Royal Mail shares have fallen after the company reported lower profits and increased its target for cost savings.

Article: A civil society group found FGM to be common among Muslims in mountain villages in Dagestan. Girls' genitals were cut in primitive homes.
Regional Muslim leader Ismail Berdiyev suggested all women should undergo FGM but later withdrew the remark.
But a senior Orthodox Christian priest, Vsevolod Chaplin, had backed him.
In a Facebook post (in Russian), Archpriest Chaplin expressed "my sympathies for the mufti, and I hope he doesn't retreat from his position because of the howls and hysterics which will start now".
"We Orthodox Christians have different traditions - but that never stopped us respecting the traditions of neighbouring peoples," he wrote.
He said FGM was not necessary for Orthodox Christian women "because they're not promiscuous anyway". But he approved of the mufti's statement that God had created "woman so that she could give birth and bring up children".
"Feminism is a 20th-Century lie," he added.
Mr Berdiyev, the mufti of the North Caucasus, had said earlier that FGM was practised in some villages in Dagestan and that it was necessary to curb women's sexuality.
"It would be very good if this were applied to all women," the Islamic cleric said, adding, "It doesn't stop women giving birth and there would be less debauchery."
Speaking later to Russian media, he said his "joke" had been "twisted" by journalists to make it look like he advocated FGM.
Some Facebook users lambasted the priest's position on FGM. Arik Elman said "you don't have to sympathise with Islam in order to know that FGM is not a commonly accepted part of Muslim tradition, but has regional, tribal roots".
Igor Tetyuev said it was "not the role of a celibate monk" to "discuss women's bodies, childbirth and children".
Irina Gubernatorova said "burning heretics at the stake and drowning witches in sacks were also ancient and glorious Christian traditions - shall we go back to them?"
In its report (in Russian), the Russian Justice Initiative (RJI) said it had interviewed many women in Dagestan and discovered that FGM was widespread...

Summary: A report on female genital mutilation (FGM) in the North Caucasus has sparked a fierce debate in Russia, with some clerics defending the practice.
###
Article: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian national of Moroccan descent, grew up in Molenbeek, a district of Brussels known for its many Arab immigrants and blighted by high unemployment.
The 28-year-old was an associate of attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who is on the run and whose brother Brahim blew himself up in Paris on 13 November.
Brahim died in the Comptoir Voltaire bar, without killing others, while at least six other jihadists carried out deadly suicide attacks elsewhere. They are all believed to have been recruited by the Islamic State militant group (IS).
Abaaoud had been implicated in four out of six foiled attacks since this spring in France and sentenced to 20 years in prison in absentia, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
He added that all the thwarted plots had the same modus operandi, saying the "planning from abroad of a violent act by jihadists (was) from European countries, trained in the use of weapons and then sent to our territory to carry out the attacks".
An international arrest warrant was also issued for Abaaoud, Mr Cazeneuve said.
Abaaoud - alias Abu Umar al-Baljiki - is believed to have joined IS in early 2013.
Who were the Paris attackers?
The Belgian connection
There was confusion about his whereabouts prior to his death, with IS claiming he was in Syria.
The group may have lied about his location to divert attention from him following the Charlie Hebdo attacks and the Verviers raid.
Jihadists often mislead intelligence agencies about the whereabouts of their militants, invoking the concept that "war is deception".
But his presence in France raises big questions about security failings in France and the 28-member European Union.
"No information from European countries he could have passed through before arriving in France was communicated to us," Mr Cazeneuve said.
He added that it was only on 16 November - three days after the attacks - that "intelligence services of a country outside Europe indicated they had knowledge of his presence in Greece," he said, without saying...

Summary: French investigators believe Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the jihadist killed in a police raid on Wednesday, organised last week's Paris attacks which killed at least 129 people.
###
Article: Ian Murray wants to see Yvette Cooper replace Ed Miliband.
But he said if Mr Corbyn triumphed he would take on the shadow Scottish secretary role.
Voting in the election, being fought by Ms Cooper, Mr Corbyn, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall has closed and the winner will be announced on Saturday.
Mr Murray told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that he had made clear in the past that he would "think about serving in a Corbyn shadow cabinet".
He said: "But I think anyone who asks me to serve as shadow Scottish secretary, I'll be accepting of that because we need a Scottish voice in that shadow cabinet. We need to work with the leadership."
Mr Murray added: "I would serve under Jeremy Cobryn's leadership if I'm asked to do so."
The contest has been plagued by internal rows over Labour's direction and concerns that non-party supporters have tried to influence the outcome.
The Labour leadership election was sparked by Mr Miliband's resignation following the party's poor performance at the general election.
The surprise emergence of left-winger Mr Corbyn, a last-minute addition to the race, has led to warnings from his rivals and senior Labour figures, including former prime minister Tony Blair, against a lurch to the left.
The party is also in the process of choosing a new deputy leader, with the result of the ballot also to be unveiled at the leadership conference on Saturday.

Summary: Scotland's only Labour MP has said he would serve in the shadow cabinet of left-winger Jeremy Corbyn if he were to win the leadership of the UK party.
###
Article: The network said in a statement that Mr Trump's decision is "unprecedented" and accused him of "terrorising" debate host Megyn Kelly.
Mr Trump clashed with Ms Kelly at a Fox News debate last year and had demanded she be removed from Thursday's panel.
His decision to pull out has been mocked by his Republican rivals.
The debate is the final one before the first real test of the election campaign, the Iowa caucus on Monday when voters in the state pick their presidential nominee.
"Capitulating to politicians' ultimatums about a debate moderator violates all journalistic standards, as do threats," the Fox News network said in a statement.
There are plenty of reasons Donald Trump's last-minute withdrawal from the Republican debate could be a bad move.
He's on the verge of winning the Iowa caucuses, so why shake things up now? His past debate performances haven't hurt him, and his most recent was probably his best.
What's to gain from squabbling with the most powerful conservative media company in the nation? Already his opponents are blasting him for being afraid of a fight, with Ted Cruz's campaign labelling him "Donald duck".
Yet every time it seems like Mr Trump has made a grievous miscalculation that - at last - will sink his campaign, it ends up as either brilliant strategy or his political armour is just too strong.
So maybe this will work out for the New Yorker. He's dominating the headlines once again. And his plan to hold a rally to support wounded veterans, while his opponents aim their criticisms at an empty lectern, could prove a winning contrast.
Did Mr Trump just turn the whole Fox Thursday night event into a "kids' table" debate?
"We're not sure how Iowans are going to feel about him walking away from them at the last minute, but it should be clear to the American public by now that this is rooted in one thing - Megyn Kelly."
It added: "We can't give in to terrorizations toward any of our employees."
Ms Kelly accused the New York billionaire of misogyny in the first debate last August and he...

Summary: Fox News has fired back at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for his refusal to participate in their debate on Thursday night.
###
Article: Its shares slid 7.6% to their lowest level since March, and the company was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100, the UK's main share index.
Operating profit before transformation costs for the six months to 25 September fell 5% to £320m from £342m.
Royal Mail is now seeking cost savings of £600m a year, up from a previous target of £500m.
Royal Mail reported a 1% rise in revenue to £4.6bn for the half year to 25 September, but analysts said this was lower than forecast.
The trend of fewer letters being sent through the post continued, with total letter revenues falling by 3%, although parcel revenues grew by 3%.
"The fall in the volume of letters and an 8% dip in marketing mail after the Brexit vote in June is causing concern about what can be assumed going forward," said David Kerstens, equity analyst at Jefferies.
He added that pension costs were set to rise sharply and that cost savings would be very hard to achieve without sacrificing quality of service.
Moya Greene, Royal Mail's chief executive. said the Christmas period would be crucial for the full-year results.
"Extensive planning, which began in the spring, will help us to manage our busiest time," she said. "This includes the recruitment of over 19,000 temporary staff and opening nine temporary parcel sort centres."
Also on Thursday, Royal Mail competitor UK Mail - which is being bought by Deutsche Post - said half-year revenues had fallen to £230m from £237m a year earlier, although pre-tax profits rose to £5.8m from £2.2m.

Summary:


Volkswagen says it will not release its results nor hold its shareholders' meeting on time, as it needs more time to work out its accounts as a result of last year's emissions crisis.

Article: Hedley McCarthy has been leader of Blaenau Gwent council since May 2012 and leader of the Labour group for eight years.
He said the council is having to make more "stringent reductions" than they did under ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
Mr McCarthy will continue to serve as a ward councillor for Llanhilleth.
"To have to make cuts on the scale that we're having to do in local government is horrendous - horrific," he said.
"This has been the most difficult and challenging time in the history of local government - worse than the Thatcher years - and I am weary of the cuts imposed by the Conservative government," he said.
"I do not believe I am necessarily the right person to lead Blaenau Gwent into the Welsh assembly election next May, given that I have serious concerns about the way the so-called local government reorganisation has been handled, or for that matter even share the definition of the word local."
Mr McCarthy will be replaced by his deputy, Stephen Thomas, from Wednesday.

Summary: The leader of a south Wales council has quit after enduring what he calls "horrific" Tory government cuts.
###
Article: The proposals also include the formation a two-tier structure of Test cricket, with those three nations immune from relegation.
Fica "are extremely concerned about the future of international cricket," said executive chairman Paul Marsh.
The plans will be discussed at an International Cricket Council (ICC) executive board meeting next week.
The proposals, drafted by the ICC's Finance & Commercial Affairs (F&CA) committee and leaked to the media last week, suggest the formation of a four-man executive committee, on which the boards of England, India and Australia would be guaranteed a place. The other position would be selected by the three boards annually.
The Future Tours Programme, which guarantees regular fixtures between all full ICC members over a cycle, would be abandoned in favour of bilateral agreements.
"This proposal is designed to vest control of the game in the three boards of India, Australia and England," added Marsh.
"It is not in the best interests of the global game and we have real fears that it will only serve to strengthen the 'big three' countries whilst the rest are left to wither on the vine."
Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have also spoken out against the plans.
CSA, whose national side are currently ranked as the number one Test nation in the world, called on the ICC to withdraw the 'fundamentally flawed' initiative, arguing that it breached the ICC constitution.
"These proposals should first be referred to the relevant ICC committees or sub‐committees for proper consideration and to make recommendations to the ICC board," CSA president Chris Nenzani wrote in a letter to ICC president Alan Isaac.
1. South Africa
2. India
3. Australia
4. England
5. Pakistan
6. Sri Lanka
7. West Indies
8. New Zealand
9. Zimbabwe
10. Bangladesh
"Although there is nothing to prevent a review of the ICC funding model or finances, the proposal self-evidently is inextricably tied up with a fundamental restructuring of the ICC, which has far‐reaching constitutional...

Summary: The international players' union (Fica) opposes plans to give England, India and Australia more control of cricket.
###
Article: Many schools were evacuated as a precaution, meaning some GCSE, A-level and Higher exams had to be abandoned.
The BBC News website answers some of the key questions on the issue.
Yes. There is a procedure for schools to follow in the event of an emergency such as a fire or bomb alert during public examinations.
This is set out by the Joint Council for Qualifications, which represent the seven largest UK exam providers.
Exam invigilators are advised to stop candidates from writing, collect the attendance register (in order to ensure all candidates are present) and evacuate the examination room.
Students should be told to leave all question papers and scripts in the exam room and must leave the exam hall in silence.
Staff must make sure that the candidates are supervised as closely as possible while they are out of the exam hall, to make sure there is no discussion about the examination.
Invigilators should make a note of the time of the interruption and how long it lasted and allow the candidates the full working time set for the examination.
The guidance says if there are only a few candidates, schools should consider the possibility of taking the candidates (with question papers and scripts) to another place to finish the examination.
Schools have to make a full report of the incident and of the action taken and send this to the relevant exam board.
Students whose public exams were disrupted can rest assured that the situation will be fed back to the examiners. Schools will document how the exams were affected and send this to the exam boards. The boards will make any adjustments as they see fit, on a case-by-case basis.
A spokeswoman for the AQA exam board said: "We need to look at each case on an individual basis because there are a range of ways in which students might have been affected - they might have taken all, part or none of the exam, or been affected by the incident in different ways.
"Once we know the full circumstances from the schools, we can decide on the best course of action. In the...

Summary: Hundreds of pupils across the UK have faced disruption to exams following a spate of hoax calls.
###
Article: Trouble flared at the fourth Norwich Sci-Fi and Film Convention at the University of East Anglia, organised by Norwich Star Wars Club.
Police were called after members of the rival Norwich Sci-Fi club arrived to get autographs from two Doctor Who actors at the event on Sunday.
Norfolk Police confirmed officers attended and spoke to both parties.
A spokesman said they had been called to reports of a man being assaulted at the convention.
"After a lengthy investigation, talking to witnesses and reviewing good CCTV footage, it was confirmed that there was no assault," the spokesman said.
"The two rival groups were spoken to and advised to keep out of each other's way."
Jim Poole, treasurer of Norwich Sci-Fi Club, said there was a history of rivalry and disputes between the two clubs, which both hold their own conventions in the city.
He said he had attended Sunday's event with another club member to get the autographs of actors Graham Cole and Jeremy Bulloch for a Doctor Who diary to be auctioned for charity.
Mr Poole said he was wearing a club top and his fellow member was dressed as the fifth Doctor, as played by Peter Davison.
He said once inside the hall, he received verbal abuse from a member of the rival club and called the police.
"I was put in a police car. We were both interviewed by the police and told to stay away from each other," he said.
Mr Poole said two other members of his club, one dressed as the 10th Doctor and the other as Judge Dredd, had waited outside the venue.
"This wasn't a fight between Star Wars fans and Doctor Who fans with lightsabers and sonic screwdrivers drawn," he said.
"It's a bit sad and pathetic. We're all in the same boat. We're not in competition.
"We'd like to extend the hand of friendship."
Mr Poole said his club was considering having uniformed security guards at its own Norwich Sci-Fi Convention in September in case of further trouble.
Dominic Warner, secretary of Norwich Star Wars Club, said: "It's been blown up as if it was a fight. There was no fighting."
He...

Summary: Police were called to a science fiction convention after an argument between two rival groups of fans.
###
Article: The company was due to release results on 10 March and hold its shareholders' meeting towards the end of April.
It has not said by how much these events will be delayed.
It says results will be about the same as in 2014, although the cost of the crisis will eat into those.
It said it was working on "valuation calculations".
Sales in VW-branded cars dipped last year after the scandal - which affected 11 million cars - came to light in September. Deliveries fell 5.3% in October, 2.4% in November and 7.9% in December compared with those months in 2014.
It was its first drop in VW-branded sales in 11 years as the company continues to cope with the emissions scandal.
VW has promised it will have a fix in the coming weeks for the millions of US cars with defeat devices that disguised emission levels in diesel cars.
Sales of VW-brand cars fell 4.8% in 2015 to 5.82 million cars from 6.12 million a year earlier.
The US Environmental Protection Agency is suing the company over what it says were 600,000 affected vehicles and a US law firm is conducting an investigation into who made the decisions to cheat.
Volkswagen says it is sticking to its plan to publish the findings of its investigation into the scandal in the second half of April.
Results from Porsche, which is owned by Volkswagen, are also being delayed.

Summary:

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A fire at a building at Cathays Park, near the University of Edinburgh, has been extinguished.
The fire broke out in a fume cupboard on Tuesday morning.
The building was evacuated and all staff and students were told to leave.
The main building will remain closed on Tuesday with access to most areas

Parts of Cardiff University's main building will remain closed on Wednesday after a fire.

Article: The British Polio Fellowship (BFP) said only 7% of people in the UK were aware of "post polio syndrome".
Symptoms include chronic fatigue, muscle weakness, joint pain and breathing problems.
Up to 12,000 people in Wales could be affected, more than 60 years after the first polio vaccine was developed.
Coral Williams, 71, from Cwmbran, Torfaen, is a volunteer with the charity and was contracted polio when she was three.
She was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome in 1984 after chronic pain in her legs forced her to give up work.
"There are people out there, not only people but doctors as well, who are not finding out about people who have had polio and what they're suffering now is the late effect of polio," she said.
Her daughter, Angela Locke, BFP's chairwoman in Wales, said raising awareness among families and doctors could improve outcomes for sufferers as they receive appropriate treatment more quickly.

Summary: Thousands of people who had polio when they were younger should be aware of developing further health problems, a charity has warned.
###
Article: Masayoshi Son made the comments to the media as the Japanese technology giant reported a 50% rise in quarterly operating profit.
It is the first time the group has said it is interested in Uber.
Softbank has already invested in Asian ride-sharing firms Grab and Didi Chuxing.
Mr Son, who founded the company in 1981, described the US as "the most important market".
"We are interested in discussing with Uber. We are also interested in discussing with Lyft," he said, but added that he hadn't decided "which way" to go.
"Whether we decide to partner and invest into Uber or Lyft, I don't know what would be the end result," he said.
"We are definitely very much interested in the US market."
Softbank has already shown an appetite for ride-sharing and backs China's Didi Chuxing.
Last month, the company joined with Didi Chuxing to pour $2bn (Â£1.5bn) into Grab, South East Asia's most popular ride-hailing firm.
As an early investor in Alibaba, Mr Son has a reputation for spotting potentially transformative industries and trends.
In 2016, Softbank partnered with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund to launch a technology fund worth as much as $100bn.
The company also has stakes in a number of British technology firms including virtual reality firm Improbable.

Summary: Softbank's chief executive has said he is considering investing in Uber or Lyft, as the company eyes a move into the US ride-sharing market.
###
Article: In England, surveys measuring typical drinking habits account for only around 60% of alcohol sold, the medical journal BMC Medicine report said.
Report author Dr Mark Bellis said this was because many studies do not include drinking on special occasions.
More than 6,000 people in England were interviewed for the study.
Accounting for special occasion drinking added more than 120 million UK units of alcohol - equivalent to about 12 million bottles of wine - to the population's alcohol consumption in England every week, it found.
The results could have important implications for public health, researchers said.
"Nationally, we underestimate how much we drink - and as individuals we can turn a blind eye to our heavier drinking periods when we calculate personal consumption," said lead scientist Dr Bellis, from Liverpool John Moores University.
"For many people, though, these sessions add substantial amounts of alcohol to their annual consumption and inevitably increase their risks of developing alcohol-related ill health."
The equivalent of more than three-quarters of a bottle of wine (or about three pints of beer) per drinker every week goes unaccounted for, he said.
The survey measured a medium glass of 12.5% ABV wine as 2.2 UK units, and a 440ml can of 4.5% ABV beer as 2 UK units, but the amount of alcohol units in drinks varies depending on their size and strength. The NHS has a guide to calculating alcohol units.
Researchers conducted telephone interviews with 6,085 randomly-selected members of the public aged 16 and over in England.
Participants were asked about normal drinking patterns and those outside their usual circumstances, such as summer holidays, bank holidays, and weddings.
Most categories of drinkers, based on age groups and levels of typical consumption, reported increased consumption during holidays or special occasions.
The biggest increase was seen in 25 to 35-year-olds, who had the highest level of typical consumption.
People in this drinking category drank an extra 18 units (144g) of...

Summary: The amount of alcohol people in England drink has been underestimated by the equivalent of 12 million bottles of wine a week, according to new research.
###
Article: Newly discovered fossils suggest Drepanosaurus had huge hooked claws to dig insects from bark, much like today's anteaters in the forests of Central and South America.
Scientists say the creature defies the convention on how reptiles evolved and flourished.
Their research is published in the journal Current Biology.
The new fossils, found in a New Mexico quarry, suggest Drepanosaurus was the size of a cat and lived in the trees.
It had a bird-like head on a chameleon-like body, but the most unusual feature was its forearms, said Dr Adam Pritchard, of Yale University, who led the research.
"Drepanosaurus itself has extremely massive arms and forearms - very muscular," he said.
"The index finger is much much larger than any of the other fingers and supports this gigantic claw, which is easily the most massive bone of the entire arm."
The forelimbs of tetrapods are known for their versatility, used to walk, dig, fly or swim.
However, the basic plan of the forelimb has stayed much the same throughout 375 million years of evolution.
"The arm of tetrapod animals almost always follows some very consistent rules," Dr Pritchard said.
The US team made 3D reconstructions of the reptile based on micro-CT (computerised tomography) scans of dozens of bones.
Other fossils that have been unearthed were partly crushed, making interpretation difficult.
"In your forearm, in the forearm of Tyrannosaurus rex, in the forearm of an elephant, you have two bones - the radius and the ulna, which manifest as these elongate, slender, parallel shafts," he explained.
But the Drepanosaurus did not have these parallel bones.
"So all of these consistent patterns that we see across a huge range of tetrapods, regardless of their ecology, regardless of their ancestry, are violated by this animal," Dr Pritchard said.
"On the one hand, it extends the bounds of what we think the arm of tetrapod animals - those four-footed animals in the world - is capable of in terms of its development, in terms of evolution.
"And, it is also remarkable in what it...

Summary: A 200-million-year-old reptile is rewriting the rulebooks on how four-legged animals conquered the world.
###
Article: The building at Cathays Park was evacuated, with all staff and students told to leave, after a blaze broke out in a fume cupboard on Tuesday.
The main building will remain shut on Tuesday with access to most areas reopened on Wednesday.
But two chemistry labs on the first floor and the restaurant will be shut until further notice.

Summary:


The Night Tube will lead to a rise in sexual offences and rowdy behaviour on the Underground, according to an internal risk assessment by Transport for London.

Article: Details of the bug were made public earlier this month by Google security researchers.
Microsoft criticised the disclosure, saying Google had put people at risk by sharing information about the flaw.
One hacker group has kicked off several new campaigns that seek to use the flaw before it is widely patched.
The patch for the flaw was included in Microsoft's regular software update, which this month contained 14 separate updates that addressed 68 vulnerabilities in Windows, Microsoft's Office suite and its Edge browser.
Microsoft's patch comes a week after Google released information about the flaw and almost two weeks after Adobe patched an associated bug in its widely used Flash software.
The release of the patch fulfils a promise made in a blog by Terry Myerson, Microsoft's head of Windows, to close the loophole as soon as possible.
The blog also detailed the activities of what Microsoft calls the Strontium hacker group, which has exploited the flaw to target governments, federal agencies, embassies, military organisations and defence contractors.
The Strontium group is also known as Pawn Storm, Fancy Bear, Sofacy and APT28.
It is believed to be based in Russia and has been linked to the cyber-attack on the Democratic National Committee, the governing body of the United States Democratic Party.
The prospect of the patch had already prompted this hacker group to accelerate its attempts to exploit it, research by security company Trend Micro suggests.
Trend Micro said the group had "ramped up" its targeted phishing campaigns that used the flaw in late October and early November.
Booby-trapped attachments posing as invites to a conference about cyber-threats were used as the attack vector for the campaigns.
The group still has time to exploit the flaw because many companies do not apply patches as soon as they appear.
They can take time to test the patch to ensure they do not inadvertently shut down important systems that keep a business running.

Summary: Microsoft has issued a patch for a software bug being actively exploited by hackers trying to infiltrate government networks.
###
Article: Many researchers had accepted that the rate of global warming had slowed in the first 15 years of this century.
But new analysis, in journal Science Advances, replicates findings that scientists have underestimated ocean temperatures over the past two decades.
With the revised data the apparent pause in temperature rises between 1998 and 2014, disappears.
The idea of a pause had gained support in recent years with even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reporting in 2013 that the global surface temperature "has shown a much smaller increasing linear trend over the past 15 years than over the past 30 to 60 years".
But that consensus was brought into question by a number of studies, of which a report by the the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) published in Science last year was the most significant.
Researchers from Noaa suggested that the temperatures of the oceans were being consistently underestimated by the main global climate models.
The authors showed that the ocean buoys used to measure sea temperatures tend to report slightly cooler temperatures than the older ship-based systems.
Back in the 1990s, ship measurements made up the vast majority of the data, whereas now the more accurate and consistent buoys account for 85% of measurements.
When the researchers corrected the data to take this "cold bias" into account, they concluded that the oceans had warmed 0.12C per decade since 2000, nearly twice as fast as previous estimates of 0.07 degrees.
As a result, the authors said that the warming experienced in the first 15 years of the 21st Century was "virtually indistinguishable" from the rate of warming between 1950-99, a time generally acknowledged to have seen significant rates of warming from human emissions of CO2.
The study did not go down well with climate sceptics. Members of the US House of Representatives subpoenaed the author's emails which Noaa refused to hand over.
However, this new analysis supports the findings of the Noaa report. The scientists...

Summary: A controversial study that found there has been no slowdown in global warming has been supported by new research.
###
Article: Each one has taken it closer to what decades of international talks have tried to prevent - a nuclear weapon in the hands of one of the world's most unpredictable states.
9 October 2006 - a weapon for 'peace'
Years of posturing - and attempts at negotiation by foreign powers - culminated in October 2006 with an announcement by Pyongyang that it had carried out its first nuclear explosion.
Like all tests that would follow, it took place underground, in tunnels dug into a remote mountainous site called Punggye-ri, in the north-east.
The device is assumed to have used plutonium, sourced from the North's nuclear facility at Yongbyon.
International observers estimated the blast had an energy discharge of about a kiloton, less than a tenth of the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
Many believed this indicated a nuclear "fizzle" rather than a fully effective blast.
But the North said it had joined the nuclear club and that its bomb would contribute to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.
The second test was bigger, with an estimated yield of 2-8 kilotons.
North Korea said it had achieved a "higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology".
While the international consensus was that a nuclear test had happened, no radiation was detected. The ability to contain a nuclear test would in itself be a big advance for the North.
It also followed hard on the heels of a test of a missile with a long enough range to reach the US.
Both were seen as an attempt by ailing leader Kim Jong-il to prove the North's nuclear capacity before he died.
In the early hours of 12 February 2013, unusual seismic activity was again detected around Punggye-ri.
The North said it had tested "a miniaturised and lighter nuclear device with greater explosive force than previously".
The as-yet unproven reference to "miniaturised" stoked fears that Pyongyang was closer to producing a device small enough to fit on a long-range missile.
Speculation was rife that the test involved a uranium device, though this has never been...

Summary: North Korea has conducted four underground nuclear tests so far.
###
Article: From January, the Met is testing out a restructure which will see it move from borough-based policing to larger basic command units (BCUs).
The trial will see Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Havering, and Camden and Islington boroughs merge.
The Met said it would not mean any station closures or job cuts.
But the Metropolitan Police Federation said it would be surprised if this did not happen because "otherwise what's the point of what they are trying to achieve?"
Scotland Yard said it had to save Â£400m in the next four years.
It said the new system would bring together "management of neighbourhoods, response, investigation and protection of vulnerable people, including child protection, victims of sexual abuse and domestic abuse".
Each BCU will be led by an interim commander, a chief superintendent and four superintendents who will each be responsible for neighbourhoods, response, investigation and protecting vulnerable people.
People, buildings, technology and vehicles will be shared across the boroughs within the BCU.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Mark Simmons, who is responsible for the BCU test, said: "Change is important for the Met to remain operationally effective in the changing policing landscape.
"We want to invest more into neighbourhood policing and protect vulnerable people across London as well as make sure we are able to deal with predicted increases in demand.
"We also want to implement a way of investigating crime that is more focused on what victims need and can be even more effective in tackling serious offending."
The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden, said the Met wanted to reduce the amount it spent on management so it could "maximise the amount spent on operational policing".
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Federation said officers had "massive concerns" about the scheme, particularly over fatigue and increasing workloads.

Summary: The boroughs which will merge as part of a shake-up at the Metropolitan Police have been announced.
###
Article: More than 100 British Transport Police (BTP) officers will patrol the 144 Underground stations open all night to try to "set behavioural standards".
The Met says overall crime levels will be unaffected.
But fewer than half of Londoners say they will feel safe on the Night Tube.
A report by the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee reveals TfL believes anti-social behaviour will rise on the all-night service, causing "high crime levels" and a "rowdy environment".
The BTP has identified 12 "red" stations where a special policing plan will be put in place: Piccadilly Circus, Charing Cross, Leicester Square, Victoria, Oxford Circus, Waterloo, Vauxhall, London Bridge, Camden Town, North Greenwich, Brixton and Hammersmith.
Illegal taxi touting is expected to increase at the end of Tube lines.
However, police believe some crime will effectively be displaced from night buses to the Tube.
"Despite these concerns, BTP is confident that robust analysis has been carried out to ensure the Tube remains safe for passengers and staff, but it will be difficult to be sure until it is up and running," says the report.
Forty-six percent of Londoners told a recent YouGov poll that they would feel safe taking the Night Tube, with 38% feeling unsafe and 16% unsure.
According to TfL's quarterly safety survey, Londoners are less likely to avoid using public transport because of a fear of crime than they were seven years ago.
Overall crime on the network has fallen, although reported sexual offences and violence against the person are up.
But although 15% had experienced unwanted sexual behaviour on the network, 90% of those did not report it.
The BTP told the committee that most of these were "stealth offences committed in crowds, in crowded tube carriages, frankly, which is sexual touching and horrible behaviour like that".
A text messaging reporting service, 61016, was launched last year to encourage people to report unwanted sexual behaviour.
On the New York subway, poster messages try to deter offences, but TfL research...

Summary:


Geologists have found evidence for an ancient megaflood which they say is a good match for the mythical deluge at the dawn of China's first dynasty.

Article: An EU directive has been adopted that means tests are counted when they conclude, instead of when they begin, making comparisons difficult.
But Home Office staff are "confident" that animal use has, indeed, fallen.
As usual, 50% of the 3.87 million total "procedures" were GM animals, which were created but not used in tests.
That overall figure compares to 4.12 million in 2013. But the Home Office's chief statistician David Blunt emphasised that there was a "discontinuity" between those two figures.
"This means that any comparisons made between 2014 and earlier should be made with caution," Mr Blunt told journalists at a briefing on Thursday.
"The 6% fall is what the data's got, but maybe it's not quite as big as that. But I'm still confident that there's a fall; it may be 3 or 4% or something like that."
Lord Bates, a Home Office minister, said he was "encouraged" to see the number of procedures apparently falling.
"Today's figures indicate the science community continues to respond to the government's firm commitment to adopting measures to replace, reduce and refine animal use," he declared in a written statement.
But the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) condemned the number of "severe" animal experiments taking place.
"The level of suffering animals are experiencing in Britain's laboratories is shameful," said NAVS president Jan Creamer.
"There is an urgent need for greater transparency and accountability in animal research, so these extreme tests can be reviewed and replaced with advanced non-animal methods."
The Home Office sees its collection of "severity" data as a big step forward in terms of transparency. This is the first set of statistics to categorise animal usage into "sub-threshold" (28% in 2014), "non-recovery" (3%), "mild" (49%), "moderate" (14%) and "severe" (5%).
"We wanted to see how best we could inform the public of what goes on, so that there's a clear understanding of what's involved in the process of experimentation," said Prof Dominic Wells, from the Royal Veterinary College,...

Summary: The Home Office's annual statistics show a 6% drop in animal experiments in the UK - but the office has changed the way it collects these figures.
###
Article: Unique to Australia, the double dissolution mechanism is ostensibly designed to break a political deadlock. If the Senate twice rejects a piece of legislation from the lower house, this becomes the double dissolution "trigger".
In practice, the double dissolution has usually been deployed for short-term political gain, allowing the government to hold an early election when conditions are favourable.
The present government has two potential triggers - the previously rejected ABCC (Australian Building and Construction Commission) and Registered Organisations bills that target alleged union corruption. Neither made the list of legislation that the Senate considered during its most recent sitting.
The deadline for calling a double dissolution during this term of government is 11 May. The Senate was not scheduled to sit again until 10 May.
The double dissolution option appeared to have dissolved.
But the prime minister's audacious use of an obscure provision in the constitution that allows the governor general to recall both houses of parliament caught his political opponents and pundits by surprise.
The Senate now has three additional weeks to debate the bills. This is ample time to ensure that they either are passed or rejected, and there is upside for Mr Turnbull in both cases.
If he convinces crossbench senators to support him, he will win a dramatic victory in the Senate, steal back political momentum and lay the ground for an election campaign later in the year.
But the double dissolution scenario seems more likely and this option holds several benefits for Mr Turnbull. Although his ratings have slipped, he is still far more popular than his opposition counterpart Bill Shorten and polls have the Coalition government well in front of Labor.
A double dissolution will also mean that all Senate seats are contested at the election, rather than the usual half. The Senate passed new rules on Friday that will make it difficult for so-called micro parties, who have been a thorn in Mr Turnbull's side, to secure upper...

Summary: When Australia's Senate rose for recess on 18 March, it seemed Malcolm Turnbull had missed his chance to hold a double dissolution election.
###
Article: Graduates will work alongside frontline staff after an intensive training course in the summer and complete a master's degree at the same time.
Trainees will earn £20,545 - a prison officer's starting salary - during the two-year scheme in England and Wales.
The Prison Officers Association said the scheme was "barmy".
The initiative is being launched by charity Unlocked and is backed by Justice Secretary Liz Truss.
She said: "Prison officers are some of our finest public servants. It is a unique role, which is both challenging and rewarding.
"There are very few jobs where you genuinely get the opportunity to reform and transform the lives of offenders, and the lives of their families, creating a safer society.
"I want to ensure that we attract the most talented and dedicated individuals, from the widest possible pool, and I want to see improved promotion and leadership opportunities for all our prison staff."
Natasha Porter, chief executive of Unlocked, said: "Prison officers are too often seen as 'turn-keys'. The opposite is true.
"They deal with some of the most challenging situations and work with some of the most vulnerable people in society.
"They are effectively mentors, counsellors, teachers, police officers and social workers.
"The aim of Unlocked is to help raise the status of the profession and to help reduce reoffending.
"While many of the scheme's participants will stay and develop long-term roles within the prison system, others will go into the outside world and act as ambassadors to drive forward rehabilitation."
The launch of the scheme, backed by Ms Truss's predecessor Michael Gove, follows a spate of major disturbances in prisons in England and Wales and comes on top of a separate recruitment drive for 2,500 new officers.
Dwindling staffing levels have repeatedly been highlighted by campaigners and unions amid soaring levels of violence and self-harm behind bars.
But Andy Darken, assistant general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, said he thought asking graduates to start work in...

Summary: The government is backing a new scheme to get graduates working in the prison service, only days after disturbances at HMP Birmingham.
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Article: NHS Forth Valley commissioned internal and external reviews of the deaths of 24 unborn babies after recording an unusually high number of stillbirths.
The internal report found care had been good or excellent in 20 of the cases.
But it said that in the other four "different care might have influenced the outcome".
The report did not specify what that meant - but the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said it uses the term to mean a baby that may have been born alive rather than stillborn.
However the external review, which was carried out by a consultant and a senior midwife at neighbouring NHS Tayside, concluded that the findings of the internal report were probably "overly-self critical".
It said that any changes to care would have made no difference in two of the four cases, and was very unlikely to have changed the outcome in another.
In the fourth case, a pregnant woman was invited to go home and collect her belongings prior to admission.
The external review said it would "probably have been appropriate" to check the unborn baby's heartbeat with a cardiotocograph (CTG) machine before the woman was sent home.
But it said the CTG could "reasonably have been delayed" if other biometry on the woman's scan was reassuring.
The two reports were obtained by BBC Scotland under freedom of information laws.
The health board said in a statement: "The internal review did not identify any significant issues or concerns and concluded that, in the vast majority of cases, there were complex underlying factors which meant that the stillbirths sadly could not have been prevented.
"These included fetal abnormalities, genetic conditions, trauma injuries and underlying health issues.
"The internal review also identified a small number of cases (four) where it was felt that the care could have been improved, although this may not necessarily have altered the outcome."
The external report said that, in a small number of cases, the risk factors included smoking and cannabis misuse.
And it concluded that the care...

Summary: Investigations into a spike in stillbirths in a Scottish health board area have found no systemic failings with the care that was given.
###
Article: The legend of Emperor Yu states that he tamed the flooded Yellow River by dredging and redirecting its channels, thereby laying the foundations for the Xia dynasty and Chinese civilisation.
Previously, no scientific evidence had been found for a corresponding flood.
But now a Chinese-led team has placed just such an event at about 1,900BC.
Writing in Science Magazine, the researchers describe a cataclysmic event in which a huge dam, dumped across the Jishi Gorge by a landslide, blocked the Yellow River for six to nine months.
When the dam burst, up to 16 cubic kilometres of water inundated the lowlands downstream.
The evidence for this sequence of events comes from sediments left by the dammed lake, high up the sides of Jishi Gorge, as well as deposits left kilometres downstream by the subsequent flood.
Lead author Dr Wu Qinglong, from Nanjing Normal University, said he and colleagues stumbled on sediments from the ancient dam during fieldwork in 2007.
"It inspired us to connect the next possible outburst flood with the abandonment of the prehistoric Lajia site 25km downstream," he told journalists in a teleconference.
"But at that time we had no idea what the evidence of a catastrophic outburst flood should be."
The Lajia site, famously home to the world's oldest noodles, is known as China's Pompeii; its cave dwellings and many cultural artefacts were buried by a major earthquake.
"In July 2008 I suddenly realised that the so-called black sand previously revealed by archaeologists at the Lajia site could be, in fact, the deposits from our outburst flood," Dr Wu said.
"The subsequent investigation confirmed this speculation and showed that the sediments from this outburst flood are up to 20m thick, and up to 50m higher than the Yellow River - indicating an unprecedented, devastating flood."
He and his colleagues suggest in their paper that the very same earthquake that destroyed the Lajia dwellings probably dammed the river upstream. Less than a year later, the waters returned with a vengeance.
"The flood was...

Summary:


Astronomers have discovered a baby planet which looks like a young version of Jupiter.

Article: The Danish company finished installing the last of three jackets, with a combined weight of 22,000 tonnes, at the Culzean field on Thursday.
It said the installation work had been completed "on time and on budget".
Culzean is expected to produce 60,000-90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day at plateau production.
Maersk has said the field, which lies about 145 miles east of Aberdeen, could meet 5% of UK gas demand by 2020-21.
Culzean project director Martin Urquhart said: "With the foundation of the Culzean installation firmly in place and waiting, focus is now fixed on finalising the construction of the three topsides and the Floating, Storage and Offload (FSO) vessel Ailsa.
"We have just celebrated the completion of the deck stacking of the topsides and the sail away of these structures is on schedule for next year.
"Their installation will take us to the beginning of the hook-up and commissioning campaign, the final step before first gas is delivered in 2019."
Maersk Oil chief executive Gretchen Watkins said: "Culzean was sanctioned less than two years ago and already we've progressed the project over the halfway mark.
"We're continuing to hit our milestones on time and this progress means we're on track to deliver first gas in 2019."
Maersk Oil is the field's operator, with a 49.99% stake. Its co-venturers are BP (32%) and JX Nippon (18.01%).

Summary: Maersk Oil has announced it is on track to deliver first gas from a major North Sea field in 2019 after completing foundation work at the development.
###
Article: Schools shuttered and and public buildings increased security as police search for Bradley William Stone, 35.
Mr Stone is suspected in the killing of his ex-wife Nicole Stone, her mother, her grandmother, her sister, her sister's husband and their daughter.
He may be armed and dangerous, authorities warn residents.
"We are accessing every possible resource... to find Mr Stone. We will find Mr Stone," Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman told reporters on Tuesday.
Authorities from multiple agencies are engaged in the hunt, searching the suspect's car, home and phone for clues to his current whereabouts, she added.
The search has also spread to nearby Bucks County, where a man wielding a knife and fitting Mr Stone's description - red hair and wearing military fatigues - unsuccessfully attempted a carjacking before being chased into a wooded area.
The shootings in Souderton, Lansdale and Harleysville began at about 04:00 local time (09:00 GMT) on Monday.
The first took place at the home in Souderton of Mr Stone's former sister-in-law, Patricia Flick. She was killed along with her husband, Aaron Flick, and the couple's daughter, Nina, 14. The couple's 17-year-old son, Anthony Flick, was badly wounded.
He is currently in very serious but stable condition in hospital, authorities said.
The next shooting was at a house in nearby Lansdale where Nicole Stone's mother, Joanne Hill, and grandmother Patricia Hill were killed.
Nicole Stone was later killed at her home in Harleysville. Neighbours reported seeing Mr Stone fleeing with their two children and raised the alarm.
The children were found safe a short distance away, and Mr Stone's current wife and infant child were also secured.
Reports said the shootings may have been triggered by a custody dispute.
Mr Stone had reportedly filed an emergency motion to the court earlier this month, although those records are currently sealed.
"[Nicole Stone] would tell anybody who would listen that he was going to kill her and that she was really afraid for her...

Summary: The manhunt has grown for the suspected killer of six people near Philadelphia, officials in the US state of Pennsylvania say.
###
Article: Despite several enhancement techniques already in use, only about 10% of fingerprints from crime scenes are of sufficient quality to be used in court.
The technique is based around fluorescent chemical "tags" and works on metal surfaces, meaning it could be used on knives, guns or bullet casings.
Details were outlined at the Faraday Discussions lecture series in Durham.
"Notwithstanding DNA, fingerprints are still the major source of identification in criminal investigations," co-author Prof Robert Hillman, from the University of Leicester, told BBC News.
"When someone asks: 'Haven't we been doing this for a century, why do we need another method?' Our answer is: 'To image the 90% we don't currently get'."
Although the technique currently works only with metallic objects, Prof Hillman said these were "quite signficant" forensically - especially in violent crimes.
The classical approach to enhancing the visibility of hidden, or - to use the correct forensic terminology - latent, prints is to apply a coloured powder that adheres to the oily residue left by the finger surface.
This then provides a visual contrast to the underlying surface.
The new technique visualises fingerprints by exploiting the fact that their ridges do not conduct electricity.
Here, the fingerprint material acts like a  stencil, blocking an electric current that is used to deposit a coloured film.
The film is directed to the regions of bare surface between the ridges of a fingerprint, thereby creating a negative image of the print. The substances used to do this are "electrochromic", which means they change from one colour to another when subjected to an electric voltage.
The researchers say the technique is highly sensitive, as even tiny amounts of insulating residue, just a few billionths of a metre, can prevent the coloured film from sticking to the metal below.
As a result, much less fingerprint residue is required than is typical for other techniques. Also, because it focuses on the gaps between the fingerprint ridges, it can be used...

Summary: Scientists have described a new system for visualising "hidden" crime scene fingerprints.
###
Article: Jemal Williams, of Berkeley Gardens, Enfield, must serve a minimum of 24 years for stabbing Shaquan Sammy-Plummer, 17, in the chest.
Williams was having a party when Shaquan arrived. He had been invited by the boyfriend of Williams's sister.
The defendant refused him entry but demanded drinks be handed over.
The Old Bailey heard that when Shaquan refused, Williams chased and stabbed him.
The victim, who was from Islington, died at the Royal London Hospital a few hours later.
Williams fled the scene but handed himself in to police on 9 February 2015.
Det Ch Insp Jamie Piscopo, from the Homicide and Major Crime Command unit, said: "The death of Shaquan was a meaningless tragedy.
"Even when he was turned away from the party, he made no fuss and was in the process of leaving when Williams decided he needed to teach him a lesson."
He described the investigation as being complex due to the "wall of silence" by people too scared to come forward.

Summary: A 20-year-old man has been jailed for life after being found guilty of murdering a teenager he would not let in to his party.
###
Article: The new world was found beyond our Solar System, 100 light-years away.
It's been named 51 Eridani b and is only 20 million years old - very young by astronomical standards.
The alien world could give us more information about the formation of our Solar System.
The find was made by the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), which looks for young planets orbiting bright nearby stars.
Our own Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system - it's so big you could fit over 1,300 Earths inside it!
It's also the fastest rotating planet too, with 1 day only lasting 10 hours - but a year on Jupiter lasts for 12 Earth years.
Jupiter doesn't have a solid surface and is made up of gas, giving it the name 'gas giant'.
The baby Jupiter has the strongest methane gas signature ever found on an alien planet.
The astronomers also detected water using the GPI's spectrometer instrument.
Scientists hope that by studying far away worlds, they can learn more about how common the structure of our Solar System is.
Astronomers believe the gas giants in our Solar System formed slowly - by building up a large core over a few million years and then pulling in a huge amount of hydrogen and other gases to form an atmosphere. This is known as a "cold-start".
But the Jupiter-like planets that have been discovered so far are much hotter than scientists have predicted. Which could mean they formed quickly - as gas collapses to make a scorching planet in what is known as a 'hot-start'.

Summary:


Ross Kemp is returning to EastEnders as part of a storyline that will see Dame Barbara Windsor exit the soap for good.

Article: In the general election two years ago, 138 people put their name forward.
Ulster Unionist MLA Alan Chambers has withdrawn his candidacy in North Down, where the party said the independent unionist Lady Sylvia Hermon enjoyed overwhelming support.
Three of the main parties - Sinn FÃ©in, the SDLP and Alliance - are contesting Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies.
Of the 109 candidates, 36 are women - that amounts to 33%, up on 2015 when just under a quarter of the candidates were women.
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The Democratic Unionist Party is standing aside in Fermanagh South Tyrone but is fighting the remaining 17 seats.
In addition to North Down, the Ulster Unionist Party is not contesting North Belfast, West Belfast or Foyle.
The Green Party and the Conservative Party are both fighting seven seats, People Before Profit two seats, and the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), just one.
The UK Independence Party, which put up 10 candidates in 2015, is not contesting any Northern Ireland seats this time around.
The number of TUV and Conservative candidates is also sharply reduced - the TUV fielded 10 candidates in 2015, and the Conservatives, 16.
One candidate is standing for the Citizens Independent Social Thought Alliance, formed by ex-members of the Cannabis is Safer Than Alcohol party and sharing the same initials.
Four independents are in the race including Lady Hermon.
Nominations closed on Thursday 11 May.

Summary: A total of 109 candidates are standing for election in Northern Ireland in the Westminster poll on 8 June.
###
Article: The Oscar-winning star plays British scientist Rosalind Franklin, the only woman involved in the discovery of DNA's double helix in 1953.
Anna Ziegler's play opened on Monday to a string of four-star reviews.
Directed by Michael Grandage, it runs at the Noel Coward Theatre until 21 November.
According to The Guardian, Kidman gives "a commanding, intelligent performance" in her first West End appearance in 17 years.
"My only complaint about Anna Ziegler's intriguing, informative 95-minute play is that it is not longer," wrote Michael Billington.
Praising Kidman's portrayal of the ecstasy of scientific discovery, Billington said her features "acquire a luminous intensity" as she stares at the now-famous photograph that reveals the DNA's helix pattern.
"It is a fine performance in which Kidman reminds us that the scientific life can be informed by private passion," the review continued.
When Kidman appeared, briefly unclothed, in Sir David Hare's The Blue Room at the Donmar Warehouse in 1998, her performance was famously described by the Daily Telegraph's Charles Spencer as "pure theatrical Viagra".
Spencer's successor, Dominic Cavendish, was equally effusive in his review of Photograph 51, writing that "Kidman displays once again the power to hold us in thrall".
"Although her kit is Fifties demure, the caboodle of her nuanced performance is the stuff of intoxication," his four-star review continued.
"Kidman is even better communicating a life of the mind than she was all those years ago allowing the briefest glimpse possible of her body," wrote The Arts Desk's Matt Wolf.
The actress may not "strip physically", observed Mark Shenton in The Stage, "but the emotional layers are gradually exposed no less revealingly.
"Star power may have brought this play to the West End, but Nicole Kidman proves that she's worthy of the showcase."
"Kidman beautifully captures the prickly defensiveness, the lonely dedication and the suppressed emotional longings of the scientist," wrote The Independent's Paul Taylor, who praised...

Summary: Actress Nicole Kidman has been hailed by critics as "luminous" and "compelling" in her return to the London stage in the play Photograph 51.
###
Article: Those who do "should be charged with gross mis-selling", says Angus Hanton, co-founder of the Intergenerational Foundation (IF) lobby group.
Having to pay back student debts will wipe out any graduate premium for most professions, claims the IF in a report.
The government says higher education boosts employability and earnings.
The report focuses on tuition fee rises in England - currently capped at £9,000 a year - pointing out how successive governments have used the graduate "pay premium" to justify them.
The premium is the amount of extra money it is estimated a degree can help graduates to earn over the course of a lifetime.
The report says that in 2002, ministers put it at £400,000, but recent estimates have been more modest at about £100,000.
There are wide variations between the sexes and between subjects and institutions, it adds.
It argues that, while for somebody who gets an Oxbridge first, the premium figure of £400,000 "may still hold true",  it is much lower for non-Oxbridge graduates.
"The increasing number of graduates... is further undermining the value of a degree," it adds, with some previously low-to-median paid posts now requiring degrees.
"Our research proves that the current £100,000 graduate earnings premium so often touted equates to an 'annual bonus' of just £2,222 over 45 years of work and is wiped out once National Insurance and income tax are taken into account.
"Furthermore, the premium is simply not enough to cover the interest accruing on the average loan.
"The current system is fuelling a self-perpetuating debt-generating machine which short-changes young people," argues Mr Hanton.
The authors say a graduate who borrowed the maximum for tuition fees and maintenance would, with interest, owe £53,000 after three years.
If unpaid for the full 30 years before being written off and if bank rates follow the pattern of the previous 30 years, the debt would reach £282,420, they calculate.
In addition, unlike most ordinary loan agreements, the terms and conditions of student loans can...

Summary: Politicians should stop using a "carrot of higher graduate earnings" to justify raising student fees or freezing repayment thresholds, say campaigners.
###
Article: Nick Weller, executive principal of Dixons Academies Trust, Bradford, was honoured in the Queen's birthday list.
Mr Weller said he was "humbled by the honour" and the schools' recognition.
After a teacher was stabbed at Dixons Kings Academy police arrested a 14-year-old boy on suspicion of attempted murder on Thursday.
Mr Weller said: "My main thoughts at the moment are with a colleague who is continuing to make steady progress in hospital and with a school which is also recovering from the event.
"Our academies and partnerships play a significant role in meeting the demand for new places in Bradford and improving schools in challenging circumstances."
The school where the stabbing occurred, formerly called the King's Science Academy, opened in 2011 and has since become part of the Dixons academy group. It has about 700 pupils.

Summary: The head of a schools group, including one where a teacher was stabbed by a pupil, has been awarded a knighthood for services to education.
###
Article: Kemp, who last played Grant Mitchell in 2006, said it would be "a brief return".
"When I was approached about returning to EastEnders for Barbara's final episodes, it was something I could not turn down," he said.
Following her surprise return to Albert Square, Dame Barbara announced her character would be killed off.
Her character reappeared on Friday, having left in 2010, to tell her eldest son Phil, played by Steve McFadden, that her cancer had returned.
After the episode, producers revealed that Peggy would die from the disease in emotional scenes to be screened in the spring.
Now Kemp, who played Grant from 1990-1999 and then again in 2005 and 2006, will return to bring the Mitchell family back together.
"Barbara is a very close friend, so when I learned of the storyline it felt right that the Mitchell brothers are reunited with their mother for the last time," he said.
"I am really looking forward to going back to EastEnders and filming what are set to be some classic EastEnders episodes."
Grant Mitchell has been one of the soap's most memorable characters in its 30-year history, arriving in 1990 along with brother Phil.
He was involved in repeated family dramas including having an affair with his brother's wife, Kathy, and having his brother go on to marry his ex-wife Sharon.
"Grant Mitchell is an EastEnders legend and finally he is returning home to Walford to say goodbye to his mother and be reunited not just with his old loves but also his brother," said EastEnders executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins.
"To have the Mitchell brothers come face to face again, having to face losing their mother, is an opportunity to show Ross Kemp and Steve McFadden at their very best."

Summary:


Two-thirds of Scotland's councils have cut the amount of money spent on lollipop men and women in the past three years, research by BBC Scotland has found.

Article: The Â£20m programme was launched last year with underperforming schools getting access to expertise and more resources.
Around two thirds of the schools had improved on last year's GCSE results.
Education Minister Huw Lewis said there had been a "breakthrough" in performance.
"These are some of our most challenged schools and to see some of them reporting percentage improvement in the double figures  really is  remarkable."
Prof Mel Ainscow, champion for Schools Challenge Cymru, said at this stage Wales was ahead of where London and Manchester had been after the first year of their programmes.
"Overall the results are exceptionally good," he told BBC Wales.
"Some of the schools have made almost unbelievable progress including some schools serving quite disadvantaged communities where in the past people have had pretty low expectations.
"We're seeing with collective effort and support from outside people in those schools are really making a difference."
Although a third of the 40 schools had not improved results, Prof Ainscow said he expected progress at all schools in 2016 and the focus in the second year would be on helping those that needed to catch up.
Ravi Pawar, head of Blackwood Comprehensive, which had seen a 10% improvement in A* to C grades, said it was not about quick gains.
"The funding itself is important and enables us to make investments we need to sustain improvement for the future," he said.
The school's learning resources centre has been renovated with up to date computers, and the exams hall itself had also been improved.
St Cenydd in Caerphilly, Tonypandy and Pentrehafod in Swansea all reported their best ever results.
Martin Holland, head of Ysgol Clywedog in Wrexham - where results have provisionally improved by 4.5% - said they had put a lot of effort in turning things around after the school was in special measures.
"Belief is the biggest single factor - that students can achieve but also from the staff's perspective.
"There was a huge amount of negativity associated with the school and...

Summary: Most of the 40 secondary schools in Wales which were challenged by ministers to improve have shown progress in their GCSE results.
###
Article: There were 27 motorcyclist deaths in Greater London in 2014 compared with 22 in 2013, Transport for London said.
It said the Met Police was responding by cracking down on speeding and stopping motorcyclists for careless riding and ignoring red lights.
In 2014, there were 127 total recorded road deaths in London and 2,040 people were seriously injured.
Transport for London said the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) on the roads last year was the lowest since records began in 1980.
Earlier, London Mayor Boris Johnson set a new target of halving the number of KSIs in London by 2020 compared with the 2005-09 average.
He said: "These figures show quite clearly that road safety in the capital continues to head in the right direction.
"However, with a growing population and more people on our roads, we'll have to pull out all the stops to ensure that such positive trends continue."

Summary: The number of motorcycle deaths in London increased in a year when the capital's total road deaths fell by 4%.
###
Article: The document does not say whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should remain in power during that time.
It says certain Syrian opposition groups should take part in key talks on the crisis in Vienna on Saturday.
The Syrian army meanwhile has broken a siege in the north.
Army units fought their way to Kuwairis airbase, east of Aleppo, and eliminated large numbers of Islamic State (IS) militants, reports said.
The facility had been under attack by IS jihadists for nearly two years.
It represents a victory for regime forces which have struggled to advance even since Russia added its firepower to the conflict at the end of September, flying hundreds of sorties in that time.
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg is embedded with Russian forces at their air base near Latakia, sending the following tweets among others on Wednesday:
Russian planes targeted IS-controlled areas in Aleppo province and other targets in the Damascus countryside on Wednesday, reported the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
At least 22 people were killed and many more wounded by rebel shellfire in the Mediterranean city of Latakia on Tuesday, state media and activists say.
Latakia, which lies in the heartland of President Assad's minority Alawite sect, has largely escaped the conflict that has devastated most of Syria and killed more than 250,000 people.
A Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said that the priority ahead of next Saturday's meeting should be to establish which Syrian opposition groups are to be regarded as partners in the process, and which are "terrorist" and unacceptable.
Two fundamental problems are immediately apparent:
First, there is the position of President Assad himself. The leaked document makes no mention of Mr Assad standing down during the transitional process, though it does say: "The president of Syria will not chair the constitutional commission".
The second problem is that of inclusivity - who actually will be asked to participate in the eventual peace talks?
The Russian proposal speaks of the launching...

Summary: A Russian document circulating at the United Nations has proposed a constitutional reform process in Syria, lasting 18 months, to be followed by presidential elections.
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Article: It is already illegal for certain professionals, such as teachers and social workers, to do the same.
The NSPCC said it was concerned that the role of sports coach, and other youth workers, fell outside the legal definition of a "position of trust".
The government said it was committed to ensuring sports participation was safe.
The charity's chief executive, Peter Wanless, told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme that the loophole was "remarkable... given the significant amount of responsibility, influence and authority that an individual in [the role of sports coach] can hold in a young person's life".
He said it was vital to "bolster protection for teenagers at risk of grooming once they pass the age of consent".
This call for change comes after the charity said in December that more than 1,700 calls had been made to the hotline it set up with the Football Association in the wake of claims of sexual abuse in the sport.
Mr Wanless said alerting the government to the loophole was "not about demonising certain jobs, but about protecting young people from a small minority of adults only too happy to take advantage of their standing in society to groom and abuse vulnerable children".
The charity also wants the government to tighten the rules around background checks, which tell a club if a coach has a criminal record or is banned from working with children.
In 2012, then-Home Secretary Theresa May relaxed the rules, meaning only an employee or volunteer working unsupervised with under-18s on a regular basis could face a full check.
The NSPCC believes that went too far, and that people who are barred from working with children are able to take up assistant or support roles in children's clubs "completely undetected".
The pressure group Mandate Now, which campaigns for tighter rules around child protection, said the changes, if implemented, would not go far enough.
It wants the UK to follow countries like the US, Australia and Canada, where there is a legal responsibility for people working in regulated...

Summary: A "loophole" that allows sports coaches to legally have sex with 16 and 17 year olds in their care must be closed by the government, the NSPCC has said.
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Article: School crossing patrol personnel numbers have dropped by about 75 since 2013, leading to fears about safety.
Overall, councils spent £810,000 less on the service than three years ago.
Stirling Council has reduced its outlay by the highest percentage, spending 50% less than in 2013.
West Dunbartonshire cut its spending on patrol services by 40%.
The figures were obtained from Freedom of Information requests answered by 30 of Scotland's 32 local authorities.
It showed there are now just over 2,100 school patrol officers in Scotland.
Despite the widespread reductions, some local authorities actually increased their spend - including Inverclyde, where it went up by more than 90% and Dumfries and Galloway, where it increased by nearly 10%.
A spokesman for Stirling Council, which had the biggest cut to school patrol services, said the decision was made three years ago following substantial cuts to its overall budget.
He added: "The majority of these savings were made by removing lunch-time crossing patrols and removing any patrols which duplicated existing crossing safety measures (i.e. pelican and zebra crossings nearby). The safety of our pupils is of the utmost importance and we strive to maintain key crossing patrol services where these are required."
West Dunbartonshire said that patroller sites had been reduced due to a variety of factors including the relocation of schools, lack of use of sites and alternative facilities nearby.
A spokesman for the council said: "Over the last three years a number of our school crossing patrollers have retired or moved on to other roles.
"On review, some of the sites have no longer met the criteria for a crossing patroller and in other cases we have installed a pedestrian crossing.
"Increasing numbers of pupils remaining in school over lunchtime has also meant that there is no longer demand for cover during these times."
The Scottish Parent Teacher Council emphasised the importance of school patrollers for pupil safety.
Eileen Prior from the organisation said: "Parents want...

Summary:


Owners of exotic animals have been urged to do research before having them as pets after a seriously neglected chameleon was found in Cardiff Bay.

Article: Children faced the same pressures as their parents and grandparents as savings rates fell, Moneyfacts said.
The financial information service said some accounts paid just 0.1% a year.
Annual interest paid on a typical child savings account, including fixed term and variable accounts, has fallen from 1.61% a year ago to 1.39% now.
A government-backed advice service said that the rates were falling but children should still be urged to save.
Andrew Johnson, from the Money Advice Service, said: "While this may make the prospect of saving less attractive, it's important that people understand the importance of building up a savings buffer."
Last month the service said that more than 16 million adults in the UK have savings of less than £100.
He said that children should be included in the process of setting up savings, and parents should shop around for the best deals to suit everyone's needs.
Children's savings accounts had collectively been the subject of more than 100 rate cuts over the course of the year, according to Moneyfacts.
Those accounts, which have a fluid, or variable, interest rate, have seen rates cut after the Bank of England cut its base rate in August. Most variable rate savings accounts for adults have also been hit by this change.
The best paying accounts still pay nearly 3% a year in interest - higher than the rising cost of living. The worst still pay well below the rate of inflation.
"It is hugely disappointing to see children's savings accounts facing the same treatment as adult accounts," said Rachel Springall, of Moneyfacts.
"As the majority of child savers pay variable rates, they are in danger of rate changes at any moment, so it's worthwhile to be diligent in checking the savings pot on a regular basis and not put up with any paltry interest."
Young savers can get a better return by signing up to accounts that tie them in to making a fixed level of regular saving, while their families can also get slightly better rates on Junior Isas.
These Isas - a variation on regular tax-free...

Summary: Some children might as well put their pocket money in a piggy bank rather than an actual bank owing to poor rates of interest, research suggests.
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Article: A regional breakdown of installations published by the Stephen Nolan Show on Radio Ulster shows the biggest cluster is around Dungannon, County Tyrone.
There are 342 boilers there - about one-in-six of the total.
The statistics show the total of 2,128 recipients are split roughly between commercial and farming interests.
Around Ballymena and Ballymoney there are 276 boilers.
Poultry farmers are heavily represented, accounting for 871 of the installations.
The two main clusters are close to Moy Park's processing plants in Northern Ireland, in Ballymena and Dungannon.
Poultry farmers use the boilers to heat chicken houses where the birds are reared.
Many switched from LPG gas to biomass in recent years.
Other areas where there are significant numbers of boilers by postcode include Armagh which has 112 and Omagh which has 82.
Last week, Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir said a Moy Park briefing with his officials had raised "issues" about the operation of the RHI scheme.
Moy Park later issued a statement but made no reference to those issues.
On Monday, the former DETI minister Jonathan Bell claimed under assembly privilege that he had been told DUP special advisers Timothy Johnston and John Robinson had extensive interests in the poultry industry, and that he would not be allowed to reduce the RHI tariff as a result.
The DUP later issued a statement of categorical denial on behalf of both men.
John Robinson said he had "no personal interest" in the poultry industry. He said two of his brothers were poultry farmers but were not in the RHI.
Timothy Johnston said he had "no family connections to the poultry industry". He said he had two brothers in law in the poultry industry but neither had any connection with the RHI.
On Tuesday, Mr Bell said he was prepared to repeat allegations he made about the role played by special advisers in the RHI scheme, to a judge-led inquiry.
He was speaking during an an opposition debate in the Assembly calling for a public inquiry into the controversial scheme.
He also made...

Summary: Most companies on the lucrative RHI scheme are based in mid-Ulster and north Antrim, according to information passed to the BBC.
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Article: The party held three seats and won one from the Greens on Glasgow City Council. It also held another seat on South Lanarkshire Council.
Three of the by-elections were prompted by the resignation as councillors of newly elected SNP MPs.
The remaining two were the result of the resignation of an SNP and a Green councillor.
The five contests saw a repeat of the large swings to the SNP seen at the general election and in other recent council by-elections.
However, turnout in the latest polls was as low as 14.5% in one case and 16.1% in another.
In the poll in Glasgow's Langside ward, where the SNP won a seat from the Greens, first-preference voting was: SNP 2,134, Labour 932, Green 579, Conservative 379, Liberal Democrats 125, Ukip 65, TUSC 62.
The swing from Labour to the SNP was 13%. The Greens saw their vote share increase by 4.5 points but it was not enough to hold the seat they had won when three seats were contested in the ward in 2012. Turnout was 21.7%.
At Glasgow, Calton, the SNP held the council seat vacated by new MP Alison Thewliss with 1,507 first-preference votes against Labour 814, Conservative 129, Ukip 103, Green 99, Independent 47 and Lib Dems 18. The swing from Labour to the SNP was 25%, and turnout 16.1%.
At Glasgow, Anderston/City, formerly represented by new MP Martin Docherty, the SNP held the seat with 1,441 first-count votes against Labour 857, Green 414, Conservative 164, Lib Dem 66, Ukip 43, Libertarian 12. Swing from Labour to SNP was 20%, and turnout 14.5%
The SNP also held a seat at Glasgow, Craigton. First-preference voting was: SNP 2,674, Labour 1,643, Conservative 300, Green 136, Ukip 95, Lib Dem 87. Swing from Lab to SNP was 21.5%, and turnout 21.7%.
At South Lanarkshire, Hamilton South, the SNP held the seat vacated by Angela Crawley MP. First-preference voting was: SNP 1,881, Labour 1,396, Conservative 349, Green 127, Christian 77, Ukip 43, Lib Dem 32, Pirate 13. Swing from Labour to SNP was 16%, and turnout 26.8%.
Similarly large swings of 20% and 23% from Labour to the SNP...

Summary: The SNP is celebrating further success after winning in five council by-elections.
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Article: But she insisted that plans to publish the results of new national school tests had not changed.
The Scottish Conservatives claimed the first minister was backtracking from the proposals.
The exchange came during the first session of first minister's questions since May's Holyrood election.
For the first time, the session was extended to 45 minutes rather than the previous half hour.
Ms Sturgeon was challenged on the results of the latest Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) by both Conservative leader Ruth Davidson - whose party is now the second largest in the parliament - and Labour's Kezia Dugdale.
The survey found that the the proportion of P4 and S2 students performing "well or very well" in maths had fallen between 2013 and 2015,
Referring to the figures, Ms Sturgeon said: "I have made clear, as has the education secretary this week, that the findings of the SSLN survey are not acceptable to me."
Ms Sturgeon said it was the responsibility of herself as first minister, as well as the Scottish government and councils, to ensure that standards were rising and the inequality gap closing.
She added: "That is what we are determined to bring about, which is why we have embarked on a programme of reform and improvement in our education system,"
The provision of better data was a "key part" of that, she said.
She added that the SSLN is "limited in its coverage", saying the information is drawn from a sample that includes just four pupils per primary school and 12 pupils per secondary.
The  first minister said: "It doesn't enable us to tell school-by-school how schools are performing, that is why the National Improvement Framework will lead to more comprehensive school-by-school data that allows us to target our efforts more closely."
Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said Scotland's main teaching union, the EIS, had published an advice note saying the Scottish government had "watered down" its plans for standardised assessments.
The assessments are being brought in for youngsters in P1, P4, P7 and...

Summary: Nicola Sturgeon has acknowledged that figures showing the country's pupils are doing less well in maths are "not acceptable".
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Article: The panther chameleon was found on Monday by a dog walker in the wooded area at Marl Park.
It had to be put down after X-rays showed all of its legs were broken and it had a deformed spine.
RSPCA Cymru said it was an "extremely sad example of an abandoned and neglected exotic pet".
Inspector Selina Chan said: "It is a possibility that the owners took on this animal but were unable to provide the care he needs and decided to release him to the wild.
"We are urging potential owners of exotic animals to thoroughly research what is required in the care of the particular species before taking one on.
"Potential owners need to make sure they can give their animal the environment it needs and they have the facilities, time, financial means and long-term commitment to maintain a good standard of care, as required under the Animal Welfare Act 2006."
She added it was illegal to release non-native species into the wild.

Summary:


Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to allay Israeli concerns at Russia's military build-up in Syria.

Article: The Sheffield City Region was one of 38 places to bid for increased control in how public money is spent in its area.
The deal - part of the government's northern powerhouse programme - will require the support of local councils and be subject to public consultation.
As part of the deal, a Sheffield City Region mayor will be elected in 2017.
The mayor will be responsible for transport budgets and strategic planning.
The agreement means the Sheffield City Region will also have access to a pot of government money - Â£30m a year over 30 years - enabling Sheffield to boost local growth and invest in local manufacturing and innovation.
The mayor will chair meetings for Sheffield City Region Combined Authority.
The city region is comprised of the nine local authority areas of Barnsley, Bassetlaw, Bolsover, Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales, Doncaster, North East Derbyshire, Rotherham and Sheffield.
Mr Osborne said Sheffield was "forging ahead" in creating a northern powerhouse.
He said: "We have signed this historic deal to transfer power from Whitehall to South Yorkshire, to an elected mayor accountable to local people, so that the decisions that affect this area are taken by local people."
The chancellor described the northern powerhouse as "a collection of northern cities sufficiently close to each other that combined they can take on the world" when he unveiled the plan for devolution in England's cities in June 2014.
Last November, he announced Greater Manchester was to have an elected mayor and next year the region is to become the first in England to get full control of its health spending.
The Sheffield City Region deal jumped the queue to be announced because it was the most clearly defined bid from clusters of local authorities across the country.
All four big South Yorkshire district councils, together with five smaller ones in the North Midlands, have been in agreement for some time that their economies are so closely linked that they are the obvious partners to take on extra powers and budgets from...

Summary: Chancellor George Osborne has signed an agreement with political leaders in South Yorkshire paving the way for an elected mayor for the region.
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Article: EU trade ministers are discussing the Ceta deal in Luxembourg, and Wallonia's concerns cannot be ignored. Belgium's national government backs the deal.
Walloon MPs say Ceta favours Canadian firms and they want more safeguards for Belgian farmers.
It is the EU's biggest trade deal yet.
Going into the Luxembourg meeting, Mr Reynders said: "The federal government is in favour [of Ceta] but we have to convince particularly Wallonia.
"I'm in permanent contact with the Walloon prime minister. I hope we'll be able to move forward at the summit."
Trade will be a major issue at the two-day EU summit in Brussels, which starts on Thursday.
EU leaders hope to sign Ceta - the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement - with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on 27 October. The negotiations started in 2009.
Some UK politicians see Ceta as a possible model for a Brexit deal with the EU. It will not allow the degree of EU market access that UK services currently enjoy. And Ceta does not involve EU-style free movement of people.
Would Ceta be a good model for the UK?
Walloon PM Paul Magnette said he was expecting the European Commission to present an additional text addressing his region's concerns.
On Friday the Walloon parliament, representing 3.6m people, voted against Ceta.
European Parliament briefing on Ceta
The deal requires approval by all six regional and community parliaments in Belgium, as well as the EU's national parliaments, and the European Parliament, to take full effect.
But parts of the deal can be implemented before full ratification.
One of the most controversial areas - special investor courts to handle commercial disputes - will have to await full ratification of Ceta.
"If there are safeguard clauses for the Canadians to legitimately protect their markets against possible European exports, which might threaten them, then why not have reciprocal clauses [for Europe] too?" Mr Magnette said.
"We in Wallonia are coming under huge pressure - and sometimes we're getting barely disguised threats," he told...

Summary: Belgium's Foreign Minister Didier Reynders says EU leaders may agree on a landmark EU-Canada trade deal this week - but only if objections from his country's Wallonia region can be met.
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Article: Barry Beavis, 47, of Chelmsford, Essex, claimed an £85 charge for breaching a two-hour limit in the town in April 2013 was "unfair and disproportionate".
The Court of Appeal dismissed Mr Beavis's claim against management company ParkingEye.
He appealed to the Supreme Court, but judges there have also rejected his case. The company said its charges were "fair" and "legally enforceable".
Mr Beavis, who owns The Happy Haddock chip shop in Billericay, was charged by ParkingEye after over-staying the free parking period at Riverside Retail Park by nearly an hour.
Updates on this story and more from Essex
Following the decision, Mr Beavis  said: "It is a very dangerous ruling. I am disappointed the Supreme Court did not stick up for the consumer.
"It has decided these charges are allowed because they are not excessive - so what is excessive?
"There is now no legal recourse to go to European Court of Justice. I think the government needs to intervene and introduce a single code of practice."
Mr Beavis said he travelled to London by train for the hearing as he "wasn't going to pay to park".
Supreme Court president Lord Neuberger and Lord Sumption said in a joint written ruling ParkingEye could not charge over-stayers "whatever it liked".
"It could not charge a sum which would be out of all proportion to its interest or that of the landowner for whom it is providing the service," they wrote.
"But there is no reason to suppose £85 is out of all proportion to its interests."
Steve Gooding, director of motoring charity RAC Foundation, said Parliament should now tackle parking charges in the same way it dealt with clamping in 2012.
He echoed Mr Beavis' comments and said judges had not given any clear direction on what figure would be excessive.
"This opens the door for parking companies to increase their penalty demands and leaves the onus on motorists to fight sky-high charges on a case-by-case basis," he said.
He added the DVLA which "releases several million vehicle records to private parking companies" should be...

Summary: A chip shop owner has lost his Supreme Court battle over parking charges.
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Article: More than 1,000 properties in the Caribbean nation are already listed, but can only be booked by users in the US.
The San Francisco-based site is restricted from showing the listings elsewhere because of a US trade embargo against the island.
Nevertheless, Airbnb said Cuba could eventually become one of its biggest markets in Latin America.
"We are actually plugging into an existing culture of micro-enterprise in Cuba," said the firm's regional director Kay Kuehne.
"The hosts in Cuba have been [renting out rooms to travellers] for decades."
One expert, however, said the site faced major challenges.
"While Airbnb is a valuable alternative for millions of travellers, in the context of Cuba, because of the high margins it takes from every transaction, it won't necessarily meet with great success," said travel writer Simon Calder.
"All the Cuban bed-and-breakfast providers I know would like to keep all the money rather than handing 15% or more to an American corporation," he added, referring to the total amount the firm deducts from both the host and the guest.
"The other thing is that anybody who has used the internet in Cuba will know that a prospective host is unlikely to be able to respond immediately given the shockingly slow internet there, which reminds me of what you used to find across the developing world in the early 1990s."
The initial listings range from Â£10 a night for a private room in Trinidad to Â£695 a night for the whole of a five-bedroom "chalet" in Havana.
Airbnb visitors outside the US can view the listings, but can only add them to their wish lists, rather than book them. An on-screen alert states that the site is not licensed to provide booking services to others.
The US recently began allowing Americans to travel to the island if they obtained a special licence, which can be granted for activities including family visits, educational activities and public performances.
The White House said it would like tourism to be added to the list, and President Obama has urged Congress to begin work...

Summary: Home holiday rental site Airbnb has added Cuba to its list of destinations.
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Article: At talks in Moscow, he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Russia's actions in the Middle East would always be "responsible".
Mr Netanyahu is concerned by the possibility of Israeli and Russian forces inadvertently trading fire.
Israel has periodically struck inside Syria against militants it says have been plotting attacks against it.
It has also responded to shellfire from forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who Russia has backed throughout the four-year uprising against his rule.
But in the past week, US officials have confirmed reports that the Russian military has sent warplanes, helicopters, tanks, artillery guns, armoured personnel carriers and 200 marines to an airfield near Mr Assad's ancestral home in Latakia province.
They believe Moscow plans to turn the airfield into a forward operating base that could allow it to send a large number of troops to Syria and launch air strikes.
Israel is believed to have previously targeted Syrian and Iranian weapons convoys in Syria meant for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, though it has not officially acknowledged this.
Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Moscow comes at a time of deepening Russian military involvement in Syria.
The arrival of Russian fixed-wing combat aircraft at the airbase in Latakia only accentuates the questions surrounding Moscow's military presence there.
According to satellite photos obtained by Stratfor - a US think-tank - the jets appear to be four Sukhoi Su-30 multi-role fighters and up to a dozen possible SU-25 ground attack aircraft.
Their deployment came shortly after initial military-to-military contacts between the US and the Russians at the end of last week.
The US is operating warplanes against so-called Islamic State targets in Syrian airspace and Israel too is concerned about the potential constraints on its military freedom of action over southern Syria.
That's why Mr Netanyahu visited Moscow. Clearly all three countries need to have some sense of what the other might potentially be doing if a...

Summary: