"The world is changing, and it's not just the technology that's changing. It's the way we live our lives."

Sleep deprivation is a significant hidden factor in lowering the achievement of school pupils, according to researchers carrying out international education tests.

Article: So begins the true story of Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel Prize-winning Pakistani teenager who was shot by the Taliban in 2012, in newly published children's book Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls.
The book uses illustrations and fairytale-like stories about 100 inspirational women from across the globe to teach girls to rebel against gender norms and instead follow their dreams.
Families have been describing on social media what their children think of the rebel women.
Brynn, who is five years old and lives in Chicago, was captivated by the story of Manal al-Sharif, the women's rights activist dubbed "the woman who dared to drive" after she challenged the ban on women getting behind the wheel in Saudi Arabia.
"Brynn kept asking 'So they told her she couldn't drive?'.  I would answer, 'that's right'. And Brynn would smile mischievously, 'But she did...'," explains her mum Patti.
Brynn was so inspired that she traced the picture and Patti sent it to Manal.
Another profiled star is teenage American gymnast Simone Biles, whose dazzling jumps and twists wowed the world in the 2016 Olympics.
But there are also lesser-known women in the book, including Grace Hopper, the pioneering American computer scientist, and journalist-turned-weightlifter Amna Al Haddad from United Arab Emirates.
Two Italian authors, Elena Favilli, 34, and Francesca Cavallo, 33, are behind the book, which was a hit in the US after a crowdfunding campaign raised US$1m (Â£815,700) in 2016.
In an interview with the BBC, Elena explained that they first came up with the idea when they realised that children's books are still packed with traditional gender stereotypes.
"Children's books have not changed since we were children - the men are still the protagonists and the women are still the princesses," she explained.
Disparities in the representation of men and women in children's books has long been an issue.
In 2011, academics at Florida State University found that gender bias in books has existed for more than 100 years.
They identified that in...

Summary: "Once there was a girl who loved school."
###
Article: Toy maker Mattel is partnering with US start-up ToyTalk to develop Hello Barbie, which will have two-way conversations with children.
The Barbie will use a speech-recognition platform developed by ToyTalk.
A prototype of the doll was at the New York Toy Fair on 14 February, where a glut of smart toys were on display.
"The number one request we hear from girls around the world is that they want to have a conversation with Barbie. Now, for the first time ever, Barbie can have a two-way conversation," said a spokeswoman for Mattel.
The Hello Barbie will be able to play interactive games and tell stories and jokes.
It will also listen to the child's conversation and adapt to it over time - so, for instance, if a child mentions that they like to dance, the doll may refer to this in a future chat.
The doll requires a wi-fi connection and can provide an hour's worth of playtime when fully charged.
A microphone, speaker and two tricolour LEDs will be embedded in the doll's necklace, while rechargeable batteries in its legs can be connected to an external wall-mounted charger.
The doll is expected to sell for about $74.99 (Â£49). No release date has yet been confirmed.
Increasingly, the toy market is becoming saturated with smart versions of old favourites.
Back in November, the Vivid Toy group released Cayla, a doll that uses speech-recognition and Google's translation tools.
In January, security researcher Ken Munro discovered a vulnerability in its software, which allowed for it to be hacked to say things that might not be suitable for children.
A start-up, now live on Kickstarter, is developing a line of smart toys powered by the IBM-developed supercomputer Watson.
The first range from Elemental Path will be a smart dinosaur that can chat with children, tell them jokes and answer a range of questions.
"Toys have to keep up with the expectations of children," said Natasha Crookes, director of communications for the British Toy and Hobby Association.
"As long as children are protected from being able to access...

Summary: Barbie is having a digital makeover, with the release of an internet-connected version of the iconic doll.
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Article: Media playback is unsupported on your device
7 May 2013 Last updated at 18:47 BST
It is a particular problem in more affluent countries, with sleep experts linking it to the use of mobile phones and computers in bedrooms late at night.
It is such a serious disruption that lessons have to be pitched at a lower level to accommodate the sleep-starved learners, the study found.
The international comparison, carried out by Boston College, found the United States to have the highest number of sleep deprived students, with 73% of 9 and 10 year olds and 80% of 13 and 14 year olds identified by their teachers as being adversely affected.
The BBC's Jane O'Brien reports.

Summary:


The UK government has announced a £1.5bn investment in the UK's health sector.
The investment will be made through a combination of public and private sector investment, with the aim of creating a new, more efficient and effective health system.
The investment will be made through a combination of public and private sector

Photographs showing a festive Prince Harry have been released, to mark his support of a charity helping children affected by HIV and Aids.

Article: About 86% were ranked in these top two categories of school effectiveness by Ofsted, up from 84% in August.
Primary schools performed better, with 87% judged good or outstanding, compared with 76% of secondaries.
There are still big regional variations, with fewer good schools in large parts of northern England and the Midlands.
In these areas, there are 17 local authority areas where fewer than 60% of secondary schools are judged good or outstanding.
In the south and east of England, there are seven local authorities in this situation.
At the lower end, Ofsted said: "Primary schools continue to perform more strongly than secondary schools, and at the end of March 75% of primary schools that required improvement had improved at their next inspection.
"However, the proportion of secondary schools that improved from 'requires improvement' has increased from 45% in August 2015 to 52% as at March 2016."
The Department for Education said: "In this academic year alone 100,000 more pupils are now benefiting from attending good or outstanding schools."
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said: "We are determined to spread educational excellence everywhere and today's figures reveal that we have come a long way in doing just this.
"Since 2010 over 1.4 million more children attend the best schools in our country - a triumph for hard-working teachers and pupils everywhere."
Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "This continued progress has come despite severe funding pressures and teacher shortages.
"These issues must be tackled urgently in order to maintain and raise standards further.
"Young people only get one chance to go through their school and college career and a successful education system is essential for the future economic and social wellbeing of our country."

Summary: There has been a slight increase in the proportion of schools and academies in England judged good or outstanding.
###
Article: Researchers found the "social, economic and political contexts of the 1980s" may have caused an increase in drug deaths in the following years.
The new analysis was carried out by NHS Health Scotland and Glasgow University.
The news comes as the Scottish government convenes a meeting of health leaders to discuss future drugs policy.
The research found a cohort within those born between 1960 and 1980, the group known as "Generation X", who had an increased risk of drug-related death from 1990 onwards.
They also found links to gender and deprivation - young men in poor neighbourhoods were found to be 10 times as likely to die from drugs as women of the same age from a more affluent area.
Report author Dr Jon Minton, a quantitative research associate at Glasgow University, said similar patterns had previously been reported about the risk of suicide in deprived areas.
His analysis was "consistent with the hypothesis that economic and other policy decisions during the 1980s created rising income inequality, the erosion of hope amongst those who were least resilient and able to adjust, and resulted in a delayed negative health impact".
He said: "The same kind of pattern we have observed and reported on previously regarding the risk of suicide in vulnerable cohorts in deprived areas in Scotland is repeated, and even more clearly visible, when looking at trends in drug-related death risk.
"For people born in 1960s and 70s, the risk of drug-related deaths throughout the life course was much increased, and gender and area inequalities in these risks increased even more.
"The similarity in trends in both suicide and drug-related deaths suggests a common underlying cause."
Drug deaths in Scotland hit a record high in 2015 with 706 people listed as having died as a result of drug abuse that year. A similar pattern occurred elsewhere in the UK.
The number has been steadily increasing since 1995, when 426 deaths were recorded, and a rising number of deaths have been among older age groups - 73% of the 2015 deaths were of...

Summary: Rising inequality during the 1980s increased the risk of drug-related deaths among members of "Generation X" in Scotland, a new study has found.
###
Article: The prince visited the Mants'ase Children's Home in Maseru, Lesotho.
"Festive cheer! Despite it being 32 degrees, someone gave out Christmas hats and inevitably one found its way on to my head," he wrote.
"All the children, orphaned for one reason or another, absolutely loved the hats and balloons."
Prince Harry was supporting the charity Sentebale which assists projects that work with disadvantaged children, many of whom have Aids or have become orphans because of the disease.
He was also photographed participating in the building of Mamohato Children's Centre.
This will give emotional and psychological support to young people affected by HIV and Aids.
The prince visited a Mamohato Network Club in Maseru and said: "These are children who have never had the chance to talk about their illness, and who had no idea that they were one of so many in their age group.
"It was really emotional watching them interact with each other. Some really outgoing chatty kids, others slightly overwhelmed, but all with huge smiles.
"This confirmed to me again that what we're doing is going to change thousands of children's lives, and hopefully save a generation."
Prince Harry also revealed his own love of photography and shared some images that he had taken.
"I have always enjoyed photography and the challenges that come with trying to capture the perfect shot, although privately I don't take many photos," he said.
"The best photos I have are in my head - I have some very special memories, mostly from Africa.
"But on this visit, I had the time and opportunity to be on the other side of the camera and take some photos in the stunning country of Lesotho for my charity, Sentebale."
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube

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The Conservative Party has urged anyone with information about claims of bullying within a Tory youth wing to get in touch with its investigation.

Article: The National College for Teaching and Leadership panel was told children at Tollgate Primary School in Bury St Edmunds could regularly be heard "shouting or crying" from the rooms.
Alison Earl admitted leaving children in the rooms, but denied it was for an "inappropriate" amount of time.
The education secretary is to rule on what disciplinary action she will face.
The hearing heard, under Mrs Earl's leadership, staff would put children into solitary confinement for bad behaviour.
It was heard staff would hold the handle from outside so children could not get out.
The handle was then moved higher up the door so the children could not reach it, the panel was told.
In summer 2015, a second room, known as the "blue room", was created.
It was about 2m (7ft) by 1.5m (5ft) and teachers could not observe it from the main corridor.
A few children were put into solitary confinement in this room, the panel was told.
Mrs Earl said she expected staff to supervise children who were put into solitary confinement, but the panel said it had no evidence to support her claim.
The 55-year-old, however, did admit putting children at risk.
The panel said Mrs Earl had shown a "lack of insight into the impact of the room upon the wellbeing and safety of pupils and a disregard for the law and guidance".
Mrs Earl had been the head teacher at the school between 2014 and 2015. She resigned in December 2015 after an investigation was carried out.

Summary: A head teacher who punished children by locking them in rooms has been found guilty of unprofessional conduct.
###
Article: Gareth Stephenson, 25, of Reading, was found guilty of six counts following a trial at Portsmouth Crown Court.
He was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years.
Offences included sexual assault on a male under 13. They took place when he was a pupil at Stanbridge Earls School, Hampshire, and in Aberystwyth.
Hayley Porter-Straw, of the Crown Prosecution, said: "This was a complex case where the defendant abused children over a period of 10 years.
"Gareth Stephenson was himself a vulnerable adult who suffers from ADHD. It is disturbing that he started abusing children when he was a child aged 11."
She added: "When he was aged 15 he started abusing young fellow pupils, some of whom were two years younger than him. He would bribe them and punch them if they refused to submit to his sexual requests."
When he was 18, Stephenson sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy when he went back to Wales.
He was given a 12-month supervision order and was ordered to do 175 hours of unpaid work.
During the trial he was found not guilty of a further three counts of sexual activity with a male child under 16.
Stephenson, of Anstey Road, Reading, was sentenced at Salisbury Crown Court.
Stanbridge Earls closed in 2014. The independent school, which once commanded fees of Â£40,000 a year, taught 191 boarding and day pupils with special needs, aged from 10 to 19.
He will be on the sexual offender register for 10 years and has received a sexual harm prevention order for five years.

Summary: A former pupil of a special-needs school has been given a suspended sentence after being convicted of sexual offences.
###
Article: The party is conducting an inquiry into the death of youth activist Elliott Johnson, 21, and has taken more than 40 witness statements, it said.
Tory chairman Lord Feldman is a witness and the inquiry will last into 2016.
Cabinet minister Grant Shapps resigned over allegations he failed to act on claims of bullying while co-chairman.
Claims of bullying have centred around Mark Clarke - a Tory activist who ran the party's RoadTrip campaign, bussing election volunteers around the country.
Before his death in September, Mr Johnson had complained to Conservative Central Office that Mr Clarke had threatened to destroy his career. He also named Mr Clarke in a letter found by his parents after his death.
Mr Clarke has rejected allegations of bullying, sexual assault and intimidation. He has since been expelled from the party.
On Saturday, Mr Shapps resigned as international development minister, saying the "buck stops with me" regarding issues while he was party co-chairman.
The party has launched an independent inquiry into the allegations, saying it remains "absolutely determined" to establish the truth of the events surrounding Mr Johnson's death.
It says an independent lawyer will also prepare a report on the allegations.
The party has urged anyone with information relating to events surrounding the death of Mr Johnson, or the activities of Mr Clarke, to get in touch with it "as soon as possible".
It comes as Mr Johnson's father has called on Lord Feldman - who was co-chairman with Mr Shapps until May and now holds the role alone - to also resign.
Lord Feldman is "a witness" in the party's investigation but "is not otherwise participating in the process", the Tories added.
The Tory peer retains the "full confidence" of Prime Minister David Cameron, Downing Street has said.

Summary:


More than 400 people have attended a meeting to oppose plans for a supermarket.

Article: The Make-A-Wish Foundation transformed nine-year-old Domenic Pace into Iron Boy for the day on Thursday.
Iron Boy defeated his arch-nemesis Ultron on the steps of the Sydney Opera House as hundreds of bystanders cheered him on.
Earlier he had saved Make-A-Wish Foundation's reporter Hope Joy from Ultron's henchmen.
Domenic travelled by helicopter to police headquarters and later rode a police speedboat to Clark Island to rescue Ms Joy.
Speaking to Sydney radio station 2GB, Domenic described the helicopter ride as "awesome".
Iron Boy received celebrity support from Robert Downey Jr, the actor who plays Tony Stark, his alter ego, in the Iron Man and Avengers films.
"Sent a very special boy on a top secret mission today. Go get 'em, Domenic," the actor tweeted.
He also posted a video on Youtube, in character as Tony Stark to tell Domenic he had been formally inducted into The Avengers, the superhero collective led by Iron Man.
"I hear you've had quite the day. It's hard work saving the world, isn't it," he said. "Iron Man loves you."
The San Francisco branch of Make-A-Wish made global headlines in 2013 when it turned leukaemia sufferer Miles Scott into Bat Kid and had him battle The Riddler at Union Square.

Summary: A young Australian boy with cystic fibrosis has been given the chance to save Sydney from a super villain.
###
Article: Researchers now believe Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain was penned at St George's chapel, before it was demolished to make way for Oxford Castle.
Deeds from the time have revealed the Welsh scholar was serving canon there when writing the chronicle in 1136.
Professor Helen Fulton called it an "exciting" find.
Charters and deeds dating from 1129 to 1151 signed by Geoffrey and countersigned by the Archdeacon of Oxford have been analysed by experts.
The mythical figure of Arthur as a 5th Century military commander, leading the Britons into battle against the invading Saxons, has proved impossible for historians to verify.
The only contemporary source, The Ruin and Conquest of Britain by the British monk and historian Gildas (c.500-70), does not mention Arthur at all.
Some scholars have suggested Ambrosius Aurelianus, a Romano-British war hero described by the the 6th Century historian Gildas, may have been the real Arthur.
Others say Lucius Artorius Castus, a 2nd or 3rd Century Roman military commander, may have formed the basis of the Arthurian myth.
However, historians such as Michael Wood believe Arthur was an amalgam of heroic figures from Celtic mythology - a basis that has, nonetheless, barely dented his legacy.
The Scottish roots of Merlin the Welsh wizard
What's behind the legend of King Arthur?
The chapel was a teaching base for Oxford students, and Geoffrey indicates in the paperwork his profession as a "magister" - meaning teacher.
Prof Fulton, a professor of medieval literature at the University of York and an expert in Arthurian literature, called it a "new piece of the jigsaw in the quest to trace the origins of the Arthurian legends".
"He would have been based there when he wrote his famous Latin chronicle, Historia Regum Britanniae," she said.
"It was Geoffrey who introduced the figures of King Arthur and Merlin to a wide medieval readership and paved the way for the enormous popularity of the Arthurian legends in later centuries, right up to modern times."
According to...

Summary: A medieval tome which popularised the story of King Arthur is thought to have been written in a lost Oxford chapel.
###
Article: They voted unanimously to ask pub firm Punch Taverns to not allow The Corn Exchange pub in Crickhowell to be turned into a convenience store.
The town has only one national chain - Boots chemist - while all other businesses are family run and independent.
Last week 200 people attended a protest over the plan.
The final decision on the application will be taken by Brecon Beacons National Park Authority.
Neither the park authority nor Punch Taverns were represented at the meeting.

Summary:


The overall student loan debt for Welsh students has reached £3.7bn, new figures show.

Article: The study commissioned by NHS Kidney Care says it causes up to 45,000 premature deaths each year, more than lung and breast cancer combined.
An improved approach could help many people to lead better lives and save the NHS money, it adds.
The report says 1.8m people in England have been diagnosed, but suggests there are one million undetected cases.
The disease, also known as CKD, is where the kidneys become less effective at filtering waste products from blood.
The study has been published in the journal Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation and its findings are drawn from NHS data and economic modelling based on clinical studies.
The paper, "Chronic Kidney Disease in England: The Human and Financial Cost", concludes that CKD costs the NHS in England more than Â£1.4bn a year.
The author, Marion Kerr, said better diagnosis and early treatment - particularly from GPs - could make a big difference.
"Chronic kidney disease has a much greater impact on people's lives, and on NHS costs, than is generally recognised," she said.
Her paper says nearly half the spending goes on dialysis or transplantation, yet this accounted for only 2% of all patients diagnosed with CKD.
Ms Kerr said failure to detect the disease meant many people did not get the lifestyle advice and treatment they needed.
"Most of the spending on CKD is for people with advanced disease. We hope this report will focus attention on the need for early detection and intervention, to reduce the human and financial cost of advanced kidney disease."
Dr Charlie Tonson, chairman of the Royal College of Physicians renal medicine committee, said chronic kidney disease was an important public health problem.
"Patients with early kidney disease are particularly likely to benefit from lifestyle changes and drug treatments aimed at the risk factors for heart disease and strokes, as these will help reduce the risk of progressive kidney disease," he said.
Dr Donal O'Donoghue, national clinical director for Kidney Care, described the report as a "wake-up call" for...

Summary: An NHS report has called for better detection and earlier treatment to help tackle chronic kidney disease.
###
Article: Some 90% of shoppers in England now use their own carrier bags, research for Cardiff University has suggested - up from 70% before the levy was introduced. This follows similar results in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
So could similar charges be applied to other items to help the environment?
Elena Sautkina, an expert in environmental psychology, believes that there is a "window of opportunity" to bring in further potential charges against plastic.
"Our research shows people are sensitive right now to the plastic waste arguments," she told the BBC News website.
Dr Sautkina, who was one of the academics behind Cardiff University's research, says bringing in a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles could be one of those ways.
Her research has shown that since the plastic bag charge was introduced public opinion in England has grown towards introducing a similar scheme for plastic bottles.
She surveyed a representative group of people spanning England, Wales and Scotland one month before the 5p bag charge was introduced, a month afterwards, and six months afterwards.
Her results saw what she termed as "strong support" for a plastic bottle deposit scheme grow over time in all three countries - from 33% to 39% in England, 44% to 50% in Wales and from 25% to 34% in Scotland.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has also called for a bottle deposit return system.
Samantha Harding, litter programme director at CPRE, told the BBC News website that in Germany 98.5% percent of bottles are recycled, and the UK needed to be more "ambitious about what it can achieve".
"Some are opposed [to a deposit system] because they fear bottles will cost more. But a bottle deposit is like any other deposit: it is money that you get back. As long as you return your bottle, you don't pay any more for it."
A spokesman for the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: "There remain significant uncertainties regarding the potential impacts and benefits of a deposit and return scheme. We continue to...

Summary: A 5p charge for plastic bags in large stores was introduced in England a year ago next week, and research suggests it's had positive environmental effects with usage radically reduced.
###
Article: Data shows that the total tuition fee and maintenance loan balance is up 12% on the previous year's figures.
Graduates start repaying their debt once their income reaches £21,000 but after 30 years outstanding debt is written off.
For those repaying loans in 2017 the average sum owed at the start of repayment was £19,280.
That compares with £32,220 for English students, £20,990 for Northern Irish students and £11,740 for Scottish students who do not pay fees if they study in Scotland.
The figures come from the Student Loans Company and cover 2016/17.
Welsh domiciled students have been able to claim a grant towards their tuition fees since 2012-13 - a sum of £4,954 in 2017-18.
But the grants are due to be scrapped from 2018-19 with help for maintenance costs introduced instead, under plans unveiled last year.
At the end of 2016-17 there were 304,900 borrowers of higher education student loans in Wales, with 191,100 liable for repayment.
As of the end of April 2017 there are 41,430 borrowers who had fully repaid, amounting to 16.4% of the overall total.
The data covers Welsh domiciled students studying in higher education in the UK and EU students studying in Wales.

Summary:


Moody's, one of the big three credit ratings agencies, has cut its outlook for the UK economy from "stable" to "negative".

Article: A staff member at the Oregon Humane Society (OHS), in Portland, where she is being cared for, knitted the sweater to help one-year-old Silky stay warm.
The hamster was born hairless due to a genetic mutation, except for short curly whiskers on her snout.
"She does need to be kept in a heated environment," especially in winter, said Diana Gabaldon from the OHS.
"While she isn't fluffy like a normal hamster, she is just as cuddly and playful as any other hamster," Ms Gabaldon added.
Silky's owners had left her with the Humane Society when they were moving house and realised they could no longer care for her.
The Oregon Human Society said on its website that Silky spends majority of her time in a "warm, clean habitat, with fresh bedding, food and water, and a wheel to run on."
She wears the sweater for special occasions, the society said.
Silky is also being treated for an eye infection. She will be available for adoption soon.

Summary: A tiny hairless hamster in the US state of Oregon will keep warm this winter after getting a custom-made sweater.
###
Article: Andrew RT Davies was asked on Tuesday about the party's policy on introducing minimum funding for Wales.
The Tories have denied any confusion over a funding floor being dependent on a referendum on income tax powers.
Mr Davies said there was "nothing to clarify" but admitted he had not read the UK manifesto as he was "not interested" in it.
The UK Conservative manifesto said the introduction of a funding floor was dependent on the assembly holding a referendum on devolving some powers to vary rates of income tax.
But a party spokesman later said there was only an "expectation" an income tax referendum will be held, a position then restated in the party's Welsh manifesto.
Mr Davies was asked to clarify the situation at a media briefing in the Senedd on Tuesday.
He said: "There's nothing to clarify, it's in the manifesto. Our manifesto.
"I haven't read the London one because I'm not interested in the London one.
"It's the Wales one I'm interested in.
"That's the one I endorse, that's the one that's relevant to the people of Wales."

Summary: The leader of the Welsh Conservatives admits he has not read the party's UK manifesto for the general election.
###
Article: Credit rating agencies, in essence, rate a country on the strength of its economy.
More specifically, they score governments (or large companies) on how likely they are to pay back their debt.
A rating affects how much it costs governments to borrow money in the international financial markets. In theory, a high credit rating means a lower interest rate (and vice versa).
This is because of concerns at the impact that leaving the European Union may have on the UK economy. Moody's warned that the referendum result may have "negative implications for the country's medium-term growth outlook".
In addition to Moody's, the other two main credit rating agencies are Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.
All three are private companies, not government agencies. Moody's and Standard & Poor's both have their headquarters in New York, while Fitch has two official HQs, one in New York and the other in London.
Each agency gives countries around the world a specific credit rating score. These range from a top mark of "AAA", which stands for "prime", down to the lowest reading of "D", which stands for "in default".
In between there are scores such as "BBB" or "CC". Moody's has at total of 21 ratings.
The agencies also give outlook-assessments. These are either "positive", "stable", or "negative". They indicate whether the agency in question thinks it may soon raise its rating (positive), downgrade it (negative), or leave it the same (stable) for the country in question.
In the case of Moody's and the UK, the agency currently scores the UK at "Aa1", the second highest rating on its scale, which stands for "high grade".
Yet, while Moody's previously saw no change to that Aa1 rating, it has now warned that it may lower it.
A country's credit rating can affect how much it costs a governments to borrow money on the global markets.
More specifically, the worse a nation's credit rating, the more likely it is that the country in question has to offer a higher rate of return on its bonds in other to persuade people and financial...

Summary:


The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that it will be cutting the amount of coal it uses to power its nuclear power plants.
The DOE said that the decision was made in response to the recent announcement that the US would be cutting its coal use by half.
The DOE said that the decision was

Abertay University's computer gaming courses have been ranked the best in Europe for the third consecutive year in an annual college admissions survey.

Article: Around 19.3 million people - 33% - were in poverty at least once, compared with 25% of people across the EU, the Office for National Statistics found.
But only 7.8% were defined as being in "persistent income poverty" in 2013 - less than half the 15.9% EU average.
Pensioners and single parent families were found to struggle the most.
The ONS records someone as being in poverty if they live in a household with disposable income below 60% of the national average, before housing costs.
Persistent poverty is defined as being in poverty in the current year and at least two of the three preceding years.
Summing up the findings, the ONS said: "Studies reveal that although some people are stuck in poverty, the majority of 'the poor' consist of a constantly changing group of different individuals."
The report added that although "poverty persists only for a relatively small minority, evidence suggests that those who have already been in poverty are more likely to experience poverty again in the future than those who have never been in poverty".
19.3m
people experienced poverty for at least one year between 2010-13
4.6m
were in persistent poverty - for three of the past four years
60% of single parent households experienced poverty between 2010-13
40% of those aged 65+ experienced poverty between 2010-13
13th  highest poverty rate in EU
The UK ranked 13th out of the 28 EU member states for "overall poverty" - the proportion of people falling below the poverty line at some point during the four-year period. The ranking was topped by Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Spain.
The country with lowest overall poverty levels was the Czech Republic, followed by the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark.
But since comparable figures were first made available in 2008, the UK has consistently had a persistent poverty rate lower than the EU average.
The UK ranked 20th, with only the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Slovakia and Slovenia recording better results.
Jonathan Cribb, research economist at the...

Summary: Almost a third of the UK population fell below the official poverty line at some point between 2010 and 2013, figures show.
###
Article: Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Intel's chief executive Brian Krzanich urged the "entire industry" to follow suit.
Gold, tungsten and other minerals used in electronics manufacturing are mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and surrounding countries.
Production and trade of the materials are often controlled by armed groups.
Intel's policy comes after increased international pressure for technology firms to investigate the sources of their raw minerals.
The company, which is the world's largest chipmaker and has factories around the world, says all the microprocessors it ships in 2014 will be "conflict free".
Most electronic devices contain either gold, tantalum, tin, or tungsten, much of which originates from sub-Saharan Africa and is mined in conditions of armed conflict and human rights abuses.
In 2010, US President Barack Obama introduced a law requiring public companies to report whether their products contained minerals from these areas.
Mr Krzanich, who took over as the head of Intel last year, told the audience at CES that the company had been trying to determine the sources of the metals used in its chips for some years.
"We felt an obligation to implement changes in our supply chain to ensure that our business and our products were not inadvertently funding human atrocities," he said.
The company is already a member of the Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative run by the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, which encourages environmental and ethical responsibility.
"This is not an issue we would normally be talking about at CES. But it's an issue that is important to me," Mr Krzanich said.
"You begin to think about the impact of the supply chain and the potential issues you can be causing."
At the same keynote session, Intel also announced it would be scrapping the McAfee anti-virus brand name and replacing it with Intel Security.
The move is intended to sever the connection to the software's eponymous founder, John McAfee, who has been mired in legal...

Summary: Intel will no longer use minerals mined in conflict zones to build its microprocessors, the company has said.
###
Article: The Princeton Review survey also placed Abertay ninth in the world for its postgraduate gaming courses.
The university was the first in the world in 1997 to offer degree level qualifications in computer games development.
The Princeton Review surveyed 150 institutions offering game design.
The University of Malta was the only other European institution to make either list, coming in at 23rd for postgraduate courses.
Prof Gregor White, head of Abertay's school of arts, media and computer games, said:  "To be featured so highly in this prestigious ranking for a third consecutive year is testament to the hard work, dedication and excellence of my colleagues in the school and across the university.
"To make advances in both lists is an incredible achievement and is particularly pleasing in this anniversary year."
The survey included questions about academic offerings and faculty credentials to their graduates' starting salaries and employment experience.
Princeton Review editor in chief Robert Franek said: "Game design is an exciting field and programmes are springing up in colleges all over the world.
"As we continue to help students find the best programme for their needs and interests, we strongly recommend Abertay and each of the other schools that made our 2017 ranking lists."

Summary:


The US government has been accused of using the death penalty to punish those who commit crimes.

President Donald Trump's argument that the removal of Confederate statues is a slippery slope to changing history has recharged the perennial debate about America's tormented racial legacy.

Article: The operator is the first in the UK to make compensation payments automatically by cheque. This will apply to delayed passengers on the east and west coast.
Since July, all rail passengers have been entitled to request money back.
Virgin's move has been welcomed by consumer groups.
"Passengers are rightly frustrated by the significant barriers that exist when claiming compensation for train delays and cancellations, so it is good to see Virgin Trains setting the pace by offering cash as the default option for compensation," said Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?.
"We would urge all train operating companies to act quickly to implement this, and further changes, to improve the process for their customers."
Anthony Smith, chief executive at the independent watchdog Transport Focus, said: "Passengers will be pleased to see Virgin Trains offering cash compensation as the first option. This is a positive step forward and we want to see more operators follow suit."
A system was launched in October whereby west coast travellers who buy Advance tickets through Virgin Train's website receive money directly on to their payment cards if they are entitled to compensation.
The latest move extends the compensation system to ensure all other delayed passengers are paid by cheque.
Compensation is based on the "Delay Repay" system, which is offered by around half of all train operators. Individual train companies offer different levels of compensation, but the best deals - including Virgin's - involve:
Graham Leech, group commercial director at Virgin Trains, said: "We always want to be on the side of passengers. That is why we wholly support the move to offer cash compensation as a first option to customers and why we were the first operator to introduce automatic delay repay.
"We're committed to making claiming compensation simpler and clearer for customers. We never want passengers to suffer delays or disruption but when things do go wrong we want to put it right."
The announcement comes the day after rail...

Summary: Delayed passengers on Virgin Trains are to receive compensation in the form of money back, rather than travel vouchers.
###
Article: The latest results, published in 2013 from tests taken in 2012, showed that the highest performers were in Asian countries.
It showed the UK failing to make progress on previous tests and there was more attention for Shanghai's top results.
It raised questions about the long hours of study in countries such as South Korea and showed how the global education map is changing.

Summary: The OECD's Pisa rankings compare the test results of 15 year olds in countries and regional education systems.
###
Article: This article contains language that some readers may find offensive.
"So this week it's Robert E Lee," he said on Tuesday of the rebel general's monument that was a flashpoint for last Saturday's violent rally in Virginia.
"I wonder, is it George Washington next week?" he asked journalists at Trump Tower. "And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?"
Let's put aside for a moment the irony that Lee may well have supported Charlottesville's plans to remove his bronze likeness, given that he urged the country to "obliterate the marks of civil strife" and refrain from erecting such monuments.
As President Trump pointed out, George Washington was a slaveholder.
So might the stone obelisk dedicated to the father of the nation, looming over the heart of his eponymous capital city, be the next battleground in the US culture wars?
Or even Mount Rushmore?
Washington conceded the system of human bondage that underpinned the economy of 18th Century Virginia was a "wicked, cruel and unnatural trade".
He was the only founding father and commander-in-chief to liberate his slaves - he owned more than 300 - when he died.
But as Ron Chernow's magisterial biography Washington: A Life makes clear, while he lived, the nation's first president extracted his pound of flesh from those whom he preferred to call his "servants", or "family".
Washington saw himself as a benevolent master, but he did not tolerate suspected shirkers on his farm, even when they were pregnant, elderly or crippled.
He once scolded a slave who pleaded that he could not work because his arm was in a sling.
As Chernow writes, Washington picked up a rake and demonstrated how to use it with one arm.
"If you use your hand to eat," he said, "why can't you use it to work?"
He was not averse to shipping refractory slaves to the West Indies, such as one man named Waggoner Jack, where the tropical climate and relentless toil in sugarcane brakes tended to abbreviate life expectancy.
"There are few Negroes who will work unless there be a constant eye on them," Washington...

Summary:


Boojum, the Belfast-based chain of burrito restaurants, has been sold.

Article: Pte Cheryl James was found dead from a bullet wound to her head at the Surrey barracks in 1995.
Neil Vousden was questioned about whether there were inconsistencies between his account and other evidence at an inquest in Woking.
He said he found the body with colleague Tyron Bancroft.
Mr Vousden said he made the discovery after being sent by his Provo sergeant to see why Pte James had left her guard duty at the barracks gate.
"We saw a waterproof camouflage jacket behind a bushed area," he said.
"Tyron Bancroft approached the location, I was behind him. Obviously we saw that it was a body.
"Bancroft leaned down behind the head and took the pulse. There was no life, no sign of life."
Pte James, 18, from Llangollen in Denbighshire, was one of four recruits to die at the base in seven years.
Mr Vousden said he had selected Pte James to man the gate because she was "a very responsible young lady".
He insisted he was not aware of orders in force at the time that female soldiers should not do lone guard duty.
Mr Vousden said he had driven Pte James to the gate, to start her duty at 06:55.  He then returned to the gate at about 08:20 a few minutes after it was reported unattended.
But Alison Foster QC, representing the James family, accused him of giving an untrue account to make himself look more efficient.
She said other witnesses reported Pte James had walked to her post and questioned him about why the log of her final duty "CJ stag" was missing.
"There's nothing about 'CJ stag' in these papers, it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that it was destroyed. Did you have anything to do with that?" Ms Foster asked.
Mr Vousden said: "No."
Ms Foster said his account "recorded what you ought to have done and what ought to have happened".
"It wasn't an account of what actually happened on the day of Cheryl's death was it?" she said.
Mr Vousden repeatedly denied the accusation and insisted he was trying to look more efficient but was telling the truth.
Who were the Deepcut four? Background to the deaths and timeline of...

Summary: An ex-military police officer who found the body of a soldier at Deepcut barracks has denied his account of events was inaccurate.
###
Article: The Bank, which is the main issuer of banknotes in the UK, said only about a quarter of cash in circulation is being used to buy and sell things.
Some is being hoarded, outside of bank accounts.
Much is held for travel money overseas or used illegally in the "shadow economy", the Bank said.
Banknotes with a value of £62.6bn were estimated to be in circulation at the end of July, according to the latest figures from the Bank.
That is the equivalent of £1,000 for every person in the country.
Recent industry figures showed that the number of cashless payments in the UK had overtaken the use of notes and coins for the first time. Card use, such as contactless payments, and digital transactions using smartphones are on the rise.
Yet, the value of banknotes in circulation has tripled over the last 20 years, according to the Bank's report.
"Over the next few years, consumers are likely to use cash for a smaller proportion of the payments they make," it said.
"Even so, overall demand is likely to remain resilient. Cash is not likely to die out any time soon."
48%
of payments made by consumers, businesses and financial firms were in cash
34%
of consumer payments are expected to be in cash by 2024
4.4% of adults “rarely” use cash at all
£67 is the average ATM withdrawal
1% of consumer payments were made by cheque in 2014
The Bank report suggested that between 21% and 27% of total UK cash was being used for transactions at any one time last year.
The rest was in various places including being "buried in the garden".
"People may choose to save their money in a safety deposit box, or under the mattress, or even buried in the garden, rather than placing it in a bank account," the Bank warned.
Some UK currency is hoarded by overseas visitors - either keeping it after returning from a trip to the UK, or as a store of value.
Cash is also used in the darker side of economic activity, the Bank added.
"The evidence available indicates that no more than half of Bank of England notes in circulation are likely to be held for use...

Summary: At least half of all UK banknotes in circulation are held overseas or used in the black market, a Bank of England report suggests.
###
Article: The business was owned by John and Karen Blisard and began operating in 2007.
It now has five branches: two in Belfast, two in Dublin and one in Galway.
The firm's last set of abbreviated accounts suggest it made a profit of around Â£300,000 in 2014. It has been taken over by Belfast brothers David and Andrew Maxwell.
They are backed by the Dublin-based investment firm Renatus Capital Partners
Andrew Maxwell is a former professional rugby player with Ulster.
David has previously run restaurants in Arizona where he said he "fell in love with Mexican food and culture".
He said they planned to expand the chain.
"The management and crew at Boojum provide exceptional service which has been pivotal to the success of the business," they said.
"Our aim, in partnership with Renatus, is to preserve that success and build on it.
"We expect to create many new jobs as we bring the Boojum experience to new communities."
The deal was initiated by the Belfast-based corporate advisors HNH Group.
Matt McCullough from HNH played rugby at Ulster with Andrew Maxwell.
He said: "Knowing the Maxwells, who are high quality operators with a passion for Mexican food, we felt they would be capable of maintaining everything that is good about the Boojum brand, whilst moving the business forward.
"These aspects were key to making this deal happen."
The sale does not include the Blisard's barbecue restaurant, Bubbacue.

Summary:


The UK government has announced a £1.5bn package of welfare reforms, including a £1.5bn package of social housing, a £1.5bn package of housing benefit cuts and a £1.5bn package of housing benefit cuts for people deemed to have more rooms than they need.
The

Triple J have confirmed Taylor Swift was disqualified from this year's Hottest 100.

Article: Public Health England (PHE) said 5.3 per cent of all deaths in over-25s were linked to air pollution, although the figures varied considerably by region.
Authors of the study said people whose death was hastened by pollution lost an average of 10.6 years of their lives.
Environmental campaigners said the problem was "outrageous".
The figures are estimates for long-term exposure to pollutants.
They do not include short-term exposure, such as that seen in many areas last week.
Source: Public Health England
The highest percentage of deaths was in London. In the Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster boroughs, 8.3% of deaths were linked to pollution. In Tower Hamlets, the figure was 8.1%.
The fewest pollution-related deaths were in rural Scotland and Northern Ireland (2.5%) and the Western Isles (2.4%).
There has been little change in the death estimates over recent years, BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin said.
Public health campaigners have argued that the government is to blame for failing to implement an EU directive on clean air.
PHE insisted that air quality has improved "considerably" as a result of cleaner-air technology and tighter environmental legislation.
But Dr Paul Cosford, PHE's director of health protection and medical director, said local authorities should consider further measures.
Friends of the Earth air pollution campaigner Jenny Bates said the figures were a "national disgrace".
She added: "It's outrageous that tens of thousands of people die prematurely in England every year because of polluted air."
Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said action was needed "urgently".
A Department for the Environment spokesperson said: "This report will help local authorities prioritise air pollution amongst other public health issues. It is well recognised that air quality can affect people's health, which is why we are investing heavily in measures to improve it.
"We have committed billions to increase uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles, sustainable travel and green...

Summary: Long-term exposure to air pollution contributed to more than 28,000 deaths across the UK in 2010, government figures show.
###
Article: Welfare reforms by the UK government include benefit cuts for people deemed to have more rooms than they need.
The Scottish government compensates tenants who lose money, and AMs want Welsh ministers to consider it too.
The Welsh government said it was providing help but could not "plug all the gaps" caused by austerity measures.
A report by the assembly's public accounts committee on Tuesday called on the Welsh government to take more of a leading role in helping tenants, landlords, local authorities and charities handle the impact of welfare reform.
Committee chairman Darren Millar said: "Regardless of whether changes to the welfare system are supported by Welsh public bodies or not, they still have a responsibility to adapt to those changes."
However, Labour AM Jenny Rathbone criticised the Tory AM for a "partisan" foreword which failed to "reinforce just how devastating the bedroom tax has been for tenants in Wales".
The report noted that the Welsh government had estimated the cost of meeting tenants' losses through benefit cuts at £22m a year, and preferred to spend money building smaller houses and supporting advice services.
The Scottish government has spent £35m a year on discretionary housing payments.
In January, spending watchdog the Wales Audit Office warned that many tenants were being penalised by housing benefit cuts because of a lack of smaller houses for them to move into.
A Welsh government spokesman said it would do what it could to protect people from the "devastating impact" of the UK government's welfare reforms, but claimed it would be "impossible to plug all the gaps caused by the sweeping and unnecessary austerity measures".
It said since the 2011 assembly election it had invested over £40m to build nearly 800 smaller homes for rent, more than £5m in free advice services, £22m to help tenants pay council tax, and £1.3m in discretionary housing payments.

Summary: Social housing tenants hit by the so-called bedroom tax should get more financial help from the Welsh government, AMs have said.
###
Article: The list is a countdown of the year's most popular songs voted for by listeners of the alternative music station.
Triple J said there were "a whole range of reasons" behind the decision.
The main one is a social media campaign, originally instigated by Buzzfeed Australia's Mark Di Stefano, to get Shake It Off on the list.
Readers were encouraged to tweet #Tay4Hottest100 to get the song to appear on the countdown, which was thought to be too much of an influence.
Some thought Swift's track was too commercial for the alternative music station, while others said banning the song would be seen as elitism.
The list was topped by Chet Faker's Talk Is Cheap, with Peking Duk's High and Cosby Sweater by Hilltop Hoods completing the top three.
Mark Ronson's Uptown Funk finished sixth on the poll, while alt-J have three songs in the top 30.
Triple J pointed out that Taylor Swift wasn't played at all on the station in 2014 but would have finished ahead of all alt-J's tracks if it wasn't disqualified.
Vance Joy's Riptide won the 2013 poll, which saw a more commercial top three include Lorde's Royals and Get Lucky by Daft Punk.
Triple J presenter Lewis McKirdy, who made the announcement that Taylor Swift's track wouldn't be allowed in the list, directed listeners to a Buzzfeed parody titled 8 Hilarious But Totally True Reasons You Didn't Hear Shake It Off In The Hottest 100, for more information about the decision.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube

Summary:


The winner of the Man Booker Prize is announced shortly with Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life the bookies' favourite to take the £50,000 prize.

Article: In its most comprehensive report into the Oromo protests, HRW lists the names of more than 300 it says were killed.
The government has acknowledged that protesters have died but said HRW was "very generous with numbers".
Protests were sparked by fears that a plan to expand the capital into Oromia region would displace Oromo farmers.
They began in November last year, but the government dropped the proposal to enlarge Addis Ababa's administrative boundaries in January.
Africa Live: BBC news updates
The Oromo protests and Ethiopian unity
Why Ethiopia made â€˜master planâ€™ U-turn
Oromia is Ethiopia's largest region, completely surrounding the city.
The change of policy has not stopped the demonstrations, but they have reduced in their intensity.
At the last census in 2007, the Oromo made up Ethiopia's biggest ethnic group, at about 25 million people out of a population at the time of nearly 74 million.
An investigation, released last week, by the Ethiopia Human Rights Commission, appointed by parliament, found that 173 people had died during the unrest.
It said the dead included 28 security officers and local government officials.
Information Minister Getachew Reda said that in the main the security forces conducted themselves "in a very professional and responsible manner".
He put the killings down to "a few bad apples".
The government has said that it will investigate and deal with those responsible.
In March, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn apologised for the death and destruction of property caused by protests in Oromia region.
While his statement was bold, and came as a surprise, some protesters said it was a case of too little, too late.
The acknowledgment by the country's information minister that deaths had occurred is not different.
There will also be questions about the sincerity of investigating police officers who used unnecessary force.
Can it really do that while dozens of protesters are still being detained and are yet to be charged?
While the protests have died down recently, they remain...

Summary: Ethiopian security forces killed more than 400 people in the recent wave of anti-government demonstrations, US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.
###
Article: Fossil fuels emit damaging CO2, wind and solar are variable, nuclear generates radioactive waste, while biomass, depending on the source, can encourage deforestation.
On paper, tidal and wave power would appear to be the best solution, using the ferocious force of the oceans to deliver clean, abundant and consistent energy.
Yet despite the fact the first large-scale tidal project opened in La Rance in France in the 1960s, sea power provides just a fraction of the energy delivered by its renewable counterparts - currently just 0.5GW compared with almost 400GW of wind power.
But renewed determination to develop new technologies to harness the ocean's power means the tidal industry could be set for something of a renaissance.
A tidal project similar to that in La Rance has been built in South Korea, with smaller plants in China, Canada and Australia. Together, these make up nearly all the tidal power generated across the world.
The world's first man-made tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay in Wales is currently awaiting planning permission, while the developer behind the scheme has plans for a further five projects around the UK.
All take advantage of what is called the tidal range - the change in the height of water between low and high tides. An artificial barrier is built, generally across an estuary, to hold water when the tide goes out. This water is then let back into the sea, driving turbines in the process. When the tide is high, the water is let back in, again driving the turbines.
A series of articles looking at how the world will meet increasing demand for energy and the need to cut CO2 emissions linked to global warming, using old and new technologies
In fact, the basic process is very similar to that used in hydropower stations across the world.
The problem, as Cedric Philibert at the International Energy Agency (IEA) explains, is that: "You can only make a tidal barrage where there is a huge difference in sea levels, and there are only a limited number of places where this happens, mainly Canada, Northern...

Summary: No energy source is perfect.
###
Article: Yanagihara's novel, the story of four college friends seeking fame and fortune in New York, is tipped to win by bookmakers William Hill and Coral.
It is the second year the prize is open to all authors writing in English, regardless of nationality.
The winner will be announced at London's Guildhall at around 21:45 BST.
This year's shortlist features two authors from the UK, two from the US and one each from Jamaica and Nigeria.
The shortlist of authors and titles is as follows:
Victory for either Yanagihara or Tyler would see the Man Booker have its first American winner.
Marlon James is the first Jamaican-born author to be shortlisted for the prize. William Hill said his novel, which explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in the late 1970s, had moved up from fifth favourite to second favourite.
This year's judges are Michael Wood (chair),  Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, John Burnside, Sam Leith and Frances Osborne.  They considered 156 books for this year's prize.
McCarthy is the only shortlisted author to have been nominated before, having been shortlisted for C in 2010.
At 28 years old, Obioma is the youngest nominee, the same age as 2013 winner Eleanor Catton.
The shortlisted authors each receive £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book. The winner will receive a further cheque for £50,000.
Australian author Richard Flanagan won last year's prize for his wartime novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
Coverage from this year's ceremony, where the prize will be presented by the Duchess of Cornwall, will be on the BBC News Channel from 21:30 BST.

Summary:


The deaths of a man and woman whose bodies were found at a property in Paisley are being treated as "unexplained", police have said.

Article: The firm said it received requests for information linked to between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices between December and the end of May.
It said the demands included "national security matters" among other information. Microsoft and Facebook published similar numbers last week.
But Google and Twitter have said that such disclosures are not helpful.
"We have always believed that it's important to differentiate between different types of government requests," said a statement by Google published on Saturday.
"Lumping the two categories together would be a step back for users."
A tweet from Twitter's legal director, Benjamin Lee, added: "We agree... it's important to be able to publish numbers of national security requests - including Fisa [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] disclosures - separately."
Tech firms have been under pressure to disclose information about data passed to the National Security Agency since The Guardian and Washington Post revealed the existence of Prism - a programme giving the NSA access to user data held on the servers of tech firms including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, and Apple.
The NSA later confirmed the existence of the surveillance scheme as well as a separate phone records programme which it said had helped it thwart terrorist plots in the US and more than 20 other countries.
US spy chief James Clapper has also stated that the NSA's communications-collection efforts were designed to help acquire information about "non-US persons located outside the United States" and the agency could not "intentionally target any US citizen, any other US person, or anyone located within the United States".
However, privacy activists and some politicians have raised concerns that the agency's actions still went beyond what was intended under powers granted by the Patriot Act following the 11 September 2001 terror attacks.
Following the revelations, several of the tech firms involved said they had asked the US government to allow them to disclose information which...

Summary: Apple is the latest tech firm to publish details of data requests from the US authorities.
###
Article: A spokesman for Berlin zoo, where Knut was kept, said the bear was found floating in the pool inside his enclosure.
Bear keeper Heiner Kloes said the cause of death was not known, and a post-mortem examination would be held.
In captivity, polar bears can live until they are about 30 years old.
Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit called Knut's death awful.
"We all held him so dearly. He was the star of the Berlin zoos," Mr Wowereit told BZ newspaper.
Knut became world-famous after his birth in 2006, as news of his unusual upbringing emerged.
In 2007, Knut generated more than 5m (Â£4.4m; $7m) euros in extra income for Berlin zoo, from the sale of tickets and Knut-branded merchandise.
As his fame grew, a row over the royalties from the bear's popularity erupted between Berlin Zoo and Neumuenster Zoo, where he was born.
Eventually Berlin Zoo agreed to pay 430,000 euros to compensate Neumuenster.

Summary: Knut the polar bear, who became world famous after he was hand-reared by keepers after his mother rejected him, has died at the age of four.
###
Article: Officers were called to the address in the Renfrewshire town's Gordon Street at about 20:55 on Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said that a 40-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man were found dead inside.
She said post mortem examinations had been carried out and both deaths were still being treated as unexplained.

Summary:


The UK's leading private providers of cosmetic surgery are calling for improved regulation.

The late start to Scotland's latest snowsports season had a "significant impact" and reduced the number of days available for skiing and snowboarding.

Article: The oil giant said its profits had fallen by 51% to $5.9bn (Â£4.1bn), compared with $12.1bn in 2014 following a dramatic slide in oil prices.
BP was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100, falling 35.9p to 331p after announcing its biggest loss for more than two decades.
Oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday, with Brent crude down 5.3% to $32.42.
BP's underlying fourth-quarter profits sank to $196m, compared with $2.2bn for the same period in 2014 and far worse than analysts had expected.
A further 3,000 job cuts were also announced by BP on Tuesday.
Last year, it said 4,000 jobs would go in its upstream division as part of a $2.5bn restructuring programme.
BP said its upstream business, which covers exploration and production, slumped to a $728m loss in the final quarter.
The latest reduction of up to 3,000 jobs by the end of 2017 affects staff and contractors in its downstream segment.
This refers to its refined oil products, such as fuel, lubricants and petrochemicals, that are used to make products such as paint and plastic bottles.
Bob Dudley, BP chief executive, said the company was making good progress in managing and lowering costs and capital spending.
"We are continuing to move rapidly to adapt and rebalance BP for the changing environment," he added.
Oil prices have been hit by the slowing global economy, the strong US dollar and oversupply.
BP's dividend will remain unchanged at 10 cents a share for the quarter.
Sanjiv Shah, chief investment officer at Sun Global Investments, said: "The short term looks difficult but shareholders should be encouraged by the fact that a pick-up in prices is expected soon and that BP management are committed to continue paying out current dividend levels."
Analysis: Kamal Ahmed, economics editor
In the final three months of 2014, the cost of a barrel of Brent crude was $77. In the final three months of 2015, it was $44.
Today it is $34. That is the background to today's results from BP.
Bob Dudley, BP's chief executive, told me two weeks ago that he expected the oil price...

Summary: Shares in BP have ended the day almost 9% lower after it reported that annual profits had more than halved.
###
Article: Harley Medical Group and Transform said European regulators' failures over breast implants manufactured by French company Poly Implant Prothese had caused financial and operating issues.
The UK's regulator had acted appropriately, but lessons should be learned, the Department of Health said.
The PIP implants had been filled with industrial silicon.
Spot checks in 2010 revealed the silicon had not been medical-grade.
Last December the French government announced it was advising all PIP patients to have their implants removed as a precaution and UK clinics were deluged with calls from worried women.
The Harley Medical Group in London had used nearly 14,000 PIP implants and initially offered free replacements, but it is now charging patients Â£2,500 because of spiralling costs.
Managing director Pierre Guillot told BBC Radio 4's The Report programme: "We have a duty of care to our patients and to date we have performed over 1,000 replacement surgeries, in the majority of cases at no cost to the patient."
However, Mr Guillot said the PIP implant scandal had taken his company from a "reasonable profit" to one that has made a loss for two consecutive years.
"We have operating and financial capacity issues," he added.
"We cannot finance the failures of the European regulatory system to have spotted a faulty implant for 12 consecutive years.
"You have to remember that these implants were CE marked. The CE marking means that the implants are not only safe but that the medical devices are efficacious."
Organisations across Europe award the mandatory CE marks to products in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Once a product has a CE mark in one EEA country, it can be exported to all the others - individual countries do not then make their own additional checks.
So, after a CE mark was awarded to PIP implants in Germany, the UK regulator along with others in Europe accepted them as safe to use - when in fact they had rupture rates twice to six times as high as others on the market.
The EU is looking at tightening up the...

Summary: Two of the UK's leading private providers of cosmetic surgery are calling for improved regulation.
###
Article: Ski-Scotland, the organisation that promotes Scottish snowsports, said it had involved 207,770 skier days.
It also estimated that the industry generated almost Â£21m for the economy during the season.
Previous seasons have involved bigger numbers - 2012-13 had 290,996 skier days and raised more than Â£29m.
The more recent 2014-15 season involved 230,634 skier days, raising Â£23.2m.
It was also the first in years that all five of Scotland's outdoor ski centres - Nevis Range, Lecht, CairnGorm Mountain, Glencoe Mountain and Glenshee - opened for snowsports before Christmas.
For the latest season, the sites had to wait until January for sufficient snow cover, though Nevis Range near Fort William and the Lecht in Aberdeenshire were able to open for a short time at the end of December.
Ski-Scotland said the late start had a "significant impact", but added that it was still pleased with the contribution the industry made to the economy.
Chairwoman Heather Negus said of the figures: "Although they are lower than last season, they are much better than anticipated, given the late start to the season.
"This year, the season did not start until mid-January, as opposed to last winter, when our first ski areas were open by mid-December."
A skier day means one person who skis or snowboards on one day. Many of the same people return to the slopes several times during the season.

Summary:


Two pro-gun US senators have called for changes to firearm laws, as the first victims of the 26 victims of Newtown school shootings were buried.

Article: The Scottish Design Relay begins in Dundee in August before travelling to Orkney, Caithness, Shetland, Govan, and Aberdeen.
Groups of young people will work with local designers and be introduced to an object with a link to their community.
The new designs and prototypes will be displayed in the V&A Dundee museum.
The local objects include a model of the Dounreay Fast Reactor, a 100-year-old hooded Orkney chair, and a Fair Isle jumper once worn by the commander in chief of the British Home Forces.
The Govan leg of the relay includes a "Clutha" vase designed by Christopher Dresser and made with trademark bubbles and streaks by Glasgow glass-makers James Couper & Sons.
The Aberdeen group will study an enamelled plaque by James Cromar Watt, an architect and jeweller of the Scottish arts and crafts movement.
Philip Long, Director of V&A Dundee, said: "The Scottish Design Relay highlights just how special and varied this collection will be and, even more excitingly, has the potential to inspire a new generation of designers.
"The new prototypes produced by the young people will be displayed in the museum, providing a great opportunity for everyone who visits V&A Dundee to see the vibrancy of Scotland's design future."
Mhairi Maxwell, the museum's project coordinator, said: "V&A Dundee will celebrate Scotland's design achievements and this project is a great opportunity to help inspire the young designers of the future.
"At each stage of the Scottish Design Relay those taking part will define a problem and come up with a solution after being guided through the design process.
"This is a real opportunity to connect young people to their design heritage and create something that could have a positive impact on their community."

Summary: V&A Dundee has launched a national project inspired by a selection of objects that will be displayed in the new museum when it opens in 2018.
###
Article: The fossils had previously been classified as belonging to a different dinosaur group.
But Nick Longrich from the University of Bath said the remains represent a new species of the dinosaur - Pentaceratops.
Pentaceratops is a smaller cousin of the familiar plant-eater Triceratops.
Details of the research have been published in the journal Cretaceous Research.
The journal says Pentaceratops lived about 75 million years ago.
Dr Longrich said: "We thought we had discovered most of the species, but it seems there are many undiscovered dinosaurs left."

Summary: A new species of horned dinosaur has been identified from fossils held in a Canadian museum for 75 years.
###
Article: Democrats Mark Warner and Joe Manchin, who have "A" ratings from the National Rifle Association (NRA), now say action is needed after the massacre.
President Obama has held a meeting with three of his cabinet to discuss how the law might change.
Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto, both aged six, were buried on Monday.
They were among 20 children and six adults killed at Sandy Hook school in Connecticut.
Other victims' funerals will be held throughout the week, and the town has already begun removing Christmas decorations in mourning.
Two adults who were injured in the attack survived are recovering in hospital and would be crucial witnesses as police continue their investigation, it was confirmed on Monday.
Lt Paul Vance said they were recovering and would be interviewed at an appropriate time.
Children who witnessed the attack would also be interviewed - in the presence of parents and professionals - Lt Vance added.
The Sandy Hook gunman was named as Adam Lanza, who took his own life at the end of a killing spree that began with him shooting dead his own mother.
Despite a long history of pro-gun views, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin told US network MSNBC on Monday that it was time to "move beyond rhetoric" on gun control.
Mr Manchin, a gun owner and frequent hunter, said: "I don't know anyone in the sporting or hunting arena that goes out with an assault rifle."
"It's common sense. It's time to move beyond rhetoric. We need to sit down and have a common sense discussion and move in a reasonable way."
Virginia Senator Mark Warner, another Democrat who has backed gun owner's rights, told reporters outside the Virginia capitol that the "status quo isn't acceptable". He later called for "rational gun control" in an interview with a local news broadcaster.
Mr Warner said he had been approached repeatedly over the weekend as people began to seek answers and solutions.
On Sunday President Barack Obama told residents at a vigil in Newtown the US must do more to protect its children.
Rate per 100,000 people
Source: FBI...

Summary:


The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is asking Nutella fans how big a portion they eat, in a row over the average size of serving of the sweet spread.

Survey work to find the tomb of King Henry I, who is believed to be buried at Reading Abbey, has started.

Article: The MPs also called on the government to bring in rules to slow down the speed at which the machines operate.
Bookmakers should employ more staff to help reduce crime linked to the terminals, they added.
But industry body the Association of British Bookmakers said the group of MPs was "a kangaroo court".
Shares in William Hill fell more than 7% and Ladbrokes Coral shares fell more than 6% after the MPs' announcement.
Fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) are gambling machines, normally located on bookmakers' premises, where players can stake large amounts of money on games such as roulette.
Given the potential for big losses due to the maximum £100 stakes and the speed of spin on the terminals, the government should take immediate action, said Labour MP Carolyn Harris.
"The government has a duty to protect the most vulnerable in our society and to act in the public interest.
"We therefore strongly urge them to properly regulate FOBTs and to do so with immediate effect," she said.
The all-party parliamentary group on fixed-odds betting terminals, which Ms Harris chairs, said it had received reports of increased crime due to the presence of the machines in bookmakers.
The government should consider not just "problem gambling" but also "wider gambling-related harm caused by FOBTs and the cumulative impact on families and communities that these machines can have".
However, the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) described the group of MPs as "a kangaroo court".
"It is a small group of anti-bookmaking MPs, funded by casinos and arcades that will benefit from undermining bookmakers," an ABB spokesman said.
"When a properly balanced and independent Select Committee of MPs investigated FOBTs, they came out strongly in favour of them.
"As opposed to that Select Committee report, this is a biased and highly misleading piece of work, with no material evidence to support their claims."
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in the process of reviewing fixed-odds gambling machines.

Summary: A cross-party group of MPs has said maximum stakes on fixed-odds betting terminals should be cut from £100 to £2 to reduce "societal harm".
###
Article: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) went public after Nutella's makers asked for it to be reclassified.
It currently classes the chocolate and hazelnut spread as a dessert topping, with a serving size of two tablespoons.
Parent company Ferrero wants Nutella bracketed with jam and honey, with a serving size of one tablespoon.
The company says the difference is important as it dictates the nutritional data on the product's label, which influences shoppers. US government surveys Nutella fans
The most expensive Nutella in the world?
How the world went nuts for a hazelnut spread
Two tablespoons of Nutella contain 200 calories - about the same as two slices of bread. The idea that people use two tablespoons comes from the 1990s, when the spread was a popular ice-cream topping - but Ferrero says it is usually eaten on toast nowadays in smaller amounts.
In response, the FDA is gathering comments online about how much "nut cocoa-based spread" fans are eating at a time.
In a survey of 722 mothers who buy Nutella, Ferrero found 74% ate it on toast or sandwiches. About 14% said they ate it on its own.
In the UK and other countries, Nutella jars list a portion as 15g - or one tablespoon.
Even if it was reclassified, Nutella would still be twice as calorific as most jams, which contain around 50 calories per tablespoon.
Nutella was created by the Ferrero family in the 1940s in the Piedmont region of Italy, which is famed for its hazelnuts. In 1946, young confectioner Pietro Ferrero launched a solid version named Giandujot, or Pasta Gianduja, that had to be cut with a knife.
The first spreadable version - Supercrema - came a few years later and Nutella as we know it today was born in 1964, complete with its iconic glass jars.
The Ferrero company is the number one user of hazelnuts in the world, buying up 25% of the entire world supply.
The BBC asked readers to tell us by email how they eat their Nutella, and how much they get through.
Many say they pair the chocolate treat with bread or toast but others favour crackers...

Summary: The US food regulator is asking Nutella fans how big a portion they eat, in a row over the average size of serving of the sweet spread.
###
Article: Investigations using ground-penetrating radar equipment have begun on land around St James Church next to the remaining ruins of Reading Abbey.
The Hidden Abbey Project hopes to uncover the high altar where the king and Queen Adeliza are buried.
The survey is the first comprehensive archaeological investigation at Reading Abbey for more than 150 years.
Further survey are due to be carried out on the abbey church, Forbury Gardens and Reading Gaol car park.
John Mullaney of the Hidden Abbey Project said: "What we shall discover we do not know - maybe much, maybe little.
"I hope all our work will tell us more about one of England's greatest buildings and about the King who was buried in Reading."
The investigations are being carried out alongside conservation work on the 900-year-old abbey which closed to the public in the summer of 2009 after a survey showed its walls were in too poor condition.
After a successful bid for Â£1.77m of lottery funding they are due re-open to the public in 2018.
Henry I, son of William the Conqueror, founded Reading Abbey in 1121.
After his death in Normandy in December 1135, his body was brought to Reading sewn into a bull's hide. He was laid to rest in January 1136.
The abbey was partly destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII but there is no definite record of what happened to Henry I's remains.

Summary:


The BBC's Africa correspondent, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, has been in the news for the past few days.

A South African lion called Sylvester who twice fled a national park will be rehoused rather than put down, and encouraged to become an alpha male.

Article: A recent headline in a local newspaper captured the reaction of many Nigerians to the latest disease outbreak in our country: "From Bats To Rats As Lassa Fever Takes Off Where Ebola Stopped".
Rats are the newest terrorists in town.
Since August 2015, the Lassa haemorrhagic fever outbreak, which is usually transmitted via infected rats, has spread to 17 states in Nigeria, resulting in about 76 fatalities, including at least one doctor who had treated infected patients.
However, Nigeria seems bent on ensuring that rats do not do as much damage as the bats, who were the primary carriers of Ebola, which left more than 11,000 dead after it began in Guinea in 2014 and spread to 10 other countries, including Nigeria.
We may not have a Pied Piper to lure the pests into the River Benue with his shrill notes, but the federal government has appointed a National Lassa Fever Action Committee to plan how to halt the outbreak.
Rat poison seller:
"The Boko Haram Rat Disposal was an instant hit, becoming very popular with customers"
"With the resources available to us, we will collectively eliminate the disease in Nigeria soon," assured the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, at a meeting during which the committee was inaugurated.
Meanwhile, a ban has been placed on eating rats - a delicacy in certain parts of the country - which my friend's father tells me tastes like grasscutter or squirrel meat.
"You remove the entrails and roast it without boiling it first," he said.
"When you add some pepper and salt, it becomes quite tasty."
As a young man in the late 1960s, he had fought on the Biafran side during the civil war, when many ethnic Igbos were forced to eat rodents in order to ward off starvation.
In addition, public service announcements continue to warn against consuming foods that may have been exposed to rats, especially when not prepared with heat.
Particular caution has been drawn to the drinking of garri, a powder produced from cassava that is sometimes left open in storerooms accessible to rats.
Garri soaked in...

Summary: In our series of letters from African journalists, novelist and writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani looks at Nigeria's current war on rats.
###
Article: Serious problems with BA's systems led to thousands of passengers having their plans disrupted on Saturday.
Passengers described "chaotic" scenes at the airports, with some criticising BA for a lack of information.
The airline apologised and said it was refunding and rebooking customers.
BA advised customers to continue checking the status of their flight on its website www.ba.com before travelling to the airport.
The airline said there was no evidence the computer problems were the result of a cyber attack.
The company's chief executive Alex Cruz had said it was believed "the root cause was a power supply issue".
Other airlines flying in and out of the two airports were unaffected.
The IT failure had affected check-in and operational systems, including customer service phone lines.
BA said although some of its IT systems have returned, "there will be some knock-on disruption to our schedules as aircraft and crews are out of position around the world.
"We are repositioning some aircraft during the night to enable us to operate as much of our schedule as possible throughout Sunday."
A BA spokesman added: "We are continuing to work hard to restore all of our IT systems...
"We are extremely sorry for the huge disruption caused to customers throughout Saturday and understand how frustrating their experiences will have been.
"We are refunding or rebooking customers who suffered cancellations on to new services as quickly as possible and have also introduced more flexible rebooking policies for anyone due to travel on Sunday and Monday who no longer wishes to fly to/from Heathrow or Gatwick."
Earlier, the airline said most long-haul flights due to land in London on Sunday were expected to arrive as normal.
The GMB union had suggested the failure could have been avoided, had the airline not outsourced its IT work.
BA denied the claim, saying: "We would never compromise the integrity and security of our IT systems".
Aviation expert Julian Bray told the BBC the IT failure had an impact on planes taking off, as well as...

Summary: British Airways says it is aiming to run a "near normal schedule" at Gatwick and the "majority of services" from Heathrow on Sunday after a "major" IT failure saw all flights cancelled.
###
Article: Karoo national park authorities had originally considered putting Sylvester down but will now rehouse the animal away from male competition.
The lion's plight was highlighted in a Twitter campaign in South Africa.
Sylvester will now join two young female lions in Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape province.
Sylvester escaped at the end of March by crawling under an electric fence after heavy rain dislodged earth, a park spokesperson said at the time.
It is thought three-year-old Sylvester was running away from threatening older males.
The move will establish him as the dominant male, said Fundisile Mketeni, CEO of South Africa National Parks.
"There is always a risk that this lion may break out again but this will be mitigated to a large extent by reducing any potential conflict with other males," Mr Mketeni added.
Last June, Sylvester went on a three-week sheep-killing spree, wandering 300km (180 miles) before he was found taking a nap by rangers and airlifted from the Nuweveld Mountains.
When he was found he was fitted with a tracking collar.
The second time he escaped, rescuers followed the signal from his collar to find him high up in the mountains in Western Cape again.
He was tranquilised and airlifted by helicopter, an operation the park authorities captured on video.
He had been away for four days.

Summary:


A second multifuel power station has been approved for Ferrybridge.

Article: Science fiction and biographies were the next most popular genres, according to the poll to mark the start of Book Week Scotland.
The Ipsos mori poll of 1,000 adults found one in four readers preferred crime fiction.
One in 10 opted for science fiction and biography, while historic fiction was the preferred choice of 9% of readers.
The survey also found that almost 80% of Scots read or listen to books for enjoyment - with nearly half of them doing so every day.
Of those who don't read for enjoyment, three quarters said they had read a newspaper in the past few months.
Hundreds of events organised by Scottish Book Trust will take place across the country as part of Book Week Scotland.
There will be author appearances from writers including Alexander McCall Smith, Chris Brookmyre and Liz Lochhead.
Marc Lambert, chief executive of Scottish Book Trust, said: "It is hardly surprising that the country which gave us Ian Rankin, Denise Mina, Iain Banks, Val McDermid, Christopher Brookmyre and many others has bred a generation of crime enthusiasts.
"It's also very heartening to see that almost half of Scottish people read a book for pleasure most days or every day. Reading has many proven health benefits, not least stress reduction and memory improvement, but above all it is a really enjoyable pastime."
Culture secretary Fiona Hyslop said: "Our national Book Week has gone from strength to strength since it was established in 2012.
"Scottish Book Trust is doing some outstanding work to make reading more accessible to those who find it challenging and I believe everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy reading and our literary heritage."

Summary: Crime is the favourite form of fiction for the majority of Scottish book readers, a survey has suggested.
###
Article: The claim: Leaving the EU would put £250bn of trade at risk, according to Britain Stronger in Europe.
Reality Check verdict: The group has taken a set of figures predicting the benefits of EU membership and used that to reach a figure for the risks of leaving. It would not necessarily work like that. Also, the figures include imports, a fall in which would not necessarily be a bad thing.
In a press release announcing the number, former Chancellor Alistair Darling said: "Those wanting to leave the EU want to pull Britain out of the single market, which would mean introducing tariffs and barriers to our trade and putting billions of vital trade at risk."
The figure is based on part of the Treasury's work on the impact of a Brexit.
The Treasury compared the amount of trade done between EU members with the amount done by non-members.
That's a tricky thing to do. While the method chosen is reasonable, the conclusions should not be seen as precise.
Its analysis concluded trade with EU countries was 76% higher as a result of Britain being in the EU than it would be if Britain were not.
It also identified smaller benefits coming from membership of the European Economic Area (EEA), and from other free trade agreements negotiated by the EU.
For the EEA it was 44%, and for the other free trade agreements it was 17%.
BSIE has taken those Treasury figures for gains from EU membership, reversed them, and used them to conclude £250bn of trade would be at risk if the UK were to leave the EU.
But looking at how much trade is increased by signing a free trade agreement is not the same as predicting that amount would be at risk from leaving.
The effect of leaving may or may not be the reverse of the effect of joining - there are no examples of countries leaving the EU that could form the basis for the research.
To reach the £250bn figure, BSIE has started with the total amount of trade the UK did with the EU in 2014, which was about £520bn.
Remember, that's a figure for both exports and imports.
But some might think a reduction...

Summary: Britain Stronger in Europe (BSIE) says £250bn of trade would be at risk if the UK were to leave the European Union.
###
Article: The site at Knottingley, West Yorkshire is to burn fuel from refuse, industrial and commercial waste including wood, said operator Multifuel Energy Ltd.
The Â£300m plant is to create hundreds of jobs over a three-year build and should produce electricity for about 160,000 homes, it said.
The adjoining coal-fired Ferrybridge 'C' plant is to close in March 2016, it was announced in May.
The Secretary of State has granted development consent for the new plant.
Construction is expected to begin in 2016 with about 35 permanent jobs once it is operational.
The power station is expected to produce up to 90MWe of electricity annually by burning 675,000 tonnes of waste that could have ended up in landfill, said Multifuel Energy
It is to be built next to the newly-constructed Ferrybridge Multifuel 1 that stated operations earlier this year.
Multifuel Energy is a joint venture between power company SSE and and waste management company Wheelabrator Technologies.

Summary:


The UK's biggest supermarket chain has been ordered to stop selling its products to customers who are not in the UK.
The supermarket chain said it would stop selling its products to customers who are not in the UK.
The supermarket chain said it would stop selling its products to customers who are not in the UK.

Virgin East Coast rail workers have voted to go out on strike in a dispute over job cuts, working conditions and safety, the RMT union has said.

Article: When undercover X-Ray researchers visited zero-rated food premises in the Vale of Glamorgan all but one failed to disclose their score.
Wales is the only part of the UK where customers have a legal right to know the food hygiene rating of their local cafÃ© or takeaway.
Scores range from a "very good" five to zero, meaning "in need of urgent improvement".
Stickers featuring the score must be prominently displayed and staff must tell customers their score if they ask. There is a Â£200 fixed penalty notice for failing to do this.
Whilst food premises which have a high score display their scores prominently - in some cases on giant banner adverts - X-Ray has found that some of the least hygienic break the law and lie about their ratings.
The programme targeted the Vale of Glamorgan which had the highest proportion of zero-rated food outlets in Wales, according to the Food Standards Agency's website.
An X-Ray researcher visited all of those in the county which should have been displaying a zero rating.
No hygiene scores were seen at any of the premises - and when undercover researchers asked, only one restaurant - the Sully Inn, near Barry - was honest about the score.
In Barry, Pizza Knight and Mariano's Pizzeria claimed not to have a score, the Far East takeaway falsely claimed theirs was under review and Romeo Pizza said they had a "good" rating of four.
Rob Wilkins from the Food Standards Agency, which oversees the food hygiene rating scheme, was concerned by the findings.
"It's clearly not what the legislation was introduced for. Customers can expect to see stickers in windows and they can expect an honest answer from food business operators," he said.
"For those businesses that are not prepared to partake in it there are sanctions and they should be applied."
At least 45 businesses in Wales have already received Â£200 fixed penalty notices for failing to display their hygiene ratings and there have been several prosecutions for repeated breaches of the law.
When asked why they failed to display their zero...

Summary: Some of Wales' least hygienic takeaways and pubs are flouting the law by failing to display their poor food hygiene ratings, an investigation by BBC Wales' X-Ray programme has revealed.
###
Article: In an interview with Al Jazeera, Abu Mohammed al-Julani said al-Nusra Front was focused on capturing Damascus and toppling President Bashar al-Assad.
He also promised to protect Syrian minorities that disavowed Mr Assad.
A rebel alliance including al-Nusra has been making gains in north-western Syria, capturing the city of Idlib.
Rebel fighters are now advancing on the Mediterranean coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of the president and his heterodox Shia Muslim Alawite sect.
The hour-long interview with Julani broadcast on Wednesday night was his second with Qatar-based Al Jazeera since 2013, when al-Nusra Front split from what is now Islamic State (IS).
It was not clear where it was filmed and Julani's face was not shown. He sat on an ornate chair opposite the interviewer, Ahmed Mansour, with his back to the camera.
Julani said al-Nusra had been instructed by the overall leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to avoiding launching attacks abroad that might jeopardise its operations in Syria.
"We are only here to accomplish one mission, to fight the regime and its agents on the ground, including Hezbollah and others," he stressed, referring to the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement that is fighting alongside government forces.
"Al-Nusra Front doesn't have any plans or directives to target the West. We received clear orders not to use Syria as a launching pad to attack the US or Europe in order to not sabotage the true mission against the regime. Maybe al-Qaeda does that, but not here in Syria."
The al-Nusra leader also denied claims by the US that it had a secret cell called the "Khorasan Group" that was tasked with plotting attacks outside Syria.
"There is nothing called Khorasan group. The Americans came up with it to deceive the public. They claim that this secret group was set up to target the Americans but this is not right."
The US-led coalition against Islamic State, to which al-Nusra is violently opposed, has bombed several bases that US officials say were used by the Khorasan group.
"Our...

Summary: Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria has been ordered by the jihadist network not to use the country to launch attacks on the West, the group's leader has said.
###
Article: Five out of six (84%) of those who voted in the ballot backed walkouts and the union said its leaders will now consider their next move.
Destinations on the line include London, Aberdeen, Inverness and Hull.
Virgin Trains responded to the result by saying it would run a full timetable during any RMT strike action.
The two sides are in dispute over staffing changes, which the company says would have no impact on safety and no compulsory job losses.
The union's general secretary Mick Cash said: "RMT will not sit back while nearly 200 members' jobs are under threat and also conditions and safety are put at risk."
David Horne, managing director for Virgin Trains on the east coast, said: "With our guarantees that there will be no compulsory redundancies, no impact on safety and a full timetable in place during any action, we urge the RMT not to call a strike which will cost its members pay for no reason, and to rejoin us around the negotiating table."

Summary: