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Are more interest rate rises ahead? - BBC News
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2017-11-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The decision to raise interest rates was well signalled by the Governor - but more significant rises still appear a long way off.
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Business
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So, the Bank proved it could be a "reliable boyfriend" and did what it suggested it would.
Increasing interest rates became almost inevitable after the governor, Mark Carney, announced on BBC Radio 4's Today programme in September that, if economic growth kept on track, then "you could expect interest rates to increase".
And given that recent growth figures were slightly ahead of expectations, to not act would have been a surprise.
And the Bank of England should rarely be in the surprise industry.
This rise takes the rate back to where it was before the referendum, and at 0.5% is still at low levels historically.
Economic support for the economy from the Bank via asset purchases (quantitative easing) and ultra-low interest rates remains.
The effects of the financial crisis a decade ago still weigh on the economy - and the Bank has again warned that the Brexit process "is having a noticeable impact on the economic outlook".
We still do not live in normal times.
For that reason, the Bank has taken care to signal that any future rate rises will be "gradual and limited".
The expectation is that rates will rise to just 1%, in two increases of 0.25%, one next year and one in 2020.
The Bank believes that the economy is unlikely to reach pre-financial crisis growth rates anytime soon, if at all.
Yes, inflation is above target - but the Bank argues that the main driver of that is sterling's 18% decline in value since late 2015, with the biggest fall coming directly after the Brexit referendum.
Currency inflation effects tend to push through the economy relatively quickly - sterling's rapid fall leading to an increase in import prices which the Bank says is likely to see inflation peak next month.
It predicts inflation will hit 3.2%, before falling back to the target of 2% over subsequent years.
Although there is some evidence of global energy inflation adding to price pressures - the oil price is up 17% compared with three months ago and global growth is stronger, which can lead to a more general increase in commodity price inflation as demand rises - many of the other price pressures are weak.
Today's rise is a small dab of good news for savers who will see an uptick in the rates they receive on their cash.
But for many millions of others it will mean a rise in the cost of living.
Yes, many will only see a small increase in monthly repayments if they are on a variable mortgage (on average between £10 and £20 a month).
But do not forget that Financial Conduct Authority survey which revealed that many millions of people would find it difficult to find the money to pay an unexpected bill of just £50.
The rise will also generally increase the cost of credit, as it pushes through to the rates banks and other providers charge for people to borrow money - which many millions are doing to make ends meet.
Many households live on very fine economic margins.
The decision by the Bank of England today will make those margins just that little bit tighter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41846637
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Sir Michael Fallon resigns, saying his conduct 'fell short' - BBC News
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2017-11-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon resigns, saying past personal behaviour is "not acceptable now".
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UK Politics
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Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon has resigned, saying his behaviour may have "fallen short" of the standards expected by the UK military.
He told the BBC that what had been "acceptable 15, 10 years ago is clearly not acceptable now".
He is the first politician to quit following recently revealed claims of serious sexual abuse in Parliament.
The BBC understands fresh claims about his behaviour were raised on Wednesday, but Downing Street refused to comment.
Political editor Laura Kuenssberg said that sources close to him do not believe he is "some kind of predator", but that he had not felt that he could guarantee that he would be able to account for every encounter in his long ministerial career.
Theresa May said she appreciated the "serious manner" in which Sir Michael had considered his Cabinet role.
She also praised the "particular example you wish to set servicemen and women and others".
In his resignation letter, Sir Michael said: "A number of allegations have surfaced about MPs in recent days, including some about my previous conduct.
"Many of these have been false but I accept that in the past I have fallen below the high standards that we require of the Armed Forces that I have the honour to represent."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Michael Fallon: "Not right for me to go on as defence secretary".
Sir Michael told the BBC it "was right" for him to resign and said: "The culture has changed over the years, what might have been acceptable 15, 10 years ago is clearly not acceptable now.
"Parliament now has to look at itself and the prime minister has made very clear that conduct needs to be improved and we need to protect the staff of Westminster against any particular allegations of harassment."
When asked if he thought he should apologise, Mr Fallon said: "I think we've all got to look back now at the past, there are always things you regret, you would have done differently."
He added that it had been a "privilege" to have been defence secretary over the past three and a half years.
In response Mrs May accepted his resignation and paid tribute to "a long and impressive ministerial career - serving in four Departments of State under four prime ministers".
Sir Michael Fallon had an interrupted parliamentary career that spanned four decades and two constituencies.
In March 1983, he lost the Darlington by-election to Labour's Oswald O'Brien, only to win it 77 days later after Margaret Thatcher called a general election.
But in 1992 his career in government stalled after he lost his Darlington seat to Labour's Alan Milburn in the General Election.
He returned to Westminster in 1997 after being selected as the Conservative candidate for Sevenoaks when MP Mark Wolfson retired.
During the coalition government he was appointed minister for business and enterprise, and then minister for energy.
He was then appointed minister for Portsmouth in 2014 by David Cameron - a post which was created after the loss of jobs in the local shipyard at arms manufacturer BAE Systems.
In the same year he succeeded Philip Hammond as defence secretary.
The resignation comes a day after a spokesman for Sir Michael confirmed that he was once rebuked by a journalist, Julia Hartley-Brewer, for putting his hand on her knee during a dinner in 2002.
The spokesman said Sir Michael apologised when it happened.
Ms Hartley-Brewer, a former political editor of the Sunday Express and regular political commentator, told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight: "If he has gone because he touched my knee 15 years ago, that is genuinely the most absurd reason for anyone to have lost their job in the history of the universe, so I hope it is not because of that."
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Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said he was sorry to see Sir Michael go, but it showed leadership from the prime minister who "read the riot act" to her cabinet.
He told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight: "Theresa May made it very, very clear… that it was simply unacceptable that people in positions of power over others should then abuse that position to solicit things that otherwise would not be granted to them."
Labour MP Ruth Smeeth told the BBC: "I think we're all very shocked this evening, however we've got to look at what happens next. For me, it's who is going to replace him, how quickly.
"There's a lot going on and this is not the time for instability at the top of the Ministry of Defence."
General Sir Mike Jackson, former head of the British Army, said members of the armed forces would be "sad" to see Sir Michael go.
He told the BBC: "It's clearly a personal decision he's come to, and so be it."
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Following a range of recent allegations, including claims of a lack of support for those making complaints, Mrs May has written to party leaders calling for the "serious, swift, cross-party response this issue demands".
The prime minister said a "common, transparent independent grievance procedure" for all those who work in Parliament was needed and that it "cannot be right" for policies to vary between parties.
Labour, meanwhile, has launched an independent investigation into an activist's claim that she was discouraged by a party official from reporting an alleged rape at a party event in 2011.
• None Take sex abuse claims to police, May urges
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41838682
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Votes at 16: Are Labour's claims about 16-year-olds right? - BBC News
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2017-11-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Can you get married, join the Army or work full-time at the age of 16?
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UK Politics
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The claim: You're 16. Now you can get married, join the Army, work full-time.
Reality Check verdict: You can only join the Army aged 16 or 17 with your parents' permission. At that age you also need your parents' permission to get married unless you do so in Scotland. Since 2013, 16- and 17-year-olds cannot work full-time in England, but can in the other three home nations with some restrictions.
The Labour Party is distributing a video as part of its campaign to give 16-year-olds across the UK the right to vote.
In Scotland, 16- and 17-year-olds were allowed to vote in the independence referendum and are allowed to vote in local elections and elections to the Scottish Parliament but Labour wants this right to be universal.
It argues that they should be allowed to vote because they can get married, join the Army or work full-time.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The Labour Party This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The Labour Party
Let's start with marriage - you need your parents' permission to get married at the age of 16 or 17 in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
In Scotland you do not need permission, even if you come from one of the other nations.
You need your parents' permission to join the British army as a regular soldier at the age of 16 - you can actually start the application process when you're younger than 16 if you have parental consent. You can't apply to be an officer until you're 18.
The regulations for full-time work vary across the United Kingdom.
In England, you can leave full-time education on the last Friday in June if you will be 16 by the end of the summer holidays.
But until you are 18, the only way you can be working full-time is if it is part of an apprenticeship, which usually involves having one day a week to study skills relating to your role.
You could also take up a traineeship, which is an unpaid course that involves work experience, which can last up to six months.
In Wales, under-18s are allowed to work full-time up to a maximum of 40 hours a week once they have reached the minimum school-leaving age of 16.
You can work full-time in Scotland if you are 16 or 17, but your employer must conduct a health and safety assessment taking into account your youth and lack of experience and that must be shown to your parents.
You are also not allowed to work more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week and you are entitled to reasonable, paid time off work for education or training.
There are various restrictions around selling alcohol or cigarettes and working at night.
In Northern Ireland, 16- and 17-year-olds are also allowed to work full-time.
They are limited to eight hours a day and 40 hours a week and there are restrictions around working night shifts.
So while 16-year-olds can do all the things the Labour Party video says, there are various restrictions on all of them depending on where you live.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted a separate video on the subject in which he stresses that "at 16 you can pay tax".
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He's probably talking about direct taxes such as income tax and National Insurance.
You'd have to be earning more than £11,500 a year to pay income tax (at any age) and £8,160 to be paying National Insurance (if you're over 16).
Under-18s do not have to pay council tax while people of all ages regularly pay VAT.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41831036
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Dimitris Legakis' fears for safety after racist attack - BBC News
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2017-11-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How a racially motivated attack left Dimitris Legakis fearing for the safety of his family.
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South West Wales
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dimitris Legakis recorded the moment he was attacked while calling 999
Greek-born Dimitris Legakis has lived and worked in Wales for 17 years and considers the UK his home. But since he was hurt in a racially motivated attack last year, he fears for the safety of his family.
He spoke to BBC Wales after South Wales Police said hate crime was still drastically under-reported.
It follows official figures released in October showing the number of hate crimes across England and Wales rose by 29% in 2016-17.
A Home Office report said the biggest rise was in disability and transgender hate crimes, but said the increase was mainly due to better crime recording.
South Wales Police said it was "more important than ever" that communities reported issues.
Mr Legakis explained what happened to him.
Dimitris Legakis is a familiar face to the fans and the players at Swansea City Football Club.
As their official photographer he is a regular on the touchline at the Premier League team's home and away matches.
His photographs regularly feature in the pages of the national newspapers and, trusted by the players and management, he travels with the team to matches.
Last December he was with the team for their away trip to Middlesbrough for the Swans' match at the Riverside Stadium.
The night before the match when he was in the city centre he saw a man smash a car window.
Mr Legakis, 41, called 999. The man heard his Greek accent and turned on him calling him a "smelly foreigner".
Dimitris' arms were broken in the attack
Mr Legakis was able to photograph the man before he launched a vicious attack which he also recorded on his mobile phone.
"I ended up with two broken arms, my right forearm, the left one a little bone called the scaphoid which hasn't healed yet," Mr Legakis said.
"I couldn't work for two months - I calculated it was over £10,000 of work that I lost out on."
During the five-minute call to police Mr Legakis can be heard screaming for help as his attacker Daniel Skelton kicked and punched him to the ground.
As well as broken bones, Mr Legakis suffered facial injuries, cuts, serious bruising and was left traumatised by the attack. His camera kit was also badly damaged.
Skelton was jailed for 28 months for the attack
Skelton, 29, from Redcar, Teesside was jailed for 28 months in June after admitting racially aggravated grievous bodily harm, two charges of racially aggravated damage and damaging property, at Teesside Crown Court.
The judge described it as a "sustained and vicious attack".
In a letter to Mr Legakis after the assault, Skelton apologised for his actions.
He wrote: "I am truly sorry. I had no right to touch you or your belongings - I was in a very bad place.
"If I could take it back I would. I hate myself for my actions that night."
Mr Legakis said: "He said he had separated from his girlfriend and he was trying to have a few drinks to forget about it."
A year on, Mr Legakis said it had changed the way he thinks and feels about other people.
"I'm a bit more concerned, I've always been very open to people, very friendly, I want to believe I am at least, and it's knocked me down a bit in that people may make a comment or say or do something just because of a foreign accent," he said.
Following the attack and since a reported spike in the number of recorded hate crimes after the Brexit vote, Mr Legakis said he was concerned not just for his safety but for that of his family.
"They do carry a foreign surname with them which at some point may cause some problems for them," he said.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-41821004
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Kevin Spacey seeks treatment as more stars face harassment claims - BBC News
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2017-11-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The actor is "taking the time necessary" to look for treatment in the wake of recent allegations.
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Entertainment & Arts
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The actor won Oscars in 1996 and 2000
Kevin Spacey has said he is seeking treatment after facing allegations of sexual misconduct from a string of men.
A representative for the actor said he "is taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment".
They did not give any information about what kind of treatment he wants.
He is one of several Hollywood figures who have been accused of sexual misconduct. Dustin Hoffman has issued an apology while director Brett Ratner has been accused by six women.
A lawyer for Ratner, the director of the Rush Hour films and X-Men: The Last Stand, has "categorically" denied all of the accusations.
The allegations have been sparked by multiple women speaking out against the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, and a subsequent campaign encouraging victims to share their stories of sexual harassment under the #metoo hashtag.
So who has been accused of misconduct?
New allegations have emerged from a number of men accusing Kevin Spacey of sexual misconduct.
US filmmaker Tony Montana claims he was groped by the actor in a Los Angeles bar in 2003. He says he was left with PTSD for six months after Spacey "forcefully" grabbed his crotch.
Mr Montana told Radar Online that he was in his 30s when the incident took place at the Coronet Bar in LA.
It follows an allegation made by Anthony Rapp that the House of Cards actor tried to "seduce" him when he was 14 years old.
Kevin Spacey says he has no recollection of that encounter, and was "beyond horrified".
Incidents regarding Spacey are also alleged to have taken place in the UK while the two-time Oscar winner was the artistic director at the Old Vic in London between 2004 and 2015.
Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos, who acted in several plays at the theatre, claims Spacey "routinely preyed" on young male actors.
One man told the BBC about his experience of being invited to spend the weekend with Spacey in New York when he was a teenager in the 1980s.
The Old Vic has set up a confidential complaints process for anyone connected to the theatre, and said on Thursday that it is "already seeing the great benefits of the new policy of openness and the safe sharing of information".
Six women have accused Hollywood filmmaker Brett Ratner of sexual harassment or misconduct.
The women, including The Newsroom actress Olivia Munn, made the allegations in the Los Angeles Times.
Natasha Henstridge, who appeared in Species and The Whole Ten Yards, claimed she had been forced into a sex act with Ratner as a teenager.
The actress, now 43, was a 19-year-old model at the time she alleges Ratner stopped her from leaving a room at his New York apartment and then made her perform a sex act on him.
"He strong-armed me in a real way," she told the LA Times. "He physically forced himself onto me."
Ratner's lawyer "categorically" denied all of the accusations on his behalf in response to the article.
Separately, Ratner has filed a libel case in Hawaii against a woman who accused him on Facebook of rape more than 10 years ago.
Ratner says he has stepped away from dealings with movie studio Warner Bros since the allegations came to light.
Dustin Hoffman has been accused of sexually harassing an intern on the set of one of his films in 1985.
Anna Graham Hunter, a writer, says that when she was 17, the Oscar-winning actor groped her and made inappropriate comments about sex to her.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: "He was openly flirtatious, he grabbed my ass, he talked about sex to me and in front of me."
Hoffman apologised, and said he was sorry if he "put her in an uncomfortable situation".
In a statement to the magazine, Hoffman said: "I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation. I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am."
The BBC has contacted representatives of Dustin Hoffman for his response to these allegations.
Senior editor Michael Oreskes has resigned following accusations he kissed female colleagues without their consent during business meetings.
The 63-year-old was asked to step down by the National Public Radio (NPR) network in response to the allegations. He has previously worked for the Associated Press and the New York Times.
Two women spoke to the Washington Post on condition of anonymity, and reported stories of abrupt and unexpected kisses during business meetings. They said they were worried about career development if their names were made public.
One of the women said that while she met Mr Oreskes in the hope of getting a job with the New York Times, he suggested that they eat room service lunch in a hotel, before he unexpectedly kissed her and "slipped his tongue into her mouth".
He has not commented publicly on the allegations, and journalists at NPR report that they have tried to contact him for comment, without success.
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-41843955
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Kevin Spacey: More allegations of sexual harassment surface - BBC News
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2017-11-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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More people have come forward claiming they were sexually harassed by the actor.
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Entertainment & Arts
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New allegations have emerged from a number of men accusing Kevin Spacey of sexual misconduct.
US filmmaker Tony Montana claims he was groped by the actor in a Los Angeles bar in 2003.
Montana says he was left with PTSD for six months after he claims Spacey "forcefully" grabbed his crotch.
It follows an allegation made by Anthony Rapp that the House of Cards actor tried to "seduce" him when he was 14 years old.
Kevin Spacey says he has no recollection of that encounter, and was "beyond horrified".
It's claimed Kevin Spacey "routinely preyed" on young male actors while he was artistic director at the Old Vic
Film director Montana told Radar Online that he was in his thirties when the incident took place at the Coronet Bar in LA.
He says he removed Spacey's hand from his crotch and walked away, but claims the actor later followed him into the men's toilets.
Incidents regarding Spacey are also alleged to have taken place in the UK while the two-time Oscar winner was the artistic director at the Old Vic in London between 2004 and 2015.
Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos, who acted in several plays at the theatre, claims Spacey "routinely preyed" on young male actors.
"It seems the only requirement was to be a male under the age of 30 for Mr Spacey to feel free to touch us," he wrote in a Facebook post.
He said he fended off two "unpleasant" advances from Spacey that "bordered on harassment," but that others were afraid to do so.
"There are a lot of us who have a 'Kevin Spacey story'," says Cavazos.
The Old Vic has set up a confidential complaints process for anyone connected to the 200-year-old theatre to come forward.
It said in a statement: "We aim to foster a safe and supportive environment without prejudice, harassment or bullying of any sort, at any level."
Separately, a British man claims Kevin Spacey exposed himself to him in 2010, when he was working at a hotel in West Sussex.
Speaking to the Sun, Daniel Beal alleges the Usual Suspects star flashed his private parts, saying: "It's big, isn't it?" and tried to get the then 19-year-old to touch him.
The former bartender claims Spacey also invited him up to his room, but he rejected the star's advances.
Beal says Spacey gave him his £5,000 watch later that same evening, and a few weeks later called him asking to meet up.
He told the Sun: "In hindsight, that must have been grooming. He was just like his character in House Of Cards - seedy and a bit weird."
The BBC has also uncovered allegations of sexual misconduct against Spacey by a man who claims he was harassed by the star in the mid-1980s.
The man, who wanted to remain anonymous, says he met the star at theatre school before being invited to New York by him, when he was 17 years old.
Kevin Spacey holds his Oscar for Best Actor for his role in American Beauty in 2000.
Speaking to the Victoria Derbyshire programme, the man (who they've called John), says despite sleeping on the star's sofa he woke up fully clothed with Spacey lying on him, in his underwear.
John, who still works in the entertainment industry, said Spacey again became "affectionate" the second night he was in the city.
"I burst into tears because I couldn't articulate any more what was happening to me. I was scared... To his credit, he backed off and we went to sleep."
Reflecting on his experience, John says: "It seems he was grooming me. For me, I never let on that that's what I was interested in. I never discussed it, nor did I want it.
John points out neither of them drank any alcohol that weekend.
"He was either very stupid or he was predatory - or maybe a little of both. I was uncomfortable at best, traumatised at worst, emotionally.
John says he didn't tell the authorities or his parents at the time, although he has since told friends.
Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey in Netflix drama House of Cards
The BBC has contacted representatives of Kevin Spacey for his response to these allegations.
Meanwhile, production of the sixth season of Netflix series House of Cards has been suspended following the sexual assault allegations against the actor.
The show was already due to end after this season, but production is now suspended "until further notice".
Spacey has also been dropped as the recipient of a special Emmy award he was due to receive next month.
The International TV Academy said in a statement that it was withdrawing the International Emmy Founders Award "in light of recent events".
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-41829484
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Some savers see early benefits from base rate rise - BBC News
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2017-11-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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TSB, Nationwide and the Yorkshire Building Society are among the first to announce higher savings rates.
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Business
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Savers with the Nationwide, the TSB, the Skipton and the Yorkshire Building Society will be among the first to benefit from the rise in base rates.
The Yorkshire said all savers on variable rate accounts would receive the full increase of 0.25%.
The same will apply to the Yorkshire's two other building societies, the Chelsea and Norwich & Peterborough.
The Nationwide has already promised to increase rates by 0.25% for all those who received a cut in August 2016.
Savers with TSB will see an increase of 0.15%.
The bank said it was not passing on the full increase, as it had previously protected savers from the full 0.25% base rate cut in 2016.
The Skipton said savings rates would rise by the full 0.25% from 5 December. Savers in the building society's cash Lifetime Isa will see the rate go up from 0.5% to 0.75% on the same date.
Mike Regnier, chief executive at Yorkshire Building Society, said: "It has been a tough few years for savers, so we're delighted to be able to pass on the full bank rate increase."
HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Barclays said they were reviewing their savings rates.
Earlier Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, said he expected all providers to increase returns for savers after the Bank's Base Rate was increased from 0.25% to 0.5%.
"We do expect it to be passed on," he told reporters.
"Banks did pass on the cuts to their depositors, and we expect competition to push it in the other direction. Obviously we will watch it closely."
Borrowers with the Yorkshire Building Society will likewise see an increase in their standard variable rate (SVR) mortgages of 0.25% to 4.99%.
The Skipton has promised not to raise variable rate mortgages
SVR mortgage holders with the TSB and the Nationwide will also see a 0.25% rise.
Most of those on tracker rates will see an immediate and automatic rise.
HSBC said such borrowers would face higher borrowing costs from Friday. Lloyds Banking Group - which includes the Halifax and Bank of Scotland - said tracker rates would rise on 1 December.
RBS - which includes NatWest - and Barclays also confirmed that tracker rates would go up, but neither have specified a date.
Most lenders are expected to announce rises in variable rate mortgages over the next few weeks.
However the Skipton Building Society said it had no plans to increase costs on its variable rate products.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41846450
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Labour suspends Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins - BBC News
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2017-11-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Party activist says she was shocked Kelvin Hopkins got promoted after complaint made.
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UK Politics
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Labour has suspended an MP after it was alleged he sexually harassed a party activist three years ago.
Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins, 76, has not commented on the claims, which were published in the Telegraph shortly after his suspension was announced.
The woman involved, Ava Etemadzadeh, 27, said he had sent her inappropriate text messages and made inappropriate physical contact while hugging her.
Mr Hopkins has had the whip withdrawn while an investigation takes place.
A party spokesman said Labour "takes all such complaints extremely seriously and has robust procedures in place".
Ms Etemadzadeh told the Telegraph that she met Mr Hopkins in 2013 and invited him to speak at a Labour event at Essex University in 2014, when she was 24, after which, she told the newspaper he had hugged her too tightly and made inappropriate contact.
She visited Parliament at his invitation in February 2015 but said later that month he sent a suggestive text message. Having taken advice from another Labour MP, she said she took a complaint about him to Labour's whips office in December 2015.
It is understood that at the time, Mr Hopkins was spoken to about why his behaviour was inappropriate and was reprimanded by the then chief whip Dame Rosie Winterton.
But he went on to be promoted, albeit briefly, to Labour's front bench in June 2016 - shortly after leader Jeremy Corbyn faced mass resignations following the EU referendum.
Sources suggested Labour whips advised the leader's office not to promote him because of what happened. The leader's office say that is not the case.
Ms Etmadzadeh said she was frustrated that he had been promoted but when she complained to the chief whip, she was told she could not take action while remaining anonymous.
She told the BBC: "I was shocked to learn that he got promoted afterwards.
"I'm disillusioned by the party not just not doing anything, but then promoting him afterward. They ignored it."
Mr Hopkins has been MP for Luton North since 1997
The BBC has been told that Ms Etmadzadeh had a meeting with the chief whip on Thursday.
There has not yet been any comment from Mr Hopkins - who is married and has been Luton North MP for 20 years - despite repeated attempts to contact him.
Labour MP Jess Phillips told BBC Radio 4's Today programme Mr Hopkins should probably not have been promoted.
But she added: "I don't think that it was sort of political expediency; I think that people just didn't take it as seriously as it needed to be taken."
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn declined to answer questions from reporters about Mr Hopkins's promotion on Friday morning.
The suspension comes amid various claims of sexual harassment and improper behaviour in Parliament.
Sir Michael Fallon quit as defence secretary on Wednesday night, saying his conduct may have "fallen short" of the standards expected by the UK military.
In another incident, Labour confirmed it had launched an independent inquiry into claims that activist Bex Bailey, 25, was discouraged by a party official from reporting an alleged rape at a Labour event in 2011. Party leaders have vowed to tackle discipline and grievance procedures.
In a letter to Commons Speaker John Bercow, Theresa May said disciplinary procedures needed to be reformed.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41853430
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Grenfell Tower fraudster admits making up family deaths - BBC News
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2017-11-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Anh Nhu Nguyen pretended his wife and son died in the Grenfell Tower fire in order to scam cash.
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London
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A serial conman has admitted pretending his family died in the Grenfell Tower fire to obtain about £12,500 from funds meant for victims.
Anh Nhu Nguyen claimed his wife and son were killed in the blaze.
He posed as a victim of the disaster for almost two weeks and was given the money by charities and Kensington and Chelsea Council.
The 52-year-old, of Beckenham, south-east London, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday.
The blaze on 14 June claimed the lives of at least 80 people
He admitted two counts of fraud by false representation and one count of making an untrue statement for the purpose of obtaining a passport.
Nguyen posed as a victim of the fire and shook the Prince of Wales' hand when he visited a relief centre set up in the wake of the disaster.
He claimed the fire had destroyed "everything" he owned, and that he was so upset about having lost his wife and son that he could not eat or concentrate.
Nguyen was given a hotel room, clothing, food, electrical items and money after posing as one of the survivors.
He was discovered to be a fake when he gave several different flat numbers, some of which did not exist and one where a real victim lived.
Nguyen showed no emotion as he entered his pleas through a translator.
He will be sentenced on 15 December.
Nguyen met the Prince of Wales at a relief centre set up in the wake of the disaster
Nguyen was born in Vietnam, and has been in the UK since the 1980s. He is a British citizen and has 17 aliases.
He has 28 previous convictions for 56 offences spanning more than 30 years, including theft, arson and grievous bodily harm.
Kate Mulholland from the Crown Prosecution Service said: "Nguyen's deceit in the aftermath of such a catastrophic loss of life was breathtaking.
"He was willing to lie again and again, adapting his story when it was questioned, in order to profit from the huge aid efforts and outpouring of sympathy for true victims."
Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said: "It is disgraceful.
"Fraud on any level directly and negatively impacts our efforts to give crucial help and support to the victims and survivors of the fire."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-41844044
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Parachute trial: Husband 'would never ever' harm wife - BBC News
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2017-11-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Emile Cilliers told police he did not try to kill his wife, who plunged 4,000ft after her parachute failed to open.
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Wiltshire
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The prosecution claims Emile Cilliers wanted to kill his wife and start a new life with his lover
An Army instructor accused of trying to murder his wife told police he would "never, ever" try to harm her, a court has heard.
Former Army officer Victoria Cilliers suffered multiple injuries in 2015 when her parachute failed to open and she fell 4,000ft (1,200m).
Emile Cilliers is accused of tampering with the equipment to cause her death.
But in statements given to police in September last year, Mr Cilliers said he loved his wife and children.
During a police interview, a transcript of which was read out at Winchester Crown Court, Mr Cilliers was asked: "Did you try to kill your wife?"
He was then asked: "Did you try to kill your children?"
Victoria Cilliers suffered multiple injuries when her parachute failed to open
The jury has already heard that Mr Cilliers had been having an affair with another woman in the months before the parachute failed during a jump over Netheravon airfield in Wiltshire.
Mr Cilliers is also accused of trying to murder his wife a week before the fall by tampering with a gas fixture at their home in Amesbury.
In his interview, Mr Cilliers said traces of his blood found on the fixture may have been from when he tried to fix it.
He said he tried to release a nut on the pipe, but could not manage it.
He denies two counts of attempted murder and one of recklessly endangering life.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-41851552
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French policeman kills three and himself north of Paris - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The 31-year-old used his service gun against his girlfriend, her family and passers-by near Paris.
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Europe
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The unnamed police officer was reportedly stationed in Paris
A French policeman shot three people dead on a street near Paris in an apparent domestic dispute, before killing himself, media reports say.
His girlfriend, as well as her mother and her sister, were wounded in the incident, which occurred late on Saturday in the town of Sarcelles.
Those killed are said to be the girlfriend's father and two passers-by.
The mayor of Sarcelles, north of Paris, said the woman had recently told the policeman she was breaking up with him.
The officer first killed two people with his service weapon on the street, Le Monde newspaper says.
"They were local residents - I knew them well because I lived on this street for 10 years," Sarcelles Mayor François Pupponi told AFP new agency, adding that they had no connection with the policeman.
The 31-year-old then shot his girlfriend in the face as she was sitting in a car, the reports say. He also fired on her mother, father and sister, before turning the gun on himself.
His body was found in the front garden of a nearby house.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42044592
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'No others involved' in Gaia Pope's death - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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Dorset Police say the teenager's death is being treated as "unexplained".
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Dorset
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Gaia Pope was last seen in Swanage on 7 November
There were no injuries to suggest "any other person was involved" in the death of missing teenager Gaia Pope, police have said.
The 19-year-old's body was found on Saturday in a field near Swanage, 11 days after she was last seen.
Dorset Police is treating her death as "unexplained" pending toxicology results.
Three people were arrested on suspicion of murder as part of the investigation and released under investigation.
Det Supt Paul Kessell said: "The post-mortem examination has not identified any injuries to suggest any other person was involved in her death.
"The cause of death is undetermined, pending toxicology. The coroner is involved in the oversight of these examinations but at this time this remains an investigation into an unexplained death."
Some items of clothing that Miss Pope was wearing on the day she went missing were found on Thursday
Miss Pope, who had severe epilepsy, had not been seen since 7 November.
Her disappearance prompted a massive campaign from family and friends who spent days scouring the town.
Items of clothing she was wearing on the day she went missing were found on Thursday, close to where her remains were found near a coastal path.
Police thanked volunteers for their help in searching for the teenager, but have asked people to stay away from the site due to safety concerns.
Det Supt Kessell added: "I reiterate this area is steep and slippery in an exposed area close to sea cliffs. The area is covered in dense undergrowth and gorse and can present a hazard.
"The area where the body was located is likely to remain cordoned off for some time while forensic examinations and searches are concluded."
Miss Pope went missing in Swanage on 7 November
Flowers have been left in Miss Pope's memory at a Swanage monument
Earlier, Miss Pope's twin sister, Maya, spoke of her heartbreak and vowed to "make her [sister] so proud".
On Facebook, she added: "Can't find any words right now. Gaia is my everything and I am heartbroken. I thank everyone who was involved in searching for my beautiful twin."
Her elder sister, Clara Pope-Sutherland, said the 19-year-old was the "light of my life" and "intelligent, beautiful and emotionally wise".
People in the town came together at the church to say prayers and light candles on Sunday night
A church service was held at St Mary's Church in Swanage with candles lit in memory of Miss Pope on Sunday night.
Team rector, the Very Reverend John Mann, said: "When you see the candles together it brings that sense of unity.
"There were police and people who had been out searching at the service - that added to the sense this was a community together, we were there together."
Floral tributes have begun to be left on the Alfred Monument, next to the sea front.
Family friend Sheri Carr, who organised the Find Gaia social media campaign thanked the public for its support.
"We are absolutely devastated, and unable to put into words our feeling of loss," she wrote on social media.
The public has been asked to stay away from the site due to safety concerns
On the day she went missing, Miss Pope was seen at about 15:00 GMT buying an ice cream at St Michael's Garage, having been driven there by a relative.
She was then spotted an hour later on CCTV in Manor Gardens, off Morrison Road.
Rosemary Dinch, 71; her 49-year-old son Paul Elsey; and 19-year-old grandson Nathan Elsey - all of whom were known to Miss Pope - were questioned by detectives and released under investigation.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42046500
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Independent streams fake 'live' space video on Facebook - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The "live" footage was posted on the paper's Facebook page, but was actually recorded in 2015.
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UK
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The Independent online newspaper has streamed a video it described as "live from space" on its Facebook page - but the footage was recorded in 2015.
More than 180,000 people viewed the video during the "live" broadcast, with at least 2,000 sharing the post.
The stream was ended shortly after the BBC contacted the paper and it has since been deleted.
A spokesman for the Independent said it regretted "the human error that led to the mistake".
The original footage was recorded by astronaut Terry Virts during a spacewalk in February 2015.
An hour-long recording of the spacewalk was posted to YouTube in April that year.
Above: The Independent, Below: YouTube footage
It is not the first time this specific recording from space has been shared on social media and wrongly said to be live.
In 2015, some 26m people watched the exact same footage on the Viral USA Facebook page.
While in 2016 the hugely popular Facebook page Unilad shared a similar "live" stream. This video appears to show Russian cosmonauts at the International Space Station.
Above: The Independent, Below: Youtube footage
The Independent asked viewers of the video to comment on it with where they were watching from.
It is not clear where the paper sourced it from, or why it chose to stream it on Sunday.
Its spokesman told the BBC: "The Independent removed a social media post this afternoon after it was brought to our attention that a video stream we believed to be - and which we described as - live was in fact footage from some time ago."
Nasa has previously advised people to check its official social media accounts to see if a "live" broadcast is taking place.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42046317
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Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree to be made into film - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The Magic Faraway Tree books are being adapted for the big screen for the first time.
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Entertainment & Arts
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The books are set in a fantasy world in the sky
Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree is being brought to life on the big screen for the first time.
StudioCanal, which was behind the Paddington films, is joining forces with Sam Mendes' Neal Street Productions, for a live action adaptation of the book series.
The tales follow a group of children's adventures at the top of a tree in an enchanted forest.
Blyton wrote the Faraway Tree books between 1939 and 1951.
Blyton (centre) is one of the world's best-selling children's authors
The characters in the stories included Silky the fairy, Moonface, Dame Washalot and Saucepan Man.
Simon Farnaby, who will write the adaptation and was also behind the Paddington 2 screenplay, said: "The Magic Faraway Tree books are a firework display of the imagination.
"The pages are lit up with wonderful characters, humour, peril and adventure. Most homes have a well-worn jam-fingerprinted volume somewhere on their shelves.
"I'm very much looking forward to bringing the likes of the Old Saucepan Man and Dame Washalot to the big screen for fans both old and new."
Paddington 2 was recently released in the UK
Danny Perkins of StudioCanal UK described Blyton's work as "timeless", saying he'd "loved her writing since childhood".
He added: "Not unlike the work of Michael Bond CBE, we very much look forward to bringing enduring family classics to audiences worldwide."
Blyton is one of the world's best-selling children's authors and her books have sold more than 500 million copies. She died in 1968.
The four novels that have been optioned for film adaptation are The Enchanted Wood, The Magic Faraway Tree, The Folk of the Faraway Tree and Up the Faraway Tree.
Previous films from Neal Street Productions include Oscar-nominated Revolutionary Road, Starter for Ten and Jarhead. It also makes BBC series Call The Midwife.
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-42053334
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South West Ambulance staff call for trust boss to resign - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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An open letter from the GMB union claims staff are "struggling to maintain a crumbling service".
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England
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An open letter calls for chief executive of the South West Ambulance Service to resign
Ambulance staff have called for their boss to quit as they "struggle to maintain a crumbling service".
GMB union members from South West Ambulance Service (SWASFT) have written a letter "apologising" to the public for "potentially putting them at risk".
They have told chief executive Ken Wenman government cuts have led to "despair and frustration" among staff.
Mr Wenman said SWASFT was working to "improve resource levels" and "urged" GMB to "re-engage and talk to us".
He has not commented publicly on the call for him to resign.
The open letter was addressed as an "apology to our families, friends and the community".
To the public, they said they were "sorry for not getting to you or your loved ones quick enough because there are just not enough of us".
They also apologised to family and friends for times when they missed "yet another family occasion".
They also wrote that they felt "unsupported" by their employer SWASFT.
This dispute is all about changes to rotas as well as concern from members that they are having to work for longer than their usual 12-hour shift.
But it must be remembered the GMB is not recognised by SWASFT, and part of their mission is to recruit more members to take them above the 25% figure that would help that come about.
Having said that, the main union Unison is also concerned about work load, especially with the extra demands on their service due to problems with the out of hours service in Somerset, and closure at night of Weston A&E unit.
But Unison has not gone as far as to call for any heads to roll.
Gary Palmer, from the GMB, said: "We felt this recent letter on behalf of a group of GMB members particularly summoned up the general despair and frustration many staff currently feel from working within a service and role they love."
Tony Fox, from SWASFT, said: "We accept that there is always more to be done and we will continue to work closely with our colleagues and listen and respond to their needs."
The South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust covers Cornwall, Isles of Scilly, Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Bristol, Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42055853
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Loadsamoney? Norman Smith on the Brexit divorce bill - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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How much will we have to pay - and why? Norman Smith talks you through the Brexit divorce bill.
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How much will we have to pay - and why? And will the British public wear it?
The BBC's Norman Smith tells you all you need to know about the Brexit divorce bill.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42059439
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Young people 'experimenting more in bed' - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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Study reveals increasing diversity in young people's heterosexual practices.
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Health
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Young people are taking part in a wider range of sexual practices, including anal sex, with opposite sex partners, research reveals.
Experts looked at responses to a national sex survey that has been carried out every 10 years since 1990 in the UK.
More than one in 10 millennial teenagers said they had tried anal sex by the age of 18.
By the age of 22 to 24, three in every 10 said they had tried it.
Vaginal and oral sex are still the most common types of sexual activity between young men and women, however.
The age that young people start having sex - vaginal, anal or oral - has not changed much in recent decades.
In the most recent survey, it was 16.
While the study in the Journal of Adolescent Health shows what types of sex people are having, it doesn't shed light on why preferences are changing.
Experts can only speculate, but say society has become more accepting and less judgemental about sexual experimentation.
Kaye Wellings, senior author and professor of sexual and reproductive health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "The changes in practices we see here are consistent with the widening of other aspects of young people's sexual experience, and are perhaps not surprising given the rapidly changing social context and the ever-increasing number of influences on sexual behaviour."
Prof Cynthia Graham is a professor in sexual and reproductive health at the University of Southampton.
She said the internet and media might have played a role in breaking down sexual taboos.
"The internet means people can easily find and see things that they would not have been able to in the past.
"Anal sex is still pretty stigmatised, but attitudes appear to be changing. We know society has become more accepting of things like same sex behaviour overall. But there's very little research out there about anal sex and motivation."
She said more studies were needed to inform sex education and equip young people with the information they need for their sexual health.
• None The National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42051827
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Waddesdon air crash: Bodies recovered from crash site - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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Work continues to recover wreckage of the helicopter and plane from a wooded area in Aylesbury.
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Beds, Herts & Bucks
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Rescue teams are removing the wreckage from the site
The bodies of four men killed in a crash between a helicopter and plane have been recovered from the site.
The aircraft collided over Waddesdon Estate, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, on Friday. One of the victims was Capt Mike Green.
Thames Valley Police said it would not confirm the other men's identities but said one was a Vietnamese national.
Post-mortem examinations, due to begin later, are expected to last several days, a spokesman said.
He added the force was working with "military support" to remove the wreckage.
An investigation by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch into the cause of the crash is ongoing.
Capt Mike Green was described as a 'respected' helicopter instructor
The bodies of all four men have now been recovered
Supt Rebecca Mears said: "Our thoughts remain with the families of the men who have tragically lost their lives.
"Specially-trained officers are continuing to offer their support to the families of the victims affected, three of whom we understand to be British nationals, one of whom is a Vietnamese national.
"Work will today focus on removing the aircraft from the scene."
Investigations at the site are expected to last several days
Capt Green was conducting a flight instructor course with a student when they both died, his employer Helicopter Services said on Facebook.
The firm said it was "devastated" by his death.
The helicopter and the Cessna plane both took off from Wycombe Air Park, also known as Booker Airfield, which offers flight training.
It is about 20 miles (30km) from the site of the crash.
Three of the victims' families visited the site of the wreckage, which is scattered across a wooded area, on Saturday.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-42045632
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Gen Constantino Chiwenga: The army chief who took power from Mugabe - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The army general who ruthlessly crushed the opposition in Zimbabwe is now being hailed as a political saviour.
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Africa
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Gen Constantino Chiwenga, 61, is being hailed as a political saviour after he led the military takeover in Zimbabwe, however he is under sanctions from the European Union and the US - for his role in a brutal crackdown on the opposition, and over the seizure of white-owned farms.
Zimbabweans took to the streets on Saturday to demand President Robert Mugabe's resignation, holding aloft placards which declared: "Zimbabwe army - the voice of the people."
Pastor Patrick Mugadza, hounded by the police in January this year for predicting that the 93-year-old leader would die in nine months' time, went as far as to announce that he intended to name his son after the general.
"My wife is very, very pregnant. When the boy comes, I will be naming him after you, General Chiwenga," Zimbabwe's privately owned NewsDay newspaper quoted him as saying in an audio message.
Gen Chiwenga says he stepped in to end the economic suffering of Zimbabweans
Yet, Gen Chiwenga played a central role in keeping Mr Mugabe in power after he lost elections to his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), in 2008, amid reports that Mr Mugabe was going to accept defeat.
"He told Mugabe: 'We can't lose elections. We can't hand power to the MDC. We are going to obliterate them," UK-based Africa confidential magazine editor Patrick Smith told the BBC, adding that he carried out the operation with Emmerson Mnangagwa, the man Gen Chiwenga is trying to install as Mr Mugabe's successor as president.
"They are joined at the hip, with Mnangagwa the senior partner," Mr Smith said.
After a long delay, the official results were announced, saying that Mr Tsvangirai had not gained the 50% required for victory and so a second round was needed. Before the run-off, pro-Zanu-PF militias backed by the security forces attacked opposition supporters around the country, beating, raping and killing.
Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of the second round and Mr Mugabe remained in power.
This opposition supporter was one of thousands who said their homes were attacked by pro-Zanu-PF militias
Gen Chiwenga joined the guerrilla war against white minority rule in the then Rhodesia as a teenager and got military training in Mozambique and Tanzania.
After independence, he received British training, as a new army, made up of ex-guerrillas and soldiers of the former white minority regime, was formed.
Power in Zimbabwe is monopolised by those who fought the 1970s war of independence
Recalling his ex-student in an interview with the UK-based Sunday Times newspaper, retired Lt-Col Zach Freeth, 76, said Gen Chiwenga was once caught cheating, and while he was deciding what to do with him the next morning, he received news that that the ex-guerrilla fighter, then in his 20s, had shot himself in the chest twice but had miraculously survived.
Lt-Col Freeth said the incident was forgotten, but when Gen Chiwenga was appointed defence chief in 2003 he invited him to his home.
"He gave me his card and said: 'If you ever need anything...' We both knew what he was referring to."
Lt-Col Freeth was quoted as saying: "I knew him very well. I probably did too good a job."
Many Zimbabweans are hoping that the army's intervention will lead to the downfall of Mr Mugabe
A Zimbabwean lawyer, who has met Gen Chiwenga on several occasions, offered a different perspective of the army chief.
"He is fearless, and as tough as nails," the lawyer, who asked not to be identified, told the BBC.
"In terms of his political outlook, he is a Pan-Africanist at heart. He abhors the notion that Western values are superior. He believes in equal recognition, and that comes from the heart," the lawyer added.
Now married to Mary Chiwenga - a former model and ex-wife of footballer Shingi Kazwondera - Gen Chiwenga was involved in a messy divorce about five years ago when he ended his marriage to his then-wife, Jocelyn.
At the time, the privately owned NewZimbabwe.com news site reported that it had seen court papers in which Gen Chiwenga alleged that his wife used to beat him up, and even thrashed his office at military headquarters.
She hit back, alleging that she was, in fact, the victim, and their marriage ran into trouble because he was having an affair with his current wife.
President Mugabe's plan to anoint his wife, Grace, as his successor caused the crisis
Gen Chiwenga's messy divorce enhanced, rather than damaged, his reputation among his troops.
As one soldier told the BBC: "The general is a very patient man. Look at how his relationship with Jocelyn was, but he waited for the right time to call it off."
His second wife obtained a degree from a university where Mr Mugabe is the chancellor just two days after the general took power.
Mr Mugabe conferred degrees on more than 3,000 students, in his first public appearance since being put under house arrest. However, Mrs Chiwenga failed to attend.
President Robert Mugabe was to have conferred a degree on the general's wife
The veteran leader's appearance in public was intended to show that the general was treating him kindly.
Said the soldier: "Gen Chiwenga is a man of the people, a hard-working person who stands for the truth. He is an achiever.... No matter what is happening, the president will never win."
The army chief put Mr Mugabe under house arrest after the president had sacked the general's close ally Vice-President Mnangagwa, in a move seen as an attempt to install the Mr Mugabe's wife, Grace, as his successor.
Days earlier, Gen Chiwenga had warned that "the current purging, which is clearly targeting members of the party with a liberation background, must stop forthwith".
Gen Chiwenga then went to China, and Mr Mugabe's allies in the security forces planned to arrest him on his return, Mr Smith said.
But the general got wind of the plot, and a strong contingent of loyalist troops arrived at the airport, to prevent his detention.
Shortly afterwards, the army chief took power, but insisted that he was not staging a coup.
The army said it had intervened to arrest the "criminals" around Mr Mugabe, a reference to the political faction headed by Mrs Mugabe, and to end the economic suffering of Zimbabweans.
His intervention caught Zimbabweans by surprise but, as the lawyer who has observed his career closely, said: "Once you cross a certain path, he does not hesitate to act. However, he respects Mugabe and will want him to go out in the most dignified way possible.
"He is genuinely worried about the economic crisis and sees it as a threat to national security. So, he wants the politicians to start dealing with it, and he did not think the G40 faction [headed by Mrs Mugabe] would," said the lawyer.
Gen Chiwenga flanked Mr Mugabe when he addressed the nation on Sunday night, vowing to remain in office despite the intense pressure on him to leave office.
The army chief helped the president with his papers, as he struggled to read his long speech, and his officers saluted Mr Mugabe, still their commander-in-chief.
"It was theatre intended to show that the military are not bully boys picking on a nonagenarian. They want this to be sorted out as amicably as possible," Africa Confidential's Mr Smith said.
Read more about the Zimbabwe crisis:
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42053753
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British camera operator dies while filming BBC drama - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Mark Milsome was working on upcoming drama The Forgiving Earth in Ghana when the incident occurred.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Mark Milsome was working on The Forgiving Earth when the incident occurred
A British camera operator has died while shooting a stunt sequence for a BBC drama in Ghana.
Mark Milsome, whose credits include Saving Private Ryan and Sherlock, was working on upcoming drama The Forgiving Earth when the incident occurred.
The BBC said it was "deeply shocked and saddened" by the news, calling Milsome "a much respected colleague".
His agent said he would be "greatly missed" and that an investigation into Saturday's incident was under way.
"We all need answers to this dreadful tragedy," said Sarah Prince of PrinceStone.
It has been reported that Milsome, who was from Builth Wells, was taking part in a night shoot for a car stunt scene.
Milsome's many credits include Game of Thrones, The Theory of Everything and Bond film Quantum of Solace.
His agent said he was "an incredibly talented cameraman... a gentle gentleman [and a] genuinely loved member of the film industry family".
Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey was among those to remember Milsome on Twitter, calling him "one of the loveliest people [he had] ever met".
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Director Mark Herman, who worked with Milsome on such films as Brassed Off and Little Voice, also paid tribute, saying he was "one of the nicest guys in the business".
Milsome started out in the 1990s as a clapper loader, working his way up the camera department to focus puller, camera operator and director of photography.
The 54-year-old leaves a wife and daughter, to whom his agent said he was devoted.
Formerly known as Black Earth Rising, The Forgiving Earth is a BBC co-production with subscription service Netflix about the prosecution of international war crimes.
Written by Hugo Blick, who wrote and directed thriller The Honourable Woman, it is provisionally set for transmission in 2018.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42055941
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Human teeth traced to fish scales, Cambridge scientists say - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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The link has been made to spiky scales of shark-like fish from millions of years ago, scientists say.
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Cambridgeshire
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Teeth grew from the scales of primitive shark-like fish millions of years ago, research by scientists suggests.
Old lineage cartilaginous fish like sharks, skates and rays that have skin which contained small spiky scales or "dermal denticles" may be the key, scientists say.
Cambridge University said their tooth-like appearance is no accident.
Researchers suggest it may be a direct link between us and marine ancestors from up to 400 million years ago.
During early evolution of jawed vertebrates, dermal denticles were transferred from the skins of primitive fish to their mouth.
In the millennia that followed, the tiny appendages went on to produce the flesh-tearing six-inch long teeth of dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex and the fangs of the sabre-toothed cat, the team said.
Lead scientist Dr Andrew Gillis, from the Department of Zoology, said: "Stroke a shark and you'll find it feels rougher than other fish, as shark skin is covered entirely in dermal denticles.
"By labelling the different types of cells in the embryos of skate, we were able to trace their fates.
"We show that... the denticle scales of sharks and skate develop from neural crest cells, just like teeth."
Neural crest cells are central to the process of tooth development in mammals said Dr Gillis, adding their finding suggest a deep evolutionary relationship between the primitive fish scales and the teeth of vertebrates.
The fact teeth and sharks' denticle scales both arise from the same kind of embryonic cell suggests a common evolutionary origin, the team reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The skins of sharks are all that remains of amour plating that clad their jawless forbears some 400 million years ago to protect against predators such as sea scorpions.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-42057629
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Mugabe: Social media reaction to Zimbabwe president's speech - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The president defies demands to resign, triggering an avalanche of comments on social media.
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Africa
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Robert Mugabe: "The congress is due... I will preside over its processes"
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has defied calls from the public, the army and his own party to resign, vowing to stay in power for several weeks.
His televised address on Sunday triggered an avalanche of comments across social media.
Responding to another user's comments, constitutional lawyer and human rights activist Tendai Biti argued that Mr Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, would never quit.
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Tau Moyo was one of many users who expressed shock and anger over Mr Mugabe's decision to stay on.
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Talent Machingura put it bluntly, saying that people's hopes were "crushed".
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Ancillar Mangena thought it was Mr Mugabe's message to the world that "he is in charge".
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But many users were left simply confused about what may happen next.
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Others are already looking forward to Tuesday, when impeachment proceedings might be launched in parliament.
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And there were those who just poked fun at the latest developments.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42047528
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Morocco food stampede kills 15 - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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The incident occurred as a charity aid was distributing aid in the town of Sidi Boulaalam.
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Africa
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Most of the victims were women and elderly people
At least 15 people have been killed and five others wounded in a stampede in Morocco while food aid was distributed.
The incident occurred in the town of Sidi Boulaalam in Essaouira province. The aid was being handed out by a private local charity.
Some reports indicate that up to 40 people were injured in the crush. Local media reported that most of the victims were women and elderly people.
Pictures on social media showed bodies of women laid out on the ground.
Witnesses told local media that this year's annual food aid distribution at a local market in Sidi Boulaalam, an impoverished town with just over 8,000 inhabitants, attracted a larger crowd than usual.
"This year there were lots of people, several hundred people," a witness who asked to remain anonymous told AFP news agency.
"People shoved, they broke down the barriers," he said, adding that the injured had been evacuated to a hospital in Marrakesh.
Morocco's interior ministry said that King Muhammed VI had instructed the local authorities to help those affected, adding that he would personally cover all medical and funeral costs.
An unverified video shot by a bystander before the incident showed a large crowd gathered at the open-air market, waiting for the food distribution.
It is not clear what triggered the stampede, and an investigation is now under way.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42044887
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Friend's 'premonition' before Daniel Hegarty's fatal race - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Roger Edwards said he felt something "disastrous" would happen and could not sleep before the race.
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Nottingham
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Daniel Hegarty was flung into barriers during lap six and suffered fatal injuries
A friend of a motorcyclist killed in a crash at the Macau Grand Prix said he had a strong feeling something "disastrous" was going to happen.
Daniel Hegarty, 31, from Nottingham, suffered fatal injuries when he came off his bike on a sharp bend.
Roger Edwards, who helped the father-of-two with his motorbike charity, said he had troubling sleeping before the race in China and feared for the rider.
Mr Edwards said the sportsman was "magical" and a great friend.
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Mr Hegarty, who raced for Top Gun Racing Honda, was flung into barriers during lap six and suffered fatal injuries. He died on the way to hospital.
"Motorcycling is a dangerous sport," said Mr Edwards. "The risk is always there and premonition can foretell an awful lot and I didn't sleep last night or the night before.
"The premonition proved, sadly, correct. I knew something disastrous was going to happen and my thoughts were with Daniel being overseas.
"The following morning I was woken by a phone call from Daniel's mother with the bad news. I feel exceedingly sad, I couldn't be sadder [that those fears came true]."
Mr Hegarty ran Rev and Go, a charity which aimed to tackle anti-social behaviour by getting youngsters involved in motorcycling sport.
Mr Edwards said he was a "great role model" to the teenagers who came to the charity.
"[He was] a magical fella who influenced an awful lot of people for the good," he said.
Many tributes were paid to Mr Hegarty including from his girlfriend Lucy Draycott, who described him as the "love of my life".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-42043883
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Okinawa car crash sparks US troops alcohol ban in Japan - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A Marine is under arrest for drink-driving after a deadly crash stokes resentment on Okinawa.
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Asia
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The US base in Okinawa houses tens of thousands of troops
The US military has banned all soldiers stationed in Japan from drinking alcohol after one of its servicemen was involved in a deadly crash on Okinawa island linked to drink driving.
US troops on Okinawa have also been told to stay on base or at home.
The Marine crashed his truck into a minivan on Sunday, killing the local driver of the other vehicle.
Okinawa hosts more than half of the US troops in Japan - locals have long resented the military presence.
In a statement, the US military confirmed that one its service members had been involved in the accident and said that "alcohol may have been a factor".
The military also announced "mandatory training to address responsible alcohol use, risk management and acceptable behaviour" for all its troops across Japan.
Japanese police said the Marine was three times over the legal blood alcohol limit, Reuters reports.
He is under arrest charged with negligent driving resulting in death, police say.
In 2016, tens of thousands of people joined protests against the US troops
The US presence on Okinawa in southern Japan is a key part of the security alliance between the two countries. The base houses about 26,000 US troops.
There are plans to relocate part of it to a less-populated area of the island, but many Okinawans want the air base removed altogether.
They object to the alleged crimes and accidents attributed to the troops. Resentment at the US presence has been growing among many locals, particularly since the 1995 gang-rape of a 12-year-old girl by US troops.
In 2016, the murder of a woman was linked to an ex-Marine employed at one of the bases, also leading to a temporary ban on alcohol as well as a midnight curfew.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42048473
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The terrible charisma of Charles Manson - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Murderous 1960s cult leader Charles Manson has died, but the fascination with him continues. Why?
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US & Canada
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Charles Manson has died, aged 83. But what is it about the murderous cult leader, who committed his crimes almost 50 years ago, that continues to fascinate?
The brown eyes. The beard. The swastika tattooed between his eyes. It was impossible not to look at Charles Manson, however much you wanted to turn away.
During his years in prison, photographs of Manson were issued only periodically, so he seemed to age in chunks, unable to appear before the public but always remaining at the back of its consciousness.
More than 30 books about his life and crimes have been published. One, by the prosecuting attorney at his trial, Vincent Bugliosi, has sold more than seven million copies.
Netflix has made a comedy film - Manson Family Vacation - showing how his macabre crimes affect a modern middle-class American family, and two documentaries on his life and crimes have come out this year alone.
In life, everything Manson did was news, the most recent example being the media frenzy in 2014 when it was announced he had been granted a licence to marry 26-year-old Afton Elaine Burton.
Actress Sharon Tate, the most high-profile victim of the "Manson Family"
From behind bars, Manson courted publicity, setting himself up as a counter-cultural icon. He once told the American public: "My father is your system... I am only what you made me. I am only a reflection of you."
It's 48 years since Manson sent a group of his indoctrinated followers - known as the Family - to the home of heavily pregnant Hollywood actress Sharon Tate to "totally destroy everyone in it". They stabbed Tate and four others to death.
False clues were left to dress the scene as an attack by the Black Panthers, a militant African-American group which used violence in its battle against white racism.
Manson's hope was that these murders, and the killing of two shop owners the next night, would start an apocalyptic race war, after which he would emerge as America's ruler.
Manson was found guilty of conspiracy to murder in 1971 and given a life sentence.
Yet something in his life story resonated. Born in Ohio, he had an impoverished and troubled childhood, moving between reform schools. When he was five his mother and uncle went to prison for holding up a service station. By the age of 13, Manson was robbing casinos and shops at gunpoint.
He had "a tendency towards moodiness and a persecution complex", according to a psychologist who described him as "aggressively anti-social", partly due to "an unfavourable family life, if it can be called family life at all".
When he couldn't afford bills or support his pregnant wife, he became a thief. After six years in prison, he was released in 1967, the year of the so-called "summer of love".
Manson developed a fixation with the Beatles song Helter Skelter. Ostensibly about the difficulties of a love life told through a metaphor of a fairground ride, he instead thought it predicted a race war after which he and his followers, taking refuge in an underground city in California's Death Valley, would be the only white survivors.
Black people, he thought, would be unable to organise themselves and then beg him to be their leader.
Manson set up a commune at the Spahn ranch in the Californian desert, surrounded by disused sets from 1950s Westerns.
He recruited followers, mainly middle-class and female, with whom he took LSD and participated in orgies.
"He managed to exploit the hippy subculture brilliantly," Daniel Kane, professor of American literature and culture at Sussex University, says. "Hippies, after all, proposed themselves as disaffiliated from the political and social mainstream, committed to creating their own independent utopias marked by sex, drugs and rock and roll.
"Manson took on all those signs - LSD, music, free love, communal lifestyles - and reframed them as tools for apocalyptic mass murder. Totally bizarre, totally evil, and very, very seductive."
With his long brown hair and beard, Manson's followers likened his appearance to that of Jesus.
The appearance of Charles Manson, shown here in 1969, was likened by his followers to that of Jesus
"There are thousands of evil, polished conmen out there, and we've had more brutal murders than the Manson murders," Mr Bugliosi, the prosecuting attorney at Manson's trial, told Rolling Stone magazine in 2012, "so why are we still talking about Charles Manson?
"He had a quality about him that one thousandth of 1% of people have. An aura. 'Vibes,' the kids called it in the '60s. Wherever he went, kids gravitated toward him."
Psychopaths are "incredibly charming and persuasive", David Wilson, professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, told the BBC in 2014, when Manson's intention to marry was announced. "To get you under control, to court you, they appear to give their complete and utter attention."
The Manson case involved drugs, orgies and cults, three concerns shared by parents of children growing up in the "free love" atmosphere of the late 1960s. It also came at a time divisions in the US over civil rights, race and the Vietnam War.
"He is iconic because he was the person who brought the swinging sixties to an end," Prof Wilson says. "His strange and bizarre thinking appeared perfectly in tune with the damaged side of drug culture. It wasn't flower power any more. Youth culture was far darker and more disturbing than people had previously thought."
In death, Manson is leading TV and radio bulletins and news websites.
"There's another feeding frenzy around him since he passed on," says Prof Kane. "The aura around Charles Manson is continuing and it shows no sign of dying off."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42051402
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Victims 'told not to report' Jehovah's Witness child abuse - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Abuse victims told the BBC they were allegedly told by the church not to report the crimes.
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England
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Children who were sexually abused by Jehovah's Witnesses were allegedly told by the organisation not to report it.
Victims from across the UK told the BBC they were routinely abused and that the religion's own rules protected perpetrators.
One child abuse lawyer believes there could be thousands of victims across the country who have not come forward.
The organisation said it did not "shield" abusers and any suggestion of a cover-up was "absolutely false".
BBC Hereford and Worcester spoke to victims - men and women - from Birmingham, Cheltenham, Leicester, Worcestershire and Glasgow, one of whom waived her right to anonymity.
Louise Palmer, who now lives in Evesham, Worcestershire, was born into the organisation along with her brother Richard Davenport, who started raping her when she was four. He is serving a 10-year prison sentence for the abuse.
The 41-year-old, formerly of Halesowen, West Midlands, said she was told not to go to police.
Former Jehovah's Witnesses have been speaking to the BBC about abuse
"I asked [the organisation], 'what should I do? Do you report it to the police, [or] do I report it to the police'?
"And their words were that they strongly advised me not to go to the police because it would bring reproach on Jehovah."
Another woman, from Worcestershire, said she was sexually abused as a child by a friend of her brother.
She said she told her parents and elders in the congregation what happened and they advised her not to report it.
"It started off just being very cuddly and I was always a very tactile little girl, but it gradually got worse and worse.
"It escalated until... he started raping me."
Jehovah's Witnesses are members of a movement best known for their door-to-door evangelistic work.
Child abuse lawyer Kathleen Hallisey said there were concerns that the organisation's procedures compromised child safety.
"[For example] in order for [victims] to take allegations of sexual abuse further, they have to have two witnesses to the abuse," she said.
I've spoken to multiple victims who have told me of the abuse they have suffered while in the Jehovah's Witnesses organisation.
What most of them keep coming back to is something known as the "two witness rule".
It is a procedure set by the main governing body of the religion and means for any sin committed, there must be two witnesses to it in order for the elders of the congregation to take any action.
The problem with this is it can be rare to have witnesses in cases of abuse.
The victims I've spoken to said the organisation self-polices and teaches members to avoid interaction with outside authorities or to take another member of the religion to court.
To do so, they say, could lead to expulsion from the religion.
In a statement the organisation said "any suggestion that Jehovah's Witnesses covered up child abuse was absolutely false".
It said victims and their parents had "the absolute right to report the matter to the governmental authorities" and reporting so was "not contingent on the number of witnesses to the offence".
It described child abuse as a "heinous crime and sin" and said the congregation did not "shield abusers from the authorities of the consequences of their actions".
The statement added "loving and protective parents" were the "best deterrent to child abuse" and elders provided "abuse victims and their families with spiritual comfort from the Bible".
In 2013 the Charity Commission started an inquiry into safeguarding issues in the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain - the UK's main Jehovah's Witnesses organisation which the commission regulates.
For information and support for anyone affected by sexual abuse, including sources of support for children, young people and concerned parents, visit listings on BBC Action Line.
• None The ex-Jehovah's Witnesses shunned by their families
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42025255
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I'm A Celebrity: Dec jokes about Ant's return to TV - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Ant McPartlin went to rehab in June after becoming addicted to painkillers following a knee operation.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Ant (left) and Dec returned to screens on Sunday night
The latest series of I'm A Celebrity has kicked off - with presenter Dec Donnelly joking Ant McPartlin had been replaced following his stint in rehab.
The presenting duo were reunited on screen for the first time since McPartlin's treatment for drug addiction over the summer.
Donnelly joked that he would have a new co-host on the show, saying: "It's me and the gorgeous Holly Willoughby!"
McPartlin replied: "I'm back, my friend... it's good to be back."
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McPartlin entered rehab in June, having become addicted to alcohol and prescription painkillers following a knee operation in 2015.
Later in the programme, Donnelly presented a model of the camp and said he'd made it himself - but with no help from McPartlin.
He asked his friend: "Where were you all summer anyway, what were you doing?"
"Just stuff... just dead busy," McPartlin replied with a smile, before swiftly trying to change the subject.
The celebs looking fresh-faced before entering the jungle
This year's contestants on I'm A Celebrity include boxer Amir Khan, ex-footballer Dennis Wise, Made in Chelsea's Georgia Toffolo and Stanley Johnson - father of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
They are joined by Coronation Street actress Jennie McAlpine and Hollyoaks actor Jamie Lomas, along with comedian Shappi Khorsandi, footballer Jamie Vardy's wife Rebekah, Saturdays singer Vanessa White and YouTube personality Jack Maynard.
This year's show opener attracted 10.3 million viewers as it was aired, beating its nearest rival in the same time slot, BBC One's Howards End, which was watched by 9.9 million.
It wasn't the highest viewed programme on Sunday evening overall though, with both Strictly Come Dancing's results show and Blue Planet II seen by 10.8 million each on BBC One.
Maynard, 22, found himself in hot water over the weekend for some old Tweets he had posted in 2012.
He was accused of using homophobic and racist terms, as well as the term "retards".
A spokesman for Maynard said: "Jack is ashamed of what he said in these tweets, many of which were deleted a long time ago and were sent in response to a neighbour who was bullying him.
"Jack was a lot younger when he posted them in 2012 but realises that age is no defence. He would never use that language now and realises that, as someone who was bullied himself, this kind of retaliatory, inflammatory, insulting language is completely unacceptable."
An ITV spokesperson added: "Jack has deleted these tweets and has since issued a full apology."
Johnson had to rummage in creature-filled holes to gain rewards
Sunday night's show saw some of the contestants tackling a walk the plank challenge on the roof of a hotel in Australia, 334 feet up in the air.
Other tasks included one which saw Johnson, 77, and Vardy putting their hands into holes cut into the side of a wrecked wooden boat that were filled with rats, spiders and crabs.
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/uk-42049812
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Germany's Merkel 'prefers new vote' after coalition talks fail - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The German chancellor would opt for fresh elections over leading a minority government.
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Europe
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. German chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday said it was a day of "deep reflection" for Germany
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she would prefer new elections to leading a minority government, after a breakdown in coalition talks plunged the country into political crisis.
She also said she did not see any reason to resign from her post despite the failed negotiations.
On Sunday evening, the FDP liberals pulled out of talks with Mrs Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc and the Greens.
Germany's president called on parties to "reconsider their attitudes".
Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged them to make compromises for Germany's "well-being", amid a situation he said was unprecedented.
Mrs Merkel faces her biggest challenge in 12 years as chancellor.
"The path to the formation of a government is proving harder than any of us had wished for," she told broadcaster ARD.
But she said she was "very sceptical" about a minority government, adding that "new elections would be the better path".
In a separate interview with the ZDF broadcaster, she argued Germany needed stability and a government "that does not need to seek a majority for every decision".
The elections were held in late September.
Some in Mrs Merkel's party still hope for another grand coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD), despite that party repeatedly ruling such an option out.
Earlier on Monday, SPD leader Martin Schulz said his party was "not afraid of new elections".
When asked about the prospect of another alliance with the SPD, Mrs Merkel told ZDF she would wait to see what came of upcoming talks between President Steinmeier and SPD leaders.
However, she said a demand for her to resign would not make a positive start for a new coalition.
If fresh elections are to happen, they would need to be called by Mr Steinmeier, after a long drawn-out process that would take months.
But he appears to view new polls as a last resort. In a brief address earlier on Monday he told politicians they had a responsibility that could not just be handed back to voters.
"Inside our country, but also outside, in particular in our European neighbourhood, there would be concern and a lack of understanding if politicians in the biggest and economically strongest country [in Europe] did not live up to their responsibilities," he said in a statement.
Mrs Merkel's bloc won September's poll, but many voters deserted the mainstream parties.
Negotiations between the pro-market FDP, the Greens and the conservative CDU/CSU bloc had gone on for four weeks before the FDP's surprise withdrawal late on Sunday.
Mrs Merkel blamed the FDP for the collapse, saying that the parties were on the "home straight" when the liberals pulled out.
But FDP leader Christian Lindner has defended his party, saying it "did not take such a decision lightly".
Despite Mrs Merkel's words about a fresh poll, analysts say the new elections would be likely to benefit the anti-Islam, anti-immigrant AfD most, so other parties would probably try to avoid them.
The far-right AfD won 12.6% of the vote in the September elections, entering parliament for the first time with more than 90 seats.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42057108
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Footage shows hunt saboteur being hit with riding crop - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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A woman was filmed hitting a man during a hunt in Sussex.
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A woman was filmed repeatedly hitting a man with a riding crop during a hunt in Sussex.
It happened after the man, who appears to be a hunt saboteur, took hold of the horse's reins.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-42056947
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Three face no action over Gaia Pope death - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Three people who were held over the death of teenager Gaia Pope will face no further action, police say.
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Dorset
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Gaia Pope's body was found 11 days after she went missing
Three people who were held over the death of teenager Gaia Pope will face no further action, police have said.
Paul Elsey, 49, his mother Rosemary Dinch, 71, and her 19-year-old grandson, Nathan Elsey, were all arrested on suspicion of murder.
They were questioned by detectives over the disappearance of 19-year-old Miss Pope, who went missing from Swanage, Dorset, on 7 November.
Her body was found on Saturday in a field near the town.
A post-mortem examination was conducted on Sunday but did not identify any injuries to suggest the involvement of other people, Dorset Police said.
The force is treating the death as "unexplained" pending toxicology results.
Det Supt Paul Kessell, of Dorset Police said: "We have today released from our investigation two men, aged 19 and 49, and a 71-year-old woman, all from Swanage, who had been arrested and were assisting with our enquiries.
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"I appreciate our enquiries would have caused these individuals stress and anxiety, however we have an obligation in any missing person investigation to explore every possible line of enquiry.
"The public would expect Dorset Police to fully investigate the sudden disappearance of a teenage girl. Our aim was not only to find Gaia but to find out what happened to her.
"Gaia's family has been informed of this latest development and our thoughts remain with all her family and friends at this incredibly difficult time."
Tributes have been left to Gaia on Swanage seafront
In a statement, Miss Pope's mother Natasha described her daughter as "a light that will radiate for all eternity".
"A wise, magnificent soul that burns far too bright for this world. Her spirit overflows with love and compassion for others. Gaia our free spirit, our wild pony.
"Meet me at the gate my darling. And so we are here longing for you for the rest of our lives. Together forever, united as one," she said.
Her father, Richard Sutherland, expressed his gratitude to the emergency services and members of the public who joined in the search for his daughter.
"That support gave us hope and I can't express that enough," Mr Sutherland said.
Her cousin Marienna Pope-Weidemann said Miss Pope had been "very, very vulnerable, but such an inspiration".
"We are determined to make sure Gaia was done right by, and all the lessons are learnt and no-one goes through what we've been through."
Gaia Pope's father Richard Sutherland thanked members of the public before a community search on Saturday
Following her disappearance, searches by police, the coastguard and police helicopter - along with hundreds of volunteers - were carried out in the Swanage area.
On Thursday, police discovered clothing belonging to Miss Pope on open land outside the town.
A church service was held at St Mary's Church in Swanage on Sunday evening in memory of the teenager.
Members of the public also shared their condolences with Miss Pope's family via the Find Gaia Facebook group which attracted more than 11,800 members.
Search and rescue teams scoured the open space above the cliffs near Swanage
7 November: Miss Pope is driven by a family member from Langton Matravers to Swanage. At 14:55, she is seen on CCTV at St Michael's Garage buying ice cream. The last confirmed sighting is at 16:00 at an address in Manor Gardens on Morrison Road
8 November: Her family makes a plea through police for her to make contact. Dorset Police says it is "becoming increasingly concerned"
9 November: Searches by police, the coastguard and force helicopter are carried out in the Swanage area. Miss Pope's relatives release a statement saying they are "frantic with worry"
10 November: CCTV footage shows Miss Pope on Morrison Road, Manor Gardens, at 15:39 on 7 November
13 November: Rosemary Dinch and Nathan Elsey are arrested on suspicion of murder and released under investigation
14 November: Searches continue with the coastguard and volunteers from Dorset Search and Rescue and Wessex 4x4
15 November: CCTV images of Miss Pope at St Michael's Garage are released. Searches continue to concentrate inland
16 November: Paul Elsey is arrested on suspicion of murder. Miss Pope's clothing is discovered in a field near Swanage and a police cordon is set up
18 November: Police discover a body near the coast path and a field close to where her clothing was found
20 November: Police announce Paul Elsey, Ms Dinch, and Nathan Elsey are to face no action
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42049230
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What is the extent of China's influence in Zimbabwe? - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The news that the head of Zimbabwe's military visited China days before it took power has sparked questions.
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Africa
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General Chiwenga was welcomed to China by military leaders
A trip to Beijing by Zimbabwe's military chief was a "normal military exchange", China's foreign ministry said after the army seized power in Harare. How deep are relations between China and Zimbabwe really?
The news that General Constantino Chiwenga had visited China only a few days before the military takeover in Zimbabwe was a coincidence that did not go unnoticed.
There was also speculation after China said it was closely watching developments, but stopped short of condemning President Mugabe's apparent removal from power.
China is Zimbabwe's fourth largest trading partner and its largest source of investment - with stakes worth many billions of pounds in everything from agriculture to construction.
Zimbabwe is the dependent partner - with China providing the largest market for its exports and much needed support to its fragile economy.
China's relations with Zimbabwe are deep, starting during the Rhodesian Bush War.
Robert Mugabe failed in 1979 to get Soviet backing, so turned to China, which provided his guerrilla fighters with weapons and training.
Both countries formally established diplomatic relations at Zimbabwean independence in 1980 and Robert Mugabe visited Beijing as prime minister the following year.
He has been a regular visitor since.
For years, Zimbabwe's officials have tried to play off China against the West, advocating the country's "Look East" strategy, particularly following the introduction of EU sanctions in 2002.
Indeed, a decade ago, Mr Mugabe told a packed rally at the Chinese-built national sports stadium in Harare: 'We have turned east, where the sun rises, and given our back to the west, where the sun sets."
China's military engagement also deepened during Zimbabwe's "Look East" era.
However, following a controversy about a shipment of arms in 2008, Beijing decided to list Zimbabwe for "limited level" military trading.
Despite Zimbabwe's efforts, the "Look East" strategy did not bring the investment flood hoped for and a decade later, in August 2015, Mr Mugabe openly asked for Western re-engagement in his "state of the nation" address.
Now, the reality is that increasingly Chinese and Western interests - particularly those of the UK - have become aligned.
Not far from each other in the outer suburbs of Harare, two of the biggest embassies in Zimbabwe are the British and the Chinese.
As other embassies scaled down or closed, Beijing's expanded.
Whereas British diplomats were well connected with business, civil society and opposition figures, the Chinese invested in "technical support" of the party of government Zanu-PF, including state security and the presidency.
When it came to Zanu-PF politics and factionalism, Chinese diplomats were well connected and insightful and, like their Western colleagues, concerned about stability, a better investment climate and adherence to the rule of law.
President Xi Jinping visited Zimbabwe in 2015 and President Mugabe visited Beijing in January 2017.
In public, the Chinese leader said his country is willing to encourage capable companies to invest in Zimbabwe.
But in private, the message was that there would be no more loans until Zimbabwe stabilised its economy.
Maj Gen Sibusiso Moyo said the military was not staging a coup
In 2016 trade between the two countries amounted to $1.1bn (£0.8bn), with China the biggest buyer of Zimbabwean tobacco and also importing cotton and various minerals.
In return Zimbabwe imported electronics, clothing and other finished products.
Chinese state construction firms have also been active, building infrastructure including Zimbabwe's $100m (£75m) National Defence College.
And last year China agreed to finance a new 650-seat parliament in Harare.
But Chinese diplomats and many businesses are waiting for better days in Zimbabwe.
Some companies have found the investment climate challenging - being burned on diamonds, for example - and have looked for alternative markets.
A couple of weeks ago I was in China, attending a meeting on China-Africa relations and Zimbabwe was not mentioned once.
Unlike Ethiopia, Sudan, or Angola that are strategic partners, or big markets like Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, Zimbabwe is far from being Beijing's new priority.
So, Beijing's interest is in a better investment climate in Zimbabwe.
A clear transitional arrangement resulting in elections for a legitimate government in Harare is as much in Beijing's interest as London's.
The "Look East" and the "Re-engagement with the West" strategies have not brought about the confidence and investment that Zimbabwe needs.
What Zimbabwe requires is stable and accountable government - then investors from Asia, America and Europe will seriously consider that Zimbabwe has an investment future.
This was the message that Mr Mugabe received in Beijing in January.
And the one which Zimbabwe's military chief also was given last week.
This analysis piece was commissioned by the BBC from an expert working for an outside organisation.
Dr Alex Vines OBE is Head of Africa Programme, Chatham House, and a Senior Lecturer at Coventry University.
Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, describes itself as an independent policy institute helping to build a sustainably secure, prosperous and just world.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42012629
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Mugabe snubs resignation deadline - as it happened - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe fails to resign and faces impeachment.
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Africa
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Despite a show of public defiance against President Mugabe people are still afraid Image caption: Despite a show of public defiance against President Mugabe people are still afraid
The BBC's Andrew Harding has been speaking to Zimbabweans on the streets of the capital Harare.
He reports that there is a feeling of growing frustration after President Robert Mugabe failed to resign last night as had been expected.
He says people feel confused and impatient.
A taxi driver told him that he had expected Mr Mugabe to leave office last night:
Quote Message: He was supposed to be looking after his family... [he should] stay in Singapore, Malaysia where he has assets." He was supposed to be looking after his family... [he should] stay in Singapore, Malaysia where he has assets."
Others said that despite Saturday's public show of defiance as people rallied to urge President Mugabe to go, they were still afraid.
Harare resident Lydia Gombe told our reporter that after years of repressive rule, many Zimbabweans still fear that they might get into trouble if they speak out against the government:
Quote Message: The level of fear that these people have instilled in us as a nation is unbelievable. And it is just simple things. WhatsApp texts can get you arrested. A conversation in the bus can get you arrested." The level of fear that these people have instilled in us as a nation is unbelievable. And it is just simple things. WhatsApp texts can get you arrested. A conversation in the bus can get you arrested."
She adds that it would take time for people to lose their fear of speaking out.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-africa-42046022
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Jana Novotna: Former Wimbledon champion dies at age of 49 - BBC Sport
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2017-11-20
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The Women's Tennis Association says 1998 Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna, who had cancer, "died peacefully, surrounded by her family" aged 49.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Former Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna has died at the age of 49.
The Women's Tennis Association said Novotna, who had cancer, "died peacefully, surrounded by her family".
The Czech player had lost in the Wimbledon final in 1993 and 1997 before winning the Grand Slam tournament in 1998 by beating Nathalie Tauziat.
Novotna captured the hearts of fans when she burst into tears after losing to German great Steffi Graf in 1993 and was consoled by the Duchess of Kent.
"Jana was an inspiration both on and off court to anyone who had the opportunity to know her," said WTA chief executive Steve Simon.
"Her star will always shine brightly in the history of the WTA. Our condolences and our thoughts are with Jana's family."
Novotna was renowned for her serve-and-volley game, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of number two.
In addition to her only singles Grand Slam win at Wimbledon, she claimed 12 Grand Slam doubles titles and four in mixed doubles.
She was also inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005.
It was Novotna's exploits at Wimbledon which particularly endeared her to supporters, especially the 1993 defeat by Graf at the All England Club.
Novotna had a 4-1 lead in the third set and was a point away from going 5-1 up only to serve a double fault and lose five games in a row as she was beaten 7-6 (8-6) 1-6 6-4.
She started crying when presented with her trophy before the Duchess of Kent put a comforting arm around her and gave her a shoulder to shed her tears on during emotional scenes on Centre Court.
Novotna said the Duchess had told her "she would do it" when she went to collect her trophy and, despite losing to Martina Hingis in 1997, she finally won Wimbledon a year later.
In doing so, she became the then oldest first-time Grand Slam singles winner in the Open era at 29 years and nine months.
'It felt like I was the winner'
Novotna gave an interview to BBC World Service's Sporting Witness in 2015 during which she spoke about the 1993 final.
"The next day, even though I was sad and disappointed, I opened the newspaper and my picture with the Duchess of Kent was on the front pages," she said.
"For a moment, it felt like I was the winner and that was a great feeling. I still have the newspapers, they're beautiful pictures and I think it showed the human side of professional tennis, which most of the people came to remember instead of me losing."
She added: "It wouldn't sound great to say the 1993 final was the one I was most proud of because I lost the match when I was ahead.
"But it meant so much for me and maybe it made me a better player, a better person and maybe that match helped me to accomplish a lot more in my career.
"If I could do it again I would - all of it - except I would win Wimbledon three times this time around."
The abiding image of Jana Novotna's career is of her accepting - quite literally - a shoulder to cry on by the Duchess of Kent as she received the runners-up trophy at Wimbledon in 1993.
She had been in a winning position in her first final against the great Steffi Graf, but undeterred, she would be back.
Martina Hingis was too strong in the 1997 final but, just as the Duchess had predicted, it was third time lucky when Novotna made it through to the final again.
An instinctive serve-volleyer and a superb athlete, Novotna was also a brilliant doubles player: winning a total of 16 Grand Slam titles. She reached number two in singles and number one in doubles, won the Fed Cup with the Czech Republic and medals in both singles and doubles for her country at the Olympic Games.
In more recent years, she was a charming member of the BBC commentary team at Wimbledon. Jana was never ostentatious in her delivery, but her love for the sport shone out.
Jana's microphone always needed a boost as she was so softly spoken. But she was born to play, and commentate, on Centre Court. Her words were carefully chosen, but the authority cut through.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/42049507
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British Airways to board passengers in cheap seats last - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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British Airways starts a boarding policy that means those in the cheapest seats will be called last.
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Business
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British Airways is introducing a boarding policy that means those buying the cheapest seats will be called last.
From 12 December, passengers will be assigned a number between 1-5 printed on boarding passes, with the highest figure reserved for economy fares.
BA said the move is about simplifying the boarding process, and bringing it into line with other carriers, including American Airlines and Iberia.
But BA was accused of operating a class system and further eroding perks.
The number "one" will be given to first class passengers, with others assigned to other segments such as Executive Club or World Traveller Plus.
Passengers who are travelling with children or have mobility issues will still be able to board ahead of everyone else.
A BA spokeswoman said: "We are always looking at ways to improve and simplify the airport experience for our customers... Next month we are introducing new boarding procedures to speed up the process and make it simpler for customers to understand.
"This method has been used by airlines around the world for a number of years, including by our partners American Airlines, Iberia and Qatar."
But the move has not gone down well with some travellers on Twitter. Banjobob @scottishcringe says: "Nothing quite like a British class system to let you know your place!"
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Simon Calder This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
David Smith @drs1969 writes: "British Airways: Are you out of your minds? This boarding method is appalling and universally hated."
And Sam Vines @samvines6, writes: "Who thought up this stupid idea? If you want to improve boarding process then group by seats, not by price."
However, the zoned boarding plan was welcomed by Ben Schlappig, who writes the One Mile At A Time frequent-flyer blog.
"Arguably this is an easier system as it can be consistent across aircraft types, and is also easier for passengers to comprehend.
"Ultimately the success of such a system largely comes down to the clarity of announcements and the enforcement of the boarding area. The way I see it this would definitely simplify things, so I'd welcome it."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42052743
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Egypt drugs case: Briton Laura Plummer's sister issues apology - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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Laura Plummer is being held on drug smuggling charges over what she says is an innocent mistake.
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Humberside
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Laura Plummer is in police custody in the resort of Hurghada
The sister of a British woman facing drug smuggling charges in Egypt has apologised to the country's officials.
Laura Plummer, 33, faces a trial accused of entering the country with 300 Tramadol tablets, a painkiller legal in the UK but not in Egypt.
She is in police custody in Hurghada awaiting a hearing date.
Her sister Rachel told officials she had "unintentionally done wrong" and apologised for "bringing such trouble to your country".
It is not clear whether the apology has been seen by the authorities, who have not commented.
But in response to the apology, Ms Plummer's MP Karl Turner, described her as a "decent, law-abiding" citizen who had "done something really silly".
Laura Plummer said the prescription pills were for her partner Omar Caboo
Ms Plummer, a shop assistant from Hull, claims she was carrying the pills for her Egyptian partner, Omar Caboo, who suffers from back pain.
She has been held in a cell, which she has to share with 25 other women.
Rachel Plummer said her sister had carried out "a totally innocent action"
In a statement, Rachel said she "would like to place on record our gratitude for the fairness and just manner the Egyptian justice system has shown towards Laura".
"We realise Laura has unintentionally done wrong in the eyes of the Egyptian authorities; a totally innocent action that has resulted in her being held in custody by the police in Hurghada," she said.
"Laura, along with all of us, loves Egypt and upon visits to see Laura we have been happy with the professional and fair way the police officers have been with Laura and we would like to apologise for bringing such trouble to your country."
Other family members have made no further comment.
Laura Plummer said she had "no idea" the painkillers she was carrying were banned in the country
He said he met Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson last week and was reassured "the government is doing all it can" to support Laura and her family. The UK Foreign Office has not publicly commented.
Ms Plummer said earlier this month she had "no idea" the painkillers she was carrying were banned in the country.
But local police said ignorance of the law was no excuse.
Tramadol is the most abused drug in Egypt, according to Ghada Wali, the country's Minister of Social Solidarity.
Drug smuggling can carry the death sentence in Egypt.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-42055306
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Dec jokes about Ant's return to I'm A Celeb - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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This video has been removed for rights reasons.
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This video has been removed for rights reasons.
Ant McPartlin returns to I'm A Celebrity after a stint in rehab.
McPartlin entered rehab in June, having become addicted to alcohol and prescription painkillers following a knee operation in 2015.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42054490
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Brexit: Electoral Commission reopens probe into Vote Leave - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Electoral Commission investigates why group gave £625,000 to a student just before the EU referendum.
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UK Politics
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The Electoral Commission has reopened an investigation into Vote Leave's EU referendum spending.
The campaign paid £625,000 to clear bills allegedly run up by university student Darren Grimes with a digital agency days ahead of last June's vote.
The campaign denies attempting to get round spending limits - the Electoral Commission initially accepted this but now says it has new information.
A group of campaigning lawyers, The Good Law Project, has started legal action against the commission over its original decision to drop the investigation, claiming the watchdog was not doing its job properly.
Jo Maugham QC, of the Good Law Project, said: "We are 18 months after the referendum vote. It is extraordinary that only now is the Electoral Commission taking a serious look at whether the rules were complied with. And only in response to legal action."
He added: "The Electoral Commission has urged us to agree to drop our High Court case. We will consider this question carefully in the coming days."
A former senior Vote Leave source accused the watchdog of giving in to pressure from the Good Law project - something the watchdog has denied.
"The Electoral Commission is an utter joke," the source told BBC News.
"They investigated the last time there was a spurious complaint and found Vote Leave followed the rules and donations were within the law.
"Now they've given in to peer pressure from a bunch of die-hard Remainers who would rather believe in some vast conspiracy rather than respect the democratic vote of the British people.
"This is in contrast to the Electoral Commission's repeated failures to call out dodgy Remain behaviour, which exploited the full weight of the government during the campaign. It reeks of double standards."
The row centres around Darren Grimes, at the time a fashion student at the University of Brighton, who set up a group called BeLeave, to give young pro-Brexit campaigners a voice during last year's referendum.
As a registered campaigner, he was allowed to spend up to £700,000. He initially spent very little but in the 10 days leading up to the 23 June vote he ran up a £675,315 bill with AggregateIQ Data, a Canadian marketing firm that specialises in political campaigns.
Money to clear the bill was not given to Mr Grimes but sent directly to Aggregate IQ by Vote Leave, which separately spent £2.7m with the same firm, more than a third of its £6.8m budget.
Mr Grimes also received £50,000 from an individual Vote Leave donor in the final 10 days, making the previously obscure campaigner's group one of the best-funded at the referendum.
Vote Leave Campaign director Dominic Cummings was quoted on AggregateIQ's website as saying "we couldn't have done it without them".
In total, AIQ was given £3.5m by groups campaigning for Brexit, including Vote Leave, the Democratic Unionist Party and Veterans for Britain.
Vote Leave would have gone over its campaign spending limit if it had spent the money it donated on behalf of Mr Grimes itself.
The campaign group said it made the donation to Mr Grimes because it was coming up to its £7m spending limit and wanted a way of using £9.2m it had raised from individuals and companies on campaigning activities.
The Electoral Commission said in March this was an "acceptable method of donating under the rules" and after a "detailed look" at the case it did not find reasonable grounds to suspect an offence had been committed.
The new probe will look at whether the spending returns delivered by Mr Grimes, Veterans for Britain and Vote Leave were correct - and whether or not Vote Leave exceeded its spending limit.
Bob Posner, the Electoral Commission's director of political finance and regulation, said: "There is significant public interest in being satisfied that the facts are known about Vote Leave's spending on the campaign, particularly as it was a lead campaigner with a greater spending limit than any other campaigners on the Leave side.
"Legitimate questions over the funding provided to campaigners risks causing harm to voters' confidence in the referendum and it is therefore right that we investigate."
In April, the Electoral Commission launched a separate investigation into spending during the referendum by Leave.EU, the campaign backed by then-UKIP leader Nigel Farage and donor Arron Banks.
It is also investigating spending by the anti-Brexit campaign Britain Stronger in Europe.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42055523
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Robert and Grace Mugabe: What next for Zimbabwe? - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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We look at some of the options for Zimbabwe, its president, and his wife after the military takeover
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Africa
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Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party is planning to support impeachment proceedings against Robert Mugabe, after he ignored a deadline to stand down as president.
Zimbabweans - and many watching around the world - were astounded on Sunday night when Mr Mugabe addressed the nation and said that far from stepping down, he was going to stay on and preside over the ruling party's congress in December.
So with Mr Mugabe defiant, and the army insisting that it has not carried out a a coup, what are the options for getting him to vacate his position?
Here are five possible scenarios:
Zanu-PF members sang and danced as they sacked Mr Mugabe as leader
Zanu-PF says it will launch impeachment proceedings against Mr Mugabe when parliament convenes on Tuesday.
Impeachment is the process of removing a president via parliament.
Both the National Assembly and the Senate can begin proceedings to remove the president if both pass simple majority votes against him.
A two-thirds majority is needed in both houses in order for impeachment to succeed.
Zanu-PF has a two-thirds majority in the House of Assembly, but not the Senate.
The formal process is expected to start on Tuesday but it is not clear how long it would take.
The benefit of this process for the military is that it allows the generals to say the removal of the president was done in accordance with the constitution, in keeping with their statement that this is not a coup.
The downside for them is that it does not guarantee that the man widely thought to be their favourite for president will get the top job straight away.
People in Harare celebrated Zanu-PF sacked Robert Mugabe as their leader
Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose sacking prompted the military's action, could not immediately take over from Mr Mugabe, because constitutionally it is the current vice-president who should fill the vacancy.
At the moment that person is Phelekezela Mphoko - a man whose sympathies are known to lie with Grace Mugabe, and who was expelled by Zanu-PF on Sunday.
Whether the army can persuade Mr Mugabe to appoint their preferred candidate as vice-president before stepping down remains to be seen.
Some analysts have argued that this may be what the generals were discussing with him - and it may also be his trump card.
But given how difficult it has been to get Mr Mugabe to step down, the chances of getting him to concede further ground look increasingly slim.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Robert Mugabe: "The congress is due... I will preside over its processes"
President Mugabe was defiant when he made his televised address on Sunday.
Despite having been sacked by Zanu-PF, he said "the party congress is due in a few weeks and I will preside over its processes".
He suggested that he was willing to forgive the military action, and said "whatever the pros and cons of how they [the army] went about their operation, I, as commander-in-chief, do acknowledge their concerns".
It had been reported that Mr Mugabe had agreed to resign.
It is unclear whether he changed his mind, or if these reports were incorrect. But BBC Africa editor Fergal Keane says it makes the military look weak.
Some suggest that there may be grounds within Zanu-PF's own rules which might allow Mr Mugabe to reject his sacking by the party.
President Mugabe is known for both being shrewd and stubborn. So he may well have another ace up his sleeve.
There is growing speculation over the whereabouts of Grace Mugabe
Initially it had been thought that the military was trying to reach a deal which would allow President Mugabe to stay in Zimbabwe once he had stood down.
But the current stalemate makes that look less likely.
From the point of view of Mr Mugabe, and his wife, there is a fear that even if he were to be promised immunity from prosecution now, that could be removed by a future government.
So it might mean that Mr Mugabe is forced into exile.
Until recently, neighbouring South Africa would have been a natural place for him to go.
Mr Mugabe enjoys a high level of respect there, in large part because of his support for the fight against apartheid rule.
Indeed, the opposition EFF party has called on the government to "prepare to welcome President Mugabe for political asylum".
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The Mugabes are reported to have a number of properties in South Africa.
The sticking point would be what happens to Grace.
She was granted diplomatic immunity after allegedly assaulting a model in a hotel room in Johannesburg in August.
But model Gabriella Engels is trying to get the diplomatic immunity order set aside. If successful, it would mean Mrs Mugabe could face prosecution should she go to South Africa.
So if not South Africa, then where?
Other possible options are Singapore and Malaysia, where the Mugabes also have properties.
The leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T) party is back in Harare after receiving treatment for cancer in South Africa, fuelling speculation about negotiations for a unity government.
This is the scenario that many in the West, and of course the opposition, would prefer.
Another opposition leader, Tendai Biti, has said that he would join a national unity government if Mr Tsvangirai was also in it.
But the military takeover was not a change of regime. It was an internal dispute within Zanu-PF, and that party is still very much in power.
The military is to a large extent the armed wing of Zanu-PF.
And the man it supports as leader - Emmerson Mnangagwa - helped Robert Mugabe carry out some of his most controversial policies.
Emmerson Mnangagwa is the man the military wants to take over
He is also, some say, more ruthless.
So it is far from clear that the ousting of Mr Mugabe would improve the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42011059
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Paperchase 'sorry' for Daily Mail offer - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The stationery company apologises after a social media backlash for its promotion in the newspaper.
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UK
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Stationery company Paperchase has apologised for a promotional giveaway in the Daily Mail after it was criticised for working with the paper.
The chain offered two free rolls of wrapping paper in Saturday's newspaper.
It said it was "truly sorry" after hundreds of people - encouraged by campaign group Stop Funding Hate - urged the chain to end the partnership.
A Daily Mail statement said it was "deeply worrying" Paperchase had let itself "be bullied into apologising".
Stop Funding Hate lobbies firms to stop advertising with certain newspapers which it claims promote divisive views.
The group has previously been involved in getting companies such as Lego to pull advertising.
It tweeted on Saturday: "After a torrid few weeks of divisive stories about trans people, is a Daily Mail promotion what customers want to see from @FromPaperchase?"
Paperchase responded a few hours later by asking for customers' views and received hundreds of replies on Twitter.
The company later said it had "listened" to the responses about the weekend's newspaper promotion.
"We now know we were wrong to do this - we're truly sorry and we won't ever do it again.
"Thanks for telling us what you really think and we apologise if we have let you down on this one. Lesson learnt."
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But some people have criticised the apology, saying they will now shop elsewhere.
Journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer said: "I for one am happy to lead a boycott of Paperchase for making this absurd grovelling apology simply for advertising in a national newspaper."
TV presenter Piers Morgan, who also writes for the Mail Online, tweeted: "I hope Paperchase understand that British people don't like snivelling little cowards who let themselves get bullied... I'll buy my cards from Clintons in future."
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It said in a statement: "The Mail has only run one promotion with Paperchase - who are not an advertiser - and had no plans for any more, so it is disingenuous of them to say it won't be repeated.
"However it is deeply worrying that Paperchase should have allowed itself to be bullied into apologising - on the back of a derisory 250 Facebook comments and 150 direct tweets - to internet trolls orchestrated by a small group of hard left Corbynist individuals seeking to suppress legitimate debate and impose their views on the media.
"Has the company considered what message they are sending to the four million people who read the Daily Mail on Saturday, many of whom will be their customers?"
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42057493
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This Morning: ITV apologises as show falls off air - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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ITV has apologised after the live programme went off air for more than 12 minutes.
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Entertainment & Arts
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This Morning went off air unexpectedly during Monday's live show, with ITV blaming technical problems.
Viewers were left unable to watch the morning programme, hosted by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, for more than 12 minutes.
The presenters were chatting to guest Ben Fogle when the programme suddenly cut out.
ITV apologised for the glitch and said it was looking into what caused the problem.
Viewers were met with a message saying the broadcaster was "working hard to fix the issue".
Fogle was discussing a recent vote in Parliament when This Morning went off air.
He later joked about the disruption on Twitter, asking: "What did I say?"
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ITV said a fault with the BT Tower caused the loss of transmission.
They said: "We would like to apologise to This Morning viewers after the programme went off air for 12 minutes today as a result of an issue at BT Tower, which affected the live feed to ITV.
"We are in contact with BT to establish the cause of this issue."
Audience members took to Twitter, however, and were quick to come up with their own theories.
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This Morning's showbiz reporter Rylan Clark-Neal joked on Twitter he had pulled the plug after fellow reporter Alison Hammond was given an interview with Victoria Beckham instead of him.
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ITV also made light of the situation asking Twitter users what they had done during the break in transmission, with some responding they'd chosen to do the ironing or make cups of tea.
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When the programme finally came back on air, Schofield and Willoughby seemed confused about the situation.
Schofield was reading comments on his Twitter feed to Willoughby and seemed to have only just realised they had fallen off air.
He later confirmed they had carried on as normal during the outage.
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Vicky Pattison lamented that her debut stint reporting on I'm A Celebrity - which she won in 2015 - had gone wrong.
"My big This Morning debut, man, and it's not even going out," she complained.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42053024
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What explains the continuing fascination with Charles Manson? - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Murderous 1960s cult leader Charles Manson has been granted a licence to marry, but what is it about him that continues to fascinate?
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Magazine
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What is it about the murderous cult leader Charles Manson, who committed his crimes more than 40 years ago, that continues to fascinate?
The stare is still the same. The hair may have greyed but the beard remains. With a swastika etched between his eyes, Charles Manson maintains an aura.
It is almost 45 years since he sent a group of his indoctrinated followers - known as the Family - to the home of heavily pregnant Hollywood actress Sharon Tate to "totally destroy everyone in it". She and four others were stabbed to death.
False clues were left to dress the scene as an attack by the Black Panthers, a militant African-American group which used violence in its battle against white racism.
Manson's hope was that these murders, and the killing of two shop owners the next night, would start a race war, after which he would emerge as America's ruler.
It did not happen. Amid public revulsion at his crimes, Manson was found guilty of conspiracy to murder in 1971 and given a life sentence.
Now aged 80, Manson has been granted a licence to marry Afton Elaine Burton, a 26-year-old who moved from the Mid West to live near the prison where he is an inmate in Corcoran, California. "I love him," she declares. "I'm with him." But that closeness is unlikely to extend to living with Manson, who isn't eligible for parole until 2027.
"Why does a 26-year-old woman want to marry him?" asks Daniel Kane, a lecturer on American literature and culture at Sussex University. "It shows the continuing attraction that he has for a counter-culture to this day. Manson the rebel, the outlaw, the radical vegetarian willing to kill to make his point.
"That's disgusting and demented, but it's also fundamentally political, in the same way a contemporary terrorist is political."
Actress Sharon Tate, the most high-profile victim of the "Manson family"
Sharon Tate's sister Debra, who acts as a spokeswoman for the families of Manson's victims, has called the impending marriage "ludicrous''. But this and other stories about Manson still get reported across the world's media.
More than 30 books about his life and crimes have been published. One, by the prosecuting attorney at his trial, Vincent Bugliosi, has sold more than seven million copies since 1974.
Manson's comments are widely quoted. He insists he is a "political prisoner" and that the US government is holding him hostage, proclaiming: "My father is your system... I am only what you made me. I am only a reflection of you."
Born in Ohio, Manson had an impoverished and troubled childhood. With a reportedly high IQ, but unable to read or write properly, he moved between reform schools. When he was five his mother and uncle went to prison after they held up a service station. By the age of 13 Manson was robbing casinos and shops at gunpoint.
He had "a tendency towards moodiness and a persecution complex", according to a psychologist who described him as "aggressively anti-social" partly due to "an unfavourable family life, if it can be called family life at all".
When he couldn't afford bills or support his pregnant wife, he became a thief. After six years in prison, he was released in 1967, the year of the so-called "summer of love".
Manson developed a fixation with the Beatles song Helter Skelter. Ostensibly about the difficulties of a love life told through a metaphor of a fairground ride, he instead thought it predicted an apocalyptic race war after which he and his followers, taking refuge in an underground city in California's Death Valley, would be the only white survivors. Black people, he thought, would be unable to organise themselves and then beg him to be their leader.
Manson set up a commune at the Spahn ranch in the Californian desert, surrounded by disused sets from 1950s Westerns. He recruited followers, mainly middle-class and female, with whom he took LSD and participated in orgies.
"He managed to exploit the hippy subculture brilliantly," says Kane, "Hippies, after all, proposed themselves as disaffiliated from the political and social mainstream, committed to creating their own independent utopias marked by sex, drugs and rock and roll.
"Manson took on all those signs - LSD, music, free love, communal lifestyles - and reframed them as tools for apocalyptic mass murder. Totally bizarre, totally evil, and very, very seductive."
With his long hair and beard, Manson's followers likened his appearance to that of Jesus.
"There are thousands of evil, polished conmen out there, and we've had more brutal murders than the Manson murders," Bugliosi, the prosecuting attorney at Manson's trial, told Rolling Stone magazine in 2012, "so why are we still talking about Charles Manson?
"He had a quality about him that one thousandth of 1% of people have. An aura. 'Vibes,' the kids called it in the 60s. Wherever he went, kids gravitated toward him."
Psychopaths are "incredibly charming and persuasive", says David Wilson, professor of criminology at Birmingham City University. "To get you under control, to court you, they appear to give their complete and utter attention."
There was a sense of bewilderment and terror at Manson's crimes - how an ex-convict from a poor background had managed to style himself as a guru and persuaded middle-class youngsters to do his bidding.
The Manson case involved drugs, orgies and cults, three concerns shared by parents of children growing up in the "free love" atmosphere of the era. It also came at a time of intense divisions in the US over civil rights, race and the Vietnam War. Rioting had affected several cities in 1968.
Wilson thinks Manson's persistence as a cultural figure is because he seemed to be teaching Americans about their own negligence to threats they apparently faced. This, plus his personal charisma, made his impact greater than that of most murderers.
"He is iconic because he was the person who brought the swinging sixties to an end," he says. "His strange and bizarre thinking appeared perfectly in tune with the damaged side of drug culture. It wasn't flower power any more. Youth culture was far darker and more disturbing than people had previously thought."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30094019
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Ofsted inspectors to quiz schoolgirls in hijabs - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Ofsted's head says making very young Muslim girls wear headscarves could be seen as sexualisation.
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Family & Education
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Inspectors will question girls who wear hijab in primary school to find out why they do so, head of Ofsted Amanda Spielman has said.
She said creating an environment where Muslim children are expected to wear the headscarf "could be interpreted as sexualisation of young girls".
The hijab is traditionally worn as a sign of modesty once a girl reaches puberty.
But the Muslim Council of Britain said Ofsted's policy was "deeply worrying".
The announcement comes after Ms Spielman met campaigners from the Social Action and Research Foundation think tank on Friday.
In September, the foundation's head, Amina Lone, co-ordinated a letter to the Sunday Times from campaigners arguing that the hijab has "no place in our primary schools", and demanding action as Muslim girls as young as five were "increasingly veiled".
"This is an affront to the historical fight for gender equality in our secular democracy and is creating a two-tiered form of non-equality for young Muslim girls," the letter said.
Explaining her decision to act, Ms Spielman said: "While respecting parents' choice to bring up their children according to their cultural norms, creating an environment where primary school children are expected to wear the hijab could be interpreted as sexualisation of young girls.
"In seeking to address these concerns, and in line with our current practice in terms of assessing whether the school promotes equality for their children, inspectors will talk to girls who wear such garments to ascertain why they do so in the school."
She urged parents concerned about fundamentalist groups influencing school policy or breaching equality law to complain to the school or to Ofsted.
But Muslim Council of Britain secretary general Harun Khan said: "It is deeply worrying that Ofsted has announced it will be specifically targeting and quizzing young Muslim girls who choose to wear the headscarf.
"It sends a clear message to all British women who adopt this that they are second-class citizens, that while they are free to wear the headscarf, the establishment would prefer that they do not."
He said many British Muslims who wear the headscarf have done "extremely well" in education.
"It is disappointing that this is becoming policy without even engaging with a diverse set of mainstream Muslim voices on the topic," he said.
Mr Khan urged Ms Spielman to reverse the decision and said it risked being "counter-productive" to Ofsted's promise to uphold British values.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-42046371
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Campaigners condemn 'ludicrous' hijab questioning - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Campaigners condemn Ofsted decision to ask girls in primary schools why they wear the headcsarf.
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Family & Education
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Muslim campaigners have condemned "discriminatory" plans for school inspectors to question girls who wear hijab in primary school.
Head of Ofsted Amanda Spielman said pupils would be asked why they wear the headscarf, which "could be interpreted as sexualisation of young girls".
But some have asked why the pupils and not the schools will be challenged.
Ofsted said the move was in line with its current practice of assessing whether a school promotes equality.
The hijab is traditionally worn as a sign of modesty once a girl reaches puberty.
Research by the National Secular Society in September suggested 59 of 142 Islamic schools, including 27 primary schools, in England have a uniform policy which states a head-covering is compulsory.
"The hijab in primary schools should be something that is dealt with via the schools uniform policy," said Sajda Mughal, head of JAN Trust, a charity working with BAME and Muslim women.
She called the move by Ofsted "nonsense and discriminatory" and said it will be used by extremists to advance their narrative of "them and us'" and could fuel marginalisation.
"I know as a Muslim mother of young girls, I'd be alarmed and horrified if I found that my daughters were questioned if they wore the hijab," she said.
This was echoed by human rights campaigner Aisha Ali-Khan, who said the primary schools should be held to account "rather than quizzing little girls".
Oftsed should instead ask "why are primary school uniform policies allowing hijab for girls under the age of puberty when Islamic laws state otherwise," she added.
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But Amina Lone, from the Social Action and Research Foundation, was one of those who lobbied Ofsted to take action.
"As a second generation Muslim woman and a parent, I have huge concerns about the increasing encroachment of gender inequality in public spaces for women of faith," she told the BBC's Asian Network.
"The hijab is absolutely not required for children.
"Gender equality was hard fought for in this country and we shouldn't be diluting that."
She said it was "absurd" to be having this debate in 2017 and stressed this was not about secondary school children or adults.
There is no ban on Islamic dress in the UK, but schools are allowed to decide their own dress code.
Current government advice states: "Pupils have the right to manifest a religion or belief, but not necessarily at all times, places or in a particular manner."
Shereen, a hijabi, said the choice should be between the parents and the child.
The mother-of two, whose own daughters do not wear a hijab, said the headscarf has been misrepresented.
"It has nothing to do with sexualising children. That claim is ridiculous," she told the BBC Asian Network.
"Hijab is not about sexualisation. It is a sign of submission to our faith," she said.
"I do feel like the government are trying to control Muslims."
But blogger Hifsa Haroon-Iqbal said the issue was simply a school uniform one.
"If schools do not want young children in primary education to wear hijabs in school, this needs to be made explicitly clear within the school uniform policy.
"This is not about racism, being islamophobic or discriminatory. It is common sense," the mother-of-three wrote.
"To subject a young child to questioning about why they are dressed in a particular way is ludicrous as it will always warrant the same response, 'because my mother dresses me'."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-42049814
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Robert Mugabe fails to resign during live televised speech - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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The embattled president vows to stay on, despite widespread speculation that he would announce his resignation.
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Zimbabwe's embattled leader Robert Mugabe has vowed to stay in power for several weeks, despite intensifying pressure on him to stand down.
Mr Mugabe said he would preside over the ruling Zanu-PF party's congress in December.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42045101
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Gaia Pope struggled with health before her death, father says - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The father of teenager Gaia Pope says she "clearly couldn't cope" with epilepsy and other issues.
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Dorset
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Richard Sutherland said the family would 'treasure her always'
Teenager Gaia Pope had "struggled" with health issues before her death, her father has said.
Police are treating the 19-year-old's death as "unexplained" after her body was found in a field near Swanage on Saturday.
Her father Richard Sutherland, said his daughter had had "a lot of issues" and "clearly just couldn't cope with that."
Three people who were arrested on suspicion of her murder will face no further action, police said earlier.
Paul Elsey, 49, his mother Rosemary Dinch, 71, and her 19-year-old grandson, Nathan Elsey, were all questioned about Ms Pope's disappearance.
Gaia Pope's body was found 11 days after she went missing
Miss Pope's body was found close to where items of her clothing were discovered two days earlier
Her body was found 11 days after she was reported missing in Swanage, on 7 November.
A post-mortem examination did not identify any injuries to suggest the involvement of other people, Dorset Police said.
The force is awaiting the results of toxicology tests.
Paul's father, Greg Elsey, said Ms Pope was clearly "on the verge of a nervous breakdown" when she visited Mrs Dinch in an agitated state on the day she disappeared.
He said her health problems included a previous breakdown as well as epilepsy.
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In a statement, Ms Pope's mother Natasha described her daughter as "a light that will radiate for all eternity".
"A wise, magnificent soul that burns far too bright for this world," she said.
"Her spirit overflows with love and compassion for others. Gaia our free spirit, our wild pony."
Mr Sutherland thanked the emergency services and members of the public who joined searches for his daughter.
He said his daughter had "happy moments... right up into the end of her life", despite her health problems.
Her cousin Marienna Pope-Weidemann said Ms Pope had been "very, very vulnerable, but such an inspiration".
She said she was determined that "lessons will be learned" from Ms Pope's death.
Visibly upset, she said: "It should not have taken 11 days to find her so close and we need to know why."
Gaia Pope's father Richard Sutherland thanked members of the public before a community search on Saturday
Following her disappearance, searches by police, the coastguard and police helicopter - along with hundreds of volunteers - were carried out in the Swanage area.
On Thursday, police discovered clothing belonging to Ms Pope on open land outside the town.
Her body was found two days later in the same area.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-42059141
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Muckamore Abbey Hospital: Four staff members suspended - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Four staff members are suspended from an Antrim hospital as police investigate claims of ill-treatment.
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Northern Ireland
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The hospital cares for adults with an intellectual disability, behavioural or mental health problems
Four staff members have been suspended from Muckamore Abbey Hospital in Antrim while police investigate allegations of the "ill-treatment" of patients.
The BBC understand it centres on the care of at least two patients.
Muckamore Abbey Hospital provides acute inpatient care to adults with an intellectual disability, behavioural or mental health problems.
A spokesperson for the Belfast Health Trust said that an incident had come to light several months ago.
"Following concerns identified in relation to the conduct of a small number of staff in Muckamore Abbey Hospital, Belfast Trust has placed four members of staff on precautionary exclusion from work while a full internal investigation is undertaken," it said.
The police said the safeguarding of any victim was their concern
Families of other long-term patients are being kept informed of the investigation.
The Belfast Trust says it has introduced additional measures and is assured of the ongoing safety and care of the community of patients in the hospital.
Det Ch Insp Tracey Mageean said: "We can confirm that we are working with Belfast Health and Social Care Trust regarding a number of allegations into ill treatment of patients at a hospital facility in Antrim.
"This is a live investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment any further.
"The safeguarding of any vulnerable victim is a priority for the Police Service of Northern Ireland."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-42058205
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New portraits released for Queen's platinum anniversary - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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On Monday the bells at Westminster Abbey will ring to mark 70 years since the Queen's wedding.
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UK
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Winston Churchill described the royal couple's wedding in 1947 as 'a flash of colour on the hard road we travel'
Three more portraits of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have been released to commemorate their platinum wedding anniversary.
On Monday it will be 70 years since their marriage at Westminster Abbey. The church's bells will ring for more than three hours to mark the occasion.
The couple will celebrate at a private dinner in Windsor Castle.
Queen Elizabeth is the first British monarch to celebrate a platinum wedding anniversary.
The images are part of a series by celebrity photographer Matt Holyoak, whose first portrait of them was revealed on Saturday.
The Queen wears a cream dress designed by Angela Kelly, her dressmaker for the last 15 years.
Her golden "Scarab" brooch was a gift from Prince Philip in 1966.
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh are the first royal couple to celebrate the milestone
When they married, the monarch was 21 and the Duke a 26-year-old sailor who had served in the Royal Navy.
Winston Churchill summed up the occasion in 1947 as "a flash of colour on the hard road we travel".
Prince Philip is the nation's longest serving consort and the Queen its most enduring monarch.
The pair will welcome their sixth great-grandchild in April.
Although the Queen continues with many of her duties as head of state, Prince Philip, 96, has retired from royal duties.
The Royal Mail has issued a set of six commemorative stamps for the occasion that feature the couple's engagement and wedding.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42044916
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Newcastle man missing after Amsterdam canal party boat fall - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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The 30-year-old was part of a group from Newcastle who were on board the boat on Saturday night.
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Tyne & Wear
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Neil Stewart was on the boat with his friends and girlfriend travelling from Amsterdam
A British man is missing after falling from a party boat into a canal in the Netherlands.
Neil Stewart, 30, who was part of a group from Newcastle, fell into the Noordzeekanaal at Westzaan, near Amsterdam, at about midnight on Saturday, Dutch police said.
An immediate search was launched involving divers and a helicopter but he is yet to be found.
Dutch firefighters said the water was about 7C (45F) at the time.
Mr Stewart was on the boat with his friends and girlfriend travelling from Amsterdam to IJmuiden when he fell, a police spokesman said.
The captain of the boat was immediately alerted but Mr Stewart had disappeared beneath the water.
The Noordzeekanaal canal is 13 miles (21km) long, 550ft (170m) wide and 50ft (15.5m) deep
The spokesman said sonar equipment was also used during the the search which went on until late on Sunday.
He said: "Now we are considering how to proceed.
"We first want to inform the girlfriend and family about the next steps."
The Noordzeekanaal canal is 13 miles (21km) long, 550ft (170m) wide and 50ft (15.5m) deep
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-42054057
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US moves to block AT&T's takeover of Time Warner - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit to stop the media and telecoms tie-up.
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Business
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Time Warner owns HBO, the company behind Game of Thrones
The US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit to block telecoms giant AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner, the owner of CNN and HBO.
The department said the merger would reduce competition and lead to higher consumer prices.
AT&T vowed to fight the move, calling it a radical departure from US competition practice.
US President Donald Trump objected to the deal during his campaign last year, fuelling the controversy.
AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson said he thought the acquisition had been on a good path "until recently".
He referred to concerns about possible political influence as the "elephant in the room". President Trump is a vocal critic of CNN which is owned by Time Warner.
Mr Stephenson said: "There's been a lot of reporting and speculation whether this is all about CNN. And frankly I don't know. Nobody should be surprised the question keeps coming up."
In its lawsuit, the Department of Justice claimed that the deal - valued at more than $85bn when it was announced last year - would harm American consumers.
Assistant attorney general Makan Delrahim of the Department of Justice's antitrust division, said: "It would mean higher monthly television bills and fewer of the new, emerging innovative options that consumers are beginning to enjoy."
Of the 24 firms that were part of the nationwide landline telephone network Bell System, ten are a part of the current AT&T. The firm has also been on a buying spree in the past two decades.
AT&T offshoot SBC Communications bought Pacific Telesis Group in 1997 and Ameritech in 1999. In 2005, SBC then bought out its parent group AT&T Corporation, creating the new AT&T Inc.
In 2006 AT&T bought BellSouth, which gave it total ownership of previous joint venture Cingular Wireless.
In 2013, it bought prepaid-wireless provider Cricket. In 2015, it completed the purchase of two Mexican wireless companies, Lusacell and Nextel Mexico, and also bought pay-TV firm DIRECTV. AT&T also owns approximately a 2% stake in Canadian-based entertainment company Lionsgate.
Meanwhile, Time Warner comprises three divisions: pay television service Home Box Office behind the popular Game of Thrones series, multi-channel TV provider Turner Broadcasting System, and giant entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros.
Mr Delrahim said the combination would hurt the emergence of new online television options and give AT&T the power to force rival pay TV companies to pay "hundreds of millions of dollars more" for Time Warner content.
The department has also denied political interference.
The decision to take legal action sets up a high-profile fight over US anti-trust law, which has rarely been tested in cases involving companies that do not directly compete.
George Hay, a professor of law and economics at Cornell, said there was "no question" the merger's potential competitive impact merited serious review.
However, he said the lawsuit was noteworthy given the president's comments during the presidential campaign.
"There would be nothing unusual if you didn't have all of this political background," he said.
During his presidential campaign last October, Mr Trump said that the deal would not be approved "in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few".
But challenges of vertical mergers - when firms operating at different levels within an industry's supply chain combine - have been rare, since at least one of the parties involved must have a major market position to raise concerns, Professor Hay said.
In the past, competition officials have also been open to settlements in such cases, assuming the deals will create efficiencies that could benefit the consumer. In those cases, companies can merge but face restrictions on their behaviour.
That happened in 2011, when the department allowed a merger between Comcast and NBCUniversal.
Last year, Mr Delrahim said he did not see major issues with the merger.
But he has also criticised so-called behavioural remedies used in the past to keep anti-competitive activity in check, saying they are overly intrusive and hard to enforce.
AT&T called Monday's lawsuit "a radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent".
The company's general counsel, David McAtee, said: "Vertical mergers like this one are routinely approved because they benefit consumers without removing any competitor from the market. We see no legitimate reason for our merger to be treated differently."
AT&T also denied that the deal would lead to higher charges and said it had been willing to negotiate.
Previously, US media reported that the Department of Justice was pushing AT&T to sell some of its assets as a condition for approval. The options included Turner Broadcasting or its satellite network.
Mr Stephenson has said he is unwilling to sell CNN, which is part of Turner.
Professor Hay said it was not clear how the case would fare in court and it could still get resolved with a settlement.
He said it was surprising that the challenge was coming under a Republican administration, since Republicans and their appointees have historically been more business friendly.
But he was "sceptical" the decision to bring the case would turn out to be entirely political, given how much Department of Justice staff prize their independence. If it were, he said, it would harm the department's case.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42058846
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Charles Manson dies aged 83 after four decades in prison - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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The cult leader sent his followers to commit a series of brutal murders in the late 1960s.
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US & Canada
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Charles Manson's followers carried out murders on his orders
Charles Manson, the notorious cult leader who directed his followers to commit a string of brutal murders, and who became a symbol of the dark side of 1960s counterculture, has died aged 83.
Manson was admitted to Bakersfield hospital, California earlier this month and died of natural causes on Sunday.
In 1969, his followers, known as the Manson Family, killed nine people.
Among the victims of the killing spree was heavily pregnant Hollywood actress Sharon Tate, wife of Roman Polanski.
One of Manson's young followers, Susan Atkins, stabbed Tate to death and scrawled "PIG" on the home's front door with the actress's blood.
Four other people at Tate's home were brutally stabbed to death. The next day, a wealthy couple in Los Angeles, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, were also killed by the clan. The killings became known collectively as the Tate-LaBianca murders.
Separately Donald Shea, a Hollywood stuntman, and Gary Hinman, an acquaintance of the group, were killed by members of the Manson Family.
Manson was not at the scene of the killings, but was nonetheless convicted of murder for directing his followers in seven of the killings. He was sentenced to death in 1971.
Sharon Tate, here with husband Roman Polanski, was eight and a half months pregnant when she was murdered
Manson "died of natural causes at 8:13 pm (04:13 GMT Monday) on Sunday" at a hospital in Kern County, the California Department of Corrections said in a statement. He had been in custody for more than 40 years.
Tate's sister, Debra told the TMZ website that she had received a phone call from prison officials shortly after Manson's death.
Gathering young followers around him in the late 1960s, Manson claimed to believe in a coming race war in America. He planned to hasten the war and emerge as the leader of a new social order - a vision he nicknamed "Helter Skelter", after a Beatles song Manson became obsessed with.
Prosecutors argued that Manson hoped black Americans would be blamed for the Tate-LaBianca killings, heightening racial tensions.
Manson convinced a number of his followers that he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, using a combination of drugs and genuine charisma to bring the "Family" - mainly young, middle-class women - under his control.
Before Manson's death sentence could be carried out, California outlawed capital punishment and his sentence was reduced to nine life sentences. Over the course of his four decades in prison, Manson applied for parole 12 times.
The last attempt was turned down by the parole board in 2012.
In 2014, Manson was granted a marriage licence to wed a 26-year-old woman who said she loved him, but the licence expired and the marriage did not go ahead.
Almost half a century on, the Manson Family's killing spree continues to fascinate many Americans, and has been retold through books, films and music.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42016704
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Florida plane highway crash caught on dashcams - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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The crash was caught on the dashcams of two police officers.
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A pilot has crash landed on a Florida highway after experiencing engine trouble.
It happened near Clearwater Airpark in Pinellas County on Sunday morning.
The incident was caught on the dashcam of two police officers who were in the area on an unrelated call.
There were no reported injuries.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42050165
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Anna Soubry blames death threats on 'mutineers' headline - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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Conservative Anna Soubry was labelled a "mutineer" for planning to rebel on a key Brexit vote.
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UK Politics
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Ex-Tory minister Anna Soubry says her office has received 13 death threats since a newspaper front page named her as one of 15 "Brexit mutineers".
The pro-EU Remain supporter said the police took the threats seriously and had passed two cases to prosecutors.
She said she had been "really quite frightened" and blamed the threats on Wednesday's Daily Telegraph front page.
The paper's editor defended what he called "the legitimate actions and language of a free press".
The story concerned Conservative MPs planning to rebel against the government's bid to enshrine the precise date of Brexit in law.
Speaking on Broadcasting House on BBC Radio 4, Ms Soubry said her office had told her of the 13 death threats.
"That's just astonishing, isn't it?" she said.
"The police take it seriously - it's not nice, it's not acceptable and it's not necessary."
Ms Soubry had previously described the headline as a "blatant piece of bullying".
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The threats had included "references to what happens to mutineers", she told the BBC, adding: "A number of tweets have said we should be hung."
She added: "If the Telegraph had not printed that headline those death threats would not have come through - that is a fact."
The government lost its majority at the general election and risks defeat when the Commons votes next month on the Brexit date issue.
Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Chancellor Philip Hammond said the government would not be withdrawing its plans to press ahead with the move, adding that Parliament was "quite rightly" debating the proposals as part of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill.
The BBC has contacted the Daily Telegraph for a formal response.
But in a tweet to Broadcasting House presenter Paddy O'Connell, editor Chris Evans said: "I'd urge you to distinguish between the legitimate actions and language of a free press and the illegitimate actions and language of those who make threats of violence."
He also referred to a leader article in Saturday's paper defending the headline, which it says was intended to be "arresting" and to show "that there are still forces at work seeking to stop Brexit happening".
It added: "The individuals may disagree with that observation, but we were entitled to make it and we will see during the course of the next year whether there is any merit in it.
"But the accusations of bullying are absurd and shrill."
The article also pointed out that Ms Soubry had described her inclusion in the front page as a "badge of honour".
The Telegraph's front page echoed that of the Daily Mail when it singled out three judges - labelling them "Enemies of the people" - after the High Court ruled that MPs must have a say on triggering Article 50.
The Daily Mail's piece attracted hundreds of complaints to watchdog the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42045175
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Dame Katherine Grainger urges improvements in athlete welfare - BBC Sport
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2017-11-20
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The chair of UK Sport, Dame Katherine Grainger, urges British sports to improve athlete welfare amid widespread bullying allegations.
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Last updated on .From the section Sport
UK Sport chair and Olympic gold medallist Dame Katherine Grainger has urged British sports to improve athlete welfare.
Several governing bodies are embroiled in bullying allegations and Grainger said they must "rise to the challenge" of improving high-performance culture.
The 42-year-old five-time Olympian, who won rowing gold at London 2012, said there was "a lot more to do" on duty of care, and that this would mean more medals, not fewer.
It comes as UK Sport releases new guidance to coaches and staff on how to treat athletes with more respect.
The funding agency says coaching staff will be given guidance on four so-called "golden threads" of a positive and winning sporting culture - inspiration, integrity, the pursuit of excellence, and respect - tailored to "12 critical moments in an athlete's journey through their sport".
• None Should welfare come before winning?
What is the background?
UK Sport's 'no-compromise' funding strategy, which allocates money according to medal potential, has been credited with transforming the country's Olympic and Paralympic fortunes.
But months of negative headlines involving athlete complaints have raised fears that medal success has come at the expense of welfare.
This isn't about putting welfare before performance because there isn't a choice between the two.
Last week, British Gymnastics became the latest governing body to be dragged into the crisis, after inquiries into duty of care standards at British Cycling,British Swimming,British Canoeing,GB Taekwondo and the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association among others.
Commonwealth champion Dan Keatings told BBC Sport he experienced a culture of "bullying and manipulation" throughout his time as a British gymnast, and several of his former team-mates are in dispute with the governing body over their refusal to sign new contracts.
Last month, MPs on a parliamentary select committee were told that British athletes were threatened with not being selected if they spoke out about classification concerns in Paralympic sports.
Meanwhile, Jess Varnish is suing British Cycling and UK Sport after she claimed to be the victim of bullying and discrimination when she was dropped from the Olympic squad last year.
If her lawyers successfully argue that she should have had employee status as a competitor and therefore better protections, the case could have major ramifications for all contracted athletes who are funded by UK Sport.
'There is a lot more to do'
"I recognise and accept that there have been a number of difficult issues across a range of sports in recent months that have challenged our system, and we have to rise to that challenge," said Grainger, who became one of the most powerful figures in British sport when appointed in July.
"These issues do not take away from the achievements of our athletes and coaches, but neither can we brush them under the carpet or just hope that they go away.
"We have to aim to be the best in the world at athlete welfare, culture, governance and integrity just as we aim to be so in performance.
"And we have to be seen to be the best in order to maintain public trust and pride in our achievements."
UK Sport has already appointed a new head of integrity and says it has conducted a review of policies across the high performance system.
It is also understood to be considering more funding for the British Athletes Commission.
Last week the sports minister Tracey Crouch said she was open to appointing an independent ombudsman to investigate cases of bullying and discrimination, a key recommendation of Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson's duty of care review earlier this year.
"We have done a lot already but there is a lot more to do," added Grainger. "In particular we have to concentrate on putting these new and improved policies into action.
"Getting our culture right is simply the right thing to do. This isn't about putting welfare before performance because there isn't a choice between the two.
"I genuinely believe that a better culture will lead to a stronger system and that in turn will help improve performances."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/42043222
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Charles Manson: Messianic leader of a death cult - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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Cult leader whose so-called Family embarked on a series of high-profile murders that tarnished the 60s hippy dream.
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US & Canada
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Manson, pictured here in 1989, sent his followers to commit murder on his behalf
Members of his so-called Family were responsible for a series of high-profile killings that shattered the peace and love of the Californian summer of 1969.
Over a period of five weeks, nine people, including the actress Sharon Tate, died in barbaric circumstances.
Despite not committing any of the murders himself, Manson narrowly escaped the death penalty and spent the rest of his life in jail.
He was born Charles Milles Maddox in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 12 November 1934, the illegitimate son of 16-year-old Kathleen Maddox. Shortly after his birth, his mother married William Manson and her son took his stepfather's name.
He endured a miserable childhood. His mother was an alcoholic and when, in 1939, she was jailed after robbing a petrol station, Manson was placed in the care of his aunt and uncle.
When his mother was paroled in 1942 she lived with her eight-year-old son in a series of dilapidated rooms before unsuccessfully applying to a court to have him fostered. Instead he was placed in a Catholic boys' home from which he ran away after just 10 months.
By the time he was a teenager he was a habitual criminal
Manson's robbery of an off-licence marked the beginning of a series of crimes, including armed robbery, and subsequent incarcerations in a number of institutions.
By the time he was 17 he had a string of convictions, with one prison case worker reporting that he was "aggressively antisocial". After rebelling against the prison authorities, he was classified as dangerous.
However, by 1954, after a period of good behaviour, he was allowed parole. He moved to West Virginia to be with his mother and, in 1955, married Rosalie Jean Willis, who worked as a waitress in a hospital.
This brief settled period came to an end when he was sentenced to five years' probation for car theft, which was changed to three years in prison after he failed to appear in court to answer another charge. His wife went off with another man and the couple divorced.
Manson took up with a prostitute named Leona "Candy" Stevens, whose tearful plea to a court that she and Manson would marry if he stayed out of jail saw the judge suspend a 10-year jail sentence on Manson for passing a stolen Treasury cheque. However, in 1960 he again broke probation and was ordered to serve his suspended sentence.
In 1967 he was released from prison despite pleading with the authorities to let him stay. Having spent half his life in institutions, he did not feel capable of facing the world outside.
Three of his Family - Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten - arrive in court
He moved to San Francisco where he met a library assistant called Mary Bunning, eventually persuading her to allow other women to move in with them. According to one account, there were at least 18 women resident in the apartment in the first incarnation of what would be dubbed the Manson Family.
Fuelled by considerable quantities of drugs, notably LSD, Manson set himself up as something of a guru, peddling a mixture of beliefs and the teachings of numerous cults. He convinced a series of adoring female followers that he was in fact Christ.
Before the end of 1967, Manson and some of his followers set off to tour the country in an old bus, covered in hippie regalia.
In a bizarre interlude, the Family moved into a plush house owned by the Beach Boys drummer, Dennis Wilson, where the musician found himself subsidising Manson's growing entourage. He introduced Manson to a number of friends working in music and show business.
After being evicted by Wilson's manager, the Family relocated to a rundown ranch where Manson became obsessed by the track Helter Skelter on the Beatles' White Album, released in November 1968.
Lennon and McCartney's innocent lyrics about a children's playground slide were interpreted by Manson as signifying the beginning of a race war between black and white. In Manson's fevered mind, black people would emerge victorious but would have to rely on the guidance of the Family to help them to build a new social order.
The first killing took place on 25 July 1969, when Manson sent three members to the house of an acquaintance, Gary Hinman, who, Manson believed, had a stash of money. After being held hostage for two days, Hinman was stabbed to death by a Family member, Bobby Beausoleil.
On 8 August, Manson sent four members of the Family to the rented house of record producer Terry Melcher, with instructions to kill everyone they found. Melcher had previously turned down Manson's request for a recording contract.
However, Melcher had moved, and the house had been rented to the film director Roman Polanski and his actress wife Sharon Tate. The gang first shot an 18-year-old youth they encountered outside the house before bursting in and killing the four occupants, hairstylist Jay Sebring, Polanski's friend and aspiring screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski and Frykowski's girlfriend Abigail Folger. Polanski himself was in London on business.
Tate, who was eight and a half months pregnant, died from stab wounds and her blood was used to write the word "pig" on the outside of the house.
Sharon Tate, 26, and Roman Polanski had only married the year before
The following night Manson, who had not attended the previous killings, went with six members of the Family to the house of a supermarket executive, Leno LaBianca, and his wife Rosemary. The couple were stabbed to death although, after tying them up, Manson left the house before the attacks began.
The final victim was Donald Shea. Manson instructed Steve Grogan, a member of the Family, to kill the former film stuntman, who he believed had passed information to the police. Shea's remains were not found until 1977, when Grogan led police to where he had buried him eight years previously.
The police initially ruled out any connection between the Tate and LaBianca killings. The breakthrough only came when Manson and some Family members were arrested after allegations they had vandalised part of the Death Valley National Park by burning stolen vehicles.
While being held in custody, Family member Susan Atkins confided her involvement in the murders to two other prisoners who informed the authorities.
The trial was marked by a series of disruptions by Family members and a rambling speech in his own defence by Manson. Manson and the three other defendants from the Family were sentenced to death. An appeal process delayed the executions and the sentences were commuted to life imprisonment when California abolished the death penalty in 1972.
The publicity surrounding Charles Manson and his Family failed to go away. In 1975, one of his followers, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, was jailed for life after attempting to assassinate President Ford.
Manson himself remained in the public eye. He gave four TV interviews from prison in the 1980s, most notably with Dan Snyder from NBC News and Charlie Rose for CBS, the latter interview winning an Emmy award.
His marriage to Elaine "Star" Burton did not go ahead
By the turn of the century, Manson and his followers had become something of a cult, with websites dedicated to him by people not even born when the Family committed murder.
One of these admirers was Afton Elaine "Star" Burton, who had begun corresponding with Manson in 2007 when she was just 17. She later announced that she and Manson had become engaged. A marriage licence was issued but it expired without any wedding taking place.
The singer Marilyn Manson took his surname, while the British band Kasabian are named after Linda Kasabian, the Family member who escaped prosecution by giving evidence against her former associates.
Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor at his trial, and the author of Helter Skelter, an account of the case, summed it up thus. "The very name Manson has become a metaphor for evil, and evil has its allure."
Manson made 12 applications for parole, all of which were refused. Neither the court hearings, nor a positive avalanche of subsequent writings, have given any definitive explanation for Manson's motivation or, perhaps more puzzling, the motivation of those who decided to follow him and commit murder on his behalf.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36091052
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Emmerson Mnangagwa: The 'crocodile' who snapped back - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The man who took over from Robert Mugabe as Zimbabwe's president wants to legitimise his rule.
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Africa
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Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the man known as "the crocodile" because of his political cunning, achieved a long-held ambition to succeed Robert Mugabe as Zimbabwe's president in November last year.
He has now won a disputed presidential election to legitimise his rule, promising voters his efforts to woo foreign investors will bring back the economy from the brink of collapse.
Mr Mugabe resigned following a military takeover and mass demonstrations - all sparked by his sacking of Mr Mnangagwa as his vice-president.
"The crocodile", who lived up to his name and snapped back, may have unseated Zimbabwe's only ruler, but he is also associated with some of the worst atrocities committed under the ruling Zanu-PF party since independence in 1980.
One veteran of the liberation struggle, who worked with him for many years, once put it simply: "He's a very cruel man, very cruel."
But his children see him as a principled, if unemotional, man. His daughter, Farai Mlotshwa - a property developer and the eldest of his nine children by two wives - told BBC Radio 4 that he was a "softie".
As if to reinforce this softer image of the new leader, a cuddly crocodile soft toy was passed among the Zanu-PF supporters who welcomed him back to the country after Mr Mugabe's resignation.
Emmerson Mnangagwa is known as "Ngwena", the Shona word for crocodile
And what he lacks in charisma and oratory prowess, he makes up for in pragmatism, says close friend and Zanu-PF politician Josiah Hungwe.
"Mnangagwa is a practical person. He is a person who recognises that politics is politics but people must eat," he told the BBC, adding that reforming Zimbabwe's disastrous economy will be the focus of his leadership.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Emmerson Mnangagwa: Who is the man known as the ‘crocodile’?
The exact year of Mr Mnangagwa's birth is not known - but he is thought to be 75, which would make him nearly 20 years younger than his predecessor who left power aged 93.
Born in the central region of Zvishavane, he is a Karanga - the largest clan of Zimbabwe's majority Shona community.
Some Karangas felt it was their turn for power, following 37 years of domination by Mr Mugabe's Zezuru clan, though Mr Mnangagwa was accused of profiting while under Mr Mugabe.
According to a United Nations report in 2001, he was seen as "the architect of the commercial activities of Zanu-PF".
This largely related to the operations of the Zimbabwean army and businessmen in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Zimbabwean troops intervened in the DR Congo conflict on the side of the government and, like those of other countries, were accused of using the conflict to loot some of its rich natural resources such as diamonds, gold and other minerals.
More recently military officials - many behind his rise to power - have been accused of benefiting from the rich Marange diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe, with reports of killings and human rights abuses there.
Despite his money-raising role, Mr Mnangagwa, a lawyer who grew up in Zambia, was not always well-loved by the rank and file of his own party.
A Zanu-PF official posed an interesting question when asked about Mr Mnangagwa's prospects: "You think Mugabe is bad, but have you thought that whoever comes after him could be even worse?"
The opposition candidate who defeated Mr Mnangagwa in the 2000 parliamentary campaign in Kwekwe Central, Blessing Chebundo, might agree.
During a bitter campaign, Mr Chebundo escaped death by a whisker when the Zanu-PF youths who had abducted him and doused him with petrol were unable to light a match.
Those who fought in Zimbabwe's war of independence have long monopolised power
Mr Mnangagwa's fearsome reputation was made during the civil war which broke out in the 1980s between Mr Mugabe's Zanu party and the Zapu party of Joshua Nkomo.
As national security minister, he was in charge of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), which worked hand in glove with the army to suppress Zapu.
Thousands of civilians - mainly ethnic Ndebeles, seen as Zapu supporters - were killed in a campaign known as Gukurahundi, before the two parties merged to form Zanu-PF.
Among countless other atrocities carried out by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade of the army, villagers were forced at gunpoint to dance on the freshly dug graves of their relatives and chant pro-Mugabe slogans.
Mr Mnangagwa has denied any role in the massacres, but the wounds are still painful and many party officials, not to mention voters, in Matabeleland might find it hard to back Mr Mnangagwa.
He does enjoy the support of many of the war veterans who led the campaign of violence against the white farmers and the opposition from 2000.
They remember him as one of the men who, following his military training in China and Egypt, directed the fight for independence in the 1960s and 1970s.
He also attended the Beijing School of Ideology, run by the Chinese Communist Party.
Mr Mnangagwa's official profile says he was the victim of state violence after being arrested by the white-minority government in the former Rhodesia in 1965, when the "crocodile gang" he led helped blow up a train near Fort Victoria (now Masvingo).
"He was tortured, severely resulting in him losing his sense of hearing in one ear," the profile says.
"Part of the torture techniques involved being hanged with his feet on the ceiling and the head down. The severity of the torture made him unconscious for days."
As he said he was under 21 at the time, he was not executed but instead sentenced to 10 years in prison.
"He has scars from that period. He was young and brave," a close friend of Mr Mnangagwa once said, asking not to be named.
"Perhaps that explains why he is indifferent. Horrible things happened to him when he was young."
His ruthlessness, which it could be argued he learnt from his Rhodesian torturers, is said to have been seen again in 2008 when he reportedly masterminded Zanu-PF's response to Mr Mugabe losing the first round of the president election to long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai.
The military and state security organisations unleashed a campaign of violence against opposition supporters, leaving hundreds dead and forcing thousands from their homes.
Mr Tsvangirai then pulled out of the second round and Mr Mugabe was re-elected.
Mr Mnangagwa has not commented on allegations he was involved in planning the violence, but an insider in the party's security department later confirmed that he was the political link between the army, intelligence and Zanu-PF.
He was seen as Mr Mugabe's right-hand man - that is until the former first lady Grace Mugabe became politically ambitious and tried to edge him out.
Their rivalry took a bizarre turn when he fell ill in August 2017 at a political rally led by former President Mugabe and had to be airlifted to South Africa.
Grace Mugabe (right) bit off more than she could chew by taking on Mr Mnangagwa
His supporters suggested that a rival group within Zanu-PF had poisoned him and appeared to blame ice cream from Mrs Mugabe's dairy firm.
In his first words to cheering supporters after Mr Mugabe's resignation, he spoke about this plot and another plan to "eliminate" him.
He has also blamed a group linked to the former first lady for an explosion in June at a Zanu-PF rally in Bulawayo in which two people died.
But in a BBC interview, he said the country was safe, told foreign investors not to worry and sought to dispel his ruthless reputation: "I am as soft as wool. I am a very soft person in life."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mnangagwa: Criminal will be hounded down, but Zimbabwe is safe
His youngest son, a Harare DJ known as St Emmo, blames his reticence for his fearsome reputation.
"He was a good father, very very strict. He doesn't say much and I think that's what frightens people - like: 'What is he thinking?'"
Nick Mangwana, Zanu-PF representative in the UK, accepts that the Zimbabwe's new leader is "not the most eloquent".
"He's not pally-pally but more of a do-er, more of a technocrat."
But in his six months in power he has fully embraced Twitter and Facebook - after the Bulawayo blast he posted a message reiterating the strength his Christian faith gives him.
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Fixing the economy is what is paramount now. Zimbabweans are on average 15% poorer now than they were in the 1980s.
British journalist Martin Fletcher, who interviewed Mr Mnangagwa in 2016, does not see him a reborn democrat.
"He understands the need to rebuild the economy if only so that he can pay his security forces - and his survival depends on their loyalty," he said.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-41995876
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Brexit: The crunch is coming for Theresa May - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Laura Kuenssberg looks ahead to talks on Monday, when the government may make key Brexit decisions.
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UK Politics
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Hard conversations are coming for Theresa May
Did you watch Theresa May try to make the best of her Swedish photo opportunities yesterday? Or listen to David Davis as he urged the EU side to blink first, rather than the UK side?
They both know that time is short to guarantee the UK gets what it wants and pushes the EU to move to the next stage of vital Brexit talks at the next leaders' jamboree in December.
What's been missing until now is a sense of when the UK will be able to resolve its own short-term position.
Is the cabinet willing to sanction a political move to offer the promise (not the figure) of more money on the table to settle our EU accounts?
And if ministers are willing to do so, what do they expect in return - and when?
It's been all too obvious that the EU side has, for a long time, been clear that they'll only budge when the UK is ready to promise - even vaguely or implicitly - a lot more cash.
The hold-up has in part been that the UK has been pushing to make sure that taxpayers at home don't shell out when they don't have to.
And also because UK and EU officials have taken a very different approach to settling the bill.
But it's also the case that cabinet ministers have not been ready to agree how they want to proceed, and without that political agreement, it's been hard for the negotiations about the money to progress.
However, the crunch is coming fast.
I'm told on Monday there will be a significant meeting of the small cabinet committee that decides the Brexit negotiating strategy.
Several government sources say the meeting of the Brexit strategy group could change the course of our departure.
The question to be answered on Monday could be profound.
One source told me: "People have to decide if they really want to make progress and support this prime minister, or not."
For some in government that tight group of cabinet ministers must on Monday take a decision as vital as that - do they want to do a deal with the EU, or not?
David Davis has urged EU negotiators to blink first
Of course there is bravado on both sides.
As ever, whether thinking of talks on the continent, or in government, take every utterance with a pinch of salt.
Brexiteer ministers believe that they need to be clearer about what the UK would get in return for paying a bigger bill - a view that would no question have sympathy among swathes of taxpayers.
They are not, thus far, ready to sign up to what they see as Number 10's version of the next move - a promise to pay a lot more cash, potentially as much as 50bn-60bn euros.
They do not rule it out completely, but not before it is clear what we get in return.
But the lack of clarity in government about our eventual destination - whether we are closely, or loosely tied to the EU after departure - makes that hard to conclude.
One insider said: "We still have to settle the broader question - what do we actually want? That's the point to consider."
The discussion on Monday could therefore spill into conversations about the future relationship after Brexit, as well as cold hard cash.
For some in government, Monday feels vital. For others, it's OK in theory to let another decision point go past without conclusions.
But if they don't reach any conclusions, some in government believe that sets us on a course to crash out with no deal.
Time is running short for the discussion in government that Theresa May has put off for so long.
But one insider said there is no "limping" on until March: "We have to just decide."
Donald Tusk's deadline is hypothetical, but the pressure to move on is now not just coming from Brussels or Berlin, but from some elements in government.
Theresa May is yet to give her own public view.
But hard conversations don't get easier the longer you wait.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42035721
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Robert Mugabe: Is Zimbabwe's ex-president a hero or villain? - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A profile of Zimbabwe's former President Robert Mugabe, accused of destroying a prosperous country for the sake of power, but still seen by some as a revolutionary hero.
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Africa
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Robert Mugabe, the man who became synonymous with Zimbabwe, has resigned as president after 37 years in power.
For some, he will always remain a hero who brought independence and an end to white-minority rule. Even those who forced him out blamed his wife and "criminals" around him.
But to his growing number of critics, this highly educated, wily politician became the caricature of an African dictator, who destroyed an entire country in order to keep his job.
In the end, it was the security forces, who had been instrumental in intimidating the opposition and keeping him in power, who made him go.
They were incensed when he sacked his long-time ally, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, paving the way for his much younger wife Grace to succeed him, fearing it meant the end for them as the powers behind the throne.
He had survived numerous previous crises and predictions of his demise but with his powers failing at the age of 93, his former comrades-in-arms turned on him, favouring Mr Mnangagwa.
Before the 2008 elections, Mr Mugabe said: "If you lose an election and are rejected by the people, it is time to leave politics."
But after coming second to Morgan Tsvangirai, Mr Mugabe displayed more characteristic defiance, swearing that "only God" could remove him from office.
And just to be sure, violence was unleashed to preserve his grip on power.
In order to save the lives of his supporters, Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of the second round and although Mr Mugabe was forced to share power with his long-time rival for four years, he remained president.
He even won another election, in 2013, as Mr Tsvangirai had lost a lot of credibility during his years working with Mr Mugabe.
The key to understanding Mr Mugabe is the 1970s guerrilla war where he made his name.
President Mugabe (L) has given his support to his wife Grace (R) for the vice-presidency
Even after 37 years in power, Mr Mugabe still maintained the same worldview - the patriotic socialist forces of his Zanu-PF party were still fighting the twin evils of capitalism and colonialism.
Any critics were dismissed as "traitors and sell-outs" - a throwback to the guerrilla war, when such labels could be a death sentence.
Robert Mugabe (L), seen here in 1960, was greatly influenced by pan-Africanist ideals
He always blamed Zimbabwe's economic problems on a plot by Western countries, led by the UK, to oust him because of his seizure of white-owned farms.
His critics firmly blamed him, saying he had no understanding of how a modern economy worked.
He always concentrated on the question of how to share out the national cake, rather than how to make it grow.
Protesters in 2016 burn worthless currency in a show of defiance against the introduction of new bond notes
Mr Mugabe once famously said that a country could never go bankrupt - with the world's fastest-shrinking economy and annual inflation of 231 million per cent in July 2008, it seemed as though he was determined to test his theory to the limit.
Professor Tony Hawkins of the University of Zimbabwe once observed that with Zimbabwe's former leader: "Whenever economics gets in the way of politics, politics wins every time."
In 2000, faced with a strong opposition for the first time, he wrecked what was one of Africa's most diversified economies in a bid to retain political control.
He seized the white-owned farms which were the economy's backbone and scared off donors but in purely political terms, Mr Mugabe outsmarted his enemies - he remained in power for another 17 years.
And the tactics he and his supporters used were straight from the guerrilla war.
After he suffered the first electoral defeat of his career, in a 2000 referendum, Mr Mugabe unleashed his personal militia - the self-styled war veterans, backed by the security forces - who used violence and murder as an electoral strategy.
Mr Mugabe says he is fighting for the rights of black Zimbabweans
Eight years later, a similar pattern was followed after Mr Mugabe lost the first round of a presidential election to his long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai.
When needed, all the levers of state - the security forces, civil service, state-owned media - which are mostly controlled by Zanu-PF, were used in the service of the ruling party.
The man who fought for one-man, one-vote introduced a requirement that potential voters prove their residence with utility bills, which the young, unemployed opposition core electorate were unlikely to have.
In fact, the signs of his attitude to opposition were there from the early 1980s, when members of the North-Korea trained Fifth Brigade of the army were sent to Matabeleland, home to his then rival, Joshua Nkomo.
Thousands of civilians were killed before Mr Nkomo agreed to share power with Mr Mugabe - a precursor of what happened with Mr Tsvangirai.
One of the undoubted achievements of the former teacher's 33 years in power was the expansion of education. Zimbabwe still has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa, at 89% of the population.
The now deceased political scientist Masipula Sithole once said that by expanding education, the president was "digging his own grave".
Mr Mugabe has not been afraid to use violence to stay in power
The young beneficiaries were able to analyse Zimbabwe's problems for themselves and most blamed government corruption and mismanagement for the lack of jobs and rising prices.
He often claimed to be fighting on behalf of the rural poor but much of the land he confiscated ended up in the hands of his cronies.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said that Zimbabwe's long-time president had become a cartoon figure of the archetypal African dictator.
During the 2002 presidential campaign, he started wearing brightly coloured shirts emblazoned with his face - a style copied from many of Africa's authoritarian rulers.
For the preceding 20 years, this conservative man was only seen in public with either a stiff suit and tie or safari suit.
He professes to be a staunch Catholic, and worshippers at Harare's Catholic Cathedral were occasionally swamped by security guards when he turned up for Sunday Mass.
However, Mr Mugabe's beliefs did not prevent him from having two children by Grace, then his secretary, while his popular Ghanaian first wife, Sally, was dying from cancer.
But it was his second wife Grace, 40 years his junior, who ultimately proved his downfall.
Although Mr Mugabe outlived many predictions of his demise, the increasing strain of recent years took its toll and his once-impeccable presentation has begun to look rather worn at times.
In 2011, a US diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks suggested that he was suffering from prostate cancer.
Wife Grace said Mr Mugabe woke at 05:00 for his exercise
But he certainly led a healthy lifestyle.
Grace once said that he woke up at 05:00 for his daily exercises, including yoga. He did not drink alcohol or coffee and was largely vegetarian.
Mr Mugabe was 73 when she gave birth to their third child, Chatunga.
If nothing else, Mr Mugabe has always been an extremely proud man.
He often said he would only step down when his "revolution" was complete.
He was referring to the redistribution of white-owned land but he also wanted to hand-pick his successor, who would of course have had to come from the ranks of Zanu-PF.
Didymus Mutasa, once one of Mr Mugabe's closest associates but who has since fallen out with him, once told the BBC that in Zimbabwean culture, kings were only replaced when they die "and Mugabe is our king".
But even his closest allies were not ready for Zimbabwe to be turned into a monarchy, with power retained by a single family.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23431534
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David Haye v Tony Bellew: Rematch postponed after Haye's 'freak' accident - BBC Sport
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2017-11-20
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David Haye's heavyweight rematch with Tony Bellew is postponed after Haye slips on the stairs in a "freak" training accident.
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Last updated on .From the section Boxing
David Haye's heavyweight rematch with fellow Briton Tony Bellew has been postponed after Haye slipped on the stairs in a "freak" training accident.
Haye, who has had surgery for a torn biceps, said he was "devastated".
WBC cruiserweight world champion Bellew, 34, stopped former heavyweight world champion Haye, 37, in the 11th round of their fight in March.
The rematch, a sell-out scheduled for 17 December at the 02 Arena in London, will be held on 24 March or 5 May 2018.
Haye was injured during training on 16 November.
"After a freak accident during a stair conditioning session, which I've done with no incident hundreds of times, I lost my footing and slipped," he said.
"I instinctively grabbed the banister to stop myself toppling down the stairwell. In doing so I somehow managed to damage my biceps.
"I underwent a procedure to repair it; this was pretty straightforward and my doctor and physiotherapist have no doubt that not only will I make a full recovery but will be able to be back in the gym to start my arm rehabilitation in two weeks.
"I would like to apologise to Tony, his family and his training team, as well as all our fans who have been left disappointed."
This is the latest injury for David Haye - just about everything has gone wrong with him. He's been boxing for 25 years and it takes its toll on everybody.
Every time he has fought in the last 10 years he has hurt himself, he has pulled out of some monumental fights. He has to be so careful when he trains because when he was younger, he didn't.
He is desperate to fight, to put right a wrong which he considers the last Bellew fight - and he wants a £6m, £7m or £8m payday with Anthony Joshua.
Bellew will be crushed, he's had a long camp and I don't think he will take another fight. He will give Haye until the New Year. He wants that fight. It will make him a lot of money and Bellew is convinced he will win.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/42056678
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Georgia Dome stadium crumbles in controlled demolition - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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Around 5,000lb of explosives were used to bring down one of the biggest dome structures in the US.
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Around 5,000lb of explosives were used to bring down one of the biggest dome structures in the US. The newly erected Mercedes-Benz Stadium next door opened earlier this year.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42058177
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Endris Mohammed jailed for children's smother-murders - BBC News
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2017-11-20
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Endris Mohammed killed the children with a petrol-soaked rag and tried to kill his wife in a gas blast.
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Birmingham & Black Country
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Endris Mohammed carried out the killings during a "sleepover" in the lounge
A man who murdered his two young children by smothering them with a petrol-soaked rag has been sentenced to at least 33 years in jail.
Endris Mohammed, 47, was convicted of killing his son Saros and daughter Leanor Endris, aged eight and six, at their home in Birmingham last October.
He also tried to kill his wife in an attempted gas blast at the house, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
He was also given a 10-year concurrent sentence for her attempted murder.
On Friday, jurors took less than 30 minutes to find Mohammed guilty of the killings of his children and the attempt to murder his wife, Penil Teklehaimanot.
Jurors had heard that after trying to blow up the house by tampering with a gas valve Mohammed, a taxi driver, had started a fire near the front door.
Saros and Leanor died from airway obstruction after suffering chemical burns to their faces, the court was told.
Mohammed was told his children "trusted him implicitly"
On the night they were murdered, Mrs Teklehaimanot was woken by a smoke alarm at their home in Holland Road, Great Barr, but had thought her children were asleep.
But, they had been killed by their father during a "sleepover" downstairs with him, and were found dead at about 03.30 BST on 28 October, 2016.
Passing sentence on Mohammed, Mr Justice Gilbart described the murders as a "terrible criminal enterprise" and told Mohammed: "You have deliberately snuffed out their young lives".
"They trusted you implicitly and were enjoying your company even on the night of their murder," he said. "You repaid their trust in you by killing them."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mohammed captured buying petrol on CCTV less than 12 hours before killing his children
CCTV footage showed Mohammed buying a fuel can and three litres of petrol the day before the murders.
Speaking after his conviction, Mrs Teklehaimanot said the pain of losing her children was "indescribable".
"There is no bigger pain in this world than this experience," she said. "I cannot comprehend how anyone could be so cold-hearted."
Endris Mohammed suffered burns when he set his car on fire
The Uber driver claimed to have a depressive disorder, citing debts and failed hopes for "a good life in England".
He murdered his children after deciding they "would be better off dead", the court heard.
He was later found sitting in his car in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, with severe burns, after setting fire to himself.
Police said Mohammed had no history of mental illness and contrary to claims of financial difficulties, his account was not overdrawn and Mrs Teklehaimanot was "bringing good money into the house".
Judge Gilbart accepted Mohammed was suffering a depressive illness but said it fell short of diminished responsibility.
Det Insp Justin Spanner, from West Midlands Police, said "evidence of the pre-planning" made this "one of the worst cases I've dealt with".
Mohammed's defence barrister Timothy Raggatt, said the defendant was a man of "previous good character... who has done something unspeakable".
"He is at a loss to understand it himself," he added.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-42051742
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As it happened: Mugabe resigns - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The surprise announcement halted an impeachment hearing that had begun against him.
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Africa
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Most people assumed that the only way Robert Mugabe would give up being president was to die in his bed.
He probably thought so too.
In fact the last of the old-style 1970s and 80s liberation leaders most untypically resigned in writing. Perhaps that says something about the way the world has changed in the 21st century.
No storming the presidential palace, no ugly end at the hands of a crowd like Colonel Gaddafi, no execution by firing squad like President Ceausescu of Romania, no hanging like Saddam Hussein.
Zimbabwe, in spite of everything Robert Mugabe visited upon it, is essentially a peaceable, gentle country. And despite all the immense crimes for which he was responsible, he is in some ways an intellectual, rather than a brutal thug.
He’ll be remembered for the massacres in Matabeleland in the 1980s, for the farm invasions of the 1990s and later, and for the brutal repression of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change when they seemed on course to win the 2008 presidential election.
The man who seems about to take his place, former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwe, was deeply involved in most of those crimes, yet people in Zimbabwe - like the outside world - will be so relieved to see Mugabe go that they will be tempted to forget all that.
They’ll also forget the few unquestionably good things Robert Mugabe did. Zimbabwe, for instance, has an extraordinarily high literacy rate, because of him.
But that’s certainly not what he’ll be remembered for.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-africa-42063744
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Women's Ashes: England draw series after Wyatt century beats Australia - BBC Sport
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2017-11-21
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Danni Wyatt scores England's first T20 international century as her side fight back to draw the Ashes, which Australia retain.
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Last updated on .From the section Women's Cricket
England (2pts) won by four wickets; Australia retain the Women's Ashes with multi-format series drawn 8-8
Danni Wyatt scored England's first Twenty20 international century to help her side chase a record 179 and draw the multi-format Women's Ashes series.
Beth Mooney hit an unbeaten 117, the second-highest score in women's T20s, as Australia posted an imposing total.
Wyatt hit two sixes and 13 boundaries in a 139-run stand with Heather Knight (51) to rescue England from 30-3 and win by four wickets in Canberra.
Australia had already retained the Women's Ashes but the series ended 8-8.
Prior to this game, there had only been four centuries in women's Twenty20 international cricket - two of them struck by West Indies' Deandra Dottin.
The fifth was majestic, Mooney dispatching England's ragged bowling attack to all areas of Manuka Oval with exceptional power and guile, her 19 boundaries the most by a man or woman in Twenty20 internationals.
The 23-year-old smashed four in a row to finish the innings, taking Australia to 178-2 and seemingly on the cusp of victory.
England floundered in response as Tammy Beaumont and Sarah Taylor were both caught trying to attack every delivery and a nervy Nat Sciver was run out by Elyse Villani's sharp throw.
Wyatt rode her luck - dropped on just 14 by wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy and 54 by Megan Schutt - but punished the increasingly panicked Australian bowlers with a series of hefty drives over cover.
With Knight proving perfect foil, Wyatt raced to 100 off just 56 balls and though she fell to Delissa Kimmince without adding to her century, the 26-year-old had done enough to steer England to a historic victory.
There have only been six T20 centuries in women's international cricket, and two of those were made within three hours of each other.
• None Beth Mooney - 117 not out for Australia v England, November 2017
• None Shandre Fritz - 116 not out for South Africa v Netherlands, October 2010
• None Deandra Dottin - 112 not out for West Indies v South Africa, May 2010
England were on 27-2 when Wyatt skied a leading edge off spinner Molly Strano straight up, only for Healy to misjudge the flight and drop a simple chance.
Even then England looked far from capable of bettering their own record chase of 165 against Australia in 2009 to salvage a draw from an Ashes in which they were "lacking in a few areas", according to coach Mark Robinson.
Yet Healy's drop appeared to spread tension throughout the Australia fielders, the wicketkeeper spilling another easy opportunity with Knight on 24 - the fourth drop in the space of about 15 minutes after Strano and Schutt's mistakes.
They recovered to a degree to take three late wickets but Wilson's impudent ramp shot to the boundary for victory capped a disappointing end to an otherwise fine series from Rachael Haynes' team.
Australia won two of the three one-day internationals to take a 4-2 lead in the series before the solitary Test match was drawn, earning another two points for each side.
The home side then won the first of three T20 internationals to lead 8-4 and ensure they would at least retain the Women's Ashes but England won the last two to secure an 8-8 finish.
'We're gutted we didn't win the Ashes' - reaction
England's Danni Wyatt, speaking to Test Match Special: "I tried a bit too hard in the first six overs, I lost my shape a little bit. But I backed myself and swung hard and it paid off. I was quite lucky, but you have to make it count when someone drops you, and I made it count.
"To contribute to a record chase is a special feeling. Heather batted really well - she backed herself and hit the ball in her areas. Outstanding by the skipper.
"It was hard sitting out for the ODIs and the Test match so I had to make the T20s count."
England captain Heather Knight, speaking to Test Match Special: "What a game it was. I thought they had too many, but there is a hell of a lot of fight in this team and to level at 8-8 makes me really proud.
"We lost a few early wickets but it was a belter of a pitch so boundaries were easy to come by. I was just trying to get Danni on strike.
"We're gutted we didn't win the Ashes but to draw the series is the next best thing. It was a great innings from Beth Mooney. It's tough for her to be on the losing side. What a game and what a spectacle for women's cricket."
Australia captain Rachael Haynes, speaking to BT Sport: "I certainly thought it was well within our grasp to win the match. It was disappointing. I guess it's true, catches win matches, and we put a few down.
"Beth has been outstanding. She's been hitting everywhere. She's worked extremely hard on her game. For her to produce in international cricket is really exciting."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/42065134
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Albatrosses hit by fishing and climate - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The spectacular albatrosses featured in the BBC's Blue Planet series have seen a big slump in numbers.
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Science & Environment
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There are about 700 breeding pairs of wandering albatrosses on Bird Island
The spectacular wandering albatrosses in Sunday's Blue Planet programme on the BBC have suffered a major decline in numbers over the past three decades.
New research suggests breeding pairs of this species are now little more than half what they were in the 1980s.
Scientists say the losses are the result of careless fishing practices and climate pressures.
The researchers are affiliated to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), which organised the filming for the TV show.
BAS has been running a long-term tagging and monitoring study on Bird Island, a 4km-long stretch of land on the western fringes of South Georgia in the South Atlantic.
The animals' global population is spread across only a handful of sub-Antarctic territories.
The wandering albatrosses are not the only species, though, to experience a slump.
Black-browed and grey-headed albatrosses have followed a similar trend.
"These populations have all declined over the period we've been monitoring them," said BAS expert Richard Phillips.
"There have been different phases, so for the wandering albatrosses there was a gradual decline and then it got really steep before things slowed up. Some of the variability is down to a changing environment; some of it is down to fishing effort."
Albatrosses will often try to take the bait on longline fishing gear. They get snagged on the hooks, are pulled under the water and are drowned.
In the immediate vicinity of South Georgia, toothfish trawlers have modified the way they put their lines out to limit this collateral damage, but the birds forage over thousands of square km and will often encounter vessels that still do not use the most sensitive fishing methods.
And sometimes, shifts in climate can drive the birds towards this danger, says Dr Deborah Pardo, the lead author on the new research.
"We also found the grey-headed albatross population was particularly affected by the climatic event of El Niño, which coincided with increased fishing activity in their foraging areas.
"El Niño reduced the amount of food available so the birds probably switched to feeding on discards behind fishing vessels, increasing the number being hooked on longlines."
Not all climate effects are negative. The recent increasing trend towards stronger poleward winds actually benefits the wandering albatrosses.
"Such winds make their flight more efficient," Dr Phillips told BBC News. "They can fly faster. Essentially, these winds make the cost of travel cheaper for them."
Sunday's programme considered the breeding outcomes for elderly pairs of wandering albatrosses.
Separate BAS research has established that the very last chicks these senior albatrosses produce will often succeed and flourish.
Dr Phillips explained: "There's a theoretical prediction that if a bird is about to die then it might put more effort into rearing the last chick, or the alternative is the very fact that it has reared that chick has a cost - there's a cost of reproduction - and subsequently the bird won't recover and it will die for that reason."
Currently on Bird Island there are roughly 700 pairs of wandering albatrosses, 3,000 pairs of grey-headed albatrosses and 7,000 pairs of black-browed albatrosses. The longterm study detailing the falls in population is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32743627
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Mugabe resignation sparks dancing in the street - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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People dance in the streets as the resignation of Robert Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe is announced.
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Africa
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. There were scenes of celebration on the streets of the capital, Harare
News that Robert Mugabe has resigned as the president of Zimbabwe has spread quickly across the streets of Zimbabwe. This is how people are celebrating.
The celebrations started with MPs in parliament reacting to the resignation letter from Mr Mugabe being read out:
Where people couldn't get up on tables. they got up on cars:
People waved down traffic with their flags:
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And drivers were beeping their horns at the news:
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This Zimbabwean reporter captures people partying between the traffic:
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Singing broke out on the streets of Harare:
Some dressed up in anticipation for the celebration:
On Whatsapp groups, people are sharing an old meme of Robert Mugabe falling at an event in 2015 photoshopped into him jumping Zimbabwe's border:
A Zimbabwean news anchor highlights just how long Mr Mugabe has been in power:
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On the same theme, another Zimbabwean posted on Instagram a photo of a young Mr Mugabe, adding: "You started early and finished late".
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One MP who was an ally of Mr Mugabe, described by some as his closest associate, paid tribute to him:
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Some tweeters suggest the tribute could go even further - perhaps with a biopic of Mr Mugabe starring Don Cheadle. This mock-up film poster suggests all the details have already been carefully thought through:
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Don Cheadle retweeted the picture with no comment aside from three crying-with-laughter emojis.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42071935
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Charlie Rose, US TV host, suspended amid sexual harassment allegations - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The move comes after eight women accused him of sexual harassment in a newspaper report.
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US & Canada
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The allegations made against Charlie Rose span from the 1990s to 2011
US talk show host Charlie Rose has been suspended by several television networks following allegations of sexual harassment.
Eight women accused the veteran TV interviewer of inappropriate behaviour in a report by the Washington Post.
"These allegations are extremely disturbing and we take them very seriously," CBS News said. PBS and Bloomberg have also suspended him.
Mr Rose has apologised, but said not all the allegations were accurate.
They span from the 1990s to 2011 and include groping, lewd telephone calls and unwanted advances.
Two women who worked for Mr Rose said he walked naked in front of them, and another said she was groped by him at a party.
Mr Rose, 75, is one of America's most respected broadcasters.
He is known for conducting in-depth interviews, including with such high-profile guests as former President Barack Obama, talk show host Oprah Winfrey and billionaire Warren Buffett, on his eponymous television programme which first aired in 1991.
Mr Rose, whose show goes out on PBS and Bloomberg TV, also co-hosts CBS's This Morning and is a contributing correspondent for prestigious current affairs TV programme 60 Minutes.
His interviews have won him Emmy and Peabody awards, and he was named by Time magazine as one of its 100 most influential people in 2014.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Charlie Rose This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
PBS quickly suspended distribution of the Charlie Rose programme following the allegations, which they described as "deeply disturbing".
In a statement posted to Twitter, he said: "I deeply apologise for my inappropriate behavior. I am greatly embarrassed.
"I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken."
But he said that he did not believe "all of these allegations are accurate".
Numerous high-profile figures, including Oscar-winning actors and a Hollywood filmmaker, have been accused of sexual harassment in recent weeks.
The accusations were sparked by multiple women speaking out against the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, and a subsequent campaign encouraging victims to share their stories of sexual harassment under the #metoo hashtag.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42060961
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The moment Zimbabwean MPs hear Mugabe has resigned - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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Zimbabwean MPs erupt with cheers as the speaker reads out Robert Mugabe's resignation letter.
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The Speaker of Parliament in Zimbabwe has read out a letter of resignation from President Robert Mugabe. Wild celebrations broke out among the members of parliament, at the news that his 37-year rule has come to an end.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42071865
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Children in 'save Desborough Library' protest - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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About 60 primary school children gathered in Desborough to show their support for the town's library.
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About 60 primary school children gathered to fight the possible closure of a library.
Desborough Library, in Northamptonshire, could be shut as part of council cuts of £10m.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-42074836
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Ikea US relaunches furniture recall after child dies - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The Swedish furniture giant says its chests and dressers are safe if secured to a wall.
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Business
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Ikea has re-launched a recall of millions of chests and dressers in the US and Canada following the death of an eighth child.
It said items in its Malm range and other chests and dressers pose a "serious tip-over and entrapment hazard" if not secured to a wall,
Ikea first recalled the furniture in 2016 after four children had died.
It has no plans for a UK recall, stating that the chest of drawers "meet all mandatory stability requirements".
Josef Dudek, a 2-year-old boy in California, died when he became trapped beneath a three-drawer Malm chest after he had been put down for a nap by his father.
Since 2011, four other young children have been killed in connection with the Malm range.
A further three children have died as a result of other Ikea chests and dressers tipping over, with the earliest death occurring in 1989.
Jozef Dudek died after an Ikea Malm dresser toppled over onto him
Widespread criticism spurred the company to add China to the recall last year. However, it has not made announcements in other countries, including the UK.
Ikea said it meets "mandatory stability standards" in all markets and that the products remain safe if secured to a wall, as recommended.
It has a "Secure It!" campaign to raise awareness of the issue.
A spokeswoman for Ikea said it was not aware of any tip-over fatalities outside the US and has no plans to expand the recall.
She said: "Our priority is and has always been to ensure that our products are safe to use. That means securing the chest of drawers to the wall according to the assembly instructions, using the tip-over restraint provided with the product.
"We don't believe a global recall from IKEA would be the solution. Instead, we are convinced that we can make a difference by raising awareness among consumers of the tip-over risks and how to prevent them through the global Secure it! campaign."
The re-launched recall involves Ikea children's chests of drawers taller than 60 cm and adult chest of drawers taller than 75 cm, including those from the Malm line.
It follows reports of more than 300 tip-over incidents in the US and Canada since 1985, resulting in eight deaths and 144 injuries to children between the ages of 19 months and 10 years old.
Lawyer Alan Feldman, an attorney for the Dudek family whose son was killed in May, has said that the recall in 2016 was not effective.
Ikea said it had done "extensive" outreach to customers about the recall, including an email campaign.
A spokeswoman said: "The most recent incident has indicated to us that there is more work to be done in spreading the message. However, we had to wait to confirm that the product is IKEA, which took some time."
She said Ikea said it has provided refunds or wall-anchoring help for more than one million dressers or chests since 2015, when it started offering free anchoring kits.
Ikea has stopped selling the products in the US and Canada that do not meet voluntary US standards.
It also reached a $50m settlement with the families of three toddlers killed previously.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42070606
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New York terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov defended by mother - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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Sayfullo Saipov's mother says she can't believe her son deliberately killed eight people in New York.
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The mother of the man accused of killing eight people in a terror attack in New York has said she believes her son is innocent.
The BBC's Will Vernon tracked her down in Uzbekistan, the country that was home to terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov until 2010 when he moved to the US.
It's the first time the BBC has been allowed to report from the country in over a decade.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-42027317
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Emotional moment for Zimbabwe activist: 'I've no words' - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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Activist and political candidate Vimbaishe Musvaburi cries as she describes her emotions following Robert Mugabe's resignation.
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Activist and political candidate Vimbaishe Musvaburi cries as she describes her emotions in the wake of Robert Mugabe's resignation.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42071868
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South West Ambulance staff call for trust boss to resign - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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An open letter from the GMB union claims staff are "struggling to maintain a crumbling service".
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England
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An open letter calls for chief executive of the South West Ambulance Service to resign
Ambulance staff have called for their boss to quit as they "struggle to maintain a crumbling service".
GMB union members from South West Ambulance Service (SWASFT) have written a letter "apologising" to the public for "potentially putting them at risk".
They have told chief executive Ken Wenman government cuts have led to "despair and frustration" among staff.
Mr Wenman said SWASFT was working to "improve resource levels" and "urged" GMB to "re-engage and talk to us".
He has not commented publicly on the call for him to resign.
The open letter was addressed as an "apology to our families, friends and the community".
To the public, they said they were "sorry for not getting to you or your loved ones quick enough because there are just not enough of us".
They also apologised to family and friends for times when they missed "yet another family occasion".
They also wrote that they felt "unsupported" by their employer SWASFT.
This dispute is all about changes to rotas as well as concern from members that they are having to work for longer than their usual 12-hour shift.
But it must be remembered the GMB is not recognised by SWASFT, and part of their mission is to recruit more members to take them above the 25% figure that would help that come about.
Having said that, the main union Unison is also concerned about work load, especially with the extra demands on their service due to problems with the out of hours service in Somerset, and closure at night of Weston A&E unit.
But Unison has not gone as far as to call for any heads to roll.
Gary Palmer, from the GMB, said: "We felt this recent letter on behalf of a group of GMB members particularly summoned up the general despair and frustration many staff currently feel from working within a service and role they love."
Tony Fox, from SWASFT, said: "We accept that there is always more to be done and we will continue to work closely with our colleagues and listen and respond to their needs."
The South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust covers Cornwall, Isles of Scilly, Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Bristol, Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42055853
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Loadsamoney? Norman Smith on the Brexit divorce bill - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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How much will we have to pay - and why? Norman Smith talks you through the Brexit divorce bill.
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How much will we have to pay - and why? And will the British public wear it?
The BBC's Norman Smith tells you all you need to know about the Brexit divorce bill.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42059439
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Scientist finds UK water companies use 'magic' to find leaks - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Engineers from the majority of the UK's water firms still use divining rods to locate pipes, it emerges.
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Oxford
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The process of using divining rod has been in use for hundreds of years
Water companies are using divining rods to find underground pipes despite there being no scientific evidence they work, an Oxford University scientist found.
Sally Le Page said her parents were surprised when a technician used two "bent tent pegs" to find a mains pipe.
She contacted all the UK's water companies, and a majority confirmed engineers still use the centuries-old technique.
However, a number said the equipment was not standard-issue equipment.
The process of using divining rods, also known as dowsing, has been in use for hundreds of years.
A dowser will typically hold the rods, usually shaped like the letter Y, while walking over land and being alert for any movement to find water.
Evolutionary biologist Ms Le Page, whose parents live in Stratford-upon-Avon, first contacted Severn Trent Water via Twitter.
It replied: "We've found that some of the older methods are just as effective than the new ones, but we do use drones as well, and now satellites."
Other companies which gave a similar response were:
Ms Le Page said: "I can't state this enough: there is no scientifically rigorous, doubly blind evidence that divining rods work.
"Isn't it a bit silly that big companies are still using magic to do their jobs?"
In a statement issued later, Severn Trent said: "We don't issue divining rods but we believe some of our engineers use them."
All the companies emphasised they do not encourage the use of divining rods nor issue them to engineers, and said modern methods such as drones and listening devices were preferred.
Northern Ireland Water, Northumbrian Water, South West Water and Wessex Water said their engineers do not use them.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-42070719
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May welcomes Zimbabwe's 'brighter future' after Mugabe - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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UK politicians react to the resignation of President Robert Mugabe after his 37-year rule.
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UK
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The resignation of Robert Mugabe comes after Zimbabwe's military took over the country and put him under house arrest
Theresa May has welcomed the resignation of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, saying it offered an opportunity to "rebuild the country's economy".
The president stepped down after 37 years in power via a letter that was read out to the country's parliament.
It followed a takeover by the Zimbabwean military, who put Mr Mugabe under house arrest last week.
Boris Johnson called the end of Mr Mugabe's reign a "moment of hope."
The 93-year-old had resisted calls to step down, despite the intervention of the country's military and protests across the capital of Harare.
However, on Tuesday, parliament speaker Jacob Mudenda read a letter from the former leader of Zanu-PF, which said his decision was "voluntary" and "arising from my concern for the welfare of the people of Zimbabwe."
Responding to the announcement, Mrs May said: "In recent days we have seen the desire of the Zimbabwean people for free and fair elections and the opportunity to rebuild the country's economy under a legitimate government.
"As Zimbabwe's oldest friend, we will do all we can to support this, working with our international and regional partners to help the country achieve the brighter future it so deserves."
The foreign secretary also welcomed the announcement, but warned it should not mark "the transition from one despotic rule to another".
Mr Johnson said: "I think it's very important at the moment that we don't focus too much on the personalities.
"Let's concentrate on the potential, the hope for Zimbabwe - an incredible country, a beautiful country, blessed with extraordinary physical and human potential."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says Robert Mugabe's resignation as president is a "moment of hope" for Zimbabwe
Asked about what he thought should happen to Mr Mugabe and his wife Grace - who the former leader had been priming as a successor - he added: "[Mr Mugabe] played an important part in the birth of the independent nation of Zimbabwe.
"And yet, tragically, he allowed that legacy to be squandered and his country went to rack and ruin and in some cases his people were driven to the brink of starvation.
"It's time now for a new future and how Robert Mugabe spends the rest of his years is very much a matter for his countrymen."
Labour MP and former Africa minister, Peter Hain, said the president's attempt to ensure Grace Mugabe would follow in his footsteps was his downfall.
He told BBC News: "It was his determination to create a family dynasty and protect himself that finally meant his party gave up on him and the ruling elite gave up on him as well.
"The Zanu-PF party, that Mugabe had controlled with an iron fist, reacted against it and would not accept his wife being ushered in as his presidential replacement.
"The military said we have had enough and we are not going to put up with this, although they had ruled with him and supported him at times in murderous extermination of the opposition.
Lord Peter Hain met with Mr Mugabe when he was the minister for Africa in 1999
Lord Hain added that the people of Zimbabwe had the chance for a "fresh start", and called on former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is expected to will be sworn in as president in the coming days, to take the country "in a different direction".
Salil Shetty, secretary general of London-based Amnesty International, said Mr Mugabe's leadership had allowed "grotesque crimes to thrive", but his resignation was a turning point.
She said: "After more than three decades of violent repression, the way forward for the country is to renounce the abuses of the past and transition into a new era where the rule of law is respected and those who are responsible for injustices are held to account."
• None The army chief who took power from Mugabe
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42071100
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Paul Hollywood: Former Bake Off presenters 'abandoned' the show - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Paul Hollywood says he became "the most hated man" in the UK after deciding to stay on the show.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Hollywood: 'I became the most hated man in the country'
Paul Hollywood has accused former Bake Off presenters and fellow judge Mary Berry of "abandoning" the show.
Mary Berry, along with presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, left the programme when it was announced it was moving to Channel 4.
Speaking to the Radio Times, Hollywood said the criticism he received when he decided to stay was "not fun".
The 51-year old said: "The girls abandoned it. But I was the one put under siege."
He said he "became the most hated man in the country".
Hollywood says he was 'put under siege' after deciding to stay with the Great British Bake Off
He said he did not like the limelight, adding: "I didn't set out to be on the telly, I set out to be a good baker."
In the interview, Hollywood, who announced on Monday that he was separating from his wife of 20 years, also addressed Prue Leith's Twitter gaffe. She accidentally revealed the name of this year's Bake Off winner several hours early.
Hollywood said while he forgives his fellow judge, he thinks there could have been an even higher viewing figure than the 11 million people who watched the final.
"I think we could have had much more," he said. "Everyone makes a mistake. It was a shame though."
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-42057367
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Nigeria suicide bombing kills 50 in Adamawa state - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The bomber struck inside a mosque packed with worshippers in eastern Adamawa state.
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Africa
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At least 50 people have been killed in a suicide bombing in the eastern Nigerian state of Adamawa, police say.
A bomber struck inside a mosque packed with worshippers during morning prayers in the town of Mubi.
Witness Abubakar Sule told AFP news agency that it appeared the bomber was part of the congregation.
No-one has said they were behind the bombing but the Islamist militants Boko Haram typically target crowded places in northern Nigeria.
Some 20,000 people have been killed in Boko Haram's eight-year insurgency.
The BBC's Ishaq Khalid reports that Boko Haram militants have recently stepped up suicide bombings in Nigeria's north-east after the military recaptured territories previously controlled by the group.
At least 45 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack in the same state last December.
In that attack two female suicide bombers detonated their explosives in a busy market.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42065509
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Gen Constantino Chiwenga: The army chief who took power from Mugabe - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The army general who ruthlessly crushed the opposition in Zimbabwe is now being hailed as a political saviour.
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Africa
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Gen Constantino Chiwenga, 61, is being hailed as a political saviour after he led the military takeover in Zimbabwe, however he is under sanctions from the European Union and the US - for his role in a brutal crackdown on the opposition, and over the seizure of white-owned farms.
Zimbabweans took to the streets on Saturday to demand President Robert Mugabe's resignation, holding aloft placards which declared: "Zimbabwe army - the voice of the people."
Pastor Patrick Mugadza, hounded by the police in January this year for predicting that the 93-year-old leader would die in nine months' time, went as far as to announce that he intended to name his son after the general.
"My wife is very, very pregnant. When the boy comes, I will be naming him after you, General Chiwenga," Zimbabwe's privately owned NewsDay newspaper quoted him as saying in an audio message.
Gen Chiwenga says he stepped in to end the economic suffering of Zimbabweans
Yet, Gen Chiwenga played a central role in keeping Mr Mugabe in power after he lost elections to his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), in 2008, amid reports that Mr Mugabe was going to accept defeat.
"He told Mugabe: 'We can't lose elections. We can't hand power to the MDC. We are going to obliterate them," UK-based Africa confidential magazine editor Patrick Smith told the BBC, adding that he carried out the operation with Emmerson Mnangagwa, the man Gen Chiwenga is trying to install as Mr Mugabe's successor as president.
"They are joined at the hip, with Mnangagwa the senior partner," Mr Smith said.
After a long delay, the official results were announced, saying that Mr Tsvangirai had not gained the 50% required for victory and so a second round was needed. Before the run-off, pro-Zanu-PF militias backed by the security forces attacked opposition supporters around the country, beating, raping and killing.
Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of the second round and Mr Mugabe remained in power.
This opposition supporter was one of thousands who said their homes were attacked by pro-Zanu-PF militias
Gen Chiwenga joined the guerrilla war against white minority rule in the then Rhodesia as a teenager and got military training in Mozambique and Tanzania.
After independence, he received British training, as a new army, made up of ex-guerrillas and soldiers of the former white minority regime, was formed.
Power in Zimbabwe is monopolised by those who fought the 1970s war of independence
Recalling his ex-student in an interview with the UK-based Sunday Times newspaper, retired Lt-Col Zach Freeth, 76, said Gen Chiwenga was once caught cheating, and while he was deciding what to do with him the next morning, he received news that that the ex-guerrilla fighter, then in his 20s, had shot himself in the chest twice but had miraculously survived.
Lt-Col Freeth said the incident was forgotten, but when Gen Chiwenga was appointed defence chief in 2003 he invited him to his home.
"He gave me his card and said: 'If you ever need anything...' We both knew what he was referring to."
Lt-Col Freeth was quoted as saying: "I knew him very well. I probably did too good a job."
Many Zimbabweans are hoping that the army's intervention will lead to the downfall of Mr Mugabe
A Zimbabwean lawyer, who has met Gen Chiwenga on several occasions, offered a different perspective of the army chief.
"He is fearless, and as tough as nails," the lawyer, who asked not to be identified, told the BBC.
"In terms of his political outlook, he is a Pan-Africanist at heart. He abhors the notion that Western values are superior. He believes in equal recognition, and that comes from the heart," the lawyer added.
Now married to Mary Chiwenga - a former model and ex-wife of footballer Shingi Kazwondera - Gen Chiwenga was involved in a messy divorce about five years ago when he ended his marriage to his then-wife, Jocelyn.
At the time, the privately owned NewZimbabwe.com news site reported that it had seen court papers in which Gen Chiwenga alleged that his wife used to beat him up, and even thrashed his office at military headquarters.
She hit back, alleging that she was, in fact, the victim, and their marriage ran into trouble because he was having an affair with his current wife.
President Mugabe's plan to anoint his wife, Grace, as his successor caused the crisis
Gen Chiwenga's messy divorce enhanced, rather than damaged, his reputation among his troops.
As one soldier told the BBC: "The general is a very patient man. Look at how his relationship with Jocelyn was, but he waited for the right time to call it off."
His second wife obtained a degree from a university where Mr Mugabe is the chancellor just two days after the general took power.
Mr Mugabe conferred degrees on more than 3,000 students, in his first public appearance since being put under house arrest. However, Mrs Chiwenga failed to attend.
President Robert Mugabe was to have conferred a degree on the general's wife
The veteran leader's appearance in public was intended to show that the general was treating him kindly.
Said the soldier: "Gen Chiwenga is a man of the people, a hard-working person who stands for the truth. He is an achiever.... No matter what is happening, the president will never win."
The army chief put Mr Mugabe under house arrest after the president had sacked the general's close ally Vice-President Mnangagwa, in a move seen as an attempt to install the Mr Mugabe's wife, Grace, as his successor.
Days earlier, Gen Chiwenga had warned that "the current purging, which is clearly targeting members of the party with a liberation background, must stop forthwith".
Gen Chiwenga then went to China, and Mr Mugabe's allies in the security forces planned to arrest him on his return, Mr Smith said.
But the general got wind of the plot, and a strong contingent of loyalist troops arrived at the airport, to prevent his detention.
Shortly afterwards, the army chief took power, but insisted that he was not staging a coup.
The army said it had intervened to arrest the "criminals" around Mr Mugabe, a reference to the political faction headed by Mrs Mugabe, and to end the economic suffering of Zimbabweans.
His intervention caught Zimbabweans by surprise but, as the lawyer who has observed his career closely, said: "Once you cross a certain path, he does not hesitate to act. However, he respects Mugabe and will want him to go out in the most dignified way possible.
"He is genuinely worried about the economic crisis and sees it as a threat to national security. So, he wants the politicians to start dealing with it, and he did not think the G40 faction [headed by Mrs Mugabe] would," said the lawyer.
Gen Chiwenga flanked Mr Mugabe when he addressed the nation on Sunday night, vowing to remain in office despite the intense pressure on him to leave office.
The army chief helped the president with his papers, as he struggled to read his long speech, and his officers saluted Mr Mugabe, still their commander-in-chief.
"It was theatre intended to show that the military are not bully boys picking on a nonagenarian. They want this to be sorted out as amicably as possible," Africa Confidential's Mr Smith said.
Read more about the Zimbabwe crisis:
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42053753
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British camera operator dies while filming BBC drama - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Mark Milsome was working on upcoming drama The Forgiving Earth in Ghana when the incident occurred.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Mark Milsome was working on The Forgiving Earth when the incident occurred
A British camera operator has died while shooting a stunt sequence for a BBC drama in Ghana.
Mark Milsome, whose credits include Saving Private Ryan and Sherlock, was working on upcoming drama The Forgiving Earth when the incident occurred.
The BBC said it was "deeply shocked and saddened" by the news, calling Milsome "a much respected colleague".
His agent said he would be "greatly missed" and that an investigation into Saturday's incident was under way.
"We all need answers to this dreadful tragedy," said Sarah Prince of PrinceStone.
It has been reported that Milsome, who was from Builth Wells, was taking part in a night shoot for a car stunt scene.
Milsome's many credits include Game of Thrones, The Theory of Everything and Bond film Quantum of Solace.
His agent said he was "an incredibly talented cameraman... a gentle gentleman [and a] genuinely loved member of the film industry family".
Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey was among those to remember Milsome on Twitter, calling him "one of the loveliest people [he had] ever met".
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Seamus McGarvey This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Director Mark Herman, who worked with Milsome on such films as Brassed Off and Little Voice, also paid tribute, saying he was "one of the nicest guys in the business".
Milsome started out in the 1990s as a clapper loader, working his way up the camera department to focus puller, camera operator and director of photography.
The 54-year-old leaves a wife and daughter, to whom his agent said he was devoted.
Formerly known as Black Earth Rising, The Forgiving Earth is a BBC co-production with subscription service Netflix about the prosecution of international war crimes.
Written by Hugo Blick, who wrote and directed thriller The Honourable Woman, it is provisionally set for transmission in 2018.
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-42055941
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Mugabe: Social media reaction to Zimbabwe president's speech - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The president defies demands to resign, triggering an avalanche of comments on social media.
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Africa
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Robert Mugabe: "The congress is due... I will preside over its processes"
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has defied calls from the public, the army and his own party to resign, vowing to stay in power for several weeks.
His televised address on Sunday triggered an avalanche of comments across social media.
Responding to another user's comments, constitutional lawyer and human rights activist Tendai Biti argued that Mr Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, would never quit.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by TENDAI BITI This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Tau Moyo was one of many users who expressed shock and anger over Mr Mugabe's decision to stay on.
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Talent Machingura put it bluntly, saying that people's hopes were "crushed".
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Ancillar Mangena thought it was Mr Mugabe's message to the world that "he is in charge".
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But many users were left simply confused about what may happen next.
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Others are already looking forward to Tuesday, when impeachment proceedings might be launched in parliament.
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And there were those who just poked fun at the latest developments.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42047528
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Google to 'derank' Russia Today and Sputnik - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Alphabet's Eric Schmidt says the search engine's algorithms can help reduce spread of propaganda.
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Technology
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RT has run a series of ad campaigns on the London Underground
Google is to "derank" stories from Kremlin-owned publications Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik in response to allegations about election meddling by President Putin's government.
Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt said the search giant needed to deal with the spread of misinformation.
RT has been described by US intelligence agencies as "Russia's state-run propaganda machine".
The publications said the move was a form of censorship.
Speaking at the Halifax International Security Forum, Mr Schmidt said: "We're well aware of this one, and we're working on detecting this kind of scenario you're describing and deranking those kinds of sites."
He then named two of Russia's biggest media outlets: RT, a TV and online news organisation, and Sputnik, an online media network.
"I am strongly not in favour of censorship. I am very strongly in favour of ranking. It's what we do," he added. "It's a very legitimate question as to how we rank, A or B, right? And we do the best we can in millions and millions of rankings every day," said Mr Schmidt.
But he added that it was a constant tug-of-war altering the search giant's algorithms to detect "weaponised" information because those seeking to manipulate the news agenda "will get better tools too".
The comments drew an angry response from the two publications, which have always defended themselves as legitimate news organisations.
"Good to have Google on record as defying all logic and reason: facts aren't allowed if they come from RT, 'because Russia' - even if we have Google on Congressional record saying they've found no manipulation of their platform or policy violations by RT," Sputnik and RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said in a statement published on RT.
In October, Twitter announced that it would no longer allow advertisements from RT and Sputnik.
And in November, RT was forced to register itself as a '"foreign agent" by the US Department of Justice. The broadcaster is fighting the order in court.
Russia has repeatedly denied claims that it interfered in the 2016 presidential elections. US intelligence services accuse the country of trying to sway the vote in favour of Donald Trump by spreading fake news and hacking the Democratic National Committee (DNC) networks in order to undermine Hillary Clinton.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42065644
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National Lottery players could win £10,000 a month for life - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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Lottery operator Camelot denies that the new prize is designed to stop "binge spending"
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Business
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Camelot, the operator of the National Lottery, is planning to introduce a new game which offers winners a monthly income for the rest of their lives.
Instead of winning a lump sum, those taking part could win as much as £10,000 a month, providing them with a lifetime annuity.
Camelot said it was one of the different options it was looking at as a way for it to attract new players.
It follows a poor performance, as the firm raised less money for good causes.
A spokesperson for Camelot said binge spending was not a factor behind the idea.
He said it was for people who had "a different dream". It is likely to be introduced some time in 2019.
In the six months to the 23 September, National Lottery ticket sales fell by 3.2% compared to the same period last year.
Over the same time it raised £746.6m for good causes, a 4.7% drop on 2016.
Camelot UK has also appointed Nigel Railton as its permanent chief executive. He is charged with returning the National Lottery to growth.
Mr Railton is said to be keen on the annuity idea, having spent time in Chicago as boss of Camelot Global.
In the United States pay-outs of $10,000 a month for life are a regular feature of local lotteries.
In the UK a small number of lump-sum lottery winners have lost all their cash after spending it. Since 1994 it is thought that around ten millionaires have blown their winnings, out of 4,750 winners.
Pete Kyle, who reportedly spent most of his £5m winnings
Among them was Pete Kyle from Plymouth, who won over £5m in 2005.
In August this year The Sun reported that he was penniless, after blowing the cash on luxury cars and holidays.
Camelot said it was also planning to re-design its Lotto game, following criticism by players.
In 2015 it added 10 extra balls to the draw, making it harder to win a jackpot.
From next year it said it will offer a better game, with a jackpot being won more frequently.
However it is going to keep the existing number of balls.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42066404
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Kendall Jenner is the world's highest paid model - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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The second youngest Kardashian took Gisele Bundchen off the top spot for the first time in 15 years.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Kendall Jenner has been named the world's highest paid model by Forbes Magazine, earning $22m (£16.6m) in 2017.
Jenner, who is part of the Kardashian family, beat Chrissy Teigen, Adriana Lima and Gigi Hadid to the top spot.
It was also the first time in 15 years that Gisele Bundchen did not claim the accolade after earning $17.5m (£13.2m).
Ashley Graham also made the top ten, making her the first plus-sized model to feature on the list.
Kendall Jenner at the Anna Sui New York Fashion Week show in February 2017
At just 22, Kendall Jenner takes the top spot, with her earnings more than doubling since last year from $10m (£7.5m) to $22m (£16.6m).
Jenner has walked for Alexander Wang, Fendi, Chanel, Marc Jacobs and many others this year along with taking part in advertising campaigns for Estee Lauder and Adidas.
Gisele Bundchen last took to the catwalk for Colcci in 2016 and is now retired
Despite retiring from the catwalk last year, Bundchen still came second in the rankings for Forbes' highest earning model.
She has shot for Vogue Paris this year and in advertising campaigns for Arezzo, helping her bank $17.5m (£13.2m).
The Brazilian-born model has also been dedicating her time to campaigning for more sustainability in the fashion industry.
Teigan appearing at the Revolve Awards in November 2017
Chrissy Teigen joins the highest paid list for the first time thanks to deals with McDonalds, Vita Coco and Smirnoff.
She earned $13.5m (£10.2m) in 2017 and is known for her appearances in Sports Illustrated and Cosmopolitan, plus has had editorials in Vogue and Glamour.
Lima is a Victoria's Secret angel and walked the runway at the 2017 Shanghai show
Adriana Lima is one of four current Victoria's Secret Angels to make the list, but 9 out of 10 of this year's highest-paid models have walked for the lingerie company at some point in their career.
She took part in the Victoria's Secret show in Shanghai on Monday - the first time the show has taken place in China.
The Brazilian model earned $10.5m (£7.9m) this year, thanks to being an Angel and having campaigns with Maybelline and Desigual.
Hadid made $9.5m (£7.2m) this year thanks to a number of catwalk appearances at New York, Milan and Paris fashion weeks for Missoni, Balmain, Isabel Marant and Moschino.
The 22-year-old also launched her own make-up collection with Maybelline and collaborated with Tommy Hilfiger and Stuart Weitzman on fashion and shoe lines.
Despite taking time out this year to have her first child, the 30-year-old still managed to come joint fifth place with Hadid, also earning $9.5m.
This is due to her continuing underwear collection with Marks and Spencer and ad campaigns for fashion brands Paige and Ugg.
The American model and computer programmer earned $9m (£6.8m) in 2017 due to modelling deals with Calvin Klein and Swarovski.
Kloss also appeared in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar and this year returned to the Victoria's Secret Show after a two year break.
Liu Wen earned $6.5m (£5m) in 2017 and became the first Chinese model to appear on the front cover of American Vogue.
The 28-year-old walked for Michael Kors and Anna Sui at New York Fashion Week and also modelled for Chanel and Puma.
For the first time ever, the list includes both Hadid sisters - with Bella Hadid, the younger of the two, netting $6m (£4.5m)
At 21, newcomer Bella Hadid is the youngest model in the ranking.
This year she has walked for Chanel, Givenchy, Oscar de la Renta and Lanvin across New York, Paris, Milan and London Fashion Weeks.
Ashley Graham at the Michael Kors New York Fashion Week Show in September 2017
Ashley Graham is the first ever plus-sized model to make the highest-paid list after earning $5.5m (£4.1m) in 2017.
The 30-year-old has her own lingerie and swimsuit lines, plus has featured in advertising campaigns with the likes of Lane Bryant, Dressbarn and H&M.
She has also appeared on the front cover of Elle, Vogue and Glamour this year.
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-42069786
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Automated checkouts 'miserable' for elderly shoppers - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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"Intimidating" checkouts and a lack of seating are "shutting out" the elderly from shops, a charity says.
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Family & Education
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When the only interaction is with a machine, shopping can be a "miserable experience"
Automated checkout machines put off about a quarter of older people from going shopping, a survey from a housing charity for the elderly suggests.
They can find the automated checkouts "intimidating" and "unfriendly," according to the charity, Anchor.
Without someone to talk to at the tills, shopping can be a "miserable experience," a spokesman said.
The British Retail Consortium said it was important for shops to be welcome destinations for all of the community.
The lack of seats in shopping centres or on High Streets can also make older people feel "shut out", according to the charity.
It also warned that automated checkouts could add to loneliness and isolation among the elderly.
"There was a time when people knew their shopkeepers and could pass the time of day. You can't do that with a machine," says Mario Ambrosi, a spokesman for the charity.
The report from the charity, produced by the Centre for Future Studies consultancy group, says there is a "dire need for the High Street to re-invent itself" if it is going to be accessible and attractive to older people.
The study suggests 24% of older people are deterred from shopping by automated checkouts and 60% are worried that there will be a lack of seating if they need to rest.
The report says older people can feel "shut out" from shopping
With rising numbers of older people, the charity says that by the end of the next decade retailers could be missing out on £4.5bn per year if pensioners stay away from the shops.
"The technology needs to have some human interaction, it's what gets people into the shops," says Mr Ambrosi.
He says there are still "significant numbers" of older people who are not online and depend on going to the shops - but who find the experience uncomfortable.
For the automated checkouts, he says people might feel under pressure "if they don't respond quickly enough" to the instructions.
It also might mean "they can have gone shopping without having said 'hello' to a single person - and that's quite a miserable experience," he says.
Daphne Guthrie, who is approaching her 93rd birthday, says across her lifetime she has seen a complete change in shopping culture - from small, privately owned stores, where shopkeepers knew their customers, to impersonal megastores.
"I wouldn't want everything to be automated," says Daphne Guthrie.
Mrs Guthrie, from Market Deeping, in Lincolnshire, says she would always choose a till with a human and has never tried the automatic checkouts.
She would like shops to be more welcoming to older customers and shopping centres to be less harsh environments for people who might want to stop and chat, particularly those who might not get to talk to many people.
"They should be more friendly - treat me as a person and not just someone who pays the bill.
"I wouldn't want everything to be automated," she says,
The Campaign to End Loneliness has warned of an estimated 1.2 million people in the UK who have "chronic" loneliness.
The campaign has highlighted that automated checkouts have shut down what might be some people's only chance to talk to someone during the day.
Anchor is also promoting the Standing Up 4 Sitting Down campaign to improve seating in shops and the High Street.
A spokeswoman for the British Retail Consortium said shops had been trying to incorporate more seating to "ensure everyone can have an enjoyable shopping experience".
"As high streets continue to evolve, it's increasingly important they are welcome destinations for people of all parts of the community."
But the increase in automation and self-checkout machines is about costs, the retailers' group said, reflecting the "diverging costs of labour versus technology".
Caroline Abrahams of Age UK said: "Clearly there is no single 'older consumer' - people in later life are incredibly diverse in terms of their interests, income and health.
"That's why it's vital that shops and companies do not stereotype their older customers, whilst also being aware of the ways in which some might need a bit of practical support."
Martin Tett, the Local Government Association's environment spokesman, said councils understood how "crucial it is that all members of our communities can play a role in our civic life, and that includes making sure our high streets are as accessible as possible".
He said that councils could support partnerships to "support dementia-friendly communities or age-friendly cities".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-42052234
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Germany's Merkel 'prefers new vote' after coalition talks fail - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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The German chancellor would opt for fresh elections over leading a minority government.
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Europe
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. German chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday said it was a day of "deep reflection" for Germany
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she would prefer new elections to leading a minority government, after a breakdown in coalition talks plunged the country into political crisis.
She also said she did not see any reason to resign from her post despite the failed negotiations.
On Sunday evening, the FDP liberals pulled out of talks with Mrs Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc and the Greens.
Germany's president called on parties to "reconsider their attitudes".
Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged them to make compromises for Germany's "well-being", amid a situation he said was unprecedented.
Mrs Merkel faces her biggest challenge in 12 years as chancellor.
"The path to the formation of a government is proving harder than any of us had wished for," she told broadcaster ARD.
But she said she was "very sceptical" about a minority government, adding that "new elections would be the better path".
In a separate interview with the ZDF broadcaster, she argued Germany needed stability and a government "that does not need to seek a majority for every decision".
The elections were held in late September.
Some in Mrs Merkel's party still hope for another grand coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD), despite that party repeatedly ruling such an option out.
Earlier on Monday, SPD leader Martin Schulz said his party was "not afraid of new elections".
When asked about the prospect of another alliance with the SPD, Mrs Merkel told ZDF she would wait to see what came of upcoming talks between President Steinmeier and SPD leaders.
However, she said a demand for her to resign would not make a positive start for a new coalition.
If fresh elections are to happen, they would need to be called by Mr Steinmeier, after a long drawn-out process that would take months.
But he appears to view new polls as a last resort. In a brief address earlier on Monday he told politicians they had a responsibility that could not just be handed back to voters.
"Inside our country, but also outside, in particular in our European neighbourhood, there would be concern and a lack of understanding if politicians in the biggest and economically strongest country [in Europe] did not live up to their responsibilities," he said in a statement.
Mrs Merkel's bloc won September's poll, but many voters deserted the mainstream parties.
Negotiations between the pro-market FDP, the Greens and the conservative CDU/CSU bloc had gone on for four weeks before the FDP's surprise withdrawal late on Sunday.
Mrs Merkel blamed the FDP for the collapse, saying that the parties were on the "home straight" when the liberals pulled out.
But FDP leader Christian Lindner has defended his party, saying it "did not take such a decision lightly".
Despite Mrs Merkel's words about a fresh poll, analysts say the new elections would be likely to benefit the anti-Islam, anti-immigrant AfD most, so other parties would probably try to avoid them.
The far-right AfD won 12.6% of the vote in the September elections, entering parliament for the first time with more than 90 seats.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42057108
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Footage shows hunt saboteur being hit with riding crop - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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A woman was filmed hitting a man during a hunt in Sussex.
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A woman was filmed repeatedly hitting a man with a riding crop during a hunt in Sussex.
It happened after the man, who appears to be a hunt saboteur, took hold of the horse's reins.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-42056947
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Charlie Rose: CBS sacks talk show host over harassment claims - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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Eight women had accused the veteran US television interviewer of inappropriate behaviour.
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US & Canada
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Charlie Rose, 75, is one of America's most respected broadcasters
US TV host Charlie Rose has been fired by CBS News following sexual harassment allegations.
An email to staff said the presenter's employment had been "terminated... effective immediately".
It said the move followed the revelation of "extremely disturbing and intolerable behaviour" said to have taken place around his programme.
Eight women accused the veteran TV interviewer of inappropriate behaviour in a report by the Washington Post.
Following the allegations he was suspended by CBS, PBS and Bloomberg. Rose co-hosted the CBS This Morning show and was a correspondent for its Sunday night news magazine 60 Minutes. He appeared on PBS and Bloomberg with the Charlie Rose show.
Rose apologised following the Washington Post story, but said not all the claims were accurate.
The allegations span from the 1990s to 2011 and include groping, lewd telephone calls and unwanted advances.
The internal email to staff from CBS News president David Rhodes read: "Despite Charlie's important journalistic contribution to our news division, there is absolutely nothing more important, in this or any organisation, than ensuring a safe, professional workplace - a supportive environment where people feel they can do their best work. We need to be such a place.
"I've often heard that things used to be different. And no-one may be able to correct the past. But what may once have been accepted should not ever have been acceptable."
Rose, 75, is one of America's most respected broadcasters and his interviews have won him Emmy and Peabody awards. He was named by Time magazine as one of its 100 most influential people in 2014.
He is known for conducting in-depth interviews, including with such high-profile guests as former President Barack Obama, talk show host Oprah Winfrey and billionaire Warren Buffett, on his eponymous television programme which first aired in 1991.
Charlie Rose's interviews have won him several awards
In recent weeks, numerous high-profile figures, including Oscar-winning actors and a Hollywood filmmaker, have been accused of sexual harassment.
The accusations were sparked by multiple women speaking out against the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, and a subsequent campaign encouraging victims to share their stories of sexual harassment under the #metoo hashtag.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42073417
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Jungle explorer Benedict Allen tells of malaria and tribal wars - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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Benedict Allen says he is weak but bouncing back after his ill-fated jungle trek in Papua New Guinea.
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UK
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Benedict Allen said he made a video for his family in case he died whilst on expedition
Explorer Benedict Allen encountered a tribal war, was caught in electrical storms and fell ill with malaria and dengue fever on an ill-fated jungle trek in Papua New Guinea, he has said.
A search was mounted last week after Mr Allen missed planned flights. He was rescued by helicopter a few days later.
Speaking to his friend, the BBC's Frank Gardner, Mr Allen, 57, said he was weak from malaria but was "bouncing back".
His worst moment had been making a video will for his family, he said.
Mr Allen, a father of three young children, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he never took satellite phones or GPS with him on expeditions, but might consider doing so in the future.
His family's distress at his apparent disappearance appeared across newspapers, TV and radio, and prompted the Daily Mail, a British newspaper, to send a helicopter into the jungle to rescue him.
He said he had spent two days under observation at a hospital in Papua New Guinea before the doctors gave him the all-clear.
Now back in the UK, he said he was weak from malaria - the sixth time he has had it - and "not that sharp mentally".
Mr Allen denied the search and rescue was a publicity stunt to raise his profile.
"I videoed all of this and you can see me deteriorating with malaria," he told Today.
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Mr Allen, who has filmed a number of his adventures for BBC documentaries, said he had not got lost, but events had seemed to conspire against him.
"I always knew exactly where I was, things just began to go wrong," he said.
The trip had been hampered by a massive storm which swept away a vine bridge over a river.
He had also started to feel the symptoms of malaria and his tablets had become sodden in the wet.
The final straw, he said, was when he discovered there was a war going on ahead of him and he could not get out.
"I had to make my way to the nearest airstrip and try to get any local plane to come in," he said.
He filmed an appeal on his video camera asking for a message to his children, aged 10, seven and two, and wife, Lenka, to be taken to the British High Commission if he died.
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Asked if this latest venture had been part of a mid-life crisis, Mr Allen said he saw himself as a professional - "a risk calculator, not a risk taker".
"On the very day the helicopter came, I had been gearing up to do a last walk out.
"I thought I was 80-85% likely to be successful, so I hadn't given up," he said, in an interview from west London.
"I never asked to be rescued but when it came - for the sake of my family - I thought 'I've got to do this'."
Mr Allen set out in October for Papua New Guinea to try to find the reclusive Yaifo tribe, who he first met 30 years ago.
The rainforest was, he said, an "extraordinary place that can work to pull you apart" - the "leeches, the constant rain, trees thumping down in the night, sleeping in a sort of swamp".
Among his travelling companions, natives of the rainforest, he knew he was the weakest and, after three weeks, knew he was "falling apart".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In a recent documentary Benedict Allen described his experiences of living in Papua New Guinea
Explaining his reasoning behind travelling alone without a phone, he said he tried to immerse himself in other people's worlds.
His back-up was the local people who were always friendly to him, he told BBC's Victoria Derbyshire, in his first TV interview.
"The forest to them is not a threat. It's their home and gives them their food, shelter, medicine, so I had a resource."
He also defended himself against accusations he was "an imperialist going in to see a lost tribe".
"It wasn't like that. I simply had the privilege 30 years ago to meet these people.
"I wanted to see that they were alive and well - and they were.
"It was magnificent - a great welcome."
Mr Allen has previously crossed the Amazon Basin on foot and in a dug-out canoe, and participated in a six-week male initiation ceremony during which crocodile marks were carved onto his body.
First solo adventure: To the Amazon at 22, during which he was shot at by two hitmen
Tough time: An initiation into manhood in Papua New Guinea. He was kept in a "crocodile nest" with 20 others and repeatedly cut with bamboo blades to leave scars that looked like crocodile scales
Low moment: Eating his own dog to survive
Travel habit: Always keeps loo paper in a back pocket. "You know how it is," he told the Lonely Planet
Philosophy: "For me personally, exploration isn't about conquering nature, planting flags or leaving your mark. It's about the opposite: opening yourself up and allowing the place to leave its mark on you."
Career: Six TV series for the BBC, author, motivational speaker
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42062933
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G4S orders independent inquiry into immigration centre staff - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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It will review an immigration removal centre after a Panorama investigation uncovered alleged abuse.
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UK
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Brook House holds up to 508 adult male asylum seekers, illegal immigrants and foreign national offenders
Security firm G4S has commissioned an independent inquiry to review the "attitude and behaviour" of staff at an immigration removal centre it runs.
Staff at Brook House were allegedly caught "mocking, abusing and assaulting" people being held there in covert footage filmed for BBC Panorama.
G4S has a government contract to run the centre near Gatwick Airport.
It has appointed an outside consultancy to conduct the inquiry but has not said whether the findings will be published.
In September, Panorama aired footage recorded by ex-custody officer Callum Tulley at Brook House, which holds detainees who are facing deportation from the UK.
Security firm G4S has since dismissed six members of staff at the centre and a number of other staff have also been disciplined.
Brandon Lewis, the immigration minister, is expected to be questioned by MPs today about whether his department had concerns about the centre before the programme was broadcast.
BBC News has now seen a letter from G4S to the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee which says the firm has commissioned an independent review to understand the "extent and root causes of the treatment of detainees" at Brook House.
It has appointed investigators from consultancy organisation Verita, which carried out a review of practices at Yarl's Wood immigration centre in Bedfordshire.
The investigation into Brook House will examine G4S's "operational policies and management", the treatment of detainees by staff, and the failings of whistleblowing procedures.
BBC's home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the inquiry is an indication of how seriously G4S regards the alleged abuse at Brook House.
He added that the Home Office is still considering whether to renew the company's contract.
Callum Tulley, 21, agreed to go undercover at Brook House
The Equality and Human Rights Commission last month urged ministers to set up a public inquiry into wider issues with immigration centres - including allowing private firms to run them - but it says it has so far had no response from the Home Office.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd, when asked about the Brook House programme at the home affairs committee last month, said she had been "disgusted" by the footage.
"It is completely unacceptable, and they have put together a plan of implementation to correct it," she told the committee.
Brook House was branded "fundamentally unsafe" in 2010 - a year after opening.
Three years later inspectors said they saw sustained improvement.
The most recent report from HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, released in March this year, said some detainees had been held for excessive periods due to "unreasonable delays in immigration decision making".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42057495
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What is the extent of China's influence in Zimbabwe? - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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The news that the head of Zimbabwe's military visited China days before it took power has sparked questions.
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Africa
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General Chiwenga was welcomed to China by military leaders
A trip to Beijing by Zimbabwe's military chief was a "normal military exchange", China's foreign ministry said after the army seized power in Harare. How deep are relations between China and Zimbabwe really?
The news that General Constantino Chiwenga had visited China only a few days before the military takeover in Zimbabwe was a coincidence that did not go unnoticed.
There was also speculation after China said it was closely watching developments, but stopped short of condemning President Mugabe's apparent removal from power.
China is Zimbabwe's fourth largest trading partner and its largest source of investment - with stakes worth many billions of pounds in everything from agriculture to construction.
Zimbabwe is the dependent partner - with China providing the largest market for its exports and much needed support to its fragile economy.
China's relations with Zimbabwe are deep, starting during the Rhodesian Bush War.
Robert Mugabe failed in 1979 to get Soviet backing, so turned to China, which provided his guerrilla fighters with weapons and training.
Both countries formally established diplomatic relations at Zimbabwean independence in 1980 and Robert Mugabe visited Beijing as prime minister the following year.
He has been a regular visitor since.
For years, Zimbabwe's officials have tried to play off China against the West, advocating the country's "Look East" strategy, particularly following the introduction of EU sanctions in 2002.
Indeed, a decade ago, Mr Mugabe told a packed rally at the Chinese-built national sports stadium in Harare: 'We have turned east, where the sun rises, and given our back to the west, where the sun sets."
China's military engagement also deepened during Zimbabwe's "Look East" era.
However, following a controversy about a shipment of arms in 2008, Beijing decided to list Zimbabwe for "limited level" military trading.
Despite Zimbabwe's efforts, the "Look East" strategy did not bring the investment flood hoped for and a decade later, in August 2015, Mr Mugabe openly asked for Western re-engagement in his "state of the nation" address.
Now, the reality is that increasingly Chinese and Western interests - particularly those of the UK - have become aligned.
Not far from each other in the outer suburbs of Harare, two of the biggest embassies in Zimbabwe are the British and the Chinese.
As other embassies scaled down or closed, Beijing's expanded.
Whereas British diplomats were well connected with business, civil society and opposition figures, the Chinese invested in "technical support" of the party of government Zanu-PF, including state security and the presidency.
When it came to Zanu-PF politics and factionalism, Chinese diplomats were well connected and insightful and, like their Western colleagues, concerned about stability, a better investment climate and adherence to the rule of law.
President Xi Jinping visited Zimbabwe in 2015 and President Mugabe visited Beijing in January 2017.
In public, the Chinese leader said his country is willing to encourage capable companies to invest in Zimbabwe.
But in private, the message was that there would be no more loans until Zimbabwe stabilised its economy.
Maj Gen Sibusiso Moyo said the military was not staging a coup
In 2016 trade between the two countries amounted to $1.1bn (£0.8bn), with China the biggest buyer of Zimbabwean tobacco and also importing cotton and various minerals.
In return Zimbabwe imported electronics, clothing and other finished products.
Chinese state construction firms have also been active, building infrastructure including Zimbabwe's $100m (£75m) National Defence College.
And last year China agreed to finance a new 650-seat parliament in Harare.
But Chinese diplomats and many businesses are waiting for better days in Zimbabwe.
Some companies have found the investment climate challenging - being burned on diamonds, for example - and have looked for alternative markets.
A couple of weeks ago I was in China, attending a meeting on China-Africa relations and Zimbabwe was not mentioned once.
Unlike Ethiopia, Sudan, or Angola that are strategic partners, or big markets like Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, Zimbabwe is far from being Beijing's new priority.
So, Beijing's interest is in a better investment climate in Zimbabwe.
A clear transitional arrangement resulting in elections for a legitimate government in Harare is as much in Beijing's interest as London's.
The "Look East" and the "Re-engagement with the West" strategies have not brought about the confidence and investment that Zimbabwe needs.
What Zimbabwe requires is stable and accountable government - then investors from Asia, America and Europe will seriously consider that Zimbabwe has an investment future.
This was the message that Mr Mugabe received in Beijing in January.
And the one which Zimbabwe's military chief also was given last week.
This analysis piece was commissioned by the BBC from an expert working for an outside organisation.
Dr Alex Vines OBE is Head of Africa Programme, Chatham House, and a Senior Lecturer at Coventry University.
Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, describes itself as an independent policy institute helping to build a sustainably secure, prosperous and just world.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42012629
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Arlene Foster warns Irish PM over Brexit - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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DUP leader Arlene Foster says Brexit talks are entering a "critical phase".
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Speaking to BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg, DUP leader Arlene Foster accuses Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar of being "reckless" towards the future of Northern Ireland as Brexit talks enter a "critical phase".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42068179
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Sinn Féin concerned by 'security force amnesty' plan - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Gerry Adams concerned at move over Troubles' prosecutions, but government says it is just for consultation.
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Northern Ireland
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Conservative and unionist MPs want a "statute of limitations" to prevent security force members being prosecuted for offences early in the Troubles
Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams has expressed concern about a proposed "amnesty for British crown forces" allegedly involved in Troubles' offences.
Mr Adams said there had been a change to legacy arrangements envisaged under a previous political agreement.
He was speaking after meeting Prime Minister Theresa May.
Conservative and unionist MPs want a "statute of limitations" to prevent security force members being prosecuted for offences early in the Troubles.
Gerry Adams held talks with Theresa May on Tuesday
Mr Adams, the outgoing Sinn Féin leader, said he understood a new section had been added to the 2014 Stormont House Agreement and that it was "about an amnesty for British crown forces" - the term republicans to describe the Army and police.
"That is an act of bad faith, we weren't told this, we understand the Irish government weren't told this," Mr Adams said.
"So how on earth can a British prime minister hope to persuade anybody that there's a possibility of a new dispensation emerging when she takes up this position and her secretary of state takes up this position also?"
A government source told the BBC that their preferred approach remained the proposals set out under the Stormont House Agreement, but that the government wanted, in their consultation, to ask the public what they thought about a statute of limitations.
The Irish government said it would "not look favourably" on any amnesty measure in Northern Ireland.
"There are no amnesties from prosecution provided for in the Good Friday Agreement or any subsequent agreements including the Stormont House Agreement," a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
Earlier, the DUP said Sinn Féin must stop glorifying the murders of innocent people.
DUP leader Arlene Foster said remarks made about IRA terrorism at Sinn Fein's annual gathering were 'quite disgraceful'
Speaking after a separate meeting with Mrs May, DUP leader Arlene Foster said remarks made about IRA terrorism at Sinn Féin's annual gathering were "quite disgraceful".
She said the DUP would continue to work towards the restoration of devolution.
Mr Adams, however, rejected Mrs Foster's allegations, saying they were an excuse not to strike a deal.
The Sinn Féin president was accompanied to the Downing Street talks by the party's leader north of the border, Michelle O'Neill, and its vice president, Mary-Lou McDonald.
Northern Ireland has been without a devolved administration since January, when the governing parties - the DUP and Sinn Féin - split in a bitter row over a botched green energy scheme.
At the Sinn Féin gathering (ard fheis) in Dublin at the weekend, tributes were paid to the late Martin McGuinness.
Sinn Féin was viewed as the political wing of the IRA during the Troubles. Party members regularly attend commemorations for IRA members.
The Provisional IRA killed almost 1,800 people during its campaign, about 650 of those were civilians.
Tributes were paid to the late Martin McGuinness at the Sinn Féin party conference at the weekend
One of the loudest cheers of the conference came when delegates were told that the former Stormont deputy first minister, Mr McGuinness, had been a "proud member of the IRA".
Mrs Foster said she had told Mrs May the glorification of terrorism made the restoration of power sharing in Northern Ireland more difficult.
She said the DUP was talking about a deal to restore power sharing that both unionism and nationalism could live with, but she accused Sinn Féin of only being concerned with nationalism.
She also criticised calls from Sinn Féin for more direct involvement by both the London and Dublin governments over the political stalemate at Stormont - saying the internal governance of Northern Ireland was a matter for the UK government.
The Sinn Féin delegation had been expected to tell Theresa May that instead of direct rule, the British and Irish governments should deliver on equality issues like same-sex marriage and an Irish Language Act.
But DUP MP Nigel Dodds was scathing about Sinn Féin's complaints about equal rights.
Michelle O'Neill and Gerry Adams are expected to press the government on same-sex marriage and an Irish language act
"When Sinn Féin lectures everybody about rights, remember that the greatest right of all is the right to life," said Mr Dodds, who met the prime minister with Mrs Foster.
"It is not just that Sinn Féin have supported IRA terrorism in the past, and the murder of innocent people, but even at the weekend they were continuing to eulogise and glorify the murder of innocent people.
"In a rights-based society, that has got to stop," he added.
Mrs May said it was clear the issues dividing the parties are relatively small in number, focusing mainly around culture, legacy, identity and the future stability of the devolved institutions.
"While not in any way underestimating the challenges involved, I believe that a way forward can be found and an agreement reached," she said.
Sinn Féin has called for a British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference to be convened to consider a way forward, but Mrs Foster described that body as a "talking shop which has not met since 2007".
She said Northern Ireland must not be used as a pawn in ongoing Brexit negotiations, accusing some in Dublin and Brussels of trying to recklessly use Northern Ireland for their own objectives.
Sinn Féin said the confidence and supply arrangement between the DUP and the Conservative Party had "compounded" the problems the parties faced.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-42058901
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How will 'box office Phil' play the Budget? - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The economic uncertainty around Brexit and the slender government majority may constrain his options.
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UK Politics
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The chancellor is known by some around Westminster as "box office Phil", an ironic nickname for a politician who favours caution and prudence over showmanship and headline-grabbing pyrotechnics. So this should be Philip Hammond's sort of Budget.
The government is sticking with its aim of plugging the deficit and balancing the books. Although borrowing has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, the expected slowdown in productivity growth is likely to push future borrowing numbers back up, shrinking Mr Hammond's room to spend.
Add in the economic uncertainty around Brexit, and Mr Hammond might be tempted to play safe and avoid any drama.
There are political reasons for caution too. The Tories have a precarious working majority in the Commons with the help of the DUP, which means any remotely controversial votes on tax rises or spending cuts could easily be lost.
Mr Hammond has already been burned from fumbling a Budget measure, when he had to scrap plans to raise National Insurance contributions for the self-employed within a week of announcing the policy in March.
The chancellor does not revel in the political chess games enjoyed by his predecessor, George Osborne, who delighted in trying to outfox his opponents with a mischievous surprise. Not always successfully.
Philip Hammond definitely does not need his own "omnishambles" Budget this week, and nor does the government.
Badly wounded by the botched general election in June, hit by the departure of two cabinet ministers in a month, divided on Brexit, for the Tories this is a Budget that must not backfire.
Ironically, it was June's election that kept Philip Hammond in his job.
There has been evidence of real tensions between the prime minister and her chancellor
Hardly allowed out in public during the campaign, he was widely expected to be chopped after the expected victory - an impression Theresa May did nothing to dispel at a joint press conference with her chancellor in May.
Tensions between Number 10 and Number 11 were clear and the source of the agro was of course Brexit. A supporter of Remain during the referendum, Mr Hammond has found himself battling the Brexiteers in the cabinet.
He wants a two-year post-Brexit transition deal agreed with the EU as soon as possible to stop businesses moving out.
He is resisting calls to set aside billions of pounds now for a no-deal scenario. Mr Hammond wants to protect financial services as much as possible.
In October, the former Tory Chancellor Lord Lawson accused Mr Hammond of acting in a way that was "close to sabotage", because of his Brexit negativity, and urged Theresa May to sack him.
But the prime minister, an Oxford university contemporary of her chancellor, shows no sign of wanting to move him.
Former Chancellors can also be dangerous to a prime minister. Theresa May might recall the resignation speech of Geoffrey Howe in 1990 after he quit as Deputy Prime Minister, following a political career spent at the Treasury and the Foreign Office.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
If you haven't seen it, his quietly deadly resignation speech is worth a few minutes of your time.
So considering the constraints, what are Tory MPs hoping for from Wednesday's budget?
"Nobody is expecting much," one veteran of the Conservative back benches told me. While no fan of Philip Hammond, "we don't want a bloodbath", they said.
"We don't want him to screw it up," said another senior Tory, who is hoping for a sunnier message from the sometimes doleful Chancellor.
The Tory MP Nigel Evans also says he wants a bit of cheer from Mr Hammond.
"If he comes to the despatch box and starts hand-wringing, and saying, 'We've got no money,' but at the same time we know they are prepared to up the amount of money they don't necessarily have to give the EU, then we'll all think, 'What the heck's going on?'"
The consistent view among Leave-supporting Tories is that they want him to sound upbeat about the possibilities of Brexit.
But the chancellor has strong admirers on the Tory benches too, relieved he is in the Treasury's driving seat while the government argues about the final destination of Brexit.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has demanded "an emergency Budget for our public services", which he says are in crisis
The MP for Chelmsford, Vicky Ford, is a fan. "I want a chancellor who's as boring as anything, but really understands the numbers and the finances. I think Philip Hammond's been doing an incredibly good, detailed analysis and that's exactly what we need at this time."
Tory MPs agree it is a very difficult Budget for Philip Hammond to pitch. It needs to try to prove the government has a purpose other than Brexit, while having very little cash to splash. Maybe the chancellor will surprise us.
The former schoolboy disco entrepreneur turned wealthy businessman took career risks long before he entered politics. But Wednesday will be one of his toughest challenges yet.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42059272
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Egypt drugs case: Briton Laura Plummer's sister issues apology - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Laura Plummer is being held on drug smuggling charges over what she says is an innocent mistake.
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Humberside
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Laura Plummer is in police custody in the resort of Hurghada
The sister of a British woman facing drug smuggling charges in Egypt has apologised to the country's officials.
Laura Plummer, 33, faces a trial accused of entering the country with 300 Tramadol tablets, a painkiller legal in the UK but not in Egypt.
She is in police custody in Hurghada awaiting a hearing date.
Her sister Rachel told officials she had "unintentionally done wrong" and apologised for "bringing such trouble to your country".
It is not clear whether the apology has been seen by the authorities, who have not commented.
But in response to the apology, Ms Plummer's MP Karl Turner, described her as a "decent, law-abiding" citizen who had "done something really silly".
Laura Plummer said the prescription pills were for her partner Omar Caboo
Ms Plummer, a shop assistant from Hull, claims she was carrying the pills for her Egyptian partner, Omar Caboo, who suffers from back pain.
She has been held in a cell, which she has to share with 25 other women.
Rachel Plummer said her sister had carried out "a totally innocent action"
In a statement, Rachel said she "would like to place on record our gratitude for the fairness and just manner the Egyptian justice system has shown towards Laura".
"We realise Laura has unintentionally done wrong in the eyes of the Egyptian authorities; a totally innocent action that has resulted in her being held in custody by the police in Hurghada," she said.
"Laura, along with all of us, loves Egypt and upon visits to see Laura we have been happy with the professional and fair way the police officers have been with Laura and we would like to apologise for bringing such trouble to your country."
Other family members have made no further comment.
Laura Plummer said she had "no idea" the painkillers she was carrying were banned in the country
He said he met Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson last week and was reassured "the government is doing all it can" to support Laura and her family. The UK Foreign Office has not publicly commented.
Ms Plummer said earlier this month she had "no idea" the painkillers she was carrying were banned in the country.
But local police said ignorance of the law was no excuse.
Tramadol is the most abused drug in Egypt, according to Ghada Wali, the country's Minister of Social Solidarity.
Drug smuggling can carry the death sentence in Egypt.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-42055306
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The Likely Lads actor Rodney Bewes dies - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The actor who played Bob Ferris in the popular BBC sitcom has died aged 79, his agent confirms.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Rodney Bewes has died aged 79, his agent has confirmed.
The actor had a career spanning six decades and is best known for playing Bob Ferris in sitcom The Likely Lads.
His agent issued a statement saying: "It is with great sadness that we confirm that our dear client, the much-loved actor Rodney Bewes, passed away this morning."
The statement paid tribute to the actor, calling him a "true one-off" and a "brilliant storyteller".
"He had a funny anecdote for every occasion. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time. We will miss him terribly."
Bewes was originally from Bingley in Yorkshire but moved to Luton as a child.
Despite childhood asthma keeping him house-bound until the age of 12, he achieved his first role at the age of 14 and went on to study drama at RADA.
Bewes starred alongside Peter Davison in the 21st series of Doctor Who
He gained fame in the 1960s and 1970s playing Bob Ferris in the BBC sitcom The Likely Lads, and in its sequel, Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? - which drew audiences of up to 27m.
In 1984, he became a member of the Doctor Who cast during Peter Davison's run as the Time Lord, portraying a humanoid named Stien in Resurrection Of The Daleks.
He died six days before he would have celebrated his 80th birthday.
Bewes is survived by his four children - Billy, Joe, Tom and Daisy - and his two grandchildren, Oscar and Eliza.
On Wednesday, his children released a joint statement saying they "will always remember Dad as full of laughter and fun".
"He will be much missed by his many friends in London, Henley, Edinburgh and Cornwall. We are very touched by all the warm messages people have left."
Shane Allen, controller BBC Comedy, said Bewes was "beloved as one half of the great British sitcom partnerships of all time".
He added: "Audiences got to see him go from black and white to colour as the revival was a huge hit with audiences of all ages. It's one of the all-time great BBC sitcoms; timeless in its humour and will be enjoyed for decades to come."
Tributes have also been pouring in for the star on social media.
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Comedian Jack Dee said The Likely Lads was one of the "great" sitcoms.
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Radio presenter Danny Baker described The Likely Lads as "the gold standard" and "envy of the comedic world".
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Writer and actor Julian Dutton described Bewes as "a fine actor".
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Actor and comedian Tom Davis said Bewes starred in "landmark British sitcoms".
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And Olympic rower Matthew Pinsent paid tribute to the actor, who he said used to cheer on crews at Henley.
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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-42067506
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Stolen John Lennon items recovered in Berlin - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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More than 100 items stolen from Yoko Ono in 2006 in New York have been found by German police.
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Europe
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Pairs of John Lennon's signature round glasses were also found
German police have recovered more than 100 items stolen from John Lennon's estate, including three diaries.
The diaries were put on display at Berlin police headquarters with other items including a tape recording of a Beatles concert, two pairs of glasses, sheet music and a cigarette case.
Police said a 58-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods.
The items were stolen in New York in 2006 from Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono.
Detectives said much of the haul was confiscated from an auction house in Berlin in July, sparking an investigation to find the rest of the stolen items.
Ono identified the objects from photos she was shown at the German consulate in New York, German media reported.
The diaries, along with other items, were displayed by police in Berlin
The suspect was arrested on Monday in Berlin after police searched his home and cars.
Martin Steltner, a spokesman for the Berlin prosecutor's office, said another suspect, who lives in Turkey, "is unattainable for us at the present time".
It is understood the second suspect used to work as a chauffeur for Ono.
Mr Steltner said it was not clear when the recovered items could be returned to Lennon's estate.
John Lennon, pictured here with Yoko Ono in 1969, was shot dead in New York in 1980
Memorabilia connected to the Beatles can fetch huge prices at auction.
In February, a leather jacket believed to have been worn by Lennon sold for £10,400 at an auction in England.
In September, an original score for The Beatles' song Eleanor Rigby was removed from another auction in England amid claims it had been stolen.
The handwritten score, signed by Paul McCartney, was due to be sold with a guide price of £20,000.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42072125
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Jail for man who faked £7m will to cheat charity - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Paul Coppola tried to cheat the Medecins San Frontieres charity out of a "colossal" bequest.
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Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland
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Paul Coppola was jailed for two years for faking the will of his relative Desiderio Coppola
A man who faked a relative's will to prevent a charity benefitting from a multi-million pound legacy has been jailed.
Paul Coppola, 65, admitted forging the signature of Desiderio Coppola just days before his death in October 2011.
The deceased had wanted his £7m estate to be divided between his family and the balance left to the charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Coppola was jailed for two years at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
The court was told that Coppola had known his second cousin, Desiderio Coppola, all his life and that the accused had referred to him as "uncle".
In July 2010 Desiderio Coppola made a will bequeathing much of his estate to his friends and family, including £100,000 to Paul Coppola.
It also gave instructions that tenants of business premises that he owned were to be offered the chance to buy them.
Mr Coppola also stated that the residue of his estate was to go to Medecins Sans Frontieres, the charity that provides medical assistance in war torn regions and developing countries.
However, days before his gravely ill relative's death, the court was told that Paul Coppola presented a new will to the family that made no mention of the charity.
It also made no reference to the business premises and instructed that the remainder of the estate be paid to Coppola, of Waverley Park Terrace, Edinburgh.
Coppola was jailed for two years at Edinburgh Sheriff Court
Fiscal Ann MacNeill told the court that the day after Desiderio Coppola's death, the accused contacted his goddaughter, Elvira Fearn, to tell her about the content of the faked document.
The fiscal said: "Although she had no knowledge of the wills or the deceased's intentions, she was suspicious of the will because she was aware that the deceased hated to pay tax and she did not believe that he would have omitted Medecins Sans Frontieres completely and left the residue to the accused as there would have been a large tax liability to pay."
She added: "Elvira Fearn was of the opinion that the changes to the will reflected the accused's allegiances rather than the wishes of the deceased."
Several days after the death, friends and family held a meeting with Coppola, where he was asked how the new will had come about.
The fiscal said: "The accused explained that he found out that the deceased was due to leave the majority of his wealth to charity and that he had persuaded the deceased to change his will.
"He said the deceased had agreed to change the terms of his will."
In June 2012 confirmation of the will was granted and a total of £1.2m was paid to friends and family who had been bequeathed specific amounts.
By March 2013 Coppola had received a property from the estate in Edinburgh's Raeburn Place, which he sold for £290,000. He also received a further property in the city's Waterloo Place.
Coppola also received more than £270,000 from the estate into his bank account in October 2013.
However, weeks later lawyers went to the Court of Session in Edinburgh and successfully raised an action to have the will set aside.
Coppola chose not to defend the action.
The police were informed and lawyers then took over administration of the estate and began trying to recover money that had been due to the charity.
Coppola later admitted to officers that he had forged the signature of his relative.
Sheriff Frank Crowe told him: "Your actions caused much grief, inconvenience and disappointment to the other legatees and your friends and uncertainty to the tenants of properties which were rented from the deceased."
The sheriff told Coppola he would have faced a three-year jail sentence if he had been convicted after trial, but it would be reduced in view of his early guilty plea.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-42063743
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Brexit: Electoral Commission reopens probe into Vote Leave - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Electoral Commission investigates why group gave £625,000 to a student just before the EU referendum.
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UK Politics
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The Electoral Commission has reopened an investigation into Vote Leave's EU referendum spending.
The campaign paid £625,000 to clear bills allegedly run up by university student Darren Grimes with a digital agency days ahead of last June's vote.
The campaign denies attempting to get round spending limits - the Electoral Commission initially accepted this but now says it has new information.
A group of campaigning lawyers, The Good Law Project, has started legal action against the commission over its original decision to drop the investigation, claiming the watchdog was not doing its job properly.
Jo Maugham QC, of the Good Law Project, said: "We are 18 months after the referendum vote. It is extraordinary that only now is the Electoral Commission taking a serious look at whether the rules were complied with. And only in response to legal action."
He added: "The Electoral Commission has urged us to agree to drop our High Court case. We will consider this question carefully in the coming days."
A former senior Vote Leave source accused the watchdog of giving in to pressure from the Good Law project - something the watchdog has denied.
"The Electoral Commission is an utter joke," the source told BBC News.
"They investigated the last time there was a spurious complaint and found Vote Leave followed the rules and donations were within the law.
"Now they've given in to peer pressure from a bunch of die-hard Remainers who would rather believe in some vast conspiracy rather than respect the democratic vote of the British people.
"This is in contrast to the Electoral Commission's repeated failures to call out dodgy Remain behaviour, which exploited the full weight of the government during the campaign. It reeks of double standards."
The row centres around Darren Grimes, at the time a fashion student at the University of Brighton, who set up a group called BeLeave, to give young pro-Brexit campaigners a voice during last year's referendum.
As a registered campaigner, he was allowed to spend up to £700,000. He initially spent very little but in the 10 days leading up to the 23 June vote he ran up a £675,315 bill with AggregateIQ Data, a Canadian marketing firm that specialises in political campaigns.
Money to clear the bill was not given to Mr Grimes but sent directly to Aggregate IQ by Vote Leave, which separately spent £2.7m with the same firm, more than a third of its £6.8m budget.
Mr Grimes also received £50,000 from an individual Vote Leave donor in the final 10 days, making the previously obscure campaigner's group one of the best-funded at the referendum.
Vote Leave Campaign director Dominic Cummings was quoted on AggregateIQ's website as saying "we couldn't have done it without them".
In total, AIQ was given £3.5m by groups campaigning for Brexit, including Vote Leave, the Democratic Unionist Party and Veterans for Britain.
Vote Leave would have gone over its campaign spending limit if it had spent the money it donated on behalf of Mr Grimes itself.
The campaign group said it made the donation to Mr Grimes because it was coming up to its £7m spending limit and wanted a way of using £9.2m it had raised from individuals and companies on campaigning activities.
The Electoral Commission said in March this was an "acceptable method of donating under the rules" and after a "detailed look" at the case it did not find reasonable grounds to suspect an offence had been committed.
The new probe will look at whether the spending returns delivered by Mr Grimes, Veterans for Britain and Vote Leave were correct - and whether or not Vote Leave exceeded its spending limit.
Bob Posner, the Electoral Commission's director of political finance and regulation, said: "There is significant public interest in being satisfied that the facts are known about Vote Leave's spending on the campaign, particularly as it was a lead campaigner with a greater spending limit than any other campaigners on the Leave side.
"Legitimate questions over the funding provided to campaigners risks causing harm to voters' confidence in the referendum and it is therefore right that we investigate."
In April, the Electoral Commission launched a separate investigation into spending during the referendum by Leave.EU, the campaign backed by then-UKIP leader Nigel Farage and donor Arron Banks.
It is also investigating spending by the anti-Brexit campaign Britain Stronger in Europe.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42055523
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Gaia Pope death: Arrested family want police apology - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A teenager arrested over Gaia's disappearance has been "on the verge of a breakdown", his mum says.
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Dorset
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Gaia Pope's body was found 11 days after she went missing
A 19-year-old wrongly suspected of Gaia Pope's murder has been "on the verge of a mental breakdown", his mother has said.
Nathan Elsey was detained alongside his grandmother Rosemary Dinch, 71, six days after Miss Pope, 19, disappeared.
Deborah Elsey said she had "no idea" why her son was a suspect and has called on Dorset Police to apologise.
The force, which has released the pair without charge, said officers would have had "multiple grounds for arrest".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gaia Pope's father Richard Sutherland said the family would "treasure her always"
Mrs Elsey, a family friend of Miss Pope's, said her son's arrest was a "horrendous shock".
Her brother Paul Elsey was also arrested on suspicion of murder and later released.
Mrs Elsey said she and the three arrested family members were staying with her father Greg.
"We're still not in our homes and still have none of our personal effects. At the very least I'd like an apology," she said.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Family friend Rosemary Dinch was the last person to see Gaia Pope before she went missing
"We're going through every single emotion rolled into one - you don't know what you're feeling.
"One minute you want to cry for yourself, then you cry for Gaia and her family and then there's anger for police."
Miss Pope was reported missing from Swanage, Dorset, on 7 November.
Her body was found on Saturday 18 November in a field near the town.
A post-mortem examination conducted the next day did not identify any injuries to suggest the involvement of other people, Dorset Police said.
On Monday, the force announced Paul Elsey, Ms Dinch, and Nathan Elsey were to face no action.
It is treating the death as "unexplained" pending toxicology results.
In a statement the force said: "We appreciate our enquiries would have caused these individuals stress and anxiety, however we have an obligation in any missing person investigation to explore every possible line of enquiry."
The family say they have not been allowed back in their homes since the arrests
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-42064624
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Irish PM should know better over Brexit, says Arlene Foster - BBC News
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2017-11-21
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Arlene Foster warns Leo Varadkar not to "play around" with Northern Ireland over Brexit.
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UK Politics
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Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar "should know better" than to "play around" with Northern Ireland over Brexit, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party says.
Arlene Foster accused Mr Varadkar of being "reckless" as Brexit talks enter a "critical phase".
She was speaking after meeting Theresa May at Downing Street.
The Irish government says any hard border with Northern Ireland should be off the table.
And an EU paper recently suggested Northern Ireland would have to continue to follow many EU rules after Brexit if a hard border was to be avoided. It hinted Northern Ireland may need to stay in the EU customs union if there were to be no checks at the border.
That is something which the UK Conservative government - which is supported in key votes by the DUP at Westminster - have said they cannot accept as it would effectively create a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
The Irish government has said it will veto the start of Brexit trade talks unless border issues are concerned
While there are genuine and sincerely held logistical and understandable concerns about what happens to the Irish border after Brexit, there is a sense building that perhaps the Irish government is playing those concerns rather harder than is justified.
DUP leader Arlene Foster, using rather strong language, told off the Irish leader Leo Varadkar for doing just that today.
But the next step in what many would say is a conspiracy theory, borne out of Brexiteer desperation, is to ponder whether the EU as a whole is over-egging their true level of worry about what happens to the border.
Speaking to BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg, Mrs Foster said: "Some people are taking their moment in the sun, to try and get the maximum in relation to the negotiations - and I understand that but you shouldn't play about with Northern Ireland particularly at a time when we're trying to bring about devolved government again."
She said that suggesting leaving the EU would jeopardise the peace process was "a very careless thing to say", particularly with no devolved administration in place, and accused Ireland's government of being "reckless".
Mrs Foster said she recognised Brexit was a "big shock" for the Republic of Ireland - "and they are trying to process all of that".
"But they certainly shouldn't be using Northern Ireland to get the maximum deal for their citizens."
Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that will share a land border with an EU state post-Brexit, and what happens to the border is one of the key subjects being debated between the EU and the UK.
Key to this is how to avoid customs checks on the border when the UK leaves the EU's customs union - the arrangement that allows goods to flow freely between member states.
Negotiations have yet to make a breakthrough so the EU says talks on future matters like trade and customs cannot begin yet.
But Mrs Foster said it was crucial to move on to the second phase now because the trade arrangement is linked to the border situation.
The DUP pledged in June to support Theresa May's minority government over Brexit and other core issues as part of a parliamentary pact due to last at least two years.
But Nigel Dodds, the party's deputy leader, has warned that any prospect of the border moving to the Irish Sea after Brexit - an idea suggested by some within the Irish government - would be "gravely destabilising" to the UK government.
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"They (the Conservatives) know that," he told the BBC's Daily Politics.
Given Northern Ireland's trade links with the rest of the UK, he said such a move would be "madness economically, never mind the political consequences".
But Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney said his government was right to seek more assurances about the border issue before agreeing to the next phase of Brexit talks.
"This is a much bigger issue than trade," he told the Evening Standard. "This is about division on the island of Ireland."
Arguing Dublin had the support of the other 26 EU members, he added. "I will not be an Irish foreign minister that presides over a negotiation which is not prioritising peace on the island of Ireland."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42064743
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