A man who was caught with a large amount of cocaine in his possession has been jailed for four years.
The court heard how the defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was stopped by police on the A12 in Essex on March 1 last year.
He was found to be in possession of a quantity

A prison has written to people who live nearby asking them to help stop packets of "illicit articles" being thrown over the jail walls.

Article: Angus Carpenter, 62, has played the Scottish instrument in Liverpool city centre for more than 30 years, usually dressed in kilt and piper's regalia.
Liverpool Crown Court heard he gave the impression he was collecting for charity three times in 2015.
He denied three charges of fraud and told the court he was busking.
Sgt Chris Gaynor told the court Mr Carpenter was spotted by police on three occasions in 2015, each time giving the impression he was collecting cash for charity.
On one occasion his collecting bucket was adorned with stickers resembling the Help for Heroes logo and the other two with a Hillsborough Justice Campaign banner draped on his bagpipes.
Passers-by would have assumed he was collecting on behalf of those organisations, the court heard.
Mr Carpenter said he has piped for charity in the past but on these occasions he was busking.
The court heard Kenneth Derbyshire, chairman of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, said he had given Mr Carpenter permission to design and display a banner featuring the eternal flame and the word justice.
But he said he had made it clear to Mr Carpenter he was not use it to collect funds for the charity.
Mr Carpenter told the court the banner was a tribute to the victims not an attempt to deceive anyone.
He told the court he was a busker who made money from performing on the streets and he never intended to give the impression he was raising money for charity.
On occasions when he did fundraise, he said, he always insisted that representatives from the relevant charities collected the cash.
The trial continues.

Summary: A bagpiping busker used a Hillsborough charity banner to dupe big-hearted Scousers into handing over money, a court has heard.
###
Article: Chelmsford Prison told residents there had recently been "numerous incidents" of packages being hurled over the wall.
One former inmate said the jail was "notorious" for being "flooded" with mobile phones and synthetic cannabis.
The Ministry of Justice said staff worked "extremely hard" to stop contraband from getting into prisons.
"However more must be done, which is why the Justice Secretary has asked us to look at how we can ensure prisons have the tools in place to tackle this kind of problem," the spokeswoman added.
Follow updates on this story and other news from Essex
A woman who lives near the prison, who did not want to be named, said she had witnessed packages being thrown over the wall "four times in two weeks."
"It's getting quite bad at the minute. The prison wants us to come to an evening to talk about what to do if anything does get thrown over," she said.
"I don't feel frightened, but obviously it's not nice - I always lock the doors and everything."
The former inmate claimed drones were used to fly contraband goods "straight up to prison windows", but the Ministry of Justice said there was no evidence of drones coming into the Chelmsford site.
The spokeswoman said laws had been introduced which mean people who smuggle packages over prison walls could be jailed for up to two years.

Summary:


A woman who was in a serious condition after a crash in Leeds has died.
The crash happened at around 7.30pm on Tuesday, October 30, on Cottingley Cliffe Road in the town.
A police spokesman said: "A 22-year-old Bradford man has been arrested on suspicion of

A cyclist who was killed when he was hit by a car police were pursuing has been described by his family "as a respected and dedicated academic".

Article: The statement comes as a committee of AMs found the number of stillbirths in Wales to be "unacceptably high" at an average of 180 each year.
They say evidence from a one-day inquiry into stillbirths held last June showed 64 babies could be saved each year if Wales could emulate Scandinavian success in reducing the rate.
Julia Chandler, national officer for the RCM in Wales, also told BBC News the way foetal growth was measured needed to be standardised, and customised growth charts which made allowances for things like the mother's ethnic group should be rolled out across the country.
A study published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in January concluded better monitoring of pregnancies including measuring foetal growth, using scans at a later stage and recording the movements of foetuses more accurately could save up to 600 babies a year in the UK.
It came two days after the RCM warned a shortage of midwives and a fall in students and any future cuts would risk the quality of services.
Ms Chandler said all midwives used tape measures to monitor foetal growth past around 24 weeks of pregnancy.
However she said one thing which both midwives and doctors seemed to find very hard to do was to talk to pregnant women about the possibility of stillbirth occurring.
A sign that something may be wrong is often a reduction in foetal movements, and getting that investigated promptly can make a difference to the outcome.
"What the reduction of midwives will do is reduce the amount of time midwives have with women. You need some continuity with someone so that they trust them," she said.
"You need some time with people and it's not the sort of thing you can do if you only have two minutes with them.
"It's easier to have a difficult conversation if the mother knows someone.
"If you have just met somebody it's difficult to say midway through, 'we need to have a chat about stillbirth'."
She said since the inquiry into stillbirths had begun, many people had commented on how common stillbirth was but it was not in the...

Summary: The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) says a drop in midwife numbers in Wales could be taking vital time away from appointments which could be used to talk to women about the risks of stillbirth and how to help avoid it.
###
Article: Andrew Platten, 55, from Bingley, died at the scene in Cottingley Cliffe Road in the town on Tuesday.ã€€
West Yorkshire Police said officers had tried to stop the car after seeing the driver "acting suspiciously".
Police said the car then "sped off and collided" with Dr Platten a short distance away.
The matter has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
A 22-year-old Bradford man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. He has been released on bail.
Dr Platten worked at Leeds Beckett University. Its website describes him as an associate dean for international and collaborative provision in the Faculty of Arts, Environment and Technology.
In a statement, his family said: "Andrew excelled as a respected and dedicated academic, with a love for art, poetry and music. For anyone that knew him, cycling was his true passion as he became a recognised competitive rider on the roads. ã€€
"Most importantly he was a loved friend, loyal brother and uncle, loving partner and a truly inspirational father. He will be deeply missed, but he has left his stamp on all who met him.
"He will always be cherished and never forgotten, living on in all our hearts."

Summary:

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A new £27m road scheme is set to be built to ease traffic congestion on the A303.
The A303 at Stonehenge Bottom was closed in June to "restore the dignity" of the stone circle as part of a £27m project.
The road was closed for two weeks.

People concerned with traffic congestion in villages near Stonehenge are stepping up a campaign for "urgent action" to be taken.

Article: The leading UK authority on sports ground safety has distanced itself from a report seen by some as a 'route map' to getting the scheme back on track.
The report was published last month. It is called a "project assessment review" and was compiled by Cabinet Office officials.
The BBC understands that the Sports Grounds Safety Authority is unhappy with parts of it.
That is even though it referred to them as specialist contributors.
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is planning to build a 38,000-capacity stadium at its existing west Belfast sports ground, Casement Park.
However, the project has been dogged by issues of safety in its design.
Paul Scott, a safety chief on the project, raised concerns. He said that any design must allow for the ground to be evacuated in an emergency within eight minutes and that the pitch itself cannot be part of the emergency exiting plan.
His comments prompted several investigations.
Last month the project assessment review, commissioned by the Culture and Leisure Minister Carál Ní Chuilín and carried out by the Cabinet Office, recommended Mr Scott's removal as head of the safety group and concluded the new stadium was still achievable.
It said there could be flexibility on the eight minutes and that the pitch could be used as part of the plan.
Now, information has been provided to Stormont MLAs by the Sports Ground Safety Authority.
Known as the SGSA, it is the leading UK body on stadium safety.
Its chief executive said that while its experts were referred to in the Cabinet Office report, they had been asked general questions and were not asked to comment in detail on the specifics of the Casement plans.
It went on to say the conclusions "should not be taken to represent the SGSA's advice on the specifics" in relation to Casement.
Crucially, when it comes to the disputed eight-minute timescale and the pitch being used as a place of safety, the SGSA appears to agree with Paul Scott.
The SGSA also told MLAs that in new stadia, the exit routes should "allow all spectators to...

Summary: The GAA's Casement Park stadium project looks set for more problems.
###
Article: The A344 next to the monument was shut in June to "restore the dignity" of the stone circle as part of a Â£27m project.
Residents of villages including Shrewton and Orcheston say their lanes have become "rat runs" for drivers avoiding congestion on the A303.
Campaigners will collect signatures for a petition this weekend.
Janice Hassett, from the Shrewton Traffic Action Group (Stag), said: "The A344 should not have been closed before the A303 was dualled.
"The A303 at Stonehenge Bottom was bad before, but it's a nightmare now.
"Traffic is stupidly backing up to Thruxton on a holiday weekend.
"Sat-navs are sending people right through our villages. There's going to be an accident."
The petition is asking for "urgent action" to be taken to tackle high volumes of non-local traffic using the B3086 through Shrewton, a 20mph speed limit to be introduced and better signage to be installed.

Summary:


The UK's rail network is set to be transformed by the introduction of contactless payment technology.
The new system, which is due to be rolled out in the next few months, will allow passengers to pay for their journeys using their smartphones.
Passengers will be able to use contactless payment cards to pay for

Rescuers used helicopters to pluck families from rooftops in the southern German town of Deggendorf on Wednesday as the Danube flood crisis continues.

Article: The rail network wants to pilot a ticketing system that scans people's phones to detect when they get on and off a train.
Each journey's fare is calculated and deducted from the user's bank account.
The tests are scheduled for 2017 and the technology could be available nationwide by 2018.
But one analyst claims the tech would result in only a modest improvement in convenience for passengers.
Using a smartphone's Bluetooth signal, the app allows passengers to open ticket barriers automatically, as well as get on and off trains, all without needing to hold a ticket.
Bluetooth sensors at the gates will detect when passengers enter and leave stations, and from this, calculate the journey each passenger has taken. The app will be connected to each user's bank account and charge for train fares in a manner similar to Uber does with taxis.
A design brief, written by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) and seen by the BBC, suggests that the tech could eliminate consumers' problems in choosing the most affordable ticket.
It could also eliminate long queues at ticket machines, as well as provide a "seamless customer journey", the RSSB said.
A further benefit of the tech would be to track each train's performance, potentially leading to real-time journey and delay info, as well as simplifying the compensation process for delays.
For rail firms, each customer's smartphone could provide rich data on which journeys are most popular, potentially allowing them to reallocate trains to suit demand.
However, one analyst is not convinced that the tech is much of a breakthrough in terms of convenience.
"It's not too different from tapping an Oyster card on a ticket gate and tapping out the other end," said Ian Fogg, principal analyst at IHS Technology.
"All this is really saving is the trouble of taking a smartcard out and tapping it at the gate. That's a fairly small improvement."
But he said that simpler ways of proving a train has been delayed, as well as congestion tracking, would be a distinct advantage.
If Chiltern...

Summary: Smartphones could soon be used instead of rail tickets if an experiment by Chiltern Railways is successful.
###
Article: Meanwhile more than 30,000 people in the eastern city of Halle have been told to leave their homes after rivers reached their highest level in 400 years.
Floodwater is also threatening parts of Austria and the Czech Republic.
At least 13 people have died and two are missing as a result of the floods.
Rising waters have been triggered by heavy rain following a wet spring.
Eight deaths were recorded in the Czech Republic and three in Germany, while two people were reported dead and two missing in Austria, according to a European Commission update on Tuesday evening.
Parts of Germany have not seen such severe flooding in centuries. However, in the Czech Republic, the water level has stabilised in the capital Prague, where there had been fears of a repeat of disasters in 2002 and 1997.
Helicopters started removing residents from their homes in Deggendorf on Wednesday after two levees along the Danube and Isar rivers broke.
Firefighter Alois Schraufstetter said the floodwater in the Bavarian town was 3m (9.8ft) high. "This is a life-threatening situation," he was quoted as saying by Germany's DPA news agency.
Four farmers were rescued at the very last minute by a helicopter before their tractor was submerged, he added.
German newspapers said water levels in the eastern city of Halle were at their highest for four centuries.
Officials said the city was in acute danger after floodwaters from the Saale river damaged a section of dykes.
The level of the River Elbe in the historic German city of Dresden, where at least 600 people were evacuated, is not expected to peak until Thursday morning.
Coaches reportedly ferried people out the town of Muhlberg, about 40km (25 miles) northwest of Dresden, as thousands were told to leave on Wednesday afternoon.
Chemical plants next to the swollen rivers have been shut down and their chemicals removed over safety concerns, the Associated Press reports.
Meanwhile, the floods were receding in the south German city of Passau. People could be seen sweeping up muck from their...

Summary:


A former police officer has been suspended after she visited a murder victim's family without informing officers.
The PCC has suspended the former West Midlands Police officer, Yvonne Mosquito, after she visited the family of Kenichi Phillips, 18, who was shot dead in a car in Birmingham, on 17 March

A row between a Police and Crime Commissioner and his deputy, who was found guilty of serious misconduct, has been resolved following a payout.

Article: Some infections are becoming almost impossible to treat, because of the excessive use of antibiotics.
And more than half of those used around the world are used in animals, often to make them grow more quickly.
The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance called for new targets on the amount of antibiotics used.
The great threat of excessive antibiotics use in agriculture was highlighted in China last month.
Scientists warned the world was on the cusp of the "post-antibiotic era" after discovering bacteria resistant to the antibiotic colistin - the medication used when all others have failed.
It appeared to develop in farm animals before also being detected in hospital patients.
In some cases, antibiotics are used in agriculture to treat infections - but most are used prophylactically in healthy animals to prevent infection or, controversially, as a way of boosting weight gain.
Using antibiotics as growth promoters was banned in the EU in 2006.
Such uses are more common in intensive farming conditions.
Based on current rates, the global consumption of antibiotics is expected to increase by 67% by 2030.
In the US alone, every year, 3,400 tonnes of antibiotics are used on patients, while 8,900 tonnes are used on animals.
The economist who led the review, Jim O'Neill, said such figures were simply "staggering" and 10 million people would die each year from drug-resistant infections by 2050.
He said a reasonable target for agricultural antibiotic use would be 50mg for every 1kg of livestock - a level already achieved by one of the world's biggest pork exporters, Denmark.
The UK uses just over 50mg/kg, the US uses nearly 200mg/kg, while Cyprus uses more than 400mg/kg.
Mr O'Neill told the BBC: "I'm sure many farmers will immediately think, 'Well, if we have to do this, that means the price goes up and I'll go out of business'.
"The Danish example shows that, after a very initial transition cost, actually over the long term prices weren't affected and Denmark has continued to maintain its market share."
Antibiotics are...

Summary: Farmers need to dramatically cut the amount of antibiotics used in agriculture, because of the threat to human health, a report says.
###
Article: Yvonne Mosquito, the West Midlands Deputy PCC, was suspended after visiting a murder victim's family without informing officers.
Following a disciplinary in May 2016, Ms Mosquito had an employment tribunal listed to take place in May 2017.
A joint statement said "all outstanding matters" were resolved.
A BBC source said Ms Mosquito had received a payout. The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner said it would not comment on whether money had exchanged hands.
Allegations against Ms Mosquito related to a visit she paid to the family of Kenichi Phillips, 18, who was shot dead in a car in Birmingham, on 17 March 2016.
Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson said her actions "caused ongoing upset and distress" and "damaged the relationship" between the family and police "in the middle of a complex and sensitive murder investigation".
Her supporters insisted she visited as an ordained minister who wanted to offer condolences to relatives.
Her union Unite rejected the allegations, saying it was "deplorable" the hearing went ahead in Ms Mosquito's absence.
She was issued with a final written warning and her contract was never renewed.
The BBC previously reported Ms Mosquito wrote a letter of complaint about the PCC's behaviour towards her, of which the PCC was aware, four weeks before her suspension.
A joint statement issued by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and Ms Mosquito said they were "happy to announce that they have amicably settled all outstanding matters between them".
"Litigation is a stressful business and the parties acknowledge and regret the effects that inevitably follow from that," it added.
The former colleagues thanked each other for their work around issues of equality, the statement added.

Summary:


The US has imposed sanctions on a number of Iranian individuals and entities, including a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, in a move that is seen as a response to Iran's support for the Assad regime in Syria.
The sanctions, which target a number of individuals and entities, are the first to be imposed by the Trump administration

Within days of an Iranian missile test and a subsequent warning from the Trump administration, the US has now followed up by imposing a new round of economic sanctions.

Article: They were investigating how the 4mm-long insect decides when to pounce.
Apparently the flies are not much good at judging the size of a target, so they use a strategy based partly on how fast a potential meal is buzzing past.
That means the researchers could trick the flies into going for targets that were far too big, but further away and faster-moving than expected.
The experiments, published in the journal Brain, Behaviour and Evolution, used a species called Coenosia attenuata, which is so good at killing other airborne critters - including fruit flies - that organic farmers use it as a biological control mechanism.
C. attenuata is an unfussy eating machine, explained Dr Paloma Gonzalez-Bellido - and that was partly why she started to study the little predators.
"It didn't look like they have a template for what they're looking for," she told BBC News.
"They go after things that are very slow, after things that are fast, after things that are white, things that are black..."
But a fly can't just pounce on everything. So what cue is the creature's brain looking for?
Many predators are able to gauge the size of their prey, using information like the comparison between two eyes to judge how far away it is and then calculate its size accordingly, before they decide whether to strike.
This includes dragonflies, which have much bigger eyes and brain than C. attenuata.
Dr Gonzalez-Bellido and her colleagues at the University of Cambridge set out to see whether these diminutive diners could do the same sums.
"We don't really know how well such small animals see; we don't really know what the constraints are on the system," she said.
In video experiments, her team presented the flies with moving beads of different sizes and speeds, as well as real fruit-fly meals. Every pounce was monitored using two cameras, so that the movement could be tracked precisely.
The cameras witnessed some extremely poor decisions, in which the 4mm insects set off after beads 12mm across. And the team saw similar mistakes when they...

Summary: Neuroscientists have recorded the first video footage of a tiny killer fly catching its prey in mid-air.
###
Article: The sanctions focus upon suppliers to Iran's missile programme and groups that help to arm what Washington sees as terror organisations in the region.
It is hard to see what practical impact these sanctions will have, since few of these organisations or individuals probably do business in the United States.
But the sanctions sends a clear warning to Tehran the guard has changed in Washington.
The Obama administration saw its relationship with Iran largely through the prism of the need to negotiate a deal to constrain Tehran's nuclear programme.
Iran's regional activities - support for Hamas and Hezbollah, military support for the Assad regime, backing of the Houthis in Yemen, and its growing influence in Iraq  - were all played down to ensure that the nuclear deal might go ahead.
For the Obama team, restraining Iran's nuclear activities was the overarching goal.
This was seen as an end in itself, one that might stave off military action, but also a step that might, over time, also lead Iran away from its relative economic isolation towards an improved relationship with the West.
Opinion was deeply divided on the nuclear deal.
The US and its major western allies, along with Russia, saw merit in the nuclear agreement that effectively "kicked the can down the road", postponing any confrontation with Tehran over its nuclear programme.
Washington's regional allies though - countries like Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, who have watched Tehran's rise with alarm - were much less impressed.
And many of them may well have been hoping that the Trump team - which includes several vocal opponents of Tehran - might seek to undo the agreement.
Things are a little more complex than that. On a recent trip to Israel's major annual security conference last week, many experts and officials there took the view that a bad deal, if properly implemented, might be better than no deal at all.
What worries Israelis is the fact that Iran is now becoming a major player in the region.
Its support for the Assad regime in Syria...

Summary:


The former England and Newcastle player has been charged with violent conduct and will appear at Newcastle Magistrates' Court on Friday.
The former England and Newcastle player has been charged with violent conduct and will appear at Newcastle Magistrates' Court on Friday.
Summary: The former England and Newcastle player has been charged with violent conduct

Northampton's Kieran Brookes has been banned for two weeks after admitting charging into a ruck without using his arms in Friday's loss to Newcastle.

Article: Liberal Democrat Mick Longhurst, 82, had been due to stand for Mole Valley District Council in Surrey's Holmwoods ward.
Returning officer Yvonne Rees said she was cancelling Thursday's election and will set a new date in due course.
Mr Longhurst, who died on Saturday, had served as a councillor in the ward since 2000.
Voting in the general election will take place as planned.
Ms Rees said: "We will send out poll cards to let people know.
"I am following the protocol set out by law and will announce a new date for the election in the near future."
Other candidates who had also been due to contest the race for two council posts, will not need to be re-nominated.
"There will be an opportunity for other candidates to put their names forward," Ms Rees said.

Summary: A district council election has been cancelled at the last minute after one of the candidates died.
###
Article: The 26-year-old England tight-head prop, who was sent off, pleaded guilty at a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday.
Brookes will miss Saints' Premiership game at Leicester on Saturday and their Champions Cup game with Leinster.
Newcastle lock Calum Green, 26, has also been banned for a week after admitting striking with his arm.
Green, who will miss Falcons' home game with Harlequins on Sunday, struck Brookes with his forearm during the same game and was cited by the citing commissioner after the incident was missed by referee Andrew Jackson.
Brookes was dismissed in the 38th minute of Saints' 22-16 defeat when he charged into the ruck and struck the head of Newcastle hooker Scott Lawson with his shoulder.

Summary:


The Scottish Government has announced a new £1.5m fund to help small businesses in the Borders.
The fund, which is part of the Scottish Government's Small Business, Growth and Investment Programme, will be available to help businesses in the region grow and create jobs.
The fund will be available to help businesses

Iceland's parliament is examining a bill that would require companies to prove they offer equal pay to employees.

Article: Stage three on 8 September will start in Cumbria but finish at Floors Castle in Kelso via Gretna.
The following day the race will resume in Edinburgh before heading south to Northumberland.
Paul Bush of EventScotland said the "stunning scenery" of the area would provide a "perfect stage" for the race.
"The Edinburgh start in particular will be of particular interest to Scottish cycling fans as we see the peloton ride through the capital for the very first time," he said.
"With excitement and passion for cycling at a record high following the hugely successful road race at the Commonwealth Games last year, we look forward to welcoming some of the world's top riders to Scotland once again."
The first stage to come into Scotland starts in Cockermouth but will cross the border at Gretna and head through Dumfries and Galloway before racing through Hawick, Selkirk and Melrose before finishing in Kelso.
The following day it will leave Edinburgh and pass through Musselburgh, East Lothian, Duns and Coldstream before crossing back into England.
"The return of such a prestigious event emphasises our ability to host high-profile events here in the Borders and is further recognition of the fact that the Scottish Borders is Scotland's leading cycling destination," said Stuart Bell of Scottish Borders Council.
Councillor Richard Lewis, Edinburgh's new festivals and events champion, said it was an "exciting event" for the city.
"Elite cyclists from all over the world will descend on the capital and the dramatic backdrop of Edinburgh's winding streets will make for a spectacular sight," he said.
"This is going to be a must-see event for both local people and visitors to the city."
Race director Mick Bennett said: "This year's route gives us the fantastic opportunity to have two days of racing in Scotland and to make first visits to the east of the Scottish Borders and Edinburgh," he said.
"I am sure many cycling fans will be excited, just like we are, at the prospect of seeing the world's top riders on the streets of the...

Summary: The Tour of Britain cycling race will see two separate days of action in Scotland this year through the Borders, East Lothian and Edinburgh.
###
Article: The law, which is set to become a world first, aims to close the wage gap between men and women.
Companies face auditing and possible fines if they do not comply.
Iceland was ranked first in the World Economic Forum's 2015 Global Gender Gap Index, followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden.
However, according to Iceland's statistics for the same year, the unadjusted gender pay gap remained at 17%.
The bill, which was presented on Tuesday, is supported by the centre-right coalition government and the opposition.
Applying to both the public and private sector, it would prohibit any discrimination not just on gender, but also on race, religion, disability, occupational disability, age and sexual orientation grounds.
"The bill entails that companies and institutions of a certain size, 25 or more employees, undertake a certification of their equal-pay programmes," Thorsteinn Viglundsson, the minister of social affairs and equality, told news agency AFP.
The bill will now be subject to a series of debates, and if it passes, it will take effect from January 2018.
In Iceland's parliament, nearly 50% of lawmakers are women, and a voluntary measure for equal pay across the country was introduced in 2012.
However, many still do not think enough is being done.
In October, thousands of women left work early and headed out on to the streets of the capital, Reykjavik, to protest against earning less than men.
It echoed the 1975 Icelandic women's strike, when women did not go to their paid jobs, or do any housework or child-rearing at home for one day.

Summary:


The European Commission has launched an investigation into the alleged abuse of a dominant position by McDonald's.
The European Commission has launched an investigation into the alleged abuse of a dominant position by McDonald's.
The European Commission said it would now study the submission. It has the powers to launch an investigation if it believes the allegations

McDonald's has been accused of abusing its market power by imposing unfair and restrictive contracts on people operating its franchise restaurants in Europe.

Article: Ransomware encrypts data on infected machines and then asks for money before restoring access to information.
The FBI is analysing a strain of ransomware called MSIL/Samas that tries to encrypt data across entire networks rather than single computers.
The plea comes as security firms warn about other novel strains of the fast-growing, data-scrambling cyber-threats.
The FBI sent out the request for help after discovering that the group behind MSIL/Samas had stepped up its efforts to find victims.
In the confidential advisory obtained by Reuters, the FBI said the group used a publicly available security program called Jexboss to scan networks looking for vulnerable versions of the widely used JBoss software.
When a vulnerable system is found, the malware launches an attack that seeks to scramble data on servers. It also finds and deletes the back-up files firms could use to restore data scrambled by ransomware.
Cisco said it had seen a "widespread campaign" using Samas targeting firms involved in healthcare. Early versions of the malware charged a ransom of one bitcoin (£300) for every machine hit but later versions upped this to 1.5 bitcoins.
"It is likely the malware author is trying to see how much people will pay for their files," wrote Cisco security analyst Nick Biasini in an advisory. "They even added an option for bulk decryption of 22 bitcoin (£6,600) to decrypt all infected systems."
The FBI's request for aid comes as security firms warn about recently created ransomware variants that use different methods to lock up systems and force victims to pay.
The Petya malware targets a key Windows system file called the Master Boot Record that helps a PC get started. By overwriting this file, people are prevented from getting at any data on their PC unless they pay up.
Trend Micro said it had seen Petya distributed in email messages crafted to look like they are from someone looking for work. The CV attached to the message is a booby-trapped program that launches Petya, said Trend security engineer Jasen...

Summary: The FBI is seeking help from US firms as it investigates a nasty strain of ransomware, Reuters reports.
###
Article: A formal complaint has been made to the European Commission by a group of Italian consumers' organisations.
They accuse McDonald's of forcing franchisees to pay excessive rents and high fees.
McDonald's said it shared risks and rewards with its licencees.
In a statement, McDonald's said: "We are proud of our franchisees and are committed to working closely together so that they have the support they need to operate their restaurants and their businesses.
"This approach, with the principle of sharing risk and reward, has been successful for many years and has helped create the best business opportunities for our franchisees and the best overall experience for our customers."
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and European unions, including the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union in the UK, are supporting the formal antitrust complaint.
"McDonald's abuse of its dominant market position hurts everyone: franchisees, consumers, and workers. We strongly urge the European Commission to investigate the charges and to use all of its powers to hold McDonald's accountable," said SEIU organising director, Scott Courtney.
The European Commission said it would now study the submission. It has the powers to launch an investigation if it believes the allegations are founded.
The consumer organisations claim franchisees are prevented from switching to competitors because McDonald's makes them sign longer-than-average contracts.
They also said licensees lease premises from the company at above market rates.
It is claimed this leads to poorer consumer choice and higher prices in franchise stores as opposed to those owned directly by the company.
Franchisees own and operate 73% of McDonald's restaurants in Europe.
McDonald's received $9.27bn (Â£6.40bn) in revenues from its franchised restaurants worldwide in 2014.

Summary:


A man has been charged with the murder of a 20-year-old woman in Northampton.
Edward Tenniswood, 51, of Stanley Road, Northampton, is charged with murder and has appeared at Northampton Crown Court via video link from Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes.
The body of India Chipch

An investigation into the disappearance of a woman who was allegedly murdered is to be probed by the police watchdog.

Article: The money will be used to fund school construction and substance abuse programmes.
Coloradans have voted on spending marijuana taxes before, but an excess of tax revenue made by the industry made another vote necessary.
Marijuana was legalised in Colorado in 2012. The state collected $73.5m (Â£47.7m) between January and July 2015.
The bill "Proposal BB" determined how to spend $66m of the taxes collected.
Voters approved spending $40m on construction of new schools and $12m on drug prevention and addiction programs. A further $14m will be for discretionary spending by lawmakers.
If voters had rejected the bill, the excess money would have been returned to taxpayers though a tax credit. Marijuana growers would also have received tax rebates.
In two previous bills, voters have also chosen to spend marijuana taxes on school developments.

Summary: Colorado has voted overwhelmingly in favour of spending taxes raised from the sale of marijuana.
###
Article: The body of India Chipchase, 20, a bar worker, was found in Northampton on Sunday.
Book-keeper Edward Tenniswood, 51, from Stanley Road, faces a charge of murder and has appeared at crown court.
Northamptonshire Police referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission over its "responses before and during" the search.
Read this and other stories from Northamptonshire
A statement issued by the force said: "Northamptonshire Police has made a referral to the Independent Police Complaints Commission to ensure transparency in examining police action and responses before and during the search for India Chipchase.
"We await the decision of the IPCC and will not be commenting further as the criminal investigation is now in the court process."
On Thursday Mr Tenniswood appeared at Northampton Crown Court via video link from Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes.
When asked if he could hear, Mr Tenniswood told the clerk of the court: "I can hear you, definitely."
After that he spoke only to confirm he could see the Judge Rupert Mayo, prosecutor Mary Loram and his lawyer Derek Johashen.
There was no application for bail and he was remanded in custody.
Ms Chipchase was last seen by friends on Bridge Street at about 01:15 GMT on Saturday.
Her disappearance was reported later that day after she failed to turn up to work at The Collingtree pub and restaurant.
Her body was found at the defendant's terraced house in Stanley Road. A post-mortem examination concluded she died as a result of pressure to the neck.
There will be a plea hearing on the 25 May, and a trial date was set for 18 July, to last for 10 days.

Summary:


The Welsh Government has announced that it will be launching a consultation on the future of the Welsh language.
The consultation will be launched on Monday, November 12.
The Welsh Government said the consultation would be a "key part" of its plans to ensure that the Welsh language is "a living and vibrant part of Welsh

Find out more about what the London mayoral candidates are promising in May's election.

Article: The notices have been given to residents for issues including overloading refuse bins, since waste collection changes started last July.
They included the roll-out of garden waste bins and smaller black refuse bins to boost recycling rates.
Cardiff council said residents had generally embraced the changes.
A total of 4,058 notices have been issued to households in the past six months warning residents about issues such as putting out the wrong type of bags or placing non-recyclable materials in a green waste bin.
Those who persisted to put out the wrong waste were given Â£100 fines, which could generate up to Â£10,900 for the council.
Most fines - 35 - have been handed out in the Adamsdown area of the city, followed by neighbouring Splott, where 28 fines were issued.
A Cardiff council spokesman said: "This city-wide process was always going to take time to implement due to the sheer scale of the operation. But it is essential that the council meets our statutory recycling target of 58% from all waste collected for this current financial year.
"Last October we announced that the "Stay out of the blackâ€¦ move into the green" campaign was working as tonnage of recycling material collected was up by 11% on the same time last year.
"Food waste had also increased by 15%. We'd like to thank residents for embracing the campaign and the need to increase city-wide recycling levels."
All councils in Wales must recycle 58% of their waste by March this year or face hefty fines.

Summary: More than 4,000 warnings and 109 fines have been issued to Cardiff residents who put the wrong waste out for collection since new rules came in.
###
Article: All five of these candidates are opposed to a third runway at Heathrow.
Find out more about all the candidates in the London elections.

Summary:


The X Factor's Simon Cowell has been named the most powerful man in the UK.
He is the most powerful man in the UK.
He is the most powerful man in the world.
He is the most powerful man in the UK.
He is the most powerful man in the UK.
He

The X Factor is to stay on ITV for at least the next three years, despite declining viewing figures and the arrival of The Voice to the channel.

Article: This is how many Ukrainians start and finish their summer holiday in Russian-annexed Crimea.
Queues of cars snake for several hours as people wait to visit relatives or get to the peninsula for a beach break.
Lorry-loads of watermelons are sold by the side of the road while people wait to be checked or waved through, in the southern region of Kherson, next to Crimea, where Kiev's vast Dnipro river enters the Black Sea.
Aside from the odd soldier dug in by the side of the road and the vigilance of Ukraine's border guards, there is little to suggest that the country is preparing for Russian military action from the south.
Most analysts think any such action would be highly unlikely.
But after Russia seized Crimea in March 2014 without firing a shot, Ukraine has learnt to expect the unexpected from its powerful neighbour.
Vigilance is the watchword of Ukraine's National Border Guard.
Spokesman Ivan Shevcov said his colleagues were "prepared for any type of action from the Russian side".
The war of words between Russia and Ukraine has intensified following Moscow's accusation that Kiev plotted a sabotage attack in Crimea.
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised a response.
Russia has moved more military hardware on to the peninsula. And pictures of the Russian navy carrying out military drills in Crimea to counter the threat of saboteurs were quickly beamed around the world.
This week Russia is carrying out more exercises in Crimea to counter the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has put his military on high alert. He insists the Russian claim of a sabotage attack by Ukrainian special forces was cooked up by the Kremlin to justify future attacks.
However little, if anything, has changed at the checkpoints in and out of Crimea.
One man from the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa said he went there only to visit his elderly mother who lived there and wouldn't leave.
When she dies, he will not travel there any more.
For Igor, travelling to Crimea to visit relatives, the...

Summary: Barbed wire, armed soldiers and several hefty concrete checkpoints.
###
Article: The X Factor's 13th series began in August with 8.5 million viewers - four million fewer than 2010's launch show.
The Voice will move from the BBC to ITV next year, also on a three-year deal.
But the broadcaster has agreed a deal with Simon Cowell for both The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent to continue on ITV until at least 2019.
Cowell said: "I want to thank ITV for continuing to be fantastic partners. I'm delighted for the shows and, in particular, for all the talented people who work on them with us."
Cowell may not appear as a judge on both programmes, though - under the new deal he is only committed to judging one of the two series per year.
ITV is currently negotiating with Ant and Dec to remain as hosts of Britain's Got Talent for the next three years. Dermot O'Leary's current contract means he will keep presenting The X Factor until at least 2019.
ITV's director of television Kevin Lygo said Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor were both "big, brilliant, wonderful shows" that would form "an important part of our schedule" for the next three years.
"They are defining shows for us, ones that we are very proud to have as part of our entertainment slate, and they continue year after year, for months at a time, to be amongst the most popular and hugely entertaining formats on television," he said.

Summary:


A new poll has found that most young people in Britain think that morality means looking after your family or putting others first.
The poll, commissioned by the BBC, found that almost half of young people in Britain think that morality means looking after your family or putting others first.
The poll, which was carried out by

A Labour councillor has been suspended from the party over anti-Semitic comments on her Twitter account.

Article: Almost 600 16 to 24-year-olds were asked to choose the most important moral issue from eight options, with 59% opting for caring for family.
Some 4% said having religious faith or beliefs was the most important.
The poll also suggests 51% of young people believe they are less concerned with morals than their parents.
The poll, commissioned by BBC Religion and Ethics, asked young people to choose their top moral issue, with options including buying ethical products, being faithful to a partner and caring for the environment.
Looking after family was the top choice, with "putting others first" coming some way behind in second.
Four per cent listed practising a religion as the most important moral issue, the same percentage as said paying taxes.
When asked for the least important issue, religion came out on top with a third of respondents citing it.
New figures from the British Social Attitudes survey - published alongside the poll - suggest that about half of Britons as a whole have a religious affiliation, sharply down from 20 years ago when it was two-thirds.
Barely a quarter of young people now identify themselves as religious.
Of the eight moral issues, the poll found:
The poll was carried out by TNS BMRB to coincide with the opening of the BBC's Re:Think Festival.
The festival takes place in Salford, Greater Manchester, on Wednesday and Thursday and will include a debate on the relationship between science and religion between Professor Richard Dawkins and the country's Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks.

Summary: Most young people in Britain think that morality means looking after your family or putting others first, a BBC poll suggests.
###
Article: A message on Luton councillor Aysegul Gurbuz's Twitter feed claimed Hitler was the "greatest man in history".
Another tweet on Ms Gurbaz's account suggested Iran could develop a nuclear weapon to "wipe Israel off the map".
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said anyone who makes anti-Semitic remarks is "auto-excluded from the party" pending an inquiry.
The BBC has contacted the councillor for comment.
The Labour Party has confirmed she has been suspended pending an investigation.
Speaking to the Andrew Marr Show, Mr Corbyn said: "Anti-Semitism is absolutely abhorrent and wrong.
"We have suspended, we will suspend, any member that behaves in that way."
The tweets in question were made before Ms Gurbuz was elected to Luton Borough Council in May 2015.
A spokesman for the council said: "While these comments appear to pre-date her time as a councillor, the council is shocked by these comments.
"This matter will be referred as a matter of urgency to the council's independent standards committee to allow a full investigation to take place."
On Thursday, Mr Corbyn was criticised by a Jewish leader for not taking anti-Semitism seriously enough.

Summary:


A new study has found that the first humans to reach the Americas were not the first to reach the New World.
The study, published in the journal Nature, suggests that the first people to reach the Americas were not the first to reach the New World.
The researchers say that the first people to reach the Americas

Scientists say they can now describe in detail how the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs produced its huge crater.

Article: The fund, which pays for drugs not routinely available on the NHS, has cut the number of treatments offered in order to balance the books.
Four appeals were subsequently rejected, but Regorafenib will now continue to be offered on the scheme.
Charities had criticised the decision to remove the other drugs.
All the drugs on the Cancer Drugs Fund have been rejected by the NHS as a whole for not being cost-effective.
Meanwhile NHS England announced that this fund was due to go Â£100m over budget in 2014-15.
In a large review of how the fund operated, NHS England decided to continue paying for only 59 of the 84 treatments it had previously offered as recently as January.
At the same time, three new drugs were added to the scheme.
Many of the companies who had drugs removed from the list appealed against the decisions, and five drugs were reappraised.
As a result just one, Regorafenib which is developed by Bayer, will now continue to be offered.
Prof Peter Clark, the chairman of the fund, said: "We have been through a robust, evidence-based process to ensure the drugs available through the Cancer Drugs Fund continue to offer the best clinical benefit, getting the most for patients from every pound that we have.
"These are difficult decisions, but if we don't continue to prioritise the drugs that offer the best value, many people could miss out on promising, more effective treatments that are in the pipeline."
Olaparib, an ovarian cancer therapy, will not be funded on the scheme.
Katherine Taylor, from Ovarian Cancer Action, said: "Women living with ovarian cancer deserve the right to have access to effective, proven treatments.
"We strongly urge NHS England to make this ground-breaking treatment available to the patients who so desperately need it."
Paul Catchpole, from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said: "The ABPI believes that the CDF re-evaluation process is fundamentally flawed and the CDF remains a sticking plaster covering a seeping wound.
"A sustainable solution is urgently required."

Summary: The Cancer Drugs Fund in England will continue to pay for a stomach cancer drug after an appeal by the manufacturer.
###
Article: The reconstruction of the event 66 million years ago was made possible by drilling into the remnant bowl and analysing its rocks.
These show how the space impactor made the hard surface of the planet slosh back and forth like a fluid.
At one stage, a mountain higher than Everest was thrown up before collapsing back into a smaller range of peaks.
"And this all happens on the scale of minutes, which is quite amazing," Prof Joanna Morgan from Imperial College London, UK, told BBC News.
The researchers report their account in this week's edition of Science Magazine.
Their study confirms a very dynamic, very energetic model for crater formation, and will go a long way to explaining the resulting cataclysmic environmental changes.
The debris thrown into the atmosphere likely saw the skies darken and the global climate cool for months, perhaps even years, driving many creatures into extinction, not just the dinosaurs.
The team spent April to May this year drilling a core through the so-called Chicxulub Crater, now buried under ocean sediments off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
Chicxulub Crater - The impact that changed life on Earth
The researchers targeted a particular zone in the 200km-wide bowl known as the "peak ring", which - if earlier ideas were correct - should have contained the rocks that moved the greatest distance in the impact. These would have been dense granites lifted from almost 10km down.
And that is precisely what the team found.
"Once we got through the impact melt on top, we recovered pink granite. It was so obvious to the eye - like what you would expect to see in a kitchen countertop," recalled Prof Sean Gulick from the University of Texas at Austin, US.
But these were not normal granites, of course. They were deformed and fractured at every scale - visibly in the hand and even down at the level of the rock's individual mineral crystals. Evidence of enormous stress, of having experienced colossal pressures.
The analysis of the core materials now fits an astonishing narrative.
This describes the...

Summary:


A court martial has found that a soldier who was dismissed from the Army for disobeying a lawful order was not guilty of disobeying a lawful order.
The court martial, which was held in the High Court in London, found that the soldier, who was not named, had been dismissed for "gross misconduct

Fifteen soldiers have been jailed after a court martial for staging a "sit-in" in protest at being "led by muppets".

Article: They analysed the light from 200,000 galaxies in 21 wavelengths and found that the energy output of the Universe has nearly halved in two billion years.
This agrees with previous calculations, confirming that the lights are slowly going out right across this spectrum.
The drop is largely due to the falling rate at which new stars are formed.
The results, which come from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, were unveiled at the general assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Honolulu, Hawaii.
"We used as many space and ground-based telescopes as we could get our hands on to measure the energy output of over 200,000 galaxies across as broad a wavelength range as possible," said GAMA's principal investigator Prof Simon Driver, from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Western Australia.
He and his team are now opening up this huge collection of data for other astronomers to work on.
"The data release means that a whole lot more people outside the team are going to be able to jump on the data and do science with it, which is incredibly important," said Dr Stephen Wilkins of the University of Sussex, another GAMA team member.
He told BBC News that the strength of GAMA is that it combines so many wavelengths, where previous surveys have concentrated on a few.
Because the team used a variety of the world's most powerful telescopes - both earthbound and in orbit - their analysis spans wavelengths from UV light to infrared, including the small strip of visible wavelengths in the middle.
That means they can look at light from stars that are both young and old, as well as light that has been absorbed and then re-emitted by dust. So the new assessment of the Universe's decline includes information from a huge variety of galaxies, including those hidden behind dust.
"We know that star formation peaked a few billion years ago and has been declining since. This is just a new way of measuring that decline," Dr Wilkins said.
"It's a new spin, and it completely agrees with the previous...

Summary: A team of astronomers has published a multi-coloured survey of five chunks of space - and offered the best estimate yet of how fast the Universe is fading.
###
Article: The men from the 1st Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment sat on the floor when ordered to stand to attention.
The protest by 16 soldiers was sparked by grievances with their captain and colour sergeant.  It took place in February while on exercise in Kenya.
Fifteen were sentenced to detention, one of whom was dismissed from the Army. A 16th was also dismissed.
All the soldiers pleaded guilty to disobeying a lawful command - an offence that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment.
The soldiers complained of being "led by muppets", the court martial heard.
The prosecutor at the court martial said members of the platoon had been seething at the way they were being managed, and felt that they were "not appreciated".
The court heard a captain and sergeant apparently got drunk before a lengthy training march in the Brecon Beacons last winter.
The troops were said to have been furious at finding their two commanders asleep, rather than greeting the soldiers as they crossed the finish line.
Tensions came to a head at the end of a training exercise in Kenya in February, when 16 soldiers decided to protest.
Ahead of a parade, a ringleader shouted "sit down" and members of the platoon did so. The commanders ordered each man in turn to stand up, but were ignored.
Corporal Anthony Brown, said to be the ringleader, was stripped of his rank, dismissed from the Army and sentenced to 60 days' detention.
Two lance corporals were reduced to privates and sentenced to 60 days' detention, while a third was reduced to private and dismissed without detention.
Twelve privates were sentenced to 40 days' detention.
The soldiers were in the 1st Battalion at the time of the protest. However, the 1st has now become the 2nd, following Army restructuring.
John Wilson, a retired colonel and former editor of the British Army Review who lectures in military history, described the nature of the soldiers' protest as "unprecedented".
The sentences given to the troops at the court martial were "strong enough to make the point", added Col...

Summary:


A new report has found that the number of people in the UK who are obese has risen by more than a third in the last 20 years.
The report, published by the British Heart Foundation, found that the number of adults in the UK who are obese has risen by more than a third in the last 20 years

Extremism is contributing to and exploiting mass migration, the home secretary has warned.

Article: And that is why two Essex women have launched a campaign to remove the 'rude and stereotypical' term "Essex girl" from the Oxford English Dictionary.
Juliet Thomas and Natasha Sawkins want their proud peers to post their success under #IAmAnEssexGirl and sign their petition to have the term scrubbed.
But, a dictionary spokeswoman said, "nothing is ever taken out of the OED".
"It's a historical dictionary," she told the BBC. "Definitions can change, but an entry will never come out."
The dictionary defines Essex girl as: "Essex girl  n.  [after Essex man n.] Brit. derogatory a contemptuous term applied (usu. joc.) to a type of young woman, supposedly to be found in and around Essex, and variously characterized as unintelligent, promiscuous, and materialistic."
The campaigners were further peeved by a Collins definition that added: "devoid of taste".
Juliet Thomas told the BBC: "It's so rude and it doesn't define anyone I know in or from Essex. It describes a very dated stereotype."
The alternative meaning of just a girl in or from Essex was absent, she said. And it was "incredibly offensive" to see it in the dictionary with no reference to caricature.
She wants women to sign the petition with the aim of having the entry removed and to post their successes and support on social media to "redefine" what it means to be an Essex girl.
Among those who have backed the campaign, novelist Amanda Prowse tweeted her support and theatre technician Emily Holden tweeted: "I have a BA (hons) degree... I help put on awesome work. "
Ms Thomas said women, particularly young women, were still having to fight the Essex girl stereotype years after the term was coined.
"Girls feel they still have to listen to the same tired old jokes, feel like they have to fight twice as hard to be taken seriously at university," she said.
"It's tricky and disappointing to see it in writing in an official way. It reinforces it."
Ms Thomas said programmes such as scripted-reality soap opera The Only Way is Essex existed for other parts of the UK...

Summary: It is a phrase synonymous with 1990s ladette culture, used to define brash party girls in one part of England.
###
Article: Theresa May used a speech in Washington to urge the UK's partners in the Five Eyes security alliance - the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - to work together against terrorism.
Mrs May called for better information-sharing and more thorough exchange of terrorist finance details.
She said tackling terrorism was the "challenge of our generation".
Mrs May called on the UK's partners in the Five Eyes alliance to extend "the successful co-operation between our countries on issues of national security which we have built over past decades".
"I am clear that defeating terrorism requires a global response, and that we will not succeed by acting in isolation," Mrs May said.
She challenged the alliance to:
"Extremism is spreading, threatening and taking lives, not just in our countries but in other lands. It thrives in the disorder created by fragile and failing states.
"It is contributing to, and in some cases exploiting, mass migration. It is turning the benefits of modern technology to its twisted ends," she added.
Fears have previously been raised that militants from the so-called Islamic State group may be attempting to get into Europe posing as refugees.
Last month a report by EU's police agency Europol said there was no "concrete evidence" that militants were using the flow of refugees to enter unnoticed but it said there were reports that refugee centres were being "specifically targeted" by Islamic extremist recruiters.

Summary:


The Reading Agency has published a report that says reading for pleasure can help people to enjoy social occasions more.
The report, which is based on a survey of 4,000 adults, says reading for pleasure can help people to enjoy social occasions more.
It cites research carried out in Germany, with children aged seven to

Getting stuck into a good book can boost people's ability to relate to each other and increase their empathy, a report suggests.

Article: The remaining Ferrari shares would be distributed among FCA shareholders.
The carmaker wants to complete the spin-off next year, with Ferrari shares listed in the US and possibly having a European listing too.
The sale is part of a bigger plan by FCA to raise €48bn ($61bn; £38bn) to fund an investment plan.
Fiat Chrysler chief executive Sergio Marchionne said it was "proper that we pursue separate paths for FCA and Ferrari" following the completion of the merger of Chrysler and Fiat.
The combined firm listed on the New York Stock Exchange on 12 October.
Since then there has been management upheaval at Ferrari.
President Luca di Montezemolo left the company after a public spat over strategy with Mr Marchionne.
Mr Marchionne had been a vocal critic of the on-track performance of Ferrari's Formula One team, particularly its lack of world titles since 2007. He has pledged to get the team back to winning ways.
Earlier this month, he described the merger between Fiat and Chrysler as "the end of a long historical cycle".
That merger began when Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April 2009.
Chrysler had agreed a deal with its creditors including JP Morgan, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, brokered by the US Treasury and Obama administration, to write off two-thirds of the car manufacturer's debt.
But a group of hedge and investment funds refused to accept the last-minute debt-for-equity package, which would have seen Chrysler's $6.9bn (£4.6bn) debt cancelled in return for a cash payment of $2bn.
When it emerged from bankruptcy later that year, Fiat owned 35% of the company, alongside the United Auto Workers pension fund on 41.5% and the US and Canadian governments owning the remainder.
Over the last five years, Fiat has bought out Chrysler's other owners, buying the final tranche of the car manufacturer from the United Auto Workers pension fund in January.
A Ferrari spin-off had long been anticipated by industry experts as Mr Marchionne seeks to maximise values from the group's various brands.
There...

Summary: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) plans to spin off Ferrari and sell a 10% stake in the luxury carmaker on the stock market.
###
Article: A review of research for the Reading Agency says reading for pleasure does much more than boost educational outcomes among adults and children.
One recent study quoted - of 4,000 UK adults - says reading for pleasure can help them enjoy social occasions more.
It can also boost children's emotional understanding, the research adds.
In general, the study found reading was associated with enjoyment, relaxation and escapism.
The research involving a poll of 4,000 people that is cited by the report looked at how mental and physical health can be boosted by the enjoyment of reading.
It said those who read regularly for pleasure:
It also cited research carried out in Germany, with children aged seven to nine, that looked at possible links between literacy and emotional understanding.
The report focused on the impact of after-school literacy sessions in which children's books with emotional content were read and discussed by the group.
It found the scheme enhanced the children's emotional vocabulary, knowledge and understanding of emotions.
It also found boys were more "positively influenced in their capability to recognise masked feelings than girls".
The report concluded that: "Reading is closely linked to increasing understanding of our own identities and can also play a large part in relating to others, understanding their world views and so forth."
Sue Wilkinson, chief executive of The Reading Agency, said the findings of the report showed that "everything changes when we read".

Summary:


The Ukrainian Cyber Troops are a group of hackers who have been active in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
They are a group of hackers who have been active in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
They are a group of hackers who have been active in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
They are a group of hackers

Throughout the bitter violence of the Ukrainian conflict, another hidden war has been waged, involving several groups of computer hackers.

Article: The giant, flightless beasts that roamed South America for more than 50 million years following the demise of the dinosaurs were fearsome predators.
New research shows the birds' huge beaks could deliver swift and powerful pecks, very probably killing their victims in one blow before ripping the flesh from their bodies.
"They had the full kit," said palaeoscientist Steve Wroe.
"These birds had enormous beaks with big hooks on the end. But we've shown they had to use those beaks with some precision and caution," Dr Wroe, a researcher from the University of New South Wales, Australia, told BBC News.
Dr Wroe was part of an international team that has been investigating the predatory behaviour of these extraordinary creatures.
Referred to by scientists as phorusrhacids, the birds flourished when South America was an island continent. Ranging in height from under a metre up to three metres (3ft to 10ft), at least 18 species are known to have evolved before the animals became extinct just a few million years ago.
But because nothing on Earth today resembles the terror birds, it has been difficult to say much about their life habits.
To try to get on top of the issue, the team examined the skeleton of one particular creature called Andalgalornis.
This animal lived in northwestern Argentina about six million years ago. It was mid-sized, standing about 1.4m high (4ft 6in) and weighing about 40kg (88lb).
Like all the terror birds, its skull was big (37cm; 15in) with a deep narrow bill armed with a hawk-like hook.
The team scanned the skull to picture its internal architecture and then applied an engineering technique known as finite element analysis (FEA) to assess its capabilities.
FEA is a common approach in advanced design and manufacturing that allows engineers to test the performance of load-bearing materials.
It involves creating a computer model of the skull which can then be subjected to the sorts of forces a real skeleton would experience in different types of attack behaviour.
The results demonstrated that...

Summary: They are popularly called "terror birds", and with good reason.
###
Article: Little is beyond their reach. Official documents and private communications are made public, and websites blocked. They hijack CCTV cameras, electronic billboards and network printers.
The best known of the virtual warriors are the Ukrainian Cyber Troops, the Cyber Berkut and Anonymous International.
All three present themselves as independent activists, separate from other, government-sponsored groups.
The most prominent pro-Ukrainians hackers are the Ukrainian Cyber Troops, led by Kiev-based programmer Yevhen Dokukin.
Most recently, he claimed to have hacked into two Russian interior ministry servers and an email account used by police in Russia's Rostov region - bordering Ukraine's eastern separatist regions.
"I gave all this data to Ukraine's security service, but they still can't get round to analysing it, so do it yourselves," he urged readers on Facebook.
Volunteer activist group Inform Napalm sifted through more than 35 gigabytes of the data and found what looked like official reports confirming that Russian military servicemen were among the hundreds of people evacuated to Russia after being wounded in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Cyber Troops make extensive use of one of the most tried and tested tools in cyber warfare, the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.
"DDoS attacks are the Ukrainian Cyber Troops' artillery," Mr Dokukin likes saying. Scores of rebel websites were made inaccessible when the Ukrainian Cyber Troops relentlessly bombarded them with fake service requests.
To disrupt separatist funding, they target accounts held by rebels in electronic payment systems such as PayPal and WebMoney.
The Cyber Troops have also hacked into public CCTV systems in rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine and monitor them for the movement of troops and military hardware.
On 8 December, Yevhen Dokukin claimed to have hijacked network printers in eastern Ukraine and Crimea to print pro-Ukrainian messages and insults against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Some media reports suggest that Ukraine's security...

Summary:


A new study has found that a common type of cancer drug can help to prevent the spread of cancer cells to the brain.
The drug, called bortezomib, is used to treat a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma.
The study, published in the journal Cancer Cell, found that

A new test that could hold the key to predicting blood cancer patients' survival has been developed by Cardiff University.

Article: The RMT and the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) unions met Tube bosses at conciliation service Acas earlier.
But the talks were adjourned "without any significant moves towards a resolution", according to the RMT.
The dispute centres around ticket office closures.
Transport for London (TfL) warned that the majority of central London Tube stations could be closed if the planned 24-hour strike goes ahead on Sunday.
It said there would be a severely reduced service across the network from 18:00 GMT if the walkout goes ahead.
The parties are due to meet again on Friday for further discussions, but both unions said plans for industrial action remained in place.
RMT leader Mick Cash said he expected London Underground to "come back with a radically improved package that fully covers the issues of jobs and safety at the heart of this dispute."
Manuel Cortes, TSSA general secretary, said: "Our negotiating team remains available for further talks throughout the weekend should they become necessary".
TfL said it was committed to addressing recommendations in a recent report by London Travelwatch into the closure of ticket offices and has started working with the unions to review staffing and restore station roles where needed.
Steve Griffiths, London Underground's Chief Operating Officer, said: "It is clear that some more staff for stations are needed. We have started to recruit them and will continue to work with the unions to implement the recommendations made in the review."
TfL said it expected services to be severely reduced on Monday and that there would be no Underground services from stations such as Victoria, King's Cross, Waterloo, Paddington, Euston, Bank and London Bridge.
Piccadilly line services are expected to still run between Hammersmith and Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 and 3, but not to Terminals 4 or 5.
There would be no service at all on the Victoria or Waterloo & City lines, and all other lines were expected to be severely affected with limited services in outer London.
Buses, roads and...

Summary: Commuters have been warned to expect mass station closures on the London Underground after talks to avert an impending strike stalled.
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Article: Researchers said measuring DNA sections in cancer cells gave an "accurate indicator" of disease progression.
Shorter DNA structures can leave chromosome ends exposed, accelerating cancer progression and drug resistance.
The team believe the study could help doctors in choosing the most effective treatment for individual patients.
Researchers from the university's School of Medicine said the tests can be used to predict the outcomes of patients with two different types of blood cancer - the bone marrow cancer myeloma and pre-leukaemia myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).
The latter is a bone marrow disorder often leading to life-threatening bone marrow failure and even acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
Results from two studies, which were funded by the charities Bloodwise and Cancer Research UK, have been published in the British Journal of Haematology.
The researchers analysed samples from 134 myeloma patients, 80 MDS patients and 95 AML patients as part of the study.
Prof Duncan Baird, who led the research, said: "Our research provides strong evidence that shortening of telomeres [the DNA sections] plays a vital role in the progression of these blood cancers and that a significant number of patients should be receiving different levels of treatment.
"The next step is to assess telomere length in larger studies to establish how it can be integrated into existing assessments that predict patient outcome."

Summary:


A man has been charged with the murder of a man who was found dead in a flat in the early hours of this morning.
The body of a man was found in a flat in the early hours of this morning.
The body of a man was found in a flat in the early hours of this morning.

A couple accused of carrying out a sex act at a BBC Radio 2 concert in Hyde Park must wait to hear if they face a retrial after the jury was discharged.

Article: Statistics for the second quarter of this year, April to June, show the proportion of 16- to 18-year-olds who were Neet was 9.1% - 168,000 in total.
This is a drop of 1.4 percentage points - 28,000 - on the same period in 2012.
The government hailed the rate for the second quarter of the year as the lowest for more than 10 years.
The Department for Education stressed there had been five consecutive quarters where the 16-24 age group rate was lower than it had been the year before.
Skills Minister Matthew Hancock said: "With GCSE results out today, I am heartened to see the fall in the number of young people not in work, training or education.
"We are heading in the right direction, but one young person out of work, education or training, is one too many.
"That is why we are continuing to work hard to give young people the skills, confidence and experience demanded by employers and universities.
"Only then can we say we have done everything we can to ensure young people reach their potential and help us compete in the global race."
Analysis of the figures suggested the decrease was driven by two factors:
The figures come out as 16-year-olds are receiving their GCSE results. This group of teenagers will be the first to have to stay on in education or training after their 16th birthday.
Under the new rules, young people will be required to continue their education to the end of the academic year in which they turn 17. From summer 2015, this will rise to staying in education until their 18th birthday.

Summary: There has been a slight dip in the proportion of teenagers not in education, employment or training (Neet) in England.
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Article: Lisanne Beck, 47, allegedly performed a sex act on Simon Murphy, 48, during a Paloma Faith set in September.
The Old Bailey heard the couple were filmed conducting the alleged behaviour, but the jury failed to reach a verdict and were discharged.
The pair, from Swansea, denied outraging public decency.
Judge Peter Rook QC has given the prosecution until Thursday to decide whether to pursue a retrial.
He said: "Whatever the Crown says, it will have been a chastening experience over the last few days, I'm sure everyone will agree with that."
During the hearing prosecutor Tom Cleeve told jurors while "there are some amusing aspects to it... it was not funny at the time" and a 16-year-old girl had to be shielded from what was going on.
He said the two defendants were of "previously good character, but in that afternoon I'm afraid they blotted their copybook".
During the hearing Ms Beck said the film showed she was trying to wake her boyfriend up, while Mr Murphy's legal team said he was completely unaware of what his girlfriend was doing.

Summary:


The Scottish Government has announced a new £2.2m project to improve the safety of the city's roads.
The 20mph speed limit will be introduced in the city centre in stages over the next six years.
The 20mph limit will be introduced in the city centre in stages over the next six years.

Edinburgh is closer to becoming the country's first 20mph city after councillors approved plans to begin rolling out the speed limit.

Article: Recorded during the 28-year-old's stag party, he and his friends sing 70s disco hit "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie".
Former team-mate Jamie Langfield said: "It was meant for his wedding only for the people who went there.
"And it has come out and he'll be a bit sheepish about it. But he's the type who'll just take it on the chin."
Langfield admits he was shocked when he first viewed Considine in drag for the rendition of the Baccara song.
"Andrew's a very quiet lad in the changing-room," the goalkeeper who moved from the Dons to St Mirren this summer told BBC Scotland.
"He's very reserved and, when I first seen it, I thought 'that's a bit naughty, a bit risque' and a lot of people have said that as well.
"Probably manager Derek McInnes might have had a wee word with him today, but he will need to take it on the chin and will need to take the banter from the boys as well."
Langfield was famously transfer-listed by Aberdeen in 2007 after his own stag party took place while then manager Jimmy Calderwood was also in Majorca.
"Let's just say I'm not one who is going to complain about people doing stupid things on their stag do," said the 35-year-old.
"I went away with some friends and obviously the one person you don't want to bump into three days into a three-day bender is your manager.
"I didn't realise what had happened and I got back home and I was sitting in the house and I got a phone call from him."
Langfield, who stressed that there had been "no fighting" between himself and the manager, had been entering the final year of his contract.
"I was offered a new deal and I was going to sign it as soon as I came home from Magaluf," he recalled.
"And he just said to me that my behaviour wasn't becoming of an Aberdeen player and that the contract had been withdrawn and I was put on the transfer list.
"Me and Jimmy still get on really well. I accepted what he said to me. I have apologised for it profusely, but he said to me the only thing I could do is work hard and that's what I did.
"It was one of those stupid moments....

Summary: Aberdeen defender Andrew Considine has been backed to shrug off the publicity over a cross-dressing music video that has made the Scot an internet hit.
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Article: Members of the city council's transport and environment committee agreed on Tuesday a traffic regulation order enabling the charges.
It is now planned to introduce the 20mph network over six phases.
Phase one of the Â£2.2m project covers much of the city centre, from Queen Street to the Meadows.
Lesley Hinds, Edinburgh city council's transport convener, said: "The aim was to create safer, more attractive streets for all road users."
The limit, which will eventually cover 80% of the capital's roads. The roll out will be complete by 2018.
The scheme is designed to improve safety and encourage more people to walk or cycle.
Despite the change, speed limits on key arterial routes into the city will remain at 30 or 40mph.
About 50% of the city's roads are already 20mph.
Phase two of the project, in the north of the city, is due to begin in October.
Phase three is to start in February 2017, then phase four in June 2017, phase five in October 2017 and phase six in February 2018.

Summary:


BMW is set to buy Here, a company that makes technology that feeds mapping information to autonomous and semi-autonomous cars.
The German car giant reported pre-tax profits of 3bn euros (Â£2.5bn), a 27% jump from the same period in 2016.
BMW said the value

BMW's first quarter profits rose more than expected after the value of its stake in the mapping service Here was boosted by an investment by Intel.

Article: The National Trust wants to introduce charges at Pont ar Daf car park near Storey Arms on the main A470.
The trust owns and manages the central Beacons, and says it wants to build a visitor centre and improve the car park's safety and security.
Ramblers Cymru criticised the move, saying walking should be free and accessible for everyone.
The trust, which spends more than Â£100,000 a year on the upkeep of Pen y Fan and other parts of the Brecon Beacons, is to submit a planning application later this year.
Pont ar Daf car park was created in the 1960s after road improvements left a section of the A470 isolated from the main carriageway.
'Brew and a view'
It was soon adopted by walkers because it offered easy access to Pen y Fan.
The mountain stands at 886m (2,907ft) and is the highest peak in southern Britain.
"If you arrive at the car park you have access to the three most important things, a loo, a brew and a view," said National Trust property manager Philip Park.
"If we are successful in gaining permission the offer will remain essentially the same, but it will be designed to meet the higher expectations of visitors to the area nowadays.
"We believe this development can really improve the enjoyment that visitors can experience in this wonderful part of Wales."
Recovering addicts
Mr Park said the trust's initial plans had gone out to consultation.
But director Angela Charlton said: "Ramblers Cymru believes walking should be free and accessible to all and we are disappointed that the National Trust feel they have to start charging for parking.
"People have been freely walking Pen y Fan for many years.
"Ramblers Cymru works with groups such as Turning Point who use Pen y Fan for inspirational training for recovering addicts.
"We hope this will not have a detrimental effect."

Summary: Walkers could be charged to visit Pen y Fan, the highest peak in the Brecon Beacons.
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Article: The German car giant reported pre-tax profits of 3bn euros (Â£2.5bn), a 27% jump from the same period in 2016.
BMW said the value of the stake in Here had risen by 183m euros.
The car manufacturer also cited improved earnings from its Chinese joint venture, BMW Brilliance Automotive, for its higher profits.
The US chip giant Intel said in January it would buy 15% of Here, which is co-owned by Audi, BMW and Daimler.
Here develops technology that feeds mapping information to autonomous and semi-autonomous cars.
It also makes digital products that provide information on the location of upcoming hazards, traffic, road signs and charging points for electric vehicles, as well as an alternative positioning system to GPS.
BMW is due to publish its detailed first-quarter results on 4 May.

Summary:


The leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) has said he will not stand in the South Shields by-election.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he would not stand in the South Shields by-election because he was "not prepared to be a spoiler".
Mr Farage said he would not stand in the

Voters across England are going to the polls for council elections and a parliamentary by-election in South Shields.

Article: The recording was made in 2012 at a time when Mr Cushnahan was still working as an adviser to Nama.
The payment was made by the County Down property developer John Miskelly during a meeting in a hospital car park.
Mr Miskelly said "payments made by me to any persons have been lawful".
Mr Cushnahan has denied any wrongdoing and told BBC Spotlight NI he would not be providing any further responses because of the ongoing National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.
The chairman of the Irish Parliament's Finance committee has said an all-island commission of enquiry into Nama may be required.
Fianna Fail's John McGuinness said a "cross-border effort must be made to get to the end of this, to get to the truth".
The recording was broadcast by the Spotlight programme on Tuesday.
Nama is the Republic of Ireland's "bad bank" which was established in 2009 in the aftermath of the Irish banking and property crisis.
It took effective control of a huge property loan book in Northern Ireland and formed a committee to advise on that part of its portfolio.
Mr Cushnahan, a former banker, was appointed to that committee by the DUP in May 2010 and served until November 2013.
According to what Mr Cushnahan says on the recording he was going to help Mr Miskelly with a refinancing deal which would get his assets out of Nama.
Mr Cushnahan also claimed he could influence a senior Nama official, Ronnie Hanna.
There is no direct evidence of wrongdoing by Mr Hanna and he firmly denies that he had any improper dealings with Mr Cushnahan.
In a later recording of Mr Cushnahan, also broadcast by Spotlight NI, he appears to encourage Mr Miskelly to lie to police if they ask questions about their Nama-related dealings.
In a statement, Mr Miskelly said: "Since 2007/8 I have consistently and truthfully reported financial crime and corruption with the relevant authorities…
"My overriding aim has always been to highlight wrongdoing and corruption and have all of these matters fully investigated by the appropriate authorities.
"I have at all time...

Summary: Businessman Frank Cushnahan, who has been at the centre of the £1bn Nama deal controversy, was recorded accepting a £40,000 cash payment from a Nama borrower.
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Article: Elections are being held in 27 English county councils and seven unitary authorities, last contested in 2009, as well as in Anglesey in Wales.
Labour are defending the South Shields seat in a contest caused by the resignation of David Miliband in March.
Mayoral contests are also being held in Doncaster and North Tyneside.
Polls for all the contests opened at 07:00 BST, and close at 22:00 BST.
Blue sky and sunshine are covering much of England, as millions of voters choose who will represent them on their local council.
More than 2,300 seats are up for grabs in county councils and unitary authorities across the length and breadth of England, including Derbyshire, Lancashire, Somerset, Essex, Surrey, Leicestershire, Kent, Durham, Bristol and Cornwall.
The Conservatives and Labour are putting up candidates in most seats, with 2,263 and 2,168 candidates respectively.
The Lib Dems have 1,763 candidates. UKIP is fielding 1,745 candidates, three times as many as it did the last time these seats were fought in 2009, and the Greens have 893 candidates.
Other parties standing include the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, which is fighting 120 seats, the BNP, with 99 candidates and the English Democrats, with 38 candidates. There are around 900 independent candidates.
No elections are taking place in London, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
The majority of council results are expected on Friday between 11:00 BST and 18:30 BST, although six councils - Lincolnshire, Dorset, Somerset, Essex, Gloucestershire and Hampshire - will declare their results in the early hours of Friday morning.
The result for the South Shields by-election is also expected early on Friday morning.

Summary:


A new study has found that the way we look at faces can have a big impact on our emotions.
The study, published in the journal PLOS One, looked at how the way we look at faces can affect our emotions.
The researchers looked at how the way we look at faces can affect our emotions.

Horses can tell if people are happy or angry, according to a new experiment.

Article: The exams regulator said an increase in 15-year-olds sitting exams early was mainly to blame.
The A* to C pass rate fell to 62.8% after it had remained stable at 66.6% for three years.
The percentage of the highest A* to A grades also dipped to 17.9%, down from 19.4% in 2016.
Qualifications Wales had warned that an increase in early entries in some subjects was likely to mean lower results.
The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which collates exam data for Wales, England and Northern Ireland, said changes in entry patterns - particularly for 15-year-olds - and the high proportion of pupils who took the two new mathematics GCSEs early in November, had a substantial impact on the results.
It said more students had "banked" a result and not returned to sit the exam again this summer - many whom have achieved a Grade C or above that would otherwise appear in these latest results.
As a consequence, it warned that reliable conclusions could not be drawn from direct comparisons between results this summer and the previous one, or between summer results across the UK.
Education Secretary Kirsty Williams said Wales has seen "some of the biggest changes in qualifications in decades" which had been "really challenging for pupils and teachers".
She said this was reflected in this year's overall GCSE A* to C grade pass rate.
Ms Williams said she was "concerned" about the high number of pupils being entered early for their exams and that the current situation was "unsustainable".
"We have signalled to schools that early entry should only be considered if it is in the interest of individual children, but what we've seen is entire cohorts of children being entered," she said.
Ms Williams added the "perverse incentives" that drive some schools to enter children early "should be taken out of the system".
The overall A* to G pass rate was also down from 98.7% to 96.9%, but the percentage of the highest A* grades remained at 6.1%.
While the fall in grades has been linked to the increase in 15-year-olds sitting exams early,...

Summary: The GCSE A* to C pass rate in Wales has fallen to its lowest level since 2006, after some of the biggest changes in decades to the exams system.
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Article: 10 February 2016 Last updated at 14:11 GMT
A team at the University of Sussex put heart monitors on horses and showed them pictures of faces to see how they reacted to different emotions.
They found that the angry faces made the horses' heart rates speed up quicker than the happy faces.
Amy Smith, one of the researchers, explains more.

Summary:


The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in Northern Ireland continued to fall in June.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in Northern Ireland continued to fall in June.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in Northern Ireland continued to fall in June.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in Northern Ireland continued to fall

The removal of the Elephant and Castle roundabout has been causing chaos for commuters, with motorists complaining of queues of more than an hour.

Article: The claimant count was down by 600 over the month to 30,500, which was the 16th consecutive monthly decrease.
However, the figures also suggest that economic inactivity is rising again.
Economic inactivity refers to people of working age who are neither in work or looking for a job.  The rate in Northern Ireland is persistently above the UK average.
It had been on a downward trend from 2013/14 but has now increased over the last three quarters.
The inactivity rate now stands at 27.4% compared to a UK rate of 21.5%.
Of the estimated 321,000 economically inactive people in Northern Ireland, just under a third were long-term sick or disabled.
Just over a quarter were students, 23% were looking after the family/home, 10% were retired and 8% cited another reason for inactivity.
In 2015, the Northern Ireland Executive published a strategy for tackling economic inactivity.
It aimed to support people with work-limiting health conditions, lone parents and people with caring commitments to get back into work.
The strategy has not been implemented due to budget pressures.

Summary: The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in Northern Ireland continued to fall in June.
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Article: The roundabout, which saw more than 80 collisions and 90 people injured in 2012-14, was replaced with two-way traffic on Sunday.
Transport for London (TfL) said congestion was due to "traffic getting used to the new layout".
"It's a very busy junction and it always will be," a spokesman said.
The reintroduction of two-way traffic at the junction for the first time in 50 years was a "key milestone" in the £25m transformation at Elephant and Castle, TfL said.
In addition to the new road layout, left turns from Newington Causeway towards New Kent Road and right turns from New Kent Road to Newington Causeway have also been banned.
But road users took to Twitter to complain about their Monday morning commute.
"It's 8am and the queue for the new #elephantandcastle junction starts somewhere south of Camberwell. allow extra 1hr 4 journey (or walk!)", a Twitter user posted.
"Shock horror! All approaches to Elephant and Castle worse than ever. Only TfL could spend millions and millions to make something worse!" tweeted @tango97.
Andy Woodward tweeted: "Delays around Elephant and Castle even worse today. If this was the tube there would be outcry. Commuters use buses too!"
Road users had been advised of traffic changes with a countdown to the traffic switch and advisors and police were on site to help keep traffic moving, the TfL spokesman said.
A spokesman for London TravelWatch said: "It's early days - we need to wait and see how it pans out."
TfL plans to convert the space created by removing the roundabout into a new public area.
It will replace subways with new pedestrian crossings, create new cycle routes and introduce a 20mph speed limit, TfL said.

Summary:


The council's leader has said the council will not be able to afford to pay the £500,000 annual subsidy it is due to receive from the sale of Friars Walk.
The council is in line to receive £500,000 a year for 15 years if the deal goes ahead.
The deal was agreed

"A bit of a punt" - the BHS business plan.

Article: Debbie Wilcox was speaking after Friars Walk was sold to a Canadian investment firm last month, wiping out the debt.
But under the deal the council will pay a £500,000 annual subsidy for up to 15 years if rental incomes do not rise.
Ms Wilcox said front-line services would not be affected as funds have been set aside to cover any costs.
She admitted there had been many sleepless nights because councils should not be about running shopping centres.
Friars Walk was completed in 2015 by the developers Queensberry Real Estate.
The firm had failed to raise enough private sector funding but went ahead with construction after the council agreed to provide them with a loan which at the time it described as "unprecedented".
The sale of Friars Walk to Talisker Corporation wiped out £84m worth of borrowing and interest charges on Newport council's books.
The local authority is in line to receive extra funds, depending on future revenues, but it also liable to pay the 15-year £500,000 annual subsidy if extra revenue fails to materialise.
The council believes the subsidy will only last a few years.
Ms Wilcox said: "I cannot deny that we had many sleepless nights over it because it is not the normal every day thing that we do.
"It did actually determine a lot of the other business because until that was settled, we could not move on untrammelled.
"It did not dominate business in so far as we have our public services to run but nevertheless it took an increasing amount of officers' time."
At the time the original loan was agreed in 2013, when the former council leader Bob Bright was in post, the authority said it was the first in the UK to borrow money on that scale in order to fund a development project.
The council insisted the loan was needed to prevent the scheme from failing and to continue with the regeneration of the city centre.
Ms Wilcox said that if the deal had collapsed then the council would have been forced to take on the ownership of Friars Walk.
She said: "We would look to have sold it at a later date but...

Summary: An £84m debt to fund a shopping centre in Newport had hung over the local authority, preventing it from moving on, the council's leader has said.
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Article: That's how one financier described Dominic Chappell's plans for acquiring and reviving BHS to MPs today.
Andrew Frangos of Cornhill Capital was approached by the three-time bankrupt Chappell to raise money secured against property to use as working capital - the money you need for day to day running of a company.
Mr Frangos said that BHS was not the limit of his ambitions and that Chappell had plans to one day buy Arcadia - the parent company run by Sir Philip Green. Ultimately, Chappell didn't use Cornhill Capital and the two of them are in dispute over unpaid bills.
He was joined in the commons by representatives from accountants Grant Thornton and lawyers Olswang to explain their involvement as advisers to Mr Chappell.
Both made extensive use of client confidentiality protection but several important themes emerged.
Retail Acquisitions Limited did not delve very deeply into the pension problems. Meetings between Chappell and the Chris Martin, chair of the BHS pension scheme, totalled less than half an hour and Grant Thornton's Mark Byers said he was denied the usual access to the pension trustees and their advisors.
On the bigger picture, MPs asked what the professional advisers made of this "punt". Why did they believe that a retail novice with a chequered financial background could succeed in turning BHS around when a feted retail tycoon had failed? We got two interesting answers.
First, a central part of the turnaround plan involved getting the landlords for the 164 stores to agree to reduce the rent. Mark Byers, from Grant Thornton said it would be difficult to have that negotiation, for BHS essentially to plead poverty, as long as BHS was part of the bigger Arcadia group.
Second, it wasn't their job.
So far there is no smoking gun. What is emerging from these sessions is that lots of professional firms were tasked with making sure small bits of the deal ticked a number of boxes. No one, it seems, was there to look Mr Chappell in the eye and judge whether he had the ability, or even the intention, of...

Summary: