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Bournemouth 3-3 Arsenal - BBC Sport

2017-01-03

Arsenal complete a dramatic comeback at Bournemouth as they rescue a point in injury time having been 3-0 behind.

Last updated on .From the section Football Arsenal completed a dramatic comeback at Bournemouth as they rescued a point in injury time having fallen 3-0 behind. The Gunners looked destined for a third away league defeat in a row before a late rally that began with a diving Alexis Sanchez header and gathered momentum when a stunning Lucas Perez left-footed volley reduced the gap to a single goal. Bournemouth went down to 10 men when Simon Francis was sent off for a challenge on Aaron Ramsey and Arsenal capitalised as Olivier Giroud headed a 92nd-minute equaliser. The home side had overwhelmed the Gunners early on and taken the lead when Charlie Daniels cut inside Hector Bellerin and stroked a shot past on-rushing keeper Petr Cech. Callum Wilson scored a penalty to extend Bournemouth's lead and Ryan Fraser sent a shot through Cech's legs for the Cherries' third before the hour mark. But the hosts buckled under Arsenal's late pressure as Arsene Wenger's side moved eight points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea, who play Tottenham on Wednesday. Arsenal had produced a feeble display for 70 minutes and were second best in the face of Bournemouth's energy and desire but that all changed when Sanchez headed in at the far post following Giroud's flick-on. The momentum of the match changed and five minutes later Giroud clipped a lovely ball to substitute Perez and he sent an angled volley inside the far post. Francis' sending-off helped Arsenal, although Cherries boss Eddie Howe felt it was a "harsh" decision by referee Michael Oliver. Giroud headed in from a Granit Xhaka cross as Bournemouth failed in their desperate attempts to hang on during six minutes of added time. Arsenal have been accused of lacking the character to maintain a title challenge in recent seasons and they did little to change that perception before Sanchez's goal. They were continually second best to the home side and frustrations rose to the surface in the first half. Sanchez and Ramsey exchanged angry words at 2-0 down, while Giroud showed his annoyance when Shkodran Mustafi failed to find him with a pass that went harmlessly out of play. That they regrouped in such thrilling manner was doubtless a relief but not one that entirely satisfied goalscorer Giroud. "I'm pleased to help the team by scoring the equaliser but I'm still disappointed," said the Frenchman. "It's nice to come back but the way we played at the end, that made me think we should have done better. At least we came back, showed great mental strength and I will take it." On this date in 2009, boss Eddie Howe was taking caretaker charge of his first match at Bournemouth - who were then second from bottom in League Two. Success with the Dorset side as they won promotion to League One saw Howe lured away by Burnley, before he returned in October 2012 to complete the club's transformation with two more promotions in three seasons. It is a mark of the turnaround he has instigated that he and his side were left bitterly disappointed at failing to avenge their defeat at Emirates Stadium in November. The Cherries' 3-1 defeat at Arsenal was harsh on them and they looked more than capable of making amends for the majority of this game as the Gunners struggled to deal with their attacking 4-4-2 formation. Even with the Arsenal comeback under way, Howe's men had a chance to go 4-2 up when Dan Gosling turned superbly in the visitors' area only to shoot well wide of Cech's goal. A point keeps the Cherries ninth in the table. What they said: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger: "At the start we suffered from the quality of Bournemouth. One team had over three days to recover and on top of that we suffered at the back. "It was a physical test but we came back into the game and we showed we are mentally strong. I am happy to play every day but only if our opponent has done the same." Read more from Wenger here. Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe: "It's a strange one for us. At 3-0 up you hope the game is over but you can't underestimate the quality of Arsenal and as soon as they got the first goal the game changed. "We didn't see the game out in an effective manner from our perspective but you have to praise their resilience." • None Arsenal came back to draw a Premier League game from three goals down for the first time. • None Only Hull (nine) have conceded more Premier League penalties than Arsenal this season (six, level with Southampton). • None Charlie Daniels has provided more assists than any other Premier League defender since the start of last season (eight). • None Sanchez's goal was Arsenal's first shot on target in the match, in the 70th minute. • None Sanchez has now matched his Premier League goal tally from last season (13 in 20 games this season, compared with 13 in 30 games last season). It's FA Cup third-round action for both these teams in their next outings with Bournemouth at Millwall at 15:00 GMT on Saturday, 7 January and Arsenal at Preston for a 17:30 kick-off on the same day. • None Attempt saved. Harry Arter (Bournemouth) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right is saved in the top right corner. Assisted by Adam Smith. • None Goal! Bournemouth 3, Arsenal 3. Olivier Giroud (Arsenal) header from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Granit Xhaka. • None Attempt blocked. Olivier Giroud (Arsenal) left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box is blocked. Assisted by Lucas Pérez. • None Attempt missed. Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. • None Attempt missed. Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Alexis Sánchez following a corner. • None Attempt blocked. Lucas Pérez (Arsenal) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Granit Xhaka. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38440999

Conservatives: Brexit trouble ahead for May in 2017? - BBC News

2017-01-03

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Will Theresa May be able to keep her cabinet together and get her party behind her plans for Brexit in 2017?

UK Politics

Theresa May's year ahead is likely to be dominated by the process of the UK leaving the EU It's not hard to identify the issue that is likely to dominate 2017 for Theresa May and her Conservative government: in the absence of a bolt from the blue it will be Brexit, Brexit and more Brexit. The prime minister's announcement at her party conference that the government would trigger Article 50 by the end of March, setting in motion the process of leaving the EU, ensured it would remain at the top of the agenda. Mrs May has said she will set out more of the government's Brexit plans in a speech to be made in the new year. We don't know how much detail she will give, but her audience will be expecting something beyond the gnomic utterances that "Brexit means Brexit" and that she wants a "red, white and blue Brexit". MPs will get some sort of vote before Article 50 is triggered but the exact process won't be known until after the Supreme Court issues its judgement on whether Parliament must have a formal constitutional role. MPs won't block Article 50 but that doesn't mean the government will have an easy ride - either in March, or further ahead. Perhaps nobody knows this better than the Brexit Secretary David Davis. He has worked the European beat before, as a whip during the passage through Parliament of the Maastricht Treaty in the 1990s. Then as now, a Conservative government with a small majority was faced with seeking Parliamentary approval for a controversial and difficult measure around Britain's relationship with the European Union. That though, is where the similarity ends. While with Maastricht it was the Eurosceptics that were causing merry Hell, now it is likely to be diehard Remainers who will man any "awkward squad". Will the Three Brexiteers all still be in cabinet by the end of 2017? Of the "Three Brexiteers" at the top of government, Mr Davis has had the best write-ups so far for his command of the task at hand. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox have not slipped into their new roles so easily. Theresa May's relationship with Mr Johnson will be interesting to watch throughout 2017. She has seen fit to mock him and very publicly slap him down. It has been suggested that he is not happy about continuously being the butt of jokes, and the two of them are hardly natural bedfellows. Perhaps that's why bookmakers make Liam Fox and him the favourites to be the first minister to leave the Cabinet. Although Brexit will dominate, Theresa May has a broader agenda. In education, for example, the forced "academisation" of all schools is out and grammars are back in. She has also promised to develop a new industrial strategy to create "an economy that works for everyone". Again, her small majority in Parliament could put her at the mercy of awkward backbenchers. Former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan leads a group of MPs who could be prepared to block grammar schools. And some of the more free market-oriented Conservatives won't like policies that look like government meddling in business. There is one way that the prime minister could take arms against a sea of troubles. Despite saying she will stick to the planned 2020 date, the Fixed Terms Parliament Act allows for an early vote if two thirds of MPs back an early general election. Jeremy Corbyn says that Labour would support such a move so the numbers would be there. If Mrs May felt she was being stymied in her efforts to negotiate the best Brexit deal for Britain, she could change her mind and let the country issue its verdict. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38408200

Sunderland 2-2 Liverpool - BBC Sport

2017-01-03

Jermain Defoe scores two penalties as Sunderland twice come from behind to earn a point against second-placed Liverpool.

Last updated on .From the section Football Jermain Defoe scored two penalties as Sunderland twice came from behind to earn a point against second-placed Liverpool. The Reds took a deserved lead when Daniel Sturridge flicked in a header after Dejan Lovren's mishit shot. Sunderland equalised six minutes later as Defoe scored from the spot following Ragnar Klavan's trip on Didier Ndong, before Sadio Mane put the visitors back ahead with a close-range finish. However, Mane then handled in his own 18-yard box and Defoe converted the penalty to snatch an unlikely point. • None Relive Sunderland's draw against Liverpool as it happened • None Reaction and updates from the other Premier League matches The result leaves Liverpool five points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea, who play their game in hand on Wednesday at Tottenham (20:00 GMT kick-off). However, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp will surely see it as two points dropped after his side led twice, had 71% of the possession and had 15 shots on target. Only an inspired performance from Black Cats keeper Vito Mannone denied Liverpool further goals, before Mane, playing his last game before representing Senegal at the Africa Cup of Nations, needlessly stuck out an arm to block Seb Larsson's free-kick, costing his side dearly. To make things worse for Liverpool, Sturridge, who scored only his second Premier League goal of the season, limped off late on with an ankle injury after he clashed with Papy Djilobodji. The England international was only making his fifth league start of the campaign, has also suffered calf and hip injuries this season and was limping badly at the final whistle. Reds club captain Jordan Henderson missed the game at the Stadium of Light with a heel injury and Klopp could be without three influential players for the trip to Manchester United in 13 days' time. In his post-match news conference Klopp said he did not believe Sturridge's injury was a serious one. "He got a knock on his right ankle, I don't think it's too bad," said the German. Sunderland boss David Moyes described his side's performance in their 4-1 loss at Burnley on Saturday as "dire" and had demanded better. He will surely have been delighted with the response. His team battled hard, gave everything, defended deep in numbers and showed their fighting spirit when Liverpool looked like they might run away with the match. Sunderland remain in the bottom three, but Moyes will be encouraged by the point as the Black Cats look to extend their 10-year Premier League stay. However, like Klopp, Moyes faces a battle to juggle his squad. Sunderland's lengthy injury list includes first-choice goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, defender Lamine Kone, midfielders Lee Cattermole and Steven Pienaar and strikers Duncan Watmore and Victor Anichebe. Midfielders Didier Ndong (Gabon) and Wahbi Khazri (Tunisia) are also set to play at the Africa Cup of Nations in January to provide further problems for Moyes. • None Liverpool have now lost just one of their past 18 Premier League games (won 12). • None Moyes has only one victory from his past 17 Premier League games as a manager against Liverpool (10 defeats). • None Jack Rodwell made his 34th start for Sunderland but is yet to be on the winning side (16 draws and 18 losses); extending the Premier League record. • None Defoe is the fourth player to score 10 or more goals in 10 different Premier League seasons, along with Alan Shearer, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard. • None Sunderland are the first team to score two penalties in a Premier League game against Liverpool since West Brom in April 2011. • None Sturridge has scored in consecutive Premier League games after a run of 12 appearances without a goal. • None Mane has had a hand in five goals in his past seven Premier League appearances (three goals, two assists). What they said Sunderland manager Moyes said: "I expect them to get results, but I'm really pleased after the few days we've had. We didn't play well (against Burnley) and what they have done is show how well they can do. "I thought we did quite well, matched Liverpool's energy for long periods of the game and deserved a draw. We had big chances as well. "I never thought we were out of it. The important thing was to not concede a third goal. In the end we got a deserved penalty. "Towards the end of the season we are going to have to pick up a lot of results. Today was a tough draw and we have to make sure we win at home - that's key." Liverpool boss Klopp said: "I am not able to explain it because I don't know exactly what I saw. My team were fighting but I wasn't sure if they could do it. "We can play better but I'm not sure if you can play better with that (two-day) break." On Sunderland's second penalty, the German added: "There was no foul before the free-kick for the second penalty. You need a little bit of luck, but Sunderland worked hard too and maybe they deserved it." Both sides are next in action in the third round of the FA Cup. Sunderland entertain fellow Premier League side Burnley on Saturday (15:00), one week after losing 4-1 to the Clarets in an away league match. Liverpool take on League Two high-flyers Plymouth Argyle on 8 January (13:30), before playing at Southampton on 11 January in the first leg of their EFL Cup semi-final (19:45). Sunderland next play in the Premier League on 14 January with a home game against Stoke (15:00), with Liverpool away at Manchester United at 16:00 the following day. • None Offside, Liverpool. Lucas Leiva tries a through ball, but Divock Origi is caught offside. • None Attempt saved. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Alberto Moreno with a cross. • None Attempt saved. Adam Lallana (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. • None Sadio Mané (Liverpool) wins a free kick on the right wing. • None Delay over. They are ready to continue. • None Delay in match Papy Djilobodji (Sunderland) because of an injury. • None Divock Origi (Liverpool) wins a free kick on the right wing. • None Attempt saved. Ragnar Klavan (Liverpool) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top right corner. Assisted by Alberto Moreno with a cross. • None Attempt saved. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Sadio Mané. • None Goal! Sunderland 2, Liverpool 2. Jermain Defoe (Sunderland) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner. • None Sadio Mané (Liverpool) is shown the yellow card for hand ball. • None Penalty conceded by Sadio Mané (Liverpool) with a hand ball in the penalty area. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38433522

Swansea City: Paul Clement confirmed as third boss of the season - BBC Sport

2017-01-03

Premier League bottom club Swansea City appoint ex-Derby County manager Paul Clement as their third boss of the season.

Last updated on .From the section Football Paul Clement has been confirmed as head coach of Swansea City. The 44-year-old becomes the Swans' third boss of the season after joining from Bayern Munich, where he was assistant to Carlo Ancelotti. Clement agreed a two-and-a-half-year deal to replace Bob Bradley, who had been in charge since Francesco Guidolin's departure in October. The former Derby County manager takes over with Swansea bottom of the Premier League. • None Can Clement turn it around at Swansea? Clement, who has also been Ancelotti's assistant boss at Chelsea, Paris St-Germain and Real Madrid, will be at Selhurst Park for the Swans' game against Crystal Palace on Tuesday, although first-team coach Alan Curtis will select the team. Last season he was in charge of Championship side Derby but was sacked by the club in February 2016 after a run of seven league games without a win. Nigel Gibbs has been appointed assistant coach, with Karl Halabi named head of physical performance, with both arriving from Tottenham Hotspur. Bradley was sacked following a spell of seven defeats in 11 games, and Clement emerged as the frontrunner to replace the American. Former Manchester United assistant Ryan Giggs, Wales boss Chris Coleman and former Birmingham City manager Gary Rowett had also been linked with the job. The Swans are four points adrift at the bottom of the table and have lost their last four games, including Saturday's 3-0 home defeat by Bournemouth. "I could have stayed at Bayern as an assistant, but I've chosen to come into a very challenging situation. It excites me to do that and that's the attitude I want the players to have," said Clement on Swansea's website. "It's a big task, but I think it can be done. "We are looking at the potential of adding to the squad in the transfer window. I've discussed that with the owners already. "But before that I quickly need to look at the players already here and get them playing up to or close to their potential - and get some good results." "Paul has not only worked with some of Europe's biggest football clubs, but also the very best players in the world," said Swans chairman Huw Jenkins. "Swansea City's strength over many years had been the quality of the football coached on the training field. That has always been at the forefront of our success. "There is no doubt in my mind that Paul can not only help us regain that footballing belief, but also restore some much-needed pride back into the football club." "Given the club's desperate plight, Clement needs to hit the ground running and the American investors simply have to provide funds for him to strengthen the squad in the January transfer window. "The club's fans will surely judge whether Clement is an appointment with one eye on Championship football next season by how much commitment the owners show to giving the new man a fighting chance of saving the club from relegation."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38492260

Eddie Jones open to Richard Cockerill joining England set-up - BBC Sport

2017-01-03

Eddie Jones says he is open to the possibility of sacked Leicester boss Richard Cockerill joining England's coaching set-up.

Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union Eddie Jones says he sympathises with Richard Cockerill and is open to the possibility of the sacked Leicester boss joining England's coaching set-up. Cockerill, 46, was dismissed as Tigers' director of rugby on 2 January, with the club fifth in the Premiership. England head coach Jones told BBC Sport that despite having a forwards coach he would "never close the door". Jones also said Dylan Hartley would continue to captain England if he was fit enough to be selected. Northampton hooker Hartley is serving a six-week ban for catching Leinster's Sean O'Brien with a swinging arm in a Champions Cup match in December. Jones, 56, said last month that the 30-year-old had "let his country down" with the third red card of his career. But the Australian said on Tuesday that Hartley was "doing everything right" to be England captain for the forthcoming Six Nations. Cockerill had been a member of Leicester's coaching staff since 2004, taking over as head coach in 2009 and becoming director of rugby in 2010. But following a 16-12 defeat by Saracens on New Year's Day, and with Leicester 15 points adrift of leaders Wasps, Cockerill was sacked. Leicester won three Premiership titles under Cockerill and were twice runners-up Leicester were runners-up in the European Cup in Cockerill's first season in charge and won the LV= Cup in 2011-12 Jones said: "I have a massive amount of sympathy for Richard Cockerill. "He is a great rugby guy, a great player for Leicester, has been a very successful director of rugby and coach. "You don't like to see that happen to anyone but the reality of being a coach is that everyone goes through that and I am sure he will end up somewhere else. "It has been a discussion point for the Leicester players. They are disappointed for Richard but know they have to get on with the job. "We are very well endowed with the forwards coaches we have at the moment so we can always look at the possibility of that [getting Cockerill]." Former England lock Steve Borthwick is currently England's forwards coach. Hartley's dismissal in Northampton's 37-10 home defeat by Leinster had jeopardised his involvement in England's Six Nations campaign, with their opening fixture against France at Twickenham on 4 February. However, he is eligible to play again from 23 January. Jones added: "A prerequisite to get into the England side is to be very fit and not playing games means he needs to undergo an unbelievably stringent fitness programme over the next five or six weeks. He is doing that and is in the best position to continue as captain. "If Dylan is right to play, he will be captain. "Everyone makes mistakes. In the last 12 months, he has made one mistake and done a hell of a lot of good things so his batting average is pretty high. If that falls, then we need to look at things. "We have had a number of chats, not any longer than five minutes, but plenty of information has been exchanged. He understands where he is at and what he needs to do. He will do it." The former Australia coach said it was a "big relief" to have James Haskell back in contention after the flanker missed the autumn internationals with a toe injury. Leicester centre Manu Tuilagi has been ruled out of England's training camp in Brighton next week after a knee injury cut short his involvement in the Tigers' defeat by Saracens. "He was coming back into some form, getting his power back so it is enormously frustrating for him," said Jones. Former England captain Chris Robshaw also faces a nervous wait to discover the extent of the shoulder injury sustained with Harlequins on New Year's Day, with England ordering a scan. World Rugby has tightened the tackle law with immediate effect, clamping down on high and dangerous tackles by lowering the acceptable height of the tackle and increasing the severity of on-field punishment. "I think it is fantastic," said Jones. "The game of rugby is such a great game and we have to keep improving it. "Concussions is an issue that will be there more and more so the scrutiny for head injuries is nothing like it was three or five years ago. "Over the next period of time, it is going to be quite difficult. We will then have a safer, healthier game. "We played against Argentina with 14 men and it was a great game. We are preparing for that. The penalties over the next period of time will be harsh."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38503190

Losing hope in Mae La - BBC News

2017-01-03

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Depression is all too common in refugee camps for Burmese people on the Thai border - and so, unfortunately, is suicide.

Magazine

On Thailand's border with Myanmar, also known as Burma, more than 100,000 people live in a string of refugee camps. Many fled ethnic conflict in their homeland decades ago, and have brought up their children here. Gracia Fellmeth arrived in one of the camps a year ago to study depression in women before and after childbirth. After an hour's bus journey through forest from the town of Mae Sot, Mae La appears suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere. In the morning mist, thousands of bamboo huts cling to steep limestone crags. It is the largest of nine refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, and home to almost 40,000 people. Many residents have spent their entire lives in this isolated place, unable to work and dependent on outside aid. The majority are Karen, one of Myanmar's largest ethnic minorities. It is a Wednesday morning, three months after my arrival, and the dusty waiting room is full. Pregnant women wait patiently to be seen by nurses, midwives and medics. They will have their bellies examined, their blood pressure monitored and their blood screened. Since my arrival, women are also offered a depression screen - a series of 10 questions to look for symptoms of depression, which is common in pregnancy. Our first patient today is 18-year-old Myo Myo. She is nine weeks pregnant. She enters the room, smiling. Lar Paw, a Karen counsellor and midwife I am working with, explains what the interview involves. Myo Myo agrees to take part. We sit down on the bamboo floor and begin. "In the past month, have you ever felt sad or down for long periods of time?" I ask. "Sometimes," Myo Myo replies. "We have some family problems. And not enough money." Gracia Fellmeth screened many young pregnant women for signs of depression Calm and composed, she continues her story - a story by now familiar to me. She describes a happy relationship with her husband. Despite his alcohol dependency, he is good to her, she says, and she loves him. They are both happy about the pregnancy. However, there are tensions with her mother-in-law, who disapproves of Myo Myo and rebukes her for not contributing to household expenditure. I want to know more about her symptoms. She tells us that the episodes of sadness are short-lived, occurring only once or twice a month and lasting an hour or so. "Do you ever think about hurting yourself, or about suicide?" I probe. "Sometimes I think about it, if we have been arguing with my mother-in-law," she admits. She has never attempted suicide though, and assures us she is not planning to. A quarter of all women we speak to think about suicide at least occasionally. A smaller proportion - about 3% - have made attempts. We lack the resources to follow up all of these patients, so we focus only on those with pronounced thoughts of suicide or severe symptoms of depression. Myo Myo has other symptoms, too - low energy and "thinking too much" - but they occur only once in a while and do not seem to be out of the ordinary. We don't arrange a follow-up but we tell her to come and talk to us any time, if she wants to share her worries with anyone. Two days later I am on the bus to Mae La when a colleague asks me: "Did you hear about the suicide? A young girl. She was pregnant." My heart pounds. Was it someone I had interviewed? Someone we had been following up? Or worse, someone we hadn't followed up? Lar Paw stands outside the clinic waiting for me. "Doctor! We have a suicide. Do you remember this patient?" She hands me a file. It is Myo Myo's. I feel shaky. I remember her, and I remember that we had not considered her to be high-risk. Among the hundreds of women we had spoken to, Myo Myo, tragically, had not stood out. "Her husband also. They did it together," Lar Paw continues softly. A double suicide? I couldn't think straight. We had seen Myo Myo only two days ago. How could this have happened? Had we given her the idea of taking her own life? Was this all my fault? Later that day we go to Myo Myo's home to pay our respects. The family sits quietly. The two bodies lie in the middle of the room under a sheet, surrounded by candles. Two cups wrapped in plastic are lined with a fluorescent blue liquid - remnants of the toxic weed-killer that led the couple to their death. We sit in silence until Myo Myo's mother-in-law stumbles in, drunk. Myo Myo's sister-in-law shouts at her. "This is all your fault," she sobs. Later we find out about an altercation that had taken place earlier in the week between Myo Myo's husband and his mother, during which she had slapped him in the face. The death of this young couple left us deeply saddened, but also troubled. Should we have done more to encourage Myo Myo to put aside her thoughts of suicide? Could we have stopped her? Had it been the impulsive act of an adolescent in response to a family feud? Had a Buddhist belief in rebirth enticed the couple to leave this world and start a new, better, life together? We will never know. What we do know is that suicide is too common in Mae La - last year it accounted for half of all deaths among pregnant women and new mothers. What is the explanation? There could be many factors - including chronic uncertainty, hopelessness, boredom, and the legacy of the conflict that led these families to Mae La in the first place. The names of the people in this story have been changed Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38423451

Lib Dems: Bouncing back from the dead in 2017? - BBC News

2017-01-03

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The Brexit vote has breathed new life into the UK's most pro-European major party, but can they capitalise on it?

UK Politics

A by-election win in Richmond Park was welcome news for the Liberal Democrats In 2015, the Liberal Democrats had a near death experience. But 2016 was the year there were signs of life - will 2017 be their year of resurrection? The vote to leave the EU has breathed fresh life into the UK's most pro-European major party. Last year they had a sensational by-election victory in Richmond Park, a modest increase in national polls, and won a clutch of council seats at by-elections. In 2017 they will be hoping to pick up more council seats and improve their national standing. As the most full-throated advocates of the 16m people who voted Remain, they have a fresh opening. But 2016's successes come from a low base. The party was nearly annihilated in 2015. They now have nine MPs and struggle to get airtime. Leader Tim Farron is secure in his job, following a year in which Labour, the Conservatives and the Greens all held leadership elections. UKIP even managed two. Prime Minister Theresa May is fairly popular with the public and Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn is unpopular, polls suggest. But Mr Farron has another problem - almost half of voters have no opinion at all. The road to a Lib Dem recovery will be a long one, if it happens at all. The Lib Dems will be hoping to capitalise on anti-Brexit feeling After the referendum, Guardian columnist Rafael Behr spoke of "an unrecognised state - call it Remainia - whose people were divided between the Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems; like a tribe whose homeland has been partitioned by some insouciant Victorian cartographer". The Lib Dems are hoping to win over some of these 16m lost tribesmen. Even though most backed Remain, Conservatives MPs are now largely united behind Theresa May's "Brexit means Brexit" stance. Labour MPs are divided. Though most backed Remain, many represent areas which voted to Leave. They do not want to be seen as circumventing voters' wishes. The Lib Dems have a unique approach: they want a second referendum on the terms of the Brexit deal. At the moment, there is no demonstrable appetite to refight the battles of June and hold another EU vote. But Mr Farron thinks that could change in 2017. The prime minister says she will kick-start divorce proceedings by the end of March. We know few details about the deal she wants but should it disappoint, the Lib Dems hope to pounce. Sarah Olney's stunning by-election win on 1 December in Richmond Park was the best piece of news the Lib Dems had in years. She became the ninth Lib Dem MP, and the only woman. But this leafy south-west London seat, with more university graduates than anywhere else in Britain, is far from typical. The national referendum result was narrow but Remain votes piled up in big cities, affluent suburbs and Scotland. The Leave vote was more evenly spread. Although most MPs backed Remain, a large majority of constituencies voted to Leave. A Lib Dem win in Richmond Park does not make a national Brexit backlash. The party also picked up lots of seats at council by-elections in 2016. Further gains are likely in May's local elections. The party did terribly when the same seats were up for grabs four years ago. Nick Clegg was punished by voters for going into coalition with the Conservatives When the then Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg joined David Cameron in 2010 to form the country's first coalition government since World War Two, it was a bold move. But voters brutally punished Mr Clegg for his gamble. The party had not fallen below 17% of the vote in general elections since its formation in 1988, But it collapsed to 8% in May 2015, losing 49 of its 57 seats. The number of Lib Dem councillors halved between 2010 and 2015. Recently they have remained in the high single figures and low teens. One recent poll put them at dizzy heights of 14%. After some successes in 2016, Liberal Democrats should enjoy their seasonal break. But there are two reasons they should not get carried away. First, they were brutally punished for going into coalition government and are now doing better, far from the levers of power. If they form a government in the future, they may well be punished once more. Second, the party's liberal internationalist beliefs have taken a pounding over the past two years. Their core values are more unpopular than at any time in recent history.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38408199

Istanbul attack: Inside Reina nightclub - BBC News

2017-01-03

The BBC's Mark Lowen is one of the first journalists to access the site of Istanbul's deadly New Year attack, which left 39 people dead.

The BBC's Mark Lowen is one of the first journalists to access the site of Istanbul's deadly New Year attack, which left 39 people dead.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38501613

Forceps removed from stomach after 18 years - BBC News

2017-01-03

A Vietnamese man has had surgical forceps removed from his stomach after 18 years.

A Vietnamese man has had surgical forceps removed from his stomach after 18 years. Ma Van Nhat believes the forceps were left there during surgery in 1998.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38497547

Why is it so hard to recycle or repair anything? - BBC News

2017-01-03

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Jonty Bloom looks at why so many products these days are so short-lived.

Business

The Christmas morning excitement about presents doesn't always last the week, let alone the year It is not much more than a week since Christmas Day but how many of those toys that you bought and were received with so much joy are still being used? Or did you get the latest piece of technology as your Christmas present - to replace the almost identical one that you got last year? Why is almost everything these days so short-lived? One of the best-selling toys this Christmas was the Hatchimal, just £59.99 for a cuddly toy that you have to encourage to hatch from its own plastic egg. Call me a cynic but I don't see that being the centre of many kids' world throughout all of 2017. How long will the Hatchimals remain a favourite? Of course, if you are willing to spend that kind of money to give your children just what they want for Christmas, fair enough, but for environmental experts the real cost is more significant. Such toys are often very hard to recycle, and a lot could be done to change that, says Margaret Bates, professor of sustainable waste management at Northampton University. "Eighty per cent of waste is generated at the design stage, so if we can start thinking of the end of life when we are designing things we will get a much better recovery rate," she says. "Just even using fewer screws or making sure that you keep materials separate, so that you can use plastic and metal but not stick them together." This TV could be repaired if it went wrong... The technology even exists to go much further, adds Prof Bates: "There are also some clever things that you can do like putting things in the microwave or expose them to a special light source and all the fixtures and fittings will snap off, they just fall apart." That, of course, makes recycling much easier. The trouble is, not many toys or presents are designed that way, even some wrapping paper is not recyclable. ...but if this X-Box controller malfunctions, you might just throw it away The trend away from repairing, recycling or reusing seems to be getting worse but it has been going on for years, according to Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum in London. "Ever since the 1920s and an American advertising man called Elmo Calkins, who suggested it was the duty of the consumer to use stuff up to get us out of the [Great] Depression, there has been the concept of built-in obsolescence," he says. And that obsolescence is getting more and more built in. Some new games consoles won't work with the games people already own. Or, take the smartphone - it has replaced many products like the camera, typewriter and Dictaphone. But those items could last for decades. Some were even passed down from one generation to the next. Now, however, people replace their phones when one part breaks or a new model is released. The dictaphone grew a lot smaller than this 1945 model, but it has now been replaced by the smartphone You can even see this on the High Street. TV and radio repair shops are a vanishing breed. Lawnmower maintenance ones are even rarer and camera shops are in serious decline. But there is an exception that proves the rule - the explosion in the number of bicycle repair shops. The reason is simple enough to understand: we are cycling more and the technology is pretty much the same as it has always been. John Gallen should know - he repairs bikes at Cycle Surgery in central London. "Materials have changed. There are steel, carbon, aluminium, even bamboo bikes out there, but ultimately it is still the triangular frame, two wheels, handlebars and a set of pedals and off you go," he tells me. The materials may have changed but the bicycle's shape is essentially the same as it was in the 1930s But even that may be about to change with the new popularity of electric bikes. "We are moving down that road," says John. "The electric bikes are making their way into the market and with them you just plug the bike in to get the diagnostics." It is possible to design and make things that last a long time, can be repaired or upgraded and then, finally, almost totally recycled, but that doesn't seem to be happening yet. But it may be coming sooner than current trends suggest. Modern technology from toys to mobile phones and electric bikes is dependent on increasingly rare metals. As Prof Bates explains: "There are limited amounts of those metals left, so we have to be much cleverer about how we keep them or we could be in danger of going back to the days when only very rich people had hi-tech goods, because it is so expensive to buy as those materials aren't out there." Although you will, of course, always be able to get on your bike, so long as it is not electric. Perhaps one made from bamboo should be on your list for Santa next year? You can hear Jonty Bloom's report on the PM programme on Tuesday, 3 January. • None When is regifting Christmas presents ok?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38472652

Turkey nightclub attack: 'I thought I would die' - BBC News

2017-01-03

A woman who was in the bathroom during the Turkish nightclub attack says she feared she would die.

One of the survivors of the Istanbul nightclub attack says she feared she would "die in the bathroom". Tuvana Tugsavul spoke to the BBC's Mark Lowen about the attack which killed 39 people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38492668

Time-lapse footage of Beijing smog - BBC News

2017-01-03

Time-lapse footage of smog in Beijing filmed over 20 minutes shows how fast the pollution rolls in.

Time-lapse footage of smog in Beijing filmed over a 20 minutes shows how fast the pollution rolls in. The video was filmed by Chas Pope.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-38495644

What to look out for in Africa during 2017 - BBC News

2017-01-03

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In our series of letters from African journalists, Joseph Warungu identifies key people, places and events to watch out for in Africa in 2017.

Africa

After the New Year festivities, what will 2017 hold for countries across Africa? In our series of letters from African journalists, media and communications trainer Joseph Warungu gives a personal guide to some of the key people, places and events to watch out for in Africa in 2017. Africa will go through six human actions this year - it will stand, kneel, squat, bow, fall and then rise again. In the group of those who will be standing in Africa in 2017 is Donald Trump. Yes, I know it's an act of treason to associate him with Africa. But when he's sworn in as president, his foreign policy (or tweetplomacy) will have a bearing on our continent. His critics warn that his isolationist stand might mean less attention will be paid to Africa. But it could just force Africans to find solutions from within, by strengthening our institutions, improving infrastructure, governance and security and trading more amongst ourselves. Another man who also takes office in January is Nana Akufo-Addo, the president-elect of Ghana. Ghana's Nana Akufo-Addo (pictured in background in pink, and on T-shirt) takes over in 2017 He's tried to enter Flagstaff House (the presidential residency) through the ballot box as the New Patriotic Party candidate since 2008. Now that he has the keys, Ghanaians will wait to see how he delivers his pledge of one district, one factory, lest he becomes one man, one term. And then there's the state of emergency in Ethiopia, which still stands. It was put in place last October following violent protests. The government says the security situation has improved save for some clashes in the northern part of Amhara region. Some 9,000 people detained under the state of emergency have been released and the government says it could lift the emergency before its six-month period is over. There are two prominent men who will be kneeling before voters to ask for a job. Paul Kagame has been president for the last 16 years, but Rwandans appear to want more of him and have voted to remove the term-limit barrier. In August, Mr Kagame will therefore use his constitutional right to ask for a new employment contract. Rwanda's Paul Kagame (L) and Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta are both seeking re-election in 2017 In the same month, his Kenyan neighbour Uhuru Kenyatta will also be reapplying for his job. Last September, while warning the main opposition leader Raila Odinga to mind his own party and leave the ruling Jubilee party alone, President Kenyatta famously said: "… as you continue to search for a seat and salivate, we are feasting on the meat". It will be clear in August whether Kenyans will give Jubilee more time to feast or turn the party itself into mince meat. "The Nigerian economy... enters 2017 in the squat position" The African Union has been searching for a new Chief Executive Officer and will fill the position in January. Three men and two women from Botswana, Kenya, Chad, Senegal and Equatorial Guinea will fight it out to replace the outgoing South African Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as Chair of the AU Commission. Now to some situations and people who can't decide whether to stand or sit. The Nigerian economy has caught its nastiest stomach bug in more than two decades. And so it enters 2017 in the squat position. A combination of factors including a crash in the global price of oil, which Nigeria relies a lot on, and a fall in the naira, the country's currency, contributed to the sizeable contraction of the economy in 2016. The anger and frustration among the people was aptly captured by this online comment from one Nigerian in November: "We are now going into depression and deep S***! Buhari has himself to blame for unfortunately being a gentleman!" Nigeria's economy has a lot of ground to make up Over in The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh is no gentleman - he's chosen to squat at State House. He lost the presidential election to Adama Barrow and publicly conceded defeat. A little later, the thought of leaving the seat he has called his own for the last 22 years overpowered him and he changed his mind. Africa and the world have asked him to go home, but he is defiant. As his last day in office approaches on 19 of January, the same force he used to gain power in 1994 could be used to relieve him of his office. There are three notable people who will be bowing out of office in 2017. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first elected female head of state in Africa, is coming to the end of her second and final term of office in Liberia. One of those waiting on the touchline to join the succession race is football star George Weah. The former AC Milan and Chelsea striker failed to score in the 2005 presidential tournament but hopes 2017 will be his year. Angolans will have a chance to replace the only man they've known as president for nearly 40 years. Many young Congolese are hoping President Kabila will go without a fight Although Jose Eduardo dos Santos has announced he'll step down, his blood will still flow through the veins of power and the economy in Angola. His daughter, Isabel, heads Sonangol, the state oil company and is considered by Forbes to be Africa's richest woman, while his son, Jose, is chairman of the country's sovereign wealth fund, Fundo Soberano de Angola. In neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, 2017 could mark the beginning of the end for another family dynasty, which started in 1997 when Laurent Desire Kabila became president after overthrowing Mobutu Sese Seko. Laurent Kabila's son Joseph picked up the reigns after his father's assassination in 2001, and was bent on staying in power until attempts to change the constitution to allow him a third term backfired. Violent street protests have piled pressure on President Kabila to exit from office this year and the issue is bound to continue into the new year. The theme of falling is alive in South Africa. The #FeesMustFall campaign by university students sought to fight the rising cost of higher education and saw violent clashes between police and protesters, disruptions in the university calendar and the arrest of a number of students. 2017 promises more of the same because not only have the fees not fallen, some top universities have announced an 8% increase. And then there's the question of the country's President Jacob Zuma. Hemlines are just one of the many things that could fall in 2017 In December 2017, his tenure as leader of the governing ANC party runs out, but his term as the country's president only ends in 2019. Allowing Mr Zuma to continue as head of state but with the ANC under someone else's leadership could create two centres of power, which could be political suicide. So will the ANC #LetZumaFall as it did President Thabo Mbeki under similar circumstances? The International Criminal Court (ICC) is another that could face the threat of falling in Africa if more African countries continue to withdraw from the Rome Statute. A number of countries have notified the UN Secretary-General of their intention to withdraw, saying the ICC unfairly targets African leaders in its application of international justice. And now to international trends where fashion, like history, has a habit of repeating itself. A quick glance at catwalk signs for 2017 shows that the hems of women's skirts will be falling - to just below the knee. Apparently midi-skirts elongate the figure and flatter the wearer, so this must be a good fall. The Africa Cup of Nations tournament kicks off in mid-January in Gabon and Uganda carries the hopes of East Africa. The region has a terrible record in continental football. Uganda's last appearance in the finals was in 1978 when it lost to Ghana in the final. Uganda are hoping to become the first East African winners of Afcon for 55 years Kenya and Tanzania have never progressed beyond the group stage, so if Uganda can rise, East Africa can stand tall. In politics, despite all manner of socio-economic challenges, the spirit of the Africans is on the rise - they've already just about removed one long-serving president from power (The Gambia, even if he is still resisting ) and in 2017 a couple more might follow (DR Congo, Angola) When Africa stumbles, it must rise because as they say in Nigeria, the sun shines on those who stand before it shines on those who are sitting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-38458406

The Jump: GB Taekwondo has 'reservations' over Jade Jones' participation - BBC Sport

2017-01-03

GB Taekwondo chiefs admit "reservations" over Olympic champion Jade Jones taking part in a Channel 4 ski jump show before the World Championships.

Last updated on .From the section Sport GB Taekwondo chiefs say they "had reservations" but "understand" double Olympic champion Jade Jones' decision to take part in Channel 4's The Jump. The programme involves competitors learning to ski jump, and the last series saw several serious injuries. Gymnast Louis Smith and Paralympic cyclist and athlete Kadeena Cox will also take part in the new series. GB Taekwondo says it has has held "extensive" talks with Jones about the risks involved. The 23-year-old from north Wales is set to compete in taekwondo's World Championships later this year. She, Rio silver medallist Smith, and Cox, who won gold in both her disciplines at the Rio Paralympics, all receive funding from UK Sport to help them train for their respective events. Jones will still receive her full UK Sport funding during her time on the programme, while Cox will not. British Gymnastics has not yet responded to BBC Sport's request for a comment. A GB Taekwondo spokesperson said: "While we had our reservations, we understand Jade's desire to try new challenges and to take part in this show. We have held extensive discussions with Jade and her management and she is aware of the risks involved. "She has made an informed decision to take part in the show and has ensured that The Jump and its production company has all the requisite cover and medical provision is in place." Former Olympic heptathlete Louise Hazel, who finished second in the 2015 series after retiring from athletics, told BBC Radio 5 live that she was surprised current athletes were considering taking part in the show. "As an athlete you are always looking for the next thrill but I would advise them to withdraw," she said. "For those athletes who have retired it is OK to take a risk, but for those still in sport this could easily turn into a career-ending injury. "As a participant you know there is an element of risk, but there was a part of me seeking that out and it is a calculated risk. The question is whether people know the full extent of the risk before signing up." In the show's previous editions, Olympic gymnast Beth Tweddle needed surgery to have fractured vertebrae fused together after she was injured in training, while double gold medal winning swimmer Rebecca Adlington suffered a shoulder injury. Former Holby City actress Tina Hobley sustained knee, shoulder and arm injuries and has only recently stopped using crutches and Made In Chelsea star Mark-Francis Vandelli broke his ankle. In addition, athlete Linford Christie pulled a hamstring, ex-EastEnders actor Joe Swash chipped a bone in his shoulder, Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding injured a ligament and model Heather Mills hurt her knee and thumb. Channel 4 says there has been a "thorough review of safety procedures" before this year's series. How would injury harm the athletes' prospects? Jones, who was named BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality 2016 after going through the year unbeaten, is scheduled to take part in the World Championships in South Korea in June, aiming to claim the only major international title that has eluded her so far. Cox, 25, does not have a major cycling event this year, with no Para-cycling Track World Championships officially confirmed, but she would be expected to take part in the Para-Athletics World Championships in London in July. Also among the competitors are retired Olympic cycling champion and Tour de France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins, former rugby players Jason Robinson and Gareth Thomas, and ex-Liverpool and England striker Robbie Fowler.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/38494638

Johanna Konta reaches last eight at Shenzhen Open in China - BBC Sport

2017-01-03

British number one Johanna Konta recovers from losing the first set to reach the quarter-finals of the Shenzhen Open.

Last updated on .From the section Tennis British number one Johanna Konta recovered from a slow start to reach the quarter-finals of the Shenzhen Open in China. The world number 10 lost the first set to American Vania King, ranked 77th, and trailed 3-1 in the second. But she regained her composure to beat her opponent 1-6 6-3 6-2. Konta, who is the third seed at the event, will face either Kristyna Pliskova or qualifier Kai-Chen Chang in the last eight. Meanwhile, fellow Briton Naomi Broady will have to wait until Wednesday to start her campaign at the ASB Classic in Auckland because of bad weather. Broady, who is 90th in the world, had been due to face Danka Kovinic of Montenegro, ranked 20 places above her, but persistent rain ended Tuesday's play early.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38494401

Mike Phelan: Hull City sack head coach after less than three months in permanent role - BBC Sport

2017-01-03

Premier League strugglers Hull City sack head coach Mike Phelan less than three months after his caretaker role was made permanent.

Phelan, 54, took over as caretaker manager following Steve Bruce's departure in the summer, becoming a permanent appointment in October. But with City in the relegation zone, picking up three points from their last nine games, the club announced they had "parted company" with Phelan. Hull said they were already searching for a replacement, with an announcement to be made "in due course". Phelan made a promising start to his Hull City career, winning the manager of the month award for August, but the Tigers' last league win was on 6 November, a 2-1 victory over Southampton. Swansea's victory over Crystal Palace on Tuesday night sent Hull to the bottom of the table, three points from safety. Former Manchester United assistant Phelan was in charge of the club for just 85 days as a manager, plus 81 days as caretaker boss. Assistant Neil McDonald, goalkeeping coach Bobby Mimms and chief scout Stan Ternent have also left the club. On Twitter, the club said: "We would like to thank Mike for his efforts both as assistant manager and head coach over the last two years." Phelan's last game in charge was a 3-1 defeat by West Brom on New Year's Eve. City were leading 1-0 at half-time but collapsed in the second half, falling to a fifth defeat in seven games. Hull will next play fellow strugglers Swansea in the FA Cup third round before taking on Manchester United in the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-finals on 10 January. It has been a tumultuous season for the club, which is up for sale. In July, Bruce left as manager after gaining promotion to the Premier League with a breakdown in his relationship with vice-chairman Ehab Allam contributing to his departure. At the beginning of the season injuries had left the Tigers with only 13 fit senior players although Phelan, while in temporary charge, did begin the campaign with successive league wins. Victories have been harder to come by since September, however, and with fellow strugglers Swansea and Crystal Palace sacking their managers over Christmas, Phelan paid the price as newly promoted Hull attempt to maintain their Premier League status. Stoke manager Mark Hughes, whose team beat Watford 2-0 on Tuesday, said: "Mike got the job under difficult circumstances and I thought recent performances had markedly improved, so it showed he was having an impact. "He's a great football guy, but that's the Premier League for you - it's ruthless and sometimes, at this time of year, owners get panicky." The dash to avoid the drop from the Premier League has claimed another victim with Hull City's sacking of Mike Phelan. Phelan has gone the same way as Alan Pardew at Crystal Palace and Bob Bradley at Swansea City as further evidence that patience simply does not - indeed some clubs feel it cannot - exist when the threat of relegation looms. And yet here is a manager who took his time to accept the Hull job when contenders were hardly queuing outside the door of the KC Stadium and after being named Premier League manager of the month in August. Phelan has also guided Hull to the EFL Cup semi-final against his former club Manchester United but this has simply not figured in the club's calculations when weighed against the fact they are bottom of the table with only 13 points from 20 games. Phelan has hardly had massive backing in the transfer market and in many games Hull actually played well without getting points on the board. This has ultimately cost him his job. The Tigers now need to choose carefully and see if they can find a way to back a new manager in the January market - with former Birmingham City manager Gary Rowett the name being mentioned after Phelan's departure. Premier League management is a brutal business but there must still be a large measure of sympathy for Phelan after taking on a task which plenty thought was a thankless one.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38503364

Qatar Open: Sir Andy Murray into second round with 25th straight win - BBC Sport

2017-01-03

Sir Andy Murray extends his career-best winning streak to 25 competitive matches with a straight-set win over Jeremy Chardy at the Qatar Open.

Last updated on .From the section Tennis Sir Andy Murray extended his career-best winning streak in competitive matches to 25 with a straight-set win over Jeremy Chardy in the first round of the Qatar Open. The British world number one, 29, beat the Frenchman 6-0 7-6 (7-2). Chardy lost the first set in 20 minutes, but offered resistance in the second, taking it into a tie-break. Murray will play Gerald Melzer in the next round after the Austrian beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-7 (2-7) 6-3 6-2. The Scot said he was "pushed to the end" by the world number 69. "He didn't start well," said Murray, a three-time finalist in this tournament. "It's always difficult, the first match of the year. Both of us were probably feeling a bit nervous. "In the second set he played well. He was a lot more aggressive." Murray looked on course for a one-sided victory when Chardy failed to hold serve in the first set. But the Frenchman - who amassed seven double faults and 32 unforced errors in the match - broke Murray in the first game of the second set and managed to test the Briton until the tie-break. Murray's victory extended his winning streak in ATP Tour matches to 25 - the best of his career. His previous best run of consecutive wins was 22, which was ended by Marin Cilic at the Cincinnati Masters in August. Since then, his only loss on the ATP Tour has been a US Open quarter-final defeat by Kei Nishikori - although he was also defeated by Juan Martin del Potro in a Davis Cup match in September and by David Goffin in an exhibition tournament at the end of December. British number four Aljaz Bedene reached the second round of the Chennai Open with a 6-3 6-3 win over Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. The 27-year-old needed one hour and 15 minutes to beat the unseeded Spaniard. Bedene, who reached round three of the French Open last year, hit seven aces against the former world number 23. He will next play Slovakia's Martin Klizan, ranked 66 places above Bedene in the world rankings at 35.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38500073

Bradford Bulls: Former Super League champions liquidated - BBC Sport

2017-01-03

Bradford Bulls are liquidated after the club's administrator rejects a bid to save the club.

Former Super League champions Bradford Bulls have been liquidated after the club's administrator rejected a bid to save the club. The Bulls entered administration for a third time in four years in November. The administrators hoped to have a deal agreed by Christmas but turned down a bid from a consortium on 29 December. Despite the liquidation, the Rugby Football League has confirmed that a new Bradford side could compete in the second-tier Championship in 2017. The new Bradford team would start the season, which gets under way on the first weekend of February, with a 12-point deficit. They would also get the lowest funding of all Championship clubs from the RFL, receiving just £150,000. The RFL said in a statement: "To clarify the next steps for all concerned, the independent RFL board has met to determine how the future of professional rugby league in Bradford can move forward in 2017. "While a number of alternatives were considered the board were most mindful of the planning already undertaken by all other clubs in the competition structure, the season tickets already purchased and the players and staff who will now be seeking employment in and around the sport in 2017. "Accordingly the board has agreed that the wider interests of the sport is best satisfied if it offers a place in the Championship to any new club in Bradford and that such a club start the 2017 season on minus 12 points. "Any interested parties should contact the RFL directly." 'Everybody has been made redundant' Bradford Bulls general manager Stuart Duffy told BBC Radio Leeds: "The Rugby Football League have said they have contingency plans in place and someone could buy the club from the liquidators but at the moment everybody has been made redundant. "Everyone is very disappointed because we were led to believe that things would come to a successful conclusion on Tuesday. Nobody has been paid their wages for December and we had been hoping to be paid on Wednesday, so this is a bombshell. "This is a nightmare for everybody involved." The RFL said it intends to "offer support to all staff and players who have had their employment terminated". Head coach Rohan Smith, who joined Bradford on a three-year contract last May, and the entire playing staff were among those made redundant. But the Australian said he and many of the players would be willing to stay on under new owners to try to revive the club's fortunes. "I would love the opportunity to continue on if the new owners and the new management and I have the same beliefs and can work together," said Smith. "I imagine the vast majority of players would want to stay. Many have told me today they are not interested in going anywhere else." How it came to this Bradford Bulls were one of the most iconic names - and clubs - within British rugby league, having led the way when the sport switched to summer in 1996. However, the Bulls' downfall has been swift. In March 2012 they revealed a £1m shortfall and the club was placed in administration in June. That August, Bradford Bulls Holdings Limited was sold to OK Bulls limited, a consortium led by local businessman Omar Khan. In 2014 a second administration followed, along with a six-point penalty deduction, and they were relegated from Super League at the end of the season. Despite reaching the Million Pound Game in 2015, the Bulls lost to Wakefield and failed to reclaim their top-tier status. In 2016 they failed to reach 'The Qualifiers' altogether, finishing fifth in the Championship. "It's an incredibly sad day for the sport both locally, and nationally, with the news of the Bulls' downfall. We can only hope that there's a will, and a way, to attempt to reform the club as happened in the 1960s. "Having said that, when you consider that the recent administration is the club's third in four years, Tuesday's news may be an inevitable consequence of the instability at Odsal of late. "There was a large window in time during which the Bulls led and everyone else tried to follow - however, the path that the club has trodden in recent years will be one that others will look to avoid. "There's no doubt in my mind that Super League has been the poorer for the Bulls' relegation in 2014, and the sport will be the poorer for the club's demise in January 2017." Bradford Council leader, Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, said: "This is a difficult time for Bulls employees, players and fans. "We know the RFL worked hard to support a positive outcome which would protect the interests of rugby league football in Bradford. "I'm glad they are now taking steps to quickly re-establish the Bulls in time for the 2017 season. Everyone, including the council, is keen to get behind a new owner who can deliver a secure future for the club."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/38418199

Bacary Sagna: Man City defender must explain '10 against 12' Instagram post - BBC Sport

2017-01-03

Manchester City defender Bacary Sagna is asked to explain his "10 against 12" Instagram post to the Football Association.

Last updated on .From the section Football Sagna was booked in the match for an altercation with George Boyd immediately after Burnley's goal Manchester City defender Bacary Sagna has been asked by the Football Association to explain the "10 against 12" Instagram post he made after his side's 2-1 win over Burnley on Monday. City were reduced to 10 men in the 32nd minute when referee Lee Mason sent off midfielder Fernandinho. Sagna has deleted the post in question, but the FA has contacted the full-back to ask for his observations. The Frenchman has until 17:00 GMT on Friday to respond.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38498059

Chelsea: Record-chasers looking to strengthen in January, says Antonio Conte - BBC Sport

2017-01-03

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte says he could look to strengthen his side in the January transfer window to boost their title challenge.

Last updated on .From the section Football Chelsea boss Antonio Conte says he might try to strengthen his side in the January transfer window to boost the Blues' Premier League title challenge. The leaders are bidding for a record 14 straight wins in one top-flight season when they visit Tottenham on Wednesday. Victory would see them extend their lead over Liverpool to eight points. "There are some positions that, if we are able to find the right solution, it is important to take that solution," said Conte. "This championship is long. Also, I know the difficulty of the market and finding the right player. But we are talking about this." Conte's side beat Spurs 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in November as part their record-equalling run of 13 consecutive Premier League wins. "Against Tottenham was a tough game," added Conte. "For me, Tottenham are better than last season." The Italian also said that Diego Costa was "completely focused" after the in-form striker admitted having wanted to leave last summer. "When Diego decided to stay, he said he wanted to fight for this club and for his shirt. I wasn't concerned. He is showing great patience in the right way, in every moment of the game." Victory over Spurs on Wednesday would see Chelsea become the first team in history to win 14 consecutive English top-flight games in one season. A win in their next game at Leicester would give them the outright record of 15 straight wins in English football. So who are the other sides to rack up a run of 14 victories? When: The Gunners collected 13 straight victories to end the 2001-02 season - the only other Premier League side to manage 13 in a row in one season - before winning the first game of the 2002-03 campaign. Ended by: A 2-2 draw with West Ham at Upton Park on 24 August 2002. Champions: Arsenal claimed the 2001-02 Premier League title thanks to a 1-0 victory at Manchester United during their winning run, receiving the trophy after their 13th win against Everton. They finished runners-up to United the following year. When: Preston started their winning run on Christmas Day 1950 and went on until 27 March 1951. Ended by: A 3-3 draw at Southampton on 31 March 1951. Champions: Preston finished top of the table to be promoted to the First Division, then the top flight of English football. When: After losing their first game of the season 5-1 to Manchester United, the Bristol Babe, as they were nicknamed, went on a perfect run from 9 September to 2 December 1905. Ended by: A 1-1 draw away to Leeds City on 9 December 1905. Champions: Despite three more draws that December, Bristol City only lost one further game all season to claim the title and promotion to the First Division. When: A year before Bristol City matched them, Manchester United won 14 consecutive games between 15 October 1904 and 3 January 1905. Ended by: A 1-1 draw at Bristol City on 7 January 1905. Champions: Remarkably, United finished third and missed out on promotion to the First Division after falling behind Bolton and eventual champions Liverpool. They would be promoted in second behind Bristol City the following season. Every side to have reached 14 straight league wins has seen the streak end with an away draw in the following game. Chelsea could be going for their 15th win away at Leicester on 14 January - will it be the reigning champions who finally defy this year's favourites? Talk about rarity value - we might witness something here that no team has been able to achieve in any one top-flight season since this league was first played in 1888. And if they manage it, Chelsea will become only the fifth team to win 14 consecutive league matches at any time, in any of the divisions. Tottenham are already one of the victims of this Chelsea winning streak, having lost at Stamford Bridge in November. But they will have other ideas this time round, and with good reason too, after running into a rich vein of form of their own with four successive wins.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38497188

UK vinyl sales reach 25-year high - BBC News

2017-01-03

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Sales of vinyl topped three million in 2016, the highest total since 1991, music industry figures reveal.

Entertainment & Arts

David Bowie was the biggest-selling artist on vinyl last year Vinyl sales topped three million last year, the highest UK total in 25 years. More than 3.2 million records were sold in 2016, a rise of 53% on the previous year, according to the BPI, which represents the music industry. David Bowie's Blackstar was the most popular album on vinyl, selling more than double the number of copies of 2015's biggest-seller, Adele's 25. The last time vinyl fared so well in the UK, in 1991, Simply Red's Stars was the year's biggest-selling record. However, vinyl still only accounts for 2.6% of the overall music market - and while it continues to enjoy a resurgence, sales of CDs and downloads are falling rapidly. A total of 47.3 million CDs were bought in 2016, a drop of 11.7%; while downloads plummeted by 29.6%, with just 18.1 million albums bought online. Four years ago, when the download market was at its peak, that figure was 32.6 million. Now, consumers are increasingly turning to streaming services. According to the BPI, there were approximately 45 billion audio streams in 2016 - the equivalent of the UK's 27 million households each listening to 1,500 songs over the course of the year. In December, more than a billion streams were served in a single week for the first time. To put that in context, the UK is now streaming more songs in a week than it did in a month just three years ago. Additionally, the BPI's figures do not account for music listened to on YouTube because the Official Chart Company does not collect data from Google's video streaming service. However, it is estimated that if YouTube was included, the figure for streams accessed by music fans in the UK would double. Drake dominated the streaming charts with his album Views and hit single One Dance The most popular artists of 2016 were Adele and Coldplay, who outsold all their competitors, despite not releasing new material. Adele's 25, which came out in November 2015, was the year's biggest-seller (not counting compilations), shifting 753,000 copies. Coldplay were in second place with A Head Full of Dreams, which racked up 512,000 sales. Michael Ball and Alfie Boe released the most successful new album of the year, selling 512,000 copies of their record Together in just five weeks and topping the Christmas chart. Their sales victory was something of a surprise, given that they went up against high-profile new releases from the likes of Robbie Williams, Emeli Sande, Little Mix and Olly Murs. The year's biggest single was Drake's One Dance, which accumulated more than 141 million streams, while Justin Bieber's Purpose was 2016's most-streamed album. Overall, the music market grew by 1.5% over the course of 2016, achieving an estimated retail value of £1bn. Vinyl has now enjoyed nine consecutive years of growth since facing near extinction in 2007. Some fans prefer the "warmth" of the sound compared with digital files, while others buy LPs as souvenirs and works of art. Last year, a BBC/ICM poll found that people who listened to music on streaming services were more likely to buy vinyl - often as a goodwill gesture to an artist they loved. But 48% of those surveyed said they did not play the vinyl they bought - while 7% did not even own a turntable. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38487837

Michael van Gerwen beats Gary Anderson to win PDC World Darts Championship - BBC Sport

2017-01-03

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Michael van Gerwen outclasses defending champion Gary Anderson to win his second PDC World Darts Championship.

Darts

Michael van Gerwen first won the World Championship in 2014 Michael van Gerwen outclassed defending champion Gary Anderson to win his second PDC World Darts Championship. The world number one won 7-3 at the Alexandra Palace in a match that contained 42 180s, a record for a single darts match. Scotland's Anderson, winner in 2015 and 2016 broke the Van Gerwen throw to lead the favourite 2-1 after three sets. But Van Gerwen won 12 of the next 13 legs and, despite an Anderson rally, the Dutchman hit bullseye to seal it. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Michael van Gerwen: 'Not many better darts players than me' Overall, Van Gerwen averaged 107.79, the best in a final since Phil Taylor beat Raymond van Barneveld in 2009. "I feel absolutely over the moon," said the 27-year-old, who won his first title in 2014. "My average says it all. "He put me under pressure and I missed a few doubles but I managed to come into the game. "I've been working for this because it's the most important one. We all fight for this really hard and I'm really glad I did the right thing at the right moments because Gary is a phenomenal player." Anderson was looking to join Taylor and Eric Bristow as only the third man to win three successive world titles in either the PDC or BDO. His average of 104.93 was better than in his 2015 final win over Phil Taylor and 2016 defeat of Adrian Lewis. He nailed 22 maximums to Van Gerwen's 20, but his checkout percentage of 37.78 was inferior to the number one seed's brilliant 44.26. "It's well deserved for Michael, but I've had a good three years," said Anderson. "At 2-2 I just started to drop and got punished." In winning a second title, Van Gerwen, who won 25 tournaments in 2016, becomes the fifth man to win multiple PDC world crowns since the organisation's first staging of its own tournament in 1994. A fan invaded the stage at Alexandra Palace when Van Gerwen was throwing for the match He first threw for the match at 6-2 up, but was interrupted by a spectator who invaded the stage and lifted the trophy. Anderson went on to take that set, but Van Gerwen closed it out in the 10th to pick up the £350,000 prize money. "I worked really hard for this all year through," he added. "I've got great support from my family and this means a lot to me. This feels phenomenal." As two of the world's top four, Van Gerwen and Anderson automatically qualified for the Premier League, which begins in February, alongside Peter Wright and Lewis. Taylor and Barneveld have been handed wildcards and are joined by James Wade, Dave Chisnall, Jelle Klaasen and Kim Huybrechts. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/darts/38492223

Video shows Cairngorm mountain rescue of missing couple - BBC News

2017-01-03

Video is released of the mountain rescue of a couple who went missing overnight in "Arctic" weather.

Video has been released of the mountain rescue of a couple who went missing overnight in "Arctic" conditions. The GoPro footage was shot by the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team who located the couple, both in their 50s, in the Cairngorm Plateau. The couple are thought to be from England.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-38492670

Arnold Schwarzenegger makes debut as Celebrity Apprentice star - BBC News

2017-01-03

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Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his debut on US TV as the new star of The Celebrity Apprentice.

Entertainment & Arts

Schwarzenegger halted his acting career in 2003 to serve two terms as governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger has made his debut as the new star of The Celebrity Apprentice, a role he inherited from US President-elect Donald Trump. The veteran action star made his mark on the US TV show by replacing Trump's "You're fired" catchphrase with a more idiosyncratic "You're terminated". Boy George, Jon Lovitz and Motley Crue singer Vince Neil are among the stars competing to raise money for charities. Mr Trump retains an executive producer credit on the NBC series. According to the New York Times, the real estate mogul turned TV star and politician was a "ghostly presence" that was "sorely missed". Schwarzenegger, wrote its critic Mike Hale, exuded "robotic professionalism" but was hampered by "cautiousness and rigidity". Boy George (fifth from right) is among the celebrities taking part in the show The Telegraph, though, felt he was "more than qualified" to act as the "fake head of a fake business sitting in a fake boardroom". "He may not have Trump's business experience, but as a potential boss, he's a hell of a lot more intimidating," wrote TV Line's Andy Swift. Entertainment Weekly, meanwhile, said it was "nice" to see Schwarzenegger "following Trump's lead in the nepotism department" by appointing his nephew as one of his advisors. During Mr Trump's time on The Apprentice and its celebrity spin-off, his children Donald Jr and Ivanka frequently appeared as guest hosts and advisors. "You're terminated" refers to Schwarzenegger's role as a killer cyborg in 1984's The Terminator and its numerous sequels. The 69-year-old former bodybuilder halted his Hollywood career in 2003 to serve two terms as governor of California. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38495201

Life on the world's steepest street - BBC News

2017-01-03

Baldwin Street in New Zealand is the world's steepest residential road.

Baldwin Street in the city of Dunedin on New Zealand's South Island is officially the world's steepest residential road. At its steepest, the slope has a gradient of 35%. So what's it like to live on a road which must strike fear into the hearts of postmen and paper boys? We went along to find out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38461418

Jack Laugher: Olympic diving champion furious after diving coach quits GB role - BBC Sport

2017-01-03

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Olympic diving champion Jack Laugher criticises British Diving after his coach quits for a new role with Australia.

Diving

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Olympic champion Jack Laugher has blamed British Diving after his coach quit his role to join Australia's team. Adrian Hinchliffe guided Laugher and Chris Mears to Team GB's first ever Olympic diving gold in Rio. He is employed by Leeds City Council and worked for British Diving as a consultant but wanted to make a full-time switch to prepare for Tokyo 2020. However, British Diving failed to make an offer and Hinchliffe has joined Australia Diving as head coach. "He's achieved things as a coach that no-one in this country has ever done before and it's a massive insult to me and to Ady," Laugher told BBC Look North. "British Diving and the national performance director [Alexei Evangulov] have really overlooked how much of a key part he is. "To have someone like Ady say 'sack this I'm leaving', well it should never have got to this point." In a statement, British Swimming, of which British Diving is a part, said: "British Diving is obviously disappointed with Ady's decision to move on to work in Australia, as he has done great things for the sport. "We were aware that he wanted to work with the sport full-time and we were in the process of beginning discussions but unfortunately timescales didn't allow these to conclude. "We'd like to thank him for all of his hard work and dedication, and we wish him well for the future in Australia." In addition to Laugher and Mears, Olympic bronze medallist Daniel Goodfellow, Commonwealth champion Rebecca Gallantree and world junior medallists Lois Toulson and Katherine Torrance are all based at the City of Leeds set-up. Like Hinchliffe, Plymouth Diving's head coach Andy Banks has enjoyed success - initially with Tom Daley and more recently with the likes of Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow - and is also employed by the local council. Tom Daley's current coach, Jane Figueredo - who heads Dive London at the 2012 Olympic Aquatics Centre - is employed by British Diving on a full-time contract. Laugher says coach Ady Hinchliffe (right) has had his importance to British Diving "overlooked" As a result of the squad's successes in Rio and potential for medals in Tokyo, British Diving was awarded a funding increase - from £7.5m to £8.8m - by UK Sport heading into the next Games. "After the Games it's really tough for sports not knowing what they'll receive, but ours actually went up, but unfortunately we haven't seen that money travel to the coaching staff which is a real shame," Mears told the BBC. Hinchliffe feels he was left with "no option" but to accept the role with the Australian Diving team. "To really help those like Jack and Chris as well as the other superstars we had out in Rio keep improving, I needed to be in a full-time role," said Hinchliffe. "Coaches tend to be humble by their nature - it's the athletes who go up on the podium - but it's such an important role. "British sport is so successful at the moment and we need to examine all of the components behind that, but in my particular case I just don't think that's happened."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/diving/38502681

Labour in 2017: Can Corbyn ride anti-elitism wave? - BBC News

2017-01-03

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Can Labour make Jeremy Corbyn the Left's Trump and reach out to the wider electorate in 2017?

UK Politics

Can Jeremy Corbyn reach out beyond Labour Party members? "Our job is to make Jeremy Corbyn the Left's Donald Trump", whispered a political adviser over cold sausage rolls at Labour's annual Christmas party, "Trump shows if we take the anti-establishment message and run with it, anything is possible". This most unlikely of strategies, to replicate the electoral tactics of a man Mr Corbyn has called divisive and wrong, is clear. If you have lost trust in politicians, well, don't go for fake anti-elitism. Go for the real thing. Corbyn. The Labour leader's office are convinced that the anti-elitist wave which delivered Jeremy Corbyn the leadership twice is the same that brought President Trump and Brexit. How do they ride that wave? Efforts will be made in the early part of the year to roll out radical retail policies on the economy and the cost of living, with an attempt at every turn to avoid the potentially sticky wicket of Brexit. Whether he will be able to sell his message beyond Labour's 515,000 members remains to be seen but we should see a return to the campaign rallies and speaking tours that played such a part of his summer 2015 leadership bid. Can Jeremy Corbyn ride the wave of anti-elitism that delivered Donald Trump the US presidency? Harnessing the energy of large crowds and speaking direct through TV into the living rooms of the general public, rather like one Donald J Trump, will be just one part of a new turbo-charged media strategy. This will be first put to the test in the Copeland by-election. The resignation of Jamie Reed, one of Mr Corbyn's most prominent critics, will mean the party having to defend a 2,500 majority in a seat which Labour has held since 1935. It should be an easy hold for an opposition party taking on a mid-term government; after all a governing party hasn't made a by-election gain, without a defection, for 56 years. The bookies think the Conservatives have a good chance of taking the seat, but after outperforming many people's expectations in Oldham West and Royton, it would be foolish to write Labour off six weeks before voting begins. Andy Burnham's mayoral bid in Manchester will be among high-profile contests Next year's set of local elections will take place on 4 May and will see elections to English, Scottish and Welsh councils, as well as the first set of elections for newly created regional mayors. The most high-profile race for Labour will be Andy Burnham's attempt to become the first directly elected mayor of the Manchester region. But there will be more competitive elections in the West Midlands, where MEP Sion Simon faces a challenge from Andy Street - the former managing director of John Lewis - who is standing for the Conservatives. Outside of the inaugural mayoral contests, there will be elections to 34 councils in England. This will be a challenging environment for the Labour Party; back in 2013 the party made substantial gains and is facing elections in swathes of safe Conservative shire areas. The 2013 vote share of 29% was actually two points behind their final general election result and a replication of this result would not be too surprising. The danger, perhaps, would be if Labour fell into third place behind a resurgent UKIP and Conservative Party. Should that happen, then it is likely the carefully maintained silence of Mr Corbyn's opponents within the Parliamentary Labour Party will break. Perhaps the most consequential battles will be outside national electoral contests and within the movement itself. Len McCluskey will face re-election for general secretary of Unite in April. Few individuals have been as vital as the leader of the UK's biggest union to preserving Jeremy Corbyn's position. Moderates are organising hard to elect Gerard Coyne, a close friend of Tom Watson, someone who, they think, could deliver thousands of votes for a moderate candidate in a future leadership contest. Momentum, the powerful grassroots organisation that supports Mr Corbyn's leadership, will also face internal challenges in 2017. Since the party conference in Liverpool, a bitter dispute has broken out over who should hold the reins of power. The organisation is facing internal squabbles over its future direction with a concerted effort to remove Corbyn ally Jon Lansman from his leadership role. Momentum tearing itself apart could seriously imperil Jeremy Corbyn's efforts to make Labour a movement. This will be, of course, with a Parliamentary party doggedly against him but maintaining a Trappist silence following Mr Corbyn's 2016 re-election as Labour leader. In all of this the key question for Jeremy Corbyn will be whether he can translate the powerful populist movement that took him to the leadership of his party in 2015 and 2016 onto a national stage. Polling, with Labour at its lowest ebb since the dog days of Gordon Brown's government, suggests that it is a tall order. But if 2016 has taught us anything, it is to expect the unexpected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38408198

Newspaper headlines: Istanbul attack aftermath, GP surgeries in A&E and economists' Brexit concerns - BBC News

2017-01-03

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The aftermath of the Istanbul nightclub attack and a call for GP surgeries to be located in A&E departments make headlines.

The Papers

Turkish police stand guard at the scene of the Istanbul nightclub attack The Daily Telegraph is one of a number of papers to report on the terrorist attack in Istanbul. It says a blurry picture of the gunman, who killed 39 people, is emerging, with reports that he may be from Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan. Writing in the i, Patrick Cockburn says it is clear the Turkish government does not know what to do to stop such attacks. He says they are likely to continue because so-called IS is too big and well-resourced to be eliminated. He notes that, as in France and Germany, it is impossible to stop attacks when ordinary civilians are the targets and the killers are prepared to die. The Times reports on a survey of doctors that suggests most believe GP surgeries should be placed in A&E departments to deal with patients who do not need emergency treatment. The study of more than 500 doctors by the Press Association found most believed such a move was necessary to relieve the pressure on A&E. The Daily Mail highlights official NHS figures showing that about 13% of patients who attend A&E have minor problems and are discharged without treatment. The Financial Times says economists are more worried about the consequences of Brexit than they were a year ago, despite the economy showing little obvious damage since the vote in June to leave the EU. The FT's annual survey of UK economists, which had 122 responses, found a large majority expect growth to slow in 2017 as higher inflation hits household incomes. The paper notes that attacks on the profession, especially by Leave campaigners, have not led to a significant change of thinking about Brexit. Department store Harrods is being accused of short-changing some of its staff, according to the Guardian. The paper says a trade union is claiming the owners are keeping up to 75% of service charges in the store's cafes and restaurants. A spokeswoman for Harrods tells the paper that service charges are shared out among staff members - but only if they accept a cut in basic pay. The paper says it is the latest in a series of examples where high-profile hospitality firms and businesses have been found to be withholding service charges and tips from workers. The future of village halls is under threat, warns the Daily Telegraph, because communities are struggling to find young volunteers to help run them. It says the halls, of which there are said to be around 10,000 in Britain, are the cornerstones of many villages. But it says younger residents often work long hours away from their village, while the newly retired often do not want to commit to the duties required. Finally, the Daily Star is warning of bad weather, stating that its going to be the "coldest January ever". The paper predicts temperatures will drop to -15C in parts of the country, with heavy snow expected too. It adds that "transport chaos is almost certain".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-38492919

Stargazers spot glowing Venus and Moon - BBC News

2017-01-03

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Clear skies allow for the spotting of the planet, despite it being 25 million miles away

UK

Susan Snow took this snap from her garden in Bishop's Cleeve, just north of Cheltenham Stargazers have had their heads turned by the sight of the bright Moon and the planet Venus on Monday night. Clear skies gave people across the UK a great view of the planet sitting below a crescent Moon. Keen snappers got their cameras out to record the moment and took to social media to share the images. And some were hoping to see Mars and even Neptune if the skies remained clear. Sarah Mills got this picture in Cumbria, near to Cartmel Kay Koyama-Gore captured the skyline over the water of Leith During January, Venus will reach its peak height above the horizon, according to the Beckstrom Observatory. It will also see the distance between Mars and Venus get smaller as Venus gets higher each night. Derek Tracy took this picture of the London view Joanna Noble got this dusky shot in Kingswinford in the West Midlands Professor Brian Cox took to Twitter to answer people's questions about the appearance of the planet, calling it "very beautiful." Brian Barlow was distracted from the football in Manchester by the night sky Andy Holland caught this shot above Finsbury Park in London But stargazers were advised to look again in the morning before the sun comes up, as they may also be able to spot Jupiter. And Albany Cope pictured the sky in Wiltshire to show the Moon and Venus

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38492551

The most important words May will ever deliver? - BBC News

2017-01-17

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It was a simple, clear message from Theresa May amid the grandeur of Lancaster House.

UK Politics

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The prime minister declined four times to answer questions about when she had been aware of the "misfire'" Under the gilt and candelabra of Lancaster House where Margaret Thatcher extolled the virtues of joining the single market, Theresa May has uttered some of the most important words she will ever deliver. She has, for the first time explicitly, confirmed that she has decided not to try to preserve our membership of the European single market. Instead she is hoping to conclude a deal with the rest of the EU that will still give business the access it needs to trade with the rest of the continent without barriers, tariffs or any new obstacles. Since the referendum she and her ministers have simply refused to be so explicit. Some Remainers have argued that she ought to try to keep us in the vast partnership, the risks to the economy are too vast, and while it might be complicated to achieve, the prize is simply too great to give up. For months some ministers have privately whispered about complex solutions that might keep elements of membership, the choices not being binary, mechanisms that might give a sort of membership with a different name. Well no more, the simple and clear message from Theresa May's speech is that we are out. The irony that she has delivered that vow on the same spot where her predecessor swore the transformative value of the single market hangs alongside the glittering chandeliers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38653236

My Shop: Kristin Baybars' toy shop in London - BBC News

2017-01-17

Kristin Baybars has made and sold toys from her shop for 40 years - and modern toys don't impress her.

Kristin Baybars has been making and selling toys for the past four decades from her self-named shop in Gospel Oak, London. Money has never been her motive but with more people shopping online, times are getting harder - and a housing development next door is adding to her woes. Video journalist Dougal Shaw went to visit her to find out what she makes of modern toys. This video is part of a series from the BBC Business Unit called My Shop. The series focuses on distinctive, independent shops and is filmed on a smartphone. To suggest a shop email us. For the latest updates about the series follow video journalist Dougal Shaw on Twitter or Facebook.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38642319

Reality Check: Can there be a quick UK-USA trade deal? - BBC News

2017-01-17

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Donald Trump has said he would like a quick trade deal with the UK. Is that possible?

Business

The claim: The UK and USA can quickly negotiate a trade deal Reality Check verdict: The earliest we could possibly get a deal is 2019, when the UK leaves the EU under the government's current timetable. The complexities of the process mean a trade deal with the US could take considerably longer. In an interview with the Times, Donald Trump has promised a quick trade deal with post-Brexit Britain. The president-elect said: "We're going to work very hard to get it done quickly and done properly." How quickly depends what you mean by quickly and what kind of deal you want, because EU treaties prohibit the UK from conducting formal negotiations while it is still a member of the EU. Also, remember that this is the same Donald Trump who has attacked American companies that use NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, to build cars in Mexico and sell them in the USA, and has criticised a proposed pan-Pacific trade deal as the "rape of our country". He is also opposed to TTIP, the current talks between the USA and EU to reach a trade deal. But given he seems all in favour of a free trade deal with the UK, how long will it take and what will it involve? Even the easiest trade deal between perfectly willing partners would take years and we won't even be able to begin formal negotiations until we leave the EU, probably in two years. We will be able to have unofficial talks though, as the prime minister's spokesman put it on Monday: "When she [Theresa May] visits the States she can have an early discussion, but we will abide by our obligations while in the EU." Technically therefore, the quickest we would be able to get a deal is by 2019, but it is very unlikely to be that quick, not least because the deal the UK ends up doing with the EU would have an impact on the deal it gets with the US. The first part of any negotiations would be relatively easy. Tariffs, which are taxes on goods entering a country, are already quite low between the USA and the EU: they average 3%. A free-trade deal would aim to bring them all down to zero, but it is non-tariff barriers that are the real problem. This covers everything from bank regulations and car safety standards to animal welfare and environmental protection. The easiest deal would be for the USA to accept all our standards and regulations and for us to accept all theirs. But this is where it can get messy. For instance, the UK has much stricter rules on food standards, GM crops and hormones in farm animals. Just letting American food into the UK could undermine those standards and put British farmers at a disadvantage. Then there is the thorny issue of the NHS; do we open it up to competition from US medical companies or do we seek to protect it? Negotiating an optout for the NHS is perfectly possible, but it would take time and America might ask for something else in return. The EU and the USA agreed to start negotiating a trade deal in 2011, and those talks have become bogged down because of a whole host of such issues, including how to resolve disputes once a deal is signed. The UK should be a quicker and nimbler negotiator than the EU, which has 27 governments to keep on board, but that doesn't mean the issues are any less controversial.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38639638

Puppy recovering after swallowing kitchen knife - BBC News

2017-01-17

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A puppy who swallowed an 8in kitchen knife is recovering after undergoing life-saving emergency surgery.

Glasgow & West Scotland

Macie, who is now almost 15 weeks old, is recovering at home A puppy who swallowed an 8in (20cm) kitchen knife is recovering after undergoing life-saving surgery. Twelve-week-old Staffordshire bull terrier Macie was rushed to the emergency vet after she began choking. Her owner thought she had eaten a toy but X-rays revealed a knife, with the handle lodged in her intestines and the tip of the blade in her gullet. The PSDA vet who has been caring for Macie since her operation said she was "extremely lucky to survive". This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A puppy who swallowed an 8in kitchen knife is recovering after life-saving surgery. Owner Irene Paisley, 46, from Glasgow, had lost her previous Staffie to cancer just two months earlier and feared the worst for puppy Macie. She said: "Macie was making a squeaking sound - I thought she'd swallowed part of a toy. Then she was sick, but there was no sign of a toy, and she started choking. "I was terrified. Poor Macie was still choking and, by the time we arrived at the vet's, there was blood coming out of her nose. The loss of our previous dog was still very raw and the thought of losing Macie was devastating." The puppy underwent immediate emergency surgery at an out-of-hours vet service in Glasgow to remove the knife while Ms Paisley, her partner and four children waited at home for news. PDSA vet Emily Ronald, said: "I've never seen an X-ray like Macie's. She was extremely lucky to survive. Her saving grace was that she swallowed the handle-end first - the blade-end would undoubtedly have pierced her organs, likely causing fatal injuries. "The morning after surgery, she was bouncing all over the place as if nothing had happened. Macie has been back for frequent check-ups over the past two weeks and we're pleased she's recovering and healing well." Ms Paisley added: "I couldn't believe it when they said Macie had swallowed a knife. I have no idea where she got hold of it - she could have pinched it out of the dishwasher, but no-one saw what happened. None of us could sleep that night as we knew Macie might not survive." She added: "Although she's only young, Macie is already a big part of the family. She brings us so much joy and happiness, and means the world to the children. Without PDSA, she wouldn't have received her life-saving treatment and wouldn't be here today." PDSA provides free veterinary care to sick and injured pets of people in need and promotes responsible pet ownership. Over the years, the charity's vets have removed items including tent pegs, golf balls, radio aerials and rubber ducks during surgery on pets. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-38649586

When fast food gets an Indian twist - BBC News

2017-01-17

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The BBC's in-house cartoonist, Kirtish Bhatt, on McDonald's bid to become "more Indian".

India

McDonald's created quite a stir when it announced plans to start serving classic Indian dishes in the form of burgers. One dish to get the treatment is the hugely popular masala dosa, which is a type of rice pancake with a potato filling. Many Indians took to Twitter last week to share their views on McDonald's "dosa burger" and "anda bhurji burger" (masala scrambled eggs). Some saw this as an attempt by McDonald's to appropriate Indian food, but others chose humour to suggest more dishes for a McMakeover. Here's the BBC's in-house cartoonist, Kirtish Bhatt, on these suggestions and on India's take on global fast food chains. Now the samosa is a humble but very popular street snack in India. As one Twitter user suggested, McDonald's should include it in its menu to go fully Indian. Another Twitter user said McDonald's Indian menu would not be complete without lassi, a sweet yogurt-based thick drink. While McDonald's is trying to become more Indian, some local shops try hard to look global and name themselves after popular global fast-food chains, often with a twist. Kerala is a state in southern India, where famous meals include sadya - a feast served on a banana leaf. KFC would look very different if it were done Indian-style! If Subway had started in India, it might have been inspired by the popular south Indian surname Subramanian. It would sell rice cakes and lentil stew (sambar), not sandwiches and salads. US Pizza is a popular food chain across India, where pizzas are often connected with the US rather than any other country. In that spirit, there is absolutely no reason why "US" can't also stand for "Uttam Singh", which is a popular north Indian name!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-38633567

Hull bin man kicking rubbish under car caught on CCTV - BBC News

2017-01-17

A bin man is filmed spilling rubbish on to a Hull street and kicking it beneath a parked car.

A bin man has been filmed spilling rubbish on to a Hull street and kicking it under a parked car. The CCTV footage was taken from a house in the Bransholme area of the city and sent to the BBC. It shows the bin man kicking dirty nappies that have fallen out of the top of a wheelie bin, which he is pushing to a council-owned lorry. In a statement, Hull City Council said: "We aim to provide the highest level of service, and we will be investigating this matter thoroughly. "This is completely unacceptable behaviour, and the appropriate action will be taken."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-38653757

Valtteri Bottas to partner Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes in 2017 season - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

Valtteri Bottas succeeds Nico Rosberg as Lewis Hamilton's team-mate at Mercedes, with Felipe Massa returning to Williams.

Last updated on .From the section Formula 1 Valtteri Bottas has succeeded retired world champion Nico Rosberg as Lewis Hamilton's team-mate at Mercedes. The move, expected since December, also sees Brazilian Felipe Massa come out of retirement to replace the 27-year-old Finn at Williams. It's going to take a while to understand that this is really happening Bottas has signed a one-year deal with the option for more, while Rosberg moves into an ambassadorial role. Mercedes' young driver Pascal Wehrlein, passed over in favour of Bottas, joins the Swiss Sauber team. • None Bottas faces challenge of his life at Mercedes 'Valtteri fits very well in our team' Rosberg's shock retirement, announced just five days after he wrapped up his maiden world title, was a "challenging situation for the team to handle", according to Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. "Sometimes in life, unexpected circumstances provide interesting opportunities," he added. "Nico's decision in December was a big surprise. "But weathering the storm makes you more resilient and we see this as another opportunity for the team to grow. "I think Valtteri fits very well in our team, as a driver he's very fast, and he has also the heart in the right place. "He shares our values and passion, and he's modest and humble and he's hard working." For Bottas, the move is the opportunity of a lifetime. He has been in F1 for four seasons and has shown well at Williams alongside first Pastor Maldonado and then Massa. "It's very exciting times for me," said Bottas, whose best F1 results so far are two second places, at the British and German grands prix in 2014. "I think it's going to take a while to understand that this is really happening. "It's definitely another dream come true, to race in another team with such great history - especially in the recent years, which have been so impressive. "I think with Lewis we are going to be a strong pair together. I really respect him as a driver and a person. "I'm sure we are going to be close, and we're going to be both pushing each forward. I'm sure we can work as a team." Wolff has said he will end his ties with the personal management of Bottas' career now the driver is under his employment. 'It felt like the right thing to do' Massa, 35, announced his retirement at the end of last season but quit F1 only because he knew he was not wanted at Williams and there was no other good seat available to him. A winner of 11 grands prix, he said: "Given the turn of events over the winter, I wish Valtteri all the best at Mercedes. "In turn, when I was offered the chance to help Williams with their 2017 F1 campaign, it felt like the right thing to do." Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams said: "With Valtteri having a unique opportunity to join the constructors' champions, we have been working hard to ensure that an agreement could be made with Mercedes. "Felipe has always been a much-loved member of the Williams family, and having the opportunity to work with him again is something we all look forward to. "He was always going to race somewhere in 2017, as he has not lost that competitive spirit, and it was important that we had a strong replacement in order for us to let Valtteri go. "Felipe rejoining us provides stability, experience and talent to help lead us forward. He is a great asset for us." Massa, who has signed a one-year deal, is an experienced and known quantity for Williams, who needed a driver over 25 to partner the 18-year-old Canadian rookie Lance Stroll as a result of their title sponsor, drinks giant Martini. Why did Mercedes not pick Wehrlein? Mercedes Formula 1 boss Wolff negotiated a deal to release Bottas from Williams because he believed Wehrlein was not yet ready for promotion. He turned to Sauber, who use engines from Mercedes' rivals Ferrari, to find a seat for the German to continue his development in F1. Wehrlein will partner Swede Marcus Ericsson in what will be his second season in the sport. The 22-year-old drove for Manor in his debut season last year but the British team are in administration and their participation in F1 in 2017 is in serious doubt. Sauber team boss Monisha Kaltenborn said Wehrlein had shown "talent throughout his career". She added: "Last year, in his rookie Formula 1 season, he proved his potential by scoring one point in the Austrian Grand Prix. "There is surely more to come from Pascal, and we want to give him the chance to further grow and learn at the pinnacle of motorsport." Wehrlein, whose move is likely to have been facilitated by financial support from Mercedes for Sauber, added: "It is a new challenge in a new team, and I am really excited and looking forward to this new adventure. "Our objective is to establish ourselves in the midfield and to score points on a regular basis."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38489054

Kitty the cat has operation after swallowing Kitty toy - BBC News

2017-01-17

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A cat called Kitty undergoes life-saving surgery after swallowing a toy cat - also named Kitty.

Manchester

Kitty the ginger tabby swallowed a plastic figure from the Kitty in My Pocket children's toy range The ginger tabby's worried owners took her to the vets after she gulped down the plastic figure from the Kitty in My Pocket children's toy range. An X-ray revealed the toy had become lodged in the pet's abdomen and threatened to perforate her intestine. But following a successful operation at Manchester Vet Centre, Kitty is now home and recovering well. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kitty the cat had to have an operation after swallowing the toy Owner Paul Grice, 38, of Denton, Tameside, said: "We were really upset as we'd had Kitty from a little kitten. You get yourself worked up and it's totally out of your hands. "We had absolutely no idea that she'd swallowed anything and only found out as a result of the X-ray. What are the chances of a cat called Kitty swallowing a cat called Kitty?" Vet Ann Mee said it is more common for dogs to run into trouble after swallowing items Vet Ann Mee said: "Kitty was very poorly, she was dehydrated and lethargic. "Sometimes, when we have a foreign body present, we can milk them through to the large intestines to allow the animal to pass it naturally. "But this was a hard plastic toy with a prominent tail and ears which had got caught in the intestinal wall. Any attempt to move it down would have ruptured the intestinal wall itself." Paul's wife Michelle, 36, said: "Kitty is glued to my little girl. If we'd lost her it doesn't bear thinking about. We're just thrilled to have her home." The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-38655137

Germany shivers in new wind blowing from US - BBC News

2017-01-17

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German politicians are desperately trying to build and forge ties with US President-elect Donald Trump.

Europe

Is it possible to think of an odder couple than Angela Merkel and Donald Trump? German politicians and civil servants are desperately trying to build and forge ties with Team Trump. It doesn't appear to be going terribly well. The US president-elect has condemned Angela Merkel's decision to let in 890,000 migrants as a "catastrophic mistake" and dismissed the European Union as "basically a vehicle for Germany". He has also threatened German car-maker BMW with a 35% tariff if it builds a plant in Mexico. His remarks have provoked dismay, but not surprise, in Berlin. And it's still not clear when Chancellor Merkel will meet the new president. For now the only certainty is that there will be no immediate reprise of the warm political alliance fostered by Mrs Merkel and Barack Obama. The Merkel-Obama warmth, on the other hand, has survived difficult tests It survived the embarrassing revelation that US spies hacked into Mrs Merkel's mobile phone, and he was a vocal supporter of both the EU and her decision to open Germany's doors to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in 2015. The president-elect, she said, had laid out - again - his position. Her own views, she added, were already well known. Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel was less diplomatic, pointing out that the migrant crisis in Europe was the result of faulty, American interventionism in the Middle East. How the transatlantic tone has changed. For all his German heritage, Germans have not taken to Donald Trump. His campaign rhetoric repulsed many here. A poll for a national broadcaster in the run-up to the US presidential on 8 November election found just 4% thought he was the right candidate for the job. The US car market is extremely important to German manufacturers And his approach to the German car industry is raising eyebrows. Few here believe Congress would support his apparent and inflammatory threat to impose a 35% tax on German cars sold to the US. To be sure the US market is important and so is the country as a location of German manufacturing plants. But as the head of the German auto industry, Matthias Wissmann, put it last week: "The automotive industries in both the US and Germany have expressed their support for a trade agreement that has fewer non-tariff trade barriers and eliminates import duties as far as possible." German MEP Manfred Weber was less subtle on Monday. "We can put the thumbscrews on US companies too if need be," he said. No wonder, perhaps, one of the country's leading economists called upon the government to seek dialogue with Donald Trump. Clemens Fuest, president of the institute for economic research, said there was a risk Mr Trump would not achieve his targets of more industrial jobs in the US and fewer imports, and that he could identify a scapegoat in the German economy and its reliance on exports. There is an unnerving sense here that this goes beyond domestic concerns. Rather that Germany's - Europe's - position on the world stage is shifting. Angela Merkel's partnership with Barack Obama made for a powerful dynamic. Her role as interlocutor between Russia and the West also gave her and Germany clout. That may all be about to change, leaving Mrs Merkel to defend - perhaps single-handedly - the integrity of an EU whose fragmentation, it appears, would be welcomed not just by Moscow but by the new US administration too. So Mr Trump's disdain for Nato, which he described as "obsolete", and his apparent contempt for the EU are causing concern at the highest level - and not just in Berlin. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said that European unity was the best response to Donald Trump. Echoing that sentiment, Mrs Merkel said that the EU must work together to tackle the common challenges of terrorism, external border controls and the digital single market. Europe's fate, she added, lay in its own hands. For now she and her ministers are preparing to take a pragmatic approach. She would work with the new administration and see what agreements could be made, she said. One MP told me that politicians were adjusting, albeit reluctantly and with a degree of bewilderment, to a very different kind of partnership. It is, after all, almost impossible to think of an odder couple than Angela Merkel and Donald Trump.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38642810

Christian Dior boss: Fashion success through reinvention - BBC News

2017-01-17

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Maria Grazia Chiuri is the first female creative head at Christian Dior. Sidney Toledano, the boss of the fashion house, tells the BBC why it's time for a change.

Business

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sidney Toledano is "very pleased". The spectacular fashion show he has just been watching has gone well. The event, staged last September in a vast hall in the grounds of the Musee Rodin in Paris, featured designs by Maria Grazia Chiuri, the new artistic director of Christian Dior, the fashion house run by Mr Toledano. Ms Chiuri is the first woman to be the creative head at Dior. The time is right for change, says Mr Toledano. "Who can understand better than a woman the needs of a woman, and express [her] identity today… in the West, in China, wherever in the world?" he says. Ms Chiuri's show, which was well received by critics, displayed a feminist tone, including a T-shirt with a slogan that read "We Should All Be Feminists". Maria Grazia Chiuri is the first woman to be the creative head at Dior In 2017, the House of Dior celebrates its 70th anniversary. In an industry where the new is all-important, keeping brands fresh over the long term is tricky. But there are probably few people who know as much about how to do this as Sidney Toledano, who has run Dior since the 1990s. He grew up in Casablanca in Morocco, where one of his closest friends was Joseph Ettedgui, who later went on to establish the successful fashion retail chain, Joseph, in the UK. You can't identify a fashion classic through a marketing plan, says Dior boss Sidney Toledano You need to keep your design team onside. "You don't send a memo to tell them what to do," says Mr Toledano In the 1950s and 1960s, Mr Toledano recalls, Casablanca's lifestyle attracted a cosmopolitan crowd from Europe and the US. "I grew up seeing people very well dressed, and this is one reason why I like fashion. "It was about feeling good - to have the right shirt, to have the right pair of jeans," he says. "Joseph and many of my friends had the same culture." Despite his interest in fashion, Mr Toledano ended up training as an engineer. He found the disciplines he learnt during his studies helpful in his later career. But it was not until he went to work for the French footwear business Kickers that he found his true vocation. The brand built a big following in the youth market for its boots and shoes soon after it was founded in 1970. "It was my first contact with a different type of product," Mr Toledano recalls. "I discovered the promise of comfort, quality, excellence and design." Perhaps the most important lesson he learnt from his time at Kickers, he says, was that "you don't build a name from nowhere". The bedrock of a successful company, at least in the fashion world, is one or more "iconic" products, which can provide a springboard for building a reputation, he says. A product like this confers certain advantages, explains Mr Toledano. It can act as an ambassador for the brand. It can also be almost endlessly re-versioned by a new designer, offering the chance to create something fresh and contemporary, while simultaneously celebrating the brand's heritage. He cites the example of the Bar jacket, which was first designed by Christian Dior himself in 1947. It has remained an emblematic product ever since, being reinterpreted by the creative directors who followed, such as John Galliano, Raf Simons, and now Maria Grazia Chiuri. Dior's new collection went down in postwar fashion history as the "New Look" So how do you create one of these key items in the first place? At Dior today, Mr Toledano says, when new people (some with master's degrees in business, or MBAs) join the company, they often say to him, "let's launch a new iconic product," to which he replies, "if you define it like that, you won't do it." For him, a classic item is "like a talented baby". "You have to recognise and identify it - but you don't do it through a marketing plan." Instead, he says, the answer is to create the right conditions, making sure the culture and atmosphere are conducive to creativity. Above all else, you must maintain excellent relations with your design team. "You don't send a memo to tell them what to do," he says. A fashion house boss needs make sure its culture and atmosphere are conducive to creativity, says Mr Toledano He likens a fashion house chief executive's role to that of the director of an opera, who has to ensure that the conductor, singers, orchestra and audience are all happy. Mr Toledano adds that it's a job that requires intuition and maturity, and to be able to get on well with others. The approach he employs at Dior - a range that mixes classic and new items, created by designers he believes have exceptional talent - offers much to admire, say experts. Mr Toledano is right to believe that "you can't make an iconic product to order", says consultant and author Peter York, who has advised many large luxury businesses. "That really does depend on the spirit of the times and a brilliant designer and a happy coincidence." Magic can happen, says Mr Toledano - "it's an attitude in life" But the approach is not an easy path to follow and can be risky, says Mr York, since it inevitably places great emphasis on the qualities of a few people at the top. "There's a real danger that the original spirit of the business goes when one man or one woman goes and gets replaced by a committee of MBAs," he says. "If you lose your genius you have a bumpy time until you find another one." For Sidney Toledano, there's another factor to consider: luck. Just like a classic product, this cannot be made to order. But, he says, with the right approach and careful preparation, magic can happen. "It's an attitude in life - if a big wave comes, you have to be able to face it, which means a lot of work."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38611409

US President Obama surprises spokesman at White House briefing - BBC News

2017-01-17

The US president makes a surprise appearance at White House press secretary Josh Earnest's last briefing.

Barack Obama made a surprise appearance at White House press secretary Josh Earnest's last briefing with members of the press to lavish praise on his spokesman. "He is a really, really good man," said the outgoing president of Mr Earnest, who first joined Mr Obama's campaign in Iowa back in 2007.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38658667

Police inquiry over fox 'killing' footage in Warwickshire - BBC News

2017-01-17

A hunt saboteurs group has released footage it claims shows them trying to save a fox from hounds, though it died soon after.

A hunt saboteurs group is claiming they saw hunt hounds on top of a fox, trying to kill it. Members of the West Midlands Hunt Saboteurs Group say they witnessed the incident in a driveway near Shuttington, in Warwickshire, on Saturday. The fox was taken away from the dogs, they say, but died soon after. Warwickshire Police said it had a received a report about the claims and is investigating. The Atherstone Hunt has been contacted for a comment. Some people may find the following footage distressing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-38644682

The woman donating organs to strangers - BBC News

2017-01-17

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Tracey Jolliffe has already donated a kidney, 16 eggs and 80 pints of blood. She is now considering donating part of her liver too.

Health

Tracey Jolliffe is calling on others to give a kidney Tracey Jolliffe has already donated a kidney, 16 eggs and 80 pints of blood, and intends to leave her brain to science. She is now hoping to give away part of her liver to a person she may never meet. "If I had another spare kidney, I'd do it again," Tracey tells the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme. She is what is known as an "altruistic donor" - someone willing to give away an organ to potentially help save the life of a complete stranger. A microbiologist in the NHS, and the daughter of two nurses, she has spent her life learning about the importance of healthcare from a professional standpoint. But she has also been keen to make a difference on a personal level. "I signed up to donate blood, and to the bone marrow register, when I was 18," she says. Now 50, her wish to donate has become gradually more expansive. In 2012, she was one of fewer than 100 people that year to donate a kidney without knowing the recipient's identity - and now supports the charity Give A Kidney, encouraging others to do the same. As of 30 September 2016, 5,126 people remain on the NHS kidney transplant waiting list. About 3,000 kidney transplants are carried out each year Tracey's kidney donation, in all likelihood, will have saved someone's life. "I remind myself of it every day when I wake up," she says, rightly proud of her life-changing actions. It was not, however, a decision taken on the spur of a moment. Donating a kidney is an "involved process", she says, with suitability assessments taking at least three months to complete. Tests leading up to the transplant include X-rays, heart tracing and a special test of kidney function, which involves an injection and a series of blood tests. "It is not something to do if you're scared of needles," she jokes. The risks associated with donating, however, are relatively low for those deemed healthy enough to proceed, with a mortality rate of about one in 3,000 - roughly the same as having an appendix removed. Compared with the general public, NHS Blood and Transplant says, most kidney donors have equivalent - or better - life expectancy than the average person. Tracey says she was in hospital for five days after her operation but felt "back to normal" within six weeks. As well as helping to save lives - including through 80 pints worth of blood donations - Tracey has also helped families create them too. She has donated 16 of her eggs, allowing three couples to have children. It was a simple decision to take, she says. "I have no desire to have children of my own, so I thought, 'I'm healthy, why not?'" The next step, she hopes, could be to donate part of her liver - once again, to someone she has never met. But she is aware of the dangers involved. "It's a much riskier operation than donating your kidney," she says. The rate of death for those donating the right lobe is estimated at one in 200. For the left lobe, it is one in 500. But many donators live a long and healthy life, with the organ having an "amazing capacity to regenerate", as Tracey describes it. Almost immediately after an operation, the remaining liver begins to enlarge in a process known as hypertrophy, continuing for up to eight weeks. Tracey will undoubtedly continue to donate for as long as she can - and is hoping to pass on her organs once she dies. "I signed up to donate my brain for medical science when I go," she says. Brain donations are usually performed within 24 hours of death, to be used for medical research into conditions such as dementia. Taking such decisions can be difficult, but Tracey says her friends and family "accept I'm going to do what I want to do". Her reasons for donating organs - whether it be a brain or a kidney - are both humbling and understated. "I think it's part of my nature, my opportunity to do something nice," she says. But the difference such decisions can make to others is huge. For information on how to make a living donation, visit the NHS Blood and Transplant website. Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38637348

CCTV shows stone fracturing woman's skull - BBC News

2017-01-17

A woman suffered a fractured skull while sitting in a cab.

A woman suffered a fractured skull when a teenager threw a stone at the cab she was travelling in. The attack was captured on CCTV and shows the windows being smashed. Four teenagers are to be sentenced next month for wounding.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38645466

FA Cup: Dan Fitchett goal sparks wild scenes for Sutton - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

Dan Fitchett scores in the last few seconds of the match to give non-league Sutton United a 3-1 victory against 10-man AFC Wimbledon in their FA Cup third-round replay.

Dan Fitchett scores in the last few seconds of the match to give non-league Sutton United a 3-1 victory against 10-man AFC Wimbledon in their FA Cup third-round replay. Watch all the best action from the FA Cup third-round replays here. FA People's Cup: Free five-a-side competition returns for 2017 - sign up now! Available to UK users only.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38659079

Why was the Zimmermann Telegram so important? - BBC News

2017-01-17

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Marking the 100th anniversary of one of the greatest of all feats of code-breaking

UK

Tuesday marks the 100th anniversary of a remarkable success for British intelligence: but one that involved spying on the United States and then conspiring with its senior officials to manipulate public opinion in America. On the morning of 17 January 1917, Nigel de Grey walked into his boss's office in Room 40 of the Admiralty, home of British code-breakers. It was obvious to Reginald "Blinker" Hall that his subordinate was excited. "Do you want to bring America into the war?" de Grey asked. The answer was obvious. Everyone knew that America entering World War One to fight the Germans would help break the stalemate. "Yes, my boy. Why?" Hall answered. "I've got something here which - well, it's a rather astonishing message which might do the trick if we could use it," de Grey said. The previous day, the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmermann, had sent a message to the German ambassador to Washington. The message used a code that had been largely cracked by British code-breakers, the forerunners of those who would later work at Bletchley Park. Nigel de Grey came up with the plan to use the telegram to change the course of World War One Zimmermann had sent instructions to approach the Mexican government with what seems an extraordinary deal: if it was to join any war against America, it would be rewarded with the territories of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. "This may be a very big thing, possibly the biggest thing in the war. For the present, not a soul outside this room is to be told anything at all," Hall said after reading it. Part of the problem was how the message had been obtained. German telegraph cables passing through the English Channel had been cut at the start of the War by a British ship. So Germany often sent its messages in code via neutral countries. Germany had convinced President Wilson in the US that keeping channels of communication open would help end the War, and so the US agreed to pass on German diplomatic messages from Berlin to its embassy in Washington. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How a decrypted German telegram pushed the United States into World War One and prompted a wave of hostility on the US-Mexico border The message - which would become known as the Zimmermann Telegram - had been handed, in code, to the American Embassy in Berlin at 15:00 on Tuesday 16 January. The American ambassador had queried the content of such a long message and been reassured it related to peace proposals. By that evening, it was passing through another European country and then London before being relayed to the State Department in Washington. From there, it would eventually arrive at the German embassy on 19 January to be decoded and then recoded and sent on via a commercial Western Union telegraphic office to Mexico, arriving the same day. Thanks to their interception capability process, Britain's code-breakers were reading the message two days before the intended recipients (although they initially could not read all of it). A coded message about attacking the US was actually passed along US diplomatic channels. And Britain was spying on the US and its diplomatic traffic (something it would continue to do for another quarter of a century). The cable was intelligence gold-dust and could be used to persuade America to join the War. But how could Britain use it - when to do so would reveal both that they were breaking German codes and that they had obtained the message by spying on the very country it was hoping to become its ally? Hall had all the copies locked in his desk while he decided what to do and asked for the rest to be decoded. London was betting that Germany's use of unrestricted submarine warfare - attacking merchant shipping - would be enough to draw America into the War. An exhibition at Bletchley Park tells the story of the Zimmermann Telegram When the signs were that an extra push might be needed, it was decided to deploy the Zimmermann Telegram. Room 40 asked one of its contacts to get hold of a copy of anything sent to the German embassy in Mexico from the US. This provided another copy of the telegram. Britain could then plausibly claim this was how it had got hold of the message and get round the problem of admitting it was spying on its friends. Britain also had to convince the Americans that the message had not been concocted as part of a ruse to get them into the War. Eventually, the US obtained its own copy from the Western Union telegraphic company, and De Grey then decoded it himself in front of a representative at the US embassy in London. This meant technically all parties could claim that it had been decoded on US territory. "Good Lord," President Wilson said when he was told of the details. The telegram was then leaked to the American press and published to general amazement on 1 March 1917 (with credit attached to the American Secret Service rather than the British to avoid awkward questions of British manipulation). Whatever scepticism was left was dispelled when Zimmermann himself took the odd move of confirming he had sent it. A month later, America was in the War. President Woodrow Wilson took the United States into World War One in April 1917 It would be too much to claim the Zimmermann Telegram single-handedly brought America into the War. Germany's policy of unrestricted submarine warfare can take more credit for that. But the telegram was useful for convincing the American public that it should be sending its men over to Europe to fight. The telegram had proved the perfect justification for a change of policy and to convince some of the sceptics. It was, many believed, the single greatest intelligence triumph for Britain in World War One. It was also an early sign of the potential impact of intercepting communications, a lesson which the few British and American officials in on the real story were determined to learn from as they set about building their capability. Early in World War Two, before America had formally entered the War, it would send a team of its best code-breakers on a clandestine mission to Britain to establish a relationship with their counterparts. The Road to Bletchley Park exhibition at the former wartime site features a copy of the Zimmermann Telegram and details of its role. Today, the two allies have GCHQ and the NSA - two vast intelligence agencies involved in interception and code-breaking. They also have a pact which means that - on the whole - they are not supposed to spy on each other. The BBC World Service Witness programme recently told the story of how the British managed to intercept the telegram, and heard from some of the code-breakers involved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38581861

Daz Black, Ben Phillips and Tish Simmonds pay tribute as Vine closes - BBC News

2017-01-17

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The six-second clip-sharing service is shutting down but it's still not clear exactly why.

Newsbeat

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Viners are paying tribute to the video sharing app as it shuts down after four years. Twitter announced it was closing the six-second clip-sharing service in October but it's still not clear why. Around the same time it said it was cutting 9% of its workforce following slow growth of the social network. "I was still enjoying the platform and it's a great shame it's closing," explains Daz Black, the most followed British Viner. Daz has more than three million followers on his channel, where his comedies and character impressions have been looped (viewed) more than one billion times. The 31-year-old says he is "saddened" and "annoyed" at Twitter's decision to close the app. "It's got me to where I am today and opened the door to so many opportunities," he tells Newsbeat. Daz has been able to pursue acting, something he's wanted to do since he was a child and has already starred in a feature film. "The app itself became so big, so quickly, that no-one really knew what to do with it," he says. "I managed to get 100 followers in a week and I couldn't get that in three years on YouTube." Daz had tried - unsuccessfully - to carve out a career as a YouTuber but that changed in 2013 when he posted a Vine that hit the top of the popular page. Warning: Third party content might contain ads "I gained about 50,000 new followers, which at the time was unheard of," he explains. "I actually tried to get in touch with someone from Vine to see if someone had bought my account fake followers. "When I hit a million followers I said I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket and I'm really glad that I didn't." He started posting on Instagram and YouTube and admits "some amazing companies" have paid him to feature their products in clips but won't say more. Another Viner, Ben Phillips, has admitted to earning £12,000 from Ford for a six-second clip, allowing him to be a full-time creator of video. The 23-year-old wouldn't discuss specific details about commercial opportunities but did say: "I never get asked to put the price in of the product. "I just get asked if I can have a bit of fun with their product." Ben says he wasn't that surprised Twitter decided to shut Vine and decided to leave before Twitter's announcement last year. Speaking to Newsbeat he says: "Vine just didn't keep with the creator and the influencer. "They lost sight of what Vine actually was. YouTube and Facebook have so much more to offer the creator now." Ben has gone from 1.3m followers on Vine to 8.5m on Facebook but says he misses the simplicity of a six-second clip as his videos now have to be much longer. Musicians like Shawn Mendes and Ruth B were discovered on the app and have gone on to release music. Tish recorded a music video for her Vine after it became an internet sensation - although she's yet to have the kind of music career Shawn Mendes has enjoyed. She says she's "devastated" it's closing and she'll miss her friends she's made on it. One of her highlights has been starring in a film with fellow Viner Dapper Laughs and, like Daz and Ben, she's vowing to continue on Facebook and YouTube with some comedy sketches. And how will they all remember it? Daz Black puts it best: "It really did blow up. These everyday people who are very talented, that would have gone unnoticed otherwise". Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/articles/38634170

China goes big in Davos - and here's why - BBC News

2017-01-17

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Like two silverbacks in a cage, China and America are eyeing each other warily. At the World Economic Forum, China is ready to go "supersize".

Business

Today will see a through the looking glass moment at Davos. The leader of the world's largest Communist Party will take to the stage at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss ski resort arguing for globalisation and the wonders of free trade. At the same time as the US - the home of capitalism - has a new president saying that the present free trade rules need to be ripped up. The Dragon is here to embrace Switzerland's annual rich fest. And it's keen to be seen as a member of the club. President-elect Donald Trump wants to take a baseball bat to the club house and build a new one. President Xi Jinping is the first Chinese president to visit the WEF. His message is likely to be uncompromising. After Chinese officials warned against "nativism" last week - a direct reference to Mr Trump - Mr Xi is expected to say that global free trade has brought prosperity and that moves against it will only harm economic growth. Yes, he may nod to the need for globalisation to be seen to be working for all. But he will be clear that more trade is the route to prosperity, for Asia and Western economies. China is making a very major point via Mr Xi's visit to the WEF. With other leaders, notably Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, staying away, China is bringing the largest delegation it has ever mustered. Business leaders such as Jack Ma - the founder of the global internet giant Alibaba - are in Davos, as is Wang Jianlin, another of China's richest men and chairman of the property developer Dalian Wanda. America might start looking inward, but China is seeking to extend its influence, and the chosen route is economics. The big push at the WEF, the launch of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank to rival the US dominated World Bank, the revival of the "Silk Route" trade corridor from Asia to the Middle East and Europe - all point in one direction, and it's towards Mr Xi's enthusiasm for a more expansionist China. Economics is wielded as a tool of influence. The WEF full court press from Mr Xi comes at the same time as Mr Trump has made his position on China clear. Although we have yet to discover what President-elect Trump will actually do when he takes office on Friday, the fact that he hired one of America's toughest China hawks, Peter Navarro, as the head of his new National Trade Council, suggests little change from Campaigning Trump. And Campaigning Trump accused China of currency manipulation and "raping" America, saying that cheap Chinese exports had led to the loss of US jobs. I wrote about China's hyper-chilly reaction to that allegation and what Mr Navarro might mean for Sino/US relations here. So far, Mr Trump is talking tough. A strong supporter, Anthony Scaramucci, who is set to be hired as another of Mr Trump's business advisors, will also speak at Davos. And rather than extol the virtues of the present structures of world trade, he is likely to focus on what he sees as the weaknesses. In the past he has backed Mr Navarro's criticism that allowing China to join the World Trade Organisation under President Bill Clinton was a decision that American industry "has never recovered from". The contrast with President Xi will be stark. And will reveal the tension simmering between the two largest economies in the world - a tension that will define the health of the global economy over the next decade.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38644971

Sale Sharks: Players reported over 'team leaks' before Bristol match - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

Sale complain to the RFU that one of their players passed team information to Bristol before their Premiership match on 1 January.

Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union Sale have complained that one of their players passed team information to Bristol before their Premiership match on 1 January. The Sharks have lodged a protest with the Rugby Football Union, claiming the player - understood to be former Bristol wing Tom Arscott - released confidential details. They have also made a complaint against the Bristol player involved. Bristol won 24-23 at the AJ Bell Stadium after trailing 15-0. The Sharks have lost their past 10 games in all competitions. A statement from Bristol said they had been "made aware of a complaint from Sale Sharks, which is now being investigated by the RFU". It added: "The club are absolutely confident of no wrongdoing in this matter and will fully co-operate with the investigation."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38645622

Australian Open 2017: Andy Murray prepares for Andrey Rublev in second round - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

World number one Andy Murray admits he does not know much about his Australian Open second round opponent Andrey Rublev.

Last updated on .From the section Tennis Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and text updates on the BBC Sport website and app. World number one Andy Murray has admitted he does not know much about his Australian Open second round opponent Andrey Rublev. Murray will face the 19-year-old Russian, ranked 152nd in the world, on Wednesday from 09:30 GMT. Fellow Briton Dan Evans will also be in action in Melbourne, against seventh seed Marin Cilic around 07:00 GMT. "I've never hit with him or played against him, but I've seen him play and he goes for it," Murray said. "I know a little bit about him and he doesn't hold back. He hits a big ball.'' • None Order of play - who plays when? Rublev is appearing in his second Grand Slam - he was knocked out in the first round of the US Open in 2015. "I'm so excited, I have nothing to lose. He's the best tennis player at the moment. So I will just try to take a great experience from this," he said. Murray was left frustrated after his first round victory over Illya Marchenko, taking two hours and 48 minutes to register a three-set win. "I have had a lot of tough losses here, for sure,'' said Murray, who has been beaten in the final in Melbourne five times in seven years. "I have played some of my best tennis on hard courts here. But I keep coming back to try. I'll keep doing that until I'm done.'' Elsewhere, Roger Federer faces American Noah Rubin from 04:00, while fourth seed Stan Wawrinka will play Rubin's compatriot Steve Johnson. World number one Angelique Kerber plays Germany's Carina Witthoeft, while Serena and Venus Williams appear in the first round of the doubles, playing Hungary's Timea Babos and Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. We'll learn a lot more about Rublev in this match. He is a big-hitting player who goes after the shots and plays high-octane tennis. It'll be good to see what this young man can bring but it's a very tough ask for someone of that age against Andy. It's an environment that Andy really enjoys. You would expect him to get the job done, but he will study him and won't take anything for granted.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38647714

'Unity' call on Reformation anniversary - BBC News

2017-01-17

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The Archbishops of Canterbury and York urge Protestants to "repent" for their part in historical Church divisions.

UK

A statue of Martin Luther in Wittenberg, where the Protestant Reformation began The Church of England has said Protestants should "repent of their part in perpetuating divisions" - 500 years after the Reformation began the split from the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. A statement from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York has said the split caused "lasting damage" to the unity of the Church - something that contradicted the teaching of Jesus and left a "legacy of mistrust and competition". It went on to say: "Such repentance needs to be linked to action aimed at reaching out to other churches and strengthening relationships with them." Coming during the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, it is a further sign that these two Churches are seeking to repent of past failings and find more ways in which they might work together. The historic rupture, which began in October 1517 when the German monk Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral, led to centuries of violence, where rulers of one Church would frequently execute communicant members of the other. The Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Reverend Justin Welby Last October, Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury presided at a service in Rome that was held on the fiftieth anniversary of the historic summit between Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey, which established the Anglican Centre in Rome. In a joint declaration issued after the service in October, the two leaders said they were "undeterred" from seeking unity between the two denominations. While the Archbishops of Canterbury and York embrace the theological distinctives that arose out of the Reformation, specifically Martin Luther's emphasis on Christian salvation being through faith and not by merit or effort, they regret the bloodshed that followed that historic rupture in 1517. It is worth noting that both Churches always mark 4 May as a day for Reformation Martyrs, with the Church of England praying that 'those who have been divided on earth may be reconciled in heaven'. Today's statement is a call to all Christians, of whatever denomination, to repent of division and to unite within the Christian Gospel. Correction 18 January 2017: This report has been amended to remove a suggestion that the Church had apologised for events following the Reformation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38654259

Masters 2017: Neil Robertson to play Ronnie O'Sullivan in quarter-finals - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

Former world champion Neil Robertson will play Ronnie O'Sullivan in the Masters quarter-finals - Marco Fu is also through.

Last updated on .From the section Snooker Former Crucible winner Neil Robertson set up a Masters quarter-final with defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan by beating Ali Carter 6-3. A low-scoring match saw the pair share the first two frames before the Australian opened up a 4-1 lead. England's world number 14 Carter pulled it back to 4-3, but the 2012 Masters champion won the next before clinching victory with a 117 break. Hong Kong's Fu had fallen 3-0 and 4-2 behind, but recovered to make breaks of 80 and 102 in the last two frames. Englishman Trump started brightly with breaks of 102, 87 and 67, and further runs of 79 and 112 took him one away from victory, before Fu fought back. Fu, runner-up in 2010, faces Northern Ireland's Mark Allen in the next round at Alexandra Palace on Thursday. A high-class encounter saw the pair make 14 breaks over 50 in the best-of-11 match. Fu's victory was the third first-round match to go to a decider following O'Sullivan's win over Liang Wenbo and Allen's victory over John Higgins. "I have done it the hard way," he told BBC Sport. "I missed three balls and was 3-0 down. I just tried to concentrate on the good things I had been doing. "Maybe there was a few nerves at the start. No matter how many tournaments you have won, this is an extra buzz." Last month, Fu was 4-1 down before winning eight frames in a row to beat Higgins in the Scottish Open final to claim the third ranking title of his career. Fu added: "When I am in good form, I handle the mistakes better now. I feel stronger when I miss a few balls, it does not matter to me, I can keep going." I feel sorry for Judd, he did not have a single chance in the final frame but Marco took those last few balls well. It was an absolutely wonderful spectacle. Fu is 39 and playing the best snooker of his career.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/38656701

Can your voice reveal whether you have an illness? - BBC News

2017-01-17

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Our voices can activate gadgets and authenticate ourselves to banks. But can they tell if we're ill?

Business

Our voices can tell us more than we think We can use them to sing, shout and whisper sweet nothings. We can use them to activate gadgets and prove who we are to banks. And now researchers believe they can also reveal whether we're getting ill. A US start-up called Canary Speech is developing a way of analysing conversations using machine learning to test for a number of neurological and cognitive diseases, ranging from Parkinson's to dementia. The project was born out of a painful personal experience for the firm's co-founder Henry O'Connell. "It has been my pleasure to have as a friend for nearly 30 years a dear gentleman who was diagnosed six years ago with Parkinson's disease," says Mr O'Connell. "My friend was told when the diagnosis was finally made that it was likely that he had been suffering from Parkinson's for over 10 years." As with so many diseases, early diagnosis can play a crucial role in effectively managing the condition, but recent research highlights the difficulties in correctly diagnosing it, with doctors often struggling to distinguish the symptoms. And the longer the condition goes undiagnosed, the more severe the symptoms become. "During the years before his diagnosis was accurately made, my friend, suffering from muscle and apparent nerve-related pain, was treated in several medical facilities," says Mr O'Connell. "The muscle and nerve-related pain were directly associated with a progressing Parkinson's illness. Because it went undiagnosed, proper treatment was delayed and his Parkinson's progressed potentially more rapidly than it would have under proper diagnosis and treatment." Canary Speech developed algorithms after examining the speech patterns of patients with particular conditions, including Alzheimer's, dementia and Parkinson's. This enabled them to spot a number of tell-tale signs both pre and post-diagnosis, including the kinds of words used, their phrasing, and the overall quality of speech. For instance, one symptom of the disease is a softening of the voice - something than can be easily overlooked by those close to us. But Canary Speech's software is capable of picking up such small changes in speech patterns. Fellow co-founder Jeff Adams was previously chief executive at Yap, the company bought by Amazon and whose technology subsequently formed the core of the tech giant's voice-activated Echo speaker. Some studies suggest our speech patterns can give an early indication of Alzheimer's disease The overall goal is to be able to spot the onset of these conditions considerably sooner than is currently possible. In initial trials, the software was used to provide real-time analysis of conversations between patients and their clinicians. As with so many machine learning-based technologies, it will improve as it gains access to more data to train the algorithms that underpin it. And as more voice-activated devices come on to the market and digital conversations are recorded, the opportunities to analyse all this data will also increase. Some researchers have analysed conversations between patients and drug and alcohol counsellors, for example, to assess the degree of empathy the therapists were displaying. "Machine learning and artificial intelligence has a major role to play in healthcare," says Tony Young, national clinical lead for innovation at NHS England. "You only have to look at the rapid advancements made in the last two years in the translation space. Machine learning won't replace clinicians, but it will help them do things that no humans could previously do." It is easy to see how such technology could be applied to teaching and training scenarios. Voice analysis is also being used in commercial settings. For instance, tech start-up Cogito, which emerged from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, analyses the conversations taking place between customer service staff and customers. They monitor interactions in real time. Their machine learning software compares the conversation with its database of successful calls from the past. The team believes that it can provide staff with real-time feedback on how the conversation is going, together with advice on how to guide things in a better direction - what it calls "emotional intelligence". Cogito's software gives real-time tips to customer service staff as they talk to customers These tips can include altering one's tone or cadence to mirror that of the customer, or gauging the emotions on display to try to calm the conversation down. It's even capable of alerting the supervisor if it thinks that greater authority would help the conversation reach a more positive conclusion. The advice uses the same kind of behavioural economics used so famously by the UK government's Behavioural Insights Team, also known as the Nudge Unit. Early customers of Cogito's product, including Humana, Zurich and CareFirst BlueCross, report an increase in customer satisfaction of around 20%. As the internet of things spreads its tentacles throughout our lives, voice analysis will undoubtedly be added to other biometric ways of authenticating ourselves in a growing number of situations. Google's Project Abacus, for example, is dedicated to killing passwords, given that 70% of us apparently forget them every month. It plans to use our speech patterns - not just what we say but how we say it - in conjunction with other behavioural data, such as how we type, to build up a more reliable picture of our identity. Our smartphones will know who we are just by the way we use them. The big - silent - elephant in the room is how all this monitoring and analysis of our voices will impact upon our right to privacy. Follow Technology of Business editor Matthew Wall on Twitter and Facebook Click here for more Technology of Business features

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38637257

Dashcam shows US truck near miss - BBC News

2017-01-17

Dashcam footage captures a Kansas State Trooper's near miss with an oncoming truck.

Dashcam footage has captured a Kansas State Trooper's near miss with an oncoming truck. It shows the moment the trooper swerved to avoid the vehicle, which had lost control in icy conditions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38643280

NHS England makes slight improvement - BBC News

2017-01-17

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BBC Newsnight's Chris Cook exclusively reveals signs of a recovery in English hospitals.

Health

The number of people treated within four hours at A&E departments recovered in the second week of January, BBC Newsnight has learned. But while performance has improved since the first week in January, it remains way below its target of 95%. Leaked data covering last week puts the national figure at 82.4% with only five hospitals meeting the 95% standard. NHS England said they were doing "everything [they] can to ensure the best care possible is being delivered." While the national figure remains low, it does show an improvement on the first week in January, which is usually the health service's hardest week. An earlier exclusive report by BBC News had revealed that, in that first week, 79.6% of patients were seen within four hours and only one hospital met the 95% target. The new analysis by NHS Improvement, which oversees foundation and NHS trusts, reveals a general pattern of gradual improvement since the low of January 3, when the daily A&E rate reached a low of 75.8%. Over this weekend, the service managed to see more than 85% of patients inside the four-hour waiting target. A spokesman for NHS Improvement said: "In the past few days, we've seen a real improvement in how quickly patients are being seen and discharged from accident and emergency departments - including to social care. But we know the pressures facing our hospitals will continue over the remaining weeks of winter and we're working hard to ensure they have the support they need to offer patients quick, safe, quality care." The leak also reveals that, in the second week of January, 14,700 people who had been admitted to a hospital were left waiting for more than four hours to find a bed. Of these, 140 people endured so-called "trolley waits" of more than 12 hours. While these figures are well down on the first week in January, they remain historically high - up by 3,000 on the equivalent week two years ago. There are further signs of vulnerability: for the week covered by the data, which runs 9 to 15 January, the number of beds in use remained an exceptionally high 95.3%, with 4.9% of the service's beds occupied because patients were stuck in hospitals awaiting transfer to another care provider (a so-called "delayed transfer of care"). This is well above the preferred rate of bed use. A large number of studies of hospital management have demonstrated how, when there are few spare hospital beds, even very modest further reductions in the number of free beds can dramatically increase the likelihood of any given patient being caught in a hospital backlog, which can lead to significant delays in care. That high utilisation rate is why, in addition to the elevated rate of trolley waits, there were 177 cancelled operations. That figure is much higher than the previous week, but is likely to be distorted because of the Bank Holiday. The rate at which operations was being cancelled also fell during the week. The strain on the service will have been eased because of the expected fall in traffic over the second week of the year, with average daily A&E attendances dropping from 50,993 in the first week of the year to 47,195 in the second. A spokesperson for NHS England added: "We started planning for winter this year earlier than ever before and will continue to do everything we can to ensure the best care possible is being delivered."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38641367

Is it time for embryo research rules to be changed? - BBC News

2017-01-17

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Should scientists be allowed to experiment on embryos beyond 14 days of development?

Health

Experts are renewing calls to allow experiments on embryos beyond 14 days of development, saying it would drive medical breakthroughs. Research on human embryos can only happen under a licence in the UK and it is currently illegal to keep them alive in laboratories for more than two weeks after fertilisation. Until recently, this cut-off was almost irrelevant in terms of viability since science had not found a way to physically support life in the lab beyond about a week. But researchers have found a way to chemically mimic the womb which would allow an early stage embryo to continue to develop for longer - at least 13 days after fertilisation, but potentially much more. One of the pioneers of IVF is calling for a government inquiry. Prof Simon Fishel was on the team involved with the birth of the world's first IVF baby. He believes that moving the limit to 28 days would be good for furthering scientific understanding. Prof Fishel, who founded the CARE Fertility Group, said: "I believe the benefits we will gain by eventually moving forwards when the case is proven will be of enormous importance to human health." Observing how the embryo changes over weeks could shed light on why some early miscarriages occur, he says. Embryos normally implant in the wall of the uterus at around day seven and still resemble a ball of cells at that stage. It takes weeks of rapid cell division and growth before it begins to resemble something more baby-like, with a beating heart, developing eyes and budding limbs. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz has developed a technique that could, theoretically, allow embryos to survive for longer in the lab than the current legal limit of 14 days. The Cambridge University professor says: "We know that a lot of pregnancies fail on the time of implantation which is day seven. So now we can identify events which are not happening correctly and how in future we can help them occur normally." But there are many who are concerned about extending the legal limit. Prof Fishel said: "There are some religious groups that will be fundamentally against IVF, let alone IVF research in any circumstances, and we have to respect their views." The 14-day rule was first suggested in the UK in 1984. With the advent of IVF, a committee, chaired by Mary Warnock, was set up to look at the ethics and regulation of this new technology. It concluded that the human embryo should be protected, but that research on embryos and IVF would be permissible, given appropriate safeguards. Setting a cut-off was tricky. For example, should it be based on when an embryo develops a nervous system that might begin to detect pain? At the time, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists suggested 17 days as a limit - the point at which early neural development begins. The Warnock report settled on 14 days - when the embryo is a distinct individual and can no longer form a twin. That recommendation is now decades old. Some say it should be reviewed. David Jones, founder of the Centre of Bioethics and Emerging Technologies, is against changing the limit. "It would be a stepping stone to the culturing of embryos and even foetuses outside the womb. You are really beyond the stage when the embryo would otherwise implant and that is a step towards to creating womb like environment outside. People will then ask why can't we shift it beyond 28 days?" A recent YouGov poll of 1,740, commissioned by the BBC, found that 48% of the UK general public supported increasing the limit up to 28 days, 19% wanted to keep the present limit of 14 days and 10% wanted a total ban. But one in four of those questioned said they did not know, suggesting some may need more information to reach an informed opinion. BBC Radio 4's two-part documentary 'Revisiting the 14 day rule' starts on Tuesday 17 January at 11:00 GMT.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38635083

Diving bans: Football Association considers introducing retrospective bans - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

The Football Association is looking at introducing retrospective bans to English football for players who dive or feign injury.

Last updated on .From the section Football The Football Association is looking at introducing retrospective bans to English football for players who dive or feign injury. Officials will go on a fact-finding trip to Scotland, where retrospective bans are already used. In England, players are currently only given retrospective bans for incidents of violent conduct. It is understood a rule change would require agreement from all football governing bodies in England. Burnley boss Sean Dyche believes diving would be eradicated from football "in six months" with retrospective bans. According to a report in Tuesday's Times newspaper, senior figures at the FA are keen to press ahead with the move. Dyche's comments come after two recent incidents in Premier League matches. Robert Snodgrass apologised for going down without contact to earn a penalty for Hull against Crystal Palace, while Dele Alli won a debated spot-kick in Tottenham's 5-0 win over Swansea. At the start of the current season, Hearts' Jamie Walker was given a retrospective two-match ban for diving to win a penalty against Celtic in the Scottish Premiership. The Scottish FA found him in breach of disciplinary rule 201 as the "simulation caused a match official to make an incorrect decision". The player contested the charge, but the compliance officer's verdict was upheld. Under current Football Association rules in England, players who pretend to have been fouled should receive a caution for simulation, which comes under the category of unsporting behaviour, if the incident is spotted by the match officials. However, this can only occur during matches at the moment. The question of how to deal with players who dive or cheat has long troubled English football. The law which allows retrospective punishment in Scotland is being examined closely by FA chiefs. But any changes in England would require agreement from the game's various stakeholders. That means the Professional Footballers' Association, League Managers Association, English Football League and Premier League would all need to reach a consensus. Concerns over player's cheating is on Fifa's mind too. Marco van Basten, the former Netherlands striker who is the world governing body's chief technical officer, told the BBC last month it is discussing rule changes to increase "honesty" within football. That could include a rugby style regulation that would allow only the captain to speak with the referee. Take part in our Premier League Predictor game, which allows you to create leagues with friends.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38650163

AFC Wimbledon 1-3 Sutton United - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

Non-league Sutton set up a glamorous FA Cup fourth-round home tie against Leeds with a thrilling win at 10-man AFC Wimbledon.

Last updated on .From the section Football Non-league Sutton set up a glamorous FA Cup fourth-round home tie against Leeds with a thrilling replay win at 10-man League One side AFC Wimbledon. The Dons made a perfect start when Tom Elliott rose above the away defence to nod in Dean Parrett's free-kick. But they were left a man down for more than 75 minutes as Paul Robinson was sent off for hauling down Matt Tubbs. Roarie Deacon's stunner levelled before late goals from Maxime Biamou and Dan Fitchett caused an upset. The National League side will host Leeds at Gander Green Lane on Sunday, 29 January (14:00 GMT). • None Follow all the reaction from Tuesday's FA Cup ties • None Listen: 'I dared not dream about this' More than just money for Sutton Sutton were the lowest-ranked team left in the draw for the fourth round, but knew they had to overcome their near-neighbours - 51 places above them on the league ladder - before they could even think about hosting Championship promotion chasers Leeds in a money-spinning tie. The non-league club have reached the fourth round on two previous occasions, the last time coming in the 1988-89 season, when they memorably beat then-top flight opponents Coventry in the third round. But the reward for beating Wimbledon was worth much more to the Greater London club than that famous win 28 years ago. Sutton manager Paul Doswell compared winning the third-round replay to the Championship play-off final in terms of financial importance, estimating it would take their earnings from this cup run to about £500,000. This victory was more than just money. The jubilant celebrations from the away players and officials, plus their 300-odd travelling supporters, showed how much the victory meant. "It was an extraordinary night. We thought fitness might tell - with Wimbledon the fitter side - but the one-man advantage was the major factor. "It was a great start for Wimbledon, scoring that early goal, then the Robinson sending-off made it difficult for them. I though Sutton played too many high long balls and lacked creativity round the sides. "Wimbledon coped with everything until that late, late surge." What the managers said: Sutton manager Paul Doswell spoke of his "unadulterated joy" as The U's - 15th in the National League - set-up a home tie with Championship Leeds United. "I'm so pleased for my chairman, our directors who are all volunteers, for the 1,000 fans here and for the players. "Without being over-emotional about it, we have got a good chance against Leeds on our pitch. No one likes playing on it apart from us it seems. If they make seven or eight changes against us I think we will have a chance." Dons boss Neal Ardley meanwhile pointed unsurprisingly to the dismissal of Paul Robinson after 15 minutes as the key moment, though he added he had few complaints with the result. "You prepare for the game with 11 men but for most of it we had 10," he said. "Credit to Sutton, they kept going and got their just rewards in the end. "But we'll never know what would have happened if it was 11 versus 11. It's a big judgement call, to say that is a cast-iron sending-off early in the game. • None Goal! AFC Wimbledon 1, Sutton United 3. Dan Fitchett (Sutton United) right footed shot from outside the box to the high centre of the goal. Assisted by Maxime Biamou. • None Attempt missed. Darius Charles (AFC Wimbledon) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses the top right corner. • None Goal! AFC Wimbledon 1, Sutton United 2. Maxime Biamou (Sutton United) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Roarie Deacon. • None Jamie Collins (Sutton United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. • None Attempt blocked. Adam May (Sutton United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. • None Goal! AFC Wimbledon 1, Sutton United 1. Roarie Deacon (Sutton United) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the top left corner. • None Substitution, AFC Wimbledon. Chris Whelpdale replaces Lyle Taylor because of an injury. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38565631

Valtteri Bottas: Big opportunity but challenge of his life at Mercedes - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

Valtteri Bottas faces the opportunity of his life following his switch to Mercedes for 2017, replacing current world champion Nico Rosberg.

Valtteri Bottas faces the opportunity and challenge of his life following his switch to Mercedes for 2017. After four seasons of solid performances with Williams, the 27-year-old Finn has been rewarded with every driver's dream - a seat with the best team in Formula 1. Barring a remarkable slip in form for Mercedes, Bottas will morph from being an occasional podium visitor to a race-winner and possibly title contender this year. But in new team-mate Lewis Hamilton, Bottas faces an adversary far beyond anything he has experienced so far. How he measures up will likely define the rest of his career. Bottas might not be the most exciting of choices for Mercedes. Fans around the world would have loved to see Hamilton battle McLaren's Fernando Alonso again, or take on Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo or Max Verstappen, or Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. But his appeal to Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff is obvious. Bottas is Wolff's attempt to find a like-for-like replacement for German Nico Rosberg, who dropped Mercedes in the mire by announcing his retirement last year, five days after clinching his first world title. And it's not just about their blond hair or Finnish ancestry. Bottas shares many of Rosberg's characteristics. Both are calm, unobtrusive characters, who are generally pliable and understanding in terms of working with the team and lack the demanding nature of a Hamilton or Alonso. On the track they are consistent, largely error-free performers. And Bottas has proved himself a resilient and hard racer. Wolff should - he hopes - be able to plug Bottas in and carry on pretty much where Mercedes left off in the past few years. Wolff rates Bottas extremely highly. But now he has joined Mercedes, the big question is: how good is he? There have been flashes of brilliance - such as qualifying third in the wet in an uncompetitive Williams in Canada in 2013 - that suggest a real talent. And overall, the general perception is Bottas' record against Felipe Massa at Williams over the past three years is similar to Alonso's against the Brazilian at Ferrari before that. But the facts do not bear that out. While Bottas and Alonso beat Massa in both qualifying and races, the Spaniard's advantage over the Brazilian was significantly bigger. Directly comparing the data suggests Bottas is as much as 0.2-0.3 seconds per lap slower than Alonso and considerably less effective in races. Neither Massa nor Bottas have been team-mates to Hamilton. But Alonso has - at McLaren in 2007. They finished tied on points, with four wins each, and Hamilton edged qualifying by the tiniest of margins. By any measure, it was - and is - very difficult to separate Hamilton and Alonso. If 2017 follows the trend of those results, Hamilton can be expected to be comfortably quicker than Bottas. Perhaps more surprising is that those comparisons suggest that not only is Bottas not a match for Alonso and Hamilton, but he might not equal Rosberg either. However, drivers' form does not always directly translate across teams and rivals in as linear a fashion as might be expected. It is up to Bottas to prove the comparisons wrong and grab the opportunity with both hands. Bottas was always the only realistic option once Wolff decided against Mercedes junior Pascal Wehrlein. Bottas is quick, dependable, has had a management relationship with Wolff, and raced for a team that had Mercedes engines, and with which a deal therefore might more easily be done. All the A-list drivers - Alonso, Ricciardo, Verstappen and Vettel - were not available. They are under contract to leading teams that would have been left in a similar position to Mercedes had they allowed them to leave. But if they had been available, Wolff may not have wanted most of them anyway. Part of the decision to sign the same type of driver as Rosberg was a desire to retain the team dynamic. Rosberg and Hamilton worked for Mercedes because only one of them saw it as a right and expectation to be in front. Spoken or not, there was a natural order. They were, as one senior Mercedes insider once put it, "a great driver and a very good one". This is a way of keeping the rivalry manageable and under control without the need for too much team interference. The faster driver - Hamilton - knows he will win most of the time as long as he performs at his best. And the other one - a different personality - is able to keep defeat in perspective more easily when it happens. As Wolff put it on Monday: "Valtteri shares our values and passion, and he's modest, humble and hard-working." But there is a possibility the team dynamic will change anyway. How might it affect Hamilton? Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche recently provided an amusing insight into Mercedes' relationship with Hamilton. Talking to Autocar magazine about how he heard the news of Rosberg's retirement, Zetsche said: "I was stepping out of the shower lacking any clothes and my phone was ringing. And I saw it was Toto and I thought: 'Oh, again something with Lewis!'" His remarks confirm the open secret that Hamilton is not an easy driver to manage. Like all drivers of his stature, Hamilton can be awkward over PR appearances and other such matters that are expected of drivers but they find tiresome. And he has repeatedly bucked against the authority of the team. In ignoring orders to speed up while 'backing' Rosberg into rivals in the title-deciding race in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton was metaphorically sticking two fingers up to team management. Wolff initially said he would consider what actions to take. Then, Hamilton spoke of feeling "disrespected" by that call. Following Rosberg's retirement, Wolff and soon-to-leave technical boss Paddy Lowe said the orders should not have been issued. Throughout last season, Hamilton repeatedly brought up the reliability disparity that was giving Rosberg an advantage in their title battle. In Malaysia - after his engine failed while he was leading, costing him the championship lead and, as it turned out, the title - he went as far as saying "something or someone doesn't want me to win this year". Many interpreted that wrongly as a suggestion there was a conspiracy in the team. But even as a reference to bad luck or divine intervention, it is a statement that causes Mercedes problems. After Hamilton refused to take questions in a news conference at the Japanese Grand Prix last year, Wolff called such incidents "collateral damage", and insisted "his performances in the car justify" it. But sometimes - if very rarely - Hamilton is not phenomenal in the car. And some in F1 question his 'off' weekends and occasional problematic behaviour as directly linked to his decision to pursue a Hollywood lifestyle. This, they argue, restricts his ability to perform at his absolute best all the time. They see his jetting back and forth to the US as a lack of focus and blame it for weekends such as those in Baku and Singapore last year, where Hamilton quite patently, and for reasons that are not clear, just did not bring his 'A game'. And they believe it is facilitated by Mercedes' choice of a team-mate Hamilton knows he can handle. Wolff and Hamilton, meanwhile, insist it is the freedom Mercedes give him to be himself that allows him to perform at his peak - and everyone has a bad day once in a while. And it seems more likely that the 'off' weekends are just part of him, and related to specific aspects of car behaviour, a set-up he cannot get right, or which he refuses to adapt to because he feels it is not working for him. His occasional unpredictability is one of the reasons Mercedes need a strong team-mate for Hamilton - and not just to score regular points in the constructors' championship, the main reason Bottas was preferred over Wehrlein. While Rosberg was not on Hamilton's level as a driver, he was close enough to give Mercedes a viable alternative as a counter-balance. The likelihood is Bottas will slot in and be - at least - a direct Rosberg replacement. While that is the case, Mercedes might not want a driver with a talent comparable to Hamilton - and the attitude that tends to come with it. But if he can't challenge Hamilton regularly, Wolff might, for a number of reasons, wonder whether signing another superstar alongside Hamilton is not such a bad idea after all. Vettel and Alonso, both out of contract at the end of the year, will be watching this with interest. Bottas will go into Mercedes aiming to win races and titles, but he will be as aware as anyone of the challenge facing him. Hamilton will likely already feel emboldened, his position strengthened by Rosberg's departure, and a weaker team-mate would only enhance that feeling.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38640410

Katie Rough murder case: Balloon release marks birthday - BBC News

2017-01-17

Hundreds of people release balloons to mark what would have been the eighth birthday of Katie Rough, killed in York on 9 January.

Hundreds of people gathered to release balloons to mark what would have been the eighth birthday of a child killed in York. Katie Rough was found injured in the Woodthorpe area of the city on 9 January and died later in hospital. A 15-year-old girl has been charged with her murder.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38643289

Trump interview: Is Donald helping Theresa? - BBC News

2017-01-17

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The president-elect supports a UK trade deal, but it might turn out to be a bit more complex than that.

UK Politics

On the face of it, on some of the front pages at least, it seems a slam dunk. Before Theresa May gives an important speech on Tuesday outlining her plan for the tortuous process of taking us out of the European Union, there has been a big thumbs-up for Brexit (literally- in the picture he had taken with Michael Gove) from the most powerful individual in the world. On top of that, Donald Trump, who'll be in charge from Friday, breezily promises a trade deal with the United States that can be sorted out without further ado. Since the social and diplomatic embarrassments of Nigel Farage's freelance trips to Trump Tower, Number 10 seems to have worked to get the president-elect on board, and his comments in his Times interview to former cabinet minister Michael Gove seem to illustrate success - with the groundwork prepared for a visit between Mr Trump and Mrs May soon after the inauguration. Mr Trump repeated his wholehearted support for the idea of the UK leaving the European Union, and his comments to the Times suggested he would be in the UK's corner. No prime minister would want to make an enemy of an American president, so who wouldn't want an endorsement like this? But, as officials in Brussels and leaders around the EU seek to stick together before getting down to business with the talks with the UK, the government may also be wary about being seen to be cosying up too closely to President Trump. Mrs May shares some of his analysis of many voters' disillusionment with what she describes as the "privileged few". But the similarities don't run deep, and for voters, Mr Trump appals as much as he inspires. For some in Brussels, Mr Trump's support for Brexit may only harden them against the UK. Diplomacy is a sensitive and complicated business, not used to the brashness of this billionaire. The European Commission has already piled in to say that it's not possible to make any agreements before the UK has left the EU. Even Downing Street said today it would "abide by our obligations" and committed only to early conversations. The president-elect's straightforward promise that a trade deal can be done with Mrs May without delay may come to haunt them both.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38639225

Route 45: Inside one of Obama's favourite diners - BBC News

2017-01-17

Jon Kay finds out people's hopes and fears about the Donald Trump presidency, over breakfast at one of Barack Obama's favourite eateries in Chicago.

Jon Kay finds out people's hopes and fears about the Donald Trump presidency, over breakfast at one of Barack Obama's favourite restaurants in Chicago. This is the second in a series of features from a journey along Route 45 in the US, to mark the inauguration week of the 45th president.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38648465

Louis van Gaal: Ex-Man Utd, Barcelona and Netherlands manager retires - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

Ex-Manchester United and Netherlands boss Louis van Gaal says he has retired from coaching after a 26-year career.

Last updated on .From the section European Football Ex-Manchester United and Netherlands boss Louis van Gaal says he has retired from coaching after a 26-year career. Van Gaal, 65, has been out of work since being sacked by United hours after winning the FA Cup in May 2016. "I thought maybe I would stop, then I thought it would be a sabbatical, but now I do not think I will return to coaching," Van Gaal was quoted as saying in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. Van Gaal also had spells in charge of Ajax, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and AZ. He made the announcement on Monday after receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Dutch government for his contribution to football. He cited family issues for his decision, with De Telegraaf saying it was partly motivated by the sudden death of his daughter's husband last month. "So much has happened in my family, you become a human being again with your nose pressed to the facts," he added. The Dutchman also revealed he turned down lucrative offers to continue his coaching career in the Far East. Van Gaal also said winning the FA Cup was the greatest achievement of his career as it came against the backdrop of his impending sacking: "I was standing on the gangplank for the last six months. My head was in the guillotine, put there by the English media. "In those circumstances you have to try and stick to your vision and inspire the players of Manchester United." Van Gaal played as a midfielder for Ajax, Royal Antwerp, Telstar, Sparta Rotterdam and AZ between 1972 and 1987 before moving into coaching, first as an assistant at AZ followed by the same role at Ajax. He replaced Leo Beenhakker as Ajax head coach in 1991 and went on to preside over a period of sustained success, winning the Dutch league title on three occasions as well as the 1992 Uefa Cup and the 1995 Champions League title. Van Gaal was asked to emulate that success at Spanish giants Barcelona. He inherited Bobby Robson's side in 1997 and led them to two successive La Liga titles and the Copa del Rey. His country came calling in 2000, but his first stint in charge lasted less than two years when Netherlands failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, the first time they had missed the competition since 1986. The Dutchman's second spell at Barcelona was even shorter - eight months - as he left midway through the season with the club hovering just above the relegation zone. He then guided AZ Alkmaar to the 2005-06 Eredivisie title before moving to the Bundesliga, where he helped Bayern Munich to the 2009-10 Bundesliga title. The Dutch national side approached Van Gaal again in 2012 and this time the Netherlands became one of the first two European countries, along with Italy, to qualify for Brazil 2014, where they finished in third place. After much speculation, he joined United in May 2014, signing a three-year contract to succeed David Moyes. However, United replaced him with Jose Mourinho after just two years following a fifth-placed Premier League finish in the 2015-16 season, with a first FA Cup triumph since 2004 not sufficient to save him.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38645667

Australian conditions 'favourable' for mouse plague, scientists warn - BBC News

2017-01-17

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Rain has created ideal conditions for mice in Australia's breadbasket, a science agency warns.

Australia

Australia's science agency has warned that spring rains have created ideal conditions for a mouse plague in the country's breadbasket. Victoria and South Australia are experiencing higher than expected numbers of mice, the CSIRO said. The agency characterises a mouse plague as more than 1,000 mice per hectare (405 per acre). If conditions bring enough food, the population could hit that number within months, researcher Steve Henry said. "We had a terrific spring this year which lead to record crops," Mr Henry told the BBC. "Those conditions that lead to great crops are also really favourable for mice." The CSIRO could not give a current figure for mice per hectare, but said data from traps and anecdotal evidence pointed to a population spike. About five mice per hectare would be considered normal, Mr Henry said. Mouse plagues regularly occur only in Australia's grain belts and a province in north-west China, the CSIRO said. Victoria and South Australia occupy a large part of the Murray-Darling Basin, a fertile region accounting for almost 40% of Australia's agricultural income, according to the government. Outbreaks of mice create a significant financial hit to farmers who are forced to buy costly bait and often re-sow crops. Mr Henry said outbreaks also led to stress in rural communities. "It's the fact that they are invading people's houses, they're in their vehicles, everywhere they turn around there's a mouse," he said. "People in the cities are aghast when they have a mouse in the house. These people in the country, they're jamming up every crack in their house with steel wool to stop the mice from getting in." Mice were introduced to Australia by European settlers. They have few natural predators and face little competition from native wildlife.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-38645836

Notting Hill Carnival stab victim says 'minority cause trouble' - BBC News

2017-01-17

A musician stabbed at the Notting Hill Carnival in 2016 told the BBC he did not think the event should change.

A musician who was stabbed at last year's Notting Hill Carnival has said he does not think the event should change. Jo Jordan was attacked by a gang who stabbed him in the arm and stole his watch at the carnival in August.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38643774

Lincoln City 1-0 Ipswich Town - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

Non-league Lincoln City reach the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time in 41 years with a victory over Ipswich at Sincil Bank.

Last updated on .From the section Football Non-league Lincoln City reached the FA Cup fourth round for the first time in 41 years as Nathan Arnold's injury-time strike secured a deserved victory over Ipswich at Sincil Bank. Arnold fired home in the first of four added minutes to secure a famous triumph against the Championship side. The Imps were dominant throughout and a bigger margin of victory against a team 59 places higher in the league pyramid would not have flattered them. They now host Brighton in round four. After twice coming from behind at Portman Road to earn a replay in the first meeting, Ipswich manager Mick McCarthy promised his side had noted the lessons of that scare. But if they had learned anything, his players were unable to put it into practice, managing just one decent attempt on the Lincoln goal in 90 uninspiring minutes. • None Reaction to all of Tuesday's third-round replays • None Chris Sutton cannot contain himself as Lincoln score late winner Graham Taylor was in charge of Lincoln the last time they reached the fourth round, so it was fitting the National League leaders matched that achievement on the night the club paid tribute to their former manager. Lincoln's run in the cup was just one highlight among many during Taylor's managerial reign between 1972 and 1977, which was followed by successful spells at Watford and Aston Villa before landing the England job in 1990. A minute's applause was held before kick-off in memory of Taylor, who died on 12 January at the age of 72, and he was remembered again later in the match with more applause and a show of lights from fans in the stands. But far and away the best tribute was saved until the end when Lincoln substitute Adam Marriott's pass sent Arnold sprinting clear of the Ipswich defence and he rounded the goalkeeper before knocking the ball into an empty net. What now for abject Ipswich? Former Ipswich defender Terry Butcher, who was at Sincil Bank for BBC Sport, did not hold back in his criticism of his old club. "I can't remember ever being so embarrassed and humiliated as an Ipswich fan," he told BBC Radio 5 live. "Ipswich lost the wrong way, not enough fight, not enough passion. "I am bitterly disappointed. Over the 180 minutes Lincoln have been by far the better team, it wasn't a fluke. This was a mid-table Championship side totally - and I mean totally - outplayed over two games "When you lose like that then Mick McCarthy will be concerned, but the club won't have any knee-jerk reactions." The margin of defeat could certainly have been greater but for a brilliant first-half save by Ipswich goalkeeper Dean Gerken, who stuck out a hand to somehow claw away Luke Waterfall's close-range header on the stroke of half-time. Danny Cowley's side put Ipswich's back line under pressure with a barrage of crosses, with burly striker Matt Rhead spurning one opening and midfielder Alex Woodyard heading a very presentable chance wide when unmarked. Ipswich's best opening came with a low Josh Emmanuel shot just before the hour, but Imps goalkeeper Paul Farman was always behind it and made a good save. Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy: "I should congratulate Lincoln. They deserved to win. From my point of view the way we lost the game was ridiculous. We had a chance to score ourselves and then seconds later they scored. "On the back of the performance on Saturday it was surprising how we played tonight. They controlled the game but I'm not going to stand here and give my team stick. "The fans want to see these upsets. It's great for TV but not for me unfortunately. The fans made their thoughts quite clear tonight. I'm not happy about producing that kind of football in front of the fans." Lincoln City's manager Danny Cowley: "The way they've worked day in, day out, is incredible. You can have great days like this if you put so much work in like we have. "I thought we competed really well and worked every minute so hard. We pressed from the front and actually thought we had great control in the game even against a Championship side like Ipswich. "What a brilliant finish from Nathan. Not an easy finish when the whole of Sincil Bank is hoping he sticks it in. It's a great night and an amazing feeling for the club." • None Attempt saved. Jack Muldoon (Lincoln City) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top right corner. Assisted by Matt Rhead. • None Goal! Lincoln City 1, Ipswich Town 0. Nathan Arnold (Lincoln City) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Adam Marriott with a through ball following a fast break. • None Bradley Wood (Lincoln City) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. • None Attempt missed. Jonas Knudsen (Ipswich Town) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. • None Attempt blocked. Nathan Arnold (Lincoln City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Matt Rhead. • None Attempt missed. Matt Rhead (Lincoln City) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Nathan Arnold. • None Attempt missed. Nathan Arnold (Lincoln City) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses the top left corner. Assisted by Matt Rhead with a headed pass following a set piece situation. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38565597

Newspaper headlines: May's Brexit speech previewed in press - BBC News

2017-01-17

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Theresa May's speech on Brexit, in which she is expected to say the UK will make a "clean break" from the EU, is anticipated on the front pages of the newspapers.

The Papers

Theresa May will outline plans for Brexit in a speech on Tuesday "The omens are all good," says the Sun. "The PM and the country are in a far stronger position at this point than many dreamed, especially the Remainers." "Britain must walk away from the EU," says the Daily Telegraph. "The economic backdrop to the prime minister's speech remains auspicious." According to the Daily Mail, Mrs May will offer an inspiring vision of the sort of country Britain can become when unshackled from the "sclerotic Brussels machine". Not so, says the Daily Mirror. "It's obvious the prime minister remains clueless about where she wants to take Britain and how we'll get to the destination." There is considerable analysis of Donald Trump's interview with Michael Gove in the Times on Monday. The Sun has a huge double-page picture of the president-elect in his office emblazoned with the headline "Our Trump card". It says he is a big fan of the UK but sparked alarm across Europe, especially in Berlin, as he threw the weight of his incoming administration behind the break-up of the EU and hinted at a trade war. It says German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pressing for a meeting with Mr Trump - it says she has been unable to arrange an appointment with him and has spoken to him only once. Sources in Berlin, the paper says, have suggested a meeting is unlikely before spring. According to the Daily Mail, 20 hospital trusts are to take part in a pilot in which patients will be told to show a utility bill and passport before routine operations as part of a crackdown on health tourism. The paper says this will include women planning to give birth as well as anyone having hip or knee replacements, cataract surgery or kidney dialysis. The checks are said to be part of a joint pilot being run by the Home Office and health regulator NHS Improvement. The 20 trusts involved are said to have run up the highest debts in health tourism. Half of them are in London, the rest are in other English metropolitan areas including Birmingham and Manchester. Tens of thousands of people have been on waiting lists for social housing for more than a decade, according to the Daily Mirror. The paper quotes research from the Liberal Democrats suggesting that 104,000 people have been waiting more than five years, and at least 35,000 for more than 10 years. "Behind every digit in the statistics," says the Mirror in an editorial, "is a family or individual denied a secure, affordable, decent home. "To build a better Britain, we need to construct far more social housing. And fast." Several papers tell how a retired civil servant in Ealing, west London, was approached by civil enforcement officers after pouring an unwanted coffee down a drain. According to the Mail, Sue Peckitt was accused of littering and issued with an £80 fine. The Sun says the officials told Ms Peckitt that tipping coffee down a drain was illegal. The council is said to have ignored appeals against the fine but backed down after being contacted by local reporters. The Times says tens of thousands of strike-hit Southern rail commuters could be in line for compensation from their credit card companies after a passenger apparently won back £2,400 from American Express for his season ticket. He used an obscure part of consumer law, known as Section 75 of the Credit Card Act, to demand a 50% refund on the grounds that the goods he bought - his season ticket - were "unsatisfactory". Finally, according to the Times, parts of Britain are in the grip of a courgette famine. The shortage is being blamed on bad weather in southern Spain where the majority of the UK's courgettes are grown during the winter. Consumers have been complaining on Twitter. One reports that not a single courgette was to be found in three major cities. Another tells the world: "I have been to about five different supermarkets in the past week and there's nothing. What an outrage!"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-38645857

Snow blankets Italy's quake zone - BBC News

2017-01-17

Snow has swept Italy, with regions affected by last year's earthquakes hit particularly badly.

Snow and very low temperatures have been affecting Italy from the south to the north. The central regions of Marche and Abruzzo, which suffered in recent earthquakes, have been hit particularly badly.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38658575

Giant alligator caught on film in Florida - BBC News

2017-01-17

"Humpback" is caught on camera going for a stroll in Florida.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38642924

Eight sports begin appeal process over UK Sport funding for Tokyo 2020 - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

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Seven sports will appeal against the decision by UK Sport to cut their funding for the Tokyo Games in 2020 with another unhappy at how its money is managed.

Olympics

Eight sports will challenge UK Sport's funding decisions for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Seven - including badminton - were due to receive no investment for the four-year cycle leading into the Tokyo Games. Powerlifting is also challenging UK Sport - but over the decision on who should manage its funding. All sports have until Tuesday, 17 January to notify UK Sport of their intent to challenge the decisions. In addition to badminton, goalball, table tennis, archery, fencing, weightlifting and wheelchair rugby complete the group of seven challenging the removal of their funding. The decision to cut all funding for badminton came as a surprise after Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis won bronze in Rio and helped GB better the target set by UK Sport. Although proof of correct governance and 'talent pathways' for young athletes form part of the decision-making process, the most important element of any pitch for funding is to prove they have genuine medal prospects for the next Games. "Our understanding is that UK Sport doubt our Olympic medal credentials. "However, we have players who have not only won Olympic medals but also won world tour titles and super-series titles and these are the biggest events in our sport and we are regularly beating the best in the world." British Weight Lifting has objected to UK Sport allocating its £1.3m of funding for its Paralympic athletes to the English Institute of Sport (EIS) to manage, rather than its own programme. If they are unable to overturn UK Sport's initial funding decision it would leave British Weight Lifting with no direct investment for either the Olympic or Paralympic disciplines heading towards Tokyo 2020. Ashley Metcalfe, British Weightlifting CEO, said: "Whilst we are very supportive of the EIS and the work that it does with not just our athletes, but all sports, we believe strongly against UK Sport's decision to change the management of the GB powerlifting programme and will be taking the necessary steps to challenge this decision." Meanwhile, it has been claimed the decision not to support the British wheelchair rugby team represents a "discriminatory", external attitude, although UK Sport believes the programme does not represent a credible medal prospect for Tokyo. British wheelchair rugby says it will present "significant new facts" to UK Sport and has a "very strong case" for a funding reprieve. The appeal process is essentially a second opportunity for officials to demonstrate why they deserve funding for the four-year cycle leading into the Tokyo Games. UK Sport will reveal its findings by the end of February, with those still unhappy with any verdict able to make a formal appeal to the 'Sport Resolutions' board.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/38646077

'I'm allergic to my husband' - BBC News

2017-01-17

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How one woman's rare disorder means a kiss from her husband could end up killing her.

Magazine

Johanna and Scott Watkins pictured together before she became severely allergic to her husband Twenty-nine-year-old Johanna Watkins from Minnesota cannot kiss her husband Scott, or even spend time in the same room as him. She suffers from Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, a rare disorder of the immune system, which means she is allergic to almost everything, including her husband's scent. Johanna and Scott Watkins's date nights are very different from other couples. "Scott and I will try to watch a show together. We can't be in the room together, because I'm allergic to him, but he will be three floors below me in a room on his laptop and I will be on mine and we'll watch the show at the same time and then text about it as we're watching it," says Johanna. Johanna lives in an attic room all by herself with sealed windows and doors, and air filters to purify the air. She has a severe form of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) in which the cells that are meant to protect her from outside threats mutate and start attacking her body instead. On their wedding day the couple were unaware Johanna's condition would become so severe The symptoms and severity of the disease can vary from patient to patient, but it makes Johanna allergic to virtually everything and can trigger life-threatening anaphylactic shock. Before she married her husband Scott in 2013 Johanna did not expect her condition to become so severe. She worked as a teacher and the couple used to love hiking together. Even then she struggled with unusual rashes, irritable bowel syndrome and migraines, but these ailments became much worse after the couple married. "There were times three and four years ago, before we got the diagnosis, that if I was extra close to my wife, specifically if my face was close to Johanna's face, she would cough," says Scott. But it was only last year that the couple realised they had become unable to physically share their life together. "We had noticed that when Scott would come in [to the room] I would start feeling worse and worse. My normal daily symptoms would just be aggravated," says Johanna. "And then at one point he went to get his haircut and came back in the room and within two minutes I had started my anaphylactic symptoms and he had to leave." A week later Scott tried to see his wife again, but the same thing happened, and they realised their lives would have to change dramatically. "It was this horrible reality that it wasn't going to work," says Johanna. "I was now reacting strongly to my husband. Before this I had reacted to my parents, to many, many other people, but it was horrific when it became Scott." The treatment and medication that is usually given to MCAS sufferers does not help Johanna, so at the moment the couple do not know when - if ever - their situation will change. "There's not an easy way around this problem. I want to keep Johanna safe and me going to see her compromises her safety," says Scott. "One of the ways I can take care of her now is by not going to see her. I'm not going to endanger her life. We're absolutely committed to one another and we're going to wait as long as it takes to see if there is some kind of healing." Doctors are trying different treatments, but none so far have helped. "They don't know if I will get well, and so we hope and we pray that I will," says Johanna. "I have had anaphylaxis, which is a life-threatening allergic reaction, more times than we can keep track of. My life could end quickly. Life is frail - it can end." But Scott will be part of her life for as long as it continues, she says. "On our wedding day we made vows to each other that till death do us part. No matter what life brought. "I can tell you that even if I have this until I'm 90 years old, I would be committed to my husband with that vow and still love him." Johanna and Scott are no longer able to hold each other's hands Scott says they do sometimes get angry and frustrated about their situation. "I've had to release a lot of what I expected for myself and I've had to accept what has been given to us," says Scott. He adds: "Johanna and I are good at talking, we talk a lot, we try to communicate a lot, so one thing that we've found that's helpful is just bringing each other into what's going on in our lives as best we can because we're not able to be together." Scott works full-time as a teacher and then returns home every evening to cook Johanna's food. "It's one of the ways that I can care for her, and every other day for the past year I've had one of my dear friends come and they help [me] cook for Johanna," he says. "She can only eat two meals, so she's been eating the same two meals for over a year." Johanna can only tolerate 15 different foods, including spices, so she eats either beef chuck roast (beef stew) with organic celery, carrot and parsnip or organic lamb with turmeric, cinnamon and cucumber. Johanna has not responded to any treatment so far, including four rounds of chemotherapy The couple are currently living in the family home of their friends, the Olsons, while their own home is renovated to make it a safe living space for Johanna. The Olson family have given up using all scented products and do not cook in their house at all. "I have had severe reactions to someone smoking a cigarette down the block," says Johanna. "I have had severe reactions to the pizza place that's a mile down the street, and all my windows are closed and sealed in the room with special filters. "But just if the wind blows it on the right direction that day and I get even a whiff I can have a severe reaction. The house is quite large and I'm at the top level, and if an onion were to be cut in the kitchen I have had a severe reaction." Johanna has not left the attic room for more than a year, except to visit the hospital in an emergency or to see her doctor. Every morning she listens to a playlist of songs and then might write or answer an email to a friend, or video-call her young nieces. The only people she does not have a life-threatening reaction to are her siblings, who help take care of her. Before they enter her room, they have to avoid eating strongly spiced food, shower with a special soap and strip down to their underwear. As soon as they walk in, they put on masks and special clothes that have never left Johanna's room. Despite all these precautions, Johanna's symptoms still become worse after their visit. "I think growing up in America, it's common for us to just think, 'Oh OK if there's a disease there'll be a medical solution, it will be fixed and I'll move on with my life,'" says Johanna. "So being diagnosed and becoming this ill, [there was] definitely a grieving process that I went through." But the fact that Scott is downstairs in the same house and that she can talk to him on the phone is a huge comfort, says Johanna. "I have many gifts in my life, many blessings that I have to be thankful for," she says. "And that reminds me to not become selfish and just make it all about me." Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38507160

Breast cancer patients' distress at withdrawal of Kadcyla - BBC News

2017-01-17

Some women with terminal cancer, who were expecting to be able to take a life-extending drug to give them an extra six months of life, have been told they will no longer get it.

Some women with terminal cancer who were expecting to be able to take a life-extending drug to give them an extra 6 months of life - have been told they will no longer get it. Bonnie Fox has told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme she's "completely devastated"- and she's considering trying to raise funds to pay for it herself.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38640371

Six Nations 2017: Alun Wyn Jones succeeds Sam Warburton as Wales captain - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

Lock Alun Wyn Jones takes over from Sam Warburton as Wales captain for the 2017 Six Nations.

Last updated on .From the section Welsh Rugby Coverage: Live on S4C, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru & BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app, plus live text commentary Lock Alun Wyn Jones has taken over from Sam Warburton as Wales captain for the 2017 Six Nations. Flanker Warburton's six-year tenure ended as coach Rob Howley named seven uncapped players in his 36-man squad. Leicester fly-half Owen Williams, Wasps flanker Thomas Young and Newport Gwent Dragons wing Ashton Hewitt are among the uncapped call-ups. 'Sam agrees this is the best way forward' Warburton first captained Wales in 2011, and became the youngest player to lead them at a World Cup later that year. He has won 69 caps for Wales, a record 49 as captain, and also skippered the British and Irish Lions. Ospreys captain Jones, 31, has often deputised for the Cardiff Blues player, including for the Lions' third Test win over Australia in 2013, when Warburton was injured. Jones has won 105 caps for Wales, and six for the Lions and Howley said: "He is the first name on the team-sheet." Howley said he has spoken to Warburton about him switching from open to blind-side of the back-row and highlighted the strength of back-row competition he faced. Howley: 'We want Sam to get his mojo back' Howley is deputising for Warren Gatland while the New Zealander prepares to take the Lions to face the All Blacks in June. The current Wales coach says Gatland backed his decision over the captaincy and hopes Warburton "can get his mojo back". "I spoke to Sam and he agreed it was the best decision for him," said Howley. "He is a world class player and we want him to be the best he can be." Howley added: "It's an honour to select Alun Wyn as captain. "His vast experience, as a player and a leader will help drive this squad forward and I believe he will flourish in the role." Wales games in the 2017 Six Nations Howley praised Warburton for the "great success" he has had as Wales captain. He added: "We want him to concentrate on his game and to be the best player he can be. "No player is guaranteed their place in an international team and we want Sam to be playing his very best rugby and he agrees this is the best way forward." Who is affected by 'Gatland's Law'? North, Roberts and Faletau fall under the so-called "Gatland's Law", which limits to three the number of affected Welsh exiles Howley can select this season. The Welsh Rugby Union's (WRU) senior player selection policy (SPSP) means only three players who play outside Wales can be picked. Japan-based Dominic Day and Bristol scrum-half Rhodri Williams are the others affected. However, Bath lock Charteris, Young, Williams, Gloucester back-row Ross Moriarty and Exeter prop Tomas Francis are not captured by the rule. Teenager Giles among those to miss out Young, 24, has impressed this season under his father Dai - a former Wales prop and captain - at Wasps. Along with Ospreys' Justin Tipuric and Gloucester flanker Ross Moriarty, Young is putting pressure on Warburton, 28, for a starting spot. Ospreys scrum-half Rhys Webb makes the squad having not played since injuring an ankle in Wales' November defeat by Australia. Howley says Webb will play some part for Ospreys in the European Challenge Cup at Newcastle on Saturday as he completes his recovery. The uncapped contingent are Ospreys flanker Olly Cracknell and lock Rory Thornton, Leicester fly-half Owen Williams, Scarlets wing Steffan Evans, Hewitt, Aled Davies and Young. Only Davies and Thornton have previously been in senior Wales squads. In the absence of veteran record Wales cap-holder prop Gethin Jenkins (torn bicep), Wales welcome back Scarlets loose-head Rob Evans after injury. Jenkins, 36, has amassed 129 Wales caps and five more for the Lions. Howley said after the hamstring injury suffered by 18-year-old Ospreys wing Keelan Giles at the weekend, he felt it was in the player's "best interests" not to pick him. "We don't know how significant the injury is," added Howley.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38649131

George Michael ‘liked crack cocaine’, says friend - BBC News

2017-01-17

Singer George Michael’s childhood friend says that “hard drugs were back in his life”.

George Michael's childhood friend Andros Georgiou has linked the singer's death to drugs. "Hard drugs had been back in his life," he told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme, adding the singer had been addicted to crack cocaine in the past. Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38650607

Who are the figures pushing Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin together? - BBC News

2017-01-17

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Advisers to Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are promoting a stronger relationship between the two.

Europe

The question of whether Russia's leader Vladimir Putin has got material with which he could blackmail Donald Trump is for now unknowable and misses the point by a country mile: the two men think alike. Mr Trump's belief in American traditionalism and dislike of scrutiny echo the Kremlin's tune: nation, power and aversion to criticism are the new (and very Russian) world order. You could call this mindset Trumputinism. The echo between the Kremlin and Trump Tower is strong, getting louder and very, very good news for Mr Putin. As Trump signalled to Michael Gove on Monday, a new nuclear arms reduction deal seems to be in the offing linked to a review of sanctions against Russia. The dog that did not bark in the night is Mr Trump's peculiar absence of criticism of Mr Putin, for example, on the Russian hacking of American democracy, his land-grab of Crimea and his role in the continuing war in Eastern Ukraine. What is odd is that Mr Trump, in his tweets, favours the Russia line over, say, the CIA and the rest of the American intelligence community. But why on earth criticise the world leader with whom you most agree? Three men have egged along Trumputinism: Nigel Farage, who is clear that the European Union is a far bigger danger to world peace than Russia; his friend, Steve Bannon, who is now Mr Trump's chief strategist; and a Russian "penseur", Alexander Dugin. With his long hair and iconic Slavic looks, Mr Dugin is variously described as "Putin's Brain" or "Putin's Rasputin". Alexander Dugin is described as "Putin's Brain" He has his own pro-Kremlin TV show which pumps out Russian Orthodox supremacy in a curious mixture of Goebbels-style rhetoric and Songs of Praise. Mr Dugin is widely believed to have the ear of the Kremlin. He is also under Western sanctions for the ferocity of his statements in favour of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has cost 10,000 lives to date. Messrs Farage, Bannon and Dugin are all united that the greatest danger for Western civilisation lies in Islamist extremism. Mr Bannon aired his views in a right-wing mindfest on the fringes of the Vatican in 2014. He claimed that so-called Islamic State has a Twitter account "about turning the United States into a 'river of blood'". "Trust me, that is going to come to Europe," he added. "On top of that we're now, I believe, at the beginning stages of a global war against Islamic fascism." The danger is that in allying yourself with the Kremlin in the way they fight "Islamist fascism" in say, Aleppo, you end up siding with what some have called "Russian fascism" or, at least, abandoning democratic values and the rules of war and, in so doing, become a recruiting sergeant for ISIS. It is a risk on which Mr Dugin does not seem willing to reflect. My interview with him in Moscow did not end well. Dugin posted a critical blog entry after walking out of his interview with John Sweeney First, he dismissed the chances that the Russians hacked American democracy as "strictly zero". I asked him about the depth of Mr Putin's commitment to democracy. "Please be careful," he responded. "You could not teach us democracy because you try to impose to every people, every state, every society, their Western, American or so-called American system of values without asking…and it is absolutely racist; you are racist." Too many of Mr Putin's critics end up dead - around 20 since he took power in 2000. I have met and admired three: Anna Politkovskaya, Natasha Estemirova and Boris Nemtsov. Boris Nemtsov was murdered close to the Kremlin in 2015 Mr Nemtsov was shot just outside the Kremlin's walls. I asked Mr Dugin what his death told us about Russian democracy. "If you are engaged in Wikileaks you can be murdered," he countered. I then invited Mr Dugin to list the American journalists who have died under Barack Obama. Mr Dugin did not oblige but told me that ours was a "completely stupid kind of conversation" and walked out of the interview. Later, he posted a blog to his 20,000 followers, illustrated with my photograph and accusing me of manufacturing "fake news" and calling me "an utter cretin... a globalist swine". Such is the language of the new world order. A few days later I watched the press conference when Mr Trump closed down a question from a CNN reporter by accusing him of manufacturing "fake news". Under Trumputinism, the echo between Russia and America is getting louder by the day. Panorama: The Kremlin Candidate? BBC One, 8.30pm, Monday, January 16. If you miss it, you can catch up later online.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38639327

‘Afghan girl’ Sharbat Gula in quest for new life - BBC News

2017-01-17

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The Afghan woman made famous by a 1985 magazine cover tells the BBC of her hope for a new beginning.

Asia

An Afghan woman made famous by a 1985 National Geographic cover has spoken exclusively to the BBC of her hope for a new beginning, after being deported from Pakistan. Sharbat Gula now lives with her five-year-old son and three daughters in Kabul, where she says she wants to live a normal life after years of tragedy and hardship. Her portrait as a 10-year-old became an iconic image of Afghan refugees fleeing war. The only time she has spoken to the media before now, her family says, was for a 2002 documentary after Steve McCurry, who took her original photo, tracked her down in Pakistan and found out who she was. Sharbat Gula had no idea that her face had been famous around the world for almost 17 years. Like many Afghans, she sought refuge in Pakistan and lived there for 35 years - but she was imprisoned and deported last autumn for obtaining Pakistani identity papers "illegally". "We had a good time there, had good neighbours, lived among our own Pashtun brothers. But I didn't expect that the Pakistani government would treat me like this at the end," Sharbat Gula told me at her temporary residence in Kabul. Her case highlighted the arbitrary arrest and forced deportation of Afghan refugees in the current spat between the two countries. It has been illegal for non-Pakistanis to have IDs since they were first issued in the 1970s, but the law was often not enforced. Now sick and frail in her mid-40s, Sharbat Gula's haunting eyes are still piercing, full of both fear and hope. She says she had already sold her house in Pakistan because she feared arrest there for "not having proper documents to stay". Two days before a planned move back to Afghanistan, her house was raided late in the evening and she was taken to prison. Sharbat Gula was sentenced to 15 days in prison Pakistan's government has ordered all two million Afghan refugees on its soil to leave. Sharbat Gula believes the Pakistani authorities wanted to arrest her before she left. "I told the police that I have made this ID card for only two things - to educate my children and sell my house - which were not possible to do without the ID card." She served a 15-day prison sentence, the first week in prison and the second in hospital where she was treated for hepatitis C. "This was the hardest and worst incident in my life." Realising the reputational damage, Pakistan later offered to let her stay - but she refused. "I told them that I am going to my country. I said: 'You allowed me here for 35 years, but at the end treated me like this.' It is enough." Her husband and eldest daughter died in Peshawar and are buried there. "If I wanted to go back, it will be just to offer prayer at the graves of my husband and daughter who are buried in front of the house we lived in." The "Afghan Girl" picture was taken by Steve McCurry in 1984 in a refugee camp near Peshawar, when Sharbat Gula was studying in a tent school. Published in 1985, it became one of the most recognisable magazine covers ever printed. For years she was unaware of her celebrity. "When my brother showed me the picture, I recognised myself and told him that yes, this is my photo." "I became very surprised [because] I didn't like media and taking photos from childhood. At first, I was concerned about the publicity of my photo but when I found out that I have been the cause of support/help for many people/refugees, then I became happy." Sharbat Gula has now returned to Afghanistan, where the government promised her a house in Kabul None of Sharbat Gula's six children - another daughter died too at an early age and is buried in Peshawar - share the colour of her eyes. But her brother, Kashar Khan, does, and the eyes of one of her three sisters were also green. She says her maternal grandmother had eyes of a similar colour. Sharbat Gula was a child living with her family in Kot district of eastern Nangarhar province when Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan in 1979. "There was war between Russians and Afghanistan - that is why we left. A lot of damage/destruction was done." Her mother died of appendicitis in the village when she was eight. Like hundreds of thousands of other Afghans, her family (her father, four sisters and one brother) migrated to Pakistan and started living in a tent in a refugee camp called Kacha Garahi, on the outskirts of Peshawar. She was married at 13. But her husband, Rahmat Gul, was later diagnosed with hepatitis C and died about five years ago. Her eldest daughter also died of hepatitis three years ago, aged 22, leaving a two-month-old daughter. Sharbat Gula met President Ashraf Ghani in the presidential palace on her return, and later former President Hamid Karzai. "They gave me respect, warmly welcomed me. I thank them. May God treat them well." Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani received her at the presidential palace The government has promised to support her financially and buy her a house in Kabul. "I hope the government will fulfil all its promises," she told me. Kot district is a stronghold of militants linked to the so-called Islamic State group, so she can't go home to her village. Her green-eyed brother and hundreds of others have fled the area, fearing IS brutality. "We cannot even visit our village now because of insecurity and don't have a shelter in Jalalabad. Our life is a struggle from one hardship to another," he says. But Sharbat Gula's priority is to stay in her country, get better and see her children be educated and live happy lives. "I want to establish a charity or a hospital to treat all poor, orphans and widows," she says. "I would like peace to come to this country, so that people don't become homeless. May God fix this country."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38640487

Yaya Toure: Man City midfielder rejects £430,000-a-week move to China - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure turns down a £430,000-a-week offer from the Chinese Super League.

Last updated on .From the section Football Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has turned down a £430,000-a-week offer from China. Toure, 33, was the subject of interest from the Chinese Super League last summer. He decided against moving then and gave the same response when he was contacted again to say the offer remained open during the current transfer window, which closes on 31 January. The Ivorian's contract at the Etihad expires in the summer. Toure's future appeared in doubt when he was left out of the City squad by Pep Guardiola at the start of the season. However, he has been a regular for the club since he was recalled in November and started his seventh consecutive game in the 4-0 defeat at Everton in the Premier League on 15 January. Toure has been free to sign pre-contract agreements with clubs overseas since 1 January but it is understood he still enjoys the English game. Guardiola has not given Toure any guarantees about his future beyond the summer. The Ivorian, who joined City in 2010, has become more important since Germany midfielder Ilkay Gundogan suffered a cruciate ligament injury against Watford on 14 December that is likely to rule him out for the rest of the season. Midfielders Oscar and John Mikel Obi left Chelsea to move to China earlier this month, while former Manchester United and Manchester City forward Carlos Tevez reportedly became the world's highest-paid player when he joined Shanghai Shenhua. Chelsea striker Diego Costa, the Premier League's joint-top scorer with 14 goals, had been linked with a move to Tianjin Quanjian, who recently signed Belgium midfielder Axel Witsel for a salary of more than £15m a year. But the club ended their interest after the Chinese Super League reduced the number of foreign footballers allowed to play. New rules stipulate that Chinese clubs will be able to field a maximum of three foreign players per game when the new season starts in March.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38656748

Inflation means inflation, but who wins? - BBC News

2017-01-17

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Sooner or later, the downward pressure on the pound since the UK's Brexit vote is expected to lead to upward pressure on the prices of most things we buy.

Business

Tesco's recent spat with Unilever has highlighted fears of a new inflationary surge The downward pressure on the pound since the UK's vote to leave the European Union is starting to lead to upward pressure on the prices of most things we buy. Brexit, as we have been told by the prime minister, means Brexit. But inflation also means inflation. The pound has repeatedly lurched lower in value since the outcome of the June 2016 referendum. Against the dollar, it is now worth 20% less than it was before the vote, and that fall is unlikely to be reversed in a hurry. The basic laws of economics dictate that this will translate into higher inflation: foreign firms exporting goods to the UK will continue to charge the same amount for them in euros, dollars or whatever, but they will cost more in sterling when the prices are converted. That goes for finished goods, such as food and drink or clothing, but also for raw materials that are processed here, such as car parts. Global supply chains mean that more than 50% of the components in cars "made in the UK" are actually sourced from overseas. Petrol, too, is likely to go up in price, because oil is priced in dollars. Shopping for clothes is likely to be more costly So higher rates of inflation appear to be a foregone conclusion. The question is, how much higher? What will the consequences be? And will anyone gain from this, or are we all set to lose out? One estimate of the extent of possible price rises has come from the former boss of Northern Foods, Lord Haskins, who told the BBC that he expected to see food price increases running at an annual rate of 5% by this time next year. He was speaking in response to supermarket chain Tesco's recent spat with Unilever, which was trying to pass on its higher costs incurred because of sterling's weakness - though that dispute has since been resolved. The cost of food is an important factor in calculating the overall inflation rate, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), which is published on a monthly basis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Some economists are predicting that the CPI could hit 3% by the end of 2017. If overall inflation did climb to the level predicted by Lord Haskins, it could be nudging close to the highest rate in a decade. In recent years, there have been two peaks in CPI inflation, in September 2008 and September 2011. In both those months, it reached 5.2%. By historical standards, however, that pales in comparison with the levels reached in the 1970s, when the UK experienced several years of double-digit inflation. The worst year was 1975, during which prices went up by an eye-watering 24.2%. We are unlikely to return to those days. But of course, back then, the industrial climate was different, trade unions were stronger and large groups of workers were able to obtain pay rises to match, despite government attempts to impose wage restraint. Nowadays, substantial pay rises are harder to come by, so a lower level of inflation can have a bigger effect on living standards. If we have to spend more money on goods while our salaries fail to keep pace with rising prices, then we are all likely to suffer to some degree. It will certainly make Bank of England governor Mark Carney's job harder, because the Bank has a 2% inflation target. If it goes above that, it increases the likelihood that he will raise interest rates to combat it, thus making life harder for those who owe money, such as on mortgages. Mr Carney has said that "monetary policy can respond, in either direction, to changes in the economic outlook" - meaning that the next move in interest rates could be up or down. He has also spoken at length of the trade-off between price stability and other economic factors, meaning that the Bank will not necessarily rush to raise rates. Bringing inflation back to target too rapidly could cause undesirable "volatility in output and employment", he says. But at the same time, Mr Carney says "there are limits to the extent to which above-target inflation can be tolerated". If you have a student loan, the level of interest charged is linked to a slightly different measure of inflation, the Retail Prices Index (RPI), and is not subject to the Bank of England's decisions. But in most cases, a prolonged period of inflation reduces the value of people's debts, making them easier to pay off. If inflation were to stay at that 5.2% level for 12 years, your debt would, in effect, be worth only half as much in real terms, because you would still owe the same number of pounds, but each of those pounds would have declined in value. Pensioners may have trouble making their money last The outcome is similarly mixed for pensioners. In their favour, state pensions are guaranteed by what is known as the "triple lock". In other words, they rise each year by the inflation rate, average earnings or 2.5%, whichever is the highest. However, private pensions are not similarly protected. And to make matters worse, retired people are likely to spend a higher proportion of their income on food and fuel, which are particularly affected by the pound's big devaluation. Pensioners are also more likely to be living off income from savings, and savers are clobbered by high inflation. Just as inflation erodes the value of debts, it also reduces the spending power of money kept in bank accounts, because prices go up and your money doesn't, especially with the ultra-low interest rates paid by banks at the moment. So there is no unalloyed benefit from higher inflation for anyone. But some will feel more pain than others, while borrowers will certainly benefit more than savers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37676869

Royal Mail stamp set marks UK's prehistoric treasures - BBC News

2017-01-17

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Some of the archaeological treasures of prehistoric Britain feature in a new set of eight stamps.

England

Some of the archaeological treasures of prehistoric Britain have been featured in a new set of eight stamps. Issued by the Royal Mail, the stamps include illustrations of a headdress dug up in North Yorkshire and a bronze shield cover found in the River Thames. The Neolithic village of Skara Brae in Orkney and the Avebury stone circles in Wiltshire also feature. The stamps present a timeline from an ancient ritual of 11,000 years ago, to the Iron Age of around 300 BC. Illustrated by London-based artist Rebecca Strickson, the stamps have been designed as overlay drawings, showing how people lived at the sites or used the objects. For each of the stamps, Royal Mail will provide a special postmark on all mail posted in a postbox close to the site or where the artefact was found. Philip Parker, stamp strategy manager at the Royal Mail, said: "The UK has an incredibly rich heritage of prehistoric sites and exceptional artefacts. "These new stamps explore some of these treasures and give us a glimpse of everyday life in prehistoric Great Britain and Northern Ireland, from the culture of ancient ritual and music making to sophisticated metalworking and the building of huge hill forts." The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38639297

Andy Murray column on Grand Slam nerves, being a Sir and Christmas as a father - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

World number one Andy Murray on the Australian Open, playing in 30 degree heat and his first Christmas as a father.

Coverage: Live radio and text commentary of every Andy Murray match on BBC Radio, BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app. Watch highlights on BBC Two and online from 21 January. The first round of a Grand Slam is always tricky, but I am glad to get through it. My first-round match against Illya Marchenko, the world number 95, was OK but it was hard going. It was tough conditions. The on-court temperature was in the high 30s, which wasn't easy. I didn't feel any extra pressure playing my first Grand Slam as the world number one. I felt nervous beforehand, but I get that before all Slams. I always feel that bit of extra nerves and bit of extra pressure because these are the tournaments that often you work towards. They're the biggest tournament for tennis players. It would be a bad sign if you weren't coming in nervous so I treat it as a good sign. Being nervous shows me that I want to play well and that I'm up for it. Normally nerves tend to make me feel better or play better but I found it tough on Monday in harsh conditions. The crowd were good. Sometimes in day sessions, when it's hot as it was, it's not easy for people to sit out in the sun for that long. There was a great atmosphere and lot of people out there watching. After I was knighted I was asked if I wanted to be known as Sir Andy, from whether it was in the draws and on the scoreboards to when I was getting announced. I'm happy with just plain old Andy, though. It was an amazing honour to receive, although I have had some mickey-taking with some of the players about calling me 'Sir', especially the ones that have known me for a long time. 'It helps having family here' In Grand Slams, if you go through to the end, you have two weeks of tennis with a day off after every match. Kim and Sophia are here with me in Australia and it helps. It's nice to have them here and take my mind off the tennis when the matches are done. I have a lot of family here: Kim's mum is also here, as is Jamie and my mum. In the morning we can have breakfast together as a family and then in the evening, when I get back from practice, Sophia is starting to get ready for bed. So sadly it means I don't get to do a lot of the fun stuff with them during the day. 'I didn't get the dogs anything for Christmas' I flew to Australia after being able to have Christmas with my family. My first Christmas as a father was good, but busy. A lot of Christmases I have been away or at training, so it was good to be able to see Sophia on Christmas Day. I spent the morning with my wife and daughter and Kim's family, then I flew at midday up to Scotland and had lunch with my mum's side of my family. Then in the evening I went to my dad's to have dinner with his family. It was a busy day and I did all right with presents too. I didn't get the dogs anything this Christmas. My wife normally gets them toys and presents, and they get sent lots of stuff from my mum and my grandparents. They do pretty well, but they are just as happy tearing into the wrapping paper on Christmas Day.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38556094

Marrying the man who saved my life - BBC News

2017-01-17

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Melissa Dohme was viciously stabbed more than 30 times by her ex-boyfriend. She survived against all the odds and found love in an unexpected place.

Magazine

Melissa Dohme, from Florida, was 20 years old when she was stabbed more than 30 times and left for dead by her ex-boyfriend. Against all the odds she survived, though she thought she would never have another relationship. But then, as she describes here, she found love in an unexpected place. Before the attack I was a college student working full-time in the reception of a local hospital. My dream was to become a nurse. I was dating Robert Burton, who I had met in high school. We hung out all the time, texting and talking. He was very charming and funny and kind of like a gentle giant. I noticed his behaviour changed, though, when I started applying to universities. He became very jealous. He would belittle me and not want me to succeed. He would lie about things and if I confronted him he had an explosive temper. I tried to break up with him but he told me that, as his girlfriend, I should be helping him, not abandoning him. He said he would kill himself if I left him. Melissa says Robert was funny and kind when they first met It escalated to physical abuse. One day in October 2011, I drove us home as he had been drinking. He said that I shut the door before he had finished speaking and that set him off. He started hitting and punching me. I was able to break free and run away to call the police, who arrived and arrested him. He was charged with domestic battery and sentenced to 10 hours in jail. I thought I was finally free of him. Over the next couple of months he left me alone. I learned through social media that he had another girlfriend, so I really thought he was over me. Then, on 24 January 2012, he called me at 2am. He had gone to court that morning for the battery charge and said he needed closure from our terrible relationship and just wanted a hug. If I saw him just one more time he said would leave me alone forever. I didn't listen to my intuition telling me it was wrong, and that was the biggest mistake I ever made. I took my pepper spray and phone, thinking I could protect myself if I needed to. As soon as I walked out there he reached his arms out for a hug, but he had a switchblade in his hand. He flipped it open and he started stabbing me over and over again. I remember the pain of the first few but after that I went into fight-or-flight mode. I tried to fight back and bite his hand. I was punching and screaming and doing everything I could, but I kept falling to the ground because I was losing so much blood. A young boy and girl nearby ran over because they heard me screaming, and the girl called 911. After seeing them Robert went and got a bigger knife with a serrated blade from his truck and attacked me with that. He had every intention of killing me. He knew the police were going to come and he wanted to get it finished. He left me lying in the road and I thought I was going to die. I just prayed to God to save me and give me a chance. I was drifting away when a police officer shone his light on me. I felt a rush of life come back to me and I was able to state my name and who had attacked me. My speech was very slurred because I had had a stroke from the loss of blood. My last few memories were in the ambulance. It was very bright and blurry and people were yelling and trying to stabilise me. They put the ventilator in to help me breathe and I knew that was a really bad sign. I thought, "OK, they think I'm about to die." They then said they needed to airlift me and they called for the helicopter. I later learned from the trauma surgeons that I died on the table several times and they had to resuscitate me over and over. My wounds were severe. I had a broken skull and jaw. My head and nose were fractured. He had severed my facial nerve, so I had paralysis on the right side of my face. They gave me 12 units of blood and the body holds about seven on average. It was a miracle I survived. That time in hospital seemed like one very long day, but I was actually in intensive care for several days. At one point I remember motioning for a pen from my family. I needed to know what had happened to my attacker. I couldn't use my right hand because it had been stabbed so many times, so I used my left to write: "Dead, alive or jail?" My family told me I didn't have to worry, that Robert had been caught and he was not going to harm me now. I felt very relieved. He had attempted to kill himself by taking sleeping pills and crashing his car into a wall but he failed. He woke up in hospital strapped to the bed with the police by his side. I faced a long road to recovery. Nineteen of the 32 stab wounds were to my head, neck and face so I didn't look like myself. I was missing teeth. My hair was shaved because they had to stitch up wounds on my head. Half of my face was paralysed. When I looked in the mirror for the first time afterwards I just sobbed. I was only 20 years old. It was devastating. However, my faith was strong and I knew I wasn't still here on Earth to be mad about what I looked like. I just felt blessed that I was alive. I had implants in my teeth and my scars slowly faded. I had nerve and muscle surgery in Boston, which helped regenerate my face and give me my smile back. I was keen to get back to school and work as soon as I could. I assumed I would be single for the rest of my life. I never thought anyone would want to date me because I was damaged and had all this baggage. But I thought I could still use my experiences to help others. I wanted to speak out to let people in abusive relationships know that they deserved to be loved and respected and valued.At one of my speaking events in October 2012 I was delighted to meet the emergency services team who saved my life. One of the firefighters, Cameron, invited my mom and me to go to dinner at the fire department the following week. I was really excited about it. Afterwards I couldn't stop thinking about Cameron. I knew that I had feelings for him but I was trying to ignore them. I wondered, "Am I feeling this way because he was one of the firemen who helped me?" But the more we talked the more we realised we had in common. He gave me his number and said, "You know we're here for you," but I thought maybe he was just being nice. Still, I knew I had to see him again so a week later I contacted him and said I had a thank you card for the team. He said I should pop over to the station. I gave them the card and thought I would then leave, but Cameron and I ended up talking for six hours. It felt like we could talk forever and that's when it became clear there was something special here. We had different dates, we had a barbecue - we love barbecue in southern Florida - and we went to a shooting range. Cameron showed me how to improve my shooting and I now have a concealed-carry permit. It makes me feel better, that I can protect myself. Cameron was by my side in August 2013 when I went to court to face the man who tried to kill me. When it was my turn on the stand Robert was staring at me. He was trying to intimidate me by staring me down but I refused to look away. At the end of the trial when all the evidence was being shown his head went down to the table. He finally had to face what he did and he realised he had no more power. He was given life without parole and I was so relieved and thankful. I walked out of there with my life back. Cameron and I continued dating. I went to St Petersburg College but decided not to study nursing - I wanted to dedicate my life to speaking out against domestic violence, so I studied Management and Organisational Leadership in Business. A couple of years later I was invited to give the first pitch at a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game, in recognition of my work in schools talking about violent relationships. I was on the mound and there wasn't a baseball there so Cameron came out of the dugout to hand me one. Written on the ball were the words: "Will you marry me?" It was the most surprising moment of my whole life. And then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I couldn't speak for a moment as I couldn't find the words. It was just really incredible knowing that he put so much effort in and to making this surprise special for me. And I just I felt very blessed and over the moon. Of course I said yes. He gave me a beautiful diamond ring that he had picked out and we're going to get married in a few weeks. All the people that saved me, from the first police officer on the scene to the trauma surgeon, are coming.Today I just feel very blessed to be here. I know that the attack was just one day in my life and it will never define me. Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38302839

Headlines from Theresa May's vision for future UK-EU relations - BBC News

2017-01-17

Some of the headlines from Theresa May's vision for future UK-EU relations.

Some of the headlines from Theresa May's vision for future UK-EU relations in her speech given at London's Lancaster House.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38653886

Australian Open 2017: Johanna Konta, Heather Watson and Kyle Edmund win - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

Johanna Konta, Kyle Edmund and Heather Watson all win to make it five British players in the Australian Open second round.

Last updated on .From the section Tennis Coverage: Daily live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online from 21 January. Johanna Konta, Heather Watson and Kyle Edmund all won to make it five British players in the Australian Open second round for the first time since 1987. After Andy Murray and Dan Evans won on Monday, British women's number one Konta beat Kirsten Flipkens 7-5 6-2. Edmund played superbly to see off Colombia's Santiago Giraldo 6-2 7-5 6-3 and Watson overcame Australia's 18th seed Sam Stosur 6-3 3-6 6-0. It is the second time in five months that five British players have reached the second round of a Grand Slam, after last year's US Open. • None Djokovic and Nadal through, as Karlovic wins 84-game epic • None Relive the action as three Britons progress Konta last year became the first British woman to reach an Australian Open semi-final since Sue Barker in 1977, and the first to reach the last four at any Grand Slam since Jo Durie at the 1983 US Open. Konta, who won the Sydney warm-up tournament last week, will next face Naomi Osaka after the 19-year-old Japanese beat Luksika Kumkhum. It was incredibly tricky. She has the kind of game that can trouble any player Flipkens, ranked 70 in the world, began well but Konta, considered a serious contender to win her first Grand Slam title, soon improved. The 25-year-old was serving for the opening set at 5-4 but Flipkens broke back after a 10-minute game which saw both players miss several good chances. Konta, named the WTA's most improved player of 2016, responded by breaking Flipkens again and then held her serve to love to take the opening set after 51 minutes. The Briton dominated the second set, securing two breaks of serve, to wrap up victory. "It was incredibly tricky. She has the kind of game that can trouble any player," said Konta. "I tried to play myself into the match and I'm happy to be through. A lot has happened in the last year and I'm just enjoying playing and trying to get better every day." If Naomi Broady had edged a tight match with Daria Gavrilova, there would have been six British players in the second round of a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon 2006. Johanna Konta's rapid elevation into the top 10 means Britain has a plausible shot at both the men's and women's singles titles, and others are now better equipped to keep her and Andy Murray company for longer. Kyle Edmund and Dan Evans proved that last year, and Heather Watson's win over Sam Stosur showed what she is capable of. Watson craves consistency, and this first round win was at least a positive start. Edmund was hampered by cramp in his first-round defeat by Damir Dzumhur in Melbourne last year, but has worked hard on his fitness. Despite the temperature reaching 35C, the 22-year-old world number 46 looked assured throughout his contest with the 91st-ranked Giraldo. He will meet Pablo Carreno Busta, the Spanish 30th seed who went through after Canadian Peter Polansky retired in the fifth set. "Last year was a very different scenario, so it was nice to concentrate on my tennis and let my body take care of me," said Edmund. Find out how to get into tennis in our special guide. British number two Watson, who had lost in the first round in her past three appearances at the Australian Open, was broken early by home favourite Stosur. However, former US Open champion Stosur could not keep any consistency and Watson eventually secured a place in the second round after two hours and 15 minutes. "There were some very long games and I had a slow start in both of the first two sets - in the third I wanted to make her work," said Watson, 24. "Sam's a great player - she's beaten me both times before. I felt I prepared really well and felt fit in that third set." Watson, ranked 81, will face Jennifer Brady in her next match, after the American beat Belgium's Maryna Zanevska 6-3 6-2. Gavrilova, who is ranked 26th in the world and 71 places above Broady, was taken the distance by the British number three. Stockport's Broady, 26, was making her debut in the Australian Open main draw and was looking for only her third victory in a Grand Slam match. And she started well inside the Margaret Court Arena, overpowering 22-year-old Gavrilova in the first set. Gavrilova, who switched her nationality from Russian to Australian in 2015, had her best Grand Slam run by reaching the fourth round in Melbourne last year. And, despite a total of 19 aces from Broady, she was able to complete a comeback victory with the only break of the third and final set.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38646307

David Weir says he will never wear a Great Britain vest again - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

Six-time Paralympic champion David Weir says he will never wear a Great Britain vest again, adding he feels "let down".

Last updated on .From the section Disability Sport Six-time Paralympic champion David Weir says he will never wear a Great Britain vest again, adding he feels "let down". The 37-year-old wheelchair racer, who won four gold medals at the London Paralympics, announced his retirement from track racing after an unsuccessful Paralympic Games in Rio last year. He said April's London Marathon would be his final road race. British Athletics says it is puzzled by Weir's comments, which came in a series of tweets on Tuesday. "I have just retired from GB. I will still be at the London Marathon this year," wrote Weir. A six-time world champion, he said he felt like he had been "stabbed in the back" after he crashed out of the marathon in Rio, his last ever Paralympic event.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/disability-sport/38651444

How working dads juggle their roles - BBC News

2017-01-17

https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews

How do working fathers manage the work-life balance? You have been telling us how you cope.

Business

Working fathers are frequently reducing their hours or taking on a less stressful role in order to balance their work and family lives, a new study has found. According to the charity Working Families, a third of fathers they surveyed said they would take a pay cut in order to be more involved in their children's lives and as many again said they felt burnt out trying to juggle work and parental responsibilities. BBC audiences have been sharing their experiences about how they cope. "I worked as a sound engineer for six or seven days-a-week for ten years, with no specific work times, no overtime and no extra pay. That's just how the industry works. "On top of that I had to get home early so my wife Kim could go to work in the evenings, she had to work so we could pay the rent on the house. "A couple of months ago I had to quit my job because I was asked to to work evenings too, and evenings are the only time I get with my family. "I quickly got another job but things are even worse. This new job has no holidays and no regular working hours at all. "I have had numerous opportunities to work abroad but I declined them so I could be a part of my daughter's life as she grows up. "I've decided to quit my new job, and today after just two months I'm leaving. "Now I'm looking to start a business where I can spend more time with my family." Jessica: "My husband and I made the decision when our son was born that I should work full time and he would work part time and be the stay-at-home parent. This is because, as a woman, I get far more rights as a working mother than he would as a working father. "I am entitled to flexible working and have more legal rights. I work 36 hours a week and he works between 16 and 18, split over a Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon which means we are at home together on a Saturday and our son only has to go to a nursery for one afternoon a week. "It's been eight months and it's working so far. Dan is happy because he is at home with our son and also has a job so he feels like he is contributing to our income and Louis (our son) is happy because he has a parent at home during the week. "We earn enough to get by and get no help from the state with our son other than child benefit." "In my role, it's really hard to find a healthy work-life-balance. In a lot of companies you will get benefits, such as salary increase based on the effort you invest into your job. If you are not focused on your career, then you will get no increase or not the amount that would be needed. "If you are focused just on your career you will miss beautiful moments with your child. "If you would like to spend more time taking care of your child, you have to work hard. Then it becomes a circle, like an infinite loop, that you cannot close. "Some people advise to either not work that hard or to move to another company, but this is nonsense. Why? Because your family needs money. More money comes from higher appreciation at work. This comes from more hard work. However, it will also reduce the time you have for your family. "In addition, the parental leave we have here in Hungary is near to nothing. We get two days of parental leave per year per child, which is not enough. Salary increases are also not a trend here, at least not in my case." "I jumped off the career ladder about five or six years ago - a decision taken with my wife to effectively swap roles; she'd worked part-time since the first of our two sons was born. "She wanted to get back to her career, and I was painfully aware of missing out on being around my boys. We had enough cash to fall back on that my not working for a while wouldn't cause problems and then I started working part-time from home as a writer. "There are a lot of unexpected barriers and challenges when you're a stay-at-home dad - they almost all boil down to other people's attitudes. "It's important to accept that balance comes at a cost." "When the time came that I wanted to get back to work I met some almost hostile responses. Many people struggled to accept that a man would want to spend more time at home with his kids for a while. "I asked a few of them 'would you be so negative in the face of a woman returning to work after a prolonged child-related career break?' The answer was always 'no' and was often followed by an uncomfortable acceptance that they were regarding me differently solely because of my gender. "It's a real eye-opener into tacit acceptance of gender-defined roles in society. That's something facing both men and women and it needs to change. "These days I work as a copywriter for a marketing agency. I spend three days in the office and two days at home. It feels like a good balance. But it's important to accept that balance comes at a cost. "I earn about a third less than I did about six years ago and half what I might be earning had I stayed on the career ladder. But it's definitely been worth it." "Nearly three years ago I changed jobs. I took a pay cut purely for the reason of getting a better work-life balance and importantly to spend more time with my two kids. It is a move that I have not regretted. "Previously the stress levels I was working under were making me ill. The previous job also was further away from home, so I was spending between three-and-a-half to four hours travelling every day. "My wife and I both still work full time - we could not afford the mortgage otherwise. Life is still a struggle, but we get by. "Family is so much more important than a career." "The family have breakfast together every morning now. I can now see that my kids leave home to get on the bus to school before I travel to work. I work one day a week from home and that also is invaluable. "It means I can help with things like getting the kids to and from after-school activities - both my children are members of the local swimming club and train for around 10 hours a week. "Family is so much more important than a career. My new employer, Virgin Media, has been good to me." "I have struggled with this for many years, choosing to be paid at 80% while working 100%. I forego a larger salary for the right to look my colleagues in the eye when I'm leaving early two afternoons a week to meet the school bus. "Yet as a manager, my commitment and my ability to manage has been called into question a few times. 'Why don't you get an au pair?' I've been asked. Or 'why don't you ask your wife to work less?' "As a man, I know the expectations on men can be tough when we want to step out of a stereotype." "I think this is a very important area for the UK to improve. My daughter was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Canadian law is much more even-handed. "At the time my wife was self-employed and so I was able to take our entire allocation of parental leave. This allowed me to be there full time for my daughter for the first eight months of her life. "I also had the great fortune to be working for a very enlightened employer whose policy topped up my state allowance to 95% of my salary. "To say this was the most important and precious time of my life is an understatement. It allowed my wife and I to fully share the role of parenting and I feel we are much stronger as a family as a result. "As a middle manager I was the first man to take advantage of this at my job and contrary to complaining and worrying about how they would cope, my bosses were more concerned with baby showers. I felt totally supported. "What did the employer get out of this? A whole lot of loyalty and an employee that worked hard happily, who dealt with personnel issues with compassion and empathy and a very low staff turnover rate. All intangible I know, but as an employer, if you go to bat for your employees, they will do the same for you." "Living and working in the Middle East has posed even larger issues with work-life balance. "With the constant drive to meet deadlines, as well as meeting client expectations, work-life balance is generally not taken into account by bosses. "Due to ensuring that the clients are kept happy and that revenue is maximised, it is rare that I and a lot of others in this part of the world are allowed to take more than two weeks leave at a time, even though by law we are entitled to four weeks a year paid vacation. "Due to the excessive client expectations, six-day working weeks are the norm so getting time to spend with your family is far and few between, to the extent that I will pull a sickie if I know my kid, wife or both have an impromptu day off (my wife is a teacher and my kid is in nursery). "I'm constantly looking for work outside the Middle East that offers a better working schedule so I can spend time with my family."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38637857

Dancing With The Stars: Hughie Maughan in fake tan storm - BBC News

2017-01-17

https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews

Hughie Maughan sends viewers into a spin with the intensity of his fake tan on a TV dance show.

Europe

Hughie Maughan has laughed off the comments about his appearance on Dancing With The Stars An Irish dance show contestant has sent viewers into a spin with the intensity of his fake tan. Hughie Maughan's teak tone under the spotlight had viewers doing their own keyboard tap dance. The Dublin man was appearing on Irish broadcaster RTÉ's Dancing With The Stars at the weekend. Hughie told RTÉ's Ryan Tubridy he had laughed off the comments, claiming he had "thick elephant skin". "The entire place was staring at me and the whole studio was looking at me, laughing and were gobsmacked," he added. "I just found it funny. I'm one of those types of people, I'm bonkers when it comes to certain things. He has performed on the show with dance partner Emily Barker "It's made people speak about me which is probably a good thing, I am on a TV show… Isn't that the point of television?" Hughie's boyfriend Ryan Ruckledge was among those who contributed to the comments sparked by his partner's polished visage. "He really shouldn't have taken tanning tips from me," he joked, before adding, "bad boyfriend advice hahah sorry". The pair met on Channel 5's Big Brother programme last year. His boyfriend Ryan Ruckledge was among those who tweeted Others compared Hughie to Ross Geller from the hit US TV show Friends when David Schwimmer's sitcom character has a spray tan fiasco. Host Nicky Byrne said: "Hughie, you are trending on Twitter - we don't know why."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38649706

Rory McIlroy: Injured rib forces withdrawal from Abu Dhabi Championship - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

World number two Rory McIlroy pulls out of the Abu Dhabi Championship because of a stress fracture to his rib.

Last updated on .From the section Golf World number two Rory McIlroy has pulled out of the Abu Dhabi Championship because of a rib injury. The Northern Irishman had tests on Monday after complaining about back pain during the South Africa Open, in which he lost in a play-off. McIlroy has sustained a stress fracture and must now begin a rehabilitation programme. "It's bitterly disappointing. I think everyone knows how much I love playing this tournament," said the 27-year-old. "In situations like this you simply have to listen to the experts, and the team I have consulted have all advised me to rest until my rib has fully recovered." Following his withdrawal from the Abu Dhabi event, McIlroy's next scheduled tournament is the Dubai Desert Classic in the first week of February. He had initially said he suspected his problem was fatigue after an off-season during which he hit a lot of balls in practice trying to decide on new equipment. He played in Johannesburg with his back taped up and having taken anti-inflammatory tablets. Defending champion Rickie Fowler and fellow American Dustin Johnson are among those due to play in Abu Dhabi.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/38645049

Canadian couple shocked as ‘micro-pig’ grows into 670lb giant - BBC News

2017-01-17

A Canadian couple are shocked to find Esther the ‘micro-pig’ has grown into a 670lb giant

A couple in Canada were more than a little surprised when their ‘micro-pig’ grew into a 670 pound giant. They were duped into thinking Esther would remain pint-sized, but she has now grown 10 times her original size, and is heavier than a fully grown female polar bear. Steve Jenkins is the man who brought Esther home and he told 5 live Drive the couple had “no idea at all.” This clip is originally from 5 live Drive on 17 January 2017.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38658829

The successful women embracing ‘girl power’ - BBC News

2017-01-17

https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews

Could a club for "girly girls" really help improve female equality in the workplace?

Business

Shelley Zalis says "trying to be a man is a waste of a woman" "Embrace your inner girl" is not a phrase you'll hear very often, particularly in the macho world of business where "manning up" is more de rigueur. Yet if you attend any major business conference this year, then you're likely to come across "The Girls' Lounge". It might sound like a name dreamt up by an unimaginative spa owner or an all-female pop-band, but in reality it's a professional networking space for women. On the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos - a place where male attendees outnumber females five to one, the space is just being prepared. A peek through the windows show that it's all white sofas and cushions, some adorned with glitter pink writing. The decor is soft and unashamedly feminine. Lounges at previous conferences have included beauty treatments, such as face masks and manicures. Aside from the patronising use of the word "girl", surely the idea that women need a separate mingling space, and such a stereotypically feminine one to boot, is doing little to further the case for female equality? Shelley Zalis - who started The Girls' Lounge five years ago - is unapologetic: "This is their boys' club - for women to get to know other women. "There are masculine and feminine styles of leadership and we encourage women to find and lead with their strengths. We need both [styles] or we're all the same," she says. Ms Zalis resolutely refuses to apologise for using the word "girl", arguing the word "woman" is too associated with the traditional hierarchy where female leaders conform to male leadership styles. Beyond Ms Zalis' deliberately provocative and attention-grabbing approach, her point is that women need to take on leadership in whichever way they choose, not emulating the male, institutional model. "We have to stop fixing the women. We have to fix our mindset and recalibrate our mindset on equality and understand men and women are all equal. Until society and corporations value the individual strengths of each person we won't progress," she says. And in The Girls' Lounge, underneath the seemingly fluffy interior, there's plenty of hard facts. In it, for example, there are ten clocks from various countries. Based on a nine to five day, they point to the time a woman should leave work according to the wage gap in the country. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, male attendees outnumber female by five to one The US clock points to 3.20pm, highlighting the fact that women there earn only 79% of what men earn. To make the same point, men in the Girls' Lounge are charged $1 for a bar of chocolate, while women pay 79 cents. While Ms Zalis' initial aim was simply to provide a space for women to feel less isolated at male dominated business events, the Girls' Lounge now hosts serious talks on addressing inequality and has attracted some heavyweight commercial partners including Unilever and Google. The Girls' Lounge is part of The Female Quotient, the firm founded by Ms Zalis which aims to advance workplace equality. The firm has conducted research for consumer goods giant Unilever showing the extent to which underlying bias is holding back progress on the issue. The study, published on Tuesday, showed that not only do an overwhelming 77% of men believe that a man is the best choice to lead an important project, but also the majority (55%) of women. More so, men and women overwhelmingly believe that men don't want women in top corporate positions, according to the research, which interviewed more than 9,000 men and women across eight markets. Unilever changed its adverts last year to make them less gender stereo-typed Unilever's chief marketing officer Keith Weed said the poll pinpointed how traditional beliefs and norms were still holding back women's progress. "Men have intellectually bought into [the] whole area of gender inequality, but acting on it there's still a long way to go. We are holding stereotypes in our head that we fit people into," he said. Mr Weed said addressing the issue was not just "a moral issue but an economic issue". The firm, behind more than 400 brands from Ben & Jerry's ice-cream to Dove soap, last year pledged to remove sexist stereotypes from its own ads. Mr Weed said while it was too early to measure the impact of this change, its previous research had shown that progressive ads were 12% more effective. Erica Dhawan is optimistic about the future of gender equality Yet, Erica Dhawan, a female chief executive of consultancy Cotential, perhaps offers some hope. In her thirties, she says she identifies herself as part of several groups: a millennial, an Indian American, and has never thought there's anything that either women or men could do better. "We can't solve age old problems with old solutions. We need to redefine inclusion in today's modern world and by bringing new perspectives we can improve gender equality. I'm extremely optimistic I believe we need to broaden the conversation. Ms Zalis also believes the new corporations which have emerged in the past couple of decades, such as the tech giants such as Facebook and Google, could help to adjust the balance. "Most traditional corporations were founded over 100 years ago when women weren't in the workplace. Newer firms have equality in their DNA," she says. Hopefully that heralds a future where there will be no need for a girls or boys club but just clubs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38638325

FA Cup: Roarie Deacon scores 'fabulous' goal for Sutton - BBC Sport

2017-01-17

Roarie Deacon scores a "fabulous" goal to draw Sutton United level against 10-man AFC Wimbledon in their FA Cup third-round replay.

Roarie Deacon scores a "fabulous" goal to draw Sutton United level against 10-man AFC Wimbledon in their FA Cup third-round replay. Watch all the best action from the FA Cup third-round replays here. FA People's Cup: Free five-a-side competition returns for 2017 - sign up now! Available to UK users only.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38658274

Drone footage shows huge Antarctic ice crack - BBC News

2017-01-17

Aerial video shows a huge ice crack which is forcing British Antarctic Survey staff to leave their base.

Drone footage shows an Antarctic ice crack which opened late last year. The British Antarctic Survey is to pull all staff out of its space-age Halley base in March because of the crack.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38658836

NHS patient caught selling his drugs in undercover film - BBC News

2017-01-17

We went undercover to confront him.

A patient has been caught in an undercover BBC film illegally selling prescription drugs which cost the NHS £10,000 a year. You can see this story in full on BBC Inside Out West Midlands at 19:30 GMT on BBC One on Monday 16 January or via iPlayer afterwards. This video has been optimised for mobile viewing on the BBC News app. The BBC News app is available from the Apple App Store for iPhone and Google Play Store for Android.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-38608663

Cervical cancer: 'Our sister's symptoms were missed' - BBC News

2017-01-13

Amber Cliff's family say that she was deemed too young to be tested, despite her symptoms.

She worried there was something wrong with her four years ago, because she had bleeding and abdominal pains, but her family say she was told she was too young to be tested. Joanna Gosling spoke to Amber's brother Josh and sister Cameron on the Victoria Derbyshire programme. The Ashburn Medical Centre in Sunderland said they were unable to comment on individual cases, but were deeply saddened to hear of Amber's death. The Victoria Derbyshire programme is broadcast on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38612705

Other colour-casting controversies - BBC News

2017-01-13

Sky has pulled a TV programme about Michael Jackson - it's not the first casting controversy.

Sky has said it will not air a TV programme about Michael Jackson after his daughter said she was "incredibly offended" by the portrayal of him, slated to be by Joseph Fiennes. It's not the first casting controversy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38618631

'Why I dropped the case against the man who groped me' - BBC News

2017-01-13

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One woman's story of why confronting India's 'Eve teasers' is not always straightforward.

BBC Trending

Samya Gupta, a 21-year-old law student from the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, was napping on a seat near the back of a bus when she felt something on her breasts. It was the hands of a man sitting in the row behind her. "The moment I realised (what was happening), I stood up from my seat, yelled and asked for his ID proof," Gupta wrote in a widely-shared Facebook post. She went on to detail how she not only confronted her alleged molester, but got the bus to take a detour so he could be taken into police custody. Gupta ended her account with a series of hashtags including #TooHorrifiedToLetItGo. But the social media users who have expressed admiration for Gupta's stand, may be disappointed by what has happened since. In her post Gupta wrote that when she challenged the man, who she says was in his 40s, he apologised. There were around 30 other passengers on the bus and they reportedly vocalised their support for Gupta. But they also advised her to not pursue the matter, she said. "My co-passengers asked me to accept it, and let it go," Gupta wrote, "But I decided otherwise. I decided to not let it go. I decided to not let an audacious eve-teaser to go free merely by apologising." In her post she said that she chose to speak up because she didn't want the alleged aggressor to feel confident enough in the future to escalate his behaviour to a more violent assault - "to convert into a rapist". "Eve teasing" is a common term used in some South Asian countries to refer to a wide variety of behaviour including molestation. According to Sameera Khan, the co-author of 'Why Loiter? Women & Risk on Mumbai Streets' it includes "flashing or any verbal/physical sexual street harassment that falls short of rape." "It's an archaic term," says Khan, "The 'Eve' part comes from the Old Testament and describing harassment as 'teasing' makes it sound almost like a mild romantic overture that should be tolerated - which of course it should not." Gupta told BBC Trending that she persuaded the bus driver to divert the bus to the nearest local police station. The passengers, who had surrounded the man who had allegedly been groping Gupta, then escorted them both into the building. There Gupta filed a harassment complaint against the man whose name has not emerged in the media and was not named in Gupta's post. "The process of filing a complaint was lengthy and laborious," Gupta added. She says that she was informed she would have to provide her statement in Hindi, a language she says she doesn't know to write well. "This made me wonder what happens to illiterate women in India who muster up the courage to go to the police," she told Trending, "I'm a law student and even I found the process tedious and challenging." Gupta wrote in her Facebook post that her problems didn't end when she left the police station. She claimed that when she took another bus several acquaintances of the alleged harasser approached her and told her to drop her complaint. She added that they questioned her character, accusing her of "goofing around with various guys every now and then, therefore my allegations have no sense of veracity". A court date was set for a hearing for the harassment charge. But before it arrived Gupta withdrew her charge. Speaking to Trending, she cited a couple of reasons for dropping the case. One, she said, was due to "complacency with paperwork" which she claimed resulted in her mobile number becoming available to man's family. As a result, Gupta told Trending, she received calls pressuring her to drop the case because the accused man was a father of two. Similarly, she said, her own family also advised her to drop the case. "They felt Eve teasing wasn't serious enough an incident to merit going through with a court trial," Gupta told Trending. She added: "I am a student and I don't earn my own money. I come a family with no background with the law. Going to the police station was a big deal for them. I dropped the charge because it seemed like too much pressure on my family." Local police have defended the handling of the case. Inspector Shiv Mangal Singh told BBC Trending that officers had followed protocol. "Then the girl, Samya Gupta and her father, came to the police station and told us to drop the case. In terms of the accuser's family getting her phone number, that didn't happen at our end, it may be an administration issue with the lawyers. Similarly, they were people available to translate and write the document in Hindi for her." Inspector Singh said that even after the case had been dropped, the man still spent several more days in custody, because the statute under which he was arrested requires suspects to remain in custody for 14 days without the prospect of bail. He added: "We take Eve-teasing seriously and have set up a Whatsapp number where women can send complaints about Eve-teasing." Eve-teasing, is not specifically classified as an offence specific in Indian law. However sections of the Indian Penal code are said to cover offences comprising sexually intimidating behaviour. This includes Section 354 which is defined as "assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty" and Section 509 which allows for up to three years imprisonment for on "word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman." A shocking, graphic video showing torture and racial abuse led far-right activists to link the perpetrators to the Black Lives Matter movement. READ MORE You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-38584835

Manchester United v Liverpool: Jose Mourinho & Jurgen Klopp preview the game - BBC Sport

2017-01-13

Jose Mourinho and Jurgen Klopp look ahead to Manchester United against Liverpool, with Klopp expecting a "real fight".

Jose Mourinho and Jurgen Klopp look ahead to Manchester United's Premier League match against Liverpool this weekend, with Klopp expecting a "real fight".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38610019

Paul Pogba says Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has 'let him free' - BBC Sport

2017-01-13

Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba says his recent form has been helped by Jose Mourinho letting him "free" on the pitch.

Last updated on .From the section Football Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba says his recent upturn in form has been helped by manager Jose Mourinho letting him "free" on the pitch. The France international, 23, started slowly after rejoining United for a £89m world-record fee last summer. But he has been instrumental in United's recent nine-match winning run. MOTD Analysis: Why Pogba is looking like the real deal "He told me not to listen to anybody, just be focused on the pitch and enjoy yourself. That is all I am doing," Pogba told the BBC's Football Focus. Pogba is now playing with a strut and a swagger, showing us what he is capable of Expectations were high following Pogba's return to Old Trafford from Italian champions Juventus in August, but it is only in recent weeks that his influence on the team has gradually increased. He has scored and assisted a total of five more goals in United's past 10 games compared to his tally in their first 10 games. And Pogba says it is down to the reassurance and guidance given by Mourinho. "He talked to me. He made me very comfortable and confident," said Pogba, who made seven appearances for United before joining Juve for £1.5m in 2012. "He said 'you know how to play, do what you want'. He let me free on the pitch. "He told me just to enjoy myself. That is it. That is all I need to hear from the manager." 'I still believe we can win the league' The Red Devils host arch-rivals Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday, starting the game in sixth position and 10 points behind leaders Chelsea. Mourinho, 53, made a mixed start to his reign after succeeding Louis van Gaal, winning the Community Shield and his opening three league matches before losing three games in a row in September. However, a nine-match winning run in all competitions - six in the Premier League - has closed the gap on the top four to just three points. And Pogba insists overhauling Chelsea is still not out of the question. "You have to believe. We are not far," he said. "I know Chelsea are at the top but this is the Premier League, you never know what is going to happen. You have to keep fighting and believing. Inside I feel we can still win the league. "The team is getting better and better. We all know each other now so we feel much better than we did at the start of the season." Highlights of Manchester United v Liverpool are on Match of the Day 2 at 22:00 GMT on Sunday on BBC Two and the BBC Sport website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38613861

Graham Taylor dies at 72 - His FA Cup Story - BBC Sport

2017-01-13

Former England and Watford manager Graham Taylor has died aged 72. Here he tells his story of Watford's memorable FA Cup run in 1984.

Former England and Watford manager Graham Taylor has died aged 72. Here he tells his story of Watford's memorable FA Cup run in 1984.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38599596

How Antarctic bases went from wooden huts to sci-fi chic - BBC News

2017-01-13

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For decades Antarctica hosted only the simplest huts as human shelters - but architecture in the coldest, driest, windiest continent is getting snazzier.

Magazine

How do you build in the most isolated place on Earth? For decades Antarctica - the only continent with no indigenous population - hosted only the simplest huts as human shelters. But, as Matthew Teller finds out, architecture in the coldest, driest, windiest reaches of our planet is getting snazzier. It's an eye-popping, futuristic design - a dark, sleek building, low and long, that is destined to be a temporary waterfront home for up to 65 people at a time. The price tag is a hefty $100m (£80m). And while a Chinese company is building it, it's not in China, and almost no-one will ever see it. After the original burned down in 2012, the Brazilian navy launched an architectural competition for a replacement design - won by a local firm - and then awarded the building tender to a Chinese defence and engineering contractor, CEIEC. It's due to be completed in 2018. The upper block will contain cabins, dining and living space; the lower block will house laboratories and operational areas Located on a small island just off the coast of Antarctica, it lies almost 1,000km (600 miles) south of the tip of South America. No scheduled air routes come close and it's way off any shipping lanes. And even if you could reach it yourself, like all Antarctic research stations Comandante Ferraz will be closed to the public. Virtually nobody other than the crews posted there will ever see it in the flesh. So why, you may ask, spend so much on architectural style? Wouldn't a dull but functional building do just as well? Brazil is not alone in paying for eye-catching design, though. In 2013, India unveiled its Bharati station, with a similar modernist design. Designed by bof arkitekten, Bharati overlooks the sea and is used to study polar marine life It was made from 134 prefabricated shipping containers, for ease of transport and construction, but you would never guess it from the outside. And the following year, South Korea opened its Jang Bogo station - a grand, triple-winged module lifted on steel-reinforced blocks, capable of supporting a crew of 60. Jang Bogo's aerodynamic triple-arm design is said to provide resistance to the elements What is the explanation for this architectural flamboyance? "Antarctic stations have become the equivalent of embassies on the ice," says Prof Anne-Marie Brady, editor-in-chief of the Polar Journal and author of China as a Polar Great Power. "They are showcases for a nation's interests in Antarctica - status symbols." Those interests could be purely scientific. But a moratorium on mineral prospecting becomes easier to review in just over 40 years' time, and every Antarctic player also wants to be ready to take advantage, should anything change. Planting a dramatic building on the ice has become the modern equivalent of explorers of old planting a flag. It wasn't always like this. In March 1903, the 33 men of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition landed on the outlying South Orkney Islands and built a dry-stone shack. Expedition leader William Bruce grandly named it Omond House, after the Edinburgh meteorologist, Robert Traill Omond. It was Antarctica's first permanent building, and is maintained today by the Argentine government as part of its Orcadas base. For years afterwards, throughout the heroic age of polar exploration headed by Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton and Mawson, nothing much fancier than wooden huts went up on the white continent. US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Shackleton's hut in November Then came a - relative - building boom, spurred by the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-58, a global project for co-operation in science. The 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which resulted from the IGY, suspended all territorial claims, but that led many countries to set about consolidating their presence in other ways, such as construction. The treaty's clause giving countries conducting "substantial research activity" in Antarctica a vote in meetings to determine the continent's future was another incentive to maintain a physical presence. The US's sprawling McMurdo research station dates from this period. Powered from 1962 to 1972 by a nuclear reactor, it is the biggest settlement on the continent, housing a summer population of about 1,200. The McMurdo station has a harbour, landing strips on sea ice and shelf ice, and a helicopter pad The McMurdo coffee house serves hot drinks to workers and is attached to a small cinema - the chapel of the snows, a non-denominational Christian church, is nearby For years, though, what with the huge technical and logistical difficulties in building anything in Antarctica, architectural glamour stayed off the list of priorities. The UK's Halley station was just "a few wooden huts inside giant steel tubes" when meteorologist Peter Gibbs arrived in 1980. It lay buried beneath 15m (50ft) of snow. "It was like living in a submarine, clambering up and down ladders to get in and out," Gibbs remembers. Built in 1973, Halley III was abandoned in 1983 because of access and ventilation problems Antarctica as a whole has so little precipitation it is classified as a desert, but snow does fall near the coasts, and in the interior low temperatures mean fallen snow accumulates faster than it can melt. Polar winds blow this snow around the continent, so that any object standing proud of the flat surface quickly gains a downwind "tail" of blown snow. Snow accumulation can swamp and crush buildings with ease. The first Halley station, built in 1956, was abandoned 12 years later, when it too had become "like a submarine", as Gibbs puts it. The version he worked in, Halley III, was built in 1973 and lasted only 10 years. Until Halley VI arrived in 2013, all were defeated by snow accumulation, and by the moving ice shelf on which they stood. At Halley's location the ice slides around 1.5m (5ft) a day towards the sea, but to maintain accuracy the station's scientific measurements have to be made at the same place year by year. Designed by Hugh Broughton Architects and Aecom, Halley VI's red module contains the communal areas Halley VI, however, is Antarctica's first relocatable research station. Its eight connected pods - like giant, colourful train carriages, which can be isolated to limit the spread of fire - sit on hydraulic legs mounted on huge, 8m-long skis. This means that the pods can be detached from each other, dragged by bulldozers to a new location, and the whole station reassembled. That design is being put to good use, as Halley is currently being moved to avoid a chasm that is opening up in the ice nearby. And Halley VI is both glamorous and comfortable. Unlike earlier Halley stations, each bedroom now has a window to the outside Its bijou bedrooms feel like a classy budget hotel. Interiors are fitted in vivid reds, blues and greens to compensate for the lack of colour outside. Halley's pool table and sofas sit beneath the only double-height internal space in Antarctica, stylishly lit - outside the months of winter darkness, anyway - by tall, semi-opaque windows. Beside the drinks bar climbs a spiral staircase, clad in aromatic Lebanese cedar veneer, chosen to stimulate an often-overlooked sense in the almost completely smell-free Antarctic environment. "All the newest bases look good as well as do the science - it's a reflection of the priorities of our era," says Anne-Marie Brady. South Africa was one of the first countries to solve the problem of snow accumulation with its SANAE IV base, which opened in 1997. It was designed with stilt-like legs, which let snow blow under the building. Germany applied the same concept to its Neumayer III base, which opened in 2009, with an extra refinement. Sixteen hydraulic pillars allow the entire two-storey structure to be raised every year by around a metre. The foot of each pillar is then lifted and replaced on a new firm base of packed snow. Neumayer III always stands 6m above the ice - up to 50 people live there during the summer and nine in the winter Like the UK's Halley base, Concordia, an Italian and French research facility is used by the European Space Agency to study the physical and psychological effects of isolation - the nearest people are stationed 600 km (370 miles) away Another element of Antarctic architecture that has become critical is energy efficiency. Most stations run on polar diesel, which is expensive, polluting and difficult to transport. Belgium's Princess Elisabeth station, an aerodynamic pod raised on steel legs, is the first with zero emissions. Since its inauguration in 2009 it has run entirely on solar and wind energy, and - even here - has no heating. The station's layered design means interior temperatures are maintained from waste heat generated by electrical systems and human activity, and dense wall insulation reduces heat loss to almost zero. The Princess Elisabeth station has nine wind turbines Photovoltaic solar panels also provide electricity, while thermal solar panels melt snow and heat water for bathrooms and kitchens If the Princess Elisabeth station looks like something out of a Bond movie, China's latest Antarctic station Taishan - its fourth - has been likened to a flying saucer. It was rush-built in 45 days in 2013-14, and is intended to last only a few years. A model of the Taishan research centre - China's fourth in Antarctica "China will probably start building a fifth station this year," says Anne-Marie Brady. Like all the rest, few people will ever see it. Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38574003

Urine test reveals what you really eat - BBC News

2017-01-13

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Analysing urine could improve what you eat, claim scientists.

Health

A urine test that can reveal how healthy your meals are has been developed by UK scientists. They think it could be used to improve nutritional advice or in weight loss because people are notoriously bad at recording their own eating habits. The test, detailed in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, detects chemicals made as food is processed by the body. The research team believe it could be widely available within two years. The urine samples are analysed to determine the structure of the chemicals floating around in it using a technique called a proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. This gives clues to both recent meals and long term dietary habits. The results of your body processing fruit, vegetables, fish and different types of meat leave a distinct signature in the urine. Clues to the state of the body's metabolism and gut health can also be detected by investigating the chemicals in it. The test was developed by a collaboration between Imperial College London, Newcastle University and Aberystwyth University. Dr Isabel Garcia-Perez, one of the researchers at Imperial, said: "This will eventually provide a tool for personalised dietary monitoring to help maintain a healthy lifestyle. "We're not at the stage yet where the test can tell us a person ate 15 chips yesterday and two sausages, but it's on the way." Could urine be more accurate than food diaries? In trials, around 60% of people either under or over report what they are eating. Prof Gary Frost, another scientist at Imperial, said this could be the first independent test of what people munch on at home. He told the BBC News website: "You can really tell whether someone's been following a healthy diet or not. "The bigger you are the more likely you are to under-report what you eat. "People find it difficult to open up to what types of foods they eat at home, which is a major problem." The researchers believe the test results could help combat people's obesity or risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Prof Frost said: "If someone is very big and their profile says they're eating lots of energy dense foods like meat, then you can try to change that profile and then test them again later. "It remains to be seen, but people might respond better to that and there is a desperate need for tools to help people change their diet." He says doing the test on large numbers of people would build up a picture of what the nation was really eating, which could be used to design better public health campaigns. The scientists were able to spot the difference between healthy and unhealthy diets after tests on 19 people who spent days eating a carefully controlled set of meals. Four diets of varying degrees of healthiness were given to the patients and their urine was sampled morning, noon and night. Dr Des Walsh, from the UK Medical Research Council, commented: "Though this research is still in its early stages, it's grappling with essential methods in food and diet studies where advances are really needed. "Measuring what we eat and drink more accurately will widen the benefits of nutrition research, developing better evidence-based interventions to improve an individual's health and reduce obesity."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38597284

Trudeau reaffirms support for immigration and Canadian Muslims - BBC News

2017-01-13

Speaking about the difference between US and Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau strongly reaffirms his support for feminism, immigration and Muslim nationals.

Speaking about the differences between US and Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has emphatically reaffirmed his support for feminism, immigration and Muslim nationals.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38616652