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FC Cologne 1-0 Arsenal - BBC Sport
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2017-11-23
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Arsenal reach the knockout stage of the Europa League as Group H winners despite losing at Cologne.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Manager Arsene Wenger said Arsenal "had got the job done" by advancing to the Europa League knockout stage as Group H winners despite losing at Cologne.
A penalty by Sehrou Guirassy, after Mathieu Debuchy was harshly adjudged to have fouled the French striker, earned Cologne only their second win in 17 Bundesliga and Europa League games this season.
The closest the Gunners came to scoring was when Francis Coquelin hit the post when the game was goalless in the first half.
With one match remaining, Arsenal have 10 points from five games, four ahead of Cologne and Red Star Belgrade, who were held to a goalless draw by Bate Borisov.
"You feel you have done the job to finish top of the group," said Wenger. "We now play our final game at home against Bate Borisov without much at stake, other than the fact that we want to win the game. It's what we wanted."
A second successive Europa League win for Cologne means they could qualify for the knockout stage after losing their first three matches.
More pain in Germany for the Gunners
Of the five defeats Wenger's side have suffered this season, this was the least damaging after qualifying for the last-32 stage with two games to spare.
Yet a much-changed Gunners line-up failed to build on the afterglow of victory over neighbours Tottenham on Saturday as they were beaten again in Germany.
They were hammered 5-1 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League in February 2017 and November 2015, as well as losing 2-0 to Borussia Dortmund in September 2014.
Wenger changed the entire starting XI from the north London derby, forward Danny Welbeck returning from a groin injury after missing the past seven games.
Arsenal's side, which featured Olivier Giroud and Jack Wilshere, had only 16 Premier League starts between them this season, and it was a lacklustre performance against the Bundesliga's bottom club.
Coquelin twice went close to scoring his first goal for four years, the French midfielder fizzing a shot narrowly wide from 20 yards before another effort bounced off the foot of the Cologne post.
Welbeck lasted 45 minutes before he was replaced at the start of the second half by Alex Iwobi.
"Medically, the risk was too great to play him for longer than that," added Wenger. "He was ready to stay on and frustrated to come off, but he's in good shape.
"Welbeck, Giroud and Wilshere all looked dangerous, but we were lacking the accuracy and finishing."
One of the few positives for Arsenal was another eye-catching display by Reiss Nelson.
The 17-year-old has impressed in the Europa League and Carabao Cup this season, and again caught the eye after replacing Calum Chambers midway through the second half.
In one sublime move, Nelson danced his way around three defenders before forcing a save from Timo Horn, who also stopped a long distance effort by Wilshere in the closing stages.
• None Arsenal have conceded three penalties in their past five away games in all competitions (Watford, Manchester City and Cologne).
• None This was the 11th away game that Arsenal have lost in all competitions in 2017 - their most in a calendar year since 2010 (also 11).
• None Arsene Wenger's side failed to score in a European away game for the first time since September 2014 (0-2 v Borussia Dortmund), ending a run of scoring in 13 consecutive games.
• None Indeed, Arsenal have failed to net in consecutive games in European competition for the first time since the 2013-14 campaign (0-2 defeats v Napoli and Bayern Munich in the Champions League).
Arsenal have three Premier League games - starting with Burnley away on Sunday (14:00 GMT) - to negotiate before they round off their Group H campaign at home to Bate Borisov on 7 December (20:05 GMT).
• None Attempt saved. Jack Wilshere (Arsenal) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Eddie Nketiah.
• None Attempt saved. Reiss Nelson (Arsenal) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Jack Wilshere.
• None Sehrou Guirassy (1. FC Köln) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Per Mertesacker (Arsenal) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
• None Offside, 1. FC Köln. Konstantin Rausch tries a through ball, but Sehrou Guirassy is caught offside.
• None Reiss Nelson (Arsenal) wins a free kick on the right wing.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Jannes Horn (1. FC Köln) because of an injury. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42085403
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MP Ivan Lewis suspended by Labour - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Labour says it takes sexual harassment claims "extremely seriously" and has launched an investigation.
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UK Politics
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Labour MP Ivan Lewis has been suspended by the party over accusations of sexual harassment.
The Bury South MP was already under investigation by the party because of allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
On Thursday the party said it "takes all allegations of sexual harassment extremely seriously" and had suspended Mr Lewis pending an investigation.
Mr Lewis said: "I am deeply saddened to hear of my suspension ... I strongly dispute the allegations."
He added that he intended to "co-operate fully" with the party's investigation.
It follows allegations reported by Buzzfeed News that Mr Lewis had touched a woman's leg and invited her to his house at a Labour Party event in 2010.
In a statement issued after the report earlier this month, Mr Lewis said he had never sexually harassed anyone but was sorry if his behaviour towards women he worked with had made anyone feel "awkward".
He is one of a number of MPs who are being investigated over allegations about past conduct towards women.
The MP has represented Bury South since 1997 and has served in various roles in the shadow cabinet, most recently as shadow Northern Ireland secretary until September 2015. He served as a minister in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's governments.
Prime Minister Theresa May has met other party leaders to discuss the recent range of allegations about the conduct of some people at Westminster and called for a "new culture of respect at the centre of our public life".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42098762
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Apprenticeship numbers fall by 59% after levy imposed - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The number of new apprenticeships falls by 59% after the introduction of levy on big firms.
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Business
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There has been a big fall in the number of workers starting apprenticeships in England since the introduction of the government's levy scheme earlier this year.
The levy was supposed to increase the number of people training at work.
But according to Department for Education figures, at the end of this academic year, between May and July, 48,000 people began an apprenticeship.
That was less than half the 117,000 for the same period last year.
The levy was introduced to raise £2.5bn a year for training and is payable by any organisation with a wage bill over £3m. The government estimated that it would affect 2% of businesses.
The levy applies to all UK employers; however Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland manage their own apprenticeship schemes.
The aim is to fund up to three million new apprenticeships and the government has said it will "support productivity growth through the increase in training".
Most firms are not large enough to be liable for the levy.
However medium-sized firms with wage bills under £3m, that employ between 50 and 200 staff, are also faced with new responsibilities.
They include releasing apprentices for one day a week for off-site training and contributing some of the training costs, which has made apprenticeships less popular.
The DfE says it had expected there would be an initial drop-off in the number of people starting apprenticeships following the introduction of the levy.
Employers paying the levy have 24 months to spend funds earmarked for apprenticeships, the DfE said, so they are taking time to formulate new schemes.
Robert Halfon, who was apprenticeships and skills minister at the Department for Education until the reshuffle in June, said: "Initially the number of starts has gone down, but I suspect over the coming year they will go back up again."
However, many industry experts say the scheme has been badly organised.
"The policy intent was great, the implementation has been diabolical," says Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), whose members include independent trainers, employers and further education colleges.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's (CIPD) skills adviser Lizzie Crowley, said 98% of firms were not large enough to be liable for the levy.
But she said these companies were being put off offering more apprenticeships by the cost of releasing the trainees for one day a week and having to shoulder 10% of their off-site training fees "whereas previously the vast majority would have received this free of charge".
The AELP said it had already made clear to the government what needed to be done to increase the number of apprenticeships.
"There needs to be appropriate flexibility of off-the-job training. In addition, employers without levy funding should not be charged for training 16-24 year old apprentices," said Mr Dawe.
"Without these actions, we do not believe the government will reach their manifesto commitment."
Verity Davidge, head of education and skills policy at the manufacturers' organisation the EEF, said some members had been "left frustrated that the introduction of the levy has in, some cases, resulted in them being unable to offer and deliver apprenticeships".
Ms Davidge described the 59% drop in apprenticeships as "shocking" but added that it was "frankly unsurprising as we continue to hear stories from companies who have hit a brick wall in trying to get levy-supported apprenticeships off the ground".
"Accessing the funding has proven complex and difficult to unlock in time, and employers have struggled to get their heads around the complex rules and restrictions in accessing funds," she said.
"As a result some apprentices have been told that their apprenticeship has been put on hold for now, which is clearly a huge disappointment for young people who had effectively been offered a job - only to have their hopes dashed."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42092171
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Multiyork collapse puts 550 jobs under threat - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The furniture retailer will trade until Christmas at least as administrators seek a buyer.
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Business
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British furniture retailer Multiyork has gone into administration
Multiyork, the furniture retailer, has gone into administration, putting 550 jobs under threat.
The retailer will trade until Christmas at the earliest while administrators Duff & Phelps seek a buyer.
Multiyork will honour all existing orders placed until 22 November and customers will be contacted by the retailer.
The chain employs 547 staff in 50 stores and a manufacturing site in Thetford, Norfolk.
Employees were told of the collapse on Wednesday afternoon and the management team will stay in place.
"Multiyork is still open for business, still trading - it's very early days for the administration," a spokesperson for Duff & Phelps told the BBC.
"We're really hopeful we can find a buyer."
The administrators said that the 39-year-old upholstered furniture retailer had been affected by difficult trading conditions.
"Trading conditions for UK retailers continue to be difficult due to a number of factors including economic uncertainty, rising commodity prices, increasing business rates and the fall in value of the pound which has increased the cost of importing raw materials and products," said Allan Graham, a joint administrator at Duff & Phelps.
"This appears to be leading to a sharp fall in consumer confidence and less money being spent on discretionary items."
Multiyork has gone into receivership once before and was bought out by the Wade Group in 1995.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42088699
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Grenfell Tower: Extra £28m to help fire recovery - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The funding will go towards mental health services and regeneration in the area, the Chancellor says.
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UK
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An extra £28m is to go towards helping victims of the Grenfell Tower fire, Chancellor Philip Hammond has said in his Budget speech.
The funding for Kensington and Chelsea Council in London will pay for mental health services and regeneration.
The fire in June left 71 people dead, as well as hundreds of people homeless and many needing counselling.
Labour welcomed the announcement but questioned whether the council should be responsible for spending the money.
Mr Hammond has called on local authorities across the UK to speed up efforts to ensure all high-rise towers were safe.
In his Budget speech, Mr Hammond said of the Grenfell fire: "This tragedy should never have happened, and we must ensure that nothing like it ever happens again."
Kensington and Chelsea Council confirmed that the money would support mental health services in the area, alongside existing NHS agencies, as well as paying for a new community space and refurbishment of the Lancaster West estate in west London - where Grenfell Tower is based.
Last month the Central and North West London NHS Trust said around 360 adults and children were undergoing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder following the fire, while a number of survivors and witnesses were reported to have attempted suicide.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How do witnesses and survivors of Grenfell Tower cope?
Labour's Emma Dent Coad, the MP for Kensington, said the money was "very welcome" but added: "Who will be in charge of these funds and decide where they are best spent?"
She criticised the local council's spending priorities and suggested that the local community - "that took over essential council services on the morning of the fire, and since then" - be part of the decision-making.
Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said the money would help secure "a long-term future for the people of North Kensington".
Philip Hammond says financial constraints should not get in the way of safety work to tower blocks
Following the Grenfell disaster, fire safety flaws were discovered in hundreds of high-rise blocks around the country.
In his Budget speech, Mr Hammond said any local authority which does not have the funds to pay for fire safety work should contact central government.
He told the Commons: "All local authorities and housing associations must carry out any identified, necessary safety works as soon as possible.
He added: "I have said before, and I will say again today, we will not allow financial constraints to get in the way of any essential fire safety work."
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said councils, including Nottingham and Westminster, had contacted the government but "nothing was offered to them".
London Mayor Sadiq Khan urged the government to act quickly to help councils fund retrofitting of buildings with sprinklers.
BBC Radio London research found that about half of London's boroughs had asked for financial help, which the government had not yet agreed to.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42084695
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Ashington driver 'crashed to save passengers' in French Alps - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Maurice Wrightson crashed into boulders to avoid the coach going off the road when the brakes failed.
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Tyne & Wear
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The coach quickly became a "complete inferno", the inquest heard
A bus driver died when he deliberately crashed to save his passengers from plummeting off a road in the French Alps, an inquest has heard.
Maurice Wrightson drove into boulders on the narrow mountain road when he realised his brakes had failed.
Mr Wrightson, 63, from Ashington, died in the April 2013 crash and four of the 50 passengers were seriously injured.
French investigators said the driver "undoubtedly prevented" a more serious crash, Berwick Coroner's Court heard.
The coach, which was carrying British staff from the French ski resort Alpe d'Huez, was approaching the 21st hairpin bend on the D211 road.
Nathan Woodland, 39, the co-driver of the coach operated by County Durham-based Classic Coaches, told the inquest he felt the bus twitch and quickly became aware something was wrong.
He said: "Suddenly Maurice looked at me with a very shocked look on his face.
"He said 'it's not stopping us'."
He said Mr Wrightson gripped the wheel very tightly and braced himself against his seat to apply more pressure to the brake.
Mr Woodland said: "I stepped into the aisle and shouted, 'grab a hold, hold tight'."
He then described how the coach smashed into the boulders and he was thrown a number of rows back.
As he picked himself up he saw people desperately trying to escape and flames begin to engulf the coach, which quickly turned into a "complete inferno".
He said the clothing of one woman, who was sitting behind the driver, caught fire as she was pulled from the bus by another passenger.
Speaking at the time, French transport minister Frederic Cuvillier said Mr Wrightson "showed remarkable courage" and avoided a "much heavier loss of life".
The inquest jury heard the French report concluded the brake failed as the pad had been "completely destroyed by excessive heating" due to the "poor condition of the hydraulic retarder".
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-42083779
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Brexit scuppers Dundee's 2023 European Capital of Culture bids - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Five UK cities will no longer be able to compete for the European Capital of Culture 2023 title.
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Tayside and Central Scotland
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Dundee was one of five UK cities hoping to host the title in 2023
Dundee will not be able to compete in the European Capital of Culture 2023 competition due to Brexit, the European Commission has confirmed.
Five UK cities were bidding to host the title, with the winner expected to be announced next week.
A letter from the European Commission to the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said UK participation "would not be possible".
It said the UK's selection process should "immediately be discontinued".
Dundee's bid team were due to make their final presentation to the competition judges next week.
BBC Scotland understands that the DCMS only received the Commission's letter on Wednesday.
A Dundee 2023 spokesman said that the team was "hugely disappointed" at the European Commission's late decision.
He said: "The timing is disrespectful not only to the citizens of Dundee, but to people from all five bidding cities who have devoted so much time, effort and energy so far in this competition.
"It's a sad irony that one of the key drivers of our bid was a desire to further enhance our cultural links with Europe."
The UK's five final bid proposals were submitted at the end of October.
They were Dundee, Nottingham, Leeds, Milton Keynes, and a joint proposal from Belfast, Londonderry and Strabane.
Dundee's 80-page bid document was understood to include 110 new projects across the city.
Scotland's culture secretary Fiona Hyslop said: "It is now deeply concerning that the amount of time, effort and expense Dundee have put into scoping out their bid could be wasted thanks to the Brexit policy of the UK government .
"We are in urgent contact with the UK government and Dundee to understand the potential implications of this situation and to establish what action the UK Government is going to take to address it."
The DCMS said it "disagreed" with the European Commission's stance and was "deeply disappointed" that the Commission had waited until the UK cities had submitted their bids before "communicating this new position to us".
The UK government said previously that the title was "part of our plan for a dynamic, outward-looking and global Britain" post-Brexit.
However, it had warned bidders that the contest "may be subject to the outcome of those exit negotiations".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-42095477
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Emotional moment for Zimbabwe activist: 'I've no words' - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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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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The Sun cleared over 'Muslim Problem' Trevor Kavanagh article - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A regulator rules Trevor Kavanagh's column was capable of causing offence but did not breach the code.
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UK
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The former political editor of the Sun wrote the article in August
The UK's press regulator has dismissed a complaint against the Sun for a column that referred to "the Muslim Problem".
The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) ruled Trevor Kavanagh's column was "capable of causing serious offence" but did not breach the Editors' Code.
Mr Kavanagh said it was "acceptable to say Muslims are a specific rather than a cultural problem".
The Sun said he had already apologised.
The regulator said the comment could be compared to language used at the time of the Holocaust.
But a spokesman for The Sun said: "[He] didn't realise that his words could be compared to the phrase 'the Jewish Problem'."
IPSO said the former political editor, who is also a member of the regulatory board, played no part in the adjudication.
It said the article had not discriminated against an individual and could not be mistaken for fact.
Mr Kavanagh's column was published after the conviction, in August, of 18 people in Newcastle for being involved in a child sex abuse network.
He said there was "one unspoken fear, gagged by political correctness," adding that "the common denominator, almost unsayable until last week's furore over Pakistani sex gangs, is Islam".
IPSO noted "it was inaccurate to refer to female genital mutilation and 'honour' killings as examples of 'Muslim sex crimes'.
The regulator said despite many being offended by the article, there was no clause in the code which "prohibits publication of offensive content".
When it was published, the article was condemned in an open letter signed by more than 100 MPs.
The ruling comes after former Labour minister Sarah Champion quit the party's front bench following the publication of an article which appeared in the same edition as Mr Kavanagh's comments.
Miqdaad Versi, assistant general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain said the decision was "deeply disappointing, albeit not unexpected".
"What is truly astonishing is that regardless of the specifics of the Code, IPSO does not seem to have any concern that one of its board members used this Nazi-like phrase about Muslims."
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said the decision suggested IPSO was "unfit for purpose" and called for a review of the code.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42102361
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Paralympian Anne Wafula-Strike wins train toilet payout - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Anne Wafula-Strike ended up wetting herself on the train as the disabled toilet was not working.
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Essex
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Anne Wafula-Strike said it was "vital" it did not happen to other people
A Paralympian has been compensated after wetting herself on a train when the disabled toilet was not working.
Anne Wafula-Strike, 48, was on a three-hour CrossCountry train from Nuneaton to Stansted in December with an out-of-order accessible loo.
The wheelchair racer, from Harlow, said train staff knew she needed to use the toilet but when they reached a station it was too late.
A CrossCountry spokesman said since what happened on 8 December, a "thorough review" had been undertaken.
He added: "While we have apologised for the events that day, a lot of good has also resulted from this, with the whole rail industry looking at ways to make Britain's railways a more accessible environment, alongside the Department for Transport's ongoing consultation on an Accessibility Action Plan."
Wheelchair racer Mrs Wafula-Strike became a member of Paralympics GB in 2007
The deadline for the Accessibility Action Plan's consultation ends on Wednesday.
Kenya-born Mrs Wafula-Strike, who is a board member of UK Athletics and has an MBE for services to disability sport, has said disabled travellers need the "support of the Government to hold transport companies to account".
Mrs Wafula-Strike had been returning from a UK Athletics board meeting when she needed to use the toilet and asked the ticket master if they could let her off at the next stop after seeing the out-of-order sign.
However, Mrs Wafula-Strike said there was nobody to help her at that station and on the way to the following station she "ended up wetting" herself, which was "humiliating".
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-42084435
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Christmas fraud: Mobiles and clothes top presents targeted - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Watch out for fake Yeezy trainers, celebrity make-up and fitness watches, police warn.
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UK
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People are being urged to beware of fake products and websites in the run-up to Christmas.
Offers for mobile phones, clothes, shoes and jewellery are the most likely to be fraudulent, according to the Action Fraud group.
Along with City of London police, it is appealing to people to give more thought to where they source presents.
In 2016, it is estimated that nearly £16 million was lost to Christmas shopping fraud.
Common items reported to the agency include fake Yeezy trainers, Kylie Jenner make-up, hair dryers, drones and Fitbit watches.
Latest figures suggest that Christmas fraud increased by 25% between 2015 and 2016. Analysis of last year's crimes also suggests that 65% of crimes at Christmas were linked to online auctions.
The #ThoughtThatCounts campaign is encouraging gift-buyers to pause during the festive rush to consider the source of their goods.
It is releasing a series of videos aimed at illustrating that one small mistake can mean that a thoughtful gift never turns up.
Commander Dave Clark, national co-ordinator for economic crime said: "Fraudsters see the Christmas rush as an ideal opportunity to take advantage of people's generosity without a single care about the consequences this may cause for the victim.
"With a sharp rise in fraud reporting at Christmas time it is more important than ever that people do everything they can to protect themselves from fraudsters, stopping them from enjoying the holiday season at the expense of others."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42085557
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Budget: Heads say extra maths cash is 'drop in ocean' - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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School leaders are "extremely disappointed" by the Budget, despite boost for maths A-level.
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Family & Education
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There will be extra funding to encourage more pupils to study maths A-level
Head teachers' leaders are "extremely disappointed" by what they say is the Budget's failure to address "urgent" school funding shortages in England.
Geoff Barton, leader of the ASCL heads' union, said extra cash for maths was a "drop in the ocean" and schools would still face real-terms cuts.
Maths A-level will be encouraged, with £600 for schools for each pupil taking the subject above current numbers.
The Chancellor said maths skills were needed for "cutting edge" jobs.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn criticised the lack of movement on student debt and warned that schools in England would be "5% worse off by 2019".
In his Budget speech, Philip Hammond announced a £117m boost for maths, alongside plans to train 12,000 computer teachers and more support for adult re-training.
But school leaders were angered that there was no extra cash for core school spending.
It would now be "impossible for many schools to avoid making redundancies", said Paul Whiteman, leader of the National Association of Head Teachers.
West Sussex head teacher and funding campaigner, Jules White, said that representatives of 5,000 schools had visited Downing Street last week - calling for the return of £1.7bn which they say had been "taken from school budgets".
But Mr White said "our reasonable request fell on deaf ears".
The lack of movement on school funding would leave "parents and teachers deeply disappointed," said the National Education Union.
Jo Yurky, a parent campaigner over school funding, said the spending plans were "out of touch with the concerns of parents" and that the maths announcement was "tinkering around the edges with gimmicky ideas".
But supporting an increased uptake of maths was welcomed by Professor Frank Kelly, chair of the Royal Society's advisory committee on mathematics education.
"Mathematics is essential for understanding the modern world and provides the foundations for economic prosperity," said Prof Kelly.
The Chancellor's Budget statement announced financial incentives to boost maths after the age of 16, after concerns that too many drop the subject after GCSEs.
"Knowledge of maths is key to the hi-tech, cutting-edge jobs in our digital economy," said Mr Hammond.
The Chancellor said he wanted "highly talented young mathematicians" to be able to "release their potential wherever they live and whatever their background".
From 2019, schools will receive an extra £600 for every additional student taking maths or further maths A-level or core maths above current levels.
University lecturers said that student finance was a "glaring omission" from the Budget
But heads' leader, Geoff Barton, warned that the funding offer for maths could create a "perverse incentive to enter students on to maths courses which might not necessarily be the best option for them".
He also raised concerns that it would be "unfair" that schools that had already increased their number of maths A-levels students would miss out on extra funding.
Mr Hammond also invited proposals for new maths specialist schools.
There will be £42m over three years to provide extra training to "improve the quality of teaching" in a pilot project in some under-performing schools in England.
In the selected schools, each teacher will have access to £1,000 worth of training.
Schools have struggled to recruit computer science teachers - and there will £84m over four years to train 12,000 more staff qualified to teach the subject, with the support of a new National Centre for Computing.
This was welcomed by Cindy Rose, the UK chief executive of Microsoft, who said: "There is an urgent need for the UK to tackle its digital skills gap."
The Chancellor announced a national re-training scheme for adults, in partnership with the CBI and the TUC, with an initial £30m to teach digital skills.
Further education colleges were promised £20m to prepare for the so-called "T-level" qualifications, which will be for vocational subjects.
Angela Rayner, Labour's shadow education secretary, said: "The schemes announced today are a tiny fraction of the money he has cut from school budgets since 2015 and despite his spin, schools will be worse off by 2020."
Kevin Courtney, joint leader of the National Education Union, said: "The Budget, with no significant new money for education, shows that the Government has chosen to ignore the anger of parents and the clear evidence of the problems being created by real terms cuts to education."
The UCU lecturers' union said the "glaring omission" from the Chancellor's speech was any reference to the promised review of university funding or support for students.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-42081388
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James Bulger killer Jon Venables recalled to prison - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Jon Venables, who killed toddler James Bulger in 1993, is suspected of having child abuse images.
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Liverpool
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Jon Venables was 10 when he and Robert Thompson killed James Bulger
One of the killers of toddler James Bulger has been recalled to prison suspected of having child abuse images on his computer.
It is the second time Jon Venables has been sent back to jail for the same suspected offence.
In a statement, James's mother Denise Fergus said: "Venables has now proved beyond any doubt what a vile, perverted psychopath he has always been."
The 35-year-old was recalled last week but has not yet been charged.
He was first recalled in 2010, following his release in 2001 after serving eight years for the murder of James, aged two, in 1993.
James Bulger was two when he was abducted and killed in 1993
Ms Fergus went on to say: "I predicted Venables would re-offend unless they kept a very tight rein on him and I pray that now, someone from the UK government will finally listen to me."
She said "what hurts me most is the way the probation service has tried to cover this up", adding she was only told on Wednesday night that Venables was taken back into custody a week ago.
Mrs Fergus said it was "clear that they were trying to keep this quiet, until they got a call from the media".
She said she received "a hurried call" from the probation service at 20:40 GMT with "few details given, just that he had breached his terms of the licence and returned to prison", which left her "extremely upset, angry and feeling insulted".
She said she would consider making a formal complaint to the probation service.
A Ministry of Justice (MoJ) spokeswoman said it takes the duty of updating victims' families "extremely seriously".
"A dedicated victim liaison officer contacts families as soon as the offender is charged, but we regret the additional distress this has caused in this case.
"We want to reassure Mrs Fergus and Mr Bulger [James's father] that a liaison officer will continue to stay in regular contact with them as the case progresses."
On 12 February 1993, James - just a few weeks short of his third birthday - was reported missing by his mother from outside a butcher's shop in the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, Merseyside.
CCTV images showed James Bulger being led away by the two boys in a shopping centre
CCTV images revealed he had been lured away by Venables and Robert Thompson, both then aged 10.
His body was found two days later on a railway line. He had been stripped from the waist down, paint had been thrown in his eyes and he had been beaten to death with bricks and a metal bar.
Thompson and Venables were arrested and charged within days. They were both convicted at Preston Crown Court of James's murder, in November 1993.
In 2001, the pair were released - with new identities - from secure children's homes on life licence, meaning they can be recalled at any time.
What appear to be images of child abuse were found on a computer linked to Jon Venables last week, during a routine visit.
He was recalled to prison immediately.
The police force investigating him has not been named, as it might reveal where he has been living under a second new identity.
Venables was jailed for life in 1993 for murdering and torturing two-year-old James Bulger.
He was first released - on licence - in 2001, but jailed again in 2010 for possession of child abuse images.
He was released a second time in 2013, at which point James Bulger's parents said they were "filled with terror".
The parole board will now have to decide whether - or when - it is safe to release him again, and will take into account if he appears to be re-offending in a similar vein.
Venables was recalled to prison in 2010 after accessing images of child abuse and breaching his parole conditions by visiting Merseyside.
He had developed drug and drink problems, started behaving anti-socially and had revealed his real identity to friends.
Venables was released again in 2013 with a second new identity.
Robert Thompson was also convicted for James Bulger's murder
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-42095074
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Google clamps down on ticket scammers - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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The search engine introduces tough restrictions on ticket resellers, in an effort to combat fraud.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Google says it will apply the new policy globally
Google has announced tough new restrictions on ticket resellers, in an effort to combat fraud.
From January resellers will need to be certified by Google before they use its AdWords service, which allows people to pay for prominent listings in its search results.
The sellers must also disclose that the prices they charge may be higher than the face value.
Google said the changes were intended "to protect customers from scams".
They will target fraudsters who set up temporary websites selling non-existent tickets and who pay for a prominent slot on Google before disappearing with fans' money.
But the rules also tighten up restrictions on secondary ticketing websites - who are often listed on Google ahead of official sellers, even when the original event isn't sold out.
This has often caused confusion for consumers, with Swiss-based firm Viagogo coming in for particular criticism after posing as an "official" outlet in search listings - despite selling second-hand tickets.
Google's updated policy says sites like Viagogo, as well as StubHub, Get Me In and Seatwave, must make it clear they are resellers, rather than primary agents.
From March 2018, the company will also require certified resellers to post the face value of the tickets along with the reseller's price.
In the UK, this is currently a requirement under the Consumer Rights Act - but many companies have struggled, or been unwilling, to comply with the rules.
Campaign group FanFair Alliance, which calls for greater regulation of the secondary ticketing market, welcomed Google's clampdown.
Ed Sheeran fans were targeted by secondary ticketing sites when his tour went on sale
"This is a hugely welcome move, with potential to make the ticket-buying process far less complex for consumers," it said in a statement.
The group said recent research showed "a significant proportion of would-be ticket buyers use Google to find tickets", a fact that secondary ticketing sites exploit by paying for higher search rankings.
"At best, such marketing practices could be construed as misleading - with music fans systematically directed towards dedicated ticket touts listing above-face value tickets, even when primary inventory is still available from authorised sellers."
Google's move comes three months after MPs criticised the search engine for promoting touts through its AdWords services.
"This throws up an important issue for Google - they are making money out of this process," said Damian Collins, chair of the culture, media and sport committee.
"They must act against ticket touts, it's a clear breach of their guidelines."
Ed Sheeran's tour promoter also criticised Google after adverts pointed fans towards Viagogo, where tickets for the singer's tour were being sold at inflated prices.
"Google needs to bow to pressure and stop taking money for tickets which are sold on the secondary market," he told Radio 4 earlier 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-42093334
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Broadband firms must ditch 'misleading' speed ads - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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A radical shake-up of broadband advertising will change the way ISPs promote the speed of net services.
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Technology
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ISPs will no longer be able to use the term 'up to' about speeds of service
Broadband firms will no longer be able to advertise their fast net services based on the speeds just a few customers get, from May next year.
Currently ISPs are allowed to use headline speeds that only 10% of customers will actually receive.
In future, adverts must be based on what is available to at least half of customers at peak times.
It follows research that suggested broadband advertising can be misleading for consumers.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) looked into consumers' understanding of broadband speed claims and found that many were confused by headline speeds that they would never actually get in their own homes.
The concerns were passed on to the Committees of Advertising Practice (Cap) which consulted with ISPs, consumer groups and Ofcom to find a better way to advertise fast net services.
Most argued that the fairest and clearest way would be to use the average speeds achieved at peak time by 50% of customers.
As well as insisting ISPs use "average" instead of "up to" speeds, Cap also urged ISPs to promote speed-checking facilities in their adverts so that users could test out the speeds they were likely to get from any given service.
Director of the Committees of Advertising Practice, Shahriar Coupal, said: "There are a lot of factors that affect the broadband speed a customer is going to get in their own home; from technology to geography, to how a household uses broadband.
"Our new standards will give consumers a better understanding of the broadband speeds offered by different providers when deciding to switch providers."
The UK's minister for digital Matt Hancock welcomed the change, describing it as a "victory for consumers".
"I'm delighted to see that Cap is finally changing the way broadband speeds are advertised. Headline 'up to' speeds that only need to be available to 10% of consumers are incredibly misleading - customers need clear, concise and accurate information in order to make an informed choice."
The ASA also considered whether the use of "fibre" in broadband advertising was misleading for ISPs that only use fibre to the road-side phone cabinet, relying on a copper connection for the so-called last mile to a consumer's home.
It found that most people saw the use of fibre as a "shorthand buzzword" to describe fast broadband and concluded that it was not misleading for ISPs the use the term.
Alex Neill from consumer group Which? said millions of households were currently experiencing broadband speeds that do not meet expectations.
She said: "It is good to see people may finally see the speeds they could achieve before they sign up to a deal."
Andrew Ferguson, editor of broadband news website ThinkBroadband said packages previously advertised as up to 38Mbps (megabits per second) will drop to speeds of between 24 and 30Mbps.
Services currently marketed at up to 76Mbps are likely to be in the 45 to 55Mbps region, he added, while those advertised as up to 17Mbps could fall as low as 6Mbps under the new rules.
"People shouldn't expect adverts to change overnight, as most changes are likely to emerge in April just ahead of the deadline," he told the BBC.
"However, consumers may start to see a much wider variety of speeds in adverts, and with the addition of the peak time period (defined as 8pm to 10pm) there is likely to be more variation between providers.
"As a result, some providers may elect to refuse service to customers likely to get speeds at the slower end of the scale, which restricts provider choice. Others may not sell the advertised service but instead push customers to a technically identical service marketed under a different name."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42079941
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Myanmar Rohingya crisis: Deal to allow return of Muslim refugees - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Myanmar agrees to take back hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled violence for Bangladesh.
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Asia
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Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people are now living in refugee camps like this one in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has signed a deal with Myanmar to return hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled a recent army crackdown.
A statement from the Bangladesh foreign ministry said displaced people could begin to return within two months.
The two sides say they are working on the details. The crisis has been called ethnic cleansing by the UN and the US.
Aid agencies have raised concerns about the forcible return of the Rohingya unless their safety can be guaranteed.
The Rohingya are a stateless minority who have long experienced persecution in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
More than 600,000 have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since deadly Rohingya attacks on police posts prompted a military crackdown in Rakhine state in late August.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Myanmar's military action against the minority Rohingya population constituted ethnic cleansing.
"The 'Arrangement' stipulates that the return shall commence within two months," a press release from the Bangladeshi government said.
Few other details were released following the signing of the memorandum in Myanmar's capital Nay Pyi Taw.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali said it was a "first step". Senior Myanmar official Myint Kyaing said it was ready to receive the Rohingya "as soon as possible".
Myanmar's conditions of return remain unclear, and many Rohingya are terrified of being sent back. Refugees at Kutupalong Camp in Bangladesh said they want guarantees of citizenship and their land returned.
"We will go back if they don't harass us and if we can live life like the Buddhists and other ethnic minorities," one man, Sayed Hussein, told Reuters.
"I don't trust the Myanmar government. My husband left three times and this is my second time to leave. The Myanmar government is always like this," a woman, Narusha, said.
Last week Myanmar's powerful military head, Min Aung Hlaing, told Mr Tillerson that Rohingyas could return to Myanmar only if "real citizens" accepted them, referring to ethnic Rakhine members of the country's Buddhist majority.
Both countries are under pressure on the issue, for different reasons.
Bangladesh wants to show its population that the Rohingya will not be permanent residents - it was already hosting about 400,000 before the latest influx.
The Burmese authorities - and particularly de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi - are responding to international calls to do more to resolve the crisis.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rohingya Muslims displaced from Tula Toli village in Rakhine State gave disturbing accounts to BBC Newsnight
The UN refugee agency hoped any agreement would "respect the right of refugees to return to Myanmar in a safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable way".
"As the UN agency mandated to assist, protect and seek solutions for refugees, we stand ready to assist in the process to ensure that returns take place in line with international standards," a spokesperson said.
Amnesty International said it doubted there could be safe or dignified returns of Rohingya to Myanmar "while a system of apartheid remains" and added that it "hoped those who do not want to go home are not forced to do so".
"It is completely premature to be talking about returns when hundreds of Rohingya continue to flee persecution and arrive in Bangladesh on an almost daily basis," a spokesperson said.
"We're also concerned that the UN... have been completely sidelined from this process. This does not bode well for ensuring a really robust voluntary repatriation agreement that meets international standards."
Last week the Burmese army exonerated itself of blame regarding the Rohingya crisis.
It denied killing any Rohingya people, burning their villages, raping women and girls, and stealing possessions.
The assertions contradict evidence seen by BBC correspondents.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Who are the Rohingya?
Pope Francis is due to arrive in Myanmar on 26 November. His visit will include meetings with Myanmar's army chief and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Vatican has said.
The pontiff will later travel to the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, where he will meet Rohingya refugees.
Human Rights Watch says most damage occurred in Maungdaw Township, between 25 August and 25 September - with many villages destroyed after 5 September.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42094060
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Budget 2017: What does the diesel change mean? - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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New diesel cars face a tax rise, but "white van man" will not be affected, chancellor says
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Business
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The sale of new diesel cars that do not meet latest emissions standards will face a one-off tax increase in April.
It will be levied on all diesels that do not meet the Real Driving Emissions Step 2 standards on emissions for the first year of ownership.
According to experts, it means that most new diesels would be subject to the rise.
Chancellor Philip Hammond said the tax change would apply only to cars, and "white van man" was unaffected.
Different rates of Vehicle Excise Duty will be levied according to a car's CO2 emissions band.
A Ford Fiesta or Vauxhall Astra would see a one-off £20 rise and a Land Rover Discovery a £400 increase. Cars in the top band, such as a Porsche Cayenne, would be hit with a £500 tax.
The chancellor said: "Drivers buying a new car will be able to avoid this charge as soon as manufacturers bring forward the next-generation cleaner diesels that we all want to see.
The move was part of a series of Budget policies designed to improve air quality and promote electric vehicles.
The chancellor also unveiled a £220m Clean Air Fund, and £400m - split equally between the Treasury and motor industry - to improve the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
There will also be another £100m in subsidies to help persuade consumers to buy electric vehicles.
The key thing... if you've already got a diesel car, you won't pay more.
That's hardly a surprise, bearing in mind people were encouraged to buy diesels some years ago. The government wasn't about to slap a big tax on drivers who parted with lots of money in good faith.
From April though, if you are buying a new diesel, you will probably pay more tax in the first year. It depends on the emissions test that it had to pass, so I'd ask the dealer before you buy.
The new tax rise will apply until around 2021, by which time all new cars have to meet the tighter pollution rules. And this only applies to cars, not vans, trucks, etc.
So, it's more of a soft, brushing nudge rather than a big push to persuade people away from polluting diesels.
Of course, there is a danger that it convinces drivers to keep their old, dirtier diesels, rather than buy a new, cleaner one.
The UK's motor industry trade body, the SMMT, said the chancellor's diesel tax changes risked sending out mixed messages.
Chief executive Mike Hawes said: "Diesel buyers will not face any additional taxation for the next six months, but thereafter, will face additional charges which will undermine fleet renewal efforts, which are the best and quickest way to address air quality concerns.
"Manufacturers are investing heavily in the latest low emission technology. However, it's unrealistic to think that we can fast-track the introduction of the next generation of clean diesel technology which takes years to develop."
But Peter Williams, of the motoring group RAC, said: "The chancellor has chosen to be relatively light touch when it comes to taxing new diesel cars.
"Any new diesel car registered from 1st April 2018 will be hit with a higher first year tax rate unless they conform to the latest real world driving standards.
"So current beleaguered owners of diesel cars can breathe a sigh of relief that they will not be punished further by the Treasury - but they will need to keep their eyes on local authorities who may be introducing clean air zones in the near future."
However, he added that a side effect of the Budget announcement might be a risk that drivers will be encouraged to keep their older diesel vehicles.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42079297
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Zanu-PF purges itself to win back Zimbabweans' trust - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Zimbabwe's ruling party is intent on retaining power after the earthquake of Robert Mugabe's overthrow.
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Africa
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Zimbabweans want a "happy new Zimbabwe" - and the long-time ruling party Zanu-PF is anxious to assure them it can be the one to deliver it
It's been a dramatic, inspiring, earthquake of a week in Zimbabwe. But if you're looking for evidence to show that what really happened was a ruthless reshuffle within the governing party, Zanu-PF, rather than any grander transformation in politics or society, it is worth having a chat with the local MP for Harare East.
I met the Honourable Terence Mukupe in the garden of the Meikles Hotel in the city centre, as his new party boss, Emmerson Mnangagwa, was poised to return to the country, and a fellow Harare MP was busy being dragged off, in tears, by plain-clothed security agents in the hotel lobby.
"That's a signal to the public that we really mean business," said Mr Mukupe, drily, of his Zanu-PF colleague, Shadreck Mashayamombe - reportedly a former aide to Grace Mugabe.
"There are going to be over 500 high-profile people that are going to face the music, be taken to court, and that's what Zimbabweans want to see. No sacred cows," he continued.
Mr Mukupe, who says he worked for 10 years as an investment banker on Wall Street before winning his seat in parliament two years ago, is part of an ambitious younger generation of Zanu-PF MPs who have been at the heart of the internal power struggles that led to last week's military "intervention."
Although he briefly sided with the G40 group linked to Grace Mugabe, he quickly and - as it soon proved - presciently switched to endorse her bitter rival Mr Mnangagwa.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How news of Robert Mugabe's resignation was greeted across Zimbabwe
Now Mr Mukupe foresees a Zanu-PF revival, with technocrats - like himself perhaps - brought in to the cabinet to fix the economy, and next year's national elections already a foregone conclusion.
"There's so much chaos within the opposition. Everyone is clear that Zanu-PF is going to win the election. It will be a landslide. So let's have change within Zanu-PF," he said. He mentioned Rwanda as an example to follow. "People want to see technocrats. It should become a meritocracy."
"We have a cancer in this society," Mr Mukupe told the BBC
But what's most striking, to an outsider, about someone like Mr Mukupe is his skill in disassociating himself from the disastrous failings of Zanu-PF and President Mugabe, and the repression and misrule that damaged the lives of so many millions of Zimbabweans.
He readily admits there was "violence perpetrated against opposition members and corrupt activities", but insists that the blame lay squarely with President Mugabe. It's an argument that suits the party well these days, as it purges itself of "cliques" and "cabals".
"We have a cancer in this society. Our politics was about cults. Everyone was afraid of President Mugabe. Don't make it appear as if it's just the ordinary people, or people in opposition.
"Even people within Zanu-PF were afraid. He was the beginning and end of everything - he could hire you, fire you, imprison you, do all sorts of things to you. Not everyone could stand up and fight the beast," said Mr Mukupe.
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"We should never have given him the sort of powers we gave him," he conceded, but insisted that no-one, including the opposition, had "clean hands. "It's a collective responsibility. Everybody played some role in the demise of this country."
It's easy to see now how Zanu-PF will run with that message in the months ahead, as the country heads towards elections.
Some would argue that it is more spin than truth - a convenient re-writing of history by the winning team. But there is every chance that many Zimbabweans, still tied to Zanu-PF by history and familiarity, will choose to give it another opportunity to correct itself.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42088257
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Parachute husband Emile Cilliers set to face retrial - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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The jury in the case against Emile Cilliers, accused of trying to kill his wife, is discharged.
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Wiltshire
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An Army sergeant accused of trying to kill his wife is set to face a retrial after a jury failed to reach a verdict.
Emile Cilliers denied tampering with Victoria Cilliers' parachute at Netheravon Airfield, Wiltshire, where she suffered near-fatal injuries in 2015.
Mr Cilliers, 37, faced two charges of attempted murder and another of criminal damage.
Jurors were discharged after a seven-week trial at Winchester Crown Court.
Parachuting instructor Mrs Cilliers, 40, survived a 4,000ft fall on Easter Sunday when both her main and reserve parachutes failed.
Prosecutors also claimed the defendant made another attempt to kill her by deliberately causing a gas leak in the family home days before the fall.
The Crown Prosecution Service has said it will seek a retrial on all three charges.
A week later, after they had discussed the case for more than 23 hours, judge Mr Justice Sweeney told them he would accept a majority verdict.
Two jurors, including the forewoman, fell ill and were released after the judge issued the direction.
After the remaining jurors had deliberated for about 30 hours, the judge thanked them for their hard work.
He told them: "It has been a long case which you have been required to work very hard on over a long period."
Mr Cilliers was released on conditional bail until the retrial.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-42100936
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Singapore to use driverless buses 'from 2022' - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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The government plans to let commuters hail on-demand shuttles using their mobile phones.
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Business
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Nanyang Technological University in Singapore already uses driverless shuttles at its campus
Singapore plans to introduce driverless buses on its public roads by 2022.
The government says they will be piloted in three new neighbourhoods which will have less-crowded roads designed to accommodate the buses.
The buses will be used to help residents travel in their communities, and to nearby train and bus stations.
Densely-populated Singapore hopes driverless technology will help the country manage its land constraints and manpower shortages.
"The autonomous vehicles will greatly enhance the accessibility and connectivity of our public transport system, particularly for the elderly, families with young children and the less mobile," the Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said.
The autonomous buses are expected to complement existing manned bus services, and will initially operate during off-peak hours.
Additionally, the government plans to let commuters hail on-demand shuttles using their mobile phones.
Singapore has less traffic congestion compared to many other cities in Southeast Asia, due to road tolls and policies that promote public transport.
The country also hopes to become a leader in driverless technologies.
Driverless taxis are already being trialled in Singapore.
"Our land transport constraints may help us become a global player in urban mobility solutions. What works here is likely to also work in other cities," said Mr Khaw, who was speaking at the launch of a test centre for self-driving vehicles on Wednesday.
The new centre will allow driverless developers to test how their cars and buses would handle pedestrians, heavy rain, aggressive drivers, cyclists, scooters and other road scenarios.
At least 10 companies are currently testing driverless car technology in Singapore, Mr Khaw added.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42090987
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Manus Island: PNG police move refugees from former Australia centre - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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About 40 people are moved from a Manus Island centre, but more than 300 others are refusing to leave.
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Australia
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'They are destroying everything'
Police in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have moved about 40 refugees and asylum seekers from a former Australian-run detention centre on Manus Island.
But more than 300 others remain. They have been refusing to leave since the camp was shut on 31 October, saying they fear attacks from local people.
Police moved in on Thursday and ordered the men to leave the camp. One refugee, a journalist, was briefly detained.
Australia said it was a PNG operation.
The PNG authorities have cut food, water and electricity and have told the remaining men they are squatters on defence force property.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) called on both Papua New Guinea and Australia to "engage in constructive dialogue, to de-escalate the tensions", according to Reuters.
Under a controversial policy, Australia has detained asylum seekers who arrive by boat in camps on Manus Island and Nauru, a small Pacific nation.
Australia shut down the Manus Island centre after a PNG court ruled it was unconstitutional, urging asylum seekers to move to transit centres elsewhere on the island.
Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said his nation would "not be pressured" into accepting the men, reiterating a long-held policy that such a move would encourage human trafficking.
"They should obey the law and the lawful authorities of Papua New Guinea," Mr Turnbull said.
One refugee, Abdul Aziz Adam, said about 420 asylum seekers were in the centre early on Thursday.
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The Sudanese refugee told the BBC a large number of police officers had entered the compound.
"They had a really big microphone in their hands and started telling people 'you have to move'. They are taking all the phones away, destroying all the rooms and belongings and everything," he said.
Another refugee, Iranian reporter Behrouz Boochani, was briefly detained. His arrest was described by Australia's journalism union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, as an "egregious attack on press freedom".
A video and a separate photo appeared to show Mr Boochani being led away by officers.
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The journalist, a prominent voice within the centre, later tweeted that he had been "handcuffed" for more than two hours and had his belongings broken.
In another tweet, he wrote that "police beat up some of the refugees and forced them to the new prison camp in East Lorengau, Hillside Haus and West Haus".
Many of the asylum seekers have refused to leave because of safety fears on the island, where there is tension between them and the local community. Asylum seekers have been attacked in the past, rights groups say.
This is the most direct action so far by the PNG authorities, but it doesn't mean the stand-off is ending.
In the last three weeks deadlines have come and gone, water supplies have been repeatedly disrupted, food has dwindled, and parts of the centre have been dismantled.
With each step the resolve of the men who want to remain there seems only to have increased.
They are anxious to try and keep the spotlight on Manus Island, and are likely to resist removal for as long as physically possible.
Earlier, Mr Boochani tweeted that an Australian police officer appeared to be "guiding" some local officers. This was denied by Australian Federal Police, who said they had no involvement in the operation.
Australia has repeatedly said that alternative accommodation for the asylum seekers is ready.
However, the UN's refugee agency said on Tuesday that housing remained "under construction", was inadequately secured, and lacked "the most basic services" such as medical care.
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"We were there and saw for ourselves that they are trying to complete the site as quickly as possible," said deputy regional representative Nai Jit Lam.
The UN has said a majority of the men have refugee status.
Canberra has steadfastly ruled out allowing the men into Australia, arguing it would prompt further human trafficking and lead to deaths at sea.
Refugees had been given the option of permanent resettlement in PNG, applying to live in Cambodia, or requesting a transfer to Nauru. Advocates say few have taken up these options.
The former detainees say authorities have destroyed items in the centre
The US has agreed to take up to 1,250 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru under a resettlement deal. However, it may ultimately accept fewer than that.
New Zealand has offered to take 150 refugees from the PNG centre, but Canberra has resisted this proposal - arguing it would effectively be a "back door" to Australia.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-42090135
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Domestic abuse: 10% of young women affected - ONS - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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About 7% of teenage males in England and Wales are also affected, official figures suggest.
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UK
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More than 10% of women aged between 16 and 19 in England and Wales say they have experienced domestic abuse in the past year, research suggests.
The Office for National Statistics' annual report on domestic abuse says they are the group most likely to be victims of it.
Women in their 20s and early 40s are also vulnerable, figures suggest.
About 7% of men who are still in their teens have also experienced it, according to the data.
Domestic abuse includes non-physical abuse, threats, force, sexual assault or stalking by a partner or family member - the most common of which is abuse by a partner.
The report pulls together data from the police, the government and victim support groups.
The latest Crime Survey for England and Wales for the year ending in March shows about 1.2 million women and 713,000 men reported being victims of some form of domestic abuse.
However, a large proportion would not have gone to the police.
The police, meanwhile, recorded 1.1 million reports of domestic abuse over the same period, which probably includes repeated instances of abuse against the same victim.
Of these reports, 488,000 were recorded as crimes and fewer than half resulted in an arrest.
Of the domestic abuse cases referred to the Crown Prosecution Service by police, just under three quarters (72%) resulted in a decision to charge.
And of the cases that went to court, 76% led to convictions.
The CPS says victims failing to turn up to court and retracting their statements were behind about half of all the unsuccessful prosecutions.
Katie Ghose, of Women's Aid, said involving official bodies took great courage because many victims were worried they would not be believed, were not given the space to make the call or feared repercussions from their abuser.
She said criminal cases should not rely solely on a victim's evidence to see it through to prosecution.
Instead, police officers should gather evidence from the scene, as they do with fraud, burglary and traffic offences.
The policing areas which saw the highest number of domestic abuse incidents and crimes last year were Durham, Cleveland, Gwent, South Wales and London.
Cheshire, Dyfed-Powys, Surrey, North Yorkshire and Thames Valley saw the least, the report found.
It also looked at the number of refuge beds available for victims, which Women's Aid said had become a "postcode lottery" because of local authority funding cuts and poor commissioning practices.
Wales has the most with 10 bed spaces for every 1,000 domestic abuse victims. South-west England has the fewest with two per 1,000 victims.
The ONS says its analysis of the figures indicates a gradual downward trend in levels of domestic abuse.
Alexa Bradley, from the ONS, said: "Domestic abuse is a particularly difficult problem to tackle, not least because victims may be reluctant to report abuse or to support action against their abusers."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42093346
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Iraq's bikers on the frontlines - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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These bikers travel across Iraq, flying the flag for tolerance and love of bikes.
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These bikers travel across Iraq, flying the flag for tolerance and a love of motorbikes.
Filmed by Kermanj Hoshyar. Produced by Nafiseh Kohnavard and Joe Inwood
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42090359
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Budget 2017: Reaction from Jack, Kuenssberg and Ahmed - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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The BBC's business, political and economics editors on the announcements in Philip Hammond's Budget speech.
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The BBC's business, political and economics editors on the announcements in Philip Hammond's Budget speech.
Andrew Neil heard from Laura Kuenssberg, Kamal Ahmed and Simon Jack, straight after the chancellor and Labour leader spoke in the Commons.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42084988
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Budget 2017: Hammond loosens his belt - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The chancellor loosens the public finances envelope as the economy stutters.
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Business
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Much of the rest of the world is growing at a healthier clip.
For Britain it is a different story.
Today the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) downgraded growth forecasts for the next four years.
And it has been more aggressive with those downgrades than the Bank of England was in its Inflation Report earlier in the month.
The productivity problem is at the heart of that judgement.
The UK just hasn't been very good at producing wealth for every hour worked, and today the OBR lowered its expectations about how fast productivity will recover.
Which means that tax receipts will suffer, by up to £20bn a year by 2023.
Add to that the increase in inflation following the Brexit referendum and the squeeze in real incomes and the OBR is clear - the economy is not as strong as it thought it would be.
The chancellor's response has been two-fold.
First, he has tried to paint a positive vision of Britain's future
He has talked of the good record on employment.
And, in the short term, the news on borrowing is better as tax revenues have been higher and public spending lower.
Second, he has significantly loosened the fiscal tight belt he had thrown around the economy.
In March, Mr Hammond planned for two years of higher spending - giveaways - followed by three years of tax rises - takeaways.
Now he has said that borrowing will be higher for every year of the five-year forecast, and higher spending will last until 2023.
Many economists will welcome such a move, the government doing more to stimulate the economy.
When the Bank of England raises rates, it increases the cost of the government's bills
The chancellor has pledged more money for health, a stamp duty tax cut and £3bn to prepare for leaving the European Union.
But debt will continue to rise, and that means the cost of servicing the amount the government borrows will increase.
Much of the government's debt is index linked - so its cost rises if inflation goes up.
And every time the Bank of England increases interest rates, that also increases the cost of repaying the government's bills.
The worry in the Treasury is that they have used up a good deal of the public finances headroom Mr Hammond wanted to build up for the future in case Brexit uncertainty around the economy crystalizes into another growth downgrade.
The question now is what will happen if he needs to find more funding and still hit his target to balance the government's books by the middle of the next decade.
And of course very little in this Budget will affect the key economic headwind everyone is facing.
And that is the fall in real incomes.
• None What the Budget means for you
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42087215
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UK economy faces 'longest fall in living standards in 60 years' - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A think tank says the squeeze on incomes will last longer than that which followed the post-2008 crash.
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Business
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The UK is on course for its longest fall in living standards since records began over 60 years ago, the Resolution Foundation think tank has said.
Its post-Budget analysis says the squeeze on incomes is set to last longer than that which followed the post-2008 crash.
It says real disposable incomes are now set to fall for 19 successive quarters.
The think tank was critical of the abolition of Stamp Duty for many first-time buyers.
The Resolution Foundation is a not-for-profit research and policy organisation, which says its goal is to improve outcomes for people on low and modest incomes.
In its Autumn Budget response, it said the £3bn cost of the Stamp Duty measure broke down to a subsidy of £160,000 per extra home owner.
The Foundation said this meant Chancellor Phillip Hammond could have simply bought people typically priced properties in over a quarter of local authorities, or built around 140,000 homes.
In his Budget speech, Mr Hammond said young people would benefit from the move: "This is our plan to deliver on the pledge we have made to the next generation that the dream of home ownership will become a reality in this country once again."
The Resolution Foundation's main focus was on the growth downgrade, which it said put the economy on course to be £42bn smaller in 2022 than previously expected.
On Wednesday, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) cut its growth forecast sharply for 2017, from 2% to 1.5%, with growth for the next five years forecast to come in well under 2%.
The Foundation said that tax and benefit policies were set to put downward pressure on living standards and upward pressure on inequality, and would take an average of £715 away from the poorest third of households a year, while giving £185 to the richest third.
However, it welcomed the action taken by the government on Universal Credit. The chancellor announced a £1.5bn package to "address concerns" about the delivery of the benefit, and promised to scrap the initial seven-day waiting period for processing of claims.
Torsten Bell, director of the Resolution Foundation, said: "Faced with a grim economic backdrop, the chancellor will see this Budget as a political success. But that would be cold comfort for Britain's families given the bleak outlook it paints for their living standards.
"Hopefully the OBR's forecasts will prove to be wrong because, while the first sentence of the Budget document reads 'the United Kingdom has a bright future', the brutal truth is: not on these forecasts it doesn't."
One of the key issues holding back incomes is the slow pace of productivity growth, which was revised down by an average of 0.7% a year up to 2023.
The Chancellor, Phillip Hammond, tried to address the productivity problem in Wednesday's Budget by expanding the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF).
This was launched last year to provide additional investment in housing, infrastructure, and research and development. The Budget increases the size of the NPIF from £23bn to £31bn.
He also is increasing the Research and Development (R&D) Expenditure Credit, effectively tax relief for companies doing R&D.
A Treasury spokesperson said: "Over three million more people are in work, and we are helping everyone earn more and keep more of what they earn.
"We are increasing the National Living Wage by an inflation-busting 4.4%, freezing fuel duty and taking millions of people out of income tax altogether. The only way to increase pay in the long term is to improve our productivity, so we are investing over £30bn across the country to boost digital connectivity, improve skills and training, and build an economy that is fit for the future."
Mr Hammond, who was under pressure from sections of his party in the run-up to Wednesday's speech, won praise for his Budget from Tory backbenchers. MPs told the BBC it was "very solid".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42087881
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Brexit 'bombshell' for UK's European Capital of Culture 2023 plans - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The UK won't host the European Capital of Culture in 2023, disappointing five bidding cities.
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Entertainment & Arts
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The Leeds bid has cost £1m over the past four years
The European Commission has cancelled the UK's turn to host the European Capital of Culture after Brexit, disappointing the bidding cities.
Five places have already bid to hold the title in 2023 - Dundee, Nottingham, Leeds, Milton Keynes and Belfast/Derry.
But the commission has said the UK will no longer be eligible to have a host city after it leaves the EU in 2019.
The Creative Industries Federation said it was "gutted", while arts minister John Glen called it a "crazy decision".
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Plans for the UK to host a Capital of Culture in 2023 were announced in 2014 - before the EU referendum.
In December 2016, the UK government said the competition would "run as normal", but did warn bidders that it "may be subject to" the Brexit negotiations.
Liverpool was the last British city to be a European Capital of Culture, in 2008, following Glasgow in 1990.
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The title of European Capital of Culture rotates around eligible countries.
Cities from non-EU countries have held the title before - but if a country isn't in the EU, it must be a candidate to join or must be in the European Free Trade Association or European Economic Area.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said the government was in "urgent discussions" with the commission about the decision.
"We disagree with the European Commission's stance and are deeply disappointed that it has waited until after UK cities have submitted their final bids before communicating this new position to us," a statement said.
"The prime minister has been clear that while we are leaving the EU, we are not leaving Europe and this has been welcomed by EU leaders."
Dundee's bid team called it "a bombshell for all of us"
The statement said the government wants the UK to continue "working with our friends in Europe", including in cultural programmes, and will work with the bidders to "help them realise their cultural ambitions".
The Creative Industries Federation, which represents the arts sector, said: "We are gutted to learn that the UK will not be allowed to host the European Capital of Culture as planned in 2023 after Brexit.
"This is despite the fact that cities in Europe that are outside the European Union have participated in the scheme historically."
It added that people were "working feverishly behind the scenes to reverse this decision".
Danish chorus girls launched Aarhus as a European Capital of Culture in 2017
The federation's deputy chief executive Rosie Millard, who was to be among the contest's judges, wrote on Twitter: "Very sad for the 5 bidding cities. I am on the judging panel & have seen all their hard work. #Brexitfallout"
Dundee's bid team called it "a bombshell for all of us", saying they were "hugely disappointed" that the decision had come days before they were due to make their pitch in London.
"The timing is disrespectful not only to the citizens of Dundee, but to people from all five bidding cities who have devoted so much time, effort and energy so far in this competition," a spokesman said.
"It's a sad irony that one of the key drivers of our bid was a desire to further enhance our cultural links with Europe."
A statement from the Nottingham bid said they hoped the situation "can be resolved positively"
The Leeds bid has cost £1m over the past four years - £200,000 from the city council and £800,000 from private funders.
Hilary Benn, MP for Leeds Central and head of the House of Commons Select Committee for leaving the EU, said: "This is a terrible blow and has come completely out of the blue.
"It's particularly extraordinary especially as the bids have just gone in.
"And to wait until all the work had gone in and turn around and say, 'You can't do this' - it's shoddy treatment of Leeds and the other cities have worked so hard."
A Belfast City Council spokesman said they were "deeply disappointed" but wanted to make sure "the time, energy, enthusiasm, ideas and resources put into our bid are carried forward regardless".
A statement from the Nottingham bid team said they hoped the situation "can be resolved positively" and Milton Keynes council leader Pete Marland said he remains "hopeful that a compromise may be found in the future".
Three non-EU cities have previously held the title - Istanbul in 2010, Stavanger in Norway in 2008, and Reykjavik, Iceland, in 2000.
Explaining the decision, a spokesman for the European Commission said: "As one of the many concrete consequences of its decision to leave the European Union by 29 March 2019, the UK cannot host the European Capital of Culture in 2023.
"According to the rules adopted by the European Parliament and the Council (Decision 445/2014), this action is not open to third countries except candidate countries and European Free Trade Association/European Economic Area countries.
"Given that the UK will have left the EU by 29 March 2019, and therefore be unable to host the European Capital of Culture in 2023, we believe it makes common sense to discontinue the selection process now."
The European Capital of Culture is separate from the UK City of Culture title, which is currently held by Hull.
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-42097692
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Tearful reunion after wronged man freed 23 years on - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Nevest Coleman left his prison cell near Chicago and was greeted by family members.
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Nevest Coleman left his prison cell near Chicago and was greeted by family members, two decades after being wrongfully imprisoned for murder.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42075467
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Budget 2017: What does the stamp duty change mean? - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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People buying a first home worth up to £300,000 will pay no stamp duty, the Chancellor announces.
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Business
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Stamp duty will be abolished immediately for first-time buyers buying a home of up to £300,000, Chancellor Philip Hammond has said.
For properties costing up to £500,000, no stamp duty will be paid on the first £300,000.
Mr Hammond said this meant 95% of first-time buyers would see stamp duty cut, while 80% would pay none at all.
The change will apply in England and Northern Ireland, and in Wales up until the end of March, but not in Scotland.
Scotland has an independent system of land tax. Stamp duty will be devolved to Wales from March 2018.
In the rest of the UK stamp duty is paid on all residential properties worth more than £125,000. The duty is levied at a staggered rate above that threshold, starting at 2% but increasing in line with the value of the property being bought.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the main beneficiaries would be existing homeowners, rather than first-time buyers, because it expects all house prices to rise by 0.3% within a year as a result of the change.
It also estimates that it will result in only an additional 3,500 first-time buyer purchases.
However, the chancellor insisted that young people will benefit.
"This is our plan to deliver on the pledge we have made to the next generation that the dream of home ownership will become a reality in this country once again," Mr Hammond said.
The policy will cost the Treasury £3.2bn over the next five years.
Andrew Norfolk, who is saving to buy a property in Cambridge, said the Stamp Duty change was a start, but more could be done.
"As a 26-year-old, working in a well-paid professional job, I find it ridiculous how difficult it is to get on the ladder without help from mum and dad.
"If I'm struggling - and I consider my position more fortunate than most - how on earth do most people ever stand a chance at home ownership?"
Estate agent Savills estimates that the average stamp duty bill for first-time buyers is about £2,700.
But in many parts of the country, first-time buyers will see no - or very little - saving at all.
In the North of England, the average Stamp Duty charge is just £11.82, according to analysts at AJ Bell.
This is because average house prices in the region are only just above the English Stamp Duty threshold, at £125,000.
However, buyers who spend £500,000 could save up to £5,000.
"The stamp duty relief for first time buyers announced in today's budget will be a welcome boost to people purchasing their first home but the impact will be felt disproportionately in the South of England," said Tom Selby, senior analyst at AJ Bell.
For all first-time buyers, the deposit is a bigger up-front cost than Stamp Duty. The average deposit across the UK is £32,899, according to the Halifax, compared to the average Stamp Duty charge of £1,654.What does the stamp duty change mean?
Tom Kibasi, of the centre-left think tank the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), said: "Unaffordable house prices are the problem, not Stamp Duty. For most young people, the stamp duty cut will make little difference. But it will help the beneficiaries of the bank of mum and dad."
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) pointed out a "cliff edge" situation in high-priced areas.
A first-time buyer paying £500,001 for a home will pay £5,000 more in Stamp Duty than someone paying £500,000, it said.
Other commentators agreed with the OBR that prices will rise as a result.
"Pouring financial fuel on house prices will only result in even higher house prices, just as Help to Buy has done and as previous Stamp Duty holidays have," said property expert Henry Pryor.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42079174
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Ashes: England's James Vince makes 83 before Australia rally in first Test - BBC Sport
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2017-11-23
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England's James Vince makes 83 and Mark Stoneman 53 before Australia fight back on the opening day of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
England's Ashes debutant James Vince made 83 before Australia fought back on day one of the first Test in Brisbane.
Vince added 125 for the second wicket with Mark Stoneman either side of a 95-minute delay for rain at the Gabba.
But Vince was run out by Nathan Lyon's superb direct hit, in between Pat Cummins bowling Stoneman for 53 and trapping captain Joe Root lbw for 15.
England, the Ashes holders, closed on 196-4, with Dawid Malan 28 not out and Moeen Ali unbeaten on 13.
• None Australians know who we are now - Vince
The tourists battled hard after winning the toss and losing Alastair Cook in the third over, perhaps determined not to be blown away in the manner that saw them defeated 5-0 in Australia four years ago.
But on a slow pitch, Vince and Stoneman - both of whom were playing their first Ashes Test - were kept in check by a home attack that rarely offered anything loose and will have use of a ball that is only three deliveries old on the second morning.
If the surface does harden up over the next few days, Australia could get the best of the batting conditions and more pace for their bowlers in England's second innings.
The visitors, therefore, are likely to require their lower and middle order to get them to at least 350 and, ideally, beyond.
Play will start half an hour earlier than scheduled at 23:30 GMT on Thursday to make up for the 9.3 overs lost to the weather.
• None How to follow the Ashes on the BBC
• None Don't want to miss the action? Get Ashes alerts sent to your phone
Australia's proud record at the Gabba - they are unbeaten since 1988 - and an often hostile crowd has led to the 42,000-capacity ground being nicknamed 'the Gabbatoir'.
However, England did not have to deal with Brisbane at its most raucous on Thursday.
There was a massive roar when Cook was dismissed, but not until late in the day did the home fans have a real reason to get behind their team.
On the contrary, England's travelling support sang Jersualem before play began and were lively deep into the final session.
Some spectators relaxed in a swimming pool on the boundary edge, adding to an atmosphere that was more subdued than many expected for the opening skirmishes of this much-hyped contest.
Off-spinner Lyon attracted much attention with his pre-match comments, saying he hoped Australia could end the careers of some England players during this series.
Not only was he excellent with the ball, but in the field he produced the most decisive moment of the day.
With Vince looking set for a century, he pushed the ball into the off side and set off for a single.
Lyon moved from point, swooped and threw at the non-striker's end, a direct hit beating Vince's lunge for the crease.
Soon after, Cummins got Root to play across a full ball, the initial not-out decision overturned on review.
Hampshire's Vince averaged only 19 when he played seven Tests in 2016, so was something of a surprise selection when recalled for this tour to fill England's problem number three position.
While Cook and Root - the two most established members of England's batting line-up - managed 17 runs between them, Vince and Stoneman showed commendable composure on their Ashes debuts.
Arriving with England 2-1, 26-year-old Vince looked much more assured than in his previous attempt at Test cricket, showing the good judgement that has previously eluded him.
Whenever Australia's pace bowlers went too full, he played his trademark drives, scoring heavily through the covers and point.
After Vince registered his maiden half-century, the runs dried up, particularly against Lyon.
Indeed, Vince was dropped by recalled Australia wicketkeeper Tim Paine on 68 when Lyon found the outside edge.
Still, he was on course for a memorable hundred when he was stopped by Lyon's brilliance.
Stoneman has been England's form batsman of the tour, passing 50 in each of his previous four innings and registering their first century in the final warm-up game last week.
Here the 30-year-old left-hander showed patience and concentration, leaving well outside off stump and mainly scoring on the leg side.
His second-wicket partnership with Vince was bigger than anything England managed on their previous Ashes tour.
Although Stoneman accumulated slowly - his half-century came from 150 balls - he looked solid and it was a surprise when Cummins nipped one between bat and pad to take the top of the stumps.
Much of the talk in the build-up had been of Australia's three-pronged pace attack and its potential to emulate Mitchell Johnson's efforts of four years ago.
And when Mitchell Starc had a flat-footed Cook caught at first slip from the 10th delivery he bowled, it was hard not to feel a sense of deja vu.
But, hampered by the pitch and repelled by England's grit, Starc, Cummins and Josh Hazlewood had to settle for control.
Indeed, Lyon was the pick of the bowlers, finding turn and conceding only 40 runs from 24 overs.
Moeen and 30-year-old Ashes debutant Malan, who applied himself well to survive for an hour and a half, had nervous moments, a failed review for a Starc lbw appeal against Malan the last act before the umpires ended play because of bad light.
• None Joe Root is only the sixth England captain to win the toss in the 21 Tests they have played at the Gabba
• None Alastair Cook failed to reach 25 for the fifth successive Test innings
• None Mark Stoneman and James Vince's second-wicket stand of 125 was higher than any England partnership managed in the entire 2013-14 Ashes
• None It was England's first century partnership for the second wicket since Alastair Cook and Root's alliance against Pakistan at Old Trafford in 2016
• None Vince's 83 and Stoneman's 53 are their highest Test scores
• None Australia have played 78 Tests since Tim Paine's previous appearance, a joint Australia record with Brad Hogg
• None In reaching nine, Root passed 1,000 Test runs against Australia
• None Pat Cummins is playing only his sixth Test in six years, and his first in Australia
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/42091952
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Robinho: Brazil striker given prison sentence for 2013 rape - BBC Sport
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2017-11-23
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Brazilian footballer Robinho is sentenced to nine years in prison for raping a woman with four other men in a Milan nightclub in 2013.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Brazilian footballer Robinho has been sentenced to nine years in prison for taking part in the gang rape of a woman in Milan in 2013.
An Italian court ruled the 33-year-old and five other Brazilians assaulted the Albanian woman, who was 22, after plying her with alcohol in a nightclub.
The forward, who left AC Milan in 2015 after five years, was not in court but pleaded not guilty via his lawyer.
The sentence will be put on hold until the appeals process is completed.
Robinho, capped 100 times by his country, spent two years at Manchester City and currently plays for Atletico Mineiro in Brazil.
A post on Robinho's Instagram page said he had "already defended himself against the accusations, affirming that he did not participate in the episode" and that "all legal measures are being taken".
After starting his career at Santos, Robinho won two La Liga titles in four seasons at Real Madrid, before joining City for a then British record fee of £32.5m in the summer of 2008.
His arrival, on the final day of the transfer window, came on Sheikh Mansour's first day as owner of the Premier League club.
The playmaker struggled to make an impact in England and was loaned back to Santos in January 2010.
He won Serie A during his subsequent spell at Milan, but returned to Santos for another loan spell in August 2014 before joining Chinese side Guangzhou Evergrande in July 2015.
When his sixth-month deal expired, he moved back to Brazil, joining Atletico Mineiro on a two-year deal.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42103736
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UK approach to Brexit 'chaotic' - leaked Irish report - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A leaked internal Irish government paper documents EU figures' concerns about the Brexit process.
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Europe
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The government has refused to comment on a leaked report branding its approach to Brexit as "chaotic".
The internal Irish government paper, obtained by RTÉ, documents EU figures' scathing assessments of cabinet members such as Brexit Secretary David Davis.
A Czech minister is quoted as describing Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson as "unimpressive".
The minister also warns of "political confusion" about the UK Government's approach to leaving the EU.
Downing Street said the government was working hard on its preparations for Brexit.
It had "a good and constructive" relationship with the Irish government, said a spokesperson.
Some in Europe have long been frustrated about the British government's approach to Brexit. But what was private has now become more public.
The Irish government refused to comment on the leak.
But some British MPs and officials suspect the Irish are using this moment of maximum leverage before a crucial EU summit next month to harden their position and put more pressure on the UK.
And some believe the leak should be seen in that context.
Downing Street insisted there was a good and constructive relationship between London and Dublin. But right now it is a relationship that is being tested.
The Irish government refused to comment on the leaked document, which was published by the country's national broadcaster RTÉ on Thursday.
"A core part of the work of our embassies and other missions abroad is to report on the views of our partners on what is a strategically vital issue for Ireland," said an Irish government spokesperson.
"These routine reports are internal and confidential and are not intended for the public domain."
RTE's Europe Editor, Tony Connelly, who got hold of the leaked report, said it reflected "private, anxious conversations that are being held in chancelleries and ministries around Europe when Irish officials are present".
"But in a sense we've all known - and this has been articulated in public by people like Jean Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk - that there is essentially disarray within the Tory party, within the cabinet on Brexit and that is reflected in the way people view the British strategy," he told the BBC's Brexitcast podcast.
The leaked document is based on a compilation of political reports from Irish embassies across Europe, dated between 6 and 10 November.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. RTÉ's Europe Editor Tony Connelly assesses what EU ministers think of the UK's Brexit negotiating team
It claims that Brexit was barely mentioned during a meeting on 23 October between Mr Davis and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and French Minister for European Affairs Nathalie Loiseau - something which was viewed as a wasted opportunity.
"Despite having billed this in the media in advance as a meeting to 'unblock' French resistance, Mr Davis hardly mentioned Brexit at all during the meeting, much to French surprise, focusing instead on foreign policy issues," the paper states.
The Czech deputy minister for foreign affairs, Jakub Durr, told officials he felt "sorry for British ambassadors around the EU trying to communicate a coherent message when there is political confusion at home".
Meanwhile, during a meeting in Luxembourg, a British judge at the European Court of Justice is quoted bemoaning "the quality of politicians in Westminster".
The judge, Ian Forrester, also wondered if the British public would view Brexit as "a great mistake" when they realised what leaving the EU entailed, according to the leaked paper.
The report highlights the significant concerns that will make it difficult to progress negotiations to a second phase at next month's summit.
Overall, the various ministries across the EU expressed doubt that the UK would be permitted to move to the second phase of talks unless it brought forward solutions to the issue of the UK's financial liabilities on leaving the EU.
They noted that the EU remained united at 27 countries, and that Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, had appeared far from optimistic that a breakthrough would happen at the December summit.
The future management of the Irish border is one of three main priorities in UK-EU Brexit talks
On Thursday, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said he was hopeful agreement could be reached on Irish-related issues by mid-December to move Brexit talks to the next phase, but that "it is by no means pre-determined".
Earlier this month, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said it was likely" EU leaders would give the green light for Brexit talks to focus on trade, at their meeting in December.
Mr Varadkar said this was his own belief rather than a forecast of any European Council decision.
Mr Varadkar "should know better" than to "play around" with Northern Ireland over Brexit, DUP leader Arlene Foster said after the Taoiseach suggested leaving the EU could jeopardise the peace process.
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 the UK Conservative government - supported in key votes by the DUP at Westminster - has said it can not accept as it would effectively create a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
The leaked report was compiled just weeks after the EU summit in Brussels during which EU leaders told Theresa May that Britain needed to do more on the three key issues: citizens' rights, the UK's financial obligation and the Irish border.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42098158
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Five ways to revive Zimbabwe’s economy - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The measures needed to get the country's finances off life-support and into recovery mode.
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Africa
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Serious work on restoring Zimbabwe's finances need to begin once the celebrations over Robert Mugabe's departure have ended
Current events in Zimbabwe show that while a week may be a long time in politics, it is really a very short blink of an eye in economics. Zimbabweans on the streets of Harare and Bulawayo may be hopeful for political change, but they are much more sanguine and realistic when it comes to improving the country's economy.
Presidents can be impeached in days or weeks. It takes years to wreck economies and usually even longer to repair them.
So, will Emmerson Mnangagwa be able to take Zimbabwe's economy off life support and at least start to put it on the road to recovery? Analysts are very sceptical that a quick solution is even feasible. The euphoria that has gripped the nation has certainly raised hopes that the future will be brighter, but if that improved sentiment is to deliver economic dividends, the government needs to make some drastic reforms.
The first tool President Mnangagwa would need to even get a recovery kick-started is hard currency. Zimbabwe hasn't had a currency of its own since 2009, after hyperinflation killed off the old Zimbabwean dollar.
Zimbabwe 100 trillion and 500 thousand dollar banknotes, produced after the country experienced a period of hyperinflation
Zimbabwe has lost its status as the breadbasket of Africa
Since then, the US dollar has been the main currency for transactions, as well as the South African rand. And in recent years a cash shortage has been slowly strangling the economy, which is half the size it was at the turn of the millennium.
But who would stump up the cash? Western donors will remain wary of a Zanu-PF government which simply sees Robert Mugabe replaced by Mr Mnangagwa.
The International Monetary Fund, which describes Zimbabwe's economy as one of the most fragile in the world, may be more willing - but only with many strings attached to any deal.
China is possibly the most likely cash benefactor in the initial stages of a Mnangagwa administration. In some circles, Mr Mnangagwa is seen as Zimbabwe's Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who instigated a degree of market liberalisation.
Assuming the cash is forthcoming, what then? Mr Mnangagwa would have to dump economic policies that are unpalatable to foreign investors.
Zimbabwe's agricultural production started to plunge after the government-sanctioned programme of farm seizures came into effect
Zimbabwe has a potential labour force that is one of the most skilled in Africa
In 2009, Mr Mugabe signed the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act (IEEA) into law, which aimed to place 51% of companies into the hands of Black Zimbabweans.
Even some Chinese companies have been forced to close their operations in Zimbabwe in recent years, because the IEEA made it unprofitable to do business in the country.
Once considered the breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe saw its agricultural production start to plunge at the turn of the century after the government-sanctioned programme of farm seizures.
Some sources claim that Mr Mnangagwa is keen to revitalise Zimbabwe's commercial farms, and may seek the help of white farmers to do it.
Corruption has been a major restraint on economic growth in Zimbabwe for years. Much of the farmland that was seized from white farmers ended up in the hands of army generals and the political elite, who knew next to nothing about agriculture.
The farms simply fell into disarray. Likewise, businesses that ended up with people with more political connections than entrepreneurial flair more often than not went to the wall.
Three million Zimbabweans are estimated to live outside the country, having fled the dire economic conditions that emerged over the past two decades
Not that corruption is confined to Zimbabwe in the African context, but it is one of those places that it seems to trickle down from the top. Just ask any South African who has driven their car across the border and been stopped at a police roadblock.
But Mr Mnangagwa has not escaped the corruption criticism. It is alleged that he was at the top of corruption tree when the army effectively took over the Marange diamond fields in the east of the country in 2008. At the time, he was the defence minister.
That whole affair raised the eyebrows even of Mr Mugabe, who said last year that he felt at least $13bn of revenue had gone missing from the diamond bonanza.
For nearly 20 years, Zimbabwe has been in default on $9bn worth of international debt. That debt needs restructuring, probably with the assistance of the IMF and the World Bank.
Perhaps a government that did not only include Zanu-PF could even get the debt (or some of it) wiped out. Mr Mnangagwa is thought to be open to a new deal with the IMF, but getting new financing and renegotiating old deals would probably be easier for a unity government which included opposition politicians, especially former Finance Minister Tendai Biti.
Formal jobs in Zimbabwe are rare. Unemployment runs at more than 90%. Creating the conditions for investment and seeing that money flows in should have a dramatic short-term effect on unemployment.
Western governments will be wary of a Zanu-PF government which simply sees Robert Mugabe replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa (above)
Other conditions already exist: the country has an abundance of natural resources in both agriculture and mining, and a potential labour force that's one of the most skilled in Africa.
All it needs is the political will and the right economic conditions for Zimbabwe's unemployment statistics to become rather less stratospheric.
Meanwhile, three million Zimbabweans are estimated to live outside the country, having fled the dire economic conditions that emerged over the past two decades. They too have skills which would be useful in the rebuilding of the economy.
But they will have to feel they would be landing on solid and stable ground - both financially and politically. Otherwise, why go back?
In addition, it could be argued that a Zanu-PF dominated government would not want them back this side of an election. The vast majority of the returning diaspora would be unlikely to vote for Mr Mnangagwa and his party.
In the longer term, Zimbabwe needs to have its own currency.
Using the US dollar was necessary after the old Zim dollar became worth less than the paper it was printed on and met its demise.
Banks in Zimbabwe have been feeling the strain in recent months
But there is so much more to creating a viable currency than switching on a printing press. Confidence is key.
Last year, the Reserve Bank introduced "bond notes" which were meant to alleviate the chronic shortage of US dollars in the system.
However, many thought this was an attempt to re-introduce the Zim dollar via the back door.
In fact, the notes have done nothing to address the cash shortage and some analysts say they might have actually made the situation worse, by pushing up the demand for US dollars even further.
Few people like using the bond notes, even though the amount in circulation is relatively low and the denominations are small.
Putting money into a bank was no longer considered the soundest of options, because the cash could only be withdrawn in small amounts and there was always the fear that the Reserve Bank would come for your hard-earned dollars.
So, the stock market soared, ironically becoming one of the best performing bourses in the world. Indeed, the rise in the stock market has only been curtailed by the army intervention and the resignation of Mr Mugabe.
President Mugabe was accused of preparing the presidency for his wife Grace
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42079584
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Outrage after India minister terms cancer 'divine justice' - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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An Indian minister's remark about the disease "saddens" patients and their family members.
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India
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Indians have reacted angrily after the health minister from Assam state said cancer "is divine justice" caused by "past sins of a person".
Himanta Biswa Sarma said that people could also get diseases like cancer "because of the sins of their parents".
Cancer patients and their relatives said they were saddened by the minister's statement.
Opposition parties have described his comments as "unfortunate", and demanded a public apology.
State opposition party the All India United Democratic Front said Mr Sarma had made the statement to "cover his failure to control the spread of cancer in the state".
He had made the remark while speaking at a public event in Guwahati on Wednesday.
"God makes us suffer when we sin. Sometimes we come across young men getting inflicted with cancer or young men meeting with accidents. If you observe the background you will come to know that it's divine justice. Nothing else. We have to suffer that divine justice," The Times of India quoted him as saying.
His statement has angered many on Twitter.
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Mr Sharma, who is a member of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), later tweeted a defiant clarification, which has only angered people further.
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Research by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) says that lack of awareness and testing means that only 12.5% of patients come for treatment in the early stages of the disease.
It is estimated that the number of new cancer cases or its incidence in the country will grow by 25% by 2020, the report added.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-42091347
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Salary calculator: Check if pay is rising for your job - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Try our calculator to see how wages for your job are performing, compared with inflation.
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Business
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If you feel a little poorer now than you did a few years ago, you may not be alone as full-time workers earn a little less in real terms than they did a year ago, despite low unemployment levels.
To find out what the average wage is for your job and to see if it has increased since 2011 use the calculator below.
You can search by typing, or explore our list of 332 different roles, as classified by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Please enable JavaScript to view the salary calculator. I am a… Enter text to look for your job The BBC will not record your salary information. Please enter an amount between 1 and 100000
If you cannot see the calculator, click here.
All data used on this page is compiled and made available by the ONS's Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) - the most recent release was 26 October, 2017. The survey doesn't include self-employed workers or bonuses. We have chosen to use data for full-time workers only.
The BBC has examined figures from 2011 to 2017, inclusive. We excluded jobs entirely if there was no figure for 2017. Other sections may be hidden for certain jobs due to missing data.
The only sheets we used are those referring to "Gross annual pay" and "Hourly pay- excluding overtime". We used hourly pay to work out the gender pay gap and annual pay for all other figures. We selected the median figure rather than the mean, as per ONS advice.
We used the CPI measure of inflation to make real-term adjustments, comparing the indices for April 2017 with April 2011 and April 2016. The survey is completed in April at the end of each financial year.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42094604
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Celebrity Big Brother star Jeremy McConnell is jailed - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Celebrity Big Brother star Jeremy McConnell had been carrying out community service in south Wales.
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South East Wales
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Jeremy McConnell struck up a relationship with former Hollyoaks actor Stephanie Davis in the Celebrity Big Brother house
Reality TV personality Jeremy McConnell has been jailed for 18 weeks for missing community service to get a hair and beard transplant.
The Celebrity Big Brother star was given a suspended sentence after being convicted of assaulting his partner.
McConnell, 27, had been staying with a friend in south Wales but Cardiff Magistrates heard he missed eight work appointments in the 200-hour order.
The court activated the sentence for failing to comply with his punishment.
Dublin-born model McConnell attacked former Hollyoaks actress Stephanie Davis at her home in Rainhill, Merseyside, while she was holding their baby son, Liverpool Magistrates' Court heard.
The pair met while starring on Celebrity Big Brother together, but rowed during the trial in August and proceedings were stopped at one point.
Miss Davis said of the incident in March she thought that "psychotic" McConnell was "going to kill" her after taking cocaine.
After being found guilty and having his sentence suspended, McConnell was carrying out the community service in south Wales as he stayed with the family of a friend.
Probation Service officers recommended he be given extra hours of unpaid work, however this was overruled by district judge Wendy Lloyd.
Appearing via video link from Liverpool, she described the "vicious alcohol-fuelled attack" that left Miss Davis with injuries and damaged property.
She said: "Your enthusiasm for co-operation has been short-lived and there's nothing to show in the future things will change."
McConnell was given some credit for completing part of the work and was sentenced to 18 instead of 20 weeks.
Before arriving at court, McConnell posted on his Snapchat account: "If I don't see yas have a good Christmas."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-42101540
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Budget 2017: How will stamp duty cut help first-time buyers? - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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How much is the chancellor's stamp duty policy really going to help the people at whom it is aimed?
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Business
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The claim: Changes to stamp duty will save an average of £1,700 to first-time buyers.
Reality Check verdict: The average first-time buyer would indeed save about £1,700 in stamp duty, but for some people it's likely that would be more than offset by increased house prices, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which provides independent assessments of the Budget. It's likely to be better news for potential first-time buyers struggling to get together a deposit than for those unable to borrow enough as a result of their earnings.
Chancellor Philip Hammond has abolished stamp duty on homes costing less than £300,000, with reduced rates up to £500,000.
You can read about the full details of the policy with the variations around the UK here.
A first-time buyer purchasing a £500,000 property, who would previously have paid £15,000 in stamp duty, will now pay £10,000, while someone buying a property for £300,000, who would previously have faced a stamp duty bill of £5,000, will now not pay anything.
The chancellor told BBC News that the average saving for first-time buyers would be £1,700 - that is the amount of stamp duty that would previously have been payable on the average property bought by first-time buyers, according to the Halifax.
But forecasts from the judgement of the OBR suggest that the benefits would come to existing homeowners and not first-time buyers because house prices are likely to rise by 0.3%.
This policy is part of a package of measures designed to help first-time buyers to access the housing market. To understand whether it is a good thing, it is useful to think about two key reasons why people might be struggling to buy houses.
One possibility is that people are struggling to raise enough money for a deposit. Most mortgages require the borrower to put up a minimum proportion of the purchase price - 5% or 10% for example.
If somebody is struggling to get together a deposit, then being able to spend the £5,000 they had earmarked for stamp duty on the deposit instead, for example, will be useful and also may increase the amount they can borrow, which will mean they can buy a property they may not have been able to in other circumstances.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) stressed that while house prices might have risen, this sort of buyer would end up with a more valuable asset, even if only as a result of the new stamp duty policy.
"The price goes up, but the other impact it has is that it allows first-time buyers the ability to purchase properties that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford," OBR chairman Robert Chote told the BBC's Daily Politics.
Another possibility is that people have saved up their deposit but their earnings are not high enough for a mortgage provider to be prepared to lend them enough money to buy a suitable property.
This policy will not be good for them if house prices rise as the OBR suggested. It said that house prices could go up by twice as much as the stamp duty saving because of the extra borrowing made possible for some people by having a bigger deposit.
The OBR also quoted HMRC's verdict on the similar stamp duty holiday after the financial crisis, which was that it "has not had a significant impact in terms of improving the affordability of residential property for first-time buyers".
This point about rising prices was put to the chancellor on the Today programme, but he said this was looking at the stamp duty change in isolation without the effect on the market of the 300,000 net homes per year that the government plans to build in England by the middle of the next decade.
There has been some doubt about the government's ability to achieve this target, not least from the OBR, which has not made any adjustments to its forecasts for housing starts. It said: "Governments have announced a number of initiatives aimed at overcoming housing supply constraints," referring for example to the National Planning Policy Framework from 2012.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42095146
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: 'Great relief' over cancer all-clear - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was told lumps in her breasts were non-cancerous, her husband says.
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It was a "great relief" to find out that jailed Briton Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe did not have cancer, her husband has said.
Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife has been held in Iran since April 2016, told BBC London that doctors in Iran will see Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe again in three months.
The full details of the allegations against Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe have never been made fully public.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42104184
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UK floods: 70 people and horses rescued in Lancashire - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Lancaster and Galgate were the worst affected places as bad weather hit the UK.
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Lancashire
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. "It was bucket versus river - and the river won," says Maggie Wild.
More than 70 people and 20 horses had to be rescued from floods in Lancashire as bad weather hit the UK.
Emergency crews received more than 500 calls, with Lancaster and Galgate the worst affected places.
Roads were shut and rail services suspended by floods in north Wales and snow is forecast across Scotland.
There are currently five flood warnings in place in the north west, which forced rail services to run at a reduced speed.
Emergency crews received up to 500 calls with Lancaster and Galgate the areas worst affected
More than 30 properties were pumped out and a number of people rescued from vehicles in parts of North Yorkshire.
The Met Office said around 1.7in (4.3cm) of rain had fallen in 24 hours in parts of Lancashire, with United Utilities saying rainfall had reached "unprecedented levels".
Lancaster University's weather station said it has recorded its highest ever rainfall total.
In the 24 hours from 09:00 GMT Wednesday the station at Hazelrigg said 73.6mm of rain had fallen - the highest level in more than 50 years since the centre started weather observations.
The levels were higher than Storm Desmond in December 2015 when about 5,200 homes were flooded in Cumbria and Lancashire and 42,000 homes in the Lancaster area lost power after an electricity sub-station flooded.
One lane on the M6 motorway southbound remains closed, between junctions 35 and 36 but the A6 at Galgate has been reopened.
Rail users in Carnforth, Lancashire, had to take evasive action when the station flooded
The main route through Galgate was closed
Five hundred properties mainly in Blackpool, Thornton-Cleveleys and Poulton on the Fylde coast, are without power due to the weather, Electricity North West confirmed.
Rail lines that were shut between Preston and Lancaster have reopened, according to Virgin Trains, and have now resumed normal service.
A number of schools were shut for the day because of the weather, including Ellel Primary School in Galgate, Moor Park Primary School in Bispham, Royal Brook Primary in Thornton-Cleveleys and Cardinal Allen High School in Fleetwood.
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Ms Wild said her cooker, washer, dishwasher boiler were "all gone"
People had to abandon their cars and homes were flooded when the River Conder in Galgate burst its banks on Wednesday evening.
Lancaster resident Maggie Wild, whose cellar was flooded, said: "[I] came home and thought it is pretty high and it is still going to rain all night so I better start moving stuff out of the way.
"It just came in faster and faster... and there came a point when we were bucketing it out and we had pumps going on it."
The River Conder in Galgate burst its banks
She said: "It was bucket versus river and the river won."
She added her cooker, washer, dishwasher boiler were "all gone".
Student Henry Wilson from Galgate said water got up to the top of his thigh - reaching the third step of the stairs in his house.
He said water started seeping in the front door… but then "flew into the house" once it got through the back door.
"We couldn't believe how quickly it happened."
He said it felt like a film with "furniture floating about".
Henry Wilson has spent the morning clearing up his home
Zak Burnell said the water was waist deep in Limerick Road, Bispham, Blackpool and residents used sandbags from the nearby roadworks.
Electricity North West said the weather had caused "intermittent power cuts" in Preston and Ulverston.
The Environment Agency said its staff had been on the ground overnight and will be checking flood defences.
"Our actions have protected more than 6,000 properties," said Sheena Engineer, national flood duty manager.
Flooding has also affected the Devonshire Road area of Blackpool, which is currently a diversion route for traffic because the Promenade is shut while tram network extension work is under way.
Devonshire Road is closed between Mansfield Road and Warley Road.
The A583 in Kirkham was also closed in both directions between Ribby Road and Fox Lane Ends.
Lancaster City Council tweeted it has teams in the worst-hit areas, clearing debris from roads and pavements.
According to BBC Weather, blustery showers will ease off later and many places will have a dry night.
In Wales, people were rescued from flooded vehicles in Bethesda, firefighters pumped out water from homes at Bethel and there have been landslips.
Llangefni town centre was flooded by 3ft (90cm) of water overnight.
North Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it took more than 250 flood-related calls overnight.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-42092038
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Deep fat fryers may help form cooling clouds - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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The fatty acids released in cooking may help form clouds that cool the climate, say scientists.
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Science & Environment
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The University of Reading say molecules from burning fat could counteract global warming.
Fatty acids released into the air from cooking may contribute to the formation of clouds that cool the climate, say scientists.
Fatty acid molecules comprise about 10% of fine particulates over London, and such particles help seed clouds.
But researchers dismiss the idea that cooking fats could be used as a geo-engineering tool to reduce warming.
Instead, the research is designed to help reduce uncertainties about the role of cooking fats on climate.
Researchers believe the fatty molecules arrange themselves into complex 3-D structures in atmospheric droplets.
These aerosols persist for longer than normal and can seed the formation of clouds which experts say can have a cooling effect on the climate.
The authors say the study will shed new light on the long term role of aerosols on temperatures.
Atmospheric aerosols are one of the areas of climate science where there are considerable uncertainties.
Molecules from deep fat frying may have a cooling effect on the climate
The description covers tiny particles that can be either solid or liquid, ranging from the dusts of the Saharan desert to soot to aerosols formed by chemical reaction.
These can have a variety of impacts, while most aerosols reflect sunlight back into space others absorb it.
Aerosols and the clouds seeded by them, are said to reflect about a quarter of the Sun's energy back into space.
Researchers have known for some time that the emissions of fatty acid molecules from chip pans and cookers may coat aerosol particles in the atmosphere - but this is the first time that scientists have looked at their role inside the droplets.
Using ultrasonic levitation to hold individual droplets of brine and oleic acid in position, the research team was able to make them float so they could analyse them with a laser beam and X-rays.
Fatty acid molecules were levitated so researchers could probe their interior structures
The X-rays proved crucial in revealing the inner structure.
"We found these drops could form these self-assembled phases which means these molecules can stay much longer in the atmosphere," said lead author Dr Christian Pfrang, from the University of Reading.
"These self-assembled structures are highly viscous so instead of having a water droplet you have something that behaves much more like honey, so processes inside the droplet will slow down," he told BBC News.
"They are resistant to oxidation so they stay around longer, so cloud formation will be easier."
Scientists believe that the number of fatty acid molecules in the air is relatively high, comprising about 10% of the fine particulate matter over London, according to research published last year.
This could be having an impact on the number of clouds and the amount of heat they reflect back into space.
"If you want to establish emissions control measures for McDonalds for example, you could assume that instead of two hours the molecules can last more than one day," said Dr Pfrang.
"Then this air parcel that comes from McDonalds will travel 10 times further, this is important for local air pollution but also to determine the effect of clouds which is the largest uncertainty."
"We know that the complex structures we saw are formed by similar fatty acid molecules like soap in water," said co-lead author, Dr Adam Squires, from the University of Bath,
"There, they dramatically affect whether the mixture is cloudy or transparent, solid or liquid, and how much it absorbs moisture from the atmosphere in a lab.
"The idea that this may also be happening in the air above our heads is exciting, and raises challenges in understanding what these cooking fats are really doing to the world around us."
The researchers say that current large-scale atmospheric models do not account for the role of 3-D structures in aerosols at all, according to the research team.
But they are dismissive of the idea that cooking fats could somehow be used as a form of geo-engineering to limit the impacts of global warming.
Much more important they say, is to collect molecules from the atmosphere and bring them back for further study.
"If it does have an impact, it is likely to be a cooling one," said Dr Pfrang.
"And the extent urgently needs further research."
The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42081892
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Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa promises jobs in 'new democracy' - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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The incoming leader hails a new era and praises the army for removing Robert Mugabe peacefully.
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Africa
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Zimbabwe's incoming leader Emmerson Mnangagwa has hailed a "new and unfolding democracy" after returning from exile to replace Robert Mugabe.
He also vowed to create jobs in a country where some estimates say 90% of people are unemployed.
"We want to grow our economy, we want peace, we want jobs, jobs, jobs," he told a cheering crowd in Harare.
Mr Mnangagwa, who fled to South Africa two weeks ago, is to be made the new president on Friday, state TV said.
His dismissal led the ruling party and the military to intervene and force an end to Mr Mugabe's 37-year long rule.
He told supporters at the headquarters of the ruling Zanu-PF party that he had been the subject of several assassination plots and thanked the army for running the "process" of removing Mr Mugabe peacefully.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How news of Robert Mugabe's resignation was greeted across Zimbabwe
The news that 93-year-old Mr Mugabe was stepping down sparked wild celebrations across the country late into Tuesday night.
It came in the form of a letter read out in parliament on Tuesday, abruptly halting impeachment proceedings against him.
In it, Mr Mugabe said he was resigning to allow a smooth and peaceful transfer of power, and that his decision was voluntary.
A spokesman for the ruling Zanu-PF party said Mr Mnangagwa, 71, would serve the remainder of Mr Mugabe's term until elections that are due to be held by September 2018.
Nicknamed the "crocodile" because of his political cunning, Mr Mnangagwa met South African President Jacob Zuma before leaving for Zimbabwe.
Thousands of party supporters waited for hours to welcome Mr Mnangagwa in his first public appearance since he emerged from hiding.
During his 20-minute speech, he corrected himself at least once for referring to Mr Mugabe as president rather than former president. His message was largely conciliatory.
But he also relished his stunning return to power and successful removal of Mr Mugabe. He brought up Grace Mugabe's speech a fortnight ago, in which - meaning him - she said we must "deal with the snake by crushing its head". A day later he was fired.
"I wonder which snake's head was crushed?" he said to loud cheers.
Mr Mnangagwa's firing by Mr Mugabe two weeks ago triggered an unprecedented political crisis in the country.
It had been seen by many as an attempt to clear the way for Grace Mugabe to succeed her husband as leader and riled the military leadership, which stepped in and put Mr Mugabe under house arrest.
Under the constitution, the role of successor would normally go to a serving vice-president, and one still remains in post - Phelekezela Mphoko.
However, Mr Mphoko - a key ally of Mrs Mugabe - has just been fired by Zanu-PF and is not believed to be in the country. In his absence, the party has nominated Mr Mnangagwa, the speaker of parliament confirmed.
Some have questioned whether the handover to Mr Mnangagwa will bring about real change in the country.
He was national security chief at a time when thousands of civilians died in post-independence conflict in the 1980s, though he denies having blood on his hands.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC correspondent Andrew Harding looks for Grace Mugabe in her heartland
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told the BBC he hoped that Zimbabwe was on a "new trajectory" that would include free and fair elections.
He said Mr Mugabe should be allowed to "go and rest for his last days".
Prominent opposition politician David Coltart tweeted: "We have removed a tyrant but not yet a tyranny."
African Union president Alpha Condé said he was "truly delighted" by the news, but expressed regret at the way Mr Mugabe's rule had ended.
"It is a shame that he is leaving through the back door and that he is forsaken by the parliament," he said.
At 93, Mr Mugabe was - until his resignation - the world's oldest leader. He once proclaimed that "only God" could remove him.
Lawmakers from the ruling party and opposition roared with glee when his resignation letter was read aloud in parliament on Wednesday.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Activist and political candidate Vimbaishe Musvaburi breaks down in tears of joy
Activist and political candidate Vimbaishe Musvaburi broke down in tears of joy while speaking to the BBC.
"We are tired of this man, we are so glad he's gone. We don't want him anymore and yes, today, it's victory," she said.
President Mugabe was accused of preparing the presidency for his wife Grace
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42077233
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Kezia Dugdale enters I'm a Celebrity jungle camp - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale is introduced as a late-entry campmate on the reality TV show.
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Scotland
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Kezia Dugdale is one of two late entries to the jungle camp
Kezia Dugdale has made her first jungle appearance on TV programme I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!.
The former leader of Scottish Labour was introduced as one of two late-entry campmates on Wednesday's live edition of the reality show.
Presenters Ant and Dec ended the programme with a "teaser" that Ms Dugdale and comedian and broadcaster Iain Lee would be joining the line-up.
They are expected to be fully unveiled on Thursday's episode.
Ms Dugdale admitted some of her political colleagues will be "shocked and angry" at her stint in the Australian jungle.
She said: "They will be angry because they will say I should be doing my day job and I am going to be away. I understand that anger.
"I've seen them be angry over similar things other people have done but I can't help but think that it is an amazing opportunity to talk to millions of people about the Labour Party, its values and how it is different.
"I am not going to talk about politics all the time but it is who I am, what I do and I can't help it."
The Edinburgh and Lothians MSP admitted she didn't reveal her reality show plans when she asked Labour party bosses for three weeks' off from Holyrood business.
She said: "I quit as leader and so there was no obvious person to ask for permission.
"I went to the two people who were running for Scottish leader (eventual winner Richard Leonard and losing candidate Anas Sarwar) and told them I was going abroad for three weeks to work. They were both cool with that.
"I will be back for the budget in December."
Ant (left) and Dec are again fronting the show from Australia
The Lothians MSP is expected to be paid tens of thousands of pounds, part of which she will donate to charity, along with her MSP's salary for the three weeks she is away.
Ms Dugdale poked fun at her political colleagues and rivals when she revealed what scared her most about the prospect of going into the jungle.
She said: "I am used to dealing with rats and snakes but I've never had to deal with creepy crawlies before.
"I ran upstairs when I saw a spider the other day and I've got a big fear of birds that stems from when I saw a scary picture of a pigeon as a toddler. I was petrified and I've lived with that ever since.
"I know I am not totally useless but I will scream, shout and then get on with it."
This year's other contenders 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.
An ITV spokesman said: "Due to circumstances outside camp, Jack has had to withdraw from the show."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-42074547
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Budget 2017: Corbyn says government not fit for office - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Jeremy Corbyn predicts the Budget will "unravel", continuing the "misery" for people across the UK.
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UK Politics
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jeremy Corbyn: "So much for tackling injustices"
Chancellor Philip Hammond's Budget will "unravel" within days, continuing the "misery" for people across the country, Jeremy Corbyn has predicted.
The Labour leader attacked the government's failure to reduce the deficit, a rise in rough sleeping and the fact 120,000 people will spend Christmas in temporary accommodation.
"It's a record of failure with a forecast of more to come," he said.
Mr Hammond ended stamp duty for first-time buyers on sales up to £300,000.
In his second Budget, the chancellor also announced measures to speed up the payment of universal credit benefits and a rise in the National Living Wage to £7.83 an hour.
But, responding in the Commons, the Labour leader said: "The reality test of this Budget has to be how it affects ordinary people's lives.
"I believe as the days go ahead and this Budget unravels, the reality will be a lot of people will be no better off - and the misery many are in will be continuing."
Mr Corbyn claimed a plan for three new pilot schemes to help rough sleepers "doesn't cut it", stressing: "It is a disaster for those people sleeping on our streets, forced to beg for the money for a night shelter.
"They're looking for action now from government to give them a roof over their heads."
He said one in six pensioners were living in poverty - "the worst rate anywhere in western Europe" - adding that the poorest tenth of households would lose 10% of their income by 2022, while the richest would lose just 1%.
And he responded angrily to an MP who heckled him as he was noting that more than a million elderly people were not receiving the care they need.
"I hope you understand what it's like to wait for social care, stuck in a hospital bed, while other people have to give up their work to care for them," he said, adding: "The uncaring, uncouth attitude of certain members opposite needs to be called out."
The Labour leader called for universal credit to be put "on hold" so it can be fixed to "keep one million of our children out of poverty". He also questioned why the chancellor thought it was "OK to under pay, over stress and under appreciate all those that work within our NHS".
"We were promised with lots of hype a revolutionary Budget - the reality is, nothing has changed," he said.
"People were looking for help from this Budget and they have been let down by a government that, like the economy they have presided over, is weak and unstable and in need of urgent change.
"They call this a Budget fit for the future - the reality is, this is a government no longer fit for office."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42084800
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Budget 2017: Charts that explain a stormy outlook - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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The outlook for the UK economy is one of the worst in living memory - four charts help explain why.
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Business
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If the economy is a cruise liner then the chancellor made the cabins more affordable for some passengers on Wednesday.
Philip Hammond said first-time buyers buying a home of up to £300,000 would pay no stamp duty.
While that will make some passengers happy, the weather for their trip could turn stormy in the coming years.
That is because the body which assembles economic data is forecasting a dramatic deterioration in conditions.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which prepares the figures that the chancellor bases his Budget on, predicts that annual economic growth will be below 2% for five years - one of the worst forecasts in living memory.
Why has the situation turned so gloomy? After all, the UK was one of the fastest growing of the major economies in 2016.
The answer hinges on productivity. If we return to our cruise ship, for years the crew were able to make it go significantly faster every year. But since the storm that was the financial crisis of 2007, that improved performance has not been repeated.
It's not clear why productivity has been so disappointing. Experts have several theories, including poor management and a lack of investment.
Whatever the reason, the official forecasters have conceded that productivity is unlikely to recover and that translates into slower economic growth. You can see how that outlook has deteriorated in the chart below.
The government's income is closely linked to growth. The faster the economy grows, the greater the receipts from VAT, income tax, corporation tax and other revenue-raising measures.
The government is already borrowing to fund spending on government departments and servicing the nation's debt. It plans to reduce that borrowing, to zero, but the downgrades to growth means that will be harder to do.
The chart below shows how the deficit (the difference between government income and expenditure) is forecast to fall over the next five years, but not as fast as the OBR predicted in the spring.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42094374
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I'm A Celebrity's Jack Maynard sorry for 'horrible' tweets - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The ex-I'm A Celebrity contestant apologised for tweeting some "disgusting things" in 2012.
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Entertainment & Arts
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YouTuber Jack Maynard - who left I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! when offensive tweets he posted in 2012 emerged - has apologised for saying some "pretty disgusting things".
The tweets, which prompted allegations of racism and homophobia, were published in the Sun newspaper while Maynard, 23, was in Australia.
He said he was "young" and "careless" when he posted them.
In an online video, Maynard added: "I've been really stupid in the past."
The show told viewers Maynard - who has more than 1.2m subscribers to his YouTube channel and is the younger brother of singer Conor Maynard - had left the jungle on Tuesday.
A spokesman said he had departed "due to circumstances outside camp".
In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Maynard confirmed he was back in London.
"The least you deserved was for me to come home and sit down and talk to you and explain everything that has been going on," he told his subscribers.
"I'm so sorry to anyone that I offended, anyone that I upset, anyone I made feel uncomfortable."
He said he had "messed up" adding: "I've tweeted some bad things, some horrible things, some pretty disgusting things that I'm just ashamed of."
"I was young I was careless, I just wasn't thinking, this was back when I had just left school and I didn't know what I was doing."
The social media star, who revealed it was his 23rd birthday, added: "All I can do is beg and encourage that you guys don't make the same mistake as well.
"Don't put anything online you wouldn't say to your mum."
Maynard appeared on Tuesday night's show, but presenters Ant and Dec confirmed his removal half-way through the programme.
His representative later said the star realised the language used in the now-deleted tweets was "completely unacceptable".
They said Maynard agreed with the decision to leave the show, which was "made by his representatives and ITV".
He had been one of 10 contestants taking part in the programme, which started on Sunday.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42104388
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Budget 2020: Richer or poorer? Ask the calculator - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Use our Budget calculator to find out how your pocket may be affected by the latest tax measures.
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Business
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The calculator on this page was part of the BBC's coverage of the 2020 Budget and is no longer available.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17442946
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Question Time cut short as woman falls ill - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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The BBC TV show is curtailed after an audience member collapses.
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UK Politics
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The BBC's Question Time was cut short on Thursday when an audience member was taken ill during the recording.
The BBC One show, from Colchester Town Hall, in Essex, was suspended while the woman was given first aid.
Host David Dimbleby said later they had to end the recording as the woman "could not be safely moved".
The hour-long programme, featuring Conservative Greg Clark, Labour's Diane Abbott and others was about 40 minutes in when it was halted.
The panel had already been asked "what is the point of capitalism?" and whether the Budget could fix the broken housing market.
The programme was broadcast in a shortened form, while Andrew Neil's political show This Week was moved forward.
A tweet from Question Time later read: "With regards to last night's #bbcqt - the audience member is now out of hospital and thanks everyone for their concern."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42104904
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Budget 2017: Stagnant earnings forecast 'astonishing' - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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The UK is in danger of losing almost 20 years of earnings growth, warns an independent economic think tank.
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Business
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The prediction that average UK earnings in 2022 could still be less than in 2008 is "astonishing", according to an independent economic think tank.
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, added that the economic forecasts published in the Budget made for "pretty grim reading".
He highlighted that since 2014 growth in earnings has been "choked off".
"We are in danger of losing not just one but getting on for two decades of earnings growth," he said.
"Let's hope this forecast turns out to be too pessimistic."
Mr Johnson was reacting to the productivity, earnings and economic growth forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which were released on Wednesday.
The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has said he hopes to prove the bleak economic forecasts released in the Budget wrong.
The chancellor said clarity around Brexit would increase consumer confidence and lead to higher growth in the economy.
What is the point of capitalism?
That might seem like a pretty big question, but one answer could be "to provide people the opportunity through work to become richer".
What, though, if the economy fails in that endeavour?
If the system leaves you - despite all your efforts - worse off in December than you were the previous January?
Or worse off now than you were a decade ago?
It was Lord Adair Turner, the former head of the Low Pay Commission, who put it succinctly.
"The UK over the last 10 years has created a lot of jobs, but today real wages are below where they were in 2007," he told me earlier this year.
"That is not the capitalist system delivering its promise that over a decade or so it will raise all boats, and it is a very fundamental issue."
On Wednesday, the OBR cut its growth forecast for the UK economy sharply, following changes to estimates of productivity and business investment.
It now expects the economy to grow by 1.5% this year, down from its previous forecast of 2%. It also said growth would be weaker than previously thought in each of the subsequent four years.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the hit to the economy would "hit all of society".
He said more government intervention and extra spending would "pay for itself" and alleviate the UK's productivity problem.
Also on Thursday, another think tank, the Resolution Foundation, said that disposable incomes are now expected to be £540 lower by 2023 than forecast in March, largely as a result of weaker pay growth.
The Foundation said that the UK is on course for its longest fall in living standards since records began more than 60 years ago, with real disposable incomes now set to fall for 19 successive quarters.
Despite high levels of employment in the UK, wage growth has remained stubbornly low.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Philip Hammond explains how the UK can get its economic forecast upgraded
The latest official figures showed workers' earnings, excluding bonuses, rose 2.2% in the three months to September compared with a year ago.
But they fell 0.5% in real terms when accounting for inflation, marking seven months of negative pay growth, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The lower forecasts for growth are also jeopardising the government's plan to balance the books by the mid 2020s.
The IFS said it was highly unlikely Mr Hammond will meet that target.
"To get there we would have to have another round of spending cuts," IFS director Paul Johnson told the BBC. "Given how hard it has been to get where we are, I think that is going to be pretty tough."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42096806
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Mugabe has gone, but will Zimbabwe change? - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Zimbabweans are celebrating change, but is the old regime just getting a new face?
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Africa
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Up to the moment itself the extraordinary session of parliament had proceeded along expected lines. Speaker after speaker rose to denounce the excesses of the president and his wife.
A female MP was speaking of how her constituents were suffering when we saw the messengers approach the speaker. They handed him a letter.
A jolt of energy swept the hall. At first there were cheers of anticipation. The speaker rose.
The next 10 minutes will remain engraved in my memory.
We strained to hear the speaker through the muffled public address system. But the words "statement of resignation" were clear. And the wild cheering, the thumping of tables, the dancing and singing told all of us who were present that the age of Robert Mugabe was over.
From the corridors outside where Zanu-PF activists had gathered, the MPs could hear loud cheers and singing mingle with their own celebrations.
On the floor of parliament - a hotel ballroom specially converted for the session - I watched MPs and senators dance, arms around each other, as the solemn procession of mace bearers left the chamber.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. MPs cheered and celebrated as the resignation was announced
Among the more bizarre experiences was finding ruling-party legislators offering themselves for interview to the BBC. A week ago most foreign journalists were banned from the country.
One party stalwart, MP Keith Guzah, told me he believed real democracy would now take root in Zimbabwe. "He has gone and I am happy, happy, happy for my country."
Another MP told me her greatest joy was that Zimbabwe had managed the transition "without the shedding of blood." It was a comment that ignored the bloodshed and pain inflicted by her party during the decades of Robert Mugabe's rule.
Leaving parliament I moved up through the city towards Africa Unity Square, the heart of Harare, pausing several times as I was enveloped by ecstatic crowds.
A man fell to his knees and raised his arms to the sky. A young woman, wrapped in the national flag, shouted: "Do you see this you guys? Do you see this? It is history in the making."
On the square I ran into Ben Freeth, a farmer who lost his land and whose family were brutally tortured during the land invasions. Like so many others he was struggling to believe that the moment of Mr Mugabe's departure had arrived.
"He was going, going, going and now he's finally gone," he said. As we spoke a group of revellers approached. Suddenly we were surrounded by embracing arms. "And you can see," said Ben, "we are in this together!"
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How news of Robert Mugabe's resignation was greeted across Zimbabwe
Will this spirit of unity, this freedom from fear, endure under a new dispensation? I cannot be at all certain.
The presumptive new leader, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is mired in the excesses of the Mugabe era. He was the deposed president's loyal henchman for decades and only struck against him to prevent Grace Mugabe from succeeding to the presidency.
This was not a revolution to bring liberal democratic principles into government. It was about power.
That said, there are significant pressures on the new leader to embark on a programme of meaningful change. The corruption and tyranny of the past will not attract the international financial aid and investment that is needed to rescue the nation's shattered economy.
Mr Mnangagwa will face a strong challenge if he tries to mire Zimbabwe in the despotism of the past. His instincts are authoritarian but he will not have the same scope for repression as Robert Mugabe.
It would be a mistake to regard Zanu-PF as a monolith. A party that turned on one leader can easily turn on another.
Perhaps most important is the attitude of the people.
They have endured nearly 40 years of fear. For the first time they have been able to speak openly and demonstrate in the streets.
The opposition - for so long divided and beaten down - is rejuvenated.
These are the moments in which new leaders emerge and are tested. With elections set for next year, all parties are already in campaigning mode.
Traditionally the polls have been times of chaos and crackdowns. Let us see if Mr Mnangagwa lives up to the promise of a more tolerant Zimbabwe.
President Mugabe was accused of preparing the presidency for his wife Grace
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42079908
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Manchester Arena attack: Siblings return six months on - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Max Trobe took his little sister Martha Lynch back to Manchester Arena for a Little Mix concert.
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Manchester
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Max Trobe and his sister Martha Lynch returned to Manchester Arena for the first time since the 22 May bombing
A photo of a brother and sister's return to Manchester Arena after they survived the attack there has gone viral.
Max Trobe, 18, posted the picture of himself and his sister Martha Lynch, 10, at Tuesday's Little Mix show.
His Twitter post attracted hundreds of comments praising the pair's courage.
Max said they will take away good memories of the venue after the "constant happiness" of the Little Mix gig.
Returning to the venue "was scary, but I'm glad we did it", he said.
The pair, of Darwen, Lancashire, were not physically injured but witnessed the aftermath of the suicide bombing which killed 22 people.
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He told the BBC: "I wasn't going to go, but then I thought: 'I will not let the senseless actions of one individual ruin my enjoyment, why should I?'
"My sister's still very naive to the situation, she fell straight asleep on the night of the attack because she thought it was a balloon, but to me, going back was a big deal and a tough decision.
"She really wanted to go, and I thought, if Martha can do it, I can do it.
"I felt very safe as there were metal detectors, all belongings had to be scanned, and there were plenty of security staff."
Recalling the events at the Ariane Grande concert six months ago, Max said he was caught in a stampede as people scrambled to leave.
He said: "I started to panic, thinking I was going to become separated from my sister as I was having to lift her over seats to get to the exit.
"We went past the corridor and I saw bodies covered in blood on the floor. I covered my sister's eyes so she couldn't see."
Max and his older sister Megan attended the One Love Manchester concert in June
Max said the atmosphere at the Little Mix concert was "amazing", and similar to the Ariana Grande concert before the explosion.
He said: "I still look back on that night and try to see it as the great evening it was before the bomb happened, but the Little Mix concert was constant happiness.
"The memories of the night of the attack are still there, but they're now in the back of my mind, and the memories of the Little Mix concert on Tuesday night are what I think of first when I think of the arena.
"The bad memories have been replaced with good ones."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-42099555
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Inside Saudi Arabia's gilded prison at Riyadh Ritz-Carlton - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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The BBC's Lyse Doucet is the first journalist to visit the hotel where dozens of prominent Saudis are being held.
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Dozens of prominent Saudi figures are being held in the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh. Many names are still secret, but the list is said to comprise at least 11 princes. It is part of an anti-corruption drive by the young Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
The BBC's Lyse Doucet was the first journalist to be allowed inside the hotel. She was given access by Saudi authorities.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42098201
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Prince Harry and robot to edit Radio 4's Today Programme - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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The BBC has announced this year's guest editors, who will take over between Christmas and New Year.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Prince Harry and a robot have been announced as two guest editors on Radio 4's Today Programme.
Their fellow editors will be Baroness Trumpington, Tamara Rojo and Ben Okri.
This is the 14th year control has been handed over to public figures between Christmas and New Year.
Kensington Palace said Prince Harry would use the opportunity to "shine a spotlight on issues that are close to his heart".
The palace added: "He is working closely with Today's team to produce segments on a range of topics, including youth violence, conservation and mental health."
The robot edition of the show will use Artificial Intelligence to conduct an interview through a journalist modelled on current presenter Mishal Husain.
That edition of the programme will also ask experts whether AI has become commonplace at work and in the home, and whether it can replicate human characteristics.
Other editors are 95-year-old Conservative peer Baroness Trumpington, who was a Land Girl and worked in code-breaking at Bletchley Park during World War Two.
Baroness Trumpington retired from the House of Lords last month
Poet and novelist Ben Okri will also guest edit the programme
Tamara Rojo will focus on funding the arts and diversity in ballet
The show will also be guest edited by Booker Prize winning Nigerian poet and novelist Benjamin Okri, whose Grenfell Tower poem helped raise funds for victims earlier in the year.
Tamara Rojo is the artistic director and lead principal dancer of the English National Ballet and will focus on funding the arts and diversity in ballet.
Sarah Sands, editor of Today, said: "We are delighted by the range of guest editors this year.
"This Christmas tradition allows our listeners to benefit from the experiences and perspectives of remarkable public figures.
"We finish with a programme dedicated to AI which gives a glimpse of the future of Today."
The exact dates of the special Today editions have not yet been confirmed.
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-42094085
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Dementia and football: Brain injury study to begin in January - BBC Sport
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2017-11-23
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A long-awaited study into the links between heading a football and brain damage will start in January, the Football Association says.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
A long-awaited study into the links between heading a football and brain damage will start in January, the Football Association has announced.
The doctor who claimed former striker Jeff Astle died because of repeated head trauma is to lead the study.
Dr Willie Stewart said his report would aim to "provide some understanding of the long-term health impact of football within the next two to three years".
"This is a huge day for football," said former England captain Alan Shearer.
In the recent BBC documentary Alan Shearer: Dementia, Football and Me, the ex-Newcastle United striker highlighted the case of Astle.
A former England international, Astle developed dementia and died in 2002 at the age of 59.
The inquest into his death found repeatedly heading heavy leather footballs had contributed to trauma to his brain.
After the inquest, research was commissioned by the FA and the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) but it was later dropped because of what were said to be technical flaws.
Astle's family has campaigned for the football authorities to launch a comprehensive research programme.
His daughter Dawn said she was "relieved" the study was now going ahead.
"I hope we can get some closure," she told BBC Sport.
"I am still angry and upset. It will be 2018 when the study starts, it's 16 lost and wasted years, and in the meantime players are dying."
Dr Stewart was appointed by the FA and PFA, who had invited applications for independent research in March.
His study will be titled 'Football's Influence on Lifelong Health and Dementia Risk'.
Dr Stewart said: "In the past decade there have been growing concerns around perceived increased risk of dementia through participation in contact sports, however, research data to support and quantify this risk have been lacking."
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor added: "Neurological problems in later life which may be connected to concussion, head injuries and heading the ball have been on our agenda for the last 20 years."
Shearer told BBC Sport: "When you consider what the coroner said in 2002, and nothing has been done until now, then it is a big day.
"It has been a long time coming and I am delighted the FA and PFA have have now backed it and we can now get the answer that football needs."
FA chief executive Martin Glenn said the new research "will be one the most comprehensive studies ever commissioned into the long-term health of former footballers".
He added: "Dementia can have a devastating effect and, as the governing body of English football, we felt compelled to commission a significant new study in order to fully understand if there are any potential risks associated with playing the game."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42094034
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MS-13 gang 'behead man' in park near Washington DC - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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One man has been arrested and charged over the gruesome gang killing.
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US & Canada
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Miguel Angel Lopez-Abrego, 19, has been charged with murder
Members of an El Salvadorian street gang stabbed a man 100 times, beheaded him and cut out his heart in a park near Washington DC, police say.
Up to 10 members of MS-13 communicated on walkie talkies as they closed in on their victim at a recreational area in Wheaton, Maryland, say officials.
The victim's "heart had been excised from his chest and thrown into the grave", according to court records.
US President Donald Trump has vowed to wipe out MS-13.
One of the suspects, 19-year-old Miguel Angel Lopez-Abrego, appeared in court on Wednesday, according to Montgomery Community Media.
He has been charged with first-degree murder and remanded in custody.
He was arrested in North Carolina on 11 November and extradited to Montgomery County, Maryland.
According to the Washington Post, the victim was murdered in early spring, but police only became aware of the killing after a tip-off.
The body was discovered in Wheaton Regional Park on 5 September.
The victim had been buried in a woodland grave prepared before his murder, officials said.
Investigators are still trying to identify the victim, but he is thought to be a Hispanic male.
A post-mortem examination ruled it a homicide from "sharp force injuries", said police.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nisa Mickens, 15, was killed by an MS-13 gang including undocumented immigrants.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42089052
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Luton terror attack plotter Mubashir Jamil jailed for six years - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Jamil was caught in a covert police operation offering to wear a suicide vest and "press the button" .
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Beds, Herts & Bucks
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A terror plotter who offered to wear a suicide vest and "press the button on the same day" has been jailed.
Mubashir Jamil, 22, was convicted of preparing acts of terrorism after being caught in a covert police operation.
During his trial, the Old Bailey heard he wanted to join so-called Islamic State (IS) to rid himself of "evil spirits".
Jamil, from Luton, was jailed for six years, part of which will be served in a secure hospital.
The defendant, an Amazon warehouse worker and former Challney High School for Boys pupil, became obsessed with the idea of martyrdom after surfing the internet for IS propaganda, the court had heard.
A former grade-A student, he was caught after talking to an undercover officer using encrypted messages on an online app.
Mubashir Jamil had surfed the web for propaganda put out by the so-called Islamic State group, the court heard
He had told the officer he would blow himself up in Britain if he could not fight for so-called Islamic State in Syria.
Jamil told the officer: "If you or some brother you know can put an explosive belt on me and tell me how to press, as soon as possible for security reasons, I can do something in the UK even tomorrow after I find a good target."
The accused, who has suffered bouts of mental illness, was arrested by counter-terrorism officers in April 2016, a few days before a planned flight to Turkey.
During his trial the court heard Jamil had planned his trip carefully, and "deliberately" changed his appearance, shaving off his beard after reading guidance online about how to be a "secret agent" in a non-Muslim country.
The defendant, who was born in Pakistan but brought up in Britain, denied one count of preparing for terrorist acts but was found guilty after a retrial.
Jamil shaved off his beard after reading guidance about how to be a "secret agent" in a non-Muslim country
Sentencing him to six years, Judge Peter Rook QC said his crime was only "in part" explained by his mental health disorder and said he was a "dangerous" offender.
He handed Jamil a "hybrid order" meaning he will continue to be treated in a secure hospital until he is well enough to be transferred to prison.
Jamil will serve a further five years on extended licence on his release.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-42094557
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Finland rolls out bread made from crushed crickets - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Insect-eating is common in many parts of the world. In the West, it is perceived as a niche diet.
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Europe
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Finland recently lifted a ban on the use of insects in food
A Finnish bakery is to offer bread made from crushed crickets in a move that is hoped will help tackle world hunger.
Fazer Bakery in Finland said the product, available in its stores from Friday, was the first of its kind.
Each loaf produced will contain about 70 crickets that have been dried and ground, and then mixed with flour, wheat and other seeds.
In 2013, the United Nations estimated that at least 2 billion people eat insects worldwide.
According to the UN, more than 1,900 species of insect are used for food.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) began a programme in 2013 to encourage the breeding and consumption of insects.
Juhani Sibakov, head of innovation at Fazer, said the concept had been in development since last summer, but it could not be launched until approved by Finnish authorities.
Earlier this month Finland lifted a ban on the sale of insects raised and marketed for food use.
Five other European countries - the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Denmark - already allow this.
Each loaf of bread contains about 70 crickets, which have been imported from the Netherlands
Mr Sibakov said the bread contains more protein than normal wheat bread.
"It offers consumers a good protein source and also gives them an easy way to familiarise themselves with insect-based food," he said.
The bread will be rolled out initially in stores in the Finnish capital, Helsinki. Sara Koivisto, a student there, said she "couldn't taste the difference", adding: "It tastes like bread."
Fazer, which imports the cricket ingredients from the Netherlands, only has a limited supply. However it said it was working to find a local supplier.
In many parts of the world, insect-eating is common.
In the West, edible bugs are becoming more popular with those who want a gluten-free diet or to protect the environment. Farming insects may use less resources than farming animals.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42101700
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Buncrana pier tragedy victims 'died by misadventure' - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Five members of a Derry family drowned after their car went off a slipway into Lough Swilly in March 2016.
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Foyle & West
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The victims were, from left, Mark McGrotty, 12, and Evan McGrotty, 8, Sean McGrotty, 49, Ruth Daniels, 57, and Jodie Lee Daniels, 14
Five members of a Londonderry family whose car went into Lough Swilly from a slipway drowned due to misadventure, a coroner inquest jury has found.
The Buncrana pier tragedy took the lives of Sean McGrotty, his sons Mark and Evan, his partner's mother, Ruth Daniels and her daughter, Jodie Lee.
Mr McGrotty handed his baby daughter to a rescuer moments before the Audi Q7 sank in March 2016.
Family member Louise James said it was an "accident waiting to happen".
The gate on the slipway "should have been closed", said Ms James, who was Mr McGrotty's partner, Mark and Evan's mother, Mrs Daniel's daughter and Jodie-Lee's sister.
The couple's four-month-old daughter Rionaghac-Ann was the sole survivor.
Ms James said there were "no words capable of expressing my pain, my disbelief and indeed my anger over what happened on that fateful day".
She said her heart was "shattered".
Davitt Walsh, a former footballer who rescued the infant after swimming out to help the family, "was an ordinary man who did an extraordinary thing", the inquest heard on Thursday.
Mr Walsh tried to save another child but said he appeared to "get stuck" on something.
Irish police inspector David Murphy also paid tribute to gardaí rescuers who arrived on the scene within minutes.
He hoped the conclusion of the inquest would go some way to aiding the grieving process for the relatives of those who died, added Insp Murphy.
A pathologist told the inquest Sean McGrotty had a blood alcohol level of 159mg - three times over the Republic of Ireland's drink-drive limit.
On Thursday, an RNLI volunteer diver told the inquest that he could not open the doors of the vehicle when it was under the water.
John O'Raw said the water was about three metres deep and visibility was an issue.
The incident was one of the worst family tragedies along the Irish coastline, the coroner says
Mr O'Raw told the inquest he entered the water about 40 minutes after the alarm was raised.
On the second day of the inquest in Buncrana, Mr O'Raw recalled how his pager beeped at 19:13 GMT that day.
When he got to the scene 17 minutes later, he saw colleagues performing CPR on a woman.
He returned home to get snorkelling equipment and entered the water at 19:55.
The RNLI volunteer said he tried to open the rear passenger door and the handle came freely, but the mechanism to open the door was not working.
"I couldn't get the door open," he said.
"I went to the passenger side front door and it was exactly the same. I told recovery I couldn't get the doors open."
He added: "I tried the rear driver's side door, and then tried front driver's door but neither would open. The driver's window was half intact and was bowed facing inwards, into the car.
"I couldn't understand what I was seeing. The tailgate at the back of the vehicle was open."
Mr O'Raw said he could get his "head in through the window and could see there was no one in the two front seats".
He said, it was his opinion, that because the window was broken and the tailgate was open, the water pressure would have been the same inside and outside the vehicle so the doors should have been able to open.
The coroner said there would be some resistance, akin to opening a door into wind.
Louise James (centre) was present on the opening day of the inquest
Garda Seamus Callaghan told the inquest when he arrived at the scene the RNLI were performing CPR on Ruth Daniels.
He said four bodies were recovered in a relatively short space of time and a local priest said prayers over each of the victims.
Garda Callaghan told the inquest the slipway was "extremely slippery with thick algae".
Garda Damien Mulcairns told the inquest he inspected the car, an Audi Q7, the following day at a garage in Letterkenny.
He said the car was in road-worthy condition before the incident and he had no issue with opening all the doors in the car from the outside and from the inside.
Garda Mulcairns said the driver's side window was shattered, but intact with lamination, which is a common safety aspect in modern vehicles.
He said it would have taken considerable force to break the glass.
Garda Mulcairns said central locking was operated both mechanically and electronically.
In his opinion, any electrical component submerged in water would not react in the same way, he said.
On the first day of the inquest, Dr Catriona Dillon, the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination on Mr McGrotty, told the inquest his blood-alcohol reading "may indicate a level of intoxication".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-foyle-west-42093915
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Irish deputy PM no confidence motion could force election - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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The Irish government could collapse over a no confidence motion tabled against the deputy PM.
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Europe
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Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin could fight a fresh election in the coming months
The Republic of Ireland could face a general election after the country's second largest party tabled a motion of no confidence in the deputy prime minister.
The Fianna Fáil motion against Frances Fitzgerald comes over her handling of a police whistleblower controversy.
Her party, Fine Gael, passed a motion to support her at an emergency party meeting on Thursday night.
Fianna Fáil front bench members lodged the motion for debate next Tuesday.
Fine Gael lead the minority government with the support of Fianna Fáil.
Fianna Fáil, the main opposition party, agreed to back a Fine Gael minority government after the 2016 general election did not return a majority government.
Under the terms of the confidence and supply arrangement, Fianna Fáil agreed not to vote against the minority government in confidence motions and to support it for three budgets, two of which are now past.
Now, the government looks likely to collapse, forcing a snap election next month, unless Ms Fitzgerald resigns before the no confidence motion is debated.
Frances Fitzgerald was Irish minister for justice during a police whistleblower controversy
Sinn Féin, the country's third largest party, had tabled their own no confidence motion on Thursday.
It is due to be debated and voted on next week.
Ms Fitzgerald has been under pressure over her handling of an ongoing controversy around a Garda (police) whistleblower when she was Irish justice minister.
What we are witnessing is a game of call my bluff, involving three political parties.
The decision by Sinn Féin to put down a motion of no confidence in Frances Fitzgerald was aimed at calling Fianna Fáil's bluff.
That's because Fianna Fáil has an agreement with the minority-led Fine Gael government whereby they were prepared to support them in a confidence-and-supply arrangement.
But Fianna Fáil called Sinn Féin's bluff by deciding to put down their motion of no confidence which will take precedence over the Sinn Féin one - at a time when Sinn Féin is undergoing generational change.
Fine Gael is now calling Fianna Fáil's bluff by saying they are prepared to go to the country over this issue.
Once TDs go back into their constituencies they will face questions from the public: How can you bring down a government over a missing or forgotten email by Frances Fitzgerald during key Brexit talks, when many thousands of people are homeless and there are huge hospital waiting lists?
Fine Gael normally prides itself on putting the country before the party.
I wouldn't be surprised if, in the coming days, Frances Fitzgerald fell on her sword.
Ms Fitzgerald has faced questions in the Dáil (Irish parliament) about what she knew about what lawyers were going to put to a whistleblower at a commission of enquiry.
In particular, she has been questioned over her account of an email she received about the legal strategy of the former Garda commissioner in the case of Sgt Maurice McCabe.
Ms Fitzgerald has recently admitted that she was made aware a year earlier than she had previously stated, that lawyers for the Garda were going to attempt to discredit Sgt McCabe.
The email was initially sent to Ms Fitzgerald in May 2015, but she told the Dáil earlier this week that she could not remember reading it.
Speaking to Irish national broadcaster RTÉ, Fianna Fáil justice spokesperson Jim O'Callaghan said that Ms Fitzgerald "should go".
He said that party leader Micheál Martin had expressed this view to Taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar.
Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney told RTÉ that the government would continue to support Ms Fitzgerald and that calls for her resignation were "built on sand".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42104914
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Galapagos finches caught in act of becoming new species - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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A population of finches on the Galapagos is discovered in the process of becoming a new species.
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Science & Environment
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This is an image of the Big Bird lineage, which arose through the breeding of two distinct parent species: G. fortis and G. conirostris
A population of finches on the Galapagos has been discovered in the process of becoming a new species.
This is the first example of speciation that scientists have been able to observe directly in the field.
Researchers followed the entire population of finches on a tiny Galapagos island called Daphne Major, for many years, and so they were able to watch the speciation in progress.
The research was published in the journal Science.
The group of finch species to which the Big Bird population belongs are collectively known as Darwin's finches and helped Charles Darwin to uncover the process of evolution by natural selection.
In 1981, the researchers noticed the arrival of a male of a non-native species, the large cactus finch.
Professors Rosemary and Peter Grant noticed that this male proceeded to mate with a female of one of the local species, a medium ground finch, producing fertile young.
Almost 40 years later, the progeny of that original mating are still being observed, and number around 30 individuals.
"It's an extreme case of something we're coming to realise more generally over the years. Evolution in general can happen very quickly," said Prof Roger Butlin, a speciation expert who wasn't involved in the study.
This new finch population is sufficiently different in form and habits to the native birds, as to be marked out as a new species, and individuals from the different populations don't interbreed.
Prof Butlin told the BBC that people working on speciation credit the Grant professors with altering our understanding of rapid evolutionary change in the field.
In the past, it was thought that two different species must be unable to produce fertile offspring in order to be defined as such. But in more recent years, it has been established that many birds and other animals that we consider to be unique species are in fact able to interbreed with others to produce fertile young.
"We tend not to argue about what defines a species anymore, because that doesn't get you anywhere," said Prof Butlin. What he says is more interesting is understanding the role that hybridisation can have in the process of creating new species, which is why this observation of Galapagos finches is so important.
The researchers think that the original male must have flown 65 miles from the large cactus finches' home island of Española. That's a very long way for a small finch to fly, and so it would be very unlikely for the bird to make a successful return flight.
A member of the G. fortis species, one of two that interbred to give rise to the Big Bird lineage
A finch belonging to the G. conirostris species. It's the other half of the pairing that gave rise to the Big Bird population
By identifying one way that new species can arise, and following the entire population, the researchers state this as an example of speciation occurring in a timescale we can observe.
In most cases, the offspring of cross-species matings are poorly adapted to their environment. But in this instance, the new finches on Daphne Major are larger than other species on the island, and have taken hold of new and unexploited food.
For this reason, the researchers are calling the animals the "Big Bird population".
To scientifically test whether the Big Bird population was genetically distinct from the three species of finch native to the island, Peter and Rosemary Grant collaborated with Prof Leif Andersson of Sweden's Uppsala University who analysed the population genetically for the new study.
Prof Andersson told BBC News: "The surprise was that we would expect the hybrid would start to breed with one of the other species on the island and be absorbed… we have confirmed that they are a closed breeding group."
Due to an inability to recognise the songs of the new males, native females won't pair with this new species.
The finches led Darwin to his theory of natural selection, as outlined in On The Origin of Species
And in this paper, new genetic evidence shows that after two generations, there was complete reproductive isolation from the native birds. As a result, they are now reproductively - and genetically - isolated. So they have been breeding exclusively with each other over the years.
"What we are saying is that this group of birds behave as a distinct species. If you didn't know anything about [Daphne Major's] history and a taxonomist arrived on this island they would say there are four species on this island," said Prof Andersson.
There is no evidence that they will breed again with the native medium ground finch, but even if they did, they now have a larger size and can exploit new opportunities. Those advantageous traits may be maintained by natural selection.
So hybridisation can lead to speciation, simply through the addition of one individual to a population. It may therefore be a way for new traits to evolve quickly.
"If you just wait for mutations causing one change at a time, then it would make it more difficult to raise a new species that way. But hybridisation may be more effective than mutation," said Prof Butlin.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42103058
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Liverpool street brawl: More than 20 Germans and two locals arrested - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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More than 20 German nationals are among those held over a mass brawl in Liverpool city centre.
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Liverpool
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. More than 20 people were arrested over the fight in Liverpool
More than 20 German men have been arrested over a mass street brawl.
Mobile phone footage showed a large group of men fighting outside the Soho bar in Liverpool's Concert Square at about 23:20 GMT on Wednesday.
Punches were thrown and chairs appeared to be used as weapons as the fight escalated and move away from the venue.
The men, including two from the local area, were arrested on suspicion of public order offences, Merseyside Police said.
One man suffered a head injury in the disturbance, which happened at about 23:20 GMT on Wednesday.
The fight happened near Soho bar in Concert Square
Police said the German nationals were aged between 25 and 50 and all the arrested men were being held at police stations on Merseyside for questioning.
Members of the public and door staff were involved in the brawl, police said.
The injured man remains in hospital in a stable condition.
A police spokesman added that the violence had led the force to bolster the number of officers in the city centre ahead of the Europa League football match between Everton and Atalanta, from Bergamo, Italy.
Supt Mark Morgan said Merseyside Police's "primary aim is to protect the public and ensure they have a night out in a safe environment".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-42095094
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Business Live: Budget reaction - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Views on Wednesday's Budget after the sharp cut in the growth outlook, plus other news.
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Business
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Black Friday is almost upon us, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has compiled some interesting stats on how much we spend on this American-born promotional event.
The FCA found that over £5.3bn was spent over Black Friday weekend last year.
While not everyone is interested in taking part, 15% of UK consumers tent to spend at least £100 more on Black Friday compared to an average weekend.
Mobile usage also spikes. A fifth of the UK is expected to be online and logged into retail sites tomorrow.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/business-42027175
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Budget 2017: 'I've never been able to afford my own home' - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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The BBC asked a selection of young people for their reaction to measures announced in the Budget.
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UK Politics
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Nikki Entwistle, 33, said stamp-duty changes would not help her afford a deposit
What do the measures introduced in the Budget mean to young people in the UK?
The Chancellor Philip Hammond, announced the immediate abolition of stamp duty for properties up to £300,000 in England, Northern Ireland and, for a time, Wales.
The average first-time buyer pays about £1,600 in stamp duty, according to Halifax Building Society.
The BBC spoke to a number of young people to find out if they thought the chancellor had gone far enough.
The stamp-duty reform was welcomed by some first-time buyers, but some worried it was not enough to enable young people to get their foot on the ladder
Hollie Croft, 31, is buying a house in London with her husband.
"Our stamp duty would have been £9,000," she said.
"Now, we can afford to redo the bathroom straight away instead of living with the rundown one until we'd saved up.
"Saving for a deposit whilst paying London rent has meant no holidays, no new clothes and very few nights out.
"I still think current house prices are disproportionate to wages and I don't know if this change will help in the long term, but for us right now? We're very happy."
Madeleine van Oss, a 25-year-old law student in Oxford, told the BBC the stamp-duty cut reflected the difficulty many young people faced accessing the housing market.
"If I get a good job and I can buy a house, the stamp-duty [cut] will help me," she said.
"It's good to see an acknowledgement that things are harder for us now than it was for them back in the day.
"Personally, I do well out of [this Budget]," she added.
Others were more circumspect. Nick, 19, said: "A lot of [this Budget], I felt, was just empty promises and things to attempt to win over voters."
He added: "I'm not sure how much of an impact the stamp-duty change will make to first-time buyers.
"With property prices rising, especially in London, £300,000 in house terms isn't a lot, in my opinion."
Nikki Entwistle, 33, agrees. After being made redundant from her job at British Gas in 2016, she decided to go back to college, where she is now studying animal management.
"I've never been able to afford my own home," she said.
"I've rented property since I was about 19.
"It seemed expensive then, but prices have gone up a lot.
"I don't know how the government expects us to be able to afford to save.
"With council tax, energy bills, rent and food, there's not enough left.
"I think there needs to be a cap on rent.
James Furniss-Rees welcomed the cut in stamp duty but thinks that measures could be introduced to address student debt
James Furniss-Rees, who graduated from university in July with £58,000 of debt, said there had been "not enough" in the Budget for him.
"There was no real talk about debt, where there will be changes to timeframes, when to pay back and how," he said.
"The government should revise whether we pay tuition fees at all, because it's unrealistic for us to pay that all back."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42088039
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Foxconn stops interns' illegal overtime at iPhone X factory - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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Apple's main iPhone supplier has stopped illegal overtime by school age interns in a factory in China
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Business
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Foxconn has faced several claims of poor treatment of workers at its Chinese factories
Foxconn, a main supplier for Apple's iPhone, says it has stopped interns from working illegal overtime at its factory in China.
It comes after a Financial Times report found at least six students worked 11-hour days at its iPhone X plant in Henan province.
The practice breached Chinese laws preventing children from working more than 40 hours per week.
About 3,000 students were reportedly hired to work at the Zhengzhou plant.
Apple said the secondary school students worked voluntarily but they "should not have been allowed to work overtime".
Both the tech giant and Foxconn have said the interns were "compensated and provided benefits".
"Apple is dedicated to ensuring everyone in our supply chain is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve," the firm said in a statement.
"We know our work is never done and we'll continue to do all we can to make a positive impact and protect workers in our supply chain."
The Foxconn Technology Group, which operates an internship programme at the Chinese factory, told the BBC in a statement that it took "immediate action to ensure that no interns are carrying out any overtime work".
It added that "interns represent a very small percentage" of its workforce in China and that the breach of labour laws was inconsistent with its own policies.
The Taiwanese firm reportedly hired the students in September to keep up with demand for the new iPhone X, which Apple has described as being "off the charts".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Dave Lee gets hands on with the new iPhone X
The iPhone is critical to Apple's product line and makes up more than half of its revenue, with more than 46.6 million phones sold between July and September this year.
Its latest model, the iPhone X, was launched on the 10 year anniversary of the iconic smartphone and is Apple's most expensive handset yet, retailing for £999.
Apple and its suppliers have come under fire several times in recent years amid accusations that they have failed to protect workers at Chinese manufacturing facilities, where some allegedly lived in overcrowded factory dorms and worked excessive hours.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42090777
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Emmerson Mnangagwa: The 'crocodile' who snapped back - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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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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Budget 2017: No political drama from 'Box Office Phil' - BBC News
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2017-11-23
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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It wasn't a show stopper - but what Philip Hammond tried to do was to act on concerns expressed at the general election and by rebels on the Tory backbenches as well as the Labour opposition.
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UK Politics
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It wasn't a drama - it wasn't a Budget that would inspire queues at the Box Office.
No surprise. When "Box Office Phil" was given that nickname, it wasn't because he has a reputation for delivering political thrillers.
What he tried to do was to act on concerns expressed at the general election and by rebels on the Tory backbenches as well as the Labour opposition.
So there were changes to the universal credit benefit, some, but certainly not all the money the NHS says it needs - and an enormous sounding figure of £44bn for housing over the next five years (although vital to wait for the detail of how much will go to getting spades in the ground, and how much will guarantee loans for the housing industry).
But he made a bigger-than-expected move to "revive the home-owning dream" by scrapping stamp duty on the first £300,000 of any property bought by a first-time buyer.
The prime minister has set her own personal reputation on fixing the housing crisis, so there is a lot riding on the mixture of moves that has been promised by Philip Hammond today.
He also responded to pressure from Brexit-backing colleagues in cabinet, by putting aside an extra £3bn to plan for a "no deal" scenario.
What the chancellor also tried to do was to claim that somehow a corner has been turned in the long-term battle to sort out the country's books, with debt peaking and starting to fall as a share of national income.
But it will be tricky for the government to escape the overall picture: that the economy looks like it will be more sluggish, will grow more slowly and will be less productive than expected for some time to come.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42084795
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Leo Varadkar hopes talks can avert Irish general election - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Leo Varadkar says he does not want an election but will continue to back his under pressure deputy PM.
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Europe
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Leo Varadkar said that if an election happened "it would be better to have it done before Christmas"
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has said he hopes talks can resolve a crisis that threatens to collapse the Irish government.
The crisis was sparked when the main opposition party, Fianna Fáil, tabled a motion of no confidence in the deputy prime minister.
The motion against Frances Fitzgerald comes over her handling of a police whistleblower controversy.
Mr Varadkar said he did not want a general election.
However, the taoiseach (Irish prime minister) added that he will continue to back Ms Fitzgerald and that if an election was to happen "it would be better to have it done before Christmas".
The no confidence motion threatens the confidence-and-supply arrangement in which the Fine Gael-led minority government is supported by Fianna Fáil.
Fianna Fáil agreed after the 2016 general election not to vote against the minority government in confidence motions and to support it for three budgets, two of which are now past.
The two parties are now at loggerheads over the position of Ms Fitzgerald.
Fine Gael passed a motion to support her at an emergency party meeting on Thursday night.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the situation would be resolved if Ms Fitzgerald resigned
Fianna Fáil front bench members lodged the no confidence motion for debate next Tuesday.
Mr Varadkar said that talks between himself and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin on Friday had "cleared the air somewhat".
He said that Fianna Fáil motion was still going ahead but that there is still "an opportunity over the next couple of days to resolve it".
"I don't believe that the decapitation of the tánaiste (deputy prime minister), based on trumped-up charges, is fair," he told Irish national broadcaster RTÉ.
"So let's all calm down a bit, let's pause for reflection, let's perhaps withdraw these motions and allow the Charleton Tribunal, starting on 8 January, to do the work that we set it up to do."
Frances Fitzgerald was Irish minister for justice during a police whistleblower controversy
Earlier on Friday, Mr Martin said that his party did not want an election but that the issue could be resolved if Ms Fitzgerald resigned.
Ms Fitzgerald has faced questions in the Dáil (Irish parliament) about what she knew about what lawyers were going to put to a whistleblower at a commission of enquiry.
In particular, she has been questioned over her account of an email she received about the legal strategy of the former Garda (police) commissioner in the case of Sgt Maurice McCabe.
Ms Fitzgerald has recently admitted that she was made aware a year earlier than she had previously stated, that lawyers for the Garda were going to attempt to discredit Sgt McCabe.
The email was initially sent to Ms Fitzgerald in May 2015, but she told the Dáil earlier this week that she could not remember reading it.
Sinn Féin, the country's third largest party, had tabled their own no confidence motion against Ms Fitzgerald on Thursday.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42117072
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Sally Anne Bowman killer Mark Dixie jailed for more attacks - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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Mark Dixie was jailed in 2008 for raping and murdering teenage model Sally Anne Bowman.
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London
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Eighteen-year-old Sally Anne Bowman was murdered in south London in 2005
The murderer of model Sally Anne Bowman has been given two further life sentences for raping two other women.
Mark Dixie, now 47, was jailed for at least 34 years in 2008 for repeatedly stabbing 18-year-old Miss Bowman, before raping her as she lay dead or dying in south London in 2005.
Dixie confessed to detectives in 2015 he was responsible for more attacks, including one when he was a teenager.
Outside court Mr Le Pere said although the Metropolitan Police had no evidence to link the former pub chef to any other rapes or murders, "with my experience, I would find it very surprising if he had not done something extremely serious we don't know about".
Mark Dixie was jailed for a minimum of 34 years in 2008
Friday's sentencing hearing was told Dixie targeted his first victim when he was 16 while she was sitting in her own car in an isolated south London car park.
He then tied her up inside and set the vehicle on fire.
The victim said he "seemed delighted in her evident fear" as she became hysterical, fearing she was going to die.
She managed to free herself and raised the alarm, Southwark Crown Court was told in July.
However, she was left "utterly petrified", when she received two chilling phone calls from her attacker in the following days, the court was told.
In a victim impact statement, she said: "I didn't seek counselling, I had survived, I was in one piece. I just wanted to get on with life."
The second attack, in 2002, saw him bludgeon a woman with a chef's steel, normally used to sharpen kitchen knives, before telling her "I'm going to kill you" and molesting her.
She managed to escape when Dixie was interrupted by a man who heard her screams.
The court heard Dixie took his victim's mobile phone during the attack and later boasted to her ex-boyfriend in a call: "I've battered her. I've battered her. I've left her by the railway."
In the early hours of 25 September 2005, Sally Anne Bowman, an 18-year-old hairdresser and model, was murdered near her home in Croydon, south London.
Returning from a night out, she was stabbed in the neck and stomach and then raped as she lay dead or dying.
She had been dropped off by her ex-boyfriend Lewis Sproston who police arrested but later released without charge.
The murder remained unsolved until June 2006, when local man Mark Dixie was arrested following a fight at the pub where he worked as a chef.
DNA taken from a swab linked him to the case and he was charged with the murder.
During the Old Bailey trial Dixie, admitted to having sex with Miss Bowman after finding her on the ground outside her home, but denied murdering her.
He was found guilty of Miss Bowman's murder and was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum term of 34 years.
Sally Anne Bowman's body was found by a skip in Croydon
Father-of-three Dixie admitted charges of rape, indecent assault and grievous bodily harm during a hearing on 26 July.
In January 2015 the killer, who had pleaded not guilty throughout his first trial, finally confessed to the murder.
Dixie wrote to police saying he wanted to "tell the truth" about what happened to Miss Bowman, before telling detectives he had killed her in a frenzied attack that included biting her after she fled from her boyfriend's car in a row.
Later, while being interviewed by police, he said he had not raped or murdered anybody before.
However, he went on to admit two further attacks after he was told by the investigating officer: "That's not entirely true. I know something you did in 1987."
By the time Dixie was jailed for Miss Bowman's murder, he had already been convicted of indecent exposure and indecent assault in the UK.
He was also responsible for another sex attack in Australia, where he had lived for six years.
Dixie has also admitted a serious sexual assault in Spain in 2005, his barrister Andrew Mooney said.
Mr Le Pere said Dixie was still "very dangerous", adding: "I would be very surprised if he would ever not pose a threat to the public or a danger to the public.
"But that's for other people to decide."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-42112913
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Budget 2017: The endless living squeeze - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The Budget downgrades for economic growth and productivity mean we could see stagnant wages until 2025.
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Business
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What is the point of capitalism?
That might seem like a pretty big question, but one answer could be "to provide people the opportunity through work to become richer".
What, though, if the economy fails in that endeavour?
If the system leaves you - despite all your efforts - worse off in December than you were the previous January?
Or worse off now than you were a decade ago?
It was Lord Adair Turner, the former head of the Low Pay Commission, who put it succinctly.
"The UK over the last 10 years has created a lot of jobs, but today real wages are below where they were in 2007," he told me earlier this year.
"That is not the capitalist system delivering its promise that over a decade or so it will raise all boats, and it is a very fundamental issue."
Yesterday the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) announced an aggressive downgrade of both its growth and productivity forecasts.
Those big, macro-economic announcements have a significant effect on all of us as well as on the state of the public finances.
It means the economy is forecast to be weaker at producing wealth for every hour that we work.
Which makes the chances of a pay rise for everyone recede.
Today, two pieces of chunky analysis of the OBR's judgements reveal why those downgrades are so important.
The social justice think tank, the Resolution Foundation, said that "lower productivity feeds directly through to pay, which is now forecast to be £1,000 a year lower on average than the OBR thought back in March".
The Foundation says that the fall in real incomes people are experiencing could now become the longest since records began.
And that wages will not recover to their pre-financial crisis levels until 2025 - that's 17 years during which people have been experiencing an incomes squeeze.
The tax and economy think tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, agrees.
"Real earnings are falling this year as inflation has risen to 3%," Paul Johnson, the Institute's director, said.
"The nascent recovery in earnings, which were growing through 2014 to the first half of 2016, has been choked off.
"That they even might still be below their 2008 level in 2022 as the OBR forecasts is truly astonishing. Let's hope this forecast turns out to be too pessimistic."
Government ministers will be similarly keeping their fingers crossed.
And hoping that with strong employment levels and plans to boost investment in the type of infrastructure that boosts productivity - transport, scientific and technology research - the real incomes squeeze can be alleviated.
Because if a system does not deliver increasing wealth - even if it is a modest increase - then people, quite naturally, begin to wonder what is the point.
• None What the Budget means for you
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42097238
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Oxford Circus Tube station: Pair sought over platform altercation - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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Sixteen people are hurt amid panicked scenes at Oxford Circus, as police probe a fight on a platform.
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UK
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Armed police have been stood down and two central London Underground stations have reopened following reports of gunshots being fired at Oxford Circus.
Police want to speak to two men after an altercation "erupted" on a platform at the station, but say there is no evidence any weapons had been fired.
Officers also want to speak to anyone who was at the station about the cause of the mass panic and evacuation.
Sixteen people were treated after they were injured fleeing the station.
Oxford Circus was closed and armed police were deployed following reports that gunshots had been heard inside the station.
Police initially treated the incident as potentially terrorism-related, while nearby Bond Street station was closed amid fears of overcrowding.
The British Transport Police (BTP) said officers believe there was an altercation between two men on the platform before the scare.
They have released CCTV images of two men they want to speak to.
Police want to speak to two men after an altercation "erupted" on a platform
The Met said it began receiving "numerous" 999 calls reporting gunshots in Oxford Street and at Oxford Circus station at 16:38 GMT.
Oxford Circus - where Oxford Street and Regent Street meet - was cordoned off, while shops and businesses were placed in lockdown.
In a statement, the Met Police said: "Officers working with colleagues from British Transport Police carried out an urgent search of the area.
"No causalities, evidence of any shots fired or any suspects were located by police."
However, the force said there had been "significant" panic at station.
Sixteen people were injured as passengers fled from Oxford Circus station, in what witnesses said was "a stampede".
One patient was transferred to a major trauma centre for leg injuries, while eight people were taken to central London hospitals for minor injuries.
A further seven patients were treated at the scene, the London Ambulance Service added.
Scotland Yard said the operation had been stood down at 18:05 GMT.
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British Transport Police said it received reports of gunfire on the westbound Central Line platform at Oxford Circus.
"This caused a significant level of panic which resulted in numerous calls from members of the public reporting gunfire," the force said.
"A full and methodical search of the station and Oxford Street was conducted by our specially trained firearms officers.
"During the search officers did not find any evidence of gunfire at the station," it added.
Armed police were deployed to the area, in central London
Eyewitnesses said it was "a very panicked scene"
Police said additional officers would remain on duty in the West End to reassure the public.
In a statement, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan praised the city's emergency services for a "swift response".
Meanwhile, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have attended the Royal Variety Performance, at the nearby London Palladium theatre.
However, their scheduled arrival was delayed by an hour, as a result of the incident.
A Kensington Palace spokesman said the royal couple were in time for the start of the show, but the traditional pre-show meeting with some of the performers had to be dropped.
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The scare happened on Black Friday, at a time when Oxford Street and the surrounding areas were filled with shoppers.
BBC reporter Helen Bushby said she had seen a "mass stampede" of people running away from the station in the panic.
"They were crying, they were screaming, they were dropping their shopping bags. It was a very panicked scene," she added.
"People said they heard a gunshot and panic was just spreading."
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She spoke to a group of young women at Topshop, in Oxford Street, who said people had dropped their shopping and ran as quickly as they could.
Greg Owen, 37, from London, said he was at Oxford Circus station when people began running away.
"I was next to the Tube station and everyone started screaming and shouting and then a flood of people came up the stairs," he added.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42117311
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Oscar Pistorius case by numbers - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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Numbers involved in the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius, sentenced to six years in prison for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.
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Oscar Pistorius has been sentenced to six years in prison for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day, 2013.
BBC News looks at the case in numbers.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-34574967
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William and Kate arrive for Royal Variety - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had been delayed by a security alert at nearby Oxford Circus Tube.
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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had been delayed for about an hour because of a security alert at nearby Oxford Circus Tube station.
The traditional pre-show line-up, in which the royals meet performers, had to be cancelled.
Catherine, who is four months pregnant, wore a Jenny Packham dress.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42115805
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Avatar therapy 'reduces power of schizophrenia voices' - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Patients became less distressed and heard voices less often compared with those who had counselling.
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Health
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How avatar therapy is helping people stand up to schizophrenic voices by giving them a face
Confronting an avatar on a computer screen helped patients hearing voices to cope better with hallucinations, a UK trial has found.
Patients who received this therapy became less distressed and heard voices less often compared with those who had counselling instead.
Experts said the therapy could add an important new approach to treating schizophrenia hallucinations.
The trial, on 150 people, is published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.
It follows a much smaller pilot study in 2013.
Hallucinations are common in people with schizophrenia and can be threatening and insulting.
One in four patients continues to experience voices despite being treated with drugs and cognitive behavioural therapy.
In this study, run by King's College London and University College London, 75 patients who had continued to hear voices for more than a year, were given six sessions of avatar therapy while another 75 received the same amount of counselling.
In the avatar sessions, patients created a computer simulation to represent the voice they heard and wanted to control, including how it sounded and how it might look.
Three avatars created by people taking part in the therapy
The therapist then voiced the avatar while also speaking as themselves in a three-way conversation to help the patient gain the upper hand.
Prof Tom Craig, study author from King's College London, said getting patients to learn to stand up to the avatar was found to be safe, easy to deliver and twice as effective as counselling at reducing how often voices were heard.
"After 12 weeks there was dramatic improvement compared to the other therapy," he said.
"With a talking head, patients are learning to confront and get replies from it.
"This shifts the idea that the voice is all-controlling," he said.
Patients are encouraged to talk to the avatar and take control of the conversation, saying things such as, "I'm not going to listen to you any more."
Seven patients who had had the avatar therapy and two from the counselling group said their hallucinations had completely disappeared after 12 weeks.
Prof Tom Craig acted as therapist and voiced the avatar in the therapy sessions
By 24 weeks, however, the patients in both groups had shown the same levels of improvement, suggesting the avatar therapy required booster sessions in the long term, the study said.
Prof Craig said the next step was to find out if the therapy worked in other locations before it could be made widely available on the NHS, but he said the findings were a "significant advance" in treating hallucinations.
Prof Stephen Lawrie, head of psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh, said the trial was impressive and robust but more work was needed.
"Further study is required to replicate these results, establish the role of such treatment versus others such as CBT [cognitive behavioural therapy], and clarify who might benefit most."
Sir Robin Murray, professor of psychiatric research at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, said that if they could be reproduced, the findings "will add an important new approach to care".
He added: "If a wholly psychological intervention such as avatar therapy can produce such an improvement, then it should make us rethink the way we conceptualise auditory hallucinations."
Brian Dow, from charity Rethink Mental Illness, said he welcomed any attempts to try and develop new and innovative treatments for schizophrenia.
"Hallucinations can be extremely traumatising for patients who experience them and the results of the this trial are promising."
Prof Julian Leff, from University College London, is the inventor of avatar therapy.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42097781
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Brexit: May says positive vibe but EU warns of 'huge challenge' - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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But the EU says it will still be a "huge challenge" to move onto the next phase of talks next month.
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UK Politics
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Theresa May met German's Angela Merkel and other EU leaders
Issues still need to be resolved but progress is being made in Brexit negotiations, Theresa May has insisted.
The prime minister said there had been a "very positive atmosphere" in talks with several EU leaders in Brussels.
The UK, she said, would honour its financial commitments and shared the same desire as Ireland to stop barriers to trade or movement across the border.
EU Council President Donald Tusk said talks could move to the next phase in December but it was a "huge challenge".
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At a security summit in Brussels, Mrs May had lunch with Angela Merkel and also met Mr Tusk, who told her last week that she has until the start of December to make an enhanced offer on money and provide guarantees on the Irish border after Brexit.
Ministers have given her their backing to increase the UK's "divorce bill" but only if the EU shows movement on trade.
The government has refused to comment on reports it had agreed to pay about £40bn to pave the way for EU leaders to approve the next phase of talks on future relations at a summit on 14 December.
Speaking in Brussels, Mrs May did not answer specific questions about money and said there were "still issues across the various matters that we're negotiating on to be resolved".
But she added: "There's been a very positive atmosphere in the talks and a genuine feeling that we want to move forward together."
Last week, Mr Tusk said the EU was "ready" to move on to the next phase of talks - focused on a trade and security partnership after the UK leaves in March 2019 - but the UK must first show more progress on outstanding "separation" issues.
The BBC's Europe reporter Adam Fleming said that after holding talks with Mrs May, Danish PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen had told journalists in the Belgian capital that there had been "movement" on the issue of money.
"It seems to me that there is progress and so I have decided to be optimistic about this," Mr Rasmussen - one of the UK's closest allies - said.
The PM also said the UK was in continuing discussions with the Irish government about the solutions for avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
No 10 earlier had to clarify its position after a spokesman appeared to suggest the possibility of Northern Ireland staying in the customs union may be up for negotiation.
Asked about the issue at a lobby briefing, the spokesman said the UK must "continue to negotiate to find an innovative way forward".
But Downing Street later insisted that the UK's stated policy - that the whole of the UK is leaving the single market and customs union - remained in force.
The UK voted to leave the EU in June 2016, and served the EU with formal notice of Brexit in March 2017. This began a two-year countdown to the UK's departure day which will be in March 2019.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42104024
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Buncrana pier tragedy victims 'died by misadventure' - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Five members of a Derry family drowned after their car went off a slipway into Lough Swilly in March 2016.
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Foyle & West
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The victims were, from left, Mark McGrotty, 12, and Evan McGrotty, 8, Sean McGrotty, 49, Ruth Daniels, 57, and Jodie Lee Daniels, 14
Five members of a Londonderry family whose car went into Lough Swilly from a slipway drowned due to misadventure, a coroner inquest jury has found.
The Buncrana pier tragedy took the lives of Sean McGrotty, his sons Mark and Evan, his partner's mother, Ruth Daniels and her daughter, Jodie Lee.
Mr McGrotty handed his baby daughter to a rescuer moments before the Audi Q7 sank in March 2016.
Family member Louise James said it was an "accident waiting to happen".
The gate on the slipway "should have been closed", said Ms James, who was Mr McGrotty's partner, Mark and Evan's mother, Mrs Daniel's daughter and Jodie-Lee's sister.
The couple's four-month-old daughter Rionaghac-Ann was the sole survivor.
Ms James said there were "no words capable of expressing my pain, my disbelief and indeed my anger over what happened on that fateful day".
She said her heart was "shattered".
Davitt Walsh, a former footballer who rescued the infant after swimming out to help the family, "was an ordinary man who did an extraordinary thing", the inquest heard on Thursday.
Mr Walsh tried to save another child but said he appeared to "get stuck" on something.
Irish police inspector David Murphy also paid tribute to gardaí rescuers who arrived on the scene within minutes.
He hoped the conclusion of the inquest would go some way to aiding the grieving process for the relatives of those who died, added Insp Murphy.
A pathologist told the inquest Sean McGrotty had a blood alcohol level of 159mg - three times over the Republic of Ireland's drink-drive limit.
On Thursday, an RNLI volunteer diver told the inquest that he could not open the doors of the vehicle when it was under the water.
John O'Raw said the water was about three metres deep and visibility was an issue.
The incident was one of the worst family tragedies along the Irish coastline, the coroner says
Mr O'Raw told the inquest he entered the water about 40 minutes after the alarm was raised.
On the second day of the inquest in Buncrana, Mr O'Raw recalled how his pager beeped at 19:13 GMT that day.
When he got to the scene 17 minutes later, he saw colleagues performing CPR on a woman.
He returned home to get snorkelling equipment and entered the water at 19:55.
The RNLI volunteer said he tried to open the rear passenger door and the handle came freely, but the mechanism to open the door was not working.
"I couldn't get the door open," he said.
"I went to the passenger side front door and it was exactly the same. I told recovery I couldn't get the doors open."
He added: "I tried the rear driver's side door, and then tried front driver's door but neither would open. The driver's window was half intact and was bowed facing inwards, into the car.
"I couldn't understand what I was seeing. The tailgate at the back of the vehicle was open."
Mr O'Raw said he could get his "head in through the window and could see there was no one in the two front seats".
He said, it was his opinion, that because the window was broken and the tailgate was open, the water pressure would have been the same inside and outside the vehicle so the doors should have been able to open.
The coroner said there would be some resistance, akin to opening a door into wind.
Louise James (centre) was present on the opening day of the inquest
Garda Seamus Callaghan told the inquest when he arrived at the scene the RNLI were performing CPR on Ruth Daniels.
He said four bodies were recovered in a relatively short space of time and a local priest said prayers over each of the victims.
Garda Callaghan told the inquest the slipway was "extremely slippery with thick algae".
Garda Damien Mulcairns told the inquest he inspected the car, an Audi Q7, the following day at a garage in Letterkenny.
He said the car was in road-worthy condition before the incident and he had no issue with opening all the doors in the car from the outside and from the inside.
Garda Mulcairns said the driver's side window was shattered, but intact with lamination, which is a common safety aspect in modern vehicles.
He said it would have taken considerable force to break the glass.
Garda Mulcairns said central locking was operated both mechanically and electronically.
In his opinion, any electrical component submerged in water would not react in the same way, he said.
On the first day of the inquest, Dr Catriona Dillon, the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination on Mr McGrotty, told the inquest his blood-alcohol reading "may indicate a level of intoxication".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-foyle-west-42093915
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Irish deputy PM no confidence motion could force election - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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The Irish government could collapse over a no confidence motion tabled against the deputy PM.
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Europe
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Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin could fight a fresh election in the coming months
The Republic of Ireland could face a general election after the country's second largest party tabled a motion of no confidence in the deputy prime minister.
The Fianna Fáil motion against Frances Fitzgerald comes over her handling of a police whistleblower controversy.
Her party, Fine Gael, passed a motion to support her at an emergency party meeting on Thursday night.
Fianna Fáil front bench members lodged the motion for debate next Tuesday.
Fine Gael lead the minority government with the support of Fianna Fáil.
Fianna Fáil, the main opposition party, agreed to back a Fine Gael minority government after the 2016 general election did not return a majority government.
Under the terms of the confidence and supply arrangement, Fianna Fáil agreed not to vote against the minority government in confidence motions and to support it for three budgets, two of which are now past.
Now, the government looks likely to collapse, forcing a snap election next month, unless Ms Fitzgerald resigns before the no confidence motion is debated.
Frances Fitzgerald was Irish minister for justice during a police whistleblower controversy
Sinn Féin, the country's third largest party, had tabled their own no confidence motion on Thursday.
It is due to be debated and voted on next week.
Ms Fitzgerald has been under pressure over her handling of an ongoing controversy around a Garda (police) whistleblower when she was Irish justice minister.
What we are witnessing is a game of call my bluff, involving three political parties.
The decision by Sinn Féin to put down a motion of no confidence in Frances Fitzgerald was aimed at calling Fianna Fáil's bluff.
That's because Fianna Fáil has an agreement with the minority-led Fine Gael government whereby they were prepared to support them in a confidence-and-supply arrangement.
But Fianna Fáil called Sinn Féin's bluff by deciding to put down their motion of no confidence which will take precedence over the Sinn Féin one - at a time when Sinn Féin is undergoing generational change.
Fine Gael is now calling Fianna Fáil's bluff by saying they are prepared to go to the country over this issue.
Once TDs go back into their constituencies they will face questions from the public: How can you bring down a government over a missing or forgotten email by Frances Fitzgerald during key Brexit talks, when many thousands of people are homeless and there are huge hospital waiting lists?
Fine Gael normally prides itself on putting the country before the party.
I wouldn't be surprised if, in the coming days, Frances Fitzgerald fell on her sword.
Ms Fitzgerald has faced questions in the Dáil (Irish parliament) about what she knew about what lawyers were going to put to a whistleblower at a commission of enquiry.
In particular, she has been questioned over her account of an email she received about the legal strategy of the former Garda commissioner in the case of Sgt Maurice McCabe.
Ms Fitzgerald has recently admitted that she was made aware a year earlier than she had previously stated, that lawyers for the Garda were going to attempt to discredit Sgt McCabe.
The email was initially sent to Ms Fitzgerald in May 2015, but she told the Dáil earlier this week that she could not remember reading it.
Speaking to Irish national broadcaster RTÉ, Fianna Fáil justice spokesperson Jim O'Callaghan said that Ms Fitzgerald "should go".
He said that party leader Micheál Martin had expressed this view to Taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar.
Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney told RTÉ that the government would continue to support Ms Fitzgerald and that calls for her resignation were "built on sand".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42104914
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US to stop arming anti-IS Syrian Kurdish YPG militia - Turkey - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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The US confirms making "adjustments" to support for Syrian groups, but does not name the YPG militia.
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Middle East
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The YPG played a key role in removing IS from Raqqa and other strongholds
The US is to stop supplying arms to the Syrian Kurdish militia the YPG, Turkey has said.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said President Donald Trump had made the promise in a phone call to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The White House said it was making "adjustments" to its support for partners inside Syria but did not explicitly name the YPG.
Turkey has long complained about US support for the group.
Washington has viewed the YPG as a key player in the fight against so-called Islamic State (IS), but Ankara brands the group's fighters as terrorists.
Turkey says the YPG is as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group it has been fighting for decades in south-eastern Turkey.
The US, however, has seen the YPG as distinct from the PKK. In May it announced it would supply arms to the Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which were poised to drive IS from its stronghold of Raqqa. It had previously armed only Arab elements of the SDF.
"President Trump instructed [his generals] in a very open way that the YPG will no longer be given weapons," Mr Cavusoglu was quoted as saying in the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News.
He said Mr Trump gave his assurances after President Erdogan reiterated his concern over the continued supply of weapons and armoured vehicles to the YPG.
If this is true, it would be a major shift in US policy. The Kurds have proved to be valuable partners in the fight against IS.
It is notable that Washington's account of the call does not mention taking away the arms that the Trump administration agreed to give the YPG earlier this year - something Ankara has called for. Turkey feared the weapons would end up in the hands of fighters intent on creating an independent Kurdish state.
The Pentagon is likely reassessing its needs in Syria as the fight against IS has waned in recent months. But whatever adjustments are being made, it is clear the US military has no plans to leave the war-torn country. It has been revealed that about 2,000 US troops are now based there - a significant increase since the Obama administration.
The White House confirmed the two leaders had spoken by phone and said Mr Trump "reaffirmed the strategic partnership" between the US and Turkey.
"Consistent with our previous policy, President Trump also informed President Erdogan of pending adjustments to the military support provided to our partners on the ground in Syria, now that the battle of Raqqa is complete," the statement said.
"We are progressing into a stabilisation phase to ensure that Isis [IS] cannot return. The leaders also discussed the purchase of military equipment from the United States."
Pro-Syrian government forces have also driven IS from land it once controlled
The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, has driven IS militants from much of the land it once controlled.
The YPG and its political arm, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), denies any direct links with the PKK, whose insurgency has left thousands dead.
But Mr Cavusoglu has previously said that every weapon obtained by the YPG constituted "a threat to Turkey".
The SDF declared victory in Raqqa last month after a four-month battle to retake the city from IS, which had ruled it for three years.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42118567
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Zimbabwe President Mnangagwa: Mugabe 'a father and mentor' - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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Zimbabwe's new president paid tribute to his predecessor and promised to rebuild the country.
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Zimbabwe's new President Emmerson Mnangagwa has addressed a packed stadium, vowing to serve all citizens.
He paid tribute to his predecessor Robert Mugabe - to muted applause - calling him "a father, mentor, comrade-in-arms and my leader".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42115798
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Bad Sex in Fiction: Sir Vince Cable 'too good' to be considered for award - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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The Liberal Democrat leader's novel Open Arms isn't shortlisted for the prize, despite "many" nominations.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Sir Vince's debut novel was published in September
Sir Vince Cable won't be considered for 2017's Bad Sex in Fiction Award - because his writing isn't bad enough.
The Literary Review, which organises the prize, said his thriller Open Arms had received "many" nominations but wasn't ultimately shortlisted.
That means he will not compete against the likes of Wilbur Smith's War Cry, one of six nominees announced so far.
In it a male character says he wants to explore his lover "like Dr Livingstone and Mr Stanley exploring Africa".
The same passage from Smith's novel, co-written with David Churchill, refers to nipples "standing up as proudly as little guardsmen on parade".
Another shortlisted work - The Future Won't Be Long by Turkish-American author Jarett Kobek - likens sexual intercourse to a "pulsing wave", a "holy burst" and a "congress of wonder".
A third nominee - The Seventh Function of Language by France's Laurent Binet - features a man wooing a woman with the words: "Let's construct an assemblage."
War Cry is part of Wilbur Smith's series of Courtney novels
Their love-making continues "until they reach the point of impact, when the two desiring machines collide in an atomic explosion".
In her debut novel Mother of Darkness, Venetia Welby writes about a character called Tera who "moans in colours" as her lover approaches.
"It was as if a Catherine Wheel had been ignited in my solar plexus," muses a character in another passage from the book singled out for consideration.
Organisers say the purpose of the prize is "to draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction".
The award, whose recent winners include Morrissey's debut novel List of the Lost, does not cover pornographic or expressly erotic literature.
The winner of the prize, which last year went to Italian author Erri De Luca, will be announced in central London on 30 November. The venue? The Naval and Military Club - also known as the In & Out.
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-42113877
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Galapagos finches caught in act of becoming new species - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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A population of finches on the Galapagos is discovered in the process of becoming a new species.
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Science & Environment
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This is an image of the Big Bird lineage, which arose through the breeding of two distinct parent species: G. fortis and G. conirostris
A population of finches on the Galapagos has been discovered in the process of becoming a new species.
This is the first example of speciation that scientists have been able to observe directly in the field.
Researchers followed the entire population of finches on a tiny Galapagos island called Daphne Major, for many years, and so they were able to watch the speciation in progress.
The research was published in the journal Science.
The group of finch species to which the Big Bird population belongs are collectively known as Darwin's finches and helped Charles Darwin to uncover the process of evolution by natural selection.
In 1981, the researchers noticed the arrival of a male of a non-native species, the large cactus finch.
Professors Rosemary and Peter Grant noticed that this male proceeded to mate with a female of one of the local species, a medium ground finch, producing fertile young.
Almost 40 years later, the progeny of that original mating are still being observed, and number around 30 individuals.
"It's an extreme case of something we're coming to realise more generally over the years. Evolution in general can happen very quickly," said Prof Roger Butlin, a speciation expert who wasn't involved in the study.
This new finch population is sufficiently different in form and habits to the native birds, as to be marked out as a new species, and individuals from the different populations don't interbreed.
Prof Butlin told the BBC that people working on speciation credit the Grant professors with altering our understanding of rapid evolutionary change in the field.
In the past, it was thought that two different species must be unable to produce fertile offspring in order to be defined as such. But in more recent years, it has been established that many birds and other animals that we consider to be unique species are in fact able to interbreed with others to produce fertile young.
"We tend not to argue about what defines a species anymore, because that doesn't get you anywhere," said Prof Butlin. What he says is more interesting is understanding the role that hybridisation can have in the process of creating new species, which is why this observation of Galapagos finches is so important.
The researchers think that the original male must have flown 65 miles from the large cactus finches' home island of Española. That's a very long way for a small finch to fly, and so it would be very unlikely for the bird to make a successful return flight.
A member of the G. fortis species, one of two that interbred to give rise to the Big Bird lineage
A finch belonging to the G. conirostris species. It's the other half of the pairing that gave rise to the Big Bird population
By identifying one way that new species can arise, and following the entire population, the researchers state this as an example of speciation occurring in a timescale we can observe.
In most cases, the offspring of cross-species matings are poorly adapted to their environment. But in this instance, the new finches on Daphne Major are larger than other species on the island, and have taken hold of new and unexploited food.
For this reason, the researchers are calling the animals the "Big Bird population".
To scientifically test whether the Big Bird population was genetically distinct from the three species of finch native to the island, Peter and Rosemary Grant collaborated with Prof Leif Andersson of Sweden's Uppsala University who analysed the population genetically for the new study.
Prof Andersson told BBC News: "The surprise was that we would expect the hybrid would start to breed with one of the other species on the island and be absorbed… we have confirmed that they are a closed breeding group."
Due to an inability to recognise the songs of the new males, native females won't pair with this new species.
The finches led Darwin to his theory of natural selection, as outlined in On The Origin of Species
And in this paper, new genetic evidence shows that after two generations, there was complete reproductive isolation from the native birds. As a result, they are now reproductively - and genetically - isolated. So they have been breeding exclusively with each other over the years.
"What we are saying is that this group of birds behave as a distinct species. If you didn't know anything about [Daphne Major's] history and a taxonomist arrived on this island they would say there are four species on this island," said Prof Andersson.
There is no evidence that they will breed again with the native medium ground finch, but even if they did, they now have a larger size and can exploit new opportunities. Those advantageous traits may be maintained by natural selection.
So hybridisation can lead to speciation, simply through the addition of one individual to a population. It may therefore be a way for new traits to evolve quickly.
"If you just wait for mutations causing one change at a time, then it would make it more difficult to raise a new species that way. But hybridisation may be more effective than mutation," said Prof Butlin.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42103058
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Budget 2017: How will stamp duty cut help first-time buyers? - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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How much is the chancellor's stamp duty policy really going to help the people at whom it is aimed?
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Business
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The claim: Changes to stamp duty will save an average of £1,700 to first-time buyers.
Reality Check verdict: The average first-time buyer would indeed save about £1,700 in stamp duty, but for some people it's likely that would be more than offset by increased house prices, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which provides independent assessments of the Budget. It's likely to be better news for potential first-time buyers struggling to get together a deposit than for those unable to borrow enough as a result of their earnings.
Chancellor Philip Hammond has abolished stamp duty on homes costing less than £300,000, with reduced rates up to £500,000.
You can read about the full details of the policy with the variations around the UK here.
A first-time buyer purchasing a £500,000 property, who would previously have paid £15,000 in stamp duty, will now pay £10,000, while someone buying a property for £300,000, who would previously have faced a stamp duty bill of £5,000, will now not pay anything.
The chancellor told BBC News that the average saving for first-time buyers would be £1,700 - that is the amount of stamp duty that would previously have been payable on the average property bought by first-time buyers, according to the Halifax.
But forecasts from the judgement of the OBR suggest that the benefits would come to existing homeowners and not first-time buyers because house prices are likely to rise by 0.3%.
This policy is part of a package of measures designed to help first-time buyers to access the housing market. To understand whether it is a good thing, it is useful to think about two key reasons why people might be struggling to buy houses.
One possibility is that people are struggling to raise enough money for a deposit. Most mortgages require the borrower to put up a minimum proportion of the purchase price - 5% or 10% for example.
If somebody is struggling to get together a deposit, then being able to spend the £5,000 they had earmarked for stamp duty on the deposit instead, for example, will be useful and also may increase the amount they can borrow, which will mean they can buy a property they may not have been able to in other circumstances.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) stressed that while house prices might have risen, this sort of buyer would end up with a more valuable asset, even if only as a result of the new stamp duty policy.
"The price goes up, but the other impact it has is that it allows first-time buyers the ability to purchase properties that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford," OBR chairman Robert Chote told the BBC's Daily Politics.
Another possibility is that people have saved up their deposit but their earnings are not high enough for a mortgage provider to be prepared to lend them enough money to buy a suitable property.
This policy will not be good for them if house prices rise as the OBR suggested. It said that house prices could go up by twice as much as the stamp duty saving because of the extra borrowing made possible for some people by having a bigger deposit.
The OBR also quoted HMRC's verdict on the similar stamp duty holiday after the financial crisis, which was that it "has not had a significant impact in terms of improving the affordability of residential property for first-time buyers".
This point about rising prices was put to the chancellor on the Today programme, but he said this was looking at the stamp duty change in isolation without the effect on the market of the 300,000 net homes per year that the government plans to build in England by the middle of the next decade.
There has been some doubt about the government's ability to achieve this target, not least from the OBR, which has not made any adjustments to its forecasts for housing starts. It said: "Governments have announced a number of initiatives aimed at overcoming housing supply constraints," referring for example to the National Planning Policy Framework from 2012.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42095146
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: 'Great relief' over cancer all-clear - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was told lumps in her breasts were non-cancerous, her husband says.
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It was a "great relief" to find out that jailed Briton Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe did not have cancer, her husband has said.
Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife has been held in Iran since April 2016, told BBC London that doctors in Iran will see Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe again in three months.
The full details of the allegations against Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe have never been made fully public.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42104184
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Sinai Province: Egypt's most dangerous group - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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Profile of Sinai Province, a militant group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State and has carried out a string of deadly attacks in Egypt's Sinai peninsula.
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Middle East
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Sinai, including here in El-Arish, has seen multiple Islamist attacks in recent years
The militant group Sinai Province is the most active insurgent group in Egypt. It has been linked to a number of deadly attacks, mostly in North Sinai, but also in the capital, Cairo, and other provinces.
The Islamist group, initially known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Supporters of Jerusalem), has been active in the Sinai Peninsula since 2011.
It changed its name after it pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group in November 2014.
In 2015, Sinai Province staged a series of attacks against the army, whose scale and complexity indicated the possibility of closer coordination with the IS leadership in Syria.
Sinai Province is thought to be aiming to take control of the Sinai Peninsula in order to turn it into an Islamist province run by IS.
The number of active Sinai Province members is believed to be between 1,000 and 1,500.
It has expanded its operations outside Sinai by creating cells in some governorates, including Cairo and Giza.
These cells have claimed several attacks, including one on a security building in the northern province of Dakahliya in December 2013, which killed at least 15 people and injured over 100.
The group's operations have also reached the Western Desert, an area popular with tourists for its oases and rock formations, but which has also become a militant hideout due to its proximity to volatile Libya.
Sinai Province has been operating mainly in North Sinai, which has been under a state of emergency since October 2014 when 33 security personnel were killed in an attack claimed by the group.
The then Egyptian prime minister, Ibrahim Mehleb, described the army's confrontation with Sinai Province as a "state of war".
North Sinai is thinly populated and broadly underdeveloped, with some of the local population feeling marginalised from the government's investment programme on the mainland.
The sense of disconnect is seen as helping fuel a level of support for the militants there.
A buffer zone has been created along Egypt's border with Gaza
The border with Israel and the Gaza Strip has been a scene of tension over the past few years. The Egyptian authorities have created a buffer zone, demolishing houses and digging a trench to prevent smuggling between Egypt and Gaza - which they say is a source of weapons for the militants.
In September 2015, the Egyptian army launched a large-scale military campaign against militant groups in North Sinai.
The ongoing Operation The Martyr's Right targets sites mainly in Rafah, Arish and Sheikh Zuweid, all towns in northern areas of the peninsula.
As part of the offensive, the army pumped water from the Mediterranean Sea into the tunnels along the Gaza border.
Sinai Province started by attacking Israel with rockets, but after the removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013 it focused on Egypt's security services, killing dozens of soldiers.
It has been involved in suicide bombings, drive-by shootings, assassinations and beheadings.
In July 2015, the group said it had attacked an Egyptian naval vessel in the Mediterranean with a missile fired from the shore - a worrying development for shipping in the region.
After the launch of the military campaign in North Sinai in September 2015, the group changed its strategy again by carrying out frequent small-scale bombings and hit and run attacks rather than intermittent "spectaculars".
A survey conducted by London-based Al-Araby al-Jadid news website said the group had carried out more than 31 attacks in various areas across Sinai within just a two-week period in March 2016.
Sinai Province has developed a media production operation, and has published a host of propaganda videos online.
One entitled The Soldiers' Harvest and released in September 2015 featured several attacks the group said it carried out against security personnel. These included shooting policemen in the street, sniping at army soldiers, and targeting military vehicles with explosive devices.
Another video released in March 2016 allegedly showed training camps in a desert area where members of the group received combat training.
In other videos, the group has urged citizens to avoid cooperating with the authorities, especially by joining the army and police.
In some of its films, the group has softened its tone towards the Muslim Brotherhood, who it previously criticized for adopting "infidel democracy" and joining the political process.
In a video released just few days before the fifth anniversary of the 25 January 2011 revolution, Sinai Province called on what it described as "supporters of peacefulness" - a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood - to rise up against President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25882504
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Doctor Who: Tom Baker returns for 'lost' Shada episode - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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A "lost" episode of Doctor Who has been released 38 years after the story was left abandoned.
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Tom Baker has returned on camera as Doctor Who in a lost episode released 38 years after the story was left abandoned.
Shada, which was filmed around Cambridge, fell victim to BBC strike action - meaning the studio scenes that were needed to finish the episode were never recorded.
The parts not filmed in 1979 will be completed with animation and Baker's voice, but he has also filmed a scene in the episode, written by Douglas Adams.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-42100466
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'People were running, screaming' - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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BBC reporter Helen Bushby was walking towards Oxford Circus Tube when people started running towards her.
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BBC reporter Helen Bushby was walking towards Oxford Circus Tube when people started running towards her.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42115801
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Brexit: EU gives May two weeks to act on divorce bill and Ireland - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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Theresa May is told to put more money on the table and address Irish border concerns within two weeks.
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UK Politics
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Mr Tusk said progress on citizens' rights had not been mirrored in other areas
Theresa May has been told she has two weeks to put more money on the table if the EU is to agree to begin Brexit trade talks before the end of the year.
EU Council President Donald Tusk said he was "ready" to move onto the next phase of Brexit talks, covering future relations with the UK.
But he said the UK must show much more progress on the "divorce bill" and the Irish border by early next month.
Mrs May said "good progress" was being made but more needed to be done.
The talks are currently deadlocked over the UK's financial settlement, citizens' rights and Ireland with Irish PM Leo Varadkar accusing the UK of not "thinking through" the implications of Brexit for his country.
A week ago, the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier informed his UK counterpart David Davis he had a fortnight to spell out in more detail what he was prepared to pay the EU to "settle its accounts" and to clarify how trade between the Republic and Northern Ireland and security across the 310 mile border would be preserved after the UK leaves the single market and customs union.
After holding talks with Mrs May on the margins of a jobs summit in Sweden, Mr Tusk repeated the message, saying "much more" progress was needed on these two issues if he was to recommend to EU leaders at their next meeting on 14 December to give the green light to the next phase of talks.
He said he would meet Mrs May in a week's time to assess progress but warned time was running out for a breakthrough before the end of 2017.
"We will be ready to move on to the second phase already in December," he said.
"But in order to do that we need to see more progress from the UK side.
The UK needs the approval of all 27 EU nations if it is to begin the next phase of talks
"If there is not sufficient progress by then, I will be ... not be in a position to propose new guidelines on transition and the future relationship at the December European Council....I made it very clear to the Prime Minister May that this progress needs to happen at the beginning of December at the latest."
Before leaving the event in Gothenburg, Mrs May said that the two sides had to "work together" to reach a point where the EU believed sufficient progress had been made to open up trade discussions.
She rejected claims that the talks were in limbo and restated her priority was to talk as soon as possible about her goal of a future "deep and special" trade and economic partnership.
"We're clear and I'm clear that what we need to do is move forwards together," she said.
The UK has said it will honour its existing financial obligations by ensuring no EU nation is worse off during the current budgetary period ending in 2020, a sum reported to be in the region of £20bn.
But the EU wants the UK to go further and contribute to what they say are longer-term liabilities, such as regional development spending and pension payments for British officials working for the EU and retired staff.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. David Davis: "Nothing comes for nothing" in negotiations
Asked whether Mrs May had to stump up more money to pave the way for trade talks, Swedish PM Stefan Lovren said Britain "needs to clarify what they mean by their financial responsibility".
French President Emmanuel Macron said the unified position agreed by all 27 other EU members earlier this year had not changed and talks on future relations would not commence "until the divorce has been settled".
Mr Varadkar, who also held a bilateral meeting with his British counterpart, said he was prepared to wait until next year for "further concessions" from the UK in a number of areas.
He said he wanted binding guarantees that there would be no physical checks at the border after the UK leaves in March 2019, dismissing as inadequate verbal assurances that technological advances will help ensure the continued free and safe movement of people.
"What we want to take off the table before talking about trade is the idea that there would be any hard border, physical border, or border resembling the past in Ireland," said the Irish PM.
"I think it would be in all of our interests that we proceed to phase two in December," he added.
"But it's 18 months since the referendum. Sometimes it doesn't seem like they've thought all of this through."
Some Tory MPs believe the UK should flex its muscles and walk away from the talks unless the EU is more accommodating, arguing the EU has as much to lose as the UK from not agreeing a trade deal.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42027859
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Kezia Dugdale enters I'm A Celebrity jungle - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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This video has been removed for rights reasons.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42101269
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Brexit 'bombshell' for UK's European Capital of Culture 2023 plans - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The UK won't host the European Capital of Culture in 2023, disappointing five bidding cities.
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Entertainment & Arts
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The Leeds bid has cost £1m over the past four years
The European Commission has cancelled the UK's turn to host the European Capital of Culture after Brexit, disappointing the bidding cities.
Five places have already bid to hold the title in 2023 - Dundee, Nottingham, Leeds, Milton Keynes and Belfast/Derry.
But the commission has said the UK will no longer be eligible to have a host city after it leaves the EU in 2019.
The Creative Industries Federation said it was "gutted", while arts minister John Glen called it a "crazy decision".
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Plans for the UK to host a Capital of Culture in 2023 were announced in 2014 - before the EU referendum.
In December 2016, the UK government said the competition would "run as normal", but did warn bidders that it "may be subject to" the Brexit negotiations.
Liverpool was the last British city to be a European Capital of Culture, in 2008, following Glasgow in 1990.
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The title of European Capital of Culture rotates around eligible countries.
Cities from non-EU countries have held the title before - but if a country isn't in the EU, it must be a candidate to join or must be in the European Free Trade Association or European Economic Area.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said the government was in "urgent discussions" with the commission about the decision.
"We disagree with the European Commission's stance and are deeply disappointed that it has waited until after UK cities have submitted their final bids before communicating this new position to us," a statement said.
"The prime minister has been clear that while we are leaving the EU, we are not leaving Europe and this has been welcomed by EU leaders."
Dundee's bid team called it "a bombshell for all of us"
The statement said the government wants the UK to continue "working with our friends in Europe", including in cultural programmes, and will work with the bidders to "help them realise their cultural ambitions".
The Creative Industries Federation, which represents the arts sector, said: "We are gutted to learn that the UK will not be allowed to host the European Capital of Culture as planned in 2023 after Brexit.
"This is despite the fact that cities in Europe that are outside the European Union have participated in the scheme historically."
It added that people were "working feverishly behind the scenes to reverse this decision".
Danish chorus girls launched Aarhus as a European Capital of Culture in 2017
The federation's deputy chief executive Rosie Millard, who was to be among the contest's judges, wrote on Twitter: "Very sad for the 5 bidding cities. I am on the judging panel & have seen all their hard work. #Brexitfallout"
Dundee's bid team called it "a bombshell for all of us", saying they were "hugely disappointed" that the decision had come days before they were due to make their pitch in London.
"The timing is disrespectful not only to the citizens of Dundee, but to people from all five bidding cities who have devoted so much time, effort and energy so far in this competition," a spokesman said.
"It's a sad irony that one of the key drivers of our bid was a desire to further enhance our cultural links with Europe."
A statement from the Nottingham bid said they hoped the situation "can be resolved positively"
The Leeds bid has cost £1m over the past four years - £200,000 from the city council and £800,000 from private funders.
Hilary Benn, MP for Leeds Central and head of the House of Commons Select Committee for leaving the EU, said: "This is a terrible blow and has come completely out of the blue.
"It's particularly extraordinary especially as the bids have just gone in.
"And to wait until all the work had gone in and turn around and say, 'You can't do this' - it's shoddy treatment of Leeds and the other cities have worked so hard."
A Belfast City Council spokesman said they were "deeply disappointed" but wanted to make sure "the time, energy, enthusiasm, ideas and resources put into our bid are carried forward regardless".
A statement from the Nottingham bid team said they hoped the situation "can be resolved positively" and Milton Keynes council leader Pete Marland said he remains "hopeful that a compromise may be found in the future".
Three non-EU cities have previously held the title - Istanbul in 2010, Stavanger in Norway in 2008, and Reykjavik, Iceland, in 2000.
Explaining the decision, a spokesman for the European Commission said: "As one of the many concrete consequences of its decision to leave the European Union by 29 March 2019, the UK cannot host the European Capital of Culture in 2023.
"According to the rules adopted by the European Parliament and the Council (Decision 445/2014), this action is not open to third countries except candidate countries and European Free Trade Association/European Economic Area countries.
"Given that the UK will have left the EU by 29 March 2019, and therefore be unable to host the European Capital of Culture in 2023, we believe it makes common sense to discontinue the selection process now."
The European Capital of Culture is separate from the UK City of Culture title, which is currently held by Hull.
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-42097692
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Tug vehicle collides with passenger plane at Glasgow Airport - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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Glasgow Airport was closed temporarily as efforts were made to clear ice from stands and taxiways.
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Glasgow & West Scotland
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Glasgow Airport was closed temporarily after a towing vehicle hit a passenger plane getting ready for take-off.
The incident happened in "freezing conditions" at 20:45 and involved a British Airways plane.
It is thought the tug vehicle may have skidded on ice as the plane was being pushed back from the stand.
The Scottish Fire Service sent three pumps and an aerial unit to the scene as a precaution. No-one was injured and the airport has now reopened.
A spokesman for Glasgow Airport said: "We are currently open and operational. The airfield experienced flash freezing tonight along with multiple rain showers.
"A departing flight to Gatwick was cancelled following a minor incident on stand with a tug as a result of the freezing conditions.
"Emergency services attended the incident as part of our normal operating procedures for any incidents involving aircraft."
He added: "Our priority remains the safety of the airfield and its operations and we apologise for any disruption caused. We will continue to carry out de-icing throughout the night."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-42118884
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Robinho: Brazil striker given prison sentence for 2013 rape - BBC Sport
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2017-11-24
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Brazilian footballer Robinho is sentenced to nine years in prison for raping a woman with four other men in a Milan nightclub in 2013.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Brazilian footballer Robinho has been sentenced to nine years in prison for taking part in the gang rape of a woman in Milan in 2013.
An Italian court ruled the 33-year-old and five other Brazilians assaulted the Albanian woman, who was 22, after plying her with alcohol in a nightclub.
The forward, who left AC Milan in 2015 after five years, was not in court but pleaded not guilty via his lawyer.
The sentence will be put on hold until the appeals process is completed.
Robinho, capped 100 times by his country, spent two years at Manchester City and currently plays for Atletico Mineiro in Brazil.
A post on Robinho's Instagram page said he had "already defended himself against the accusations, affirming that he did not participate in the episode" and that "all legal measures are being taken".
After starting his career at Santos, Robinho won two La Liga titles in four seasons at Real Madrid, before joining City for a then British record fee of £32.5m in the summer of 2008.
His arrival, on the final day of the transfer window, came on Sheikh Mansour's first day as owner of the Premier League club.
The playmaker struggled to make an impact in England and was loaned back to Santos in January 2010.
He won Serie A during his subsequent spell at Milan, but returned to Santos for another loan spell in August 2014 before joining Chinese side Guangzhou Evergrande in July 2015.
When his sixth-month deal expired, he moved back to Brazil, joining Atletico Mineiro on a two-year deal.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42103736
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Oscar Pistorius jail term for killing Reeva Steenkamp more than doubled - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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The family of murdered girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp say the ruling means she can now rest in peace.
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Africa
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A South African court has increased Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius's jail sentence for killing his girlfriend to 13 years and five months.
Prosecutors had argued that the six-year term for murdering Reeva Steenkamp was "shockingly light".
Ms Steenkamp's parents were "emotional" as they watched the ruling at home on TV, a spokeswoman said.
"They feel there has been justice for Reeva. She can now rest in peace," Tania Koen told Associated Press.
"But at the same time, people think this is the end of the road for them... the fact is they still live with Reeva's loss every day," Ms Koen said.
Oscar Pistorius claimed he shot dead Ms Steenkamp on Valentine's Day in 2013 after mistaking her for a burglar.
The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein has now given Pistorius the minimum 15 years prescribed for murder in South Africa, less time already served.
The lower court had justified the six-year sentence by citing mitigating circumstances such as rehabilitation and remorse. It said they outweighed aggravating factors such as his failure to fire a warning shot.
Pistorius's brother Carl said on social media that he was "shattered. Heartbroken. Gutted" at the decision.
"We have all suffered incomprehensible loss. The death of Reeva was and still is a great loss for our family too," he wrote.
There is huge relief here from the National Prosecuting Authority and from Ms Steenkamp's family and friends. Prosecutors are relieved because the earlier sentence of six years for murder could have set a precedent in future trials. The Pistorius family are devastated, as is the athlete himself.
The six-year sentence gave an impression of inconsistency. There have been fraud and corruption trials that led to 15-year sentences. It seemed lenient considering that the Paralympian fired four bullets into a bathroom door behind which there was an unarmed and frightened Ms Steenkamp.
Oscar Pistorius, 31, was not in court to hear the decision.
He was initially given a five-year term for manslaughter in 2014, but was found guilty of murder on appeal in 2015.
Pistorius shot Ms Steenkamp four times through a locked toilet door at his home in the capital Pretoria.
Previously, the six-time Paralympic gold medallist had made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, in 2012 in London, running on prosthetic "blades".
He had his legs amputated below the knee as a baby.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Pistorius becomes the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42107701
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Zimbabwe's Emmerson Mnangagwa sworn in as president- as it happened - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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Emmerson Mnangagwa is sworn in as Zimbabwe's new leader before huge crowds.
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Africa
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Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s new president whose nickname is “the crocodile”, has pledged to crack down on corruption, hold elections on schedule and restore relations with the West.
Here are the key moments from his speech that were applauded by the 60,000-strong crowd.
Quote Message: I am required to serve our country as the president of all citizens regardless of colour, creed, religion, tribe, totem or political affiliation." I am required to serve our country as the president of all citizens regardless of colour, creed, religion, tribe, totem or political affiliation."
Quote Message: In acknowledging the honour you have bestowed upon me, I recognise that the urgent tasks that beckon will not be accomplished through speeches. I must hit the ground running." In acknowledging the honour you have bestowed upon me, I recognise that the urgent tasks that beckon will not be accomplished through speeches. I must hit the ground running."
Quote Message: We should never remain hostages of our past. Let us humbly appeal to all of us that we let bygones be bygones readily embracing each other in defining a new destiny of our beloved Zimbabwe." We should never remain hostages of our past. Let us humbly appeal to all of us that we let bygones be bygones readily embracing each other in defining a new destiny of our beloved Zimbabwe."
Quote Message: The principle of re-possessing our land cannot be challenged or reversed. The dispossession of our ancestral lands was the fundamental reason for waging the liberation struggle." The principle of re-possessing our land cannot be challenged or reversed. The dispossession of our ancestral lands was the fundamental reason for waging the liberation struggle."
Quote Message: My government is committed to compensating those farmers from whom land was taken in terms of our laws of lands." My government is committed to compensating those farmers from whom land was taken in terms of our laws of lands."
Quote Message: Our economic policy will be predicated on our agriculture, our command agriculture, which is the mainstay and on creating conditions for investment-led economic recovery that puts a premium on job, job, job creation." Our economic policy will be predicated on our agriculture, our command agriculture, which is the mainstay and on creating conditions for investment-led economic recovery that puts a premium on job, job, job creation."
Quote Message: The liquidity challenges, which have bedevilled the economy, must be tacked head on, with real solutions being generated as a matter of urgency. People must be able to access their earnings and savings as and when they need them." The liquidity challenges, which have bedevilled the economy, must be tacked head on, with real solutions being generated as a matter of urgency. People must be able to access their earnings and savings as and when they need them."
Quote Message: As we focus on recovering our economy, we mush shed misbehaviours and acts of indiscipline which have characterised the past. Acts of corruption must stop. Where these occur, swift, swift, swift justice must be served." As we focus on recovering our economy, we mush shed misbehaviours and acts of indiscipline which have characterised the past. Acts of corruption must stop. Where these occur, swift, swift, swift justice must be served."
Quote Message: Gone are the days of absenteeism…days of undue delays and forestalling decisions and services in the hope of extorting dirty rewards. Those days are over." Gone are the days of absenteeism…days of undue delays and forestalling decisions and services in the hope of extorting dirty rewards. Those days are over."
Quote Message: I stand here today to say that our country is ready and willing for a steady re-engagement with all the nations of the world." I stand here today to say that our country is ready and willing for a steady re-engagement with all the nations of the world."
Quote Message: As we build a new, democratic Zimbabwe, we ask those who have punished us in the past to reconsider their economic and political sanctions against us. Whatever misunderstandings may have subsisted in the past, let this make way for a new beginning." As we build a new, democratic Zimbabwe, we ask those who have punished us in the past to reconsider their economic and political sanctions against us. Whatever misunderstandings may have subsisted in the past, let this make way for a new beginning."
Quote Message: I wish to be clear, all foreign investments will be safe in Zimbabwe." I wish to be clear, all foreign investments will be safe in Zimbabwe."
Quote Message: Brothers and sisters, the people of Zimbabwe, the task before us is much bigger than competing for political office. Let us all play our part to build this great country, together, as Zimbabweans.May God bless Zimbabwe, I thank you." Brothers and sisters, the people of Zimbabwe, the task before us is much bigger than competing for political office. Let us all play our part to build this great country, together, as Zimbabweans.May God bless Zimbabwe, I thank you."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-africa-42107256
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Budget 2017: 'I've never been able to afford my own home' - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The BBC asked a selection of young people for their reaction to measures announced in the Budget.
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UK Politics
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Nikki Entwistle, 33, said stamp-duty changes would not help her afford a deposit
What do the measures introduced in the Budget mean to young people in the UK?
The Chancellor Philip Hammond, announced the immediate abolition of stamp duty for properties up to £300,000 in England, Northern Ireland and, for a time, Wales.
The average first-time buyer pays about £1,600 in stamp duty, according to Halifax Building Society.
The BBC spoke to a number of young people to find out if they thought the chancellor had gone far enough.
The stamp-duty reform was welcomed by some first-time buyers, but some worried it was not enough to enable young people to get their foot on the ladder
Hollie Croft, 31, is buying a house in London with her husband.
"Our stamp duty would have been £9,000," she said.
"Now, we can afford to redo the bathroom straight away instead of living with the rundown one until we'd saved up.
"Saving for a deposit whilst paying London rent has meant no holidays, no new clothes and very few nights out.
"I still think current house prices are disproportionate to wages and I don't know if this change will help in the long term, but for us right now? We're very happy."
Madeleine van Oss, a 25-year-old law student in Oxford, told the BBC the stamp-duty cut reflected the difficulty many young people faced accessing the housing market.
"If I get a good job and I can buy a house, the stamp-duty [cut] will help me," she said.
"It's good to see an acknowledgement that things are harder for us now than it was for them back in the day.
"Personally, I do well out of [this Budget]," she added.
Others were more circumspect. Nick, 19, said: "A lot of [this Budget], I felt, was just empty promises and things to attempt to win over voters."
He added: "I'm not sure how much of an impact the stamp-duty change will make to first-time buyers.
"With property prices rising, especially in London, £300,000 in house terms isn't a lot, in my opinion."
Nikki Entwistle, 33, agrees. After being made redundant from her job at British Gas in 2016, she decided to go back to college, where she is now studying animal management.
"I've never been able to afford my own home," she said.
"I've rented property since I was about 19.
"It seemed expensive then, but prices have gone up a lot.
"I don't know how the government expects us to be able to afford to save.
"With council tax, energy bills, rent and food, there's not enough left.
"I think there needs to be a cap on rent.
James Furniss-Rees welcomed the cut in stamp duty but thinks that measures could be introduced to address student debt
James Furniss-Rees, who graduated from university in July with £58,000 of debt, said there had been "not enough" in the Budget for him.
"There was no real talk about debt, where there will be changes to timeframes, when to pay back and how," he said.
"The government should revise whether we pay tuition fees at all, because it's unrealistic for us to pay that all back."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42088039
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I'm A Celebrity's Jack Maynard sorry for 'horrible' tweets - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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The ex-I'm A Celebrity contestant apologised for tweeting some "disgusting things" in 2012.
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Entertainment & Arts
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YouTuber Jack Maynard - who left I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! when offensive tweets he posted in 2012 emerged - has apologised for saying some "pretty disgusting things".
The tweets, which prompted allegations of racism and homophobia, were published in the Sun newspaper while Maynard, 23, was in Australia.
He said he was "young" and "careless" when he posted them.
In an online video, Maynard added: "I've been really stupid in the past."
The show told viewers Maynard - who has more than 1.2m subscribers to his YouTube channel and is the younger brother of singer Conor Maynard - had left the jungle on Tuesday.
A spokesman said he had departed "due to circumstances outside camp".
In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Maynard confirmed he was back in London.
"The least you deserved was for me to come home and sit down and talk to you and explain everything that has been going on," he told his subscribers.
"I'm so sorry to anyone that I offended, anyone that I upset, anyone I made feel uncomfortable."
He said he had "messed up" adding: "I've tweeted some bad things, some horrible things, some pretty disgusting things that I'm just ashamed of."
"I was young I was careless, I just wasn't thinking, this was back when I had just left school and I didn't know what I was doing."
The social media star, who revealed it was his 23rd birthday, added: "All I can do is beg and encourage that you guys don't make the same mistake as well.
"Don't put anything online you wouldn't say to your mum."
Maynard appeared on Tuesday night's show, but presenters Ant and Dec confirmed his removal half-way through the programme.
His representative later said the star realised the language used in the now-deleted tweets was "completely unacceptable".
They said Maynard agreed with the decision to leave the show, which was "made by his representatives and ITV".
He had been one of 10 contestants taking part in the programme, which started on Sunday.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42104388
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Budget 2017: Charts that explain a stormy outlook - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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The outlook for the UK economy is one of the worst in living memory - four charts help explain why.
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Business
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If the economy is a cruise liner then the chancellor made the cabins more affordable for some passengers on Wednesday.
Philip Hammond said first-time buyers buying a home of up to £300,000 would pay no stamp duty.
While that will make some passengers happy, the weather for their trip could turn stormy in the coming years.
That is because the body which assembles economic data is forecasting a dramatic deterioration in conditions.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which prepares the figures that the chancellor bases his Budget on, predicts that annual economic growth will be below 2% for five years - one of the worst forecasts in living memory.
Why has the situation turned so gloomy? After all, the UK was one of the fastest growing of the major economies in 2016.
The answer hinges on productivity. If we return to our cruise ship, for years the crew were able to make it go significantly faster every year. But since the storm that was the financial crisis of 2007, that improved performance has not been repeated.
It's not clear why productivity has been so disappointing. Experts have several theories, including poor management and a lack of investment.
Whatever the reason, the official forecasters have conceded that productivity is unlikely to recover and that translates into slower economic growth. You can see how that outlook has deteriorated in the chart below.
The government's income is closely linked to growth. The faster the economy grows, the greater the receipts from VAT, income tax, corporation tax and other revenue-raising measures.
The government is already borrowing to fund spending on government departments and servicing the nation's debt. It plans to reduce that borrowing, to zero, but the downgrades to growth means that will be harder to do.
The chart below shows how the deficit (the difference between government income and expenditure) is forecast to fall over the next five years, but not as fast as the OBR predicted in the spring.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42094374
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Michael Owen finishes second on jockey debut at Ascot - BBC Sport
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2017-11-24
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Former England striker Michael Owen makes his debut as a jockey, finishing second in an amateur charity race at Ascot.
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Last updated on .From the section Horse Racing
Former England striker Michael Owen finished second on his debut as a jockey in a charity race at Ascot.
Owen rode Calder Prince over the Prince's Countryside Trust seven-furlong Flat race, finishing behind Tom Chatfeild-Roberts on Golden Wedding.
"I'm home in one piece and had the time of my life," said the 37-year-old.
The former Liverpool, Manchester United and Real Madrid forward breeds and owns racehorses but only got in the saddle for the first time this year.
He lost more than a stone in weight during training and fell from his ride several times in the run up to the race.
"I'm really pleased with the whole outcome," Owen, who retired from football in 2013, told BBC Radio 5 live.
"To get home safe and sound, to earn a lot of money for charity and to have an experience like I did - learn a new discipline, lose a bit of weight - I like to think some good has come from it."
"I know everyone was keeping an eye on whether I fell off or did something wrong. It was almost like I was playing in the World Cup quarter-finals again against Brazil, with my phone going mental for a day or two."
Asked whether he will race again, Owen replied: "I absolutely loved it and it does give you the chance to do some good.
"The not eating bit was hard. I've done 20 pounds in 21 days so I'm going to stop off at every service station on the way home and eat everything.
"I enjoyed it enough to say I'd do it again - but I've got four kids, I don't want to hurt myself."
What a superb performance. He looked the part throughout, putting his horse in just the right position too. Never once did he look as though he was even vaguely wobbling in the saddle.
To do this just a few months after taking up riding is pretty startling.
With just the final quarter-mile to go it looked like he was possibly poised to win - but when push came to shove, the considerably more experience of the winning rider proved decisive.
It's unclear if Owen will do it again, but I'd be surprised if the 'bug' hasn't bitten.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/42107724
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Pupils asked: 'Would you live next to a black person?' - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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A question posed in one school's diversity lesson prompts a parent to complain.
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Bristol
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Naomi Davis said her daughter Chayse felt "singled out" in the diversity lesson
A school asked pupils to rank potential neighbours based on who they would most like to live next to - from a list which included "a black person" and a "gay man".
Parent Naomi Davis complained to Bristol Free School when daughter Chayse told her about the exercise.
She said the exercise had been designed to do "something positive" but "hadn't achieved its objective".
The school said it would "review the materials as a result of her concerns".
It said the citizenship and diversity lesson was part of a "unit of work aimed at heightening students' understanding of the advantages of living in a diverse and inclusive society".
When her 11-year-old daughter came home, Ms Davis said, she told her mum she wanted "to show you something and I don't think it's going to make you happy".
She then showed her a photo she had taken of the worksheet.
Ms Davis said her daughter "did not understand the context of why a black person would be on that list".
Bristol Free School said the lesson was about citizenship and diversity
Although she understood why teachers had given the "much-needed" piece of work, she said it had made Chayse feel "singled out".
"That's why I went back to the school - because they are trying to do a positive piece of work but this had the reverse effect," she said.
Ms Davis praised the school for its "extremely speedy response" and said they were very "apologetic".
She added she "wanted to make it clear" that the "main issue" with the list was the comparison between what a black person or a disabled person "might go through" to a vegetarian.
Ms Davis said the school had told her it was also going to work with parents from black, Asian and other ethic groups to help devise its worksheets.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-42108416
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The making and unmaking of Oscar Pistorius - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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How did one of the world's most successful sportsmen, an inspiration to millions, end up serving a prison sentence after killing his girlfriend?
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Magazine
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He was one of the world's most successful sportsmen, an inspiration to millions, but now Oscar Pistorius is serving a five-year sentence for killing his girlfriend.
Sixteen years ago, breathless after the 75m swim, he climbs out of the pool with his stumps trailing behind him, and into the arms of his friends.
He clambers on to the back of a classmate, Deon, who trots off with the grinning 12-year-old Oscar as cargo.
The second part of the race is an 800m run, and the route stretches ahead of them under a blue Johannesburg sky. As the five young racers pass the netball courts, they leave behind the concrete path and feel the soft grass of the school playing fields underfoot. Cheyne is in front, carrying Oscar's prosthetic legs under his arms.
Oscar is carried over the finish line by Kaylem, who won the race but doubled back to pick up his friend. Like a human relay baton, Oscar completes the race after being passed from one friend to another, according to a pre-arranged plan.
This vignette from early 1999 at Constantia Kloof Primary School in Roodepoort, near Johannesburg, sums up the childhood of Oscar Pistorius - never left out, surrounded by friends, often the centre of attention.
Last year, he was the focus of attention during a six-month trial after shooting his girlfriend through a toilet door. The attack happened just months after he was the poster boy at the London Paralympics and made history by competing in the Olympic Games three weeks earlier.
The life of Pistorius can be seen in two arcs. There is one story of extraordinary determination - how this boy with no evident running talent at 12 somehow scaled the heights of sport in just a few years. But the second story is how that innocent boy became, as weeks of testimony in court suggested, a man plagued by his temper, with a reckless love for guns and speed - condemned by the judge as "negligent" when he pulled the trigger.
In one of Oscar's earliest memories, he hurtled down a hill near his home, in his brother Carl's go-kart, as the two of them began a lifelong passion for speed - they were "adrenalin junkies", Pistorius later wrote in his autobiography, Blade Runner.
As the wall at the bottom of the hill loomed in front of them, with no brakes on the kart, Carl grabbed Oscar's prosthetic leg, yanked it off and pushed it into the wheel to bring the vehicle to a sudden stop.
This narrow escape did nothing to dampen his new addiction - aged four he was riding mini-motorbikes. Soon after he was racing his father at go-karting. Aged 15, he was driving his brother's Golf, and as an adult a speedboating accident nearly ended his career.
This hotheaded adventurousness in the young boy was partly encouraged by his family, who were determined that his disability would not make him a spectator in life. In the Pistorius family, who lived in a comfortable part of Johannesburg, no-one was allowed to say "I can't."
Born with no fibulas - the smaller of the two lower leg bones - Oscar's legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old. Six months later, he received his first prosthetics, a defining moment in his life, he later said. This plaster and mesh fitted with a lycra "skin" was a liberation. Immediately, he says, he felt invincible and his energy was boundless.
"I believe that it was at this time in my life that my personality was shaped, and that my family was instrumental in laying the foundation stones of my competitive nature, and of the man that I am today," he wrote in Blade Runner.
His mother was a huge influence. She put inspirational notes into the lunchboxes of her children, and one letter she wrote for him he still keeps: "The real loser is never the person who crosses the finishing line last. The real loser is the person who sits on the side, the person who does not even try to compete."
Getting ready for school, she would say: "Carl, put on your shoes. Oscar, put on your legs." He was different, but equal.
In fact, the young Oscar didn't feel different at all.
"He didn't like to be reminded that he was different because mentally he wasn't different," says Gianni Merlo, who co-authored Pistorius' book. "This was because of the way his mother brought him up as a kid. He has a spirit that is completely different because he was born that way. Without knowing what it feels like to be normal, you feel normal."
As well as providing an emergency brake for go-karts, there were other advantages to prosthetic legs. Oscar never had to wear cricket pads and he could leave his leg dangling against a hot oven and not suffer terrible burns. Children at the beach marvelled at his small round footprints, while opponents on the rugby field who tackled him were left clutching an artificial limb.
Carl suffered serious injuries in a road accident last month
A major inspiration was a teacher at Constantia Kloof, Tessa Shellard, who encouraged him to take part in sports, even putting him in the school team for a prestigious nationwide triathlon series, despite him not being the best athlete.
"I gave him the opportunity that maybe others didn't give him. I saw a youngster with a disability but one who had it within himself to persevere. He was like a little hero in my heart that, at that young age, he gave so much."
He usually gave it everything, even though he often came last. That biathlon race, in which he was carried by his friends, came on a day when his prosthetics were hurting him and so they hatched a plan to spare him the pain.
Oscar was bubbly and full of energy, says Shellard, and in 2007 he came back to the school and signed a photo of the two of them, writing: "Times of change, memories still the same, thank you for all the times you helped me up."
Aged nine, he had his first fist-fight - over a girl - and more followed. The family's response? His father and grandfather taught him how to box. This was the time when he first learned to defend himself, he says, and he later proved on several occasions that he was never slow in lashing out, usually verbally, at people who annoyed him. The most public example was when, after defeat in the 200m at the London Paralympics, he accused Brazilian Alan Oliveira of using illegal blades - an incident captured on live TV.
Despite this pluckiness, he showed little sporting talent in his early teens. That didn't shine until Pretoria Boys School, when he was able to use much lighter prosthetics, thanks to a family friend and design engineer, Chris Hatting.
Initially it was endurance running, not sprinting, that interested him. He was showing ability in 10km races, and enjoying rugby and water polo. His discovery of sports in which he could properly compete, not just take part, meant his schooldays were generally happy - but three life-changing events cast a more sombre light on these years.
The first was the divorce of his parents, which meant Oscar and his siblings were separated from their father and lived with their mother in a smaller house. Perhaps as a way to bridge this distance, his father bought Oscar and Carl a small speedboat and his sons found yet another means to race against each other - this time on water-skis.
Then in March 2002 his mother Sheila died. To the 15-year-old it felt like his world's guiding light had been extinguished. He has the dates of her birth and death tattooed on his right arm.
"Sport was my salvation, as it helped me get through this difficult time," he wrote. "My mother had been a strong woman, the centre of my world. Sporting activity was the only thing that could distract me from such a loss."
His aunt Diana stepped in to play a greater part in the upbringing of Oscar, Carl and Aimee. She says Sheila was such a devoted mother that her death required a "huge adjustment at a difficult time developmentally" for the three teenagers.
"Sheila valued each of her children for their individual talents and was proud of them," says Oscar's aunt, Diana Binge.
"Strict, loving, spontaneous and always game for fun, she was also a devout Christian who brought her children up to observe the Christian way of life, something she tried to demonstrate in her own relationships.
"She was open about Oscar's disability and shared her experience in bringing Oscar up in order to encourage other parents of disabled children. Oscar has continued her legacy of helping others.
"Sheila had unique relationships with each of her children and losing her would have left a unique gap in each of their lives, which each of them had to handle in their own way."
A year after his mother's death came the third life-changing event - he shattered his knee on the rugby pitch.
It came at a time when he had been working hard on his general fitness, to complement his rugby and water polo. One trainer, Jannie Brooks, has spoken about how Pistorius used his gym in Pretoria for six months - boxing, skipping and doing press-ups - before he realised he had no legs. "He was just one of the bunch, doing everything at the same pace as everybody else."
But after the injury, he was back with the same medics who had carried out the amputations when he was a baby, and his recovery was slow. It was during his rehabilitation, supervised by the University of Pretoria, that he was advised to take up sprinting to help the knee joint recover. At the same time, Hatting - now working for a firm in the US - was working on new, lighter prosthetics and he invited Oscar to fly to the US to try the Flex-Foot Cheetah blades, manufactured by Ossur.
Three weeks after taking up sprinting, Pistorius ran his first 100m race. With his father watching in Bloemfontein, he won the race in a time faster than any double amputee had achieved before - 11.72s. A star was born.
Eight months later, he won the 200m gold at the Paralympics in Athens and his life changed forever. It was at this moment - September 2004 - that the world woke up to his talent and personality.
Before long he began running against non-disabled athletes, first in a Golden Gala 400m race in Rome in 2007, finishing second, and then in Sheffield where, in very wet conditions, he finished last.
The question now began to be asked whether his prosthetics gave him an advantage.
It was a huge blow when, the following year, the world governing body for athletics (IAAF) concluded that they did, and banned them. But he fought the decision and won an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, paving the way for him to compete in the summer Olympic Games in Beijing later that year. Failing to qualify, he set his sights on London in 2012, where in due course he became the first track and field athlete to compete in both Paralympic and Olympic Games.
"Oscar, with his personality, athletic prowess and the fact that he was trying to compete in the able-bodied Olympics made him the big breakthrough name, who brought sponsorship in Paralympic sport to the next level, internationally," says Paralympic commentator Tony Garrett, who has known Pistorius since he burst on to the scene in Athens.
Not only was he a very good athlete, says Garrett, one who broke down the barriers between disabled and non-disabled sport, he was a good-looking young man full of vitality, ready to take on the world.
Pistorius has always strongly rejected the suggestion that his fight to compete in the Olympics meant he regarded Paralympic sport as second-rate. He says he just believed it was unfair to exclude disabled athletes from taking part, if they were good enough. "I am not a Paralympic athlete, nor an Olympic athlete. I am simply an athlete and sprinter."
Despite his relatively privileged background, his achievements made him a hero to many South Africans, even if they came from different communities. He was a unifying figure. "For us South Africans," wrote Justice Malala in the Guardian, "it is impossible to watch Oscar Pistorius run without... wanting to break down and cry and shout with joy."
But as the sponsorship deals and media appearances multiplied, Garrett was not the only person to notice a change in the man he knew.
In 2011, Pistorius had stormed out of a BBC radio interview after taking exception to a question about his fight to take part in non-disabled athletics. Then there was the outburst at the London Games, when he lashed out at Alan Oliveira. Another South African Paralympian, Arnu Fourie, told a journalist he had to change rooms in the athletes' village because Pistorius was shouting on the phone so much.
"His lifestyle and image changed and clearly something got to him and he wasn't the same person, there were so many demands on his time," says Garrett. "I think he let rip every so often and he wouldn't have done that a few years ago."
Other acquaintances concur that his character subtly altered. Sports journalist Graeme Joffe, who co-owned a racehorse called Tiger Canyon with Pistorius and three others, first met him 13 years ago. Then Pistorius was an athlete of enormous promise and Joffe was really impressed by his confidence and charisma.
"But three years ago, the syndicate was put together and I and some of the other owners met him at the stables. I immediately thought there was something about Oscar that had changed," he says. "He was a different man to the one I had interviewed so many times, in the sense that he was a bit stand-offish and a little bit cold, not his usual warm self."
Joffe says he had taken note of Pistorius' behaviour towards the BBC interviewer, and was aware of an earlier incident when Pistorius, captaining a speedboat, was involved in an accident in which someone could have been killed.
"These were big red flags for me and I was quite surprised that no-one in the media or in his management team condemned it publicly," says Joffe. "He was showing a spoilt-brat attitude that came out a year later at the Paralympics [in 2012] when he embarrassed the country."
This wasn't just about fame going to his head, says Joffe, there were other incidents over the years that suggested an aggressive side and a recklessness that the public didn't see - at least not until the trial.
There was a gun that went off in a restaurant and another shot through a car roof, and the odd verbal and physical fight. The South African media didn't explore this unpalatable side of the national hero, says Joffe. And journalists who questioned whether Pistorius' blades could give him an advantage were given no more interviews.
What did make headlines - at least, in the celebrity press - was the romance with Reeva Steenkamp. The two met in November 2012 through a mutual friend at a motoring event and she agreed to accompany him to an awards ceremony that night as he didn't have a date.
The model was already a reality show star and a regular presence on the cover of magazines. She was also hugely popular. Her best friend and housemate Gina Myers told the BBC this was a woman "as magnificent on the inside as she was beautiful on the outside".
A friend of the couple, Del Levin, saw the couple at a dinner about two weeks before Steenkamp's death, when Levin's wife, a well known television personality, sat next to her and the two women spoke for a long time. Levin and his wife got the impression the couple, who had then known each other for about three months, were happy.
By his own admission, Pistorius' relationships with women over the years have been turbulent. In his book, he referred to a "particularly nasty argument" here, a "very fiery" relationship there.
"He could get very furious suddenly," says his biographer Merlo. "He spoke of a fire inside. He had tough arguments with girls and afterwards sweet reconciliation. He has always had very beautiful girlfriends. I never saw the temper but sometimes there were situations where it was [apparent]. Sometimes he can explode but I have always seen the bright part of the moon, I've never seen the dark part."
Before Pistorius became a celebrity, he was very open to people, very friendly, says Merlo, who first met the athlete in 2007 in Rome and began working on the book with him the following year.
People fell in love with him when they met him, he says, but the red carpet wasn't a stage upon which he felt comfortable. "It's not easy for a young guy who becomes a celebrity to follow the light that you see from afar that can be your light."
Merlo agrees with those who say Pistorius underwent a change. But some friends of the athlete tell a very different story - of a man full of warmth and fun who overcame life's setbacks and stayed loyal despite his fame.
Levin, a marketing director, says that unlike many in Johannesburg's high society, the athlete was sincere in his affections.
"I wasn't a close friend but I got to know him over the years. He was an amazing, generous and courteous and kind person, easy to get along with, and very willing to share his own experiences and insights.
"Typically when you meet someone on the social scene, they're very cold and stand-offish and particularly if you are the spouse of someone [famous] but he was someone who embraced me from the beginning. He would see me and run over and say 'Hey' and talk, and we would catch up and see how things were. He was definitely not just faking it but genuinely interested in you."
One thing that did strike Levin was Pistorius' fears about security. He had recently bought a new home in the Johannesburg suburb of Sandton and talked about how happy he was that it was equipped with more safety features than his house in Pretoria.
Pistorius sold the house where Steenkamp was killed, to pay for legal fees
Little did he know that his home would become the subject of such scrutiny in the months ahead. Few bedrooms, bathrooms, doors, duvets, fans and electric sockets have been pored over in such detail.
After a year in jail and now under house arrest, the freedom and companionship of the sunny playing fields of Constantia Kloof Primary School must seem a world away.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26628573
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Reeva Steenkamp, my friend, shot by Oscar Pistorius - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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It has been more than a year since the tragic death of Reeva Steenkamp but her friends in the small town of Port Elizabeth are yet to accept that she is gone, writes the BBC's Pumza Fihlani.
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Africa
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Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead by her boyfriend Oscar Pistorius on Valentine's Day 2013. Much attention has been focused on Mr Pistorius, the South African Olympic athlete who denies the charges. The BBC's Pumza Fihlani has been finding out more about the victim, a model, reality TV star and law graduate.
While Reeva Steenkamp projected the image of a sex kitten in the glossy men's magazines, those who knew her say the "real Reeva" was a deeply private person and had a "small-town girl" attitude about her.
"She was self-conscious. You would never think that but she was," says Kerry Smith, a close friend who met Reeva at university - before she was twice voted among the "100 sexiest women in the world" for FHM magazine.
Looking through photos of the two on her laptop and old Facebook messages - one in which Ms Steenkamp said she regarded her as "a sister" - Ms Smith says her friend was determined to use her law degree in years to come.
"She always said modelling would not last - you need to have something to come back to," she tells me as we sit in her living room in Port Elizabeth, known as the "friendly city", where both women grew up.
"She was more than just a pretty face, she had a beautiful heart and ambition," the 35-year-old legal assistant says.
Kerry Smith and Reeva Steenkamp had planned to open a law firm to help abused women
The 29-year-old died almost instantly after Mr Pistorius shot her through a toilet door in his Pretoria home. The double-amputee sprinter denies murder, saying he feared an intruder had broken in.
Ms Smith was one of a select few who attended the intimate funeral for Ms Steenkamp, who had been going out with the athlete for three months.
"There's no closure. We couldn't even view her body in the coffin," she says, sadly.
Ms Steenkamp was shot three times - once in the head, meaning her family could not hold an open-casket ceremony.
Given that she was killed by her boyfriend, it is poignant that one of her passions was helping victims of domestic abuse.
The two university friends had planned to start a law firm to help abused women after graduating.
It was an ambition they kept in mind despite Ms Steenkamp's modelling career - and she had applied to the bar in late 2011, aiming to become a legal advocate by the age of 30.
Before her involvement with Mr Pistorius, Ms Steenkamp had reportedly been in an abusive relationship with Wayne Agrella, accusations the jockey denies, while Ms Smith had been in an abusive marriage for 10 years.
"She wanted to save everyone, wanted to protect everyone," her friend recalls.
Oscar Pistorius told the murder trial the couple had been planning a future together
Some believe this need to save and protect played a hand in her relationship with Mr Pistorius, who the world has learned was insecure about his disability in spite of his "superhuman" persona on the world athletics stage.
Ms Smith says it upsets her when people dismiss Ms Steenkamp's messages to Mr Pistorius, in which she said she was sometimes scared of him.
Referring to the relationship that supposedly fuelled her need to protect women from abusive men, Ms Smith says: "For Reeva I think it was mainly mental, I don't know that he was physically abusive but definitely emotionally abusive.
"When she was with Wayne she always felt she had to cover up. She would always be on these fad diets with him. She lost a lot of weight," she says.
"It wasn't a healthy relationship. When she moved to Johannesburg, we were grateful because it meant she would be free from him."
Mr Agrella, who was with the model for six years, denies that the relationship was anything but loving.
"That is the biggest lie ever. I even asked the family what this was about, they were just as shocked I was," says Mr Agrella, tersely.
Since this tragedy happened people have had this impression that Reeva was just a model or the pretty girl and she was so much more than that. There was this implication that she was riding on Oscar Pistorius' coat-tails and the fact of the matter is she was already somewhere, in her own right.
She had a successful career and many of us in the industry were watching her with great expectation - you could see that Reeva was going places. She was a really, really beautiful person - forget about the looks, I mean her heart and mind.
Even as a teenager she got it, she had a great work ethic. At competitions, shoots and anything that we did, she was one of the first to arrive and one of the last to leave.
The reason I've still got these photographs is because I had kept them aside to give her next time she was back in town. I've given them to her parents now.
Ms Smith says her own abusive marriage almost cost her friendship with Ms Steenkamp.
The pair did not see each other for several years - reconnecting some years later after Ms Smith had re-married.
"She later said it was because she couldn't handle seeing me being treated like that," says Ms Smith.
She and "Reeves", as she affectionately calls her friend of more than 10 years, met in 2002 when they both studied law at Port Elizabeth's Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
Reeva Steenkamp dyed her hair blonde after she was turned down twice to be a cover girl for FHM
The pair were honoured among the top 10 achievers in the first year class - and had spent a month working together on an assignment.
This was when she got the first glimpse of Ms Steenkamp's drive, Ms Smith says.
Her friend always had striking looks, even before she became a TV star: "She had this classic beauty to her. What made her even more beautiful was how unaware she seemed of it."
At university, Ms Steenkamp spent most of her time behind a book, with loved ones and riding horses.
During her final year of university she broke her back after falling off a horse and was bedridden for two months.
Those close to her say this was what she needed to get out her shell.
"I think it made her realise that things can happen so quickly," says Ms Smith, who was one of the first people to visit her in hospital shortly after the accident.
"She's lying there, her head is strapped in and she is not allowed to move and she says: 'My hair is dirty, I've got grass in my hair and I've got sand in my hair. I can't handle it' - it was so her," laughs Ms Smith, saying her friend never let bad situations get her down.
Although she was worried about embarking on her modelling career relatively late, Ms Steenkamp was set on making a name for herself in the industry.
After being turned down for auditions for FHM cover girl two years in a row, she underwent a makeover - changing her hair colour from brunette to sunny blonde.
Kerry Smith was one of the few friends invited to Reeva Steenkamp's funeral
"She was determined to get that job. Reeva was the kind of person who didn't take no for an answer. She worked hard and lost weight, re-invented herself and it paid off," says Ms Smith.
Her face lights up when she speaks of her friend, she is mostly in high spirits but there are moments when she pauses to compose herself.
She dips in and out of referring to Ms Steenkamp in the present, a sign perhaps that she has not quite dealt with the loss.
Ms Smith tells me how shocked she was when she heard that the model was dating Mr Pistorius, because Ms Steenkamp had recently told her how happy she was with another man, whom she had been seeing for three years.
"I thought that was the person she was going to marry, they even had a company together. I don't know what happened, next thing I know she is dating Oscar," she says.
When Ms Steenkamp died, the couple had been dating for three months and her parents had not met the athlete
"It happened so quickly, even her parents hadn't met him. Soon after that it had all ended."
Like many others, Ms Smith has questions about the moments leading up to the shooting.
"She was not a quiet person at all. She would have screamed, hearing him shout in the house, she would have let rip, she would have not kept her mouth shut at all," says Ms Smith.
But Mr Pistorius says Ms Steenkamp remained quiet, otherwise he would have known she was in the toilet.
She had spoken of some concerns about Mr Pistorius, like his speeding while driving.
"I think she genuinely loved him and that blinded her. I think she got to a point where she thought it was all fine," says Ms Smith.
Like Ms Steenkamp's parents, she says she just wants the truth and for justice to be served.
We have been sitting for more than an hour looking at the messages she and Ms Steenkamp exchanged - she says she reads them sometimes when missing her becomes too much.
"She was mad about my daughter. It breaks my heart to think she will never have that. She adored children," Ms Smith says, struggling to complete her sentences.
The pain is still all too raw.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28349666
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Budget 2017: Stagnant earnings forecast 'astonishing' - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The UK is in danger of losing almost 20 years of earnings growth, warns an independent economic think tank.
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Business
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The prediction that average UK earnings in 2022 could still be less than in 2008 is "astonishing", according to an independent economic think tank.
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, added that the economic forecasts published in the Budget made for "pretty grim reading".
He highlighted that since 2014 growth in earnings has been "choked off".
"We are in danger of losing not just one but getting on for two decades of earnings growth," he said.
"Let's hope this forecast turns out to be too pessimistic."
Mr Johnson was reacting to the productivity, earnings and economic growth forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which were released on Wednesday.
The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has said he hopes to prove the bleak economic forecasts released in the Budget wrong.
The chancellor said clarity around Brexit would increase consumer confidence and lead to higher growth in the economy.
What is the point of capitalism?
That might seem like a pretty big question, but one answer could be "to provide people the opportunity through work to become richer".
What, though, if the economy fails in that endeavour?
If the system leaves you - despite all your efforts - worse off in December than you were the previous January?
Or worse off now than you were a decade ago?
It was Lord Adair Turner, the former head of the Low Pay Commission, who put it succinctly.
"The UK over the last 10 years has created a lot of jobs, but today real wages are below where they were in 2007," he told me earlier this year.
"That is not the capitalist system delivering its promise that over a decade or so it will raise all boats, and it is a very fundamental issue."
On Wednesday, the OBR cut its growth forecast for the UK economy sharply, following changes to estimates of productivity and business investment.
It now expects the economy to grow by 1.5% this year, down from its previous forecast of 2%. It also said growth would be weaker than previously thought in each of the subsequent four years.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the hit to the economy would "hit all of society".
He said more government intervention and extra spending would "pay for itself" and alleviate the UK's productivity problem.
Also on Thursday, another think tank, the Resolution Foundation, said that disposable incomes are now expected to be £540 lower by 2023 than forecast in March, largely as a result of weaker pay growth.
The Foundation said that the UK is on course for its longest fall in living standards since records began more than 60 years ago, with real disposable incomes now set to fall for 19 successive quarters.
Despite high levels of employment in the UK, wage growth has remained stubbornly low.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Philip Hammond explains how the UK can get its economic forecast upgraded
The latest official figures showed workers' earnings, excluding bonuses, rose 2.2% in the three months to September compared with a year ago.
But they fell 0.5% in real terms when accounting for inflation, marking seven months of negative pay growth, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The lower forecasts for growth are also jeopardising the government's plan to balance the books by the mid 2020s.
The IFS said it was highly unlikely Mr Hammond will meet that target.
"To get there we would have to have another round of spending cuts," IFS director Paul Johnson told the BBC. "Given how hard it has been to get where we are, I think that is going to be pretty tough."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42096806
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Question Time cut short as woman falls ill - BBC News
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2017-11-24
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The BBC TV show is curtailed after an audience member collapses.
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UK Politics
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The BBC's Question Time was cut short on Thursday when an audience member was taken ill during the recording.
The BBC One show, from Colchester Town Hall, in Essex, was suspended while the woman was given first aid.
Host David Dimbleby said later they had to end the recording as the woman "could not be safely moved".
The hour-long programme, featuring Conservative Greg Clark, Labour's Diane Abbott and others was about 40 minutes in when it was halted.
The panel had already been asked "what is the point of capitalism?" and whether the Budget could fix the broken housing market.
The programme was broadcast in a shortened form, while Andrew Neil's political show This Week was moved forward.
A tweet from Question Time later read: "With regards to last night's #bbcqt - the audience member is now out of hospital and thanks everyone for their concern."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42104904
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