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Neil Taylor: Wales defender banned for two games after tackle on Seamus Coleman - BBC Sport
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2017-04-26
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Wales defender Neil Taylor has been suspended for two matches for his leg-breaking tackle on Ireland's Seamus Coleman.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Wales defender Neil Taylor has been suspended for two matches for his leg-breaking tackle on the Republic of Ireland captain Seamus Coleman.
Taylor, 28, was sent off for the tackle during Wales' goalless World Cup qualifier in Dublin in March.
He will be banned for Wales' next two qualifiers against Serbia in June and Austria in September.
Everton full-back Coleman is expected to face a long lay-off having had surgery on his fibula and tibia.
The 28-year-old's club manager, Ronald Koeman, and captain, Phil Jagielka, visited him at his home in the Republic of Ireland.
The Republic are second in Group D, level on points with leaders Serbia and four ahead of Wales in third.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39720732
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10 fake music news stories that had us fooled - BBC Music
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2017-04-26
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The startling headlines that seemed plausible at first, but turned out to be wide of the mark
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Spoofs and tall tales are a staple of internet music discourse. Every now and then something appears online which may seem remarkable, and could well be true, but turns out to have been created as a prank to fool unsuspecting fans. It's a world away from the definition of fake news as is applied to current affairs in 2017, although as we'll see, there certainly have been fake music news stories that overlapped with international politics.
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In 2014, there was a kerfuffle around a news story taken from Twitter, in which it appeared that doting new father Dan Lieberman had named his twin boys Ghostface and Raekwon after his favourite rappers in Wu-Tang Clan. He even provided a picture as proof, which was then Instagrammed by the real Raekwon with the caption "This is live, family named their twins Raekwon & ghostface!!! #wu4thebabies" However, it later emerged that the form in question is not a binding legal document, and had been created by Dan as a joke. He posted on his Facebook page: "I got the best Father's Day gift I could get yesterday, but this is a close second."
Derek Erdman is the receptionist at Sub Pop records, first musical home of Nirvana, and one day while bored at work, he decided to place a fake advert on Craigslist, using photos he found online, in which he posed as a former flatmate of Kurt Cobain's (and former member of a pretend grunge band called Gruntruck) with some of his possessions to offload. These included a Swatch phone, a video game called Kingman and a pair of skis, with the quote: "He owed us rent and said he would get the box when he came back and gave us money but he never came back, then when he was famous he never really talked to any of us again." The reaction was quick and feverish, with fans rushing to grab some unheard of Nirvana memorabilia. In a since-deleted interview with the music site Revolt, Derek was asked if, seriously, anyone really wanted Kurt's skis, to which he replied, "THEY WANT THEM BAD. They also want that video game. I've gotten a lot of replies from 'serious collectors' and people who will pay for shipping. Have you ever shipped skis? That sounds like it would be really difficult. Not too many people wrote about the Swatch phone, which was surprising."
Radiohead's working method is often to sit on songs until they've found the right way to perform them, which can mean that some can be overlooked or simply left behind. So it's not really that big of a surprise for fans to uncover a 'lost' song of this sort and post it online. And indeed, that's what happened, in a music forum. The song, uploaded and shared with feverish intensity, was supposedly entitled Putting Ketchup in the Fridge and sounds exactly like an outtake from The Bends, with Thom Yorke's quavery voice in full effect. The only problem is, it's not Thom Yorke's voice, but that of a Toronto singer-songwriter called Christopher Stopa. And the song is actually called Sit Still. It was released in 2001 to very little fanfare. Speaking to The Vancouver Observer, Christopher said: "I tried to push that song for 10 years, but if people are listening to it now, and like the song, it's an indication that I believed in it. There are lots of great songs on the internet. People who listened to my song weren't just looking for a great song, they were specifically looking for a song by Radiohead."
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4. Drake and Rihanna are making an album
[LISTEN] Radio 1 Breakfast Show: is this the end of Drake and Rihanna?
Although this may seem to be the most feasible of the stories listed here, the rumour that Drake and Rihanna were creating something together has a backstory that is just as plausible, and therefore just as suspect. In August 2016, fans were delighted to discover that a website had been registered with the URL drakeandrihanna.com, and a countdown clock. Surprise album releases being what they are, this did not seem beyond the realms of possibility, but TMZ discovered that the site was actually set up by web celeb Joanne the Scammer (played by Branden Miller). It was an act of revenge, after Joanne had been turned down for a selfie with Drake at the VMA awards. Branden created the site as a prank, then when fans started to take it seriously, he issued a video explaining that it wasn't real, and why he did it.
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Marshall Mathers has been the subject of two internet news hoaxes that claim that he has died in violent circumstances. The first is that he died in a car crash in the early 2000s and has been replaced by a near-identical replica - a yarn that has taken on similar characteristics to the conspiracy theory that Paul McCartney died in 1966, and will probably keep on popping up from time to time, whenever the (possibly not) real Slim Shady has a record out. But in 2013, a Facebook post was widely shared, with a grisly photo that purported to show him being attacked by a man with a knife. The link in the post then opened up a series of spam windows, but diligent journalists did check that all was well before exposing the hoax. A representative from the Eminem camp told E! News: "He remains unstabbed."
6. Cher is alive and well
Twitter is very good at spreading breaking news and sharing emotional reactions, so the death of a beloved pop star is one of those moments in which the social media site is the perfect place to be. However, it's always a good idea to be sure of your facts before rushing to put fingertip to screen, as Kim Kardashian West found out in 2012. A tweet claiming to have re-tweeted a headline from CNN announced that Cher had died, and before long "RIP Cher" had become a worldwide trending topic, with news organisations scrambling to ascertain if this was true or not. Caught up in the moment, Kim tweeted "Did I juist hear Cher has passed away? Is this real? OMG," and then: "I hope this is a Twitter joke and not true. I don't see it on the news anywhere. I'm praying it's not true…" It wasn't true, and she later tweeted: "Can't believe people would make up a sick joke like Cher died. These people need to get a life! Thanks Twitter for clearing that up."
In July 2016, a report on a website called Kypo 6 flew across social media, claiming that Justin Bieber had told reporters that he was leaving Los Angeles and moving out to San Marcos, Texas. It quoted him as saying: "I'm just tired of the LA lifestyle and I feel like, at this point in my life, I'd rather just live in a place full of real, genuine people." Howerver, it was very similar to a story on a site called The Clancy Report, suggesting that Justin had fallen in love with Roanoke, a city in North Texas. And some digging by Texan local news site Chron reveals that this exact quote has also been attributed to Justin Timberlake, Eminem and Nicolas Cage, to illustrate false news stories about Hollywood stars moving to less celebrated locations, such as El Paso, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Naperville, Illinois.
The most recent fake music news story to be passed around as truth concerned Lars Ulrich, motormouth drummer in Metallica. On Easter Sunday a story was posted on the metal news website The Metal Den claiming that Lars had announced his retirement from music, effective immediately, just as the band were about to head out on a world tour. He was quoted as saying, "As we get older, there are phases of life that we enter into, and being a musician just isn't fun anymore," and suggested he'd be devoting his attention to other fields of creative endeavour. However, while several news outlets ran the story, it wasn't true, as was later confirmed by Metallica's management, to the site MetalTalk.
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The Britpop band Menswe@r never sold a great many records, but they were very heavily featured in the music press of the time and their presence at the party cast a long shadow. So when their former guitarist Chris Gentry posted a picture of himself holding a platinum disc on Twitter claiming that their debut album Nuisance had finally sold more that 300,000 copies, there was an air of surprise, but not total shock. However, it turned out that all he had done is buy the disc on eBay and then insert the band's artwork. BBC 6 Music presenter and former Menswe@r drummer Matt Everitt told NME: "My annual royalty cheques (approximately £83) would suggest something is amiss here. However, I'm currently expecting our long-delayed Led Zeppelin style reunion at the O2 and 15 CD/DVD/Blu-ray boxset retrospective of our lengthy and critically acclaimed career to become a reality, just in time for Christmas." The satirical news site Holy Moly ran a story that the band's singer Johnny Dean had been so taken in that he immediately started contacting his representatives to find out where his share of the money had gone. Chris Gentry has since deleted his Twitter account.
[LISTEN] Elton John was not the first victim of a celebrity prank call
In 2015, a Russian phone prankster named Vladimir Krasnov, or "Vovan", rang Elton John claiming to be President Putin and wishing to discuss gay rights. Sir Elton, a critic of the Russian premier's "isolating and prejudiced" views, took the call and had what he felt was a decent stab at an opening debate on a subject close to his heart. Sadly, it was all a hoax, with parts of the recorded conversation ending up on Russian state TV. Krasnov told BBC News: "It turned out that Elton John was really expecting that call, so he really believed he was talking to the people we said we were. He said, 'Thank you, you have made my day. This day and this conversation were the most wonderful of my life.'" Had things been left at that, this would just be an audacious prank played on a pop star. But then something unexpected happened - the fake news became real. Both Elton John and Russian government sources have confirmed that an actual phone call took place shortly afterwards, with Elton telling the Today Programme: "[Putin] was very affable, he was very apologetic, he was very sincere. As soon as I can get a date in my diary that coincides with him, then I will be going... to Moscow and I will meet him."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/435d319c-b1f4-4048-9929-10e544778fbc?intc_type=promo&intc_location=news&intc_campaign=fakenews&intc_linkname=bbcmusic_ent_article1
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Has Trump kept his campaign promises? - BBC News
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2017-04-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Donald Trump gave out promises like candy during his campaign. It's time to visit the dentist.
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US & Canada
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Donald Trump: First 100 days in 100 of his own words
Determining a presidency's success by inspecting its "first hundred days" is a bit of an artificial construct. If humans were born with 12 fingers, then perhaps we'd be evaluating presidents based on their first 144 days instead. If the Earth rotated a bit more slowly, then presidents would have more time to notch accomplishments.
Then again, 100 days is plenty of time to get a rough handle on the shape and thrust of a presidency - and to evaluate what kind of progress a leader has made toward fulfilling campaign promises.
The first 100 days of Donald Trump's presidency have been anything but boring or slow, but how much of it was sound and fury and how much entailed real action?
Here's a quick review of some of the peaks and valleys.
Let's start with the wall - not the president's only promise, but certainly one of his oldest, most high-profile ones. Candidate Trump constantly spoke of the great wall that he plans to build along the US-Mexico border at his campaign rallies, and the crowd roared in agreement when he said Mexico would pay for the project.
Contrast that certainty with this tweet, which the president wrote over the weekend.
"Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall," he tweeted.
It's a case of Trump promises meeting political realities, in 140 characters or less. Campaign rhetoric is easy; turning talk into action in Washington is much more complicated.
The administration has pledged to reshuffle some moneys to begin wall construction, but it is increasingly clear that Congress will need to find billions of dollars to make the wall a reality. That sets up a showdown between the president and legislators, with many Republicans - particularly those representing areas along the US-Mexico border - not keen on opening up the federal purse for Mr Trump's pet project.
Mr Trump promised to choose a Supreme Court justice to fill the empty seat on the bench from a list he released during the presidential campaign - and, by tapping Neil Gorsuch, he did.
"I've always heard that the most important thing that a president of the United States does is appoint people - hopefully great people like this appointment - to the United States Supreme Court," Mr Trump said at Mr Gorsuch's White House swearing-in ceremony. "And I can say this is a great honour. And I got it done in the first 100 days. That's even nice. You think that's easy?"
That kind of depends how one defines "easy". Mr Gorsuch's confirmation hearing was bruising, no doubt. Facing united Democratic opposition, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell broke with longstanding precedent to allow a simple majority vote for Supreme Court confirmations. Once that was done, however, it was simply a matter of the Republican majority in the Senate imposing its will.
While Mr Trump may have only had to put a name on a piece of paper and rely on Senate Republicans to do the heavy lifting, he did tick a major item of his presidential to-do list. He satisfied a Republican base that stuck with him through a tumultuous campaign on the understanding that they'd get just such a reliable conservative on the court.
They may continue to stand by this president in the hope there will be more nominees like Mr Gorsuch to come.
"Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated."
It's way too early for political epitaphs, but if the Trump presidency collapses under the weight of disorganisation and broken promises, this February quote from the president - made as it became increasingly clear his own party couldn't even agree on healthcare reform - will make a fitting inscription for a tombstone.
At one point during the presidential campaign, Mr Trump promised that the Democratic healthcare reform legislation - Obamacare, as it has become known - would be repealed on his first day in office.
Then, after the first Republican legislative effort crashed and burned in late March - 64 days into his presidency - Mr Trump backtracked on his timeline.
"I never said repeal it and replace it within 64 days," he said. "I have a long time. But I want to have a great healthcare bill and plan, and we will. It will happen. And it won't be in the very distant future."
Since then there's been speculation that a new deal could be in the works - but such rumours have evaporated upon closer scrutiny.
There's no telling what the future may bring, but the reality at this point is that healthcare reform was Mr Trump's first major legislative push - the de facto focus of his first 100 days in office - and it has done nothing but expose the Republican Party as fractured body incapable of advancing a coherent agenda.
Promise kept? Uh, no. Definitely not.
Mr Trump may have a bit of a mixed record when it comes to fulfilling his promises on immigration, but it's not for a lack of trying. His administration has taken two shots at curtailing the US refugee programme and preventing citizens of a handful of majority Muslim nations from entering the US, but those executive actions have been stymied by a handful of court judges (one, as Attorney General Jeff Sessions put it, residing on an "island in the Pacific").
Mr Trump has also stepped up immigration enforcement across the US, threatened "sanctuary cities" that don't co-operate fully with federal immigration officials, ordered a review of immigration programmes, including H-1B visas given to high-skilled immigrants, and announced a hiring spree on border patrol agents and immigration court judges.
Immigration arrests were up 32.6% in the first month and a half of the Trump presidency, according to the Washington Post, with a larger share coming from those without a prior criminal record. Meanwhile, border apprehensions have dropped.
Throughout the campaign the president talked tough on immigration - even though the number of undocumented migrants entering the US had been declining over recent years. Given that the law grants the president sweeping authority over immigration policy, Mr Trump is clearly following his words with actions.
Promise kept? Yes - despite the effort of "so-called judges" on the mainland and in Hawaii.
During the campaign, Mr Trump's foreign policy vision was a collection of sometimes contradictory, often controversial proposals.
The candidate spoke of getting tough on the so-called Islamic State, Iran and China, reaffirming an alliance with Israel and mending relations with Russia. He entertained the notion of lifting restrictions on the use of torture on detainees and giving the US military more authority to act, including by targeting the families of suspected militants.
Above all else, he promised to put American priorities first and downplayed support for US allies and international alliances that he deemed too burdensome.
As president, the contradictions may have changed in nature but the controversy lingers.
He pulled the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership as promised and has begun a review process for the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Torture remains off the table, thanks to the influence of Defence Secretary James Mattis. Mr Trump has occasionally told foreign leaders - Germany's Angela Merkel and Italy's Paolo Gentiloni, for instance - of his expectations that they increase their military spending. On the other hand, he has recently acknowledged the value of Nato membership.
When it comes to China, however, he's taken a softer line. He's backed away from his promise to label the nation a "currency manipulator" or impose steep import tariffs, instead seeking the nation's help in dealing with North Korea.
Then there's Mr Trump's missile strike on Syrian forces following that government's use of chemical weapons on its own people. It's the kind of move that candidate Trump may have dismissed as ineffective - and, in fact, reality TV star Trump had condemned in no uncertain terms in 2013, when Barack Obama proposed his own Syrian intervention.
Promise kept? Yes, no, maybe. Take your pick.
On 22 October, just a few weeks before election day, Candidate Trump gave a speech in Pennsylvania announcing a "100 Day Plan to Make America Great Again" - a contract, he said, with the American voter.
Included in the accompanying document was an outline of a series of official-sounding pieces of legislation he would "work with Congress to introduce" and "fight for" in his first 100 days. They included the Middle Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act, the End the Offshoring Act, the Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act, the Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act, and the American Energy and Infrastructure Act.
Aside from the aforementioned Obamacare repeal effort, which is currently a smoking crater somewhere on the floor of the House of Representatives, the rest of these pieces of legislation remain in the realm of unicorns and fairies. Mr Trump has said details of a tax plan are coming as soon as this week, but - as we saw with healthcare - a detailed plan creates a juicy target for opponents of all political stripes.
The president signed a raft of executive actions - rolling back Obama-era regulations, authorising the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and instituting a federal hiring freeze (which has since been lifted) - but in the vast scheme of things those are low-hanging fruit for a new president.
The White House has also boasted that Mr Trump has signed more laws at this point than any president since Harry Truman - but that list includes measures naming Veterans' medical clinics, making appointment to museum boards and creating a memorial to the 1991 Gulf War. Many of the remaining laws rolled back Obama-era regulations, most of which had yet to go into effect.
Legislation that can last beyond any one president is a heavier lift, and Mr Trump has yet to show he has any real muscle.
Mr Trump is far from a traditional president, so perhaps it's unfair to evaluate the first few months of his presidency in traditional ways, such as by tallying up his policy accomplishments and failures. His voters largely didn't back his candidacy based on specific promises - on the wall, on healthcare, on taxes - but because of his attitude and his promise to shake up the political system.
If the performance metric is how much the Trump presidency has disrupted politics as usual, Mr Trump has posted a clear victory.
He continues to dominate the national conversation with his controversial tweets and off-the cuff statements, and his actions have defied traditional political norms and standards, whether it's his apparent steadfast refusal to fill lower-level political appointments or observe precedents on open-government practices. He's lectured foreign leaders, browbeat major companies and taken a poleaxe to disfavoured media (while still giving them choice interviews when it serves his purposes, of course).
Mr Trump campaigned on draining the swamp, and he's taken some executive actions to limit administration officials from becoming lobbyists after they leave government service. On the other hand, his promises to avoid conflicts of interest over his wide-ranging business empire have proven vague and unenforceable and he's stocked his administration with the kind of financial insiders and Wall Street bigwigs he regularly railed against on the campaign trail.
So far, however, his dedicated supporters - the ones who powered him to a narrow electoral victory if not a popular vote plurality - seem pleased as punch. According to a recent poll, 96% of Mr Trump's voters in November stand by their support of the man. They've apparently seen enough action to convince them that the president is doing what he said he'd do, even if it hasn't yet translated into legislative accomplishments.
If the economy is humming and unemployment stays low, they'll probably remain in his corner for the long haul. For them, the apparent chaos in the nation's capital is a feature, not a bug.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39697637
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Joey Barton: Burnley midfielder banned for 18 months over betting - BBC Sport
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2017-04-26
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Burnley midfielder Joey Barton is banned from football for 18 months after admitting a Football Association charge in relation to betting.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Burnley midfielder Joey Barton has been banned from football for 18 months after admitting a Football Association charge in relation to betting.
The 34-year-old has been fined £30,000 and warned about his future conduct after being charged with breaking FA rules for placing 1,260 bets on matches between 26 March 2006 and 13 May 2016.
Barton said he is addicted to gambling.
He plans to appeal against the length of the suspension, calling it "excessive".
"I have fought addiction to gambling and provided the FA with a medical report about my problem - I'm disappointed it wasn't taken into proper consideration," he said.
The midfielder bet on some matches in which he played but he stressed in a statement on his website that "this is not match fixing" and that at "no point in any of this is my integrity in question".
He added: "I accept that I broke the rules governing professional footballers, but I do feel the penalty is heavier than it might be for other less controversial players.
"The decision effectively forces me into an early retirement."
Later on Wednesday, Barton tweeted: "Thanks for the many messages of support. I have breached FA rules. I have been honest with the reasons. Many agree the punishment is OTT."
The PFA echoed those sentiments, saying that "sanctions for breaches must always be proportionate".
In a statement, they added: "We hope sufficient weight is given to the sanctions handed down in other cases of a similar nature."
Barton also called on the FA to do more to tackle the culture of gambling in football.
He added: "If the FA is truly serious about tackling the culture of gambling in football, it needs to look at its own dependence on the gambling companies, their role in football and in sports broadcasting, rather than just blaming the players who place a bet."
Players in England's top eight tiers are banned from betting on football but Ladbrokes is an FA partner and 10 Premier League clubs have betting firms as shirt sponsors.
The former Manchester City and Newcastle player rejoined Burnley in January, having left Scottish Premiership side Rangers in November.
In the same month, he was given a one-match ban for breaking Scottish Football Association rules on gambling.
Barton admitted the Scottish FA charge of placing 44 bets between 1 July and 15 September 2016, while he was a player at Ibrox.
'I bet on my own team to lose'
Barton said that since 2004, on an account with Betfair, he placed "over 15,000 bets across a whole range of sports" - of which 1,260 were on football - staking an average of £150 per bet.
Between 2004 and 2011 Barton said that he also placed several bets on his own team to lose matches but added he was not involved in the match-day squad in any of those instances.
"I had no more ability to influence the outcome than had I been betting on darts, snooker, or a cricket match in the West Indies," said Barton.
"On some of those occasions, my placing of the bet on my own team to lose was an expression of my anger and frustration at not being picked or being unable to play.
"I have never placed a bet against my own team when in a position to influence the game, and I am pleased that in all of the interviews with the FA, and at the hearing, my integrity on that point has never been in question."
Barton's bets on matches he started include a £3 stake on himself to be first goalscorer for Manchester City against Fulham in a Premier League game in April 2006. Then City team-mate Richard Dunne scored the first goal in a 2-1 defeat.
• None 24 May 2016: Joins Rangers from Burnley on a two-year deal
• None 19 September 2016: Banned for six weeks for a training ground altercation
• None 20 September 2016: Investigated by Scottish FA over breach of betting rules
• None 10 November 2016: Barton and Rangers agree to terminate his contract
• None 17 November 2016 : Given a one-match suspension for breaking Scottish FA rules on gambling
• None that he placed 1,260 bets on matches over the past 10 years
Why did it take 10 years to come to light?
It is understood that the FA was only made aware of the bets by the betting company in December 2016, which led to its investigation.
The high number of bets has resulted in a detailed and complex investigation and the timing of the charge was not related to Barton rejoining Burnley.
He was expected to have been charged even if he had remained a free agent.
Barton began his career at Manchester City in 2001, joined Newcastle six years later and then signed for QPR in 2011. He had a loan spell with Marseille in France for 12 months, before joining Burnley for the first time in August 2015.
What are the rules on betting?
The FA brought in new rules in 2014 banning players and staff at clubs down to as far as the eighth tier of the English men's football pyramid - as well as at clubs in the Women's Super League - from betting on any football match or competition anywhere in the world.
Players and staff are also prohibited from betting on football-related matters, such as player transfers, the employment of managers or team selection.
That outright ban on football-related betting applies to all involved in the game from Premier League level down to - and including - the Northern Premier, Southern and Isthmian Leagues.
Previously, participants were prohibited from betting on a match or competition in which they were involved or which they could influence.
Barton was charged with offences allegedly committed under both the new and old rules.
His Rangers contract was terminated following a training ground row which led to a falling-out with manager Mark Warburton and he played only eight games for the club.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39720232
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Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Huddersfield Town - BBC Sport
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2017-04-26
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Izzy Brown's strike is enough to give Huddersfield Town a narrow win at Wolves to secure a Championship play-off spot.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Izzy Brown's strike was enough to give Huddersfield Town a narrow victory at Wolves and secure the Terriers a Championship play-off spot.
Brown curled home in the first half, his fifth Terriers goal, as David Wagner's side moved eight points clear of seventh with two games to play.
Wolves came close when Dave Edwards hit the post as the hosts were frustrated.
Terriers sub Collin Quaner missed a number of chances to extend his side's lead, but the Yorkshire side held on.
At one stage of the season Huddersfield had looked to be automatic promotion contenders but a run of two wins in seven games allowed Newcastle to take advantage and beat Preston on Monday to secure their Premier League place next season.
However, the Terriers had the chance to be the first Championship side this season to seal a play-off place with victory in the West Midlands.
Chelsea loanee Brown's low strike past keeper Harry Burgoyne, a late replacement for Andy Lonergan, was the high point of a drab first half.
Visiting keeper Danny Ward did have to deny Edwards in the first half, and had to be at his best to keep out Andreas Weimann's effort before Edwards could only fire the rebound against the woodwork.
Wagner's side had the opportunity to increase their advantage, but Quaner was wasteful. He fired wide from six yards, shot straight at youngster Burgoyne and took too long to decide when well-placed to allow a defender to block his strike.
But Town's 25th win of the season - the 22nd with a single-goal margin - is enough to take them up to third place and put them in pole position for a home second leg in the play-offs.
Huddersfield head coach David Wagner: "You cannot imagine how big this achievement is. The journey marches on into the play-offs.
"I'm happy for the chairman and everyone at this football club. We've all worked so hard to make this happen.
"We will now make the right decisions in the next two games to keep everybody fresh for the play-offs. Today we celebrate.
"We got together at the end to show our unbelievable togetherness for the fans. I'm very happen for them."
• None Attempt missed. Harry Bunn (Huddersfield Town) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left.
• None Attempt blocked. Collin Quaner (Huddersfield Town) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Harry Bunn.
• None Attempt saved. Collin Quaner (Huddersfield Town) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Nahki Wells.
• None Attempt missed. Harry Bunn (Huddersfield Town) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Michael Hefele.
• None Attempt blocked. Silvio (Wolverhampton Wanderers) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Jordan Graham.
• None Attempt missed. Collin Quaner (Huddersfield Town) right footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Christopher Schindler with a headed pass following a set piece situation.
• None Silvio (Wolverhampton Wanderers) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39035260
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David Moyes: Sunderland manager charged over 'slap' comment - BBC Sport
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2017-04-26
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Sunderland manager David Moyes is charged by the Football Association after telling BBC reporter Vicki Sparks she might "get a slap".
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Sunderland manager David Moyes has been charged by the Football Association after telling BBC reporter Vicki Sparks she might "get a slap".
Moyes was caught on camera making the remarks after his team's draw against Burnley in the Premier League in March.
The 54-year-old has expressed "deep regret" for his response.
It came after an interview in which he was asked by Sparks if the presence of Sunderland's owner Ellis Short put extra pressure on him.
He said "no" but, after the interview, added that Sparks "might get a slap even though you're a woman" and that she should be "careful" next time she visited.
An FA statement said it is alleged his remarks were "improper and/or threatening and/or brought the game into disrepute", contrary to Rule E3(1).
The Scot has until 18:00 BST on Wednesday, 3 May to reply to the charge.
Sunderland are bottom of the Premier League, 12 points from safety, with six games remaining.
Former Everton and Manchester United boss Moyes has been in charge of the Black Cats since last July.
Speaking on 3 April, Moyes said: "I deeply regret the comments I made. That's certainly not the person I am. I've accepted the mistake. I spoke to the BBC reporter, who accepted my apology."
The BBC confirmed that Moyes and Sparks had spoken about the exchange and the issue had been resolved.
A spokesman added: "Mr Moyes has apologised to our reporter and she has accepted his apology."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39709322
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City-based Twenty20 tournament featuring eight teams gets approval for 2020 - BBC Sport
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2017-04-26
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A city-based eight-team T20 tournament to rival the IPL is given the go-ahead to start in 2020 by the England and Wales Cricket Board.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
A new city-based eight-team Twenty20 tournament has been given the go-ahead to start in 2020.
The proposals were approved by 38 of the 41 England and Wales Cricket Board members, with 15 first-class counties in support of the competition.
Essex and Middlesex were the only two counties to vote against the proposals, while Kent abstained from voting.
"I passionately believe that the game has chosen the right path," ECB chairman Colin Graves said.
The ECB needed 31 members to vote in favour of the tournament which will be played alongside the existing T20 Blast.
It is not yet known which cities will have sides and where the matches will be played.
"Each of our members will benefit and, critically, so will the whole game," Graves added. "We can now move on with building an exciting new competition for a new audience to complement our existing competitions.
"Our clear ambition is that this new competition will sit alongside the IPL and Big Bash League as one of the world's major cricket tournaments."
How will it work?
• None Eight new teams playing 36 games over a 38-day summer window, with four home games per team
• None No scheduling overlap with the existing T20 Blast competition
• None An Indian Premier League-style play-off system to give more incentive for finishing higher up the league
• None A players' draft, with squads of 15 including three overseas players
• None Counties guaranteed at least £1.3m each per year
The ECB has said the competition will give cricket the chance to be part of "mainstream conversation" and believes the tournament can make the sport "relevant to a whole new audience".
However, Essex are concerned it will "exclude" certain areas of the country, while Middlesex feel they will not benefit financially from Lord's being a likely base for one of the teams.
But Graves said they would make sure it benefited all counties and it marked "an exciting new era" for cricket in England and Wales.
"The ECB executive and T20 development team will now continue to work with the game as we build the new competition, ensure it is positioned distinctively from our existing competitions and realise its full potential," he added.
"All decisions - including the creation and base of each team - will be made within the game, guided by our shared strategy and built on best practice, research and insight.
"The benefits it will bring can deliver a sustainable future for all 18 first-class counties and an exciting future for the game in England and Wales."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/39721254
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How Nepal quake turned women into builders - BBC News
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2017-04-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Women are breaking with tradition and helping rebuild Nepal after the earthquake two years ago.
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Asia
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Nepal needs women like Sanumaya to help rebuild
Reconstruction in Nepal has been slow since a devastating earthquake two years ago. But in some rural areas women are breaking with tradition and picking up tools to speed things up.
Sanumaya Kumal does everything from carrying sand and bricks, to digging foundations.
In a badly affected district north-west of Kathmandu, she and other women are helping rebuild houses damaged by the quake.
Women have traditionally been limited to household chores but with many men working abroad, Nepal faces a lack of manpower at a crucial time - hence Sanumaya's move into construction.
"I am very happy with my job. I can do everything that a male mason can do," says Sanumaya, who used to work on a farm.
Her other tasks include building walls, roof-fitting and plastering.
Sanumaya says she's just as good at the work as the men
According to official estimates, nearly 1,500 young Nepalis travel to the Gulf and the Middle East every day in search of jobs.
Officials say this has created a labour shortage locally and is even holding up reconstruction and essential work on schools and health centres.
But in the areas worst hit by the 25 April 2015 earthquake, women are gradually taking up prominent roles in reconstruction.
More than $4bn has been pledged in post-quake aid but progress in one of the world's poorest countries has been painfully slow.
The disaster killed nearly 9,000 people and damaged a million houses.
Rural women can earn a good wage building - and they say it's safe
Various national and international organisations have been helping the women gain the skills they need to build.
And the women say they are earning a decent living, as well as being happy that they are taking part in important national work.
Sanumaya was one of eight women the BBC found working at the building site in the town of Bidur in Nuwakot district.
Her fellow construction worker Srijana Kumal says she likes the work because the pay is attractive.
"Women are facing a lot of problems when they go abroad for work," she told the BBC.
"Almost all the houses in the villages are damaged. We have a lot of work to do here and the working conditions are very safe."
Sanumaya and her friends are making about 1,200 Nepalese rupees ($11.50; £9) for a day's work in their new roles, a decent sum compared with other manual jobs in rural Nepal.
Many of Nepal's men are working abroad, or don't have the right building skills
The Post Disaster Recovery Framework states that Nepal needs nearly 60,000 skilled building workers to complete the reconstruction of houses within five years.
However, officials say that as well as the manpower shortage, many existing construction workers do not know how to build houses to earthquake-resistant specifications.
There are no reliable figures on how many women are currently involved in reconstruction in Nepal.
But the United Nations and other donor agencies who are providing training to construction workers say they have given high priority to enrolling women on their courses.
And Sanumaya and her colleagues have no shortage of work.
"With the reconstruction going on, I am busy almost every day," she says.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39694171
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Zafar Ansari: Surrey and England all-rounder retires aged 25 - BBC Sport
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2017-04-26
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Surrey and England all-rounder Zafar Ansari retires from cricket at the age of 25, saying he has "other ambitions to fulfil".
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Surrey and England all-rounder Zafar Ansari has retired from cricket at the age of 25, saying he has "other ambitions that I want to fulfil".
Ansari made his Test debut for England in October, against Bangladesh, before playing two Tests against India.
"After seven years as a professional cricketer and almost two decades in total playing, I have decided to bring my cricket career to an end," he said.
He added: "While the timing may come as a surprise, I have always maintained that cricket was just one part of my life and that I have other ambitions that I want to fulfil.
"With that in mind, I am now exploring another career, potentially in law, and to achieve this I have to begin the process now."
Ansari, who has a double first in politics, philosophy and sociology from Cambridge University and a Master's degree in history from Royal Holloway, has been at Surrey since the age of eight.
He made his England debut in a one-day international against Ireland in 2015 before being called up to England's Test squad to play Bangladesh and India in 2016 - a tour he has said came too early for him.
The all-rounder played just one of Surrey's three County Championship matches this season following injury, scoring three runs and failing to take a wicket in a draw with Lancashire.
Surrey's director of cricket, Alec Stewart, told BBC Sport: "It is a surprise because it has come a month into the season but it is not a surprise that he has retired at an early age.
"He has told me on numerous occasions that cricket is a part of his life, not his whole life. He is a highly-intelligent individual, he has played cricket for Surrey and England and now he wants to have a different type of career.
"It is a brave decision, a tough one and one he has thought through and discussed with family, friends and people he respects. He examined it thoroughly and considered the upsides and downsides. He has decided now is the time and I completely respect that."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/39720334
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Is Labour's Brexit plan too subtle? - BBC News
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2017-04-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Labour has a clear Brexit plan but some in the party would prefer more robust opposition to the Tory position.
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UK Politics
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If in years to come, students are asked an essay question - Is Nuance an Effective Weapon In Politics? - they might cite Labour's position on Brexit in 2017 in their answer.
As things stand, with the party trailing in the polls, it would appear that if it is a weapon at all, it's been decommissioned.
On the surface, Labour has a difficult task. It has to attract - or at least not repel - those Labour voters that backed Leave in last year's EU referendum, as well as those who backed Remain.
The Liberal Democrats - starting from a low base - need only to attract a small percentage of the 48% who voted Remain to improve their representation in Parliament.
So campaigning to reverse the result of the referendum - by having a second one - carries little political risk for them.
The Conservatives can pretty much go hammer and tongs for the UKIP vote by saying they can deliver on Brexit - and achieve sympathetic headlines from some of the tabloids as a bonus.
Labour has a trickier balancing act to perform but some in the party's ranks wonder if their frontbench isn't making the issue more difficult for itself than it need be.
Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer set out Labour's position to an audience of successful business people, professionals, lobbyists and one or two trade unionists today, the vast majority of whom were Remainers.
Tim Farron has nothing to lose by promising second referendum
Sir Keir tried to emphasise the differences between Labour and the Conservatives - Labour would prioritise trade with the EU; it might stay in the customs union; it would give EU citizens a unilateral guarantee that they could stay on in Britain; and, symbolically, it would ditch the Great Repeal Bill and emphasise the continuation of EU rights post-Brexit.
But some in the audience were privately worried that the differences with the Conservatives were too subtle.
General election campaigns are painted in primary colours, not in shades of grey.
Sir Keir ruled out a second referendum because he said Labour had to "genuinely" accept the referendum result but also, for practical reasons, he felt there would have to be transitional arrangements at the end of the two-year Article 50 process so the final nature of any deal might not be apparent for six years.
Now when Sir Keir was introduced, his audience of achievers were informed that he had a "brain the size of China".
But some who heard him speak - while not doubting the Asiatic extent of the former Director of Public Prosecutions' legal mind - privately wondered whether his political nous was more in the Luxembourg or Monaco range.
Because while a second referendum might not turn out to be practical, signalling a willingness to hold one might rally Remain votes to Labour and create a far less subtle divide between his party and the Conservatives.
And while many in the audience like and sympathised with him - so much so that one of them confided that he had refrained from asking a difficult question - they were keen for more clarity.
The shadow Brexit secretary told them that he would put jobs and the economy first.
Sir Keir Starmer left some in his audience wanting more
He said immigration shouldn't be the "over-arching" concern in negotiations. But he also insisted that free movement would end when Britain left the EU.
He was asked by Sir Roger Lyons - a former union leader - what was wrong with the "Norway model" - a country outside the EU which has traded free movement for single market access.
That would indeed involve putting the economy before control of immigration.
Sir Keir said that what works for Norway wouldn't necessarily work for the UK. He preferred a bespoke deal.
He then made clear that migration was a key concern after all: "We must listen to what people tell us about immigration."
It was only in an interview with the BBC's John Pienaar that he indicated that negotiations to achieve a good trade deal with the EU might involve discussion of free movement of labour (not of all people, as at present).
In other words, the freedom of EU citizens to move to take up offers of work.
But this wasn't said loudly and proudly in the speech itself.
So not only some in the audience but former - and even two current frontbenchers - have been questioning privately whether the party's message should be more robustly opposed to Mrs May's apparent Brexit strategy, and should be more explicit about a route back to the EU if negotiations go badly.
Some of them have read an analysis by polling expert Professor John Curtice, which concluded: "Most of those who voted Labour in 2015 - including those living in Labour seats in the North and the Midlands - backed Remain.
"The party is thus at greater risk of losing votes to the pro-Remain Liberal Democrats than to pro-Brexit UKIP."
But for now the strategy, if not all the detail, is clear - the desire to appeal to Leave voters on immigration and jobs, and to Remainers in vying to enjoy a close partnership with the EU and as many of the benefits of the single market as possible.
That requires a nuanced message. So that essay question will be definitively answered in this election.
But with Labour's campaign messages emphasising public services, the NHS, and the economy - and their determination not to allow this to be a "Brexit election" - I suspect the party's strategists already know the answer.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39709403
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Four dresses and a drone - are weddings getting out of control? - BBC News
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2017-04-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Weddings have got out of hand, says Country Life magazine, as it calls for a rethink.
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UK
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Three or four dress changes, a bevy of bridesmaids, photos taken by drone and its own #weddinghashtag.
The modern wedding has begun to take on the look of a vulgar "arms race", a lifestyle magazine has warned.
Country Life has urged people to rein it in a bit - saying weddings, and their constant cataloguing on visual social media, may put couples under pressure to spend big.
They also place guests under duress to pay for the hen-do; the stag weekend; the day itself; a present or honeymoon contribution; and a new outfit.
"The whole thing has got rather out of hand," editor Mark Hedges observes.
Figures from the close of the 2016 wedding season put the average cost of the UK wedding at £27,000 and that rises to £38,000 in London.
Website Bridebook looked at 20,000 UK weddings and found 4% of those held in the south-east of England cost more than £100,000.
Considering the latest figures from the ONS show there were 247,372 marriages between opposite sex couples in England and Wales in 2014, and 4,850 same sex couples tied the knot, it is certainly big business.
There were also 111,169 divorces in the same year, and while the average UK annual income stands at around £27,195, the costs are substantial to most, and unrealistic for many.
The magazine's Rosie Paterson believes there is a trend for "very elaborate showy weddings" that detract from the real purpose of the day.
She says: "I've seen a few friends go through the planning process, and not necessarily enjoying it. This is our gentle plea for restraints for weddings to come back to what they are really about - the wedding itself."
Weddings abroad from Mexico to Vietnam, stag dos in Europe or Las Vegas, wedding styling or themes poached from celebrity wedding culture or reality shows like Don't Tell the Bride. They all feed the fire, she says.
When weddings are then posted on Instagram or Pinterest, with their own hashtag, she adds, it may be an outlet for creativity, but: "You're suddenly looking at how everyone else is doing it. There's the ooh and aah of a giant party, but you are not, in fact, looking at the commitment. "
Mark Hedges adds: "Everyone sees what everyone else has done and feels they have to do better.
"They don't need to do better, they just need to get married and have a very special, sometimes simple, day. It should be fun, it should be delightful."
Then there's the "nightmare" of the three-day extravaganza, says Hedges, culminating in that "sorry, sorry day afterwards, when everyone's probably got slightly sore heads, wondering why they can't go home".
But is advice from a middle-to-upper-class lifestyle magazine on how to keep it real a bit rich?
People have always been competitive. Bridezilla is no new phenomenon.
Idealised images, in a vast range of wedding magazines, have been around for years.
For nuptials organiser George Watts, known as the Wedding Fairy it's all relative and based on what individuals want to achieve with, as he puts it, "their big day".
"Some people might want to host their wedding in a two-star Michelin restaurant, some might want the local country pub. At the end of the day, it's the couple's choice," he says.
He is currently planning a client's six-figure celebration, "£100,000 plus, it's a huge wedding". And he says there are more choices available than there were 20 years ago.
"I deal with so many couples, particularly brides, who have dreamt of their wedding day all their life. They've saved for it all their life, their family have. So why not put on a big day exactly how they want to?" he asks.
"Instead of just the standard cake, flowers and dress there's so many more elements that people can bring into their day to make it their own, make it memorable."
Perhaps, as the 2017 summer wedding season looms, it is all to plan for.
Take the last letter in today's Telegraph, from one Wendy May of Hereford, which ponders: "Sir - My son and his family are attending a wedding next weekend. The best man is a dog.
"Is this a common occurrence, or a new fad?"
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39716582
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Johanna Konta: British number one beats Naomi Osaka in Stuttgart - BBC Sport
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2017-04-26
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Johanna Konta puts a difficult week behind her to reach the second round of the Porsche Grand Prix with victory over Naomi Osaka.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Johanna Konta put a difficult week behind her to reach the second round of the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart with victory over Japan's Naomi Osaka.
Konta, who left the court in tears after being verbally abused by Romania captain Ilie Nastase in a Fed Cup tie last week, won 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 6-1.
The British number one found it tough but Osaka's challenge faded in set three as she struggled with an injury.
Konta will face Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova in round two.
The 25-year-old told BT Sport: "I think obviously you could tell she [Osaka] was struggling, I hope everything is OK with her and she recovers quickly.
"It was just important for me to stay on my own game. Even though I lost the second set I didn't feel like I did much wrong."
Konta had not dropped a set in two previous meetings with 19-year-old Osaka but clay is her weakest surface.
The world number seven struggled for consistency in the opening two sets but the key moment came when she saved two break points in the third game of the third set before then breaking Osaka's serve in the next.
Andy Murray is through to the third round of the Barcelona Open after Australia's Bernard Tomic withdrew before the match with an injured back.
Murray, 29, will play the winner between Spanish pair Albert Montanes and Feliciano Lopez in the last 16.
The world number one accepted a late wildcard for Barcelona after his third-round defeat by Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas in Monte Carlo on Thursday.
Fellow Briton Dan Evans faces Austria's Dominic Thiem in the third round.
Both Evans and Murray will play their matches on Thursday.
Elsewhere, Britain's Aljaz Bedene beat the Netherlands' world number 46 Robin Haase 6-4 6-4 in the second round of the Hungarian Open in Budapest.
It was the 14th win in a row for Bedene, ranked 68th in the world, who will play either Ivo Karlovic or Damir Dzumhur in the next round.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/39717809
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Election 2017: Was that Angus Robertson's last PMQs? - BBC News
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2017-04-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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With the General Election looming and parliament winding down, was the final PMQs before June's poll also the last for the SNP's Angus Robertson.
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Scotland politics
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The SNP's Angus Robertson clashed with Theresa May at the final PMQs before the election
Angus Robertson has become perhaps the most high-profile SNP MP. He leads the third biggest group in parliament and gets to quiz the prime minister weekly.
His questioning at PMQs has won him plaudits from commentators at Westminster.
But the Conservatives are hoping he could be one of the biggest scalps on 8 June. Senior Tories tell me Moray - the constituency Mr Robertson has held since 2001 and his party since 1987 - is one of their top targets in Scotland.
Polls suggest the Tories are on the up in Scotland. Although some are playing down the idea of the party winning as many as 12 seats - as one poll indicated - they are happy to entertain the idea they could take Moray. That's despite Mr Robertson winning by more than 9,000 votes last time.
So, why is this a Tory target?
Well it's the area of Scotland which came closest to backing leave in the EU referendum (every counting area in Scotland voted remain, but in Moray the remain vote was 50.1% remain, by 49.9% leave). The Tories hope they can win over those leave voters with their Brexit plans.
They'll be hoping too that their vocal opposition to a another independence referendum (which will be key to their Scottish campaign) appeals to the 57.5% of Moray voters who voted No in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
The party also had an encouraging result here in the equivalent Holyrood seat. Last year (pre-EU referendum) at the Scottish Parliament elections, the Conservatives cut the SNP majority from almost 11,000 to under 3,000.
The Tories have picked MSP Douglas Ross to contest the seat.
Are the SNP worried? If so, they're not admitting it for now. They point out they've held the seat for 30 years and have no intention of letting that change.
They also point out Mr Ross hasn't quit his Holyrood list seat yet, unlike his colleague John Lamont who has said he'll leave Holyrood to contest Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk. If Mr Ross was confident, the SNP suggest, he would follow suit.
And as for Mr Robertson himself, he was quick to respond to this piece on social media.
Using his twitter feed he said: "Don't mind disappointing the Tories, but I look forward to defeating their candidate for the third time in a row."
Nevertheless, expect the Tories to put a lot of time, money and effort into campaigning here, especially with local fishermen and those in the agricultural sector.
Expect the SNP to put a lot into it too. It's a campaign and result we'll be watching closely.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-39716979
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Middlesbrough 1-0 Sunderland - BBC Sport
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2017-04-26
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Sunderland are 12 points from safety with five games remaining and could be relegated from the Premier League on Saturday.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Sunderland were left on the brink of relegation from the Premier League after losing the Tees-Wear derby to fellow strugglers Middlesbrough, who registered a first victory of 2017.
Marten de Roon's goal early in a drab contest was the 59th Sunderland have conceded this season and left the Black Cats 12 points adrift of safety with five games remaining.
Sunderland face Bournemouth on Saturday and could be relegated if they fail to win and other results go against them.
The Black Cats are bottom of the league, having spent 236 days in the relegation zone, and have taken just two points from the last 27 available.
Second-bottom Middlesbrough cannot be relegated this weekend but they face a tough run-in against Manchester City, Chelsea, Southampton and Liverpool.
How could Sunderland go down?
Sunderland will be relegated at the weekend if:
• None They lose to Bournemouth and Hull avoid defeat at Southampton
• None They lose to Bournemouth and Swansea - who play on Sunday - beat Manchester United
• None They draw with Bournemouth and Hull win at Southampton
Sunderland boss David Moyes, who was charged by the FA prior to the game after telling BBC reporter Vicki Sparks she might "get a slap", said before kick-off he thought his side could still keep their Premier League status.
However, the on-field body language and frantic decision-making betrayed a side low on confidence.
The Black Cats started strongly, but once De Roon scored they lacked intensity, losing possession too easily to leave Moyes frustrated on the sidelines.
The defence that allowed an unmarked De Roon to ghost in and score was culpable again minutes later as Stewart Downing ran through on goal but Jordan Pickford - one of Sunderland's few bright spots this season - made the stop.
Sunderland looked slightly better going forward, with record signing Didier Ndong lashing a shot at Brad Guzan before Billy Jones headed the rebound over. However, in a tepid game where both sides struggled for rhythm, the Black Cats could not keep the pressure on for long.
The boos the Sunderland players walked off to at half-time were amplified come the end of the match, with fans chanting "you're not fit to wear the shirt".
Boro tough it out for rare win
Middlesbrough have struggled at home this season and prior to this match had scored just 13 goals at the Riverside - the lowest of any top-flight team.
They have also played out seven goalless draws, underlining their lack of threat in the final third.
So it was perhaps no surprise they needed to profit from their opponents' carelessness to score the only goal of the game, with the unmarked De Roon sneaking in between Jones and John O'Shea before sliding the ball through Pickford's legs.
Boro looked vulnerable after going in front, with Sunderland given too much space inside the area, leading to a number of scrambled clearances.
The hosts held on, though, to end manager Steve Agnew's winless streak since taking over from the sacked Aitor Karanka in March.
The result also meant Boro striker Rudy Gestede, brought on as a late substitute, finally ended a Premier League-record run of 43 games without a win.
• None Middlesbrough have completed a league double over the Black Cats for the first time since the 2002/03 season.
• None Marten de Roon has scored twice in his last four Premier League appearances, as many as in his previous 26 combined.
• None De Roon's goal was Middlesbrough's first shot of the match.
• None It was Middlesbrough's first Premier League goal inside the opening 10 minutes at the Riverside since a Tuncay Sanli strike in the third minute against Hull in April 2009.
• None Although they were beaten, Sunderland had more shots than an opponent in an away Premier League game for the first time since April 2016 against Stoke.
• None Sunderland have now failed to score in 17 Premier League games this season, more than any other side.
'While there's a chance, we will keep going'
Sunderland manager David Moyes: "I've never been in this position before so it's new to me. It's something I'm not enjoying.
"We didn't get a good result but I thought we played well. It was a poor goal that we gave away but I can't fault the players or their efforts. We tried to build play up, make opportunities, but I wasn't disappointed with the performance.
"While there's a chance, we'll keep going. Good performances lead to results, that's the way it goes. I think we've had a couple of pretty good performances in the last few games.
"We know our position, we're not daft, we know exactly where we are. We have to try and pick up every win."
Middlesbrough manager Steve Agnew: "It feels great. Everybody is absolutely delighted with the three points. We had to defend for long spells but we got the goal early. I'm so proud of the players.
"Clean sheets are obviously something you build on. I think it was important, the early goal. It gave everybody a lift and a confidence to see the game through.
"The players are all happy. I think all we do now is we remain focused for the game on Sunday against Manchester City. We'll certainly gain some confidence and belief going into games."
Sunderland host Bournemouth on Saturday (15:00 BST) while Middlesbrough face Manchester City at home on Sunday (14:05 BST).
• None Attempt missed. Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Adam Forshaw.
• None Fabio Borini (Sunderland) wins a free kick on the right wing.
• None Offside, Sunderland. Adnan Januzaj tries a through ball, but Jermain Defoe is caught offside. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39163993
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Battle for Welsh votes shows Tory ambitions - BBC News
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2017-04-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Theresa May knows it will be difficult but she is deadly serious about a potential reshaping of Britain at this election.
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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. Labour voters in Porthcawl weigh up their options
She hardly cuts the jib of a radical. But despite warnings against complacency from the prime minister's own lips today, be in no doubt - the Tories are deadly serious about a potential reshaping of Britain at this election.
Any day on the trail is precious campaigning time. Leaders only tend to turn up where they think they are in the game. So a Welsh visit, Theresa May's fifth in three months, is revealing.
It shows the Conservatives are not just contemplating a bigger majority by scooping up traditional Tory-Labour marginal seats in England.
But even if you ignore the polls, senior sources indicate they could possibly return to levels of support not seen in Wales for more than 30 years.
And privately they expect gains in Scotland too. Theresa May hopes to make her claim there are no Tory no-go areas come true. The European referendum has redrawn the map. She wants to colour it blue.
For that to happen here in Wales, that means overturning decades of support for Labour in many areas. Are voters ready to do that in high enough numbers? It's of course far too early to tell.
Don't forget the Tories already improved their share of the vote significantly in 2015, winning 11 seats.
But on the Porthcawl seafront in Bridgend, the backyard of the Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones, we met plenty of voters who are certainly ready to consider it.
The Edwards, father and son, told me they'd both been Labour voters all their lives. But could they switch? Mark told me his 85-year-old father had already done so. He said "she is wonderful, best we've had," when he started talking about Theresa May.
Mr Edwards senior told me he had been 'life-long Labour' but that Jeremy Corbyn was "30 or 40 years out of date - he wants to introduce a gimmick, communism".
He was plainly angry about what's happened to the Labour party in recent years, saying it had been led by "conmen". Mr Edwards parting shot was "bye, bye Mr Corbyn".
Labour has held Bridgend for the past 30 years
Another voter, Brian Holley presented his own dilemma, that could be shared by many voters in Wales, where overall, the vote was to leave the EU. Brian told me he'd voted to Leave but his local Labour MP had backed Remain.
That was reason for him to be, as he expressed it, "on the border" between sticking with Labour and voting Tory for the first time.
Sharing a morning cuppa with him was Eira Linehan, who said for the "first time ever" she was considering voting Tory because while she agreed with Jeremy Corbyn's ideas, they wouldn't work in the "real world".
They said "we're all Labour" in their constituency, but they are likely to vote Tory because of Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, even though, "my father will be spinning in his grave".
Conversations about voting intentions seven weeks out are absolutely no substitute for the final poll of course. And we are only at the early stages of this campaign. It's worth noting too there were warnings of Labour taking heavy fire in the Welsh Assembly elections last year.
In the end, they remained the largest party, and Carwyn Jones kept his job as First Minister, albeit with the help of Plaid Cymru.
Yet even the Welsh Labour leader was plain to the BBC today that Jeremy Corbyn still has to "prove himself", warning there is a "mountain to climb".
In remarks that could become very significant after the election, Mr Jones was clear "Jeremy is leading the campaign and Jeremy will take credit or responsibility". He also called for a manifesto that has the "widest buy-in possible from people".
But 'wide buy-in'? Support that Labour can truly bank on? Not a bit of it.
Yet, as Theresa May left the community centre where she had talked to activists tonight, a small, but determined crowd had been waiting in the rain, if only for the chance to shout at her car as her convoy left at speed.
As she swept away, the PM won't be in any doubt that winning Wales or any traditionally Labour territories won't be easy.
And in the volatile world of 2017 politics, there is nowhere where she can be guaranteed of a universally warm welcome.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39713864
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Anthony Joshua v Wladimir Klitschko: Is Briton the perfect heavyweight? - BBC Sport
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2017-04-26
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Going into his biggest sporting test, Anthony Joshua seems to possess everything the archetypal champion should, writes Tom Fordyce.
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Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live from 21:00 BST and text updates on the BBC Sport website and app from 20:00 BST.
A crowd of 90,000 around the ring at Wembley, a million more on pay-per-view at home, an opponent who has been in more world title fights than he has professional bouts.
Little about Saturday's heavyweight showdown with Wladimir Klitschko should leave Anthony Joshua as unnaturally calm as he appears to be. But the kid from Watford turned IBF world champion stands in a sweet eddy in his division's turbulent waters - the past all promise, the future more auspicious still.
Heavyweight boxing is so often about hope and hype above authenticity, delusion rather than cold reality.
Punters come back not because so many title fights prove unforgettable, but for the promise that the next really will be - repeat experiences of disappointing champions, meaningless titles and badly made matches pushed away by the beguiling possibility of what might yet lie ahead.
Joshua - 18 fights and less than a cumulative two ring hours into a professional career that followed hard on a late start and rapid progression - goes to Wembley defined by the same heady mix of promise and possibility: that at 27 he has too much speed and power for the 41-year-old Klitschko, that his rapid improvement will continue at the same steep pace, that he could yet prove the perfect heavyweight at an imperfect time for the most captivating class of all.
For the Joshua of today - hours before the biggest test of his sporting life - appears to have everything the archetypal champion should possess.
• None Ali? Lewis? Klitschko? Which heavyweight great are you?
There is his physique: big without being bulky, powerful but explosive, a little reminiscent of Ken Norton through his mid-70s trilogy with Muhammad Ali.
There is the back story: just the right amount of jeopardy, on remand in Reading prison and later caught in possession of eight ounces of cannabis, before a classical conversion to boxing via a dedicated cousin and grassroots coach, winning the last home gold medal of Great Britain's historic haul on the very last day of the 2012 Olympics.
There is the unpretentiousness of a man who still lives much of the time with his mother, Yeta, in Golders Green, north London. He has prepared for Saturday night with a three-month training camp at the same unglamorous English Institute of Sport in Sheffield that was both home to fellow Olympic champion Dame Jess Ennis-Hill and where he trained under coach Rob McCracken in the build-up to those London Games.
There is enough easy charisma to attract both boxing acolytes and cynics, enough charm to stop for every selfie without making it look like a conscious exercise in personal marketing, sufficient understanding of where he has come from to recently gift that first coach at the Finchley & District Amateur Boxing Club, Sean Murphy, a brand new BMW with personalised plates.
And there are the knockouts. Eighteen in 18 pro fights, 13 of them inside the first three rounds.
People don't pay big money for heavyweight fights to see them go the distance. Nobody turned up to watch Mike Tyson look technically neat for 12 rounds. Lots have decried Klitschko for his sensible strategies.
They go to see it end as quickly as possible, the sudden termination worth more than a drawn-out dance. It is the only sport where punters are more satisfied the less they see.
As Joshua said when bumping into a beaming Jose Mourinho backstage at the O2 arena a year ago after taking the IBF heavyweight title from Charles Martin with a second-round knockout: "People want to see blood, uh?"
That was the first fight Mourinho had ever been to - another illustration of Joshua's rare draw, with the Manchester United manager's star-struck grin one more. Joshua looked as relaxed as if he was shaking hands with a steward, his composure as unbroken as it had been in the ring.
All possibilities, all promises. All pointers to a special future and a place amongst the elite.
And yet so little of it can be guaranteed this early in his entry into a brutal business, not when the challenges will keep coming in different shapes and guises both on Saturday and beyond.
• None 'Father Time has caught up with Klitschko'
There is no obvious nastiness about Joshua, his behaviour in the build-up to this fight is in contrast to that of fellow Britons David Haye and Tyson Fury in their own battles with Klitschko. In traditional boxing parlance that is a flaw rather than a strength. Villains sell tickets. Bad guys get paid to be bad.
When you've sold 90,000 tickets on the appeal of your other attributes that may be less of a worry than it would be for other fighters.
But there are still great unknowns amid the allure. How might a man who didn't box until after his 18th birthday fare against an opponent who has been fighting in front of stadium sellouts for decades? How will a kid who was seven years old when Klitschko made his professional debut cope with an atmosphere that British boxing has never seen before?
Klitschko is now 41 years old. He was soundly beaten by Fury and hasn't fought in the 16 months since. But he has held all three world titles and lost only four out of 68 professional fights.
When Joshua last felt real pressure - in his grudge match against Dillian Whyte - the composure sometimes slipped. In his rush to finish it, he was almost finished himself.
"There is a chance that Josh could be completely out of his depth," says his promoter Eddie Hearn, before adding: "And there is a chance he could be the fighter we believe he is, and he goes out there and dismantles Klitschko. No-one really knows - and that's the beauty of the fight."
Can Joshua handle the unexpected explosive punch? Maybe very few heavyweights can. Ask Lennox Lewis about that night in Carnival City Casino and the impact of Hasim Rahman's right hand.
Maybe the rumours of Joshua being dropped in sparring are just that, or that he is not a gym fighter, or that he needs the challenge of a big fight to bring out his best. Maybe it doesn't matter that only twice in his professional career has he gone beyond the third round.
"Professional fighters - we're not gods, we're not superheroes," he has said. "We are just human and we make mistakes."
At this moment, Joshua has both a burgeoning aura of invincibility and the character outside the ring to match it. He is also at his tipping point between relative fame inside sport and a leap - should he triumph at Wembley - into the wider public consciousness.
"If it's all fake, people will soon figure it out," he has said. "Just be yourself."
The one-time bricklayer believes it. He also admitted recently that he is aiming to become boxing's first billionaire. Both that and the extravagance of his recent escapades on holiday in Dubai pointed to a possible contradiction between the two positions. Few intend to change when they pass through that tipping point - but when the world around you changes, you tend to adjust to it.
It is all part of the fascination with Joshua, all part of that same magic blend of prospect and probability.
Nothing has been lost, everything is still possible. Boxing still feels fresh to him, its fascination bright, his love of its nuances and enthusiasm for its punishing routines undimmed.
And so we wait, hoping again, drawn in once more by rich promise and real talent - and, of course, a little hype.
Get all the latest boxing news leading up to the Joshua-Klitschko fight, sent straight to your device with notifications in the BBC Sport app. Find out more here.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/39708572
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Crystal Palace 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur - BBC Sport
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2017-04-26
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Tottenham stay four points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea following a hard-fought victory at Crystal Palace.
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Tottenham kept up the pressure on Premier League leaders Chelsea as Christian Eriksen's superb long-range strike secured a hard-fought victory at Crystal Palace.
Spurs had struggled to break down a disciplined Palace side for much of the game and it looked like they would have to settle for a point.
But Eriksen fired into the bottom corner from 30 yards late on to keep Spurs within four points of Chelsea with five games remaining.
Palace, who lost influential defender Mamadou Sakho to injury in the second half, rarely threatened as they concentrated on frustrating the visitors.
The win means Tottenham move on to 74 points, surpassing their previous best ever Premier League total of 72 - set in 2012-13 - when they finished fifth.
If they beat rivals Arsenal on Sunday it will ensure they finish above the Gunners in the table for the first time since the 1994-95 season.
Palace, meanwhile, remain 12th - seven points above the relegation zone.
Tottenham needed victory to not just stay in touch with Chelsea but also put behind them the FA Cup semi-final defeat to the Blues on Saturday.
Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino had been adamant that the 4-2 loss at Wembley would not hurt his players mentally in the title pursuit but that assessment initially looked incorrect as they struggled against a well-drilled Palace.
Eriksen, so often the centre of everything good Tottenham did against Chelsea, was kept quiet while Dele Alli and Harry Kane struggled to provide a spark in attack as the visitors finished the first half with just one shot on target.
Pochettino brought on Son Heung-min and Moussa Sissoko for the second half and changed to a back four in an effort to find a breakthrough. As time went on it looked more and more likely that victory would elude them but to their credit they stayed patient before a moment of magic from Eriksen finally unlocked the Palace defence.
The forward took full advantage of a moment when he was afforded a rare bit of space, shooting from distance beyond the reach of Palace keeper Wayne Hennessey.
It was not a classic performance by a Tottenham side that has scored at least three goals in each of their last three Premier League games but it was one that showed they have the ability to dig in and grind out a result - a side of their game that could prove crucial in the title run in.
Should Spurs have been down to 10 men?
It could have been a different game if Tottenham lost Victor Wanyama to a second booking in the first half.
After picking up an early yellow card for a bad foul, the midfielder slid in late on Andros Townsend. Referee Jon Moss took Wanyama to one side, but let him off with a warning.
Pochettino opted to withdraw Wanyama at half time, but Palace boss Sam Allardyce felt he should never have had the option to do that in the first place.
"Jon Moss should have sent him off," said Allardyce. "The second challenge was probably more of a booking than the first one.
"It is disappointing for us, it is a mistake but at the end of the day we lost a game and we can only think about ourselves right now."
Sakho has been a key player in Palace's upturn in form, with every performance since the defender's January arrival on loan from Liverpool serving only to enhance his transfer value.
Against Tottenham he was once again excellent, keeping the attacking talent of Kane, Alli and Eriksen quiet throughout the first half.
One moment in particular stood out when, under pressure from Kane, he coolly chested the ball down inside his own area before calmly clearing, prompting home fans to chant "sign him up, sign him up".
But they must now face up to the possibility of Sakho being absent from the Palace backline after he suffered what looked like a bad injury early in the second half, falling awkwardly following a challenge.
Allardyce's side are unlikely to go down thanks to an incredible run of just two defeats in their last nine Premier League games but Palace fans will be hopeful of seeing Sakho in a Palace shirt again this season.
What they said
Crystal Palace manager Sam Allardyce: "Outstanding team effort by the players, who have had less time to recover against an exceptionally good side.
"Our application was outstanding and we gave Tottenham a hell of a game in the first half, nip and tuck, but of course it would happen that we would tire given the lack of recovery time compared to Tottenham."
Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino: "It was unbelievable. Very good performance. I think second half we played much better than in the first half. It was difficult in the first half for us to move the ball and find the space but we changed the shape at half time and it was more fluid, we started to find the space and started to push Palace deeper and deeper.
"It was good to get the three points and be alive in the race for the title. The challenge is to keep going. It is always better to win but it is true [the Arsenal game] is a big derby, perhaps the last at White Hart Lane and I think it will be an exciting game."
Eight in a row for Spurs - the stats
• None Spurs have won eight consecutive league games for the first time since October 1960 (13 in a row).
• None Crystal Palace have lost four successive league games against Spurs in the top-flight for the first time since September 1971 (five in a row).
• None Christian Eriksen has had a hand in 16 goals in his last 12 games in all competitions for Tottenham (5 goals, 11 assists).
• None Since his debut in September 2013, Christian Eriksen has scored more Premier League goals from outside the box than any other player (14).
• None Spurs became the third Premier League side to score 100+ goals in all competitions this season after Man City (105) and Arsenal (106).
• None Mousa Dembele became the fourth Belgian player to reach 200 appearances in the Premier League alongside Vincent Kompany, Marouane Fellaini and Simon Mignolet.
• None Crystal Palace have lost seven of their last eight Premier League London derbies on home soil (W1).
It's the big one for Tottenham on Sunday as they host fierce rivals Arsenal in the Premier League (16:30 BST). Crystal Palace, meanwhile, are at home to Burnley in Saturday's evening kick-off (17:30 BST).
• None Attempt blocked. Martin Kelly (Crystal Palace) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Andros Townsend with a cross.
• None Attempt missed. Toby Alderweireld (Tottenham Hotspur) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Ben Davies with a headed pass following a corner.
• None Luka Milivojevic (Crystal Palace) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39164098
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Paula Hawkins' new novel Into The Water confuses critics - BBC News
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2017-04-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The follow-up to The Girl on the Train "doesn't pass the second-book test", according to reviewers.
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Entertainment & Arts
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The Girl on the Train was Paula Hawkins's first novel under her own name
The only problem with writing a debut novel that sells 20 million copies and spawns a Hollywood film is - your follow-up has a lot to live up to.
Paula Hawkins' 2015 debut The Girl on the Train was a publishing phenomenon, and the first reviews for her new book Into The Water are in.
And most critics are not impressed.
Reviewing it for The Guardian, crime author Val McDermid predicted Hawkins' sales would be "massive" but "her readers' enjoyment may be less so".
McDermid was puzzled by the 11 narrative voices used in Into The Water, which is released in the UK next week.
She wrote: "These characters are so similar in tone and register - even when some are in first person and others in third - that they are almost impossible to tell apart, which ends up being both monotonous and confusing."
She added: "Hawkins had a mountain to climb after the success of The Girl on the Train and no doubt the sales of her second thriller will be massive. I suspect her readers' enjoyment may be less so."
Slate's Laura Miller declared that Into the Water "isn't an impressive book".
She wrote: "Its tone is uniformly lugubrious and maudlin, and Hawkins' characters seldom rise to the level of two dimensions, let alone three."
But Miller pointed out: "None of this will necessarily prevent Into the Water from triumphing at the cash register. The book surely will become a best-seller, if only on the strength of residual name recognition for The Girl on the Train."
Janet Maslin wasn't much more enthusiastic in The New York Times.
"If The Girl on the Train seemed overplotted and confusing to some readers, it is a model of clarity next to this latest effort.
"Her goal may be to build suspense, but all she achieves is confusion. Into the Water is jam-packed with minor characters and stories that go nowhere."
She asks: "What happened to the Paula Hawkins who structured The Girl on the Train so ingeniously?"
However, The New Statesman's Leo Robson defended the book, writing: "Most of the time, the novel is plausible and grimly gripping.
"Into the Water follows its predecessor in applying laser scrutiny to a small patch, but there are signs of growth and greater ambition."
He described Hawkins's writing as "addictive", adding that the novel "is on a par with The Girl on a Train".
The film adaptation of The Girl on the Train was released last September
The Evening Standard's David Sexton wrote: "Unfortunately, Into the Water turns out to be hard work."
"There's a ridiculous multiplication of narrators from the start, some first-person, others third, so that on first reading it is almost impossible to keep track of who's who and what relation they have to one another... several of the stories never really cohere."
Marcel Berlins in The Times said: "This novel has its intriguing attributes.
"It does not follow the usual samey fashionable pattern of 'domestic noir' and psychological thrillers. For that Hawkins ought to be commended, even if the result is not a full success.
"She is let down by her overambitious structure and a lack of sufficient tension. Hawkins does not quite pass the second-book test."
Of course, reviews of any kind are unlikely to deter the millions who enjoyed The Girl on the Train.
After all, critics didn't much like the film adaptation of her previous book, starring Emily Blunt, but that didn't stop it being a box office success.
The Girl on the Train was Hawkins' first book under her own name, but she had previously written a string of chick-lit novels under the pen name Amy Silver.
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-39717279
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Joey Barton: FA gave Burnley midfielder 'shortest possible ban' - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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The FA says Joey Barton's 18-month suspension from all football activities is "the shortest possible" ban it could have imposed.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
The Football Association says Joey Barton's 18-month suspension from all football activities was "the shortest possible" ban it could have imposed after he breached rules on gambling.
In the written reasons explaining Wednesday's decision, the FA revealed Barton placed 1,260 bets worth £205,172, at a loss of £16,708.
The 34-year-old Burnley midfielder has admitted he is addicted to gambling.
But the FA said a "dismissive attitude to the rules" was also a factor.
"His addiction may have distorted his thinking in part, but it is not a compete answer for this continued conduct," the FA said.
The governing body acknowledged Barton's "difficulties are compounded by the fact betting is 'everywhere' in sport".
It also said it accepted his betting was "not calculated to make money" which it said "mitigates the gravity of his offending" and that he was not trying to "fix" matches.
"I am not a cheat, I have never tried to influence a game," Barton was quoted as saying.
However, it concluded that "the shortest possible sanction to reflect the totality of his betting breaches was a suspension from football and footballing activity for a period of 18 months".
How was the sanction decided?
The FA said that "for a single bet placed on a participant's own team to lose" its guidelines suggest that a fine and a suspension of six months to life is "appropriate".
Barton placed 15 bets on his own team to lose.
However, the FA said it had not simply calculated the total sanction by multiplying each breach with the suggested ban of six months.
After a hearing that lasted seven hours which "would not have been out of place before the High Court", it said it reached a conclusion that was "reasonable, proportionate and fair".
How much did Barton bet?
How were the bets discovered?
According to the FA, gambling company Betfair - with which Barton was a registered user - contacted them via email in September 2016, highlighting a potential breach of FA rules.
Betfair provided a spreadsheet of Barton's online gambling activity with them, and the FA's investigation was started.
However, Barton was first in breach of the FA's rules on players gambling over the 2005-06 season, when he was a Manchester City player.
In 2012, the FA wrote a letter to him highlighting concerns over him tweeting "predictions" for matches.
Barton tweeted in response that "according to the FA, I am not allowed to give my opinion on results", describing the body as "so out of touch with reality it is untrue".
The pattern of betting since released shows that Barton was gambling on matches he was not allowed to.
But it would appear the FA was not aware of this activity until it was contacted by Betfair.
Barton plans to appeal against the length of the suspension, which he has called "excessive".
His manager at Burnley, Sean Dyche has confirmed that Barton will not be offered a new contract in the summer if the ban remains in place.
The ex-England international was in his second spell at Turf Moor before the ban, having helped the Clarets reach the Premier League in the 2015-16 season.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39738553
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Maria Sharapova is a 'cheater' and should not play tennis again - Eugenie Bouchard - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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The WTA is "sending out the wrong message to kids" by allowing Maria Sharapova to resume her playing career, says 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
"Cheat" Maria Sharapova should not have been allowed to play again, says 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard.
Russian Sharapova has beaten Roberta Vinci and Ekaterina Makarova at the Stuttgart Open on her return from a 15-month doping ban.
In October, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said Sharapova was not an "intentional doper".
But Bouchard said: "She's a cheater and I don't think a cheater in any sport should be allowed to play again."
Canadian Bouchard, 23, now ranked 59th in the world, told TRT World: "I think from the WTA it sends the wrong message to young kids: cheat and we'll welcome you back with open arms.
"I don't think that's right and she's not someone I can say I look up to any more.
"It's so unfair to all the other players who do it in the right way and are true."
When asked about the comments after her win over Makarova, Sharapova said: "I don't have anything to say - I am way above that."
Five-time Grand Slam winner Sharapova, who was suspended in March 2016 after testing positive for meldonium, was given a wildcard for the tournament.
The 30-year-old has also received wildcards for the tournaments in Madrid and Rome and will find out if she has been given one for the French Open on 16 May - 12 days before the competition.
That decision has been defended by WTA chief Steve Simon, who said it was in keeping with how former dopers were treated in other sports.
Sharapova says she would "play in the juniors" if it meant competing in this year's French Open and Wimbledon.
She won her first grand slam title at Wimbledon aged 17 in 2004 and won the last of her five major titles at the French Open in 2014.
The Russian does not have a world ranking after her points expired during her suspension and would need to reach the final in Stuttgart to be eligible for French Open qualifying.
Speaking to BBC Sport, former world number one Sharapova said: "If I get the opportunity to be in a draw then I will take it.
"I'm being offered wildcards from tournament directors and I'm accepting them.
"I'm coming with no ranking and I'm not getting a wildcard to receive a trophy or a golden platter. I have to get through the matches and I still have to win them.
"I've been waiting for this for a long time," she said. "It's the best feeling in the world, those first few seconds before you enter the arena.
"I spent a long time without hitting any balls. I went to school, I grew my business and had a normal life. I put the racquet away for a little bit.
"There were a lot of things that I did that I probably would never have done in my twenties.
"I felt I had to grow as a person and I think I've done that. But this is what I've done for so long. I'm a competitor - that's when I'm at my best."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/39727651
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Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes will use team orders in 'special circumstances' - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes will not impose team orders as a matter of course, but are aware they may be necessary this year.
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Coverage: Practice, qualifying and race on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra (second practice online only). Live text commentary, leaderboard and imagery on BBC Sport website and app.
Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes will not impose team orders as a matter of course, but are aware they may be necessary in the title fight this year.
Team-mate Valtteri Bottas was ordered to move aside so Hamilton could attack eventual winner Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari in the last race in Bahrain.
But Hamilton said ahead of Sunday's Russian Grand Prix: "Our approach is, the team need to win.
"So we have to try to work as a team but only in special circumstances."
Hamilton said he had "never particularly liked" team orders but that the Mercedes drivers were clear about what their responsibilities were during a race.
"We have to make sure we maximise the points for the team through the weekend," Hamilton said. "And our notes in our job description is to win for the team not for yourself.
"If you can't win, it is not the case of not wanting the other car to win. You want the team to win and succeed.
"Mercedes, we want to finish ahead of Ferrari this year and to do that we have work as a team more than ever before."
Hamilton heads into the race at the Olympic Park in Sochi seven points behind Vettel in the championship and 23 - almost a clear win - ahead of Bottas.
But he insisted he would have moved over for Bottas had the roles been reversed in Bahrain.
"I would have reacted the same way as him," Hamilton said.
"He was struggling - he has admitted he was struggling with his rear tyres and when I passed I said to the team: 'If I don't pull away I'll let him back past.' But I did [pull away].
"So I could see Sebastian pulling away and I was like: 'We have to together pick up the pace.' And at the time Valtteri was struggling with the car balance so it made no sense for us both to fall behind and just let them pull away.
"So in that scenario we worked as a team and while it was very tough for him he was great gentleman about it and did the team proud."
Vettel was also asked about the prospect of Ferrari introducing team orders, given he is already 34 points ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.
The four-time champion said: "The way we have raced the last two and a half years has been straightforward. It has been close, sometimes too close. You try to fight your team-mate as well as all the others. But more than anything we know and understand we are racing for Ferrari."
He said he expected Mercedes, who are the only team to lead a lap in any of the three races held so far in Russia, to be tough to beat in Sochi.
"On paper it is a very strong circuit for Mercedes, not just historically, a lot straights, power-sensitive circuit," Vettel said. "We'll see. There is also a lot of corners, where last year the car was already pretty good. If we can be very close to them or even beat them, it would be good.
"We are very happy with the races we had, especially the pace, which has been a match for Mercedes in the races. But this year you need to focus on every single step to stay in the hunt as the cars will evolve through the season. That's where our focus is at the moment."
Bottas said Mercedes had not discussed whether there would come a point where the team had to designate a number one and number two driver in the interests of the title battle.
"We have not had the conversation because there is no need to," said the Finn, who joined Mercedes this season as a replacement for world champion Nico Rosberg, who retired at the end of last season.
"This team has never had number one or two and it is not planning to. It is always trying to give equal chance [to both drivers].
"But what is different is that the gap to the second team in the last few years has been bigger so letting the drivers race has not cost anything.
"I do understand this year it can cost points and if for any reason the pace of the other car is not good, the team has to be clever to not lose points.
"We have only had three races and I feel all my good races are on the way. I am not thinking of anything like that and I am sure the team think there is no need to."
Hamilton, who has won one race to Vettel's two so far this season, said he was optimistic Mercedes could beat Ferrari in Russia.
"If we win, it will be earned, and we are here to earn it," he said. "There are lots of things we are trying to do to combat the strength of the Ferrari and I think we can.
"This is a different track, different tyre wear and we will just have to drive the socks off the car.
"We have to be operating on all cylinders every race because one small drop in percentage and the Ferrari is ahead."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39735743
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'Pawternity' leave - firms with unusual staff benefits - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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From giving staff a week's paid leave to look after their new dog, to the firm that pays towards its employees' weddings.
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Business
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Gia is going to take a week's paid leave to house train her puppy Rye
As anyone who has had a new puppy will understand, 24-year-old Gia Nigro has got her hands full.
Gia, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, is the proud owner of a nine-week-old goldendoodle puppy (a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle) called Rye.
Like any young dog it is going to require a fair amount of training to ensure it becomes housetrained and obedient.
But what can you do if, like Gia, you work full-time, and you don't have any holiday time left to dedicate to your new four-legged friend?
Thankfully for Gia, her employer - Scottish brewer Brewdog - announced a rather unusual new employee perk earlier this year - one week's paid leave for all workers who adopt a puppy or rescue dog.
Unsurprisingly the announcement - which was released to the media in a press release rather than just told to staff - made headlines around the world. Newspaper reports were quick to praise the scheme that Brewdog has dubbed "pawternity" leave.
The pawternity scheme coincided with the opening of Brewdog's new US brewery and bar
However, the more cynical may have wondered whether there was more than a whiff of gimmick to Brewdog's unusual new employee benefit. They may further question whether it was unveiled as "clickbait" to draw attention to a press release that also announced that the company had just opened a new 100,000 sq ft (9,000sq m) North American brewery in Columbus.
Not that Gia, who works at the new facility, has any complaints. "The policy gives me the flexibility to choose when to take a fully paid week off with Rye, which I'll be doing next month to get her fully house trained," she says.
And in defence of Brewdog, it has also always been dog-friendly, and allows employees to take their pets to work with them.
While employee perks are nothing new, they have become both more unusual and headline grabbing in recent years. But why exactly are firms offering them?
Last year New York-based online retailer Boxed was praised when its co-founder and boss Chieh Huang announced that the company would contribute to the cost of employees' weddings.
Mr Huang says he was inspired to start the unusual scheme when he saw one of his employees crying at work because he was struggling to cover the cost of his mother's medical bills and save for his forthcoming wedding.
Boxed worker Marcel Graham (centre, in a hat) cried after being told his wedding would be paid for
"He basically realised that he was just never going to make it work," says Mr Huang, who was immediately inspired to pay for the worker's wedding, and then introduce the company-wide policy.
"The response was overwhelming," says Mr Huang. "There was lots of yelling, high-fiving, and tears of joy.
"I think that day our employees realised that we understand just how much of a commitment they make to us every day, putting in long hours to make this company grow, and that we're willing to make a commitment to them in return. I really think that resonated with them."
While Boxed is a bit cagey about the details, under the scheme it will pay up to $20,000 (£16,000) for weddings, depending on seniority and time with the company.
Boxed will pay up to $20,000 towards an employee's wedding
So far half a dozen Boxed workers have redeemed the perk, and Mr Huang says there are "lots more on the horizon".
He firmly rejects the suggestion that the scheme was introduced simply to garner publicity.
"There are definitely less expensive ways to get media attention," says Mr Huang. "We definitely do not sit around in a room trying to come up with ideas on how to create buzzworthy corporate benefits."
Occupational psychologist Cheryl Isaacs says that having generous employee perks can be a good way for a company to help ensure that it has a contented workforce, and that numerous studies have shown (perhaps unsurprisingly) that happy staff are more productive.
One such recent report into the issue by the University of Warwick found that employee happiness boosted productivity by 12%, while unhappy workers were 10% less productive.
However, London-based Ms Isaacs cautions that the benefits should apply to most employees, and not just a few.
"A deeper question that each individual organisation needs to answer is: does the benefit bring ROI [return on investment']? Will it have any long-lasting benefits for the company?" she says.
Other employee perk schemes that have made the headlines in recent years include Apple and Facebook offering to pay for egg freezing for their female employees, while Netflix allows staff to take up to a year's parental leave.
US firm Zillow pays for female staff to post their breast milk
Meanwhile, US online real estate firm Zillow pays for female employees to post their breast milk if they are working away from home. They introduced the scheme in 2010 after a worker had difficulty getting her container of milk through airport security.
While all these firms say they are trying to help their staff rather than garner positive publicity, Florida-based PR expert Glenn Selig guesses that businesses can often be seeking both.
"Companies can both really mean it - want to improve the lives of their employees, and get their names out there," he says.
"I wouldn't be surprised if in the C suites [at boardroom level] there was some kind of conversation about what kind of benefit can be offered to employees that would also make the company look good, and could generate positive attention."
While Brewdog has a range of staff benefits that don't make the headlines, such as paying staff a guaranteed living wage and generous parental leave, Mr Selig says the "pawternity" scheme is a "really neat idea" from a PR point of view.
"Will it make people buy the beer? I don't know," he says.
"But you might remember it next time you're sitting in a bar and someone mentions Brewdog."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39579540
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Ronnie O'Sullivan says he will not be retiring after World Championship exit - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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Ronnie O'Sullivan says he has no intention of retiring and does not care if he fails to win another World Championship.
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Last updated on .From the section Snooker
Ronnie O'Sullivan says he has no intention of retiring and does not care if he fails to win another World Championship.
The 41-year-old, a five-time winner at the Crucible, was beaten 13-10 by Ding Junhui in a captivating quarter-final.
O'Sullivan was "disappointed" to lose but insisted he enjoyed the tournament and playing in a "fantastic match".
He said: "I love what I do so why would I not do it? The real love is getting your cue out of the case."
But O'Sullivan's season and tournament have been characterised by controversy.
• None O'Sullivan: I won't be bullied or intimidated by game's authorities
Following his first-round win over Gary Wilson, he claimed to have been bullied by snooker bosses, an accusation strongly denied by World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn.
O'Sullivan's gripes with the sport's authorities date back to January when he publicly criticised a referee and swore at a photographer during the Masters.
That Masters victory was the only tournament win for O'Sullivan this season, although he has made three ranking event finals.
At the Crucible, only Steve Davis, a six-time world champion, and Stephen Hendry, a seven-time winner, have more titles.
And one more ranking-event success would also see him move second on the all-time list with 29, seven behind Hendry.
He said: "I have had the best year of my life and have not won many tournaments, and I think 'how does that relate?'
"But I have never been one for chasing records and I won't stop playing because I am not winning tournaments. I will keep playing because I love playing."
The continued growth of the game in the Far East has also presented O'Sullivan with more opportunities.
"I do a lot of exhibitions," he added. "I like to entertain and put on a good show and I like to enjoy myself. In a world where everything is so serious I like to make it fun.
"China has great offers coming through. I hope to spend a lot of time playing in events. I see myself spending more time in China than I do here."
Meanwhile, Hearn - who said O'Sullivan's claims of "bullying and intimidating" were words that were "alien" to him - announced an increase in tour prize money for next season, going up up £12m from the current £10m, with an aim to reach the £20m mark.
The winner of the 2017 World Championship will receive £375,000. That will rise to £425,000 in 2018 and £500,000 the following year.
Hearn also said entry fees for playing in ranking tournaments would be abolished for tour players.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/39726795
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Manchester City 0-0 Manchester United - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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Marouane Fellaini is sent off for headbutting Sergio Aguero as a disappointing Manchester derby ends goalless at Etihad Stadium.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Marouane Fellaini was sent off for headbutting Sergio Aguero as Manchester City and Manchester United fought out an attritional goalless draw at Etihad Stadium to leave their hopes of a place in the Premier League's top four still in the balance.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho will be the happier after they extended their unbeaten league run to 24 games, a feat achieved without Fellaini in the closing stages after he was dismissed for a senseless headbutt on Aguero.
Argentine Aguero came closest for City when he hit the post early on and manager Pep Guardiola was left with an injury concern when keeper Claudio Bravo was taken off on a stretcher after injuring his calf catching a cross in the second half.
City substitute Gabriel Jesus had a later header correctly ruled out for offside as they remain in fourth place, with United a point behind in fifth as both sides have five games remaining.
Bravo's season could be over - Guardiola
In Short - why Mourinho should sign John Terry
Resilient Man Utd still in top four hunt
United had 30.8% possession - their lowest figure in a Premier League game since Opta started recording possession in 2003-04.
But Mourinho's side showed all the qualities that have ensured they have remained unbeaten in the Premier League since October to battle their way to a point here.
United spent much of the game on the back foot and almost the entire second half camped in their own territory, but showed the reserves of resilience, organisation and defiance that compensates for their current lack of stardust.
Michael Carrick provided the solid platform and for the most part City were frustrated, with too many efforts off target or lacking the power to trouble United keeper David de Gea.
United carried real threat in the pace of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial but their midfield lacked the guile to provide the right service.
This result keeps United right in the hunt for the top four as they stand in fifth place, one point behind City and two points behind third-placed Liverpool with a game in hand.
The biggest minus on their night was the crass stupidity of Fellaini, needlessly involved in the incident that saw him thrust his head into the face of Aguero.
Fellaini had been booked 19 seconds earlier for another foul on the City forward and after his red card the Belgian had to be encouraged to leave the field by his team-mates.
This was deja vu for City and Guardiola - so much possession and territory, too little end result.
City created the best chances and effectively spent the second 45 minutes camped in United territory but as on so many occasions this season, including the FA Cup semi-final loss to Arsenal, possession and territory was not turned into scoreline supremacy.
It is a puzzle Guardiola must solve and one which will cause him disquiet given the range of attacking talent at his disposal.
City are still having to fight for that top four place and Guardiola must hope his side discover a ruthless edge, with the return to fitness of Gabriel Jesus sure to help. The Brazilian, signed last year but unable to play until January, was making his first appearance since he was injured playing against Bournemouth on 13 February.
Kompany back to his best
Vincent Kompany's return to form and fitness has been massive bonus for Manchester City and Guardiola - and the 31-year-old who has captained the club to two Premier League titles looked back to his imperious best against Manchester United.
Kompany gives City's defence added power and assurance, as well as leadership, and illustrated again how much he has been missed as he has battled a succession of injuries.
He played only 33 games in 2014-15 and 22 last season, a total that included only 14 league matches, and this was only his 10th appearance this term as the campaign moves into May.
This was the first time in more than a year Kompany has put together a sequence of three successive games and came after a tough 120 minutes in Sunday's FA Cup semi-final defeat by Arsenal at Wembley.
Kompany is providing quality for the present and may also give Guardiola food for thought when he makes his summer transfer plans, which are almost certain to include a move for another central defender, with Southampton's Virgil van Dijk and Burnley's Michael Keane among those linked with a switch to Etihad Stadium.
United see red again - the stats
• None Seven of the eight red cards given in this Premier League fixture have been to Manchester United players.
• None Sergio Aguero attempted nine shots in this match. The last player to attempt more in a competitive game against the Red Devils was Cristiano Ronaldo (11) for Real Madrid in a Champions League match back in March 2013.
• None This equals the most shots that Aguero has attempted in a Premier League game without scoring (9) - level with his appearance versus West Brom in March 2015.
• None The two occasions that Manchester United have allowed their opponents the most shots in a Premier League game this season have both been against Man City (18 at Old Trafford and 19 tonight).
• None United have equalled their record for the longest unbeaten run within a single top-flight season - 24 games, level with 2010-11.
• None City have now failed to score in four of their last five Manchester derbies in all competitions.
Manchester City will climb above Liverpool, who don't play until Monday, if they win at relegation-threatened Middlesbrough on Sunday (14:05 BST), while Manchester United host struggling Swansea City at Old Trafford on the same day (12:00 BST).
• None Attempt missed. Sergio Agüero (Manchester City) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box misses to the left. Assisted by Kevin De Bruyne with a cross.
• None Offside, Manchester City. Sergio Agüero tries a through ball, but Gabriel Jesus is caught offside.
• None Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Marouane Fellaini (Manchester United) is shown the red card for violent conduct.
• None Marouane Fellaini (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39018821
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France says City at risk post-Brexit - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The French finance minister tells the BBC that euro-denominated financial services activity will need to move to the continent.
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Business
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One of the most important sectors at the heart of the Brexit negotiations will be financial services.
As Mark Carney said, London is "effectively, the investment banker for Europe" and the City is the financial capital of the European Union.
Nearly 80% of foreign exchange trading and 30% of all bank lending in the EU flows through the UK.
How much that will change after Britain leaves the European Union is a matter of increasingly tense debate.
In the UK, very senior figures within the financial services sector argue that it is "nonsensical" to argue that after Brexit, large amounts of euro-denominated trading should move on to the continent.
They point out that significant amounts of dollar-trading are executed through London - and neither the EU nor the UK has a single-market agreement with the US.
Many on the continent of Europe see it differently, saying that financial oversight will only be possible if euro-trading valued in trillions of pounds a year is put under the direct jurisdiction of European Union-based regulators.
The biggest sector seen at risk is euro-denominated clearing, the billions of pounds worth of derivatives products traded every day to insure companies, for example, against interest rate changes, currency fluctuations and inflation risk.
Michel Sapin, the French finance minister, told the BBC that it was a question of control.
"I believe that there is an issue of sovereignty and security of European monetary markets and therefore the majority of the clearing houses cannot remain in London," he told me.
"There will be movement, there will be a displacement and actually many of the financial institutions are already preparing themselves towards that."
Many believe that if the trading moves, jobs will move as well.
"I don't see how it could be a good thing for the City," Mr Sapin said.
"The City will remain a large financial centre, will remain important for Europe as well as for the rest of the world.
"But the security of the monetary system is something that's of vital importance for any given country or any given groupings of countries - such as the case of the eurozone countries."
Hundreds of billions of pounds of trades will be at stake.
At the moment, the two sides - the UK and the EU - appear a long way apart.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39716951
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Wives wanted in the Faroe Islands - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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There's a shortage of women in the Faroe Islands. So men are increasingly seeking wives from Thailand and the Philippines.
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Magazine
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Athaya Slaetalid with husband Jan and their son Jacob
There's a shortage of women in the Faroe Islands. So local men are increasingly seeking wives from further afield - Thailand and the Philippines in particular. But what's it like for the brides who swap the tropics for this windswept archipelago?
When Athaya Slaetalid first moved from Thailand to the Faroe Islands, where winter lasts six months, she would sit next to the heater all day:
"People told me to go outside because the sun was shining but I just said: 'No! Leave me alone, I'm very cold.'"
Moving here six years ago was tough for Athaya at first, she admits. She'd met her husband Jan when he was working with a Faroese friend who had started a business in Thailand.
Jan knew in advance that bringing his wife to this very different culture, weather and landscape would be challenging.
"I had my concerns, because everything she was leaving and everything she was coming to were opposites," he admits. "But knowing Athaya, I knew she would cope."
There are now more than 300 women from Thailand and Philippines living in the Faroes. It doesn't sound like a lot, but in a population of just 50,000 people they now make up the largest ethnic minority in these 18 islands, located between Norway and Iceland.
In recent years the Faroes have experienced population decline, with young people leaving, often in search of education, and not returning. Women have proved more likely to settle abroad. As a result, according to Prime Minister Axel Johannesen, the Faroes have a "gender deficit" with approximately 2,000 fewer women than men.
This, in turn, has lead Faroese men to look beyond the islands for romance. Many, though not all, of the Asian women met their husbands online, some through commercial dating websites. Others have made connections through social media networks or existing Asian-Faroese couples.
For the new arrivals, the culture shock can be dramatic.
Officially part of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Faroes have their own language (derived from Old Norse) and a very distinctive culture - especially when it comes to food. Fermented mutton, dried cod and occasional whale meat and blubber are typical of the strong flavours here, with none of the traditional herbs and spices of Asian cooking.
And, although it never gets as cold as neighbouring Iceland, the wet, cool climate is a challenge for many people. A good summer's day would see the temperature reach 16°C.
Athaya is a confident woman with a ready smile who now works in the restaurant business in Torshavn, the Faroese capital. She and Jan share a cosy cottage on the banks of a fjord surrounded by dramatic mountains. But she's honest about how difficult swapping countries was at first.
"When our son Jacob was a baby, I was at home all day with no-one to talk to," she says.
"The other villagers are older people and mostly don't speak English. People our age were out at work and there were no children for Jacob to play with. I was really alone. When you stay at home here, you really stay at home. I can say I was depressed. But I knew it would be like that for two or three years."
Then, when Jacob started kindergarten, she began working in catering and met other Thai women.
"That was important because it gave me a network. And it gave me a taste of home again."
Krongrak Jokladal felt isolated at first, too, when she arrived from Thailand. Her husband Trondur is a sailor and works away from home for several months at a time.
She started her own Thai massage salon in the centre of Torshavn. "You can't work regular hours with a baby, and although my parents-in-law help out with childcare, running the business myself means I can choose my hours," she says.
It's a far cry from Krongrak's previous job as head of an accountancy division in Thai local government.
But she is unusual in that she runs her own business. Even for many highly educated Asian women in the Faroes, the language barrier means they have to take lower-level work.
Axel Johannesen, the prime minister, says helping the newcomers overcome this is something the government takes seriously.
"The Asian women who have come in are very active in the labour market, which is good," he says. "One of our priorities is to help them learn Faroese, and there are government programmes offering free language classes."
Kristjan Arnason recalls the effort his Thai wife Bunlom, who arrived in the Faroes in 2002, put into learning the language.
"After a long day at work she would sit reading the English-Faeroese dictionary," he says. "She was extraordinarily dedicated."
"I was lucky," Bunlom adds. "I told Kristjan that if I was moving here he had to find me a job. And he did, and I was working with Faeroese people in a hotel so I had to learn how to talk to them."
In an age when immigration has become such a sensitive topic in many parts of Europe, Faeroes society seems remarkably accepting of foreign incomers.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Chuen and Karsten have been married for just over a year. They met on a dating website called Thai Cupid.
"I think it helps that the immigrants we have seen so far are mostly women," says local politician Magni Arge, who also sits in the Danish parliament, "They come and they work and they don't cause any social problems.
"But we've seen problems when you have people coming from other cultures into places like the UK, in Sweden and in other parts of Europe - even Denmark. That's why we need to work hard at government level to make sure we don't isolate people and have some kind of sub-culture developing."
But Antonette Egholm, originally from the Philippines, hasn't encountered any anti-immigrant sentiment. I met her and her husband as they moved into a new flat in Torshavn.
"People here are friendly, she explains, "and I've never experienced any negative reactions to my being a foreigner. I lived in metro Manila and there we worried about traffic and pollution and crime. Here we don't need to worry about locking the house, and things like healthcare and education are free. At home we have to pay. And here you can just call spontaneously at someone's house, it's not formal. For me, it feels like the Philippines in that way."
Likewise, her husband Regin believes increasing diversity is something that should be welcomed not feared.
"We actually need fresh blood here," he adds, "I like seeing so many children now who have mixed parentage. Our gene pool is very restricted, and it's got to be a good thing that we welcome outsiders who can have families."
He acknowledges that he's had occasional ribbing from some male friends who jokingly ask if he pressed "enter" on his computer to order a wife. But he denies he and Antonette have encountered any serious prejudice as a result of their relationship.
Athaya Slaetalid tells me that some of her Thai friends have asked why she doesn't leave her small hamlet, and move to the capital, where almost 40% of Faroe Islanders now live. They say Jacob would have more friends there.
"No, I don't need to do that," she says. "I'm happy here now, not just surviving but making a life for our family.
"Look," she says, as we step into the garden overlooking the fjord. "Jacob plays next to the beach. He is surrounded by hills covered in sheep and exposed to nature. And his grandparents live just up the road. There is no pollution and no crime. Not many kids have that these days. This could be the last paradise on earth."
Tim Ecott is the author of Stealing Water, Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World and Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Luscious Substance.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39703486
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Mamadou Sakho: Sam Allardyce hopeful on Crystal Palace defender's injury - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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Crystal Palace boss Sam Allardyce hopes to have defender Mamadou Sakho back before the end of the season but admits the player's injury could turn out to be serious.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Crystal Palace boss Sam Allardyce hopes to have on-loan Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho back before the end of the season - but admits the player may have suffered a serious injury.
Sakho was carried off during Palace's 1-0 defeat to Tottenham on Wednesday.
He fell awkwardly after challenging Spurs striker Harry Kane for the ball in the second half.
The 27-year-old joined Palace in January, signing on loan until the end of the season.
Allardyce, who had said after the game he suspected it was "ligament trouble", said on Thursday: "I'd like to think it is not serious and he will get back before the end of the season but I'm not sure.
"We are unable to say what the extent of the injury is at the moment. It didn't look to clever the way the knee hyperextended.
"Let's wait for the scan, will probably have to contact Liverpool depending on how serious the damage is. We can't speculate on if, when and how and the seriousness of the injury."
Sakho has made eight appearances for Crystal Palace, helping them move up to 12th and seven points clear of the relegation zone.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39727957
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'Strong and stable' - Why politicians keep repeating themselves - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The Tories crammed 16 mentions of their election slogan into Prime Minister's Questions - does the tactic work?
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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. The prime minister sticks relentlessly to her "strong and stable" slogan
As the general election approaches, MPs start to repeat themselves. Over and over again. In every interview. Why do they do it?
The final Prime Minister's Questions before the general election had just finished when an exasperated Paul Flynn asked the Speaker whether a microchip had been planted into Tory MPs that makes them say the words "strong and stable" every 18 seconds.
The veteran Labour MP had a point - the Conservatives' slogan had just been used 16 times, including a hat-trick of mentions inside a single question by backbencher Michael Fabricant.
In the 10 days since the general election was announced (with a speech outside 10 Downing Street containing three "strong and stables"), it's cropped up 25 times in the House of Commons.
It's also been crowbarred into interviews by Tory MPs and ministers, repeated in speeches and tweeted endlessly.
Mrs May used it seconds into her first stump speech of the campaign, in Bolton - and then, in case anyone missed it, another 11 times.
Rival parties have attempted to turn the tactic on its head and use it in their attacks on the government.
So why are we subjected to such a barrage?
Some MPs have found creative ways to plug their slogan
Things can get a bit surreal on the campaign trail
A clue lies in the calculation by Barack Obama's campaign manager Jim Messina, who has reportedly been hired by Theresa May's election team. He has said voters only spent four minutes a week thinking about politics.
So politicians keep saying their key messages in the hope that they will squeeze into that four-minute window.
As a result, anyone tasked with following campaigns in detail ends up repeating phrases like "long-term economic plan" and "cost of living crisis" in their sleep.
"You have to do it over and over again," says Tony Blair's former director of communications Lance Price.
"It doesn't matter that journalists are sick and tired of hearing it - the point is that voters have to hear it a lot before it sinks into their subconscious and starts to have some resonance."
A phrase doesn't need to mean much, he thinks.
Tony Blair's team championed the "on message" campaign style
"Blair would say 'the future, not the past' - which was almost completely meaningless, but he said it over and over again and it portrayed the Tories as harking back to the past, while Labour was shiny and new."
It's safe to say that Jeremy Corbyn, who promised a "new kind of politics" on becoming leader, has not followed the New Labour playbook.
He tested out some punchy phrases in that final PMQs (saying the Tories were "strong against the weak and weak against the strong") but Labour has so far not adopted the relentless repetition approach.
PR expert Mark Borkowski is not impressed by what he calls "simplified electioneering", saying that while people might be "hypnotised by the repetitive, simple nature of it", it could increase cynicism about politicians among voters who have had enough of elections.
"It's fashionable to think they can control the message with a single word, but I think people want more," he said.
"If anything it's going to do more to perpetuate election ennui."
He's not alone in wishing for more substantial speeches.
"The party machine is too risk-averse to countenance real speech," complained classics professor Mary Beard before the last general election.
"In ancient Greece and Rome, on the other hand, the art of rhetoric was at the heart of political life.
"Recapturing some of that lost art might be a good idea, and might get us beyond pretty much indistinguishable soundbites."
But for Mr Borkowski, the US election, and Donald Trump's promise to "make America great again", is helping shape this campaign.
"Everybody seems to be completely obsessed with the success of Trump," he says.
"Although people won't admit it, they are very close to actually mimicking what they think was successful for him."
We won't know for another six weeks what has worked for the UK's political leaders - which leaves plenty of time for more "strong and stables" to be hurled our way.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39730467
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Why nobody seems to know if crime is up or down - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The latest figures show crime appears to be rising on one measure, but are largely static on another.
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UK
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Back in 1993, a rapidly rising Tony Blair caught the public's attention by pledging to be "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime".
Liverpool toddler Jamie Bulger had been murdered and violence would soon peak at around four million incidents a year. Records show the public were really worried about crime.
Another big story that year was the creation of the European Single Market - and nowhere near the same number of people were bothered about that.
How times change. Today, more than half of those polled say the EU is one of the most important issue facing Britain today. Only 8% are concerned by crime.
But the latest release of data from the Office for National Statistics includes some potentially worrying signs ahead of an election where crime is almost certainly not going to figure highly in the minds of voters, let alone the parties after their vote.
For years, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), the main and most comprehensive measure of what crime people say they experience, has been charting a long-term fall in offences which is consistent with what's been happening in every other comparable nation.
The CSEW says that traditional crime is broadly static at just over six million offences in the year to December 2016. When you add to that experimental data on cyber and fraud, it comes to 11.5m crimes.
There are holes in the CSEW that are difficult to fill - it doesn't cover all types of victims and all types of offences and only recently began asking people about fraud and computer-related crime. But, broadly speaking, it's considered to be a good measure of the long-term trends.
At the same time, police recorded crime has gone up to 4.8m offences - a rise of 9% - and it has seen rises in both serious violence and "traditional" offences such as burglary and robbery.
Those figures - the data collected from what coppers actually know - have been having a torrid time.
There have been a series of revamps and changes in methodology amid concerns that not all forces are recording accurately what's going on - particularly in relation to violence.
The resulting data still isn't considered to be 100% trust-worthy as a "national statistic".
And just to further confuse the picture, there's an entirely independent and highly regarded measure of violence from hospitals that says it has been falling substantially.
So that's as clear as mud. What's going on?
Some of the 9% increase in police recorded crime is almost certainly down to changes in how things are being recorded, but the ONS also stresses that those tweaks can't account for all of the change
On violence, the CSEW estimates there were 29 incidents per 1,000 people - a 4% rise on last year which may not be statistically significant (there are always blips up and down in data).
Police on the other hand recorded a 19% rise in all violent offences - up to 1.1m incidents over the same year.
While the overwhelming number of violent incidents result in either no or minor physical injury, there are some concerning rises with guns and knives.
Firearms offences went up 13%, although all incidents involving guns are still down almost 50% on a decade ago.
Knife crime has gone up 14% during the last year, returning to levels last seen six years ago when it became a political and policing priority.
Both of these rises have already been concerning chief constables, with the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick saying tackling these offences may define her tenure.
As for fraud and cyber crimes, there are some more concerning figures here. The crime survey hasn't yet collected two complete years of data on these offences - but statisticians already think that it's a rising trend based on other sources.
There were about 5.4m fraud offences in the year to December, with almost 2m of those being computer related, such as online scams or malware used to trick people into providing access to their online accounts.
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau recorded a 4% increase in offences, but it's not quite clear what's going on nationwide because not all victims come forward. And, just as seriously, not all police forces are geared up to understand what's going on in their patch.
This raises real strategic resources questions for the police: while your average detective knows a thing or two about gathering fingerprints and tracking burglars - spreadsheets and malware are a totally different world.
Marian Fitzgerald, a leading criminologist at the University of Kent, says crime stats have become "a dog's breakfast".
She argues that not only has the crime survey failed to properly inform the public about the emergence of new types of crimes, the police have been caught massaging figures under pressure from successive governments.
"I think the police figures stabilised after the outcry in 2014 when the police were shown to have been fiddling their figures, particularly in relation to violence and sexual offences," says Professor Fitzgerald.
"Any rises that we are seeing now are genuine. Improvements [to police recording practices] stabilised a long time ago."
So is society becoming more criminal, more dangerous? The ONS is working on ways to assess the impact of crime, including a measure of the severity that different crimes cause: an attempted break-in to a shed to nick a lawn mower is wholly different to an act of violent domestic abuse.
Tom Gash, an author and former Whitehall adviser on crime, says: "If you take a centuries-long perspective, [the figures ] are great news. There have been radical changes in the reduction of violence in modern society.
"You could discount [the most recent figures] and say it is a very short-term thing, but the thing that worries me is that this is a rise in violent crime that emulates the US.
"The crime drop in America preceded the crime drop we saw here.
"The truth is we don't really know what's going on. We're not sure if this has been caused by cuts in policing or mental health or youth services, or some broader societal factor that we haven't yet worked out."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39735068
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Anthony Joshua v Wladimir Klitschko: Is Briton the perfect heavyweight? - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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Going into his biggest sporting test, Anthony Joshua seems to possess everything the archetypal champion should, writes Tom Fordyce.
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Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live from 21:00 BST and text updates on the BBC Sport website and app from 20:00 BST.
A crowd of 90,000 around the ring at Wembley, a million more on pay-per-view at home, an opponent who has been in more world title fights than he has professional bouts.
Little about Saturday's heavyweight showdown with Wladimir Klitschko should leave Anthony Joshua as unnaturally calm as he appears to be. But the kid from Watford turned IBF world champion stands in a sweet eddy in his division's turbulent waters - the past all promise, the future more auspicious still.
Heavyweight boxing is so often about hope and hype above authenticity, delusion rather than cold reality.
Punters come back not because so many title fights prove unforgettable, but for the promise that the next really will be - repeat experiences of disappointing champions, meaningless titles and badly made matches pushed away by the beguiling possibility of what might yet lie ahead.
Joshua - 18 fights and less than a cumulative two ring hours into a professional career that followed hard on a late start and rapid progression - goes to Wembley defined by the same heady mix of promise and possibility: that at 27 he has too much speed and power for the 41-year-old Klitschko, that his rapid improvement will continue at the same steep pace, that he could yet prove the perfect heavyweight at an imperfect time for the most captivating class of all.
For the Joshua of today - hours before the biggest test of his sporting life - appears to have everything the archetypal champion should possess.
• None Ali? Lewis? Klitschko? Which heavyweight great are you?
There is his physique: big without being bulky, powerful but explosive, a little reminiscent of Ken Norton through his mid-70s trilogy with Muhammad Ali.
There is the back story: just the right amount of jeopardy, on remand in Reading prison and later caught in possession of eight ounces of cannabis, before a classical conversion to boxing via a dedicated cousin and grassroots coach, winning the last home gold medal of Great Britain's historic haul on the very last day of the 2012 Olympics.
There is the unpretentiousness of a man who still lives much of the time with his mother, Yeta, in Golders Green, north London. He has prepared for Saturday night with a three-month training camp at the same unglamorous English Institute of Sport in Sheffield that was both home to fellow Olympic champion Dame Jess Ennis-Hill and where he trained under coach Rob McCracken in the build-up to those London Games.
There is enough easy charisma to attract both boxing acolytes and cynics, enough charm to stop for every selfie without making it look like a conscious exercise in personal marketing, sufficient understanding of where he has come from to recently gift that first coach at the Finchley & District Amateur Boxing Club, Sean Murphy, a brand new BMW with personalised plates.
And there are the knockouts. Eighteen in 18 pro fights, 13 of them inside the first three rounds.
People don't pay big money for heavyweight fights to see them go the distance. Nobody turned up to watch Mike Tyson look technically neat for 12 rounds. Lots have decried Klitschko for his sensible strategies.
They go to see it end as quickly as possible, the sudden termination worth more than a drawn-out dance. It is the only sport where punters are more satisfied the less they see.
As Joshua said when bumping into a beaming Jose Mourinho backstage at the O2 arena a year ago after taking the IBF heavyweight title from Charles Martin with a second-round knockout: "People want to see blood, uh?"
That was the first fight Mourinho had ever been to - another illustration of Joshua's rare draw, with the Manchester United manager's star-struck grin one more. Joshua looked as relaxed as if he was shaking hands with a steward, his composure as unbroken as it had been in the ring.
All possibilities, all promises. All pointers to a special future and a place amongst the elite.
And yet so little of it can be guaranteed this early in his entry into a brutal business, not when the challenges will keep coming in different shapes and guises both on Saturday and beyond.
• None 'Father Time has caught up with Klitschko'
There is no obvious nastiness about Joshua, his behaviour in the build-up to this fight is in contrast to that of fellow Britons David Haye and Tyson Fury in their own battles with Klitschko. In traditional boxing parlance that is a flaw rather than a strength. Villains sell tickets. Bad guys get paid to be bad.
When you've sold 90,000 tickets on the appeal of your other attributes that may be less of a worry than it would be for other fighters.
But there are still great unknowns amid the allure. How might a man who didn't box until after his 18th birthday fare against an opponent who has been fighting in front of stadium sellouts for decades? How will a kid who was seven years old when Klitschko made his professional debut cope with an atmosphere that British boxing has never seen before?
Klitschko is now 41 years old. He was soundly beaten by Fury and hasn't fought in the 16 months since. But he has held all three world titles and lost only four out of 68 professional fights.
When Joshua last felt real pressure - in his grudge match against Dillian Whyte - the composure sometimes slipped. In his rush to finish it, he was almost finished himself.
"There is a chance that Josh could be completely out of his depth," says his promoter Eddie Hearn, before adding: "And there is a chance he could be the fighter we believe he is, and he goes out there and dismantles Klitschko. No-one really knows - and that's the beauty of the fight."
Can Joshua handle the unexpected explosive punch? Maybe very few heavyweights can. Ask Lennox Lewis about that night in Carnival City Casino and the impact of Hasim Rahman's right hand.
Maybe the rumours of Joshua being dropped in sparring are just that, or that he is not a gym fighter, or that he needs the challenge of a big fight to bring out his best. Maybe it doesn't matter that only twice in his professional career has he gone beyond the third round.
"Professional fighters - we're not gods, we're not superheroes," he has said. "We are just human and we make mistakes."
At this moment, Joshua has both a burgeoning aura of invincibility and the character outside the ring to match it. He is also at his tipping point between relative fame inside sport and a leap - should he triumph at Wembley - into the wider public consciousness.
"If it's all fake, people will soon figure it out," he has said. "Just be yourself."
The one-time bricklayer believes it. He also admitted recently that he is aiming to become boxing's first billionaire. Both that and the extravagance of his recent escapades on holiday in Dubai pointed to a possible contradiction between the two positions. Few intend to change when they pass through that tipping point - but when the world around you changes, you tend to adjust to it.
It is all part of the fascination with Joshua, all part of that same magic blend of prospect and probability.
Nothing has been lost, everything is still possible. Boxing still feels fresh to him, its fascination bright, his love of its nuances and enthusiasm for its punishing routines undimmed.
And so we wait, hoping again, drawn in once more by rich promise and real talent - and, of course, a little hype.
Get all the latest boxing news leading up to the Joshua-Klitschko fight, sent straight to your device with notifications in the BBC Sport app. Find out more here.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/39708572
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Boris Johnson's sister Rachel 'joins the Lib Dems' - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Rachel Johnson reportedly had talks about standing as an election candidate for the anti-Brexit party.
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UK Politics
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Boris Johnson's sister Rachel has joined the Liberal Democrats to fight against a "hard Brexit", according to Channel 4 News.
Ms Johnson reportedly had talks with the party about standing at the general election for them in a target seat.
But she was unable to do so because of a rule requiring candidates to have been members for at least a year.
Her brother, the foreign secretary, played a leading role in the campaign to get the UK to leave the EU.
But their father, Stanley, a former MEP, and Tory MP brother Jo all backed Remain.
Writing in her column in the Mail on Sunday last June, Ms Johnson said the EU referendum result made her daughter cry, while her son's friends were blaming Boris for "stealing our futures". Brexit "feels wrong to my stomach", she wrote.
She has previously revealed that she joined the Conservatives in 2008, inspired by a dinner party discussion with David Cameron in Notting Hill, but left in 2011 complaining she was treated "like the brainwashed member of a cult".
The Lib Dems are campaigning against a "hard Brexit" that would take the UK out of the single market and end free movement of people - and for a second referendum on the terms of any Brexit deal reached with the EU.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39739546
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Joey Barton: 18-month ban adds more controversy to complex career - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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A player as controversial and contradictory as Joey Barton was never going to leave the game quietly - Phil McNulty reflects on a career now seemingly at an end.
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Joey Barton was never destined to leave football by going quietly into the sunset - so it should come as no surprise that one of the game's most complex, contradictory and divisive personalities has effectively been forced into retirement by an 18-month Football Association suspension for betting offences.
The 34-year-old has travelled a troubled and tempestuous road since emerging as a talented youngster at Manchester City, earning one England cap and a career full of headlines while also playing for Newcastle United, Queen's Park Rangers, Marseille, Rangers and Burnley.
The headline on Barton's personal website reads: "Footballer. Question Time Guest. Philosophy Student. Future Coach. Fluent French Speaker. What Has Become Of Me?"
Many will wonder what will be become of Barton after his ban, £30,000 fine and warning about his future conduct after accepting he placed 1,260 bets on matches between 26 March 2006 and 13 May 2016.
What is certain is that it is highly unlikely football has heard the last of an outspoken controversialist who mixes intelligence with a self-destructive streak that has too often disguised a player of genuine talent.
Barton comes from the same Huyton area of Merseyside that produced former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard - a tough, uncompromising part of the world that shapes characters.
He survived rejection by his beloved Everton to emerge at Manchester City, where his ability after making his debut against Bolton Wanderers on 5 April 2003 made him stand out.
Barton's constant courting of controversy, however, often overshadowed what he offered the team. It was a strand that has run through his career.
He picked up his first red card in an FA Cup fourth-round tie at Tottenham in 2004 and later demonstrated his rebellious streak by storming away from the stadium after being dropped by then City manager Kevin Keegan for a game against Southampton.
The more serious problems came off the field when he was fined six weeks' wages, with two weeks suspended, for stubbing a cigar out in the eye of young team-mate Jamie Tandy at City's Christmas party. Tandy later sued Barton and won £65,000 in damages.
Barton was also fined eight weeks' wages after being found guilty of gross misconduct following a confrontation with a teenage Everton fan at the team hotel in Bangkok on a pre-season tour in summer 2005.
In May 2007 he was suspended by City after a training ground altercation left team-mate Ousmane Dabo needing hospital treatment. He was charged with assault, receiving a four-month suspended jail sentence on 1 July 2008 as well as being ordered to perform 200 hours of community service and pay £3,000 in compensation to Dabo. He was also banned for 12 matches, six suspended, by the FA and fined £25,000.
Barton made his one England appearance while at City, a 12-minute appearance as a substitute against Spain in February 2007. He was linked with a recall in 2011 but then-manager Fabio Capello wrote him off, saying: "He is a good but dangerous player because you could end up 10 v 11."
It was the old, old story. The talent was obvious. The temperament too risky.
Barton joined Newcastle United in June 2007 for £5.8m but was arrested on 27 December 2007 after an incident in Liverpool city centre. He was charged with common assault and affray, and subsequently jailed for six months on 20 May 2008 after admitting the charges.
He served 77 days of his prison term and also continued to suffer on-field disciplinary problems, drawing heavy criticism from then-Newcastle manager Alan Shearer after being sent off for a late challenge on Liverpool's Xabi Alonso in May 2009 as the Magpies fought for their Premier League life.
Barton was suspended by the club and the misery was compounded by Newcastle's subsequent relegation.
He stayed with Newcastle but his career on Tyneside concluded amid acrimony in August 2011 after contract talks broke down and Barton aired his frustrations on social media, tweeting: "Somewhere in those high echelons of NUFC they have decided I am persona non grata."
Barton then joined QPR but an unfulfilling spell - which included a sending-off at former club City on the day the hosts won the Premier League so dramatically in 2012 - ended with a loan move to Marseille in France.
QPR were relegated in his absence, but even far afield Barton could not escape controversy, receiving a two-match suspended ban for likening Paris St-Germain defender Thiago Silva to an "overweight ladyboy" on Twitter.
Barton's first spell at Burnley was an unqualified success as they won promotion to the Premier League and he was included in the 2016 PFA Championship team of the year, but a short stint in Scotland at Rangers turned into a nightmare.
He was suspended for three weeks following a training-ground row with team-mate Andy Halliday after a 5-1 loss at Celtic and his contract was terminated in November.
Now, after his latest collision with authority, it is hard to see him back on the field again.
Barton's reputation is as contrary as it is controversial - listen to interviews and an eloquent, thoughtful character can be detected amid the outspoken statements that have attracted such adverse publicity.
There were those at Manchester City, in particular, eager to highlight this other side of Barton. They spoke about an individual with very obvious personal issues who also had a softer side, as well as a bright and intelligent manner at odds with the public perception of an unsavoury, ill-disciplined individual.
Barton's reputation as a midfield enforcer on the field often obscured the natural gifts that saw him represent his country and command much interest when he came on the transfer market.
The man regarded as too dangerous to play for England reported from Rio during the 2014 World Cup, penning an article for his website on 'Social Media, Protest, And The Pacification Of The Favelas'.
Even to those of us who do not know him personally, it is clear there is much more to Barton than meets the public eye.
He was invited to appear on the BBC's flagship political programme Question Time in May 2014, although he admitted first-night nerves led to him being accused of sexism when he likened choosing a political party to making a choice "between four really ugly girls".
It was a sign of his status as someone with something to say that he was asked to be a panellist and an indication that Barton was always keen to operate on a broader front than simply football.
Barton was a guest of the Oxford Union in March 2014, where he was invited to debate philosophy, football and social media at the university. His appearance was later described as "inspirational" by students.
And he can be a character who, for all the lurid publicity, draws loyalty and affection - as demonstrated by Burnley manager Sean Dyche's willingness to take him back into the fold at Turf Moor.
Dyche prides himself on a tight-knit, trouble free, well-disciplined dressing room, so it was testimony to his high regard for Barton that he welcomed him back this season despite the player leaving Turf Moor for that ill-fated spell at Rangers following promotion back into the Premier League.
Only last week Barton displayed his enthusiasm for engaging in community work on the club's behalf, spending time with patients at the local Pendleside Hospice.
Barton, for all the noise surrounding him, was seen as a leader and a mature, experienced voice at Burnley during their promotion season. It was a far cry from undergoing anger management in 2005 and also completing a programme of behavioural management at the Sporting Chance clinic, set up to help troubled sportsmen and women.
If Barton the man is a mass of contradictions, the same could be said of some of his opinions.
Barton was embarrassed earlier this season when he dived theatrically after a clash with Matt Rhead at Turf Moor as Burnley slumped out of the FA Cup to non-league Lincoln City.
He soon found himself reminded of his own former stance on the subject via a tweet from February 2013 that had stated: "Players who roll around when nobody touches them should be subsequently banned. I hate cheats. Authorities should address it."
British boxer Carl Frampton tweeted that Barton should have been "embarrassed and ashamed".
Barton is also prepared to fly in the face of conventional wisdom, often at the risk of ridicule, as when he recently questioned the current praise of Chelsea's Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year N'Golo Kante.
He said of a player on course for a second successive title with Chelsea after Leicester's triumph last season, and enjoying successes Barton could only dream about: "At the moment, in England, people only swear by N'Golo Kante. It's the fashion.
"For pundits he's the best midfield player in the world. Oh, he's very good but I played against him three weeks ago and that's not the case. He's a fantastic destroyer in a phenomenal team but not a creator."
So what has become of Joey Barton?
Barton has divided opinion throughout his career - and he was at it again in what was effectively his retirement statement when he said: "If the FA is serious about tackling gambling, I would urge it to reconsider its own dependence on the gambling industry."
He was referring to the links between betting chain Ladbrokes and the FA Cup.
It was a view that, yet again, polarised feelings. Was Barton making a valid point or simply trying to absolve himself from blame for breaking clear FA rules?
If this is the end of Barton's career, it is one that will be remembered with distaste by many and yet he creates interest to such an extent that he has 3.25 million followers on Twitter. He has achieved notoriety, but also plenty of interest, with his opinions on sport, politics and society and the occasional dabble in homespun philosophy.
He is prepared to lay bare his own shortcomings with gambling in his most recent statement and yet is regarded by his many detractors as someone simply excusing himself for more wrongdoing.
For all his faults - and his timeline of trouble hints at many - Barton is an intelligent, but clearly flawed man.
Will there yet be more chapters in Barton's contrary, controversial, eventful story?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39724535
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'My vision is like looking through a straw' - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Molly Watt was born severely deaf but as a teenager discovered she was going blind too.
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Disability
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Teenage years can be fraught with dilemmas. But what if you are deaf and fast losing your sight too?
Molly Watt was born severely deaf and learned to lip read. But, at the age of 12, she was diagnosed with Usher syndrome, a degenerative disease which causes sight and hearing loss.
Now aged 22 she has just 5% of sight left in one eye.
"My vision is like looking through a straw," she says.
"There's lots of flashing lights in my 'good' bit and I just have to learn to avoid them. On a bad day, I don't see a lot at all.
"The worst case scenario for any deaf person is to lose their sight. Usher syndrome is not a death sentence but it is incredibly challenging. Without awareness and appropriate support, it is easy to fall into depression and despair - I've been there."
The loss of Molly's sight was rapid, and within two years of being diagnosed she was registered blind.
"My parents knew about my Usher syndrome diagnosis on the day, however, I was unaware of the seriousness of the condition. It wasn't until I was experiencing the deterioration in my vision that I started asking more questions.
"By the age of 15 I did my own research and that's when I first saw the word 'blind'. It's difficult to accept losing any sense but so much worse when it is the one you most rely on."
Usher syndrome is the most common cause of deafblindness and impacts mobility and balance and can lead to depression. The term 'deafblind' refers to a spectrum of hearing and sight loss.
Emma Boswell, the national coordinator from the charity Sense, says there is not an average age for people being diagnosed with Usher, although assessments for cochlear implants now include an eye test which has increased the speed of diagnosis.
"When a person finds out about their diagnosis, it can be very frightening, upsetting and presents an unknown future," she says. "Some parents won't tell their child as they want to keep their diagnosis quiet until they are older."
Molly grew up in Maidenhead with three siblings - two brothers and a sister - and says her relationship with them has been affected by Usher.
"I had already established a long time ago I was not like my siblings. Sadly I was always seen as the 'favourite' child because I was always being taken out to appointments. As my brothers matured and realised my reality could have been theirs, they were quick to realise they are in fact lucky.
BBC See Hear created images of what some people with Usher syndrome experience
Usher syndrome is a degenerative condition which combines deafness with a visual impairment called Retinitis Pigmentosa, an eye disease of the retina that affects peripheral vision and causes night-blindness.
It is believed to have a prevalence rate from 3.2 to 6.2 per 100,000 people.
Speech therapy helped Molly to talk and lip-read and she went to mainstream school until the age of 14, when she moved to a deaf boarding school.
She says she was "excited to be like everyone else" but was bullied which exacerbated her depression and anxiety. After taking a year out she returned to mainstream education.
Her experiences are often dictated by the support she receives. While she says college restored her faith in humanity, she left university early due to a lack of assistance.
"Lecturers didn't have the time to understand my condition. Training and awareness sessions were set up for staff and nobody turned up.
"I just needed materials to be made accessible - large text, for lecturers to wear a radio aid that connected to my hearing aids - it's as simple as that."
Usher syndrome as a teenager comes with additional challenges such as negotiating a social life.
The majority of Molly's friends are hearing and sighted and she communicates with them through speech.
"I have to strategise everything I do. I am night-blind and so when I go out I would often ask to hang onto a friend. I will only go out with the close friends who do not make me feel a burden."
Boswell says some young people manage to "fit" within their circle of friends as they grow up, while others struggle.
"Some may feel left out of conversations if they are struggling to keep up with who is talking," she says. "Some teenagers may find it difficult to socialise with their friends in dark areas."
At 22 Molly is independent but relies on those around her to help as well using assistive technology.
She calls her Apple watch "invaluable" as it taps her wrist to alert her to a text or call, enables her to pay for items in shops and is more discrete than holding a phone.
She also wears hearing aids, which enable her to lower or increase the sound of the bass or cancel out background noise via an app. The first time she used it she discovered people could hear sound behind them.
The mental health of those with Usher syndrome can also be affected. Molly has bipolar disorder and severe anxiety triggered by the quick progression of Usher.
"It's been a rocky road of denial as it is hard to come to terms with an ever-changing progressive condition. Battling with depression and anxiety was a constant struggle as I never wanted to leave the house."
Boswell says the impact upon mental health can depend on the support offered and how open people are about the challenges they face. Those who keep quiet are more likely to become "isolated and distressed," she says.
Molly has set up her own charity - The Molly Watt Trust - to support others with Usher and has spoken at prestigious institutions including Harvard University and the House of Commons outlining how capable people with Usher are.
"The hardest thing about Usher syndrome is not knowing what the long term prognosis is," she says. "I am deafblind, but there is nothing wrong with my brain hence my determination to always find a way."
For more information on Usher Syndrome and how to receive support on this or other sensory impairments, please visit Sense.
For more Disability News, follow on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to the weekly podcast.
• None Being deaf and losing your sight
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-38853237
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The Mother of All Bombs: How badly did it hurt IS in Afghanistan? - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The BBC's Auliya Atrafi finds out if a massive bomb dropped on Afghanistan had any effect on IS.
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Asia
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Auliya Atrafi found fighting continues close to where the MOAB hit
On 13 April the US dropped one of its largest non-nuclear bombs on a tunnel complex used by so-called Islamic State militants in eastern Afghanistan. It was the first time such a weapon had been used in battle.
The BBC's Auliya Atrafi has been to the area to see if it really had any impact in the battle against IS.
The view from the hills overlooking the Mamand Valley is beautiful. Green fields and trees fill the valley floor. Ahead, the valley narrows and hills become mountains. In the distance rises the magnificent Spin-Ghar, the White Mountain, which marks the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
But there was no chance of quiet contemplation when I visited this area of Nangarhar province. Above, three types of American fighter planes were circling and dropping bombs.
One bomb hit the narrow part of the valley. It was there, a young soldier told me, that the weapon known as the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB) had been used.
I was confused. Reports of the bomb had made me think that it had wiped out the IS stronghold here in Achin district. I assumed that US and Afghan troops would have sealed off the area and that IS (or Daesh, as it is known here) would be in disarray.
An Afghan officer corrected me. "For a start this bomb wasn't as powerful as you think," he said.
"There are still green trees standing 100m away from the site of the impact."
The 21,600lb (9,800kg) MOAB flattened houses and trees, but didn't destroy everything
A large number of IS militants were killed by the MOAB, but it is hard to know how many. The Achin district governor, Ismail Shinwary, says at least 90.
Either way, the battle against IS continues.
"Daesh hasn't gone anywhere; there are hundreds of caves like the one the Americans bombed," the officer says, adding that strikes have continued since the bomb was dropped. "They can't get rid of them like this."
The fighting appeared to be taking place along a huge area in the mountains. The bombardment was relentless, filling the valley with smoke and noise.
But IS were taking casualties. Over a breakfast of eggs and green tea, the district police chief, Major Khair Mohammad Sapai, showed us pictures of dead IS fighters. They had beards and long hair.
In death they looked pitiable, quite unlike the image they try to portray in their propaganda videos - riding horses, carrying their black flags or making the local Shinwari people sit on bombs and then blowing them up.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Auliya Atrafi assesses the impact of the Mother of All Bombs
Major Khair said some of them were foreigners, but from their disintegrating, dust-covered faces it was hard to tell.
He showed us hand-written lists of Afghan telephone numbers seized during operations, and some of the names on the list were indeed Arabic or Pakistani.
The major's claims were backed up by Hakim Khan Momand and his friends. They are members of the so-called "people's uprising" - new militias made up of local people that help with security in the area. They cooperate with state security forces but their existence is seen as a sign of weak central government and instability.
The bearded men lay on portable cots, drinking strong green tea and relishing the sight of IS fighters being bombed by American planes.
"They are all sorts - Uzbeks, Tajiks, Arabs and Wahhabis from Kunar Province. They have nowhere to go; best to bury them in the caves where they happen to be hiding," Hakim Khan said.
His house lies in the Mamand Valley, in an area still under the control of IS. He adds: "God willing, the Americans have given us their word that they would clear the entire valley of Daesh fighters."
Unlike the Taliban, who tend to have many supporters in their core areas, IS seem to have angered a lot of people. Few seemed unhappy about the US bombardment.
A couple of kilometres from the frontline, ordinary life was continuing. Women carried water, boys played cricket and people went about their daily tasks.
However, there was anxiety. One man, Khaled, said local people were pawns in a US game.
"[Dropping the bomb] was a trick to show the world that their mission was going well. But this wasn't the type of bomb they showed in the media. The bomb did nothing."
"Will IS come back?" I asked.
"Yes, as soon as the government leaves, the locals won't be able to fight them. If the government makes permanent bases in the area and helps us, then we will be happy," he answered.
Children play cricket a few kilometres away from where IS positions are being bombed
Local children wander in a bazaar destroyed by IS in the area
Another local resident suggested IS could do with something a little stronger.
"Let Americans bring down a bigger one, this one was small," he said.
Back in the hills, Hakim Khan and his friends were listening in to IS fighters communicating via walkie-talkies with the help of their radio. The fighters were reassuring each other and communicating with their comrades in a neighbouring district.
A border police officer wondered aloud if the commitment of the Trump administration would match that of IS.
"The more we kill, the more they come from the other side of the Durand line, in Pakistan," he said.
After a night back in the safety of Jalalabad, we returned the next morning.
There was no fighting so we drove into the valley until we were stopped near the bomb impact site by Afghan special forces, who agreed to show us around.
They said that IS fighters saw the district as their own. After most locals fled, IS banned poppy cultivation and began farming wheat, turning the valley green.
Now the lush allotments were their battlefields. Bodies lay next to hollow trees that fighters had been sleeping inside.
Shear, a tough-looking special forces soldier, said that IS fighters were "crazy" and very committed.
"They make the most of their basic Russian guns; they are technical fighters," he said.
"You can't hear them coming in the mountains: they will wear six pairs of socks and get within striking distance without you hearing them.
"In the mountains they fight individually or in groups of two or three. They don't leave their positions, so you have to kill them. And their friends don't come to collect their bodies; they lie where they die."
We waited for permission to visit the impact site, surrounded by crates of military supplies dropped from the air.
Our escort was Haji Beag, a unit commander, who first showed us a smaller "IS command base and prison".
One door opening into a spacious courtyard led to a room which led to a small cave that could house around 10 people.
It was dug into the rock and felt very solid. It was clear why finding and killing IS militants in these mountains took so much time and energy.
A special forces soldier shows the BBC around a cave inside the tunnel complex
At the entrance to the cave stood an improvised cage, made of mesh frames. It held two tight spaces which Haji Beag said were used as prison cells.
He said he believed the US made a good decision to use the MOAB to target caves used over decades by different militant groups - from the Mujahedeen, to the Taliban, and most recently IS.
"We found about 20 bodies around the site after the explosion. The cave system has been destroyed," he said. "It's possible that most of dead are buried inside those caves."
The drive to the impact site with Haji Beag and his unit was a short one. American planes were still flying above us, targeting the next valley a kilometre away. The mountainous terrain was hard on our four-wheel drive and as we approached the site a rocket landed 200m in front of us.
No one was hurt, but it made Haji Beag cautious, and we weren't allowed to set foot on the impact site.
But we could see it, and it was unremarkable. There was no big crater. Trees had been burnt and a few rooms had been flattened. Not far from it, houses still stood and there were green trees around.
As we left the valley, the bombardment continued. It seemed clear that the bomb that was dropped on 13 April had not come close to delivering a knock-out blow to IS militants entrenched in the area, and the locals certainly expect more conflict ahead.
To me, at least, the Mother Of All Bombs failed to live up to her reputation.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39705128
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Chinese anger over 'acid pollution' images - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Aerial images show large areas of acid-stained ground in a region pegged for massive investment.
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China blog
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Recent aerial photographs of extensive pollution at industrial sites in northern China have caused a public outcry, and calls for action from the authorities.
The images, taken by a drone, show a cluster of dark red and rust-coloured pits occupying a big patch of land in a village called Nanzhaofu in Hebei province.
The NGO which broke the story, Chongqing Liangjiang Voluntary Service Centre, said preliminary tests it conducted showed the waste water in the pits was strongly acidic.
The pollutants have been been there for years, it said, meaning the underground water might have been contaminated.
The centre said three pits in total had been found, covering a total of 350,000 sq m.
The two largest were 500m apart in Nanzhaofu while a third smaller one was found in Xizhaizhuang county in Tianjin.
Together, the two provinces circle Beijing. Volunteers told Chinese media that similar polluted land could be found in other provinces.
After the images were published on the NGO's social media accounts last week there was an outburst of public anger.
"Those photos are shocking, the authority has been doing nothing, I am so angry!" one social media user said.
"My aunt is from that county in Hebei, she died from cancer two years ago. Her grandson is suffering from cancer and her mother in law has cancer too," said another.
"I thought it was just coincidence but now I don't. The government has to provide us a safe environment."
It's still not clear where the contaminants came from, but the local authorities were quick to respond to the anger and launch an investigation.
The Tianjin authorities sent workers to clean up the pit there, along with three other contaminated sites.
They promised to eradicate the problem before the end of July, but this did little to ease the anger.
In Hebei, authorities blamed local people for the contamination, saying they had been illegally dumping acid waste for years. The main suspect had been arrested in 2013, they said.
But on social media, people are asking why, if the suspect has been arrested, nothing had changed and the land is still contaminated.
Reporters who visited Nanzhaofu were told by locals that their lives had been severely affected by the pollution - cancer rates were increasing, they claimed, and a pungent smell had filled the air in the summer in recent years.
They don't drink well water, instead they either buy barrel water, or get to a well 5km away in a neighbouring county.
In its annual report this week, the environment ministry said water standards in some areas of northern China had declined since 2015.
Environment Minister Chen Jining said water samples found 36.3% of heavy polluting industries' land and the surrounding soil did not meet government standards, according to a report by South China Morning Post.
Xiong'an is about to be the site of a massive urban development project
However, Mr Chen said China's overall condition of air, water, and soil pollution had improved in 2016.
One particular area of concern among the public comments has been that all the three sites are less than 100km from Xiong'an, the area of Hebei recently identified as the location of a new Special Economic Zone.
The decision will bring huge investment to the region, putting it on a par with areas like Pudong in Shanghai.
It will serve as an extension of Beijing, and the Hebei party chief has said the project would prioritise ecological development and "build a new area of green, forest, wisdom and clean water".
But Hebei has been notorious for its pollution levels for years.
Many have been asking whether it's right for China to begin developing a new area if it can't keep the existing one clean, and whether the necessary environmental protections really will be put in place.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-china-blog-39715582
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How to make everyone hate you on email - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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When email goes wrong... how it can irritate and annoy everyone in the office.
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Business
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Stop before you copy your boss into that email.
It's not going to make you look good - it's going to make everyone else in the office distrust you.
That's the finding of research into the pernicious "cc effect", carried out by a professor of management studies at Cambridge University's Judge Business School.
David De Cremer has looked into the emotional undergrowth of office email traffic.
When people keep copying in a manager, it doesn't create "transparency", says Prof De Cremer, but feeds a "culture of fear".
But what about the other unspoken evils of office email clogging up your inbox?
If I keep emailing they'll know I'm still here at work
Where are you sending that email?
What makes you think I'm an attention seeker?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39704997
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Meeting an organ trafficker who preys on Syrian refugees - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Abu Jaafar's job is to find people desperate enough to give up parts of their body for money.
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Magazine
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There's a glint of pride in Abu Jaafar's eyes as he explains what he does for a living.
He used to work as a security guard in a pub but then he met a group which trades in organs. His job is to find people desperate enough to give up parts of their body for money, and the influx of refugees from Syria to Lebanon has created many opportunities.
"I do exploit people," he says, though he points out that many could easily have died at home in Syria, and that giving up an organ is nothing by comparison to the horrors they have already experienced.
"I'm exploiting them," he says, "and they're benefitting."
His base is a small coffee shop in one of the crowded suburbs of southern Beirut, a dilapidated building covered by a plastic tarpaulin.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. "I know what I'm doing is illegal, but I'm helping people, that's how I see it."
At the back, a room behind a rusty partition is stuffed with old furniture and has budgerigars singing in cages in each corner.
From here he has arranged the sale of organs from about 30 refugees in the last three years, he says.
"They usually ask for kidneys, yet I can still find and facilitate other organs", he says.
"They once asked for an eye, and I was able to acquire a client willing to sell his eye.
"I took a picture of the eye and sent it to the guys by Whatsapp for confirmation. I then delivered the client."
The narrow streets in which he operates are crammed with refugees. Around one in four people in Lebanon today have fled the conflict across the border in Syria.
Most aren't allowed to work under Lebanese law, and many families barely get by.
Among the most desperate are Palestinians who were already considered refugees in Syria, and so are not eligible to be re-registered by the UN refugee agency when they arrive in Lebanon. They live in overcrowded camps and receive very little aid.
Almost as vulnerable are those who arrived from Syria after May 2015, when the Lebanese government asked the UN to stop registering new refugees.
"Those who are not registered as refugees are struggling," Abu Jaafar says. "What can they do? They are desperate and they have no other means to survive but to sell their organs."
Some refugees beg on the streets - particularly children. Young boys shine shoes, dodge between cars in traffic jams to sell chewing gum or tissues through the windows, or end up exploited as child labour. Others turn to prostitution.
But selling an organ is one way to make money quickly.
Once Abu Jaafar has found a willing candidate he drives them, blindfolded, to a hidden location on a designated day.
Sometimes the doctors operate in rented houses, transformed into temporary clinics, where the donors undergo basic blood tests before surgery.
"Once the operation is done I bring them back," he says.
"I keep looking after them for almost a week until they remove the stitches. The moment they lose the stitches we don't care what happens to them any longer.
"I don't really care if the client dies, I got what I wanted. It's not my problem what happens next as long as the client got paid."
His most recent client was a 17-year-old boy who left Syria after his father and brothers were killed there.
He's been in Lebanon for three years with no work and mounting debt, struggling to support his mother and five sisters.
So, through Abu Jaafar, he agreed to sell his right kidney for $8,000 (£6,250).
Two days later, clearly in pain despite taking tablets, he was alternately lying down and sitting up on a tattered sofa, trying to get comfortable.
His face was covered in a sheen of sweat and blood had seeped through his bandages.
Abu Jaafar won't reveal how much he made from the deal. He says he doesn't know what happens to the organs after they have been removed, but he thinks they're exported.
Across the Middle East there's a shortage of organs for transplant, because of cultural and religious objections to organ donation. Most families prefer immediate burial.
But Abu Jaafar claims there are at least seven other brokers like him operating across Lebanon.
"Business is booming," he says. "It's growing and not decreasing. It definitely boomed after the Syrian migration to Lebanon."
He knows what he does is against the law but doesn't fear the authorities. In fact he is brazen about it. His phone number is spray-painted on the walls near his home.
In his neighbourhood, he is both respected and feared. As he walks around people stop to joke and argue with him.
He has a handgun tucked under his leg as we talk.
"I know that what I am doing is illegal but I am helping people", he says.
"That's how I perceive it. The client is using the money to seek a better life for himself and his family.
"He's able to buy a car and work as a taxi driver or even travel to another country.
"I am helping those people and I don't care about the law."
In fact, he says, it's the law that lets many refugees down by restricting access to work and aid.
"I am not forcing anyone to undertake the operation," he says. "I am only facilitating based on someone's request."
He lights a cigarette and raises an eyebrow.
"How much for your eye?" he asks.
Abu Jaafar is not his real name - he would only agree to talk to the BBC on condition of anonymity.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39272511
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Anthony Joshua v Wladimir Klitschko: 'Memory stick mind games won't faze me' - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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Anthony Joshua calls on Wladimir Klitschko to "stand up to the power" after he is branded just "a puncher" in the run up to their heavyweight bout.
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Last updated on .From the section Boxing
Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live from 21:00 BST and text updates on the BBC Sport website and app from 20:00 BST.
Anthony Joshua has challenged Wladimir Klitschko to "stand up to the power" after the Ukrainian branded him only "a puncher" in the run up to Saturday's bout.
Klitschko, who is entering his 29th world title fight, revealed he has made a video of his prediction for their heavyweight bout.
That has been saved on a memory stick which will be sewn into his robe.
"It's strategy," said Joshua, 27. "An attempt at a mind game."
He added: "I didn't take it the way he wanted to express it."
Former heavyweight champion Klitschko, 41, will auction his robe - and its contents - for charity after the Wembley Stadium super fight for Joshua's IBF title and the vacant WBA belt.
At a news conference free of the antics seen at many pre-fight gatherings, he told BBC Radio 5 live: "Don't ask me what's on the stick. Only one person will know about it. If that person wants to put it on social media, then the world will know."
• None Klitschko on 5 live: 'My ego moves me to my obsession'
• None Watch Joshua: The Road to Klitschko on iPlayer
• None Listen to 5 live Boxing with Costello and Bunce - Joshua v Klitschko preview
The pair will meet in front of an expected 90,000 fans, a post-war record for a UK boxing match.
Neither man has spoken negatively about their rival during the build-up, but Klitschko broke rank briefly on Thursday, saying Joshua is no more than a "puncher" while adding that he himself is "a boxer who can punch".
The Ukrainian added: "I am the winner, already before the event. Even if it is his home, I'm taking it as my event and my fight, my win."
Joshua, who has had 18 professional fights compared to Klitschko's 68, responded: "If I couldn't box I wouldn't be here. I may not be the best but what I do good, I do brilliantly. That's got me here.
"If he claims to be the better boxer so be it, but when I start punching you in your jaw, you best stand up to the power. This is just another stepping stone towards greatness."
Klitschko - who shouted "fake news" at one reporter when asked about a rumoured eye-socket injury - is bidding to regain two of the three major titles he lost to Tyson Fury in his last outing in 2015.
He admits being introduced as the challenger still feels "weird" but pointed to his experience, stating he had been involved in boxing for the 27 years Joshua has been alive.
Victory for the Ukrainian would see him become a three-time heavyweight champion, like his retired brother Vitali, who believes Joshua is complacent in his approach.
"I've never seen my brother so concentrated," said Vitali.
"I want to say that Joshua is a great fighter, great skills, but he has never been at such a high level. He looks relaxed, like it will be easy. It will not be.
"After I was told about the fight I studied Joshua and I was happy. He has the right style for Wladimir, a good opponent."
Joshua enters Saturday's fight with 18 knockout wins in his 18 matches, while Klitschko boasts a record of 64 wins - 53 by KO - and four defeats.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/39734096
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World Championship 2017: Ronnie O'Sullivan knocked out by Ding Junhui - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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Five-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan is knocked out of the World Championship, beaten 13-10 by Ding Junhui in the quarter-finals.
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Five-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan has been knocked out of the World Championship, losing 13-10 to China's Ding Junhui in the quarter-finals.
O'Sullivan's tournament had been overshadowed by his claims that he had been bullied by snooker bosses.
But he seemed unaffected by the controversy as he scored a tournament-high break of 146 to win three from four frames and get back to 11-9, having trailed 10-6.
The pair then shared the next two frames and Ding held his nerve, scoring a classy 117 to earn a semi-final place against Mark Selby.
Selby was in sensational form to thrash Marco Fu 13-3.
The reigning champion scored 139 and 143 but it was no surprise the latter mark was beaten by O'Sullivan in a match that featured five centuries and 18 breaks of more than 50. Only one of the 23 frames did not include a half-century.
O'Sullivan, 41, who hugged his equally emotional opponent at the end, said: "It was a fantastic match and I am really pleased to be involved. I really enjoyed it. I would rather lose a good match than win an awful one.
"Ding is a special lad, a beautiful guy. He is all good; he doesn't have a bad bone in his body.
"He wants to win this title so bad. He is in a great place and I wish him all the best."
In the same way boxers collapse into each other's arms at the end and say, 'you are a great player'. That moment was very similar, regardless of whether it was a physical contest or not, it was the same mentality.
For all of the times when Ronnie O'Sullivan throws teddies out of the pram, players appreciate other great players. From Ding Junhui's perspective, getting to the final last year was a massive stepping stone. This is another part of the jigsaw puzzle and unlocks the World Championship a little further for him.
Ding has always been clinical in among the balls and he looks very strong in that department, but beating Liang Wenbo from behind, showing heart and determination, and now beating O'Sullivan, he has answered a lot of questions at the Crucible that he has not answered before.
It is a bit like a video game for Ding, he has beaten the boss but now has to go to the next level to face a bigger boss - Mark Selby.
Facing the world champion will be a bigger hurdle mentally and we cannot say how it will pan out. Selby has looked astonishing so far, if Ding beats him, then he has to play someone great in the final. He is only halfway through in sessions played.
Ding, last season's runner-up, is looking to become the first Asian player to lift the world title, and said he "played great".
"I kept my form from the first frame to the last frame and I put him under pressure," Ding said.
"I do not have a good record against him but every time I had a chance I did well. He was not in his best form but he is still good enough.
"Ronnie said I looked a different player and I looked stronger. I thank him. To beat him you have to work hard. I am more confident."
A spirited O'Sullivan comeback before the mid-session break kept alive hopes of him claiming a sixth World Championship title.
The Englishman had won a crucial final frame on Tuesday with a blistering century inside four minutes and, after taking scrappy opener, a rapid break of 97 made it three in a row to cut the gap to 10-8.
But Ding, who has often been accused of crumbling under pressure, responded with a fine 69.
O'Sullivan was in full flow, turning down the chance of a maximum by going for a pink rather than a slightly trickier black during a magnificent 146.
Only Mark Allen and Graeme Dott have ever managed a 146 at the Crucible but neither did so in the seven minutes and 32 seconds it took O'Sullivan to clear up and reduce the gap to two frames.
But Ding, 30, kept his opponent at bay in the closing stages with breaks of 87, 63 and 117 to win two of the final three frames and get over the line.
Barry Hawkins beat Stephen Maguire 13-9 to reach the last four, having made breaks of 126, 98 and 86 in the match. The 2013 finalist faces four-time champion John Higgins next.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/39723593
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Facebook baby killing: Grief and questions after shocking murder - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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It comes after a Thai man broadcast the murder of his 11-month daughter on Facebook Live.
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Asia
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Jiranuch Trirat next to a picture of her daughter
An incident as shocking as a man murdering his 11-month-old daughter live on Facebook before killing himself was bound to provoke heated debate.
The 21-year-old man broadcast himself hanging his daughter from a half-finished building on the island of Phuket in Thailand, reportedly after ending a turbulent and sometimes violent relationship with his wife.
The man's Facebook page has received dozens of comments from Thai people outraged by the death of the little girl. Some men who have also had failed relationships have posted how they got through their problems and rebuilt bonds with their children.
Thais are accustomed to seeing violent scenes on their television news bulletins, which would be deemed unacceptable in many Western countries.
Previous shocking incidents, like appalling car accidents caused by negligent driving, have led to brief national debates, but have quickly dropped from public consciousness. But there have been some reflective responses to this incident, with a number of people urging people not to share the video.
Ms Trirat and her husband had a sometimes violent relationship, reports said
The long period of time the video remained viewable on Facebook - 24 hours - is one area the social media giant may be able to address.
Thai police were aware of the video almost immediately after the crime took place. It is not clear yet when the Thai authorities alerted Facebook.
The police now say that in future they will discuss inappropriate online content with social media companies like Facebook, YouTube or Instagram, and how to take it down quickly. But the challenge of stopping offensive and disturbing content on a medium, which is used by so many people, including two-thirds of the Thai population, is a difficult one.
The Thai military government does operate a range of censorship regimes, and blocks many thousands of websites, especially those carrying content deemed critical of the monarchy.
On the day this awful incident occurred, the Ministry of Digital Information and Economy demanded that local internet service providers (ISPs) do even more to block anti-monarchy content, and the government is believed to be trying to implement a single digital gateway which will allow it to wall Thailand off from such content.
But until now it has been wary of tampering with Facebook. A clumsy attempt to block Facebook shortly after the military had seized power in 2014 provoked a huge public outcry, and the social media giant remained unavailable for only 30 minutes.
Facebook is hugely popular with Thai people and businesses
Aside from the general popularity of Facebook for social communication, it is also used by large numbers of Thai businesses to promote their products and services.
Until now there has been little public debate over the negative sides of social media, for example hate speech, trolling and fake news, which have aggravated Thailand's bitter political polarisation. There is no law against hate speech.
So Thai society is less prepared to address issues like those thrown up by this murder-suicide.
A more fruitful area for discussion coming out of this incident might instead be the issue of domestic violence in Thailand, and the high level of suicides related to it.
The Thai Department of Mental Health reports that there are around 350 suicides a month here, a figure it says it is working to reduce.
Four times as many men than women are victims of suicide, and the highest number of those male suicides are related to relationship problems, and reactions to being criticised or insulted, or loss of face.
The department says alcohol consumption also plays a big role in encouraging these men to kill themselves, and that it is very common for them to assault others, usually family members, before they do.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39715659
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UKIP leader Nuttall to stand in election - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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UKIP leader Paul Nuttall says he will stand at the general election without specifying in which seat.
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UK Politics
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UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has confirmed he will stand as a candidate at the general election.
He told LBC Radio he would announce which constituency he was contesting within the next 48 hours.
Mr Nuttall, who sits in the European Parliament, had previously suggested he might not stand in 8 June's contest, saying UKIP leaders had done well outside the Commons.
He failed to beat Labour at a by-election in Stoke-on-Trent last month.
At a UKIP campaign event on Monday, he repeatedly refused to say whether he would stand in the general election.
But on Thursday he told LBC: "As the leader of the party, I will be, obviously, leading the party into battle as I have done many times in the past".
He said he would stand in a seat where "we think we can give it a good go".
He defined success for UKIP as improving on the single seat the party had won in 2015 - Douglas Carswell's victory in Clacton.
Stressing the need to "get people over the line this time", he said: "The one thing that we learned from 2015 is that vote share, although it is nice to get four million votes and 13% was wonderful, there is no prize for second place in the first-past-the-post system.
"I would like us to get more MPs elected than we got in 2015. I think it's doable. I think what we have got to do is target our resources sensibly, that means both in resources and in terms of manpower."
Mr Nuttall had previously said he did not want to be tied to one constituency during the general election campaign, as happened to his predecessor, Nigel Farage, in 2015 in Thanet, where he failed to unseat the Conservatives.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39738332
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10 fake music news stories that had us fooled - BBC Music
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2017-04-27
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The startling headlines that seemed plausible at first, but turned out to be wide of the mark
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Spoofs and tall tales are a staple of internet music discourse. Every now and then something appears online which may seem remarkable, and could well be true, but turns out to have been created as a prank to fool unsuspecting fans. It's a world away from the definition of fake news as is applied to current affairs in 2017, although as we'll see, there certainly have been fake music news stories that overlapped with international politics.
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In 2014, there was a kerfuffle around a news story taken from Twitter, in which it appeared that doting new father Dan Lieberman had named his twin boys Ghostface and Raekwon after his favourite rappers in Wu-Tang Clan. He even provided a picture as proof, which was then Instagrammed by the real Raekwon with the caption "This is live, family named their twins Raekwon & ghostface!!! #wu4thebabies" However, it later emerged that the form in question is not a binding legal document, and had been created by Dan as a joke. He posted on his Facebook page: "I got the best Father's Day gift I could get yesterday, but this is a close second."
Derek Erdman is the receptionist at Sub Pop records, first musical home of Nirvana, and one day while bored at work, he decided to place a fake advert on Craigslist, using photos he found online, in which he posed as a former flatmate of Kurt Cobain's (and former member of a pretend grunge band called Gruntruck) with some of his possessions to offload. These included a Swatch phone, a video game called Kingman and a pair of skis, with the quote: "He owed us rent and said he would get the box when he came back and gave us money but he never came back, then when he was famous he never really talked to any of us again." The reaction was quick and feverish, with fans rushing to grab some unheard of Nirvana memorabilia. In a since-deleted interview with the music site Revolt, Derek was asked if, seriously, anyone really wanted Kurt's skis, to which he replied, "THEY WANT THEM BAD. They also want that video game. I've gotten a lot of replies from 'serious collectors' and people who will pay for shipping. Have you ever shipped skis? That sounds like it would be really difficult. Not too many people wrote about the Swatch phone, which was surprising."
Radiohead's working method is often to sit on songs until they've found the right way to perform them, which can mean that some can be overlooked or simply left behind. So it's not really that big of a surprise for fans to uncover a 'lost' song of this sort and post it online. And indeed, that's what happened, in a music forum. The song, uploaded and shared with feverish intensity, was supposedly entitled Putting Ketchup in the Fridge and sounds exactly like an outtake from The Bends, with Thom Yorke's quavery voice in full effect. The only problem is, it's not Thom Yorke's voice, but that of a Toronto singer-songwriter called Christopher Stopa. And the song is actually called Sit Still. It was released in 2001 to very little fanfare. Speaking to The Vancouver Observer, Christopher said: "I tried to push that song for 10 years, but if people are listening to it now, and like the song, it's an indication that I believed in it. There are lots of great songs on the internet. People who listened to my song weren't just looking for a great song, they were specifically looking for a song by Radiohead."
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4. Drake and Rihanna are making an album
[LISTEN] Radio 1 Breakfast Show: is this the end of Drake and Rihanna?
Although this may seem to be the most feasible of the stories listed here, the rumour that Drake and Rihanna were creating something together has a backstory that is just as plausible, and therefore just as suspect. In August 2016, fans were delighted to discover that a website had been registered with the URL drakeandrihanna.com, and a countdown clock. Surprise album releases being what they are, this did not seem beyond the realms of possibility, but TMZ discovered that the site was actually set up by web celeb Joanne the Scammer (played by Branden Miller). It was an act of revenge, after Joanne had been turned down for a selfie with Drake at the VMA awards. Branden created the site as a prank, then when fans started to take it seriously, he issued a video explaining that it wasn't real, and why he did it.
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Marshall Mathers has been the subject of two internet news hoaxes that claim that he has died in violent circumstances. The first is that he died in a car crash in the early 2000s and has been replaced by a near-identical replica - a yarn that has taken on similar characteristics to the conspiracy theory that Paul McCartney died in 1966, and will probably keep on popping up from time to time, whenever the (possibly not) real Slim Shady has a record out. But in 2013, a Facebook post was widely shared, with a grisly photo that purported to show him being attacked by a man with a knife. The link in the post then opened up a series of spam windows, but diligent journalists did check that all was well before exposing the hoax. A representative from the Eminem camp told E! News: "He remains unstabbed."
6. Cher is alive and well
Twitter is very good at spreading breaking news and sharing emotional reactions, so the death of a beloved pop star is one of those moments in which the social media site is the perfect place to be. However, it's always a good idea to be sure of your facts before rushing to put fingertip to screen, as Kim Kardashian West found out in 2012. A tweet claiming to have re-tweeted a headline from CNN announced that Cher had died, and before long "RIP Cher" had become a worldwide trending topic, with news organisations scrambling to ascertain if this was true or not. Caught up in the moment, Kim tweeted "Did I juist hear Cher has passed away? Is this real? OMG," and then: "I hope this is a Twitter joke and not true. I don't see it on the news anywhere. I'm praying it's not true…" It wasn't true, and she later tweeted: "Can't believe people would make up a sick joke like Cher died. These people need to get a life! Thanks Twitter for clearing that up."
In July 2016, a report on a website called Kypo 6 flew across social media, claiming that Justin Bieber had told reporters that he was leaving Los Angeles and moving out to San Marcos, Texas. It quoted him as saying: "I'm just tired of the LA lifestyle and I feel like, at this point in my life, I'd rather just live in a place full of real, genuine people." Howerver, it was very similar to a story on a site called The Clancy Report, suggesting that Justin had fallen in love with Roanoke, a city in North Texas. And some digging by Texan local news site Chron reveals that this exact quote has also been attributed to Justin Timberlake, Eminem and Nicolas Cage, to illustrate false news stories about Hollywood stars moving to less celebrated locations, such as El Paso, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Naperville, Illinois.
The most recent fake music news story to be passed around as truth concerned Lars Ulrich, motormouth drummer in Metallica. On Easter Sunday a story was posted on the metal news website The Metal Den claiming that Lars had announced his retirement from music, effective immediately, just as the band were about to head out on a world tour. He was quoted as saying, "As we get older, there are phases of life that we enter into, and being a musician just isn't fun anymore," and suggested he'd be devoting his attention to other fields of creative endeavour. However, while several news outlets ran the story, it wasn't true, as was later confirmed by Metallica's management, to the site MetalTalk.
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The Britpop band Menswe@r never sold a great many records, but they were very heavily featured in the music press of the time and their presence at the party cast a long shadow. So when their former guitarist Chris Gentry posted a picture of himself holding a platinum disc on Twitter claiming that their debut album Nuisance had finally sold more that 300,000 copies, there was an air of surprise, but not total shock. However, it turned out that all he had done is buy the disc on eBay and then insert the band's artwork. BBC 6 Music presenter and former Menswe@r drummer Matt Everitt told NME: "My annual royalty cheques (approximately £83) would suggest something is amiss here. However, I'm currently expecting our long-delayed Led Zeppelin style reunion at the O2 and 15 CD/DVD/Blu-ray boxset retrospective of our lengthy and critically acclaimed career to become a reality, just in time for Christmas." The satirical news site Holy Moly ran a story that the band's singer Johnny Dean had been so taken in that he immediately started contacting his representatives to find out where his share of the money had gone. Chris Gentry has since deleted his Twitter account.
[LISTEN] Elton John was not the first victim of a celebrity prank call
In 2015, a Russian phone prankster named Vladimir Krasnov, or "Vovan", rang Elton John claiming to be President Putin and wishing to discuss gay rights. Sir Elton, a critic of the Russian premier's "isolating and prejudiced" views, took the call and had what he felt was a decent stab at an opening debate on a subject close to his heart. Sadly, it was all a hoax, with parts of the recorded conversation ending up on Russian state TV. Krasnov told BBC News: "It turned out that Elton John was really expecting that call, so he really believed he was talking to the people we said we were. He said, 'Thank you, you have made my day. This day and this conversation were the most wonderful of my life.'" Had things been left at that, this would just be an audacious prank played on a pop star. But then something unexpected happened - the fake news became real. Both Elton John and Russian government sources have confirmed that an actual phone call took place shortly afterwards, with Elton telling the Today Programme: "[Putin] was very affable, he was very apologetic, he was very sincere. As soon as I can get a date in my diary that coincides with him, then I will be going... to Moscow and I will meet him."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/435d319c-b1f4-4048-9929-10e544778fbc?intc_type=promo&intc_location=news&intc_campaign=fakenews&intc_linkname=bbcmusic_ent_article1
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Uganda's Punishment Island: 'I was left to die on an island for getting pregnant' - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Mauda Kyitaragabirwe was abandoned on Uganda's 'Punishment Island' for getting pregnant out of wedlock. The BBC's Patience Atuhaire went to meet her.
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Africa
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Unmarried girls who got pregnant used to be seen as bringing shame to their families in parts of Uganda, so they were taken to a tiny island and left to die. The lucky ones were rescued, and one of them is still alive. The BBC's Patience Atuhaire tracked her down.
"When my family discovered that I was pregnant, they put me in a canoe and took me to Akampene [Punishment Island]. I stayed there without food or water for four nights," says Mauda Kyitaragabirwe, who was aged just 12 at the time.
"I remember being very hungry and cold. I was almost dying."
On the fifth day a fisherman came along and said he would take her home with him.
"I was a bit sceptical. I asked him whether he was tricking me and wanted to throw me into the water.
"But he said: 'No. I am taking you to be my wife.' So he brought me here," she reflects fondly, seated on a simple chair on the veranda of the house she shared with her husband.
She lives in the village of Kashungyera, just a 10-minute boat trip across Lake Bunyonyi from Punishment Island, which is actually just a patch of waterlogged grass.
This is where Mauda Kyitaragabirwe was left to die
At first, Ms Kyitaragabirwe was unsure how to greet me until Tyson Ndamwesiga, her grandson and a tour guide, told her that I spoke the local Rukiga language.
Her face cracked into a nearly toothless smile. She held my arm from the elbow, in the tight grip that the Bakiga people usually reserve for long-lost relatives.
The slender-built Ms Kyitaragabirwe walks with steady steps and estimates that she is in her eighties, but her family believes she is much older.
She was born before birth certificates were common in this part of Uganda so it is impossible to be sure.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The island where pregnant girls were sent to die
"She used to have a voter's registration card from just before Uganda's independence [in 1962]. That is what we used to count backwards. We think she's around 106," says Mr Ndamwesiga.
In traditional Bakiga society, a young woman could only get pregnant after marriage. Marrying off a virgin daughter meant receiving a bride price, mostly paid with livestock.
An unmarried pregnant girl was seen as not only bringing shame to the family, but robbing it of much-needed wealth. Families used to rid themselves of the "shame" by dumping pregnant girls on Punishment Island, leaving them to die.
Because of the remoteness of the area, the practice continued even after missionaries and colonialists arrived in Uganda in the 19th Century and outlawed it.
Most people at the time - especially girls - did not know how to swim. So if a young woman was dumped on the island, she had two options - jump into the water and drown, or wait to die from the cold and hunger.
I asked Ms Kyitaragabirwe if she was scared. She tilts her head to one side, frowning, and fires back:
"I must have been about 12 years old. If you're taken from your home to an island where no-one else lives, in the middle of the lake, wouldn't you be scared?"
There are 29 islands on Lake Bunyoyi, including one that used to be a leper colony
In another part of the region, present-day Rukungiri District, pregnant girls would be thrown off a cliff at Kisiizi Falls.
Legend has it that it was not until one of them dragged her brother down with her that families stopped pushing their daughters to their deaths.
No-one ever survived Kisiizi Falls. But a number of girls are said to have survived Punishment Island, thanks to young men who could not afford to pay a bride price.
After her husband took her to his home in the village of Kashungyera, Ms Kyitaragabirwe became a subject of curiosity and gossip.
Over the decades, she has become a tourist attraction - her home a regular stop for tourists on the trail of the history of the area.
While discussing her life story, she often stopped talking and stared at her hands contemplatively.
At other times, like when I asked how she lost her eye, she was quite evasive, instinctively raising her hand to touch it.
The touchiest subject seemed to be the fate of the baby she was pregnant with when she was left to die.
"The pregnancy was still quite young. I never had the baby. Back then you could not fight back to defend yourself. If you did, they would beat you up," she says, lifting her head-wrap from her lap to wipe her face.
Even though she did not say it outright, I understood what she meant - she was beaten up and had a miscarriage.
I have three daughters. If any of them had got pregnant before they were married, I wouldn't blame them or punish them.
Punishing girls - known in the local language as Okuhena, from which the island draws its local name Akampene - was an age-old practice. And Ms Kyitaragabirwe would have known about the consequences of a pregnancy.
"I had heard about other girls that had been taken to Punishment Island, although not anyone close to me. So, it seems I was also tempted by Satan," she chuckles.
She never saw or heard from the man who led her down "Satan's path". However, she had heard, many years ago, that he had died.
Of her husband, James Kigandeire, who died in 2001, she said: "Oh, he loved me! He really looked after me.
"He said: 'I picked you up from the wilderness, and I am not going to make you suffer'.
"We had six children together. We stayed in this home together until he died."
Ms Kyitaragabirwe's grandson, Tyson, works as a tour guide in the area
And while it took decades, she was finally reconciled with her family.
She smiled and said: "After I became a Christian I forgave everyone, even my brother who had rowed me in the canoe. I would go home to visit my family, and if I met any of them I would greet them."
Ms Kyitaragabirwe is believed to be the last woman who was dumped on the island, with the practice having died out after Christianity and government became stronger in the region.
Still, unmarried pregnant women were frowned upon for many years.
Condemning this attitude, Ms Kyitaragabirwe said: "I have three daughters. If any of them had got pregnant before they were married, I wouldn't blame them or punish them.
"I know it can happen to any woman. If a young woman got pregnant today, she would come to her father's house and be taken care of. The people who carried out such practices were blind."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-39576510
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Masterchef viewers in pickle over chorizo pronunciation - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Masterchef viewers get heated on Twitter about the right way to say the spicy sausage.
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UK
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You say chorizo, I say....? Exactly how to pronounce the spicy pork sausage has got viewers of Masterchef in a pickle. But is there a right way and a wrong way?
In Wednesday's episode, the velvety tones of the voiceover on the popular BBC One cooking show introduced a dish:
"Iberico pork with grilled calamari, served with chuh-REE-thoh jam, a chuh-REE-thoh and tomato puree, Asian pear and a dressed fennel salad."
It sounded delicious, but when its creator - the Michelin-starred chef Shaun Rankin - talked about the dish chu-REE-thoh had become shuh-REE-zoh, and Twitter was vexed.
Martha Figueroa-Clark, a linguist in the BBC pronunciation unit for more than 10 years, says the question of how to say "chorizo" comes up a lot.
The usual pronunciation in English is chuh-REE-zoh, although chuh-REE-soh, chorr-EE-zoh and chorr-EE-soh (-orr as in sorry) are also certified as pronunciations in British dictionaries.
But in mimicking a European Spanish pronunciation, the "z" can also be pronounced as "th" as in 'think'. In Central and South American varieties of Spanish, the "z" is pronounced as "s" as in 'sit'.
One common mispronunciation is chuh-RITS-oh. Martha suggests this might come from people thinking it is an Italian word.
So how did Rankin get it wrong? Certainly, the chef, who grew up in Yorkshire and trained in kitchens around the world, will not be a stranger to the word.
Indeed, his food style at his restaurants in Jersey and Mayfair, central London, are influenced by European and Asian cooking.
Martha suggests he might have been influenced by the pronunciation of "ch" in French or Portuguese ("chouriço", pronounced shoh-REE-soo).
The problem often comes when two people on TV say the same word in different ways in a short space of time, drawing attention to the pronunciation.
She advises broadcasters to choose one pronunciation and stick to it.
Her team consults a range of dictionaries to establish the accepted pronunciations of words in English and advises broadcasters accordingly.
If the pronunciation of a foreign word is not yet established in English, they research the pronunciation and devise an anglicised form for BBC broadcasts.
Given the fuss about a sausage, the next time you're at your local Italian, you might want to keep the waiters happy by asking for a large glass of PEE-noh GREE-joh (-j as in Jack) with your bruusk-ET-uh (-uu as in book).
The BBC pronunciation guide says chuh-REE-zoh is the most established way to say chorizo
• None Why is there a vegetable shortage?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39735870
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ICC agree revised financial model and governance structure - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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The ICC pass a revised financial model reversing a decision which effectively handed control of the sport to India, England and Australia.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
Cricket's bosses have reversed a decision which effectively handed control of the sport to India, England and Australia.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) decided in 2014 that the 'Big Three' should have more powers over how the game is run and its financial split.
But at a meeting in Dubai, the ICC board voted to pass a new financial model and governance structure.
The changes will have to be ratified by the ICC full council in June.
The 2014 changes had angered other large cricketing nations such as South Africa and Pakistan.
However, the reversal is likely to upset India which has been demanding a $570m (£442m) cut from ICC revenues but will now receive $293m (£227m).
The board voted 13 to one in favour of the financial changes and local media have reported that India was the only dissenting voice.
Based on forecasted revenues and costs, the England and Wales Cricket Board will receive $143m (£111m) across the same period (2016-2023), Zimbabwe will get $94m (£73m) and the remaining seven Full Member nations $132m (£102m) each.
Constitutional changes made by the board - including paving the way for more Test cricket nations and the introduction of an independent female director - were agreed by a vote of 12 to two.
ICC chairman Shashank Manohar, who announced in March that he is stepping down, said: "This is another step forward for world cricket and I look forward to concluding the work at the annual conference.
"I am confident we can provide a strong foundation for the sport to grow and improve globally in the future through the adoption of the revised financial model and governance structure."
The ICC meeting has also agreed to look at:
• None Bringing more context to international bilateral cricket including resolving the current calendar congestion in order to bring a clear framework to all three formats
• None Changes to the women's game including a separate rankings system for Women's ODI and T20I cricket
• None The feasibility of further matches in Pakistan involving a World XI
• None Development of a detailed strategy for the growth of cricket in China.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/39729441
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Sylvain Marveaux: Former Newcastle winger arrested in tax fraud probe - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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Former Newcastle winger Sylvain Marveaux is one of four people arrested in a tax fraud investigation by Revenue & Customs.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Former Newcastle winger Sylvain Marveaux is one of four people arrested in a tax fraud investigation by Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
French authorities said secret payments made to players and agents during deals between French and Premier League clubs are the focus of the probe.
Newcastle and West Ham's grounds were raided on Wednesday, as HMRC deployed 180 officers across the UK and France.
Marveaux, 31, joined Newcastle from Rennes in 2011 and made 39 appearances.
He returned to France to join Lorient last year.
Newcastle's managing director Lee Charnley was also arrested. He was released without charge at about 17:00 BST on Wednesday.
The French Prosecutor's office says 10 searches were carried out in France and four people were placed in police custody.
"The British authorities suspect secret payments may have been made to benefit certain players, their agents or third parties, allowing them to avoid paying tax on the income, or making social security payments," said a statement from the French Prosecutor's office.
French officials were asked by HMRC to provide assistance to their investigation in July 2016.
It took a further nine months before officers launched their raids on both sides of the Channel.
HMRC said it searched premises in the north east and south east of England, and seized business records, financial records, computers and mobile phones.
West Ham's London Olympic Stadium and Newcastle's St James' Park were among the locations raided.
HMRC officers also visited offices belonging to Chelsea FC "in connection with its wider investigation", a club spokesman confirmed.
But it is understood the club's premises were not raided and no arrests were made.
The wheels of tax investigations turn slowly - so any sporting implications resulting from these arrests and raids may not be known for some time.
It would appear, on face value, that Premier League points and status for both West Ham United and newly promoted Newcastle United are safe for now.
However this "on-going" investigation risks creating instability and uncertainty for both clubs at a time when they both, for different reasons, need it the most. HMRC investigations of this scale are costly and only undertaken in the most serious of circumstances. This isn't going away anytime soon.
Rafael Benitez, celebrating promotion on Monday, told reporters it was good to work at a club where there's no backroom politics, a not so subtle reference to his tumultuous time at Real Madrid.
With Newcastle having documents seized, and further questions looming for its senior officials, he may have spoken too soon.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39729853
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Reality Check: How much does pensions triple-lock cost? - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How does the cost of the triple-lock compare with other ways of protecting pensions?
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UK Politics
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The claim: Pensioners would be £872 worse off if the triple-lock was taken away. The triple-lock is a commitment to raise the basic state pension by average earnings, inflation or 2.5%, whichever is higher.
Reality Check verdict: In the long-term, pensioners would be worse off without the triple-lock. How much worse off would depend on what replaces it. Ian Blackford's figure is a forecast of what would happen if the state pension was only increased in line with inflation predictions for the next five years. He appears to have misspoken, because the research actually said that pensioners would lose £817 over five years.
Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, Theresa May refused to say whether the Conservatives will keep the same protections for the state pension if they win the general election.
Responding to a question from Angus Robertson, the SNP's leader in Westminster, she pledged that pensioners' incomes would continue to rise, but would not specify by how much.
The government is currently committed to maintaining the pension triple-lock until 2020, which means it will raise the basic state pension by average earnings, inflation or 2.5%, whichever is higher.
Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP are all committed to maintaining the triple-lock.
But the Work and Pensions Committee has said it should be scrapped on the grounds that it is "unsustainable" and "unfair" on younger families.
It suggested that pensions should rise in line with earnings and be protected against inflation being higher than earnings, but with no minimum annual increase.
John Cridland, who published a report on the future of state pensions last month, suggested that the triple-lock would also eventually need to be abandoned in favour of an earnings link.
In the long-term, the triple-lock is a big issue, with the number of people of pension age per person of working age forecast by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to rise considerably over the next 50 years.
Speaking on BBC Newsnight, Mr Blackford cited research from the House of Commons Library, which found that "over a five-year period, pensioners would be £872 worse off if the triple lock was taken away".
Giving a bit more detail, the library was asked to take Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts for the next five years of inflation and average earnings figures.
It then compared what would happen to pensions under different scenarios.
It turned out that protecting it in line with with earnings would make almost no difference, because average earnings are expected to be more than 2.5% throughout the period.
Protecting only in line with inflation would cost a total of £642 over five years for a pensioner on the basic state pension and £817 over five years for someone on the new state pension.
Mr Blackford presumably remembered that figure wrongly when he said it would cost £872.
Clearly these figures are based on forecasts for what will happen in the future, which are uncertain. An alternative is to look at how much the triple-lock has cost in the past as the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has done.
The triple-lock makes a particularly big difference in periods of relatively low earnings growth and low inflation as the UK has experienced recently.
It found that the triple-lock had cost about an extra £6bn a year compared with only protecting with earnings and £4bn a year compared with adjusting in line with inflation.
The IFS made this chart showing the difference in the percentage of national income spent on the state pension with or without the triple-lock, also based on OBR forecasts.
The IFS suggested that the government should decide what proportion of earnings it wants the state pension to be and then stick to that, rather than arbitrarily increasing it gradually through the triple-lock.
What happens to the triple-lock is highly significant because it has made such a difference in incomes for pensioners compared with workers.
In-work benefits are protected less generously than state pensions.
The Resolution Foundation brought out research recently suggesting that pensioner households on average are better off than working households after housing costs have been taken into account.
Taking income after housing costs makes a huge difference because pensioner households are more likely to own their own homes and to have relatively small or paid-off mortgages.
This chart from the Resolution Foundation gives income after housing costs for the median pensioner and working household as well as a richer one and a poorer one.
Former pensions minister Baroness Altmann told Newsnight that the triple-lock was particularly unfair on younger families because it was putting pressure on the government to keep raising the pension age to keep pension costs down, so the time when they could claim their own pensions was being delayed.
Among the options for replacing the triple-lock are:
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39734078
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PM sticks to script as Boris Johnson enters election fray - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The Tories will hope remarks draw attention to what they see as Labour's vulnerability on defence.
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UK Politics
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Presenter: "Do you know what a mugwump is?"
Theresa May: "What I recognise is that what we need in this country is strong and stable leadership."
It's probably fair to say that this is not the stuff of epic election moments - those times that have shaped all our destinies; moments when the country asks itself, truly, who governs?; days when suddenly, a leader, a party's fate is decided.
Theresa May, it's also probably fair to assume, did not dream of that question being put to her, nor of having to provide an answer, and, slightly robotically, grimly stick to her prepared script come hell or high water, rather than echo the colourful copy of her foreign secretary.
Nor perhaps, was Boris Johnson's first big day out on the campaign trail designed to land the prime minister with questions tonight about her intentions for Syria.
Would she just do Donald Trump's bidding if asked to help in another attack? Hypothetical questions she resolutely refused to answer at a rally of the party faithful in Yorkshire.
Yet few in Tory HQ will be weeping at the product of Boris Johnson's arrival in this campaign, whether it is his Victorian insult hurled at Jeremy Corbyn, which will have upset some voters, (we heard that sentiment that the Tories were "bullying" Mr Corbyn on the trail in Essex), nor his admission that it would be "very difficult" for the UK to refuse Donald Trump.
Whether it was the accidental or deliberate howls of not one, but two dead cats today, the foreign secretary's productive morning attracted yet more attention to one of the issues the Conservatives believe is most dangerous for Jeremy Corbyn.
His attitudes towards security and defence, long held, and central to his core supporters, are, the Tories believe, one of his greatest vulnerabilities in this campaign. For floating voters, or many traditional Labour voters, the Tories will have been only too glad to create as much noise as they can.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39740582
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World Championship 2017: Ding Junhui edges ahead of Mark Selby in semi-final - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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Ding Junhui leads reigning champion Mark Selby 5-3 after an intriguing start to their World Championship semi-final.
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Last updated on .From the section Snooker
Ding Junhui scored five half-centuries and a ton and showed his growing matchplay maturity to lead reigning champion Mark Selby 5-3 after an intriguing start to their World Championship semi-final.
Both players demonstrated their potting prowess before the mini-break, scoring alternating fifties to share the opening four frames.
But China's Ding got the better of two of three scrappy frames to edge 4-3 ahead before taking frame eight with a brilliant 110.
The contest resumes on Friday morning, with the winner of the first-to-17 match playing either John Higgins or Barry Hawkins in the final.
• None READ MORE: Higgins two clear of Hawkins in semi-final
• None Vote for your most memorable Crucible Theatre moment
Unlike last year's Crucible final, when a disastrous start saw Ding lose the opener and slump 6-0 behind against the Englishman on his way to an 18-14 defeat, the world number four settled immediately.
A beautifully measured 76, after Selby broke down in the 40s, put him ahead.
Selby's superb 68 levelled and the pair then exchanged frames, Ding regaining the lead with an 84 and the world number one rounding off a high quality mini-session with a stylish 99.
Ding had a pot success rate of 91% with the world number one marginally ahead at 92% but the first frame on the resumption was the definition of scrappy.
Two-time champion Selby, 33, won it to lead for the first time, but Ding's new found mental strength saw him outsmart Selby in a tactical 39-minute frame.
He then took control of his third last-four appearance at snooker's showpiece event with breaks of 50 and 56 to edge ahead at 4-3.
And he compiled a brilliant 110 - his 10th ton of the tournament - to take his third frame in a row and establish a two-frame lead.
"I didn't think Ding could beat Ronnie, but he proved me wrong. Ding's weakness has been his mental strength and I said before I couldn't think of a reason why Mark Selby wouldn't win the World Championship but I can now - Ding Junhui.
"Selby played some of the best snooker I have ever seen on Wednesday. The 143 he made was the best break I have seen since working on snooker. It was unbelievable.
"Ding has to go up a level to win this match. He was great against Ronnie O'Sullivan.
"But he has to virtually not miss at all, and he started like that and needs to keep that up. It is lining up to be a classic.
"Who wins the scrappy frames could decide the match. He outplayed Mark in the safety exchange in frame six; he always had the upper hand. It is important for Ding to win those types of frames.
"We were spoilt in the first four frames but if it remains close it will get more cagey."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/39734910
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Four dresses and a drone - are weddings getting out of control? - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Weddings have got out of hand, says Country Life magazine, as it calls for a rethink.
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UK
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Three or four dress changes, a bevy of bridesmaids, photos taken by drone and its own #weddinghashtag.
The modern wedding has begun to take on the look of a vulgar "arms race", a lifestyle magazine has warned.
Country Life has urged people to rein it in a bit - saying weddings, and their constant cataloguing on visual social media, may put couples under pressure to spend big.
They also place guests under duress to pay for the hen-do; the stag weekend; the day itself; a present or honeymoon contribution; and a new outfit.
"The whole thing has got rather out of hand," editor Mark Hedges observes.
Figures from the close of the 2016 wedding season put the average cost of the UK wedding at £27,000 and that rises to £38,000 in London.
Website Bridebook looked at 20,000 UK weddings and found 4% of those held in the south-east of England cost more than £100,000.
Considering the latest figures from the ONS show there were 247,372 marriages between opposite sex couples in England and Wales in 2014, and 4,850 same sex couples tied the knot, it is certainly big business.
There were also 111,169 divorces in the same year, and while the average UK annual income stands at around £27,195, the costs are substantial to most, and unrealistic for many.
The magazine's Rosie Paterson believes there is a trend for "very elaborate showy weddings" that detract from the real purpose of the day.
She says: "I've seen a few friends go through the planning process, and not necessarily enjoying it. This is our gentle plea for restraints for weddings to come back to what they are really about - the wedding itself."
Weddings abroad from Mexico to Vietnam, stag dos in Europe or Las Vegas, wedding styling or themes poached from celebrity wedding culture or reality shows like Don't Tell the Bride. They all feed the fire, she says.
When weddings are then posted on Instagram or Pinterest, with their own hashtag, she adds, it may be an outlet for creativity, but: "You're suddenly looking at how everyone else is doing it. There's the ooh and aah of a giant party, but you are not, in fact, looking at the commitment. "
Mark Hedges adds: "Everyone sees what everyone else has done and feels they have to do better.
"They don't need to do better, they just need to get married and have a very special, sometimes simple, day. It should be fun, it should be delightful."
Then there's the "nightmare" of the three-day extravaganza, says Hedges, culminating in that "sorry, sorry day afterwards, when everyone's probably got slightly sore heads, wondering why they can't go home".
But is advice from a middle-to-upper-class lifestyle magazine on how to keep it real a bit rich?
People have always been competitive. Bridezilla is no new phenomenon.
Idealised images, in a vast range of wedding magazines, have been around for years.
For nuptials organiser George Watts, known as the Wedding Fairy it's all relative and based on what individuals want to achieve with, as he puts it, "their big day".
"Some people might want to host their wedding in a two-star Michelin restaurant, some might want the local country pub. At the end of the day, it's the couple's choice," he says.
He is currently planning a client's six-figure celebration, "£100,000 plus, it's a huge wedding". And he says there are more choices available than there were 20 years ago.
"I deal with so many couples, particularly brides, who have dreamt of their wedding day all their life. They've saved for it all their life, their family have. So why not put on a big day exactly how they want to?" he asks.
"Instead of just the standard cake, flowers and dress there's so many more elements that people can bring into their day to make it their own, make it memorable."
Perhaps, as the 2017 summer wedding season looms, it is all to plan for.
Take the last letter in today's Telegraph, from one Wendy May of Hereford, which ponders: "Sir - My son and his family are attending a wedding next weekend. The best man is a dog.
"Is this a common occurrence, or a new fad?"
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39716582
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Will the UK do the US's bidding on Syria? - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How significant are Boris Johnson's comments about possible UK military intervention in Syria?
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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. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tells Today the UK could help the US respond to a chemical attack in Syria
Britain has long been as much a military ally of the United States as a diplomatic one.
Margaret Thatcher allowed Ronald Reagan to use UK airbases to strike Libyan targets in 1986.
John Major sent British forces to join the US-led coalition expelling Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait in 1991.
And more than a decade later, Tony Blair embarked on George Bush's military adventure in Iraq.
So it might not seem surprising for Boris Johnson to tell the BBC's Today programme that if President Trump asked for British military support against the Syrian government, it would be hard to say, "No."
He was being asked how the UK might respond if the United States launched another attack on Syrian government targets.
Earlier this month, the US launched 59 cruise missiles in an attack on an airbase that both the US and the UK claimed had been used to mount a sarin-gas attack on civilians in rebel-held areas in Syria.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Pentagon has released video of missiles being launched from US Navy ships, targeted at a Syrian airfield.
This is what the foreign secretary told Today: "It would be very difficult if the US has a proposal to have some sort of action in response to a chemical weapon attack, and if they come to us and ask us for our support - whether it's with submarine-based cruise missiles in the Mediterranean or whatever it happens to be, as was the case back in 2013 - in my view and I know this is also the view of the PM, it would be very difficult for us to say, 'No.'"
And to emphasise the point, he added: "If the Americans were once again to be forced by the actions of the Assad regime - and don't forget it was Assad who unleashed murder upon his own citizens with weapons that were banned almost 100 years ago - if the Americans choose to act again, and they ask us to help, as I said, I think it would be very difficult to say, 'No.'"
Donald Trump had previously rejected calls for further US military intervention in Syria
In fact, Mr Johnson has said this before.
Last Tuesday he told the House of Commons: "It is my belief - I stress that no such decision has yet been taken - that were such a request to be made in future and were it to be a reasonable request in pursuit of similar objectives, it would be very difficult for the United Kingdom to say, 'No.'"
Yet no-one noticed Mr Johnson saying this, because a few hours earlier Theresa May had announced her intention to hold a general election, and attention was elsewhere.
However, Mr Johnson's remarks are significant for several reasons.
He has made explicit what previously was implicit.
Sometimes in diplomacy it matters if politicians say things publicly into a microphone.
And we now have it on the record that the UK is willing in principle to attack Syrian government targets at the behest of the United States.
And this is not just his view: he said it was the prime minister's view too.
This is a departure because until now overt UK military action in Syria has been focused on attacking the so-called Islamic State group.
MPs voted to allow this, after a debate in December 2015.
Since then, the Ministry of Defence says, UK warplanes operating out of Cyprus have carried out 90 air strikes against IS targets.
There have been many other sorties over Syria in which UK aircraft and drones have gathered intelligence.
In 2013, then Prime Minister David Cameron said he accepted there could be no military action without parliamentary support
Mr Johnson also made clear that the government may not necessarily consult Parliament before joining in any US military action.
Asked if the decision would have to go before the Commons, Mr Johnson replied: "I think that needs to be tested."
Pressed on whether going to the House of Commons would be a necessary precondition, Mr Johnson replied: "I think it would be very difficult for us to say, 'No.'
"How exactly we were able to implement that would be for the government, for the prime minister, to decide."
This is controversial for several reasons.
First, in 2013 MPs rejected military action against Syrian forces after similar allegations that they had used chemical weapons.
This reinforced a convention - not a legal requirement - that the government must seek parliamentary approval before ordering military action, except in emergencies.
And secondly, as of next week, there will be no MPs for the government to consult, after Parliament is dissolved ahead of the UK general election.
So, Mr Johnson has clearly allowed for the possibility of military action during the campaign, without parliamentary consultation.
Sources close to the foreign secretary insisted that he was not ruling out a parliamentary vote and that the government's position had not changed.
He was very careful about spelling out the conditions in which the UK might help.
He is talking about UK military action only after a similar chemical weapons attack and only if it were a "reasonable request" in pursuit of similar objectives.
In other interviews on Thursday morning, Mr Johnson talked about military action that was "commensurate and appropriate and timely".
So this is no blank cheque.
The foreign secretary has given himself plenty of wriggle room.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39731896
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Middlesbrough 1-0 Sunderland - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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Sunderland are 12 points from safety with five games remaining and could be relegated from the Premier League on Saturday.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Sunderland were left on the brink of relegation from the Premier League after losing the Tees-Wear derby to fellow strugglers Middlesbrough, who registered a first victory of 2017.
Marten de Roon's goal early in a drab contest was the 59th Sunderland have conceded this season and left the Black Cats 12 points adrift of safety with five games remaining.
Sunderland face Bournemouth on Saturday and could be relegated if they fail to win and other results go against them.
The Black Cats are bottom of the league, having spent 236 days in the relegation zone, and have taken just two points from the last 27 available.
Second-bottom Middlesbrough cannot be relegated this weekend but they face a tough run-in against Manchester City, Chelsea, Southampton and Liverpool.
How could Sunderland go down?
Sunderland will be relegated at the weekend if:
• None They lose to Bournemouth and Hull avoid defeat at Southampton
• None They lose to Bournemouth and Swansea - who play on Sunday - beat Manchester United
• None They draw with Bournemouth and Hull win at Southampton
Sunderland boss David Moyes, who was charged by the FA prior to the game after telling BBC reporter Vicki Sparks she might "get a slap", said before kick-off he thought his side could still keep their Premier League status.
However, the on-field body language and frantic decision-making betrayed a side low on confidence.
The Black Cats started strongly, but once De Roon scored they lacked intensity, losing possession too easily to leave Moyes frustrated on the sidelines.
The defence that allowed an unmarked De Roon to ghost in and score was culpable again minutes later as Stewart Downing ran through on goal but Jordan Pickford - one of Sunderland's few bright spots this season - made the stop.
Sunderland looked slightly better going forward, with record signing Didier Ndong lashing a shot at Brad Guzan before Billy Jones headed the rebound over. However, in a tepid game where both sides struggled for rhythm, the Black Cats could not keep the pressure on for long.
The boos the Sunderland players walked off to at half-time were amplified come the end of the match, with fans chanting "you're not fit to wear the shirt".
Boro tough it out for rare win
Middlesbrough have struggled at home this season and prior to this match had scored just 13 goals at the Riverside - the lowest of any top-flight team.
They have also played out seven goalless draws, underlining their lack of threat in the final third.
So it was perhaps no surprise they needed to profit from their opponents' carelessness to score the only goal of the game, with the unmarked De Roon sneaking in between Jones and John O'Shea before sliding the ball through Pickford's legs.
Boro looked vulnerable after going in front, with Sunderland given too much space inside the area, leading to a number of scrambled clearances.
The hosts held on, though, to end manager Steve Agnew's winless streak since taking over from the sacked Aitor Karanka in March.
The result also meant Boro striker Rudy Gestede, brought on as a late substitute, finally ended a Premier League-record run of 43 games without a win.
• None Middlesbrough have completed a league double over the Black Cats for the first time since the 2002/03 season.
• None Marten de Roon has scored twice in his last four Premier League appearances, as many as in his previous 26 combined.
• None De Roon's goal was Middlesbrough's first shot of the match.
• None It was Middlesbrough's first Premier League goal inside the opening 10 minutes at the Riverside since a Tuncay Sanli strike in the third minute against Hull in April 2009.
• None Although they were beaten, Sunderland had more shots than an opponent in an away Premier League game for the first time since April 2016 against Stoke.
• None Sunderland have now failed to score in 17 Premier League games this season, more than any other side.
'While there's a chance, we will keep going'
Sunderland manager David Moyes: "I've never been in this position before so it's new to me. It's something I'm not enjoying.
"We didn't get a good result but I thought we played well. It was a poor goal that we gave away but I can't fault the players or their efforts. We tried to build play up, make opportunities, but I wasn't disappointed with the performance.
"While there's a chance, we'll keep going. Good performances lead to results, that's the way it goes. I think we've had a couple of pretty good performances in the last few games.
"We know our position, we're not daft, we know exactly where we are. We have to try and pick up every win."
Middlesbrough manager Steve Agnew: "It feels great. Everybody is absolutely delighted with the three points. We had to defend for long spells but we got the goal early. I'm so proud of the players.
"Clean sheets are obviously something you build on. I think it was important, the early goal. It gave everybody a lift and a confidence to see the game through.
"The players are all happy. I think all we do now is we remain focused for the game on Sunday against Manchester City. We'll certainly gain some confidence and belief going into games."
Sunderland host Bournemouth on Saturday (15:00 BST) while Middlesbrough face Manchester City at home on Sunday (14:05 BST).
• None Attempt missed. Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Adam Forshaw.
• None Fabio Borini (Sunderland) wins a free kick on the right wing.
• None Offside, Sunderland. Adnan Januzaj tries a through ball, but Jermain Defoe is caught offside. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39163993
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Arsene Wenger: 'Christian Fuchs threw the ball at Sanchez on purpose' - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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Arsene Wenger says Christian Fuchs threw the ball at Alexis Sanchez "on purpose" and should have been booked during Wednesday's game.
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Christian Fuchs should have been booked for throwing the ball at Alexis Sanchez "on purpose" during Arsenal's 1-0 win over Leicester, says Arsene Wenger.
As Leicester chased an equaliser, defender Fuchs took a throw-in and seemingly aimed the ball at Sanchez.
The Chilean, who went down theatrically after a short delay, was booked for standing too close to the throw-in.
"Fuchs was lucky not to get a yellow card because he threw the ball at him on purpose," said Arsenal boss Wenger.
The ball hit Sanchez on the shoulder, but the 28-year-old fell to the ground clutching his face and was shown a yellow card by referee Mike Jones for not retreating far enough.
According to the Football Association's 'Laws of the game', law 15 states that "opponents must stand at least two metres from the point at which the throw-in is taken".
"In the first two attempts when Fuchs tried to throw the ball in, Sanchez stood next to him and didn't know he had to be further away," said Wenger.
"Also the referee did not tell him to move further away and after that he got a yellow card because he didn't accept the rule. I accept that. He was not the required distance. The referee or the linesman should have told him."
Sanchez later posted pictures on Twitter of his split lip, but Wenger revealed that it came from a separate incident, which he was similarly unhappy about.
"Robert Huth went really in with him I think," he added. "I helped him to get up and he was bleeding on the lips."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39729222
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Crystal Palace 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur - BBC Sport
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2017-04-27
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Tottenham stay four points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea following a hard-fought victory at Crystal Palace.
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Tottenham kept up the pressure on Premier League leaders Chelsea as Christian Eriksen's superb long-range strike secured a hard-fought victory at Crystal Palace.
Spurs had struggled to break down a disciplined Palace side for much of the game and it looked like they would have to settle for a point.
But Eriksen fired into the bottom corner from 30 yards late on to keep Spurs within four points of Chelsea with five games remaining.
Palace, who lost influential defender Mamadou Sakho to injury in the second half, rarely threatened as they concentrated on frustrating the visitors.
The win means Tottenham move on to 74 points, surpassing their previous best ever Premier League total of 72 - set in 2012-13 - when they finished fifth.
If they beat rivals Arsenal on Sunday it will ensure they finish above the Gunners in the table for the first time since the 1994-95 season.
Palace, meanwhile, remain 12th - seven points above the relegation zone.
Tottenham needed victory to not just stay in touch with Chelsea but also put behind them the FA Cup semi-final defeat to the Blues on Saturday.
Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino had been adamant that the 4-2 loss at Wembley would not hurt his players mentally in the title pursuit but that assessment initially looked incorrect as they struggled against a well-drilled Palace.
Eriksen, so often the centre of everything good Tottenham did against Chelsea, was kept quiet while Dele Alli and Harry Kane struggled to provide a spark in attack as the visitors finished the first half with just one shot on target.
Pochettino brought on Son Heung-min and Moussa Sissoko for the second half and changed to a back four in an effort to find a breakthrough. As time went on it looked more and more likely that victory would elude them but to their credit they stayed patient before a moment of magic from Eriksen finally unlocked the Palace defence.
The forward took full advantage of a moment when he was afforded a rare bit of space, shooting from distance beyond the reach of Palace keeper Wayne Hennessey.
It was not a classic performance by a Tottenham side that has scored at least three goals in each of their last three Premier League games but it was one that showed they have the ability to dig in and grind out a result - a side of their game that could prove crucial in the title run in.
Should Spurs have been down to 10 men?
It could have been a different game if Tottenham lost Victor Wanyama to a second booking in the first half.
After picking up an early yellow card for a bad foul, the midfielder slid in late on Andros Townsend. Referee Jon Moss took Wanyama to one side, but let him off with a warning.
Pochettino opted to withdraw Wanyama at half time, but Palace boss Sam Allardyce felt he should never have had the option to do that in the first place.
"Jon Moss should have sent him off," said Allardyce. "The second challenge was probably more of a booking than the first one.
"It is disappointing for us, it is a mistake but at the end of the day we lost a game and we can only think about ourselves right now."
Sakho has been a key player in Palace's upturn in form, with every performance since the defender's January arrival on loan from Liverpool serving only to enhance his transfer value.
Against Tottenham he was once again excellent, keeping the attacking talent of Kane, Alli and Eriksen quiet throughout the first half.
One moment in particular stood out when, under pressure from Kane, he coolly chested the ball down inside his own area before calmly clearing, prompting home fans to chant "sign him up, sign him up".
But they must now face up to the possibility of Sakho being absent from the Palace backline after he suffered what looked like a bad injury early in the second half, falling awkwardly following a challenge.
Allardyce's side are unlikely to go down thanks to an incredible run of just two defeats in their last nine Premier League games but Palace fans will be hopeful of seeing Sakho in a Palace shirt again this season.
What they said
Crystal Palace manager Sam Allardyce: "Outstanding team effort by the players, who have had less time to recover against an exceptionally good side.
"Our application was outstanding and we gave Tottenham a hell of a game in the first half, nip and tuck, but of course it would happen that we would tire given the lack of recovery time compared to Tottenham."
Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino: "It was unbelievable. Very good performance. I think second half we played much better than in the first half. It was difficult in the first half for us to move the ball and find the space but we changed the shape at half time and it was more fluid, we started to find the space and started to push Palace deeper and deeper.
"It was good to get the three points and be alive in the race for the title. The challenge is to keep going. It is always better to win but it is true [the Arsenal game] is a big derby, perhaps the last at White Hart Lane and I think it will be an exciting game."
Eight in a row for Spurs - the stats
• None Spurs have won eight consecutive league games for the first time since October 1960 (13 in a row).
• None Crystal Palace have lost four successive league games against Spurs in the top-flight for the first time since September 1971 (five in a row).
• None Christian Eriksen has had a hand in 16 goals in his last 12 games in all competitions for Tottenham (5 goals, 11 assists).
• None Since his debut in September 2013, Christian Eriksen has scored more Premier League goals from outside the box than any other player (14).
• None Spurs became the third Premier League side to score 100+ goals in all competitions this season after Man City (105) and Arsenal (106).
• None Mousa Dembele became the fourth Belgian player to reach 200 appearances in the Premier League alongside Vincent Kompany, Marouane Fellaini and Simon Mignolet.
• None Crystal Palace have lost seven of their last eight Premier League London derbies on home soil (W1).
It's the big one for Tottenham on Sunday as they host fierce rivals Arsenal in the Premier League (16:30 BST). Crystal Palace, meanwhile, are at home to Burnley in Saturday's evening kick-off (17:30 BST).
• None Attempt blocked. Martin Kelly (Crystal Palace) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Andros Townsend with a cross.
• None Attempt missed. Toby Alderweireld (Tottenham Hotspur) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Ben Davies with a headed pass following a corner.
• None Luka Milivojevic (Crystal Palace) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39164098
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Paula Hawkins' new novel Into The Water confuses critics - BBC News
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2017-04-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The follow-up to The Girl on the Train "doesn't pass the second-book test", according to reviewers.
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Entertainment & Arts
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The Girl on the Train was Paula Hawkins's first novel under her own name
The only problem with writing a debut novel that sells 20 million copies and spawns a Hollywood film is - your follow-up has a lot to live up to.
Paula Hawkins' 2015 debut The Girl on the Train was a publishing phenomenon, and the first reviews for her new book Into The Water are in.
And most critics are not impressed.
Reviewing it for The Guardian, crime author Val McDermid predicted Hawkins' sales would be "massive" but "her readers' enjoyment may be less so".
McDermid was puzzled by the 11 narrative voices used in Into The Water, which is released in the UK next week.
She wrote: "These characters are so similar in tone and register - even when some are in first person and others in third - that they are almost impossible to tell apart, which ends up being both monotonous and confusing."
She added: "Hawkins had a mountain to climb after the success of The Girl on the Train and no doubt the sales of her second thriller will be massive. I suspect her readers' enjoyment may be less so."
Slate's Laura Miller declared that Into the Water "isn't an impressive book".
She wrote: "Its tone is uniformly lugubrious and maudlin, and Hawkins' characters seldom rise to the level of two dimensions, let alone three."
But Miller pointed out: "None of this will necessarily prevent Into the Water from triumphing at the cash register. The book surely will become a best-seller, if only on the strength of residual name recognition for The Girl on the Train."
Janet Maslin wasn't much more enthusiastic in The New York Times.
"If The Girl on the Train seemed overplotted and confusing to some readers, it is a model of clarity next to this latest effort.
"Her goal may be to build suspense, but all she achieves is confusion. Into the Water is jam-packed with minor characters and stories that go nowhere."
She asks: "What happened to the Paula Hawkins who structured The Girl on the Train so ingeniously?"
However, The New Statesman's Leo Robson defended the book, writing: "Most of the time, the novel is plausible and grimly gripping.
"Into the Water follows its predecessor in applying laser scrutiny to a small patch, but there are signs of growth and greater ambition."
He described Hawkins's writing as "addictive", adding that the novel "is on a par with The Girl on a Train".
The film adaptation of The Girl on the Train was released last September
The Evening Standard's David Sexton wrote: "Unfortunately, Into the Water turns out to be hard work."
"There's a ridiculous multiplication of narrators from the start, some first-person, others third, so that on first reading it is almost impossible to keep track of who's who and what relation they have to one another... several of the stories never really cohere."
Marcel Berlins in The Times said: "This novel has its intriguing attributes.
"It does not follow the usual samey fashionable pattern of 'domestic noir' and psychological thrillers. For that Hawkins ought to be commended, even if the result is not a full success.
"She is let down by her overambitious structure and a lack of sufficient tension. Hawkins does not quite pass the second-book test."
Of course, reviews of any kind are unlikely to deter the millions who enjoyed The Girl on the Train.
After all, critics didn't much like the film adaptation of her previous book, starring Emily Blunt, but that didn't stop it being a box office success.
The Girl on the Train was Hawkins' first book under her own name, but she had previously written a string of chick-lit novels under the pen name Amy Silver.
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-39717279
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One man's hunt for his brothers' killers - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Eighteen years after three young Albanian-Americans were tortured and killed, a family's fight for justice goes on.
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Magazine
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Two weeks after the end of hostilities in Kosovo, three young Albanian-Americans who had joined the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) were arrested by Yugoslav police, tortured and killed. Eighteen years later, the conflict has been largely forgotten, but the men's youngest brother continues a lonely fight for justice.
Towards the end of June 1999, Ylli, Agron and Mehmet Bytyqi (pronounced Bootoochee) were escorting a Roma family out of Kosovo to the Serbian border. It was an act of kindness. The Bytyqi brothers - whose parents knew the family well - were guaranteeing their safety up to Kosovo's border with Serbia, since many ethnic Albanians viewed Roma with suspicion.
But near the village of Merdare, something went wrong. After straying over the unmarked border, the brothers were seized and jailed for two weeks for entering Yugoslavia without a visa.
When they were released, a white car without licence plates, driven by men in plain clothes, was waiting at the jail in the town of Prokuplje. The three brothers were then driven to the base of a unit of special police in Petrovo Selo, near the Romanian border, and were not seen alive again.
This was when Fatos Bytyqi's search began.
While his brothers were American citizens, born in Illinois, Fatos was born after his parents returned from the US to Prizren, in what was then Yugoslavia, in 1979. He was 19 when Ylli, Agron and Mehmet joined the Atlantic Brigade - a group of some 400 American citizens who left in April 1999 to join the fight for Kosovo's independence from Serbia.
The brothers arrived too late to do much fighting, as by mid-June a Nato bombing campaign had led to the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo, and their replacement by Nato peacekeepers. The three Bytyqi brothers were nonetheless members of the KLA. On the day they were arrested they were carrying KLA dogtags as well as New York driving licences, and one theory is that they may have been suspected of spying.
In the weeks after their disappearance, a human rights group in Belgrade succeeded in obtaining papers documenting the brothers' release from the prison. Later, Fatos visited Prokuplje with his mother, where he learned about the white car. But it took another two years for the brothers' fate to become clear.
In July 2001 their bodies were found at the top of a mass grave in Petrovo Selo along with other Kosovan Albanians. They had been blindfolded, their hands tied with wire behind their backs, and shot in the head. According to an FBI agent who spent six years investigating the case, their skin showed the marks of electric shocks, indicating torture.
Today, the 37-year-old Fatos is the manager of a 7-Eleven convenience store in Hampton Bays, on Long Island, just outside New York city, where his brothers lived before the war. Two of them were painters, one a pizza-maker. A fourth brother, Ilir, stayed behind to continue earning money to support the family. Softly spoken, with a neat black goatee, Fatos leaves his shop behind roughly once a year to travel to Serbia, where he meets the prime minister, chief war crimes prosecutor, interior minister and other top officials, to urge them to step up efforts to find and prosecute his brothers' killers.
Investigations have been conducted both by Serbian war crimes investigators and by the FBI. But most of this work was done years ago and the world has since moved on. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is being wound down, Serbia is negotiating its membership of the European Union and the US institutions that once leaned on the Serbian authorities have eased off.
Only Fatos refuses to give up.
Invariably the officials he meets in Belgrade urge him to remain patient, and promise that there will be progress soon.
"When they see me, it's not like they are really feeling bad. If they were they would have taken care of this a long time ago," he says.
"Sometimes the ministers don't let me finish my questions. They interrupt and say that I don't understand."
"To work on war crimes against your brothers you have to be beyond patient," says his brother, Ilir, who helps him research the case, but leaves most of the public relations to Fatos.
"Dealing with all these government people [in the US] and especially in Serbia, who just tell you what you want to hear - that can easily set you off."
It is clear that the perpetrators of the crime were among a limited number of people with access to the base of the special police unit at Petrovo Selo, where the Bytyqis were executed and buried.
To date, only two men have been tried - Sreten Popovic and Milos Stojanovic, who transferred the brothers in the white car from the jail in Prokuplje to Petrovo Selo. Charged with aiding and abetting a war crime, they were acquitted once in 2009 and again at a retrial in 2012, on the grounds that they played only a minor role, and that it could not have been a war crime because the war was over by the time the brothers were arrested.
Fatos Bytyqi is convinced that one man is the key to the case, retired general Goran Radosavljevic - nicknamed "Guri", meaning "stone" in Albanian - who was the commander of the Petrovo Selo base. He says he was away from the base at the time of the murders, though at least one of his former staff disputes this.
Radosavljevic is a powerful man. He went on to head Serbia's special police forces, or gendarmerie as they were renamed. Later he set up a security firm, training foreign troops. Today he is a respected businessman and a member of the executive board of the Serbian Progressive Party - the party of President Tomislav Nikolic and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.
Serbian officials often attribute the paralysis of the Bytyqi case to the difficulty of getting witnesses to talk. Fatos Bytyqi notes bitterly that it will be hard to convince anyone to testify against a man who appears on television standing next to the prime minister.
On his most recent visit to Serbia, last autumn, the ever-patient Fatos shows signs of frustration.
"When the US diplomats meet Serbian officials they say, 'What's new on the Bytyqi case?'" he says, interpreting this as a sign that they do not keep up the pressure when he is not there.
"They should be saying, 'You killed my three citizens!'
"They see the prime minister all the time, they should raise the case. I have to travel 10 hours to come here and plan how to make the embassy work closer with the Serbian interior ministry."
US diplomats declined to comment. But in 2014 the then deputy chief of mission, Gordon Duguid, pointed to a number of reasons why no-one had been indicted for the murders - the slow transition from strongman rule in Serbia to the rule of law, the continuing resistance to normalising relations with Kosovo, and the reluctance of some Serbs to come to terms with happened in the war.
On one evening in Belgrade, Fatos sits down in the office of the Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC) to watch a documentary about the case, broadcast on Serbian television to coincide with his visit. It's called Collective Amnesia.
The centre's 70-year-old founder Natasa Kandic, a flinty human rights campaigner and a longstanding supporter of Fatos, praises him for "fighting against the silence".
But what are the chances that he will ever be successful? Prime Minister Vucic said in 2015 that the case would be resolved "sooner than you'd think". Others argue that Serbia will have to tackle some big war crimes cases before closing its EU accession process.
The Bytyqis' pro-bono lawyer, Praveen Madhiraju, thinks another prosecution is likely, but that it is less likely to be a serious prosecution of a high-ranking figure.
Out of 170 convictions achieved by the Serbian war crimes prosecutor's office in its 13 years of existence, all but six were of foot-soldiers following orders, points out the head of the legal programme at the HLC, Milica Kostic.
"A miracle needs to happen," she says. "There is very little hope."
But Fatos Bytyqi nonetheless has hope that justice will be done. He puts his faith in God. At some point, he says, it will happen.
All photos by Marko Risovic. Work on this story was supported by the Center for Investigative Reporting.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39433897
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Lexi Thompson: Watch how golfer loses major after TV replay - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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American Lexi Thompson receives a four-stroke penalty after a TV replay shows her incorrectly replacing a ball.
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American Lexi Thompson receives a four-stroke penalty while leading the final round of the first major of the season - and then loses the play-off to So Yeon Ryu - after a TV replay showed her incorrectly replacing a ball.
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/39479987
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Lions in New Zealand: Brian O'Driscoll tips Sam Warburton for captaincy - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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Former British and Irish Lions captain Brian O'Driscoll expects Wales flanker Sam Warburton to lead the squad against New Zealand.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Sam Warburton will be re-appointed British and Irish Lions captain for the tour of New Zealand, according to former Lions skipper Brian O'Driscoll.
The Wales flanker, 28, led the Lions in Australia in 2013 and is the favourite to resume the role this summer.
"[Lions head coach Warren] Gatland is a big fan, he knows what sort of captain he is. He's going to be the man."
Former Ireland captain O'Driscoll, who toured with the Lions four times, added: "The experience of doing it once before, and how he is currently playing and the high esteem he is held in, I think they all feature heavily in him being another good selection.
"Seven [open-side flanker] is one of the more open positions, and I think Warburton will fit in brilliantly there."
O'Driscoll feels Warburton is now best-placed to lead the touring party ahead of Wales captain in Alun Wyn Jones, who is currently sidelined with a shoulder injury.
"Sam is the kind of character that if he wasn't selected for the Tests he wouldn't throw the toys out of the cot," O'Driscoll said.
"You look at that, married with Alun Wyn being out for a couple of weeks now, I don't know if you can guarantee him a Test spot.
"I would have him in my Test team, but I don't know if Gats feels he can guarantee him a Test spot."
O'Driscoll also feels the form of Irish provinces Leinster and Munster - who have reached the Champions Cup semi-finals - could see some of their players sneak into contention.
"No-one has mentioned [Munster second row] Donnacha Ryan as a possible bolter," he said. "He could do a brilliant job for the Lions as a midweek player.
"I wouldn't be shocked to find him on the tour. He is the kind of guy you want in the trenches."
O'Driscoll also believes Leinster flanker Sean O'Brien is in the frame.
"He was the seven four years ago when [the Lions] smashed Australia, and Warren Gatland will remember that and knows what he can deliver.
"He has given himself every opportunity."
Gatland will confirm his squad on 19 April with the first game of the tour on 3 June.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39485901
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Alan Shearer - no more twists in Premier League title race - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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Chelsea can show their title challenge is back on track against Manchester City on Wednesday, says BBC pundit Alan Shearer.
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When you are chasing the title and you lose at home, like Chelsea did on Saturday, then you want the chance to respond straight away and prove it was a blip.
Blues boss Antonio Conte will want a reaction from his side when they play Manchester City on Wednesday and there is probably no better opposition for them to go out and show everyone that they are back on track.
It is a huge game for City as well, but not in terms of them catching the leaders - I would be amazed if Pep Guardiola's side won the title now.
I don't think City's top-four place is in serious danger despite three successive draws but, because of how much they have spent and who their manager is, they simply have to qualify for next season's Champions League. They cannot really afford to lose.
I don't see any twists in the title race
Despite Saturday's defeat by Crystal Palace, I still think Chelsea will end up as champions. I don't see any twists in the title race.
Every top team has those days where, whatever you try, it doesn't work and you come up against a brick wall. Palace's defending was just brilliant and their whole team played to their maximum.
That result meant City could have cut Chelsea's lead at the top to nine points if they had beaten Arsenal on Sunday, and reduced it to six with a win at Stamford Bridge.
City could only draw at the Emirates but, even if they had won, I don't think it would have made any difference to their title chances.
Like Tottenham, they would still have been left needing to win all their remaining games just to have any chance of overhauling Chelsea.
I just don't see City doing that because defensively they are poor, and they give too many goals away.
The same old story for City
City's draw at the Emirates was basically their season in a nutshell.
They scored two good goals to go ahead twice, and should have had enough to see out the game, but conceded two goals from mistakes.
Arsenal's first goal came from one defender, Gael Clichy, being caught napping and, although their second equaliser came from a very good header by Shkodran Mustafi, it came from a corner and was definitely preventable.
It was a set-piece and City should not be vulnerable in that situation, but they are.
As impressive as they can be going forward, those problems at the back are the reason they will not win the Premier League this season.
It was a missed opportunity, because of Arsenal's poor form - they had lost four of their previous five league games - and also because of how open Arsene Wenger's side were, particularly in the first half.
I was expecting the Gunners to sit in, try to keep it tight and just try to play themselves into the game.
Instead they went out and were so open that City were ahead after five minutes, and were back in front two minutes after Arsenal made it 1-1.
City had the best opportunities to have won the game, especially in the first half, but if feels like I have been saying the same thing about them all season.
What do City need in the summer?
I know Guardiola often says in his interviews that they have dropped points because of missed chances but, in reality, he will know that defensively they have got to improve if they are going to win the Premier League next season.
City have got better in some areas as the season has gone on but no matter which formation or players Guardiola has tried at the back, I have not seen any overall improvement there.
John Stones had a decent game again at the Emirates, and was probably the pick of the bunch from their back four, but he cannot do it all on his own.
They have been searching for answers at centre-half for a number of years and still are - I don't think it takes a genius to work out that Guardiola needs to buy a new one in the summer.
He needs a goalkeeper too, and some full-backs, so we are talking three defenders in total.
I know Pablo Zabaleta and Bacary Sagna were injured for the Arsenal game, which is why he had to try Jesus Navas at right-back.
But the continuous change of personnel in City's defence tells us that he hasn't found the right answer yet.
Pep needs some silverware - and soon
There were huge expectations when Guardiola arrived at City because of what he achieved with Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
He is one of the best managers in the world and I am pretty sure he will win trophies at City too but, the longer he goes without winning anything, the more pressure there will be because of his reputation and the money that City have spent.
Like Guardiola, this is Conte's first season in England, and the Chelsea boss looks set to start by winning the league.
It is a great achievement but not being in Europe has definitely helped Conte, and he has been fortunate with injuries too. Chelsea have played fewer games than all of their title rivals, and have not had to test the depth of their squad.
Guardiola has not had that luxury, but I think he will still be desperately disappointed if he finishes his first season at City empty-handed, which is why the FA Cup has become very important for City now.
City will have to get past Arsenal to reach the final and I am expecting another very open game when they meet again at Wembley on 23 April.
Based on what we have seen from them this season, both teams will probably score some goals and defend badly - and who wins will come down to whose forwards perform best on the day.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39475315
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Lexi Thompson penalty: Tournament referee not TV viewers should have final say - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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The mistake that cost Lexi Thompson a major was her own, and rules were properly followed - but the rules make golf look ridiculous, says Iain Carter.
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Who knows what was going through Lexi Thompson's mind when she chose to mark and replace her ball on the 17th green last Saturday?
Whatever it was, it resulted in what should have been a routine moment going horribly wrong. It ultimately cost her a major and her second ANA Inspiration title.
If Thompson's actions were not spotted by her playing partner, referees on the spot, or officials monitoring the TV feed then they have surely come through enough examination
It also led to another sorry rules mess that made golf look ridiculous. Add this one to the Dustin Johnson fiasco at the men's US Open last year and Anna Nordqvist's rules breach that ruined her chances at the women's equivalent championship a couple of weeks later.
But be in no doubt that in this latest controversy only one person made a mistake and that was Thompson. Unwittingly or otherwise, she did not put back her ball in the correct place.
She was less than an inch out but she got it wrong and might have given herself an advantage.
Throughout the due process that followed, the LPGA rules officials acted in accordance with the rules as set out for tournament play.
Under current rules, officials have no choice but to investigate a possible rules breach if they are so alerted by a television viewer. And if the tournament is still going on, this applies even if that information comes in on a later day.
So Thompson was given a two-stroke penalty for incorrectly replacing her ball and two more shots for signing for the wrong score. A total of four shots were added to the tournament leader's card.
She only found this out as she moved from the 12th green to the 13th tee a day after the offence was committed.
And this is where the game lets itself look ridiculous. This is where common sense goes out of the window and tournaments are ruined.
Foremost is the fact that golf is a self-policing sport. Golfers and their playing partners are supposed to ensure that the rules are followed and, in so doing, protect the rest of the field from cheats.
This is what occurs almost all of the time at every level of the sport.
At big events, referees are on hand. At many majors there is a rules official at every hole with every group.
Furthermore, there should be an official watching the television footage. So why on earth do we need to rely on someone sitting at home - watching on delay, in this case - to make sure the rules are followed?
• None Listen: Former Ryder Cup captain says LPGA 'should have ignored' complaint about Thompson
• None Watch: The putting coach to the world's best
If Thompson's actions were not spotted by her playing partner, referees on the spot, or officials monitoring the TV feed then they have surely come through enough examination.
Yes, this may mean a mistake is made - but most sports are riddled with such errors. Why does golf have to be different?
We have all screamed at screens having witnessed what we consider sporting injustice, but we have no part in altering the course of action in other sports.
But golf allows for sofa-seated witnesses to influence outcomes and it does no-one any favours.
In this case Ryu So-yeon is celebrating her second major title but no one is talking about her performance. Instead the player who finished second is gaining all the attention and sympathy.
Ultimately it was Thompson's fault that she lost but no-one wants to see any sporting event decided in such a way.
Golf's rules are under review. There are many good ideas under discussion for implementation in 2019.
Here's another one they should adopt - make sure the referee's decision is final, because there should be no place for interference from anyone else.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/39482204
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The woman on a mission to get rid of bad dating photos - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Saskia Nelson's knowledge of the online dating world led her to specialise in photos for dating profiles.
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Business
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"Does the world really need another wedding photographer?"
That was the thought that ran through Saskia Nelson's mind when, having spontaneously resigned from her office job at a London Olympics legacy project, she was thinking of her next move.
An amateur photographer, she decided four years ago, aged 43, that she was going to go professional.
But she hadn't really worked out how, and so she used her three-month notice period to consider her options, one of which was to join the army of wedding snappers.
"But I thought, 'I'm not married, it's not my bag, I don't really know anything about it,'" says Saskia.
What she did know about, however, was online dating.
Having spent seven to eight years doing it, her friends considered her a connoisseur.
Saskia and her team photograph up to 50 people per month
"I just took a very light-hearted approach to it, I saw it as a bit of an adventure, or a story to share with married friends - they love that sort of stuff," she says.
But one major bugbear for Saskia was the large number of bad and old - to the point of deceptive - profile photos.
"When you're over 40, ten years is a long time," she quips, adding that she's seen countless bad selfies and shots with an ex cropped out.
So knowing the importance of having a good profile image, she realised that there was a gap in the market to become an online dating photographer.
Saskia couldn't find anyone at all who was specialising in it, so she was effectively creating a new genre of photography when she launched her business Hey Saturday in 2013.
Explaining the name, she says: "It's like saying hello to the most important day of the week in the dating world."
Saskia's photo shoots are always outside, to get away from the "studio portrait" feel
Initially available in London, Hey Saturday has over the past four years expanded across the UK, and is now about to launch in New York.
Saskia and her team of seven photographers, all of whom are female, currently photograph up to 50 clients per month.
Saskia says that from day one she realised the photographs couldn't look too formal.
"I know that I didn't want the photos to scream 'I needed professional help'," she says. "So they couldn't be in a studio, or too formal - people run a mile from that.
"So I developed this ethos of [it looking like] one of your best mates happens to be passionate about photography. You are just hanging out, and taking photos."
The company says it has an even split of male and female clients
To create that feel, Saskia says that being outside is key. And if rain is forecast the client has the option to reschedule - particularly useful for women worried about their hair apparently.
Before the shoot they are asked to fill in a short questionnaire about themselves and the website suggests they might want to bring a couple of different tops and t-shirts (there are always nearby loos to change in).
And while Saskia found she initially had more female clients, she says it's now about 50-50, and increasingly she is getting younger people, no doubt more conscious of their online image.
Clients pay Saskia and her team for their time, not the number of photos
She says that most clients turn up in a rush, usually with no clear ideas of how they want the photographs to look. They then pay for half an hour, one hour or 90 minutes of actual photography.
Saskia says that a large part of the job is making people feel comfortable, she says, as the clients can often feel vulnerable and a bit self-conscious.
"No-one ever comes to us saying, 'I really want to do this.' They come saying, 'this is the last thing I'll do, because I really want to meet someone,'" says Saskia, who despite being a photographer, does not like being in front of the lens herself.
Hey Saturday has been helped by the fact that the online dating industry has exploded in recent years, fuelled by apps that people can use on their mobile phones.
There are now 10 million active online daters in the UK alone, according to industry group the Online Dating Association (ONA).
Clients can bring props and different outfits to the shoot
Andrew McClelland, the ONA's chief executive, says that having help with your profile, be it your photo or text description, can be helpful.
"I'm the worst person to tell someone else about me," he says, "but if there's somebody who can help me sell myself then why not?
"Of course there's the risk it might be more polished than I am, but the same is true in real life."
In the end, Mr McClelland says image counts. "We are social animals and we get an awful lot of information from when we look at someone, although you might argue that is not always a good thing."
It was this photo in particular that caught the attention of Samantha Lovell's love interest
The 36-year-old teacher had hired a professional matchmaker who strongly advised her to get professional photos.
So, while visiting her sister in London, she booked a shoot.
Her matchmaker showed the photos to one man, who really liked them, and Samantha arranged to meet him.
"We met up and hit it off immediately," she says.
"We were married in less than a year, and now I'm expecting a baby in the summer."
Saskia has grown Hey Saturday by word of mouth and by following a marketing mantra known as "know, like and trust".
To do this, she writes blogs and articles for both news and dating websites, takes part in podcasts, and offers dating advice. The idea is that people will get to know, like and trust her, and therefore be more likely to make a booking with Hey Saturday.
Shooting acclaimed photographer Martin Parr for one of his projects brought Saskia recognition in the wider photographic community
As the company has expanded, Saskia says her biggest challenge has been finding photographers who she thinks fit the brand.
Saskia, speaking to me at the launch of Metier, a project profiling women and their work, says: "It's so critical that we get people who can make people laugh, can be light-hearted and joke around, because you want to get natural, relaxed and happy shots."
Saskia says she is also notoriously bad with numbers - describing herself as suffering from "dyscalculia", or being dyslexic with numbers.
Luckily she has a banker boyfriend to help with the accounts, who, you will be glad to know, she met through online dating.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39320580
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ANA Inspiration: Lexi Thompson loses play-off following four-stroke penalty - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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American Lexi Thompson is given a four-stroke penalty in the final round of the ANA Inspiration - and then loses a play-off to So Yeon Ryu.
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Last updated on .From the section Golf
American Lexi Thompson was left in tears after being handed a four-stroke penalty while leading the final round of the first major of the season - and then losing a play-off to Ryu So-yeon.
She incorrectly replaced a marked ball in Saturday's third round - a TV viewer spotted the offence and told officials.
Thompson was leading the ANA Inspiration by two shots when told of the penalty after her 12th hole.
She birdied the 18th to force a play-off which Ryu won at the first hole.
Thompson, 22, had missed a 20-foot eagle putt on the last that would have given her a sensational victory at Mission Hills in California.
What did Thompson do?
Thompson appeared to put a marker at the side of her ball on the 17th green before lifting it and replacing in front of the marker prior to a putt of less than two feet.
The LPGA said she "breached Rule 20-7c (Playing From Wrong Place), and received a two-stroke penalty. She incurred an additional two-stroke penalty under Rule 6-6d for returning an incorrect scorecard in round three."
Her five-under-par third-round 67 was changed to a 71.
"Is this a joke?" Thompson said after being informed by a rules official, before making birdies on three of the last six holes to force the play-off.
"It is unfortunate with what happened, I did not mean that at all, I had no idea that I did it," Thompson later told the Golf Channel.
"I had to regroup myself, my caddie helped me out tremendously, we have a great relationship. I tried to gather myself and I made a great putt at 13.
"But it's all to the fans, they helped me get through the rest of the round and I thank them a lot.
"I learned a lot about myself and how much I have in me. I wasn't expecting what happened today to happen and I will learn from it."
South Korean Ryu was the beneficiary as she claimed a second major title after making a four in the play-off, but admitted her win did not feel right.
"I cannot believe the situation. I didn't even check the leaderboard, Lexi was playing so well. I didn't expect it," she said.
"It hurts me as well, it is a weird feeling but at the same time I am proud of myself."
The LPGA said in a statement: "On Sunday afternoon, the LPGA received an email from a television viewer that Lexi Thompson did not properly replace her ball prior to putting out on the 17th hole during Saturday's third round of the ANA Inspiration.
"She was immediately notified of the breach by LPGA Rules Committee in between holes 12 and 13 of the final round."
And LPGA Tour rules official Sue Witters, who had to break the news to a stunned Thompson, said she understood the outrage of fans but insisted no other option was available.
"What's my choice?" she said. "A violation in the rules and then it would be the opposite story: Oh, they knew, why didn't they do anything about it.
"I can't go to bed tonight knowing that I let a rule slide. You know, it's a hard thing to do, and it made me sick to be honest with you."
However, Bernard Gallacher, former captain of the Europe Ryder Cup team, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme "the LPGA had the power to dismiss that person (the TV viewer), they should have completely ignored it".
Thompson was two shots clear of playing partner Suzann Pettersen on 16 under following the 12th hole - and was charging towards her second major championship.
She immediately dropped from 16 under to 12 under following the penalty ruling, but recovered from her tears on the 13th tee, to hole a 20ft birdie putt to move back into a share of the lead after Pettersen, bogeyed the hole.
Thompson continued to battle back and made birdie at the 15th to take a one-stroke lead with three-holes to play.
But she bogeyed the 16th as Ryu took the clubhouse lead at four under, with a birdie on 18 to card a bogey-free four-under-par 68.
Thompson arrived at the 18th hole one-stroke behind Ryu, needing eagle to win but her putt stopped inches from the hole and she tapped in for a 67.
Ryu then birdied the first play-off hole, the 18th, to complete her second major victory.
Norway's Pettersen signed for a 70 to finish in a three-way tie for third with Australia's Minjee Lee and Inbee Park of South Korea, who both shot three-under 69s.
American Michelle Wie also carded a 69 to finish sixth on 11 under, while New Zealand's world number one Lydia Ko was tied 11th on seven under.
England's Charley Hull closed with a level-par 72 for five under and compatriot Mel Reed's four-over 76 saw her finish on six over.
Golf is no stranger to controversy surrounding its rules.
At the 2016 US Open, eventual winner Dustin Johnson was forced to play his last seven holes knowing he had to review a possible rules infringement after the round.
Standing over his ball on the fifth green, Johnson made two practice putts. But as he prepared to address the ball to take his putt, it moved slightly.
The American was handed a one-shot penalty for making his ball move, despite being initially absolved of wrongdoing.
But unlike Thompson, he went on to claim his first major finishing three shots ahead of the field.
And Johnson also fell foul of the rules in 2010 when he missed out on a US PGA Championship play-off as a result of a violation.
Leading by one, Johnson was docked two shots for grounding his club in sand on the 18th hole. He thought it was wasteland but it was deemed to be a bunker.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/39476590
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California's drought is over. Now what? - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Now that California has had significant rain, can the state ever go back to "normal"?
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US & Canada
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Now that California has had significant rain, can the state ever go back to "normal"?
At the height of California's multi-year drought, Rafael Surmay's well - the only source of water to his house - went dry. For two and a half years, Surmay, his wife, and his four children showered, cleaned, drank and cooked using a water tank and 10 gallons of bottled water per month. They depended on monthly deliveries to refill their water tank
"To manage the water was practically the main track of each day," he says."We disconnected the washer and had to go to the public laundry. For showering, every time I tell my boys, soap, close the shower [faucet], wash, close."
Over the past several months, rainstorms have brought relief to parts of California, which has been suffering from drought since 2012. Some areas have had record rain, and snowpack across the Sierra Nevada is between 150-175% of normal.
Though a small percentage of California is still in moderate to severe drought, California Governor Jerry Brown may declare an official end to the drought emergency in the near future.
But several years of widespread, deeply dry conditions have exacted a toll on the state that will take more than one wet season to fix. In some cases, the landscape may be forever altered.
In parts of San Joaquin Valley, where the Surmays live, the ground is sinking as fast as two feet a year, because of over-pumping of groundwater, according to a new study by Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab.
As the drought continued, people dug deeper and deeper to extract water from the ground, and that's taken a toll. Groundwater aquifers in this area have layers of clay whose particles are like "little plates," says Kathleen Jones, one of the paper's authors.
"They take up a lot of room, but whenever you over draw, they flatten, and they don't fluff back up."
And as the ground sinks behind the water being pumped out, the aquifers don't hold as much water afterwards.
Alan Haynes, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service says some of the shallower groundwater reserves will respond to the rainy season, but others may take much longer. Claudia Faunt, a US Geological Survey researcher, says even if all groundwater pumping stopped, it would take decades for aquifers in the Central Valley to fully recharge.
These deeper basins collected water over thousands of years, Hayes said. "It's almost like fossilised water."
And that means despite flooding in some parts of the state, the drought's effects still reverberate.
David Lewis, another resident of the San Joaquin Valley whose well has gone dry, is moving instead of digging a deeper well. The lack of water has extended to his work at the cement plant - where its own well ran dry in early March.
Last month, after years of planning and advocacy efforts from local non-profits, the Surmays' house and many of their neighbours were connected to the city of Porterville's water system.
But the infrastructure that now brings water to their house itself is at threat due to the subsidence. Ground shifts can affect roads, bridges, water pipes and aqueducts.
The Nasa study focused on land around California's vast water infrastructure, which brings water from the northern part of the state to the southern - across hundreds of miles.
"There is a huge mismatch between where and when the water falls and where and when people use it," Jones says. One of the results of the JPL study: as result of the sinking ground in one area of the aqueduct, water flow is hampered by 20%.
The governor has signed a new law requiring localities to manage groundwater more sustainably, but it does not go into effect immediately.
The California aqueduct moves fresh water across the state from Northern California into the irrigation networks of the central valley and into the southern California
"Subsidence has long plagued certain regions of California," William Croyle, a state water official, said in a press release. "But the current rates jeopardise infrastructure serving millions of people. Groundwater pumping now puts at risk the very system that brings water to the San Joaquin Valley. The situation is untenable."
That flow downstate affects farming in California too. During the drought, farmers either let their fields fallow or began digging for groundwater themselves. While California farmers as a whole saw higher revenue at the height of the drought, success was uneven and driven by higher prices.
In 2015 alone, there were 2,500 new wells drilled by farmers in San Joaquin Valley..
But in some cases, it wasn't enough. "I don't know a farmer that hasn't reduced [water consumption] by 25%," says Paul Wegner, president of the California Farm Bureau. Some didn't farm at all.
In southern California, thousands of acres of citrus were removed because of drought. Other farmers have shifted to less water-intensive crops like wine grapes or berries, or higher-value crops like walnuts and almonds.
California may be in a better position now, but it remains at risk of another intense drought.
"In the past five years we weren't seeing these mid-winter storms," says Alan Haynes, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service.
Much of the rain depends on luck and how the weather breaks.
"You can lock into ridge of high pressure and it steers everything away, or there's a pattern where the storms can get in."
Climate change has a part to play, but less so with the amount of precipitation and more an increase in average temperatures earlier in the year, says Paul Ullrich, a climate scientist and professor at University of California, Davis.
"That means over the summers, more water is evaporating from the ground," Ullrich says. Rising temperatures also limit the amount of snowpack in the high mountains over the winter, and melts it even earlier.
"No matter how much it snows during the rainy season, rising temperatures will continue to remove water from the state," says Ullrich.
That means any gains now are tenuous.
"If we have another dry season - you can easily get back into trouble again," Hayes says.
After five years of living under the harsh realities of drought, he says, a lot of state residents won't change their water-conserving habits.
"That memory is going to be around for a while."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39459592
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Alex Jones and InfoWars: How Sandy Hook families fought back - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Some deny one of the US's worst mass shootings ever happened. Now the victims are fighting back.
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BBC Trending
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It was one of the worst school shootings in American history, but some people insist that the Sandy Hook massacre never happened. They post YouTube videos and spread rumours online, and their false theories have been repeated by a media mogul conspiracy theorist who has been linked to Donald Trump. Now, after years of harassment, the families of the victims are fighting back online.
Leonard Pozner clicks on a YouTube video showing his street and the outside of his home. The camera zooms in on his balcony, and his address and a route to his door flash up on the screen.
There's no narration on the video - but there doesn't need to be. The message is clear: "We know where you live."
Because of videos like this one - there are dozens on YouTube, and more appear ever day - Pozner doesn't want to disclose the city where he now lives. He's had death threats and has moved several times in recent years.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lenny Pozner lost his son Noah in the Sandy Hook shootings, and then had to fight trolls who said it never happened
Leonard Pozner has been targeted because he's fought back against trolls and conspiracy theorists who make sweeping and false allegations about the murder of his son.
"Noah was just a regular six-year-old child," says Leonard, who's also known as Lenny. "I dropped him off that morning - it really was an ordinary day of getting the kids ready for school.
"Then an hour-and-a-half later it was just the worst nightmare. Worse than any nightmare I could have imagined."
The nightmare began on 14 December 2012 when a young man named Adam Lanza killed his mother and then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School. In a matter of minutes, he shot dead 20 children and six adults, before taking his own life.
Even in a country where mass shootings are common, Sandy Hook stood out. The pupils were so young, and there were so many of them. Hundreds were traumatised - and many still are - after witnessing the carnage and its aftermath.
And yet despite extensive investigations and a report which determined that Lanza acted alone, conspiracy theorists have constructed a fake alternate reality in which the whole thing was an elaborate hoax, staged by the government to try to introduce strict gun control laws.
They seize on small inconsistencies between initial news reports from the chaotic scene and the facts. The more extreme among them have targeted the families of Sandy Hook victims. There have been at least two arrests linked to the hoax theories. On Wednesday, a warrant was issued for a Florida woman who is accused of harassing Lenny Pozner.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The sister of a Sandy Hook victim tells the BBC she is getting threats from conspiracy theorists
"We're a luckier family," says Hannah D'Avino, whose sister Rachel was a behavioural therapist at Sandy Hook Elementary School. "I personally will get about like three death threats a year because we don't speak up that much."
On a sunny, late winter's day in New England, Hannah sits in the stately Newtown Public Library, down the road from where her sister was murdered. She recalls her sister's spirit, her profound positive influence on her life, and her work with autistic children.
Her voice is subdued, but quivers with quiet determination.
"My sister was murdered 11 days before Christmas and I consider myself lucky because I don't have a stalker," she tells me. "That's the situation I'm in right now."
Some of the conspiracy theorists are regular visitors to this small hamlet in suburban Connecticut. In addition to the death threats and harassment directed at Lenny, Hannah and others, they've made videos of the school and local area and ask questions of locals and family members, and have posted the footage on YouTube.
And their theories have been picked up by one of America's most popular conspiracy theorists, a man who has been linked with President Donald Trump.
The online storm has prompted Lenny to form a volunteer network to track and take down the conspiracy theory videos and websites.
And other Sandy Hook residents are pleading with President Trump, asking him to speak out and help stop the madness.
You can hear this story on BBC Trending on the BBC World Service or on The Sandy Hook Deniers on BBC Radio 4, Sunday 2 April at 13:30
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Wolfgang Halbig is one of the chief conspiracy theorists who denies the massacre happened
Wolfgang Halbig lives in a big yellow house in a sunny, lavishly landscaped gated community in Florida. He's a retired school administrator and safety advisor, and he says that when he first heard news of the Sandy Hook shootings, he was sitting in a chair in his living room, drinking coffee.
"My hairs stood up," he says. "Because they're not protected in the elementary schools."
Halbig donated money to the Sandy Hook families. But he soon became both obsessed with the tragedy - and, somehow, convinced that it never happened.
"I think 14 Dec 2012 is an event that was in planning for a long, long time," he tells me. "I think it probably took them two, two-and-a-half years to write the scripts for all the participants that were invited to participate in that exercise - or drill as I will call it."
Halbig has since devoted years of his life to "exposing" what he thinks is a government plot. He started a website. He's revealed personal information about the victims of his attacks, including names, addresses, legal documents and financial information. And he's personally travelled to Sandy Hook a number of times.
"I call it an illusion. The biggest government illusion that's ever been pulled off by [the US Department of] Homeland Security."
In his office, ghoulish blown-up pictures of the crime scene mingle with pictures of his family and his days as an American football player. His so-called evidence consists of a string of tiny details, small anomalies which are for the most part easily explained by the inchoate nature of a horrific breaking news event.
"I'll be honest with you," he says, "if I'm wrong, I need to be institutionalised."
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Conspiracy theories are a perennial feature of American life. But now they can be picked up by extremists and spread virally through social media. And that process has been fuelled by America's deeply partisan political environment.
Hundreds of videos online are pushing false Sandy Hook narratives. Collectively, they have millions of views. Falsehoods are repeated by Twitter accounts and on Facebook.
Still, the theories might have stayed quarantined in some of the darker corners of the internet, were they not picked up and amplified by one of America's most popular conspiracy theorists.
Alex Jones is a talk show host and the founder of the multimedia portal Infowars. Regular listeners and readers are used to his rants on everything from 9/11 to attacks across Europe. And on several broadcasts he embraced the Sandy Hook conspiracy theorists. Less than two years after the attacks, he welcomed Halbig on his programme and talked about an Infowars story headlined "FBI says no one killed at Sandy Hook".
"Internet sleuths immediately took to the web to stitch together clues indicating the shooting could be a carefully-scripted false flag event, similar to the 9/11 terror attacks, the central tenet being that the event would be used to galvanize future support for gun control legislation," the story stated.
He returned to the theme several months later on his radio show: "I've had the investigators on, the state police have gone public, you name it - the whole thing is a giant hoax. And the problem is, how do you deal with a total hoax? How do you even convince the public something's a total hoax?"
Later he said: "Sandy Hook is a synthetic, completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured. I couldn't believe it at first. I knew they had actors there clearly but I thought they killed some real kids, and it just shows how bold they are, that they clearly used actors."
The liberal think tank Media Matters for America has listed other instances of Jones accusing the parents of murdered children being actors or casting doubt on the Sandy Hook investigation. Matt Gertz of Media Matters says that online and on air, Jones has an audience of about 8 million.
"It's kind of remarkable, but believing that Sandy Hook was a hoax is actually fairly small ball for an Alex Jones conspiracy," Gertz says. "He thinks that a set of global elites are planning to murder 80% of the world populace and enslave the rest of them. He has claimed that the federal government has a weather machine that they use to target tornado strikes on unfriendly populaces.
"He is sort of the nexus for what's really a distributed network of conspiracy theorists who are on Facebook or on Twitter or using sites like Reddit or 4Chan or 8Chan."
Jones (left) along with former Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone (centre) and journalist Jonathan Alter at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio
Jones, who did not respond to repeated requests for an interview, has also been linked to President Trump. In late 2015, Trump appeared on Jones's radio programme. At the end of a half-hour interview, the candidate told the host: "I just want to finish by saying your reputation's amazing. I will not let you down, you will be very very impressed I hope.
"And I think we'll be speaking a lot... a year into office, you'll be saying 'Wow, I remember that interview, he said he was going to do it, and he did a great job.' You'll be very proud of our country."
Former Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone regularly appears on Jones's show, and reportedly was the person who introduced the presidential candidate and the talk show host.
Trump has retweeted Infowars reporters and stories (for example here and here) and stories of dubious provenance that first appeared on the site have regularly shown up in Trump speeches and tweets.
To take just one example: in November 2016, Trump tweeted: "In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."
The message repeated an allegation with scant basis in fact - a story that had appeared on Infowars earlier that month.
Trump has not endorsed the Sandy Hook conspiracy theory, nor has he spoken about Jones's claims that the massacre was a hoax. The White House did not respond to a number of requests for comment, including a series of questions about the relationship between the president and Jones.
Jones himself has tried to make the most of his connections to Trump. He claims the president called him shortly after winning the election and has spoken to him since, although the the New York Times reported that a Trump aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, "played down the frequency of their contact".
"It is surreal to talk about issues here on air and then word-for-word hear Trump say it two days later," Jones said on his radio show in August 2016. "It is amazing."
Gertz, from Media Matters for America, says that there is evidence that Jones does talk with the president. But he cautions that both men have had a history of pushing conspiracy theories and presenting "alternative facts".
"So trying to nail down for sure what their relationship is, based on the statements that they say about each other, is pretty dicey," he says.
Less than two weeks after the 2016 presidential election, Jones posted a video which he declared was his "final statement" on Sandy Hook. In it, he claimed he had been unfairly treated by the media.
"I've always said I'm not sure what really happened, but there's a lot of anomalies and there has been a cover-up of what did happen there," he said.
"There is some evidence that people died there," he said. "I don't know what the truth is, all I know is the official story of Sandy Hook has more holes in it than Swiss cheese."
He then played a montage of news clips and material from his Sandy Hook programmes over the years, including footage of Wolfgang Halbig. He did not include his "Sandy Hook is a synthetic, completely fake with actors" quote. In signing off, he took another swipe at parents of murdered children who spoke to the media in the aftermath of the attacks.
"If children were lost in Sandy Hook, my heart goes out to each and every one of those parents and the people who say they're parents that I see on the news. The only problem is, I've seen a lot of soap operas, and I've seen actors before, and I know when I'm watching a movie and when I'm watching something real. Let's look into Sandy Hook."
In front of his computer screen in his undisclosed location, Lenny Pozner is taking on the conspiracy theorists. He flicks through a YouTube page and points out a new video.
"Look - this was just posted," he says. "It's a hoaxer type video - it's insulting, it has images of people who were connected to the tragedy."
The thumbnail picture has a photo of his son Noah's headstone. There's text on the picture which reads: "empty grave". In the video, there's a picture of Lenny himself.
"Here's a photo of me taken two days after my child was killed and I'm being called a liar fraud and terrorist," he says. "That's how they vilify people."
Lenny used to be a casual Infowars listener - he liked to listen to conspiracy theories as entertainment. That's how he initially found out that his son's murder was being denied by the conspiracy theorists.
At first he tried to engage with them through a Facebook group. But soon the mood among the hard-core hoaxers hardened.
"The only people that would come into the groups were trolls," he says. "They were just coming in for their own amusement... after that I decided that the most important thing would be to start taking down content that's spreading this information," he says.
Every day, Lenny scrolls though reams of conspiracy minded content, complaining to social networks and attempting to get videos and posts taken down using network rules about copyright, decency and harassment. And he's created an organisation, the Honr Network, to help the fight against the hoaxers.
After four years of pain, compounded by the harassers and the conspiracy mongers, people in Sandy Hook are tired - and some of them are asking the president to step in.
I meet Eric Paradis, a local Democratic Party official, in a bar down the road from Sandy Hook. One of Paradis's daughters was at Sandy Hook Elementary on the day of the shooting - she survived.
Although Alex Jones has not been involved in the harassment of the families, Paradis says the president could use his influence to push Jones and the conspiracy theorists to the fringes, and help stop the harassment of Sandy Hook victims.
"The town committee wanted to put a letter together asking the president to denounce these hoaxers and tell them look… these are real children who died," he says.
His letter is still under consideration by local officials. It reads:
"[Jones] continues to spread hate and lies towards our town, towards the people and organizations who came to help us through those darkest days. Jones repeatedly tells his listeners and viewers that he has your ears and your respect. He brags about how you called him after your victory in November. Emboldened by your victory, he continues to hurt the memories of those lost, the ability of those left behind to heal."
The letter goes on to ask Trump to "intervene and stop Jones and others hoaxers like him". Paradis says he and other Democrats tried to avoid making the letter about Trump's larger political agenda.
"I really do think he can help us put a stop to it, because he does have a unique position with these hoaxers," he says. "If he can help us out then that's fantastic and a Democrat [like me] would be very grateful if he could."
Lenny Pozner continues to take action against the trolls. He's filed a lawsuit against Halbig, alleging invasion of privacy. Halbig is fighting the suit, which is just getting underway, and says that if he loses, he'll check himself into a mental institution.
Lenny turns back to his computer, where he spots more conspiracy theory videos. So will he ever stop trying to fight the hoaxers?
"I don't know," he says. "I would like not to have to do this. I would like to just leave it alone and feel the memory of my child is sacred and other people are also treating it that way," he says, "but as long as they're not - I feel I need to defend that memory."
You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.
Read more from Trending: The disturbing YouTube videos that are tricking children
Thousands of videos on YouTube look like versions of popular cartoons but contain disturbing and inappropriate content not suitable for children. READ MORE
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-39194035
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World Anti-Doping Agency figures show 14% rise in doping sanctions - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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More than 1,900 athletes were sanctioned for doping in 2015 - a 14% rise from 2014 - new World Anti-Doping Agency figures show.
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Last updated on .From the section Sport
More than 1,900 athletes were sanctioned for doping in 2015, new World Anti-Doping Agency figures show.
The 1,929 punishments for failed drug tests were an increase of 14% on the previous year, when 1,693 doping offences were carried out.
Wada says increased focus on investigations, intelligence gathering and whistleblowing are behind the rise.
"Recent events have shown investigative work is becoming ever more important," said Wada president Sir Craig Reedie.
However, he added that "testing remains vital to detecting doping".
Last year's McLaren report, which found more than 1,000 Russians benefited from a state-sponsored doping programme between 2011 and 2015, was commissioned by Wada following evidence from whistleblowers.
The report led to Russians being banned from international athletics competition as well as last summer's Paralympic Games in Rio.
Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee is retesting hundreds of doping samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games based on targeted intelligence. More than 100 athletes have already been sanctioned as part of the retesting programme.
The latest Wada figures, though, are based on 2015 data. Its 2015 Anti-Doping Rule Violations Report shows there were 2,522 "adverse analytical findings" from 229,412 samples, of which 1,929 led to action against athletes.
The number of samples taken was 5% up on the 217,762 taken in 2014.
The figures do not include more than 70,000 tests and 1,200 failed tests which were not processed through Wada's anti-doping administration system (Adams). Many professional sports in North America do not use the Adams system.
The figures also show Russian athletes had the most anti-doping rule violations in 2015, with 176. The sport with the most sanctions was bodybuilding, with 270.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/39486028
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Tick tock: The importance of knowing the right time - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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From sailing to smartphones, accurate timekeeping has been essential to the world's economy.
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Business
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In 1845, a curious feature was added to the clock on St John's Church in Exeter: another minute hand, running 14 minutes faster than the original.
This was, as Trewman's Exeter Flying Post explained, "a matter of great public convenience", for it meant the clock exhibited, as well as the correct time at Exeter, "railway time".
Our sense of time has always been defined by planetary motion. We talked of "days" and "years" long before we knew the Earth rotated on its axis and orbited the Sun.
The Moon's waxing and waning gave us the idea of a month. The Sun's passage across the sky gave us "midday" and "high noon". Exactly when the Sun reaches its highest point depends, of course, on where you are.
Someone in Exeter will see it 14 minutes after someone in London.
Naturally people tended to set their clocks by their local celestial observations. That is fine if you co-ordinate only with locals. If we both live in Exeter and agree to meet at 19:00, it hardly matters that it is 19:14 in London, 200 miles away.
But as soon as a train connects Exeter and London - stopping at multiple other towns, all with their own time - we face a logistical nightmare.
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations that helped create the economic world.
Early British train timetables valiantly informed travellers that "London time is about four minutes earlier than Reading time, seven and a half minutes before Cirencester", and so on, but many passengers were understandably confused.
More seriously, so were drivers and signalling staff, increasing the risk of collisions.
So railways adopted "railway time", based on Greenwich Mean Time, set by the famous observatory.
Railway companies such as GWR took accurate timekeeping extremely seriously
Some municipal authorities quickly grasped the usefulness of standardised national time.
Others resented this metropolitan imposition, insisting that their time was - as the Flying Post put it, with charming parochialism - "the correct time".
For years, the dean of Exeter refused to adjust the clock on the city's cathedral.
In fact, there is no such thing as "the correct time".
Like the value of money, it's a convention that derives its usefulness from widespread acceptance by others.
But there is such a thing as accurate timekeeping. That dates from 1656, and a Dutchman named Christiaan Huygens.
There were clocks before Huygens, of course.
Water clocks appear in civilisations from ancient Egypt to medieval Persia. Others kept time from marks on candles. But even the most accurate devices might wander by 15 minutes a day. This didn't matter to a monk wanting to know when to pray.
But there was one increasingly important area of life where the inability to keep accurate time was of huge economic significance: sailing.
By observing the angle of the Sun, sailors could calculate their latitude - where they were from north to south. But their longitude - where they were from east to west - had to be guessed.
Mistakes could - and frequently did - lead to ships hitting land hundreds of miles away from where navigators thought they were, sometimes disastrously.
How could accurate timekeeping help? If you knew when it was midday at Greenwich Observatory - or any other reference point - you could observe the Sun, calculate the time difference, and work out the distance.
Huygens's pendulum clock was 60 times more accurate than any previous device, but even 15 seconds a day soon mounts up on long sea voyages. Pendulums don't swing neatly on the deck of a lurching ship.
Huygens's pendulum clock was 60 times more accurate than any previous device, but still lost time
Rulers of maritime nations were acutely aware of the longitude problem: the King of Spain offered a prize for solving it nearly a century before Huygens's work.
Famously, it was a subsequent prize offered by the British government that led to a sufficiently accurate device being painstakingly refined, in the 1700s, by the Englishman John Harrison. It lost only a couple of seconds a day.
Since the dean of Exeter's intransigence, the whole world has agreed on "the correct time" - coordinated universal time (UTC), as mediated by various global time zones.
Usually, these zones maintain the convention of midday being vaguely near the Sun's highest point. But not always.
Since Chairman Mao abolished China's five time zones and put everyone on Beijing time, residents of westerly Tibet and Xinjiang have heard their clocks strike 12 not long after sunrise.
Meanwhile, since Huygens and Harrison, clocks have become much more accurate still. UTC is based on atomic clocks, which measure oscillations in the energy levels of electrons, and are accurate to within a second every hundred million years.
Does such accuracy have a point? We don't plan our morning commutes to the millisecond, and an accurate wristwatch has always been as much about prestige as practicality.
For over a century, before the hourly beeps of early radio broadcasts, members of the Belville family made a living in London by collecting the time from Greenwich every morning and selling it around the city, for a modest fee.
Their clients were mostly tradesfolk in the horology business, for whom aligning their wares with Greenwich was a matter of professional pride.
But there are places where milliseconds do matter. One is the stock market, where fortunes can be won by exploiting an arbitrage opportunity an instant before your competitors.
Some financiers recently calculated it was worth spending $300m (£247m) drilling through mountains between Chicago and New York to lay fibre-optic cables in a slightly straighter line. That sped up communication between the two cities' exchanges by three milliseconds.
The accurate keeping of universally accepted time also underpins computing and communications networks. But perhaps the most significant impact of the atomic clock - as in the past with ships and trains - has been on travel.
Nobody now needs to navigate by the angle of the Sun. We have GPS.
The most basic of smartphones can locate you by picking up signals from a network of satellites: because we know where each of those satellites should be in the sky at any given moment, triangulating their signals can tell you where you are on Earth.
The technology has revolutionised everything from sailing to aviation, surveying to hiking. But it works only if those satellites agree on the time.
GPS satellites typically house four atomic clocks, made from caesium or rubidium. Huygens and Harrison could only have dreamed of their precision, but it is still possible to misidentify your position by a couple of metres - a fuzziness amplified by interference as signals pass through the Earth's ionosphere.
That is why self-driving cars need sensors as well as GPS. On the road, a couple of metres makes the difference between lane discipline and dangerous driving.
Scientists have recently developed one, based on an element called ytterbium, that will not have lost more than a hundredth of a second by the time the Sun dies and swallows up the Earth, in about five billion years.
How might this extra accuracy transform the economy between now and then? Only time will tell.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39129620
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Boat Races 2017: Who won the celebrity boat race? - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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Find out who won the inaugural celebrity boat race between teams led by Olympic gold medallists Steve Redgrave and James Cracknell.
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Find out who won the inaugural celebrity boat race between teams led by Olympic gold medallists Steve Redgrave and James Cracknell.
READ MORE: Oxford triumph in men's race after Cambridge women win
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rowing/39473907
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The Afghan restaurant run by domestic abuse survivors - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Afghanistan has been labelled one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman. One place in Kabul offers hope to women escaping abuse.
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Magazine
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Afghanistan has been labelled one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman. One study suggested 87% of women in the country experience some form of domestic violence. Sodaba Haidare visited one place in the capital Kabul that offers hope to women escaping abuse.
Aryan's shift in the kitchen has come to an end. She removes her apron and hat. Glimpses of her personality are revealed - she's wearing a colourful tunic over her black jeans, and she he has a mole exactly between her eyebrows - as if someone planted it in the perfect position.
She places a glass of fresh lemon juice on the table sits down across from me. Aryan is strikingly beautiful and moves with confidence. Yet it's hard to believe we are the same age. She is 24 but has the look of a much older woman. It's because of the years of abuse she endured at the hands of her violent husband.
She was only 16 when her parents arranged her marriage to a man she'd never met. Soon after the wedding, her husband and mother-in-law started beating her. She stuck it out, hoping things would get better with time. But they got worse.
By the time she realised she was in an abusive relationship, she already had three children.
One day, when Aryan's husband left for work, she examined the fresh bruises he'd left on her face, then packed her bags and took her children to the police station.
Women who suffer domestic abuse are usually turned away by Afghan police or persuaded to go back to their husbands for their family's honour. But Aryan thought her injuries would make the police take her seriously. And they did.
She was sent to a women's shelter, where she and her children lived ever since, with other women who have also escaped domestic violence. She often dreams of a future where she has her own place, where she can live without the fear of her ex-husband coming near her or her children.
The path to this dream becoming reality lies in the heart of Kabul. And it begins in a traditionally decorated Afghan restaurant called Bost.
Hope is at the heart of its mission. The place is run by survivors of domestic violence and here, women are celebrated as strong, independent human beings, not just victims. Bost is a base for eight women, of all ages. Working empowers them to write a new chapter in their lives.
It's a long and often difficult process. Still, it helps that every corner of this restaurant pays homage to powerful women. The place screams female empowerment.
Every wall is hung with pictures of women with unique stories.
There is Queen Soraya, the wife of King Amanullah, who dressed in European fashion and believed women should shed the veil, and that a man should only have one wife. She was also the minister of education, who opened the country's first school for girls in the 1920s.
Then there is the current first lady, Rula Ghani, a Christian-born Lebanese woman, who surprised Afghans by speaking out about women's rights.
There are also lesser-known faces, Afghan women who have been killed simply for doing their jobs. Lt Islam Bibi, for example - a young police officer who suffered death threats from her own brother and was then shot down by unknown gunmen on her way to work. Their stories are not forgotten.
Another wall pays homage to Afghanistan itself, with images of three different women in vibrant, traditional clothes. They symbolise each region of this fractured nation.
There's a small stage, decorated with a handmade Afghan rug. Here female performers sit and play the long-necked string instrument known as the Tambur - or even the guitar or violin. It's an unusual sight in Afghanistan's conservative society, where many believe music should be forbidden - never mind played by women.
Now a divorcee, Aryan has adored the three months that she's spent here. It has changed her.
She is no longer the insecure and scared woman she once was, who had to raise her arms in self-defence, who would cower at the slightest aggressive word. But her husband has left her with a lasting hatred of men. She thinks all men are abusive - but little by little that's changing too.
Here, every day she sees men come to the restaurant with their families - men who are kind and caring. And she sees something that she never experienced. Love.
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39433896
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Would you risk jail for a cup of tea? - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How a 119% tax on tea imports in the 1750s helped smuggling become a vital part of the UK economy.
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Business
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Smugglers being chased by the Royal Navy. Virtually every seaside community in Britain saw its share of smuggling in the 18th Century
A boat beaches in a lonely cove at night, the crew hurriedly unloading its cargo of tea to waiting men and pack horses while armed lookouts stand guard against a surprise swoop by the revenue men.
It may be a stereotypical image, but in the 18th Century, a cuppa was in such high demand that many Britons were willing to risk jail for the privilege.
In fact, this kind of smuggling was a vital part of Britain's economy for some 200 years.
It was a trade triggered by increasingly high tariffs or duties, taxes a merchant would have to pay to legally import tea.
The duties on importing tea reached a staggering 119% in the 1750s - which meant that if you could avoid paying the tax, the cost of your brew dropped by more than half.
Tea became hugely popular in Britain in the 1700s
Not surprisingly many customers turned to the smugglers, who were willing to risk imprisonment or have their ships destroyed and goods seized if they were caught.
When import taxes or tariffs are low, there's not much profit to be made from smuggling.
Conversely, when a government makes it expensive to legally import items it encourages smugglers who can undercut the official price.
Tea was one of the most important items illegally brought into Britain in the 18th Century - everybody wanted to drink it, but most could not afford it at the official price.
Tea chests in London in the 1950s - the nation's love affair with the drink has endured
In an age before income tax, tea duties accounted for 10% of government revenues, which was enough to pay for the Royal Navy, but as tariffs on it reached 119% it gave smugglers their chance.
"If you had high tariffs and goods people wanted, it gave smugglers a business opportunity," says Exeter University historian Helen Doe.
More than 3,000 tonnes of tea was smuggled into Britain a year by the late 1700s, with just 2,000 tonnes imported legally.
In some areas whole communities were dependent on smuggling, from landowners who might finance the operation down to the fishermen who might be crewing the boats.
There were three main types of smuggling, says Robert Blyth, senior curator at the National Maritime Museum in London.
A romanticised view of the smuggling trade; in reality smugglers often used threats of violence against customs men
"There's small-scale smuggling, where you might row your boat out to meet a ship and take off some of its cargo to sell illegally, the ship's captain declaring the missing cargo as 'spoiled at sea' when it gets to port to officially unload the rest," he says.
"Then there are commercially organised groups bringing contraband into harbours across the UK in a sophisticated operation.
"Finally, you have simple theft and pilfering in major ports like London from ships that have already moored, but have not yet been checked by the revenue."
It wasn't just the British who were developing a taste for tea. The popularity of the drink in Sweden meant the country also played an important role in 18th Century smuggling into Britain.
Gothenburg was the base for the Swedish East India Company's operations
Swedish East India Company merchants were able to buy the best quality Chinese tea because unlike other European countries they were prepared to pay in silver - rather than seeking to barter or trade.
Quite a few were actually Scottish, political refugees who had fled to Sweden after the failure of the 1745 Jacobite uprising, and who thus saw little wrong in avoiding paying tax to Britain's Hanoverian government.
So popular was this trade that newspapers in Scotland and northern England openly carried adverts for this smuggled tea, called "Gottenburgh Teas".
Building specialised docks with guarded warehouses helped cut down stealing of goods once ships had reached London
For many tea traders in Britain, buying smuggled tea made sense, says Derek Janes, a history researcher at Exeter University.
"Britain's own East India Company had a monopoly on tea imports, so if an Edinburgh merchant wanted to buy it you had to go to London, you had to pay to bring it back to Scotland - and you had to pay upfront.
"But if you bought it from the smugglers it would be half the price - with no tax to pay - they would deliver to your door and you would get up to four months credit. A much better service!"
One of those involved in this trade was John Nisbet, who became rich enough to commission architect John Adams to design his harbourside mansion in Eyemouth in the Scottish borders, complete with hidden partitions for the smuggled tea.
Often when the customs officials got a tip-off about his ship it was too late - the cargo had already been smuggled ashore. And if a smuggler did have his goods seized, he could sometimes negotiate a price to buy it back from the government.
"John Nisbet had a ship and cargo seized, but you can see the lawyer for the board of customs in Edinburgh say that the witnesses had disappeared, so the customs did a deal. He paid £250 to get it all back, which still left him in profit," says Mr Janes.
By 1784, the government realised high tariffs were creating more problems than they were worth and cut tea duties to just 12.5%, making tea affordable for most people. The change meant smugglers switched to bringing in spirits and wine instead.
The end of the Napoleonic wars saw the Royal Navy in undisputed command of the Channel, making it much harder for smugglers to avoid detection
The Napoleonic wars saw an upsurge in smuggling, but after 1815 with the Royal Navy in undisputed command of the sea, its days were numbered.
Ultimately, many smugglers failed. In the long run, the business did not generate enough cash to compensate for the risks of losing stock or ships to the customs. John Nisbet may have been able to afford a fine house but even he went bust eventually, the result of one too many cargo seizures.
In the end, it was economics that finally put an end to the smuggling era. Britain's adoption of a free trade policy in the 1840s reduced import duties significantly, making smuggling no longer viable.
And thanks to that shift in policy, you can now sit back, relax and enjoy a nice cup of tea without any fears of going to prison.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38910968
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EFL Trophy: Coventry City win at Wembley, 30 years after FA Cup victory - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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Coventry City have won the EFL Trophy, 30 years since they last won at Wembley when they lifted the FA Cup. But what's changed at the club in that time?
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Coventry City have won the EFL Trophy, 30 years since they last won at Wembley when they lifted the FA Cup. But what's changed at the club in that time?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39475023
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Breaking superstitions with a 'longtail' infestation - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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BBC reporter Rick Faragher takes a look at superstitions after he is forced to break one when covering a story about an infestation of "longtails".
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Northern Ireland
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An infestation of "longtails" caused a rather unusual problem for Rick Faragher
Rick Faragher is no pied piper - he is from the Isle of Man and people there are deeply superstitious about using the three-letter "r" word for vermin.
But the BBC News reporter had to face his fears when he was sent to cover a story in Belfast that made his blood run cold.
I winced the moment I got the nod.
I'd covered some difficult stories for the BBC but this was the most daunting in terms of subject matter.
It's not that I have an issue with the creatures themselves, it's just their name.
For the first 29 years of my life, I had never actually used the word.
But that was about to change in 2015. It was unavoidable. I had a professional obligation to utter the dreaded word - RAT.
A rat by any other name - ringie, joey or roddan are acceptable in the Isle of Man
Like any self-respecting Manxman - Isle of Man native - I had opted for other terms - "longtail" is the most common.
Others such as "ringie", "joey" or the native Gaelic word "roddan" are also acceptable.
I was out of my homeland and out of my comfort zone. I honestly thought I could hear the creatures sniggering at my plight.
But I went out and I mumbled my way around the word with the owner of the infested house.
This was a disaster. I felt embarrassed already.
Even people who move to the Isle of Man often dodge the term, whether through genuine fear of bad luck, or to avoid shock and outrage from the locals.
Some say it began with fishermen who brought their superstitions back to shore.
I knew there were three ways to stop a jinx if ever I was forced to say it: Whistle immediately afterwards; touch a piece of wood while saying it, or cross my fingers.
There's an ancient belief that killing a wren on St Stephen's Day is good luck for you... not such great luck for the wren
The interviews with the owner and environmental health officer were soon filmed and it was time for my piece to camera - almost three decades of superstition about to end.
I fidgeted, cleared my throat, and slowly climbed the ladder to the attic.
After a couple of seconds the time had come… "Rats."
Rats: "They fought the dogs and killed the cats and bit the babies in the cradles"
I said it without hesitation in an attempt to sound convincing.
My right hand squeezed the ladder. My left hand was out of shot, fingers firmly crossed.
We Manxmen are not alone.
Dr Andrew Sneddon, from Ulster University, said superstitious beliefs about rats were commonplace in Ireland in the early 20th Century.
"In County Galway, people believed that if you were plagued by rats you could get them to move on by getting an owl's quill and dipping it in raven's blood while saying 'rats be gone'," he said.
In the Middle Ages, people believed fairies could "blast" cattle and humans
"In County Cavan, there were people who used charms to banish rats for you, and in County Laois, rats were believed to be a sign of an enemy or bad luck."
It seems it is not just rats that gave our ancestors sleepless nights.
"From the Medieval period onwards, Ireland, in common with the Highlands and islands of Scotland, and the Isle of Man, fairy belief is very strong in the sense that you try not to upset the fairies because they are dangerous," said Dr Sneddon.
"They can whisk away healthy children and leave sickly changelings in their wake. They can fairy blast or elf-shoot your cattle and make them ill, they can also blast humans.
"They can also abduct you and take you away to their land. This can also happen if you step into a fairy ring, either made of mushrooms or a Neolithic stone circle.
"In Ireland, as a precaution, traditionally you don't mention the name fairy, you say gentry or good people."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-39293529
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Fancy Bears: IAAF hacked and fears athletes' information compromised - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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The IAAF says it has been hacked by the 'Fancy Bears' group and fears athletes' therapeutic use exemption (TUE) applications has been compromised.
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Last updated on .From the section Athletics
The IAAF says its has been hacked by the 'Fancy Bears' group and fears that athletes' therapeutic use exemption (TUE) data has been compromised.
Athletics' world governing body was notified last month but it is unaware whether information was stolen.
Athletes who have applied for a TUE were contacted on Monday.
IAAF president Lord Coe said: "Our first priority is to the athletes who have provided information they believed would be secure and confidential."
His statement added: "They have our sincerest apologies and our total commitment to continue to do everything in our power to remedy the situation and work with the world's best organisations to create as safe an environment as we can."
The IAAF revealed that "the presence of unauthorised remote access to the IAAF network by the attackers was noted on 21 February".
Russian group 'Fancy Bears' first hacked the World Anti-Doping agency (Wada) database on 13 September last year and began revealing athletes' confidential details and information regarding TUEs - which let athletes take prohibited substances if there is a medical need.
US Olympic stars were targeted in the first hack, before Mo Farah, Helen Glover and Justin Rose were among the British athletes who had their medical files made public by the hackers.
Sir Bradley Wiggins has also faced scrutiny following the leak of his medical records in September 2016.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/39477302
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Johanna Konta: Injured and ill British number one to miss Charleston tournament - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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Johanna Konta will miss this week's clay-court season opener in Charleston because of a shoulder injury and illness.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Johanna Konta will miss this week's clay-court season opener in Charleston because of a shoulder injury and illness.
The 25-year-old has revealed she was battling both during her run to victory in last week's Miami Open.
Now seventh in the world, she would have been the highest-ranking player competing in this week's event.
"[Charleston] is a great tournament and I was really looking forward to taking part," said Konta.
"I was battling a slight shoulder injury and sickness during Miami which has taken hold since the end of the tournament."
Konta beat Denmark's former world number one Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 6-3 on Sunday to become the first British woman to win the Miami Open.
It was her third WTA title and second of 2017.
Her withdrawal means American world number 11 Madison Keys is now the highest-ranked player for Charleston.
Australia's Sam Stosur and American Venus Williams are also both taking part.
Konta began the year ranked 10th and has risen to a career-high seventh, earning £1,350,140 in prize money She is now second behind Karolina Pliskova in the WTA Road to Singapore, which charts a player's progress during the calendar year Konta went into Miami at the top of the WTA standings for the percentage of service games won and service points won She joins Elena Svitolina and Karolina Pliskova as the only players to have won two WTA titles in 2017
Konta has risen from outside the world's top 150 to inside the top 10 within two years.
Despite her withdrawal from the event in Charleston, she has been backed to continue her rise by two former British players - Jo Durie and Annabel Croft.
It's an interesting top 10 at the moment because if you look at Serena Williams, who's not played for a while, Angelique Kerber at number one, who's having her problems, Garbine Muguruza, Agnieszka Radwanska, Simona Halep - they are struggling mentally.
But if you look at Jo, she's very strong, she believes in herself, she copes with the things that go wrong and she has totally changed that within the past two years.
I think now she feels comfortable in that top-10 mix, looking for the top five.
I think Wimbledon will be very interesting, she can do well there. Clay is going to be tricky for her because it's her least favourite surface. But at the moment I don't think any of those top players want to play her.
I think what's so impressive about Johanna Konta is two years ago she was ranked 147 in the world, and all of us know how she's been putting in the hard yards on the practice court.
Off the court she worked with a mental coach [Juan Coto] who has sadly passed away - he laid some great foundations for a lot of the improvements she's made mentally.
All the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle seem to be coming together and the calibre of the players she beat in Miami - Venus Williams, Simona Halep, Caroline Wozniacki - make it an amazing, amazing achievement.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/39471200
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Arsene Wenger praises Arsenal fans despite protests - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says Gunners fans were "absolutely sensational" during their 2-2 draw with Manchester City.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said Gunners fans were "absolutely sensational" during their 2-2 draw with Manchester City, despite further fan protests at Emirates Stadium.
Wenger, who is under pressure following one win in six matches and a slide down the Premier League table, has faced calls to resign from some fans.
"I must say, despite all that has happened on the fans front, our fans were fantastic today," said the Frenchman, whose side twice hit back to earn a draw against City.
"In very difficult moments our fans, at 1-0 down and 2-1 down, could have turned against us but I think they were absolutely sensational to get us through those difficult moments."
Goals from Theo Walcott and Shkodran Mustafi cancelled out efforts from Leroy Sane and Sergio Aguero in a performance Wenger believed "built confidence to help us to come back to our natural fluency."
• None 'If Wenger goes now, Arsenal will fall apart'
• None How Arsenal came from behind to claim point
Wenger, who is out of contract at the end of the season, has been offered a two-year extension and said on 18 March he will announce his future plans "very soon".
Former Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson told BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek programme that Wenger "should declare his future for the good of the club."
But when pressed on his future following Sunday's draw, he said: "I've shown great loyalty and always committed. I don't know how long I am here but I love the club and will do my best. I am clear in my mind, it will be soon, don't worry."
Arsenal are sixth in the Premier League table, seven points behind fourth-placed Manchester City.
The Gunners face West Ham at home on Wednesday and then travel to Crystal Palace the following Monday.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39474464
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Confident EU coy on start date for Brexit trade talks - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The mood in Brussels is more bullish, so the EU may take its time before discussing a free-trade deal.
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Europe
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Greeks have already learned it can take time for the EU to switch on the green light to talks
So how long is that famous piece of string? I certainly don't know.
Nor, I suspect, does the European Commission. Or the press. Or the UK government.
So, trying right now to answer the vexed question (for the UK) as to when exactly, during Brexit negotiations, the time will come to turn attention from divorce to that much anticipated new EU-UK trade deal is possibly rather futile.
As we know, the EU's draft guidelines for negotiations state that talk of the future will only begin in earnest when good progress has been made on Britain's exit deal.
But when, and based on what criteria?
The only thing we know for sure is that it is in the EU's gift to make that judgement. Not the UK's.
First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans told me point-blank there could be no agreement on the future "if we're not very clear what the divorce settlement is going to look like".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mr Timmermans: "It's going to be a very difficult job"
So if the UK wishes to see through the process of making that free-trade deal, it will have to wait for Brussels to switch on the green light.
"Not dissimilar to the Greece conundrum," an EU diplomat commented to me this weekend.
The EU has told debt-laden Greece it will only countenance debt relief once Athens has made sufficient progress on restructuring and reform.
As with the EU conditions for UK trade talks, Greece finds itself staring at unquantifiable strands of EU string.
The mood in Brussels right now is cautiously bullish (an interesting state of being).
Of course Brexit hurts. The EU has lost one of its influential members, a big contributor to the EU budget, a powerful economy, and one of only two serious military powers in Europe (France being the other).
The EU has indicated trade talks will not begin until key Brexit divorce negotiations are resolved
But as soon as Article 50 was triggered last week, the words of sadness and regret that poured out of Brussels following the UK's EU referendum vanished into the mists of Dover.
"Britain is now on the other side of the negotiating table," said European Council President Donald Tusk on Friday.
And the rest of the EU is closing ranks. Just look at the current row over Gibraltar.
When Britain was on the same side of the table as the EU, Brussels remained resolutely neutral.
It was a diplomatic coup for Spain to have it written into the draft EU guidelines that any Brexit deal could only apply to Gibraltar with a nod from Spain (which contests British sovereignty over the territory).
These are only draft guidelines; they carry no legal weight and they still need to be formalised at a summit of the 27 remaining EU member countries on 29 April.
But this was a clear Brussels message: we look after our own.
A missive directed not only at Britain but, significantly and purposefully, at the remaining EU countries.
Across the Channel, Brexit is not just about the UK, but about safeguarding the European Union.
Spain's foreign minister said he was "surprised by the tone of comments coming out of Britain" over Gibraltar
It's common knowledge that this is a fractious union, whose members fall out over funding, euro rules, migration and more.
It is also a common assumption, as Frans Timmermans put it, that each side in a negotiation seeks out the other's weak spots.
The UK - respected and feared in Brussels as a wily negotiating power - is expected to try to divide and rule in the EU during the Brexit process by promising individual countries custom-made sweetheart deals.
Security against Russia for the Baltic States, peace of mind for Poland and Spain's citizens in the UK, an Irish border deal that doesn't harm the Good Friday Agreement and so on, in the hope those countries will champion the UK against any hardline attitude from Brussels.
But the EU needs to unite to survive and maintain credibility after the UK walks out of the door.
"However much we want and, to be honest, we ideally need a good future relationship with Britain, it has to be clear we're there for the EU 27 now," one high-level Brussels source told me.
The EU's draft Brexit guidelines were designed to be firm-sounding towards Britain - a warning for others who may want to leave the EU - but they had a plethora of priority pledges for those who stay: Ireland (land border), Spain (Gibraltar), all those countries with citizens living in Britain, nations with security fears and businesses with logistical concerns post-Brexit.
Easy promises, of course, before negotiations begin but the EU, for the first time in many, many months, is feeling less beleaguered, less on the back foot; more confident.
While an undeniably huge blow to the EU, Brexit has served to concentrate Europeans' minds on what membership means to them.
One of the pro-EU rallies held across Europe over the weekend was in Hamburg
Germany's Süddeutsche newspaper on Monday had a front-page photo and article on the pro-EU demonstrations it says took place in 60 European cities this weekend, organised by the Pulse of Europe initiative.
The activists' aim: to stop the EU debate being dominated by the voices of Eurosceptic nationalists across the continent.
Brussels was already buoyed by the success of unashamedly pro-EU parties in last month's elections in the Netherlands.
It has hopes, too, for French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron and looks contentedly at the two pro-EU front runners in Germany's upcoming elections.
News on growth in the eurozone is comforting for Brussels, which prefers to overlook the fault lines in Greece and Italy when possible.
And the latest EU feel-good factor comes from perhaps the most surprising source of all: the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump. The man who, weeks ago, publicly prophesied that other EU countries would likely follow the UK's example and leave.
Yet, in an interview published in Monday's Financial Times, President Trump appears to have changed his mind. In fact he is quoted as saying he thinks the European Union is getting its act together.
But even the most ardent of Euro-enthusiasts admit maintaining EU unity during divisive Brexit talks will be tough. Never mind all the other challenges the bloc currently faces.
"We (in the EU) can't be naive," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said to me just before last week's triggering of Article 50.
"This is no time for complacency."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39481066
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Theresa May's Saudi Arabia balancing act - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Theresa May will push for trade on a visit to Saudi Arabia but humanitarian issues also figure.
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UK
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Mrs May has defended Britain's ties with the Saudi regime
Prime Minister Theresa May flies into Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for a two-day visit to Britain's biggest trading partner in the Arab world.
For the British, the visit has a straightforward agenda; in a world overshadowed by the uncertainties of Brexit this trip is primarily about trade and investment - Saudi investment that is - into the UK.
British goods and services exported to Saudi Arabia totalled £6.6bn ($8.25bn) in 2015.
For the Saudi rulers - one of the few remaining absolute monarchies in the world - it is also about something else.
The Saudis are feeling increasingly surrounded and threatened by their regional rival Iran and its proxy militias.
When they look at the map of the region they see Iran effectively controlling five Middle Eastern capitals now: Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sana'a, and spreading its influence among the Shia populations in Bahrain and along Saudi Arabia's Gulf coast.
So the Saudis want to know that their defence alliance with the UK, as well as the US, is rock solid.
But left out of the picture are the human rights organisations and campaign groups that want Mrs May to use this visit to pressure the Saudis to both end their military campaign in neighbouring Yemen and to release three young prisoners held on death row.
The death toll is mounting from the war in Yemen, at least 7,700 civilians killed according to the UN, most by Saudi-led air strikes, and millions at risk of malnutrition or even starvation.
More than 60% of civilian deaths in Yemen are due to Saudi-led air strikes, the UN says
In Yemen, the Saudis and their allies the UAE are determined to reverse what they see as an Iranian-backed coup by minority Houthi rebels who have illegally taken over half the country, including the capital, and carried out numerous human rights abuses since seizing power in 2014.
But the Saudis have got themselves bogged down in an unwinnable war and paying the price are Yemen's civilians; schools, hospitals, markets and a funeral have all been hit by clumsy targeting from the air.
This has prompted calls for the UK and the US to stop supplying planes, weapons and intelligence to the Saudis, at the very time that the UK is seeking ever closer ties with the Gulf Arab states.
Mrs May has defended the UK's ties with the Saudis by pointing out that they have provided vital intelligence that has saved British lives.
This is true. In 2010 a Saudi human informant inside al-Qaeda in Yemen tipped off MI6 that a bomb was hidden in cargo on a plane heading for Britain.
It was. The printer ink toner cartridges, packed with PETN explosive, got as far as East Midlands Airport before the police finally discovered them after the agent gave them the serial numbers.
Campaigners want the UK government to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and to call for the release of blogger Raif Badawi, sentenced to 10 years and 1,000 lashes for "insulting Islam"
But Saudi Arabia's human rights record still makes the country a controversial ally for the UK which purports to have an ethical foreign policy.
Commenting on Mrs May's Saudi visit, human rights pressure group Reprieve said: "As the prime minister makes ever greater overtures towards the Saudi government, the kingdom continues to carry out appalling abuses, including torture, forced 'confessions' and death sentences for juveniles.
"Theresa May's desire for closer relations with the Gulf must not cloud Britain's commitment to human rights."
So for Theresa May the coming two days will require something of a balancing act - pushing for much-needed trade, more investment and closer ties with Riyadh and yet at the same time expressing just enough concern at humanitarian issues to avoid excessive criticism at home.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39486475
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Is it foolish for a woman to cycle alone across the Middle East? - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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When Rebecca Lowe set off solo from the UK for Iran by bicycle, friends thought she had taken leave of her senses.
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Magazine
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When Rebecca Lowe set off solo from the UK for Iran by bicycle, her friends thought she had taken leave of her senses. But although she had to endure gropers, extreme heat and heavy-handed police, most of the people she met were a long way removed from stereotypes.
The day I left London to embark on a 6,000-mile (10,000km), year-long cycle to Tehran, I was deeply unprepared.
I wasn't fit. I had never used panniers. I had no sense of direction. It was six years since I had last ridden up a hill.
But for all my doubts, I was dedicated to the task at hand. My aims were simple: develop enviably shapely calves, survive and shed light on a region long misunderstood by the West.
Mostly, I wanted to show that the bulk of the Middle East is far from the volatile hub of violence and fanaticism people believe. And that a woman could cycle through it safely.
Not everyone had faith in my ability to do so, however. "We think you'll probably die," one friend told me before I left. "We've put the odds at about 60:40."
Others were less optimistic.
A man in the pub said I was a "naive idiot who would end up decapitated in a ditch - at best". A good friend sent me a copy of Rudyard Kipling's If, stressing the importance of keeping "your head when all about you / Are losing theirs".
Yet I remained tentatively confident. The region may be politically precarious, but the people I knew from experience to be warm and kind.
Crime rates were low and terrorist strongholds isolated and avoidable. Even exposed on a bike, I felt my odds of staying alive weren't bad.
I'd chosen a bicycle for its simplicity and slowness of pace, and its immersive, worm's-eye view. On a bike you don't just observe the world but are absorbed within it. You are seen as unthreatening and endearingly unhinged, and are welcomed into people's lives.
I set off in July 2015. Over the next four months I inched my way with sluggish determination across Europe.
As summer bled into autumn, my stamina gradually grew - along with my thighs. By Bosnia they were formidable. By Bulgaria they had developed their own gravitational field.
But leaving Europe was nerve-wracking. I was now outside my comfort zone, in the relative unknown.
In front of me lay Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Oman, the UAE and Iran. Pre-warned about men, terrorists and traffic, I began the next leg of my journey with caution.
I swiftly relaxed, however. A truck driver stopped just to hand me a satsuma. A cafe owner gave me his earmuffs. Dozens of others offered food, water, lifts and lodgings, and endless varieties of kebab.
Throughout the Middle East, it was the same. Doors were forever flung wide to greet this strange, two-wheeled anomaly who was surely in need of help, and possibly psychiatric care.
My hosts varied widely: rich and poor, mullahs and atheists, Bedouin and businessmen, niqab-clad women and qabaa-robed men. Every person and community was different, but certain traits linked them all: kindness, curiosity and tolerance.
In Sudan, families fed me endless vats of ful (bean stew) and let me sleep in their modest mud-brick houses. One Nubian family gently restored me to health after I ran out of water in the Sahara and collapsed, vomiting and delirious, on their doorstep: the lowest point of the trip, and the only time I experienced true panic.
Iranian hospitality felt like a soft protective cloak, omnipresent and ever-reliable. So much wonderful, impractical food was given to me by passers-by - watermelons, bread, bags of cucumbers - that much had to be discarded.
Persian culture pulsed with contradictions. On my first day, the police admonished me for removing my headscarf in blazing heat under a tree. Minutes later the officer's sister-in-law was serving me khoresh gheimeh (lamb and split pea stew) in her nearby bungalow.
The trip was not all blissfully trouble-free, of course.
There were the sex pests, for a start. In Jordan, Egypt and Iran, I was groped, ogled and propositioned with disappointing regularity.
In Egypt, one randy tuk-tuk driver got his comeuppance following a juicy bum squeeze by being beaten to a pulp by the police convoy on my tail - my horror at their brutality only outdone by my undisguised glee.
In Jordan, a truck driver who'd picked me up following a puncture repeatedly asked for kisses and grabbed my breasts. Fortunately his bravado ceased abruptly at the sight of my penknife wafting ominously close to his crotch.
Such incidents angered me intensely, and were often frightening and unsettling. Lechery is hardly a preserve of the Middle East, but there were areas where strains of patriarchy and entitlement ran deep.
I realised quickly, however, that these men were not monsters. They were ignorant and often ill-educated. Not to mention severely sexually frustrated within a culture where physical intimacy is shameful and stigmatised.
They were more cowardly opportunists than malicious aggressors, and it was usually easy enough to send them scuttling cravenly on their way.
There were certain things no-one could help with, however. The traffic was obscene by Turkey and got progressively worse. The heat was obscene by Sudan - upwards of 40 C - and also got progressively worse.
Toilets were a serious concern. In the remote gold mining regions of northern Sudan, where few women ventured, there simply weren't any.
"Look around you," a man at one roadside shack told me, gesturing to the entirely exposed desert behind him. "The Sahara is your toilet."
The most worrisome issue, however, was political. Across the region, repression was palpable, and foreign journalists clearly weren't welcome.
Don't tell the authorities your profession, I was told, or others would pay the price too. I took this advice - yet it was hard to feel at ease.
In Egypt, ruled by a heavy-handed military regime, tourists were tightly controlled and protected. The police were suffocating in their oversight, escorting me 500 miles (800km) down the Nile and aggressively grilling everyone I met.
In Iran, I was given more freedom. Yet foreigners are not permitted to stay with locals without permission, and several of my hosts endured an intense grilling by police. Some of those aware of my profession declined any contact at all due to fear of repercussion.
Everywhere I went, security and oppression continually curbed freedom and dissent.
In Turkey, pro-Kurdish human rights lawyer Tahir Elçi was killed by an unknown gunman a few days after we met. In Sudan, two students were killed in clashes with regime forces and supporters during my brief stay in Khartoum.
In Jordan and Lebanon, refugee camps were visibly struggling to cope with the growing numbers of Syrians fleeing war.
The enduring impression was a region in crisis, stretched hopelessly between tyranny and terror. Yet there was light along the way - and that light was the people.
"The world shouldn't judge us by our politics," a member of the Center for Civil Society and Democracy, a Syrian activist group I spent Christmas with, told me. "We hate our politics. We should be judged by ourselves."
And that, for me, is the nub of the matter.
The Middle East is a risky place, but the risks are primarily political. Beyond the pockets of conflict and terror highlighted daily in the media lies a broader reality: that of warm, compassionate communities living normal, everyday lives.
So is it safe for a woman to cycle alone across the Middle East? With the right precautions, yes.
Would I let my daughter do it? Absolutely not in a month of Sundays - are you mad?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39351162
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The enduring appeal of Adrian Mole, aged 50 - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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The fictional diarist has reached his half-century, but what is the secret behind his success?
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Leicester
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Adrian Mole, the angst-ridden diarist created by the late Sue Townsend, reaches his 50th birthday on 2 April. His diaries, over eight volumes, made Townsend one of the best-selling British authors of recent decades. But what made the character so compelling?
Stephen Mangan played Mole in the 2001 TV adaption of Townsend's The Cappuccino Years and worked closely with the writer on bringing him to life on screen.
Now aged 48, he began reading the Secret Diary as a teenager.
"Obviously when you read it as a 13 or 14-year-old you miss some of the nuances, but what's so clever about the books is that you get so many different perspectives," he says.
"It's written from the point of view of a 13-year-old boy, but it's also there's the story of [his separating] parents. It's a very clever trick, because through his lack of awareness you learn so much about marriage, parenting and life.
"A lot of the poignancy and depth of the book is revealed to you later when you're a little bit older."
Mole's waspish observations of the politics of the day are another feature of Townsend's books. He criticises Margaret Thatcher, the Falklands War and - in later editions - New Labour and Tony Blair.
"Sue was very engaged politically and socially tuned in to what was going on, and Adrian was her way in to discuss that," Mangan adds.
"She deals with big cultural phenomena through the books and with characters you love and sympathise with.
"We can be very entrenched in our attitudes, and with comedy, especially one based on a dweeby and nerdy loser like Adrian, bypasses this.
"We still read Jane Austen today, despite those books being a satire of the social scene at the time - if it's done with that amount of wit, warmth and intelligence it becomes universal."
In the early 1980s, while Mole was worrying about his spots and dreaming about his beloved Pandora, author Nina Stibbe was leaving their hometown of Leicester for London.
Then a young nanny - and now a successful novelist in her own right - she instantly recognised the problems occupying Mole.
"I read it when it first came out and - although I was 19 not 13 and had just moved to London - it was interesting because it was like a vindication," she says.
"He was neurotic, he was anxious, but he didn't mind about it, he just got on with worrying, and it was the same stuff that I was worrying about.
"He was worrying about his family, his mother's drinking and promiscuity, and I think it was the first time there was a character doing this sort of thing in such a charming way."
Stibbe's collection of letters Love, Nina chronicles her time observing the London literary scene of the 1980s (she was employed as a nanny by Kay Wilmers, editor of the London Review of Books, and frequent visitors to the houses included Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller).
"When the first diary came out I was living in London, I was a nanny, and I was around all these very accomplished writers and playwrights, and they were all loving [Mole]," she adds.
"I think people can identify with him - the way he worries about things that might go wrong is something that affects us all, whether it's health or what's happening next year.
"I wrote about divorce once, and I thought about [Mole's parents] George and Pauline's marriage, because it's so interestingly done - my parents had lots of friends like that.
"It was all so real, and Sue was writing from experience. The main thing is that it's hilarious, that's the nub and the magic of it."
Louise Moore grew up reading the Mole diaries - and years later wrote a fan letter to Townsend which led to a long-lasting friendship.
When Townsend asked Moore to publish The Cappuccino Years, in which Mole has a brief stint as a celebrity chef before moving back to his native Leicestershire, she described it as "like winning the Lottery".
"I'd just left school [when I read the Secret Diary...] and I loved it," she said.
"It's the quintessential humour that I love.
She says Mole's "everyman" qualities kept fans on his side throughout his struggles with life.
"Sue was very clear that she didn't want Adrian to grow up and be unappealing," she adds.
"She knew him so well, she'd said that when she was writing other books she'd start to think about him, and he followed her through her life.
"He was her mouthpiece in a way. He's very ridiculous and naïve, but he also has a great wisdom and empathy for the human condition.
"He quietly triumphs in the face of almost constant adversity - he's one of the world's unsung, ordinary heroes."
Leicester is the backdrop for much of the Mole books, but it's importance to the character - and Townsend - is often overlooked, says Dr Corinne Fowler, an associate professor at the University of Leicester.
"Sue was very connected to the region," she says.
"At her funeral one of the actors who was involved in the first production said she insisted she took the local actors with her when it transferred to London because of her commitment to the local arts scene.
"Apparently there were a few references to Leicester in the early manuscripts, but it seems the editor must have asked them to be removed. I think that tells you something about literary culture... anywhere outside London risked being seen as parochial if it includes the local references for a region. Later on I would imagine she had that authority to put those [references] in."
Mole's appeal has always been much wider, though, and to mark his half-century, three new radio plays featuring the character have been commissioned by the university's Centre for New Writing.
"[Townsend] would have had a field day with Brexit," adds Dr Fowler. "She would have given a voice to the grievances of the Remainers and the political developments across the decade.
"But I think it's interesting how it transcends places. Much of it's a comment on Thatcher's Britain, about growing up in poverty in the UK, about so many national things pertinent to the UK.
"So it's incredible to have someone growing up in Sao Paulo, for example, and understanding and liking it."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-39290618
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David Moyes: FA to ask Sunderland boss to explain himself over 'slap' remark - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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Sunderland boss David Moyes will be asked by the Football Association to explain himself after telling a BBC reporter she might "get a slap".
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Sunderland boss David Moyes will be asked by the Football Association to explain himself after telling a BBC reporter she might "get a slap".
After his side's draw with Burnley on 18 March, Moyes was asked by Vicki Sparks if the presence of owner Ellis Short had put extra pressure on him.
He said "no" but, after the interview, added Sparks "might get a slap even though you're a woman" and told her to be "careful" next time she visited.
"It was in the heat of the moment," added the 53-year-old Scot.
Both Moyes and Sparks were laughing during the exchange and the former Everton and Manchester United manager later apologised to the reporter, who did not make a complaint.
The FA will now write to Moyes to ask for his observations on the incident.
Speaking in a news conference on Monday, he said: "I deeply regret the comments I made.
"That's certainly not the person I am. I've accepted the mistake. I spoke to the BBC reporter, who accepted my apology."
The BBC confirmed that Moyes and Sparks had spoken about the exchange and the issue had been resolved.
A spokesman said: "Mr Moyes has apologised to our reporter and she has accepted his apology."
However, shadow sports minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan called on the FA to act.
"If you look at the fact that he wouldn't have said that to a male reporter, and I truly believe that, I think the comments and his behaviour and attitude was sexist," she told BBC Radio 5 live.
"With the FA, part of what they have been criticised for in the past is not tackling sexism and other forms of discrimination, which needs to be stamped out across the sport.
"Fundamentally it's a male-dominated environment that women find it incredibly difficult to break into and comments like this do nothing to encourage women."
Former England striker and BBC Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker also condemned Moyes' behaviour.
"Moyes incident highlights a tendency for some managers to treat interviewers with utter disdain. Pressured job. Well rewarded. Inexcusable," he said.
A statement from Women in Football said it was "deeply disappointed and concerned" but "pleased that David Moyes has apologised".
It added: "No-one should be made to feel threatened in the workplace for simply doing their job.
"We hope that the football authorities will work with us to educate football managers and those working within the game to prevent this kind of behaviour."
Sunderland are bottom of the Premier League on 20 points, eight points from safety, going into a game at Leicester City.
The FA must now decide what action, if any, it will take following David Moyes' comments.
His swift apology to Vicki Sparks may help him mitigate any punishment if he is subsequently charged by the governing body.
However Moyes' admission of wrongdoing and "deep regret" shows that he himself believes he's done something wrong.
Under such circumstances could The FA publicly justify simply warning him as to his future conduct? Would there be criticism of the message that sends from an organisation which prides itself on the values and high standards it tries to uphold in football?
It must now await Moyes' letter - and then decide how best to proceed.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39484238
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Nikita Parris in England Euro 2017 women squad but Eniola Aluko misses out - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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England Women's head coach Mark Sampson includes four players who are set to make their tournament debuts in his 23-player squad for Euro 2017.
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Last updated on .From the section Women's Football
Four players are set to make their tournament debuts for England Women at Euro 2017 after being named in head coach Mark Sampson's 23-strong squad.
The quartet are Manchester City defender Demi Stokes, midfielder Isobel Christiansen and striker Nikita Parris plus Chelsea's Millie Bright.
Alex Greenwood, Fran Kirby and Jo Potter are also in, despite currently being out with long-term injuries.
Sampson's squad includes 19 players from the 2015 World Cup, and there are no players aged under 23.
"An important part with any major tournament is you've got to be able to handle pressure. This team is experienced in doing that," said Sampson.
"We go into the tournament in a good place. The players are growing in belief that we can win the big games."
Chelsea striker Kirby has been out for much of the last year with a knee injury but has returned to training.
Her team-mate and fellow forward Aluko was last season's top goal scorer in the Women's Super League but has again been overlooked.
She last played for England on 12 April last year against Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Striker Daly plays for Houston Dash in the United States and scored on her England debut against Serbia last year but has not been picked.
The tournament, which starts on 16 July, will take place in the Netherlands and England's first match is against Scotland on 19 July.
Sampson has named his squad more than three months before Euro 2017 because he recently said form "isn't a priority" and "we've worked with our player pool for three years now and are clear on the right players we want".
Some of England's players are currently representing their clubs in the FA Cup, with the one-off Women's Super League Spring Series kicking-off on 22 April.
That will serve as a transitional tournament due to the traditional WSL season being moved to a September start.
'If you get complacent, you won't play'
Manchester City defender Lucy Bronze says she is sympathetic to those who have missed out with the Spring Series season still to come but has questioned how many big games there are to come which will emulate the Euros.
She also denies there will be complacency among the squad now they know their places are secure.
"If you get complacent between now and the Euros, you won't play. Even I couldn't tell you England's starting XI," she said.
"Mark likes to pick specific people for specific games and if you become complacent in the squad, you're knocking your chances of playing."
Following the Euro 2017 opener against Scotland, England face Spain in Breda on 23 July and Portugal in Tilburg on 27 July.
The Lionesses - who finished third at the 2015 World Cup - were unbeaten in eight qualifying games but have won just one of five outings, including defeats by France and Germany at the SheBelieves Cup.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39477888
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Mosul from the sky: Evidence of IS using human shields - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The BBC is given exclusive access to Iraqi army helicopter missions over IS-held Mosul.
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Middle East
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. IS militants were seen using human shields
The BBC has seen evidence that so-called Islamic State (IS) has been using children as human shields as they fight to keep control of the Iraqi city of Mosul. BBC Persian correspondent Nafiseh Kohnavard and producer Joe Inwood had exclusive access to helicopter missions of the Iraqi military and witnessed the battle from above.
Erij Military camp is a dusty compound just a few miles south of Mosul. The mangled and melted gas tanks that rise in the background hint at violent battles in the recent past. Giant attack helicopters sit on the tarmac, their sleek fronts give them an aggressive look, ready for action.
They never have to wait long.
Within minutes of our arrival, two young men in their flight suits run to their helicopter. The ground crew spring into action and within moments they are in the air. Their destination is west Mosul, the newest front in the battle against IS.
We spent more than a week living at the base, flying with the pilots who have helped in the battle against the militants who have ruled Mosul for two years.
It is not the first time that we have followed Iraq's helicopters as they battle IS: at Sinjar as they delivered aid to refugees trapped on the mountain; over the factory in Mishraq that doubled as a training camp for suicide bombers; last summer in the bloody fight for Falluja.
Thousands of residents are still trapped in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city
But, somehow, this time felt different. General Samir Hussain, the man in charge of the mission, confirmed our suspicions.
"Mosul is the toughest job we have ever had. There is no comparison with any other mission that you have witnessed."
It should not be surprising. For the first time, the pilots are operating above a city where tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped. And, unlike Falluja, the militants are encircled. They have no prospect of escape or chance of a military victory. And so they turn the people of Mosul into human shields.
As we sit having tea one morning, we see a familiar face. With his smiling eyes and toothy grin, Colonel Mohammed is a popular figure amongst the Iraqi army. He is also one of their most experienced pilots. We last saw him flying over Falluja.
He joins us for a green tea, and describes a scene he recently witnessed in old Mosul. The smile flickers from his face as he recalls it. An IS sniper had shot a woman in the street. She was being used as bait to lure federal police into his cross hairs. Col Mohammed was called in for air support.
IS militants have been encircled in Mosul as the Iraqi army moves in to recapture the city
It is just one example of the suffering being inflicted on the people of Mosul by IS. But their pain has not only come from the ground. Civilian deaths at the hands of coalition air strikes have been a source of both controversy and embarrassment for the Iraqi government.
Col Mohammed acknowledges that a potential danger is there. It was enough to make his wife and children beg him not to come. To this day they do not know he is here. "They think I am training," he jokes.
So, when firing high-explosive missiles into the middle of a city, how can he be certain he will not hurt an innocent civilian? The answer may be the only one he can give: he puts his faith in God.
But it is not just faith guiding him. We witnessed pilots holding fire as often as not. The on-board camera picked up clear examples of IS fighters walking in the streets in the company of children. If the shot was not clear, it was not taken.
The Iraqi military has pushed the militants from several neighbourhoods of Mosul
As we land from another flight, the sound of gunfire still ringing in our ears, there is an unfamiliar helicopter on the tarmac. It is bigger than the others and unarmed. A group of people runs towards it carrying a stretcher. In the distance flashing lights pull into view. One casualty becomes three, amongst them a general.
It is a reminder that no matter how well the battle seems to be going, war is never without cost.
When the Iraqi army fled Mosul two years ago, leaving it in the hands of IS, it was a source of national humiliation. Retaking it, therefore, is about more than territory and security, it is about restoring reputation and pride.
But it is also about showing the people of Mosul that the government in Baghdad is on their side. Every wayward missile, every stray bullet, every wounded or dead civilian undermines that work, handing a propaganda victory to IS even as they suffer military defeat.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-39475591
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Wasps chief David Armstrong to 'look at' possible Super League club - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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Wasps chief executive David Armstrong tells BBC Radio 5 live's Rugby League podcast about his interest in the setting up a Super League club in Coventry.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby League
Rugby union side Wasps have revealed they are interested in the possibility of setting up a Super League club in Coventry.
But they say they need to bring more rugby league events to the Ricoh Arena before considering whether to start a franchise.
"We're trying to grow awareness of the sport," Wasps chief executive David Armstrong told the BBC RL podcast.
"If that did work, then we would have a serious look at it."
Wasps moved into their Coventry base just over two years ago after spells ground-sharing with football clubs QPR and Wycombe Wanderers.
This season they expect to average over 17,000 for home matches.
They hosted rugby league for the first time with the Four Nations double-header last November - Australia v New Zealand and England v Scotland - which attracted over 21,000 spectators.
"We thought that was an outstanding success," said Armstrong. "There was 8,000 or 9,000 fans from this region who purchased tickets and came along on the night. That was very encouraging for us."
'We want to make sure we're ready for it'
Wakefield chairman Michael Carter recently told the BBC that brief discussions had taken place among Super League clubs about the possibility of relocation.
And the RFL says it would consider any application to move a current Super League side into a new town or city. Coventry already has a semi-pro league side - the Bears - who play in League 1.
"I should think it will have its challenges with the fan-base," said Armstrong.
"So we're looking very carefully at how rugby league expands and how we can build our audience in the Midlands and around Coventry.
"I think that's a bit of a stretch at the moment. Before we got as far as that, we'd have to work hard on establishing our audience.
"It's a big venture and we'd want to make sure our fan-base and our audience is ready for it, rather than building it from scratch or on a little bit of hope."
Wasps missed out on hosting this year's Magic Weekend - on which every Super League fixture is played in one venue over one weekend - with Newcastle's St James' Park accommodating the event in May.
But Armstrong says they will push hard to host next year's event at the Ricoh.
"This year we submitted a bid and we discovered that all bar one club in Super League is closer to Coventry than Newcastle," he said.
"So we know we are not far away from the heartland, we know we've got a strong and interested audience, so our dipping the toe in the water will probably continue. We'll bid for it again for next year."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/39461193
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Garth Crooks' team of the week: Alli, Dier, De Bruyne, Coutinho, Zaha - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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Which player has rejuvenated Crystal Palace? And who was on the end of a Nobby Stiles challenge? It's Garth's Team of the Week.
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With leaders Chelsea being toppled by Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge, is it any surprise that my Team of the Week is dominated by Eagles?
But it wasn't only a good weekend for Palace - Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool kept up the chase at the top, while Arsenal and Manchester City played out an entertaining draw.
At the bottom, Hull joined Palace in earning a big win.
Do you agree with my team of the week or would you go for a different team? Why not pick your very own team of the week from the shortlist selected by BBC Sport journalists and share it with your friends?
Pick your Team of the Week Pick your XI from our list and share with your friends.
Three first-half saves by Wayne Hennessey set the tone for an outstanding victory by Crystal Palace over Premier League leaders Chelsea. Prior to the arrival of Sam Allardyce, I've seen Palace capitulate having gone 1-0 down away from home. Not so anymore.
I sat behind the dugout at Stamford Bridge and marvelled at the performance by the manager. I saw Allardyce tell Luka Milivojevic in no uncertain terms not to stick his foot where it didn't belong after a first-half tackle on Eden Hazard. The message being that with 11 men on the pitch Palace had a chance of winning this match and the manager wasn't prepared to countenance any self indulgence from any player who might undermine his plan.
With Milivojevic firmly back in his box it was left to Hennessey to continue performing in the second half as he did in the first, demonstrating superb goalkeeping with confidence and stature. It worked.
This player is fast becoming a favourite of mine. Fernandinho can play full-back or in midfield and wherever he plays these days, he's as safe as houses.
The difficulty the Brazilian has is he and the team are missing a fit Vincent Kompany. I have no doubt that if Kompany plays, Shkodran Mustafi doesn't win the header that produces the Arsenal equaliser and City go on to win.
What is also clear to me is that City are getting better under Pep Guardiola and whilst there will be changes of personnel next season, Fernandinho will be part of Guardiola's future.
As for Arsenal, I was perplexed by the muted reaction of their players when Theo Walcott equalised. Muted celebration when you equalise in a game like this? Strange.
You would have got odds of 11-1 for Crystal Palace to win 2-1 away at Stamford Bridge. The bookies are notorious for giving nothing away, which gives you an indication of the enormity of their victory against Chelsea.
The man responsible for thwarting most of the advances from the league leaders, and has done so for Palace since his arrival on loan to the Eagles, has been Mamadou Sakho. He has been immense for Palace who, despite Chelsea's many chances, failed to take advantage of them largely due to the out of form Diego Costa.
Allardyce must be congratulated for getting Sakho to Palace. Since his arrival the Eagles have not stopped soaring. If there was a tackle or header to be made he won it and at no stage did the defender look in the least bit fazed by the pressure posed by the Blues, who have an impeccable home record.
The big question for Allardyce and Palace is can they lure the Frenchman away from Liverpool (who still retain his contract) and get him to play for Palace on a permanent basis? If Liverpool were to get a top four place, and their chances seem to improve with every game, I can see Jurgen Klopp seriously thinking about retaining the services of the player to bolster his squad.
What a wonderful finish by Eric Dier. He might have been a tad fortunate the way the ball fell for him in the Burnley penalty area, but there was nothing remotely lucky about the way the defender tucked it away.
Dier's progress for club and country has been meteoric, although this season we've seen the occasional glitch here and there, especially in the Champions League games at Wembley.
Nevertheless, the defender strikes me as a solid individual with leadership qualities, the sort of defender a manager can depend upon in a crisis.
His goal against Burnley will do his confidence a power of good. I've not seen Dier smile in an interview for a long time. It's always good to see a player with a smile on his face.
His touch with his right foot was measured, but the finish with his left was deadly. If you are going to open your Premier League account this was the way to do it.
I didn't know an awful lot about Robertson before this game although I had seen him play before. However he looks like one of those cultured left-footers who has the ability to manipulate the ball in tight situations.
I can't really commend Robertson's performance without talking about the efforts of Hull's manager Marco Silva. The response he has got from his players has been quite remarkable not to mention their level of performance since he took over from Mike Phelan. This victory over West Ham has given Hull a real chance of survival in the Premier League.
As for West Ham I am delighted that the club have finally released a statement supporting their manager and removing any speculation concerning Slaven Bilic's immediate future at the club.
Bilic has handled the difficult transition of moving to a new stadium brilliantly. He rid the club of the poisonous Dimitri Payet and almost certainly guaranteed the club another season in the best league in the world. I should think West Ham did have 100% in faith in Bilic. Now all they have to do is show it.
With no Harry Kane to look to for inspiration, Spurs gave the mantle to Dele Alli in the attempt to keep the pressure on Chelsea and it's working.
His performance against a Burnley side who have taken big scalps at Turf Moor this season epitomised a young lad who appears fearless on the ball.
The 20-year-old moves gracefully over the ground and his general awareness is outstanding. The way he found Son Heung-min for Tottenham's second goal was quite brilliant. The only feature I don't like about Alli's game is his obsession with making contact with his opponent in the opposition's penalty area and making out he's been impeded.
Penalties should be awarded, not prized out of referees. If he wants to be a Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard, he must eradicate that from his game and promote the things that make people want to pay good money to see him. That way he can be anything he wants to be.
That was a world-class ball from Kevin de Bruyne for Leroy Sane to score Manchester City's opening goal against Arsenal. To hit a defence splitting 60-yard, first-time ball takes some doing.
For one hour, De Bruyne was the best player on the park. He hit the post with David Ospina beaten and he was instrumental in City's second goal.
Arsenal, meanwhile, should be concerned. They are fighting for a top-four position and an FA Cup final place and, for some inexplicable reason, their fans seemed to be subdued for long periods against City.
The Arsenal players showed real backbone to bounce back in this game on two occasions. There is still a lot to play for and the team deserves their wholehearted support regardless of what some fans might think of their manager.
It's great to see Philippe Coutinho back in sparkling form again. Regular readers will know that it has been N'Golo Kante, Eden Hazard and Coutinho who are my three Premier League stars competing for the player of the season award.
Had it not been for his injury sustained earlier in the year, Coutinho might have canvassed enough votes to render himself the clear favourite to receive the prestigious award, as opposed to Kante or Hazard who have both had injury-free seasons.
Coutinho's goal against Everton was simply superb in a Merseyside derby that snapped, crackled and popped. That said, Ronald Koeman's disapproval of the Liverpool bench's insistence that the referee must issue a card every time a foul is committed was justified.
Ross Barkley made two poor challenges and was lucky to stay on the pitch but that was the decision of the referee. Please let us not descend to coaching staff trying to get players sent off. Referees don't tell them how to do their job.
If Leicester City's game against Stoke was anything to go by, then the Foxes really should have dispensed with the services of Claudio Ranieri much sooner. Central to this performance was Demarai Gray, who appears to be becoming a driving force behind Leicester revival.
Gray produced two glorious saves from Stoke keeper Lee Grant and was a constant menace throughout the game. The Potters were in similar battling mood as they were against Chelsea two weeks ago, when Phil Bardsley seemed determined to get a second yellow card regardless of the cost to his team or their future fixtures.
Similarly Ryan Shawcross's tackle on Gray reminded me of Manchester United's Nobby Stiles' tackle on Eusebio in the 1968 European Cup final at Wembley. Shawcross seemed so concerned about Gray's pace and willingness to run past players and, like Bardsley, took it upon himself to take the player out regardless of the consequences.
Fortunately, Shawcross only received a yellow card. It should have been a red just for the cheek of it!
It's been some time since I picked Christian Benteke in my Team of the Week, but it's good to see him back. The former Liverpool striker led the line for Crystal Palace beautifully against Chelsea and gave David Luiz and Gary Cahill a torrid time in every department.
If he wasn't challenging them in the air and putting them under pressure he was heading away corners in his own penalty area. However, it was his partnership with Wilfried Zaha that really excited me. These two boys were responsible for Chelsea's demise with great link play and two sensational goals.
It was Palace's second goal and the chip over an advancing Thibaut Courtois by Benteke that was pure genius. It wasn't just about the skill but the way the striker held his nerve and waited for Courtois to go to ground before he chipped him that was most impressive.
A beaming Allardyce came into the press room and said "I bet you weren't expecting that?" He got that right as well.
What a week Wilfred Zaha has had. He scored a sensational goal for Ivory Coast in midweek and continued in the same vein against Chelsea. It wasn't just Zaha's confidence on the ball that was so impressive - we know he can play - but his overall contribution to the collective team effort was outstanding.
There is a lot of talk about the Ivorian joining Spurs in the summer. An attractive move for the player I must admit. Who wouldn't want to add the possibility of playing Champions League football to his international career?
However, may I suggest that Zaha, having had a disappointing period at Manchester United, takes a pause before considering White Hart Lane. Another season at Crystal Palace under the tutelage of Allardyce may be more beneficial to his overall development.
Spurs have enough Fancy Dans in their line-up without adding to them. Palace, on the other hand, are in desperate need of flair and exuberance in an otherwise functional, but effective outfit. Still, if Zaha insists on a move to the Lane, who could blame him?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39473297
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Reality Check: Does Spain have more to lose than the UK? - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Jack Straw argues that Spain won't let Gibraltar get in the way of an EU trade deal for the UK.
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UK Politics
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The claim: Spain has more to lose in EU trade negotiations with the UK - because of its trade surplus with the UK.
Reality Check verdict: Spain sells more goods and services to the UK than it buys from the UK. It is also the top destination both for visits by UK residents and for UK nationals living abroad.
A clause about Gibraltar in the EU document outlining the negotiating strategy for Brexit has raised the question of sovereignty over the territory.
Over the weekend, former Home Secretary Lord Howard said the prime minister would defend Gibraltar the same way that Margaret Thatcher had protected the Falklands.
But on Monday, Jack Straw, the former home secretary and foreign secretary who held talks in the early 2000s with the Spanish government about sharing Gibraltar's sovereignty, said the idea of conflict with Spain over the territory was absurd.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme that Spain was unlikely to let Gibraltar get in the way of a future EU trade deal with the UK.
"Spain has hugely more invested in their trade and relations with the UK," he said, adding that Spain exports more to the UK than it imports from the UK, which means it has a balance of trade surplus.
The most recent figures broken down by country are from 2015. In that year:
But the UK arguably has more to lose than Spain on the issue of nationals living in the other country, because there are many more British nationals living in Spain than there are Spanish nationals living in the UK.
Of an estimated 900,000 British citizens who live in the EU, the largest number of them, by individual country, live in Spain: 308,805. Of those, 101,045 are aged 65 and over.
About 132,000 Spanish nationals live in the UK.
Correction 4 April 2017: An earlier version of this story said that Jack Straw had organised Gibraltar's referendum in 2002. In fact, while he had said that he would hold a referendum over proposals for shared sovereignty, the referendum that took place in 2002 was organised locally to pre-empt his discussions with the Spanish government.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39480836
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Miami Open: Roger Federer will limit clay season after beating Rafael Nadal - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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Roger Federer says he "probably" will not play again until the French Open, despite winning the Miami Open - his third title of 2017.
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Roger Federer expects to take nearly two months off after winning the Miami Open with his only 2017 clay-court tournament being the French Open.
The 35-year-old beat Rafael Nadal in Miami on Sunday, to win his third title since January.
Federer, who sat out the second half of 2016 to recover from a knee injury, says rest will help him prepare for the French Open, which starts on 28 May.
"When I am healthy and feeling good, I can produce tennis like this," he said.
"When I am not feeling this good there is no chance I will be in the finals competing with Rafa," the 18-time Grand Slam winner told ESPN on court after the win.
"That is why this break is coming in the clay-court season, focusing everything on the French, the grass and then the hard courts after that.
"I'm not 24 any more so things have changed in a big way and I probably won't play any clay-court event except the French."
Rafa to 'tear it into pieces'
Federer has won the Roland Garros tournament once in 2009. If he sticks to his plan, he would sit out clay events such as the Monte Carlo Masters, Madrid Open, Rome Masters and Istanbul Open - the last clay tournament he won in 2015.
The break in Federer's season arrives during his best start to a campaign since 2006. Back then he won 33 of his first 34 matches of the year, compared to his current run of 19 wins and one defeat.
Victory over Nadal sealed a third Miami Open title and added to wins at the Australian Open and Indian Wells this season.
"The dream continues," Federer said after the win. "It's been a fabulous couple of weeks. What a start to the year, thank you to my team and all who have supported me, especially in my more difficult challenging times last year."
In his on-court interview, Federer backed Nadal, who has himself been hampered by injury, for clay success.
"I know everybody is working very hard on your team to get you back in shape, and keep going," said Federer. "The clay courts are around, so I'm sure you are going to tear it into pieces over there."
It is 11 years since Roger Federer last completed the Indian Wells and Miami double, so add 'staggering stamina' to his rapidly increasing list of attributes for 2017.
At 35, though, Federer is also proving he is a realist and a pragmatist. Who is to say he would not have been able to piece together a very handy clay-court season to increase his chances of becoming world number one once more?
But Federer knows even he can't keep up this relentless success, on all surfaces, over an 11-month season. Thus this eight-week break from the tour to be followed by an appearance at the French Open where, even as a long shot for the title, he will remain the tournament's star turn.
And in Federer's mind - with Wimbledon and the US Open still to come - it is at Roland Garros that the season really begins.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/39474913
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Chinese Grand Prix: Antonio Giovinazzi replaces Pascal Wehrlein for second race - BBC Sport
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2017-04-03
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Antonio Giovinazzi will race again for Sauber in Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix as replacement for Pascal Wehrlein.
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Last updated on .From the section Formula 1
Coverage: Practice and qualifying on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; race on BBC Radio 5 live. Live text commentary, leaderboard and imagery on BBC Sport website and app.
Antonio Giovinazzi will again race for Sauber in Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix as the replacement for Pascal Wehrlein.
Italian Giovinazzi replaced Wehrlein for the season-opener in Australia after the 22-year-old German withdrew because of a lack of fitness following a back injury.
Giovinazzi, 23, finished 12th in Melbourne on his grand prix debut.
Wehrlein hopes to be fit for the third race of the championship in Bahrain or the following race in Russia.
"For me the most important is that I can train intensively to ensure a 100% performance from my side as soon as possible," said Wehrlein.
"I will then be well-prepared for my first complete grand prix weekend for Sauber."
Wehrlein, a Mercedes protege who was in the running to replace retired world champion Nico Rosberg at the factory team before losing out to Valtteri Bottas, injured his back in a crash at the Race of Champions in Miami in January.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has backed Wehrlein to "come back strong".
"I feel for Pascal, because he has had all the bad luck," said Wolff.
"I'm impressed with the maturity he has shown to inform Sauber that he wouldn't be able to perform at the level required in Melbourne.
"That took courage and selflessness, which I know earned him a lot of credit within the team."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39485374
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The pensioner who was a Bridge of Spies cold warrior - BBC News
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2017-04-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A retired diplomat was at the heart of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West.
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Scotland
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Frank Meehan has retired to Helensburgh on the west coast of Scotland after years as a Cold War diplomat
If you ran into Frank Meehan strolling along the banks of the Clyde estuary near his home in Helensburgh, you wouldn't notice much that was remarkable about him. He looks like any other pensioner enjoying a peaceful retirement.
But, now in his 10th decade, Frank can look back on a life spent at the heart of some of the most dramatic moments in the 40-year nuclear stand-off between the Soviet Union and the West.
Frank grew up in Clydebank, a town about eight miles west of Glasgow, famous for shipbuilding.
But he spent four decades as a US diplomat living, almost exclusively, behind the Iron Curtain in Communist Eastern Europe.
Frank was born in the US but grew up in Clydebank
As a teenager he survived the Clydebank Blitz, an aerial bombardment by the Luftwaffe during World War Two, which killed 500 and destroyed thousands of homes.
"There was a bad attack on the shipyards in March 1941," he told me.
"I was 17. We were in a shelter and the bombing started quite far away but you could hear them getting closer. The house next door got incendiary bombed and was destroyed.
"I worked clearing the rubble of houses that had been burned. I carried a bricklayer's hod. I was not much good at that. Maybe that's what made me think of the Foreign Service".
The event that changed the course of his life was his call-up.
Frank had been born, in 1924, in the United States, during a brief period when his Scottish parents were living there.
This made him a US citizen, and in 1945 he was drafted for military service. As a young GI he was posted to occupied Germany.
Frank Meehan joined the US State Department as a diplomat after the war
Frank had a degree from Glasgow University and was already a fluent German speaker.
On a whim, he applied to join the US State Department as a diplomat - and got in. He became fascinated by Russia.
"I think once you get the Russia bug you never lose it," he said.
"It's the unknown that lures you when you're young, you know?
"I just thought 'what is this world?'
"'Who are these people who had almost collapsed under German attack and then fought their way from Stalingrad to Berlin?' I wanted to understand."
So Frank learned Russian too - and it became a lifelong passion.
He was based at the Moscow embassy in 1960 when Soviet forces shot down a top secret US spy plane and captured its pilot Gary Powers.
The US officially denied the existence of the so-called U2 spy programme. But the Soviets now had the proof.
Powers was put on trial and given a long prison sentence. The wreck of his plane was put on public display.
Frank was despatched by the US ambassador to go and take a look.
"I was pretty tense," he said.
The remains of the U2 spy plane flown by American pilot Gary Powers, which was shot down over Soviet airspace
"I thought there might be some kind of manufactured incident. But I went to the head of the long line of people waiting to view it and the Russian guard looked at my pass and grinned and said, in Russian, 'Be my guest! It's your plane after all!'"
Two years later, Frank was back in Berlin.
Moscow had offered to swap Gary Powers for a Soviet agent called Rudolf Abel, who'd been caught spying in Brooklyn.
Gary Powers, accused of espionage over Russia in his U2 airplane, on trial in Moscow
They asked for the release of a young American student called Frederic Pryor as part of the deal.
Pryor had been studying in East Germany and had been arrested by the Communist regime there and accused of espionage. Pryor now became Frank's responsibility.
This is the incident that was dramatised by Steven Spielberg in the 2015 film Bridge of Spies, starring Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance, as Abel.
"The swap [of Powers and Abel] was to take place on Glienicke Bridge," said Frank.
Frederic Pryor would be handed over at Checkpoint Charlie in the centre of Berlin.
"There were tense moments obviously," Frank said.
"When I was walking over [into East Berlin], I didn't know how the kid, Frederic Pryor, would be.
The Glienicke bridge in Berlin after US pilot Gary Francis Powers was swapped for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in 1962
"He'd been in prison. I didn't know whether he'd be well, whether we'd get him out, whether I would be able to get out myself."
Frank found Pryor sitting in a car with an East German intelligence agent called Wolfgang Vogel, whom Frank knew. The two would become lifelong friends.
Frank recalls: "Vogel said 'Frank we're not ready. Get in the car and wait'.
American tanks and troops at Checkpoint Charlie, a crossing point in the Berlin Wall
"He was waiting for word from the bridge that the Powers-Abel swap had taken place.
"We were in the car waiting. I was getting more and more nervous.
"The car was surrounded by a group of East German goons, security people.
"Eventually one of them came over to me and said 'It's OK'. And Vogel said 'Frank - you can go'."
Frank walked Frederic Pryor the few dozen yards that separated east from west Berlin - and from captivity to freedom.
Had he seen the film, Bridge of Spies?, I asked.
"Oh yes it's very good. As you'd expect."
Is it accurate? A wry diplomatic smile. "Oh yes. Mostly."
Frank became US ambassador in Czechoslovakia and then, in 1980, in Poland.
Friends and relatives of striking workers listen to the news given by Lech Walesa outside the gates of the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk
His arrival in Warsaw coincided with the birth of Solidarity, the democracy movement that had emerged from protests and strikes by workers at the Gdansk shipyard.
The movement's leader, a shipyard electrician called Lech Walesa would become one of the great figures of 20th Century European history. In the early 80s he was a dinner guest at Frank Meehan's table.
Frank said: "Walesa was very smart. Politically very clever. Moderate, too, and careful.
"He had to deal with militants in his own movement and he had to try to control them so that they didn't push things too far too quickly. He was very good at that. I was impressed."
Lech Walesa, leader of the Polish trade union, Solidarity, on strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk in 1980
Luck wasn't on Frank's side. He was on a working visit to Washington DC when, in the winter of 1981, the Polish Army declared martial law and seized power.
Frank's bosses at the State Department wanted him back in Warsaw immediately. But the coup leaders had sealed the borders.
He laughs about it now but at the time it was no laughing matter.
"If there's going to be a revolution in Eastern Europe and you're the ambassador, you'd better be in the country," he said.
"I was told to get back in quickly.
"I flew to Berlin and travelled overland to the East German-Polish border. The embassy sent a van for me. Travelling back [after the coup] was sad. Everything had changed."
Polish General Jaruzelski who declared martial law as Secretary of the Communist Party to crush the Solidarity movement
We look back now and see that moment as the beginning of the end for Communism in Europe. But it didn't seem so to those who, like Frank, lived through it.
He said: "It's one of the great mysteries as I look back on it and on my own work.
"I still have difficulty understanding exactly what happened to the Russians - why they decided to pack in and leave Eastern Europe. It's to me an inexplicable decision".
But it's a decision that still shapes our world.
Frank Meehan is as engaged now with world affairs as he ever was. He has never shaken off his Russia bug.
Frank met Pope John Paul II in his role as a US ambassador
"What strikes me about Russia today is the tremendous sense of loss they have - of power and position," he said.
"That explains Putin's hold over them. But Putin can't last forever. The more I look at Russia today the more I'm reminded of the last days of the Czars, Russia between 1900 and 1917."
And I asked him about his unusual dual identity.
Does he feel Scottish or American?
"Oh no I'm an American. I love Scotland and I came back to retire here because it's what my wife wanted."
He told me: "When we came here, we worked out that this was our 23rd home since we were married.
"When you've dragged your wife around Eastern Europe for all that time, you owe her something.
"But I miss America. I'd love to be in Washington now watching what's going on there up close."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-39436207
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Leicester City 2-0 Sunderland - BBC Sport
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2017-04-04
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Leicester make it six wins from six under Craig Shakespeare as Sunderland mark the two-month anniversary of their last goal with another defeat.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Leicester made it six wins from six under boss Craig Shakespeare as seemingly doomed Sunderland marked the two-month anniversary of their last goal with another defeat.
The Foxes looked below their recent best for the first hour, but Shakespeare's decision to bring on Marc Albrighton and Islam Slimani was the game-changing moment.
Seven minutes after coming on, Albrighton's left-wing cross was headed home by Algeria striker Slimani.
Albrighton then ran from halfway before crossing to Jamie Vardy, who took a touch before firing an unstoppable effort into the top corner.
Sunderland - in the first game since boss David Moyes' comments that a BBC reporter might "get a slap" were made public - are increasingly looking destined for the Championship.
Without a victory or a goal since 4 February, the Black Cats are eight points adrift of Premier League safety with only eight games left.
Their best chance came 96 seconds before Vardy's goal when Victor Anichebe's deflected shot hit the post, with Jermain Defoe smashing the rebound into the side of the net.
• None Relive the game and follow reaction here
Leicester are a team reborn under Claudio Ranieri's replacement Shakespeare, who became the first British manager to win his first four Premier League games at the weekend. He has extended that record to five.
While beating Sunderland is not as eye-catching as his opening victory over Liverpool, or the win over Sevilla in the Champions League, it took them into the top half of the table and nine points above the relegation zone.
The hosts were below par in the first half - think Ranieri's side of earlier this season rather than the Italian's title winners of last year. But after the break, more specifically after Shakespeare's changes, they took control.
Albrighton, returning from an illness, had a hand in both goals - his cross setting up Slimani's first Leicester goal of 2017.
Vardy's goal was his fifth in five Premier League games under Shakespeare. He took 22 matches to score that many under Ranieri this campaign.
In the end it was a comfortable win for the Foxes, who could have won by more after dominating the final 30 minutes of the match.
They became only the second team in Premier League history to lose five consecutive games and then win their next five, following on from Tottenham in October-December 2004.
Shakespeare is enjoying the golden touch at Leicester, while Moyes' team look doomed.
The latest defeat came on the back of criticism for his comments to a BBC reporter after being unhappy with her line of questioning. After the interview last month he told Vicki Sparks she "might get a slap even though you're a woman" and told her to be "careful" next time.
He apologised and the club have stood by him. After the Foxes game he said "the matter's finished".
His problems at the moment are both on and off the field.
Moyes' men were not awful in the first half, matching Leicester for the most part. But a series of weak headers and long-range shots were all they really offered, Anichebe's second-half chance aside.
But it is a sixth game in a row without a goal, with only one point during that time.
They now need at least three wins, realistically a few more than that, from their final eight games to stay up. With five victories from their opening 30 league matches, those odds look slim.
There were positives from the game - Lee Cattermole made his first appearance since September following a hip injury. But he was shown a yellow card for a trip on Demarai Gray. Anichebe also returned from injury, with his first outing since January.
The story of their season can perhaps best be summed up by this - Anichebe remains their joint-second top scorer this season with defender Patrick van Aanholt [now at Crystal Palace] on three goals. He is 11 behind Defoe, who never really looked like scoring at Leicester despite a few half chances.
Former Republic of Ireland defender Mark Lawrenson on BBC Radio 5 live: "Sunderland are doomed, I'm afraid to say.
"It's been a strange year for them and that's come on the back of a few strange years.
"They have had lots of different managers and therefore lots of different backroom staff and then lots of different players. Maybe losing Sam Allardyce to the England job in the summer didn't help - it could be a different story now if that hadn't happened.
"But nowhere along the line has there been any clear plan.
"But sometimes it's not the worst thing in the world to go down to the Championship. Newcastle have proved you can go down and make yourself stronger.
"They will be a big club in the Championship - it's a dog-eat-dog league and you've got to have some guts to come straight back up but it's possible."
Former Black Cats defender Gary Bennett, now a BBC Newcastle pundit: "The fans are obviously not happy with the results, especially tonight. The supporters were excellent, as they have been all season.
"I could not hear any particular support or criticism of David Moyes tonight from the fans."
Sunderland boss David Moyes: "I'm really disappointed we didn't get something out of the game. We played really well for 60 minutes. If we'd been in front, nobody could have complained.
"At Everton we were 1-0 down and hit the bar - like today. Small margins are important. We just didn't get it today. It's desperate now.
"I felt we had to win one of these past two games. The boys have given a good go of it. We have maybe lacked a bit of quality.
"We'll keep going again - it's still in our hands to stay up."
Leicester boss Craig Shakespeare: "We weren't at our best tonight but the most important thing was the win.
"We know we can play better than that. We're trying to put as many points on the board as we can.
"There's been no talk of it [next week's Champions League quarter-final first leg with Atletico Madrid]. We haven't wanted to talk about it.
"Islam Slimani has had to be patient. Over the past few weeks he hasn't played much. He showed what he's capable of tonight."
Shakespeare joins illustrious company - the stats you need to know
• None Craig Shakespeare is the third Premier League manager to win his first five Premier League matches, following Carlo Ancelotti in 2009 and Pep Guardiola in 2016, who both won their first six.
• None Sunderland have failed to score in six consecutive top-flight matches for the first time since October 1981 [a run of eight].
• None The Black Cats have 20 points from 30 Premier League games this season - all 10 previous sides with this tally or fewer have been relegated at the end of the season.
• None Six of Islam Slimani's seven goals for Leicester in all competitions have been headers, including five of his six in the Premier League. Only West Ham's Michail Antonio (6) has scored more headers in the Premier League this season.
• None Vardy has hit four Premier League goals against the Black Cats, only scoring more against Liverpool (5).
• None Marc Albrighton has four Premier League assists in 2017, second only to Ross Barkley (5) among English players.
Leicester City go to Everton in the Premier League on Sunday (16:00 BST), with Sunderland hosting Manchester United earlier that day (13:30).
• None Attempt missed. Andy King (Leicester City) right footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Islam Slimani following a corner.
• None Attempt blocked. Islam Slimani (Leicester City) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
• None Attempt missed. Marc Albrighton (Leicester City) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Islam Slimani.
• None Attempt missed. Jermain Defoe (Sunderland) right footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Billy Jones.
• None Attempt blocked. Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
• None Attempt saved. Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City) left footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Islam Slimani.
• None Attempt saved. Andy King (Leicester City) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Christian Fuchs.
• None Offside, Leicester City. Daniel Drinkwater tries a through ball, but Riyad Mahrez is caught offside.
• None Attempt missed. Didier Ndong (Sunderland) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Darron Gibson following a set piece situation. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39414201
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Masters 2017: Rory McIlroy must fell Dustin Johnson in quest for Green Jacket - BBC Sport
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2017-04-04
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If a Masters Green Jacket is to be finally his, Rory McIlroy must overcome the doubters - and Dustin Johnson, writes Iain Carter.
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Coverage: Watch highlights of the first two days before live and uninterrupted coverage of the weekend's action on BBC Two and up to four live streams available online. Listen on BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Radio 5 live sports extra. Read live text commentary, analysis and social media on the BBC Sport website and the sport app.
Whenever Rory McIlroy's status as the world's most naturally gifted golfer is questioned, there is usually a swift reaction to remind us of his immense talent.
The ingredients are there for something similar to happen at this week's Masters but the challenge is formidable with so many big names demonstrating top form so far this year.
In 2011, McIlroy won the US Open by eight strokes in his first major since blowing that season's Masters.
A year later, he suffered a string of missed cuts before winning his second major at the US PGA Championship.
And in 2014 he had slipped out of the world's top 10 before embarking on a run that brought him the BMW PGA title at Wentworth and a high summer stretch that yielded the Open, Bridgestone Invitational and PGA crowns in consecutive weeks.
Now he heads into the Masters having suffered an injury-blighted start to 2017 while Dustin Johnson has surged to the top of the world rankings.
No longer is McIlroy unanimously regarded as golf's biggest talent. Johnson shows no weakness; he is powerful, long and straight and supplements those qualities with unerring deftness on and around the greens.
Having lifted his first major title at last year's US Open, the tall American appears unflappable and is playing with a maturity that many thought was beyond him.
In short, he looks the perfect golfer and having won his last three tournaments, the strongest events of the year to date, Johnson is the undisputed favourite for victory here at Augusta.
But this is the sort of scenario that inspires the best in McIlroy, especially as he seeks the title he craves more than any other. A Masters Green Jacket would complete his set of major prizes.
He says he would not be able to feel proper fulfilment if he never wins one. It is a lot of self-imposed pressure and explains ruinous nine-hole spells that have peppered and scarred so many of his Augusta attempts.
And McIlroy accepts that each year that passes without landing the Masters makes the next attempt more difficult. He is only 27 but there is a raging impatience.
Many observers have long held the belief that he is destined to win multiple Green Jackets. But the same was said of the likes of Ernie Els and Greg Norman, and both are still waiting.
Norman was fourth on his debut in 1981, runner-up three times and third on three occasions.
Listening to him speaking to BBC World Television recently, it was clear that he likes the Northern Irishman's chances of becoming only the sixth player to complete the career grand slam.
"I'm a bit of a McIlroy fan. I like his moxie on the golf course - I like his style," said the 62-year-old Australian.
And Norman is not concerned that McIlroy's season to date has been heavily disrupted by the fractured rib he suffered at the start of the year.
After finishing second at the South African Open he did not return to action until coming seventh at last month's WGC Mexico Championship. Norman believes that was a tellingly impressive comeback because it was at altitude which makes distance control difficult.
I do see one little glaring fault that happens under pressure with him
"To step away from the game as long as he did, to step back into the game and compete the way he did tells me he's got really good control of his golf swing," Norman said.
McIlroy followed up with a fourth place at the Arnold Palmer Invitational before playing only two matches of the group stages of the WGC Matchplay, a tournament that yielded Johnson's third straight win of the year.
And while Norman agrees the big hitter from South Carolina is the front-runner at the 2017 Masters, he also suggests Johnson might prove vulnerable on Augusta's slick greens.
"I do see one little glaring fault that happens under pressure with him," Norman said. "His putting stroke is excellent but at times it does have a tendency of breaking down just a little bit."
The two-time Open winner refused to go into detail but revealed that he tries to help Johnson through the world number one's friendship with his son Gregory.
"What pains me is when I see something on TV and I go, 'Oh my gosh, it's so glaringly obvious why he's missing those short putts'," Norman revealed.
"So I'll text my son and I'll say 'next time you talk to DJ, just tell him to do this and give him that one piece of information'. If he does it, he does it - I don't know."
But there is no doubting Norman's admiration for the overall Johnson package. "I'm really, really impressed with him," he said.
"A combination of power, finesse, calmness beyond calm. Nothing seems to faze him.
"He has been consistent for over a decade now, he's won a golf tournament every year for over a decade."
To date, though, none of those have included the Masters where he has been sixth and fourth in the past two years.
Johnson's preferred ball flight is a left-to-right fade whereas the popular belief is that players are better shaping it in the opposite direction at Augusta. "Because he can power the ball, he can play the Masters left to right rather than right to left," Norman said.
"Jack Nicklaus used to play left to right and he'd got more Green Jackets than anyone else."
Six-time winner Nicklaus is the ultimate Masters golfer but Jordan Spieth may, one day, prove a rival for that tag. The 2015 champion has played the event three times and has yet to finish outside the top two.
Still only 23, he has banked $3.472m (£2.79m) from the Masters alone, although you would guess he would have traded most of that for a "mulligan" on the 12th tee last year.
Dumping two balls into Rae's Creek on the shortest hole on the course led to a quadruple-bogey seven that put paid to what had been a five-stroke advantage on the front nine of his final round.
Britain's Danny Willett then seized the moment to claim his first major title.
More golf from the BBC:
• None Watch: 'When Danny Won The Masters' on BBC iPlayer
• None Listen: 'McIlroy was right to play round with Trump'
• None 'If you designed the perfect golfer, it would be Dustin Johnson'
Spieth returned to Augusta last December, played the hole twice and birdied it on each occasion - the second time from tap-in range. But the ghosts will take longer to be exorcised.
"It's not as if it's going to be the last year he gets questions about it," McIlroy said.
"I still get questioned about the back nine at Augusta in 2011," added McIlroy who came home in 43 in a round of 80 that ruined his four-stroke 54-hole lead.
He is a far more experienced figure these days and spearheads a formidable UK contingent that includes 11 Englishmen, Scotland's Russell Knox and veteran former champions Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam.
Few, if any, crave it more than McIlroy and in a year when, so far, his leading contemporaries Johnson, Spieth, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler and Hideki Matsuyama have made all the noise, this might be the moment when the story becomes Rory.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/39485648
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One man's hunt for his brothers' killers - BBC News
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2017-04-04
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Eighteen years after three young Albanian-Americans were tortured and killed, a family's fight for justice goes on.
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Magazine
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Two weeks after the end of hostilities in Kosovo, three young Albanian-Americans who had joined the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) were arrested by Yugoslav police, tortured and killed. Eighteen years later, the conflict has been largely forgotten, but the men's youngest brother continues a lonely fight for justice.
Towards the end of June 1999, Ylli, Agron and Mehmet Bytyqi (pronounced Bootoochee) were escorting a Roma family out of Kosovo to the Serbian border. It was an act of kindness. The Bytyqi brothers - whose parents knew the family well - were guaranteeing their safety up to Kosovo's border with Serbia, since many ethnic Albanians viewed Roma with suspicion.
But near the village of Merdare, something went wrong. After straying over the unmarked border, the brothers were seized and jailed for two weeks for entering Yugoslavia without a visa.
When they were released, a white car without licence plates, driven by men in plain clothes, was waiting at the jail in the town of Prokuplje. The three brothers were then driven to the base of a unit of special police in Petrovo Selo, near the Romanian border, and were not seen alive again.
This was when Fatos Bytyqi's search began.
While his brothers were American citizens, born in Illinois, Fatos was born after his parents returned from the US to Prizren, in what was then Yugoslavia, in 1979. He was 19 when Ylli, Agron and Mehmet joined the Atlantic Brigade - a group of some 400 American citizens who left in April 1999 to join the fight for Kosovo's independence from Serbia.
The brothers arrived too late to do much fighting, as by mid-June a Nato bombing campaign had led to the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo, and their replacement by Nato peacekeepers. The three Bytyqi brothers were nonetheless members of the KLA. On the day they were arrested they were carrying KLA dogtags as well as New York driving licences, and one theory is that they may have been suspected of spying.
In the weeks after their disappearance, a human rights group in Belgrade succeeded in obtaining papers documenting the brothers' release from the prison. Later, Fatos visited Prokuplje with his mother, where he learned about the white car. But it took another two years for the brothers' fate to become clear.
In July 2001 their bodies were found at the top of a mass grave in Petrovo Selo along with other Kosovan Albanians. They had been blindfolded, their hands tied with wire behind their backs, and shot in the head. According to an FBI agent who spent six years investigating the case, their skin showed the marks of electric shocks, indicating torture.
Today, the 37-year-old Fatos is the manager of a 7-Eleven convenience store in Hampton Bays, on Long Island, just outside New York city, where his brothers lived before the war. Two of them were painters, one a pizza-maker. A fourth brother, Ilir, stayed behind to continue earning money to support the family. Softly spoken, with a neat black goatee, Fatos leaves his shop behind roughly once a year to travel to Serbia, where he meets the prime minister, chief war crimes prosecutor, interior minister and other top officials, to urge them to step up efforts to find and prosecute his brothers' killers.
Investigations have been conducted both by Serbian war crimes investigators and by the FBI. But most of this work was done years ago and the world has since moved on. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is being wound down, Serbia is negotiating its membership of the European Union and the US institutions that once leaned on the Serbian authorities have eased off.
Only Fatos refuses to give up.
Invariably the officials he meets in Belgrade urge him to remain patient, and promise that there will be progress soon.
"When they see me, it's not like they are really feeling bad. If they were they would have taken care of this a long time ago," he says.
"Sometimes the ministers don't let me finish my questions. They interrupt and say that I don't understand."
"To work on war crimes against your brothers you have to be beyond patient," says his brother, Ilir, who helps him research the case, but leaves most of the public relations to Fatos.
"Dealing with all these government people [in the US] and especially in Serbia, who just tell you what you want to hear - that can easily set you off."
It is clear that the perpetrators of the crime were among a limited number of people with access to the base of the special police unit at Petrovo Selo, where the Bytyqis were executed and buried.
To date, only two men have been tried - Sreten Popovic and Milos Stojanovic, who transferred the brothers in the white car from the jail in Prokuplje to Petrovo Selo. Charged with aiding and abetting a war crime, they were acquitted once in 2009 and again at a retrial in 2012, on the grounds that they played only a minor role, and that it could not have been a war crime because the war was over by the time the brothers were arrested.
Fatos Bytyqi is convinced that one man is the key to the case, retired general Goran Radosavljevic - nicknamed "Guri", meaning "stone" in Albanian - who was the commander of the Petrovo Selo base. He says he was away from the base at the time of the murders, though at least one of his former staff disputes this.
Radosavljevic is a powerful man. He went on to head Serbia's special police forces, or gendarmerie as they were renamed. Later he set up a security firm, training foreign troops. Today he is a respected businessman and a member of the executive board of the Serbian Progressive Party - the party of President Tomislav Nikolic and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.
Serbian officials often attribute the paralysis of the Bytyqi case to the difficulty of getting witnesses to talk. Fatos Bytyqi notes bitterly that it will be hard to convince anyone to testify against a man who appears on television standing next to the prime minister.
On his most recent visit to Serbia, last autumn, the ever-patient Fatos shows signs of frustration.
"When the US diplomats meet Serbian officials they say, 'What's new on the Bytyqi case?'" he says, interpreting this as a sign that they do not keep up the pressure when he is not there.
"They should be saying, 'You killed my three citizens!'
"They see the prime minister all the time, they should raise the case. I have to travel 10 hours to come here and plan how to make the embassy work closer with the Serbian interior ministry."
US diplomats declined to comment. But in 2014 the then deputy chief of mission, Gordon Duguid, pointed to a number of reasons why no-one had been indicted for the murders - the slow transition from strongman rule in Serbia to the rule of law, the continuing resistance to normalising relations with Kosovo, and the reluctance of some Serbs to come to terms with happened in the war.
On one evening in Belgrade, Fatos sits down in the office of the Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC) to watch a documentary about the case, broadcast on Serbian television to coincide with his visit. It's called Collective Amnesia.
The centre's 70-year-old founder Natasa Kandic, a flinty human rights campaigner and a longstanding supporter of Fatos, praises him for "fighting against the silence".
But what are the chances that he will ever be successful? Prime Minister Vucic said in 2015 that the case would be resolved "sooner than you'd think". Others argue that Serbia will have to tackle some big war crimes cases before closing its EU accession process.
The Bytyqis' pro-bono lawyer, Praveen Madhiraju, thinks another prosecution is likely, but that it is less likely to be a serious prosecution of a high-ranking figure.
Out of 170 convictions achieved by the Serbian war crimes prosecutor's office in its 13 years of existence, all but six were of foot-soldiers following orders, points out the head of the legal programme at the HLC, Milica Kostic.
"A miracle needs to happen," she says. "There is very little hope."
But Fatos Bytyqi nonetheless has hope that justice will be done. He puts his faith in God. At some point, he says, it will happen.
All photos by Marko Risovic. Work on this story was supported by the Center for Investigative Reporting.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39433897
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Lions in New Zealand: Brian O'Driscoll tips Sam Warburton for captaincy - BBC Sport
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2017-04-04
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Former British and Irish Lions captain Brian O'Driscoll expects Wales flanker Sam Warburton to lead the squad against New Zealand.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Sam Warburton will be re-appointed British and Irish Lions captain for the tour of New Zealand, according to former Lions skipper Brian O'Driscoll.
The Wales flanker, 28, led the Lions in Australia in 2013 and is the favourite to resume the role this summer.
"[Lions head coach Warren] Gatland is a big fan, he knows what sort of captain he is. He's going to be the man."
Former Ireland captain O'Driscoll, who toured with the Lions four times, added: "The experience of doing it once before, and how he is currently playing and the high esteem he is held in, I think they all feature heavily in him being another good selection.
"Seven [open-side flanker] is one of the more open positions, and I think Warburton will fit in brilliantly there."
O'Driscoll feels Warburton is now best-placed to lead the touring party ahead of Wales captain in Alun Wyn Jones, who is currently sidelined with a shoulder injury.
"Sam is the kind of character that if he wasn't selected for the Tests he wouldn't throw the toys out of the cot," O'Driscoll said.
"You look at that, married with Alun Wyn being out for a couple of weeks now, I don't know if you can guarantee him a Test spot.
"I would have him in my Test team, but I don't know if Gats feels he can guarantee him a Test spot."
O'Driscoll also feels the form of Irish provinces Leinster and Munster - who have reached the Champions Cup semi-finals - could see some of their players sneak into contention.
"No-one has mentioned [Munster second row] Donnacha Ryan as a possible bolter," he said. "He could do a brilliant job for the Lions as a midweek player.
"I wouldn't be shocked to find him on the tour. He is the kind of guy you want in the trenches."
O'Driscoll also believes Leinster flanker Sean O'Brien is in the frame.
"He was the seven four years ago when [the Lions] smashed Australia, and Warren Gatland will remember that and knows what he can deliver.
"He has given himself every opportunity."
Gatland will confirm his squad on 19 April with the first game of the tour on 3 June.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39485901
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Vanessa White on life after The Saturdays - BBC News
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2017-04-04
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Pop singer Vanessa White invites us into the studio as she makes her new EP, Chapter 2.
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Entertainment & Arts
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She made her name as the youngest member of girl band The Saturdays - but Vanessa White has ditched the squeaky clean pop of All Fired Up and What About Us for an altogether more intriguing foray into sultry and infectious R&B.
It's two o'clock on a crisp November day and Vanessa White saunters up to the gates of Ealing Studios in west London.
The film studio has played host to Shaun of the Dead, Bridget Jones and the entire "downstairs" set of Downton Abbey - but she's not here to film a cameo ("Can you imagine?" she giggles).
Instead, the 27-year-old climbs the fire escape of a dilapidated high-rise building, enters a propped-open door and navigates the corridors to a small back room that's been converted into a recording studio.
Like all such facilities, it's painted black and littered with empty liquor bottles. The walls are haphazardly decorated with polaroids of previous occupants - including US hitmakers The Chainsmokers - and, in the corner, there's a tiny figurine of Ariel from The Little Mermaid.
Inside, Vanessa's producer SwiftKnight is ready and waiting, sorting through various tracks he's hoping she might choose for her forthcoming EP.
But first, the singer has a confession: "I've got a sore throat and I'm a bit hung over."
It doesn't seem to matter. If anything, the consensus is that a husky voice is better for the material - a sultry and sumptuous serving of downtempo R&B; all heavy breathing and soaring harmonies.
Staving off the hangover with a "nourishing" lunch box, Vanessa explains her musical state of mind to the team.
"Everything I'm doing now is so dark," she says, cueing up a song on her phone. "Not like I-want-to-kill-myself dark, but it's quite angry."
One of the tracks - tentatively called Trust - is seething with vitriol.
"I won't stroke your ego," she spits. "I'm onto you, I'm onto you. Don't underestimate my intelligence."
The song was inspired by encounters with "snaky people" in the music industry, she explains: Specifically, a toxic situation that developed around her and ended up "with the lawyers" last year.
She can't discuss the details, but says her solo career was significantly delayed as a result. The EP she's working on today was originally due last summer.
"There were certain songs I loved that I couldn't use any more," she explains. "So I've basically had to start again, which is why it's taken this long.
"The silver lining is it's given me something to write about. I'm in a much better position now, mentally.
"I used to get so scared of going in the studio with people I didn't know but now, you could put me anywhere and I'd be fine."
Vanessa certainly takes charge in the studio. Having brought the producers up to speed, she sits cross-legged on a sofa as they scroll through a few skeleton songs, looking for "an uptempo track with a dark heart".
One by one, Vanessa dismisses them. "That's too light," she says of one. "I'm not instantly drawn to it," is her verdict on the next.
After half a dozen tracks are waved off, engineer Day Decosta brings up a simple loop built around a gooey, pulsing bass groove.
Vanessa instantly sits up, alert. "Oh, I like this."
She starts ad-libbing vocal riffs over the top, trading ideas with co-writer Celetia Martin, a former vocalist for Groove Armada whose credits include Skepta, Conor Maynard and, yes, The Saturdays.
Within minutes, she heads to the vocal booth. "I don't really know what I'm doing right now," she laughs. "I'm just going to sing loads of random nonsense."
Slowly, painstakingly, the song takes shape. Some of the improvisations stick and are pieced together into a coherent melody. Every so often, Vanessa emerges from the booth to kneel on the floor with Celetia, and the pair go back and forth over lyrics and harmonies.
When inspiration dries up, they scroll through Instagram, gossip about TV box sets, and goof off doing the Mannequin Challenge for Vanessa's Instagram page.
Conversation eventually turns to the singer's upcoming holiday, a "juice retreat" in Portugal, where solid food is forbidden for an entire week.
It sounds awful (although photos from the journey suggest otherwise) - but it's apparently the standard sort of torture female pop stars endure before the promotional round of video and photo shoots begin.
"It sounds worse than what it was," laughs the singer when we catch up four months later.
"Honestly, if you were hungry it wasn't like they starved you. They added more to the smoothies or they'd give you a piece of fruit. It was actually fine.
"I feel like I need another one now, that's the problem!"
In any case, the 27-year-old counts dressing up and being photographed as a perk of her job... although it wasn't always that way.
"When I was in The Sats, it actually got a bit boring having to be made up every single day," she says. "I stopped appreciating it.
"Now I can come to the studio looking like this and it's fine. Dressing up has become more of a treat again."
Back at Ealing Studios, work continues late into the night - long after the BBC has left the building, having contributed precisely zero to the writing process.
The song is ultimately destined for the scrapheap, but Trust (completely overhauled and re-titled Trust Me) makes it onto Vanessa's Chapter Two EP, which was released last Friday.
As she predicted, it set the tone for a collection of brooding neo-soul that's surprisingly candid about anger, lust and sexuality. Fans of The Saturdays' chirrupy chart fodder are in for quite a surprise.
"I guess people are going to question it," she admits of her new direction. "But I feel pop is not very me at the moment.
"It took a bit of time to find a sound that was completely right for me. Now I feel like I've really nailed it, and it's obvious it's coming from me. Once people believe that, you're half-way there."
Born in 1989, the star was just 17 when The Saturdays formed
Certainly, the sophisticated harmonies and complex ad-libs reflect the US singers she grew up idolising - Janet, Alliyah, Brandy and Mariah - without sounding like a cheap, plastic counterfeit.
"We've had a problem with that in the UK in the past," she acknowledges. "I don't know why we haven't really got the sounds right before - but this is what I listened to for years and years, so I guess that's where it's come from."
The EP has been well-reviewed on the sort of music sites that would have given The Saturdays a wide berth. But it's hard to see where the music fits in the current charts, crammed full of Ed Sheeran's acoustic pop and The Chainsmokers' emo EDM.
"To be honest with you, I'm not even thinking about that," says the singer. "With everything that's happened this year, including the label stuff, I've ended up doing this on my own - and at this point I'm preferring it, to be honest.
"I feel like I have to run with this. I'm not going to be hard on myself and expect it to be [huge] at this point.
"Whatever happens will happen."
Vanessa White's Chapter Two EP is out now on Salute the Sun Records.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39479581
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David Moyes: Sunderland boss never feared for his job despite slap comment - BBC Sport
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2017-04-04
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Sunderland boss David Moyes says he never feared for his job following his comments to a BBC reporter that she might "get a slap".
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Sunderland boss David Moyes says that he never felt his job was in danger following his comments to a BBC reporter that she might "get a slap".
Moyes has apologised for what he said to Vicki Sparks after an interview following a draw with Burnley in March.
Sunderland are standing by the Scot, who has been asked to give his observations on the incident by the FA.
"It's really good to have the support and I'm really grateful to them," Moyes told BBC Radio 5 live.
When asked if he had thought his position was under threat following the comments, he said: "No. I felt I had made my apology, there had been no complaint from Vicki Sparks, and because of that, everything was fine."
He also said it was his idea to offer an apology, adding: "As I said at the time, I regret my words."
In his post-match news conference following Tuesday's 2-0 loss at Leicester, he admitted that he had been "surprised, in many ways" by the reaction to his comments.
"The world of football is a great business now," he added. "It employs an incredible amount of people now, be it through the media or on the training grounds, and for that reason it is a big talking point."
In the interview in question, Moyes was asked by Sparks if the presence of owner Ellis Short had put extra pressure on him.
He said it had not but, after the interview, added Sparks "might get a slap even though you're a woman" and told her to be "careful" next time she visited.
Both Moyes and Sparks were laughing during the exchange and the former Everton and Manchester United manager later apologised to the reporter, who did not make a complaint.
Moyes revealed on Monday that the club knew about the incident soon after it occurred.
In a statement on Tuesday, the club said: "The exchange between the manager and a BBC reporter was wholly unacceptable and such actions are not condoned or excused in any way.
"David recognised this immediately, proactively bringing the matter to the attention of the CEO and apologising to the reporter.
"The club also spoke with both a senior figure at the BBC and the reporter personally, expressing its profound regret over what had occurred.
"The matter was treated with the utmost seriousness from the outset and the swift and decisive action taken by the club and the manager at the time ensured that it was resolved to the satisfaction of the reporter and the BBC, which was the priority.
"With both the BBC and the reporter agreeing that appropriate action had been taken at the time, the club continues to fully support David in his role as manager of Sunderland AFC."
• None Listen - "doubly difficult for women to be accepted in world of sport reporting"
His comments have been criticised by shadow sports minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan and Women in Football, with the latter saying it was "deeply disappointed and concerned" but "pleased that David Moyes has apologised".
Football Association chairman Greg Clarke said: "It was regrettable, it was distasteful and I think it showed a complete lack of respect. And we in the game stand for respect.
"But I don't think it undermines football's desire to be inclusive and respectful. Every now and again, we will have to remind people of the high standards we need to observe in football."
When asked if it was sexist, Clarke said: "It could have been interpreted as such.
"I think it's doubly bad to use such a term to a woman because there is a lot of violence against women in society and terms like that aren't just disrespectful, I think they are bad examples.
"I regret that it happened and I'm sure that David Moyes regrets that it happened."
The chief executive of Domestic violence charity Women's Aid, Polly Neate, said: "We cannot be complacent about remarks like these from influential men.
"We urge the FA to act swiftly and take this opportunity to send out a clear and strong message to the footballing community that there is no place for sexism and misogyny in modern football."
Speaking in a news conference on Monday, Moyes said: "I deeply regret the comments I made.
"That's certainly not the person I am. I've accepted the mistake. I spoke to the BBC reporter, who accepted my apology."
The BBC confirmed that Moyes and Sparks had spoken about the exchange and the issue had been resolved.
A spokesman said: "Mr Moyes has apologised to our reporter and she has accepted his apology."
Sunderland are bottom of the Premier League on 20 points, eight points from safety.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39498426
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Dialogue marks faiths' response to the Westminster attacks - BBC News
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2017-04-04
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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What do the responses to the events of 22 March tell us about interfaith relations?
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UK
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Following the recent attack in Westminster, the temptation to increase tensions between Christianity and Islam was rejected almost immediately.
It began with a vigil outside Westminster Abbey, only two days after Khalid Masood's murderous attack that took the lives of four people, including PC Keith Palmer, and injured more than 35 others.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, the Chief Rabbi and two British imams gathered on Westminster's North Green, embodying interfaith unity in the shadow of a horrifying attack.
"We are each drawn from the historic Abrahamic faiths," said Archbishop Justin Welby, "faiths that teach the primacy of love and compassion over antagonism. We have come together to push for a more peaceful future."
It was an immediate effort to reject the narrative that Khalid Masood was an agent of Islam at war with the Christian West.
Women, many of them Muslim, gathered on Westminster Bridge to show solidarity with the victims of the London attack
Two days later, a line of almost 100 Muslim women held hands on Westminster Bridge, bowing their covered heads in silence as Big Ben struck 16:00 BST on the first Sunday following the attack. Again, the message they sought to convey was one of unity, as opposed to enmity, between religious traditions.
But last Saturday, around 300 people gathered under a different banner. Members of Britain First and the English Defence League congregated on Victoria Embankment for what they described as a "march against terrorism". Paul Golding, the leader of Britain First, began by reciting the Lord's Prayer.
The attempt to categorise acts of terror as representative of the Islamic faith has gained much less traction here in the United Kingdom than it has in the United States, where it became one of Donald Trump's signature themes throughout his presidential campaign. He repeatedly castigated former President Barack Obama for his refusal to use the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism".
But President Obama, from the outset of his presidency, sought to calm tensions with Islam. His first overseas visit in 2009 was to Cairo University, where he offered a fresh hand of friendship.
The far-right English Defence League held a "London march against terrorism " in response to the attack
"I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world," he explained, "one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition.
"Instead, they overlap, and share common principles - principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."
This Wednesday, both the Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches in Britain will continue to press the case for engagement, as opposed to antagonism.
At 12:00 BST, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will attend what is billed as a Service of Hope at Westminster Abbey, which will bring together representatives of all those who were touched by the events of 22 March.
The Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, looking ahead to the service, said: "The random and vicious attack on Londoners and visitors to these shores has bewildered and disturbed people of every background and belief. And we shall commit ourselves afresh to working together to bring hope."
Cardinal Vincent Nichols is to take British imams to meet Pope Francis in Rome
The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, will embark upon a more adventurous pilgrimage. He will take four British imams to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican, also on Wednesday. The BBC has been invited to travel with the cardinal's party.
"Pope Francis is committed to engagement," the cardinal says. "When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, he repeatedly visited mosques and engaged with the Muslim community. And his willingness to welcome our British imams is a further sign that he regards interfaith dialogue as being of the utmost importance."
To further emphasise this commitment, it has just been announced that Pope Francis will travel to Egypt later this month. In a statement, the Vatican said the Pope had accepted an invitation from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Roman Catholic bishops, the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and the grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque.
None of these meetings is intended to deny the profound theological differences that exist between these faiths, especially where it concerns the uniqueness and divinity of Christ.
But by continuing the dialogue, these faith leaders are sending a clear message to the communities they serve: that faith without works is dead and that dialogue must always trump conflict.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39482705
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Badminton England blames funding cuts for tournament withdrawal - BBC Sport
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2017-04-04
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Badminton England withdraws from a forthcoming international tournament in Australia after losing its Olympic funding.
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Last updated on .From the section Badminton
In February, Badminton was among seven Olympic sports to lose funding despite Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis winning doubles bronze at Rio 2016.
"We are working through an unprecedented financial situation as a consequence of the recent funding decisions," Badminton England performance director Jon Austin said.
The Sudirman Cup starts on 21 May.
The event in Gold Coast, Australia, is seen as an unofficial test event for English players ahead of next year's Commonwealth Games to be held in the same city.
England finished ninth in the last edition of the World Mixed Team Championships, which take place every two years.
"We have had to consider the investments we make very carefully," Austin added.
"The pressures we are facing right now, both through the people resource and financial investment needed, means we are regrettably not in a position to commit to the Sudirman Cup this year."
Badminton England received around £5.5m between London 2012 and 2016 and was left "staggered" when it had its funding pulled, despite beating a Rio Games performance target set by elite sport funding body UK Sport.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/badminton/39495928
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Lexi Thompson penalty: Tournament referee not TV viewers should have final say - BBC Sport
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2017-04-04
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The mistake that cost Lexi Thompson a major was her own, and rules were properly followed - but the rules make golf look ridiculous, says Iain Carter.
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Who knows what was going through Lexi Thompson's mind when she chose to mark and replace her ball on the 17th green last Saturday?
Whatever it was, it resulted in what should have been a routine moment going horribly wrong. It ultimately cost her a major and her second ANA Inspiration title.
If Thompson's actions were not spotted by her playing partner, referees on the spot, or officials monitoring the TV feed then they have surely come through enough examination
It also led to another sorry rules mess that made golf look ridiculous. Add this one to the Dustin Johnson fiasco at the men's US Open last year and Anna Nordqvist's rules breach that ruined her chances at the women's equivalent championship a couple of weeks later.
But be in no doubt that in this latest controversy only one person made a mistake and that was Thompson. Unwittingly or otherwise, she did not put back her ball in the correct place.
She was less than an inch out but she got it wrong and might have given herself an advantage.
Throughout the due process that followed, the LPGA rules officials acted in accordance with the rules as set out for tournament play.
Under current rules, officials have no choice but to investigate a possible rules breach if they are so alerted by a television viewer. And if the tournament is still going on, this applies even if that information comes in on a later day.
So Thompson was given a two-stroke penalty for incorrectly replacing her ball and two more shots for signing for the wrong score. A total of four shots were added to the tournament leader's card.
She only found this out as she moved from the 12th green to the 13th tee a day after the offence was committed.
And this is where the game lets itself look ridiculous. This is where common sense goes out of the window and tournaments are ruined.
Foremost is the fact that golf is a self-policing sport. Golfers and their playing partners are supposed to ensure that the rules are followed and, in so doing, protect the rest of the field from cheats.
This is what occurs almost all of the time at every level of the sport.
At big events, referees are on hand. At many majors there is a rules official at every hole with every group.
Furthermore, there should be an official watching the television footage. So why on earth do we need to rely on someone sitting at home - watching on delay, in this case - to make sure the rules are followed?
• None Listen: Former Ryder Cup captain says LPGA 'should have ignored' complaint about Thompson
• None Watch: The putting coach to the world's best
If Thompson's actions were not spotted by her playing partner, referees on the spot, or officials monitoring the TV feed then they have surely come through enough examination.
Yes, this may mean a mistake is made - but most sports are riddled with such errors. Why does golf have to be different?
We have all screamed at screens having witnessed what we consider sporting injustice, but we have no part in altering the course of action in other sports.
But golf allows for sofa-seated witnesses to influence outcomes and it does no-one any favours.
In this case Ryu So-yeon is celebrating her second major title but no one is talking about her performance. Instead the player who finished second is gaining all the attention and sympathy.
Ultimately it was Thompson's fault that she lost but no-one wants to see any sporting event decided in such a way.
Golf's rules are under review. There are many good ideas under discussion for implementation in 2019.
Here's another one they should adopt - make sure the referee's decision is final, because there should be no place for interference from anyone else.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/39482204
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David Moyes: Sunderland stand by boss but say comments are "wholly inappropriate" - BBC Sport
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2017-04-04
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Sunderland give their support to manager David Moyes but describe his comments that a BBC reporter might "get a slap" as "wholly inappropriate".
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Sunderland have given their support to boss David Moyes but say his comments that a BBC reporter might "get a slap" were "wholly inappropriate".
Moyes has apologised for what he said to Vicki Sparks after an interview following a draw with Burnley in March.
The Scot has also revealed that the club knew about the incident soon after it occurred.
"Such actions are not condoned or excused in any way," said Sunderland in a statement.
"The exchange between the manager and a BBC reporter was wholly unacceptable.
"David recognised this immediately, proactively bringing the matter to the attention of the CEO and apologising to the reporter.
"The club also spoke with both a senior figure at the BBC and the reporter personally, expressing its profound regret over what had occurred.
"The matter was treated with the utmost seriousness from the outset and the swift and decisive action taken by the club and the manager at the time ensured that it was resolved to the satisfaction of the reporter and the BBC, which was the priority.
"With both the BBC and the reporter agreeing that appropriate action had been taken at the time, the club continues to fully support David in his role as manager of Sunderland AFC."
• None Listen - "doubly difficult for women to be accepted in world of sport reporting"
In the interview in question, Moyes was asked by Sparks if the presence of owner Ellis Short had put extra pressure on him.
He said "no" but, after the interview, added Sparks "might get a slap even though you're a woman" and told her to be "careful" next time she visited.
Both Moyes and Sparks were laughing during the exchange and the former Everton and Manchester United manager later apologised to the reporter, who did not make a complaint.
The Football Association has written to Moyes to ask for his observations on the incident.
His comments have been criticised by shadow sports minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan and Women in Football.
Domestic violence charity Women's Aid has also been critical and urged the FA to act.
Chief executive Polly Neate said: "We cannot be complacent about remarks like these from influential men.
"We urge the FA to act swiftly and take this opportunity to send out a clear and strong message to the footballing community that there is no place for sexism and misogyny in modern football."
Speaking in a news conference on Monday, Moyes said: "I deeply regret the comments I made.
"That's certainly not the person I am. I've accepted the mistake. I spoke to the BBC reporter, who accepted my apology."
The BBC confirmed that Moyes and Sparks had spoken about the exchange and the issue had been resolved.
A spokesman said: "Mr Moyes has apologised to our reporter and she has accepted his apology."
Sunderland are bottom of the Premier League on 20 points, eight points from safety, going into a game at Leicester City.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39495072
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The woman on a mission to get rid of bad dating photos - BBC News
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2017-04-04
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Saskia Nelson's knowledge of the online dating world led her to specialise in photos for dating profiles.
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Business
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"Does the world really need another wedding photographer?"
That was the thought that ran through Saskia Nelson's mind when, having spontaneously resigned from her office job at a London Olympics legacy project, she was thinking of her next move.
An amateur photographer, she decided four years ago, aged 43, that she was going to go professional.
But she hadn't really worked out how, and so she used her three-month notice period to consider her options, one of which was to join the army of wedding snappers.
"But I thought, 'I'm not married, it's not my bag, I don't really know anything about it,'" says Saskia.
What she did know about, however, was online dating.
Having spent seven to eight years doing it, her friends considered her a connoisseur.
Saskia and her team photograph up to 50 people per month
"I just took a very light-hearted approach to it, I saw it as a bit of an adventure, or a story to share with married friends - they love that sort of stuff," she says.
But one major bugbear for Saskia was the large number of bad and old - to the point of deceptive - profile photos.
"When you're over 40, ten years is a long time," she quips, adding that she's seen countless bad selfies and shots with an ex cropped out.
So knowing the importance of having a good profile image, she realised that there was a gap in the market to become an online dating photographer.
Saskia couldn't find anyone at all who was specialising in it, so she was effectively creating a new genre of photography when she launched her business Hey Saturday in 2013.
Explaining the name, she says: "It's like saying hello to the most important day of the week in the dating world."
Saskia's photo shoots are always outside, to get away from the "studio portrait" feel
Initially available in London, Hey Saturday has over the past four years expanded across the UK, and is now about to launch in New York.
Saskia and her team of seven photographers, all of whom are female, currently photograph up to 50 clients per month.
Saskia says that from day one she realised the photographs couldn't look too formal.
"I know that I didn't want the photos to scream 'I needed professional help'," she says. "So they couldn't be in a studio, or too formal - people run a mile from that.
"So I developed this ethos of [it looking like] one of your best mates happens to be passionate about photography. You are just hanging out, and taking photos."
The company says it has an even split of male and female clients
To create that feel, Saskia says that being outside is key. And if rain is forecast the client has the option to reschedule - particularly useful for women worried about their hair apparently.
Before the shoot they are asked to fill in a short questionnaire about themselves and the website suggests they might want to bring a couple of different tops and t-shirts (there are always nearby loos to change in).
And while Saskia found she initially had more female clients, she says it's now about 50-50, and increasingly she is getting younger people, no doubt more conscious of their online image.
Clients pay Saskia and her team for their time, not the number of photos
She says that most clients turn up in a rush, usually with no clear ideas of how they want the photographs to look. They then pay for half an hour, one hour or 90 minutes of actual photography.
Saskia says that a large part of the job is making people feel comfortable, she says, as the clients can often feel vulnerable and a bit self-conscious.
"No-one ever comes to us saying, 'I really want to do this.' They come saying, 'this is the last thing I'll do, because I really want to meet someone,'" says Saskia, who despite being a photographer, does not like being in front of the lens herself.
Hey Saturday has been helped by the fact that the online dating industry has exploded in recent years, fuelled by apps that people can use on their mobile phones.
There are now 10 million active online daters in the UK alone, according to industry group the Online Dating Association (ONA).
Clients can bring props and different outfits to the shoot
Andrew McClelland, the ONA's chief executive, says that having help with your profile, be it your photo or text description, can be helpful.
"I'm the worst person to tell someone else about me," he says, "but if there's somebody who can help me sell myself then why not?
"Of course there's the risk it might be more polished than I am, but the same is true in real life."
In the end, Mr McClelland says image counts. "We are social animals and we get an awful lot of information from when we look at someone, although you might argue that is not always a good thing."
It was this photo in particular that caught the attention of Samantha Lovell's love interest
The 36-year-old teacher had hired a professional matchmaker who strongly advised her to get professional photos.
So, while visiting her sister in London, she booked a shoot.
Her matchmaker showed the photos to one man, who really liked them, and Samantha arranged to meet him.
"We met up and hit it off immediately," she says.
"We were married in less than a year, and now I'm expecting a baby in the summer."
Saskia has grown Hey Saturday by word of mouth and by following a marketing mantra known as "know, like and trust".
To do this, she writes blogs and articles for both news and dating websites, takes part in podcasts, and offers dating advice. The idea is that people will get to know, like and trust her, and therefore be more likely to make a booking with Hey Saturday.
Shooting acclaimed photographer Martin Parr for one of his projects brought Saskia recognition in the wider photographic community
As the company has expanded, Saskia says her biggest challenge has been finding photographers who she thinks fit the brand.
Saskia, speaking to me at the launch of Metier, a project profiling women and their work, says: "It's so critical that we get people who can make people laugh, can be light-hearted and joke around, because you want to get natural, relaxed and happy shots."
Saskia says she is also notoriously bad with numbers - describing herself as suffering from "dyscalculia", or being dyslexic with numbers.
Luckily she has a banker boyfriend to help with the accounts, who, you will be glad to know, she met through online dating.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39320580
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Nicola Adams aims for multiple professional world titles like Muhammad Ali - BBC Sport
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2017-04-04
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Double gold medallist Nicola Adams wants to follow the legendary Muhammad Ali's route from Olympic glory to professional world titles.
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Last updated on .From the section Boxing
Double gold medallist Nicola Adams wants to emulate Muhammad Ali's route from Olympic glory to world titles as she prepares to make her professional debut in Manchester on Saturday.
Ali, who died in June, won gold at Rome 1960 before becoming a three-time heavyweight champion in the paid ranks.
"I had to think a lot about the triple but I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my hero," Adams told BBC Breakfast.
Adams, who has been training alongside the likes of American world champion Andre Ward and fellow British Olympian Amir Khan in the United States with Virgil Hunter, aims to target belts in multiple weight divisions before retirement.
"I'm going after the title holders. I can hopefully become a multi-weight world champion," she said.
"I've got a maximum of four years I reckon because I've got other interests as well.
"That feels like it would be a nice time to gracefully disappear from the sport."
Adams has suggested she might revive her acting career after boxing. She appeared as an extra in Coronation Street and Emmerdale before her Olympic success and had a cameo as herself on BBC's Waterloo Road in 2013.
Ali's own daughter Laila had a successful boxing career, retiring unbeaten in 2007 after winning 24 fights and multiple world titles.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/39491117
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Arsene Wenger: Arsenal boss says top four 'not as easy as it looks' - BBC Sport
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2017-04-04
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Manager Arsene Wenger says Arsenal's struggles this season prove finishing in the Premier League's top four is "not as easy as it looks".
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says his side's struggles this season prove finishing in the Premier League's top four is "not as easy as it looks".
The Frenchman has led the Gunners to a top-four spot and Champions League qualification for the past 20 seasons.
But with 10 games left, they are currently in sixth place, seven points off the league's leading quartet.
"It [finishing in the top four] is a good challenge but I think it is perfectly possible," said Wenger.
"I have done it for 20 years and it looked always like nothing. Suddenly, it becomes important so I'm quite pleased people realise that it is not as easy as it looks."
In 2012, Wenger compared finishing in the top four to winning a trophy and that view was recently echoed by Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
"If you listen to Guardiola, he said the other day that to finish in the top four in England is a trophy because it is so difficult," he added.
Wenger's contract at Arsenal expires at the end of the season and speaking before Wednesday's game with West Ham, he was again asked if he would extend his stay.
He has been offered a new two-year deal and reiterated he would make his decision public "soon".
Talks about extending forward Alexis Sanchez's contract beyond June 2018 are on hold until the summer and, despite the Chile international being linked with Chelsea, Wenger played down concerns over the 28-year-old's future.
"I don't see what all the debate is about," said Wenger. "We are professional football people. Our job is to perform as long as we are somewhere.
"I don't understand this kind of anxiety one and a half years before the end of contracts. It is denying what the professional guy is about."
The Gunners will be without centre-back Laurent Koscielny on Wednesday, and Wenger fears the France international could face a lengthy absence.
Koscielny was substituted at half-time during Sunday's 2-2 draw with Manchester City and will have a scan on an Achilles injury.
"It is certainly serious," said Wenger.
"If he has ruptured a few fibres of his tendon it could be a few weeks. If it is just an inflammation he could be available next week against Crystal Palace."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39488419
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