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The school roll at Trossachs Primary in Brig o'Turk fell from five to zero at the end of last term.
The future of the Victorian school now lies in the hands of the local authority, Stirling Council.
Its education committee will discuss a proposal to close the school temporarily pending a final decision on its long-term future.
The school, which opened in 1875, has one classroom and shares its headmistress with the 10-classroom primary school in Callander, less than seven miles away.
A Stirling Council spokesman said: "As there are no children enrolled to attend Trossachs Primary School after the summer holidays, and following discussions with local parents, a report will be taken to next week's education committee to propose that it be mothballed for school session 2016/2017."
Last term, the remaining pupils were offered some lessons at Callander.
Local councillor Martin Earl said: "No one wants to see any schools close but when pupil numbers get as low as they have at Trossachs Primary School, the parents must make decisions that are in their children's best interests and if that is addressed by moving to another, larger, school then no other criteria is relevant." | A Perthshire primary school could be mothballed for the new school year after being left with no pupils. | 37059975 |
Sarah Rochira, the older people's commissioner for Wales, says she will use her legal powers to carry out the study.
It will involve speaking to older people, their families and carers to ensure more consistency of services.
The Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales has welcomed the move.
"Since I took up post, I have spoken extensively about the need to ensure that older people living in care homes in Wales are safe, well cared for and have a good quality of life," Ms Rochira said.
"I have visited many care homes and have seen for myself much good practice across Wales, but I have spoken many times about my concerns that this is not consistent and that we are not getting it right for everyone.
"We must remember that a person's home is so much more than bricks and mortar, it is where you should feel and be safe, well cared for and happy."
Ms Rochira and her team will gather evidence from older people in care homes, their families and carers, as well as from local authorities, local health boards, care home providers, regulators and inspectors.
The evidence will be used both to highlight the best care in Wales and to make recommendations to ensure that the rights of older people are upheld and they have the best possible quality of life.
"It's not enough just to be safe and well cared for," Ms Rochira told BBC Radio Wales.
"This is the place that people call home and they have a right to a really good quality of life.
"I don't think we yet understand what that means - that's why I'm going to give voice back to older people through my review.
"When I talk to older people - they talk to me about words such as friendship, hope, love, staying in touch with people, feeling valued, feeling respected - words of real description and warmth, and of course they would in the places they call home.
"But actually the response of our system tends to be national minimum standards and the two just don't fit together.
"I want to give older people back their voice and put their voices back at the heart of the place that they call home."
Last year Ms Rochira warned that public bodies could face legal action if they fail older people when she published the commission's work programme to improve services to older people in 50 areas.
The new review, which will begin in September, has been welcomed by Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales.
Its chief inspector Imelda Richardson said: "Making sure that homes are safe and that people's experiences are good is at the core of our inspection work, and I look forward to working with the older people's commissioner.
"In the last two years we have transformed the way we inspect services.
"As well as checking that they are run in accordance with the law, we also focus and report on the quality of experiences for people using services.
"Our inspectors spend more time listening and speaking to people about their experiences of the service and support they are receiving. This allows us to get a more accurate picture of a service." | Older people in care homes are to be asked about the quality of care they receive in a new review. | 22679982 |
Several of the 20 new female councillors have already appeared on TV, and in magazines, newspapers and the online press, and are quickly having to adjust to the unprecedented attention.
After Rasha Hifzi, a prominent businesswoman, won a seat in Jeddah, she was interviewed by CNN's Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour.
While excited by her electoral success, Ms Hifzi spoke about the obstacles that she and her fellow female candidates faced during campaigning.
This included, she said, accessing voters among the mainly male business community, since candidates were not allowed to mix with the opposite gender.
Ms Hifzi said her main priority "right now is to improve channels of communication" between council members and citizens.
Lama Al-Sulayman, the only other woman to win in Jeddah, ran a highly professional social media campaign to appeal to a wider group of voters and continues to engage with her audiences.
The businesswoman and British-trained biochemist is an avid user of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. She used the platforms to share video testimonials from Saudi men and women, including videos of women voicing their views on what changes Jeddah "deserved".
She has promised to promote their wishes, including development of new roads and more entertainment centres for families.
In Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, Councillor Khadra al-Mubarak told media that she did not seek any fame.
"I aimed through my candidacy… to provide many social benefits to my country in general, and Al-Qatif region in particular."
After winning a seat in Riyadh's municipal council, Huda al-Juraysi was interviewed by phone on Saudi TV.
She talked about her main priorities, which include a new waste recycling system and accessible public spaces, but fell somewhat short of expectations as she failed to explain how she proposes to go about achieving her goals.
The presenters' questions were not controversial and did not seem to challenge Ms al-Juraysi. She engaged with the presenters with ease and thanked voters for giving her the opportunity to serve their community.
It has not been a smooth ride for all the new women councillors, however.
Aliya al-Ruwayli, a representative from the Riyadh municipal council, grabbed media attention only a day after the election. When a local TV presenter asked her about the main issues facing women and local communities, a very nervous Ms al-Ruwayli only managed to reply: "There are many problems, God willing…"
She then hung up the phone live on TV.
This video was promptly uploaded to YouTube and has been viewed by hundreds of thousands of users.
Saudi-funded Al-Arabiya news website interviewed Mashail al-Sahli, who won a seat in Al-Qasim municipality. She said that municipal work "was not exclusive to men".
Surprisingly - and unlike other news outlets - the website also interviewed her husband, who was supportive of his wife and said he "did not care" about those who opposed her candidacy because of her gender.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook. | Since their historic election last week, some of Saudi Arabia's first-ever female politicians have been propelled from near-anonymity into the glare of the media spotlight. | 35112844 |
Conrad Wright, 78, from Felixstowe, said he still feels "rough" about the murders committed by his son.
Wright was given a whole life jail term for murdering five women in Ipswich over six weeks in 2006.
Mr Wright, a retired RAF corporal, said his relationship with his son was now "non-existent".
A new film - called London Road - is being released on Monday charting the story of the murders.
Wright, 57, killed Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls, before dumping their bodies around Ipswich in the winter of 2006. All five women worked in the town's sex industry, which has since been virtually eradicated.
The naked bodies of the women, aged between 19 and 29, were found over a 10-day period. Wright, who admitted having sex with four of the five women but denied killing them, was convicted after a trial.
Conrad Wright said he still found what happened "hard to believe".
"When someone gets found guilty, if you like, and you don't make a complaint or start crying out for help, you tend to think there must be some truth in it," he added.
"You feel sort of responsible in a way - you brought the boy on to the Earth - and if it weren't for you, he wouldn't have been there, and if he weren't here, they wouldn't be killed, would they?
"You can't just sit back and say it's nothing to do with me, because it is.
"It feels rough, really."
He said his relationship with his son is "non-existent" now.
"I haven't heard from him, even prior to the court case, not a word. All I had one day was a call from his solicitor asking if I could supply him with some cigarette money," said Mr Wright. | The father of serial killer Steve Wright has said he "feels responsible" for the deaths of his son's five victims, nearly a decade on. | 33025298 |
The bridge was closed for much of December after damaged steelwork was discovered. It remains closed to HGVs.
The infrastructure and capital investment committee is holding a "focused" inquiry into maintenance in recent years and the structural defect behind the closure.
The first session is taking evidence from Transport Scotland and bridge operators Amey.
The specific remit of the inquiry is to "examine the management, monitoring and maintenance of the Forth Road Bridge principally in the 10 year period prior to its closure on public safety grounds in December 2015".
Substantial disruption was caused by the closure, and the Scottish government clashed with opposition parties repeatedly over the matter.
A number of claims and counter-claims were exchanged over what work had been done on the bridge and what warnings were given about potential problems, which the committee is now seeking to address.
An independent technical expert has been taken on to advise MSPs during the inquiry, which will take evidence in January and February before reporting in March.
Amey's predecessor, the Forth Estuary Transport Authority, and Transport Minister Derek Mackay are also expected to be called before the committee.
The bridge was closed to all traffic on 4 December after a 20mm shear fault was discovered in a truss-end link, part of the structure which helps hold the carriageway up.
A temporary repair saw metal splints winched into place and used to clamp the metalwork together, with similar work done on other similar parts of the bridge as a precaution and monitoring devices installed.
Although it was re-opened to the majority of traffic ahead of schedule on 23 December, the repair put in place - estimated to have cost about £2m - was not deemed strong enough to allow HGVs to cross.
A permanent repair to allow vehicles weighing more than 7.5 tonnes is forecast to be complete by mid-February. HGVs account for 9% of traffic and 32% of the weight the bridge normally carries.
These vehicles have been diverted up the Forth Valley around Kincardine Bridge since the closure. | MSPs begin an inquiry into the closure of the Forth Road Bridge. | 35354846 |
What started as an "attempted coup" targeting President Salva Kiir - though the accused deny it was anything of the sort - has mutated into something that threatens the whole country.
The army admits it has lost control of Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, to forces apparently led by General Peter Gadet.
Perhaps worse still, the fighting is already exacerbating ethnic tensions in what is an ethnically divided country.
The initial trigger for the violence was political - the ambitions of people like former Vice-President Riek Machar and the determination of President Kiir to hold onto power.
President Kiir hasn't yet convinced everyone that Mr Machar and other senior politicians intended to overthrow him by force.
"I think all of the bits of information coming out don't point to a coup," says South Sudan expert Douglas H Johnson.
"I am not even sure we can say there was a concerted mutiny," he adds.
But with at least 10 of the president's opponents locked up, Mr Machar, who is on the run, now has his back against the wall.
Even if he didn't want to go into rebellion, he is being pushed in that direction.
Mr Johnson feels the crisis is the result of two different processes.
The first is the "state of dissatisfaction" within the governing SPLM party.
The second is the reintegration of militiamen formerly linked to the old enemy in Khartoum in the national army.
These soldiers did not feel "secure", Mr Johnson says.
One of them, Gen Gadet, sprang into action after reports of his fellow Nuers being killed began to come out of Juba.
Mr Machar and Gen Gadet are both ethnic Nuers, but they haven't always fought on the same side in the past.
There has been no confirmation yet from either man that they are working together.
That said, the South Sudanese government clearly believes they are.
The prospect is frightening.
Gen Gadet is a tough fighter who has often rebelled against the SPLM.
An expert on the Sudans, John Young, memorably described him as someone who "is said to wash only one side of his face at a time so that he can always keep an eye open".
However he is not a politician.
Luka Biong, a former SPLM minister now at Harvard university, says that "it is believed that Gadet is under the political leadership of Dr Riek and Taban Deng", the former governor of Unity state, who is also wanted by the government.
Again, this needs to be confirmed.
But this combination of political and military strength would seriously threaten the government, in the way that Gen Gadet's previous rebellion or those of other military men like Bapiny Montuil or George Athor did not.
Mr Machar is not universally liked, but he does have passionate supporters, who are often from the Nuer.
The ethnic dimension is particularly worrying for the country.
Human Rights Watch reports that both Nuer and Dinka (President Kiir's ethnic group) were killed because of their ethnicity in Juba.
A political clash is aggravating already existing ethnic tensions.
For many Dinka, the attack on Bor brings back horrifying memories.
In 1991, when Mr Machar broke away to form his own rebel movement, soldiers and armed Nuer civilians allied to him carried out the Bor massacre.
Amnesty International said at least 2,000 Dinka were killed, though the real number may have been higher.
As Gen Gadet's Nuer soldiers attack Bor, many Dinka from the region are terrified that something similar may reoccur.
So what will happen now?
Both President Kiir and Mr Machar will come under regional and international pressure to negotiate. The former has said he is ready to talk.
However, it would be no surprise if this did not happen, or did not end the fighting.
Mr Biong is concerned that Gen Gadet could link up with the Murle rebel leader, David Yau Yau, who also operates in Jonglei.
If he does, it would be quite a leap, since Gen Gadet had been one of the main army commanders charged with fighting David Yau Yau.
Nevertheless, in the topsy turvy world of South Sudanese military politics, it would not be totally surprising, not least because both have close links to Khartoum.
The states of Unity and Upper Nile should be watched closely too.
In both - and to a lesser extent in the Equatorias in the southernmost part of South Sudan - there are a lot of angry young men who are fed up with the president's leadership.
It would be no surprise if the fighting spread.
Mr Biong says the situation is dramatic enough to require wide-reaching measures.
Juba should "dissolve the current government to form a government of national unity guided by the SPLM to oversee the next elections in 2015, release all detainees and commit to reconciliation within the SPLM", he says.
That seems unlikely, however.
The next phase may well be a military one, as both sides test out the limits of their strength.
All this is a result of the decades of war in southern Sudan, a political class dominated by ambition, and an ethnically divided and militarised society.
Just over two years after it became independent, South Sudan is living out some of its worst fears. | South Sudan is facing the biggest challenge in its short history of independence. | 25454168 |
At the last election, 333 out of 650 winning candidates received less than 50% of the vote.
Those MPs could have been defeated if all the people who voted against them had gone for the same alternative candidate.
Clearly, that would never happen everywhere. But parties who agree on some of the main issues potentially have a lot to gain if they can co-ordinate their supporters.
One option is to encourage tactical voting. A more direct approach is to enter some sort of alliance or pact which sees parties choosing not to put forward candidates in certain seats.
Even without an agreement, parties can try to affect the result simply by choosing not to contest some constituencies.
It looks as though there's going to be considerably more co-ordination of this kind in 2017 than we've seen at previous elections.
As a strategy, though, it does rely on voters being prepared to vote for a candidate from a party which would not have been their first choice.
One part of the country where electoral deals have been used before is Northern Ireland.
In 2015, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) agreed a pact not to stand against each other in four constituencies: Belfast North, Belfast East, Fermanagh & South Tyrone, and Newry & Armagh.
The deal was pretty successful. The unionist candidate won in three of the four seats. And the Sinn Fein majority was halved in Newry & Armagh.
This year, the deal looks as though it may be extended. The UUP have already said they won't run in three seats and the two parties are having discussions about a new pact.
And for the first time, the SDLP say they're prepared to co-operate with Sinn Fein as part of a wider deal between anti-Brexit parties that could also involve the Greens and the Alliance Party.
The outcome of negotiations could have a significant impact in quite a few constituencies.
In the rest of the UK, this kind of deal has been very rare in recent years but it looks as though there will be more co-operation between parties this time.
One reason is Brexit. It's a crucial issue for all of the parties and, significantly, an issue which cut across parties but cleanly divided voters into two camps.
UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has said he will put "country before party" by not standing candidates in some Conservative/Labour marginals where there is a strongly pro-Brexit MP or where a pro-Brexit candidate has a chance of ousting a pro-Remain MP.
On the other side of the debate, former Prime Minister Tony Blair has also said that he was prepared to "work with anyone" to stop candidates who back "Brexit at any cost" although he didn't suggest a formal electoral pact.
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Brexit isn't the only issue. The Green Party is seeking support for what they call a "progressive alliance". Co-leaders Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley have written to Labour and the Liberal Democrats calling for a meeting "to discuss ways to beat the Tories at the general election and deliver a fairer voting system".
Some of their local parties have suggested deals with Labour and Liberal Democrat rivals. For example, Greens have said they would stand aside in Plymouth Sutton & Devonport if Labour returned the favour in Totnes.
Liberal Democrats in Brighton are considering standing aside in the Greens' only seat - Brighton Pavilion. Former Lib Dem MP, Sir Vince Cable, who is seeking re-election tweeted his support for the idea.
The Greens have also unilaterally decided not to contest Labour-held Ealing Central & Acton, just as they did at the Richmond Park by-election in December where the Lib Dems overturned Zac Goldsmith's 23,000 majority.
And there are reports of several other possible deals and arrangements around the country.
All of this negotiating will only be worth it if voters are prepared to back a party that isn't their first choice. There can be no guarantee that the Green voters will agree to switch en masse to the Labour candidate if the Greens stand aside.
The evidence from Northern Ireland is that pacts can work. But in that case they're based on a long-established division between unionist and nationalist voters. In the rest of the country it's harder to split the parties into two blocs so neatly.
However, voters do not identify as strongly with individual parties as they did in the past so there is probably more scope than previously for switching between parties.
And Brexit may well give voters a reason to vote for a candidate from a party that they wouldn't previously have considered. | Britain's first-past-the-post electoral system means that lots of MPs are elected on fewer than half of the votes cast in their constituencies. | 39693277 |
The Planet Express crew from the 31st century is scheduled to touch down in present-day Springfield on 9 November in an episode called Simpsorama.
The main voice cast from the now cancelled Futurama will return.
In the episode Bender travels back in time to stop Bart from doing something that leads to a catastrophe.
"Bender has to come back from the future to kill Bart because there's something that Bart does now that makes the future really, really, really bad," says Simpsons executive producer Al Jean.
Speaking at the announcement of the crossover last year Jean said: "Futurama is such an easy fit.
"It's really funny, and their show lends itself to any variety of plot lines. By having them on, we have a little freedom.
"We do a joke, actually, about how similar Bender and Homer look. Like, they just erased Homer's hair."
And there's a special hidden treat for fans of both shows in the title sequence.
"There's a thing in Futurama code where if you solve it, it says, 'Congratulations! You're a nerd,'" says Jean.
It's the second crossover episode of the year that involves The Simpsons after the Griffin family from Family Guy were sent to Springfield.
The episode will premiere on Fox on 9 November.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | New pictures have been released of The Simpsons' Futurama crossover, which is on TV later this week. | 29929151 |
BrightBus runs bus services to 35 schools but will cease trading in July.
The news has caused concern among some parents while a group of drivers say they would be keen to buy the firm.
Managing director Mick Strafford said he was confident the "vast majority" of children would not be badly affected by his decision to close the business.
More stories from across Yorkshire
He said he had made the decision due to health reasons.
"We are trying to place some of the school services with other operators and we've had one or two encouraging conversations.
"[Winding down the business rather than selling it] gives the staff the opportunity to move on and choose where they want to go rather than have someone else come in, and that's how we want to work it.
"We will do things in as structured way as possible to cause the minimum disruption possible.
"By no means does it mean the children will not have a direct service to school, perhaps in quite a few cases they will, it just won't be us operating it."
Driver Neil Roberts, who is part of a group called Save BrightBus, said he believed a buyout by staff was the best solution.
"More than anything else it's the best solution for the kids," he said.
"Some of us would be willing to sacrifice our redundancy pay to keep the company going."
Mr Strafford said he had not been approached by the drivers but was happy to listen to any proposal.
Ben Gilligan, from the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, said: "We are already working closely with schools and local authorities to help minimise the impact of BrightBus' announced closure." | The future of school bus services used by more than 12,000 pupils in South Yorkshire is in doubt after plans to wind up the operator were announced. | 39845555 |
Sir Peter said the civil service was in "good heart" following a "challenging" time which saw his impartiality questioned by the SNP's opponents.
He will step down as permanent secretary to the Scottish government at the end of June, after five years.
The search for his replacement will begin shortly.
Sir Peter, who hopes to continue in public service, said: "It has been a joy and a privilege to serve these five years.
"However, a person cannot do these jobs forever and I want to enable my successor to come into post in good time for the run-up to the Scottish Parliament elections in May 2016."
'Challenging period'
He added: "I am confident that my successor will find the civil service in Scotland in good heart.
"This has been a vibrant and challenging period. We have come through with our values intact, with strong capability and in a spirit of partnership across Scotland, and with the UK government and its agencies."
Sir Peter was cleared of a breach of the civil service code over an internal briefing advising that the Scottish independence referendum debate had left "the status quo . . . lost in the mists of time".
In 2011, Scotland's opposition parties complained to the head of the UK civil service about Sir Peter, with Liberal Democrat Tavish Scott at the time accusing him of "rapidly becoming the chief cheerleader" for independence.
But the then head of the UK Civil Service, Sir Gus O'Donnell, said it was "right and proper" that civil servants should act to support their elected ministers, in this case the devolved Scottish government.
Constitutional debate
Sir Peter himself has maintained he expressed no view on Scottish independence.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, said: "Sir Peter Housden has been an outstanding permanent secretary, leading the Scottish government's civil service team with distinction over the last five years."
Sir Jeremy Heywood, head of the UK civil service, added: "I would like to thank Peter for his tremendous work as the permanent secretary for the Scottish government, in particular in leading the Scottish civil service through a challenging programme of constitutional debate and change." | Scotland's top civil servant, Sir Peter Housden, is leaving to make way for a successor ahead of the 2016 Scottish Parliament election. | 30834555 |
Following City's 2-0 Premier League win at Vitality Stadium, Guardiola embraced Arter on the pitch - and the 27-year-old called his words "a lovely touch".
"It's great for him to take his time out to speak to me, I really appreciate it," Arter told BBC Radio Solent.
He and partner Rachel's baby daughter, Renee, was stillborn in December 2015.
In October, on Football Focus, it was announced the couple were expecting another child, with Rachel 22 weeks pregnant.
Speaking about Spaniard Guardiola, Arter added: "He offered me and my partner his best wishes for the weeks ahead.
"He's someone I have massive respect for. I watched his Barcelona teams and he is, without doubt, the best manager in the world."
Guardiola was asked at his post-match news conference about what he had said to Arter and replied: "He will be a father soon so I said big congratulations to him and his partner.
"I know what happened in the past, and, hopefully, the baby will be well."
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Bournemouth's official Twitter account praised Guardiola for a "touch of class" in seeking out Arter after Monday's game.
City moved up to second in the table after the hard-fought victory, earned through a Raheem Sterling strike and a Tyrone Mings own goal.
The defeat leaves Bournemouth in 14th place, six points above the relegation zone. | Bournemouth midfielder Harry Arter was touched to receive the wishes of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola as his partner prepares to give birth. | 38967220 |
Zayn Malik has carved a niche in pervy electropop; Harry Styles is prog rock's new hope; Liam Payne's plumped for aspirational R&B and lovely Niall Horan is doing lovely pop ballads.
So where does that leave Louis Tomlinson?
He was always the underappreciated one - a quiet, benign presence in the world's biggest band.
Speaking to The Observer last month, the 25-year-old acknowledged he was seen by some as "forgettable, to a certain degree".
What he contributed, though, was songwriting - receiving credits on more One Direction songs than any of his bandmates.
Appropriately for a former singer in a Green Day tribute act, he was the one who pushed the idea that a pop band could have guitar riffs.
He might not have been directly responsible for sampling The Who's Baba O'Reilly in Best Song Ever, but it certainly fitted his vision for the band.
"Little things like that were really important to me," he tells the BBC. "It was amazing that we were able to combine the two - absolute pop with guitar music."
When One Direction went on hiatus in 2015, Tomlinson admits he went a bit wild - making up for the teenage party years he lost to fame.
"It wasn't really me but I embraced it at the time," he says, looking back.
The star dipped his toes back into the pop world last December, appearing as a guest vocalist on Steve Aoki's single, Just Hold On.
But just as it was released, Tomlinson's mother died. Johannah Deakin, who had been diagnosed with leukaemia at the start of 2016, was only 43 years old.
They had been unusually close - she was the first person he told when he lost his virginity - and her death hit him particularly hard.
Nonetheless, Tomlinson went ahead with a planned X Factor performance of Just Hold On that week (partly at her request), finding solace in people's reaction.
"I don't like to talk about it much, but I will say I've never had anything like it in my life," he says.
"It felt like the support went deeper than the fans - like people across the nation had my back. That was really nice. My mum would have loved that, definitely."
Since that performance, Tomlinson has been hard at work in the studio and, on Friday, releases his first solo single Back To You.
A duet with US pop singer Bebe Rexha, it's a brooding pop concoction about returning to a relationship that "stresses me out".
The 25-year-old told the BBC how the song came about, what it felt like to leave One Direction, and how the Arctic Monkeys' lyrics influenced his debut album.
We're speaking 12 hours before your single comes out. How do you feel?
I'm nervous - but less than I was three weeks ago. I've got a lot of good feedback from people at the record label and radio stations - but all that does really is ramp up the pressure because you're hoping what they say is true.
And now you'll find out whether they were lying all along.
I will finally know. Exactly!
I was curious to find out why your first solo single starts with Bebe Rexha, singing the entire first verse.
We recorded a version where I sang first - but you've got to do what's best by the song.
With the emotion she gives it, and the way she opens up the song, it always had to be her, really.
The lyrics are pretty gritty. Do you think that might surprise people?
My whole mission with this album is to not write these Hollywood-esque songs that talk about some unfathomable crazy love story. I'm so bored of that.
Because I'm from up north, I grew up loving the likes of the Arctic Monkeys and Oasis. And the way they tell stories is such an effortless thing. It's real, it's honest and it's to the point, you know?
Now, any of the Arctic Monkeys would be devastated to hear me talking like this, but there is a way of incorporating that conversational honesty into pop.
So what have you been writing about on the album?
There's one song I'm really attached to called Just Like You, which is all about this view of celebrities that we're impenetrable and almost not human, but fundamentally we all have the same problems.
Heartbreak feels the same, loss feels the same, all these feelings are the same for all of us. Mine just look a load different to, maybe, Tom who works in the chippy from nine to five.
I noticed that all the artwork was shot in Doncaster.
Well, we did the video for Back To You in Doncaster, which was amazing. I mean, I'm just the biggest advocate of Doncaster in the world, I'd say.
OK then, sell Doncaster to me in two lines…
If you're not from there it's difficult to explain - but if you wanted to completely embrace a fully fun working class night out, then you go to Doncaster.
What did Bebe Rexha make of the city?
She was great. She thought it was cool. I did hear her team ask for sushi at lunch, which struck me as naive in Doncaster.
Did you not take her for a curry chip?
I didn't but I really should have! There's a great chippy round the corner from where we filmed, as well.
Your last performance with One Direction was on the X Factor in 2015. Did you wake up the next morning thinking: "I'm free!"?
Oh no - it was a very emotional time. It was a really weird feeling, because [the break] is by no means definitive, so it leaves you in a place where you're like, "OK, what comes next?"
What did you get offered? Film work, modelling contracts, presenting?
I'm not very good at fashion but there were a few TV opportunities. But unless you are someone like Harry - who is immensely talented in so many different areas - I think it's really important to stay in your lane and do what you do well.
Having said that, the idea of acting sounds quite exciting to me. The idea of playing the ultimate rough chavvy - it's like me being everyone I always wanted to be in Doncaster!
But I'd rather get the music 100% right, rather than 90% right while trying to dip my toe in something else.
What are your plans for the album?
Ideally it's coming at the end of this year, but I don't want to put myself under too many time constraints and end up in a position where I have to put two fillers on it.
How many songs have you written altogether?
I'd say about 50. It's a lot of work.
Have you got them all on a phone somewhere?
Yeah! There's a couple of songs that me and my girlfriend [fashion blogger Eleanor Calder] really like that'll never be used for anything, so they're kind of just for us. That's really nice.
Are they ones you've written for her?
A lot of the album's about her, really. I wanted to make the album feel chronological, because that's how I wrote it.
You can hear my journey as an individual over these three years - leaving the band, then going out on to the really crazy party scene, and then I've kind of ended up full circle back with Eleanor, who I love dearly.
Not many people put that much thought into an album these days. It's usually just a collection of potential singles.
Then a lot of people are missing a point.
Like I said to my best mate, Olly, I want there to be songs on the album that I could play to your mum, and she could listen to it and take something away from it. Maybe she doesn't love the song, but lyrically she'll understand something about me.
This is something that - for me, anyway - it doesn't feel like we have enough of. A lot of artists use words because they sound nice, or because it works for the science of the song.
Again, that's why bands like Arctic Monkeys are so great. They don't work on any script or any maths or science. They just say what they feel. If it doesn't rhyme, it doesn't matter. If it sounds awkward, it doesn't matter.
I think, especially with being lucky enough to have a big fanbase, I want to say to them, "Look, lyrics actually matter, and I want to show you why".
Louis Tomlinson's single, Back To You, is out now on Epic Records
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. | Emerging from a boyband is a tricky business but, so far at least, the One Direction team has made a pretty good fist of it. | 40666699 |
The loan window for Football League clubs opened seven days later and closes at 17:00 GMT on Thursday, 27 November. Any club can sign unattached players if they left their old clubs before the closure of the summer transfer window.
Clubs can buy players again on a permanent basis in January.
[unattached - Yeovil]
Jordan Chiedozie [Concord Rangers - Cambridge] Free
Patrick Agyemang [Portsmouth - Dagenham & Redbridge] Loan
Wes Atkinson [West Brom - Cambridge] Loan
Ollie Banks [Chesterfield - Northampton] Loan
Junior Brown [Oxford - Mansfield] Loan
Ryan Brunt [Bristol Rovers - Stevenage] Loan
Wes Burns [Bristol City - Oxford] Loan
John Campbell [Jarrow - Oxford] Undisclosed
Alex Davey [Chelsea - Scunthorpe] Loan
Matthew Dolan [Bradford - Hartlepool] Loan
Tom Eaves [Bolton - Yeovil] Loan
Neil Etheridge [Oldham - Charlton] Loan
Bradley Fewster [Middlesbrough - Preston] Loan
Seko Fofana [Manchester City - Fulham] Loan
Kevin Foley [Wolves - Blackpool] Loan
Jake Goodman [Millwall - AFC Wimbledon] Loan
Jordan Graham [Aston Villa - Wolves] Loan
Ryan Hall [Rotherham - Notts County] Loan
[Leeds - Ipswich] Loan
Alex Jakubiak [Watford - Dagenham & Redbridge] Loan
Sullay Kaikai [Crystal Palace - West Brom] Loan
Paddy Kenny [Bolton - Oldham] Loan
[Leicester - Rotherham] Loan
Harry Lennon [Charlton - Gillingham] Loan
Craig Mackail-Smith [Brighton - Peterborough] Loan
Remi Matthews [Norwich - Burton] Loan
Kelvin Maynard [unattached - Burton]
Shaun Miller [Coventry - Crawley] Loan
Carlton Morris [Norwich - York] Loan
Clinton Morrison [unattached - Exeter]
Alex Nicholls [Northampton - Exeter] Loan
Alex Nimely [Unattached - Port Vale]
Chris O'Grady [Brighton - Sheffield United] Loan
Stuart O'Keefe [Crystal Palace - Blackpool] Loan
Fred Onyedinma [Millwall - Wycombe] Loan
John-Joe O'Toole [Northampton - Southend] Loan
Josh Passley [Fulham - Shrewsbury] Loan
Matthew Pennington [Everton - Coventry] Loan
Sean St Ledger [unattached - Ipswich]
[Fulham - Bristol City] Loan
Anthony Stewart [Wycombe - Crewe] Loan
Joe Widdowson [Bury - Dagenham & Redbridge] Loan
Donovan Wilson [Bristol Rovers - Wolves] Loan
Scott Wootton [Leeds - Rotherham] Loan
Tom Youngs [Bolton - Oldham] Loan
Nicky Ajose [Leeds - Crewe] Loan
Darren Bent [Aston Villa - Brighton] Loan
Tomasz Cywka [Blackpool - Rochdale] Loan
[Sheffield United - York] Loan
[QPR - Gillingham] Loan
Adam El-Abd [Bristol City - Bury] Loan
Adlene Guedioura [Crystal Palace - Watford] Loan
Uche Ikpeazu [Watford - Crewe] Loan
Reece James [Manchester United - Rotherham] Loan
Robert Milsom [Rotherham - Bury] Loan
Bobby Reid [Bristol City - Plymouth] Loan
Enoch Andoh [Unattached - Port Vale]
Richard Brindley [Rotherham - Scunthorpe] Loan
Rory Gaffney [Limerick - Cambridge] Free*
Lee Holmes [Preston - Portsmouth] Loan
Matteo Lanzoni [Cambridge - Hartlepool] Loan
Harry Beautyman [Welling - Peterborough] Loan
Will Packwood [Birmingham - Colchester] Loan
Joe Ironside [Sheffield United - Hartlepool] Loan
Emmanuel Ledesma [Middlesbrough - Rotherham] Loan
Tom Kennedy [Rochdale - Blackpool] Loan
Francois Zoko [Blackpool - Bradford] Loan
Marcus Bean [Colchester - Portsmouth] Loan
Adam Campbell [Newcastle - Hartlepool] Loan
Shamir Fenelon [Brighton - Tranmere] Loan
Matt Fish [Gillingham - Portsmouth] Loan
Pat Hoban [Dundalk - Oxford] Free*
Jon Maxted [unattached - Hartlepool]
Bryn Morris [Middlesbrough - Burton] Loan
Nyron Nosworthy [unattached - Blackpool]
Will Aimson [Hull - Tranmere] Loan
Jermaine Beckford [Bolton - Preston] Loan
Matt Crooks [Huddersfield - Accrington] Loan
Chey Dunkley [Kidderminster - Oxford] Loan
Kane Ferdinand [Peterborough - Cheltenham] Loan
Ryan Harley [Swindon - Exeter] Loan
Calaum Jahraldo-Martin [Hull - Tranmere] Loan
Cole Kpekawa [QPR - Colchester] Loan
Guy Moussi [unattached - Birmingham]
Guy Madjo [unattached - Tranmere]
Lewis McGugan [Watford - Sheffield Wednesday] Loan
Chris Eagles [unattached - Blackpool]
Aaron Mclean [Bradford - Peterborough] Loan
George Moncur [West Ham - Colchester] Undisclosed
Matty Blair [Fleetwood - Cambridge] Loan
Aziz Deen-Conteh [unattached - Port Vale]
Lewis Price [Crystal Palace - Crawley] Loan
Todd Kane [Chelsea - Bristol City] Loan
Ayo Obileye [Charlton - Dagenham] Loan
Chris Weale [Yeovil - Burton] Loan
Che Adams [Ilkeston - Sheffield United] Undisclosed
Adam Chicksen [Brighton - Gillingham] Loan
Danny Graham [Sunderland - Wolves] Loan
Bradley Halliday [Middlesbrough - York] Loan
Martin Paterson [Huddersfield - Fleetwood] Loan
Jack Sowerby [Squires Gate - Fleetwood] Undisclosed
Elliott Hewitt [Ipswich - Colchester] Loan
Paddy McCarthy [Crystal Palace - Sheffield United] Loan
Liam O'Neil [West Brom - Scunthorpe] Loan
Jamie Harney [West Ham - Colchester] Loan
Hallam Hope [Everton - Bury] Loan
Daniel Johnson [Aston Villa - Oldham] Loan
Scott Loach [Rotherham - Bury] Loan
Scott Fenwick [Dunston UTS - Hartlepool] Undisclosed
Brian Lenihan [Hull - Blackpool] Loan
Joe Lumley [QPR - Morecambe] Loan
Diego Poyet [West Ham - Huddersfield] Loan
Craig Roddan [unattached - Accrington]
Jack Rose [West Brom - Accrington] Loan
Luke Waterfall [Scunthorpe - Mansfield] Loan
Hayden White [Bolton - Bury] Loan
Stephane Zubar [Bournemouth - York] Loan
Andrea Dossena [unattached - Leyton Orient]
Enda Stevens [Aston Villa - Doncaster] Loan
Jamie O'Hara [unattached - Blackpool]
Greg Halford [Nottingham Forest - Brighton] Loan
Jonathan Legear [unattached - Blackpool]
Kemar Roofe [West Brom - Colchester] Loan
Connor Brown [Oldham - Carlisle] Loan
Francis Coquelin [Arsenal - Charlton] Loan
Tomasz Kuszczak [unattached - Wolves]
Jacob Murphy [Norwich - Blackpool] Loan
Elliott Bennett [Norwich - Brighton] Loan
Marcello Trotta [Fulham - Barnsley] Loan
* denotes deal to go through on 1 January. | The summer transfer window closed at 23:00 BST on 1 September. | 29864834 |
Four Hong Kong nationals and three Australian residents were also arrested in raids in Sydney on Monday.
Over half a tonne of drugs, including 306kg (674.61lb) of crystal methamphetamine - also known as ''ice'' - and 252kg of heroin, were seized.
The haul is the largest seizure of ''ice'' and the third largest seizure of heroin, police said.
The drugs are estimated to be worth A$500m (US$526m; £335m), the Australian Federal Police (AFP)
said in a statement
.
The raids and arrests followed a year-long investigation.
"Countless lives would have been affected had this seizure made its way to Australian streets," Deputy Commissioner Andrew Colvin told Australian media.
He said investigations would continue and more arrests could take place.
The investigations into the syndicate began in August 2011 after a tip-off from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, police said. The drugs were found in a shipment of terracotta pots on 19 July.
The suspects will face charges in a Sydney court for importing and possessing drugs. | Australian police have seized drugs worth over half a billion dollars and broken up a Hong Kong-based drugs ring. | 19058726 |
After the monument was destroyed during the Reformation, relics found their way into various collections around the country.
One of them was that of Sir Walter Scott and from Saturday his Borders home will host the unique collection.
It will be accompanied by a 3D digital image of the warrior king's grave.
The computer-generated picture will form part of the exhibition, titled The Lost Tomb of Robert the Bruce, at Abbotsford, near Melrose.
It has been created using the original artefacts and the latest archaeological research by various Scottish heritage bodies.
Kirsty Archer-Thompson, heritage and engagement manger for the Abbotsford Trust said: "It is fitting that Sir Walter Scott, the man who ignited such passion for Scottish history, acquired a piece of this archaeological jigsaw puzzle.
"Everyone involved in the project is thrilled that the public can see this precious collection of remaining fragments back together again."
Following his death in 1329, Bruce was buried at Dunfermline Abbey but the grave was destroyed in 1560 when the church was ransacked by Reformers.
During the early 19th century what were believed to be Bruce's remains were discovered with fragments of carved and gilded marble from the vanished tomb.
These relics subsequently found their way into museum collections in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dunfermline.
At least one fragment fell into the hands of Sir Walter Scott.
Historians believe he may have acquired it the same time that he acquired entrance hall panelling from Dunfermline Abbey, together with a cast of Bruce's skull.
The exhibition runs until 30 November. | It was destroyed almost 500 years ago but for the first time the remaining fragments of Robert the Bruce's ornate tomb are to be displayed together. | 32196387 |
Judging from the comments of most analysts, Egyptians have returned to an authoritarian past in which a parliament exists simply to give a participatory veneer to a profoundly authoritarian presidential system.
The results of Egypt's just-concluded parliamentary elections suggests the cynics have the weight of the evidence on their side.
True, opposition parties have been banned, manipulated, or marginalised. Those with deep pockets and support from key state actors (such as the security services) will populate much of the body.
But the result is not a simple return to the past. There are reasons to believe Egypt's parliamentary life will be a bit more bumpy than the past for three reasons.
This will make the parliament a headache for the president. It will not be an Achilles heel, however, since steps are being taken to forestall an overly oppositional body.
Indeed, the electoral system looks to have been designed to produce a body that if unruly is ultimately loyal.
Key state bodies (the military, security forces, religious establishment and judiciary) have considerable constitutional and legal insulation from the parliament.
The head of the loose coalition of loyal parties is a security official; a major general from the army was slotted to serve as secretary-general of the parliament, responsible for overseeing parliamentary staff and operations, until he was forced to resign this week for lacking the requisite qualifications.
And if all else fails, the constitution can be amended to strengthen the president - an idea that has been floated (even by President Sisi himself) in recent weeks.
Egypt's past presidents have generally ruled by controlling politics.
Mr Sisi, by contrast, seems to wish to rule without it - to have state bodies do what they are supposed to do and for citizens to do what they are told.
The parliament, therefore, has been an afterthought. And it will behave like one.
In Egypt today, as the new regime's economic, security, and administrative performance produce increasing grumbling, the parliament is likely to provide some space for debates and posturing but unlikely to do much to correct performance.
Nathan J Brown is a non-resident senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at the George Washington University. | Judging from the number of times they have been summoned to the polls in recent years, Egyptians would seem to have an enthusiastically democratic system. | 35004054 |
Net profit rose 6% to €554m ($621m; £439m), ahead of analysts' expectations, with sales up 12%.
The company, which is still expanding, said new stores and new internet sites were opening in line with its targets.
Inditex has more than 7,000 stores in 90 countries. In early trading the retailer's shares were up 4%.
Inditex operates eight store brands, including Massimo Dutti and Bershka.
Its newest stores include openings in Vietnam, New Zealand, Paraguay, Aruba and Nicaragua. It is planning to be online in all European countries this year, | First quarter profits at Inditex, the world's biggest clothing maker and owner of chains including Zara and Pull and Bear, have beaten forecasts. | 36536254 |
Gaby Scanlon, of Heysham, Lancashire, had to have her stomach removed after drinking the Nitro-Jagermeister shot.
Oscar's Wine Bar in Lancaster admitted at Preston Crown Court to failing to ensure the cocktail was safe to consume after the incident in October 2012.
Charges were also dropped against barman Matthew Harding, from Lancaster.
The firm's director Andrew Dunn, of Old Earswick, York, pleaded not guilty to his part in the company's failings.
The court heard prosecutors would offer no evidence against him if he made a £20,000 payment towards court costs before the wine bar's sentencing on 17 September.
The company, registered in Swinton, South Yorkshire admitted one count of failing in the duty of an employer to ensure the safety of persons not in its employment.
A not guilty plea was accepted from bar employee Mr Harding, of George Street, Lancaster.
It had been alleged he presented the Nitro-Jagermeister at the customer's table when it was still producing cold nitrogen gases and was unsafe to drink.
Miss Scanlon, now aged 20, was celebrating her birthday with friends at Oscar's when she drank the shot.
She said her stomach began to expand and a CT scan at Lancaster Royal Infirmary found a large perforation.
The student spent three weeks in hospital as doctors removed her stomach and connected her oesophagus directly to her small bowel.
Welcoming the guilty plea, a statement from her solicitor Patricia Noone said the family hoped the case would serve as a warning to all bars and restaurants to take "take responsibility for what they are serving to members of the public".
It added: "She now suffers episodes of agonising pain and has been hospitalised several times. She has to avoid certain foods and can no longer enjoy eating."
The statement continued that Miss Scanlon cannot work full-time, adding: "She has had to watch all her friends go off to university while she struggles to get her life back on track." | A wine bar where an 18-year-old girl was seriously injured drinking a cocktail containing liquid nitrogen has admitted health and safety failings. | 32773331 |
The hosts, who won the treble in 2015, could not initially break through a resolute Warrington, who led 6-0 at half-time with Chris Sandow's try.
Brad Singleton and Ryan Hall crossed to put Leeds in front after half-time.
Kevin Penny's converted score gave Warrington a two-point lead and Zak Hardaker failed with a 30-metre penalty which would have earned Leeds a draw.
Leeds 10-12 Warrington as it happened
In their first competitive match since the departures of veteran trio Kevin Sinfield, Jamie Peacock and Kylie Leuluai, Leeds lost captain Danny McGuire to injury just before half-time.
Youngster Jordan Lilley stepped into a half-back position to good effect, producing the pass that sent Hall over, giving the home side a 10-6 advantage.
But at no time was Sinfield's absence felt more than four minutes from time, when last year's Man of Steel Hardaker was unable to land a kick that would have ensured a share of the spoils in the season's opening match.
Warrington finished sixth at the end of a disappointing 2015 campaign, but the performances of half-back pairing Sandow and new recruit Kurt Gidley - as well as their powerful forward pack - pointed to encouraging times ahead for Tony Smith's side.
Ex-Great Britain coach Brian Noble on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra:
"They've set a high standard, both of these teams.
"Leeds were hindered a little with the loss of McGuire, but no excuses. Warrington found enough quality in their attack and we saw some sublime touches from Sandow.
"Leeds were dead and buried at one point, so the win comes down to how well Warrington defended, especially in the scramble moments when Leeds thought they were getting over the line."
Leeds Rhinos: Hardaker; Briscoe, Watkins, Moon, Hall; Sutcliffe, McGuire; Galloway, Burrow, Cuthbertson, Ferres, Ablett, Delaney.
Replacements: Singleton, Garbutt, Keinhorst, Lilley.
Warrington Wolves: Russell; Lineham, Evans, Currie, Penny; Gidley, Sandow; Hill, Clark, Sims, Hughes, Westwood, Westerman.
Replacements: Dwyer, King, Jullien, Cox.
Referee: James Child
Attendance: 16,168 | Leeds Rhinos began the defence of their Super League title with a narrow defeat by Warrington Wolves at Headingley. | 35474838 |
The warning came from David Dobbin, the chief executive of Dale Farm, Northern Ireland's largest milk processor.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Business programme, he said Stormont needed to put the economy at the centre of its next Programme for Government.
He also said he wanted to see a "more collective executive".
Dale Farm is part of the United Dairy Farmers Group, a UK dairy farmer co-operative.
In 2014, Mr Dobbin expressed frustration over delays in getting energy infrastructure to the west of Northern Ireland.
His firm had wanted to expand its plant at Cookstown, County Tyrone, but despite planning approval, correct electricity and gas facilities were not in place.
He told the programme that the next Northern Ireland Executive needed to get to grips with energy infrastructure.
"What we want to see this time round is an executive that is focused on bread and butter issues, not constitutional politics," he added.
"The political process here is pretty ugly to watch. It's almost a case of, we stumble forward, so the government needs to focus and set a target to bring energy costs down.
"We did lose Michelin and there are other big energy users that I think are going to struggle to survive in Northern Ireland if we don't address that."
Inside Business with Wendy Austin airs on BBC Radio Ulster on Sundays at 13:30 BST | Some of Northern Ireland's major manufacturing companies may not survive unless energy costs are lowered, a leading businessman has said. | 36116706 |
The Garden Bridge Trust said it had failed to raise private funds since losing the support of the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan in April.
It comes after a review of the project recommended it be scrapped.
At least £37.4m of public funds has already been spent on the project and a further £9m is at risk.
In total, an estimated £46.4m of taxpayers' money - calculated as direct grants of about £26m from the Department of Transport (DfT), around £11m in services in kind from Transport for London (TfL) and the remainder in cancellation costs - has been spent, according to the review by Dame Margaret Hodge.
Mr Khan said it was his "duty to ensure taxpayers' money was spent responsibly".
"I have been clear since before I became mayor that no more London taxpayers' money should be spent on this project and when I took office I gave the Garden Bridge Trust time to try and address the multiple serious issues with it," he said.
"Londoners will, like me, be very angry that London taxpayers have now lost tens of millions of pounds - committed by the previous mayor on a project that has amounted to nothing."
End of Twitter post by @TheGardenBridge
End of Twitter post by @johnprescott
The mayor also refused to provide a financial guarantee to cover ongoing maintenance of the bridge, estimated to cost about £3m a year, which the trust said would be covered by closing the bridge to the general public for 12 days a year so it could be rented to corporate clients .
Foreign Secretary and former London mayor Boris Johnson accused Mr Khan of killing the Garden Bridge out of spite.
"Labour has no vision for London and no ambition," he said. "The Garden Bridge was a beautiful project and could have been easily financed."
The trust blamed losing the mayor's support for its inability to raise the necessary private funds to complete the project.
It said all potential benefactors and trustees decided the project could not happen without the support of the mayor.
But as early as January, the trust filed accounts for 2016 at Companies House in which its chairman Lord Davies admitted the project was not currently a "going concern" and that it had failed to raise any private funds since August 2016.
The same accounts showed the trust had yet to secure the land on the South Bank of the Thames for the bridge's southern landing. By April, when the project lost Mr Khan's support, the trust had still not secured the land on the South Bank.
In a letter to Mr Khan, Lord Davies said: "We are incredibly sad that we have not been able to make the dream of the Garden Bridge a reality and that the mayor does not feel able to continue with the support he initially gave us."
He said the trust had raised £70m of private money towards the project and had satisfied most of the planning permission conditions.
"The Garden Bridge would have been a unique place; a beautiful new green space in the heart of London, free to use and open to all, showcasing the best of British talent and innovation," Lord Davies said.
"It is all the more disappointing because the trust was set up at the request of TfL, the organisation headed up by the mayor, to deliver the project. It is a sad day for London because it is sending out a message to the world that we can no longer deliver such exciting projects."
This shambles is an embarrassing mess for the capital and it has already descended into finger pointing and a blame game over who is culpable for wasting £46.4m of public money.
The trust blames the current mayor Sadiq Khan for not giving guarantees over maintenance. He blames the previous mayor Boris Johnson for backing a scheme financially that was not value for money, while Mr Johnson says it was up to the current mayor to make work.
Ultimately this project was not absolutely vital - it was more a tourist attraction - and was born in a different age when London's transport budget was not as constrained.
And I think it got off to a dreadful start back in 2013 - when I started covering this - by crucially not asking locals if they wanted it.
Infrastructure needs political consensus, as projects span many parties and leaders, and the Garden Bridge never enjoyed that.
Monday's London Evening Standard, edited by former Conservative chancellor George Osborne, also blamed Mr Khan for the collapse of the Garden Bridge project.
In October the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed former prime minister David Cameron had personally intervened to approve extra taxpayer funding for the controversial project, against the advice of his own civil servants.
A ministerial direction - which a senior civil servant may ask a minister for to show he or she is ignoring the advice offered - was issued after cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood wrote to the Department for Transport expressing the "frustration" of both Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne at perceived hold-ups to the funding during 2015 and 2016.
The NAO added an initial commitment to provide £30m of taxpayers' money was made by Mr Osborne to Mr Khan's predecessor, Boris Johnson, without any DfT involvement.
A review of whether the Garden Bridge offered taxpayers value for money was launched at about the same time the NAO report was released.
Conducted by Dame Margaret Hodge, the former chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee and MP for Barking, the review recommended in April that the project should be scrapped.
Andrew Boff, Conservative London Assembly member, said Mr Khan had wasted £9m in taxpayers' money as he could have scrapped the project as early as May of last year.
Thomas Heatherwick, who designed the bridge, said: "Our cities need optimistic, amazing people (who supported the project) like this. And London needs new bridges and unexpected new public places.
"The Garden Bridge has not found its right moment, but I hope one day it will and that London continues to be open to ideas that make life here better." | A £200m plan to build a bridge covered with trees over the River Thames in central London has officially been abandoned. | 40921373 |
Two policemen were among the dead during a riot which broke out in the port city of Dakhla on Sunday.
Morocco's interior minister has ordered an inquiry into the violence.
One report said the violence flared after Sahrawi activists, who are seeking independence for Western Sahara, became involved.
At least 20 were injured during the riot and some local businesses were burnt, reports said.
One witness told the AFP news agency that clashes had broken out after "a group of supporters assaulted a Sahrawi".
Morocco annexed the former Spanish territory in 1975. Since then, the area has been the subject of a dispute between Morocco's government and an independence movement, backed by neighbouring Algeria. | Seven people were killed in violence that erupted after a football match in Morocco's disputed Western Sahara region, the state news agency reports. | 15083113 |
The man, aged in his 30s, was taken to hospital after he was stabbed twice in the back on Friday morning.
The assault, which took place on the Antrim Road close to Duncairn Avenue, was reported to police at about 08:30 BST.
Two men, aged 19 and 20, and an 18-year-old woman were arrested a short time later. | Three men have been arrested after a man was stabbed in north Belfast. | 40824500 |
The two unnamed individuals say they are sexually attracted to animals.
They sought to get the court in Karlsruhe to consider whether the existing rules are unconstitutional.
But the court threw out their claim, ruling that the effect of the ban on the complainants' right to sexual self-determination was justified.
The court said that protecting animal welfare by seeking to prevent them being the victim of sexual assaults was a legitimate aim of the law - which remains unchanged after the court's decision.
Germany's animal protection laws set out fines of up to €25,000 ($27,700; £19,000) for forcing animals to participate in what is termed as unnatural behaviour. | Two complainants have failed in their attempt to get Germany's constitutional court to consider their claim against the laws banning sex with animals. | 35611906 |
Castlereagh police station in Belfast was burgled on St Patrick's Day 2002.
Intruders escaped with records on police officers and their agents inside paramilitary groups.
A former police officer has alleged that a "deliberate decision to allow the theft" had been made.
DUP MP Sammy Wilson said the claim by the former police officer needed to be properly investigated.
Mr Wilson, who was a member of the Policing Board at the time of the break-in, said there were serious questions about how top-secret intelligence documents were stolen from the police station.
"At the time we wondered how it was so easy for people to gain access to what was supposed to be a very secure station," he added.
"I don't know, is this republican propaganda to try and once again throw a bad light on the police or was it part of a deal to cover up republican collusion with the police?"
Millions of pounds were spent re-housing officers and others whose security was compromised by the theft.
Responsibility for the break-in was denied by the IRA at the time.
Security journalist Brian Rowan told BBC Radio Ulster's Stephen Nolan Show he had been informed of the complaint to the Police Ombudsman by solicitor Kevin Winters, who is representing the officer.
Mr Winters told Mr Rowan: "If the allegations are sustained, it points to a high level of republican and security force collusion and evidence of serious criminality.
"[It] begs the question: why was it allowed to happen, and what was the endgame in facilitating this operation?"
A spokesman for the Police Ombudsman said: "We can confirm that we have received a referral from the chief constable relating to an allegation from a former police officer that the break-in at the Castlereagh police station was allowed to take place.
"We have written to the solicitors concerned to ask if their client is willing to assist in our investigation and are currently awaiting a response."
Mr Winters has said his client is prepared to meet Police Ombudsman investigators. | The Police Ombudsman is investigating a claim that a break-in at the headquarters of the Police Service of Northern Ireland was allowed to happen to protect a high-level IRA agent. | 34744145 |
The IBSF has named 35 sliders in its registered testing pool who must commit to regular anti-doping checks during the Winter Olympic season.
Yarnold, 28, is one of three Britons in the 11 athletes selected from skeleton.
"I don't understand why there are three GB athletes and no Russians," she said.
"The system is crucial in our fight against doping and I think the IBSF should expand the testing pool."
The 2014 Olympic skeleton champion also said on Twitter: "2017-18 list of athletes on anti-doping whereabouts published. Olympic season and no Russian athletes?"
The World Anti-Doping Agency's Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) requires athletes to guarantee their whereabouts for one hour per day of the programme's duration.
The second McLaren report published in December alleged "a state-sponsored doping programme" in Russia and implicated medalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Following the report, four Russian skeleton athletes were provisionally suspended by the IBSF but had their bans lifted in January.
In November last year, Yarnold said she was thinking about boycotting the 2017 Skeleton World Championships in Sochi following the claims.
But she won bronze at the event held in Germany after the IBSF was forced to move the games from Sochi to Konigssee due to ongoing concerns over the integrity of the sport in Russia.
Media playback is not supported on this device | Britain's Lizzy Yarnold has criticised the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) for failing to include any Russian skeleton athletes on the anti-doping checklist. | 40419274 |
Currently a Google vice-president, he believes this could occur as hardware and software become obsolete.
He fears that future generations will have little or no record of the 21st Century as we enter what he describes as a "digital Dark Age".
Mr Cerf made his comments at a large science conference in San Jose.
He arrived at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science stylishly dressed in a three-piece suit. This iconic figure, who helped define how data packets move around the net, is possibly the only Google employee who wears a tie.
I felt obliged to thank him for the internet, and he bowed graciously. "One is glad to be of service," he said humbly.
His focus now is to resolve a new problem that threatens to eradicate our history.
Our life, our memories, our most cherished family photographs increasingly exist as bits of information - on our hard drives or in "the cloud". But as technology moves on, they risk being lost in the wake of an accelerating digital revolution.
"I worry a great deal about that," Mr Cerf told me. "You and I are experiencing things like this. Old formats of documents that we've created or presentations may not be readable by the latest version of the software because backwards compatibility is not always guaranteed.
"And so what can happen over time is that even if we accumulate vast archives of digital content, we may not actually know what it is."
Vint Cerf is promoting an idea to preserve every piece of software and hardware so that it never becomes obsolete - just like what happens in a museum - but in digital form, in servers in the cloud.
If his idea works, the memories we hold so dear could be accessible for generations to come.
"The solution is to take an X-ray snapshot of the content and the application and the operating system together, with a description of the machine that it runs on, and preserve that for long periods of time. And that digital snapshot will recreate the past in the future."
A company would have to provide the service, and I suggested to Mr Cerf that few companies have lasted for hundreds of years. So how could we guarantee that both our personal memories and all human history would be safeguarded in the long run?
Even Google might not be around in the next millennium, I said.
"Plainly not," Vint Cerf laughed. "But I think it is amusing to imagine that it is the year 3000 and you've done a Google search. The X-ray snapshot we are trying to capture should be transportable from one place to another. So, I should be able to move it from the Google cloud to some other cloud, or move it into a machine I have.
"The key here is when you move those bits from one place to another, that you still know how to unpack them to correctly interpret the different parts. That is all achievable if we standardise the descriptions.
"And that's the key issue here - how do I ensure in the distant future that the standards are still known, and I can still interpret this carefully constructed X-ray snapshot?"
The concept of what Mr Cerf refers to as "digital vellum" has been demonstrated by Mahadev Satyanarayanan at Carnegie Mellon University.
"It's not without its rough edges but the major concept has been shown to work," Mr Cerf said.
Follow Pallab on Twitter | Vint Cerf, a "father of the internet", says he is worried that all the images and documents we have been saving on computers will eventually be lost. | 31450389 |
The details are revealed in Transport for London (TfL) board papers.
They set out for the first time the impact of spending cuts announced by Chancellor George Osborne in his Autumn Statement last December.
A TfL spokesman the reduction in funding represented "a significant challenge".
London's transport network is facing a 1% cut in its government grant this year, and 2% the following year.
In cash terms, it means a loss of £33m for 2013/14, and £45m for 2014/15.
A TfL spokesman said: "This represents a significant challenge to ensure we can meet this reduction in our planned expenditure as set out in the TfL business plan.
"No decisions have yet been made on how we will meet this reduction, but it is anticipated this will be through reducing expenditure rather than raising the funding through other means."
London Assembly Green Party member Darren Johnson said: "Our transport system cannot cope with year-on-year cuts in investment, especially not when we are seeing higher and higher fares.
"Passengers want to see something in return, but we are not seeing the improvements at the rate that we really need them."
The papers also reveal that TfL has recently revised downwards what it intends to spend on London's transport network over the next year, even though income from fares continues to rise, and fares themselves were raised by 1% above inflation in January.
Compared with what it pledged in its business plan before Christmas, there will now be £63m less spent on day-to-day operation of the network, and £60m less on capital investment next year.
TfL claims that this is because some projects have been "re-phased", and says the money will eventually be spent but in later years.
It is bracing itself for further cuts resulting from the Budget, and the spending review planned in June.
Responding to Wednesday's Budget, London Mayor Boris Johnson said it would be "paradoxical and unacceptable" for the government to promise more money for infrastructure at the same time as cutting capital investment in London's transport.
Steve Allen, TfL's managing director of finance, said: "Our budget makes clear our relentless focus on delivering value for fare and tax payers' money as we have secured almost £10bn in savings and efficiencies.
"As London's population grows faster than forecast, the case for stable and sustained investment in London's transport network has never been stronger." | London's transport system is facing cuts of £80m over the next two years, in addition to the reduced funding signalled in this week's Budget. | 21889580 |
The 25-year-old was dropped from the Great Britain squad in April after finishing fifth in the team sprint at the World Championships.
She then said she had been the victim of sexist remarks from former technical director Shane Sutton.
"I don't think it's good for a human being," she told BBC Radio 5 live.
Varnish's initial allegations are being investigated by British Cycling, which is undertaking a wider review into "fundamental behavioural issues" in its World Class Programme.
A third inquiry has also begun into claims official British Cycling kit was available to buy online.
Varnish added: "They're an incredible, successful team but it doesn't mean there's not cracks.
"If I had a younger sister that was going into that team, I would want to protect her from that."
At the time of her demotion, Varnish said she was "shining a light" on her experiences, so "the relevant people can investigate and make changes".
She turned down the opportunity to appeal against her omission from the Rio Olympics team, saying it would be "pointless to do so".
Australian Sutton resigned in the wake of Varnish's claims in April, but the 59-year-old has denied allegations of sexism and of using derogatory language towards Para-cyclists.
Speaking to the media for the first time since going public, Varnish said: "I've not had a single sleepless night because I can put my head on that pillow and know I'm doing exactly what's right and what's fair.
"I'm just standing up for myself and a lot of other athletes who have unfortunately been in the same situation."
The findings of British Cycling's reviews are expected to be announced after the Rio Olympics. | World Championship medallist Jess Varnish says she "wouldn't recommend" joining British Cycling because of "cracks" in its culture. | 36989374 |
Robert Newsham, 78, was found guilty at Exeter Crown Court of two counts of indecently assaulting the 11 year old.
Judge Phillip Wassall warned he faced "a substantial" jail term.
Newsham previously admitted 10 charges of raping or indecently assaulting another girl and of having 256 indecent images of young girls on his computer.
Newsham, of Attwill Almshouses, Exeter, worked as a coach and bus driver for many years and his work included school runs and taking school parties all over the country, the court heard.
During a two-day trial, the court was told Newsham abused his position to offer the 11-year-old a trip to Disneyland Paris in 1998 and assaulted her at a hotel where they stayed.
Despite dismissing the charges as "ludicrous" and claiming his victim was lying, he was found guilty by a jury within an hour.
He had already admitted raping and abusing another girl in the 1990s, but claimed their relationship was a "long-running affair" when she was aged between nine and 14.
Remanding him in custody, Judge Phillip Wassall said: "You fall to be sentenced for these two indecent assaults and another series of sexual assaults including rape. You will receive a substantial custodial term for these matters."
He added that he was to make inquiries to see whether Newsham posed a substantial risk to children.
He said: "Those who assess the risk should be able to see what you said because I have never heard anything like it. It amounted to enough in itself to find you are a dangerous offender." | A retired coach driver who abused a girl on a trip to Eurodisney in the late 1990s has been told he is a "dangerous offender". | 31869147 |
It was one of two Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross-breeds found with four puppies in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex.
An alert was issued after it "proved hard to catch" and "in its fearful state" wounded the officer before heading into fields on Tuesday evening.
It was located nearby the next day and handed over to the local dog warden. The injured officer is recovering from a deep bite wound to his wrist.
At the time, the pups were taken to a local veterinary clinic and the other dog was handed to a council warden.
Sussex Police said the dog, which had run off, had been reunited with its puppies and was being cared for in kennels. | An abandoned dog which ran off after biting a policeman has been found. | 37115314 |
That is what a senior and respected medical scientist, a man who would be seen as a world authority on such matters, said to me.
So why wasn't the cure found?
The relevant research didn't happen because Ebola was seen for a long time to be a disease only of the poor, especially in Africa - and therefore the giant pharmaceutical manufacturers couldn't see how to make big money out of an Ebola medicine.
Today of course it is clear that Ebola is a global threat - and hence there is a mad rush to find a treatment.
What the preventable tragedy of Ebola shows is that in a globalised world the interests of rich and poor are frequently the same - although it is hard for businesses to recognise this mutuality of interest when driven to make short-term profits.
This solidarity between those with least and those (us) with most is also lost when governments are under pressure from voters to use tax revenues only in ways that demonstrably benefit a domestic population.
Perhaps the most important point is that when decisions about who gets what or how investment funds are allocated are left to markets, the outcome may seem to benefit only the rich but the consequence may end up hurting rich and poor alike.
Which is a powerful argument for why the widening gap between the rich and poor, in wealth and income, is bad for everyone - even the super wealthy, unless that is they never want to leave their fortified, hermetically sealed, lavishly appointed bunkers.
The point is that the operation of markets in the circumstances of modern globalisation both leads to extreme concentrations of wealth and increasingly irrational outcomes when it comes to the dispersion of funds to combat threats or promote public goods.
It is one of the reasons why the likes of the IMF and senior politicians of left and right are no longer blithely regarding the widening gap between rich and poor as a perhaps irksome but nonetheless necessary spin-off of the greater imperative of promoting growth.
Partly it is just the jaw-dropping pace and scale of how a century of narrowing inequalities has gone into dramatic reverse.
To be clear, Oxfam's claim today that by 2016 the richest 1% could own as much or the same as the bottom 99% is not wildly implausible.
Credit Suisse's Global Wealth Report for 2014 showed that the 0.7% of the world's people with assets more than $1m controlled 44% of all the world's wealth.
And recent influential research by Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, of the University of California, Berkeley and the LSE respectively, shows that America's top 0.1% - or 160,000 families who are worth $73m each on average - hold more than a fifth of all US wealth, the same proportion as the bottom 90% of America's people.
There are all sorts of reasons why such increases in inequality are troubling, and not just for those at the bottom of the income and wealth pyramid.
One is that aspirational people on lower incomes have massive incentives to take on too-great debts to support their living standards - which exacerbates the propensity of the economy to swing from boom to financial-crisis bust.
Another is that the poor in aggregate spend more than the rich (there are only so many motor cars and yachts a billionaire can own, so much of the super-rich's wealth sits idle. as it were), and therefore growth tends to be faster when income is more evenly distributed.
So President Obama's State of the Union address, which is expected to contain a proposal to tax the assets of the wealthy, perhaps should be seen as a belated attempt to promote economic and social stability that would benefit even the wealthy - who will nonetheless attempt to stymie him in Congress.
As it happens I am in the process of finishing a two-part Radio 4 documentary about all of this, due for broadcast in a few weeks.
And what is striking is the growing realisation - even by the extreme privileged, who are about to fly in their private jets to Davos to save the world from itself, at the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum - that it is no longer enough simply to argue that equality of opportunity is all that matters.
Or rather, there can be little equality of opportunity in a world where there is the kind of inequality of outcome we haven't seen since the early decades of the last century. | "We could have developed a vaccine for Ebola years ago if we had chosen to allocate the resources to the appropriate research". | 30878840 |
The 24-year-old, who won 200m breaststroke bronze at the London 2012 Olympics, was given a provisional ban after testing positive for meldonium.
The International Swimming Federation (Fina) lifted the ban after advice from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).
Meldonium is the substance Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova tested positive for earlier this year.
A statement from Fina read: "Wada is to undertake further scientific research on meldonium and have therefore recommended to Fina that the suspension of the swimmer should be lifted."
However, Fina also said the case "is not closed" and a decision will be made "following the outcome of Wada's studies".
The statement added: "After that, Ms Efimova would be entitled to file an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport."
Efimova is facing a life ban having previously tested positive for a banned substance.
The American-based swimmer was banned for 16 months by Fina after traces of the anabolic steroid DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) were found in her system at an out of competition test in Los Angeles in 2013.
Wada added meldonium to its list of banned substances at the start of 2016 and recently gave those athletes who had since failed tests a lifeline with the admission it was unclear how long the substance took to clear the body. | Russia's Yulia Efimova has had her provisional suspension for doping lifted by swimming's governing body. | 36354552 |
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has made it clear that the Alliance does not place much credence in Russian assertions that these incidents were accidental.
A third incident where what looks to be a Syrian MiG-29 (the Russians have not deployed this aircraft to Syria) actually locked its radar on to Turkish jets only compounds the problem.
This is not an academic concern.
Turkey itself shot down a Syrian jet last year and a helicopter only a few months ago. Both had strayed into its airspace.
The Syrians shot down a Turkish Phantom jet in June 2012 off their Mediterranean coast; they quickly acknowledged this had been a mistake.
So there is no room for complacency.
So the buzzword of the moment is "deconfliction" meaning steps to avoid friction between forces operating in the same area.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines deconfliction as: The reduction of the risk of collision between (aircraft, airborne weaponry, etc.) in an area by coordinating their movements.
How do you avoid misunderstandings and what procedures do you follow if encounters occur?
When everyone is fighting on the same side the planning process is complex but at least manageable.
US and Allied air operations over Iraq and Syria will be controlled by a detailed daily tasking order establishing targets; the resources to be deployed against each one; the routes to be taken to the target; and similarly the routes for aircraft to return to their bases.
The operations of a range of ancillary aircraft; tankers; intelligence gathering systems; and airborne command-and-control aircraft will all be included in the detailed plan.
But add in another major player who is not exactly an enemy, but is not particularly friendly either and the complexity - but more important the lack of predictability - gets much worse.
The Americans and others were watching Russia's build-up in Syria over the back-end of August and into September.
It appears to have been the Russians who first suggested the idea of talks; a response to Washington's growing worries about what it said was the lack of transparency concerning Moscow's intentions in Syria.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter and his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoygu spoke on the telephone on 18 September.
(This, of course, was a significant breach in the diplomatic isolation of Russia in the wake of its seizure of the Crimea; a secondary but important consideration in Mr Putin's wider game-plan).
These military-to-military talks moved forward in the wake of the meeting in the margins of the UN General Assembly between President Obama and President Putin.
Very little detail has been revealed in public about what is being discussed.
It is highly unlikely that either side will be willing to reveal its strike plans to the other.
And the whole thing is complicated by the fact that Russia, despite its protestations, is not only hitting so-called Islamic State targets, but is also bombing other groups opposed to President Assad - some of them backed by Washington or its Gulf allies.
What little has been said by US spokesmen about the talks has focused on procedural matters in the event of an encounter, for example the language that should be used in exchanges between pilots and the frequencies to be used.
There are well-established international procedures for such matters - but they don't usually happen over an active war zone.
That is all not to mention Syria's border to the south and Israel's security concerns.
It has reportedly mounted air strikes into southern Syria to attack Hezbollah arms convoys.
Not surprisingly the Israelis and the Russians are having their own "deconfliction" talks, with the Israeli military concerned that nothing should hamper their freedom of operation. | The two incursions into Turkish airspace over the weekend by Russian warplanes highlight the growing risks of Russian, Syrian and Nato aircraft all operating in close proximity. | 34454194 |
Mr Burnham referenced the notorious Oxford University dining club - which counts David Cameron and Boris Johnson as former members - as he insisted the contest was "still there to be won".
The ballot closes at 12:00 on Thursday, with the winner announced on Saturday.
Mr Burnham is up against Jeremy Corbyn, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.
Left-wing MP Mr Corbyn has gone from outsider to bookies' favourite, triggering a row within the party and warnings from senior figures, including Mr Blair, about him winning.
In his final public speech of the campaign, Mr Burnham will tell party supporters in Watford Labour must not fight "the battles of the past".
The shadow health secretary will pledge to make Labour "a proper opposition", adding: "No longer will Labour look like a pale imitation of the Tories."
There has been criticism of the process by which people can take part in the vote, with claims of infiltration by non-Labour supporters. People are able to pay £3 to become a registered supporter, entitling them to a vote in the contest.
There has been a huge increase in the party's electorate, with more than 160,000 applications to vote received in the final 24 hours of registrations.
Speaking on the BBC's Daily Politics programme, backbench MP Simon Danczuk said a third of the £3 members he had analysed from his Rochdale constituency had not voted Labour at the last election.
He said there was "clearly infiltration by some people in an attempt to get a far left candidate elected as leader of the Labour party".
But ex-leader Ed Miliband's former director of communications Tom Baldwin told the programme: "I am astonished that so many people in the Labour Party have spent time whinging about the rules rather than doing what Jeremy Corbyn has and making the rules work for them."
Labour has said the contest will not be delayed, after fears some supporters had not received their ballot papers.
The party acknowledged that "a small number" of the 550,000-plus people with a say in the election had complained that they were still unable to cast their vote.
But a spokesman said all ballots had been sent out as planned. | Andy Burnham has urged Labour to "fight the Bullingdon Boys, not Tony Blair", as candidates chase last-minute votes in the leadership contest. | 34191950 |
The Office for National Statistics has published an estimate of fraud for the first time, based on its Crime Survey.
There were also 2.5 million cyber crime offences, such as computer hacking, the ONS estimated.
The Crime Survey indicated an 8% fall in crimes it covers. Separate data, based on reports to police, shows an overall rise in offending of 5%.
Official figures are drawn from two sources:
The two sets of figures have been published together for many years to give a more rounded impression of crime levels.
The police figures suggest a 25% increase in violence, with murders at their highest level for four years.
In the 12 months to the end of June there were 569 homicides, up 44 on the same period the year before.
By Dominic Casciani, BBC Home Affairs correspondent
For years traditional crimes have been falling right across the Western world, irrespective of who's in government and how many police are on the beat.
But today's figures have captured for the first time an awful lot of criminality that, quite simply, looks like it has been missed.
If you add the official data for traditional crimes to the provisional figures for cyber and fraud, the number of offences breaches 14 million. That's still down on the 1995 peak of 19 million offences - but it's an awful lot higher than statisticians thought a year ago.
Many experts will now be having a "told you so" moment. Crime statistics sceptics say there's just not enough police and policy focus on 21st Century offending.
Criminality is rapidly changing - and the real question is 'Are the police in a good place to combat it?'
Just over half of the 5.1 million frauds included in the Crime Survey data involved some financial loss, the ONS said.
Where losses were reported, 78% got some form of compensation, with 62% reimbursed in full.
Frauds included card fraud and frauds committed over the phone and online. The fraud data was based on a sample of 2,000 people.
An ONS spokesman said: "Although we estimate that there were more than seven million fraud and computer misuse incidents in the past year, this does not necessarily imply a recent rise in crime as the new measures bring into scope a large volume of offences not previously included in the Crime Survey."
He added: "These new estimates should be seen in the context of a reduction over the past 20 years in the more traditional forms of crime, from 19 million incidents a year in 1995 to under seven million a year today."
The most common cyber crimes - committed under the Computer Misuse Act - were those where a victim's device was infected by a virus.
The category also includes the hacking of people's emails or social media accounts.
Overall, the Crime Survey estimated 6.5 million offences had taken place in England and Wales - down 8% from last year.
That figure does not include the fraud and cyber crime estimates.
If they were added, it would mean a total of 14.1 million crimes, but the ONS cautioned against combining the two sets of figures, saying the fraud and cyber data are "experimental" and based on a much smaller sample.
A spokesman said: "One is a proven set of national statistics and the other is not."
Crime Minister Mike Penning said crime rates were falling because of police reforms.
And he said the rise in violent and sexual crimes being reported was due to changes in how offences were recorded.
"Crime is falling and it is also changing, and we are committed to tackling fraud and cyber crime," he added.
A spokesman for the National Police Chiefs' Council said the fall in crime estimated by the Crime Survey figures was "encouraging".
Meanwhile, the increase in crime reported to police, he said, "reflects the efforts being made by forces to improve consistency in crime recording".
He added: "There is still a gap in what the public are experiencing and what is being reported to the police. However, it is extremely encouraging that the gap between the CSEW public survey and the recording of crime by the police continues to narrow." | There were more than five million incidents of fraud in England and Wales in the last year, estimates suggest. | 34538183 |
The social network twice disabled the account following complaints, only to re-enable it hours later.
"These posts are clearly distressing for the families and this content has now been removed," a spokeswoman said.
"We apologise for the delay in taking them down."
The social network acted for a third time after the matter was brought to its attention by the BBC. It has not explained the actions of its complaints team.
One internet expert said the behaviour had been "bonkers" and called into question Facebook's safety procedures.
The BBC reported on Tuesday the case of a child from Cambridgeshire whose photos had been used alongside a fake plea for help.
"This little baby has cancer and he need money for surgery," the accompanying post stated.
It added that Facebook would donate money for every "like", comment or share of the message.
The picture was posted at the start of February. More than one million people responded.
Security experts said such tactics were often used by "like farming" scammers.
Perpetrators attempt to engage as many users as possible so that they can later target them with follow-up messages and/or sell on the profile page and its associated contacts to unscrupulous marketers.
The mother of the child - Sarah Allen from St Neots, Cambridgeshire - said she had been upset by the discovery.
"We had people messaging saying they had heard Jasper has cancer," she told the BBC.
"He doesn't. These were pictures from when he had chickenpox."
Facebook eventually deleted this post but - after overturning Tuesday's short-lived account block - left similar fake cancer posts featuring other children live.
The BBC determined they included a photo of a three-year-old girl from England, who was injured in a road accident in 2015. The image belongs to her parents.
"I need the photo to be removed," said the mother of the girl - who asked not to be named - when she was informed of its misuse.
"I am extremely upset about it."
Other images showed:
In addition, the account featured several photos of dead young children in coffins, claiming users would have "76 year of bad luck" if they scrolled past without liking or sharing the posts.
Facebook's community standards say it does not allow posts featuring images that infringe other people's copyright.
The company does not require each rights holder to make a claim before acting.
Facebook first disabled the account on 10 January after Mrs Allen had sent several messages to its complaints team, only for it to be made live again the next day.
The social network took the account offline again on Tuesday afternoon, but it was active again about five hours later.
The BBC questioned the decision early this morning. But it was not until about 15:00 GMT that the account was taken offline for a third time.
Cybersecurity expert Prof Alan Woodward said Facebook did not appear to have scrutinised the case closely enough despite the publicity it had already generated.
"Clearly anybody should have the right to appeal their account being taken down, but if it's returned up that quickly it doesn't show much due process has been taken in checking it out," said the University of Surrey lecturer.
"It's difficult not to conclude Facebook was doing the bare minimum here." | Facebook has apologised for repeatedly restoring an account that posted stolen photos of children falsely claiming they had cancer. | 39051972 |
Loic Remy is nearing a comeback from a calf problem but is one of six Palace players unavailable this weekend.
Leicester captain Wes Morgan will miss a sixth straight match because of a back injury, although he may be fit to face Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.
Manager Craig Shakespeare will rest several key players ahead of that tie.
Mark Scott: "A little over two months ago, Crystal Palace were second from bottom in the table, with Leicester lying just one place above the relegation zone.
"But only Spurs can better the 15 points both teams have taken from the last 18 available and Sam Allardyce believes one more win would 'probably be enough' to secure Palace's safety.
"On paper, the timing of the game should aid Allardyce's chances of getting that victory on Saturday, as Craig Shakespeare will surely be tempted to rest a number of Leicester's first-team regulars with Tuesday's return leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid in mind."
Twitter: @Mark_Scott_
Crystal Palace manager Sam Allardyce: "We need to focus on the game this weekend and make sure we don't get wrapped up in all the talk of us being safe, because we are not.
"The aim will be to try and secure another three points but we are playing a team in exceptionally good form like ourselves and this will be just as difficult a game as we faced against Arsenal on Monday night, if not more."
Leicester City manager Craig Shakespeare: "We need to be competitive against a real competitive Palace team. I'm thinking that we still need the points. None of us are safe.
"We need to concentrate on Palace and try to get those points. It'll be a really tough challenge. You could see [against Arsenal] on Monday their confidence."
This is a good time for Palace to play Leicester, who are in between both legs of their Champions League quarter-final with Atletico Madrid.
Leicester manager Craig Shakespeare made lots of changes for their last league game, at Everton, with that match in Madrid in mind.
They lost 4-2 at Goodison Park, and were so open. If they play the same way against Palace, they will get punished.
Prediction: 2-1
Lawro's full predictions v singer Sting
Head-to-head
Crystal Palace
Leicester City
SAM (Sports Analytics Machine) is a super-computer created by @ProfIanMcHale at the University of Salford that is used to predict the outcome of football matches. | Crystal Palace full-back Patrick van Aanholt has returned to training following an ankle injury and is available to face Leicester. | 39536731 |
After a draw with Lithuania and defeat by Slovakia, the Scots can ill-afford a loss at Wembley, but Fletcher believes a draw would be a good result.
"Even with a couple of disappointing results, we are by no means out of it. We can't be get drawn into these "must win" games.
"A point would be a decent result for us," Fletcher said.
"We are [not] playing for a draw [but] if we can get a result, we are still involved in the group with big games coming up in 2017."
Fletcher says the prospect of facing their oldest rivals will give Scotland added motivation going into the Group F clash.
"It doesn't get much bigger than this - there will be a little more fire in the belly, it being England v Scotland," the West Brom midfielder explained.
"Every time you lead your country out it is important but there is no bigger stage than Wembley in front of 90,000 fans.
"We went out to the stadium and had a look around. It's a great excitement. It will be a great occasion and hopefully we can get the result to remember it by."
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Fletcher will lead the team out at Wembley - if selected - despite the return from a brief international retirement of Celtic midfielder Scott Brown.
He welcomed the personal and playing qualities that his fellow midfielder adds to the squad now that he is back, and admitted the prospect of such a significant competitive fixture against old rivals England is inspiring.
Fletcher warned, though, that the passion of the Scottish players and fans will be matched by their opponents, who will be expected to prevail at Wembley - where they haven't lost a competitive game since 2007.
"It will be a bit of a derby game," Fletcher said. "It is a big game for England as well, let's not forget.
"They are at home, they are under pressure to perform in front of their own fans. Wembley is not the easiest place to play when there is expectancy on you, especially with 90,000 people there.
"It will be difficult for them but the passion will not call come from the Scotland side, English players have plenty passion. I [saw] that at Celtic Park in the friendly [in 2014], they came out all guns blazing, it meant so much to them, [and] that was a friendly match.
"Every time you represent your country and lead your country out it is massive there is no bigger place to do it as a Scotsman, to walk out at Wembley in front of 90,000 fans and 10 teammates behind you, desperate to get a result and create a bit of history. It is a monumental moment and one I am relishing.
"We are not going in here with fear or on a real low, we get disappointed after results but it gives you a bit of steel and determination to go out there and try to put it right.
"It is an occasion I am going to try to enjoy. I looked around the stadium and it is exciting, a great arena to play football in. I am sure there will be many more than 14,000 fellow Scotsman cheering us on and hopefully we can get the result we can remember it by." | Scotland captain Darren Fletcher says Friday's World Cup qualifier against England is not a "must-win" game. | 37943337 |
The body of Alexander Duncan, 59, was found in a house in Primrose Street on 19 April.
The women, aged 29 and 31, are expected to appear in court on Tuesday.
Det Insp Martin MacLean said: "I would like to thank the public for their patience and cooperation while we carried out enquiries in relation to this incident." | Two women have been charged with murder following the death of a man in the Leith area of Edinburgh. | 32560423 |
RSA shares closed 20.8% lower, making it easily the biggest loser.
Overall, the FTSE 100 share index closed 0.08% higher, or 4.6 points, at 6,108.71.
Shares in the satellite firm Inmarsat rose more than 1% after it announced a deal with Deutsche Telekom to bring passengers in-flight internet.
Deutsche Telekom will supply the 4G, while Inmarsat will supply the satellite access.
Meanwhile, fashion retailer French Connection saw its shares slump 8.9% after earnings showed it had fallen deeper into the red.
The company reported a loss for the first half of the year of £7.9m, compared with a £3.9m loss in the same period last year.
The chairman Stephen Marks describing it as "a tough trading period".
On the currency markets, the pound was down 0.14% against the dollar to $1.5507 and was up 0.86% against the euro at €1.3859. | (Close): Shares in insurance company RSA held back gains on the FTSE 100, after Swiss rival Zurich abandoned its bid plans. | 34312032 |
Mr Morsi is in detention, as well as senior figures in the Islamist group of which he is a member. Hundreds more are being sought.
The top judge of Egypt's constitutional court, Adly Mahmud Mansour, has been sworn in as interim leader.
He has pledged to hold elections based on "the genuine people's will".
At a news conference, Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad declared "our full refusal and revoking of the military coup" and demanded Mr Morsi's immediate release, along with the other detainees.
He declared the Brotherhood's "full denial of co-operation" with the new regime and said it would take part in all "peaceful, people-led protest".
Voices from the streets
Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Kamel Amr - who resigned from Mr Morsi's government on Monday - said he had assured US Secretary of State John Kerry in a telephone call on Thursday that the overthrow of President Morsi had not been a military coup, but the "overwhelming will of the people".
The upheaval in Egypt comes after days of mass rallies against Mr Morsi and the Brotherhood, who are accused of pursuing an Islamist agenda and failing to tackle Egypt's economic problems.
Some 50 people have died since the latest unrest began on Sunday, with correspondents saying that there are continuing fears of confrontation between the pro- and anti-Morsi blocs.
A coalition of Islamist parties - the National Coalition in Support of Legitimacy - has called for mass demonstrations to denounce the army's actions following Friday prayers.
The Egyptian army has gambled that it can contain the situation, but that's by no means certain, says the BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Cairo.
There have been reports that Morsi supporters in a town north of Cairo have been set upon and badly beaten - an illustration of the potential for danger.
Mr Haddad earlier told the BBC that Mr Morsi had been put under house arrest and the "entire presidential team" was in detention.
The army said that Mr Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, had "failed to meet the demands of the people".
But in the news conference, Mr Haddad said the arrests had no legal basis and decried "the prospect of a police state in action now", citing as a particular example the arrest of the former Muslim Brotherhood chief Dr Mahdi Akef - "a non-political, non-office figure, 85 years old and yet arrested".
Key players in Egyptian crisis
World reacts to removal of Morsi
In pictures: Egypt crisis
Mr Haddad's father, senior Morsi aide Essam el-Haddad, and Saad al-Katatni, head of the FJP, are among those being held.
On Thursday afternoon unnamed officials said Mohammed Badie, supreme leader of the Brotherhood, had been arrested in Mersa Matruh, a Mediterranean coastal city to the west of Cairo.
Arrest warrants have reportedly been issued for some 300 other members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including Mr Badie's deputy, Khairat al-Shater.
Some of those held, including Mr Morsi, are being charged with "insulting the judiciary", and the public prosecutor's office told AFP news agency travel bans had been placed on 35 senior leaders.
Several TV stations sympathetic to the Brotherhood have been taken off the air, and a state-owned printing press is said to be refusing to print a newspaper run by the FJP.
Security forces raided al-Jazeera's Egypt channel and detained members of its crew - a move denounced by the Arabic broadcaster.
Rights group Amnesty International said the shutdowns were a "blow to freedom of expression".
Profile: Adly Mahmud Mansour
Coup or no coup?
Twitter translates Egypt tweets
Laser pens light up protests
Fighter jets trailing smoke drew love hearts in Cairo's smoggy skies on Thursday in apparent celebration of the military's role in ousting Mr Morsi's government.
But across the city, his despondent supporters staged sit-ins in protest at what many are calling a betrayal of the democratic process.
Mr Mansour took an oath to become interim head of state, vowing to safeguard "the spirit of the revolution" which had removed Hosni Mubarak from power in 2011.
Fresh elections were "the only way" forward, he said, without indicating when they would be held.
He held out an apparent olive branch to the Muslim Brotherhood, saying they were "part of this people" and were "invited to participate in building the nation".
By Frank GardnerBBC security correspondent
Dangerous moment for the Middle East
Egypt stocks jump
The army's roadmap for the post-Morsi era includes:
Events in Egypt have divided international opinion, with the US, UK and UN among those expressing concern and calling for a swift return to civilian rule.
Others, such as Turkey and Tunisia, have been more forthright in their condemnation of the way Mr Morsi has been ousted.
Yet others, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - as well as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - have welcomed the turn of events.
Mr Morsi became Egypt's first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair following the 2011 revolution that toppled Mubarak. | Egypt's military has moved against the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, a day after deposing President Mohammed Morsi. | 23189180 |
The explosions struck near the Sakhi Sarwar shrine in Punjab, as Sufi Muslim devotees gathered for an annual three-day festival.
Sufis, a minority Muslim group who follow mystical beliefs, are regarded as heretical by hardliners.
A Taliban fighter told reporters his group carried out the attack, the third on Sufi shrines in a year.
Ehsanullah Ehsan told Reuters news agency the attack was in revenge for a government offensive against militants in Pakistan's north-west.
Sunday's blasts hit near a shrine to Sufi saint Sakhi Sarwar in Dera Ghazi Khan district, and devotees were reportedly among the dead and wounded.
"We have recovered 41 bodies so far," police officer Zahid Hussain Shah told AFP news agency.
He said both explosions had been caused by suicide attackers, adding: "They came on foot and blew themselves up when police on duty stopped them."
Another police officer told reporters that a third attacker had been caught before he could detonate his explosives
Eyewitness Faisal Iqbal told Reuters he had been standing yards away from one of the explosions.
"People started running outside the shrine. Women and children were crying and screaming. It was like hell," he said.
Thousands of people had been marking the annual festival of Urs at the time of the blasts.
Sufism has been widely practised in Pakistan for hundreds of years - analysts saying it has a much bigger following than the hard-line Taliban version of Islam.
Devotees perform singing and dancing and pray to saints who are honoured with numerous shrines.
Their beliefs are considered un-Islamic by hardliners, who have targeted their shrines several times.
Last October, a suicide bombing at a shrine in Punjab province left six people dead.
And earlier in the year a suicide attack on a Lahore shrine killed at least 42 people, making it the most deadly such attack on record.
For decades, the government has also sought to suppress Sufism, and has put it under strict control. | Suicide attackers have killed at least 41 people and wounded many more at a shrine in Pakistan, police say. | 12951923 |
But fans in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are in for disappointment after the so-called "UK" tour will only include English gigs.
It's the first tour in the UK since 2010 for the Believe star.
In 2013 he'll visit Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham and London.
Box offices are expected to get busy on Friday when tickets go on sale.
We asked you how you felt about Justin's tour announcement. Will you be rushing to buy a ticket?
How do you feel if you live in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland? Would your parent or guardian take you hundreds of miles to one of his gigs?
"I think it is okay because he has got a lot on his hands at the moment when he is only 18-years-old. I will just have to watch the concerts on TV!"
Hannah, Wales
"I can't believe he's only touring in England what's the point in calling it a UK tour!"
Megan, Falkirk, Scotland
"It's sad that Justin left out some parts of the UK."
Harbir, Slough, England
"This is so unfair, England gets everything, nobody remembers that without Scotland, Wales and NI there would be no Great Britain so Bieber should remember that most of his fans probably come from Scotland, Wales and NI!"
Niamh, Glasgow, Scotland
"I think it's quite mean to leave out Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland, they are just as important as England!"
Harriet, Devon, England
"That's not fair for people who are Bieber's biggest fans and live in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. What if their mum or dad cannot drive? What a let-down for all those people!"
Delyth, Wales
"I'm really Upset that Justin isn't coming to Scotland! Considering he's only going to England I probably won't be able to go."
Molly, Scotland
"Why leave out all of the countries except England? Technically it is the England tour not the UK."
Emi, Manchester, England
"My parents will never let me go to England but don't worry I still have Bieber fever!"
Ellie, Falkirk, Scotland
"I will literally rush to buy a ticket and I will get someone to drive me as far as I have to go to see one of Justin Bieber's gigs."
Sana, Wales | Standby for Bieber fever in 2013 as Justin has announced gigs in cities including London, Birmingham and Manchester. | 18669751 |
Dean Carl Evans, 22, from Reading, died in July in the city of Manbij after joining a Kurdish military group.
His father revealed his will states he wished to be buried with his "brothers and sisters" in the war-torn country.
The Foreign Office has told him his body may still be in Syria despite reports it was moved to Iraq.
John Carl Evans, from Wallingford, Oxfordshire, said his son was shot and then killed in a rocket attack.
He added that the will sounded as if "Dean knew he would pass away there".
"He was shot, and a Kurdish woman tried to help him. But they were fired on by a rocket-propelled grenade round and both lost their lives," he said.
"I was told his body was moved to the Iraqi border and then to Erbil, but now I am told it is still in Syria," he said.
The former soldier said he had no idea his son was in Syria, only learning of his whereabouts when the Foreign Office contacted him to tell him about Dean's death.
"The last time I spoke to him was just before his 21st birthday, but it was hard to get hold of him after that," he said.
"I thought he was a farmer in Wiltshire, living with his stepfather.
"The news still hasn't sunk in, I haven't had any time for my own grieving. But I am proud of him and his family is proud of him."
Dean travelled to Syria to join the People's Defence Units (YPG) - a Kurdish military force fighting in northern Syria.
The YPG described Mr Evans as a "man with the noblest of intentions who planted a seed of love into the hearts of [his] friends and all the peoples of Rojava [Western Kurdistan]".
The Foreign Office said it had advised for some time against all travel to Syria.
"Anyone who does travel to these areas, for whatever reason, is putting themselves in considerable danger," it said. | The father of a man who died fighting so-called Islamic State in Syria says he doesn't know where his son's body is or if it will ever return to the UK. | 37047138 |
Attacking midfielder Forestieri, 25, joined the Owls in a deal worth £3m from Watford in August after a potential move to Leeds fell through.
"It wasn't easy to bring him in but he has quality and I'm very happy," Carvalhal told BBC Radio Sheffield.
"He will become a very important player for us."
Forestieri, who represented Italy at youth levels, helped Watford win promotion to the Premier League last season but did not feature in a top-flight game before his move to Hillsborough.
The Owls are 15th in the Championship but Carvalhal believes Forestieri will boost his side's attacking threat.
"Since the beginning of the season we have missed a player in the second line of midfield playing near the striker," added Carvalhal.
"But Forestieri will give us more quality in attack because we now have a connection between midfield and attack." | New Sheffield Wednesday signing Fernando Forestieri will become a "very important" player for the club, boss Carlos Carvalhal has predicted. | 34185451 |
The deal proposes that the merged company will maintain Allergan's Irish domicile, allowing Pfizer to escape relatively high US corporate tax rates.
Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic presidential candidate, accused Pfizer of avoiding its "fair share" of taxes.
The deal would "leave US taxpayers holding the bag", she said.
Senator Bernie Sanders, another Democratic hopeful, said the deal would be a disaster for consumers and allow another major US company to hide its profits overseas.
Democratic representative Rosa DeLauro was also critical, saying: "We cannot continue to allow Pfizer and other corporations to pretend that they are American while reaping the benefits this country has to offer, yet claiming to be another nationality when the tax bill comes," she said.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump described Pfizer's departure from the US as "disgusting", adding: "Our politicians should be ashamed."
If approved, the deal would be the biggest example of so-called inversion, where a US firm merges with a company in a country with a lower tax rate and moves its headquarters there.
In Ireland, the corporate tax rate is 12.5%, compared with the 35% Pfizer currently pays in the US.
Pfizer boss Ian Read said the savings from the deal would give it "the strength to research, discover and deliver more medicines and more therapies to more people around the world".
Last year, Pfizer made a takeover move for rival AstraZeneca, which analysts said was designed to reduce Pfizer's tax bill. The UK drugs firm rejected the bid.
The White House has so far declined to comment on the deal.
But US President Barack Obama has previously called such inversion deals unpatriotic and has tried to crack down on the practice.
Last week, the US Treasury Department unveiled new rules to clamp down on inversions, but tax experts said the change would not be sufficient to prevent the deal completing.
Yet, investors appear uncertain the deal, which is still subject to regulatory approval in the US and Europe, will get the go-ahead.
Shares in Pfizer closed down 2.7% in New York at $31.32, while Allergan fell 3.4% to $301.70. | Drugs giant Pfizer's $160bn (£106bn) deal to buy botox-maker Allergan has been criticised by US politicians as an attempt to slash its tax bill. | 34909543 |
County moved off the bottom of the table and are now seven points from safety after a 1-0 win at Morecambe.
Bird, 29, scored the second half penalty which secured victory.
"We don't look at points, we just take it each game as it comes and if we keep winning every game in front of us then we'll be flying," Bird said.
"The last two performances have been fantastic and we can beat anyone in this league if we perform like that.
"When I came here that was my goal, to help Newport stay in the league."
Newport were bottom and 11 points adrift when they sacked boss Graham Westley but have won their two games under caretaker manager Mike Flynn.
"We had the belief anyway. The gaffer's given us the confidence to go out and play, express ourselves and enjoy it," Bird said.
"We played well against a very good Morecambe side, a big strong side, away from home."
Newport were awarded a penalty in the second half after Alex Whitmore fouled Alex Samuel.
Bird, who joined Newport from Eastleigh in January, described the penalty as "massive" and said: "I spoke to the gaffer last game and he said 'you're on penalties.'
"I thought about it on the way here, thinking that if we get a penalty I'm going straight down the middle and that's what I did." | Forward Ryan Bird says Newport County are capable of beating any side in League Two and is confident they can avoid relegation. | 39281234 |
At one point the world number five, who caused controversy on Monday for turning down the opportunity of a 147 break, scored 300 points without reply.
The fourth frame was more disjointed, but O'Sullivan sealed a whitewash and a meeting with China's Yu Delu.
Mark Williams, defending champion John Higgins, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson and Judd Trump also went through.
O'Sullivan, who already plays a reduced schedule on the tour, spoke of his boredom during tournaments and told BBC Sport how he fills his time.
"I've told my agent to smash out the exhibitions because I prefer playing them to tournaments," he said. "I suppose I'm just a born entertainer. As long as I've got a crowd, it doesn't matter if it's the Crucible or the local snooker club, I still get a kick out of it.
"I get so bored at these tournaments. Maybe they should stick an adult creche here to keep us entertained because I just want to go home now.
"Don't get me wrong because I like Cardiff, but 17 days in Sheffield for the World Championship if you get to the final - I'm already dreading that.
"Today I've had a haircut, I've been in the Chinese, I've been for a coffee, I went to Bill's cafe for a couple of hours, I've had a kip, I went to Marks' and bought a bit of grub. What a day. It's certainly not glamorous."
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Welshman Williams, who beat Norway's Kurt Maflin 4-2, told BBC Radio Wales: "My main aim was to play as fast as I can and stop thinking about stuff I've been thinking about.
"I potted quite a few long ones and made a lot of good breaks.
"Whether or not it'll continue I don't know, but I'm certainly going to go out with the same mindset."
Scot Higgins beat Michael Georgiou 4-1 to set up a meeting with Welshman Michael White, who overcame Liang Wenbo 4-1.
Australian Robertson beat Anthony McGill, world number one Selby defeated Fergal O'Brien, and fellow Englishman Trump beat Scotland's Alan McManus, all 4-2.
Former world champions Shaun Murphy and Graeme Dott went out, beaten 4-2 by Luca Brecel and Marco Fu respectively.
Northern Ireland's Mark Allen ended the hopes of Welshman Ryan Day, winning 4-1 to set up a meeting with England's Barry Hawkins. | Ronnie O'Sullivan produced a sublime display to thrash Jimmy Robertson 4-0 and reach round four of the Welsh Open. | 35598018 |
Under a deal with Ukraine's M.V. Cargo, the money will be used to build a grain terminal on the Black Sea that will boost agricultural exports.
The terminal will allow Ukrainian farmers to export an additional five million tons of grain.
Overseas companies have been reluctant to invest in Ukraine because of its ongoing struggle with Russia.
Ukraine has been fighting pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country and working to root out corruption that has made investors nervous.
Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, said the deal was a first step in getting foreign investors to see the country as a "truly reliable and good place for making investments".
"Ukraine is already one of the world's great agricultural producers, but it should be an agricultural superpower," said US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt.
The new terminal is scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2018.
Ukraine expects to export a record 37 million tons of grain between July 2015 and June 2016.
Cargill is the largest privately held company in the US. | US agriculture firm, Cargill has announced a $100m (£71.5m) investment in a Ukrainian port. | 35654349 |
Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said such attacks were doubling every year and this year's presidential elections could be targeted.
He said it would be "naive" to think France was immune to the type of cyber-campaign that targeted the US election, which has been blamed on Russia.
Mr Le Drian is overseeing an overhaul of France's cyber-security operations.
Cyber-attacks in France have increased substantially in the last three years and have become a serious threat to the country's infrastructure, Mr Le Drian said.
In an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper, Mr Le Drian said that France "should not be naive".
He said that thousands of external attacks had been blocked, including attempts at disrupting France's drone systems.
His warning comes in the wake of a US intelligence report alleging that Russia was involved in an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential campaign.
Russia denies any involvement in cyber-attacks or hacking.
French elections in April and May this year are being carefully watched after the surprise victory of US President-elect Donald Trump, who said on Saturday that those who oppose good relations with Russia are "stupid people, or fools".
French conservative candidate Francois Fillon has said that he wants to improve relations with Russia and has been praised by Russian president Vladimir Putin. Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen also favours closer relations with Russia.
Relations between the two countries deteriorated after France's socialist president, Francois Hollande, played a key role in imposing sanctions on Russia when Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Mr Hollande also suggested last year that Russia could face war crimes charges over its bombardment of the Syrian city of Aleppo.
In April 2015, a powerful cyber-attack came close to destroying French TV network TV5Monde, which was taken off air.
A group calling itself the Cyber Caliphate, linked to so-called Islamic State (IS), initially claimed responsibility. But an investigation later discovered that it was carried out by a group of Russian hackers. | France says it was the subject of 24,000 cyber-attacks against defence targets last year. | 38546415 |
A key gauge of stress in the banking sector is now more than three times above the danger level, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said in its latest quarterly review.
China's credit-to-GDP gap hit 30.1 in the first quarter of 2016, it said.
The BIS considers a credit-to-GDP gap of 10 to be a sign of potential danger.
A year ago the BIS quarterly review put the figure for China at 25.4.
Karishma Vaswani: Just how bad is China's debt crisis?
The BIS calculates the gap by looking at borrowing in relation to the size of the economy, and comparing that with the long-term trend of that ratio.
When the two start to diverge, the BIS argues, a banking crisis could be on the way.
The BIS has a central position in global finance as it provides banking services to central banks and monitors the international flow of money and credit.
The health of China's banking sector has long been a source of concern for financial markets.
Since the financial crisis of 2007-2008 there has been a boom in credit as the Chinese government has attempted to spur flagging growth.
But some of that lending has not been productive and the IMF estimates that loans worth $1.3 trillion are at risk of default.
However, as the Chinese banking system is largely owned or controlled by the government, analysts say the government would bail out the banking sector if necessary.
In its latest quarterly review, the BIS also said the markets has shown resilience following the UK's vote to leave the European Union.
"The speed of the recovery took many by surprise, given the political and economic uncertainty that the vote had triggered," said Claudio Borio, head of the Monetary and Economic Department at the BIS.
But he warned that, despite recent gains, global financial markets are in a sensitive state.
"There has been a distinctly mixed feel to the recent rally - more stick than carrot, more push than pull, more frustration than joy.
"This explains the nagging question of whether market prices fully reflect the risks ahead. Doubts about valuations seem to have taken hold in recent days. Only time will tell," Mr Borio said. | Risks of a Chinese banking crisis are mounting, according to a warning indicator from the banking industry's global watchdog. | 37403363 |
Roedd yn wyneb a llais cyfarwydd yng Nghymru ers iddo gael diagnosis o ganser y coluddyn ym mis Ionawr 2014.
Penderfynodd nad oedd am ddioddef o'r cyflwr yn dawel, ac fe aeth ati i sefydlu ymgyrch Tîm Irfon i gefnogi cleifion canser yn y gogledd.
Y nod oedd codi arian i Apêl Awyr Las i dalu am wigiau, triniaethau amgen a chefnogaeth iechyd meddwl i gleifion canser.
Cafodd yr ymgyrch ei lansio yn Eisteddfod yr Urdd Y Bala ym mis Mai 2014, gyda digwyddiad wedi ei drefnu lle'r oedd pawb yn gwisgo wigiau i godi ymwybyddiaeth.
Mae'r ymgyrch wedi codi dros £150,000 erbyn hyn, gyda channoedd o bobl wedi gwneud pob mathau o bethau i godi arian.
Bu Irfon yn destun rhaglen arbennig fel rhan o'r gyfres 'O'r Galon' ar S4C yn ddiweddar, pan fu'r camerâu yn dilyn ei deulu dros y blynyddoedd diwethaf.
Wrth roi teyrnged iddo, dywedodd ei wraig Rebecca Williams fod ei gŵr wedi wynebu ei salwch gyda dewrder ag urddas.
Ychwanegodd nad oedd byth yn cwyno am ei sefyllfa ac fe "ddefnyddiodd ei sefyllfa i fod o gymorth i eraill".
"Gwthiodd ei gorff i'w ffiniau er mwyn derbyn unrhyw driniaeth fyddai'n prynu cymaint o amser ag oedd yn bosib," meddai.
"Roedd pob eiliad yn cyfrif i Irfon oedd yn llawn bywyd ag i unrhyw un oedd yn ei adnabod roedd Irfon yn gymaint o hwyl pan roedd o gwmpas."
Wrth ymateb i'w farwolaeth, dywedodd Dr Peter Higson a Gary Doherty, cadeirydd a phrif weithredwr Bwrdd Iechyd Prifysgol Betsi Cadwaladr: "Roedd Irfon Williams, oedd yn gweithio yn Ysbyty Gwynedd fel nyrs a rheolwr Gwasanaeth Iechyd Meddwl Plant a Phobl Ifanc, yn gydweithiwr gwerthfawr fydd yn cael ei gofio am ei ddewrder a'i agwedd benderfynol at fyw bywyd yn llawn.
"Roedd yn angerddol am ddarparu'r gofal gorau i gleifion ac fe gafodd ei gyfraniad ei nodi gan Goleg Brenhinol Nyrsio Cymru, gan ennill gwobr Plant a Bydwreigiaeth yn 2012.
"Fe wnaeth Irfon gyfraniad anferth i gael cleifion i ymwneud mwy gyda'u triniaeth a hybu iechyd meddwl i bawb.
"Roedd yn hynod o benderfynol drwy gydol ei salwch, gan sefydlu #tîmirfon gydag Awyr Las, elusen Gwasanaeth Iechyd Gogledd Cymru, gan godi dros £150,000 ac fe fyddwn a miloedd o gleifion yn ddyledus iddo am hyn am byth.
"Bydd colled fawr ar ei ôl. Ar ran y bwrdd iechyd rydym yn cynnig ein cydymdeimlad dwysaf i deulu Irfon a'i gylch eang o ffrindiau."
Dywedodd Claudia McVie, prif weithredwraig elusen Tenovus: "Mae pawb yn Tenovus wedi eu tristau o glywed y newyddion am farwolaeth Irfon Williams.
"Ar ôl iddo deithio i Loegr i dderbyn y driniaeth canser yr oedd angen arno, fe weithiodd Irfon yn ddiflino i wneud hi'n decach i gleifion canser yng Nghymru i gael cyffuriau canser.
"O ganlyniad i'w ymgyrchu, gall cleifion yng Nghymru dderbyn y cyffur Cetuximab ar gyfer triniaeth canser y coluddyn - sy'n rhodd i fod yn falch iawn ohoni."
Roedd Irfon Williams yn rhoi pwyslais mawr ar bwysigrwydd iechyd meddwl, ac roedd yn rheolwr gwasanaethau iechyd meddwl plant a phobl ifanc i Fwrdd Iechyd Prifysgol Betsi Cadwaladr cyn iddo gael ei daro'n wael.
Tra roedd yn sâl fe sefydlodd gwmni Hanner Llawn i roi cyngor a chefnogaeth i bobl ar agweddau iechyd meddwl.
Dywedodd fod ei gefndir wedi ei helpu o a'i deulu i ymdopi yn ystod ei salwch.
Roedd yn defnyddio ei brofiadau yn ei waith bob dydd i addysgu eraill am ei gyflwr, a chafodd ei wahodd i nifer fawr o ddigwyddiadau i godi ymwybyddiaeth a thrafod effaith canser ar gleifion ar draws y gogledd.
Ddyddiau ar ôl ei ddiagnosis fe briododd Irfon â'i bartner, Rebecca, gan fod y ddau eisiau wynebu'r siwrne o'u blaenau fel pâr priod.
Fe ddechreuodd ei driniaeth canser yn Ysbyty Glan Clwyd ac Ysbyty Gwynedd, ac yn ystod y cyfnod yma, daeth ei ymgyrch i gael yr hawl i dderbyn y cyffur Cetuximab i sylw'r cyfryngau cenedlaethol, gan nad oedd y cyffur ar gael i gleifion yng Nghymru ar y pryd.
Bu'n rhaid iddo symud ei driniaeth i Loegr er mwyn cael y cyffur, ac fe fu'n ddigon llwyddiannus i leihau'r tiwmorau gan olygu iddo allu derbyn llawdriniaeth i'w tynnu nhw ym Medi 2015.
Fe glywodd yn ddiweddarach y flwyddyn honno ei fod yn glir o ganser, ond ychydig cyn y Nadolig y llynedd daeth y newydd fod y canser yn ei ôl ac nad oedd gwellhad y tro hwn.
Drwy gydol ei salwch, bu'n siarad yn ddewr ac agored am ei brofiad.
Fe gafodd ei achos sylw yn ystod un o sesiynau holi'r Prif Weinidog yn San Steffan, wrth i wleidyddion drafod yr hawl i gleifion dderbyn y Cetuximab yng Nghymru.
Yn ddiweddarach cafodd wahoddiad i fod yn aelod o banel yn adolygu'r broses o ymgeisio am feddyginiaethau sydd ddim wedi eu cymeradwyo gan y gwasanaeth iechyd.
Ddechrau mis Mai daeth y cyhoeddiad fod Irfon ymhlith y bobl fydd yn cael eu hanrhydeddau gan Orsedd y Beirdd, wedi i'r sefydliad benderfynu ei urddo gyda'r Wisg Las yn Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Môn eleni.
Bydd yn cael ei gofio am ei ymgyrchu brwd dros hawliau cleifion canser, ac am ei allu i edrych ar yr ochr gadarnhaol o fywyd waeth pa heriau yr oedd yn ei wynebu.
Mae'n gadael ei wraig Rebecca, a phump o blant. | Mae'r ymgyrchydd canser a sylfaenydd ymgyrch Hawl i Fyw, Irfon Williams, o Fangor, wedi marw yn 46 mlwydd oed. | 39857960 |
It's blatantly obvious to say so, but winning matches is the only way for a manager to stay in their job. How they do that, though, is down to an individual's philosophy and beliefs.
There are many ways to win football matches, and winning to most of us is the be all and end all. But style is more important to some than others.
Brendan Rodgers is widely regarded as one of the brightest coaches in the English game.
His philosophy of pure, total football is what he believes in and one of the reasons why Liverpool received so many plaudits during the season when they finished second in the Premier League.
He is the blueprint for all young aspiring coaches in this country. However, his recent sacking shows that even the best coaches might not always achieve the results that their work deserves.
During their recent recruitment process for a new manager Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony was vocal on his opinions about how style was extremely important to him and the club's fans.
New manager Graham Westley will have taken the job knowing full well that winning games was vital, but so was the way in which they won those games.
Most football fans would agree that Sam Allardyce did a fantastic job at West Ham. He got the team promoted from the Championship and made them an established team in the Premier League.
However, he didn't ever seem to be fully accepted by the West Ham fans as his style of football wasn't necessarily to their liking and was replaced by Slaven Bilic this summer.
Lower down the levels it might be more of a case of getting enough results to buy yourself time to implement your own philosophy.
Unless a successful manager moves up the ladder to a new club, usually an incoming manager inherits a team and a squad that has been used to losing.
To change a mentality within the squad is not as simple as clicking your fingers and working magic and most managers will want to bring in their own players.
However, at clubs lower down the scale players will not walk away from their contracts and clubs will not be able to afford to pay players out of those contracts and bring in new players.
Therefore, managers might be stuck with players they might not necessarily want but they might need to utilise to get enough points to buy the time to gradually change the squad around.
The first job that a manager takes is vital. The stability of the club, the relationship with both the club's board and the club's fans and the finances of a club are extremely important for any manager - let alone an inexperienced manager. Few are lucky enough to be picky so most have play the cards they are dealt.
Our manager at Wycombe Gareth Ainsworth is currently ninth in the list of longest-serving managers after only just over three years in the job.
The team ethos has evolved over those three years until he now feels like he has been able to really stamp his own style and beliefs on every member of the squad. To buck the trend and survive for such a long period in his first appointment shows what a brilliant job he is doing.
It's a fascinating vocation and one that can deliver extreme highs and lows. It seems that once it gets you it's hard to put it down. | The managerial merry-go-round race is at full tilt after Brendan Rodgers' sacking by Liverpool, Dick Advocaat's resignation from Sunderland and Fleetwood getting rid of Graham Alexander. | 34465062 |
The book - Family Album (Mrs S. Greg's) 1800-1815, Quarry Bank and Ireland - was spotted for sale online by James Cummins Bookseller in New York in 2012.
A member of the Greg family has helped return it to the National Trust-run Quarry Bank Mill museum in Wilmslow.
How it ended up in the United States is not known, said archivist Ally Tsilika.
Described as one of the best preserved textile mills of the Industrial Revolution, the Grade II listed Quarry Bank Mill, which is near Manchester Airport, was at the centre of the North West's cotton production between the 1780s and 1920s.
Ms Tsilika said: "As soon as we opened its gilded pages we knew we had to have it back and we hope one day it will be on display for the visitors to Quarry Bank."
A researcher spotted the book on sale but was unable to pay the $4,000 (£2,725) asking price.
Ms Tsilika said months later Andrew Greg, a descendent of the family which built and ran Quarry Bank Mill, came across it and managed to buy it for $3,200 (£2,180).
"Andrew very kindly offered us first refusal of the album as he felt it belonged in our archive and in its original home at Quarry Bank," she said.
The National Trust describes the album as a kind of visitors' book which was kept by Hannah Greg at Quarry Bank House. Guests were asked to enter either a poem, watercolour, sketch, pressed flowers and even musical scores.
Hannah's niece Mary Lyle left a piece of music about the River Bollin, which runs through nearby Wilmslow. | A family album which belonged to the owners of a Cheshire cotton mill which was at the centre of the Industrial Revolution has been returned to the UK. | 32293392 |
Mark Jones, 45, of Cwmbran, denies murdering five-week-old Amelia Jones.
Prosecutor Paul Lewis told Newport Crown Court Mr Jones did not like Amelia's father Ian Skillern and after her birth said she looked like him.
The court heard that Amelia died after suffering a bleed to the brain and a fractured skull.
Mr Jones was looking after Amelia at her home when she was injured in November 2012.
He said he fell with Amelia in his arms on one occasion and passed out while holding her on another.
In summing up, Mr Lewis said: "Mark Jones did not like the fact that Amelia Jones looked like her father."
He described Mr Jones as a liar of "Oscar-winning talent", saying Amelia's injuries were more commonly associated with a "motor vehicle crash or falling down a flight of stairs".
Mr Jones denies murder and the trial continues. | A man accused of murdering his baby granddaughter disliked her because she looked like her father, a court heard. | 32431755 |
Most of the people who died were working on farms during torrential rains on Tuesday, reports said.
Lightning strikes are common in India during heavy monsoon rains.
Fifty-six people died in Bihar while 37 people were killed across Uttar Pradesh, Jharkand and Madhya Pradesh.
"Many of the victims are children and women," Anirudh Kumar, a senior official at Bihar's disaster management agency, told AFP news agency.
One man taken to hospital in Rohtas said: "When it was raining, we immediately took shelter. It [lightning] hit us there, and then we fell unconscious.
"We could not understand what had happened. Then in the middle, when I regained consciousness, I realised that I had been hit by something."
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "deeply anguished" by the loss of life.
At least 2,000 people have died in lightning strikes in India every year since 2005, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
India receives 80% of its annual rainfall during the monsoon season, which runs between June and September.
Source: Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
Climate change 'will make lightning strike more'
How do you recover from being struck by lightning? | At least 93 people have been killed and more than 20 injured by lightning strikes in the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, officials say. | 36593856 |
The social media site forecast earnings of $0.55 per share - far below analysts expectations of $0.74 per share.
LinkedIn also reported a loss of $8m (£5.4m) for the year, compared with a $3m profit in 2014.
LinkedIn has been investing heavily in expansion outside the US, and said it plans to continue those efforts.
"We enter 2016 with increased focus on core initiatives that will help drive growth and scale across our portfolio," said chief executive Jeff Weiner.
The company also said it was phasing-out one of its newer advertising services that had not worked out as planned.
The decision means the company will forego $50m in sales in the short term. | LinkedIn shares dropped 26% after the company projected lower than expected profits for the first quarter of 2016. | 35499112 |
At the conference at Lancaster House in London, delegates from 46 different countries and 11 UN organisations have signed The London Declaration.
This outlines the steps that need to be taken to stop animal poaching, which governments agreed needs to be treated as a serious crime.
The illegal trade in wildlife is worth about $19bn dollars a year.
The London declaration states that investigating the links to corruption and organised crime needs to be made a priority.
The 46 countries have also committed to improving cross border cooperation - and to strengthening laws and policing.
By Rebecca MorelleScience reporter, BBC World Service
The London Declaration could be a pivotal moment for wildlife.
With four African presidents - as well as delegates from China and Vietnam - among the signatories, the illegal animal trade has been pushed from the conservation agenda to the political one.
But now the hard work begins.
The commitments agreed will need to be put into action - fast. Conservationists urge that there's no time to spare because the survival of these key species is on the line.
But has the declaration gone far enough - especially when it comes to the ivory trade?
Some NGOs have called for a total ban of all ivory sales and the destruction of stockpiles around the world.
Without this, they say, poaching is unlikely to stop.
With tens of thousands of rhinos, elephants and tigers being killed each year, these species face a real risk of extinction.
The bulk of poaching takes place in Africa, but much of the demand comes from Asia, where animal products, such as rhino horns, are used in traditional medicine or are bought by the rich as trophies.
Speaking at the conference, the UK's Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "The illegal wildlife trade is a global problem and it matters deeply to all of us gathered here today.
"We need to show the world our political commitment at the highest level across the globe to addressing this before it is to late."
Actions from the meeting include:
Conservationists broadly welcomed the news, but they say action will be need to be taken quickly.
Heather Sohl, chief species adviser at WWF-UK, said: "Governments signing the London Declaration today sent a strong message: Wildlife crime is a serious crime and it must be stopped.
"This trafficking devastates species populations, but also takes the lives of rangers, impedes countries' economic development and destabilises society by driving corruption."
Dr John G Robinson, chief conservationist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said the illegal trade involved "well-financed and well-armed syndicates".
He commented: "The declaration calls for governments to crack down on these criminals with stiffer penalties and more aggressive investigation and prosecution, including addressing the corruption and bribery that facilitate these crimes.
"It further calls for addressing this crisis at all points of the supply chain - where the animal is killed, where the parts are trafficked, and where the products are purchased."
Prince Charles and The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, attended the meeting, hosted by the UK government.
The conference heard from the presidents of Botswana, Chad, Gabon and Tanzania, and the foreign minister of Ethiopia.
President Khama of Botswana said that he would put the country's ivory stockpiles out of reach of the markets.
As an additional pledge, the leaders of Botswana, Chad, Gabon and Tanzania have agreed to a moratorium on the ivory trade for at least 10 years, as part of an elephant protection initiative.
While the trade of ivory has been banned under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) since 1989, some states have been granted permission to sell their ivory stocks in the past.
In 1999, CITES authorised a "one-off" sale of stockpiled ivory from Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to Japan, and in 2008 Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe sold their stocks to buyers in China and Japan.
In essence, by issuing a 10-year moratorium, the four African states are saying they will uphold the ban, and not ask for permission from CITES to sell any of their ivory.
Follow Rebecca on Twitter | Governments from around the world have vowed to take action on the illegal trade in wildlife. | 26172179 |
Proposals already exist for a £17m museum at Auckland Castle in Bishop Auckland, where religious paintings by Spanish artist Francisco Zurbaran hang.
Now planning permission for additional schemes costing more than £7m is to be sought before the end of the year.
They include a £3.5m gallery dedicated to Spanish art and a £1.5m study area.
Auckland Castle Trust, which owns the former Bishop's home, said it hoped the redevelopment would attract 130,000 visitors a year.
Building work is due to begin in 2015 and take about three years.
The castle's current biggest attractions are the Zurbaran paintings, which have hung in the castle for 250 years.
Trust chief executive David Ronn said: "Our aim in all this is to be a catalyst for the regeneration of Bishop Auckland and especially the historic and very fine Market Square.
"The work of the Trust over the last two years has created 40 jobs, with 80% of those employed living within 20 miles of the castle and there are many more to come." | Further development plans have been announced for a County Durham castle which was home to the Bishop of Durham for 800 years. | 30464455 |
Surgery was suspended for two weeks at Leeds General Infirmary's paediatric heart unit after data suggested a higher death rate than average.
A year-long NHS England review has concluded the unit "does not have an excessive mortality".
But it also found that some families of very sick children received poor care.
Operations at the hospital's unit were suspended on 28 March 2013 after NHS England raised concerns about data on mortality rates at the centre.
The suspension came just a day after a decision to stop children's heart surgery at the hospital - as part of an England-wide reorganisation of services - was quashed in the High Court.
Operations were allowed to resume at the unit on 10 April last year after an investigation revealed the mortality data was flawed.
A two-pronged review was launched by NHS England, one part examining the unit's mortality rates and the other looking at the experience of 16 families who felt they had been let down by the unit.
That review has found mortality rates, focusing on the 35 children who died after surgery between 2009 and 2013, show the unit "does not have an excessive mortality".
Mike Bewick, NHS England's deputy medical director, told Radio 4's Today programme that, although services at Leeds were found to be safe, he was "devastated" by some of the findings of the review.
He apologised to the families of sick children who were found to have received poor care, and insisted healthcare was "moving towards a much more compassionate type of medicine".
Politicians needed to work more closely with the medical profession to "align what's best practice", he said.
Sir Roger Boyle, the previous head of the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (Nicor), resigned as England's so-called "heart tsar", when Nicor flagged concerns about Leeds last year.
He later said he would not send his own child there.
By Dominic HughesHealth correspondent, BBC News
Almost a year ago, the children's heart surgery unit in Leeds was plunged into crisis when surgery was suspended after safety concerns were raised with NHS England.
The unit was allowed to resume work but a broader inquiry was set up into patient deaths and how complaints were handled.
Today's report confirms the unit is safe and running well, but finds serious problems with the care offered to 16 families of very sick children.
Their testimony is heart-rending. The report details how, at a time of extraordinary stress, they experienced a lack of compassion, poor counselling and badly handled complaints.
Hundreds of children are treated at the Leeds unit every year so 16 families represents a tiny minority who had a bad experience.
But the report makes clear that every single one of them is entitled to the best possible care.
In the words of this report, their stories need to be not just listened to but heard.
He told the Today programme the behaviour of politicians who had campaigned to save the unit had been "downright disgraceful" and that children should be cared for in an "atmosphere that was caring and compassionate".
He said there had been an "overwhelming consensus" in about 2006 that the NHS needed fewer larger child surgical centres that could provide a "comprehensive and safe service".
Michelle Elliot, whose daughter Jessica was left with brain damage after her treatment at Leeds, said changes still needed to be made.
"There are numerous recommendations for the trust to work on as part of that report," Ms Elliot said.
"So it's very unfair, I feel, to say it has a clean bill of health because it doesn't."
Her daughter had a stroke as she awaited a heart transplant and remains in a wheelchair.
"We're the lucky ones. She's still with us," Ms Elliot said.
"There are many families in the group whose children and babies have died."
She added there had been "a lack of kindness, a lack of action, a lack of belief in the parents".
One parent, who has not been named, told investigators they were given "no support" by staff after their daughter had died.
"We were given a leaflet," they said.
"Nobody asked how we were getting home in the early hours of the morning."
Another parent described how a book had gone missing in which their son had been writing about his experiences before his death.
A fourth, a mother, described how she felt pressurised into having an abortion, which was against her beliefs as a Muslim.
Julian Hartley, chief executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said he was "so sorry" for those families and offered them a "heartfelt apology".
He said: "Although we treat 10,000 children a year and do 800 operations, one poor experience is one too many."
A number of actions had already been taken to improve service at the unit, Mr Hartley said.
These included the appointment of three permanent consultant surgeons, a full review of how complaints are handled and the opening of a new £1.75m children's intensive care unit.
"We commit to making sure we derive every ounce of learning from their experience," said Mr Hartley.
Sharon Cheng, of the Leeds Children's Heart Surgery Fund, a charity giving support for children and adults born with congenital heart defects and their families, said she was "surprised" to read the critical comments.
"The trust has learned from this. I know things have been put in place since to address these issues and my sympathy goes out to those families. The whole country has to learn from this."
But Fragile Hearts, a group representing parents who have lost children or seen them suffer medical harm as a result of heart surgery, said the report was "evidence the culture which exists at LGI heart unit takes no account of the emotional, psychological or spiritual needs of children or parents".
In a statement, Fragile Hearts said its members did not believe the changes introduced at the unit went far enough.
"We believe that the changes required are not only in the skill and care provided but in the attitude of those care providers.
"We therefore call for systemic changes within the unit, but above all we hope that nobody else ever has to walk in our shoes."
The Children's Heart Foundation said other concerns, which it had raised with the Care Quality Commission in 2011, had been "totally missed from the report".
Chief executive Anne Keatley-Clarke said: "These include the quality of heart surgery and repeat operations, along with the morbidities of children who had received treatment at Leeds General Infirmary." | A children's heart surgery unit that was temporarily closed last March owing to fears over a high number of patient deaths is safe, a review has found. | 26551617 |
The Howard League for Penal Reform said the time was added on as punishment for breaking prison rules.
It called the adjudications system, where transgressions are tried, "a monster".
A Prison Service spokeswoman said: "It is right that offenders who break prison rules are properly punished."
A prisoner found guilty at an adjudication can face punishments including solitary confinement or extra days on top of their original term.
Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "‎The system of adjudications has become a monster, imposing fearsome punishments when people misbehave often as a result of the dreadful conditions they are subjected to.
"This bureaucratic, costly and time-consuming system of punishments then further feeds pressure on the prisons, creating a vicious cycle of troubled prisons and troubling prisoners."
In Wales' three main prisons - Cardiff, Swansea and Parc - prisoners were collectively given almost 20 extra years on top of the sentences given to them by the courts.
The charity's report described adjudications as "too inflexible to deal sensitively with the needs of vulnerable children and people with mental health problems" and said under the current system, two prisoners breaking the same rule could be given different punishments depending on whether they were on remand or had been sentenced, as well as the category of sentence they had received.
The Prison Service spokeswoman added: "The justice secretary has set out a plan for reform in our prisons, making them places of ambition and endeavour. These crucial reforms will help curb indiscipline and cut reoffending, leading to less crime and safer streets."
Cardiff - 1,229 days
Parc, Bridgend, (G4S) - 4,224 days
Swansea - 1,584 days
Total 7,037 days | Welsh prisoners served more than 7,000 days on top of their sentences last year, a charity has said. | 35087689 |
RAF medic Anna Pollock had just posed for a picture with the prince when she tipped over on the windy track in Bath.
She joked to the prince: "Are you sure you had nothing to do with it?"
In a speech to injured service men and women hoping to compete in Florida in May, the prince urged them to become ambassadors for the "Invictus spirit".
He addressed UK team hopefuls - including Ms Pollock, 33, from Middlesbrough - competing for one of 100 places across 10 sports at the trials at the University of Bath on Friday.
"It's not necessarily about selection but it's about the whole piece, the way it's fixing you, whether it's mental or physical, to be able to be in this process," he said.
Prince Harry also paid tribute to Henry Worsley, the explorer and former Army officer who died while attempting to cross Antarctica unaided, saying he was the "definition of selfless commitment".
The prince, who launched the Invictus Games for wounded or sick service personnel in 2014, was at the university's Sports Training Village to meet some of the athletes competing in the trials.
He served in Afghanistan twice during a 10-year military career.
This year's Invictus Game will be held from May 8 to 12. The trials are being run by Help for Heroes, supported by the Ministry of Defence and Royal British Legion. | Prince Harry rushed to help an athlete competing for a place in the Invictus Games after the wind blew over her lightweight racing wheelchair. | 35441589 |
Tens of thousands marching to the city centre were met with live rounds, tear gas and water cannon.
President Saleh has been battling eight months of street protests.
Separately, the media chief of militant group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was reportedly killed in an air strike.
Witnesses in Sanaa said protesters calling for the resignation of Mr Saleh were marching from their stronghold in Change Square to an area controlled by the elite Republican Guard force, which is loyal to the president.
Many of the wounded were taken by ambulances to a field hospital in Sixty Street.
Anti-government protesters have been camping there for months.
And in a northern district of Sanaa, at least six people were killed in fighting between supporters of President Saleh and Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, a leading tribal chief who has sided with the protesters
Mr Saleh has so far resisted calls from many Western countries to stand down, in spite of saying on several occasions he was prepared to do so.
On 8 October he said in a speech broadcast on state television: "I reject power and I will continue to reject it, and I will be leaving power in the coming days."
Yemen Crisis: Who could take over
Mr Saleh returned to Yemen unexpectedly last month from Saudi Arabia, where he had been receiving treatment after his office was shelled in June.
As well as street protests, he faces an insurrection by renegade army units.
Mr Saleh has repeatedly refused to sign a transition deal brokered by Gulf states, first presented in March, whereby he would hand over power to his vice-president in return for immunity from prosecution.
Meanwhile, Yemen's defence ministry said al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) media chief Ibrahim al-Banna, an Egyptian national, and at least six other militants had been killed in an air strike in Shabwa province on Friday.
Tribal elders in the area said the attack also killed the eldest son and a cousin of US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by the Americans last month.
Some reports said the latest attack also involved pilotless US drones, others that it was by Yemeni planes.
Local officials told Reuters news agency that as many as 24 al-Qaeda militants were killed.
The defence ministry called Banna one of the group's "most dangerous operatives", who was wanted internationally for "planning attacks both inside and outside Yemen".
Local officials said a house where the militants had been meeting had been targeted but the group had already left. The vehicles they were travelling in were subsequently hit and destroyed.
There have been previous reports of Banna's death, including one in January last year, but these were denied by AQAP.
In an apparent revenge attack, militants had blown up a gas pipeline that runs from Maarib province to Belhaf on the Arabian Sea, with flames visible several kilometres away.
Yemen regularly plays down the American role in the country, saying it is supporting Yemen's own counter-terror operations.
A US drone attack in Khashef in Jawf province, about 140km (90 miles) east of Sanaa on 30 September killed Awlaki, a US-born radical Islamist cleric, and US-born propagandist Samir Khan. | Security forces in Yemen have shot dead at least 12 people and wounded 80 others during protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the capital, Sanaa. | 15319980 |
These are "largely preventable patient safety incidents" that should not happen if proper measures are in place.
There were 60 of these incidents in Wales' seven health boards from April 2012 to present.
The Welsh Government said: "Patient safety in Wales is paramount."
Items mistakenly left inside patients following surgery or procedures include vaginal swabs, a surgical blade and a silicone object.
Wrong site surgeries included the wrong joint being injected, the wrong side pleural biopsy, operating on the wrong spinal disc and the incorrect tooth being removed.
Incorrect implants or prosthesis included a hip replacement, a lens and a pacemaker.
One person was also able to fall from a window which was within reach of patients at floor level and could be opened without the use of a tool.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: "Every year, hundreds of thousands of people receive high-quality, safe care in the Welsh NHS.
"However, in an increasingly complicated and modern healthcare system, problems can unfortunately happen.
"When problems do occur, NHS staff are encouraged to report all incidents so they can be investigated openly to promote learning and provide open feedback to patients and their families as part of our commitment to an open safety culture."
Between 2012 and 2016, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg health board had 15 "never events", Aneurin Bevan had eight, Betsi Cadwaladr had 15, Cardiff & Vale had 13, Hywel Dda had four and Cwm Taf had five. There were none in Powys.
NHS Wales publishes an annual list online of all the mistakes made.
Abertawe Bro Morgannwg
Aneurin Bevan
Betsi Cadwaladr
Cardiff & Vale
Cwm Taf
Hywel Dda | A silicone object left inside someone, a patient falling from a window and the wrong person undergoing an exploratory procedure are among "never events" which have happened in Welsh hospitals. | 36662220 |
Highways England has proposed junction 10A, claiming it will reduce congestion at junction 10 about 700 metres (0.4 miles) to the east.
The new junction will use two bridges and connect to the A20 and a new dual carriageway link road built to the A2070 near Sevington.
Project manager Salvatore Zappala said it would "unlock the potential for future growth in the Ashford area".
A nine-week public consultation on the plans will run from 14 January until 17 March.
There will also be a series of public exhibitions in Ashford. | Views are being sought on the building of a new junction on the M20 in Kent. | 35252453 |
Claire Johnson, 41, failed to call an ambulance when daughter Natasha, 21, collapsed after taking heroin in 2013.
A medical expert told Leeds Crown Court had Johnson sought assistance, Natasha's chances of survival would have been "extremely high".
Johnson, of Market Way, Scarborough, was jailed after she pleaded guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence.
Daniel Kedge, 41, who gave Natasha the heroin, was jailed for 16 months after being found guilty of supplying Class A drugs.
Kedge, of Carlton Terrace, Halifax, was cleared of manslaughter by gross negligence.
The court heard Natasha, who was not a heroin addict, had collapsed and begun struggling for breath immediately after injecting the drugs in May 2013.
Rather than call for help, Johnson put her daughter in the recovery position and went to bed.
The following day she noticed Natasha's body was cold and covered her with a towel but later realised she was dead.
Johnson has never given a proper explanation as to why she didn't get help, police said.
Det Sgt Jonathan Sygrove said: "Claire Johnson had a duty of care to Natasha which she quite clearly breached when she failed to call an ambulance for her when she collapsed after taking heroin.
"This was a tragic end to a young life which could most probably have been avoided if the person who was with Natasha in her hour of need had acted in a correct and responsible manner." | A mother who left her daughter to die from a drug overdose has been jailed for two years and eight months. | 31801213 |
Enda Kenny, who has been taoiseach for six years, is set to address questions over his leadership at a meeting of his Fine Gael parliamentary party later.
The 66-year-old has been under pressure to resign from factions within his own party dissatisfied with his leadership.
But his department has confirmed his travel plans as taoiseach for June.
Irish public service broadcaster, RTÉ, has reported that Mr Kenny will lead a two-day trade mission to the United States early next month.
It said he is also due to attend a World War One commemoration in Belgium as taoiseach in June.
Mr Kenny's leadership has been undermined after criticism of his handling of a series of scandals involving An Garda SÃochána (Irish police).
A number of inquiries are under way, after allegations that senior officers tried to smear a whistleblower who raised concerns over corruption in how motorists' penalty points were being recorded.
In February, there had been speculation that Mr Kenny would face a motion of no confidence from his own party.
However, that was avoided after he said he would deal with the question of his leadership "effectively and conclusively" after the St Patrick's Day celebrations in March.
Irish media have been speculating for months on the leadership ambitions of his potential successors. | The taoiseach (Irish prime minister) is expected to clarify his political future on Wednesday night after months of speculation that he is to step down. | 39946040 |
Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) combine businesses, councils and others to decide regional funding priorities.
Communities secretary Eric Pickles described the South East LEP as an "exemplar" body.
But the BBC has learned officials had serious concerns about the size of the South East LEP from the outset.
The area covered by the LEP, which was signed off in 2010, stretches from Eastbourne to Colchester and from Saffron Walden to Folkestone.
It decides on priorities for government spending in the region on areas such as roads, rail, housing and skills and is responsible for distributing about £500m of government money, until 2021.
Original advice from officials within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, seen by the BBC, was that the case for the "natural economic geography" of joining the South East areas together was "weak".
The advice said: "There seems little direct economic link between these areas and it is difficult to see what a large area would add to decision-making."
Reacting to the BBC's discovery, David Burch, of the Essex Chamber of Commerce, said: "I don't think it (the South East) is a functional economic area.
"We think there could be a good case for creating a single-county LEP."
And a senior figure at Essex County Council, who asked not to be identified, suggested that the idea for the South East LEP had little support from the local authority.
But Transport Minister Baroness Kramer said economies did not follow traditional boundaries.
"LEPs have real capability both to monitor and deliver projects. I would assess that this one does," she said.
"I think this is going to be a very successful programme and that is what we should be concerned with - 'does it work?' rather than thinking endlessly if we can find three other ways to think about how we can design it.
"The proof of the pudding is in the eating." | The case for creating a partnership controlling hundreds of millions of pounds of government cash was considered "weak", it has emerged. | 32054552 |
The amount of 7.5bn euros (£5.9bn; $8.4bn) is scheduled to be paid out early next week.
The money is part of a larger deal agreed on in May but depended on a number of reform conditions to be be fulfilled by Athens.
Greece owes its creditors more than €300bn - about 180% of its annual economic output (GDP).
The country is in urgent need of the fresh money from Europe to service two debt payments to the European Central Bank next month.
"This is a welcome breath of oxygen for the Greek economy," the EU's top economic affairs official, Pierre Moscovici, said.
The Luxembourg-based European Stability Mechanism (ESM) said it approved the money to be transferred after Greece's government completed required reforms.
Over the past weeks, the government in Athens pushed through with several reform packages and a plan on long-delayed privatisations.
How bad are things for the people of Greece?
Greece's debt jargon explained
How has austerity worked out for eurozone countries?
€86bn
Eurozone bailout agreed in 2015
€3.6bn Debt repayments due in July
€5.4bn Budget savings agreed
24.4% Unemployment
182.8% Public debt as % of GDP in 2016 (projected)
Eurozone leaders and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) remain at odds over how to move forward with the Greek debt crisis.
"The IMF is not engaged in a programme with Greece," Lagarde told reporters after talks with the eurozone on Thursday.
The international lender said it would not contribute to the latest bailout unless there were concrete plans to cut Athens' massive debt burden.
Last month's deal for an overall amount of 10.3bn euros does not reduce the amount Greece will have to repay.
Instead, debt relief will be phased in from 2018, after Germany's general election late next year. Berlin is one of the main opponents to forgiving part of Greece's debt.
As such, the deal was being seen by many as a compromise intended to buy time. | A fresh tranche of money for debt ridden Greece has been approved by the eurozone's bailout fund. | 36558406 |
An open verdict was recorded in the inquest of 17-year-old Lauren Eley, who died in 2004, in Northampton.
Coroner Anne Pember was told the police notes were destroyed after seven years.
The Eley's family's legal representative, Sefton Kwasnik, called the way police had handled the case a "disgrace".
Mrs Pember said she would be writing to Northamptonshire chief constable Adrian Lee, to say "when an inquest is still live original notes should be retained".
A Northamptonshire Police spokesman said: "An officer's notebook was stored and destroyed after seven years in line with national guidelines.
"It is regrettable that, due to an oversight, a copy of the notes made within that book that relate to this investigation were not retained with the case papers.
"We accept this would have assisted at inquest."
Police did not offer any apology to the Eley family.
The officer involved in the case attended the inquest, but said he could not remember a huge amount of detail because the events had happened so long ago.
He said his note book had been passed to the police administration department.
Miss Eley died at Northampton Hospital on 11 December 2004 having fallen from the Grosvenor centre multi-storey park.
The inquest was told police could not rule out her death was assisted by another person.
And Mrs Pember said: "I cannot presume that her death was accidental."
Mr Kwasnik said : "I think it's a disgrace the way the police have conducted this investigation from the beginning.
"The family had to endure being told it was most likely a suicide, from the start."
The police spokesman said the force had considered several possible causes of death, including "that of accident, misadventure and the involvement of a third party". | The destruction of police notes on the death of a teenage girl who fell from a multi-storey car park 10 years ago, was "regrettable", police said. | 30128684 |
Australians vote on Saturdays and many booths are located at schools, churches and community halls.
These institutions take advantage of the country's high voter turnout by selling sausages, cakes and coffees to waiting voters.
Both the prime minister and opposition leader have been snagged in sausage-related controversies.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten committed a faux pas when he tried to eat his sausage-and-bun combination from the side, rather than from the end.
His unusual technique led to a round of condemnation on social media, with one wag calling it "the lowest moment we have ever seen in politics".
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, meanwhile, skipped the sausage altogether as he voted in Sydney, possibly wanting to avoid a potentially awkward photo opportunity.
The tradition is so popular that two websites have been created to tell voters where to find polling booths with sausage sizzles and cake stalls. The hashtag #democracysausage has been trending on Twitter.
Brisbane man Grant Castner, who runs the Election Sausage Sizzles website, said Google and Twitter were using his data to inform hungry voters of their nearest cookout.
"The Australian Electoral Commission has a download of all the polling booth data … and then I just get schools and anyone holding a polling booth to register on the site, put a description in," he says.
"Since the last election in 2013 we have had a lot of media attention, so I didn't do too much finding on my own this time."
According to the Election Sausage Sizzles site, sausage sizzles and cake stalls are being held at 1,992 polling booths across Australia - just under one-third of the total number. | Barbecues have been fired up at polling booths across Australia for traditional election-day "sausage sizzles". | 36692402 |
Preliminary autopsy results showed the Top Gun director had "therapeutic levels" of the anti-depressant Mirtazapine and the prescription sleep-aid Lunesta in his system.
It added Scott did not have any serious illnesses, including cancer.
The director jumped from Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles on 19 August.
The findings shed no light on a motive for why Scott took his own life.
It had been revealed previously that the director left notes behind in his car including messages to friends and loved ones, but did not explain his actions.
Initial reports after his death suggested Scott had been diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer, but his widow Donna Wilson dismissed the rumours as "absolutely false".
A coroner's spokesman said the final report would be ready in two weeks.
The younger brother of director Ridley Scott, Tony also directed Enemy of the State, Beverly Hills Cop II and Crimson Tide.
At the time of his death, he was reported to be involved in a number of film projects including a sequel to Top Gun, where Tom Cruise was expected to reprise his role as fighter pilot Maverick. | A Los Angeles coroner has confirmed film-maker Tony Scott's death was suicide, caused by blunt force injuries and drowning. | 20039435 |
An unprecedented operation by the Italian Navy is under way off the coast of Libya to recover the wreck of a migrant boat that sank in April last year - leading to the deaths of up to 700 migrants, the largest single loss of life in the Mediterranean in decades.
Only 28 people survived the sinking on the night of 18 April - among them, a 27 year old Tunisian man who is currently facing trial in the Sicilian port town of Catania, accused by prosecutors of being the skipper of the migrant boat and part of a network of Libyan smugglers.
Mohammed Ali Malek faces charges of multiple manslaughter, human trafficking and irresponsible sailing of the boat. Prosecutors have asked for an 18-year jail sentence.
In an exchange of letters with BBC News from his jail in Catania, Mohammed Ali Malek claims that he is innocent, not the captain but just another migrant who paid 2,250 Libyan dinars ($1,600) to get on the boat that would take him to Italy, where he had lived in the past.
But court documents show that all the other survivors - including a Syrian man also under arrest and accused of being second-in-command - told officials that not only was Mohammed Ali Malek captain of the boat, but that his lack of sailing skills had caused the tragic collision with a Portuguese ship that had come to its rescue.
Few concrete details are known about the exact dynamics of the accident - so what do we know now about how this overcrowded migrant boat ended up in the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea?
The boat's journey started, like so many others, on the beaches near Garabulli, in Libya.
The migrants, most of them sub-Saharan Africans fleeing from poverty and conflict in their home countries and further violence in Libya, were being held at an illegal centre near the coast.
From there they were taken in small groups by dinghy to a wooden fishing boat anchored off the coast, where they amassed on the deck and inside the hull.
The 27m-long (90ft) boat is thought to have been carrying more than 800 migrants.
Mohammed Ali Malek was one of those operating the dinghies, survivors told Italian prosecutors. As soon as the fishing boat was packed with migrants, he took the helm and brandished a wooden stick to coerce migrants to follow his orders, they said.
The boat set off at the crack of dawn on 18 April.
According to the survivors, it quickly became evident that he had little experience commanding a boat. They claim he did not know how to read a compass and that he asked for help from the migrants huddled on the deck.
Hasan Ksan, a Bangladeshi survivor, said that the captain had used a satellite phone several times to communicate with his colleagues back onshore in Libya - and that he was armed with a gun.
The boat continued its journey for several hours - and by mid-afternoon, the captain of the boat followed what by now is the regular procedure for migrant boats making the long crossing.
Once in international waters, he placed a distress call with the Italian coast guard in Rome and asked for rescue.
Abdullah Ambrousi was the commander of the King Jacob, an enormous Portuguese container ship that was sailing nearby.
He received a call from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome, asking him to change course and attend to the fishing boat in distress.
He did, and after around two hours, the radar on his ship detected the presence of a vessel in its vicinity. But it was so small, and it was so dark, that it was impossible to see anything with the naked eye.
The King Jacob started heading towards the signal and Capt Ambrousi ordered his crew to switch on one of boat's headlights.
Now he could see it - a wooden, rickety and extremely overcrowded fishing boat.
Inside the hull of the boat was Ousmane Gano, a 31-year old migrant from Senegal.
The migrants on the upper deck of the vessel told those amassed inside that they could see "a big ship" that had come to their rescue, he explained.
"They asked us not to move to keep the boat stable."
Capt Ambrousi told Italian investigators that he steered the King Jacob to avoid collision, but that whoever was sailing the migrant boat continued to do so erratically, as if trying to "follow" the King Jacob's sudden change of route.
He then insists that he ordered his crew to switch off the King Jacob's engines to avoid a collision.
But from the bridge, he saw tragedy unfolding before his eyes.
The fishing boat started to sail at slow speed towards the King Jacob - but then, Capt Ambrousi said, it suddenly increased its pace.
The small vessel's bow rammed the King Jacob's port side, and then its starboard side scratched against the huge merchant ship.
The fishing boat manoeuvred as if sailing backwards - but started to lose balance possibly because of the agitation among the panicked migrants who could see what was happening.
It started to capsize, and in less than five minutes, Capt Ambrousi told investigators, the fishing vessel had sunk.
Mohammed Ali Malek's timeline of the events that night is not entirely different from what other survivors narrate - but in his account, the "role" of captain is played by "an African man" he cannot identify because "he maybe died in the sinking".
He admits in his letters that the two vessels crashed into each other, although in his account it was the King Jacob that hit the small boat.
And he alleges that the migrant boat lost balance because "the big blades of the propeller [of the King Jacob] created big waves that capsized our ship and we all fell into the sea".
Mohammed Ali Malek sent BBC News a drawing showing his version of how events unfolded - but prosecutors in Catania have no doubt that he is to blame for the crash.
His "naive, careless and negligent" sailing of the migrant boat caused the collision, reads his formal accusation, which highlights that the accounts of the crew of the King Jacob and the survivors match almost completely, and that the marks left on the King Jacob's port side also confirm this account.
Mr Malek and his lawyer, Massimo Ferrante, made a formal request to include the recordings of the King Jacob's black box as evidence in the trial - the tribunal refused their request, mainly because the recording had been erased with time.
Survivors, including Mr Malek, describe the complete chaos that followed the capsizing of the ship.
In his letter, he told BBC News how he climbed on to fishing nets and described the scene.
"From there I could see many people at sea, shouting for Allah, who sadly then died", he wrote.
Letter from Catania prison, May 2016
Interviewed by UK-based research group Forensic Oceanography, a Sierra Leonean survivor told how, once he was safe on the deck of the King Jacob, he could see his friends swimming for their lives, trying to hold on to ropes that had been thrown to save them.
An Italian Coast Guard vessel and several other commercial ships rerouted to the scene joined the recovery effort - but only 28 people were saved.
The number of dead is still uncertain - so far, 171 bodies have been recovered.
Italian authorities fear that, once the wreck of the boat has been examined at port, the total death toll from the event could reach up to 700.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Ali Malek awaits the next hearing of his trial in Catania.
"To the relatives of the victims I would say that all the accusations against me are influenced by the statements from the other survivors," he wrote in one of his letters.
He insisted that he had been accused because he was the only Tunisian on board, and that his alleged deputy Mahmud Bikhit, who is also on trial, was unfairly accusing him of being the captain.
"I'm neither a criminal nor a murderer," wrote Mohammed Ali Malek. "I thank God that I'm alive after saving myself from death which many people on the boat faced and started reciting the Quran as they were drowning."
Many believe that the criminal charges against him are only a part of the picture when trying to understand how such a massive loss of life could happen in the Mediterranean.
In their report Death by Rescue, researchers Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani claim that the lack of a proper search and rescue operation off the coast of Libya put lives an peril - and was a crucial factor in determining the fate of the migrant boat.
A few months before the accident, Italy had suspended Mare Nostrum, its wide-ranging operation in the stretch of sea between Sicily and North Africa. Operation Triton, managed by the EU's border agency Frontex, replaced it.
Triton's area of coverage was much more limited in scope, which meant that commercial ships travelling in the area - like the King Jacob - were called upon more often to assist migrant boats in trouble.
These merchant ships, the researchers write, were "unfit to carry out the large-scale and particularly dangerous rescue operations involving migrants", and that the burden on them was "excessive".
The April 2015 sinking, together with another one a few days earlier which left a smaller number of victims, marked a turning point in the EU's management of the migrant crisis.
The reach of search and rescue operations was extended, while a separate mission was launched to fight smugglers at sea, with mixed results.
Meanwhile, relatives of the hundreds who died that April night will find consolation in the fact that they finally may be able to bury their loved ones, thanks to Italian efforts to identify all bodies.
When announcing the plan last year, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said that these people were pursuing "freedom", and giving them a proper burial was a gesture of "humanity". | Web production by Christine Jeavans | 36278529 |
Hundreds of people from indigenous, student and labour groups clashed with police, who deployed water cannon.
The summit has been overshadowed by territorial disputes over China's activities in the South China Sea.
Leaders have also called for greater global anti-terror co-operation following the Paris attacks.
A draft copy of a declaration due to be released later today says leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit "strongly condemn" all acts of terror and stress the "urgent need for increased international co-operation and solidarity in the fight against terrorism".
Read more: What got Filipinos talking at the Manila meet?
Protesters gathered on Thursday morning in the Manila Bay area, where the Apec meetings have been held.
The anti-globalisation protesters were calling for Apec to be dismantled, accusing the trade bloc of taking advantage of poorer countries.
A protest leader, Renato Reyes, told the Associated Press news agency: "Apec and imperialist globalisation have only benefited the rich countries while further impoverishing developing countries like the Philippines."
Tens of thousands of soldiers and policemen are already in place in the sprawling city to guard against disruptions and potential terrorist attacks.
Demonstrators carrying big placards under the hot sun are chanting anti-Apec, anti-US slogans such as "down with Apec, down with America".
Hundreds of police with batons, truncheons and shields are blocking the protesters from getting near the venue.
Trucks with water cannons are poised to disperse the crowds. Police are currently holding their ground against protesters.
They are also playing loud dance music to drown out the unified voices of the protesters.
World leaders at the summit have been discussing issues such as climate change and regional economic co-operation.
But the dispute among several Asian countries who have overlapping claims in the resource-rich South China Sea has also been in focus.
US President Barack Obama earlier called for China to stop its land reclamation work on disputed reefs. He also signed defence agreements with the Philippines, one of several countries which is in dispute with China on the issue.
Mr Obama said there was a need for "bold steps to lower tensions" in the region.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is also attending the conference but has yet to comment on the issue. China says its work is legal and it has no plans to militarise the new artificial islands. | Large protests are taking place on the streets on the Philippine capital, Manila, where leaders are attending the Apec regional trade summit. | 34864978 |
Facing questions for the first time from the cross-party Brexit select committee, Mr Davis emphasised it was his job to return control of immigration policy to British ministers.
The Brexit secretary told MPs that immigration control would then be decided by the home secretary but, he added, policy "would be in the national interest" and would affect "all levels of skill" based on "a judgement as what is necessary for universities, business and fruit picking".
His remarks may reassure some in business who fear access to the UK after Brexit may be limited to high-value, highly-skilled talent from overseas.
The aim of reducing net migration into the UK to the tens of thousands was "still there," he insisted.
"My own view of this... is that it will be exercised in the national interest which does not mean suddenly denying universities' Nobel Laureates coming there, or denying businesses the ability to transfer managers from Tokyo or Berlin or wherever and it doesn't involve shutting down all the fruit picking farms in the country either".
He made clear the government's opening ambitions for the "Article 50" negotiations on leaving the EU had yet to be worked out and the promised outline of the UK's negotiating plan would not be published before February.
Officials were still working through the needs of 57 separate sectors, he explained.
He refused, though, to discuss how much detail would be released. "I want to be as open as we can, but we must be careful we are not undermining our own position".
Mr Davis indicated he might be prepared to give confidential briefings to MPs on the committee, in private session, on the progress of negotiations once underway. | David Davis has moved to reassure British firms and universities their interests will not be needlessly harmed by migration controls after the UK leaves the European Union. | 38319339 |
Consultation had been carried out on the move to shut sites with an electorate of less than 100.
Scottish Borders Council was told the costs of running a rural polling place were far higher than in urban areas.
However, councillors backed a motion by leader David Parker to retain the sites after the high referendum turnout.
When the consultation on the move to close polling places was agreed in March there were 10 areas affected.
Two locations - Manor and Abbey St Bathans - were subsequently removed as the electorate had risen into three figures.
It left Cappercleuch, Crailing, Cranshaws, Edgerston, Hermitage, Hownam, Makerstoun and Tweedsmuir still on the list for potential closure.
The cost per elector was said to be much higher at the smaller sites - about £24.20 at Cappercleuch compared with £1 per head at an urban polling place.
The move provoked concerns from local community councils which said closures would "deny residents the opportunity to fully engage with the democratic process" with postal votes seen as a "poor alternative".
Many of them urged the council to look at cutting the number of polling stations in bigger communities if they wanted to make savings.
Now councillors have agreed to retain the sites which were under threat of closure. | Councillors have agreed to keep eight polling stations in the Borders open due to the "democratic boom" during the Scottish independence referendum. | 30118805 |
Thousands of athletes of all abilities took part in the new day-long event around St James' Park.
Paralympic athletes David Weir and Richard Whitehead also took part in the race which finished outside Buckingham Palace.
The Bupa Westminster Mile featured more than 30 races.
Farah said: "I am very happy to be part of this new event taking place on the most famous mile in the world, following the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics in London.
"Such an event inclusive of all age groups and abilities, is a great legacy from the (Olympic) games and an inspiration to all."
Lisa Dobriskey - who in 2009 broke the four minute barrier to move second behind Kelly Holmes on the British all time ranking list for a 1500m race - also took part.
The event was organised by the London Marathon in partnership with Westminster City Council.
London Marathon race director Hugh Brasher said: "Britain has an amazing heritage in the mile, with Sir Roger Bannister being the first person to run under four minutes and more latterly the 1980s world record holders Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Steve Cram.
"We believe that this exciting new event can carry on the great work that London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games did to inspire a generation." | Double Olympic gold medal winner Mo Farah fired the starting pistol on a series of one-mile races in Westminster. | 22673116 |
The 37-year-old is reported to have quarrelled with police after their car was pulled over in the early hours of Friday in Atlanta, Georgia.
She is alleged to have told officers: "Do you know my name?"
According to the Associated Press, she released a statement on Sunday apologising for her behaviour.
"I clearly had one drink too many and I am deeply embarrassed about the things I said," she is quoted as saying, adding that: "It was definitely a scary situation and I was frightened for my husband, but that is no excuse."
Police officers stopped Ms Witherspoon and her talent agent husband James Toth after their car was spotted swerving across its lane, the online Hollywood magazine Variety reports.
Citing the police report, Variety said officers breathalysed Mr Toth - the driver - whom they described as dishevelled and smelling of alcohol.
During the test, Ms Witherspoon refused to heed the officer's request to stay in the car, saying she was a "US citizen" and had a right to "stand on American ground", the report is quoted as saying.
"Do you know my name?" Ms Witherspoon is then reported to have asked the officer. "You're about to find out who I am" and "You're about to be on national news", she is then alleged to have said.
The couple were taken into custody and later released on bail. A court date has been set for Monday.
Ms Witherspoon is reported to be in Atlanta filming her new movie.
She appeared on the red carpet in New York on Sunday for the premiere of her film Mud but did not speak to reporters. | Hollywood actress Reese Witherspoon was arrested for disorderly conduct after police stopped her husband on suspicion of drink driving, US media report. | 22244536 |
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has said it carried out the 15 January attack on the luxury Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso, using fighters from its Saharan affiliate, al-Murabitoun.
Burkina Faso's government says 28 people were killed and a further 56 injured.
This is the first time that AQIM has claimed credit for a high-profile attack in the country.
But it has been active in several countries in the region, including Mauritania, Mali, Niger and its home, Algeria.
While al-Murabitoun has previously carried out several attacks in Mali, the group was not known to be behind any significant activity in neighbouring Burkina Faso.
The group had previously said that it was behind the abduction in April of a Romanian national in the north of Burkina Faso and issued a video featuring a plea for help by the hostage who worked for a mining company.
The attack on the Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso is reminiscent of a similar armed assault that targeted the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital, Bamako, in November last year.
That involved mass shootings and hostage-taking. Both hotels were reportedly frequented by UN staff as well as Western nationals.
The latest attack also bears striking similarities to the January 2013 attack on the In Amenas gas facility in southern Algeria by al-Murabitoun, which is led by the Algerian veteran jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar. At least 39 foreign hostages were killed.
The Bamako hotel attack was claimed jointly by AQIM and al-Murabitoun. The claim of responsibility was soon followed by a merger between the two groups.
AQIM's leader, Abu-Mus'ab Abd-al-Wadud (aka Abdelmalek Droukdel), warned the French people of further attacks against them if they failed to prevent their government from "leaving alone" Muslims and their lands.
AQIM issued a short written statement via its official account on Twitter on the day of the attack in Burkina Faso in which it indicated that Westerners and UN staff were the target.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook. | The carnage in Burkina Faso's capital marks a new expansion for al-Qaeda's North African branch. | 35338585 |
Darren Say, 46, used the investments to "fund his lifestyle" between 2010 and 2016.
All his clients' money had gone by the time of his arrest, said Essex Police.
Say pleaded not guilty but was convicted at Chelmsford Crown Court of fraud by abuse of position and fraudulent trading.
He was also disqualified from being a company director for eight years.
The court heard Say, from Kestrel Road, Waltham Abbey, invented a pension scheme where he loaned money to investors for their self-invested pensions.
The loans were invested in a property company of which he was also a director.
Det Insp Lee Morton, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: "Darren Say used the mechanism of the pension scheme he developed as his personal cash cow, taking money he was responsible for to fund his lifestyle.
"He has let down his clients, who were persuaded that his pension scheme would provide for them in retirement."
He was sentenced to six years for fraud by abuse of position and two years for fraudulent trading, to run concurrently.
Essex Police will now seek to recoup the stolen money under the Proceeds of Crime Act. | A company director who used £1m of his clients' money as "his personal cash cow" instead of investing it in pensions has been jailed for six years. | 40964989 |
A conservationist has been trying to breed tuatara - which are native to New Zealand - for the last 38 years.
Isolde McGeorge said tuatara, which first appeared 225 million years ago, "really are a living fossil and an evolutionary wonder."
She said she "broke down in tears" when the reptile hatched and that it was an "incredible achievement".
It followed "lots of hard work, lots of stressful moments and lots of tweaking of the conditions", Ms McGeorge added.
See more updates on this and other stories from Merseyside and Cheshire
"Tuatara lived before the dinosaurs and they survived after dinosaurs had died out," she said. "They really are a living fossil and an evolutionary wonder.
"To be the first zoo to ever breed them outside of their homeland in New Zealand is undoubtedly an amazing event."
Source: Chester Zoo
She said the night before the reptile hatched, she spotted "two beads of sweat on the egg".
"I had a feeling something incredible was about to happen and so I raced in early the next day and there she was.
"Immediately I broke down in tears - I was completely overwhelmed by what we had achieved."
The new arrival is the offspring of a pair that came to the zoo from Wellington in 1994, accompanied by a Maori chief.
The keeper said she had waited a "very, very long time" for the hatching, but added: "When you've worked with tuatara for as long as I have you come to realise that they don't do anything in a hurry."
A spokesman said the reptile hatched in December, but the zoo had waited until they were sure it was healthy before deciding to "go public". | A reptile believed to have pre-dated most species of dinosaur has hatched at Chester Zoo for the first time. | 35462092 |
A thumping first-half hit from full-back David Gray, a Jason Cummings penalty on the hour and a deflected Lewis Stevenson shot in the last seconds put Alan Stubbs' team into the last four.
United had a chance to make a fight of it when Simon Murray was put through 12 minutes from time, but Mark Oxley in the Hibs goal denied the striker.
The Championship promotion hopefuls now join Celtic, Ross County and St Johnstone in the semi-final draw on Monday.
This wasn't so much the clash of two teams but the clash of two cultures.
Hibs are buzzing these days. They're making chances and scoring goals, they're conceding little at the back and playing with verve and hunger all around the pitch.
United had the comfort of a win, at last, against Ross County at the weekend, but their recovery was halted emphatically in its tracks right from the get-go.
We wondered if Hibs could match the high-octane tempo they showed when beating Rangers on Sunday - and they did.
In the opening 15 minutes, they carved out three decent chances, their front three of Cummings, James Keatings and Dominique Malonga causing havoc.
United didn't know what to do with any of them. Behind the front three, John McGinn, tidy as you like, pulled the strings. All around the pitch, Hibs displayed a hunger for work and an accuracy in possession that Mixu Paatelainen's side couldn't get near.
The opening goal came on the back of more of that heavy pressure. Keatings had just forced a save from Michal Szromnik in the United goal, a prelude to Mark Durnan pulling off a goal-saving tackle on Cummings.
The United goal was being peppered so often that it was inevitable that the breakthrough would come.
It arrived courtesy of Gray, who rifled a shot past Szromnik in the midst of the onslaught.
The visitors had to content themselves with playing on the break - and it rarely worked.
McGinn almost made it 2-0 direct from a corner, Szromnik scrambling madly to keep it out. It was a frenetic scene in the United defence and a story of their night.
They were vulnerable so often. A sitting duck to a team that is bursting with ideas and goal-threat.
Paatelainen would have given his players a rocket at the break, but it did no good. Less than a minute into the new half, Keatings thumped a shot off Szromnik's post.
Media playback is not supported on this device
United had a moment, when Ryan McGowan flicked an effort on goal, but Stevenson dealt with it comfortably enough and away went Hibs again.
Chances came in a steady flow and soon the second goal arrived too. John Rankin was done for handball in the box and Cummings punished him.
There was scarcely a shred of doubt that he would put it away. The striker has now scored in his last six games. A precious goal machine.
Murray had that chance late on, but he fluffed it. Farid El Alagui came off the bench for Hibs and fluffed one of his own, the fluff to beat all fluffs. It didn't matter.
Stevenson might have been fortunate to see his shot at the end deflect past Szromnik, but the three-goal advantage was entirely just.
Four, five or six goals would have been just. The gulf in class was that wide. | Hibernian strolled impressively into the semi-finals of the Scottish League Cup with a commanding victory over Premiership outfit Dundee United. | 34654756 |
Michael Green, 62, began his 40-minute protest after staff refused to serve him in the drive-through lane of a Skegness branch on 1 August.
At Skegness Magistrates' Court, he denied being drunk in charge of a carriage under the 1872 Licensing Act.
Prosecutors said there was no public interest in continuing the case.
The court heard staff at the fast food chain had refused to serve him "for insurance, and health and safety reasons".
A security guard photographed the former HGV driver, who is registered disabled after a head injury in 1997, talking to a police officer who attended the scene with a breathalyser.
Mr Green, of Clifford Road, Skegness, refused to give a breath specimen. He insisted he was not drunk and that his vehicle was roadworthy, the court heard.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: "We do not believe it is in the public interest to prosecute Mr Green.
"It may be he was part of some form of disturbance at McDonald's on the day in question, but we do not believe it amounted to any criminal offence."
In a statement, McDonald's said it "supported the decision taken by our colleagues based on the risks deemed to be present".
"It was felt in this instance that it was not safe for the operator of the mobility scooter to be in the drive-through area," the company said.
The 1872 licensing act was originally brought in to crack down on anyone caught drunk in charge of a carriage, steam engine, bicycle, a horse or a cow.
Mobility scooters are classed as invalid carriages. | A man accused of being drunk on a mobility scooter while staging a sit-in at a McDonald's drive-through has had the case against him dropped. | 37221525 |
Seven mobsters were gunned down in a Chicago garage. The executioners were thorough, raking their victims' bodies with machine-gun fire even after they had slumped to the ground.
Astonishingly, one man survived. Frank Gusenberg was terribly injured. He had sustained 14 bullet injuries but briefly regained consciousness in hospital.
"Who shot you?" police officers asked. "No-one shot me," he replied. Gusenberg died of his injuries three hours later.
The hit, organised by Al Capone on 14 February 1929, became known as the St Valentine's Day Massacre. It came to symbolise the mob rule that critics said had been brought about by the 1920 Volstead Act, which banned alcohol consumption across America.
Yet, more than 80 years later, India is embarking on an experiment in prohibition that is, in terms of population, already twice the scale of what was attempted in America in the 1920s.
More than 200 million Indians now live in states where the sale of alcohol is banned. The population of America in 1920, when prohibition began, was about 100 million.
The impetus is concern about India's growing alcohol problem.
The number of Indians who drink is low by international standards, only a third of the population, but they are drinking more. Statistics from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development show a rapid increase in alcohol consumption in India, up 55% between 1992 and 2012.
More worrying still is how and what they drink. "Drink to intoxication seems to the goal," said Vivek Benegal, when he launched a major study of Indian drinking habits.
That would certainly explain why Indians overwhelmingly drink hard liquor: the World Health Organization found that 93% of all alcohol consumed was in the form of spirits.
The response has been a huge growth of temperance movements - mostly led by women - just as there was in America at the turn of the last century.
These organisations argue alcohol is at the root of a series of serious and growing social problems, including domestic violence, family debt, petty crime and India's epidemic of road death and injury.
And they have proved a potent political force. There are now bans in four states, and a number of others have hinted they may follow suit, including 80 million-strong Tamil Nadu.
But the evidence in India, just as it did in the US, raises questions about whether bans work.
Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, is a case in point.
It outlawed alcohol in 1958, but contraband liquor is still readily available. Indeed, most villages still have a hooch stall.
And the ban has allowed criminal groups to flourish. There's a thriving industry making moonshine, while illicit alcohol is smuggled in from neighbouring states by a well-established network of bootleggers with - assume most observers - the connivance of police, politicians and officials.
Gujarat's experience almost certainly explains the incredibly tough legislation Bihar, India's third most populous state, passed when it brought in a complete ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol in April this year.
You can now be sentenced to death for making or selling booze in Bihar and can go to prison for life for drinking the stuff.
Claiming, as Frank Gusenberg did, that you don't know anything, won't cut the mustard. The new law holds all family members over 18 guilty if anyone has been drinking in a house.
You can get up to 10 years for failing to inform the police of an offence and entire communities can be held responsible for repeated breaches of the law.
Proceedings have already started against one village where every household faces a fine of Rs5,000 (£56) - quite a sum in a state where the average household income is just Rs36,000 (£405) a year.
Yet, despite the new powers and swingeing punishments, alcohol is still, it seems, widely available in Bihar.
Last month, 13 people in one Bihar village died after drinking some lethal home-brewed hooch during Indian Independence Day celebrations.
They almost certainly won't be the last. Ten thousand people are reckoned to have died after drinking poisonous illegal alcohol in America before the Volstead Act was finally repealed in 1933.
In India there is no sign of the anti-alcohol bandwagon faltering just yet.
Many political analysts believe the canny and charismatic chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, is championing prohibition in the hope that its appeal - particularly with women and Muslim voters - will help power a widely-anticipated prime ministerial bid in 2019.
But he should beware the issue that ultimately ended prohibition in the US.
The antics of mobsters like Al Capone had already turned many Americans against the policy, as did the fact that prohibition hadn't actually brought a huge reduction in alcohol consumption. But the final nail in its coffin was taxation.
After the Wall Street Crash in 1929 came the Great Depression. Tax receipts collapsed and the state and Federal governments were desperate for money. Lifting prohibition was an easy way to raise revenue.
Banning alcohol in Bihar is expected to lose the state Rs40bn (£450m) - a lot of money in India's poorest state.
Perhaps the biggest question for India's prohibitionists will be whether state governments can afford to forgo that kind of cash. | The beginning of the end of the world's most famous experiment in alcohol prohibition came in a hail of bullets. | 37230259 |
Minor incursion by troops are common on the ill-defined 4,057km (2,520 miles) border between China and India.
There are differing perceptions on where the border lies and overlapping claims about the lines up to which both sides patrol. As a result, both Indian and Chinese troops routinely transgress into areas claimed by the other side.
According to the Indian Home Ministry, there have been 334 "transgressions" by Chinese troops over the Indian border in the first 216 days of this year.
Departing from their past practice, however, Indian security forces are now more aggressive with daily patrolling along certain areas on the border and ready to forbid Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de-facto border.
This is partly responsible for the increase in stand-offs between the two sides in recent years, but there is a bigger story too.
Border incursions have been repeatedly used by China to keep India on the defensive. Before every major bilateral visit, such incursions tend to take a serious dimension.
In May 2013, Indian officials accused Chinese troops of straying into Indian territory and putting up tents in the Depsang valley in Ladakh, just before Prime Minister Li Keqiang's visit to India. The matter was resolved days before the visit started.
But the latest stand-off coincided with a visit to India by Chinese President Xi Jinping, resulting in embarrassing media headlines.
It is possible that after feting Mr Modi's landslide election victory, Beijing was annoyed by his government's foreign policy moves, in particular with Mr Modi condemning "18th century expansionist mindset: encroaching on other countries, intruding in other's waters, invading other countries and capturing territory" during his recent trip to Japan and India, giving a boost to its ties with Japan and Vietnam days before Mr Xi's visit.
The Chinese forces might also be probing Indian defences along the disputed border and testing India's willpower to stay the course.
The Chinese have invested in border infrastructure much more efficiently than India, where border management continues to suffer from serious deficiencies.
With its repeated transgressions, Beijing has underscored Indian vulnerabilities and the potential costs of challenging China. And with every intrusion, China changes the ground realities at the border, gaining ever more territory in the process and redrawing the map in its favour.
However, it is not readily evident if such an approach would benefit China strategically.
Many believe China has failed to use the opportunity that Mr Modi coming to power gave to Beijing to re-examine the assumptions of its bilateral ties with India.
Mr Xi's visit was widely viewed in India as a damp squib. Even on the economic front, the visit was a disappointment.
There were media reports in India of China pledging $100bn (£61bn) of investment in India. However, only $20bn-worth of deals could be finalised over the next five years.
Officially, Beijing has maintained that Mr Xi's visit to India helped in removing "some suspicions" between the two nations, pushed the ties to a "new age", and that an "important consensus" was reached on politically resolving the border issue through friendly consultation.
But on the eve of his visit to the US, Mr Modi is challenging Beijing by asserting that India cannot close its eyes to problems underscoring that "we are not living in the 18th Century".
Given the turmoil it faces on its eastern flank, it is in China's interest to ensure that India does not join the US-led balancing coalition in Asia.
But with its hard line on the border issue, Beijing might just push New Delhi into a tighter embrace of Japan and the US.
Harsh V Pant is Professor of International Relations at King's College, London. | After a two-week standoff, India and China have agreed to pull back troops from their disputed border, but such incidents have been increasing and are unlikely to go away, says analyst Harsh V Pant. | 29373304 |
Warburton, 27, has been sidelined with a shoulder injury since 30 April and missed Sunday's 27-13 loss to England.
Prop Paul James will miss the first Test match in Auckland with a calf injury, but coach Warren Gatland hopes he will face the Chiefs on 14 June.
Second rower Alun Wyn Jones is in line to win his 100th cap for Wales in the game at Eden Park.
Wales have not beaten the All Blacks in 26 matches since 1953.
The match will be New Zealand's first since beating Australia 34-17 in the 2015 World Cup final.
Lock Luke Charteris will join up with the Wales squad on Saturday after being released by French side Racing 92.
Charteris and Clermont Auvergne centre Jonathan Davies both missed the defeat at Twickenham because they were on club duty, though Davies has already joined the Wales camp in New Zealand.
Hooker Ken Owens will also be ready for the game after overcoming a back problem, but blindside flanker Dan Lydiate has been ruled out of the tour because of a shoulder injury.
He has been replaced by Cardiff Blues open-side Ellis Jenkins, who is 23 and uncapped.
Gatland described Jenkins, a former captain of Wales Under-20s, as a "young, exciting player" with "pedigree".
He added: "He is a real intelligent rugby player, he's had a very good season, so it's nice for him to have the opportunity to come out here and hopefully gain some experience and maybe get some game time, too.
"If he's not involved in that first game, then hopefully he will get a chance at Hamilton against the Chiefs."
New Zealand lock Sam Whitelock is a doubt for the first Test as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
The All Blacks are already without experienced campaigners Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith who have quit international rugby. | Wales captain Sam Warburton is expected to be fit enough to play against world champions New Zealand on 11 June. | 36441680 |
Robert Semple was being held by al-Qaeda, the United Arab Emirates state news agency said.
He was freed by UAE forces and is "safe and well", Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said.
The oil industry worker, in his 60s, is receiving support from British authorities, Mr Hammond added.
Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan informed David Cameron on Saturday, the WAM agency said.
The agency reported Mr Semple had spoken to his wife by telephone and would return to the UK after medical checks.
The Foreign Office has not officially confirmed his name.
The UK's prime minister tweeted: "I'm so pleased for the family of the British hostage in Yemen - who has been released safe and well. Thanks to the UAE for their help."
Mr Hammond added: "We are very grateful for the assistance of the UAE."
Yemen has seen conflicts between several different groups in recent months, pushing the country "to the edge of civil war", according to the UN's special adviser.
The main fight is between forces loyal to the President, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and those allied to Zaidi Shia rebels known as Houthis, who forced Mr Hadi to flee the capital Sanaa in February.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has also staged numerous deadly attacks from its strongholds in the south and south-east of the country.
Iona Craig, a freelance journalist in the country, told BBC News she was in Sanaa when Mr Semple was taken hostage last February.
She said he had been forced from a car by gunmen and had been missing since.
At the time, there were attempted kidnappings on "an almost weekly basis" in the city, she said.
There are "very few" foreign workers left in the country, Ms Craig added.
She said UAE troops were based in the south, suggesting Mr Semple was being held or was freed in south of the country.
Several Britons have been kidnapped in the country.
UK-born US journalist Luke Somers, 33, was killed by al-Qaeda militants last December as US special forces attempting to free him and South African teacher Pierre Korkie.
He was kidnapped in September 2013 in the capital Sanaa while working as a photojournalist.
In July 2014 Mike Harvey was released five months after being captured, also in Sanaa. | A British national being held hostage in Yemen has been released following a military operation, the Foreign Office has announced. | 34032377 |
The ground at which Cardiff Blues and Cardiff RFC play is physically attached to Wales' Principality Stadium home.
"Dialogue is taking place with many parties regarding the project, including the WRU, as we consider the best way forward," said Holland.
Recent reports have linked Blues with a takeover by the WRU.
The rugby region has a lease from Cardiff Athletic Club (Cac) which ends in January 2022, and it wants a long-term extension so it can redevelop the city centre site.
It wants a 15,000-capacity stadium with a retractable pitch and sliding roof so it can be used as a concert venue, as well as building an exhibition centre, a hotel and flats.
Cac's agreement is needed to allow the redevelopment to go ahead.
It is a body made up of Cardiff tennis, bowls, hockey and cricket clubs which has a clubhouse at the Arms Park.
Holland said that an extraordinary meeting of Cac to discuss the plan is "imminent".
He added: "The whole drive behind this project is to secure the playing of rugby at Cardiff Arms Park and for it to remain the home of Cardiff Blues and Cardiff RFC for generations to come." | Cardiff Blues are in talks with the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) over plans to redevelop Cardiff Arms Park, says chief executive Richard Holland. | 39197251 |
Militia groups aligned to the UN-brokered Libyan Government of National Accord launched an operation in May to rid Sirte of IS and regain control of the city. The battle to expel the jihadists has achieved more success recently with the help of US air strikes.
It has damaged the jihadists, but does not spell the end for their presence in the country.
Losing Sirte is a blow to the group's image. In its propaganda, IS had repeatedly portrayed the city, close to western Europe, as a key position outside of its main areas of operation in Iraq and Syria.
IS turned key buildings in Sirte into its own institutions and prisons, and used the local radio station to air its propaganda.
The city, which was the birthplace of former leader Muammar Gaddafi, also brought IS close to Libya's oil-rich area.
No, but it is still present elsewhere in the country.
Its militants have long been fighting other forces in pockets of Libya's second city, Benghazi, and have recently launched several attacks on its western outskirts.
IS took complete control of Sirte in June 2015 after it was pushed out of its initial stronghold of Derna in Libya's far east by rival militias aligned with al-Qaeda
There are no reliable figures about the number of IS militants in Libya but it is estimated that the group has about 5,000 fighters in the country, many of who were thought to have been deployed in Sirte.
Caught on the back foot, the group may initially dissolve into desert areas and revert to earlier tactics.
Before it lost Derna, the group made its presence felt elsewhere in Libya by carrying out repeated bombings in the key cities of Tripoli and Benghazi, as well as of oil installations partly run by Western companies.
And now, putting up resistance as it loses the battle in Sirte, IS has again been employing suicide bombings as a means of attack.
Some believe IS fighters might flee to remote areas in the south. If they choose this route, they could head for the Sahel-Sahara area, where other jihadists are present and operate relatively freely.
Libya's importance to IS means that the militants may eventually regroup and emerge in another part of the country, seeking to take land that they can then showcase as a major gain.
Bani Walid, another former Gaddafi bastion, is one option for IS fighters. Local media recently indicated that air strikes hit a road in the city's south-east, which reports said were "often used" by IS fighters.
The militants may seek to boost their forces in and around Benghazi.
Or they may head towards Sabratha in the west, where they used to run a large training camp. This site might not hold much appeal, however, as it was the target of a US air strike in February.
Another option is Ajdabiya, which lies between Sirte and Benghazi, where they previously had a presence. There, however, they would have to confront al-Qaeda-linked rivals and the Libyan National Army of the Tobruk-based parliament.
But while the group might want to seize territory, it may struggle achieve this in the face of mounting pressure and US air strikes.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook. | Militants of so-called Islamic State (IS) are on the verge of being ousted completely from their stronghold in Libya's central coastal city of Sirte. | 37188226 |
The organisation's National Council will vote on new reforms at Saturday's extraordinary general meeting.
The reforms are needed to meet a new code of conduct for sport governing bodies - and those which fail to adopt it could lose their funding.
"We must decide how we want our sport to look in the future," added Howden.
"We can choose to be a sport which has a leading role in the public life of this country, or we can choose to turn the clock back 30 or more years."
His statement comes after former British Cycling chief executive Peter King told the BBC that he expected the proposals to be rejected by the National Council, which represents 130,000 members.
King says the board now faces a fight secure a 75% majority required to vote through the changes.
To date, the government has had mixed results persuading sports to adopt its Code for Sports Governance, designed to improve governance standards across sport.
In May, the Football Association's council finally approved reforms, having been threatened with a £15m funding cut.
But earlier this month, the national governing body for table tennis became the first to reject the government's standards and had its full £9m Sport England funding award suspended as a result.
Funding agency Sport England has allocated £17m to British Cycling to boost grassroots participation, while UK Sport is set to invest £26m for its Olympic and Paralympic teams' preparations for Tokyo 2020.
British Cycling is one of the country's best-funded and most successful sports governing bodies and has been the driving force behind the country's unprecedented success in recent Olympic and Paralympic Games - Britain won a combined 33 medals across the Rio 2016 Olympics and Paralympics.
But its continued funding now hinges on complying with sports minister Tracey Crouch's governance code.
From November, boards of governing bodies must be more independent and diverse, and be "the ultimate decision-making body and exercise all of the powers of the organisation".
British Cycling executives - including Howden and chairman Jonathan Browning - have been attending a series of regional meetings in a bid to convince members to support a package of reforms designed to meet the new standards.
These include: | Cycling "could be lost to an entire generation" if £43m of public funding is withdrawn, says British Cycling president Bob Howden. | 40660092 |
Tadcaster in North Yorkshire was split in two on Boxing Day, when the River Wharfe bridge partially collapsed.
The bridge is now due to be finished by 27 January rather than Christmas, after "unusual and persistent" high river levels caused delays.
The arch rings mean stonemasons can start work covering the arches.
David Bowe, of North Yorkshire County Council's Business and Environmental Services, said the arch rings had been lifted in a day early.
He said: "Last night, we managed to lift in the large formwork arch rings which will allow us to get on with the masonry for the arches on Tadcaster Bridge.
"Next the masons will start constructing masonry piers and filling them with concrete, and putting masonry over the arch rings.
"Our new target completion date is 27 January, a month after the original date, but the guys on site are really up for the challenge and determined to beat that date."
New piling and construction of the pier base, the most complex part of the operation, are complete.
Piling would help prevent future scouring of the foundations, which contributed to the bridge's collapse last year, the council said.
The government pledged £3m for repair work within days of the bridge collapse, and £1.4m was given by the region's Local Enterprise Partnership to widen and strengthen the bridge. | Arch supports have been put in place on a Grade II listed bridge damaged by floods last December, enabling the final phase of masonry work to begin. | 37889288 |
Police said the four men, aged 20, 31, 40 and 42, were arrested at addresses in Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Edinburgh, over alleged assaults and disorder.
The operation brought the number of arrests following the game between Rangers and Hibernian to 32.
The men are expected to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Friday.
Det Supt Kenny Graham, who is leading the investigation, said: "This investigation is extensive and involves a significant number of people, however, we remain committed to identifying those involved and rest assured we will identify people and they will be arrested.
"As our investigation progresses, there will be additional arrests and continued police action to track down those responsible.
"I would ask if anyone has any information or knowledge about people involved or for anyone with information, including footage or images, to contact us."
The scenes of disorder at Hampden unfolded after Hibernian won their first Scottish Cup Final in 114 years.
Thousands of Hibs fans invaded the pitch and there were reports of alleged assaults on Rangers players.
A number of Rangers fans also came on to the pitch and clashed with rival fans.
The pitch invasion delayed the presentation of the trophy and there was no lap of honour for Hibs players.
Rangers players were not able to pick up their cup final medals. | Four more people have been arrested in connection with violent scenes at the end of last month's Scottish Cup Final at Hampden Park in Glasgow. | 36547719 |
Information shared by the AFP with Indonesian police in 2005 led to the arrest and conviction of the gang and the execution of the two ringleaders.
Police have been criticised for reporting the men despite knowing they could face the death penalty.
But senior officers said they were unable to arrest the gang before they left Australia for Indonesia.
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were killed by an Indonesian firing squad on Wednesday despite Australian diplomatic pressure.
The AFP will soon be called before a parliamentary committee to explain the decision.
Commissioner Colvin told a media conference on Monday: "If we had had enough information to arrest the Bali Nine before they left Australia we would have done exactly that."
He said the AFP did not know how many members were in the gang or what drugs they were dealing with, which was why they contacted their Indonesian counterparts.
He said media reports that the AFP found out about the gang from a tip-off from the father of one of the gang, were incorrect because the AFP already knew about the syndicate.
He said also reports the AFP had "shopped" the gang to Indonesia in a bid to curry favour with police there were "fanciful and offensive".
However, he admitted one of the investigating officers asked to be removed from the team because he was upset about the risk the gang members might face the death penalty.
Commissioner Colvin also said he could not guarantee that other Australians caught smuggling drugs in countries with the death penalty would not suffer the same fate.
He said police took into account the risk of passing on information, but that police guidelines said they must also work with foreign police.
The case of the Bali Nine
Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan, who made the decision to share information with Indonesia, said he worried about it at the time and ever since.
He said when he made the decision, protecting Australians from drugs was at the forefront of his mind, not Australia's relationship with Indonesia.
"If anyone thinks I have not agonised over this for the past 10 years then they don't know me," he said.
Commissioner Colvin said it was vital Australia worked closely with overseas law enforcement agencies to tackle trans-national crime.
"It is a hard reality but many of these countries still have a death penalty for these offences," he said.
The AFP receives about 72,000 requests a year via Interpol to share information about suspected criminal activity.
In the past three years, it has received about 250 such requests from countries that have the death penalty. Of that number, 15 requests from a range of countries including China were rejected.
Guidelines setting priorities for how the AFP deals with foreign police were strengthened in 2009 and include weighing up the value of such interaction and the risk that suspects could face the death penalty. | The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have defended their role in the arrests of the Bali Nine Australian drug gang. | 32579227 |
Scott Mann, Conservative MP for north Cornwall, has confirmed he will resign at a full council meeting on February 16.
The Wadebridge West councillor said doing both jobs was only an "interim arrangement".
But he has faced criticism over his attendance record at council meetings.
Between July and January he only attended three meetings at County Hall - one of the worst records.
"I knew that doing both roles was only an interim arrangement once I had tied up my commitments I made to the town's residents," Mr Mann said.
"I made it clear to residents that I would endeavour to find a solution to their parking problems, and I planned to use a highways budget that was subsequently withdrawn after the election.
"Wadebridge is now part of a countywide parking review and it seems fit to step aside now."
Mr Mann has represented the ward since 2009 but came under fire after being elected MP for north Cornwall last year.
Adrian Jones, chairman of the north Cornwall Labour Party, previously told the BBC "it was obvious an MP cannot do both roles".
It is not yet known when a by-election will take place. | An MP is to step down from his position as a councillor in Cornwall following calls from local politicians for him to leave. | 35540097 |
Christopher Steele, who runs a London-based intelligence firm, is believed to have left his home this week.
The memos contain unsubstantiated claims that Russian security officials have compromising material on Mr Trump.
The US president-elect said the claims were "fake news" and "phoney stuff".
Mr Steele has been widely named as the author of a memo - which has been published in some US media - that contains extensive allegations about Mr Trump's personal life and his campaign's relationship with the Russian state.
Among the allegations are that Moscow has a video recording of Mr Trump with prostitutes and damaging information about his business activities.
BBC news correspondent Paul Wood said he understood Mr Steele left his home on either Tuesday or Wednesday, before he was publicly named, and was now "in hiding".
He said he had been told Mr Steele had asked his neighbour to look after his cats.
Our correspondent said he had been shown the memos about Mr Trump in October last year, when he was told Mr Steele was "in fear of his life", having spoken out about potential Russian involvement in Mr Trump's election.
He said he had been told by members of the intelligence community that Mr Steele was "extremely, highly regarded" and was thought of as "competent".
The central allegation made in the memos was that Mr Trump was "vulnerable to blackmail", he added.
Mr Steele has not responded to the BBC's request for a comment on the revelations about Mr Trump.
By Paul Wood, BBC news correspondent
Claims about a Russian blackmail tape were made in one of a series of reports written by a former British intelligence agent.
As a member of MI6, he had been posted to the UK's embassy in Moscow and now runs a consultancy giving advice on doing business in Russia. He spoke to a number of his old contacts in the FSB, the successor to the KGB, paying some of them for information.
They told him that Mr Trump had been filmed with a group of prostitutes in the presidential suite of Moscow's Ritz-Carlton hotel.
I know this because the Washington political research company that commissioned his report showed it to me during the final week of the election campaign.
The BBC decided not to use it then, for the very good reason that without seeing the tape - if it exists - we could not know if the claims were true. The detail of the allegations were certainly lurid.
The entire series of reports has now been posted by BuzzFeed.
Read more from Paul Wood
Mr Steele, who was initially named in the US, is believed to be a former member of the Secret Intelligence Service - MI6 - and is a director of Orbis Business Intelligence - which describes itself as a leading corporate intelligence consultancy.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said he had been an intelligence officer - rather than agent - in MI6, who would have run a team of agents as an intelligence gatherer.
However, Mr Steele was now working in the private sector, our correspondent said, adding that there was "probably a fair bit of money involved" in the commissioning of the dossier.
Christopher Burrows, who is listed as a co-director of Orbis alongside Mr Steele, refused to confirm or deny whether the firm had produced the report on Mr Trump.
Founded in 2009 by former British intelligence professionals, the firm - based in Grosvenor Gardens, central London - has a "global network" of experts and "prominent business figures",, according to its website.
Orbis says it offers "strategic advice", as well as mounting "intelligence-gathering operations" and cross-border investigations.
Mr Steele reportedly spent years under diplomatic cover working for MI6 in Russia and France, as well as at the Foreign Office in London.
He is reported to have supplied the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with information on allegations of corruption at FIFA, football's world governing body.
The 35-page dossier on Mr Trump - which is believed to have been commissioned initially by Republicans opposed to Mr Trump - has been circulating in Washington for some time.
Media organisations, uncertain of its credibility, initially held back from publication. However, the entire series of reports has now been posted online, with Mr Steele named as the author.
Intelligence agencies considered the claims relevant enough to brief both Mr Trump and President Obama last week.
But the allegations have not been independently substantiated or verified and some details have been challenged as incorrect by those who are mentioned.
Mr Trump himself was briefed about the existence of the allegations by the US intelligence community last week but has since described them as fake news, accusing the US intelligence services of leaking the dossier. | An ex-MI6 officer who is believed to have prepared a memo claiming Russia has compromising material on US President-elect Donald Trump is now in hiding, the BBC understands. | 38591382 |
In a speech from a balcony at the Ecuadorean embassy in London, he said the files to be published in 2013 would affect "every country in this world".
It is six months since he sought asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault claims, which he denies.
He fears being sent to the US and being punished for leaking diplomatic files.
A crowd of some 80 supporters gathered outside the building, in Knightsbridge, to listen to the 41-year-old Australian - whose website published a mass of leaked cables embarrassing a number of countries.
In his statement, Mr Assange said the US Pentagon had recently described the existence of Wikileaks as an "ongoing crime".
Addressing supporters - some of whom carried candles - the Australian said: "While that remains the case and while my government will not defend the journalism and publishing of Wikileaks, I must remain here.
"However, the door is open, and the door has always been open, for anyone who wishes to use standard procedures to speak to me or guarantee my safe passage."
He also said 2012 had been a "huge year" for the organisation.
During the speech, Mr Assange saluted journalists who reported arrests around the world, adding: "It is from the revelation of the truth that all else follows... our civilisation is only as strong as its ideas are true."
Mr Assange delivered a message from a balcony in August, calling for an end to the diplomatic impasse that began when Ecuador's government granted him political asylum.
Sweden wants to question him over allegations that he sexually assaulted two female ex-Wikileaks supporters while he was in Stockholm to give a lecture in 2010.
Mr Assange entered the embassy after the UK's Supreme Court dismissed his bid to reopen his appeal against extradition. It had given him a two-week grace period before extradition proceedings could start.
Mr Assange has been warned he will be arrested when he leaves the embassy for breaking the terms of his bail conditions, and officers from the Metropolitan Police continue to mount a round-the-clock guard on the building.
A statement from the Ecuadorian ambassador said: "At a time of year when people come closer together, Ecuador reaffirms the solidarity that our country gave six months ago to a person who was being persecuted for thinking and expressing themselves freely.
"Julian has become a guest in this house that we all have learned to appreciate."
Calling for reflection, he went on: "Often it is necessary, as we have done in our beloved country, to stand up and face those enemies of democracy that, far from seeking unity and peace among the citizens of the world, instead seek to ruin socialist peoples and dominate on behalf of small groups of people." | Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said his work "will not be cowed," as he promised the whistle-blowing site would release a million more documents. | 20806355 |
The Renaissance-era building at Oxford University's Christ Church College was evacuated on Saturday lunchtime when fire started in a hot plate area.
Crews from four stations were called to tackle the fire which caused smoke logging to the building.
Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue praised college staff for their swift actions.
Incident commander Paul Webster said: "The quick thinking of the college staff, whose procedures ensured everyone was evacuated safely, and the quick response from the fire and rescue service helped to reduce the impact of the fire on the premises and mitigated damage to the historic building."
The hall, described on the college's website as the "finest surviving section of the college's original foundation", was completed in the 1520s and has been in almost constant use since.
The makers of the Harry Potter films used the site as one of their filming locations and later built a replica of the hall in their London studios. | A 500-year-old great hall which inspired the design of Hogwarts' dining hall in the Harry Potter films has been saved from serious fire damage. | 37967447 |
Wallace, 22, had a two-month spell with the Lions last season, scoring one goal in 14 appearances before being recalled by Wolves in March.
His move to The Den is with a view to a permanent move in the summer.
Centre-back Cooper, 21, has scored four goals in 54 appearances since making his debut for Reading in August 2014.
The England Under-20 international has featured five times for the first-team this season, and had two further outings in the EFL Trophy.
The pair are the south London club's first two signings of the January transfer window.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page or visit our Premier League tracker here. | League One side Millwall have re-signed Wolves midfielder Jed Wallace and brought in Reading defender Jake Cooper on loan until the end of the season, | 38678439 |
Coleman, 27, is said to have suffered minor injuries after members of the public broke into the changing room.
Nottinghamshire Police are investigating the incident which occurred after the day's last race.
Two men and one woman were arrested on suspicion of assault and damage, and another woman for obstructing police.
Meanwhile, a Southwell stewards' report stated that Irishman Coleman, fellow jockeys Adam Pogson and Tom Scudamore, and officials had been interviewed. The information gathered will be forwarded to the British Horseracing Authority.
Coleman told the Racing Post: "Two of them burst into the changing room and when they were asked to leave it all kicked off.
"I think they had drunk that much they didn't know what they were doing."
Coleman, who has won 54 races in Britain this season, partnered Mon Mome in the Grand National on three occasions, but passed up the ride in 2009 when the 100-1 outsider won the race.
He is due to ride at Chepstow on Wednesday. | Police said four people were arrested after an altercation at Southwell racecourse in which jump jockey Aidan Coleman was allegedly punched. | 34396747 |
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