A former deputy chief constable has said it may be time to reconsider de-criminalising cannabis.

Article: Tories Michael Gove and Boris Johnson and Labour's Gisela Stuart wrote in the Sun that the tax on energy bills cannot be scrapped because of EU rules.
But Chancellor George Osborne accused them of "fantasy land" economics.
Remain campaigners said Vote Leave were promising a "make-believe land of milk and honey" if the UK left the EU.
There is one week left to register to vote in the EU referendum on 23 June.
In their article, the Vote Leave politicians said they would seek to spend some of the cash saved by quitting the EU on cutting VAT from household gas and electricity bills, a tax imposed by the then Conservative government in 1993.
This issue covers energy availability and environmental protections.
"The least wealthy are hit particularly hard," they wrote.
"The poorest households spend three times more of their income on household energy bills than the richest households spend. As long as we are in the EU, we are not allowed to cut this tax.
"When we Vote Leave, we will be able to scrap this unfair and damaging tax.
"It isn't right that unelected bureaucrats in Brussels impose taxes on the poorest and elected British politicians can do nothing."
VAT on domestic fuel bills was cut to 5% under the Labour government - the lowest rate allowed under EU rules.
In 2014, the average bill for a customer of a big six energy firm was £1,190.
Mr Gove told the BBC it had been a "mistake" of the previous Major government to introduce the tax, adding: "The Conservative government at the time did so because of the economic damage that the exchange rate mechanism of the European Union had caused.
"I think it is now time to acknowledge that that was an error."
The justice secretary said it would be up to the prime minister and the chancellor to axe VAT, but said he backed such a move because it was "an unfair tax that hits the poorest people hardest".
Mr Osborne tweeted his attack on Vote Leave's claim, saying leaving the EU would lead to a smaller economy, "a hole in public finances" and higher taxes including...

Summary: Leading figures in the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union say they want to be able to scrap VAT on fuel to help the poorest households.
###
Article: A review of the college at Garverville, east Belfast, was ordered after 54 student officers were found to have cheated in their exams.
It described the culture as "pseudo-militaristic", with "an unhealthy leaning towards punitive discipline".
The PSNI accepted 50 recommended changes.
Chief Constable George Hamilton and other members of the senior PSNI members will meet members of the Policing Board to discuss an implementation plan to address concerns raised.
A number of changes to the 22-week training course were introduced immediately.
These included the practice of students marching to and from classes and the use of military-style "show parades" as a form of discipline.
Groups of students will in future be referred to as "classes", and not "squads".
The PSNI plan sets out 34 changes it hopes to have implemented by the end of March next year.
In a statement earlier this week, the Policing Board said the report's conclusion, that the pervading culture in the college was "not conducive to a safe and professional learning environment", was "a matter of most serious concern".
A special meeting of the board was convened for Thursday to discuss the report's findings and the police response.
All training at Garnerville has been suspended since the exam-cheating scandal was uncovered on 7 August.
More than 200 new recruits have had their training delayed, and a planned recruitment drive was also put on hold while this review was completed.
The Chief Constable has said several times in recent months that a failure to recruit new officers will have a serious impact on the operational capability of the PSNI.
George Hamilton is expected to ask for the approval of the Policing Board to restart training at the college, and to proceed with a recruitment campaign in January.

Summary: PSNI commanders will meet the Policing Board later to discuss a report that said training for new officers was at times like a military-style boot camp.
###
Article: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that care at Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust was "good" but it judged safety in the urgent care service "to be inadequate".
Inspectors said people were waiting too long to be assessed at minor injuries units and there were safety concerns.
The trust said it had taken on board the CQC's findings.
The trust runs hospitals at Cirencester, Stroud General and Tewkesbury Community Hospital, Minor Injuries and Illness Units (MIIU), dental clinics and community services.
The inspection, carried out in June, July and August, found that patients were being seen by "unregistered practitioners".
Sir Mike Richards, the CQC's chief inspector of hospitals, said community teams were "overstretched" because there were not enough experienced nurses and it was concerned about safety in the urgent care service.
"We were not assured that people were adequately protected from the risk of harm, and we were not convinced that this had been addressed adequately yet by the trust board," he said.
"While there are many good services, we have also been very clear about those areas for improvement, which I expect the trust to address as a priority."
Dr Marion Andrews-Evans, from the NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, said the trust was working to ensure patients "receive the right care, in the right place at the right time".
"We know that the trust has taken immediate action to improve arrangements for initial triage of patients within Community Minor Injury and Illness Units," she said.
"We also know that they are working hard to recruit and train additional emergency nurse practitioners to support increased use of MIIU services."

Summary: An NHS trust that runs seven Gloucestershire hospitals has been rated as requiring improvement.
###
Article: Adrian Galliers, 50, from Guernsey, was found guilty of 10 counts of fraud over a four-and-a-half year period.
Galliers carried out the deception through his company Guernsey Financial Consultants Limited.
The Royal Court heard he had taken money from his clients' pension funds after suffering financial difficulties.
The company was fined £42,000 last year by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission after concerns were raised about the way the business was being run.
The court heard how Galliers initially moved money with the intent of paying it back to his clients, but the situation spiralled out of control.
The prosecution said three of the people Galliers had defrauded were long term friends who "trusted him implicitly".
Will Giles told the court one individual had known the financial adviser for 20 years and they had a long and well established friendship.
Galliers had suffered from depression and the GFSC fine had impacted him greatly, it was said.
He was described as being too "proud" and "ignorant" to admit the extent of his problems.
Judge Russell Finch sentenced him to three years for each of the 10 counts of fraud, to run concurrently.
Mr Finch said Galliers was trusted and regarded as a friend by his victims, but in reality he stole from them.
The "wholly despicable" offences reflected badly on the local pensions and insurance sectors, he added.

Summary: A financial adviser who defrauded clients out of £157k has been jailed for three years.
###
Article: Alan McQuillan told the BBC the current attitude to drugs was "creating a cash cow for organised crime, especially in relation to cannabis".
He said police needed to focus on paramilitaries as the source of the drugs problem in Northern Ireland.
The former policeman was taking part in a BBC Talkback discussion about drug dealing in Northern Ireland.
"I think there is real scope for de-criminalising cannabis," he said. "The time has come to consider it."
Mr McQuillan said the focus needed to be on teaching parents and children about the reality of the drugs trade.
"We need to invest in education, to be aware that often the people who are dealing drugs are corrupted young people who are paying for a habit by dealing to other children," he said.
Former Ulster Unionist MLA Adrian Cochrane-Watson told a local newspaper on Wednesday he would "break the legs" of any drug dealers he caught.
He was speaking after a family emergency in which a young relative became unwell after smoking cannabis.
Speaking in the Radio Ulster discussion on Wednesday, Mr Cochrane-Watson said he made no apology for his outspoken remarks.
He said: "When I see drug dealers driving about in their fancy sports cars - money to burn - it does make me angry.
"When I know who these people are, it makes me frustrated.
"If I had got my hands on the guy who dealt these drugs to 13-year-old kids, I'd rather the police would have gotten there before me."

Summary:


For three weeks Alexander Litvinenko desperately tried to fight off the radiation that was destroying his body from within.

Article: Sherratt worked with Blues head coach Danny Wilson at Bristol.
"I'm thrilled to be able to take the opportunity to work at Cardiff Blues and alongside Danny once again," said Sherratt.
Paul John will take on the role of skills coach while he studies for a master's degree, and Graham Steadman will continue as defence coach.
Steadman will be assisted by Richard Hodges.
Sherratt joined Bristol's coaching staff in 2011 having previously worked with Worcester.
"I'm delighted that Matt Sherratt will join us," said Wilson.
"I worked closely with him at Bristol and he always impressed me with his attention to detail and we share a similar coaching philosophy and view of the game."

Summary: Bristol's Matt Sherratt will join Cardiff Blues as attack and backs coach at the end of the season.
###
Article: Final details are still being worked out, but the companies said the deal had "compelling strategic logic" and boosted their market position.
Paddy Power shareholders would own 52% of the combined business, with Betfair investors owning the remaining 48%.
The combined business would have annual revenues of some £1.1bn.
"Discussions remain ongoing regarding the other terms of the possible merger," a statement said on Wednesday.
The new group would be the UK online market leader with a 16% share, according to industry data, passing a merged Ladbrokes/Coral on 14%, as well as William Hill and the privately owned Bet365.
Shares in Betfair soared 17% to £30.60 on Wednesday, while Paddy Power jumped more than 18% in Dublin.
If the deal goes ahead, Breon Corcoran, boss of Betfair, would become chief executive of the combined group, while his counterpart at Paddy Power, Andy McCue, would become chief operating officer.
The combined company plans to retain the "distinctive and complementary" Betfair and Paddy Power brands in Europe.
Mr Corcoran said: "We fundamentally believe this industry is all about scale. By putting together two distinct but phenomenally strong brands, we'll have a market leading position in the UK, Ireland, Australia and in the United States."
Cormac McCarthy, Paddy Power's chief financial officer, said the combination was an "attractive opportunity".
"The scale and capability is unsurpassed and would leave us in a much better place to compete in our current markets, where competition is intense," he said.
Given the complementary nature of the two companies, he was confident that any competition concerns could be overcome.
Paddy Power was founded in 1988, when three Irish bookmakers merged. It has 350 betting shops and is the third-largest online bookmaker.
Betfair, in contrast, is offering a marketplace - or betting exchange - that lets customers bypass the need for a traditional bookmaker.
Based on their closing prices on Tuesday, Betfair was worth £2.4bn and Dublin-listed Paddy Power was worth...

Summary: Betfair and Paddy Power are set to merge in a £5bn deal that would create one of the world's biggest online betting and gaming companies.
###
Article: Bridgend MP Madeleine Moon said a constituent found he had lost Â£50 from his month's pay for "toilet visits".
She said it seemed staff were "fined" for comfort breaks despite being given "copious amounts of water" to help them keep speaking to customers.
Trade unions have called for workers to be given specific legal rights to use toilets without pay deductions.
During business questions at Westminster, Ms Moon told House of Commons leader William Hague: "A constituent found his payslip contained a deduction of Â£50.
"When he asked why he was told it was for toilet visits.
"It appears that call centre staff, while provided with copious amounts of water to keep their voices lubricated, are also then fined for going to the toilet.
"Can we have a debate on the toilet tax?"
Mr Hague replied: "Well, that is a new proposition for the House to have a debate on.
"I'm sure you will wish to pursue this directly - I'm sure you are doing, you're nodding to that - with the company concerned.
"If it was a widespread issue or problem there might well be demand for this in the House but I hope you're able to resolve this for your constituents without us having to debate it on the floor of the House."
The TUC recently noted that workers do not have a legal right to go to the toilet during working hours without losing pay, and called for the law to be changed.
It said: "There is also a need for a specific legal right to use toilets in the employer's time [as opposed to the employee's time] without a deduction in pay, and without any harassment."

Summary: Call centre staff are being hit with a "toilet tax" for leaving their desks, an MP has claimed.
###
Article: The Syrian National Council (SNC) comprises groups from across Syria's fractured opposition landscape. Chairman Burhan Ghalioun has said the SNC unites the "forces of opposition and the peaceful revolution".
The SNC is a coalition of seven Syrian opposition factions aimed at offering a credible alternative to Mr Assad's regime. Its formation recalls that of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), which earned international recognition through its opposition to the rule of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and is now leading the country's affairs.
Ghalioun has said the body is "an independent group personifying the sovereignty of the Syrian people in their struggle for liberty" and is "open to all Syrians".
The SNC plans to elect a chairman and stage a general assembly of 190 members next month.
Among the seven groups included are:
•The Damascus Declaration for Democratic Change grouping - a movement born during the so-called "Damascus Spring" of 2000/2001 which called for broad democratic reform, and was suppressed by the Assad regime.
•The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood - A banned Islamic political party, membership of which can be punishable by death under Syrian law.
•Local Coordination Committees - Grass-roots movements that have led demonstrations across the country.
•Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) - a coalition of 40 opposition blocs.
•Kurdish factions, tribal leaders and independent figures make up the rest of the council.
Since May, there have been several attempts to unite the various anti-government movements in Syria.
An early incarnation of the council was established in August during the opposition conference in Istanbul, but failed to unify the ethnically, religiously and politically fragmented factions of the opposition. There were a number of disputed issues and the Local Coordination Committees declared that the council did not represent them.
Opposition leaders like Ghalioun insisted on the importance of achieving unity within the council and ensuring that all factions were adequately...

Summary: Opposition groups in Syria have announced the formation of a united front against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
###
Article: His wife Marina can still recall the last time she saw him. He was smiling in what she recalls was a sad way. She said she would be back tomorrow.
"He suddenly just said 'I love you so much'," she remembers.
"I said 'Yes, of course. I love you too'."
But when she got home, she received a call from the hospital telling her to rush back in. She did not get the chance to speak to him again.
As he lay dying in his hospital bed, Alexander Litvinenko had remained the trained operative he had always been and tried to recall for police every detail that might hold a clue to his poisoning.
For the police, he was something unique - a living murder victim - a man who was going to die but had time to talk to them.
So who did he hold responsible for the mysterious illness which was taking such a terrible toll on his body? "Everything that happened to him and he was able to speak - able to sign - he said Putin was responsible for his death," his widow told the BBC.
The public inquiry will examine the central question - who was responsible for what was described by a lawyer in a previous hearing as 'an act of state sponsored nuclear terrorism on the streets of London'?
It was one of the most remarkable and sensitive murder cases in modern times.
"This inquiry was different from any other investigation that I've ever been involved in," says Peter Clarke, who at the time ran the Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Command which handled the investigation.
"It was not only a murder inquiry but there were other key areas that we had to think about: public safety - over 40 sites of radioactive contamination in public places, on public transport, aircraft, offices, restaurants... And then there are the international dimensions, the diplomatic dimensions and the intelligence areas that came into this inquiry."
Much is already known about the broad brush of events - that Alexander Litvinenko was killed by radioactive Polonium 210 and that two Russians, Alexander Lugovoi and Dimitri Kovtun, are believed by police to be...

Summary:

Article: {{document}}

Summary: ||| {{target}}


Palmyra, one of the archaeological jewels of the Middle East, is said to be under threat from Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria.

Article: Mohammed Rehman, 25, discussed targeting the London Underground and Westfield shopping centre on social media under the name "Silent Bomber".
He and his wife Sana Ahmed Khan were convicted of preparing terrorist acts.
Jailing them both for life at the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Baker told Rehman he had been "determined to fulfil the Islamic State's call for jihad".
The couple's trial had heard how bomb-making chemicals were found at Rehman's Reading home, where he had filmed himself setting off a small explosion in the back garden.
He had been planning an attack to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the 7 July London bombings, the trial was told.
The role of 24-year-old Khan was to fund the chemicals needed to make a "huge" bomb.
Rehman, who was also convicted of possessing an article for terrorist purposes, was a "prolific" user of Twitter, the trial was told, posting extremist rhetoric alongside images of homemade devices and instructional material.
One tweet from his account read: "I have rigged my house to blow at the push of a button by my bedside if the popo [police] try to raid man. Nobody gets in the way of my jihad."
The judge told Rehman that the reason for his conversion "may never be fully known", adding that he was satisfied he had intended to carry out an act of terrorism within the United Kingdom.
"The type of act which you envisaged not only encompassed the use of explosive substances which would be used to maximum effect so as to cause multiple injuries and fatalities, but specifically included a suicide bombing; an act which envisaged martyrdom, a notion specifically resurrected by Islamic State in order to encourage this type of venture," Mr Justice Baker said.
Ahead of the sentencing hearing, Khan had sent the judge a handwritten letter saying she had divorced Rehman a couple of weeks previously and that she should have "distanced myself from him a long time ago".
The judge rejected her argument, telling Khan: "I am satisfied that it was you who became interested in the theological...

Summary: A husband and wife who plotted a terror attack in London have been jailed for a minimum of 27 and 25 years.
###
Article: The drop comes after Argentine Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said he would eliminate the foreign exchange restrictions that have propped up the peso since 2011.
After his announcement, markets opened with one dollar buying 14 pesos.
Analysts had predicted a fall of up to 30% from the previous controlled rate of 9.8 pesos to the dollar.
They said they expect it could fall to 14.5 pesos to the dollar. That is the rate at which the currency has been trading on the black market.
Argentine Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said that the country's central bank had been given the right to buy pesos if the exchange rate fell too rapidly.
But he said the restrictions needed to be removed to improve the country's ailing economy. Exchange controls would end for all businesses, who would be allowed to buy as many dollars as they needed.
But ordinary Argentines would still face restrictions on the amount of dollars they could buy a month.
Shop owners said consumers could cut spending in the short term as they see their purchasing power reduced, especially when it comes to dollar-denominated imports.
The previous government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner tried to end the buying of dollars four years ago, but prohibition simply fuelled the black economy.
Since then, informal street sellers in Buenos Aires offer foreign currency at much higher rates than the official one.
Argentines also found other creative ways to circumvent restrictions, from organised day-trips to neighbouring Uruguay to get US dollars from cash machines to Bitcoin trading.
The new policy may satisfy middle and upper-class Argentines who will now be able to get their dollars freely.
But they are also fearful of the consequences: higher prices and a potential devaluation of their currency.

Summary: Argentina's peso has lost about 30% of its value after the country lifted currency controls.
###
Article: Attorney General Eric Holder said the alleged breaches were "significant" and demanded "an aggressive response".
US prosecutors say the officers stole trade secrets and internal documents from five companies and a labour union.
China denied the charges and warned the case would harm US-China relations.
By Carrie GracieBBC China editor
China always insists it is a victim of hacking, not a perpetrator. And when US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden appeared in Hong Kong a year ago with evidence of US hacking into Chinese networks, Beijing felt vindicated.
The US acknowledges that it conducts espionage but says unlike China it does not spy on foreign companies and pass what it finds to its own companies.
Beijing typically shrugs this off as a smear motivated by those who find its growing technological might hard to bear. But to see five named officers of the People's Liberation Army indicted by a US grand jury is not something that can be brushed aside so easily. China has already announced the suspension of co-operation with the US on an internet working group. And once it has had time to digest this loss of face, it is likely to consider more serious retaliation.
In Washington on Monday, Mr Holder said a grand jury had laid hacking charges against the Chinese nationals, the first against "known state actors for infiltrating US commercial targets by cyber means".
He identified the alleged victims as Westinghouse Electric, US Steel, Alcoa Inc, Allegheny Technologies, SolarWorld and the US Steelworkers Union.
"The alleged hacking appears to have been conducted for no reason other than to advantage state-owned companies and other interests in China, at the expense of businesses here in the United States," Mr Holder said.
He said the US government rejected economic espionage as a trade tactic.
"As President Obama has said on numerous occasions, we do not collect intelligence to provide a competitive advantage to US companies, or US commercial sectors," Mr Holder said.
In response to the charges, the Chinese...

Summary: The US has charged five Chinese army officers with hacking into private-sector American companies in a bid for competitive advantage, in the first cyber-espionage case of its kind.
###
Article: It has long been suspected that rhyolites from the northern Preseli Hills helped build the monument.
But research by National Museum Wales and Leicester University has identified their source to within 70m (230ft) of Craig Rhos-y-felin, near Pont Saeson.
The museum's Dr Richard Bevins said the find would help experts work out how the stones were moved to Wiltshire.
For nine months Dr Bevins, keeper of geology at National Museum Wales, and Dr Rob Ixer of Leicester University collected and identified samples from rock outcrops in Pembrokeshire to try to find the origins of rhyolite debitage rocks that can be found at Stonehenge.
By detailing the mineral content and the textural relationships within the rock, a process known as petrography, they found that 99% of the samples could be matched to rocks found in this particular set of outcrops.
Rhyolitic rocks at Rhos-y-felin, between Ffynnon-groes (Crosswell) and Brynberian, differ from all others in south Wales, they said, which helps locate almost all of Stonehenge's rhyolites to within hundreds of square metres.
Within that area, the rocks differ on a scale of metres or tens of metres, allowing Dr Bevins and Dr Ixer to match some Stonehenge rock samples even more precisely to a point at the extreme north-eastern end of Rhos-y-felin.
Dr Rob Ixer of Leicester University called the discovery of the source of the rocks "quite unexpected and exciting".
"Being able to provenance any archaeologically significant rock so precisely is remarkable," he said.
"However, given continued perseverance, we are determined that we shall uncover the origins of most, if not all of the Stonehenge bluestones so allowing archaeologists to continue their speculations well into a third century."
With the location identified, archaeologists will now be able to dig to try and uncover how the stones from Pembrokeshire reached Stonehenge.
"Many have asked the question over the years, how the stones got from Pembrokeshire to Stonehenge," said Dr Bevins. "Was it human transport? Was it due to...

Summary: Experts say they have confirmed for the first time the precise origin of some of the rocks at Stonehenge.
###
Article: The jihadists seized buildings on the eastern edge of the adjacent city of Tadmur on Thursday, but their push was reportedly halted by the Syrian army.
Syria's antiquities chief warned that if IS seizes the Unesco World Heritage site it will destroy everything there.
The group has ransacked and demolished several ancient sites in Iraq.
Palmyra has already suffered some damage during the four-year civil war.
It is situated in a strategically important area on the road between the capital, Damascus and the contested eastern city of Deir al-Zour, and close to gas fields
On Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that IS militants were mounting an assault on Tadmur, the modern town next to the ruins of Palmyra.
Twenty-six civilians in a village outside Tadmur were summarily killed by IS - at least 10 by beheading - on Thursday after being accused of collaborating with President Bashar al-Assad's government, Mr Abdul Rahman said.
IS itself claimed on Twitter that it had taken control of northern and eastern parts of Tadmur, and that it had shot down a Syrian air force MiG jet in the area.
Homs provincial governor Talal Barazi confirmed that al-Sukhanah, a town to the north-east, had fallen on Wednesday and said 1,800 families from the town were sheltering in Tadmur.
The Syrian Observatory said more than 70 soldiers and 40 militants had been killed in the battle for al-Sukhanah.
Rising out of the desert and flanked by an oasis, Palmyra contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world, according to Unesco.
The site, most of which dates back to the 1st to the 2nd Century when the region was under Roman rule, is dominated by a grand, colonnaded street.
At the southern end of the 1.1km street is the great temple of Bel, considered one of the most important religious buildings of the 1st Century in the East and of unique design.
Syria's director of antiquities, Maamoun Abdul Karim, said that if Palmyra were to fall to IS, it would be an...

Summary:


A British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) resident has been arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm after a hunt saboteur was allegedly spat and sworn at.
The man, who is in his 50s, was arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm after a hunt saboteur was allegedly spat and sworn

A petition calling for residents of the Chagos Islands to be allowed to return to their Indian Ocean homeland has been handed in to Downing Street.

Article: The scandal erupted less than two weeks after Michel Temer took over as the acting president of Brazil.
The story dominates the top headlines of the country's major media outlets, with many newspapers devoting several articles to the latest revelation.
Right-leaning newspaper O Globo leads with the headline "11 days later: Recording topples Juca, challenges Temer and alarms the PMDB", in reference to upheaval now facing the country's largest political party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), to which both the president and the minister belong.
O Globo's online coverage takes a different approach and highlights interim President Temer's reaction to the scandal.
The site features an editorial entitled "Temer's hour", which argues that Mr Temer's presidency is legitimate but that he would be better off removing Mr Juca from office permanently.
Many see this latest revelation as a serious challenge for the interim president.
Carolina Bahia, a columnist for newspaper Zero Hora, writes that "Michel Temer has hardly started to govern and already faces his first scandal" in a piece entitled "Juca is just the beginning".
Centre-left publication Carta Capital takes the same view, with the headline "Juca: Understand the first crisis of Temer's government".
The article notes that Mr Juca saw President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment as an opportunity to divert attention away from the massive corruption investigation dubbed Lava Jato, or Operation Car Wash.
Folha de Sao Paulo, which first published news of the leaked recordings, also notes the link to Ms Rousseff's impeachment.
In his weekly column for Folha, left-wing politician Marcelo Freixo says the recordings "show that the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff had nothing to do with combating corruption".
Several publications feature Ms Rousseff's reaction to the leaked tapes.
Centre-right daily Correio Braziliense writes "Dilma says the recording shows the need to remove her from post so as to stop the Lava Jato corruption investigation", in an article...

Summary: Brazilian press have been provided with yet more drama to dissect, following the leaked recordings of Planning Minister Romero Juca allegedly conspiring to obstruct a huge corruption investigation.
###
Article: How and when water got trapped in volcanic lunar rocks is a huge and open question for planetary scientists.
This international team has compared the chemistry of Apollo mission samples with various types of space rock.
They say that icy, early asteroids were the likely source of most of the water.
After such impacts the Moon's developing crust could have trapped the water in the cooling magma.
Much later, volcanic activity spewed some of that magma back onto the surface and, much later again, a precious few of those volcanic rocks were bagged by Apollo astronauts.
Tightly bound up in the rocks is a trace of water: somewhere between 10 and 300 parts per million (0.001-0.03%).
"It's not pools of water, it's not lakes of water, it's not frozen ice. When we're talking about interior - or magmatic - water, we're talking about water that is locked up in minerals," said Dr Jessica Barnes from the Open University in the UK, first author of the new paper in Nature Communications.
The source of that water is a topic of ongoing debate.
Previous research revealed that some of these watery deposits have a similar molecular signature to water-rich "carbonaceous chondrite" meteorites that occasionally reach the Earth from the asteroid belt.
So was water brought to the Moon by chunks of asteroid? Perhaps via the very early Earth, which was similarly bombarded before the brutal collision that created our satellite?
Or, as other researchers have suggested, did lunar water arrive in comets - the Solar System's more distant, icy travellers?
Working with colleagues in the US and France, Dr Barnes modelled various scenarios to explore what could have produced the chemistry of the Moon's water as we know it. To run these tests, they surveyed all the published results about the make-up of lunar rock samples and various possible contributors - from Earth rock to comets.
"We've taken an approach that's the most quantitative so far, in terms of deciphering which types of objects would have been impacting the Moon," she told BBC...

Summary: A smattering of water is buried deep inside the Moon and it arrived during the satellite's very early history, a new study concludes, when asteroids plunged into churning oceans of magma.
###
Article: It is understood Supt Gerry Murray, who is head of road policing in Northern Ireland, was suspended from his post last month.
The 60-year-old, who recently featured in a BBC documentary, is one of the PSNI's longest serving police officers.
Last year, he led a group of officers as they marched for the first time at the St Patrick's Parade in New York.
The officers walked alongside members of An Garda Siochana.

Summary: A senior police officer has been suspended following an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs.
###
Article: Bodycam footage shows a confrontation between Atherstone Hunt members and West Midlands Hunt Saboteurs in Leicestershire, on Saturday.
A thud is heard, followed by a scream, and a woman is then seen clutching her head. She was later treated in hospital, the saboteur group said.
A man was arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm.
More on this story and other news in Leicestershire
He has since been released on bail.
The Atherstone Hunt said it was co-operating with the police and all available video footage has been handed to them.
The animal rights group said they were tracking the hunt in Derby Road, Shackerstone, when the "unprovoked attack" took place.
The clip shows two female saboteurs walking alongside several hunt members on horseback, on a footbridge.
Angry exchanges are heard and then a thud, before a woman screams out. A male rider then denies having done anything.
The group said she was taken to hospital to have her head "glued back together".
The video also shows a saboteur being spat and sworn at after he confronts a man about what had happened earlier.
Leicestershire Police said: "One man has been arrested on suspicion of ABH following a report of an assault which is alleged to have happened in Derby Road, Shackerstone, on Saturday February 11.
"He has been bailed pending further enquiries."

Summary: A man has been arrested after a hunt saboteur was allegedly hit over the head with a riding crop.
###
Article: They were evicted from the British overseas territory in the 1960s to allow the UK government to lease Diego Garcia to the US to use as an airbase.
Many residents of what is the largest of the Chagos Islands ultimately resettled in Crawley, West Sussex.
The petition demands the islanders' right to return home is respected.
TV presenter Ben Fogle, patron of the UK Chagos Support Organisation, handed in the petition, which had been signed by more than 2,500 people.
"Diego Garcia, which is one of the main prohibiters to the islanders returning, is up for renewal in the next year or so," Mr Fogle said.
"We're asking this government to think about whether these islands should belong to the people who inhabited them for a very long time, or to the US government who have used it for renditions - for effectively torture."
He said he had visited the islands and found "houses still as they were left" and "the graveyard strangled by vegetation having been left untended".
"For me, being a Brit, it was probably one of the things I'm most ashamed about, that I'm part of a country that forcibly evicted these people and is now refusing their right to return," he said.
Mr Fogle added: "How wrong is that, that I've been able to be there and they can't?"
Henry Smith, the Conservative MP for Crawley, said: "I think we can't turn back time but what we can do is rectify the problem as soon as possible."
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The government is committed to its ongoing review of resettlement policy towards the British Indian Ocean Territory."

Summary:


Continued expectations of an interest rate rise are prompting more homeowners to lock into a new mortgage deal, figures suggest.

Article: NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) said only those under 40 who had not previously been treated for a drink problem would be eligible.
Severe alcohol-associated hepatitis patients would account for 1% of all liver transplants each year.
One in five liver transplants currently performed in the UK is alcohol-related.
Transplanting livers in heavy drinkers has always been a controversial issue.
In the past, debate has focused on the fact that alcohol-related liver disease is self-inflicted, and concerns that patients would not look after their new liver post-transplantation.
This has led the public and the medical profession to be wary of supporting transplantation in patients with alcoholism.
People with severe alcohol-associated hepatitis (SAAH) had not previously been considered for transplants because the severity of their illness meant they were often very ill when first seen by a clinician and were unlikely to survive a period of abstinence before transplantation.
However, a French study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2011 suggested that early transplantation in some patients with SAAH could produce positive outcomes and increase survival rates.
As part of the pilot scheme run by NHSBT, 20 people with severe alcohol-associated hepatitis will be identified and put on waiting list for a liver transplant, provided they meet the strict criteria.
This process could take up to two years, NHSBT said.
An NHSBT spokesperson said: "We are looking at a small group of people in the UK who are eligible for the scheme and we want to see if the results we get are similar to those of the French study."
Around one in five liver transplants currently performed in the UK is alcohol-related.
Approximately 900 liver transplants are carried out every year.
The government's chief medical officer said recently that growing numbers of people in England were dying from liver disease caused by heavy drinking and unhealthy eating.
Andrew Langford, chief executive of the British Liver Trust, said he welcomed the...

Summary: People with a severe alcohol-related liver disease will be eligible for liver transplants for the first time in the UK under a pilot scheme.
###
Article: Daniel Seggie, 31, inflicted multiple knife wounds on Geoff, 59, at the house in Marylebone Crescent, Mackworth, Derby.
Geoff Seggie, described by his family as a "hero", was found dead at the house on 1 December.
His son, who admitted murder at a hearing on 18 May, was given a life sentence at Nottingham Crown Court.
The prosecution described how Daniel Seggie carried out the "vicious assault" in his father's bedroom, using a knife and hammer.
The court heard how he then tried to cover his tracks, making calls from his father's phone and lying to his own family.
Two days later Mr Seggie's body was found with 80 separate injuries. Police said the evidence showed he was alive and struggling for at least part of the assault.
Geoff Seggie's son Ben said in a statement: "Geoff was an amazing dad. He was always there for his family and friends.
"Life will never be the same without him. We miss him so much."
Det Con Insp Emlyn Richards, who led the investigation, said: "Daniel Seggie has never spoken about the reasons this attack took place or his motivation for doing so.
"This has left Geoffrey's family, friends and associates second guessing about the events that unfolded at Marylebone Crescent on the evening of Tuesday, November 29."

Summary: A man who stabbed his father to death at their home has been jailed for a minimum of 20 years.
###
Article: What are the main changes?
The aim is to slim down the content of the curriculum in almost all subjects, though not in primary English, maths or science.
The government says the new curriculum does not tell teachers "how to teach", but concentrates on "the essential knowledge and skills every child should have" so that teachers "have the freedom to to shape the curriculum to their pupils' needs".
The new curriculum covers primary school pupils, aged five to 11, and secondary schools pupils up to the age of 14.
A new curriculum for 15- and 16-year-olds will come into force from September 2015.
Which subjects are affected?
There are changes to the content of all subjects in the national curriculum. A summary can be found on the Department for Education website.
The government appointed a panel of experts, which included subject specialists and teachers, to devise the new curriculum.
Their brief was to emulate the world's most successful school systems, including those in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Canadian state of Alberta and the US state of Massachusetts, in international tests.
The aim was to combine best international practice with best practice from schools in England.
The government says the curriculum has a strong focus on basic skills "plus real freedom for teachers to decide how best to teach".
It says it wants pupils to leave school with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the real world.
Some experts have complained the new primary curriculum will require children to cover subjects, particularly in maths and science, up to two years earlier than their peers in top-performing nations.
Children in England will start looking at fractions aged five or six - but in Finland they do not start using fractions until they are about nine years old.
The history curriculum has also divided experts, with some academics welcoming it and others complaining it is list like and narrow.
Yes. Academies, state-funded schools in England outside local authority control, have significant freedoms in what they...

Summary: A new curriculum will be taught in all local authority schools in England from the start of the autumn term.
###
Article: The basic principle behind this is the need for due impartiality of political coverage, as set out in the agreement accompanying the BBC Charter.
But there is also a legal dimension which applies to everyone - not just the BBC or broadcasters.
The restrictions on coverage last from 00:30 BST to 22:00 BST on polling day.
The BBC Trust's referendum guidelines say that during those times there should no coverage of "any of the issues relating to the referendum" campaign on TV, radio or bbc.co.uk.
Subjects which have been contested or are part of the campaign in any way - or other controversial matters relating to the EU or the referendum - must not be covered on polling day, to ensure the BBC's output cannot be seen as influencing the ballot while the polls are open.
However, online sites will not have to remove archived reports.
Coverage is restricted to uncontroversial factual accounts, such as the appearance of politicians and others at polling stations or the weather.
Publishing information setting out the practicalities involved in helping people to vote, such as when the polls are open, the wording of the question, expectations of when the result may be known, etc. are allowed, but the BBC stops short of actually encouraging people to vote.
While the polls are open, it is a criminal offence for anyone, not just broadcasters, to publish anything about the way in which people have voted in the referendum, where that is based on information given by voters after they have voted.
That includes, of course, anything emerging from exit polls (which, by definition, are asking people how they actually voted), although the broadcasters themselves have not commissioned any exit polls for this vote.
In addition, no opinion poll on any issue relating to the referendum can be published by broadcasters until after the polls have closed.

Summary: Strict rules mean the BBC, like other broadcasters, is not allowed to report details of campaigning while the polls are open.
###
Article: Remortgaging loans approved in July hit the highest level for nearly seven years, the Bank of England data show.
Mortgage approvals for house purchases also rose to a 17-month high.
Both remain far below the peak of housing market activity, but signal an assumption of imminent rate rises despite market turmoil in recent days.
The economic situation in China created a shock across world markets and some analysts suggested this could delay a rise in the Bank rate in the UK.
The governor of the Bank of England was more circumspect in a recent speech and has hinted that a rate rise could be seen next year.
Homeowners have been increasingly signing up to mortgage deals, especially by remortgaging, in anticipation of a rate rise. This has been encouraged by competition between lenders battling over borrowers' custom.
Howard Archer, chief UK economist for IHS Global Insight, said the Bank's latest figures were "compelling evidence" that housing market activity was firming up.
"It is possible that July's performance may have been lifted by some house buyers looking to move quickly to try and lock in a low mortgage interest rate before they start rising," he added.

Summary:


Former Energy Secretary Chris Huhne - who was jailed for perverting the course of justice in 2013 - has been granted a Commons pass, a Freedom of Information Act request has revealed.

Article: The prime minister said it was "absolutely vital" police could access communications data via social media.
"We need to know who called whom and when," he told ITV's This Morning.
Wednesday's Investigatory Powers Bill would let police see websites people have visited but not the specific pages they have viewed without a warrant.
The BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera said the plan may be resisted in the House of Lords amid concerns about the degree of intrusion into people's browsing histories and who would authorise police warrants.
The new security bill is the latest in a series of attempts to update the law to allow police and security services to access communications data, as more and more takes place online rather than on phones.
Police sources have told the BBC they expect the new bill to require communication firms to retain data on website addresses for a year. This will mean existing powers allowing authorities to see which websites people have visited become practical to implement for the first time.
Such data would consist of a basic domain address, and not a full browsing history of pages within that site or search terms entered. For example, police could see that someone visited www.bbc.co.uk - but not the individual pages they viewed.
Explaining the thinking behind the plans, Mr Cameron said the police needed to be able to track suspect behaviour online in the same way as they already did elsewhere.
"As prime minister, I would say to people, 'Please let's not have a situation where we give terrorists, criminals, child abductors, safe spaces to communicate.'
"It is not a safe space for them to communicate on a fixed line phone or a mobile phone.
"We should not allow the internet to be a safe space for them to communicate and do bad things."
Speaking on Sunday, Home Secretary Theresa May told the BBC there would be "world-leading" oversight of warrants to access digital records, details of which would be announced on Wednesday.
Labour has insisted that warrants should have to be approved...

Summary: David Cameron has defended proposed new web surveillance powers, saying the internet cannot become a "safe space" for terrorists and criminals.
###
Article: International artists such as Joe Locke, Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis and Kamasi Washington will perform at venues across the city from 22 June.
The four-day festival will also feature Scottish and UK talent such as Carol Kidd, Ryan Quigley and Hamish Stuart.
To tie-in with the anniversary theme, up-and-coming musicians within the Scottish Jazz scene will also perform as part of the "30 Under 30" programme.
Glasgow Jazz festival director Jill Rodger said the organising team was "very excited to be launching the 30th" programme.
"I can't wait to introduce the array of exciting big name artists to the Glasgow Jazz Festival stage, to welcome back old friends and showcase some fantastic new, one-off collaborations," she said.
"I am especially looking forward to celebrating the "30 Under 30" musicians - the collection of young Scottish Jazz musicians making a big impression on the international Jazz scene today.
"It is vitally important to recognise the next generation of musicians and one of the key themes of this year's festival is looking forward to the exciting next 30 years that the Glasgow Jazz scene has to offer."

Summary: Glasgow Jazz Festival has launched the line-up for its 30th anniversary year.
###
Article: It continues the Egyptian theme for the mission - being an island in the Nile.
Philae will be ejected towards Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by its carrier spacecraft, Rosetta, on the morning of 12 November.
If successful, it will be a historic first - no probe has ever soft-landed on one of these icy bodies before.
Controllers at the European Space Agency's operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, hope to get a positive signal from the robot at just after 1600 GMT (1700 CET).
Until now, the chosen landing zone on the "head" of duck-shaped 67P has been known simply as "J" - a reference to its position on a list of possible destinations in the landing site selection process.
The new name - Agilkia - refers to a patch of high ground in the Nile River south of Egypt.
It is the place where ancient Egyptian buildings, including the famous Temple of Isis, were moved when their previous home, the island of Philae, was flooded during the building of the Aswan dams last century.
Philae also refers to the obelisk taken from the drowned island which, along with the Rosetta Stone, was used to crack the meaning of ancient hieroglyphs.
One hundred and fifty people suggested the name Agilkia in the competition, with a committee nominating Alexandre Brouste from France as the overall winner.
Everyone who entered had to write an accompanying short essay, and his impressed the judges most.
Mr Brouste will now be invited to Darmstadt's "mission control" to follow the landing event in person.
Rosetta will be some 580 million km from Earth when it drops the piggybacked Philae over the comet.
The descent is expected to take about seven hours.
If the robot manages to latch on to the surface with screws and harpoons, it will begin a series of experiments to analyse the composition and structure of 67P.
Its data, along with pictures, will be beamed up to Rosetta for onward transmission to Earth.
Scientists believe comets to contain pristine materials left over from the formation of the Solar System more than 4.5 billion years...

Summary: The landing site on a comet to be targeted by Europe's Philae robot on 12 November has been named "Agilkia" following a public competition.
###
Article: She told BBC Scotland there was "no doubt" the SNP won the Scottish Parliamentary elections.
Ms Sturgeon insisted the SNP's mandate for the new parliament was unequivocal.
But the Scottish Conservatives said Ms Sturgeon was "asserting a position that is defied by the actual result."
The SNP leader made the comments during an interview on the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland programme.
She also dismissed suggestions the idea of a second referendum on independence had been "put to bed" after the SNP failed to secure another majority.
She instead re-affirmed her commitment for a campaign to be launched in the summer to change minds on the issue.
However, Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said the idea was now firmly off the table.
To listen to the full Nicola Sturgeon interview you can watch again on the BBC iPlayer over the next seven days.
Ms Sturgeon has already ruled out coalition talks, saying on 6 May that the SNP's haul of 63 seats gave "a clear and unequivocal mandate" to govern as a minority administration.
As the dust settled on Thursday's election, she was quizzed on the politics programme.
Interviewer Gordon Brewer said: "You talked about having an unequivocal mandate. That's the bit you don't really have."
Ms Sturgeon responded:  "I think I do. The SNP polled to just short of 50%  - more than one million votes. More than double the number of votes of Labour and the Tories combined.
"We didn't win this election narrowly - we won the election comprehensively.
"If you look at the arithmetic of the parliament in terms of the SNP's strength there's virtually no change.
"We ended the last parliament with I think 64 MSPs, we've now got 63. The relative strengths of the opposition parties have changed.
"I'm fairly relaxed about the parliamentary arithmetic. There's no doubt the SNP won the election."
She added: "I want to govern in an inclusive way because I think it's the right thing to do to, try to find common ground and build on that common ground where we can.
"What I'm not prepared to do, given the...

Summary: Nicola Sturgeon has said the opposition will not "undermine" the SNP's authority, despite her party being two seats short of an overall majority following Thursday's election.
###
Article: The ex-Lib Dem MP and ex-wife Vicky Pryce were both jailed after she took his speeding points in 2003.
Some 360 former MPs were granted passes for the Parliamentary estate, according to the Press Association's FOI request.
Labour MP John Mann said Huhne should not have been given the pass.
Mr Mann said: "I do not think someone who has committed a criminal offence that has meant they went to prison should get privileged access to the Houses of Parliament.
"Let them queue with the general public if they want to get in."
Huhne and Pryce both served two months of an eight-month sentence.
Huhne had quit the Cabinet and stood down as Eastleigh MP after pleading guilty.
Speaking after his release, he said prison had been "a humbling and sobering experience".
Also on the passholders list was ex-Conservative minister Jonathan Aitken, who was jailed in 1999 for perjury and perverting the course of justice, and Derek Conway, who had the Conservative whip withdrawn and then stepped down as an MP after his employment of his son was heavily criticised.

Summary:


A complaint about the Scottish SPCA putting what was thought to be one of the world's most deadly snakes to sleep is being investigated by police.

Article: In its latest update on the attack in June, the Commons says 39 mailboxes were hit - fewer than 0.5% of 9,000 Parliamentary accounts.
But among them was a select committee mailbox, which contained emails with personal information.
The Commons has not confirmed which committee was affected.
The hack prompted officials to disable remote access to the emails of MPs, peers and their staff as a safeguard and the fact some access was gained has been blamed on "weak passwords".
The Commons says 26 people were affected by the cyber attack, including six MPs and one peer. Among the 39 accounts affected were 11 "generic organisational mailboxes" - two people had more than one account.
"In the case of one compromised generic organisational mailbox, a Commons select committee mailbox, 77 people have been notified that personal data - information on personal circumstances provided to support the work of the Committee - was contained in the mailbox and so may be at risk of compromise," the Commons update says.
"We have invested heavily in cyber security measures and will continue to do so. A series of technology changes, including multi-factor authentication, have already been made to increase security."
The National Cyber Security Centre and National Crime Agency are investigating the incident which came weeks after 48 of England's NHS trusts were hit by a cyber-attack.

Summary: Seventy seven people who sent personal information to a Commons select committee have been told it may have been compromised in a cyber attack.
###
Article: The Bank of Scotland found 111 top-end properties were sold in the first half of 2015 - compared with 43 in the same period last year.
Edinburgh saw the biggest increase, and now accounts for 57% of all million pound sales in Scotland.
The sharp rise in Scotland was in stark contrast to Great Britain as a whole, which saw sales fall by 11%.
The Bank of Scotland based its report on statistics from Registers of Scotland.
63
Edinburgh City
East Lothian 9
Aberdeen City 8
East Renfrewshire 4
Glasgow City 4
Edinburgh led the way north of the border with 63 sales - up from 21 in the first half of 2014.
The next highest areas were East Lothian with nine seven-figure sales, Aberdeen with eight and East Renfrewshire and Glasgow, where there were four each.
Four council areas - East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire - went from having no million-pound sales in 2014 to three or four in the first half of this year.
London still accounts for more than half of million-pound property sales in the UK, with 3,703 in the first half of 2015.
Bank of Scotland economist Nitesh Patel said: "Sales south of the border may have been impacted by the new Stamp Duty rates last December, whilst the equivalent Land and Building Transaction Tax came into force for Scottish homebuyers only in April."

Summary: The number of homes sold for at least £1m in Scotland has more than doubled in a year, according to a new report.
###
Article: Stephen Debley told passers-by to call the Sun newspaper as he was going to have "a shoot-out with the old bill".
Debley, from Dunmow in Essex, the first person shot by Essex Police for more than 30 years, admitted firearms offences involving two replica guns.
Debley, 48, who was shot in the leg and tasered, had twice previously attempted suicide, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.
He was shot by armed police in Knights Way, Great Dunmow, on 1 September last year after reports he was carrying two guns.
Read this and other stories from Essex
Judge Patricia Lynch QC said people who had seen him in the street carrying the replica weapons would almost certainly "be scared to death".
Debley, of Knights Way, was charged with two counts of possession of an imitation firearm with intent, and one of affray.
The court heard he was trying to end his life in a "death by cop" incident, a recognised form of attempted suicide in which people deliberately provoke police officers into using their weapons.
The judge said just as people who threw themselves under buses and trains did not consider the driver involved, so had Debley failed to consider the position of police officers.
She said: "This is not the United States of America and police officers in this country do not shoot to kill."
In mitigation, Gary Ryan said Debley had a 15-year history of depression and had attempted to take his own life twice, had been physically abused by his father and had cared for his mother for 25 years.
Mr Ryan said Debley had said to a member of the public: "Will you telephone the Sun, I have mental health issues, and I am about to have a shoot-out with the old bill."
Debley was jailed for six years for the gun possession offence and two years for affray, to run concurrently.

Summary: A man shot by police in a so-called attempted "death by cop" incident has been jailed for six years.
###
Article: A 2009 report condemned conditions at the hospital, which are said to have caused hundreds of avoidable deaths.
The last government ordered a private investigation, but refused a wider public inquiry.
But in June the coalition government said the families of those who died deserved to know what went wrong.
It is the fifth inquiry into the higher than expected deaths at Stafford Hospital between 2005 and 2008.
Inquiry chairman Robert Francis QC, who will start hearing expert evidence next week, also chaired the fourth inquiry, which he criticised for its narrow remit.
The inquiries were ordered after the 2009 Healthcare Commission report listed a catalogue of failings including receptionists assessing patients arriving at A&E, a shortage of nurses and senior doctors and pressure on staff to meet targets.
Patients 'left sobbing'
The start of Monday's inquiry was delayed after one of the relatives objected because family members and the media were in a different room from the inquiry chairman and his panel.
In setting out the public inquiry framework Mr Francis said he would not revisit the harrowing cases of deceased patients brought to light in the fourth inquiry, which was held in private.
Instead he said he wanted to look at the structure of the NHS and the actions and inactions of management to see how the failings had come about and why they had remained undetected for so long.
He also paid tribute to the relatives and campaigners from groups such as Cure the NHS, which was set up to highlight problems at Stafford Hospital.
He said everyone was there because of the "terrible standard of service inflicted on so many of the patients who went to Stafford Hospital and their families".
"Last year, in my first inquiry, I sat and listened to many stories of appalling care," he said.
"As I did so, the question that went constantly through my mind was, why did none of the many organisations charged with the supervision and regulation of our hospital detect that something so serious was going on, and why was nothing...

Summary: An inquiry into avoidable deaths at Stafford Hospital will look at why the health care system tolerated a "terrible standard of service".
###
Article: The suspected green mamba was found on a ship that had docked in Aberdeen from west Africa last month.
The snake died after it was placed in a freezer by the animal charity after attempts to rehome it with specialist reptile keepers failed.
The snake was later identified as a harmless green tree snake.
Police Scotland said a complaint was under consideration.
Scottish SPCA Ch Supt Mike Flynn said: "We were called out after a green snake arrived in Aberdeen on a boat from Africa.
"The snake was thought to be a green mamba, one of the deadliest snakes in the world. The snake was taken by police escort to our Aberdeenshire animal rescue and rehoming centre.
"Sadly the snake, which staff genuinely believed to be a green mamba, had to be put to sleep after our attempts to rehome it to specialist reptile keepers were unsuccessful."
He added: "We could not keep the snake in our centre due to severe health and safety concerns, as the closest anti-venom is held in Bedford. Green mambas also require a Dangerous Wild Animal Licence which the society does not have.
"The safety of our staff and the public is paramount and as such the snake was placed in a freezer where it passed away.
"The Scottish SPCA is proud of its policy not put healthy animals to sleep. Animals are only put to sleep on veterinary advice if they are too ill or too aggressive to be rehomed, or where we are legally required to do so.
"The decision to euthanise the snake was not taken lightly. Unfortunately, the snake has since been identified as a harmless green tree snake. This has been an honest mistake on the society's part as we genuinely believed this was an extremely deadly snake."
The western green mamba feeds on small animals and rodents and is mainly found in the coastal tropical rainforests of western Africa.
Experts say its bite can be fatal in as little as 30 minutes.

Summary:


West Yorkshire's chief constable has had his suspension lifted.

Article: His conclusion: "The world needs to prepare for a climate sceptic defeating Obama".
The analysis rests on the quantifiable. In the first place, virtually all declared Republican presidential candidates have man-made climate change down as a hoax, or at least as something where the jury is out.
In the second place, President Obama's approval numbers are the worst they've been since he took office - 43%, as opposed to 53% who disapprove.
To be sure, climate change isn't the issue that's put him there - it's the economy, stupid.
But that doesn't alter the conclusion that he is potentially beatable.
There are of course many months to run in this campaign, and the shape and persuasion of the eventual Republican candidate is far from certain.
It's also possible that the Republicans will end up in the situation that befell the UK Conservative Party just a few years ago, wherein hard-core party members chose leaders on the basis of ideological purity, and in doing so ended up with prime ministerial candidates who were so unpalatable to the wider and more moderate electorate as to be virtually unelectable.
In particular, the question arises of whether the public approves or disapproves of the shenanigans in Congress over the recent budget.
An analysis by retired Republican staffer Mike Lofgren raises the really profound question of whether the current crop of congressmen actually want to make the government work, or whether their anti-big-government credo now permeates their thinking and tactics to the extent that they actually work towards gridlock, stalemate, and general public dissatisfaction with the political process.
"Everyone knows that in a hostage situation, the reckless and amoral actor has the negotiating upper hand over the cautious and responsible actor because the latter is actually concerned about the life of the hostage, while the former does not care," he writes of the budget negotiations that threatened to put the US in default, and that did lead to a downgrading of the nation's credit rating.
"The...

Summary: Leo Hickman, among other talents a realistic candidate for the title of "world's most prolific enviro-tweeter", posts an analysis of the US political scene in The Guardian this week.
###
Article: People who practised a basic movement to music showed "increased structural connectivity" between the regions of the brain that process sound and control movement.
The University of Edinburgh research showed brain wiring enables cells to communicate with each other.
The findings have been published in the medical journal Brain & Cognition.
Experts said the study could have positive implications for future research into rehabilitation for patients who have lost some degree of movement control.
Dr Katie Overy, who led the research team, said: "The study suggests that music makes a key difference. We have long known that music encourages people to move.
"This study provides the first experimental evidence that adding musical cues to learning new motor tasks can lead to changes in white matter structure in the brain."
Researchers divided right-handed volunteers into two groups and charged them with learning a new task involving sequences of finger movements with the non-dominant left hand.
One group learned the task with musical cues while the other group did so without music.
After four weeks, both groups of volunteers performed equally well at learning sequences, the researchers found.
Using MRI scans, the study found the music group showed "a significant increase" in structural connectivity on the right side of the brain while the non-music group showed no change.
The team hopes that future research will determine whether music can help with special kinds of motor rehabilitation programmes, such as after a stroke.
The project brought together researchers from the university's Institute for Music in Human and Social Development, Clinical Research Imaging Centre and Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, and from clinical neuropsychology at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Summary: Using music to learn a physical task develops an important part of the brain, according to a new study.
###
Article: Yahoo said it is setting up a committee to look into how the business can be reorganised to reverse its current financial woes.
The firm's share price has fallen by more than 40% since the end of 2014.
Boss Marissa Mayer has been under pressure to revitalise the business.
Earlier this month Yahoo confirmed it was cutting 15% of its workforce after reporting a $4.3bn (33bn) loss for the year.
The job cuts will mean the company will have around 9,000 staff by the end of 2016.
Ms Mayer said: "Separating our Alibaba stake from Yahoo's operating business is essential to maximizing value for our shareholders.
"We can achieve this by working with the committee... while in parallel, aggressively executing our strategic plan to strengthen our growth businesses and improve efficiency and profitability."
Marissa Mayer is in the process of drastically slimming the company down - closing global offices and making around 15% of its entire workforce redundant.
Yet despite its troubles, around a billion people still turn to Yahoo's core services each month - 60% by using their mobile phones.
And so, much like sprucing up your house before putting it on the market, Ms Mayer's goal of late has been to cut costs to such a point that Yahoo looks like a good purchase for a bigger company looking to seize that audience.
Who would be interested? Names like Disney and Verizon have been thrown around, but the sense here is that a foreign company seeking to increase its presence in the US would see Yahoo as a massive opportunity.
With Yahoo looking to spin off its 15% stake in Alibaba from the rest of what Yahoo does, some think the Chinese commerce giant will want to buy that 15% back, and then perhaps the rest of Yahoo with it.
One alternative is for Yahoo to be picked apart bit-by-bit. It owns services like Tumblr and Flickr, valuable web properties in their own right.
Although Yahoo is still one of the best-known names on the Internet, and has around one billion users,  it has fallen behind Google in Internet search.
The poor...

Summary: The US internet firm Yahoo has confirmed it is looking at "strategic alternatives" for its business - including splitting off its stake in Chinese online retailer Alibaba.
###
Article: For Republicans the weather has meant delays and bad news - at least for their campaign against Democrats.
Every month US state department officials release a batch of emails from former secretary of state Hillary Clinton's private computer server. They're following an order from a federal judge who said that the emails must be shown to the public.
A batch of emails was scheduled for release on 29 January.
On Friday, though, state department lawyers asked the federal court for an extension on their deadline for releasing the emails, saying the blizzard would hamper their work.
They said they'd planned to spend time on the task over the weekend. But now wouldn't have time to process the emails and asked for an extra month to complete their work.
Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said it wasn't the snow that slowed the state department officials down - but politics.
He said they were trying to avoid "damaging developments in Hillary Clinton's email scandal" this month, shortly before voters go to Iowa caucuses and choose candidates in the New Hampshire primary. The caucuses are on Monday, and the primary is on 9 February.
Clinton and other candidates are campaigning in these states in a tough race for the presidency. Republicans believe that her emails may show signs of wrongdoing - which will embarrass or discredit her as a candidate.
And now the US House of Representatives has cancelled votes all week because of the snow.
This will delay the efforts of Republicans to override US President Barack Obama's veto of a bill that would repeal parts of his Affordable Care Act.
Some Republicans want to knock down the Affordable Care Act, which is also known as Obamacare, because they said it's bad for the US economy, among other things.
House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans didn't expect victory with the vote. They knew they didn't have enough support in Congress to override the president's veto.
Still they believed it was important as a symbolic act. Now it will have to be...

Summary: The blizzard left nearly 2ft (60cm) of snow in the Washington area,  making it of one of the biggest storms in the city's history.
###
Article: Mark Gilmore was suspended in June 2014 by the county's police and crime commissioner (PCC) in connection with an investigation into the awarding of vehicle contracts in Northern Ireland.
PCC Mark Burns-Williamson said prosecutors had concluded there was no criminal case for the chief constable to answer.
However, Mr Gilmore will not return to his post immediately.
In a statement, Mr Burns-Williamson said: "There remains however a legal requirement for me to consider conduct matters in relation to the police standards of professional behaviour and an independent investigation will be carried out by Lancashire Police.
"While this conduct investigation takes place Mark Gilmore has agreed to work on a transition project for the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and to delegate day-to-day operational control of West Yorkshire Police to his deputy Dee Collins who has, in his absence, acted as the temporary chief constable."
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) had arrested a total of seven men on suspicion of offences including bribery, misconduct in public office and procuring misconduct in public office.
Mr Gilmore, originally from Belfast, joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the predecessor of the PSNI, in 1983.
He was appointed Chief Constable of West Yorkshire in April 2013.

Summary:


The government has unveiled new tools and advice for farmers as part of a fresh campaign to tackle bovine TB.

Article: The social mobility and child poverty commission said Scotland had lost its position as the country with the lowest levels of child poverty in the UK.
However, Scotland had a lower level of relative poverty after housing costs.
The report called on the Scottish government to widen access to higher education for disadvantaged pupils.
The Scottish government should have a target of 10% of the most deprived school pupils getting places at the most selective, "ancient" universities, the commission recommended.
The State of the Nation 2014 report is the second annual publication from the commission, which was established under the Child Poverty Act 2010.
Its findings showed there were 180,000 children in relative poverty in Scotland - 30,000 more than last year - while 200,000 children were in absolute poverty - also up 30,000 on the previous year.
The report also pointed to a forecast from think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which suggested 50,000 more children could be in relative poverty by 2020.
The authors defined relative poverty as living in a household with less than 60% of the contemporary median income, while absolute poverty applied to households with less than 60% of the median income as it stood in 2010-11.
Despite the increase in the numbers living in poverty, the report said that "progress in Scotland has been more rapid than elsewhere in the UK, particularly when looking at poverty after housing costs".
Scotland has a lower level of relative poverty before housing costs than Wales and Northern Ireland, but about the same as England.
After housing costs Scotland had a lower level of relative poverty than the other UK nations.
Scotland also had a lower level of absolute poverty before housing costs than England, Wales or Northern Ireland and "a considerably lower level of poverty after housing costs".
The proportion of pupils entering higher education from the most advantaged areas was 32.5%, compared to 9.7% in the most disadvantaged areas.
The percentages entering the highly selective...

Summary: The number of children in Scotland living in poverty has risen by 60,000 over the last year, according to a new report.
###
Article: Data from the US city shows that officers are making about 45% fewer arrests than comparable times in previous years.
Meanwhile, local media have reported that May has turned out to be the deadliest month in the city since 1999.
The police department has not explained the decline in arrests.
The police department has been under scrutiny since the death of Freddie Gray in April set off weeks of protests and unrest.
Two homicides on Monday brought the total number of killings for the month to 35, and 108 for the year, according to the Baltimore Sun newspaper.
Arrest data made public by the city government and reviewed by the BBC showed that Baltimore police made 791 arrests from 1 May to 16 May - the most recent data available.
This marks a decline of over 55% from the same periods in 2013 and 2014.
Emails to the police department and the police union requesting an explanation for the change were not immediately returned.
Gray, 25, suffered a severe spinal cord injury in police custody and died a week later.
During the incident, Gray repeatedly asked for medical assistance but was denied.
His death sparked weeks of protests and later riots and looting in Baltimore.
Government officials imposed a mandatory curfew and dispatched the national guard in an effort to restore order.
Six police officers involved in Gray's arrest have been charged in his death.

Summary: The number of arrests made by Baltimore police in May has plummeted as shootings and homicides have dramatically increased.
###
Article: The notes, which will replace designs that have been in circulation for 40 years, will be released in 2019.
The bank said they will include "advanced security features" and their designs will be unveiled in the coming months.
All four Northern Ireland banks print their own money, a tradition stretching back to the early 19th Century.
Ulster Bank's senior brand manager Lita Notte said it is "an important part of our business heritage and the economy of Northern Ireland".
The new banknotes feature designs on the theme "living in nature", influenced by a panel of historians, botanists, artists, architects and members of the public.
"The notes are in the final stages of their design phase," Ms Notte said.
"They are a unique demonstration of what matters to those who live and work here in Northern Ireland."
Earlier this year, Ulster Bank said that plastic notes will "probably be more cost-effective" than paper currency.
They are said by the Bank of England to be cleaner, safer and stronger than paper notes.
Last year, the Bank of England released its first polymer note but the first plastic £5 had been introduced 17 years previously in Northern Ireland by Northern Bank.
Ulster Bank said it will engage with retailers to help them adapt to the new polymer notes.
There is about £2.5bn worth of Northern Ireland banknotes in circulation and Ulster Bank has been producing notes for 181 years.
Existing Ulster Bank £5 and £10 notes will remain in circulation until 2019, when they will be removed.

Summary: Ulster Bank is to introduce plastic £5 and £10 notes in Northern Ireland.
###
Article: From Sunday, the maximum sum any one person can invest rises to £40,000.
That is an increase of £10,000 from the current limit of £30,000. The last time the limit was raised was in May 2003, when it increased from £20,000 to £30,000.
It is the latest tweak to the operations of what was originally a scheme to help the government raise essential cash without going to the money markets.
For nearly 60 years now, Ernie - the UK's official electronic random-number-indicator - has been whirring away picking the month's prize-winning Premium Bonds.
About a third of us - that is 21 million people - already hold at least 100 of these National Savings and Investments (NS&I) lottery-style bonds.
"People tend to either love or hate Premium Bonds," says Sarah Pennells, editor of the Savvywoman website.
"Those who win regularly love them, but those who've never won a penny probably feel they're a waste of time."
Ernie has been steadily getting higher tech. Once upon a time, a letter postmarked "Lytham St Annes" told you if you had won a prize. Now you just check your numbers online.
By Anthony ReubenHead of statistics, BBC News
If you're relying on the Premium Bonds to make you a millionaire there's bad news I'm afraid.
There are 45.7 billion bonds in circulation and one £1m prize, so your chances of winning the jackpot with a single bond are (with thanks to Prof David Spiegelhalter)  slightly worse than the odds of flipping a coin and getting 35 consecutive heads.
From August, there will be a second £1m prize added, which improves your odds to 34 consecutive heads.
But your chances of winning any one of the 1.8m prizes is considerably better - about 25,000 to one - which is about 15 consecutive heads.
Try this excellent calculator to find out more about how much you should expect to win.
But the basics remain the same. By investing in Premium Bonds, you forgo any interest payments on your money but are entered into a monthly prize draw in the hope of winning £1m.
Julian Hynd, NS&I's retail director, is clearly braced for a...

Summary: There is good news for lovers of Premium Bonds.
###
Article: A new website has been launched for farmers to find practical advice on dealing with the disease on their land.
A five-point biosecurity action plan and poster campaign are also included in the initiative.
The measures are being promoted by organisations such as Defra, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and the National Farmers' Union.
Recommended actions include asking for a herd's TB history before buying cattle, and taking steps to minimise wildlife access to cattle, their feed and housing.
Speaking at the launch of the campaign at Hartpury College in Gloucestershire, Farming Minister George Eustice said "good progress" is being made to  eradicate TB in England.
However, he said reducing the risk of disease entering a farm is a "crucial element" to end the "devastation" it causes for farmers and rural communities.
"There are simple and practical ways for farmers to reduce risk to their herds and neighbouring businesses from bovine TB which are set out in this new action plan approved by vets and farming experts," he added.
Mr Eustice encouraged all cattle farmers to visit the new website and "think about the actions they could take to make a difference to improving the security of their herd".
Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease of cattle and is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis), which can also infect and cause TB in badgers, deer and other mammals.
Badgers, which some claim transmit TB to cattle, have been subjected to culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire for three years running. A pilot cull in Dorset is also being held this year.
According to Defra, about 30,000 cattle were slaughtered in Great Britain in 2014 because of bovine TB.

Summary:


Russia's leading independent polling agency has been labelled a "foreign agent" by the justice ministry and says it cannot now work.

Article: Andreas Schleicher said international evidence suggested that selection was not linked to improving schools.
He said bright pupils in England were not getting enough opportunities, but grammar school tests were not reliable.
"Any kind of one-off test is likely to favour social background over true academic potential," he said.
Education Secretary Justine Greening has published plans calling for more selective schools in England, and a Department for Education spokesman said any new grammars would "prioritise the admission of disadvantaged pupils".
Mr Schleicher, the think tank's education director, was presenting the OECD's annual report comparing education systems across the industrialised world.
He said there was no relationship between increasing selection and how well school systems performed.
And countries such as Germany and Switzerland, where selection was widely used, were not more likely to produce high-achieving students.
"You might expect that where you have more grammar schools, you will have more of the really top students, that's not what we've seen," said Mr Schleicher.
The OECD education expert said access to selective schools was often unfairly biased towards wealthier families - and that contradicted the aim of stretching the most talented.
"I can see the case for introducing more meritocracy in the school system. Bright students here don't always have the educational opportunities they deserve," said Mr Schleicher.
"But what happens in most European systems is that academic selection becomes social selection.
"Schools are very good at selecting students by their social background, but they're not very good at selecting students by their academic potential."
When admission to school was based on a one-off test, he said, "wealthy parents will find a way through it".
But there were Asian school systems, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, that seemed to be more effective in how they selected pupils.
"They are selective, but they seem to be very good at figuring out how good students really are,"...

Summary: Grammar schools are likely to benefit wealthy families without raising overall standards, says the OECD's head of education.
###
Article: Photographer Richard Nicholson took a look inside that box, capturing those who have helped bring the silver screen to life.
"When I first stepped into a projection box, I was struck by the claustrophobic atmosphere," says Nicholson.
"It was a dark, cramped space, and, as the projector whirred into motion, it became increasingly hot and noisy.
"As I watched the projectionist wrestle with a giant spool of film, the scene reminded me of a railwayman shovelling coal into a locomotive."
Working with The Projection Project, Nicholson's pictures are accompanied by the thoughts of the projectionists, many of whom are experts on the history of cinema.
Nicholson usually works on a large-format film camera - but, paradoxically, for this project, he shot the images on a digital camera.
Following a test shoot, he realised he would require a vast amount of lighting to work on film, whereas a digital approach allowed him to use smaller flashguns to light the projection boxes.
With cinemas across the country still under threat from redevelopment and closure, it is perhaps the perfect time for this project.
"I think it's a wasted opportunity if you go to a cinema and it's just a blank screen, and no curtains, with some feeble lighting, and it just sort of starts," said projectionist Peter Howden.
"I remember going to the cinema and the lights would change colour and the organist would come up out of the floor. It's simple and it's effective and it would be a pity to lose that.
"I think it's part of the magic of going to the cinema. Putting on a show rather than just showing a film."
The projectionist is the final step between the film and the public. And, for many, that flickering light that pierces the darkness of the cinema is still magical.
"When I used to go to the cinema with my mother, I was never looking at the film, I was always looking to see where it came from," said projectionist Rachel Dukes.
"In those days everybody used to smoke. And so when the beam of light was coming down, you'd have these pretty patterns of...

Summary: At the start of the decade, many of Britain's cinemas made the switch from analogue projection to digital, changing forever the role of those inside the projection box, with many films now projected by a computer.
###
Article: The chick was one of five fitted with identification rings in May, having hatched in a man-made nestbox built into The Mill on Ipswich's waterfront.
The bird was found "almost emaciated" with an injured chest in a churchyard.
The other chicks and their parents are flying and feeding around the docks.
The chicks all fledged about two weeks ago from The Mill, which is 233ft (71m) high and has a nesting box fitted into the parapet on the flat roof.
The injured chick was found in the neighbouring St Peter's churchyard on 17 June.
Steve Piotrowski, from the Suffolk Ornithologists Group, said: "The bird had a bruised sternum and was very weak and almost emaciated from a lack of food - it's not strong enough to be returned to its family, who might even kill it.
"It can feed itself, but the question of whether it can successfully be taught to hunt could take up to a year to be answered - it can be a very long rehabilitation."
Mr Piotrowski said a pair of peregrines had bred three chicks at a nest on the Orwell Bridge in Ipswich, but all three had been killed after flying into traffic.
A pair of adult birds were at the derelict sugar beet factory in Ipswich, while another pair laid eggs at Felixstowe docks, but these did not hatch.
A pair of juveniles have since arrived at Felixstowe, but Mr Piotrowski said it was a mystery where they had come from.
180mph (290km/h)
the top diving speed of a peregrine falcon
1,400 the number of breeding pairs in the UK, according to the latest figures
365 the number of breeding pairs in the UK back in 1961
3-4 the number of eggs a hen would usually lay in a year

Summary: A peregrine falcon chick could be in rehab for "up to a year" after it crash-landed having fledged from its nest at the top of the 23-storey block of flats.
###
Article: Catriona Finlayson-Wilkins, 41, of Knapton, Norfolk, gave birth to son Euan on Tuesday at the Norfolk and Norfolk University Hospital.
She is also the first woman to give birth after using the device outside the main research site in Cambridge.
Ms Finlayson-Wilkins said she was "thrilled" by her son's safe arrival.
The new mother-of-two has Type 1 diabetes and wore the piece of kit throughout her pregnancy to produce insulin and prevent symptoms of the disease.
Three other mothers have previously given birth in Cambridge after using the device but by caesarean section.
An artificial pancreas device system (APDS) is a small portable piece of equipment designed to carry out the function of a healthy pancreas.
It helps to control blood glucose levels using digital communication technology to automate insulin delivery.
An APDS is worn on the body during pregnancy and has a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), a digital controller and an insulin pump.
Ms Finlayson-Wilkins, who is a face and body painter and has also decorated models for local charity Break's GoGo gorilla and dragon art trails, said: "I'm thrilled.
"It's a huge weight off your mind after being pregnant and diabetic, which is really risky.
"It's the most amazing piece of kit and I can really see how it's going to benefit all types of people with diabetes in the future."
Her first son was taken into intensive care when he was born because his blood sugar levels dropped dangerously low and she did not see him for a day.
Dr Helen Murphy, principal investigator of the study Ms Finlayson-Wilkins took part in, said Euan's arrival was an exciting step in the treatment of diabetes in pregnancy.
"Women who have diabetes in pregnancy face higher rates of birth defects, over-sized babies, pre-term delivery and stillbirth than other pregnant women," she said.
"Treating diabetes in pregnancy can be particularly challenging because hormone levels are constantly changing and blood sugars can be difficult to predict."
The results of the ongoing National Institute for...

Summary: A diabetic woman has become the first in the world to give birth naturally after using an artificial pancreas while pregnant, experts have said.
###
Article: The Levada Centre surveys political opinion among Russian people.
Its director, Lev Gudkov, said the move, which comes two weeks before parliamentary elections,  amounted to "political censorship".
Laws require all NGOs receiving any overseas funding to register as foreign agents and so face restrictions.
The Levada Centre cannot now conduct any work linked to the election campaign.
Mr Gudkov told Agence France-Presse news agency: "The consequences of such a decision for us are devastating - with such a label, we won't be able to work.
"This practically means the imposition of political censorship and the impossibility of independent polls. It's the typical behaviour of this repressive regime."
The other main pollsters are state-controlled.
The justice ministry said Levada had been "included in a register of non-commercial organisations that fulfil the functions of a foreign agent" following an unannounced document check.
Legislation passed in 2012 has designated as foreign agents a number of rights groups,  including Memorial, and the independent election monitoring group Golos.
The Moscow Times said the latest move followed a complaint by the pro-Kremlin Anti-Maidan movement over alleged US funding of Levada.
In May 2013, Levada had said it was being targeted for branding as a foreign agent and had suspended foreign funding.
The Russian authorities say the law is needed to protect Russia from outside attempts to influence internal politics.
But critics say it could be used to prevent NGOs denouncing vote-rigging and other abuses.

Summary: