The asteroid has its own small moon orbiting it.
The asteroid passed by the Earth at a safe distance of 1.2 million km, giving scientists a rare chance to study it 'up close'.
The new data shows that asteroid 2004 BL86 is about 325m across, and its moon is around 70m wide

New pictures of asteroid 2004 BL86, which passed close by Earth yesterday, have been released by US space agency Nasa.

Article: Ecologists fitted special tiny tail cameras that can see beneath the birds' bellies to see how the wild New Caledonian crows behave.
As well as glimpsing two crows making special foraging hooks, the team was able to track their activity over time.
Christian Rutz, from the University of St Andrews in the UK said: "Why is it that New Caledonian crows use tools but other birds don't? I think the answer lies in figuring out how important tool use is in their everyday lives.''
In nearly 12 hours of "crow cam" footage from 10 different birds, the team diddn't get much footage of the birds making and using the tools.
"Out of total observation time, only about 3% was spent making or using tools," Dr Rutz said. And only four of the 10 picked up a tool at all.
The crows spent most of their time looking  for food with their beaks.
The birds spent a lot of time tearing strips from paperbark trees in search of grubs. Their sturdy beaks are perfectly good for this job.
"But every now and then, they suddenly switch to tool use - in the very same trees.'' Dr Rutz said. "We don't understand what is happening there."
But they caught two different crows, not just using sticks but making - and using - hooks.
"When we got that footage it was a proper high-five moment in the field camp," Dr Rutz said.
From lab experiments and sightings through binoculars, the team knew that the birds made these hooks.
They snap off one branch from a forked twig and leave a small part of the main stem attached to the end.
But now, for the first time, they have video evidence of it happening, unprompted, in the wild.
Jolyon Troscianko from the University of Exeter said: "New Caledonian crows are notoriously difficult to observe, not just because of the challenging terrain of their tropical habitats, but also because they can be quite sensitive to disturbance."
The crow cams have been given a new design to make recording easier.
Instead of beaming the video to a receiver which meant researchers had to scramble through the New Caledonian forest with...

Summary: Crows are well known for their clever tricks but now they have been caught on camera making and using hook like tools.
###
Article: 27 January 2015 Last updated at 14:30 GMT
They show that the asteroid has its own small moon orbiting it.
The asteroid passed by the Earth at a safe distance of 1.2 million km, giving scientists a rare chance to study it 'up close'.
The new data shows that asteroid 2004 BL86 is about 325m across, and its moon is around 70m wide.
Now that it has passed Earth the asteroid will continue on its orbit around the Sun, and it won't come this close again for another 200 years!
The next 'close shave' of a large asteroid is due in 2027: that object is called 1999 AN10 and is just over 1km wide.

Summary:


The Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow Athletics Club normally use the park's famous Long Walk for winter training.
The Crown Estate now said the park's ground conditions are not suitable for the club's training sessions.
Coach John Higgins said: "Mo Farah used to train with the club,

Young runners at Olympian Mo Farah's former athletics club have been banned from training at Windsor Great Park in preparation for cross country races.

Article: Mr Smith, who joins Angela Eagle in challenging Jeremy Corbyn, said the tax system needed to be more "progressive".
On Brexit, he said people should not accept "we're on a definite path out."
Mr Smith and other Labour MPs say there should be a "unity" candidate to take on Mr Corbyn, who has vowed to fight the challengers in the contest.
But Ms Eagle, who was the first to launch a challenge against the Labour leader, said it was "too early" to talk about that idea.
Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn told the BBC's Sunday Politics he thinks the rules which exclude recently signed-up Labour members from voting in the contest are "not very fair" - and that he wants the party's National Executive Committee to change them.
He also believes the £25 fee for registered supporters to vote in the contest is too high.
In a speech in his constituency later, Mr Smith, MP for Pontypridd, will set out his leadership pledges, including plans to invest £200bn into building projects, which he will say is what is needed to "rebuild Britain".
Speaking on Sunday's Andrew Marr Show, Mr Smith, when asked if he would raise taxes on the richest in society, said: "I think we need to completely overhaul our tax system, so yes."
The former shadow work and pensions secretary said he would reintroduce a 50p top rate of tax "tomorrow" and also said it was "completely anomalous" for capital gains tax to be 20% when the higher rate of income tax was 45%.
Mr Smith, a former member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), went on to say he would vote to renew Trident in Monday's Commons vote, saying he believed the world had become "more volatile, more insecure over the last few years".
"I want a world without nuclear weapons altogether, but I don't think we hasten that by divesting," he said.
Asked whether he would be prepared to press the nuclear "button" as prime minister, Mr Smith said: "You've got to be prepared to say 'yes', that's absolutely right."
BBC political correspondent Alan Soady
Both Angela Eagle and Owen Smith are putting themselves...

Summary: Labour has been "too timid" about taxation, leadership hopeful Owen Smith has said, and pledged that he would raise the top income tax rate to 50p.
###
Article: Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow Athletics Club normally use the park's famous Long Walk for winter training.
The Crown Estate now said the park's ground conditions are not suitable for the club's training sessions.
Coach John Higgins said: "Mo Farah used to train with the club, and he used to train exactly on this venue".
"It's really sad."
Mr Higgins said although the club used an athletics track for summer training, in winter it needed an outdoor venue for athletes to train on grass for cross country fixtures.
The club is used by children aged between eight to 18-years-old to train, and has been running since the 1880s, with Prince Philip as its current patron.
"We need somewhere lit and that's why the Long Walk is so perfect".
"It's a lovely place and we're very very careful about not littering, because we respect the place," he said.
Russell Young, a father of two children at the club, said: "We're extremely disappointed, we don't really cut up the grass.
"We thought they'd be quite happy to have children exercising on it."
The nearby playing fields of Eton, where the Thames Valley Athletics Centre is based, are not lit and have cricket pitches which could be damaged by runners, while Upton Park in Slough is not safe for the club to use at present as the pedestrian crossing is out of service following a collision with a lorry.
A spokesperson for Windsor Great Park said discussions were continuing with the club to find what other options may be available for the next season.

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With clashes between South Sudan and Sudan threatening to spiral into all-out conflict, state TV networks in both countries are pulling out the stops to rally support for their respective causes.

Article: The transgender US army private, born Bradley Manning, is due to be freed on 17 May, after former President Barack Obama commuted her sentence.
Manning had been scheduled for release in 2045, after receiving a 35-year sentence for her role in leaking diplomatic cables to Wikileaks.
She confirmed the release was going ahead on her Twitter feed on Tuesday.
"Freedom was only a dream, and hard to imagine. Now it's here! You kept me alive <3," Manning wrote, linking to a longer statement which referred to some of the treatment she had received behind bars, including "periods of solitary confinement, and... routinely forced haircuts".
"For the first time, I can see a future for myself as Chelsea," she said. "I can imagine surviving and living as the person who I am and can finally be in the outside world."
Manning said she would be "forever grateful" to all those who had supported her and President Obama, and now hoped to make "life better for others".
President Obama commuted her sentence in January, with just three days left in office. The move did not satisfy all her supporters, as some felt she should have been pardoned.
A joint statement from her lawyers, Nancy Hollander and Vincent Ward, noted: "Chelsea has already served the longest sentence of any whistleblower in the history of this country. It has been far too long, too severe, too draconian.
"President Obama's act of commutation was the first time the military took care of this soldier who risked so much to disclose information that served the public interest."
The US army charged Manning with 22 counts relating to the unauthorised possession and distribution of more than 700,000 secret diplomatic and military documents and videos.
Included in those files was video footage of an Apache helicopter killing 12 civilians in Baghdad in 2007.
Manning also passed on sensitive messages between US diplomats, intelligence assessments of Guantanamo detainees being held without trial and military records from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The disclosures were...

Summary: Chelsea Manning has released a statement ahead of her planned release from prison next week.
###
Article: Martial music accompanies footage of soldiers, and statements by military commanders reinforce the military mobilization under way on both sides of the border.
Meanwhile, online activists within Sudan are using social media to question the official line.
State-run Sudan TV is re-running programmes made during the north-south civil war, including a 1990s repeat, "In The Fields of Sacrifice". The programmes urge "jihad" against "the enemy" - namely, South Sudan's ruling party.
The TV carries videos promoting the Popular Defence Forces (PDF) militia, a mainstay of the Sudanese military. The footage features PDF "martyrs" and archive footage of battles from the long-running civil war.
Other footage, broadcast under the title "The Youth Who Answer The Call To Arms", urges young men to join up. It features key figures from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), including the defence minister and Khartoum State governor, who are shown dressed in military fatigues, extolling the virtues of jihad.
Unlike its counterpart in South Sudan, Khartoum's official TV is not showing contemporary footage from Heglig. Instead, it relies on archive video from other battlegrounds. The TV repeatedly insists that Sudanese forces are about to "liberate" the area.
South Sudan TV is showing footage of parades and recordings of commanders addressing soldiers. In one video, a commander addresses his soldiers in Arabic and blames the NCP and President Bashir for lying to their people and dragging the countries to the brink of war.
The commander urges his fighters to "liberate Khartoum from the NCP" and talks of sending President Bashir and his tribe "back to the Arabian peninsula".
Echoing the jihad calls from Sudanese commanders, the SPLA officer advocates "a Christian holy war" against the "mondokoro" (slang for Arab Sudanese), and promises to hand over President Bashir and other Sudanese officials to the International Criminal Court.
The network has been showing footage of prisoners of war, said to have been captured in Heglig. The...

Summary:


A campaign to promote Australian lamb has angered vegans who call it "discriminatory".

The assembly's presiding officer is urging people to make sure they are registered to vote in May's elections.

Article: The commercial, by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), was released on Saturday and has since gone viral.
It shows a SWAT team "saving stranded Aussies" abroad from missing a barbeque on the country's national day.
The Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) said it has received about 250 complaints, mostly from vegans.
ASB said it was also reviewing complaints of violence, and discrimination against Indigenous Australians.
The campaign has been accused of cultural insensitivity for using the slogan "Operation Boomerang" - an Indigenous term - to mark Australia Day.
The national day commemorates the arrival of the first Europeans in the country but is seen by many Indigenous Australians as a day of mourning.
In one scene in the advert, a SWAT team smashes into the home of a man in New York saying "C'mon mate, in a few hours you'll be eating lamb on the beach", to which the the bearded man responds: "But I'm a vegan now...".
The ad later cuts to a shot of a flamethrower-wielding SWAT officer burning a bowl of kale on the vegan's table.
Meat & Livestock Australia said the ad was "tongue in cheek".
"Consumers are free to make up their own minds in relation to lifestyle choices, including what they eat. We appreciate that not all Australians eat lamb," group marketing manager for MLA Andrew Howie said in a statement.
"MLA is also aware of some complaints about the use of the word "boomerang" in the advertisement. It is not our intention to cause any offense through the use of this term which is used to symbolise Australians returning home for Australia Day."
Extracts of the complaints will be published on the Advertising Standards Bureau website after its next board meeting in about two weeks time, an ASB spokesperson said.

Summary: An action movie-style advertisement campaign to promote Australian lamb has angered vegans who call it "discriminatory".
###
Article: Dame Rosemary Butler said it was "critical" that people voted, with more powers coming to Wales.
She said fewer than half of those eligible to vote did so in 2011.
"Yet when I tell people that around Â£16bn is spent on things like health and education, they quickly take an interest in how that money should be spent," she said.
Elections for the assembly and police and crime commissioners take place on  5 May.
There are concerns that up to 70,000 people in Wales - the number of voters in a typical constituency - have not registered to vote out of an adult population of 2.3m.
Speaking on National Voter Registration Day on Friday, Dame Rosemary said: "Encouraging more people to vote has been a key part of my role as Presiding Officer through campaigns like Women in Public Life, and tackling the democratic deficit.
"Devolution in Wales is moving into a new era with more powers set to lie here and more decisions made in Wales, for Wales."
Rhydian Thomas, head of the Electoral Commission in Wales, said they were fully behind the drive to recruit more voters.
"It's a fantastic opportunity to spread the message that young people, students, renters and home-movers are still much less likely to be registered to vote," he said.
Details of how to register to vote are available online.

Summary:


The Labour Party has agreed to a deal with the main opposition resulting in a minority government and avoiding the need for snap elections.

A father killed his son by shaking or throwing him when he was just four weeks old, a jury has been told.

Article: Prime Minister Stefan Lofven called early polls after losing a budget vote about three months into his term.
Under the deal, Mr Lofven will follow the opposition's budget next year, although he can make some changes.
The government failed to push through its budget when the far-right Sweden Democrats sided with the opposition.
The Sweden Democrats emerged as a power broker after September's elections. The election - called for 22 March - would have been Sweden's first early poll since 1958.
Speaking during a press conference in Stockholm on Saturday, PM Lofven said that he was pleased to have reached a deal.
"Sweden has a tradition of solving difficult problems," he told reporters.
"I am happy that... Sweden can be governed."
The deal was reached between Mr Lofven's centre-left Social Democrats and Greens Alliance, and the four-party centre-right group known as Alliance.
Mr Lofven said the document, called "The December Agreement" will remain in force until 2022.
It commits the opposition to abstain from voting against the government's budget proposals starting from April 2015 onwards.
It also co-ordinates the parties' polices on pensions, defence and energy issues.
Mr Lofven's Social Democrats formed a minority government with the Greens in September but between them they have only 138 seats in the 349-seat parliament.
The Sweden Democrats became the country's third largest party, with 13% of the vote. Their main demand has been the reversal of Sweden's liberal immigration laws.
Sweden has offered permanent residence to all Syrians fleeing the conflict and has the highest rate of asylum applications per capita of any European Union country.

Summary: Sweden's left-of-centre government has reached a deal with the main opposition resulting in a minority government and avoiding the need for snap elections.
###
Article: Liam Laverick, 25, from Beeford Grove in Hull has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of his four-week old son, Tommy Lee.
The baby was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary on 23 September 2014 and died later at Leeds General Infirmary.
Tommy Lee had been left in the sole care of Mr Laverick when the baby became ill, Hull Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Nicholas Lumley QC said in his opening statement Tommy Lee was left in the care of Mr Laverick at his flat on Linnaeus Street, Hull.
He also told the court Mr Laverick had killed his son by shaking or throwing him.
The jury was shown CCTV footage of Mr Laverick taking Tommy Lee to a relative's house to find the baby's mother, Kelly Whitworth, before the couple ran with the child to the nearby Hull Royal Infirmary.
Mr Laverick gave different accounts of what had happened, including saying that he had fallen over while carrying the child, the prosecution said.
A recording of Mr Laverick speaking to Tommy Lee's mother at a police station and made without their knowledge was also played in court.
In it Mr Laverick described falling over in the hallway of their flat while carrying the baby.
The forensic pathologist who carried out the post mortem examination on the body of Tommy Lee said he had suffered serious bleeding around his brain and the back of his eyes.
The case continues.

Summary:


The charity said it issued more than 130,000 supplies of nutritionally-balanced food in 2015/16, up from 117,689 in the previous year.
Its new statistics suggest that food bank growth has slowed, however.
Last year the charity reported that use had increased by two thirds on the previous 12

A woman who was allegedly raped and abused by eight men in Rotherham changed from a "lovely girl to an animal", her mother told jurors.

Article: The charity said it issued more than 130,000 supplies of nutritionally-balanced food in 2015/16, up from 117,689 in the previous year.
Its new statistics suggest that food bank growth has slowed, however.
Last year the charity reported that food bank use had increased by two thirds on the previous 12 months.
The Trussell Trust said each of its emergency parcels contained enough food for 10 meals.
Everyone who received a food parcel was referred to the food bank by professionals such as a welfare rights adviser, a social worker or a health visitor.
Of the 113,726 handed out across Scotland last year, 43,952 went to children.
The charity said that it had evidence to suggest that, on average, people needed two food bank referrals in one year.
Its network of food banks increased to 51 last year with the controversial opening of a new facility in Dumfries by Scotland's only Conservative MP David Mundell.
Ewan Gurr, Scotland network manager for The Trussell Trust, said the figures highlighted an "alarming" number of people who were unable to buy food.
The charity's data showed that the number of referrals due to a low income increased by 2,845 on 2014/15.
However it said benefits delays were the main reason people turned to food banks - they made up a total of 26% of all referrals in Scotland.
Mr Gurr added: "In Scotland, we have heard from people using food banks due to the heart-breaking reality of losing a job in the oil and steel industries, others feeling a sense of despair after delays to a Universal Credit payment and some who have experienced sanctions that have impacted on their physical and mental wellbeing."

Summary: The number of three-day emergency food parcels handed out by The Trussell Trust in Scotland increased by more than 13% in the last year.
###
Article: The witness also said her family had been forced to move to Spain to escape her daughter's alleged abusers.
Sheffield Crown Court also heard how police lost tapes of an interview with defendant Sageer Hussain in 2003.
Eight men, including Mr Hussain, deny sexually abusing three girls between 1999 and 2003.
The mother of one of the alleged victims said in a statement: "Her character changed from a lovely girl to an animal. She became horrible."
She said at one stage she discovered a mobile phone in her daughter's bedroom and rang a number stored under the name 'Waleed'.
She said a man picked up the phone and said "I ain't done owt, I ain't touched her. It isn't me".
When she asked her daughter about the phone she said she burst into tears and said "They're raping me, they're raping me".
She told the court after her daughter went to the police in 2003 her family were repeatedly threatened.
"We were so distraught that we sold the business and the home and moved to Spain," she said.
Det Con Andy Stephanek, of South Yorkshire Police, told the court the force had lost the tape of an interview with Mr Hussain when he was first questioned about the allegations.
He said it appeared that "due to the passage of time they've been destroyed".
The trial continues.

Summary:


A school has changed its name from "Isis" because the word has become associated with the so-called Islamic State.

Article: The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) also found this group were likely to earn less and marry women with lower incomes.
It said the trends made poverty more likely to continue from one generation to the next and reduce social mobility.
The government said it wanted to "build an economy that works for everyone".
Since coming to power, Prime Minister Theresa May has promised to do more for families who are "just about managing".
Among other things, she has said it is vital to tackle the shorter life expectancy for those born poor, and the lower chances of white working class boys going to university.
However, with price increases outstripping wages since the Brexit vote, many workers are getting poorer on average in real terms.
Moreover, average real wages in the UK are still lower than they were before the financial crisis 10 years ago.
The IFS based its findings on the most recent long-term study available, which surveyed people born in 1970 and followed them as they got older.
It found that more than a third of men aged 42 from the poorest fifth of families did not live with a partner in 2012. That compared with only a seventh from high-income backgrounds.
It said men from disadvantaged backgrounds experienced lower rates of marriage and higher rates of divorce.
It also looked at men in couples. It found that the partners of those from richer backgrounds earned more than 70% more than the partners of men from poorer families.
Chris Belfield, a research economist at the IFS, said: "As well as having higher earnings, those from richer families are more likely to be in work, more likely to have a partner and more likely to have a higher-earning partner than those from less well-off backgrounds.
"And all these inequalities have been widening over time."
The IFS said it was "well known" that the sons of richer parents tended to go on to earn more.
However, it said the earnings gap with those from less well-off backgrounds was widening.
In 2012, employed 42-year-old men whose parents were among the richest fifth...

Summary: Men from poor backgrounds are twice as likely to be single in their early 40s than those from rich families, research suggests.
###
Article: Isis Academy in Oxford said it had rebranded as "Iffley Academy" to protect its "reputation, integrity and image".
The name 'Isis' was originally chosen as the school is near to the section of the River Thames of the same name.
Formerly Iffley Mead School, it became Isis Academy in 2013.
A statement issued by the school said it had changed name following "the unforeseen rise of ISIS (also known as ISIL and the Islamic State) and related global media coverage of the activities of the group".
"Our priority is to remove the detrimental impact which the name 'Isis' had on pupils, their families and our staff."
Last year a language school in the city removed Isis from its name for the same reason.
The Isis is the name given to the part of the River Thames above Iffley Lock in Oxford. It is also the name of the goddess wife of the god Osiris in Egyptian beliefs.

Summary:


The company said it had seen "no evidence" of any impact of the vote in markets outside the UK.
Its comments came as it reported an 11% rise in pre-tax profits to Â£173m for the year to 30 June.
Its profits were driven by strong trading in Asia and the rest

Recruitment giant Hays has said the UK job market weakened "significantly" around the time of the EU referendum, but it is too early to judge the long-term impact of the vote.

Article: The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) study found the risk of heart disease fell by about 30% when subjects were asked to lower blood pressure beyond current recommendations.
The results were so conclusive that the NIH ended the study a year early.
Experts have disagreed on how to control blood pressure as people age.
"More intensive management of high blood pressure in people 50 years and older can save lives and reduce cardiovascular complications such as heart attacks," said Dr. Gary Gibbons, director of the NIH's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which sponsored the study.
The current standard for systolic blood pressure - the greater of the two numbers that measure blood pressure - is 140mmHg. The diastolic standard is 80mmHg.
However, researchers in the study adjusted participants' medication so their systolic pressure became 120mmHg, achieving big reductions in heart attacks, heart failures and strokes.
Systolic blood pressure is measured when the heart muscle muscle is working. Diastolic blood pressure is measured when the heart muscle is resting and refilling with blood.
It is too early to know if the study will change the current guidelines. Researchers advised people to discuss any changes to their blood pressure with their doctors.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), high blood pressure can cause heart disease and stroke, which are two of the leading causes of death in the US.
About 70 million adults in the US - or one in three Americans - have high blood pressure, the CDC says.

Summary: New research has shown that aggressive treatment of high blood pressure can significantly reduce risks of heart disease and death in people over 50.
###
Article: The company also said it had seen "no evidence" of any impact of the vote in markets outside the UK.
Its comments came as it reported an 11% rise in pre-tax profits to Â£173m for the year to 30 June.
Its profits were driven by strong trading in Asia and the rest of Europe.
In the UK, Hays said net fees were flat, with trading "more challenging" towards the end of its financial year, which coincided with the run-up to the EU referendum.
Conditions were particularly challenging in local government and healthcare markets in the UK.
Hays also said conditions were tough in banking in the City of London, and there were weakening trends in the construction and property business towards the end of the financial year.
Hays chief executive Alistair Cox said: "Following the EU referendum, there is increased uncertainty in the UK market, but we have seen no evidence of any impact elsewhere.
"It is too early to tell what the longer term impact may be and as ever, we will monitor activity levels closely."
Kean Marden, an analyst at Jefferies, said: "In construction and property, London and larger corporates have been most impacted. To date, Hays has seen no evidence of contagion into Europe."
"We are mindful that July and August are seasonally quiet months for the industry and September (which can be one of the largest revenue contributors of the year) will provide more meaningful insight."
The UK comprises about a third of Hays' business.  It employs about 9,200 people across 33 countries.
In the Asia Pacific region net fees grew by 4%, with Australia up 5%, boosted by strong public sector growth.
In continental Europe and the rest of the world, net fees increased by 15%.

Summary:


A woman jailed for embezzling more than £1.3m from her employers has been ordered to pay back nearly £600,000.

Article: The Walthamstow section of the road in north-east of the city had the worst traffic fumes, the study said.
Oxford Street ranked in the worst 15 for its estimated levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
Diesel vehicles are responsible for up to 30 times more emissions than petrol vehicles, Clean Air in London said.
The campaign group's study called for diesels to be banned from London's most polluted streets by 2020.
Clean Air for London said the mayor's office released the pollution data after they had turned down three freedom of information requests and Clean Air for London used EU legislation to force the mayor's office to release it.
Of any capital city in Europe, London has the highest levels of NO2, the group said.
•Benzene: A406 (North Circular Road), A118, A1055, A40 and A282
•NO2: A406, A118, A1055, Alfred's Way in East Ham and Barking (A13) and A13
•NOx: A282 (Dartford Crossing), A406, A118, Alfred's Way (A13) and A40 (Oxford Street)
•Particulate Matter 2.5: A406, A1055, A40, A118 and A4202 (Park Lane)
•Particulate Matter 10: A406, A1055, A40, A118 and A4202 (Park Lane)
Tonnes per kilometre per year, 2012; (Source: Clean Air in London)
Clean Air in London founder Simon Birkett said: "Ultimately, the only answer is for London to eliminate completely deadly diesel exhaust from the most polluted parts of London by 2020.
"If London knuckles down and cracks the diesel problem, it could be leading the world fighting air pollution as it did 60 years ago after the great smog."
The North Circular (A406) had the highest emission rates of four out of five of the pollutants measured in the study, while the Dartford Crossing (A282) had the highest emission rate of nitrogen oxide (NOx),
Mr Birkett said it was "staggering" Oxford Street and Brompton Road - two of the busiest for shoppers, were in the top 15 worst locations in London in 2012 for emissions of NO2.
He said the levels of NO2 on these streets were 2.5 times the limits set in World Health Organisation guidelines.
He called on the mayor to follow in the...

Summary: The North Circular has been named London's most polluted road in a study carried out for the mayor.
###
Article: Jacqueline McPhie, 46, took the money while vice president for finance at Altus Intervention in Aberdeen between March 2013 and April 2014.
McPhie, of Arbroath, admitted embezzlement and was jailed for three years and four months in July.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, she was ordered to pay back £587,434 through her "realisable assets."
She was given six months to pay the confiscation order.
McPhie diverted money from the business, which supplies equipment for North Sea oil and gas projects, to fund her lifestyle.
She bought an £80,000 Range Rover, and spent more than £60,000 on a new garage and driveway, £52,000 on a kitchen and £30,000 on a summer house in her garden.
McPhie had previously been given 300 hours of community service 16 years ago for stealing £250,000 from previous employers.

Summary:


A group calling itself "the IRA" has said it murdered the Northern Ireland prison officer David Black.

Article: The issue has put European governments in a spin: forcing a policy U-turn in Denmark, new legislation in the Netherlands and an agonised debate in Germany.
Analysts say early marriage is often carried out in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey by families trying to protect girls from poverty or sexual exploitation. Elsewhere, poor families might marry off their young daughters in exchange for dowries.
The question is one of rights and protections - but which? When authorities stop minors cohabiting with their older spouses, are they combating child abuse or breaking up (often already traumatised) families?
Depending on where you go in Europe, you'll find a radically different range of responses to the issue.
Denmark's response has swung first one way and then the other.
In February, Integration Minister Inger Stojberg vowed to act after a review found dozens of cases of girls living with older men in asylum seekers' accommodation - which the minister called "totally unacceptable".
Couples would require "exceptional reasons" to live together below the age of 18 (the legal age for marriage in Denmark) and no cohabitation would be allowed whatsoever if one party was below 15.
But separation reportedly prompted two migrants under 18 to attempt suicide.
The policy was reversed earlier this week - with children as young as 14 reunited with their husbands - after the issue was raised with the Danish Immigration Service (DIS) by lawmaker Josephine Fock.
"It is completely outrageous. We are talking about people who have fled to Denmark who are being split from each other. Some of them have children together and investigating individual [asylum] cases takes an unbelievably long time," Ms Fock told Metroxpress news service.
The DIS cited Denmark's "international obligations" as the trigger for its policy change, concluding that enforcing separate living quarters would violate the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to...

Summary: Should a 14-year-old married girl who migrates to Europe be viewed as a child - or a spouse?
###
Article: He was shot as he drove to work on the M1 in County Armagh on 1 November.
The new paramilitary group is believed to have been formed from an amalgamation of previously disparate dissident republican organisations.
In a statement issued to the Belfast-based newspaper, the Irish News, the group said it killed him "to protect and defend" republican prisoners.
Mr Black was driving to work at Maghaberry Prison, Northern Ireland's high security jail, when he was attacked and killed.
There is an on-going dispute at the prison, where 41 dissident republican prisoners are detained.
Many of them are refusing to wash in protest at strip searches, and in a bid to secure political status.
Mr Black, a 52-year-old father of two, was the first prison officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland in almost 20 years.
A new organisation calling itself the IRA was formed during the summer, bringing together the Real IRA, Republican Action Against Drugs, and a group of non-aligned republicans - a number of whom are believed to be based in the Craigavon area of County Armagh.

Summary:


The world's best triathlete, living together in the same small house just north of Leeds, training together three times a day, going into an Olympics as both the closest of allies and the biggest of rivals.

A collapse in the global price paid for recycled waste has cost Welsh councils more than £1m in lost income.

Article: But this is not 2012, and this is not the Brownlee brothers. A couple of miles down the road from where Alistair and Jonny now live (in separate houses), history is repeating in a friendship that has become almost familial in its closeness.
In one bedroom, 2013 world champion Non Stanford. In the other, 2014 Commonwealth medallist Vicky Holland.
And that is almost all that comes between them. This is not just a story of cooking duties shared, the same swim sessions or mutual running and biking routes. The two have reached the ultimate relationship benchmark: finishing each other's sentences.
Take, for example, the topic of working together in races, and the habit of their male counterparts of shouting and swearing at those saving energy in others' slipstreams.
Stanford: "I'll get frustrated with people who aren't working, but I'm not as vocal as the boys. I don't think the best way to encourage someone is to be nasty to them..."
Holland: "…especially in the girls' race."
Stanford: "It's more, 'That's awesome, keep coming through.'"
Holland: "It's knowing how to coax those girls into something, rather than forcing them..."
Stanford: "…whereas with men you can peer-pressure them by calling them names..."
Holland: "…whereas that doesn't work with girls."
Stanford: "You have to think of the best way to get the whole group to work together."
Olympic years bring both spectacular sporting opportunity and unparalleled pressures. In 2012 the contrasting fitness and character of the Brownlees put a recurring strain on the brothers' relationship.
Alistair, relaxed and laissez-faire, could inadvertently wind up Jonny by getting up for early-morning swim training at the last possible minute. Jonny could annoy Alistair by sitting in their shared car with the engine running while he waited.
Stanford and Holland, both automatic selections for Rio, are different in that they are more alike.
One may hail from Swansea, the other from Gloucester. Holland is three years older. As triathletes, preparing to race this weekend in...

Summary: It's a familiar tale: two of the world's best triathletes, living together in the same small house just north of Leeds, training together three times a day, going into an Olympics as both the closest of allies and the biggest of rivals.
###
Article: Six authorities have told BBC Wales a meltdown in waste markets has hit their budgets.
Pembrokeshire council has seen the price it gets for steel drop by 88% over the year - while Flintshire has seen the price for plastics halved.
Experts say a slump in oil prices, cheap steel imports, and China's economic slowdown are to blame.
"We try to play the markets as best we can," Harvey Mitchell, the waste services manager for Flintshire, said.
"It makes it difficult when we do have a drop in issues we can't control, such as the global price of oil, or when larger countries flood the European market with steel."
Flintshire has been celebrating a record year for recycling household waste - up to 58% of everything thrown away now ends up at its waste recover facility in Buckley.
"But while we've seen an increase in the amount of material we've collected, we've actually seen a drop in the income because of the market prices," Mr Mitchell said.
Recycled waste netted the council £537,000 in revenue in 2015/16, but this represented a drop of 45% in the expected income - more than £400,000 in lost cash.
The pattern has been repeated in Pembrokeshire, where £360,000 has been wiped off the council's expected income, while four other councils saw a combined drop of £335,000.
"This is an issue which is impacting upon Wales as a whole, not just Pembrokeshire," a council official there said.
"Fortunately quotes for the coming months are starting to look more positive with prices starting to increase."
The impact on most of the other Welsh councils which responded to BBC Wales has been minimal, as they said are tied into long term contracts dealing with their recycling services.
But one academic expert said authorities and the public in Wales will need to refocus as they face ever increasing targets on recycling.
By 2025 Welsh authorities are being asked to recycle 70% of waste - by 2050, it should be 100%.
"Waste prevention is what this is all about," Rebecca Colley-Jones, from Bangor University's Sustainability Lab, said.
"It's...

Summary:


Elderly Germans may have to keep working until the age of 69 if a Bundesbank proposal is adopted.

Article: Bob Blackman MP said it was a "national disgrace" that a single person should have to sleep rough.
His private member's bill aims to reform the law to make sure more people get help before losing their home.
A former housing minister had warned that councils would need more funding to fulfil the commitment.
As-it-happened: Homelessness debate
The well-attended debate saw MPs from different parties broadly support the private member's bill.
It passed its first Parliamentary hurdle in the Commons on Friday when it was approved by MPs without any votes against it. The Homelessness Reduction Bill will now go forward for detailed scrutiny.
Communities and Local Government Minister Marcus Jones reiterated the government's "full and unfettered support" for the Homelessness Reduction Bill, adding that the government would fund the extra costs to councils arising from the changes it proposes.
Conservative MP Mr Blackman's bill amends the 1996 Housing Act to change the definition of being "threatened with homelessness", obliging councils to assess people at risk of homelessness at an earlier stage.
Currently the threat of homelessness is defined as beginning 28 days before a person is likely to become homeless.
The bill would extend that period to 56 days, giving people longer to seek help from their local authority.
It would also oblige councils to offer support in finding accommodation for people who become homeless for a further 56 days.
The categories of people eligible for council support would also be expanded, in a move away from the current focus on "priority housing lists" based on applicants' vulnerabilities.
Harrow East MP Mr Blackman called for a "culture change in councils", moving their priorities from "crisis management" to a pro-active approach in preventing homelessness.
He said he had looked at the experience of the Welsh Assembly, which introduced similar measures in 2015 and had since seen a 69% reduction in the number of households receiving homelessness duty.
For Labour, shadow housing secretary...

Summary: The government has pledged its "full and unfettered" support for a bill that would force councils in England to do more to tackle homelessness.
###
Article: It says Berlin should consider raising the retirement age to that level by 2060, from around 65 at the moment.
The central bank says that otherwise the country may struggle to honour its pension commitments.
It points out that the state pension system is in good financial health at present, but will come under pressure in coming decades.
The Bundesbank says that as baby-boomers - those born in the post-World War Two period - retire, there will be fewer younger workers to replace them.
The retirement age for Germans is set to rise gradually to 67 by 2030.
However, the bank believes that from 2050 this increase will not be enough for the German government to keep state pensions at their target level of at least 43% of the average income.
It is therefore proposing pushing the retirement age up to 69.
"Further changes are unavoidable to secure the financial sustainability (of the state pension system)," the Bundesbank said in its monthly report.
But German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said they stood by retirement at 67.
"Retirement at 67 is a sensible and necessary measure given the demographic development in Germany. That's why we will implement it as we agreed - step by step," he added.

Summary:


A new male contraceptive pill is being developed after researchers in Edinburgh identified a gene critical for the production of healthy sperm.

A coroner has vowed to raise concerns about weekend staffing levels at a hospital where a grandmother died after a routine operation.

Article: Experiments in mice found that the gene, Katnal1, was vital for the final stages of making sperm.
The authors of
          a study in PLos Genetics
 said a drug which interrupts Katnal1 could be a reversible contraceptive.
A fertility expert said there was "certainly a need" for such a drug.
Contraception in men is largely down to condoms or a vasectomy.
Researchers at the Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh were investigating the causes of male infertility.
They randomly altered the genetic code of mice to see which became infertile. They then traced the mutations which led to infertility, which led them to Katnal1.
It contains the blueprints for a protein which is important in cells which support the development of sperm. Without the protein, sperm do not fully form and the body disposes of them.
Scientists hope they will be able to perform a similar trick in humans to stop sperm developing, without causing lasting damage.
One of the researchers Dr Lee Smith said: "If we can find a way to target this gene in the testes, we could potentially develop a non-hormonal contraceptive.
"The important thing is that the effects of such a drug would be reversible because Katnal1 only affects sperm cells in the later stages of development, so it would not hinder the early stages of sperm production and the overall ability to produce sperm.
He said it would be "relatively difficult" to do as the protein lives inside cells, however, he said there was "potential" to find something else that protein worked with, which might be an easier target.
Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said there was "certainly a need" for a non-hormonal contraceptive for men and that this had been a "Holy Grail" of research for many years.
He added: "The key in developing a non-hormonal contraceptive for men is that the molecular target needs to be very specific for either sperm or other cells in the testicle which are involved in sperm production.
"If they are not, then such...

Summary: It may be possible to develop a new male contraceptive pill after researchers in Edinburgh identified a gene critical for the production of healthy sperm.
###
Article: Margaret Gleeson, 70, died two days after a hernia operation at Wigan's Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in October 2015.
Concluding an inquest into her death, Simon Jones ruled out neglect and said she died due to a rare complication.
But he said he wanted to highlight concerns raised during the hearing.
Mr Jones said he would write to both the hospital and the Department of Health about the issue of patient safety at weekends.
However, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust said it did not believe weekend staffing levels were to blame.
"The trust does not believe that Mrs Gleeson's death was the result of any difference between the resources available and services provided at the weekend and those provided on weekdays," a spokesman said.
"The trust already complies with national guidelines in relation to weekend working and is actively involved in an ongoing pilot scheme investigating the possible benefits which might be derived from seven day working."
The trust said its own investigation had revealed shortcomings in "some aspects" of Mrs Gleeson's care, for which it offered its "sincere apologies".
The inquest, sitting at Bolton Coroner's Court, heard medics believed Mrs Gleeson's operation had been a success, but it was later discovered that internal tissue had been torn during the procedure.
Her condition then deteriorated.
When questioned about weekend staffing during the hearing, the trust's Dr Sadasivam Loganathan agreed it was "a major concern".
He said: "You don't give the same attention as the patient deserves."
Mrs Gleeson's son, Peter Gleeson, said: "I think if she'd had the operation on a Monday or any other time in the week it would have possibly been a different outcome."
Her daughter Julie Barnes added: "The surgeon himself said if she'd have been reviewed and it had been picked up on the Saturday, it would have been a totally different outcome."
Stephen Jones, of Leigh Day solicitors, said the family were "disappointed" the coroner did not find neglect had been a factor.
"Whether the...

Summary:


The number of people who have been convicted of a crime has fallen to its lowest level since records began, a Home Office study suggests.
The number of people who have been convicted of a crime has fallen to its lowest level since records began, a Home Office study suggests.

Only a third of children in Wales have healthy teeth overall and this is lagging behind England, a major survey suggests.

Article: Just over 8% of adults - around 2.7m people - admitted taking an illegal drug during the last year, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
This compares with 11.1% in 1996 and 12.3% at its peak in 2003/04.
But the report found 6% of young adults used nitrous oxide - or laughing gas - in the last year.
Both nitrous oxide and psychoactive drug salvia, which both feature in the survey for the first time, are legal substances.
Illicit drug-use has been largely in decline since 2003 and the figures for 2012/13 represent a 0.7% drop on the previous year.
The survey found the proportion of 16 to 59-year-olds who said they had taken a class A drug in the last year fell from 3% to 2.6% - although the level has remained broadly the same since records began.
Among young adults, aged 16 to 24, reported class A drug-use had almost halved since the first survey of its kind in 1996.
The decline was down to the falling popularity of ecstasy, magic mushrooms and LSD.
But reported levels of cocaine-use - the second most popular drug after cannabis - were higher than 17 years ago.
In 1996, the proportion of adults saying they used cocaine was 0.6%, but it was now more than three times higher at 1.9% - although this was down from its 3% peak five years ago.
According to the survey, young people were almost twice as likely to say they had used drugs than the adult population overall, with 16.3% of 16 to 24-year-olds taking them in the last year
Home Office minister Jeremy Browne said the results overall were "really positive news".
A spokesman added that, while legal, laughing gas should "not be experimented with" and that "any suggestion of abuse, particularly by young people, is of concern".
The annual Crime Survey for England and Wales is based on interviews with 21,000 adults.
It also found that almost four out of five people thought cannabis was either "very" or "a bit" unsafe.
And at 99%, almost all of those surveyed thought taking heroin was unsafe, while 97% said the same of taking cocaine or ecstasy.

Summary: The proportion of adults who say they use illegal drugs has fallen to its lowest level since records began, a Home Office study suggests.
###
Article: Thousands of children have been examined every 10 years since 1973.
A third of children in Wales were said to have good oral health overall, which compares to 39% in England.
Decay was found in 52% of 12 year olds and 63% of 15 year olds, a slight improvement on the 2003 survey.
But around 70% of them reported problems with their teeth.
Decay was found in 41% of five-year-old children in their primary teeth and in 55% of eight-year-old pupils, according to the Health and Social Care Information Centre report.
Severe dental problems were worse among children from poorer backgrounds.
Around a half (47%) of five year olds could be said to have good oral health.
But that declined with age, to around a quarter of 15 year old children.
Other findings:
The last results in 2003 showed that oral health had improved greatly since the 1970s and 1980s.
This time, 12 and 15-year-olds were also asked to fill in a questionnaire on how they looked after their teeth.
In 2009 the Welsh government launched a national scheme to encourage better dental health amongst young children. Since then it has invested over Â£12m in the programme.
It also suggested the programme had led to a recent  6% drop in the proportion of five-year-olds experiencing dental decay.
Experts point out there could be several reason the health of children's teeth in Wales was still lagging behind those from other UK nations including socio-economic conditions.
That survey 10 years ago also showed a big drop in 15-year-olds with obvious decay from 94% in 1983 to 58%.
Scottish children are not included in the 2013 survey but Wales has better results than Northern Ireland, where 31% were judged to be in good oral health.
The Welsh Government said its own most recent monitoring survey showed a 6% drop in the proportion of five-year-olds with dental decay.
"However, there is more to do to improve the dental health of children in Wales especially since the vast majority of tooth decay is avoidable," said a spokesperson.
"Parents can help their children by...

Summary:


The Australian government has announced a $1.5 billion investment in the Australian livestock industry.
The investment will be announced in the coming weeks.
The investment will be made through a combination of public and private sector investment.
The investment will be made through a combination of public and private sector investment.
The investment

Australia is a step closer to exporting live cattle to China, opening a new market for its farmers.

Article: Following a month-long online poll, toy maker Hasbro said the feline design had beaten competition from a robot, helicopter, diamond ring and a guitar.
"I think there were a lot of cat lovers in the world that reached out," said Hasbro's Jonathan Berkowitz.
It is the first time fans have had a say on which of the eight tokens to keep and which to lose.
"Tokens are always a key part of the Monopoly game... and our fans are very passionate about their tokens, about which token they use while they play," Mr Berkowitz added.
The Scottie dog was the clear favourite with fans from more than 120 countries who took part in the contest to decide which token should be saved, eventually securing 29% of the vote.
While the shoe, wheelbarrow and iron were neck and neck in the final hours of voting, the iron ended up with just 8% of the vote and will now be retired from the game.
"While we're a bit sad to see the iron go, the cat token is a fantastic choice by the fans and we have no doubt it will become just as iconic as the original tokens," said Eric Nyman from Hasbro.
The iron was one of the original game tokens introduced by the Parker Brothers in 1935, when the appliance was an important part of domestic life. The Scottie dog and wheelbarrow were added in the early 1950s.
Previous tokens retired in the 1950s included a lantern, a purse and a rocking horse.
The new cat design received 31% of the total vote and will be added to the existing tokens which include a race car, thimble, top hat, and battleship.
Versions of Monopoly with the new token will come out later this year.

Summary: Fans of Monopoly have voted to replace the iron with a cat-shaped playing piece in the popular board game.
###
Article: Agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce said Australia had agreed to health protocols that would be finalised by his Chinese counterpart.
This comes after Indonesia slashed live cattle imports from Australia.
Mr Joyce said the trade in live cattle between Australia and China could be worth up to $A2bn ($1.5bn, Â£950m) each year.
Now that Australia had agreed on the health conditions, farmers could prepare to export cattle once China made the deal official, Mr Joyce said in a statement.
"I was very pleased today to sign the agreement of health conditions for trade of Australian feeder and slaughter cattle to Chinaâ€”now it's over to my counterpart, Minister Zhi Shuping, to sign on the dotted line and finalise the agreement between our two nations," Mr Joyce said.
"Over the past five years we've had a significant trade in breeder cattle with China, primarily for dairy heifers.
"Now, I'm pleased to announce we are a step closer to the commencement in trade in live slaughter and feeder cattle to China," he said.
Feeder cattle are those mature enough to be fattened in a feed lot before slaughter.
Earlier this month, Australian cattle producers were told Indonesia would only allow 50,000 head of cattle to be imported into the country between July and September, compared with an expected 200,000 permits for that quarter.
The Australian Livestock Exporters Council said that decision was both a surprise and a disappointment.
The Council's chief executive, Alison Penfold, said the deal with China was a "major breakthrough".
"Australia will be the first country to export feeder and slaughter cattle to China," Ms Penfold said in a statement.
In recent years, the live cattle industry has been rocked by a series of scandals about poor treatment of the animals in some of the countries Australia exports to.

Summary:


The new logo will be used on shirts from next season.
The club's nickname comes from a pair of imps which were said to have terrorised Lincoln Cathedral in the 14th Century.
General manager John Vickers said: "The return of a traditional imp to the shirts has a bit more of an identity

McDonald's in Japan is running out of chips.

Article: The symbol was originally used in the 1970s and 80s, an era which brought record-breaking success under Graham Taylor.
The club also secured promotion in 1980-81, finishing behind Southend United, with Colin Murphy in charge.
The new logo will appear on shirts from next season.
The club's nickname comes from a pair of imps which were said to have terrorised Lincoln Cathedral in the 14th Century.
General manager John Vickers said: "The return of a traditional imp to the shirts has a bit more of an identity with the club, and with the city as a whole."
"It has been a topic of discussion amongst supporters for some time," he added.
He added: "It is a new start for the club, and a chance for a new generation of supporters to embrace an element of our history."
The first known record of the club being referred to as The Imps was in the Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury, from an edition dated 2 February 1912.
The current branding, which has been in use since 2001, will continue to be used by the club's sport and education trust.

Summary: The traditional Red Imp logo is being brought back by Lincoln City Football Club as part of celebrations to mark the club's 130th anniversary.
###
Article: The fast food company says it can't get hold of enough potatoes because of industrial action in America.
As a result they're having to ration French fries for customers.
"Unfortunately without this sales restriction step, we would run the danger of running out of fries at some of our stores around the end of the year," said McDonald's Japan spokeswoman Kokoro Toyama.
There are more than 3,100 McDonald's outlets in Japan.
For now they will only serve small portions of fries, though they won't restrict how many portions customers can order.
More than 1,000 tonnes of potatoes have already been flown in to try to boost supplies. They started arriving this week.
A further 1,600 tonnes will be imported by sea but they won't arrive until January.
The industrial dispute in America is between 20,000 dockworkers and terminal operators and shipping lines at 29 ports on the west coast of the United States.
This isn't the first time that Japan's been hit by a food shortage in recent weeks.
For most of this month supplies of butter have been so low that supermarkets have had to limit customers to one pack each.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube

Summary:


The Telegraph has been accused of "spying" on the BBC, and has been accused of "spying" on the BBC.
The Telegraph has been accused of "spying" on the BBC, and has been accused of "spying" on the BBC.
The Telegraph has been accused of "sp

The 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta has been celebrated in Lincoln with a delivery of a facsimile of the parchment to Lincoln Castle.

Article: James Hipwell, who was jailed in 2006 for writing about firms whose shares he owned, said he witnessed repeated privacy infringements at the paper.
He told the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics that he overheard showbiz journalists openly talking about it.
Publisher Trinity Mirror has insisted its journalists work within the law.
It has also said they work within the Press Complaints Commission's (PCC) code of conduct.
Meanwhile, Heather Mills, the former wife of singer Sir Paul McCartney, has said in a statement that she never disclosed private voicemail messages from her ex-husband to former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan.
It comes after the former tabloid editor, now an interviewer for American broadcaster CNN, told the inquiry on Tuesday he had listened to a voicemail message left to her by Sir Paul.
Mr Morgan, who firmly denied any knowledge of hacking under his editorship, refused to say when or where he had heard the message - because he wanted to protect "a source". He said he had no reason to believe phone hacking was going on.
Ms Mills said she would be "more than happy" to answer any questions the inquiry had for her about the subject.
CNN said it was "seeking a response to the Mills statement from Morgan".
On Wednesday, Mr Hipwell told the inquiry he had never been given a copy of the code during his time at the paper, under Mr Morgan's editorship.
He said he never heard reference to the code, and said there were no visible signs of ethical leadership.
In a statement read to the inquiry, he stated: "I witnessed journalists carrying out repeated privacy infringements using what has now become a well-known technique - to hack into the voicemail systems of celebrities, their friends, publicists and public relations executives.
Follow Ross Hawkins on Twitter
"The openness and frequency of their hacking activities gave me the impression that hacking was considered a bog-standard journalistic tool for gathering information."
Mr Hipwell said he sat next to the showbiz team, where hacking took place...

Summary: Phone hacking appeared to be a "bog-standard journalistic tool" for gathering information, a former Daily Mirror financial reporter has said.
###
Article: It was taken to the castle in a procession led by a giant King John figure.
The city holds one of four remaining original copies of the charter, which was signed by King John at Runnymede in 1215.
Schoolchildren who helped make the facsimile also joined the procession.
A trail of 25 decorative sculptures have also been installed in Lincoln - each representing one of the barons who were present at Magna Carta's sealing.
Organiser David Hill said: "We've got a 20m-long parchment - which is a facsimile of the original - and on top of it are words and designs from schoolchildren in the city."
Emma Tatlow, from Visit Lincoln, said the anniversary was helping attract tourists to the city, with more than 70,000 visiting the charter at the Lincoln Castle since April.
Magna Carta outlined basic rights with the principle that no one was above the law, including the king.
It charted the right to a fair trial, and limits on taxation without representation.
It inspired a number of other documents, including the US Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Only three clauses are still valid: the one guaranteeing the liberties of the English Church; the clause confirming the privileges of the City of London and other towns; and the clause that states that no free man shall be imprisoned without the lawful judgement of his equals.
The British Library has two copies of the 1215 Magna Carta.
Source: The British Library

Summary:


A new record for a blue period Picasso has been set at auction in New York.

Article: The university announced in April it was cutting 236 posts in 2015/16 through a voluntary redundancy scheme.
But in an email to staff, Queen's said: "The required pay savings... have not been fully achieved."
As a result, staff who have not already applied for voluntary redundancy have now been invited to apply.
They will have until early October to come forward.
But the email also says: "In the event that the required savings have not been made within schools/directorates, formal processes will regretfully require to be implemented."
University sources have confirmed those "processes" may include compulsory redundancies.
The university was unable to clarify exactly how much it had missed its pay savings targets by and how many staff had been offered voluntary redundancy.
Queen's funding from the Department for Employment and Learning was cut by Â£8m earlier this year.
In a statement to the BBC, a Queen's University spokesperson confirmed that the pay savings to be delivered through the voluntary redundancy scheme had not been achieved.
They also said a strategic review is ongoing "to determine the future size and shape of the institution" and that recommendations would be presented to the university senate during this academic year.
The BBC understands that review is likely to recommend some subject and course closures.
Alun Harpur, president of the Queen's branch of the University and Colleges Union (UCU), which represents staff said the mood among staff was "one of uncertainty and anxiety".
"They don't know who will be targeted for compulsory redundancy if the university is intending to go down that route," he said.
"The union has not yet been provided with the necessary information in terms of staff numbers involved or indeed the amount of savings that the university is short by."
He also called on the university to provide clarity on the status of the voluntary redundancy scheme that is still open to staff.
"We don't know how many people have applied for it, we don't know how many people were rejected,...

Summary: Queen's University in Belfast has warned staff it may have to make compulsory redundancies in an effort to save money, the BBC has learned.
###
Article: La Gommeuse achieved the top price of $67.5m (£45m) at Sotheby's, as part of their Impressionist & Modern Art sale on Thursday.
And Van Gogh's atmospheric landscape, Paysage sous un ciel mouvemente, sold for $54m (£36m), helping to take the evening's total to $306.7m (£203m).
Simon Shaw, co-head of Impressionist and modern art worldwide, called it "a small sale that packed a real punch".
He added: "Each season Picasso has the remarkable ability to surprise, and tonight was no exception, with the unusual appearance of two Blue Period works, which set new benchmarks - both in oil and on paper."
La Gommeuse, described as most the important blue period Picasso to come to the market in a generation, was painted in 1901.
The portrait is of a nude unnamed woman. Gommeuse, which translates into English as 'gummy' was a sexually charged slang word of the time for cafe-concert singers and their songs.
It features a second portrait on the reverse of the canvas, which was hidden for a century until its discovery in 2000 during conservation work.
The caricature of Picasso's friend Pere Manach was apparently intended as a gift for the Catalan anarchist who shared the artist's studio flat in the Boulevard de Clichy in Paris.
The painting was one of 47 works on offer, with just over three-quarters finding buyers.
At least two of the top 10 lots were bought by Asian private collectors, continuing a trend of recent seasons.
The $306.7m (£202m) total comfortably beat the $275m (£182m) low pre-sale estimate. Sotheby's had tagged the high estimate at about $370m (£244.5m).
This total brings Sotheby's sales of Impressionist & Modern Art in just the past 24 hours to $575.8m (£381m),
Earlier this year, Picasso's Women of Algiers became the most expensive painting to sell at auction, going for $160m (£102.6m) at Christie's in New York.

Summary:


A team of researchers has found that the Hsp90 inhibitor, Hsp90i, can be used to treat prostate cancer.

A new type of drug could benefit men with aggressive prostate cancer that is no longer responding to treatment, researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research have said.

Article: The babies were born in May and are now playing with the rest of the group in the main enclosure.
They don't stray very far from their mum though.
In the wild meerkats live in large families called  a "mob" or "gang" and as many as 50 meerkats can live in them.
All the adults in a mob share the responsibility of looking after the pups.
Meerkats live in large burrows underground, to escape the scorching heat of the South African sun.
These five meerkat pups are yet to be named, but are enjoying exploring their new enclosure with each other for now.

Summary: Five tiny meerkat pups have been exploring their new enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo.
###
Article: In a study on mice, Hsp90 inhibitors were found to strip cancer cells of defences against hormone treatments.
This makes the drugs particularly promising for treating drug-resistant cancers, the research team said.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK.
About one in eight men will get prostate cancer at some point in their lives. It mainly affects men over the age of 50.
The cancer can sometimes be treated successfully with hormone treatments, which target androgen receptors linked to the growth of male hormones called androgens.
But some prostate cancers don't work that way. Instead they create an abnormal form of androgen receptor which is not linked to the growth of hormones and therefore does not respond to standard hormone treatment.
This is the most common form of resistance in prostate cancer which leads to aggressive, difficult-to-treat cancers.
The latest research, published in the journal Cancer Research, found that a new class of drugs reduced production of both receptors.
Professor Paul Workman, study author and chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research, said it was an exciting discovery.
"We call Hsp90 inhibitors 'network drugs' because they tackle several of the signals that are hijacked in cancer all at once, across a network rather than just a single signalling pathway.
"These drugs can hit cancer harder than those targeting only one protein, and look promising for preventing or overcoming drug resistance."
Prof Workman said the next step was to test the Hsp90 inhibitors in clinical trials on patients with aggressive, drug-resistant prostate cancer.
Prof Johann de Bono, a professor of experimental cancer medicine at the Institute of Cancer Research, said: "These drugs are already in clinical trials for several types of cancer, and I am excited that our work suggests they could also benefit men with prostate cancer who have otherwise run out of treatment options."

Summary:


The Australian government has been accused of trying to influence votes in the bidding process.
The report, which was released on Thursday, said the Australian government had "violated the bidding and ethics rules".
It also accused Australian officials of attempting to conceal "certain key relationships" in the bidding process.
The report also

The poorest and most vulnerable people in the UK would be hit hardest by the economic consequences of leaving the EU, David Cameron has warned.

Article: A Fifa report found Australia's bidding consultants appeared to have "violated the bidding and ethics rules".
It also accused Australian officials of attempting to conceal "certain key relationships" in the bidding process.
The report also criticised the English Football Association but cleared Russia and Qatar of corruption allegations.
But since being released on Thursday, Fifa's report has been heavily criticised - most notably by Michael Garcia, the lawyer who investigated those claims of wrongdoing.
Fifa launched its inquiry into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups after a number of corruption allegations were made after voting took place in 2010.
Russia won the right to host the 2018 tournament, beating England and joint bids by the Netherlands and Belgium, and Spain and Portugal.
Qatar was awarded the 2022 event, edging out Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States.
The Australian government spent about A$46m (Â£26m; $40m) for the country's 2022 World Cup bid but received only one vote.
The Fifa report claimed Australia's bidding team tried to curry favour with members of Fifa's Executive Committee by directing government funds from development projects in Africa towards initiatives in members' home nations.
It also said there were "certain indications of potentially problematic conduct of specific individuals in the light of relevant Fifa ethics rules".
It found there were several incidents involving the Australia 2022 bid that displayed "potentially problematic connections between financial and other support for 'football development' and the bidding process".
However, it concluded that the connections identified were "all in all, not suited to compromise the integrity" of the bidding process "as a whole".
Football Federation Australia (FFA) said it would seek advice from the Fifa Ethics Committee before making any further comment.
"FFA notes that the Australian bid team co-operated fully with the inquiry and provided transparency on the conduct of the bid," the FFA said in...

Summary: Australia's conduct in its 2022 bid to stage the football World Cup has been criticised for attempts to divert government money to influence votes.
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Article: Leaving the union would see prices rise and threaten jobs, the prime minister said, in a move seen as an attempt to reach out to Labour voters.
Writing in the Daily Mirror, he said leaving would be "a national error".
Meanwhile, more than 300 business figures and entrepreneurs have signed a letter in support of Brexit.
The referendum takes place on 23 June, when voters in the UK will be asked whether they want the country to remain in, or leave, the European Union.
With less than six weeks to go before polling day, Mr Cameron continued to make his case for staying in the EU.
He said being in the union helped working people and British manufacturing.
"I've been in this job for six years now. Whatever you think of me, I know how Britain gets things done in the world," he wrote in the Labour-supporting Daily Mirror.
"I've seen how free trade within Europe benefits working people. I've seen how manufacturing is boosted by trade deals the EU has done with the rest of the world.
"I've seen how shared intelligence keeps families safe. It's my deep, considered, steadfast belief that leaving Europe would be a national error, a big mistake."
He said three million people's livelihoods were directly linked to trade with Europe, with "countless more" linked indirectly.
Mr Cameron's comments comes as 320 business figures have signed a letter backing Vote Leave.
The letter, published in the Daily Telegraph, said being a member of the EU undermines British competitiveness and Brexit would "create more jobs".
Signatories include Peter Goldstein, a founder of Superdrug, Steve Dowdle, a former vice-president of Sony, and David Sismey, a managing director of Goldman Sachs.
Tim Martin, chairman of pub chain JD Wetherspoon, Adrian McAlpine, from construction firm Sir Robert McAlpine, and Jon Moulton, chairman of Better Capital LLP, also signed the letter.
They say British business would be free to "grow faster, expand into new markets and create more jobs" from outside the EU.
"Year-on-year the EU buys less from Britain because...

Summary:


Collins English Dictionary has chosen binge-watch as its 2015 Word of the Year.

Article: A supermoon occurs when the Moon is in the closest part of its orbit to Earth, meaning it appears larger in the sky.
The eclipse - which made the Moon appear red - has been visible in North America, South America, West Africa and Western Europe.
This phenomenon was last observed in 1982 and will not be back before 2033.
But the definition of a supermoon is debated among astronomers.
Skywatchers in the western half of North America, the rest of Europe and Africa, the Middle East and South Asia saw a partial eclipse.
From the UK, observers watched the Moon pass through the Earth's shadow in the early hours of Monday morning. In North and South America the eclipse was seen on Sunday evening.
In a total lunar eclipse, the Earth, Sun and Moon are almost exactly in line and the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun.
As the full Moon moves into our planet's shadow, it dims dramatically but usually remains visible, lit by sunlight that passes through the Earth's atmosphere.
As this light travels through our planet's gaseous envelope, the green to violet portions get filtered out more than the red portion, with the result that light reaching the lunar surface is predominantly red in colour.
Observers on Earth may see a Moon that is brick-coloured, rusty, blood red or sometimes dark grey, depending on terrestrial conditions.
Dr Robert Massey, deputy executive director of the UK's Royal Astronomical Society, told BBC News that the eclipse is an "incredibly beautiful event".
A supermoon occurs when a full or new moon coincides with a Moon that is nearing its minimum distance (perigee) to Earth.
The Moon takes an elliptical orbit around Earth, which means that its average distance changes from as far as 405,000km (its apogee) to as close as 363,000km at the perigee.
The coincidence between a supermoon and an eclipse means that Earth's lone companion is expected to look 7-8% bigger. But Dr Massey added: "The definition of 'supermoon' is slightly problematic.
"Is a supermoon taking place at the perigee, the...

Summary: People around the world have observed a rare celestial event, as a lunar eclipse coincided with a so-called "supermoon".
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Article: Meaning "to watch a large number of television programmes (especially all the shows from one series) in succession", it reflects a marked change in viewing habits, due to subscription services like Netflix.
Lexicographers noticed that its usage was up 200% on 2014.
Other entries include dadbod, ghosting and clean eating.
Helen Newstead, Head of Language Content at Collins, said: "The rise in usage of 'binge-watch' is clearly linked to the biggest sea change in our viewing habits since the advent of the video recorder nearly 40 years ago.
"It's not uncommon for viewers to binge-watch a whole season of programmes such as House of Cards or Breaking Bad in just a couple of evenings - something that, in the past, would have taken months - then discuss their binge-watching on social media."
Those partaking in binge-watching run the risk of dadbod, one of ten in the word of the year list.
Referring to an untoned and slightly plump male physique, dadbod is not without its admirers, with actors like Seth Rogen and Leonardo DiCaprio fitting the purported brief.
"Once again, the list of Collins' Words of the Year offers a fascinating snapshot of the ever-changing English language," said Newstead.
Those words that remain popular could be included in the next print edition of the Collins English Dictionary, due in 2018.

Summary:


A man tried to buy ricin from the "dark web" after the idea was "implanted in his brain" from watching the Breaking Bad television series, a court heard.

Article: The government regulator has voiced concerns over how sites not yet connected to the grid choose where they get their power from.
The regulator said it had also found evidence that SSE may have breached competition law.
Ofgem will now examine whether SSE put its competitors at a disadvantage.
Customers who are not yet connected to the electricity grid, such as new housing developments, can choose who they get their electricity connection from, with the option to select an alternative, independent connection provider rather than the local distribution company.
Publishing the findings of a six month review into the electricity connections market, Ofgem said: "While we have seen more progress over the last five years to increase competition, the network company remains the sole provider for a number of key parts of the connections process."
Ofgem opened the review into the market for new connection in response to concerns about whether competition in the market was effective.
The watchdog invited responses from the public, carried out customer research and met a broad range of connection providers.
The review also identified differences in how connection services were provided across Britain.
Ofgem suggests network companies commit to an enforceable code of practice which would "level the playing field for competitors by reducing their reliance on the local electricity network companies".
The regulator said it was expecting electricity distribution network companies to confirm their commitment to the code by 18 February 2015.
Ofgem's senior partner for distribution, Maxine Frerk said: "We are requiring electricity network companies to work quickly to resolve the issues identified in the connections market, to reduce the hassle of getting connected to the grid and help lower costs for customers.
"We are determined to ensure this part of the energy market works in customers' interest and will use the full range of our powers to do so."
Ofgem, however, stressed that the fact it had launched an investigation did not...

Summary: Energy firm SSE is to be investigated by Ofgem over concerns that it restricted competition in the electricity connections market.
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Article: Mohammed Ali, of Prescot Road, Liverpool, is accused of attempting to possess a chemical weapon.
The father of two, 31, has denied the charge at the Old Bailey in London.
Using an online alias, Ali allegedly tried to order 500mg of the deadly toxin, the jury was told, which would have been enough to kill 1,400 people.
As "Weirdos 0000", Ali contacted a man on the black market and placed an order for the ricin, the court heard.
He went on to negotiate the deal in encrypted exchanges unaware the United States-based 'dealer' was actually an FBI agent who alerted the British authorities.
On 10 February, he took delivery of a toy car with "special batteries" at the home he shared with his wife and two young sons.
But instead of ricin, the five concealed packets contained a harmless powder and Ali was arrested.
The court has been told that the Bolton-born computer software programmer has displayed many traits of Asperger's syndrome.
Under cross-examination, defence clinical psychologist Alison Beck said: "I think that so far as I understand it, Mr Ali was motivated with pushing the boundaries of what was possible with the technology.
"The relevance of the dark net was to procure ricin and that idea was implanted in his brain having watched the series Breaking Bad."
Ali denies a charge of attempting to possess a chemical weapon between 10 January and 12 February.
The trial continues.

Summary:


The US-Russian rapprochement under President Donald Trump was shattered by the American Tomahawk cruise missiles slamming into the Syrian air base. One might add another piece of advice: "Choose your allies carefully".
It is an unexpected reversal of fortune for Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
Only a few days ago

"Be careful what you wish for", the old saying goes - and this is exactly what the Russian leadership must be thinking right now.

Article: A single turbine in Atlantis Resources' MeyGen project off the Caithness coast has been exporting electricity.
The device is the first of four 1.5MW tidal stream turbines that are to be installed in the Inner Sound.
Atlantis hopes to expand the project to have dozens of turbines generating about 400MW of electricity.
The generation of the first electricity follows work last year to lay subsea cables from the tidal power site to the shore, and the installation this year of four foundations on the seabed for the devices.
It also comes just months after Nova Innovation said its two-turbine Bluemull Sound project in Shetland had become the first offshore tidal array in the world to deliver electricity to the grid.
The company's Tim Cornelius said: "This is the moment we have been working towards since we first identified the MeyGen site back in 2007.
"I am immensely proud of and grateful for the remarkable team of people who have contributed to this milestone - our suppliers, our funders, our supportive shareholders, and of course the project team, whose commitment, tenacity and belief have been without equal.
"I look forward to bringing more news of the project development over the coming weeks and months as we move into the full operational phase."
Mr Cornelius added: "It's especially exciting to be making this announcement on the morning after the first 'super moon' in 68 years - last night, those of us with clear skies were able to get a good view of the powerhouse behind tidal energy, and be reminded that even in times like these there are still predictions we can rely on."
MeyGen has been described as the world's first large-scale tidal energy farm.
The first phase of the MeyGen project has been funded through a combination of debt, equity and grants from Atlantis, which is the majority owner of the scheme, and also Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Crown Estate and the former Department for Energy and Climate Change
The Scottish government's has provided Â£23m of funding to help...

Summary: A tidal power scheme in the Inner Sound of Scotland's Pentland Firth has generated electricity for the first time.
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Article: The Kremlin's dreams of a US-Russian rapprochement under President Donald Trump were shattered by the American Tomahawk cruise missiles slamming into the Syrian air base. One might add another piece of advice: "Choose your allies carefully".
It is an unexpected reversal of fortune for Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
Only a few days ago US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that removing Syria's Bashar al-Assad from power was no longer Washington's priority. This was probably taken by the Syrian president as carte blanche to step up his attacks on the opposition. But the chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun - believed to be the work of his forces - backfired.
Even if one sets moral considerations apart (and this was a war crime, pure and simple), Moscow's credibility among the leading players in the region is dented now.
Either: Moscow knew about the planned attack and condoned it - which means its co-sponsorship with the US of the 2013 Syrian chemical weapons liquidation deal was a ruse, a deception, and it therefore cannot be trusted;
Or: the Assad regime deceived Russia and kept some of its chemical weapons (or production facilities) hidden, to use them at will. Then it means that the Kremlin has zero leverage on Damascus. In the hard-power world of the Middle East one doesn't know which outcome is more damaging for Russia.
Two US destroyers casually launched 59 cruise missiles, worth nearly $1m (Â£m) each, just to make a political point. That underlines the discrepancy in financial and material resources between the US and Russia.
Trump sends a resolute signal on Syria
Dramatic turnaround for Trump
Why was Syria's Shayrat airbase bombed?
Six decisive points that changed Syria's war
The fact that the Americans told Moscow in advance about the strike, to avoid casualties among Russian military personnel stationed on the airbase, only added insult to injury. The message was unmistakable: "Step aside please while we do our own thing here."
The Trump administration is prepared to act...

Summary:


The Met Office has warned of possible disruption to power supplies.
The Met Office said a storm, named Storm Barbara, could see winds gusting to 90mph over western and northern parts of Scotland.
Forecasters have warned of possible disruption to power supplies.
The amber warning is in place from 12:00 Friday

The Met Office has issued an amber "be prepared" weather warning for large parts of Scotland for Friday and Christmas Eve.

Article: The engineering giant said 187 posts would be lost from its Inchinnan plant in Renfrewshire and a further 31 jobs from its facility in East Kilbride.
The cuts are the latest in a wave of redundancies at Rolls-Royce plants in Scotland, as part of restructuring.
In November, Rolls-Royce said it planned to shed 2,600 jobs worldwide over a period of 18 months.
Staff were informed of the latest planned job losses on Thursday.
Rolls-Royce currently employs about 700 people at its Inchinnan manufacturing facility and about 630 at East Kilbride.
The company has already announced plans to transfer East Kilbride employees to Inchinnan by the end of 2015.
A Rolls-Royce spokeswoman said: "In November last year we announced a restructuring of our Aerospace division as part of an intensified programme to improve operational efficiency and reduce cost across the group.
"As part of that process we continually review current workload and assess future customer demand to remain competitive.
"We have identified a requirement to reduce the headcount at our Inchinnan manufacturing facilities by approximately 90 during 2015 and 97 during 2016.
"We have also identified a requirement to reduce the headcount at our East Kilbride facility by 31 during 2015.
She added: "It is never an easy decision to propose reductions in our workforce and we will look to meet this requirement by voluntary means wherever possible.
"We will also explore all mitigation including redeployment to other sites and are offering full support to employees who are impacted by the changes."

Summary: Rolls-Royce has announced plans to cut almost 220 jobs from two Scottish plants over the next two years.
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Article: Yellow "be aware" warnings are also in place for Scotland for Wednesday to Saturday.
The Met Office said a storm, named Storm Barbara, could see winds gusting to 90mph over western and northern parts of Scotland.
Forecasters have warned of possible disruption to power supplies.
The amber warning is in place from 12:00 Friday to 06:00 Saturday.
The Met Office said: "A spell of very strong south to southwesterly winds is expected to develop on Friday.
"Gusts of 80mph are likely quite widely, with westerly winds gusting to 90mph likely across parts of western and northern Scotland later on Friday and overnight into Saturday.
"Winds will then ease on Saturday morning."
It added: "Be aware of the potential for some structural damage - this more likely across the northwest of the warning area - as well as disruption to power supplies and travel, with restrictions on bridges and disruption to ferries."
Shetland is likely to be the last place to see winds easing on Saturday, the Met Office said.
The yellow warnings warns of winds gusting to up to 55mph on Wednesday to Thursday and to 70mph on Friday and Saturday.
Snowfalls with accumulations of five to 10cm have also been forecast upland areas of western and central Highlands.
Ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne has said 21 of its 26 routes have already been disrupted by the weather. Several services have been cancelled.
Western Isles Council - Comhairle nan Eilean Siar - has shut the Braighe, the causeway to Point on Lewis, because of strong winds and high tides.

Summary:


It was indeed a "big" Budget - just as the chancellor said it would be.

Article: The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel prizes, said it had received "a personal letter" saying he was unable to attend next month's Nobel ceremony "due to pre-existing commitments".
Dylan, the organisation said, felt "very honoured" and wished he could receive the prize personally.
The singer is required to give a Nobel lecture between now and next June.
The 75-year-old will not be the first recipient of the prestigious award to have been a no-show at the prize-giving ceremony.
Harold Pinter and Doris Lessing, winners of the prize in 2005 and 2007 respectively, were among others who did not attend the event.
"The prize still belongs to them, just as it belongs to Bob Dylan," the Academy said in a statement.
"We look forward to Bob Dylan's Nobel lecture, which he must give - it is the only requirement - within six months counting from December 10, 2016."
Dylan's win was a major talking point when it was announced last month, as was his apparent silence on the matter.
Some interpreted this as a sign he was ambivalent about the award, though the Academy later said he appreciated it "so much".
The veteran rock star was awarded the prize "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".
The Nobel Prize award ceremony and banquet will be held in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or if you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

Summary: Bob Dylan will not travel to Sweden to receive his Nobel Prize for Literature in person, it has been announced.
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Article: It was delivered by a politician with "big ambitions".
George Osborne's stated aim was to create what he called a "new settlement". That's politician's code for re-writing the rules of politics to suit your side.
So it is that he did something rather surprising - slowing and softening spending and welfare cuts now having promised faster and deeper cuts in the run up to the election.
So it is that he adopted a series of Labour policies - a higher re-badged minimum wage, a levy on firms to pay for apprentices, an assault on the tax privilege of so-called non doms.
This in addition to delivering Tory promises to cut income tax, corporation tax and inheritance tax.
But hold on - below those headlines are some potentially eye-watering cuts to benefits - the cuts to tax credits for families will dwarf the pay rise many will get.
There are cuts too to Whitehall budgets on the same scale as seen over the past five years - though where they'll hit is as yet unspelt out.
And there are tax rises - on buying insurance, on buying a car, on pensions - which dwarf the headline tax cuts.
So, yes, it was a "big Budget" - whether it's a big game-changer, a big mess or a big outrage is a judgement for you.

Summary:


The last of five gold artefacts hidden in Scunthorpe as part of an artistic treasure hunt has been discovered.

Article: The Pixel desktop has been re-worked so it runs on PCs and Apple Mac machines, said the Foundation.
People who use it on a Raspberry Pi and other machines will now get the same familiar software across both.
The Pi Foundation said the release also aided its plan to produce the "best" desktop computing experience.
Raspberry Pi co-creator Eben Upton said the software should help schoolchildren who use the credit-card sized Pi in class or for their own projects but have to continue their work on PCs or Macs.
The Pi edition of Pixel and the version translated for bigger machines uses "exactly the same productivity software and programming tools, in exactly the same desktop environment", he wrote.
"There is no learning curve, and no need to tweak... schoolwork to run on two subtly different operating systems," he said.
In addition, he said, producing such a version of Pixel kept the Raspberry Pi foundation "honest" as it would help the organisation's coders work out what bits of the user interface needed work.
Mr Upton said that because the core software underlying Pixel was based on a relatively old computer architecture, it should run on "vintage" machines.
He warned that the software was still "experimental" so might have bugs or other "minor issues" that might mean it does not run well on some machines.
Pixel was first released in September this year and overhauled the main graphical interface owners see and use when working with their Pi. It is based on a version of the open source Linux software known as Debian.
The desktop version lacks two programs - Minecraft and Mathematica - because the Pi organisation has not licensed those applications on any machines other than its own.
In April last year, the Raspberry Pi officially became the most popular British computer ever made. More than 10 million have now been sold.
The computer was first released in 2012 and is widely used as an educational tool for programming.

Summary: The makers of the Raspberry Pi computer have created a version of its graphical front end that can run on ordinary desktop computers.
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Article: Beckie Allen, from Grimsby, found the replica ammonite shell at the base of a fence post in Scunthorpe's High Street East.
The objects were hidden by artist Luke Jerram for his installation Treasure City, with clues placed in paintings at the 2021 arts centre.
Mrs Allen said her husband and two daughters helped to solve the mystery.
The art centre said she was "the first to spot secret dots" in a white painting in the gallery.
Mrs Allen then followed the clue and found the golden shell hidden outside Italian restaurant San Pietro.
"I spotted something that looked a lot like discarded litter at the base of a fence across the road from San Pietro," said Mrs Allen.
She said her daughters "did the honours and opened up the velvet bag to reveal the final piece of treasure".
The event, which is part of an art exhibition at the centre, started on 18 February.
All five objects are replicas of pieces at North Lincolnshire Museum and were made from gold worth Â£1,000, but could be worth much more.
People had to study five paintings and solve the code within them to find and keep the artefacts.
The fourth item, the golden train, was found by a family from Grimsby in Scunthorpe's Central Park on 24 February.

Summary: