The BBC has announced that it will be broadcasting the first live coverage of the general election from the Houses of Parliament.
The channel will be broadcasting live from the House of Commons from 07:00 BST on 8 May, with the first results expected to be announced at around 10:00 BST.
The BBC will be

Channel 4 will shut down E4 on the day of the general election, in a bid to encourage more young people to vote.

Article: The study, published in the journal Cell, shows that nearly nine in 10 men had gene mutations that could be targeted with drugs.
The study was led in the UK by scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) London in collaboration with several teams in the United States.
Researchers analysed the genetic codes of tumours from 150 patients with metastatic - or advanced - prostate cancer, whose disease had spread to other parts of the body.
They found that 89% had genetic aberrations for which there were existing drugs or treatments undergoing clinical trials.
Prof Johann de Bono, of the ICR and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust told the BBC:  "This is truly a game-changer.  We are calling this prostate cancer's Rosetta Stone, because we can now decode the disease for the first time.
"In the past, we used to treat lethal prostate cancer as a single illness but this shows that it is a group of diseases, each driven by their own set of mutations."
Prof de Bono said it meant that, using genetic testing, it would be possible to individualise patient care, heralding the arrival of personalised treatment for advanced prostate cancer.
More than 40,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and nearly 11,000 die in the UK each year.
Nearly all men with advanced disease develop resistance to hormone therapy, which is used to prevent prostate cancer cells from growing.
In the study, nearly two-thirds of the patients had mutations in a molecule that interacts with the male hormone androgen, which is targeted in current treatments.
Scientists at the ICR believe this could open up new avenues for hormone therapy.
Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes were found in nearly one in five patients.
Trials at the Royal Marsden/ICR have already shown prostate cancer patients with BRCA mutations can benefit from drugs called Parp inhibitors which disrupt cancer cells' DNA repair mechanism.
One of these drugs, called olaparib, is now licensed by the EU to treat women with ovarian cancer, who carry BRCA mutations.
The research is...

Summary: Scientists have unveiled a comprehensive genetic map of advanced prostate cancer, hailing it as the disease's "Rosetta Stone".
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Article: Instead of The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, viewers tuning in on 7 May will see "Darren", the man in charge of keeping E4 on air, sitting in the channel's control room.
It is believed to be the first time a UK channel has closed on polling day.
E4 is one of the most popular youth channels on television, reaching 8.7 million 16-34 year olds every month.
Its regular schedule will be suspended from 07:00 BST, when polls open, to 19:00 BST, when the channel will return to normal with Hollyoaks (polling closes at 22:00 BST).
Dan Brooke, Channel 4's chief marketing officer said: "Less than half of under-25s voted at the last election so we've engaged the most powerful weapon that we have at our disposal to try and boost that number - switching off their favourite TV channel for the day."
A pre-election advertising campaign, running on all of Channel 4's stations, will alert viewers to the reason for E4's absence.
The adverts will ask viewers: "How many times have you missed life-changing events because you wanted to watch your favourite show?
"May 7 is election day and Darren is going to turn E4 off so you might as well go and vote. You won't forget will you Darren?"
However, viewers will only be able to use the switch-off as an excuse to vote if they have already registered - and the deadline has already passed.
Meanwhile, Channel 4 will present an "alternative" to the election night coverage on the BBC and ITV, with a programme co-anchored by Jeremy Paxman and comedian David Mitchell.
Paxman, who left BBC Two's Newsnight last June, said: "Elections matter. But that doesn't mean the coverage has to be dull. I hope there'll be room for both insight and laughter."
David Mitchell added: "Our aim is to keep people watching much later than they intended and we will be judged by the dip in the nation's productivity on Friday 8 May."
The show will also include special election-themed episodes of Gogglebox and The Last Leg.
The BBC's coverage of the election will be anchored by David Dimbleby, while Tom...

Summary:


The European Union has agreed to a new €1.2 billion aid package for Greece, which will be used to help the country's struggling economy.
The new aid package will be used to help the country's struggling economy, the European Commission said on Thursday.
The new aid package will be used to help the

The Irish government has been criticised for failing to adequately protect the human rights of vulnerable groups during the recession.

Article: A UK team found the Ferrigno rift using ice-penetrating radar, and showed it to be about 1.5km (1 mile) deep.
Antarctica
 is home to a geological rift system where new crust is being formed, meaning the eastern and western halves of the continent are slowly separating.
The team writes in Nature journal that the canyon is bringing more warm sea water to the ice sheet, hastening melt.
The Ferrigno rift lies close to the Pine Island Glacier where Nasa scientists found a giant crack last year; but the newly discovered feature is not thought to be influencing the "Pig", as it is known.
The rift lies beneath the Ferrigno Ice Stream on a stretch of coast so remote that it has only been visited once previously.
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) project revisited the area two years ago in the person of Aberdeen University glaciologist Robert Bingham.
The plan was to make ground observations that could link to the satellite data showing unexpectedly pronounced ice loss from the area.
The team towed ice-penetrating radar kit behind a snowmobile, traversing a total of about 2,500km (1,500 miles).
"What we found is that lying beneath the ice there is a large valley, parts of which are approximately a mile deeper than the surrounding landscape," said Dr Bingham.
"If you stripped away all of the ice here today, you'd see a feature every bit as dramatic as the huge rift valleys you see in Africa and in size as significant as the [US] Grand Canyon.
"This is at odds with the flat ice surface that we were driving across - without these measurements we would never have known it was there."
The Ferrigno rift extends into a seabed trough, called Belgica.
The scientists suggest that during Ice Ages, when sea levels were much lower than at present, the rift would have channelled a major ice stream through the trough.
Now, they suggest, the roles are reversed, with the walls of the Belgica trough channelling relatively warm sea water back to the ice edge.
Penetrating between the Antarctic bedrock and the ice that lies on it and...

Summary: A rift in the Antarctic rock as deep as the Grand Canyon is increasing ice melt from the continent, researchers say.
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Article: The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission said seven years of austerity resulted in the burden of the crisis falling disproportionally on those least able to bear it.
The commission was set up last year to promote and protect human rights in the state.
This is its first report.
Speaking on RTÃ‰'s Morning Ireland programme, Chief Commissioner Emily Logan said the government had failed to meet basic human rights standards required under international law - in the stark choices made during the recession.
There was an absence of any human rights or equality assessment of the "troika" (EU, IMF and European Central Bank) bail-out programme.
This meant those who were already disadvantaged were even more susceptible to unemployment, lower incomes or poorer living standards.
People with disabilities experienced the impact of austerity measures more acutely, with the rate of unemployment almost trebling among this group - from 8% to 22% during the recession.
The report, published on Thursday, comes ahead of a UN Committee in Geneva next week where Ireland will be asked to defend its record on human rights.

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The Scottish Government has announced a £1.5m investment in a new £2.5m project to help small and medium-sized businesses in the construction sector.
The Construction Skills Fund will provide loans and grants to help firms in the sector to grow and develop.
The fund will be managed by the Scottish

Abuse victims whose cases are excluded from a Stormont inquiry into historical child abuse have united in a campaign for their allegations to be included.

Article: The Scottish Building Federation's latest quarterly construction monitor saw confidence fall 22 points to -19.
It was the first negative overall confidence rating by employers since the second quarter of 2013.
SBF said employers were unsettled by the economic volatility seen following last week's vote to leave the EU.
There was also concern that investment decisions could be postponed indefinitely.
The federation's survey responses were collected during June, with firms being given the opportunity to update their confidence rating following the EU vote.
SBF managing director Vaughan Hart said: "The results of our latest quarterly survey reflect much of the informal feedback I have received from individual members.
"Construction employers are unsettled by the economic volatility we have witnessed following the vote to leave the European Union last week.
"General uncertainty about the economic outlook has prompted concern that investment decisions could be postponed indefinitely.
"The potential impact on interest rates also risks provoking a sustained slowdown of activity across different sectors of the property market."
He added: "If the current economic volatility is sustained over a longer period of time, the UK Treasury may be forced to take evasive action come the time of the autumn statement with a knock-on impact on the Scottish government's budget and on local government funding.
"There is also a more general concern that the process of negotiating the UK's withdrawal from the European Union could result in paralysis within government that means important priorities such as the delivery of more housing, the development of skills, training and apprenticeships and critical improvements to the country's infrastructure risk being sidelined."

Summary: Confidence within Scottish construction has fallen to its lowest level for three years following the outcome of the EU referendum, a survey has found.
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Article: The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry is examining allegations of abuse in state-run children's homes and other institutions in Northern Ireland.
However, victims of clerical child abuse and former residents of Magdalene laundry-style institutions in Northern Ireland are excluded from the remit.
They have launched a joint campaign.
The two groups were due to call for the remit of the Historic Institutional Abuse Inquiry to be widened.
The inquiry, chaired by retired judge Sir Anthony Hart, was set up by the Stormont Executive and is examining cases from 1922 to 1995.
It will also determine if there were systemic failings by the state, or institutions, in their duties towards children under 18.
It was originally set up to investigate cases going back as far as 1945, but it was later extended to cover the period back to the foundation of the state in 1922.
Previously, Sir Anthony has opposed further extending the scope of his inquiry to deal with abuse which took place outside institutions.
He pointed out that such a move would have significant implications in terms of time and money.
The inquiry is currently investigating 35 residential facilities.
They include 15 state-run children's homes, 13 institutions run by Catholic Church orders and four borstals or training schools.
The inquiry was announced in December 2010 and the first phase began in October 2012.
Three institutions run by Protestant churches or voluntary organisations will also be investigated.

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The government has announced a new scheme to help schools recruit more teachers.
The government has announced a new scheme to help schools recruit more teachers.
The government has announced a new scheme to help schools recruit more teachers.
The government has announced a new scheme to help schools recruit more teachers.
The government has announced

An airport that "refused to close" is being remembered this weekend, 20 years after flying eventually stopped.

Article: The National Union of Teachers says schools in England spent Â£733m last year on supply teacher agencies.
The union says it is wasting money intended for children's education.
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan is launching a TV recruitment campaign to attract a "new generation of passionate and gifted teachers".
Head teachers have been reporting deepening problems with getting enough staff.
The Department for Education has launched a television advertising campaign to encourage more applications, saying that 35,000 trainee teachers need to be recruited every year.
There are particular problems in finding teachers in subjects such as physics, and the government is offering increasingly generous bursaries.
A physics graduate with a good degree can claim up to Â£30,000 tax free for entering teaching.
"Great teachers are at the heart of our drive to extend opportunity to every single child," says Mrs Morgan.
"That is why we are focused on attracting more talented people into the profession, to inspire young people, open doors to their future."
The teachers' union argues that the difficulty in recruiting teachers means schools are forced to use their budgets on supply staff - and that these temporary staff are not receiving the same pay and benefits as full-time teachers.
"Supply teacher agencies are making millions while supply teachers' pay continues to plummet," said NUT leader Christine Blower.
"This is money which should be used for children's education, not going towards boosting the profits of private companies."
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation rejected the NUT claims as unfair and said schools with vacancies "rely on their recruitment partners to bring in quality teachers, often at very short notice".
"Agencies charge a daily rate for temporary contracts and the majority of this will go directly to the teacher. It is up to schools, agencies and teachers to negotiate pay rates and this can vary according to location and other factors such as how much experience the teacher has," said head of...

Summary: Teachers' union leaders are warning that teacher shortages are costing schools hundreds of millions of pounds in temporary supply staff.
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Article: Campaigners fought to save Ipswich Airport after it was earmarked for housing by Ipswich Borough Council, with some occupying the terminal building for about four months.
The anniversary of the closure is being marked with an exhibition.
Organisers said: "There is now a generation that probably doesn't even know Ipswich had its own airport."
The site was formerly a World War Two airfield and home to RAF Blenheim light bombers, Hurricanes and - for short periods - Spitfire squadrons.
During its 66-year history, the airport launched a daily flight to Clacton with a journey time of just 15 minutes in 1938 and it later handled flights carrying royal passengers and sports stars.
In the 1980s, Suckling Airways started operating flights to Amsterdam and Manchester and by 1990 the airport housed flying schools, a helicopter school, parachute centre and various support firms.
But in 1996 the borough council, which owned the airport, announced the site would close later that year, to be turned into what is now the Ravenswood housing estate.
Saturday's exhibition at the town's Transport Museum has been put together by Ipswich Airport Association (IAA) whose members will be on hand to answer questions.
The reunion and exhibition will also feature press cuttings, photos and memorabilia to mark 20 years since the airport officially closed on 31 December 1996.
Martyn Steggalls, a director of the IAA, who worked part-time at the airport, said: "It's a time when a lot of people involved in the airport can get together and reminisce.
"It's a focal point to people who used to fly from there, work there and lived nearby."

Summary:


A new study has found that people who are more likely to be overweight or obese are more likely to have a higher risk of developing depression.
The study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, looked at data from more than 100,000 people taking part in the Generation Scotland and UK Biobank projects - major

Partners of people with depression are more likely to suffer from chronic pain, a new study suggests.

Article: Speaking at a Mississippi rally, he said his opponent "sees people of colour only as votes not as human beings worthy of a better future".
Mr Trump added that Mrs Clinton and the Democratic party had taken advantage of the African-American community.
Mrs Clinton fired back, saying "he is taking a hate movement mainstream".
The Democratic presidential nominee called out Mr Trump for questioning the citizenship of President Barack Obama and for failing to disavow former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, adding that he was "peddling bigotry and prejudice and paranoia".
Mr Trump took aim at Mrs Clinton during a campaign stop in Jackson, Mississippi, on Wednesday, where he was joined by Britain's outgoing UKIP leader Nigel Farage.
Mr Farage, who is viewed as a major force behind the UK's exit from the EU, told Trump supporters to "get your walking boots on" and begin campaigning.
In recent days, Mr Trump has attempted to court African-Americans after failing to gain support among this key voting bloc.
Only about 2% of black voters say they will vote for the New York businessman, according to current polls.
It's a standard part of the American political playbook not just to try to exploit your campaign opponent's weaknesses, but also to diminish his or her perceived strengths.
George W Bush adviser Karl Rove mastered this manoeuvre, best displayed in the 2004 attacks against John Kerry, a decorated veteran, for his Vietnam military service.
So it's not exactly stunning that Donald Trump is attempting to undermine what a bedrock of Hillary Clinton's campaign - her support among minority voters, particularly blacks.
The trick, however, is there has to be some appearance of substance behind the charges for them to stick. The reason Kerry was so damaged in 2004 was because the hits came from his fellow veterans and not Mr Bush.
Mr Trump's calling Mrs Clinton a bigot in a few speeches is likely to bounce off the Democratic nominee if that's all there is. A wealthy - white - New York billionaire telling blacks how terrible...

Summary: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of being a "bigot" in his latest appeal to minority voters.
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Article: Edinburgh University found chronic pain is caused partly by a person's genetic make-up and partly by as-yet-unidentified risk factors shared by partners in the same environment.
The team also identified significant overlaps between the risk factors for chronic pain and depression.
The scientists said chronic pain is a common cause of disability.
Scientists hope the research will help explain why some people suffer from the condition and not others.
The study used data from more than 100,000 people taking part in the Generation Scotland and UK Biobank projects - major studies investigating genetic links to health conditions.
The results of the collaboration with Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow universities are published in the latest edition of the journal PLOS Medicine.
Prof Andrew McIntosh, chair of biological psychiatry at Edinburgh University, said: "We hope our research will encourage people to think about the relationship between chronic pain and depression, and whether physical and mental illnesses are as separate as some believe."

Summary:


A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a man was stabbed in the leg in Birmingham.
The incident happened at around 10.30pm on Friday in the city centre.
The victim, a man in his 20s, was taken to hospital with a serious leg injury.
A West Midlands Police

Police have been given more time to question five men arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences.

Article: A bottlenose dolphin has been photographed playing with an unfortunate fish.
The flounder was thrown into the air from the mammal's mouth and bounced off its nose, before being devoured.
Whale and Dolphin Conservation field officer and photographer Charlie Phillips captured the action on camera on Friday from Chanonry Point on the Moray Firth.
The firth is home to a population of bottlenose dolphins.

Summary: All images are copyrighted.
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Article: Bomb disposal officers were sent to Birmingham's Lee Bank area on Friday and nearby roads were closed and cordoned off.
The men, two aged 32 and 37 were arrested in Stoke-on-Trent and three others, aged 18, 24 and 28, were arrested in Birmingham.
Magistrates granted police a further seven days to question the men.
Detectives from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit appeared before London's Westminster Magistrates' Court via video link on Saturday to submit their request for a warrant of further detention, a spokesman said.
The men were arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
Ch Supt Sue Southern, from West Midlands Police, said: "The arrests of the five men were intelligence led and our investigation continues at full pace."
A number of properties in the Stoke and Birmingham areas have been searched as part of the investigation.
The BBC understands the force was dealing with two suspect devices that were found at a business in Lee Bank on Friday.

Summary:


The BBC's Crimewatch programme has been given exclusive access to the police investigation into the murder of Dorothy Leyden.
The programme will be shown on BBC One at 21:00 BST.
The programme will also be shown on BBC One at 21:00 BST on Sunday.
The BBC's Crimewatch

A fresh appeal to find the killer of a teenage girl who was raped and murdered in Manchester 45 years ago is to feature on BBC One's Crimewatch.

Article: Beijing's China Daily: "The agreement [on raising the US debt ceiling] is likely to avert default by Washington and it certainly is a relief for China... We still cannot rule out the possibility of a downgrade of the US credit rating if Washington fails to come up with a long-term and balanced solution to address its debt problem... For policy makers in Beijing, seeking alternative ways to invest the massive foreign exchange reserves and to reduce its rapid accumulation remain the crucial challenges." (Interview with Chen Daofu, director, Policy Research Centre, Financial Research Institute, State Council Development Research Centre)
Beijing's Global Times: "It is too early to cheer for this deal, since raising the debt ceiling simply means the US can now borrow itself into further debt... This does not seem a smart move. By using new debt to pay back the old, the US is sinking further into quicksand." (Editorial)
Nezavisimaya Gazeta: "Naturally, the problems of the USA and the dollar as well as of the EU and the euro cannot but disturb Russia. As we know, it holds its currency reserves in dollars and euros. We should assume that our government is not leaving matters to chance and is taking steps against possible risks... [There is] one unfortunate thing that Russia does not need to fear: at least, it will not face a default in the next few days." (Article by Yevgeniy Grigoryev)
Moskovskiye Novosti: "America has changed its mind about having a Judgment Day... But the obvious inability to reach an agreement that was demonstrated by political forces in the US has had an equally damaging effect on the country... The image of the country as a responsible borrower has suffered most." (Article by Denis Voroshilov and Igor Kryuchkov)
Sueddeutsche Zeitung: "State bankruptcy has been avoided, but the compromise announced by US President Barack Obama is flawed from an economic point of view. It does not resolve any of the real budgetary problems and some of its elements are even harmful to the economy." (Commentary by...

Summary: International press reaction to the voting of the US bill to avert a US debt default.
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Article: Dorothy Leyden's body was found hours after she had been to a Jimmy Ruffin concert at the Golden Garter nightclub in Wythenshawe in April 1971.
The 17-year-old's body was found on waste ground in Collyhurst.
Her sister Pat Atkinson has made an emotional appeal for more information on her death.
The teenager spent the evening of 24 April 1971 at the concert before heading into central Manchester.
At about 02:30, she got out of a taxi she had shared with friends at Piccadilly Gardens bus station and it is thought she decided to walk home.
Her body was found the following day behind the now demolished Spread Eagle pub.
A reconstruction will show some of Dorothy's last known movements before she was attacked.
Previously, it had been thought she may have been murdered by serial killer Trevor Hardy but, this was dismissed in 2008.
Det Supt Martin Bottomley, from Greater Manchester Police, said forensic evidence proved he did not kill Dorothy.
"The suspicion that Hardy was responsible may have allowed the real killer to hide for all of this time."
Dorothy's sister recalled the moment officers broke the news of her sister's murder.
She told Crimewatch: "I remember the police coming to the front door and I just went out playing and when I came home my mum called me into the living room.
"I think she told us all one at a time and she just told me that Dorothy had been beaten and she'd died."
The appeal will be shown on Crimewatch later on BBC One at 21:00 BST.

Summary:


The first ever Glastonbury Festival has been cancelled after a "catastrophic" fire at the site.
The festival, which was due to take place in Worthy Farm, Somerset, from June 26 to 30, has been cancelled.
The fire broke out at the site on Thursday night and was brought under

Rain has fallen on the Glastonbury Festival as fans enjoyed the first day of music on the main stages.

Article: The authors warned a loss of diversity meant more people were dependent on key crops, leaving them more exposed to harvest failures.
Higher consumption of energy-dense crops could also contribute to a global rise in heart disease and diabetes, they added.
The study appears in the journal PNAS.
"Over the past 50 years, we are seeing that diets around the world are changing and they are becoming more similar - what we call the 'globalised diet'," co-author Colin Khoury, a scientist from the Colombia-based International Center for Tropical Agriculture, said.
"This diet is composed of big, major crops such as wheat, rice, potatoes and sugar.
"It also includes crops that were not important 50 years ago but have become very important now, particularly oil crops like soybean," he told BBC News.
While wheat has long been a staple crop, it is now a key food in more than 97% of countries listed in UN data, the study showed.
And from relative obscurity, soybean had become "significant" in the diets of almost three-quarters of nations.
He added that while these food crops played a major role in tackling global hunger, the decline in crop diversity in the globalised diet limited the ability to supplement the energy-dense part of the diet with nutrient-rich foods.
Amid the crops recording a decline in recent decades were millets, rye, yams, sweet potatoes and cassava.
The study by an international team of scientists also found that the homogenisation of the global diet could be helping accelerate the rise in non-communicable diseases - such as diabetes and heart disease - which are becoming an increasing problem worldwide.
Crop failure fears
Co-author Luigi Guarino, of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, added: "Another danger of a more homogeneous global food basket is that it makes agriculture more vulnerable to major threats like drought, insect pests and diseases, which are likely to become worse in many parts of the world as a result of climate change.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is designed to protect the genetic...

Summary: Fewer crop species are feeding the world than 50 years ago - raising concerns about the resilience of the global food system, a study has shown.
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Article: A heavy shower on Friday afternoon brought out the wellies, ponchos and umbrellas and created puddles on site.
Friday's acts include Florence and the Machine, Motorhead, Mark Ronson and an unconfirmed band, rumoured to be The Libertines, on the Pyramid Stage.
However, Professor Stephen Hawking is unlikely to attend the event for an appearance in the Kidz Field.
A spokesperson for the physicist told The Telegraph he had pulled out "for personal reasons".
In other Glastonbury news:
Organisers have not confirmed the identity of the act who will fill the Pyramid Stage slot on Friday that was left vacant when Florence Welch was promoted to the headline slot.
Rumours about Pete Doherty and Carl Barat's band The Libertines circulated after the name "Albion" was pictured on a backstage running order. The Libertines have used the word Albion frequently during their careers.
Florence has replaced Foo Fighters, who pulled out when frontman Dave Grohl broke his leg.
The decision to promote Florence and the Machine to headline status was criticised by some fans, but organiser Emily Eavis said she made the decision "straight away".
"This is her moment," Eavis said. "She's had a number one record in America, a number one record here, and she's on fire."
'Culture of rebellion'
Meanwhile, feminist punk band Pussy Riot made an appearance in front of the Park Stage, using a theatrical protest to convey their anti-government message.
The appearance began with an actor posing as a Russian soldier standing atop a military van and declaring Glastonbury a pro-Russian republic.
Pussy Riot's Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, who were imprisoned in Russia for almost two years for their protests, then climbed up, tied him up and put one of their trademark multi-coloured balaclavas on him.
Tolokonnikova told the crowd to "develop a culture of rebellion" and, in a remark possibly aimed at other bands, said they could not just "sit on a comfy coach and drink some beer".
They were then interviewed on top of the van by singer...

Summary:


Durham's win over Yorkshire was their first win in the Championship since the start of the season.
The Durham captain, who was named man of the match, said: "It was a great win. We were a bit nervous at the start of the game, but we got the job done.
"We've

Most Scottish firms believe Brexit is bad for their prospects and the economy, according to a survey by the Fraser of Allander Institute.

Article: Resuming on 39-3, Durham slipped to 63-6, with Ryan Sidebottom (4-34) taking the wickets of Graham Onions, Scott Borthwick and Paul Collingwood.
Ryan Pringle (57 not out), Michael Richardson (33) and Graham Clark (25) delayed the hosts into the afternoon.
But Jack Brooks (3-55) took the final wicket of Chris Rushworth as Durham were all out for 192.
Second-placed Yorkshire are a point behind leaders Middlesex, who beat Nottinghamshire by five wickets on Friday to relegate the East Midlands county.
Durham's target of 421 always looked out of reach, especially after losing three wickets in 16 overs before close on Thursday.
Sidebottom finished with season-best bowling figures and he struck in his first and second over of the day to rip the heart of the Durham middle-order.
Clarke and Richardson put on 49 for the seventh wicket to make sure the game went behind lunch, while Pringle hit a spritely half-century and brought up his 50 with a six off Tim Bresnan.
But Durham slipped to their third Championship defeat of the season and remain in relegation trouble.

Summary: Yorkshire beat Durham by 228 runs to remain in the hunt for a third successive County Championship title.
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Article: The economic research institute questioned 320 businesses following the vote on leaving the EU.
The survey found more than 60% of Scottish firms believe Brexit would have a "negative impact" on them.
However, the institute said there was little evidence of companies cancelling investment or recruitment outright.
The Fraser of Allander Institute, an independent research body based at the University of Strathclyde, carried out the survey between 5 July and 12 July, in the aftermath of the EU referendum.
Just over 60% of Scottish firms surveyed said they believed Brexit will have a negative impact on their business, while only 19% said it would have a positive impact. One third said the impact would be "very negative".
About 40% believe that leaving the EU could lead to a decrease in their investment and expansion plans, and 34% said that they could cut back on recruitment.
More than 70% of firms surveyed as part of the research had done no preparation for the UK exiting the EU.
Two-thirds of businesses said resolution of the uncertainty in the economy was a key issue in the negotiation of the UK's exit from the European Union, while 49% of firms cited access to the single market as a key issue.
However, the survey found little evidence of companies actually cancelling investment or recruitment plans.
A quarter of firms said they had made a decision to change their investment and recruitment plans, though the vast majority - 95% - said that decisions had been postponed rather than cancelled entirely.
Prof Graeme Roy, director of the institute, said: "This is the first hard survey evidence post-referendum of what businesses in Scotland are thinking and how they are responding to the unexpected EU referendum result.
"A clear majority believe that the impact - certainly in the short to medium term - will be negative. The survey offers some evidence that investment and recruitment plans may be being put on hold.
"Resolving the current political and economic uncertainty must now be the key priority. The longer the...

Summary:


The US Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to the state of Texas' execution of a schizophrenic man who was scheduled to die on Wednesday.
The court said the state had not shown that the execution was necessary to protect the public.
The court said the state had not shown that the execution would not cause

A new £20m-a-year cap on the cost of new drugs will be introduced in the NHS in England in an attempt to save money, health chiefs have announced.

Article: The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals granted the reprieve less than eight hours before killer Scott Panetti was due to receive a lethal injection.
His lawyers had argued he was too delusional to be executed and sought a delay so his competency can be tested.
Panetti was convicted in the fatal shootings of his in-laws in 1992.
The US Supreme Court in 2002 prohibited the execution of the mentally impaired, but have allowed it for mentally ill inmates with a rational understanding.
A number of conservatives leaders had joined the fight to save Panetti's life, writing a letter asking Texas Governor Rick Perry to commute the death sentence to life in prison.
"As conservatives, we must be on guard that such an extraordinary government sanction not be used against a person who is mentally incapable of rational thought," according to the letter.
"It would be immoral for the government to take this man's life."
Ellen Stewart-Klein, an assistant Texas attorney general, meanwhile told that appeals court Panetti's medical records "strongly indicate rational awareness of his impending execution and the reason for it".
"Panetti's mental status has at best been severely exaggerated by his counsel," she added.
On Monday, in a separate appeal to halt the lethal injection, Panetti's lawyers told the US Supreme Court the Texas inmate was severely mentally ill "before, during and after the crime for which he has been sentenced to death".
Panetti was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1978 and hospitalised more than a dozen times before killing Joe and Amanda Alvarado.
"Imposition of the death penalty on people with severe mental illness, as with people with intellectual disability, does not serve the two goals of deterrence and retribution because of their reduced moral culpability," his lawyers told the court.
The Supreme Court added a provision mandating that an inmate have a rational understanding of why he was being put to death in 2007 under a previous appeal from Panetti.
His case has gone to the high court for review at least...

Summary: A US appeals court has halted the execution of a schizophrenic Texas inmate who was due to be put to death on Wednesday.
###
Article: The new measure could lead to delays of up to three years before new drugs are made available to give NHS bosses the chance to try to renegotiate the price with drug firms.
The plan was agreed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence amid mounting pressure on NHS funds.
It will be introduced from next month.
NICE chief executive Sir Andrew Dillon said the move was needed given the "significant financial challenge facing the NHS".
Patient groups and the drug industry have already objected to the plan - a consultation has been run over the past three months.
Currently, drugs that are assessed as being cost-effective by NICE are automatically recommend for use in the NHS.
Once that happens, the health service has 90 days to start offering the drugs.
But crucially that process just assesses the cost versus benefit of the drug on the basis of the impact to an individual.
It does not take into account how many people may take the drug and therefore the total cost to the NHS.
Under the new plan, widely used drugs and expensive but effective drugs that breach the £20m a year threshold will face a secondary process.
NHS England, which pushed for the change, will be able to halt the 90-day deadline and begin talks with the drug manufacturer to try to get the price down.
They will be able to apply for an extension of up to three years. At that point, NICE will review what is happening.
During this period, NICE will have the power to allow restricted use to patients deemed most in need.
The move comes as the drugs bill is on the rise. Last year £16.8bn was spent on drugs by the NHS, up from £13bn in 2011.
There is concern a breakthrough in fields such as dementia could end up costing the NHS billions of pounds.
Last year NHS bosses capped the number of patients that could be given a new drug for hepatitis C, to keep the annual cost at £200m.
The new arrangements will be applied only to new drugs.
Information provided by the industry suggested that if they had been in place they would have affected the...

Summary:


The UK's biggest construction firms are warning that the government's plans to cut the number of apprenticeships will hit the industry.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said the government's plans to cut the number of apprenticeships from 1.5 million to 1.1 million would have a "devastating

Manufacturers have reported positive business trends, in the latest survey from the Scottish Chambers of Commerce.

Article: The union says the "comprehensive breakdown in industrial relations" is related to problems with the "ageing" fleet of Piccadilly line trains.
Transport for London (TfL) urged the RMT not to "subject Londoners to another pointless strike".
No strike date has yet been announced.
The Piccadilly line, the fourth busiest on the Underground, has been the focus of a long-running industrial dispute over safety.
In January, a door opened on a moving train as it approached Heathrow, prompting an inspection of the whole fleet.
TfL said it was an "isolated incident", but the RMT denies this.
"There are major problems with the rolling stock that are not being addressed," a spokesman for the union told the BBC.
"Despite the fact that we've got members in the depot working to try to keep the fleet going, we've got problems with doors opening between stations, wheel flats [that affect braking] and signals being passed at danger."
RMT general secretary Mick Cash added: "Those issues have left drivers in a vulnerable position and have been used by management as a tool to harass and threaten members through misuse of the disciplinary procedure."
Pat Hansberry, Operations Director for London Underground, said: "It is disappointing that the RMT is once again threatening unnecessary strike action without seeking to resolve these local issues with us first.
"We urge the RMT to continue talks with us to resolve their issues rather than threatening to subject Londoners to another pointless strike."
Piccadilly line trains are known as "1973 stock", although they came into service later that decade.
They are now among the oldest trains on the London Underground.

Summary: Piccadilly line Tube drivers have voted to strike after the RMT union accused London Underground managers of "bullying, harassment and intimidation".
###
Article: The end of last year saw growth across several sectors of the economy, but there are concerns about rising prices, skill shortages and falling sales.
Manufacturers reported their highest growth in new orders for nearly three years, with export demand still strong.
In retail, there was also a return to optimism - though only just, and despite profitability being squeezed.
In tourism, firms reported improving visitor numbers in the final quarter of the year, but falling sales revenues.
Responses to the survey, carried out for the Chambers of Commerce by Strathclyde University economists at the Fraser of Allander Institute, were more positive than the economic figures published on Wednesday.
The Labour Force Survey and the Gross Domestic Product figures showed weakness in the Scottish economy, while covering an earlier part of 2016 than the Chambers' survey.
While the GDP assessment from the Scottish government has seen a sharp contraction in the past year, the Chambers found a more positive picture, with growth in private commercial contracts.
However, there are warning signals survey, with tourism companies having difficulties in finding skilled recruits. Retail firms flagged up rising prices. Construction is expecting an investment dip.
The weakest of the five sectors covered was finance and business services. More firms in that large part of the economy saw employment fall than saw it rise. But on balance, firms say sales revenue is expected to increase.
Neil Amner, chairman of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce economic advisory group, said: "Our latest economic data shows that many Scottish businesses will have a successful 2017, with business optimism remaining positive for many sectors.
"This is good news for the economy, particularly as we continue to deal with international uncertainty and domestic issues including a rating revaluation and a potential divergence of Income Tax between Scotland and the rest of the UK.
"The overall business mood remains positive but firms expect business growth to be...

Summary:


The US has said it will not recognise the results of the upcoming presidential election in Venezuela, which is being boycotted by the country's opposition.
The US has also said it will not recognise the results of the upcoming presidential election in Venezuela, which is being boycotted by the country's opposition.
The

In a playground in Sheikh Hamad City, children shriek with delight, while their parents chat in the cool shade of their peach-coloured flats.

Article: Mr Xi was speaking at the swearing-in of the territory's new leader Carrie Lam, as Hong Kong marked 20 years since its handover to China from Britain.
On Saturday afternoon, after Mr Xi had left Hong Kong, thousands of people took part in an annual march calling for greater democracy.
During Mr Xi's visit there was little opportunity for protest.
An earlier protest had led to clashes with pro-Beijing demonstrators.
Mr Xi's visit to the city - his first since becoming Chinese leader in 2013 - came amid tight police security.
Several people were detained in the morning, when a small group of pro-democracy activists clashed with pro-Beijing demonstrators close to the site where the lavish ceremony took place.
Organisers said 60,000 people took part in the later pro-democracy march, though police said the figure was much lower.
Heavy rain affected the march, which started at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. Some protesters carried yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the demonstrations which gripped the city in 2014.
Lam Wing-kee, one of the five Hong Kong booksellers who went missing in 2015 and re-surfaced in detention on the mainland, addressed the march.
The Chinese leader oversaw the swearing in of Ms Lam, the newly-elected chief executive of the territory, along with the rest of her cabinet. She is Hong Kong's first female leader.
In a speech he said that Hong Kong needed to "improve its systems to uphold national sovereignty, security and development interests".
"Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government... or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible," he said.
He added that Hong Kong now enjoyed more freedom than ever before.
But while the territory's Basic Law guarantees wide-ranging freedoms under the "one country, two systems" formula, Beijing's refusal to grant universal suffrage has triggered sometimes violent unrest.
In Saturday...

Summary: Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned against "impermissible" challenges to Beijing's authority over Hong Kong.
###
Article: This huge housing project - now one of the most desirable addresses in Gaza - was built since 2012 with money from Qatar and named after the former ruler of the wealthy Gulf state.
So far, more than 2,000 Palestinians - mostly low-income families - have moved in.
The complex has a new school, shops, an impressive mosque and plenty of greenery. There is a constant whirr of construction noise as more buildings are erected.
But as the regional crisis over Qatar escalates, Palestinians here - as elsewhere in the impoverished territory - fear the loss of their major donor and ally.
"We're going to be the victims," says one resident, Baha Shalaby. "Everything's going to stop - the money, the support, the infrastructure, the building work."
In recent years, Qatar has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on new homes, a hospital and main roads in the Gaza Strip. It has pledged about $1bn (Â£780m) more.
It is not yet clear how its projects will be affected by the ongoing row with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries. They are trying to economically isolate Qatar, accusing it of fostering terrorism - a charge the emirate strongly denies.
However, the engineer in charge of fixing Gaza's main north-south road warns of the possible wider implications of any cuts.
"We have hundreds of workers, all supporting families," says Hanafi Sadallah.
"Levels of unemployment in Gaza are very high, so if the Qataris end our funding, they'll all just be left sitting at home."
Just over 40% of Gazans are out of work, according to Palestinian officials - one of the highest unemployment rates in the world.
One of Saudi Arabia's demands has been for Qatar to stop backing Hamas, which runs Gaza.
The Islamist group took over by force a decade ago - ousting Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces, a year after Hamas won legislative elections.
Hamas leaders insist that Qatari help to Gaza has been primarily charitable.
"The houses that were built are not for Hamas, the streets that were asphalted are not for Hamas," one senior...

Summary:


The case of a man who was jailed for 12 years for the murder of a 20-year-old woman in a park in Cardiff in 2015 has been thrown out of court.
Hamza, who was jailed for life in February 2016, had argued the sentence was too severe.
But Judge Munro QC said

A rapist who attacked a student as she walked home during freshers' week has been given an extended sentence.

Article: That was the message from a fringe event at Labour's conference in Liverpool which examined the electoral threat from UKIP - and the effect of the marginalisation of working-class communities.
While the Conservatives remain the biggest obstacle to Labour getting back into power, Jeremy Corbyn faces challenges on multiple fronts. In Scotland, there is the SNP and across large swathes of England, there is UKIP.
The party is arguably the official opposition to Labour in much of the north west and north east.
Labour MPs who feel UKIP breathing down their necks are anything but complacent, but dealing with the challenge is another matter.
"For us, it is about how you fight an emotion," says Ruth Smeeth, who won Stoke on Trent North for Labour in 2015 but saw UKIP increase its vote by 18% in the constituency.
"They were not politicians in the way we recognise them," she says of her opponents. "They didn't run political campaigns in the way we recognise political campaigns."
UKIP, like Labour, may have had its share of internal strife recently but that doesn't mean it will be any less of a threat whenever the next election takes place, activists were warned.
"There are some people trying to write off UKIP saying they are busted flush and they have peaked because of the EU referendum and (Nigel) Farage going," says Nick Lowles, founder and director of campaign group Hope Not Hate.
"But we should really caution against writing them off or at least writing off a party like that. Even if that party did not exist, there is nothing to say that people who voted UKIP at the last election would come back to Labour.
"Political and culturally, there is a huge and growing gulf between the Labour Party and Labour voters and UKIP voters."
Its research points to a growing divergence between Labour and UKIP voters in their attitudes to immigration and the threat posed by multiculturalism, with Labour voters becoming more "tolerant, open, and relaxed" about immigration and its benefits while UKIP supporters' views have moved in the...

Summary: Labour must take a hard look at itself and the gap that has opened up with millions of people who used to vote for the party.
###
Article: Remus Hamza, 41, of Riverside, Cardiff, was jailed for 12 years in February 2016 for raping the 20-year-old and was also given four years on extended licence.
He took his case to the Court of Appeal in London, arguing this was too severe.
But judges said his appeal was "totally without merit" and gave him an extra 28 days in prison for wasting court time.
Hamza claimed he had consensual sex with his victim, but was found guilty after a trial.
He had also previously exposed himself to three young women in the same area.
The woman was walking home along Museum Avenue in the early hours of 20 September 2015 after losing her friends while on a night out.
Hamza grabbed her and raped her in nearby bushes. He fled after a passer-by spotted him and called the police.
Judge Sarah Munro QC said the victim suffered serious psychological harm as a result of the attack.
Hamza's lawyers argued the crown court judge made the wrong assessment of how serious his crime was and did not take enough account of the fact he would have to serve two thirds of his jail term before his release can be considered.
Dismissing his appeal, Judge Munro said it was "not arguable" the sentence was excessive.
She added: "The provisions relating to early release and licence should be left out of the picture when determining sentence. There is no merit whatsoever in this appeal."

Summary:


The US military has said it is "not aware of any credible threat" to the US homeland from North Korea.
The statement comes after North Korea said it had successfully tested a new type of nuclear weapon.
The US military said it was "not aware of any credible threat to the US homeland from North Korea".

Artificial intelligence can identify skin cancer in photographs with the same accuracy as trained doctors, say scientists.

Article: The governor of Unity state says several people were killed in its capital Bentiu when a plane dropped  bombs on a market.
South Sudan also says its troops came under air attack in the oil-producing Heglig region which they have seized.
Sudan's ambassador to the UK, Abdullahi Al Azreg, said Sudan did not target civilians.
He insisted Khartoum had bombed military camps used by northern rebels supported by South Sudan.
"These people are occupying our land. Everybody is witnessing what they are doing. They have killed the civilians, they are doing very bad things. We will target the rebels as long as they are occupying our land," he told the BBC.
South Sudan said earlier on Saturday that it had repulsed an offensive on its positions near Heglig.
By James CopnallBBC News, Khartoum
The events of the last week are a reversal of the expected order of things. Sudan has struggled militarily, despite its greater resources.
Its troops lost the Heglig oilfield - one of its biggest sources of revenue - and so far have not been able to take it back. The Sudanese forces' one great advantage - air power - has not tipped the balance in their favour.
Sudanese political experts say the army's morale is low, and it is overstretched, as it has to fight South Sudan as well as several rebel movements who are co-ordinating together.
But - perhaps to its surprise - Sudan is winning the diplomatic war. The African Union said South Sudan's occupation of Heglig was "illegal and unacceptable".
Perhaps in reaction to these kind of statements, South Sudan then said it would withdraw its troops if UN peacekeepers were deployed to Heglig. This seems unlikely, and South Sudan simply hasn't been able to convince the world it's in the right.
So for the moment South Sudan is in the unusual position of winning the fighting - and losing the war of perceptions.
Vice-President Riek Machar said the ground fighting took place on Friday 30km (18 miles) north of Heglig.
South Sudan seized the oil field on Tuesday, sparking international condemnation and...

Summary: South Sudan has accused Sudan of launching further bombing raids on its territory and against its forces.
###
Article: The Stanford University team said the findings were "incredibly exciting" and would now be tested in clinics.
Eventually, they believe using AI could revolutionise healthcare by turning anyone's smartphone into a cancer scanner.
Cancer Research UK said it could become a useful tool for doctors.
The AI was repurposed from software developed by Google that had learned to spot the difference between images of cats and dogs.
It was shown 129,450 photographs and told what type of skin condition it was looking at in each one.
It then learned to spot the hallmarks of the most common type of skin cancer: carcinoma, and the most deadly: melanoma.
Only one in 20 skin cancers are melanoma, yet the tumour accounts for three-quarters of skin cancer deaths.
The experiment, detailed in the journal Nature, then tested the AI against 21 trained skin cancer doctors.
One of the researchers, Dr Andre Esteva, told the BBC News website: "We find, in general, that we are on par with board-certified dermatologists."
However, the computer software cannot make a full diagnosis, as this is normally confirmed with a tissue biopsy.
Dr Esteva said the system now needed to be tested alongside doctors in the clinic.
"The application of AI to healthcare is, we believe, an incredibly exciting area of research that can be leveraged to achieve a great deal of societal good," he said.
"One particular route that we find exciting is the use of this algorithm on a mobile device, but to achieve this we would have to build an app and test its accuracy directly from a mobile device."
Incredible advances in machine-learning have already led to AI beating one of humanity's best Go players.
And a team of doctors in London have trained AI to predict when the heart will fail.
Dr Jana Witt, from the charity Cancer Research UK, said:  "Using artificial intelligence to help diagnose skin cancer is very interesting, as it could support assessments by GPs and dermatologists.
"It's unlikely that AI will replace all of the other information your clinician would...

Summary:


The government has announced that it will be introducing a new tax on the sale of second homes.
The new tax, which will be introduced from April, will be charged at a rate of Â£10,000 on the sale of a second home.
The tax will be charged on the difference between the sale

The most important court in the UK, has made a decision that means parents are not allowed to take children on holiday during term-time, unless the school agrees.

Article: At the moment, they pay 90% of the amount due if the home was occupied.
However, Scottish Borders Council is now considering using powers which would allow them to charge twice the standard level.
It has been estimated it could generate an extra Â£900,000 although that figure might fall as homes are occupied.
The levy would not apply to homes which are unoccupied because they are being renovated unless they then lie empty for two years or more.
New build properties would also be exempt from the measure if they are being genuinely marketed for sale or let at a realistic price.
The charge would also not be applied to holiday properties.
A report to councillors has recommended that the new measure be brought in from 1 April.
It stressed that the driving force behind the measure was not to raise money but to encourage owners of long-term empty dwellings to bring them back into use.

Summary: Owners of homes in the Borders which have lain empty for a long period could see their council tax charges more than doubled.
###
Article: The ruling has come about because a dad was fined for taking his daughter out of school for a family holiday to Disney World in the United States, without her head teacher giving permission.
The man from the Isle of Wight appealed against the fine, and at first won the case, but now the UK Supreme Court has ordered him to pay the fine of Â£120.
It means that parents will now have to seek permission from the school and head-teacher to take children on holiday during a school term.
The case has caused lots of arguments because some people feel the price of holidays outside of school terms is too expensive, and many parents feel they should have the choice to go on cheaper breaks during a school term.
The Department for Education said: "We are pleased the Supreme Court agreed with our position - that no child should be taken out of school without good reason."
We've been speaking to some of you, to see what you think about the decision...

Summary:


The UK's biggest brewer has been accused of "dodging the bullet" by failing to tackle the problem of plastic waste.
The company, which is owned by SABMiller, said it was "committed to reducing the amount of plastic we use in our packaging".
But it said it had not yet

An "explosive creativity" of craft spirits has seen 50 new distilleries open across the UK last year, according to a study.

Article: In power virtually unchallenged since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Nursultan Nazarbayev has focused on economic reform while resisting moves to democratise the political system.
He remains popular among ordinary Kazakhs. His supporters say he preserved inter-ethnic accord and stability during the reform in the 1990s, and is widely credited for the country's impressive economic growth in first decade of the new millennium.
Mr Nazarbayev has concentrated extensive powers in his own hands and is accused by the opposition of suppressing dissent. Although he says he advocates democracy as a long-term goal, he warns that stability could be at risk if change is too swift.
Born in 1940, Mr Nazarbayev came to power in 1989 as first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and was elected president the following year. He was re-elected after the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
He was re-elected against largely token opponents in 1999, 2005, 2011 and - most recently - in 2015. In each case, his share of the vote rose, reaching more than 97% in the last vote, and the conduct of every election was criticised by foreign observers.
In 2007, parliament, in which the ruling party held all seats, voted to allow the president to stay in office for an unlimited number of terms. In 2010, MPs granted Mr Nazarbayev the lifelong title of "leader of the nation".
His 2011 victory came after judges ruled unconstitutional a plan to hold a referendum on whether to let Mr Nazarbayev to stay in power until 2020 without facing election.
The president thereupon said he rejected the changes, which had been strongly backed by MPs and by many voters.
When Mr Nazarbayev does step down from the president, he will have a permanent seat on the defence council and a role as head of the people's assembly, which unites members of different ethnic groups, according to a law approved in a 2007 referendum.
The president merged his Otan ("Fatherland") party with his daughter Dariga's party, Asar, in July 2006, in a move seen as...

Summary: President: Nursultan Nazarbayev
###
Article: Accountancy group UHY Hacker Young claimed new "boutique" distillers were pushing big brands off the shelf.
It said Scotland saw a 50% rise in new distilleries over the past year, from 12 in 2015 to 18 in 2016.
In England, a record 35 new distilleries were opened last year compared with 28 the previous year.
James Simmonds, of UHY Hacker Young, said: "Both the craft spirits and the craft brewery sectors are going through a period of explosive creativity.
"You can see that in everything from the logos, branding and advertising of these products.
"The quality of the product is streets ahead of their big brand competitors.
"It is no wonder that the global drinks giants are worried, and the best way they have found to deal with that new competition is get out chequebooks and buy them."

Summary:


A new study has found that the number of people with diabetes in the UK is set to rise by more than a million over the next 20 years.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that the number of people with diabetes is set to rise from about 9.5 million in 2010 to 11.

Pregnant women should visit countries with a risk of malaria only if their trip is essential, experts are warning.

Article: The Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT) recorded its highest ever number of young whales in its latest survey of marine life. The surveys began in 2003.
Twenty-eight juveniles were counted this year, three times the average compared with previous years.
Whales coming in from other areas has also been suggested as a reason.
Survey team members documented 28 juvenile minke whales and 30 adults. HWDT said it was an "unusually high proportion" of young compared to adults.
The survey had an encounter rate of one juvenile minke per 177 miles (286 km).
It also recorded the highest annual number of common dolphin sightings since the charity's expeditions began, with 723 individuals observed over 63 encounters.
The species was once uncommon in the Hebrides, but the trust's encounter rate with the species has more than doubled over the past 12 years.
Kerry Froud, HWDT biodiversity officer, said: "These intriguing changes in Scotland's marine life highlight the importance of long-term monitoring of cetaceans - so that we can better understand what is happening in our waters, and then make management recommendations to better protect this world-class area of marine biodiversity."
The surveys are carried out between May to October by scientists and volunteers on board Silurian, the trust's dedicated research yacht.

Summary: Conservationists have suggested a "baby boom" as a possible reason behind increased sightings of juvenile minke whales off western Scotland this year.
###
Article: Mothers-to-be are more likely to get malaria as their immunity is lowered, says the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG).
Malaria carries serious risks for mother and baby including miscarriage, stillbirth and premature labour.
The tropical disease is transmitted by mosquitoes and causes a fever, flu-like symptoms, vomiting and diarrhoea.
There have been no malaria-related deaths in pregnant or recently pregnant women in the UK in the past decade but the RCOG says it has been receiving inquires from worried women.
In the UK, about 1,500 cases of malaria are reported each year and about 10 people will die, said the RCOG.
It says all non-essential trips to areas with a high risk of malaria should be avoided.
Risk areas include large areas of Africa, Asia including China and India, Central and South America, parts of the Middle East and some Pacific Islands.
If the trip is unavoidable, the college advises women to seek advice from a centre with expertise in malaria which will provide information on ways to reduce the risk of infection.
Women should make sure they are aware of the risk, take out measures such as mosquito nets for bite prevention and take anti-malarial medication.
Philippa Marsden, who chairs the RCOG's patient information committee, said although the risks were still relatively small it was important that women were well-informed.
Cath Broderick of the RCOG women's network said: "If women are worried about symptoms after returning from a high-risk country and think they may have malaria, they should see a doctor immediately and inform them of their recent travels."
Symptoms can take a week or more to develop after being bitten.

Summary:


The Home Office has confirmed that the new language test will not be implemented until October 2016.
The Home Office has confirmed that the new language test will not be implemented until October 2016.
The Home Office has confirmed that the new language test will not be implemented until October 2016.
The Home Office has confirmed that the

Red-faced officials at the Home Office have been forced to correct a spelling error in a press release about new English language tests for migrants.

Article: In the year to March 2015, there were 41,176 such crimes recorded, compared with 29,466 during the previous year.
Overall crime in Greater Manchester was up 10% during the same 12-month period.
Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy said: "This increase in recorded violent crime is showing some worrying trends and placing huge demand and risk on a reducing number of staff."
His force has lost more than 1,100 officers since 2010.
Greater Manchester's Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd called on Prime Minister David Cameron to "stop chipping away at the police service" and "invest in the safety of our local communities."
There were a total of 200,432 crimes recorded by Greater Manchester Police - a 10% rise, compared to 3% nationally.
Mr Lloyd said while police numbers were being cut, demands on police were increasing as they deal with more complex issues "such as child sexual exploitation and domestic abuse."
Reported sexual offences increased by 55% to 4,970 in 2014-15 while there was a 33.4 % rise in domestic violence in the region, with 19,621 recorded crimes.
Sir Peter added: "Many of these incidents are complex with vulnerable victims to be protected and dangerous offenders to be brought under control. We are bringing many more cases to court but keeping on top of this is getting more and more challenging."
On an average day, GMP deals with 532 crimes, including 51 daily victims of domestic abuse, 12 sexual assaults and 10 hate crimes.
National figures showed an increase in knife crime in England and Wales for the first time in four years.

Summary: Violent crime in Greater Manchester rose by 40% in the last year, according to the Office for National Statistics.
###
Article: Language was spelled "langauge" in the original release, put out on Thursday.
But it was corrected by officials after Twitter users ridiculed the error.
BBC Radio 4 presenter Anita Anand said it was "beyond parody" that the Home Office could not spell language in a note to migrants who have been told to learn English.
A Home Office spokesman said: "This was a regrettable typographical error that has now been corrected."
On Monday, Prime Minister David Cameron announced a Â£20m fund to teach Muslim women in the UK to speak English, claiming it would help tackle segregation and help them resist the lure of extremism.
But some Muslims have accused him of wrongly conflating the two issues.
Mr Cameron said all those who entered the UK on the five-year spousal settlement programme - not just Muslim women - would have to sit language tests after two and a half years.
Thursday's press release said the new requirement would not be implemented before October 2016, with the precise timing and further details to be confirmed by the Home Office "in the next few weeks".

Summary:


A man has been charged with the attempted murder of a police officer after he allegedly attacked a police car in Birmingham.
The incident happened at around 1.30am on Monday, April 15, in the city centre.
A police car was travelling along the A38 near the junction with the A38A at the

A man has been charged with using drones to smuggle cannabis, steroids and mobile phones into prison.

Article: Searching for "did the Holocaust happen?" returned a top result that claimed it did not, as Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr reported.
Now, the ranking has changed for US users.
The page - from white supremacist site Stormfront - remains top in the UK.
"This is a really challenging problem, and something we're thinking deeply about in terms of how we can do a better job," said a Google spokesman.
"Search is a reflection of the content that exists on the web.
"The fact that hate sites may appear in search results in no way means that Google endorses these views."
Regarding the recent change in rankings on the Holocaust query, editor of news site Search Engine Land Danny Sullivan, believes this was due to external parties' attempts to influence the ordering of results.
Mr Sullivan met Google executives and engineers last week to discuss the issue of questionable result ranking, which also affects other queries about, for example, ethnic minorities.
"I'm as horrified and disappointed by the results as many people are," he told the BBC.
However, he said Google - which processes five billion searches a day - was keen to come up with a solution that was broadly applicable across all searches, rather than just those that have been noticed by users.
"It's very easy to take a search here and there and demand Google change something," explained Mr Sullivan, "and then the next day you find a different search and say, 'why didn't you fix that?' "
Ms Cadwalladr has accused Google of disseminating "hate speech".
Other result rankings that she questioned include those for "are women evil?" and "are muslims bad?".
The BBC has also found that some additional queries, including ones without negative terms, also produce controversial answers.
For example, searching for "are black people smart?" in the UK returns a "featured snippet" at the top of the results that claims "black people are significantly less intelligent than all other races".
Mr Sullivan added that it was far more common for users to search for simple terms,...

Summary: Google has said it is "thinking deeply" about ways to improve search, after criticism over how some results - including ones discussing the Holocaust - were ranked.
###
Article: Michael Tovey, 27, formerly of Lakes Road, Erdington, Birmingham is accused of using two drones to fly contraband into HMP Birmingham last year.
In the first charges of their type brought by West Midlands Police, Mr Tovey faces 13 counts of conveying banned items into a prison.
He is set to appear at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on 7 June.
Read more news for Birmingham and the Black Country
Mr Tovey is accused of using two drones to drop contraband into the prison's exercise yard on 29 October and 6 November.
He attempted to drop a consignment near N and P wings containing four phones, SIM cards, Black Mamba, steroids and cannabis, it is alleged.
It is claimed he was also responsible for a drone that crashed into the same yard eight days later, carrying two phones and further quantities of the same banned drugs.

Summary:


The UK's nuclear submarine fleet is to be modernised.
The Royal Navy's nuclear-powered submarines are to be modernised, the Ministry of Defence has announced.
The new submarines will be built at the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard in Cumbria.
The first of the new

The third Astute Class submarine to be built at a Cumbrian shipyard has been named.

Article: "France paid al-Qaeda 25m euros for four hostages," read a headline in the Times newspaper this week.
The French government has categorically denied that any public money was used to secure the release of the four French nationals kidnapped in 2010 at a uranium plant in Niger and held by jihadist bandits linked to the regional franchise of al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim).
"We don't play that game," said the French foreign minister when asked if his government had paid for their release.
Niger's President Mohamadou Issoufou was more evasive when asked the same question directly.
He replied simply: "I think that what we must be rejoicing about is that the hostages who went through difficult ordeals, who were isolated for many months from their families, are free."
But since there was no military assault involved in the hostages' release, it is almost inconceivable that their captors would simply give up their prisoners for no reward.
Privately, some British officials are furious, as the concept of giving in to terrorist ransom demands runs directly contrary to the commitment undertaken by all the G8 leaders at the Loch Earn summit in Northern Ireland in June.
Whether it was the French government, the Niger government, the hostages' employer Areva, or any other party that may or may not have paid a ransom, the indications are that a group of ruthless and dangerous men with guns is now roaming around the Sahara with a lot more money at their disposal.
So how much money is involved in Saharan kidnaps and where does it go?
The Texas-based US strategic analysis company Stratfor estimates that with the latest payments, Aqim has earned itself about $116m (Â£72m) in ransoms since 2003.
"We have seen ransom payments by the governments of Spain, Italy, France, Canada and Austria to see their citizens released from captivity," said Stratfor Vice President of Africa Analysis Mark Schroeder.
This year a leaked Nigerian government report revealed that a ransom of $3.15m (Â£1.9m) was paid to the Nigerian...

Summary: The rumours are hard to dismiss.
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Article: Thousands of people were at the ceremony at BAE Systems' Devonshire Dock Hall in Barrow to mark the end of the build process for Artful.
Another four of the nuclear-powered submarines are being built at the yard.
The ceremony was carried out by Amanda Lady Zambellas, wife of the Royal Navy's First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir George Zambellas.
BAE Systems Maritime - Submarines managing director John Hudson said: "The design and build of a nuclear-powered submarine is as challenging as it is complex, so today represents a significant milestone in Artful's programme.
"It requires real skill and innovation to deliver submarines as sophisticated as Artful and this would not have been possible without the valued contribution of our employees and the collaborative efforts of the whole submarine enterprise."
Artful will remain at the Barrow yard while commissioning activities are carried out and is due to be launched early next year for further tests.
HMS Astute and HMS Ambush have already been launched. The other vessels are at various stages in the design and build process and will be called Audacious, Anson, Agamemnon and Ajax.
The Barrow yard has been working on the Astute programme since 2001.
The Ministry of Defence said the Astute class of submarines have greater firepower, state-of-the-art communications equipment and advanced stealth technology, making them quiet and harder to detect.

Summary:


The Indonesian government has said it will investigate a report that it is considering a ban on the import of palm oil.
The government said it was "aware of the report" and that it was "working with the relevant authorities to address the issue".
The government has been accused of failing to tackle the problem, with

Singapore is putting pressure on major retailers in Singapore to not use or sell materials produced by firms linked to fires in Indonesia.

Article: Mr Zuma was responding to allegations that he had "unduly benefitted" from an upgrade to his private home in Nkandla which cost taxpayers about $23m (Â£14m).
MPs from the new Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were not satisfied with his explanation and started chanting: "Pay back the money."
Parliament was suspended and security called to oust the EFF group.
Police entered parliament in Cape Town carrying riot shields, tear gas and batons but then aborted their plans to forcibly remove the EFF MPs.
The governing African National Congress (ANC) said it was "appalled" by the behaviour of the EFF parliamentarians.
The Democratic Alliance, the largest opposition party, said the EFF's "theatrics" meant South Africans "did not get answers from the president, to which they were rightfully entitled".
South Africans may be divided over the behaviour of the EFF in parliament but its leader Julius Malema posed questions many here still want answered.
Nkandla remains a sore point for many citizens and the president has been accused of failing to account to the public that elected him into power.
So while they may not support the chanting and disruption to a formal sitting, many are quietly applauding their stand.
Mr Malema has never been one to shy away from confrontation; it was with tough talking that he defended President Jacob Zuma before their fall-out.
However uncomfortable to watch, many see this as South Africa's democracy at work.
It is not clear when the session will resume - possibly on Friday.
Many MPs were waiting to question the president when the session was suspended.
After being pressed by Mr Malema on when he would repay the Nkandla money, Mr Zuma said he had "responded appropriately to parliament" and said it was now in the hands of the government.
The EFF has 25 MPs in the 400-member parliament after gaining 6% of the national vote in May's election.
It was the first election contested by the EFF, led by controversial former youth leader Julius Malema.
He formed the EFF last year following his expulsion...

Summary: An address to parliament by South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has been halted by opposition MPs.
###
Article: Seven firms, including major supermarkets such as NTUC FairPrice and IKEA, have been asked declare they are not doing so within a week.
The forest fires in Indonesia have deteriorated Singapore's air quality, causing a blanket of haze in the city.
FairPrice has said it removing products from one Indonesian firm.
The state-owned supermarket giant said that it was removing all paper products sourced from Asia Pulp and Paper Group (APP), following the notification from the government.
APP has been named by Singapore authorities as one of the companies suspected of contributing to the haze.
What is behind the South East Asia haze?
In a joint statement, the Singapore Environment Council (SEC) and Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) said they had asked the retailers to declare that they have "not procured or used wood, paper and/or pulp materials" from firms accused of contributing to the fires.
The SEC said retailers were "a good starting point" for firms to show their commitment to sustainable procurement processes and "for consumers to show their support for brands that have environmentally friendly practices"
The haze has caused hazardous air quality across the region. It has led to the cancellation of public events and schools closure over the past month, in Singapore as well as in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Anger has been rising in the region, with increasing pressure on the Indonesian government to control the annual burning of forests to clear land for palm oil and rubber plantations.

Summary:


The government has announced a new £1.5bn fund to help councils tackle the housing crisis.
The Local Government Association (LGA) said the fund would help councils to build more homes, and help people to buy their own homes.
The fund will be available to councils from April 2017, and will be

There will not be a referendum on an additional council tax rise in Liverpool after the results of an online poll, the city's mayor has said.

Article: If it passes, the country will be the largest developed nation to end marijuana prohibition.
The law was tabled on Thursday, and would allow adults over 18 to possess up to 30g of dried marijuana.
The proposed legislation would allow the federal government to license producers, but provinces would be in charge of regulating consumer sale.
Other issues, such as pricing, taxation and packaging must still be worked out.
"This is a very important day, I've spent most of my adult life keeping children and communities safe," said MP Bill Blair during a press conference shortly after the legislation was presented to parliament.
The former police chief had chaired the government's cannabis task force, which laid out a blueprint for legal recreational pot in Canada.
The government is pitching the legislation as a way to keep pot out of the hands of minors and undercut organised crime.
The law would increase penalties for those who sell to children, and revamp impaired driving laws to make it easier to prosecute people who drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
It would allow police to test people's saliva if they think a driver has been using marijuana.
The current legal prohibitions have been an "abject failure" at keeping the children from getting a hold of marijuana, says Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.
Canada has some of the highest marijuana use in the world, according to the task force, especially amongst young people. About 30% of people aged 20-24 use cannabis.
The new framework would make it illegal to market marijuana products to children, or sell to anyone under 18. Provinces could raise the minimum age of consumption if they choose, the government says.
New laws would also increase the penalty for people who sell to the under-aged, as well as create a new offence for people "exploiting children in the trafficking of cannabis".
Trafficking cannabis outside the government's new legal framework would remain illegal.
Initially, only fresh and dried cannabis, cannabis oils, seeds and plants would...

Summary: Canada has laid out its plan to legalise the sale of recreational marijuana by June 2018.
###
Article: Liverpool City Council used a online budget simulator to ask residents about a proposed council tax rise of 5%, plus a further 6% to pay for social care.
Joe Anderson said the plan would not go ahead after 57% of respondents said no.
He also revealed plans for a Liverpool lottery in his New Year message on his Liverpool Express blog.
He said following the "feedback... I will not be proposing to hold a referendum on any additional increase beyond the 4.99% limit set by government".
Work was continuing on the full details of the authority's budget, he said, which would then undergo consultation in 2017.
He added that he was "surprised and proud that so many, 43%, said yes".
"It's a truly heart-warming reminder of how caring our city really is," he said.
Green party leader Councillor Tom Crone said the consultation was a "sham exercise".
"The weak consultation was never going to secure support for a tax rise," he said.
He said the mayor's decision not to hold a referendum meant there would be "tens of millions of pounds more cuts to services in the coming years".
Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Richard Kemp, said: "The public were never going to buy it over concern about the waste of existing council tax income."
Mr Anderson said the Liverpool lottery card would help local causes, adding that more details of it would be revealed in the coming months.
"Liverpool people are amongst the most generous in the country and I believe will support the initiative to help us cope with the growing numbers of people dependent on us," he said.
Councillor Kemp said his party would oppose the lottery idea.
He said: "The overwhelming evidence is that existing lottery users are already from the most deprived parts of the community.
"A new Liverpool lottery will be a tax on the poor to pay for services to the poor."

Summary:


The US dollar has fallen to its lowest level against the euro in more than a year, as investors digested the latest US jobs data.
The US economy added just over 200,000 jobs in July, the lowest level in more than a year.
The US unemployment rate rose to 9.1% in July

Kenyans have been voting in a key election - the first since the disputed contest of December 2007 that triggered weeks of bloodshed.

Article: The lender said the move was a "one-off depreciation" of 1.9% in a move to make the exchange rate more market-oriented.
It comes in the wake of a string of weak economic data from the world's second largest economy.
At the weekend, China reported a sharp fall in exports and a slide in producer prices to a near six-year low in July.
Exports fell by 8.3% in July, far worse than expected and the producer price index was down 5.4% from a year earlier.
The midpoint for the yuan is now set at 6.2298 to $1, up from 6.1162 yuan on Monday.
The People's Bank of China (POBC) manages the rate through the official midpoint, from which trade can rise or fall 2% on any given day.
Until now, it had been determined solely by the central bank itself.
Making the rate more market-based will mean the midpoint will now be based on overnight global market developments and how the currency finished the previous trading day.
The POBC's move comes amid speculation that China is preparing to widen the trading band for the currency from the current two percent range.
China has long kept tight control of the yuan value on concerns over financial volatility and losing its policy control.
Yet it is also under pressure to reform its currency policy as it pushes to become one of the International Monetary Fund's "special drawing rights" (SDR) reserve currencies.
These are currencies which IMF members can use to make payments between themselves or to the Fund.
Analysts ask, though, whether this really is a one-time move from China.
"The question on everyone's mind is whether this is the awakening of the dragon - ushering in a new global currency war?" Angus Nicholson, market analyst with trading firm IG wrote in a note.
"If this move ushers in a new era where the CNY [Chinese yuan] fixing is increasingly reflective of the spot market, it could be positive for its prospects being included in the IMF's special drawing rights basket of currencies this year."
Asian equities outside of China slipped on the news as investors weighed the...

Summary: China's central bank has devalued the national currency, the yuan, to its lowest rate against the US dollar in almost three years.
###
Article: This time the poll was held under a new constitution, designed to prevent a repeat of that violence when more than 1,000 people died when supporters of rival candidates clashed.
They have been choosing a president, members of parliament and senators, the new posts of county governors and members of county assemblies. The presidential contest is seen as a two-horse race between Prime Minister Raila Odinga against Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta.
BBC correspondents around the country sum up how the voting went.
The queues in some places stretched for more than a kilometre, as voters in Kibera stood patiently in line.
The neighbourhood is one of Nairobi's largest slums. It is the constituency of Raila Odinga, one of the favourites for the presidential contest and the scene of some of the worst violence following the last election in 2007.
Today, many had arrived before dawn, waiting patiently in line, sometimes for hours.
Voters cast their ballots into colour-coded boxes - six each - for a variety of different representatives, local and national.
The memories of five years ago are still fresh and, as the campaign drew to a close, a sense of apprehension was palpable.
Police talked of conspiracies to cause chaos and warned that violence would be met in kind.
But, in Kibera at least, as the sun grew hotter and the umbrellas came out, the mood was up-beat.
"Peace, peace," one crowd shouted as a truck of paramilitary police trundled past.
We came across a man with dreadlocks and a pot of white paint. His message, "Peace wanted alive", can be seen daubed on walls and roads around the neighbourhood.
The real test of peace, though, is likely to come once all the ballots have been cast, and the results start coming in.
As the sun begins to set, the heat is easing and some polling stations are still open after the official closing time of 17:00, with queues of people determined to cast their vote.
Tensions have been running high in this insecure and arid region near the Somali border and there has been a heavy...

Summary:


The government has announced a new £1.5m fund to help people who have been injured in road accidents.
The fund will be available to people who have been injured in road accidents in England and Wales, and who have been unable to work for at least six months.
The money will be paid directly to

A plan to increase the cost of speed awareness courses has been criticised as a "self-funding merry-go-round".

Article: Researchers in New Hampshire suggest the 180km-wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico was carved out by a smaller object than previously thought.
Many scientists consider a large and relatively slow moving asteroid to have been the likely culprit.
Details were outlined at the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
But other researchers were more cautious about the results.
"The overall aim of our project is to better characterise the impactor that produced the crater in the Yucatan peninsula [in Mexico]," Jason Moore, from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, told BBC News.
The space rock gave rise to a global layer of sediments enriched in the chemical element iridium, in concentrations much higher than naturally occurs; it must have come from outer space.
However, in the first part of their work, the team suggests that frequently quoted iridium values are incorrect. Using a comparison with another extraterrestrial element deposited in the impact - osmium - they were able to deduce that the collision deposited less debris than has previously been supposed.
The recalculated iridium value suggests a smaller body hit the Earth. So for the second part of their work, the researchers took the new figure and attempted to reconcile it with the known physical properties of the Chicxulub impact.
For this smaller space rock to have produced a 180km-wide crater, it must have been travelling relatively quickly. The team found that a long-period comet fitted the bill much better than other possible candidates.
"You'd need an asteroid of about 5km diameter to contribute that much iridium and osmium. But an asteroid that size would not make a 200km-diameter crater," said Dr Moore.
"So we said: how do we get something that has enough energy to generate that size of crater, but has much less rocky material? That brings us to comets."
Dr Moore's colleague Prof Mukul Sharma, also from Dartmouth College, told BBC News: "You would need some special pleading for an asteroid moving very rapidly - although it is possible. But of the...

Summary: The space rock that hit Earth 65m years ago and is widely implicated in the end of the dinosaurs was probably a speeding comet, US scientists say.
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Article: Avon and Somerset Police wants to raise the cost of the course from £80 to £95 to help pay for its road policing unit.
The Alliance of British Drivers said the police should not be funded by people "who hadn't done much wrong".
Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens said she would not comment on the proposal, which would be discussed later on Monday.
Alliance spokesman Bob Bull described the courses as "not about safety", "more about making money" and a "self-funding merry-go-round.
He said people who were driving at "marginally over" the speed limit should not be penalised and that the police should be concentrating on catching drivers travelling at well over the limit.
In the report, the panel said it hoped the price rise would protect the unit from further cutbacks.
The course is offered to drivers who are caught travelling at 10% above the speed limit plus two mph, but not more than 10% plus nine mph.
At the new price the course would be £5 short of the £100 fixed penalty, but without drivers getting points on their licences.
A motorist who has attended one of the courses within the past three years is not eligible to have the option of attending again.
RAC head of external affairs Pete Williams described the increased cost as "an unwelcome surprise for drivers".
Mr Williams said with more than one million motorists attending the courses each year "there is big money to be made, either by the police or those running the courses".
Staffordshire £80
North Wales £85
Gloucestershire £90
Surrey £95
City of London & Metropolitan £97
Wiltshire Not offered
Source: National Association of Driver Intervention Providers

Summary:


Waitrose has announced it will be trialling a new range of plants in its stores.
The supermarket chain said it would be trialling a new range of plants in its stores, which it said would be "more affordable and more accessible".
The new range will be available in Waitrose stores from the end of

Supermarket plant sales are reducing customers' choice, says Gardeners' World presenter Monty Don.

Article: The announcement came as the Edinburgh-based challenger bank saw underlying profit rise by nearly 5%, to £65m.
Total income was up more than 5% to £274m in the year to 12 March.
Sainsbury's said it performed strongly in the personal loans market, with 15% year-on-year growth in the number of advances to new customers.
The bank's portfolio of insurance products also continued to perform well, resulting in new business growth of more than 10% year-on-year.
Sales of new home insurance policies increased by more than 25%.
In an interim results statement, Sainsbury's said: "Given the bank's strong trading performance and the trust people have in the Sainsbury's brand, we have decided to launch new mortgage products in 2017.
"We believe these products will complement our existing financial services portfolio and we expect customers to respond well."
Sainsbury's also reported that it was "making good progress" in moving towards "a new, more flexible" banking IT platform.
It forecasts total transition costs to be "at the top of the £340m to £380m range".
Meanwhile, Edinburgh-based Virgin Money has reported a sharp rise in gross mortgage lending.
It said lending climbed by year-on-year by 30% in the first quarter to a record £2.1bn, giving the bank a market share of 3.4%.
The bank added that residential gross mortgage lending increased by 35%, while buy-to-let lending was up by 17%.
Credit card balances surpassed £1.8bn at the end of the quarter, up from £1.6bn as at 31 December.
Virgin Money said it was looking towards an "accelerated target" of £3bn of credit card "outstandings" by the end of 2017.
Chief executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia said: "I am delighted to report it has been another excellent quarter for Virgin Money.
"We had a record start to the year for mortgages and our savings franchise continues to flourish with a strong inflow of cash ISAs.
"I am particularly pleased with the performance of the credit card business which continues to exceed expectations one year on since launching to the public."

Summary: Sainsbury's Bank is set to launch new mortgage products in 2017 after reporting a strong trading performance in the last financial year.
###
Article: Nurseries increasingly focus on plants that can be mass produced so the big stores can sell them cheaply, he says.
"You have these vast wholesale nurseries now supplying supermarkets - and that's a diminution of choice," he told Radio 4's You and Yours.
However, the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) says supermarket sales actually help grow the market.
According to Kantar World Panel, nearly 40% of gardeners get their plants, bulbs and seeds from supermarkets.
"That's bad," says Don. "It's rather like the vast suppliers supplying food - you get lots and lots of the same thing mass produced to be as cheap as possible."
The UK garden market is worth around Â£5bn, with some Â£1.4bn spent on garden plants by UK consumers in 2013, according to the HTA, the industry body.
The Gardeners' World presenter believes consumers should shop around.
"I'm a huge fan of independent nurseries. That is where you get the expertise, it's where you will find people who have devoted their life to growing something.
"They will grow geraniums or trees and they will really know about it, so when you contact them, they can give you great help and assistance."
Martin Simmons, HTA director of operations, said: "People often make impulse purchases of plants in supermarkets and if this then encourages them to buy more plants then this is good for the industry and helps to grow the market.
"Buying a plant in a supermarket may be the first step for some consumers, particularly younger ones. If this grabs their interest they will naturally seek out garden centres and retail nurseries."
Waitrose told the BBC it took quality seriously, and that its plants were supplied by two reputable nurseries who supply only garden centres - not other supermarkets.
Inviting Monty Don for a visit to talk to buyers, Asda said it works with a network of expert growers to ensure it offered quality.
Sainsbury's said it had a longstanding relationship with suppliers, many of whom were family businesses. It added that it always worked to give customers choice...

Summary: