A man has been charged with murdering a man who was stabbed to death.

Article: It is the 15th consecutive monthly fall and the number now stands at 56,100.
The jobless figure has fallen by almost 9,000 over that 15 month period.
However, the percentage of the working age population claiming the benefit remains the highest in the UK. It is currently 6.2%.
The other measurement of unemployment, the Labour Force Survey, shows a quarterly rate of 7.2%, down by 0.1% on the previous quarter.
That remains above the UK average rate of 6.8% but is well below the Republic of Ireland rate of 11.9%.
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) questions a number of people every month on their employment status, and is the most widely used by labour market economists as it allows international comparisons.
The figures for April also point to a fall in long-term unemployment, down 13% over the year, and youth unemployment, down 2.5% over the year.
The economic inactivity rate, that is mainly people, who for a variety of reasons, are not looking for a job, stands at 26.8%.
It is unchanged over the quarter and down marginally over the year, remaining well above the UK average rate of 21.9%.
Last year, the Stormont Executive launched a strategy aimed at tackling the problem of economic inactivity.
It aims to get 30,000 more people into work over the next 10 years.
Part of the plan includes setting up a task force and incentive schemes for employers.

Summary: The number of people on unemployment benefit in Northern Ireland is continuing to fall with the number of claims down by 800 in April.
###
Article: Author Ian Rankin, actor Bill Nighy and comedian Miranda Hart will be among the 1,000 guests taking part in the annual 10-day event.
Other big names making an appearance include Mary Berry, Matt Lucas and Salman Rushdie.
Now in its 68th year, the UK's oldest literature festival will take place in October.
It attracts some of the biggest names from the world of culture, politics and sport.
The programme includes new Children's Laureate Lauren Child and children's author and illustrator Judith Kerr, creator of The Tiger Who Came to Tea.
Russell Brand, Sarah Millican and Peep Show star Robert Webb are among the comedians who will be talking candidly about their lives.
Also making an appearance will be author Michael Morpurgo, the original supermodel Twiggy and cook Nigella Lawson.
Nicola Tuxworth, head of programming, said the line-up was the "culmination of a very intensive few months of hard graft".
"We want to be a festival where people can scroll down down the list and all see something they want to go to," she added.
The festival will take place between 6-15 October at various venues around the Gloucestershire town.

Summary: The full line-up for the 2017 Cheltenham Literature Festival has been announced by organisers.
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Article: Kevin Paddick, 34, of Rosemary Road, Clacton, Essex, is accused of killing Danny Myers, 23, from Enfield.
Mr Myers died in hospital after he was stabbed at an address in Rochford Road, St Osyth, in the early hours of Monday.
The accused is expected to appear before magistrates later. A 29-year-old woman from Clacton, who was arrested on suspicion of murder, has been released without charge.

Summary:


Polling cards were wrongly sent to at least 3,462 EU citizens who are not allowed to vote in the EU referendum, the Electoral Commission has announced.

Article: The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said nine inquiries were complete with 53 more ongoing.
It is currently investigating 211 allegations made against more than 90 South Yorkshire Police officers.
The complaints include alleged corruption and failure to act.
Rachel Cerfontyne, deputy chair of the IPCC, said: "We've certainly found things that have gone wrong and we've certainly found significant failings but in terms of the individuals, whilst we've got concerns around some performance, we've not found is any indication of misconduct."
She added that as a result of the inquiry at least one officer had been interviewed under caution but no charges had been brought.
An IPCC spokesperson said it had made "learning recommendations" to the force concerning the recording of information and the retention of archived materials."
Details of the nature of the allegations at the centre of the nine investigations have not been revealed.
However, Ms Cerfontyne said they related to "leadership, crime reporting and intelligence, as well as attitudes towards survivors and suspected offenders, and the ineffectiveness of police engagement with other agencies".
Inquiries began in November 2014 after South Yorkshire Police referred 13 officers to the IPCC and has now grown into the "the second largest operation" the IPCC has undertaken after the Hillsborough inquiry.
South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Dr Alan Billings, said the length of time the investigation is taking was "intolerable and unfair" on victims and officers and described it as a "denial of natural justice".
Ms Cerfontyne said Dr Billings concerns were "entirely understandable" but the IPCC's priority was to ensure all claims were carried out "rigorously and thoroughly".
She added the inquiry had been slowed down by a number of factors including the fact new allegations continue to be received, the most recent of which were lodged on Monday.
South Yorkshire Police has not responded to the IPCC's announcement.

Summary: The first inquiries into alleged misconduct by officers handling child sex abuse complaints in Rotherham have concluded there is "no case to answer", the police watchdog said.
###
Article: The low-lying cloud is seemingly so transient and intangible, and unlike rivers and glaciers it leaves no easy-to-read impressions on the landscape.
And yet, a Santiago team has been able to trace the fog history of the Atacama Desert by studying Tillandsia plants.
Their chemistry suggests strongly that this local fog has increased over time.
It is a period covering the last 3,500 years.
"I don't think there's any other place in the world where I've actually seen a record of fog, even spanning the last hundred years," said Claudio Latorre Hidalgo from the Catholic University of Chile.
"What little we know about fog is from measurement instrumental data that we have, and from satellite data that only spans the last 20 years.
"So, this is actually a unique opportunity to study the evolution of a fog ecosystem over the Late Holocene, and what are the major drivers and controls of the mechanisms that produce that fog in the long term - the very long term."
The palaeoclimate expert was discussing his team's research here at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union - the world's largest annual gathering of Earth scientists.
The Atacama is famous for its super-arid conditions; there are places where it has not rained for years.
But life can eke out an existence if it can exploit the fog that rolls in off the Pacific. Tillandsia are a perfectly adapted opportunist.
These wiry, grey plants have no roots. They clutch weakly at sand dunes, but arrange themselves at every spatial scale to maximise their capture of the fog.
They derive everything they need from the damp air - not simply the must-have water, but also all the chemical nutrients required to underpin their biology.
Dr Latorre Hidalgo and colleagues have dug deep into the dunes to uncover a multi-millennia succession of Tillandsia; and they have described a pronounced trend: the younger the plants, the more of the lighter type, or isotope, of nitrogen atom that they have incorporated into their tissues.
Analysis of modern fog suggests this lighter...

Summary: It is hard to imagine you could reconstruct a record of fog dating back thousands of years, but this is exactly what Chilean scientists have done.
###
Article: A software "issue" meant polling cards and some postal votes were sent out to some "non eligible" voters.
They are still awaiting responses from six councils so the number could rise.
Leave campaigners Iain Duncan Smith and Bernard Jenkin have expressed "serious concerns" about the "conduct of the EU referendum and its franchise".
They have written to the prime minister complaining of "many and varied" examples of EU nationals being sent polling cards.
On Friday, the Electoral Commission confirmed the numbers affected so far, and said the software provider had since "resolved the issue".
Any postal votes wrongly issued would be cancelled and none of those affected would appear as an eligible voter on the electoral registers used at polling stations, it said.
EU citizens from non-UK countries are not entitled to vote, unless they are citizens of the Irish Republic, Cyprus or Malta.
But Mr Duncan Smith has said a Nottingham City Council officer had emailed a Vote Leave supporter to say the council was unable to check whether people put their correct nationality on an application, and had to assume the information submitted was correct.
Kingston-upon-Thames council in south-west London said a Polish citizen in the area - whose case had been highlighted by the Guido Fawkes website - was sent a polling card because he had put "British" as his nationality on the electoral register.
British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens resident in the UK and many British citizens living abroad are entitled to vote in the referendum.
You can check with your local authority's electoral services team if you are worried that you are not on the register.
If you are not on the register you have until midnight on Tuesday, 7 June to submit an application for a vote. The deadlines for applying for a postal vote at the referendum are:
In England, Scotland or Wales, you can register to vote online anytime at gov.uk/register-to-vote. If you are a British citizen living abroad, you can register to vote online in the same way.
In Northern...

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Australia says it will reveal new laws stripping citizenship from dual nationals engaged in terrorism.

Article: The UUP left the executive last year due to issues surrounding IRA activity and paramilitarism.
Mr Nesbitt said his party had increased focus on the issue and "achieved what we want to achieve".
He also said he would meet with the three-strong panel set up as a result of the Fresh Start deal.
Mr Nesbitt was speaking at the launch of a document setting out his party's vision ahead of May's Assembly election.
It calls for a new era of belief - in Stormont, its politicians and their motivation.
The party intends to publish eight more documents before polling day on areas including health,  economy, education and animal welfare.

Summary: The UUP will decide to join the next executive based on whether it has a progressive programme for government and a collective will to deliver it.
###
Article: The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has agreed to approve the treatment, which is known as Prep.
Scientists have found that a daily dose of the drug can protect people at risk of contracting the virus.
It means Scotland will become the first place in the UK to routinely offer Prep to eligible patients.
Campaigners welcomed the SMC's decision, describing it as a "bold step" which could lead to a reduction in the spread of the virus.
They estimate that up to 1,900 people north of the border could benefit from the drug, which has the brand name Truvada and costs about £450 a month.
The anti-retroviral drug is already licensed for use by people diagnosed with HIV in Scotland.
However, the SMC's decision relates to its use on a preventative basis by people who do not have the virus.
The group said Prep was one aspect of a wider HIV prevention strategy and it should be used in combination with safe sex practices such as using condoms.
SMC chairman Dr Alan MacDonald said: "[Prep] when used together with safer sex practices may help to reduce the spread of HIV, which is an ongoing priority for the Scottish government."
It was one of series of drugs approved by the body, including Kadcyla, which is used to treat aggressive and advanced types of breast cancer.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (or Prep for short) is a small, blue pill.
The pill works by protecting cells in the body and disabling the virus to stop it multiplying - should it enter the body.
Taking it once a day has been found to reduce the risk of HIV infection by 86%.
It is currently used in the US, Canada, Australia and France to help protect gay men at the highest risk of contracting HIV.
The decision on Prep was welcomed by a group of charities, including HIV Scotland and the Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland, which had campaigned as The Prep4Scotland Coalition.
In a statement, they said: "We applaud the SMC for taking this bold step to tackling HIV in Scotland.
"Prep provides opportunities to reinvigorate how people at higher risk of HIV exposure engage...

Summary: A "game-changing" drug which dramatically reduces the chances of being infected with HIV is to be made available on the NHS in Scotland.
###
Article: The government said it wanted to ensure that militants with dual nationality who were fighting overseas could not return to Australia.
The laws would also strip citizenship from dual nationals who engaged in terrorism inside Australia.
The government said changes to the Australian Citizenship Act would be introduced to parliament on Wednesday.
The new laws could be applied to up to half of the 120 Australians fighting in the Middle East with Islamic State (IS), said Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
"The legislation will update the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 to ensure dual nationals who serve or fight for terrorist groups, or engage in terrorism-related conduct inspired by terrorists groups, automatically lose their Australian citizenship," Mr Abbott said in a statement released on Tuesday.
"The Act will also be amended to ensure dual nationals who are convicted of specified terrorism-related offences automatically lose their Australian citizenship," he said.
Last month, the government said it would give the immigration minister the power to revoke citizenship in regards to terrorism activities but that option was attacked as unconstitutional by many legal experts.
Mr Abbott said on Monday the new laws would not leave anyone stateless and did not exclude the role of the courts.
"This will enable a person who has lost his or her citizenship to seek legal redress," Mr Abbott said.
"If you are convicted of a terrorist offence, again, there will be an assumption that your Australian citizenship is forfeited, should you be a dual national."
Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and Security will examine whether the law should be allowed to operate retrospectively.
"Given that we have a number of dual citizens currently in jail after terrorist convictions, the committee should consider whether it should have retrospective operation at least in those cases," said Mr Abbott.
He said another review would consider what to do with people engaged in terrorism who were solely Australian nationals.

Summary:


The London Underground is to be balloted on strike action amid a row over job cuts.

The managers of the Olympic Stadium have been told to make public the details of a rental deal with West Ham.

Article: Prof Stefan Katzenbeisser made the claim at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.
The professor said that the systems which switch trains from one line to another could be shut down if encryption keys went astray.
He stressed that trains would not be in danger, but there could be delays.
Train-switching systems have historically been controlled by proprietary analogue systems.
At the end of the last century, more than 35 incompatible systems were used for railway communications across Europe.
A group of manufacturers met to address this and decided to switch to a single digital standard to ensure they could source replacement parts and make different companies' systems interoperable.
They developed GSM-Railway (GSM-R), a more secure version of the 2G wireless standard used by mobile phones.
It allows traffic controllers and train drivers to talk to each other, and for data to be transmitted recording the vehicle's speed and location.
When used with the European Train Control System, signallers can utilise the data to give the train permission to enter the next part of the track, theoretically making trackside signals unnecessary.
The technology is already being used in parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. Network Rail is rolling it out in the UK and aims to cover all Britain's rail lines by the end of 2014.
Prof Katzenbeisser believes the system is relatively secure from hackers under normal circumstances. However, the computer science expert from Technische Universitat Darmstadt warns that encryption keys, used to protect the communications, could pose risks.
"The main problem I see is a process of changing... keys. This will be a big issue in the future, how to manages these keys safely," he told Reuters news agency at the conference.
The news agency said the keys are downloaded to physical media such as USB sticks before being distributed for installation.
It said the risk would occur if one of them fell into the wrong hands. This could allow hackers to mount a denial of service attack by overwhelming...

Summary: A shift to a mobile communications technology could expose rail networks to hackers, according to a security expert.
###
Article: The Rail, Maritime and Transport union said almost 900 jobs have been cut while passenger numbers keep going up.
It accused Tube bosses of compromising "safety and customer service across its stations by cutting jobs".
London Underground chief Steve Griffiths said there were more staff in public areas and crime was at an all-time low.
The union said 3,800 workers were involved in an "on-going battle" including a row over ticket office closures and cutting control room jobs.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "A responsible employer would reverse the job cuts and put staff back into station control rooms.
"If London Underground really cares about passengers it would reverse the ticket office closure programme."
The union said the Tube aspires to provide a "world-class service" but "a self-service railway that can't staff its control rooms to monitor fire alarms, lift alarms and passenger help points would struggle in League Two, let alone be considered world class."
Mr Griffiths, London Underground's chief operating officer, said: "The safety of customers and staff is our top priority and our hardworking people ensure London Underground remains one of the safest metros in the world.
"As the mayor announced last month, an independent review into the ticket offices is being carried out by London TravelWatch to ensure that it's delivering for our customers."

Summary: Workers on the London Underground are to be balloted on strike action amid a row over job cuts.
###
Article: Football supporters submitted a Freedom of Information request to obtain the tenancy agreement amid claims the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) would subsidise the rent.
An Information Commissioner has said LLDC, which denied the claims, must now comply with the FOI request.
LLDC had refused to reveal its rent on grounds of commercial sensitivity.
The decision comes ahead of West Ham moving into the stadium for the start of the 2016-2017 football season.
In reaching a decision dated 3 September, the commissioner said neither West Ham nor LLDC had been able to show how revealing the details of the tenancy agreement would place them at a commercial disadvantage or how this information could be exploited by a competitor.
The stadium was built using tax payers' money and is currently in public ownership.
LLDC manages the stadium and is believed to be considering whether to appeal against the independent commissioner's decision.
A coalition of 14 supporters' trusts from around the country called on LLDC head, London Mayor Boris Johnson, to waive its right to appeal.
They said an appeal would further delay the publication of the tenancy agreement, which they argue is in the public interest.
In a statement, the trusts said the deal raised issues over the apparent use of public money to "subsidise a commercial football business".
"It seems the taxpayer will be paying the cost of a series of overheads which every other club, rightly, has to pay for themselves," they said.
"It is important that the taxpayer is allowed to know exactly what has gone on here, and to judge whether it is a responsible and fair use of public money."
The supporters' trusts had argued the Olympic Stadium deal could give the Hammers a competitive advantage and asked the government to investigate in August, but the government said the deal had been "scrutinised" and rejected their request.
Previously a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: "West Ham United has a concession at the stadium and their...

Summary:


Sales and profits slipped at Boeing last year, driven largely by lower deliveries of its military aircraft.

Article: Shop Direct, which bought the Woolworths brand out of administration, said it had secured a legal settlement with the store in Dorchester, Dorset.
Wellworths will rebrand itself as Wellchester after failing to agree terms that would have let it keep the name but restrict its expansion.
Shop Direct said protecting its brand was of "paramount importance".
Wellworths, launched by former Woolworths manager Claire Robertson in March 2009, has been given two years to change its branding.
First-year profit
The branch was one of 815 that closed after Woolworths went bust in November 2008 with debts of Â£385m.
But Ms Robertson reopened the store, gave about 20 colleagues their jobs back and saw the business make a profit in its first year.
Wellworths said Shop Direct "initially supported the opening of the former Woolworths store in Dorchester as Wellworths, but then sought an agreement which would place limits on the growth of the business under the Wellworths name".
"Regretfully, rather than accept those limits, Wellworths have decided to replace the Wellworths name with Wellchester over the course of the next two years."
Ms Robertson said she was aiming to expand the brand across south and south-west England, in towns similar to Dorchester.
She announced her intentions in March, although other sites have yet to be found.
"We're really happy with the way things are going and have been extremely well supported by our customers in the first year-and-a-half," she added.
Mark Newton-Jones, chief executive of home shopping firm Shop Direct, said: "Protecting your brand is of paramount importance to every business and no less so to us with our Woolworths brand."

Summary: A former Woolworths store which reopened as Wellworths has been forced to change its name.
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Article: Taxis and billboards across the capital have been daubed with posters claiming that Uber does not pay tax in the UK.
The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) said the campaign is to "highlight what we are up against".
But Uber said the facts in the posters were "simply wrong" and that it complied with tax rules.
The posters depict Uber's senior vice president of policy and strategy Rachel Whetstone and Prime Minister David Cameron, with whom she is friends, beside a picture of Chancellor George Osborne - claiming that Uber pays no tax in  the UK.
A fleet of taxis covered in the posters lined up in protest outside Mansion House in the City of London, where Mr Osborne was speaking on Wednesday night.
The campaign will initially feature on 250 cabs and three advertising vans as well as being displayed on more than 25 digital sites across London.
"These ads are not anti-Uber," Steve McNamara, general secretary of the LTDA  told the BBC.
"The campaign is designed to highlight that the lobbying arm of Uber, a $50bn US company, has its tentacles embedded deep within Whitehall.
"The irony is that UK tax payers are subsidising Uber, a company that pays no tax in the UK, through tax credits and other DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) benefits paid to Uber drivers earning less than minimum wage."
Uber said in response: "The campaign is simply incorrect. We pay taxes in every country we operate in and comply with all local and international tax laws, this includes the UK."
"A lot of our growth is driven by referrals from drivers. The drivers recommend the job to their friends because they love working on the Uber platform."
Last year, Uber's tax affairs were referred to HMRC by Transport for London following a complaint from Labour MP Margaret Hodge that it was opting out of the UK tax regime.
Its European head office is in the Netherlands.
Many consumers like the convenience and affordability offered by Uber but cab firms in many cities feel aggrieved that it is not subject to the same stringent regulations as...

Summary: Black-cab drivers in London have started a poster campaign aimed at highlighting their struggle with app-based taxi service Uber.
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Article: The world's number one aeroplane manufacturer made sales of $94.6bn, down 2%, and net earnings of $4.9bn, 5% lower.
It said revenues were likely to slip further in 2017, to between $90.5bn and $92.5bn.
But the US company also expects to deliver more commercial aircraft and to improve its earnings per share.
"Looking forward, our team is intent on accelerating productivity and programme execution," said chairman and chief executive Dennis Muilenburg.
In the period, Boeing made 748 commercial aircraft deliveries, down from 762 in 2015, claiming to have led the market for "the fifth consecutive year".
It also delivered fewer military planes - in particular, its new CH-47 Chinook helicopter and its F/A-18 fighter jet - while sales in the division slipped 7%.
Revenue also fell in the firm's space and services divisions because of weaker demand for satellites and aircraft modernisation.
However, overall group earnings surged 59% in the fourth quarter of the year as demand for the company's commercial planes ticked up.
Boeing also projected higher commercial deliveries this year of between 760 and 765 aircraft.
The company's shares were up by more than 2% in early trading in New York.

Summary:


The UK government has announced a new licensing scheme for shooting birds.

The price of everyday essentials such as food, drink and clothing would rise if the UK votes to leave the EU, former retail bosses have warned.

Article: The legislation also bans the use of agents, or any promotion of women willing to carry babies for others.
Last year the case of a little boy born with Down's syndrome put Thailand's surrogacy industry in the spotlight.
His Thai surrogate mother said his Australian parents abandoned the boy but took his healthy twin sister home.
Under the new law, only married Thai couples or couples with one Thai partner who have been married at least three years can seek surrogacy, and commercial surrogacy is banned.
Anyone caught hiring a surrogate mother faces a maximum jail sentence of 10 years.
Agents touting surrogate mothers would also face imprisonment if caught.
The case of the Australian boy - named "baby Gammy" - made headlines around the world after his Australian parents took his healthy twin sister home and left him in Thailand.
He remained with surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua, 21, and was later granted Australian citizenship so he can have access to medical care.
Concern about the industry worsened when a Japanese man was found to have fathered more than a dozen babies by different Thai surrogates, a case later dubbed "the baby factory".
It has been nearly five years since Thailand began drafting a law on commercial surrogacy. The bill had been stalled by successive political crises, but the plight of Baby Gammy, and then the shocking revelation of Mitsutoki Shigeta's 16 or more surrogate babies, spurred the Thai government into action. They were shamed by the moniker 'Womb of Asia' that Thailand had earned from its booming surrogate business.
The yearning of childless couples for babies will now probably move on to less regulated countries. But will surrogacy end in Thailand? The money to be made is so tempting for poor families that the business may still survive as an underground, illegal one, with all the dangers to the women of exploitation and poor health facilities.
Law enforcement in Thailand is famously lax. And there is still a debate over whether legitimate surrogates should be paid something...

Summary: Thailand has passed a law banning foreigners from paying Thai women to be surrogates, after two high-profile cases sparked debate last year.
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Article: The conservation groups want licences to help protect rare birds of prey.
It comes after two cases against gamekeepers were dropped because prosecutors decided video footage was inadmissible as evidence.
But gamekeepers say any decision which could impact on jobs should be based on proof, not "suspicion".
The Scottish Raptor Study Group (SRSG), the Scottish Wildlife Trust and RSPB Scotland believe a licensing scheme will give protection to birds of prey in Scotland.
The RSPB said the illegal killing of birds of prey such as eagles and hen harriers was a "stain" on Scotland's reputation.
The call to work together to set up a licensing scheme comes after Holyrood's environment committee agreed to keep open SRSG's petition on creating the new regulations earlier this week.
Committee convener Graeme Dey has written to Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham asking her to look at "a licensing system for shooting businesses based on civil law".
Logan Steele of the SRSG said: "We accept that many within the shooting industry are law-abiding and are as keen as we are to bear down on the criminal element within their ranks.
"A government-sponsored inquiry, into how a licensing regime might work, presents an opportunity to work in partnership with forward-looking representatives from the industry, and other stakeholders, towards creating a sustainable upland environment where our birds of prey can thrive alongside legitimate shoot management."
The call comes after the Crown Office said video evidence provided by the RSPB in two cases was not admissible in court because it was filmed for the purposes of gathering evidence.
RSPB director Stuart Housden said the "illegal killing of our birds of prey has been a constant stain on the reputation of our country" for more than two decades and there was an increasing recognition that self-regulation had "failed".
A Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) spokesman said it, and others in the game industry, had put forward proposals to the Scottish government aimed at ending...

Summary: Conservationists are calling for game hunting groups to join them in creating a licensing scheme for shooting birds such as grouse.
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Article: The ex-chief executives, who previously ran Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, M&S and B&Q, said a drop in the pound coupled with supply chain disruption would cause prices to spike.
The average household could be £580 a year worse off as a result, retail union USDAW has predicted.
Vote Leave rejected the claims.
"Independent experts are clear, EU membership and the meddling court that comes with it have put up prices and hurt our economic growth," said Vote Leave chief executive Matthew Elliott.
"The EU is costly, bureaucratic and blind to the impact it has had on people's wages and soaring energy bills."
But the retail bosses, which include former Marks and Spencer boss Marc Bolland and former Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King, insisted that a UK exit from the European Union would be "catastrophic for millions of ordinary families".
USDAW said it had calculated its £580 figure based on an expected fall in sterling in the event of the UK's exit from the EU, together with expected new tariffs imposed on imported EU goods including food, drink and clothing.
The former bosses of Tesco, M&S, Sainsbury's and B&Q already warned last month that prices would rise amid a so-called Brexit, but their ranks have swelled with the addition of the ex-chief executives of Asda and Morrisons.
Richard Lloyd, former executive director of consumer group Which?, said he was now "convinced that leaving the EU will give ordinary British families a worse deal for years to come".
"My advice to consumers is clear - this could be an expensive mistake, don't risk it," he said.
Tough competition from discount rivals together with low inflation means that overall the prices of groceries has steadily fallen.
According to consumer research firm Kantar Worldpanel the price of groceries has fallen every month since September 2014, with the average household now spending £78.10 a week in the supermarket.

Summary:


The government has announced plans to cut the number of people who can afford to buy a home in the next five years.

Smoking could play a direct role in the development of schizophrenia and needs to be investigated, researchers say.

Article: Such a public  display of state brutality is unprecedented, but the ultra-secretive nature of the state means that observers can never really claim to know exactly what happened and when.
This is how the news came out.
When Kim Jong-il died in 2011 it was Chang Song-thaek, the man who married his sister, who stood right behind the young new leader Kim Jong-un flanking the hearse as it processed through Pyongyang.
He is thought to have mentored his nephew during that crucial transition. Analysts believed he was a powerful force, advising his nephew as he took the helm.
The extraordinary news coming from North Korea was promptly leaked to the media by an opposition lawmaker. South Korean spies told a parliamentary committee that he had been removed from key posts and that two of his close confidantes had been publicly executed in mid-November.
Within hours South Korean intelligence told media that they had indeed heard that Chang Song-Thaek had been removed as vice-chairman of the North's top military body, the National Defence Commission  and as a department head of the ruling Workers' Party.
Still without official confirmation from the north, it became clear that he had at least fallen out of favour when state TV edited him out of a documentary that had reportedly been broadcast nine times already.
When The Great Comrade aired the weekend after news filtered out of Chang's dismissal, it was without pictures of the leader's uncle.  He had been comprehensively cut out the film.
Finally, on 9 December, North Korea provided confirmation in an unprecedented manner by releasing images of Chang Song-thaek being removed from a public meeting.  Pictures released by the KCNA state news agency show uniformed guards approaching Chang Song-thaek.
The guards then appear to remove Mr Chang from his seat in full view of his former colleagues - some stare impassively at the proceedings  while others keep their eyes downturned.
The series of images played out on KCNA that day focused heavily on Kim Jong-un.
Some analysts...

Summary: News of the fall from grace and execution of the once powerful uncle of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un emerged in the space of 10 days.
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Article: The permit will allow those living in Reading, Wokingham and Bracknell to use Smallmead Recycling Centre in Whitley.
But, residents west of Reading will be barred from using the site from 1 July due to cuts to funding.
West Berkshire Council withdrew Â£97,000 from its funding for waste disposal in the town, in March.
The authority decided the costs to cover the 75,000 visits to the tip each year, made by people crossing the border into Reading, were "too high".
This led to the establishment of Re3 - the recycling company which provides waste services to Bracknell, Wokingham and Reading councils - to bar West Berkshire residents from using the tips from July.
West Berkshire councillor Alan Macro said Re3's decision could lead to more fly-tipping in the area.
"What they have done wrong is that they have acted before they have an alternative for people who live in the general Reading area", he said.
Tilehurst resident Brian Pettiford - who uses the Smallmead tip regularly - said the changes will mean people living in Calcot and Tilehurst will have to drive up to 20 miles to access rubbish tips in Newbury as opposed to a 5 miles trip to Smallmead.
"I feel very bitter that we have to go to Newbury, which is over 15 miles away. It would be good if [Re3] would charge for a permit to use the tip," he said.
West Berkshire Council said financial challenges meant "some difficult decisions about the services provided" had to be made.

Summary: A permit will be needed for some Berkshire residents to dump waste under new rules being brought into force.
###
Article: The team at King's College London say smokers are more likely to develop the disorder and at a younger age.
Published in the Lancet Psychiatry, their analysis of 61 separate studies suggests nicotine in cigarette smoke may be altering the brain.
Experts said it was a "pretty strong case" but needed more research.
Smoking has long been associated with psychosis, but it has often been believed that schizophrenia patients are more likely to smoke because they use cigarettes as a form of self-medication to ease the distress of hearing voices or having hallucinations.
The team at King's looked at data involving 14,555 smokers and 273,162 non-smokers.
It indicated:
The argument is that if there is a higher rate of smoking before schizophrenia is diagnosed, then smoking is not simply a case of self-medication.
Dr James MacCabe, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's, said: "It's very difficult to establish causation [with this style of study], what we're hoping that this does is really open our eyes to the possibility that tobacco could be a causative agent in psychosis, and we hope this will then lead to other research and clinical trials that would help to provide firmer evidence."
Clearly most smokers do not develop schizophrenia, but the researchers believe it is increasing the risk.
The overall incidence of the condition is one in every 100 people normally, which may be increased to two per 100 by smoking.
The researchers said nicotine altered levels of the brain chemical dopamine, which has already been implicated in the psychosis.
Prof Michael Owen, the director of the Institute of Psychological Medicine at Cardiff University, said the researchers had made a "pretty strong case" that smoking may increase the risk of schizophrenia.
"The fact is that it is very hard to prove causation without a randomised trial, but there are plenty of good reasons already for targeting public health measures very energetically at the mentally ill."
The charity Rethink Mental Illness said: "We...

Summary:


The Royal Mail has painted a postbox gold in the Oxfordshire town of Henley-on-Thames - in recognition of its medal winning rowing club.

Article: In a statement,the US Department of Agriculture saidschools buying beef from a central government scheme could now choose from a range of options.
The term has become used to describe a type of beef trimming commonly found in school and restaurant beef in the US.
Reports it was widely used in schools prompted a popular outcry, although the beef is certified as safe to eat.
Social media campaigns and an online petition sprung up to oppose the use of the product. The beef's producerled a campaignto explain it was nutritional and safe.
Last year, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver publicly criticised the product on his now-defunct US TV show, and McDonald's recently said it would phase out the use of "pink slime" in its burgers.
The US agriculture department said on Thursday it would now offer alternatives to the beef - officially called lean finely textured beef - for schools buying meat through its programmes.
The department (USDA) said the change was "due to customer demand".
"USDA continues to affirm the safety of Lean Finely Textured Beef product for all consumers and urges customers to consult science based information on the safety and quality of this product," it added.
School administrators reacted positively to the change.
"Our district has long advocated for purity and disclosure in food products. And we will definitely be moving to the pure ground beef when that becomes available," John Schuster, spokesman for Florida's Miami-Dade school system, told the Associated Press.
"Pink slime" - a term reportedly coined by a microbiologist working for the US government - is a form of lean beef formed by reclaiming the small parts of meat from leftover cuts with a high fat content.
The beef is spun in a centrifuge to separate the meat from the fat, before the final product is treated with a puff of ammonium hydroxide gas to kill any bacteria.
Produced in bulk by a firm in South Dakota, the pejorative nature of the term "pink slime" has coloured the debate, some experts say.
It is "unappetising", Sarah Klein,...

Summary: Schools across the US are to be allowed to stop serving so-called "pink slime" beef to their pupils at mealtimes.
###
Article: In an interview with the Observer, Anne Longfield criticised the ways social media giants use to draw children into spending more time.
She said parents should be proactive in stopping their children from bingeing on the internet in the summer holidays.
Ms Longfield has launched a campaign to help parents with the issue.
She said: "It's something that every parent will talk about especially during school holidays; that children are in danger of seeing social media like sweeties, and their online time like junk food.
"None of us as parents would want our children to eat junk food all the time.
"For those same reasons we shouldn't want our children to do the same with their online time."
Use talk to tame online habits
US changes toddler screen time advice
The commissioner added: "When phones, social media and games make us feel worried, stressed and out of control, it means we haven't got the balance right.
"With your diet, you know that, because you don't feel that good. It's the same with social media."
Last year, industry watchdog Ofcom said the internet overtook television as the most popular media pastime for children in the UK.
Children aged five to 15 are spending 15 hours a week on the internet.
Ms Longfield said children should be helped to understand that sites encourage them to continue their use based on what they have previously been doing online.
A study earlier this year of screen time and mental wellbeing among teenagers suggested that moderate use of devices may be beneficial.
The research, which appeared in the journal Psychological Science, was based self-reported data from 120,000 15-year-olds in England.

Summary: Parents must intervene to stop their children overusing social media and consuming time online "like junk food", the children's commissioner has said.
###
Article: The town is home to the prestigious Leander Club, which has trained more than 100 Olympic medal-winning rowers.
Prime Minister David Cameron previously said the plan was a "very good idea".
Royal Mail spokesman Simon Fellman said: "We're delighted to do it and we're pleased so many people are delighted about it."
The Royal Mail has painted more than 50 postboxes gold following Team GB's gold medal haul at London 2012.
Originally it said it was only painting them in "winners' home towns, or towns with which they are closely associated".
Town mayor Elizabeth Hodgkin said: "We are the home of rowing... I feel very excited about it.
"I think it's wonderful news, it's a great thing for the town."
Mr Fellman said: "It's almost like the torch has come again. It's a piece of the Olympics coming back to people's doorsteps.
"The support for the boxes, it's kind of like the new tourist attraction. It's fantastic and I think people have really taken it to their hearts."
The Henley-on-Thames postbox was painted on Friday.
The town is holding a victory bus parade for more than 24 Olympians on 25 August, along with a civic reception.

Summary:


The Jersey women's team has won the most medals in the women's sport since the team won the gold medal in the men's individual sport in the 1980s.

Guernsey have retained their Island Games team table tennis title after beating Gotland 4-2 in Jersey.

Article: A number of options are being considered to improve care in the north of the county, including removing consultant-led services from Whitehaven's West Cumberland Hospital.
The boss of North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust said it does not look like Whitehaven has the "infrastructure" to maintain services.
Midwives have raised safety concerns.
They have warned mothers and babies "may die" if consultant-led maternity services are removed from Whitehaven and concentrated at Carlisle Cumberland Infirmary.
Trust chief executive Stephen Eames told BBC Cumbria: "The options we are looking at are likely to mean there will be changes in maternity services and they're likely to mean we'll need to concentrate our expertise in our consultant staff in one place.
"Everybody involved would prefer a consultant-led service in both, but I think the reality is it isn't just about maternity, it's about the other clinical services that support it.
"So while we've made some improvements in children's services recruitment it doesn't look like we can recruit the infrastructure to support two independent consultant-led services."
Midwives at Whitehaven are concerned mothers facing unexpected problems would need a potentially risky 40-mile (64km) transfer across the county.
Earlier this month, Bernadette Bowness said: "We're going to become a third world area because of our inaccessibility to a consultant-led unit.
"If ladies have to be transferred, mothers may die, babies may die.
"If babies have foetal distress, what with the transfer time they may end up brain damaged."
A public consultation exercise will be launched next month to gauge opinion on the future direction of services provided by the trust.
The organisation has been in special measures since 2014 after Care Quality Commission inspectors judged it to be failing to provide a sufficiently high level of care in a number of areas.

Summary: Further doubt has been cast over the future of specialist-led maternity care at a Cumbrian hospital.
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Article: Department for Education data shows 10% of nursery staff earn less than Â£7.20 an hour the minimum for over-25s.
The Family and Childcare Trust says the government must ensure the nurseries it subsidises do not flout the law.
But a group representing private, voluntary and independent sector nurseries rejected the trust's claims.
Ellen Broome, deputy chief executive of the Family and Childcare Trust, said nursery workers cared for and educated the next generation and deserved decent pay.
"But instead they are being exploited and paid illegal poverty wages. This cannot be right," she said.
She urged central and local government to act immediately to make sure that every childcare worker was paid a decent wage and that taxpayers' money did not go to employers who broke the law.
"High quality childcare does not come on the cheap," she added.
The trust took data from the DfE's childcare provider survey published last month.
It then took figures on the total number of childcare workers from research carried out by the Institute of Education in London.
But the Pre-Schools Learning Alliance, which represents private, independent and voluntary early years settings, said: "The DfE survey that this claim is based on began collecting data in March 2016 - the month before the National Living Wage was actually introduced."
It is clear, however, from the published survey that the data collection went on until July.
The Pre-Schools Learning Alliance said: "No childcare provider should be paying their employees less than the national minimum or living wage, and it is of course right that any instances of this happening are investigated and dealt with appropriately.
"However, we completely reject the claim that such breaches are happening on anywhere near the scale that the Family and Childcare Trust are suggesting, and our analysis of the same DfE data indicates that any such suggestions are both misleading and irresponsible."
It said: "There's no doubt that low pay in the early years sector remains a significant problem,...

Summary: Up to 20,000 nursery workers are illegally being paid below the minimum wage in England, analysis of government data by a childcare charity suggests.
###
Article: Guernsey won gold in 2011, the last time table tennis was included in the sports programme for the Island Games.
Alice Loveridge won her women's singles match and teamed up with Dawn Morgan and Garry Dodd for doubles wins.
Dodd beat Bjorn Axelsson 3-1 in the singles, but lost to Nisse Lundberg, who also beat Alex Robinson 3-0 in the opening men's singles match.
Gotland and Guernsey have shared the table tennis gold medals between them for the past decade.
Gotland took gold in 2009, when Guernsey were third, and beat the Sarnians in the 2007 final.
That victory was revenge for the 2005 final, when Guernsey beat the Swedish island.Island hotshots increase medal tally
Jonathan De La Haye won Jersey's seventh shooting gold medal at the 2015 Island Games.
De La Haye took top spot in the men's individual sport trap, beating Dan Bishop of the Isle of Wight by a single point with Guernsey's Andrew Ashplant getting the bronze.
Sarah Campion and Susan De Gruchy won silver in the women's 100 yards prone rifle team event, finishing 15 points behind eventual winners Isle of Man.
Fellow Jersey shooter Caroline De La Haye won bronze in the women's individual sport trap.
Guernsey's Jacek Hanca has won silver in the 50m free pistol, finishing 13 points off Matthew Reed from the Isle of Wight.
Sark celebrated a second shooting medal as Nick Dewe returned to the podium. Dewe, who won team automatic ball trap bronze on Monday, took silver in the individual event.

Summary:


The population of Northern Ireland is projected to rise by 5.3% to 1,938,700 by 2024.

Article: Property prices rose by 7.1% on average in the year to the end of January, with the typical home costing Â£191,812, the Land Registry said.
The fastest increase was a 13.9% rise in London, compared with the slowest of 0.2% in the North East of England.
Official figures showed the average cost of renting rose at a slower pace.
Private rental prices paid by tenants in Britain rose by 2.6% in the 12 months to the end of January, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Rents rose by 2.7% in England, 0.3% in Wales and 0.8% in Scotland, it concluded.
These figures include new instructions and people already in a rental arrangement. Agents say that the cost of new rental agreements is going up much faster than that.
The Land Registry said that the North East and North West of England recorded falls in property prices in January compared with December.
All other regions saw a month-on-month rise in prices ranging from a 3.7% increase in Wales to a 0.6% rise in Yorkshire and the Humber.
These monthly figures can be relatively volatile and the way these changes are calculated varies between house price surveys.
The Land Registry said that, in the year to the end of January, the cost of flats and maisonettes rose faster than any other type of property, up by 8.2%.
Many commentators are predicting further house price increases in many areas of the UK, owing to the number of homes on the market failing to match demand.

Summary: House prices rose in every region of England and Wales in the past year - but the pace of increase was vastly different, figures show.
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Article: Media playback is not supported on this device
The Super 8s format, introduced in 2015, sees the 12-team Super League and Championship split into three mini-leagues after 23 regular-season rounds.
"I'm not a fan of it," ex-Great Britain coach Noble told the Super League Show.
"If you want to build a competition, you've got to have a reasonable amount of stability."
He continued: "We put things off and off. If not now, then when? We've got to find a formula that's going to please everybody."
Teams in the second Super 8s group - the Qualifiers - must finish in the top three, or win the 'Million Pound Game', to play in the Super League in the following season.
Apart from the structure issue, Super League general manager Mark Foster recently said that the RFL would be willing to listen to clubs seeking to relocate to new territory.
The discussion has made more pertinent by the situation with Wakefield, who are to leave Belle Vue at the end of the season and have struggled to reach agreement for a new, purpose-built venue in their home borough.
Under a new proposal, a team in Wakefield's position could apply to move to a new location with a suitable venue and interested investors, as rugby union side Wasps did when they relocated from London to Coventry.
"Why not have a Super League team in Cumbria?" Noble added. "I think new teams bring new excitement. We've got take some brave steps.
"If there is a vision for something, we should all work towards it. If we can't find a way forward with that, then where are we going?"

Summary: The Rugby Football League needs to take "brave steps" and reshuffle the game's structure, says Toronto Wolfpack director of rugby Brian Noble.
###
Article: The figures come from a report produced by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra).
It uses assumptions about births, deaths and migration to project population changes.
It predicts that the working-age population will rise by less than 1% but the population aged 65 and over is projected to increase by almost 26%.
The report also assumes that the level of migration to Northern Ireland will continue to be very low.
It breaks down population changes by local government district and predicts the largest rise of 10.4%, or 21,400 people, in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon.
The smallest increase is predicted for Derry City and Strabane, up by 1.5% or 2,200 people.
Derry City and Strabane is one of seven out of 11 areas projected to see a decline in their work-age populations.
Over the longer term, the population of Northern Ireland is projected to reach two million by mid-2034.
By mid-2038, annual population growth is projected to fall below 0.2% for the first time since mid-1999, due to a falling number of births and rising number of deaths as a result of an ageing population.
The population aged 65 and over is projected to increase by 74.4%, or 498,500 people, from mid-2014 to mid-2039, with the result that one in four people (24.7%) will be in this age category.
The report does not attempt to predict the impact that future government policies or changing economic circumstances might have on demographic behaviour.

Summary:


The Labour Party is set to win the West London constituency by a margin of 3.9% to the Conservatives.
The party is expected to win the constituency by a margin of 3.9% to the Conservatives.
The party is set to win the constituency by a margin of 3.9% to the Conservatives

Ealing Central and Acton is one of about 20 seats that could shape the outcome of the election.

Article: The business lobby group said the UK's dependence on consumer spending and mortgages meant it was "particularly sensitive" to interest rates.
The warning came as the BCC trimmed its growth forecast for 2014 to 3% from 3.2% and for 2015 to 2.6% from 2.8%.
It said the lowered forecast was an "ominous warning sign".
The group blamed lower-than-expected growth in services, household consumption and exports for the cut in its growth forecast.
"Downgrades to our growth forecast are a warning sign that we still face a number of hurdles to securing a balanced and sustainable recovery," said BCC director general John Longworth.
He warned that factors such as the weak eurozone economy, slowing growth in emerging markets and political uncertainty in Ukraine and the Middle East were hitting both business and consumer confidence.
The BCC's chief economist David Kern said the impact of these "unavoidable factors" meant low interest rates were important to "minimise the risk of the recovery stalling".
Interest rates have been at their historic low of 0.5% for more than five years, with just two out of the Bank of England's nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee voting to increase rates in recent months.
The BCC expects a first interest rise to 0.75% in the third quarter of next year, with rates reaching 1.75% by the end of 2016.
Its prediction for growth this year is in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)'s recent Autumn Statement forecast.
The government's independent forecaster expects 3% growth this year and 2.4% next year.
Despite the downgrade, if the predictions are correct, 2014 will mark the UK's fastest rate of growth for seven years.

Summary: A premature interest rate rise could present a "huge risk" to the British economy, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has warned.
###
Article: The Times Educational Supplement asked councils how much maintained schools had asked to borrow since 2013-14.
Borrowing in the 137 of 174 local authorities that responded rose £20m to £56.7m, the TES said, over three years.
The government says school budgets have been protected, but heads say they continue to face rising cost pressures.
The Department for Education added it was up to head teachers to prevent their schools from going into debt.
"We have always been clear that local authorities need to work with schools to prevent any deficits and surpluses becoming significant," it said.
The figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws looked at the financial years 2013-14, 2014-15, and up to the end of November 2015.
They do not cover academies which are not maintained by local authorities.
The data also revealed the average permitted deficit per school, for indebted schools, has almost doubled to £122,828 since 2013-14.
Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said cost pressures were really biting in schools.
"The simple fact is that there has been no real-terms increase in schools' budgets, and schools have had to deal with extra costs and inflationary pressures," he said.
Although the chancellor's Spending Review confirmed per pupil funding will be stable as numbers increase, the Institute of Fiscal Studies has warned there will be significant cost pressures of up to 8% on schools over the next five years.
Schools will have to find extra resources to cover rises in pension, National Insurance and pay costs over the course of this Parliament.
Mr Trobe predicted the situation was likely to get worse, saying: "If you can't balance the budget this year, you're going to struggle to balance the budget next year and to pay off the deficit."
The DfE is to look at what needs to be done to rebalance school funding from area to area and is launching a consultation on the issue.
Presently schools are funded at quite different levels, as local authorities receive...

Summary: State school debt in England and Wales has increased sharply in the past three years, as budgets tighten and cost pressures hit schools, a report says.
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Article: Media playback is unsupported on your device
7 April 2015 Last updated at 08:39 BST
Labour needs a swing of 3.9% to oust the Conservative candidate in the west London constituency.
Some residents are concerned that local services cannot support the extra residents that house building will attract.
BBC London's Victoria Hollins reports.
The known candidates for the 2015 General Election for Ealing Central and Acton are:
Angie Bray Conservative Party, Jon Ball Liberal Democrats, Peter Florence UK Independence Party, Rupa Huq Labour Party, Tom Sharman Green Party

Summary:


Scores of local authorities in England plan to increase council tax by up to 5% in 2017-8, according to research.

Article: The 17-year-old attacked Gordon Friel, 40, in Paisley last September, leaving him with a string of injuries including bleeding on the brain.
He had earlier pled guilty to assaulting Mr Friel to his severe injury and to danger of his life.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed for three years and four months.
He was initially charged with attempted murder for what the judge described as a "savage assault".
Two girls - aged 17 and 16 - have also admitted a charge of assaulting the tannery worker.
The 17-year-old girl was ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and the 16-year-old 100 hours. Neither of the girls can be identified.
The High Court in Glasgow heard the victim was set upon after he tried to act as a peacemaker when two teenagers began arguing.
Mr Friel had been standing in Paisley's High Street eating a takeaway when the row broke out.
He approached the pair and told the bigger of the two the smaller one did not want a fight.
Prosecutor David Taylor said: "At this point the 17-year-old girl became involved, dragging Gordon to the ground and punching and kicking him on the body.
"She was joined by the 16-year-old girl who shouted 'get him' and began punching him."
Mr Friel managed to get away before the 17-year-old boy arrived, the court was told.
The boy - who wrongly believed Mr Friel had attacked the older girl - and others then chased him to Forbes Place.
The group went on to stamp on the victim's head, leaving a "footwear mark" on his head.
He suffered bleeding in the brain, a liver injury and rib fractures, and needed three operations.
Mr Taylor said: "Before the incident Mr Friel weighed around 11 stone. On his discharge from hospital his weight was five-and-a-half stone.
"He was so weak he had to use a Zimmer frame to aid walking."
The court was told Mr Friel is now back at work and is expected to make a full recovery, although he has no memory of his ordeal.
The 17-year-old boy's lawyer, Billy Lavelle, said his client was now "ashamed of his actions".

Summary: A teenager who stamped on a man who was trying to break up a fight has been jailed.
###
Article: The Lego Movie follow-up took the top spot with $55.6m (£44.4m), while Fifty Shades Darker attracted $46.8m (£37.4m), according to estimates.
Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan both reprised their Fifty Shades of Grey roles, but the sequel couldn't match its predecessor's $85.2m ($68m) debut.
Based on EL James's erotic fiction, the film has received stinging reviews.
Keanu Reeves hit-man sequel John Wick: Chapter 2 took third place in the US and Canada.
The John Wick follow-up took $30m (£24m) between Friday and Sunday, more than double the original made when it opened in 2014.
The new Lego offering is a computer-generated action comedy that sees Batman try to stop Gotham City being taken over by The Joker.
The film, in which Will Arnett voices the Caped Crusader, was boosted by good reviews and a lack of family-friendly competition.
Rounding out the top five were M Night Shyamalan's psychological thriller Split, whose $9.3m (£7.4m) weekend takings swelled its total US and Canada earnings to $112.3m (£89.7m).
Oscar contender Hidden Figures followed, its Friday to Sunday takings $8m (£6.4m) boosting its total to $131.5m (£105m).
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

Summary: The Lego Batman Movie has spanked Fifty Shades Darker in a battle of the sequels at the US box office.
###
Article: The Local Government Information Unit said 94% of the 131 councils it spoke to were intending to put up bills, with their finances at "breaking point".
A third of these, 34% in total, intend to hike bills by more than 2% in April.
Councils, many of whom have frozen bills in recent years, say it will not be enough to plug the funding "gap" exacerbated by the cost of social care.
But the government says council tax is expected to be lower in real terms at the end of this Parliament than it was in 2010.
Although councils in Wales were included in the survey, the Welsh government has said it will not allow councils to raise bills to pay for social care.
Ministers say they are bringing forward money to help councils pay for social care by increasing the "precept" - a supplement that councils are able to charge on bills - from 2% to 5% over the next two years.
Years of cuts to central government funding since 2011 have put pressure on the budgets of the 375 councils in England and Wales, with many paring back core services. Financial pressures on county councils and unitary authorities that provide adult social care have become particularly acute in the past year.
Surrey County Council abandoned controversial plans this week to hold a referendum on a 15% rise in council tax which it said was needed to pay for social care. It will now increase bills by 4.99% - the maximum it can do without holding a public vote.
Labour have accused the government of doing a sweetheart deal with the Tory-controlled council to call off the referendum - claims it denies.
Publishing its research, the Local Government Information Unit said five district councils which do not provide social care had wanted to hold local referendums to sanction council tax rises above 2% but had "thought better" of it in recent weeks.
Inflation, as measured by the CPI index, currently stands at 1.6% but is projected to rise to 2.7% next year.
The LGIU said there was growing concern in town halls that the current system of funding local authorities -...

Summary:


The Home Office has sent a letter to the Home Office asking for a full investigation into the death of Wendy Sewell.

A retired police officer has reported Derbyshire police to the Home Office over claims they withheld evidence in a 1973 murder case.

Article: Thistle say that, if not, the two clubs and Hamilton would be due compensation for having fewer guaranteed games with Celtic and Rangers next season.
"That means an expected loss in revenues for the club of £120,000," Thistle suggested in a statement.
The Scottish Professional Football League has yet to comment.
Since the top flight was expanded to 12 clubs in 2013, the league has split into two sections of six teams for the final five fixtures.
"In previous seasons, where both Rangers and Celtic were in the Premiership, pre-split fixtures have been organised to ensure that every club plays three home games against the Old Firm," said Thistle.
"Without any notification from the SPFL to the contrary, we had expected that this practice would continue this season and that is the basis on which we and other clubs have budgeted.
"Having had no communication from the SPFL explaining these changes prior to this morning's announcement, Partick Thistle intends to seek compensation from the SPFL for all clubs concerned, or that they reconsider the fixture list to ensure a level playing field for all."
Thistle point out that Dundee, Hearts and Inverness Caledonian Thistle will have four home games each against the Old Firm before the split.
Expressing "anger and frustration", the Glasgow club say this will hand each of those clubs "an unexpected bonus" of around £120,000 each for the coming season.
Thistle, who had been looking forward to extra city derbies following Rangers' return to the top flight after a gap of four years, argue that this will also hamper them, Accies and Well in their quest for league points.
"Financial implications aside, we believe there is a significant sporting disadvantage created by the fixture list as it stands," they state.
"Pre-split, we will make four trips away to the two biggest clubs in the country while some clubs will only make two."
Thistle's statement was followed by Motherwell's board expressing its "extreme anger", saying it was a situation that had never occurred under the...

Summary: Motherwell and Partick Thistle have expressed their anger at new Scottish Premiership fixtures and are demanding an amended schedule.
###
Article: And those EU students who are already attending UK universities will continue to receive financial support.
The Student Loans Company has sought to reassure students and applicants following the EU referendum.
And Mr Johnson has tweeted: "UK welcomes EU students."
"Current students and this autumn's applicants will continue to receive student finance for duration of their course," said the Twitter message from the minister.
Universities have been seeking clarity about the implications of Brexit for their EU students, international exchanges and for funding from EU research projects.
A statement from the Student Loans Company says that those EU students who are already studying in the UK will not face any changes to financial support, such as loans to cover tuition fees.
The current arrangements will also remain in place for those who have applied and are expecting to begin university courses in the autumn.
But the arrangements for EU students beginning courses in the following year - autumn 2017 - have still to be clarified.
There are about 125,000 EU students in higher education in the UK, with Germany and France the biggest senders.
But among those non-UK students starting university in the UK last year, there were more students from China than from all the EU countries put together.
Following the vote to leave the EU, Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group of universities, said that the Brexit  decision "creates significant uncertainty" for higher education.
She said that the Russell Group universities would seek assurances from the government that "staff and students currently working and studying at our universities can continue to do so after the UK negotiates leaving the EU".
Universities have been particularly concerned about the future of EU research funding, with analysis by the Royal Society showing that the UK is one of the largest recipients.
It suggests that between 2007 and 2013, the UK received 8.8bn euros (Â£7.3bn) in direct EU research funding and had contributed 5.4bn euros...

Summary: Students from the European Union starting university courses in the UK this autumn will have their student loans funding honoured, University Minister Jo Johnson has said.
###
Article: Bakewell man Stephen Downing was convicted in 1974 for killing Wendy Sewell but that was overturned in 2002.
Chris Clark said he has uncovered a crucial pathology report showing she was strangled, which was never told to the jury.
The Home Office said it would send any new criminal evidence to the police.
Evidence of police misconduct would be referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the Home Office added.
Derbyshire police said the case was closed after a reinvestigation in 2002.
Mr Clark, a retired Norfolk police officer, said he has sent his findings to the Home Office after obtaining the original pathology report last month.
He said he believed the report showed Mrs Sewell had clear signs of being strangled.
She was found battered in a Bakewell cemetery in 1973 and died in hospital two days later.
Mr Downing admitted beating her with a pickaxe handle but later retracted that statement, only to be found guilty by a jury.
"I'm reporting the facts as I see them. The pathologist had evidence in his report that could have exonerated Stephen Downing," Mr Clark said.
He said the pathologist's report showed bruising on her neck consistent with a "knotted ligature" used to garrotte her and a rash in her lungs and airways, possibly caused by strangulation.
Mr Clark said none of this was used in Mr Downing's trial. He added the evidence may mean her death was linked to the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe.
Mr Downing was 17 at the time of Mrs Sewell's murder but was assessed as having a mental age of 11.
His father Ray Downing and Matlock Mercury editor Don Hale campaigned for his release and in 2002 the Court of Appeal found his conviction unsafe because of "procedural reasons".
Mr Hale said the pathology report directly conflicted with the evidence the police presented at the time and called for an independent investigation into the murder.
"This information was available within two or three days of Mr Downing being arrested and it completely contradicts this so-called confession," he said.
But...

Summary:


The government has announced plans to introduce a new tax on the sale of alcohol.

UK retail sales rose by more than expected in November, as shops offered promotions at the end of the month in the run up to Black Friday.

Article: Letter combinations such as HJ or NS - denoting Hitler Youth and National Socialism - have long been prohibited on personalised plates in Austria.
Now transport officials have published a list of more than 30 more cryptic codes that have been banned.
They include number combinations such as 88, which represents "Heil Hitler".
New legislation, which came into force on Thursday, also outlaws the use of IS or ISIS on personalised number plates in a bid to stop people showing their support for the Islamic State group.
"It has been forbidden to have obvious Nazi number plates since personalised plates went on sale in 1989," a spokeswoman for Austria's transport ministry told the BBC.
"But then we learned that the far-right scene is moving away from the more obvious codes to more hidden ones.
"So we had to change the law. Civil servants deciding if someone can choose a certain number plate now know which codes are being used by the far-right scene."
Combinations no longer allowed include:
Only new number plates will be affected by the change in the law.
Abbreviations now outlawed include FG, which stands for "Fuehrer's Geburtstag", meaning "leader's birthday", and WP for "white power".
Number combinations have not previously been included, but now codes such as 18 - meaning 'Adolf Hitler' because of where A and H come in the alphabet - are also now prohibited.
The new list was compiled in co-operation with the Mauthausen Committee, an organisation representing former concentration camp prisoners. Officials say it is not exhaustive.
Austrian Transport Minister Alois Stoeger, who pushed for the law change, has said: "National Socialist ideology has no place in our society."
More than half a million Austrians have currently personalised licence plates, according to Austria's public broadcaster, ORF.
The move in Austria follows similar efforts in Germany to crack down on neo-Nazi symbols.
In Germany, the law says that number plates must not offend public morals. Each state has its own list of banned combinations, and...

Summary: Austria is cracking down on personalised number plates used by neo-Nazis, by banning lesser-known codes with hidden far-right symbolism.
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Article: Critics said the Forest Heath District Council's Core Strategy Development Plan would destroy the unique, horse-friendly character of the town.
Racehorse owner Lord Derby wanted to build about 1,200 houses, a hotel, park and ride scheme and a retail park on the 160-acre Hatchfield Farm site.
Mr Justice Collins said an EU planning directive had not been complied with.
The judge quashed the proposed central housing policy of the core strategy as it affects Newmarket.
He said a strategic environmental assessment did not contain all the relevant information.
Forest Heath District Council had adopted the new housing strategy in May last year.
The council was refused leave to appeal.
Lord Derby had supported the new strategy and applied for planning permission for the houses, hotel, park-and-ride scheme and retail park.
His planning application was refused, but the appeal process is continuing and could be affected by the High Court's decision.
Previously racehorse trainers and prominent figures in the racing world had said the extra traffic caused by the development would make it unsafe for the 3,000 horses that cross Newmarket's roads each day.
They also said urban development would ultimately lead to the demise of Newmarket as a racing town.
Lord Derby said he believed the development was the best way to meet targets for new homes, and the last thing he intended to do was threaten the town.

Summary: Plans for a controversial housing strategy for Newmarket have been ruled "legally flawed" by the High Court.
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Article: Sales volumes increased by 1.7% in November from the month before, the Office for National Statistics said.
Compared with the same month last year, sales were up by 5%.
However, Keith Richardson from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking said it was "too early" to say whether Black Friday was really a success for retailers.
"Retailers were better prepared this year and adapted the US-style Black Friday to better reflect British culture. Some chose not to take part while many others spread the discounts over several days to better protect margins and ease the burden on their websites and IT platforms."
The ONS said the amount spent by shoppers was up 1.4% in November compared with the month before, and was also up 1.4% from the same point a year earlier.
The value of online sales increased by 4.9% in November from October, and were 12.7% higher compared with last year.
"Retailers may see some pay-back after the Black Friday promotions led shoppers to pull-forward spending that would otherwise have taken place in December, but the underlying sales trend looks set to remain strong as we head into 2016," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.
He added that spending was not just being driven by discounts. "Households are benefitting from improved job security, low inflation and falling energy prices, the latter helping free-up more income to boost retail sales."

Summary:


The owners of the aerodrome at Dunsfold Park have claimed that "permanent unrestricted planning permission" was granted in 1951.

The owners of Dunsfold Park aerodrome, which is home to the BBC's Top Gear, have lost their latest fight for unrestricted flying.

Article: The show at the Cartwright Hall gallery will focus on his early life and work.
Hockney was born in Bradford in 1937. As a teenager, he would use a pram loaded with paints and brushes as a mobile art studio on the city streets.
He went on to find fame at the Royal College of Art in London in the 1960s.
A major show of Hockney's landscapes at the Royal Academy earlier this year, titled A Bigger Picture, attracted more than 600,000 people.
Cartwright Hall is asking Bradford residents to take items including paintings, drawings, photographs and Christmas cards to a drop-in day on Wednesday 26 September between 11:00 and 15:00 BST, or to contact curators directly.
The gallery said it hoped the exhibition, which will run from December until next April, would be "a truly, uniquely Bradford exhibition".
Hockney studied at Bradford College of Art in the mid-1950s.
Cartwright Hall's collection includes Hockney's Bolton Junction, Eccleshill, which was painted while he was at art college and which was featured in the Royal Academy show.
Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Bradford Council's executive member for culture, said: "David Hockney is one of Bradford's most famous sons.
"It's therefore fitting that this exhibition will have a local perspective with valuable contributions from the district's residents."

Summary: A gallery in David Hockney's home town of Bradford is asking people who met him at the start of his career to dig out works of art or pieces of memorabilia for a new exhibition.
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Article: Scientists say the contaminants take a circuitous route travelling via the Arctic Ocean and down past Greenland.
Researchers believe the radioactivity levels are extremely low and present no danger.
However, scientists can use the iodine to accurately map the currents that transport greenhouse gases.
One scientific consequence that arose from the testing of nuclear bombs in the atmosphere in the 1950s was that their radioactive fallout provided a powerful global tracer of water circulation and deep-ocean ventilation.
Other sources of radioactive material for scientists to track water movements have been the nuclear reprocessing plants at Sellafield in the UK and at La Hague in France.
Contaminants have been legally released from these sites for more than 50 years. One in particular, Iodine-129 (129I), has been very useful for scientists tracing the ocean currents that help pull down greenhouse gases into the waters.
"What we have found is that by tracing radioactive iodine released into the seas off the UK and France, we have been able to confirm how the deep ocean currents flow in the North Atlantic," said lead researcher Dr John Smith from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, in Canada.
"This is the first study to show precise and continuous tracking of Atlantic water flowing northward into the Arctic Ocean off Norway, circulating around the arctic basins and returning to the Nordic seas in what we call the 'Arctic loop', and then flowing southward down the continental slope of North America to Bermuda at depths below 3000 metres."
Scientists have used other molecules as tracers, specifically chlorofluorocarbons that were once used in refrigeration. But 129I, which has a half-life of 15.7 millions years, retains the initial imprint of its input history over a long period of time.
Another advantage for researchers is that 129I is relatively easy to detect at extremely low levels.
"In many ways this is a bit like the old 'stick in a stream' game we used to play as kids," said Dr Smith.
"What people call...

Summary: Radioactive iodine from nuclear reprocessing plants in the UK and France has been detected deep in the waters near Bermuda.
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Article: The aerodrome's owners had claimed that "permanent unrestricted planning permission" was granted in 1951.
However, this was rejected by Waverley Borough Council in July 2011 and the planning inspector in April 2012.
A judge at the High Court said the 1951 permission did not grant permission for unrestricted flying.
Lord Justice Sullivan said the permission for "flight testing" did not amount to consent for unrestricted flying of aircraft.
He said the certificate sought by the owners was pursued on the alleged basis that there was no material difference, in land use terms, between unrestricted numbers of passenger or cargo flights, and flight testing.
He said: "The use of land as a bus station is not the same thing as use of land for the testing of buses."
He added: "There can be no doubt that, properly construed, the 1951 planning permission does not permit the airfield to be used for unrestricted aviation activities."
Dunsfold Park was constructed during World War Two by the Canadian Army. It is now used by about 100 commercial operators and most famously as the venue for the filming of Top Gear.
The owners have the right to appeal the latest decision to the Supreme Court.

Summary:


The UK government has decided to ban fracking in the UK.

The former leader of the Alliance party Lord Alderdice has criticised plans contained in the "Fresh Start" deal.

Article: The court had said in 2013 that whole-life sentences breached human rights because it was not clear if there was the chance of a review of such cases.
Judges have now said this is not the case with murderer Arthur Hutchinson, who challenged his whole-life sentence.
The UK was considered to be in line with human rights laws, they added.
The European court had previously said there had to be the possibility of a review at some stage and that current laws allowing for release in exceptional circumstances were unclear.
The Court of Appeal in the UK then said in 2014 that the law in England and Wales "is clear as to 'possible exceptional release of whole-life prisoners'".
It said the justice secretary had the power to release a prisoner on licence if they were satisfied exceptional circumstances existed that justified it on compassionate grounds.
The Strasbourg-based court ruled that in Hutchinson's case there had been no violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which relates to inhuman and degrading treatment.
The judges said in a written ruling: "In the circumstances of this case where, following the Grand Chamber's judgment in which it expressed doubts about the clarity of domestic law, the national court has specifically addressed those doubts and set out an unequivocal statement of the legal position, the court must accept the national court's interpretation of domestic law."
The ruling is perhaps more significant politically than it is legally.
In 2013, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled that whole-life sentences passed on the most heinous murderers were incompatible with human rights and amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment. The reason was the lack of a proper review and so the lack of hope, however remote, of eventual release.
That caused political ructions. It was cited by the Conservatives in proposals published last year to scrap the Human Rights Act in favour of a British Bill of Rights and to ensure that Parliament was not bound by Strasbourg...

Summary: British courts do have the right to impose whole-life tariffs on prisoners who are jailed for life, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.
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Article: The problem should not occur, as fracking typically involves drilling more than a mile underground - far deeper than the water-bearing rocks (aquifers) from which we get our water supplies.
But another possibility of contamination occurs where the drill hole goes through the water-bearing rock.
If the borehole is not properly cased to stop leaks, the fracking water can escape into the aquifer.
This happened a lot in the early days of fracking in the USA.
Other problems can occur if the frackers drill horizontally too close to water-bearing rocks.
This is now considered bad practice, although it also happened in the USA, where small risk-taking companies pioneered fracking techniques before big operators took over.
Some areas have complained about high levels of the carcinogen benzene in underground water supplies as a result. In the UK, the Environment Agency says only chemicals non-toxic at small concentrations may be used.
The other possibility of pollution is when the water, which is mixed with chemicals and sand for the fracking process, comes back to the surface. It can be contaminated with heavy metals and radioactivity.
This wastewater needs to be contained in tanks before being disposed of or - preferably - cleaned up to re-use for more fracking.
The UK government has decided that with proper regulations, contamination of water from shale gas production should be avoided - and permission granted to start fracking.
We asked readers to send questions as the government gave the go-ahead to fracking in Lancashire.
The most popular questions were in relation to water, and Tim Glover asked: "Does fracking affect the water supply?"
Fracking has long been a controversial issue.
In 2011, all fracking was suspended in the UK after it was believed to have caused earthquakes near Blackpool.
The ban was lifted in 2012, but campaigners have continued to voice their opposition.
Pollyanna Steiner, from Friends of the Earth, said: "Fracking goes against everything we need to do to tackle climate change.
"The...

Summary: Fracking can contaminate water supplies if it is not done properly, because the fracking fluid injected into rock to enable gas to be released often contains chemicals.
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Article: Lord Alderdice said proposals for a new international body to monitor paramilitary activity would have "much less power" than the panel he sat on.
He was a member of the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) which operated from 2004 to 2011.
The Liberal Democrat peer said the new body would only be able to produce a few proposals for the Executive.
"Which will then fall into disagreement about how they should be implemented," he said.
Lord Alderdice spoke on Tuesday's debate on the Northern Ireland Welfare Reform Bill in the House of Lords.
The former Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Robin Eames also used the debate to express his disappointment that the "Fresh Start" deal did not include any agreement on the legacy of the troubles.
Lord Eames, who was co-chair of a consultative group on the past, told peers he was well aware of the "desperate plight" of troubles' victims.
He urged the government to publish the legacy papers prepared during the inter-party negotiations, arguing that the victims "deserve nothing less".
Lord Eames expressed the hope that legacy issues might yet be tackled, adding that "perhaps the situation is not as bleak as it seems".
The government spokesman, Lord Dunlop, said the establishment of a new monitoring body to assess the impact of paramilitary activity on local communities is "a crucial part" of the "Fresh Start" deal.
Lord Dunlop said the government regretted the fact that an agreement on legacy issues could not be reached, and remained committed to continuing to work to build a consensus.

Summary:


The UK government has announced that it will be introducing a new law to allow people to vote on whether to leave the EU.
The move comes after a series of high-profile cases involving the UK’s EU membership.
The government has said it will introduce a new law to allow people to vote on whether

New rules are urgently needed to protect the open seas, scientists have warned.

Article: They will include Aberfeldy-based furniture maker Angus Ross, Edinburgh designer Jennifer Gray and Fife-based creative studio Tom Pigeon.
Others taking part will be Linlithgow's Method Studio, Glasgow's Scotland Re:Designed and Scottish silversmiths.
National body, Craft Scotland, has arranged a showcase event for Ross and Gray.
Ross' products included the Unstable Stool, which is made from a single length of wood which is steamed and then bent into shape. The design was shortlisted for The Wood Awards in 2009.
Gray's jewellery has included a bracelet made to mark 20 years since the creation of Dolly the Sheep, a cloned sheep created at the Roslin Institute just outside Edinburgh.

Summary: Scottish makers are to exhibit their work at London Craft Week, which opens on Wednesday.
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Article: Peers amended the legislation paving the way for the in-out poll, due before 2018, to lower the voting age.
But the move was overturned in a Commons vote, by 303 votes to 253 - a government majority of 50.
The government said it would be wrong to alter the "tried and tested" general election franchise for a single poll.
But Labour, the SNP and Lib Dems all favour allowing 16 and 17-year-olds - who were allowed to take part in last year's referendum on Scottish independence - to vote on whether to remain in the EU.
Labour's shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, said the government's decision to block the move was "wrong-headed and unfair".
Speaker John Bercow certified that the changes proposed by the House of Lords were covered by "financial privilege" rules, because the government had estimated that it would cost about Â£6m to implement.
These rules can be used by the House of Commons "as grounds for overruling any House of Lords proposal that has cost implications".
But BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said Labour peers still hoped to force the government to lower the voting age, and would table a fresh motion that did not fall foul of the rules, on Monday.
No date has been set for the referendum, but David Cameron has promised to hold it by the end of 2017.

Summary: MPs have rejected an attempt by the House of Lords to give 16 and 17-year-olds a vote in the planned referendum on Britain's EU membership.
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Article: A report to a UN ocean conference in New York points out that more than 60% of the ocean has no rules because it’s outside national jurisdiction.
It says the open ocean is at risk from climate change, over-fishing, deep sea mining, farm pollution and plastics.
The authors say one area – the Bay of Bengal - is at a tipping point which could impact on global fish stocks.
The report was commissioned to inform delegates preparing a UN resolution on governance of the open ocean.
Representatives in New York are preparing a text that could cover everything from establishing marine protected areas to distributing the benefits of valuable biotech products generated from the seas.
One of the report’s authors, Prof Alex Rogers from Oxford University, told BBC News: “This is very, very important. A lot of states are looking towards developing industrial activities in the ocean – fishing, deep-sea mining, renewable energy… even aquaculture offshore.
“It’s really vital that we come to some international agreement on how to protect or manage biodiversity on high seas in the face of all these pressures.”
The UN is focusing discussion on three areas:
Together they are categorised under a new UN acronym – BBNJ. That’s Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction.
Prof Rogers’ report is a review of new science over the past five years. He says he realises how little is known about some essential ocean processes, and mentions the Bay of Bengal issue as a source of great concern.
The issue there is nitrogen, which performs an positive role in fertilising algae at the bottom of the food chain, but can also have negative effects if there’s too much of it in the water.
At the moment, nitrogen fertilisers in the Bay of Bengal are running off farmland and over-fertilising algae. This in turn encourages bacteria, which capture oxygen. Slowly marine life in the area disappears.
But the Bay of Bengal is now on the verge of going one destructive stage more.
The report says if oxygen levels decrease further as a result of run-off or...

Summary:


A man charged with murdering his wife at a care home has died before his court case could be heard.

Article: He was found guilty of bribery, abuse of power and "intentionally disclosing national secrets", China's official Xinhua news agency reports.
Until his retirement in 2012, Zhou was one of China's most powerful men.
He was put under investigation one year later as part of President Xi Jinping's major anti-corruption campaign.
State TV showed a clip of Zhou, 72, pleading guilty at a closed-door trial in the northern city of Tianjin. When responding to the judge, he said he would not launch an appeal.
"I've realised the harm I've caused to the party and the people. I plead guilty and I regret my crimes," he said.
BBC China editor Carrie Gracie: Power politics exposed by fall of security boss
How China is reacting
The verdict caught many people off guard.
It was expected that Zhou Yongkang's trial would be played out for the Chinese public; his failings strung out for every citizen to see.
In similar high-profile cases, like that of Zhou's protege, Bo Xilai, the foreign and Chinese media were given 48 hours' notice that Bo's trial would begin. Reporters camped outside the courthouse for days, breathlessly waiting for updates.
In March, the head of China's Supreme People's Court had promised that Zhou Yongkang's trial would be "open in accordance with the law". The trial was set to take place in the eastern port city of Tianjin. It seemed Zhou was set to follow Bo's pattern. Like other senior officials convicted of serious crimes, it was expected he would receive a suspended death sentence.
Months passed without any word. Some guessed that Zhou Yongkang was not co-operating with prosecutors. Others believed that his crimes were too much of an embarrassment for the government.
After all, Zhou Yongkang had held a seat at the very top of the Chinese government pyramid. If he was thoroughly corrupt, some in China might ask whether others at the top were rotten too.
In the end, the decision to keep Zhou Yongkang's trial secret matches the case surrounding him, and Zhou's own public persona: inaccessible and...

Summary: China's ex-security chief Zhou Yongkang has been jailed for life - the most senior politician to face corruption charges under Communist rule.
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Article: The UK doctors told the Lancet Oncology there was now enough proof the hard-and-fast treatment worked just as well and did not cause more side-effects.
For a patient, the new regime would mean 17 fewer trips to hospital.
Nationally, it would free more than 150,000 visits, saving the NHS tens of millions of pounds each year.
Prostate cancer makes up more than a quarter of the workload of UK radiotherapy departments, and many cancer centres are already making savings by following the new regime
Prof David Dearnaley and his team, from the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital, say others should do the same.
They estimate about 10,000 men a year could benefit from the new treatment regime.
The treatment is given over four weeks instead of seven and a half, and uses higher doses of radiation to zap the prostate gland and kill the cancer.
Studies in thousands of men suggest giving 20 high doses for a month is as effective as giving 37 standard doses over two months.
Prof Dearnaley said: "There are no losers with this. Everybody wins - the NHS and patients."
The work was part-funded by the Department of Health and Cancer Research UK.
Prof Arnie Purushotham, of Cancer Research UK, said: "It is clear that this is safe and effective, so it is now up to the NHS to ensure all men who are suitable are offered this treatment immediately."

Summary: The NHS could save money and patients' time by giving fewer but stronger doses of radiotherapy treatment for prostate cancer, say experts.
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Article: Brendon Constant, 87, was accused of smothering his 86-year-old wife Jean with a plastic bag at Poppyfields care home in Eynesbury, near St Neots.
He died in hospital after suffering "catastrophic" head injuries in a fall at home, Cambridge Crown Court heard.
Mr Constant, of Richmond Road, Wisbech, did not enter a plea to the murder charge before his death.
Cambridge Crown Court heard he had attempted to kill himself at the same time as his wife was killed last August but survived and faced court proceedings.
His barrister, Sally Hobson, said he suffered a fall at home on April 27 after celebrating his grandson's birthday and that there was "no suggestion he took his own life".
She said: "When he retired to bed, he spoke briefly to his great-granddaughter, then went upstairs and fell and suffered catastrophic head injuries."
Mr Constant was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and his family agreed to switch off his life support machine the following day.
"He had hoped to end his life together with his wife in August last year in circumstances they hoped would cause the least distress and discomfort," Mrs Hobson said.
Judge David Farrell voiced concerns over the fact Mr Constant had been granted bail and fell at home.
He said: "Everyone thought he was in a safe environment so I'm concerned all proper care was given to him."
A post-mortem examination concluded that Mrs Constant died of asphyxia in association with heart disease.
Her body was discovered by police who were called to Poppyfields care home in Chapman Way, Eynesbury, near St Neots, on August 22.

Summary: