but all staff were safe. It is believed the shopping centre was closed at the time of the incident.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-39035668
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How far into the red will the NHS sink? - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The financial picture for the NHS in England is worse than it looked last November.
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Health
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Call it overspending, underfunding or deficits, the latest news from NHS Improvement involves plenty of red ink on the books of hospitals and other trusts.
And the picture is worse than it looked last November, which will lead to speculation that NHS finances in England are close to being out of control.
As recently as November, Jim Mackey, head of the regulator NHS Improvement, was saying that trusts in England would run up a total deficit of £580m for the full financial year.
Now that has been revised up to a range of £750m to £850m. That will hardly win him many friends at the Department of Health where ministers are anxious to demonstrate that a tighter grip has been applied to the NHS purse strings.
NHS Improvement is pointing the finger at higher than expected patient demand, with emergency hospital admissions 3.5% higher in the final three months of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015. The regulator had anticipated an increase of more like 2%.
Social care problems are also being blamed. NHS Improvement says there was a 28% jump in the number of "bed days" lost because of problems discharging medically fit patients, who had to be kept in hospital when they were medically fit to leave. Difficulties finding the right community or social care were cited as reasons for that increase.
Rising numbers of non-urgent operations and procedures were cancelled because of bed shortages. That hit hospital finances as trusts lost the flow of income they would normally have received for carrying out the operations.
It's easy to see why NHS England leaders and hospital chiefs have been calling for urgent action on social care. A delayed transfer is bad news for the patient stuck in the hospital bed, frustrating for the patient who has an operation postponed, and a real headache for hospital finance directors who lose income.
NHS Improvement argues that more cost controls have been applied, resulting in a 24% lower bill for agency staff in December compared to 12 months earlier.
Paul Briddock, of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, said staff had done a "remarkable job in trying to keep services going while also delivering over £2bn of efficiencies".
A deficit overshoot of a few hundred million pounds should of course been seen in the context of total trust revenue of nearly £80bn and annual NHS spending in England of more than £100bn.
To get to the real picture, though, you need to take into account the £1.8bn "sustainability fund" run by NHS Improvement. This, in effect, is financial support for trusts who follow the regulator's plans for cost reduction. Add that to the possible year end deficit of £850m, as already stated, and you get to a total overspend of around £2.6bn which would be higher than last year.
A year ago we reported the pressure being exerted from on high on trusts to ensure they did not end the year too far into the red. The Department of Health has to ensure that trust deficits are covered by surpluses elsewhere so it does not overspend the budget agreed by Parliament. The process went to the wire last year and seems set to do so again.
Remember this was supposed to be the "year of plenty" for NHS funding with annual increases tailing off in future years.
The fact that trusts are struggling now is alarming.
The government will argue the NHS could be more efficient and make better use of its resources. Critics will say the service in England is underfunded.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39032655
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British Cycling gave 'light-touch version of report' - UK Sport chief - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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British Cycling is accused by the chief executive of UK Sport of watering down the findings of an internal review in 2012.
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Last updated on .From the section Cycling
British Cycling has been accused of watering down the findings of an internal review in 2012 by the chief executive of UK Sport.
Liz Nicholl said the governing body "fed a very light-touch version" to the funding agency.
Former British Cycling chief executive Peter King took anonymous statements from 40 personnel as part of a report that was never made public.
"We were given to believe that... actually we had a very light-touch version of it fed to us at UK Sport, so we had no indication of the significance of that report.
"It's only now come to light."
Speaking to national newspapers, Nicholl confirmed she considered it to effectively be a cover-up, adding: "That's a complete lack of transparency and that's a relationship that is not acceptable in terms of what was shared with us as opposed to what the actual facts of that report were."
UK Sport have faced questions over why they did not act on a report that is known to include allegations of bullying.
Nicholls' incendiary comments come as the country's most successful and best-funded sports governing body braces itself for the publication of another report into alleged bullying, favouritism and sexism, led by British Rowing chair Annamarie Phelps.
Publication is expected in the next month.
Former British Cycling chief executive Ian Drake commissioned the King report in September 2012 but left the organisation in January, three months earlier than planned. He could not be reached for comment.
UCI president Brian Cookson, who was president of British Cycling when King delivered the report in December 2012, said he would not comment until the Phelps report was published.
UK Sport are currently considering whether to help fund Cookson's re-election campaign, having contributed £77,000 in 2013.
King told BBC Sport he was "disappointed" to hear Nicholl say she never saw his full report.
In a statement, British Cycling said: "Contributions were made with a guarantee of anonymity, so key findings and recommendations were shared in briefings with UK Sport and the British Cycling board.
"The full report was also made available to the 2016 independent review, jointly commissioned by UK Sport and British Cycling in April last year, of the world class programme."
The current Phelps inquiry was jointly commissioned by UK Sport and British Cycling following allegations of sexism and bullying made by rider Jess Varnish against former technical director Shane Sutton.
Varnish claimed the coach had used sexist and discriminatory language when dropping her from the Olympic programme, something he strongly denies.
In October, Sutton resigned and was found guilty of one charge of using inappropriate language by an internal review.
A number of other riders and former staff members have backed Varnish's portrayal of "a culture of fear" within British Cycling, including former road world champion Nicole Cooke, who told a parliamentary select committee that it was a sport "run by men, for men".
Former performance director Sir Dave Brailsford has insisted he ran a regime that was "not sexist but definitely medallist".
"All those views are being taken into account through the review," said Nicholl.
"It's fair to say that the high-performance system here is pretty male-dominated. There aren't very many female coaches and there's an opportunity to address that in future, and to get a better balance to support athletes in a way that athletes of today want to be supported.
"Athletes have moved on and maybe the programmes haven't moved on as fast as they should have done, but what we see is an opportunity."
'There's no excuse for not putting athletes first'
The legally sensitive nature of Phelps' report has meant it has been delayed, with fears it could be heavily redacted to protect witness confidentiality.
Those who gave evidence are now being asked how much of their testimony can be revealed, while those criticised have an opportunity to respond.
Publication could take another month, but on 1 March British Cycling will brief staff and riders on an "action plan" - effectively its response to the report and concerns over the way it operates.
This will include greater oversight of its high-performance programme, and more consideration of athlete welfare.
"There's no excuse for not addressing duty of care responsibilities to athletes," said Nicholls. "There's no excuse for not putting athletes first.
"They are are the ones who'll deliver the medals and every programme should be trying to ensure they have happy and successful athletes and there probably hasn't been enough attention in sport about how they do things.
"There's a lot of focus on operational delivery, probably not enough on leadership management and communication."
Nicholl told the BBC that she would be "clear about the actions that UK Sport and British Cycling need to take".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/39037374
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Ben Stokes: IPL record as Rising Pune Supergiants buy England all-rounder - BBC Sport
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2017-02-21
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England all-rounder Ben Stokes becomes the most expensive foreign player in IPL history as he is bought for £1.7m by Rising Pune Supergiants.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
England all-rounder Ben Stokes became the Indian Premier League's most expensive foreign player when Rising Pune Supergiant bought him for £1.7m.
Tymal Mills went for £1.4m to Royal Challengers Bangalore, while fellow England bowler Chris Woakes was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for £504,140.
England one-day captain Eoin Morgan has gone to Kings XI Punjab for £240,066.
International team-mates Jason Roy and Chris Jordan were sold to Gujarat Lions and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively.
• Read more: Where the IPL contract money goes (Telegraph)
Stokes, 25, had a base price of £240,000 (20 million rupees) but was the subject of bids from Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad before Pune emerged successful.
His fee overtakes that of former England duo Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, who were sold for $1.55m (£1.1m) each in 2009.
Stokes, Roy, 24-year-old Mills and Woakes, 27, will be playing in the eight-team Twenty20 competition - which takes place between 5 April and 21 May - for the first time.
"It's a life-changing amount of money," said Stokes. "Seven times my base amount - that's mental but pretty cool to think about.
"It was hard to follow on Twitter. I wasn't sure how much a Crore [Indian unit of measurement] was - people were retweeting stuff, and it was complete carnage.
"I'm just seriously excited about getting going."
Jos Buttler was retained by Mumbai Indians and Sam Billings was kept on by Delhi Daredevils during the first round of 2017 IPL auction held in Bangalore, but batsmen Alex Hales and Jonny Bairstow went unsold.
"Great day for English cricket and a few lads in particular. Congrats boys," said Buttler.
Left-arm pace bowler Mills will be available for the whole tournament as he is limited to playing T20 cricket because of back pain.
"When it finished I did not know how much it was worth," he said. "When I worked it out I could not believe it - it did not seem real.
"It's an amount of money that can change your life. It will for me."
England's other players may not be available for the 10th edition of the competition because of international commitments as England host Ireland in one-day matches on 5 and 7 May.
They then host South Africa in a three-match ODI series, with the games scheduled to take place on 24, 27 and 29 May, before the ICC Champions Trophy starts in England on 1 June.
We've been lacking this one genre of player," he said. "We have many heroes but this is the one hero that we were lacking.
"We knew he was going to be expensive. We do believe he is going to be there for the first 14 games."
Stokes helped England reach the final of the World Twenty20 in 2016, but they were beaten by the West Indies after the all-rounder was hit for four consecutive sixes in the final over by Carlos Brathwaite.
The Durham player was also part of England's winter tour of India and were beaten 4-0 in the Tests series, 2-1 in the ODIs and 2-1 in the T20 series.
He has become one of England's best performers and was named vice-captain of England's Test team after Joe Root took over as skipper from Alastair Cook earlier this month.
Mills is England's fastest bowler but has played only four T20 games at international level.
"We really needed bowlers, especially with Mitchell Starc not being available for this edition and, therefore, Tymal Mills was a great buy," said RCB chairman Amrit Thomas.
"He suits the playing conditions in Bangalore and we would have done absolutely whatever was required to get him."
In other notable highlights from the auction, all-rounder Mohammad Nabi became the first Afghanistan player to be bought in the IPL, with Sunrisers Hyderabad picking him up for £36,000.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/39025307
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Trump state visit: Protests outside as MPs debate petition - BBC News
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2017-02-21
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Protests take place in London as MPs debate whether Donald Trump should be given a state visit to the UK.
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Protests took place in central London as MPs clashed over whether US President Donald Trump should be given a state visit to the UK.
The debate was triggered by two petitions - one against a state visit, which got 1.85 million signatures, and one in favour which got 311,000.
A group of anti-Trump protesters gathered in Parliament Square, while similar demonstrations were organised elsewhere around the UK, including in Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff and Newcastle.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39034097
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Wayne Rooney not guaranteed to stay at Manchester United, says Jose Mourinho - BBC Sport
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2017-02-22
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Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has not ruled out captain Wayne Rooney leaving the club this month.
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Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has not ruled out the prospect of Wayne Rooney leaving the club this month.
The 31-year-old England forward, who scored his 250th United goal last month to become the club's record scorer, has been linked with a move to China in recent weeks.
The Chinese Super League's transfer window shuts next week and Mourinho was asked if the club captain would still be at Old Trafford by then.
"You have to ask him," Mourinho said.
"Of course I can't guarantee [he will be here]. I can't guarantee that I'm here next week, how can I guarantee that a player is here next season?"
Rooney is contracted to United until 2019 and had previously said he was committed to seeing out his deal.
He has not been a first-team regular this season and has scored just five goals.
However, Mourinho said in October that Rooney was "going nowhere" and reiterated on Tuesday that he did not want him to leave.
"I would never push - or try to push - a legend of this club to another destiny," added the Portuguese coach.
"So you have to ask him if he sees himself staying in the club for the rest of his career or if he sees himself moving.
"It is not a question for me because I am happy to have him. I don't want him to leave."
There is a clear sense now that time is ticking down on Rooney's Manchester United career.
Less than a month after Rooney eclipsed Sir Bobby Charlton to become the club's record goalscorer, manager Jose Mourinho delivered the kind of response he came out with when he was asked about the futures of Morgan Schneiderlin and Memphis Depay during the January transfer window.
Schneiderlin and Depay ended up leaving for Everton and Lyon respectively. And at 31, with 549 United appearances and 250 goals to his name, Rooney seems destined to experience the same fate.
It might not happen now. Rooney is known to be coveted by the Chinese Super League, who would offer vast sums to get the England captain to join Carlos Tevez and Oscar in the exodus east, but twice over the past few days I have been told such a move before the 28 February deadline is unlikely. The summer window in China runs from 19 June to 14 July.
However, the end is in sight and Rooney's camp will doubtless spend the next few months exploring options.
Rooney has the carrot of knowing if he can remain in the England fold until next year's World Cup, he is likely to become his country's most-capped player, in addition to its record goalscorer.
Whether he can do that from China is doubtful, and though former team-mate David Beckham eked out the end of his England days in Major League Soccer with LA Galaxy, it is by no means certain Gareth Southgate would offer the same opportunity to a player who has plenty of competition for his number 10 role.
This is the reality that is likely to focus minds because, four years after it seemed to be happening under Sir Alex Ferguson, it now seems a question of when, not if, Rooney leaves Old Trafford for good.
Martial determined to stay at Old Trafford
Meanwhile, Rooney's team-mate Anthony Martial insists he wants to stay at the club "for as long as possible".
The 21-year-old has struggled to recapture the form shown during his debut season at Old Trafford and was linked with a loan move to Sevilla in December.
"I love Manchester, I love the club and I love the fans," Martial said.
"The fans give me a lot of joy and I really enjoy having them backing me. I try to be as good as possible to make them happy, to satisfy them."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39044833
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Tinder wants AI to set you up on a date - BBC News
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2017-02-22
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Leaving matchmaking up to artificial intelligence could be the future of dating, suggests Tinder's co-founder.
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Technology
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When I first met Sean Rad, back in 2013, Tinder was a blossoming dating app. It was known primarily for, how shall I put it, casual relationships.
Back then he told me Tinder was “good for humanity”, a line I instantly latched onto as being faintly ridiculous, and wonderful for a headline.
But now when I think of how Tinder has impacted my life, and those of several people close to me, I start to see what he was getting at.
Life-changing things have happened to millions of people thanks to that simple swipe-yes-swipe-no interface.
I know people who have married their Tinder matches. I know many others who are in serious relationships. And yes, I know many people who have had casual hook-ups and one-night stands. Yet why that last point is seen as a negative to be joked about I’ll never know. People have been doing that in bars for well over 100 years.
Anyway, Tinder is growing up. It’s now a serious technology company tackling one of life’s most important matters, and is by far the most popular dating app worldwide.
After a lot of boardroom musical chairs, Mr Rad is the chairman of both Tinder and Swipe Ventures, the arm of the company designed to buy other dating-related technologies.
One of which is artificial intelligence. And its collision with dating might be the most intriguing application of AI yet.
Sean Rad spoke at the Startup Grind Global conference in Redwood City, California
“I think this might sound crazy,” Mr Rad said on Tuesday at tech conference Start-Up Grind.
"In five years time, Tinder might be so good, you might be like “Hey [Apple voice assistant] Siri, what’s happening tonight?’
“And Tinder might pop up and say 'There’s someone down the street you might be attracted to. She’s also attracted to you. She’s free tomorrow night. We know you both like the same band, and it’s playing - would you like us to buy you tickets?’… and you have a match.
Also a little lazy, you might say. Part of the dating process is surely assessing someone’s tastes and idea of fun. If that’s taken out of the equation, it’s a lot harder to understand a person.
Still, even though it can be difficult to admit, dating really is a numbers game, and right now the data Tinder uses is primitive: age, location and mutual friends - as well as a few mutual interests as defined by what you “like” on Facebook. Why not add a few parameters and make it even more likely you will click?
Anyone who has been a student will know about “traffic light parties” (or stoplights if you’re an American). A hideous concept in which you go on a night out dressed in either red, amber or green. Red means “in a relationship and happy”. Green means “single and looking”. Amber means you’re a bad human being.
The idea is that two “greens” can find each other easily. Quite why anyone would go as a “red” is anyone’s guess.
Now, this works (in theory) on university campuses. But such a system would be bedlam in the real world - particularly on St Patrick’s Day, I'd imagine.
But you have to admit, a way of knowing someone’s relationship status without having to ask would be a very useful tool. Indeed, it’s what made Facebook popular in its early days.
Mr Rad sees a time when Tinder could offer a form of real-life traffic party through augmented reality.
AR is the technology that overlays digital images onto the real world as you walk around. So far the only truly popular application of it has been Pokemon Go, which, while bringing people together, isn’t the relationship fast-track most people are presumably looking for.
But what if you could use AR to meet potential partners?
"That will definitely impact dating,” Mr Rad said, noting Tinder is popular for so many people because it allows us to show interest in a person without the fear of rejection.
"You can imagine how, with augmented reality, that experience could happen in the room, in real time. The impact is profound as these devices get closer to your senses, to your eyes, to your experiences.”
That might make you deeply uncomfortable. I don't blame you. As ever, it will be up to technology companies - not just Tinder - to roll out such ideas in way that doesn’t encroach on privacy, or indeed, common decency and manners. The key word here is, as always, consent.
Tinder’s future lives and breathes on its ability to remain the most popular app for getting people together and into relationships. More recently, rival services like Bumble have shown signs of disrupting Tinder’s dominance. Bumble’s key selling point is the fact women have to initiate the conversations.
But there’s plenty of market to go round. Tinder now has a far more global focus, Mr Rad said, with approximately 600 million smartphone-toting single people ready to find The One.
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC and on Facebook. You can reach Dave securely through encrypted messaging app Signal on: (628) 400-7370
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39048613
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Helen Bailey: A life shaped by death - BBC News
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2017-02-22
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Author Helen Bailey tried to build a new life after her husband died, but it was ripped from her by the man she chose to build it with.
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Beds, Herts & Bucks
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Helen Bailey's husband John Sinfield died while the pair were on holiday in Barbados in 2011
Helen Bailey's life changed completely following the death of her husband in 2011. Overcome by loneliness, she sought solace through the internet, writing a successful blog and communicating with others dealing with grief. It was here that she met the man she thought would become her life partner - but he would instead prove to be her killer.
Six years ago, Ms Bailey was enjoying success as a children's author, having written more than 20 books, including the popular Electra Brown series.
A lover of cooking, Arsenal FC and her Dachshund Boris, the Northumberland-born writer lived with her husband John Sinfield in Highgate, north London. The pair had been together for 22 years, and married for 15.
In February 2011, during a holiday to Barbados, her world was turned upside down when Mr Sinfield got caught in a rip current in the sea and drowned.
Ms Bailey was, in her own words, "a wife at breakfast, but a widow by lunch".
The aftermath saw her start a blog, Planet Grief. The posts shine with wit, humour, honesty and authenticity as she recounts moments from her life as a widow.
She describes releasing memorial balloons on Hampstead Heath; buying a single Scotch egg in the deli she used to frequent with her husband; coping with Christmas and the loss of the festive traditions she used to enjoy as a couple.
Ms Bailey wrote more than 20 books, including the Electra Brown series for teenagers
"I'm on a Facebook bereavement page, piddling around," she wrote in one post. "A photo comes up. I am surprised to see it because I know the man in the photo.
"I keep wondering where we met, wracking my grieving brain.
"As it turned out, we had never met, but the man was Gorgeous Grey-Haired Widower, a man who from the moment we first met, I felt as if I had known for my entire life."
Ms Bailey went on to date GGHW, as she referred to him in her blog, and they later bought a house in Royston, Hertfordshire, moving in together along with his two sons.
They were planning to marry and were arranging a wedding at nearby Brocket Hall.
But in April last year, she was reported missing; a disappearance friends and family said was completely out of character.
Ms Bailey and Stewart moved in together at a house in Royston, Hertfordshire
Stewart made the initial call to police - he claimed to have found a note from Ms Bailey saying she needed "space" and had gone to her holiday home in Broadstairs, Kent.
He later issued a heartfelt message which said: "You not only mended my heart five years ago but made it bigger, stronger and kinder.
"Now it feels like my heart doesn't even exist. Our plans are nowhere near complete and without you there is no point."
Stewart sent text messages to her phone asking him to let her know she was OK, pleading with her to call.
Friends and fellow dog walkers organised searches to try to find her, with many also sending messages to her phone and social media accounts.
But all along, her body - and that of her beloved pet Boris - were hidden metres away from where police were searching.
When she was found in a cesspit three months later, tests revealed she had been systematically drugged over a period of time before finally being suffocated.
Stewart and Ms Bailey were described by a neighbour as "complete opposites"
Stewart, described by many as "quiet" and "reserved", had been widowed in 2010 when his wife, Diane, died. She had an epileptic fit in the garden of their home in Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire.
The 56-year-old had worked as a software engineer before being forced to give up work due to poor health. Early in 2016 he had been told there was a high chance he had bowel cancer, but was later given the all-clear.
He suffered from insomnia and was prescribed a drug called zopiclone - the same drug pathologists found in Ms Bailey's system.
Mavis Drake, the couple's nearest neighbour in Royston, said Stewart was a man "without much personality".
"He didn't make any impression on me," she said. "He wouldn't venture information, so you'd have to try to prise it out of him.
"I would never in a million years have matched them up as a couple. To me they were complete opposites in character."
The search for Ms Bailey lasted three months
During the murder trial, St Albans Crown Court heard evidence about Stewart's behaviour and actions in the weeks after the killing.
On 11 April, the day he suffocated Ms Bailey, he went to watch his son Jamie play bowls before having a Chinese takeaway in the evening.
Detectives investigating the author's disappearance told the jury he seemed "quite blasé and non-committal", appearing, at one point, to "turn his head to the side and look at us and grin".
As the prime beneficiary of Ms Bailey's will, he stood to inherit the bulk of her fortune - thought to be more than £3.3m at the time of her death.
While the search for her was under way, he renewed their Arsenal season tickets from the couple's joint account and went on holiday to Mallorca, the jury heard.
"In hindsight, I think he was beginning to believe everything was going to carry on as normal and she'd never be found," said neighbour Mrs Drake.
An aerial view of the couple's home in Royston and the garage, beneath which Ms Bailey's body was found
Ms Bailey's body was found in a cesspit underneath a Victorian well
It was a comment from Mrs Drake herself that led to his downfall, after she mentioned to officers about the cesspit hidden below her neighbours' garage.
Three months after he reported her missing, Stewart was charged with murder. He was convicted after a seven-week trial at St Albans Crown Court.
"To say it sent shockwaves through the widowed community is an understatement," said Laraine Mason, who, like Stewart, had met Ms Bailey online following the death of her spouse.
"For this tragedy to have happened to a lady who had found happiness again, after being widowed in the most tragic of circumstances is in itself horrific.
"Words cannot possibly express the horror and repulsion we feel by the fact that these acts have been perpetrated by one of our own against one of our own."
Stewart was arrested on suspicion of murder on 11 July last year
Comments left by friends on the final Planet Grief blog post after Ms Bailey's death show just how loved and respected she was within the bereaved community online.
They speak of the comfort her words had brought over the years, her honesty and humour, how much she would be missed.
The blog had been hugely successful, gaining followers from around the world. In 2015, the posts had formed the basis for a book: "When Bad Things Happen in Good Bikinis."
At Ms Bailey's memorial service, Ms Mason spoke of the "exceptional talent" of her friend, the "searingly honest, yet at the same time witty account of life after the death of a loved one".
Bereavement coach Shelley Whitehead, who met Ms Bailey a few months after Mr Sinfield died, called her "a brave, gutsy, connected woman" who was "so funny".
"Helen created tribes - she had a following on widow and widower's websites," she said. "It helped her, and it helped others who had experienced loss.
"She was making sense of the world and her loss through her writing."
Ms Bailey's Planet Grief blog gained followers from around the world
Shelley Whitehead, left, said she was "blessed" to call Ms Bailey her friend
For some of those closest to Ms Bailey, it is her writing which stirs up memories of the woman she was, and the impact she had on their lives.
"Helen lives on in her books - I keep copies of her book on grief in my office. I give them to newly bereaved partners," Ms Whitehead said.
"I feel blessed to have coached a woman like Helen. I feel blessed to call her my friend."
In the wake of the trial, with its revelations about the extent of Stewart's deception and his actions, the dedications at the end of Ms Bailey's book are difficult to read.
"And finally, this book is dedicated to my Gorgeous Grey-Haired Widower, Ian Stewart: BB, I love you," it says.
"You are my happy ending."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-38505358
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Stormzy: 'Awards don't define you' - BBC News
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2017-02-22
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Grime star Stormzy talks to BBC News about his music and global recognition ahead of the Brit Awards.
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Grime star Stormzy talks to BBC News about his music and global recognition ahead of the Brit Awards.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39046587
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The housemates who found a lost plane wreck - BBC News
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2017-02-22
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Eastern Airlines Flight 980 crashed into a mountain in Bolivia in 1985. Dan Futrell and Isaac Stoner spent an unusual holiday trying to work out why.
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Magazine
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On 1 January 1985 a passenger jet crashed into a mountain in Bolivia killing all 29 people on board. No bodies were ever found. Nor were the black boxes that would have revealed the cause of the accident. But last year two young Americans decided to have a look themselves - and ended up achieving far more than official investigators.
"What are the chances that a couple of knuckleheads, with no mountaineering experience could actually go up to the top of this 20,000ft mountain and find anything?" asks Isaac Stoner.
"Still I thought it would be a neat vacation."
It was his flatmate, Dan Futrell, who came up with the idea one Saturday afternoon in 2015, as he idly browsed the internet looking for developments in the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
He found himself on a Wikipedia page listing 19 unrecovered flight recorders, and one immediately caught his attention - Eastern Airlines Flight 980, which had crashed in Bolivia in 1985, as it was coming in to land in the capital, La Paz.
Mount Illimani as seen from La Paz, Bolivia
Unlike most of the missing black boxes, this one wasn't at the bottom of the sea, it was on land. It hadn't been found, Wikipedia said, due to "extreme high altitude and inaccessibility of the accident location". But to Futrell it just seemed like "a typical Andean peak".
"We were on the couch drinking beer," Stoner recalls, "and Dan said, 'Look, this black box is just sitting on the top of a mountain in Bolivia. Let's go get it.'"
Futrell, 32, a former soldier who served two tours in Iraq, says he misses physical challenges now that he works at an internet company in Boston. So he seeks them out, and gets 31-year-old Stoner, who works at a biotech company, to accompany him.
They started finding out more about Eastern Airlines Flight 980. It had set off from Asuncion on New Year's Day 1985, heading to Miami via La Paz, carrying 19 passengers and 10 crew. The Boeing 727 had just been cleared to land at El Alto airport at 19:47, when it veered off course and crashed into Mount Illimani, the 21,000ft (6,400m) peak that towers over La Paz. Everyone on board was killed.
The crash site was located a day later by the Bolivian air force, however a search team was forced to turn back by heavy snowfall. In all, at least five expeditions made it up the mountain over the next 30 years, but none recovered bodies or flight recorders.
As contraband was often smuggled on flights from South America to Miami, conspiracy theories swirled around. Five members of one of Paraguay's richest families were on the flight and the US ambassador to Paraguay would have been on it too, if he had not changed his plans at the last minute. One unsubstantiated theory even alleges that a climber who reached the wreckage two days after the crash removed the black boxes to prevent a successful investigation.
Stoner started contacting climbers in Bolivia to see if two "ordinary guys" with no mountaineering experience could make the trip. One, Robert Rauch, said that they could.
"He told us 'I can put you right on the wreckage.' It turns out the glacier where the plane had crashed had retreated and there hadn't been much snowfall, so we might be able to see debris not seen for decades," Stoner says.
Rauch also revealed that some of the wreckage had fallen over a cliff, landing 3,000ft (915m) below the rest of the plane. This lower site was more accessible and a good place to start the search.
It was still high though. They would be operating at altitudes between 13,000ft and 20,000ft (4,000m-6,100m), where oxygen levels are 50% lower than at sea level.
Rauch warned them they would need at least three weeks in La Paz to acclimatise, but this was more time than they had available.
"We told him we had a total of two weeks' vacation," says Futrell, 32. "So he recommended we sleep in an altitude tent beforehand. We rented one and set it up in the basement. It pumps in nitrogen and simulates a low oxygen environment. It was awful and we would wake up with headaches."
Futrell and Stoner enlisted the help of experienced mountaineer Robert Rauch
Rauch also told the pair to build up their upper arm strength to prepare them for ice climbing.
"[We did] a lot of pull-ups with backpacks on," says Futrell.
"Isaac mostly attempted and I did all the pull-ups for both of us. I envisioned him hanging off the end of a cliff and me being the only person that could save his life."
"I envisioned cutting the rope and sending Dan down to the bottom of the abyss," jokes Stoner.
Other training included trekking up and down the steps of the Harvard Football Stadium in Boston. They also got a prescription for Diamox, which helps the body to absorb oxygen.
Isaac (left) and Dan bought ice axes and shovels in La Paz
One of the frequent avalanches that Dan and Isaac think are bringing wreckage down the mountain
On 17 May last year they flew to El Alto airport in Bolivia where they met up with their team - guide Robert Rauch, Bolivian cook Jose Lazo and journalist Peter Frick-Wright, who went on to write a detailed story for Outside magazine. After a few days of acclimatisation, they drove to a nearby peak to practise emergency drills.
The friends planned to split their time between the lower site Rauch had told them about and the impact site on the glacier, higher up the mountain, where the plane tail was still lodged in the snow.
"Robert decided that the best course of action would be to get us up on a mountain, to teach us how to ice climb, because we honestly didn't know what we were doing when it came to crampons and ice axes and being tied into a rope," says Stoner.
The housemates also struggled with the changes in temperature that veered from -6C (21F) in the shade to 9C (48F) in the sun.
"We knew we were going to suffer," says Futrell, "and in fact that was part of the draw of this trip. Worthwhile things are often challenging and that's what we were looking for."
The team set off for their base camp at 15,400ft (4,700m) above sea-level in a battered four-wheel drive, though two miles short of their destination they came to a halt. The road had been blocked by a rock fall, and they had to get out and walk.
"We camped at this spooky old abandoned mine with a view of the big cliff face where the crash had happened," Stoner says.
"Every now and then there was a distant avalanche that sounded like a runaway train. Apart from that it was silent. We were up above cloud level and it was really wild and beautiful scenery."
The next day they hiked for 45 minutes and, as Rauch had promised, they found themselves in the midst of the plane wreckage.
Debris was scattered over one square mile of rocky ground. Pieces of mangled plastic and wiring mingled with cutlery, wheels and broken cockpit equipment.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Flatmates Dan Futrell and Isaac Stoner look for the black box from Eastern Airlines 980
The first thing they saw, however, was a life jacket - "a piece of equipment intended to save somebody's life" as Futrell puts it.
"So not only did we know we were in the right spot, but we were instantly reminded that there's tragedy here for 29 families."
They had planned a grid search pattern but in their excitement decided first to go off in different directions to take a look.
Debris from the Boeing 727-225 was strewn across one square mile
A pair of children's trainers were among the wreckage
The friends were busy picking through the wreckage when they were called by Rauch on their walkie-talkies. They rushed over to see what he had found. Slowly they realised they were looking at a human femur lying among the rubble.
"We all took a moment. We tried saying a few words but couldn't come up with anything," says Stoner.
The discovery disproved one conspiracy theory put forward by former Eastern Airlines pilot George Jehn in his book Final Destination: Disaster. After no remains were found on the first five expeditions, he suggested a bomb had depressurised the cabin and sucked the passengers out of the plane. This would have flung the bodies far from the wreckage. However, Futrell, Stoner and their companions found six body parts in separate locations.
One of the rock stacks the team used to mark human remains found on the mountainside
Cutlery from on board the Eastern Airlines 980 flight
One of the windows from the plane and orange metal found at the site
They decided to bury each find and mark the spot with a geomarker and a stack of rocks, in case anyone wanted to retrieve them later on.
"We also found silverware from the meal service, a sink from one of the bathrooms, shoes and shirts and jackets with pilot stripes on them. We found the emergency slide and life jackets, plane windows, landing gear and part of the instrument panel from the cockpit," says Futrell.
"There were wires everywhere and thousands of reptile skins which were likely to have been contraband."
However, there was no sign of the black boxes, which despite their name are typically bright orange.
"We were finding orange bits of metal the whole time, but I was holding on to the hope they weren't pieces of the black box as they are supposed to withstand a plane crashing into a mountain," says Stoner.
But on the final day of searching at the lower site, Stoner unearthed a piece of metal with a label attached to some wires that read "CKPT VO RCRD" an abbreviation of Cockpit Voice Recorder.
Wires labelled "cockpit voice recorder" suggested the team were on the right track
They decided this probably meant that at least one of the recorders had broken apart.
Not far away, they found a spool of magnetic tape.
Would this hold a recording of the final moments of the aircraft? Futrell describes this as his "greatest hope".
After three or four days at the lower site, the team decided to move on to the higher debris site and drove to a higher base camp. They set off at 04:30 the next morning but soon ran into serious problems.
"We had wanted to get up there and back in one day but we found we didn't have the time to do it. We were going slower as we were inexperienced at mountaineering and new crevasses had opened up which meant we had a longer and more difficult route," says Futrell.
They eventually decided it was too risky and turned back.
Dan and Isaac spent time digging out debris. At times the high altitude make them feel nauseous
Returning to La Paz they boxed up the orange pieces of metal, wires and tape they had found and flew home with them to Boston. They suspected this might be breaking the rules of air investigations but decided it was the right thing to do anyway.
"We knew there was a specialist government lab in the States that would give us the best shot at an answer as to why the plane went down. Plus it was a US airliner and there had been no Bolivians on board," says Stoner.
Back home in the US, though, they had a problem. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the US department in charge of investigating plane crashes, didn't want to touch their packages.
"They said 'Great job guys, but we can't do anything with it unless we get Bolivian sign-off,'" says Futrell.
The housemates then spent months sending emails and letters and telephoning Bolivian officials.
"So at this point the black box has been sitting in our apartment on the kitchen counter next to the dog food for seven months," Stoner said at the end of 2016. "And really it's become a key part of the decorative aesthetic in the apartment."
Finally, in December, they were contacted by Capt Edgar Chavez, operations inspector at the General Directorate of Civil Aviation of Bolivia, who gave the NTSB permission to analyse the material.
So on 4 January, Futrell and Stoner handed over the plane fragments to Bill English from the NTSB, who took them to a laboratory in Washington.
Bill English picks up the plane fragments that had been sitting on Dan and Isaac's fridge
The housemates had already concluded that poor weather, the tricky descent to El Alto airport and unreliable equipment had all probably played a part in the crash. However, data from the voice recorder might give conclusive answers to the families who had lost their loved ones.
"We had people reaching out from Paraguay, we had family members reaching out from the US, right down to an old girlfriend of the pilot calling me on the phone," says Stoner, "and most of them just really did want to say, 'Nice job guys, thank you.'"
One of the family members was Stacey Greer, the daughter of Mark Bird, the flight engineer on Eastern Airlines Flight 980. Greer was only two years old when her father was killed.
"I was surprised that someone would be interested in finding out what happened. It gave me hope that people still care," Greer says.
She had asked Futrell and Stoner to bring back some metal from the plane for her.
"It was a really touching meeting," says Futrell. "She got to put her hands on pieces of the plane, the last plane that her father flew and that took his life. She took this metal home and she turned one of the pieces of metal into a necklace just in memory of her dad and his loss."
"Usually there is a grave site or a memorial for a lost one, but my family never had that. Now we have something," Greer says.
The items studied by the National Transportation Safety Board in the US on behalf of the Bolivian authorities
Futrell and Stoner had not found the cockpit flight recorder, it said, but rather the rack that had fixed it on to the plane - and the promising spool of tape turned out to be "an 18-minute recording of the 'Trial by Treehouse' episode of the television series 'I Spy', dubbed in Spanish."
"Needless to say, we're disappointed," Futrell wrote on his blog.
However, it means both the recorders are still up on the mountain and could still be intact. Futrell and Stoner hope others will now follow in their footsteps.
Already one member of the US Forces has declared his intention to organise an expedition to recover human remains.
"This tragedy really deserves a formal, resourced, governmental investigation," says Futrell. "We've proved that 'inaccessible terrain' is an unacceptable reason for failing to close this investigation."
Listen to Dan Futrell and Isaac Stoner speaking to Outlook on the BBC World Service
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38932974
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FA Cup: Wayne Shaw's pie resignation 'a nightmare' says Sutton boss Paul Doswell - BBC Sport
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2017-02-22
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The resignation of pie-eating goalkeeper Wayne Shaw following Sutton United's FA Cup heroics is devastating, says manager Paul Doswell.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Sutton United's FA Cup fairytale turned into a "nightmare" with the resignation of goalkeeper Wayne Shaw on Tuesday, says manager Paul Doswell.
Shaw, 45, was seen to eat a pie on the bench during Monday's FA Cup loss to Arsenal, after a bookmaker offered odds of 8-1 that he would do so on camera.
The Gambling Commission and Football Association are investigating if there was a breach of betting regulations.
Shaw resigned from the National League side less than 24 hours after the cup tie.
"I spoke to him on the phone and he was crying. In the end we had to almost stop talking to each other because it was that type of conversation," added Doswell.
"We are going to be investigated, and it has turned into a bit of a nightmare."
The bookmaker involved tweeted that it had paid out a "five-figure sum" on the bet.
• None 5 live In Short: Lawyer says pie eating should be "treated in the same light as spot-fixing"
Shaw, who first joined Sutton in 2009, said he had been aware of the betting promotion before the match but insisted the incident in which he ate the pie - which he later insisted was a pasty - was "a bit of fun".
BBC Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker claimed the incident showed "football has lost its sense of humour".
But Doswell said that while he had sympathy for Shaw, he also felt he had been "naive".
"He's been caught in this mad world over the last month that has enveloped us. His profile has got bigger and bigger, I think he embraced that," said Doswell.
"Whilst we were very much concentrating on the football, I think Wayne was almost becoming like a superstar.
"The team were magnificent against Arsenal, but to think someone's openly eating a pie behind them reflects very much away from what they did. I know Wayne regrets it, he is very, very sorry about the whole situation."
Shaw, who began his football career as a striker at Southampton in the same youth team as Alan Shearer, also had a coaching role at Sutton and carried out other jobs for the club such as sweeping the 3G pitch.
It is not the first time he has been sacked by Sutton - he was dismissed in 2013 after an altercation with Kingstonian fans, but returned to the club two years later.
"I'm devastated for him," added Doswell. "This is someone who's got a family to support.
"My overriding wish is he'd have asked my advice because very clearly I'd have advised him not to do it. I wouldn't have allowed him to do it."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39046962
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