Tougher dog control measures could soon be implemented in Oxford.

Article: Paramedics were ruled out of strike action on Thursday evening when management declared a "major incident".
Staff were canvassed on Friday to see if they would remain on duty to respond to serious and life-threatening calls if the major incident was stood down.
Only 10% of the 41 crews said they would remain on duty.
The Ambulance Trust said in the absence of a concrete commitment from enough staff to sustain a safe service, the trust said it had been left with no option but to keep the major incident in place.
The trade union, Unison, said the decision came as no surprise to them and that there was a serious loss of good will among ambulance staff.
In a text to staff at 2340 GMT on Thursday, the Ambulance Service said: "Please be advised that a major incident has been declared due to critical levels of cover and in line with the guidance issued by your union you are expected to report for duty as normal."
Management said they had been forced to take the measure "to maintain a safe level of ambulance cover".
Unions reacted angrily accusing management of "pulling a stunt" and said the move was "provocative".
The Ambulance Service said it was "inundated" with calls saying staff would be striking.
In a statement to the media, it said it had "exhausted all alternative contingency options, and lives would be at risk if we allowed the situation to deteriorate further".
Due to previous agreements between management and unions, it meant crews were required to turn up for duty on Friday.
In a tweet, the Ambulance Service added: "Two cities and many towns without ambulance cover is the only reason NIAS declared major incident."
John McPoland of the Ambulance Service said at midnight there were seven crews available for all emergencies across Northern Ireland.
"If we hadn't have declared a major incident because the level of services had decreased so much, we would be left with a situation this morning, where rather than having to explain a major incident, I could have been in here trying to explain to some family why a...

Summary: The Ambulance Service has said it will keep a "major incident" in place for the remainder of today's strike.
###
Article: The city council has proposed that owners face harsher fines for dog fouling and is asking the public to take part in a consultation.
Dogs could be banned from play areas in parks and owners set limits on the number of dogs they take for walks in public.
Authorised officers would also have the power to request dogs be put on a lead.
Councillor John Tanner, board member for the Cleaner Greener Oxford campaign, said: "There is nothing more annoying than getting dog mess on your shoe or in the wheels of the pushchair.
"Oxford City Council wants to get tough with irresponsible dog owners."
The consultation runs until 31 January and a report is presented to the city's executive board in March.
If approved, the new dog control orders would come into effect on 1 April.

Summary:


The BBC's David Cameron has been accused of "dishonestly" taking part in the UK's most controversial election.
The BBC's David Cameron has been accused of "dishonestly" taking part in the UK's most controversial election.
The BBC's David Cameron has been accused of "dish

A social worker who failed to make regular visits to convicted criminals with mental health problems has been struck off.

Article: But 130 mile (209km) away its lesser-known namesake, Downing Street in Newport, has no such claim to fame.
While one has been home to prime ministers for almost three centuries, the other has some residents who have never seen the inside of a polling station.
One is lined with armed police officers, the other with wheelie bins.
And according to Zoopla, there is a Â£1.72m difference in average property prices.
Homes that share a postcode with London's 10 Downing Street are worth on average Â£1.8m. But if you share a postcode with 10 Downing Street in Newport, your property will be worth on average less than Â£80,000.
The street falls in the constituency of Newport East where Labour's Jessica Morden is seeking re-election. The Independents, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, UKIP and Plaid Cymru are also fielding candidates.
Emma Lewis, 32, who lives on Downing Street, in the Newport suburb of Lliswerry, has never voted.
"It doesn't make any difference never mind who's elected, they're all just the same," she said.
And she believes politicians are self serving: "They're all out for themselves. It never changes anything for the better. The poor person always ends up out of pocket."
Across the road, Graham Jones, 70, does not have much love for a lot of politicians either.
"[The elections is] a chance to get rid of this stinking government that we've got," he said.
"The best thing that this country's got is the National Health Service. To see this Conservative government trying to privatise it so that their cronies can make more money is not on."
Mr Jones is a Labour supporter and has displayed a campaign leaflet in his front window.
He said when the snap election was called he felt "out of this world" and "totally elated".
"The National Health Service would be safe with a Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn," he said.
"Hopefully he'll add his weight and nationalise the industries from private ownership back into public hands such as the railways, our electric, gas, you name it. The quicker we get them...

Summary: Downing Street in London is home to one of the most photographed front doors in Britain.
###
Article: Kerri Imelda Doherty was supposed to see four offenders at least once a month, a Care Council for Wales (CCW) hearing in Cardiff was told.
The men needed regular visits because they could suffer a relapse which could put the public at risk.
Ms Doherty denied any wrongdoing but three allegations were found proven.
A fourth charge of acting "dishonestly" was found not proven.
The hearing was told Ms Doherty worked for Vale of Glamorgan council as a senior social worker and had years of experience.
Part of her job was to make sure people who had committed "significant crimes" but were living in the community, complied with Crown Court orders issued under the Mental Health Act.
Ms Doherty said visits had happened every six weeks but council mental health services manager Andrew Cole, giving evidence on the first of a two-day hearing, said the visits were less frequent.
"[This led] to a potential increased risk of somebody's mental health deteriorating and an escalation in their behaviour - which is more likely to go undetected," he said.
Mr Cole also said the minimum four-week frequency of visits was set by doctors and would have been "clearly marked" on official documents.
In her evidence, Ms Doherty told the panel she often had an excessive work-load, inadequate management support and often felt "left out on a limb".
The hearing was also told that bereavement had caused her to "burn out" and that her life had become "chaotic" as a result.
Ms Doherty, who had been subject to a suspension order since the allegations came to light in 2014, told the hearing she was not seeking to return to social care.
A report by the care watchdog said: "The committee finds that only a Removal Order will be adequate in this case given the seriousness of the impairment."

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The US intelligence community has been accused of spying on the Syrian government, but the US has not commented publicly on the allegations.
The US intelligence community has been accused of spying on the Syrian government, but the US has not commented publicly on the allegations.
The US intelligence community has been accused of spying on the Syrian

A new law imposing restrictions on users of social media has come into effect in Russia.

Article: Brig Gen Mohammed Suleiman was shot by a sniper while at a beach resort near the Mediterranean port of Tartous.
Israel has never commented publicly on suspicions that it was involved.
But a document leaked to The Intercept website by American whistleblower Edward Snowden says Israeli naval commandos were behind the shooting.
Former US intelligence officers said its classification markings indicated the National Security Agency (NSA), for whom Mr Snowden worked as a contractor, had made the discovery through monitoring Israeli communications.
Arab media reported at the time of Suleiman's killing said he was shot in the head and neck by a sniper on board a yacht on the night of 1 August 2008 while he was having dinner at his beachfront home.
Some sources said Suleiman was President Bashar al-Assad top security aide; others that he served as Syria's "liaison" with the militant Lebanese Shia movement, Hezbollah.
A 2007 cable from the US embassy in Damascus, published by Wikileaks in 2010, described him as "special presidential adviser for arms procurement and strategic weapons".
Another cable, sent after Suleiman's assassination, said the officer enjoyed a reputation as having "special status and proximity to Bashar". He was believed to have "managed special projects for Assad, some of which may have been unknown to the broader Syrian military leadership", it added.
The cable also said "the most obvious suspects are the Israelis".
[Syrian government] security services are well aware that the coastal city of Tartous would offer easier access to Israeli operatives than would more inland locations such as Damascus," it explained.
On Wednesday evening, The Intercept published a top-secret entry in the NSA's internal version of Wikipedia, called Intellipedia, which appeared to confirm the embassy's suspicions.
"The assassination of Syrian Brigadier General Mohammed Suleiman by Israeli naval commandos near Tartous, Syria, was the first known instance of Israel targeting a legitimate government official," it states.
The...

Summary: Israeli special forces were responsible for the assassination of a Syrian military official in 2008, a leaked US intelligence file says.
###
Article: It means bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers must register with the mass media regulator, Roskomnadzor, and conform to the regulations that govern the country's larger media outlets.
Internet companies will also be required to allow Russian authorities access to users' information.
One human rights group called the move "draconian".
The law was approved by Russia's upper house of parliament in April.
It includes measures to ensure that bloggers cannot remain anonymous, and states that social networks must maintain six months of data on its users.
The information must be stored on servers based in Russian territory, so that government authorities can gain access.
Critics see it as the latest in a series of recent moves to curb internet freedom.
Hugh Williamson, of New York-based Human Rights Watch, has called the law "another milestone in Russia's relentless crackdown on free expression".
"The internet is the last island of free expression in Russia and these draconian regulations are clearly aimed at putting it under government control," he added.
Opposition figures have used the internet to air their views, with some gaining millions of followers.
Commentators opposing Vladimir Putin often face restrictions in broadcast outlets and newspapers.
Analysis: Famil Ismailov, news editor, BBCRussian.com
Russian bloggers are bracing themselves for the moment when Russia's new "information security law" comes into force on 1 August. Some already share advice on how to use proxy servers in order to access social media sites that, in their view, are under threat of being closed.
It is hard to see how the law will be enforced. The servers for most of the popular social media platforms that many Russians use are based outside Russia.
Many popular bloggers are already looking for, and apparently finding, ways to "cheat" the feature that counts page visits and keep their daily unique visitor numbers just under 3000, or to make sure that the statistics are hidden altogether.
Anton Nossik, who is considered Russia's...

Summary:


The Scottish government has been forced to pay the IMF €1.6bn next month.

Scotland gets ready to welcome the new year with Hogmanay celebrations.

Article: "The four instalments for the IMF in June are €1.6bn, this money will not be given and is not there to be given," Nikos Voutsis told Greek TV.
Greece has to come to a deal with the IMF and EU to secure the final tranche of its bailout from the institutions.
The finance minister meanwhile told the BBC that progress was being made.
Yanis Varoufakis said Greece had worked hard to meet its end of the deal with its lenders, and that now it was up to the international institutions to reciprocate.
"Greece has made enormous strides at reaching a deal," he told the Andrew Marr Show.
"It is now up to institutions to do their bit. We have met them three-quarters of the way, they need to meet us one-quarter of the way."
Analysis: Joe Lynam, BBC business correspondent
The Greek interior minister Nikos Voutsis is "of the far left" in a hard left-wing Syriza party but should not be disregarded as on the fringe, or irrelevant, within the government.
He is one of a number of different voices around the cabinet table with varying degrees of influence. So his comments that Greece cannot and will not pay the IMF €1.6bn next month should not be fully discounted.
There is a theory that the Prime minister Alexis Tsipras allows his ministers to let off steam in interviews in order to give him leverage when negotiating with creditors in Brussels or Berlin.
It is also true that the Greek Finance Minister Varoufakis has been sidelined by Athens.  All areas of discussion with the troika (EC, ECB and IMF), must be agreed by Mr Tsipras personally.
The Greek government, EU and IMF have been locked in negotiations for four months over economic reforms the IMF and EU say must be implemented before more money is made available.
Greece's last cash injection from its international creditors was in August and the final €7.2bn instalment from its two €240bn EU-IMF bailouts is now seen as vital.
But first it has to meet the 5 June repayment deadline. If it fails to come to a deal with its partners, there is a fear it could default on its...

Summary: Greece cannot make a repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due on 5 June as it does not have the money, the interior minister says.
###
Article: Thousands of people gather in Edinburgh, in Scotland, every year for a big parade, food and fireworks.
They are celebrating Hogmanay - which is a Scottish word that means 'new year'.
Hogmanay celebrations take place all over Scotland and lasts for three days, beginning at the end of December and ending on January 2nd.
There are lots of different stores as to how Hogmanay began, but many people think that some of the traditional Hogmanay celebrations were brought to Scotland by the Vikings in the 8th and 9th Centauries.
Fires were lit to ward off 'evil spirits' and celebrate the arrival of Winter Solstice.
The first written mentions of "Hogmanay" come from 1604, although many of the traditions come from before that.
Around 450 years ago, there were many arguments about the Christian religion in a period called the 'Reformation'.
Celebrating Christmas was discouraged, and as a result celebrations around the New Year became more popular in Scotland.
Despite the fact that celebrating Christmas became popular in Scotland again, many people continued to celebrate Hogmanay as well.
There are lots of traditions which people take part in to celebrate Hogmanay.
One of the first is to clean the house and remove any old ashes in the fire - this is to symbolise clearing out the old year to welcome in the new one.
'First-footing' is also a tradition celebrated at Hogmanay.
To bring good luck to their homes, the first person through the door on Hogmanay should bring things like coal, shortbread or cake.
Fire and fireworks are a big part of Hogmanay celebrations, which link back to the idea of warding off 'evil spirits'.
A huge fiery parade usually takes place to mark the start of Hogmanay, where some people dress up in Viking clothing.
When the clock strikes midnight on New Year's eve it is tradition for people to hold hands and sing 'Auld Lang Syne', the words to which were written by famous Scottish poet Robert Burns.

Summary:


The company has been investing in technology, with more than a fifth of its members (22%) using its app in breakdowns, while its newly-launched in-house underwriter recorded 115,000 car insurance policies in its first year, more than expected.
The AA has been investing in technology, with more

The AA has warned that it may have to raise its prices because the government has doubled the tax rate on insurance policies in less than two years.

Article: HMP Northumberland in Acklington, which houses more than 1,300 male prisoners, will be managed by Sodexo Justice Services from December.
The company said it had begun talks with union officials about reducing the site's current workforce of 580.
The Prison Officer's Association (POA) accused the firm of "putting profit before public safety".
Sodexo, which already operates one prison in Scotland and three in England, was awarded a 15-year contract worth about £250m to manage HMP Northumberland earlier this year.
The National Offender Management Service said Sodexo had produced a "compelling bid" to run the prison, formed after the merger of Castington and Acklington jails.
In a statement, the company said: "We are currently in consultation with the Ministry of Justice and the recognised unions regarding employment arrangements at HMP Northumberland.
"We have shared our proposed reduction in staffing numbers. We aim to achieve this reduction by voluntary means if possible.
"Formal consultation with employees will commence after 1 December 2013 when HMP Northumberland employees transfer to Sodexo Justice Services."
A spokesman for the POA said: "The announcement that 200 jobs will go at HMP Northumberland will place private profit before public safety.
"We insist that Sodexo now provide safe systems of work, risk assessments and staff profiles to ensure that HMP Northumberland is safe, secure and decent for staff, prisoners and the public.
"The POA will not tolerate unsafe working practices and unsupervised prisoners.
"The warehousing of prisoners will not provide the promised rehabilitation revolution."
Sodexo Justice Services is part of the French multinational Sodexo Group, which provides services including catering, cleaning and security.
HMP Northumberland was criticised in 2012 after inspectors found a third of inmates spent days in their cells "doing nothing".

Summary: Up to 200 jobs are to go at a Northumberland prison which is about to be privatised.
###
Article: The breakdown service, which also reported a rise in personal memberships of 0.4% to 3,335,000 in the six months to the end of January, said it had so far absorbed the price rise.
Insurance premium tax (IPT) was 6% in 2015, but is going up to 12% from June.
The AA said it would look at its fees if the tax increased again.
"We have managed to protect our members," the AA explained. "But this is an industry-wide challenge and we will need to review our pricing policy in the context of any future increase in IPT."
The increase in memberships - an "important milestone", according to the company - halted a long-standing drop in figures.
It came after the AA signed up more members, with a 19% rise in new business year-on-year, and kept more existing customers, with its retention rate improving to 82%.
It added that there was a 5% rise in the number of breakdown call-outs in the 12 months to the end of January, again reversing a trend of gradual decline, which it described as "unhelpful for costs in the short term".
However, the company explained that this did increase the chances of people renewing their membership.
The AA has been investing in technology, with more than a fifth of its members (22%) using its app in breakdowns, while its newly-launched in-house underwriter recorded 115,000 car insurance policies in its first year, more than expected.

Summary:


The Home Office has been seeking to deport Eric Johnson as a "foreign criminal".
The Home Office has been seeking to deport him as a "foreign criminal".
The Home Office has been seeking to deport him as a "foreign criminal".
The Home Office has been seeking to deport him as a "foreign criminal".

A man jailed for manslaughter has won his battle against deportation after judges ruled he was being discriminated against because his parents were unmarried.

Article: Maureen Watt made the pledge as MSPs unanimously backed the general principles of the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Bill on Thursday.
The bill was brought forward in response to the scandal at the Mortonhall crematorium in Edinburgh.
Staff at the crematorium had secretly buried the ashes of babies for decades.
The parents of the infants had been told there were no ashes left when young babies were cremated.
Concerns were later raised about other crematoriums across Scotland.
The new legislation follows on from the recommendations of Lord Bonomy's Infant Cremation Commission.
Ms Watt set out plans to bring forward a series of amendments in response to calls from Holyrood's Health and Sport Committee to strengthen its provisions.
Committee convener Duncan McNeil said MSPs had heard moving evidence of the "long-lasting and devastating" impact of the ashes scandal.
He said: "The bereaved parents who shared their views with the committee sent a very clear message - this bill must ensure that the poor practice of the past should never happen again."
Ms Watt said the bill would make "valuable and much needed" improvements to burial and cremation laws which were more than 100-years-old.
She said there were a number of problems with the current system, including an overly-complicated process that can be "difficult to understand at the best of times, let alone when dealing with the loss of a loved one."
Ms Watt added: "There can also be a lack of clear information given to the person who is making the funeral arrangements.
"Lord Bonomy's Infant Cremation Commission identified all too clearly the potential impact of these problems.
"The steps taken in this bill will help ensure that such failings can never occur again."
The minister confirmed amendments to ensure that women experiencing a pregnancy loss were put at the centre of decision-making over any remains, to improve the process following a post 24-week termination and to strengthen what crematoriums and funeral director could do with ashes.
Labour MSP Jenny...

Summary: New legislation on cremations will ensure that Scotland's baby ashes scandal will never be repeated, the public health minister has said.
###
Article: Born to a Jamaican mother and British father, Eric Johnson, 31, moved to the UK from the Caribbean aged four.
The Home Office had been seeking to deport him as a "foreign criminal".
The Supreme Court ruled this was discriminatory, saying he would not be removed if his parents had married.
The deportation case came down to "an accident of birth" was the view of the five Supreme Court justices on Wednesday.
Lady Hale, who headed the panel, said in a written ruling: "In this case, what needs to be justified is the current liability of the appellant to be deported when they would not be so liable had their parents been married to one another at any time after their birth.
"That is a present distinction which is based solely on the accident of birth outside wedlock, for which the appellant is not responsible."
Johnson began his fight with the Home Office in 2011, after being jailed for nine years in 2008.
The justices pointed out that new immigration rules that came in to effect in 2006 gave people in Johnson's position automatic British citizenship at birth, but that the changes had not been applied retrospectively.
The law is quite complex around the definition of a British citizen, but here are the guidelines from the Home Office:

Summary:


A new code of practice on police stop-and-search powers has come into force.

Article: The group - chaired by anti-Brexit Labour MP Chuka Umunna - warns in a report that anti-immigrant rhetoric is making it harder for new arrivals.
It calls for government action to encourage "meaningful social mixing".
Leave Means Leave said there was nothing poisonous about wanting to take back control of Britain's borders.
In its report, the cross-party group on social integration, says migrants should be treated as Britons-in-waiting who can eventually gain citizenship instead of being viewed as security threats.
Mr Umunna said: "The demonisation of immigrants, exacerbated by the poisonous tone of the debate during the EU referendum campaign and after, shames us all and is a huge obstacle to creating a socially integrated nation.
"We must act now to safeguard our diverse communities from the pedlars of hatred and division while addressing valid concerns about the impact of immigration on public services, some of which can contribute to local tensions."
The group calls for local authorities to be given a legal duty to promote integration and for new arrivals to be put on the path to citizenship straight away.
It also proposes that businesses employing large numbers of immigrants should pay a levy that could be used to help ease the strains of migration on communities.
And the group repeats a call it made last year to allow different parts of the UK to set their own immigration policy, an idea rejected by the Home Office.
Critics have accused the group of trying to keep EU freedom of movement through the back door.
Richard Tice, co-chairman of pro-Brexit campaign Leave Means Leave, said: "This is typical of Chuka Umunna - a member of the metropolitan liberal elite who is completely oblivious to the concerns of millions of hard-working British families across the country.
"There is nothing 'poisonous' about wanting to take back control over Britain's borders, in fact he should be ashamed to suggest there is."
He claimed Mr Umunna was "in complete denial about the referendum result and is trying to retain a form...

Summary: The poisonous tone of last year's Brexit campaign has led to the demonisation of immigrants, the head of a group of MPs has said.
###
Article: The code received widespread support during consultation and was unanimously approved by the Scottish Parliament.
It was introduced following concerns over the number of people being searched without a legal basis.
The code says statutory searches must be "necessary, proportionate and in accordance with the law". There is also specific guidance on dealing with children and vulnerable adults.
Non-statutory or "consensual" stop-and-searches are now banned entirely.
The new code was drawn up by an advisory group led by John Scott QC.
Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said: "The ability of police to stop and search individuals can be an intrusion into liberty and privacy, but remains a valuable tool in combating crime.
"I have spent some time with police officers using the new code on our streets and am in no doubt that such searches will be carried out with fairness, integrity and respect.
"The views expressed during the consultation period were absolutely key to shaping the new code."
The code states that stopping and searching must be done for a good reason and be both "necessary and proportionate".
This means that officers must have a "reasonable suspicion" based on "facts, information and/or intelligence" that the person being searched is likely to be carrying an illegal item.
Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams said: "Police Scotland welcomes the introduction of the code and has worked closely with the Scottish government to support its development.
"It provides clear guidance to all our officers and places the rights of the individuals at the centre of any decision to carry out a search.
"In preparation for the introduction of the code, all frontline officers have received training and we will continue to work closely with partners, particularly children and young people, to monitor its impact."

Summary:


ScotRail said it has reached an in-principle agreement with the RMT union to bring to an end a dispute over driver-only operated trains.

Article: It also announced that it wants assembly elections to be held every five years instead of four.
However, separate proposals to re-draw the boundaries of assembly constituencies have been dropped.
Welsh Secretary David Jones said the Westminster coalition wanted a "fairer and more transparent" political system.
Of the 60 AMs, 40 represent constituency seats and 20 are elected from five regional lists.
Since the 2007 elections, a ban on so-called dual candidacy has barred candidates from standing in both contests at the same election.
The dual candidacy ban was strongly opposed by other parties when it was introduced by the last UK Labour government.
When he introduced the ban, then Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said it was an "abuse" of the system to allow candidates to get elected on regional lists when they had lost first-past-the-post contests in constituency elections.
The ban has resulted in some assembly members losing their seats without being able to rely on the insurance policy of standing in both categories.
After consulting on changes to the assembly's voting system, the UK government said it would scrap the ban "to avoid a disproportionate impact on smaller political parties".
In other changes, politicians will be prevented from sitting simultaneously as MPs and AMs, and the period between assembly elections will be permanently extended to five years.
The next assembly election has already been postponed until 2016, extending the current term to five years, to avoid a clash with the next UK general election.
The changes follow a consultation on a green paper, launched by the UK government in May last year.
The Wales Office confirmed that a proposal in the green paper to re-draw constituency boundaries has been abandoned.
It follows a vote in the House of Commons in January to block a review of parliamentary boundaries before 2015.
Since the outset of devolution, assembly seats have shared the same boundaries as Welsh parliamentary constituencies.
Mr Jones said: "Since coming to power in 2010, the...

Summary: A ban on Welsh assembly candidates standing for election in constituencies and on their parties' regional lists will be lifted, the UK government says.
###
Article: The company said the agreement included a guarantee that a conductor would be retained as the second member of staff on board new trains being rolled out next year.
The dispute led to several days of strikes over the summer.
Further industrial action was suspended earlier this month for more talks.
ScotRail said the RMT would now present the proposal to its members in a company-wide vote.
The company said discussions had also taken place with Aslef, the train drivers' union, and a similar in-principle agreement reached.
The RMT said it would make its position clear once the proposed deal has been discussed by its national executive on Tuesday.
ScotRail Alliance managing director Phil Verster said: "I am pleased that we have reached an in-principle agreement with the RMT and Aslef unions that, if formally agreed, will bring this dispute to an end.
"This will end the uncertainty for our people and our customers, and will allow us to concentrate on delivering the best possible service for Scotland, every single day.
"What we have put forward in our proposal will make our service more efficient and more effective while maintaining and enhancing the service we provide to our customers.
"It means that the new faster, longer, greener trains that will arrive in autumn next year really will be a revolution in how we deliver our service."
An RMT spokesman said: "After long hard hours at the negotiating table, and a sustained period of determined and solid industrial action involving our members, RMT's team will be reporting back to the unions executive tomorrow where the details will be considered in full.
"A further statement will be issued by the union after that executive meeting."

Summary:


Astronomers have identified the most distant object yet in the Solar System.

Article: "Inevitably there comes a time when all shows should end and Downton is no exception," said the programme's executive producer Gareth Neame.
Created by Julian Fellowes, the show follows an aristocratic family's fortunes from 1912 to the mid-1920s.
Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern have played the Earl and Countess of Grantham since the show began in 2010.
The drama has won a string of awards since its inception, including two Baftas, three Golden Globes and 11 Primetime Emmys.
Its success both at home and abroad was recently demonstrated when the Duchess of Cambridge went to see it being filmed at Ealing Studios in west London
"The Downton journey has been amazing for everyone aboard," said Lord Fellowes, whose next project will be The Gilded Age, a period drama set in New York.
"People ask if we knew what was going to happen when we started to make the first series and the answer is that, of course we had no idea.
"Exactly why the series had such an impact and reached so many people around the world, all nationalities, all ages, all types, I cannot begin to explain."
"But I do know how grateful we are to have been allowed this unique experience."
Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter and Dame Maggie Smith are among other regulars on the show, which has seen both the masters and the servants at the titular stately home - actually Highclere Castle in Hampshire - deal with numerous tribulations.
One of its most controversial storylines involved the rape of Joanne Froggatt's character Anna, while the sudden demise of Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens) was greeted with dismay by the show's many fans.
More recently viewers have seen Bonneville's character bid farewell to his beloved dog Isis and both Anna and her husband (Brendan Coyle) face prison for the murder of her attacker.
The show has also had a glitzy array of guest stars, among them Shirley MacLaine, Paul Giamatti, Richard E Grant and Nigel Havers.
"We wanted to close the doors of Downton Abbey when it felt right and natural for the storylines to come together...

Summary: The next season of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey will be its last, its makers have announced.
###
Article: Observations with Japan's Subaru telescope reveal the likely icy body to be some 15.5 billion km from the Sun - about three times further away than even far-flung Pluto.
Scientists say their initial studies suggest that the object - catalogued as  V774104 - is some 500-1,000km across.
It will need to be tracked over time to learn the shape and extent of its orbit through the Solar System.
The discovery was announced at the 47th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences, taking place in National Harbor near Washington DC.
The team behind the find is led by Scott Sheppard, from the Carnegie Institution for Science, and Chad Trujillo, from the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii.
They specialise in detecting Solar System outliers.
The previously recognised most distant object is the dwarf planet Eris.
This body, which has a moon, Dysnomia, moves between 5.7 billion km and 14.6 billion km from the Sun.
To put some of these numbers in context: Earth is 149 million km from the Sun, and even the most distant major planet - Neptune - seems close at 4.5 billion km, by these standards.
That said, the Voyager 1 probe is further away - just. The epic robotic explorer has now ventured 20 billion km from home.
The big question is whether V774104 sweeps inwards from its present location, like Eris, or outwards, like the objects known as 2012 VP113 and Sedna.
These bodies are currently slightly closer in than Eris, but investigations of their orbits show they will reach far deeper into space, out to 66 billion km and 140 billion km, respectively.
Models for Solar System formation suggest that such objects were probably not created in these weird, eccentric orbits.
One explanation is that they have been perturbed gravitationally and pulled on to their strange trajectories by a passing planet - perhaps one that was expelled from our Solar System early in its history.
Some scientists even speculate that such objects could have been stolen from a star that formed from the same "nursery" of...

Summary:


Lethal Weapon will be the latest film to be remade for the small screen after the Fox network decided to turn it into a TV show.

Article: Launched in December, the satellite has now taken up its observing station some 1.5 million km from Earth.
Engineers are currently commissioning Gaia's two telescopes and its three instruments, getting them ready to begin mapping the precise positions and motions of one-thousand-million stars.
As part of that process, an image has been produced of a small star cluster.
This grouping is sited in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a companion galaxy to our own Milky Way, some 160,000 light-years in the distance.
If the picture just released by the European Space Agency looks somewhat underwhelming, that is not really surprising - taking pretty vistas of the sky is not what this mission is about.
Rather, Gaia's job when operational will be to track and characterise points of light moving across its big camera detector - be those stars, asteroids, comets or the flashes generated by exploding objects such as supernovae - to work out how far away they are and how they are moving in relation to everything else.
Prof Gerry Gilmore, the UK Gaia principal investigator from Cambridge University, told BBC News: "This image tells us that they've turned on the electronics, that they've turned on the computer, and that they've turned on Gaia's incredible British-built camera - and it's all working.
Gaia - The discovery machine
"Gaia was not designed to take Hubble-like pictures; this is not its operating mode at all. What it will eventually do is draw little boxes around each of the stars you see in this picture and send just that information to the ground."
The satellite has been given an initial mission duration of five years to make its 3D map of the sky.
By repeatedly viewing its targets, it should get to know the brightest stars' coordinates down to an error of just seven micro-arcseconds - an angle equivalent to a euro coin on the Moon being observed from Earth.
One of the benefits of such study will be to refine the distance "ladder" used to measure scale in the Universe.
This ladder describes a number of techniques...

Summary: Europe's billion-star surveyor, Gaia, is on track to begin operations in the next two or three months.
###
Article: The first Lethal Weapon film, which came out in 1987, starred Danny Glover as a veteran police officer and Mel Gibson as his volatile new partner.
It was a hit and went on to spawn three sequels over the subsequent 11 years.
Lethal Weapon joins films like Rush Hour, Uncle Buck, Training Day and Minority Report in being remade for TV.
According to reports, Fox has signed up to make a "put pilot" of Lethal Weapon - the industry term for a pilot episode that is seen as being virtually guaranteed to become a full series.
It will follow a similar storyline to the film, although Gibson and Glover will not reprise their original roles.
The show will be written by Matt Miller, whose previous credits include Forever and Chuck.

Summary:


The chief executive of Barnet Council has left his role after a blunder led to some voters being turned away from polling stations on Thursday.

Article: Mr Sanders remains a dogged pursuer but Mrs Clinton has 1,691 of the 2,383 delegates needed to win, AP reports.
He is still attracting tens of thousands to his rallies, on Friday calling for a "political revolution".
Mrs Clinton pointed out she has "2.6 million more votes" than Mr Sanders.
Saturday's voting is just for the Democratic nomination.
Mr Sanders has spent the week on the west coast, rallying support among liberals and the left-wing.
Late on Friday in Seattle's Safeco baseball stadium, he repeated key elements of his policy platform, urging economic equality and universal health care.
He said: "Real change historically always takes place from the bottom on up when millions of people come together. We need a political revolution!"
Mr Sanders is trying to build on overwhelming victories in Tuesday's caucuses in Idaho and Utah.
However, he also suffered defeat in Arizona, and although his delegate haul from the three states was 20 higher than Mrs Clinton, he has failed to make major inroads into her lead.
Mrs Clinton has also been campaigning in Washington state. She told supporters in Everett: "We are on the path to the nomination, and I want Washington to be part of how we get there."
She also focused on this week's deadly attacks in Brussels, condemning Republican rivals Donald Trump and Ted Cruz for their "reckless" foreign policies.
Opinion polls are scarce and tricky in caucus elections - a series of meetings in which voters give their support for candidates with an open show of hands.
However, Mr Sanders has used his appeal with grassroots activists to benefit from the voting system in the past. He has done particularly well among young voters.
Washington is the biggest prize, with 101 pledged delegates available. Hawaii has 25 delegates at stake and Alaska 16.
Whatever happens on Saturday, the battle will be won and lost in far bigger states still to come. In RealClearPolitics poll averages, Mrs Clinton has the lead over Mr Sanders by nine percentage points in California, 34 points in New York...

Summary: Bernie Sanders will try to claw back Hillary Clinton's lead in the race for the Democratic nomination for the US presidency on Saturday in caucus votes in Washington state, Hawaii and Alaska.
###
Article: Andrew Travers left the authority by "mutual agreement" after the error, officials said.
Voters were initially turned away from all 155 polling stations in the borough because their names were missing from the poll list.
An independent investigation has been launched, the council said.
In a statement issued through the council, Mr Travers said: "I have enjoyed my time at Barnet and I believe the changes we have put in place and the continued programme of growth and transformation will enable the borough to continue to thrive."
A council spokesperson said Mr Travers had "made a valuable contribution to the council during his three and half years as chief executive."
Deputy chief executive John Hooton will take over temporarily while longer term arrangements are put in place, the council said.
On election day, staff at one station said just three of the first 30 voters to show up were on the register. The rest were told to come back later.
Barnet Council apologised for the problems and later offered emergency proxy votes to residents who had been affected.
But voters in the area questioned how the result could be "fair" when not everyone was able to have their say at the ballot box.
A statement released by Mr Travers on Thursday blamed electoral registration lists for the problems.
The council's review will conclude by the end of May and the findings will be presented publicly to the General Functions Committee.
It will look at the "appropriateness" of arrangements in place for the EU Referendum in June.
A spokesman said it was currently in discussions to establish who would lead the investigation.

Summary:


Black bin bags could be collected every three weeks in Pembrokeshire as the council looks to meet "severe budget cuts" and performance targets.

Article: Sir John Sawers warned the crisis was no longer about just Ukraine, saying it was "much bigger and more dangerous".
Any attempt by Western countries to arm Ukraine could lead to an escalation on the ground and even cyber attacks by Russia against the West, he warned.
Fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels has continued, more than a day after a ceasefire was due.
Sanctions have already been imposed on Russia, and EU leaders have threatened Moscow with further measures if the planned ceasefire is not respected.
US President Barack Obama has said the US is studying the option of supplying lethal defensive arms to Ukraine - if diplomacy fails to end the crisis in the east of the country.
However, giving a speech at King's College London, Sir John, who left MI6 in November, warned any attempt by the West to arm the Ukrainian government could lead to an escalation of tensions with Russia.
"Sanctions on Russia are imposing costs. But the Ukraine crisis is no longer just about Ukraine. It's now a much bigger, more dangerous crisis, between Russia and Western countries, about values and order in Europe," he said.
Western countries could "take on Moscow" by providing weapons to Ukraine so it can defend itself and introducing more stringent sanctions, he said.
But Sir John warned Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely to respond.
"As long as Mr Putin sees the issue in terms of Russia's own security he will be prepared to go further than us.  So he would respond with further escalation on the ground.  Perhaps cyber attacks against us.
"We have thousands of deaths in Ukraine. We could start to get tens of thousands, then what?"
The crisis might end up with a "new debilitating frozen conflict in Ukraine, for well into the future," he warned.
"That is a wretched outcome for Ukrainians. But it may be the least bad attainable outcome."
Sir John, who also served as ambassador to the UN and as a foreign policy adviser to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, said that recent interventions in Afghanistan and...

Summary: The conflict in Ukraine is now part of a much bigger crisis between Russia and the West, MI6's former head has said.
###
Article: The move is just one of several waste and recycling options considered by the council on Thursday.
Black bags are currently collected fortnightly.
The council's head of environment, Richard Brown said there will be "high public interest" whatever they come up with.
A report before the policy scrutiny committee outlined the challenges faced by the council's waste service as a result of funding pressures.
It said Â£1.2m needed to be saved over the next four years. This is in addition to potential fines for missing statutory performance targets.
Five options were presented to the committee. They looked at what was being collected, how often and by what means.
Options for black bin bag collection were weekly, fortnightly and three-weekly, while limiting the number of customer-provided sacks to two or three.
Pembrokeshire council  stopped supplying residents with free black bags in 2016.
The report also outlined an opportunity to save money by working with Ceredigion council, which faces "many of the same challenges".
The committee's comments will be reported to Pembrokeshire council's cabinet before a decision is made.
Mr Brown said waste services "was the one service we all have a vested interest in" and that they have to "do the best they can" and "look at future change".

Summary:


The Foreign Office says it is urgently investigating reports that a British man has died at a shooting range in Thailand.

Article: He said the quicker it began, the less likely the UK was to be "dragged down" should the Eurozone collapse.
The former SDP leader accused Downing Street of "manipulating the FTSE 500" to back the Remain campaign.
The Bank of England, the IMF and Barack Obama are among those to have warned about the impact of a British exit.
A Treasury analysis suggested the UK economy would be 6% smaller if it left the EU than it would otherwise be by 2030, which Chancellor George Osborne said would leave a £36bn hole in the public finances.
But in a speech in London, the former Labour foreign secretary and SDP leader Lord Owen said: "There is no fine calculus that can weigh up the consequences of either [remaining in the EU or leaving].
"Economics is not pure science, there are too many behavioural consequences to assess. Almost all the forecasts are ridiculously short-term."
The peer, who backed Britain's membership in the 1975 referendum, dismissed Treasury projections as "ridiculous".
He accused No 10 of "manipulating the FTSE 500 corporates" during EU negotiations - referring to a letter from the boss of Serco to David Cameron mentioning how EU support could be "mobilised" among some of the UK's largest firms.
Lord Owen said: "With few exceptions, the voices of doom we hear today were telling the British people 17 years ago we had to join the euro."
How trade and the UK's economy are affected by membership of the EU.
He added: "Technically anyone can always predict a short-term hit to the economy if one pre-supposes a big enough psychological or confidence set-back."
But he said in the long term, other factors were more which influenced the economy such as "the pace of technical change and other influences on 'total factor productivity'".
He suggested Britain could save £10bn a year - about £190m a week - by leaving.
Vote Leave's official position is that leaving the European Union would save £350m a week - a figure that has been criticised for not taking into account money which flows back to the UK from the EU.
The...

Summary: Vote Leave's Lord Owen has dismissed the "voices of doom" warning against Brexit and said the sooner the UK can quit the EU, the better.
###
Article: Local reports from the southern resort island of Phuket say a British man died after turning a pistol on himself.
The Foreign Office (FO) could not confirm the reports.
An FO spokesman said: "We are urgently working with the authorities in Thailand to establish whether a British national has died in Phuket."
The Bangkok Post, quoted a taxi driver who said the man had hailed him near a local resort and asked to be taken somewhere where he could shoot. He had shown no signs of stress while in the taxi, the driver said.

Summary:


Westminster should listen to the assembly before triggering the Brexit process, the Welsh Government's top law officer has said.

Article: Mining firm Scotgold Resources extracted the gold from 2,400 tonnes of ore which was taken from Cononish mine near Tyndrum.
The gold was sold in "rounds" stamped with the Scottish Gold Mark and a unique serial number.
The average price was Â£4,557.9 per ounce, which Scotgold said was a premium of 378% over current prices.
Richard Gray, the chief executive officer of Scotgold, said: "This unique and historic event is the first demonstration of our ability to attract a premium for Scottish gold.
"The next opportunity to show the continued support for this precious metal from the Highlands will be the conclusion of agreements with members of the Scottish jewellery trade, who appreciate the value that can be added to their products by the proven provenance of the stag's head Scottish Gold Mark."
News of sales will be published in the New Year.
The gold rounds were minted by Baird & Co Bullion Merchants and sold in a sealed bid auction.
The Cononish project was first launched nearly a decade ago but has faced delays as a result of falls in the price of gold, lack of finance and problems with planning permission.
Scotgold has a licence to look for gold in an area covering more than 4,000 sq km of the Highlands, and is confident that other deposits similar to Cononish can be found.
The price of gold has recovered this year, having slumped from about $1,770 an ounce in August 2012 to just over $1,000 last December.

Summary: The first gold to be commercially mined in Scotland has been sold at auction in Edinburgh.
###
Article: Counsel General Mick Antoniw said he was "delighted" by the Supreme Court ruling against the UK government on Brexit.
The Supreme Court said UK ministers were "not legally compelled" to consult the assembly and that AMs have no veto.
Mr Antoniw said it is likely AMs would get a vote on the triggering process.
But he said it will not be a veto on leaving the EU.
AMs could decide to hold a vote in the assembly on article 50 if they feel that the legislation on article 50 affects devolution.
There is a convention - called the Sewel Convention - whereby the assembly has a say on legislation in Westminster that affects devolution in the form of a vote in the chamber.
But Tuesday's ruling that AMs do not have a veto on Brexit means that whether or not the vote has meaning will depend on the UK government's reaction.
Mr Antoniw told AMs on Tuesday: "As the Article 50 Bill proceeds through Parliament, we would expect the UK government to respect the Sewel Convention, so that Parliament has the opportunity to listen to the assembly and to the other devolved legislatures."
Mr Antoniw said there was "every likelihood of a vote (in the assembly) because a trigger bill will impact on Welsh legislation".
The court ruled Theresa May cannot trigger Article 50 - the formal exit process from the EU - without the backing of MPs and peers.
The court also said UK ministers were "not legally compelled" to consult the devolved legislatures in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Analysis by BBC Wales political correspondent Daniel Davies
It sounds like the eleven Supreme Court judges sent the Welsh Government packing.
They all agree: there's no legal reason for Theresa May to consult the assembly.
But there is a political reason for Parliament to listen. And if Parliament must vote on Brexit, it leaves the door ajar for the assembly to influence things.
That means there might be a vote in the assembly on triggering Article 50, as well as in Westminster.
I am also sorry to disappoint anyone who hopes that a vote in Cardiff Bay...

Summary:


The number of homes repossessed in the UK fell again in the second quarter of the year as fewer owners fell behind on mortgage repayments.

Article: But yesterday's announcement by Ed Miliband that as prime minister he would abolish non-dom status may well be the last nail in the coffin of a political approach - not quite an ideology - which had at its core the idea that it was better to get the wealthy and powerful in the tent, rather than doing what they typically do if they are outside the tent.
To understand the scale of the shift, I spoke to a New Labour veteran. This is what he said to me about the non-dom cull: it would "alienate some people whose goodwill is a good investment for us, send the wrong signal about the UK and [is] a rather useless piece of posturing (as the last Labour government concluded for 13 years)".
In other words, it is a powerful and important symbolic break with the Blair era. But Ed Miliband would say the policy is about a good deal more than gesturing. At its kernel, for him, is a big change in his assessment of how to fulfil Labour's mission of helping the poorest.
Tony Blair's view was that reaching an accommodation with the wealthiest and most powerful was not only the route to electoral success, but was also the best way of stimulating economic growth that would generate the tax revenues that could then be deployed to lift up the poorest.
Until the great crash and recession of 2008, he and his successor Gordon Brown could argue that their calibration of Labour's style of left-wing politics, as friendly to the City of London and to those accumulating vast fortunes here, had helped to generate prosperity which in turn could be used to fund a massive expansion of spending on schools and hospitals - and therefore went with the grain of Labour history.
But for Miliband, that calculation has had to be re-done, as living standards were savagely squeezed in the years after that profound economic shock, and the welfare state has been rolled back.
Miliband would also say that the stagnating gap between the incomes of rich and poor and the widening wealth gap have shown that collaborating with the wealthy has not delivered...

Summary: The last rites have been read over New Labour, as opposed to Miliband-brand Labour, quite a few times over the past few years.
###
Article: The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said that 2,500 homes were repossessed in April, May and June, down from 3,000 in the previous quarter.
This was also a fall from 5,400 in the same quarter last year.
Lenders said low interest rates were keeping the numbers down but homeowners must prepare for a rate rise.
"This trend is very welcome. Low interest rates are acting as a significant support for homeowners in general, and are likely to be helping to stave off low level arrears for stretched households in particular," said CML director general Paul Smee.
"As ever, we urge borrowers to think ahead to when interest rates rise, and to contact their lender without delay if they are in difficulty. Prompt action helps to prevent problems worsening."
Earlier this week, it was revealed that more than a million householders had never experienced a rise in the Bank of England's base rate while owning a home.
Some 11.1 million mortgages are outstanding in the UK, with loans worth more than Â£1.3 trillion.
The CML figures showed that 1,800 homes were repossessed from owner-occupiers, and 700 were seized from landlords in in the buy-to-let market in the second quarter of the year.
The number of owners falling into arrears on mortgage repayments had also fallen in the second three months of the year compared with the first quarter, the CML said.
Some 100,700 owner-occupiers, and 5,700 landlords, had arrears of more than 2.5% of the mortgage balance.
Ministry of Justice figures, also published on Thursday, show that the number of homeowners in England and Wales facing court action at the earliest stage of the repossession process fell during the second quarter of the year.
However, the number of tenants evicted by landlords in the second quarter of the year rose by 4% compared with the same period last year, to 10,361. Seasonally adjusted figures show a 1% decrease compared to the first three months of the year.
Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: "These figures are a stark warning that relentless rent rises...

Summary:


The US has been accused of using its military to help the Islamic State group in Syria.
The US has been accused of using its military to help the Islamic State group in Syria.
The US has been accused of using its military to help the Islamic State group in Syria.
The US has been accused of using

The departure from the helm by Uzbekistan's long-serving President Islam Karimov is likely to have wide-ranging repercussions for the region.

Article: Roy Moore, 69, violated judicial ethics with an order seen as directing probate judges to deny marriage licences to gay couples, a judicial panel ruled.
The decision was a "politically motivated effort" by radical groups, he said. His lawyer has vowed to appeal.
It is the second suspension for Mr Moore, an outspoken conservative.
In 2003, he was removed for refusing to take down a monument of the Ten Commandments he installed at a state building.
He was re-elected as chief justice of the state's Supreme Court in 2012.
In Friday's decision, the nine-member Alabama Court of the Judiciary unanimously decided to suspend him for the remainder of his term without pay.
The move essentially removes Mr Moore from the bench, as he will be unable to seek re-election at the end of his term, in January 2019, because of age restrictions, his lawyer Mat Staver said.
Reacting to the decision, Mr Moore said in a statement: "This was a politically motivated effort by radical homosexual and transgender groups to remove me as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court because of outspoken opposition to their immoral agenda."
The panel found that Mr Moore's ruling in 6 January showed "disregard for binding federal law" after the US Supreme Court landmark decision in June 2015 affirming gay marriage rights.
Testifying in his defence, Mr Moore said there was uncertainty after conflicting opinions on gay marriage from state and federal courts.
Mr Moore is known for his opposition to same-sex marriage, and has called homosexuality an "inherent evil" in the past.
His suspension was celebrated by the civil rights group that filed the complaints in 2003 and 2016.
"Moore was elected to be a judge, not a preacher," Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement.
"The people of Alabama who cherish the rule of law are not going to miss the Ayatollah of Alabama."

Summary: Alabama's top judge has been suspended for the remainder of his term for defying federal court rulings that legalized same-sex marriage.
###
Article: The Uzbek government announced his death on Friday after a period of rumours about his ill health.
As is often the case with strongman regimes, no tried and tested succession mechanism is in place in Uzbekistan, and the transition of power may well be a complicated process.
Uzbekistan is the most populous Central Asian country and has the largest army.
Mr Karimov, who came to power during the Soviet era, has led the country since independence in 1991.
During his long rule, President Karimov has built a relatively stable secular regime in a region threatened by Islamist radicalism.
But many believe this has been done at the expense of human rights, and has often been an excuse to hound legitimate opposition.
It also has not completely eradicated the long-term risk posed by Islamist militancy.
Many Uzbek Islamists have simply dodged the tight security at home by fighting for the Islamic State group abroad, but should the secular government weaken, they might be tempted to come back.
Some also say that Uzbekistan's fractured and exiled opposition may turn to Islamism to boost its appeal in the majority Muslim country.
Positioned on the ancient Great Silk Road between Europe and Asia, Uzbekistan enjoys a strategic location that has attracted the interest of many foreign states throughout its long history.
Most recently, it has been one reason why Russia and Western powers have been vying for a foothold.
In 2001, Uzbekistan allowed the US to use its air bases in support of military action in Afghanistan, but four years later all foreign troops were evicted following Washington's criticism of the Uzbek government's human rights record.
Moscow will be keen to ensure that Mr Karimov's successor leans towards Russia rather than the West.
So far, unlike most Central Asian countries, Uzbekistan has been wary of Russian influence. In 2012, it withdrew from the main Russia-led regional military bloc, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.
Political instability caused by Mr Karimov's demise could be felt far beyond...

Summary:


The world's biggest economy is growing at a rate of 6.3% a year, according to the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF said the growth rate was "a major concern for investors around the world".
The IMF said the growth rate was "a major concern for investors around the world".
The IMF

China's economy grew by 6.9% in 2015, compared with 7.3% a year earlier, marking its slowest growth in a quarter of a century.

Article: Seventy people a year are killed, and hundreds of thousands are injured, as a result of fires in cookers, fridges and tumble driers.
The Electrical Safety Council(ESC) said manufacturers need to do more to trace their customers if they need to warn them about safety issues.
It said the current guidelines are not good enough.
Last December Catherine Paterson, from Middlesbrough, had a fire that destroyed her garage.
The fire started in her tumble drier, which was only four months old.
She later found out after searching on the internet that the model she was using had a problem and had been recalled by the manufacturer.
"About ten minutes after the drier was switched on we got a call from the neighbour, who told us the garage was on fire," she told the BBC.
The fire was so fierce that it destroyed the garage in fifteen minutes, and caused Â£10,000 worth of damage.
"They knew the product was faulty since the end of November but no one got in touch," said Catherine.
It was beginning of February when someone got in touch to let us know that there was something wrong."
That was two months after the fire.
According to Trading Standards, the manufacturer of the tumble drier that Catherine owned did everything it could to tell people that the product was faulty.
That included putting notices in the media and online.
But Steven Curtler, product safety manager at the Electrical Safety Council (ESC), said Catherine's case highlights how current guidelines for manufacturers are not good enough. He is now calling for changes need to be made to industry procedures to ensure peoples' safety.
"One area we believe there could be significant improvement is in the traceability of products," he said.
The ESC wants more information about consumers to be taken at the point they buy the appliance.
"The more information you have about the person who has purchased that product the easier it will be to provide critical information about the safety of the product," he added.
According to figures from the ESC, on average 70 people die...

Summary: Safety experts have called for better standards, to protect consumers from faulty goods that can catch fire.
###
Article: China's growth, seen as a driver of the global economy, is a major concern for investors around the world.
The news comes as the International Monetary Fund said it expected China's economy to grow by 6.3% this year and 6% in 2017.
Beijing had set an official growth target of "about 7%".
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has said weaker growth would be acceptable as long as enough new jobs were created.
But some observers say its growth is actually much weaker than official data suggests, though Beijing denies numbers are being inflated.
Analysts said any growth below 6.8% would likely fuel calls for further economic stimulus. Economic growth in the final quarter of 2015 edged down to 6.8%, according to the country's national bureau of statistics.
Asia Business correspondent Karishma Vaswani on what the figures tell us
China editor Carrie Gracie - Is slower growth China's 'new normal'?
Can you trust the figures?
After experiencing rapid growth for more than a decade, China's economy has experienced a painful slowdown in the last two years.
It's come as the central government wants to move towards an economy led by consumption and services, rather than one driven by exports and investment. But managing that transition has been challenging.
Some argue that China's focus on creating an economy driven by consumption is misplaced. They say as the country attempts to rebalance its economy, it should focus on productivity in order to sustain high growth.
"While higher consumption can support growth in the short run, there is little in economic theory that emphasises the expenditure side of GDP as a driver of growth," HSBC's John Zhu said in a note.
Mr Zhu also said that China's current stage of development would require more investment, not less, and that the country would rebalance naturally towards consumption and services in time.
"Pushing the economy along those paths too soon would be dangerous," he said.
Analysis: Karishma Vaswani, Asia Business correspondent
It's said so often that it has become a financial markets...

Summary:


The US oil giant Chevron says it will appeal against an $8.6bn (Â£5.3bn) fine imposed by Ecuador judges, carrying on a long-running row over pollution.

A father is preparing for a High Court legal battle to give parents the right to take children on term-time holidays.

Article: Chevron's Kent Robertson told the BBC the case was an "extortion scheme", and accused Ecuador's state-run firm of polluting the country's Amazon region.
The legal wrangle has been going on for almost two decades, and has spawned lawsuits in the US and Ecuador.
Analysts say further appeals are likely to drag on for years.
The oil firm Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, is accused of dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste into unlined pits and Amazon rivers between 1972 and 1992.
Campaigners say crops were damaged and farm animals killed, and that local cancer rates increased.
But Chevron says Texaco spent $40m cleaning up the area during the 1990s, and signed an agreement with Ecuador in 1998 absolving it of any further responsibility.
Mr Robertson, the firm's spokesman, told the BBC's World Today programme that Texaco had "operated admirably" and blamed Ecuador's state-run firm Petroecuador for any ongoing problems.
"The oilfields in question have been solely operated by the government of Ecuador's own oil company Petroecuador for the last 20 years," he said.
"Petroecuador has a deplorable environmental record and Chevron is getting blamed for actions in a country that we've never even operated in."
He accused Petroecuador and Ecuador's government of failing to live up to their responsibilities. Neither have responded to the claims.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadoreans, and their lawyer Pablo Fajardo described the court ruling as "a triumph of justice over Chevron's crime and economic power".
But he said the damages were not enough, and pledged to appeal.
Environmentalists hoped the case would set a precedent, forcing companies operating in developing countries to comply with the same anti-pollution standards as in the industrialised world.
US-based lobby groups Amazon Watch and Rainforest Action Network said in a joint statement that the decision was "historic and unprecedented".
"Chevron has spent the last 18 years waging unprecedented public relations  and lobbying campaigns...

Summary: US oil giant Chevron says it will appeal against an $8.6bn (Â£5.3bn) fine imposed by Ecuador judges, carrying on a long-running row over pollution.
###
Article: Jonathan Platt successfully contested a fine from Isle of Wight Council for taking his young daughter on a family holiday to Florida in April.
He will now speak up on behalf of other parents when the council seeks High Court clarification on the law.
He is crowdfunding for Â£25,000 expected legal costs and raised more than Â£1,000 in the first 24 hours.
The father wrote on the fundraising page he would spend the money on "nothing other than legal fees for solicitors and barristers".
He added: "I will take nothing personally from the money, not even travelling costs."
Isle of Wight Council is asking the High Court for clarification on what constitutes "regular" attendance at school. As Mr Platt is a "person of interest" in the case, he has a right to attend.
He said he is arguing "on behalf of all parents".
Comments on the online crowdfunding page include: "Thank you for being our voice Jon, we are all behind you."
"Well done and good luck, let's hope common sense prevails."
Mr Platt took his children to Disneyland in Florida in April despite his daughter's absence being refused by her primary school.
The council took him to court after he refused to pay a Â£120 fine.
He won his case after he told magistrates that Section 444 of the Education Act did not put restrictions on holidays during term time, provided pupils otherwise attended school regularly.
The council has applied to the High Court for an opinion on whether "the unauthorised absence of a child for seven consecutive school days on holiday... amounts to the child failing to attend the school regularly".

Summary:


Kelly Sotherton says athletics chiefs should consider tweaking events rather than rewriting existing world records.

Article: Yongzim claims to be better at handling complex searches involving several words in the language than any alternative.
But a spokesman for the government in exile, the Central Tibetan Administration, told the BBC it could also be used as a "platform to promote propaganda to legitimise the illegal occupation of Tibet."
Tibet is governed as an autonomous region of China. Beijing claims a centuries-old sovereignty over the Himalayan region, yet the allegiances of many Tibetans lie with the exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, seen by China as a separatist threat.
Exile groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) around the world accuse Beijing of suppressing the region's culture and tradition with the Tibetan language being a big part of it.
Both Google - which is blocked in China and therefore also in Tibet - and the Chinese search engine Baidu can also carry out searches in Tibetan.
But Yongzim is entirely in Tibetan, including all the elements of its interface - and in that respect it is indeed a first. Its name translates as "master" or "teacher".
According to Chinese state media, the service will promote the Tibetan language and provide a dedicated platform for Tibetan-language websites.
"[It will] meet the growing needs of the Tibetan-speaking population and facilitate the building of Tibetan digital archives and the expansion of databases in the Tibetan language," an official said.
Kyinzom Dhongdue, of the Australia Tibet Council, told the BBC she welcomed the initiative as a "positive step towards popularising the use of the Tibetan language" but cautioned it could become a "propaganda tool" for Beijing.
Aynne Kokas, an expert on Chinese media at the University of Virginia in the US, also described it as being a "major technological advancement" that could be useful for "non-sensitive queries". But she said it would also "make it easier to redirect web traffic" to sites that tallied with the Chinese government's views.
The Free Tibet movement noted that the effort marked a change of...

Summary: A Tibetan search engine, backed by the Chinese authorities, has been launched.
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Article: Media playback is not supported on this device
The 40-year-old won Olympic heptathlon bronze for Britain in 2004 and has been upgraded to two more bronze medals from 2008 after retrospective drug tests.
All world records set before 2005 could be rewritten under a new proposal from European Athletics, after the sport's latest doping scandal.
Sotherton said tweaking events would create "a new slate" and new records.
She said: "Could we go back to yards or run 101m instead of 100m?
"We all know that some of the records are completely out there. But not all of those records were achieved by people who cheated.
"Scrapping those records is unfair on those athletes. And what about my pre-2005 performances? Did they happen? Does this apply to national records too?"
Sotherton referred to the IAAF's decision to remodel the men's javelin in 1986.
Changes were made to the javelin's design because of increasingly frequent flat landings. All existing records were reset after the change, but not erased.
"I am open to the discussion - for the greater good of the sport it's a good thing," she added.

Summary:


The BBC's new series, The Big Bang Theory, is due to air on BBC One on Sunday, January 20.
The series follows the lives of the scientists who created the universe and the people who created it.
The series is based on the BBC's science fiction series, The Big Bang Theory, which was

Thousands of people face a deadline of the end of Sunday to renew tax credits and pay tax owed, or face losing payments or being hit with penalties.

Article: Manchester-based executive Katy Jones, who previously worked on Jimmy McGovern's ITV drama about the 1989 football disaster, died on Friday aged 51.
She also worked for ITV's World in Action programme and, in recent years, produced education content for the BBC.
Sinead Rocks, head of BBC Learning, said she was "hugely talented".
"She was passionate about education and learning and her enthusiasm, energy and determination knew no bounds. Our thoughts are with her family at this very sad time."
Peter Salmon, director of BBC England, added: "Katy brought huge energy and commitment to everything she worked on. We will miss her enormously at MediaCityUK."
She was on the Hillsborough Independent Panel which, in 2012, released its report into the disaster.
Mrs Jones was also a producer on Jimmy McGovern's Sunday - about the events of the 1972 Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland - Bafta-award winning drama Mark of Cain and the 9/11 film Yasmin.
She also founded the education company Child's Eye Media in 2005 before joining the BBC when it moved to Salford in 2011.
The mother-of-two was married to Mike Spencer, who worked with her at ITV Granada.

Summary: Tributes have been paid to a BBC television producer who also served on the Hillsborough Independent Panel.
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Article: Up to a million people still needed to complete their tax credit renewals in the final week before the deadline.
They would have received information about their annual review notice in a white A4 envelope, but they can renew online up until Sunday night.
Separately, many of those in the self-assessment system must pay a tax bill.
This so-called payment on account is the equivalent of half the previous year's tax bill, as an advance payment on their next bill. The other half is paid on 31 January.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) warned that anyone who failed to renew their tax credits could be in danger of having payments stopped, or find themselves paying more than they needed to.
"It is great that millions of people have renewed their tax credits or reported changes so far, but anyone who has not done so yet should take action now - it only takes a few minutes to renew online," said Nick Lodge, of HMRC.
Renewals can now also be completed via smartphone apps. The tax credit helpline - 0345 3003900 - is open until 20:00 BST on Saturday and Sunday.
To renew, they will need their renewal pack, their National Insurance number, their and their partners total income for the tax year to April 2016, the 15-digit number on their renewal pack, and details of any changes to their circumstances, such as working hours and children.
Claimants who received notices in a brown A5 envelope will see their tax credits renewed automatically and are only required to contact HMRC if they need to make any corrections or notify HMRC of any changes to household circumstances.
Those whose notices came in a white A4 envelope must renew, even if their circumstances have not changed.
The tax payment deadline affects everyone in the self-assessment system unless:
There are various ways of paying but those leaving it to the weekend are likely to be limited to paying via online or telephone banking, or via the HMRC website using a debit or credit card.
Interest is charged if the payment deadline is missed. After 28 days without payment,...

Summary:


The film is set in the fictional town of Bali, Indonesia, where the film's main character, a young man named LeFou, is a gay man.
The film is set in the fictional town of Bali, Indonesia, where the film's main character, a young man named LeFou,

The release of Disney's Beauty and the Beast has been postponed in Malaysia.

Article: The new revised agreement will be submitted to Congress for approval, rather than put to a popular vote.
But opposition groups say it still does not go far enough in punishing rebels for human rights abuses.
The deal is aimed at ending five decades of armed conflict, which has killed more than 260,000 people.
After four years of formal talks between rebel and government negotiators, the two sides reached an agreement earlier this year.
The deal was signed in an emotional ceremony before world leaders in the Colombian city of Cartagena on 26 September.
But Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos had said from the start of the negotiations that he wanted the Colombian people to have a say in the peace process.
He asked them to endorse or reject the peace agreement in a popular vote held on 2 October.
Polls had suggested the deal would pass by a comfortable margin but in a shock result it was narrowly rejected.
A bilateral ceasefire was extended until the end of the year to give the two sides time to plan their next steps.
President Santos met former President Alvaro Uribe, a vociferous opponent of the peace deal, to listen to his objections.
The government and the Farc then went back to the negotiating table to try to strike a new deal acceptable to those who had voted "no".
Changes were made to all but one of the 57 points in the original agreement.
The five main points which have been changed are:
President Santos has announced that the revised deal will be signed in a low-key ceremony in a theatre in the capital, Bogota, on Thursday.
The deal will then be sent to Congress, where the government has a solid majority, with a vote expected to be scheduled for next week.
The Democratic Centre party, founded by ex-President Uribe, has already said it will vote "no".
Its leaders say that the changes are only "cosmetic" and object to the fact that the government has said the new deal is "final".
It wants more of its demands met, including harsher sentences for Farc rebels who have committed crimes.
It also demanded...

Summary: Colombia's government says it will sign a new peace accord with Farc rebels on Thursday, after a previous deal was rejected in a referendum last month.
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Article: The much-anticipated film sparked controversy last week after it emerged it would feature a "gay moment".
It was due for release in Malaysia on Thursday, but Disney said it was being held for a "review" of its content.
The Malaysian Censorship Board (LPF) said on Tuesday it had approved the screening but with "a minor edit concerning a gay moment in the film".
Homosexual activity is illegal in Muslim majority Malaysia, although the country's tourism minister has said banning the film is "ridiculous".
A new release date has yet to be announced.   The live-action remake was granted a "P13 parental guidance classification".
"We have approved the film so there is no more issue. Once a film receives approval, it means it can be screened," LPF Chairman Datuk Abdul Hamid said.
"However, the date of screening and where the screening takes place is not under LPF's jurisdiction. We only look at the content and give a decision on whether the movie gets approved or not."
Local cinema chains have been offering refunds for customers who have purchased tickets in advance.
Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon has spoken about the "exclusively gay moment" in the film.
It involves LeFou - the sidekick of the film's main antagonist Gaston - who tries to come to terms with feelings for Gaston that swing between lust and admiration, as a side-plot to the main story.
The decision to review the Disney classic in Malaysia courted criticism from netizens, many of whom called it "stupid and laughable".
"Malaysia bans 'Beauty and the Beast' but is okay with nonsense Malay movies with no moral values, just full of brainless jokes," wrote a Twitter user in a tweet which drew more than 4,500 re-tweets.
Priyanka Laxmiâ€

Summary:


Parts of Leeds city centre could be closed to traffic in a bid to make the city less "road heavy".

Article: The chamber voted 54-45 on Friday to seal the confirmation of Denver appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch.
Republicans took the historic step this week of changing the chamber's rules in order to ram through their pick.
At stake is the final legal say on everything from gun control to abortion to election finance to workers' rights.
Mr Gorsuch, 49, was confirmed within 65 days of his nomination, but the battle to appoint another justice to the judicial bench began with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative darling, in February last year.
It was the longest period a seat has remained unfilled on the Supreme Court since during the American Civil War in 1862.
Though Mr Gorsuch proved evasive when questioned on legal matters during his confirmation hearings, he has a solidly conservative pedigree and is expected to rule accordingly.
Republicans hope Mr Gorsuch will hand the bench's bloc of conservative justices a winning 5-4 majority.
"He's going to make an incredible addition to the court," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who led the anti-Gorsuch opposition, said the court was "increasingly drifting towards becoming a more pro-corporate court that favours employers, corporations and special interests over working America".
On Thursday, Mr McConnell triggered a legislative manoeuvre known as the "nuclear option" when Republicans lacked the 60 votes required to end debate on Mr Gorsuch.
The chamber's majority leader tore up the rulebook after Democrats mounted the first filibuster of such a nominee in half a century.
The result is a triumph for Donald Trump's young presidency. For many of those who voted for him, getting a conservative judge on to America's highest court was a top priority.
"Congratulations to an exceptionally qualified and respected judge," the president tweeted.
The vacancy on the nine-judge bench had left the justices to pass over many controversial issues, possibly to avoid a 4-4 stalemate.
The Democrats were left fuming last...

Summary: The US Senate has confirmed President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, after a bitter, 14-month battle for control of the highest court in the land.
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Article: Councillors have discussed plans aimed at improving the city's transport network and changing its image as what a report calls a "motorway city".
City Square could be closed off to through traffic by 2021, as could Neville Street that runs past Bridgewater Place into the city centre.
The move forms part of the city's 2023 European Capital of Culture bid.
The plan was to get more people cycling and walking around the city, the report said.
Cycles, buses and taxis would still be allowed in City Square that lies close to the railway station.
Councillor Richard Lewis said: "It's about how me make the city both liveable and prosperous in the future."
An upgrade of Armley Gyratory, one of the busiest junctions in the city, was also in the council's plans, he said.
There were still many details to be worked out and there would be feasibility studies and consultations, Mr Lewis added.
The plans are part of a discussion on a 20-year vision for the city.
The HS2 high-speed rail network is planned to stop at a new city centre station in Leeds by 2032/33.
The council must register its capital of culture interest by December 2016 and submit a final bid in 2017. The winning bid is expected to be announced in 2018.

Summary:


The Labour Party has announced that it will not contest the General Election.

A driver "blinded" by the sun drove through a red light at a pedestrian crossing and knocked down a lollipop lady, a jury has heard.

Article: Polling stations opened in all the city's 73 constituencies at 07:00 BST with results expected to be declared after midnight.
Votes will be counted after the polls close at 22:00 BST.
For the latest news from all the counts on London, go to our election live service or check the results on your constituency profile page.

Summary: Voters in London are going to the polls in the General Election after months of campaigning by political parties.
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Article: Sylvia Blackburn, 72, suffered serious head injuries outside Bedford Road Lower School, Kempston, on 19 December 2014.
Luton Crown Court heard Brian Wright, 55, of Kempston, said he was unable to see at the point of impact.
He denies causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Prosecutor Sally Mealing-McLeod said Mrs Blackburn, a lollipop lady for 20 years, had been on duty in Bedford Road as pupils were leaving school on the last day of term.
She was wearing a long-sleeved high-visibility orange and yellow coat which had reflective strips and "school crossing patrol" written on the back.
When the traffic lights turned red, she stepped out to escort a woman and her six-year-old daughter across the road.
Traffic travelling in the opposite direction stopped, but Mr Wright's VW Golf failed to stop and hit her at 14mph, the jury heard.
Witnesses described Mrs Blackburn's head hitting the screen pillar of the windscreen before she struck the wing mirror and then the road.
The married mother of three was airlifted to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.
She was later transferred to Bedford Hospital and is now at a residential care home for people with an acquired brain injury.
Mr Wright, of The Dell, declined to comment in police interview but in a statement said he was blinded by the setting sun and lowered his visor but was unable to see when the collision happened.
The court heard the sun was 10 minutes from setting and could have been shining into Mr Wright's eyes.
Ms Mealing-McLeod told the jury that if his vision had been affected he should have stopped.
The trial continues.

Summary:


A "glitch" which shut down all the computer systems at Edinburgh Airport caused "massive disruption" and some flight delays.

Article: The program works by tracking variations in the shape of a subject's mouth and jaw, and then searching a pronunciation dictionary to find alternative words that match the moves.
The firm says it can "literally put plausible words" into a person's mouth.
But for now, the examples it has produced are of limited use.
A video posted to YouTube shows an actor saying the short phrase "salary and tenure".
The software identifies thousands of alternative phrases that could replace the utterance based on factors such as when the lips open to enunciate a vowel or close to express certain types of consonants.
The program then ranks the strings of words according to the likelihood they would appear in that order in normal speech. This prevents it using ungrammatical phrases.
A voice synthesiser subsequently creates some of the highly ranked phrases, ensuring each bit of sound - known as a phoneme - is timed to coincide with the appropriate lip movements. This is then used to replace the original sound.
Examples of the replacement expressions created include:
The system appears to have limitations.
The actor involved had to be asked to keep the position of his head as still as possible and speak in a neutral tone to get the best results.
And even with the ranking mechanism, many of the generated phrases appear to be gibberish.
Disney's researchers acknowledge that the primary application of speech redubbing is to translate films and television programmes from one language to another.
And it seems unlikely that the system could be used to find enough suitable matching phrases to re-voice a complete film or programme imperceptibly.
However, it could potentially be used for more gimmicky applications.
One YouTube video maker, for example, already specialises in making clips that replace the voices of well-known personalities with deliberately ridiculous lip-synched utterances for comedic effect.
His creations include Beyonce singing nonsensically at US President Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony and a version of Game Of...

Summary: Disney has developed software that automatically redubs video clips with new words that fit the speaker's lip movements.
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Article: BAA said the problem had been caused by a hardware fault which saw the check-in desks and boarding screens fail for almost three hours.
Edinburgh Airport said there was "congestion" as passengers had to be checked in manually from 07:30.
Flights were also delayed as passengers did not know which gates to go to.
The problem was fixed at about 10:00.
A man at the airport told the BBC Scotland news website he was delayed at the airport for about an hour.
He said: "My flight didn't leave until 10am because the computers were down. There were queues at the check-in desks and people didn't know where to board their flights.
"There was massive disruption."
A BAA spokesman said: "We had a slight issue this morning with the network which meant that we lost some computer services.
"It did not cause any cancellations or any great delays, but it did cause some queuing in the check in area between 7am and 9am.
"Our team were on it and, following investigation, it was found to be a hardware fault that was sorted quickly."
He added: "We saw some flights delayed by about half an hour, and congestion in the check-in area which was cleared as soon as the fault was fixed."

Summary:


A new study covering 17 EU countries says that far more honeybees are dying in the UK and other parts of northern Europe than in Mediterranean countries.

Article: The Family Division of the High Court said the boy should receive care to minimise suffering in his final months.
He was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2012. His parents had argued that doctors could still treat his symptoms.
He is expected to live for three to six months, and specialists said "curative treatment" was no longer possible.
Doctors told the court the boy should have "palliative chemotherapy" to reduce pain, and medication.
But his mother, a former nurse, said she thought the tumour was slow growing, and was worried about the side effects of chemotherapy and a "cocktail of painkillers".
The boy's parents had appealed for their "beautiful" son's "right to life", and his father wept as the judge outlined the decision.
Mr Justice MacDonald said the case was "unbearably sad" and said the youngster's parents were suffering "unimaginable agony".
But the judge said he was satisfied the boy's prognosis was terminal and that pain could become unbearable if not treated.
The treatment put forward by doctors was in the boy's best interests, he added.
The hearing was not open to the public and the judge banned the reporting of anything which might identify the boy, including his age, address or name of hospital authority with responsibility for care.
Mr Justice MacDonald said: "Neither the mother or the father in this case are anything other than loving parents who are simply trying to stay upright in the darkening storm which has engulfed their family."

Summary: A terminally ill boy should be moved to a palliative care regime proposed by specialists despite his parents' objections, a judge has ruled.
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Article: The European Commission says it is Europe's most comprehensive study so far of bee colony deaths.
Winter mortality was especially high for bees in Belgium (33.6%) and the UK (29%) in 2012-13. But in spring-summer 2013 France was highest with 13.6%.
Bumblebees and other wild bees were not studied, nor were pesticide impacts.
The study, called Epilobee, described 10% as an acceptable threshold for bee colony mortality - and Greece, Italy and Spain were among the countries with rates below that threshold.
The mortality percentages are national estimates based on representative samples. All 17 countries applied the same data collection standards, the report says.
The survey covered almost 32,000 bee colonies.
But there is also much concern about death rates among wild bees, which are vital pollinators too.
Last year the EU introduced a ban on four chemicals called neonicotinoids which are used in pesticides.
They are believed to be linked to the collapse of bee colonies across Europe, though there is a heated scientific debate over the chemicals' impact and many experts say further studies are needed.
The Commission wanted pesticide impacts to be included in the Epilobee study, but it was overruled by member states' governments.

Summary:


Lee Hodges says his Truro team have underachieved by a "country mile" by finishing the season one place above the National League South drop zone.

Article: Sian, who's 15 and goes to school in Aberystwyth, passed the indoor skydiving exam as part of her physical education course.
It's believed Sian is the first person ever in the UK to take the exam as part of her GCSEs.
She needed special permission from her teachers before she was allowed to take it. Sian passed her exam with 'flying' colours, achieving a mark of 93%!
Indoor skydiving allows people to experience freefall without having to leap out of an aircraft with a parachute.
Sian says she "loves the feeling of weightlessness".
Both of Sian's parents are skydivers and her 83-year-old grandmother performed an indoor sky dive for her 80th birthday.
There are only three skydiving tunnels in the UK, at Manchester, Milton Keynes and Bedford.

Summary: A schoolgirl from Wales has taken a skydiving test as part of her GCSEs.
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Article: "I'm frustrated to say the least, but very pleased that we've stayed in this division," Hodges told BBC Cornwall.
"In a couple weeks time I'll be pleased we're still in this division, but we're going to have to raise the bar."
The Cornish side were safe going into their final game, which they lost 4-0 at relegated Bishop's Stortford.
"Well done for staying up," he added. "But we've underachieved by a country mile."
Having been play-off semi-finalists in 2015-16, after finishing fourth in the table, the White Tigers dropped to 19th in 2016-17, letting in 99 goals from their 42 league games, more than any other side above the bottom three.
Hodges says he will meet chairman Peter Masters this week to discuss plans for next season.
"There are a lot of decisions to be made on players," he said. "There's a few bonuses there for players who have done very well and competed, and others know that they've not been up to the standard."

Summary: