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

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

Summary: Crows are well known for their clever tricks but now they have been caught on camera making and using hook like tools.
###
Article: On Wednesday, the UUP announced the names of two new MLAs, Adrian Cochrane-Watson and Neil Somerville.
They are replacing the party's two new MPs, Danny Kinahan and Tom Elliott.
On Thursday night, the SDLP will pick a replacement MLA for its party leader.
Dr Alasdair McDonnell is resigning from the assembly on Sunday to concentrate on his role as an MP.
It is thought the Belfast councillor Claire Hanna will get his job as a South Belfast MLA.
Stormont's co-option system was introduced because holding a by-election could change the party political balance within a six-member constituency.
That would happen if an MLA belonging to a smaller party within a particular constituency stepped down, and a subsequent by-election was won by the dominant party within that seat.
The system also avoids the expense of by-elections.
Current co-optees include Sinn Féin's Rosaleen McCorley, Chris Hazzard, Bronwyn McGahan, Maeve McLaughlin and Ian Milne.
The party also used the system to bring Megan Fearon, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, Declan McAleer, Conor Murphy and Alex Maskey to the assembly.
The SDLP have co-opted Sean Rogers and Fearghal McKinney, the DUP have done the same with Gary Middleton, while the late independent MLA David McClarty was succeeded by Clare Sugden.
Sometimes co-opted MLAs are referred to as unelected politicians, but that is now becoming less straightforward.
Sinn Féin's Conor Murphy was elected as an MLA before handing his seat over to Megan Fearon.
Now he has been co-opted back in to the assembly to succeed Mickey Brady, who succeeded him as Newry and Armagh MP.
Similarly, Alex Maskey was originally elected in South Belfast, but now sits as a co-opted West Belfast MLA.
When Willie Hay, now Lord Hay, stepped down as an MLA and Stormont speaker, the DUP first replaced him with Maurice Devenney.
But shortly afterwards, they had to make a double co-option, with Gary Middleton stepping in to Mr Devenney's shoes.

Summary: Once the new Ulster Unionist and SDLP MLAs take their places in the Stormont chamber, 17 of the 108 MLAs will have benefited from the co-option process, which avoids the need to hold by-elections.
###
Article: The Belfast Telegraph's exclusive about a boy who battled a brain condition, and was injured in a petrol bomb attack in Newtownabbey dominates its front page.
Speaking to the paper, the boy's mother, Danielle Thompson, explains his surgery scars were scorched by flames when the family were trying to flee their home.
She says the fire caught four-year-old Cruz's head, causing scars from one of three life-saving operations to erupt in blisters.
The Irish News goes big on a claim that five Orange Halls have been awarded grants under a controversial Stormont scheme after applying as cultural, educational or historical societies.
The paper attributes the details to the Department for Communities and says details provided by them show a pledge of Â£104,000 for upgrades to the halls.
The scheme has been criticised by nationalists after it emerged that dozens of loyal order and band halls were offered grants of up to Â£25,000.
Last week, the Irish News reported the department had also promised Â£25,000 to the County Antrim based Randalstown Ulster Scots Cultural Society, but the address given for the group, Number 10 Portglenone Road, Randalstown, was not listed on Royal Mail's "postal address file".
Inside, the Irish News carries a story about a County Tyrone boy who is fighting life-threatening epilepsy in the United States.
It reports Billy Caldwell, 11, is recovering after being placed in an induced coma in Los Angeles.
Cannabis oil - an illegal form of treatment in the UK - is being used by medical professionals to help lessen Billy's symptoms, the paper reports.
The Irish News also dedicates a double-page spread to reaction to President Trump's travel ban, detailing demonstrations held across the UK on Monday.
It reports growing pressure on Theresa May to say whether she was aware of Donald Trump's plans during her American visit.
The News Letter reports that a prosecution decision on a man whose palm print was allegedly found on a getaway vehicle used in the Kingsmills massacre is set to be announced within...

Summary: There is little to compare in Tuesday's papers as each of the dailies leads with a different story.
###
Article: The Welsh Affairs Committee urged the BBC to give English language TV programming for Wales a cash boost.
Committee chairman David Davies said MPs also had ongoing funding concerns for Welsh language TV channel S4C.
The BBC said it had announced plans that would address the politicians' concerns.
On Wednesday, it emerged that more than two thirds of AMs had signed a letter to BBC Director General Lord Hall demanding he "be specific" about how much extra money he intended to give to BBC Wales.
Lord Hall, in a letter to First Minister Carwyn Jones in May, said the BBC planned to "allocate additional funding" across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, after admitting in 2014 that English language television programming in Wales had been "eroded".
The committee's report, published on Thursday, said extra funding should take into account the fact that Wales has a more limited choice of media and that the BBC therefore has a greater role to play.
"We recommend that the BBC allocates investment from its current budget for English language programming in Wales closer to the levels seen in 2006-07," the report said.
On the portrayal of Wales to the nation on television, the report said that a decline in "specific media provision for Welsh audiences" caused "insufficient scrutiny of decisions affecting Wales" by Welsh and UK ministers and this may also contribute to an "ill-informed population".
"Moreover, given the high value that Welsh audiences place on seeing themselves and Welsh life on screen, the current service and any prospect of further decline, particularly in non-news programming, is concerning," the report continued.
Mr Davies, Conservative MP for Monmouth, said the committee was worried by how "Wales is depicted on TV, or rather the lack of depiction of Wales" to the rest of the UK.
"There is good news that television is being made in Wales - that's obviously a very good thing - but often it's TV which is not actually about Wales, or set in Wales," he said.
The report welcomes a UK Government decision...

Summary: The way Wales is depicted on TV, both to Welsh audiences and the rest of the UK, must be improved, MPs have said in a report.
###
Article: 27 January 2015 Last updated at 14:30 GMT
They show that the asteroid has its own small moon orbiting it.
The asteroid passed by the Earth at a safe distance of 1.2 million km, giving scientists a rare chance to study it 'up close'.
The new data shows that asteroid 2004 BL86 is about 325m across, and its moon is around 70m wide.
Now that it has passed Earth the asteroid will continue on its orbit around the Sun, and it won't come this close again for another 200 years!
The next 'close shave' of a large asteroid is due in 2027: that object is called 1999 AN10 and is just over 1km wide.

Summary:


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

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

Summary: Labour has been "too timid" about taxation, leadership hopeful Owen Smith has said, and pledged that he would raise the top income tax rate to 50p.
###
Article: Khan said his filmmaker wife Kiran Rao had even suggested leaving the country.
Mr Khan told a journalism awards ceremony that he was "alarmed" over the rise in acts of intolerance in the "last six to eight months".
Earlier this month fellow superstar Shah Rukh Khan also spoke out against what he called "extreme intolerance" in India.
A movement that began with writers returning state awards has spread to scientists, historians and filmmakers.
They have cited the killing of rationalists MM Kalburgi and Govind Pansare, as well as the lynching of a man over suspicions he consumed beef, as examples of rising intolerance in the country.
Actor, director and producer Khan told a ceremony organised by The Indian Express newspaper that a sense of "insecurity" and "fear" had been growing in India.
"(Wife) Kiran and I have lived all our lives in India. For the first time, she said, should we move out of India? That's a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make to me," Khan was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
"She fears for her child. She fears about what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers everyday. That does indicate that there is a sense of growing disquiet."
Khan said creative people were returning their awards to express dissatisfaction or disappointment with the state of affairs.
"For creative people, to voice what they feel is important. A number of creative people - historians and scientists - have increasingly had a certain feeling that they feel they need to express. One of the ways of expressing their dissatisfaction or disappointment is to return awards."
He said: "As long as you don't resort to violence, all individuals have a right to protest and they can protest in any manner they feel is right".
"This is certainly a way to protest for creative people."
A spokesperson for India's ruling BJP said Khan was entitled to his view, but India remained a tolerant country.
"You can't take the exception to be the rule. You can't be alarmist over stray incidents. Let us...

Summary: Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan has joined the rising chorus of protest against growing "intolerance" in India.
###
Article: Economy Secretary Ken Skates told AMs the Development Bank of Wales will have its head office in north Wales.
He is considering plans drawn up by Finance Wales, the government-owned investment agency, to create the bank.
Opposition AMs called for more details and said his announcement was a "rebrand" of Finance Wales.
Mr Skates said the business case for the bank was still in a draft form, but he would publish it in the New Year after the Welsh Government has gathered more feedback.
Two options for basing the bank in north Wales are being considered, one of which would cost Â£5m, he told the Senedd on Tuesday.
Finance Wales is currently based in Cardiff.
The bank is on course to launch in the first half of 2017 if approved by regulators and would have a target of investing Â£80m a year by 2022.
It would address "market failures" where businesses - in particular small and micro-businesses, and new start-ups - are not able to borrow money from private banks.
Although things had improved since the credit crunch, some small businesses were still struggling to get funding, Mr Skates said.
The bank will not compete with private-sector lenders, but will instead provide "top-up finance" to help companies grow.
"I am also challenging the bank to continuously improve its value for money, and work towards ambitious private sector leverage to reduce cost per job," Mr Skates added.
Welsh Conservative economy spokesman Russell George said Mr Skates's statement was a "cosmetic rebrand of Finance Wales" - something the minister denied, saying the Development Bank reflected calls from AMs to build on Finance Wales' experience and expertise.
Plaid Cymru shadow economy minister Adam Price said: "It's a step forward, but I don't think it's quite as radical or as transformative as it could have been."
A review written in 2013 by business expert Prof Dylan Jones-Evans questioned whether Finance Wales was doing enough to help the Welsh economy and recommended the creation of a development bank.
In October, it emerged that a...

Summary: A bank aimed at making it easier for small businesses to borrow money and get advice will open early next year, the Welsh Government has confirmed.
###
Article: Carolyn Fairbairn, the director-general of the CBI, said: "We need this decision to be taken quickly."
David Cameron had promised a decision by the end of the year on whether to build a new runway at Heathrow.
However, on Monday BBC business editor Kamal Ahmed said the decision could be delayed "for at least six months".
The environmental, political and business arguments over whether to enlarge Heathrow or Gatwick airports have been going on for 25 years.
In July, the Airports Commission chaired by Sir Howard Davies backed the building of a new third runway at Heathrow at a cost of some £23bn ($34.6bn), although it did not rule out the option of expanding Gatwick.
However, senior sources have now said there needs to be more "confidence building" about the environmental impact of a new runway at Heathrow.
Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, Ms Fairbairn said: "Our economy is going to run out of airport capacity in the south by 2025.
"The effect on exports is going to be dramatic, a potential £5bn lost exports by 2030 if we don't act. It feels like a real failure of leadership.
"We really need a decision on airport capacity, it's urgent and it's not optional,"

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

Summary:

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

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

Summary: Chelsea Manning has released a statement ahead of her planned release from prison next week.
###
Article: Stephen Bladen, 55, of Pembroke Dock, was found guilty of 33 offences, including rape of a girl aged seven and another under 11, at Swansea Crown Court.
He will serve a minimum of 14 years behind bars.
On Monday, Judge Keith Thomas found Bladen to be a "dangerous" criminal who had offended over a 30-year period.
Robin Rouch, prosecuting, earlier read statements made by Bladen's victims in which they said their lives were ruined and described the difficulties they now have in trusting men.
One wrote: "I would have become a very different person if I had not been abused."
Bladen had denied the charges, which also included indecent assault of a five-year-old girl and possessing indecent images of children.
He was, however, disbelieved by the jury and found guilty of the counts.
Judge Thomas said Bladen would be liable for recall to prison for up to seven years after his release - even if he serves the full 21 years - should he reoffend.

Summary: A Pembrokeshire man who raped two young girls and sexually assaulted three others has been jailed for 21 years.
###
Article: The government had issued a media release on Tuesday about regeneration funding for Glasgow.
The Tories contend that the administration should not be making announcements which could have a bearing on Thursday's council vote.
A Scottish government spokesman said a response would be issued in "due course".
The Scottish government announced more than Â£8m of funding from the Scottish Partnership for Regeneration in Urban Centres (Spruce) on Tuesday, targeted at Glasgow.
Guidance for civil servants issued in January stated that "particular care" should be taken in the weeks preceding elections, noting: "It needs to be borne in mind that the activities of the Scottish government could have a bearing on the local election campaigns".
Conservative MSP Ross Thomson raised a point of order following Wednesday's session of questions to the first minister, saying the announcement "looks like a blatant attempt to sway voters in an area that is being targeted by the SNP".
He said: "I have written to the Permanent Secretary to the Scottish government asking for an explanation as to how this could be announced just 48 hours before voters go to the polls.
"People need to have absolute confidence that public money is not being used for party political ends."
The Scottish government spokesman confirmed that a letter had been received by the permanent secretary. He added: "A response will be issued in due course."

Summary: The Scottish Conservatives have called for an investigation over claims the Scottish government broke purdah rules.
###
Article: The timing of the handover of power from David Cameron looks set to be after PM's  questions on Wednesday.
Mrs May, 59, who backed staying in the EU, has been home secretary since 2010.
Mrs Leadsom, who campaigned to leave the EU, said the UK needed "strong and stable government" and that Mrs May was "ideally placed" to implement Brexit.
The 1922 committee of Tory MPs - which is overseeing the leadership contest - is holding talks with the Conservative Party board over formally declaring Mrs May the winner, after Mrs Leadsom dropped out.
A statement is expected from its chairman, Graham Brady, at about 17:00 BST.
Mrs May is also expected to make a public statement, at about 18:00 BST, according to BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith.
In a speech earlier on Monday setting out her leadership campaign platform, Mrs May - who rejected the argument that the next leader and prime minister had to have been someone on the winning side of the EU referendum - said: "Brexit means Brexit and we're going to make a success of it."
In her brief statement in Westminster, Mrs Leadsom - who was a leading light of the Brexit campaign - said a nine-week leadership campaign at such a "critical time" for the UK would be "highly undesirable".
A source close to the energy minister told BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg "the abuse has been too great" for Mrs Leadsom during the contest.
Mrs Leadsom had apologised to Mrs May on Monday after suggesting in a weekend newspaper interview that being a mother made her a better candidate for the job.
Mrs Leadsom, who was flanked by some of her supporters as she read the statement, said: "Strong leadership is needed urgently to begin the work of withdrawing from the European Union. A nine-week leadership campaign at such a critical moment is highly undesirable."
She said Mrs May, the home secretary, had the support of more than 60% of Conservative MPs and was "ideally placed to implement Brexit on the best possible terms for the British people and she has promised she will do...

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

Summary:


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

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

Summary: An action movie-style advertisement campaign to promote Australian lamb has angered vegans who call it "discriminatory".
###
Article: The Bank argues that the polymer notes stay cleaner and are more secure than cotton paper notes, which have been used for more than 100 years.
The £5 note featuring Sir Winston Churchill will be the first plastic banknote.
More than 20 countries around the world have adopted polymer banknotes.
The Bank of England said in September that it was considering a switch from cotton paper to polymer notes.
It then visited various shopping centres around the UK to gauge public opinion about the proposed change.
Nearly 13,000 people gave feedback. The Bank said 87% of those who responded were in favour of polymer, only 6% were opposed and 7% were neutral. However, some suggested the notes were too slippery.
It has now confirmed their introduction into the currency, starting with the £5 note. The £10 note is to go plastic about a year later, carrying the image of Jane Austen.
Follow a fiver - from production to destruction
The new banknotes will be made from a thin, transparent and flexible film made of polypropylene.
This is coated with an ink layer that enables it to carry the printed design features of a banknote. This allows the inclusion of windows or clear portions in the design, used to enhance protection against counterfeits.
The Bank has said that these notes last for 2.5 times longer than paper banknotes. They will survive a spin in the washing machine, but will still melt under extreme heat such as an iron.
Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, said: "Ensuring trust and confidence in money is at the heart of what central banks do.
"Polymer notes are the next step in the evolution of banknote design to meet that objective. The quality of polymer notes is higher, they are more secure from counterfeiting, and they can be produced at lower cost to the taxpayer and the environment."
The Bank said it expected to enter a contract with Innovia Security to supply the polymer material for the new £5 and £10 notes, in which case Innovia would establish a polymer production plant in Wigton, Cumbria, in...

Summary: Plastic banknotes that can survive a spin in the washing machine are to be brought into circulation by the Bank of England in 2016.
###
Article: The former deputy prime minister told the BBC takeovers "could be very helpful", but the UK should do more to protect its national interests.
This week, American drugs giant Pfizer announced it was bidding for British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
The firm has 6,700 employees in the UK.
If successful, the deal would be the biggest ever takeover of a UK business by a foreign company.
Lord Heseltine, who is an adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron on economic growth, told the BBC's business editor Kamal Ahmed that ministers should have "reserve powers" to protect British companies when crucial interests, such as the country's science base, were at risk.
"Foreign takeovers can often be hugely helpful and I have no doctrinal preoccupations - I've done enough takeovers of small businesses myself to know how valuable they can be," he said.
"But the important point is that every other advanced economy has mechanisms of some sort on a failsafe basis to scrutinise foreign takeovers and we're the only country that doesn't."
The proposed acquisition of AstraZeneca has prompted protests by some who feel the deal would jeopardise Britain's science and medical industries.
AstraZeneca has eight sites in the UK and about 6,700 employees.
Pfizer has said it would relocate large parts of its business to the UK, if the deal goes through. It has also suggested it wants to invest in research which could create more jobs.
But Lord Heseltine expressed his reservations over the deal.
"There are so many issues about the science base, about the supply chains, about employment prospects that ought to be explored and I don't see any way in which this can be adequately done unless the government has reserve powers.
"It's a question of where their headquarters are, where the decisions are taken, who determines what research is done and where, how much government money goes into supporting the science base within a co-operative arrangement, where the supply chains are going to be and what the motive is," he said.
Labour's business...

Summary: Conservative peer Lord Heseltine has said the government should have greater powers to intervene when British companies are the target of takeover bids by foreign businesses.
###
Article: The Deep Text engine can understand text with "near-human accuracy", a Facebook blogpost explained.
It said the AI system was developed to help people get more out of the site and to help catch spam and other unwanted messages.
Deep Text is being tested with Facebook Messenger and to generate responses to certain search queries.
With Messenger, the system is primed to spot when people are talking about preparing to travel and this can lead to software robots - known as bots - asking if they need to call a cab.
Similarly, if someone writes that they have something to sell, Deep Text-based bots will grab information about what is being sold and its price and suggest the seller uses Facebook's sales tools to make sure the ad reaches a wide audience.
Deep Text has emerged from work Facebook is doing on bots that can automatically help the site's users.
Future work will refine the AI engine's ability to get at the deeper meanings of text so it can spot subtle connections between words such as "bro" and "brother" that are often missed by other language analysis tools, said Facebook.
Rather than be directed by humans, the software has been allowed to learn about human language by itself and has built a conceptual map of how words are used and how they relate to each other.
The greater understanding of text could be useful when applied to lengthy text-based conversations that take place on Facebook to spot relevant or interesting comments.
It will also be used to clean up message threads by weeding out spam or other unwanted replies.
Facebook also said it planned to use Deep Text to improve its understanding of what people like so it can refine the information and adverts they are shown.
Currently, said Facebook, Deep Text can analyse several thousand posts per second and can handle more than 20 languages.
Mike Murphy, writing on the Quartz tech news website, said there were dangers involved in mapping people's interests ever more closely.
"As Facebook gets better at offering us personalised search results from our...

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

Summary:


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

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

Summary: Sweden's left-of-centre government has reached a deal with the main opposition resulting in a minority government and avoiding the need for snap elections.
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Article: Cardiff and the Vale, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg and Hywel Dda health boards now face what is known as "targeted intervention".
It is the second-highest of four levels of oversight.
This is one level below being put in special measures.
This already applies to Wales' largest health board, Betsi Cadwaladr in north Wales, which was taken under direct control in June 2015.
All three health boards, according to Health Secretary Vaughan Gething, were unable to set out convincing medium-term plans to deal with local challenges.
The organisations are being monitored against a one-year improvement plan.
The decision, announced in a written statement to AMs, follows a twice-yearly meeting between the Welsh Government, Wales Audit Office and Healthcare Inspectorate Wales.
Meanwhile the Welsh Ambulance Service's escalation level has been downgraded to the lowest level of oversight - following what the Welsh Government describes as "considerable progress" made by the trust.
All other health organisations in Wales remain at their previous "escalation levels."
According to Mr Gething, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg - which is responsible for hospitals in Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend -  in addition to not having an approved three year plan,  faced "continuing challenges in respect to unscheduled care and cancer."
The health board said it had made "significant progress" and made improvements in many areas "but recognise that we are currently facing a number of specific challenges about how to best deliver sustainable services that meet the increasing needs of our population".
Although Cardiff and Vale health board's performance recently improved in "key areas" - the health secretary said it "did not provide me with the necessary confidence that the organisation has a deliverable and affordable plan for the next three years."
Meanwhile Hywel Dda "faces a number of long-standing challenges" - which needs a "strategic solution" to make sure its services are sustainable"
There are four levels of escalation in the Welsh NHS which...

Summary: Three health boards in Wales have been placed under an increased level of scrutiny and control by the Welsh Government due to doubts about their ability to tackle their challenges.
###
Article: Many schools were evacuated as a precaution, meaning some GCSE, A-level and Higher exams had to be abandoned.
The BBC News website answers some of the key questions on the issue.
Yes. There is a procedure for schools to follow in the event of an emergency such as a fire or bomb alert during public examinations.
This is set out by the Joint Council for Qualifications, which represent the seven largest UK exam providers.
Exam invigilators are advised to stop candidates from writing, collect the attendance register (in order to ensure all candidates are present) and evacuate the examination room.
Students should be told to leave all question papers and scripts in the exam room and must leave the exam hall in silence.
Staff must make sure that the candidates are supervised as closely as possible while they are out of the exam hall, to make sure there is no discussion about the examination.
Invigilators should make a note of the time of the interruption and how long it lasted and allow the candidates the full working time set for the examination.
The guidance says if there are only a few candidates, schools should consider the possibility of taking the candidates (with question papers and scripts) to another place to finish the examination.
Schools have to make a full report of the incident and of the action taken and send this to the relevant exam board.
Students whose public exams were disrupted can rest assured that the situation will be fed back to the examiners. Schools will document how the exams were affected and send this to the exam boards. The boards will make any adjustments as they see fit, on a case-by-case basis.
A spokeswoman for the AQA exam board said: "We need to look at each case on an individual basis because there are a range of ways in which students might have been affected - they might have taken all, part or none of the exam, or been affected by the incident in different ways.
"Once we know the full circumstances from the schools, we can decide on the best course of action. In the...

Summary: Hundreds of pupils across the UK have faced disruption to exams following a spate of hoax calls.
###
Article: The white goose, known as Grumpy Gertie, was well-known in Sandon and appears on the village sign.
Villagers claimed he was shot at the pond on 21 February by a gang in a 4x4.
Police had said there was no evidence of a shooting as the goose was buried before they arrived. The body is now with the Royal Veterinary College.
The post-mortem examination is expected to take place at the end of the week, a police spokesman added.
More on this and other stories from Hertfordshire
Gertie would often be seen in a disused phone box, which villagers said he had made his "home".
It is now filled with letters, flowers, a lantern and children's pictures of Gertie.
Gay Ayton said: "He was a real character - he was hand-reared here and thought he was a duck.
"You'd see him in the middle of the road stopping traffic so the ducks could get by."
The RSPCA, which is investigating with police, said it was appalled by the suspected shooting, which it described as senseless and reckless.
It is illegal under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to intentionally kill or injure any wild bird.
Grumpy Gertie's fate featured on BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine Show on Friday, when a Peter Hunt from Eastbourne in Sussex texted in to offer Â£250,000 to catch the "vile killers".

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

Summary:


The Scottish government has announced plans to create up to 600 jobs and invest £120m at the site of the UK's last remaining aluminium smelter yard at Fort William.

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

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

Summary: The number of three-day emergency food parcels handed out by The Trussell Trust in Scotland increased by more than 13% in the last year.
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Article: The US city is facing a housing crisis, exacerbated by landlords renting out their property to visiting tourists rather than residents.
Under the rejected Proposition F, landlords would have been fined if they rented out their homes short-term for more than 75 days a year.
The result of the poll was closer than anticipated.
AirBnB lets landlords advertise property for short-term rentals, often undercutting hotels.
Proposition F would have seriously affected its operations in San Francisco, so the company spent $8m (Â£5.2m) on a "No on Prop F" campaign.
The "Yes" campaign, which lost by about 13,500 votes had just $1m (Â£650,000) funding.
Proposition F has been defeated, but despite the huge amount of money invested by AirBnB, the result was still pretty tight.
In fact, the result was closer than the "Yes" camp had imagined.
Dale Carlson, the "Yes" spokesman, had expected to be "completely blown out" in the vote.
In the end, the No supporters only won with 55% of the vote, and that isn't by much.
Given that regulators here now plan to use different legislative methods to limit AirBnB in San Francisco, this result may actually play in their favour.
Read more: San Fran votes on â€˜AirBnB law'

Summary: San Francisco voters have rejected a proposal to limit short-term rentals offered by AirBnB and similar services.
###
Article: GMB shop stewards unanimously voted for industrial action in protest at the removal of bank holidays from contracts and changes to flexi-time working.
The changes include six public holidays being replaced with annual leave days.
GMB Scotland will ballot members working for the council over the next month with a view to holding a minimum two-day strike in either May or June.
The union claims staff who regularly receive enhanced payments for working the set holidays will lose out by Â£500 a year on average.
GMB regional organiser Benny Rankin said: "GMB Scotland's members have consistently told the council that we will oppose these changes.
"This was never an empty threat, and if the council ever thought it was, this will be yet another error in a long line of errors from this administration.
"Our members are determined to see this fight through to the end. It is now up to the employer, Glasgow City Council, to come to the table and have meaningful discussions with the trade unions rather than provide sounds bites without any substance."
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "We are disappointed that GMB Scotland has opted for this course of action.
"The council is dealing with an unprecedented cut to our budget which means we must find Â£130m of savings in the next two years.
"We will continue to work with the union to find an agreed way forward."

Summary: A strike by Glasgow City Council staff over changes to public holiday entitlement has moved a step closer.
###
Article: It follows a £330m deal announced last month involving Liberty House and Simec to take over the Rio Tinto site.
Their plans include creating an aluminium wheel manufacturing facility, and a further 300 jobs directly, with another 300 in the supply chain.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited the site on Monday.
Liberty said it aimed to protect the existing 170 jobs in Lochaber and expand metal manufacturing and downstream engineering there.
The purchase by Liberty and Simec - both members of the GFG Alliance - includes the hydro power plants at Fort William and Kinlochleven and more than 100,000 acres of land hosting the water catchment area, including Ben Nevis' foothills.
The Scottish government is supporting the plans by guaranteeing the power purchases of the aluminium smelter.
Ms Sturgeon said the proposals reinforced the link between the smelter and the hydro station at Fort William.
She described it as a "historic day" for the smelter and said she looked forward to hundreds of new jobs in the area in the coming years.
She added: "Today is the start of an exciting new chapter in Scotland's manufacturing story and the Scottish government and its agencies will keep working with Sanjeev Gupta and the GFG Alliance to help them realise their enterprising vision for Lochaber."
Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of Liberty House Group and of the GFG Alliance strategic board, said: "We hope this day will come to be recognised as the start of a bright new future for Highland industry.
"It puts Lochaber right at the heart of our vision for sustainable and integrated local production that can revitalise British manufacturing."
Mr Gupta and Ms Sturgeon were among those who attended the announcement who wore a bindi, a symbol of Mr Gupta's Hindu faith.
Jay Hambro, chief investment officer of the GFG Alliance, and chief executive of Simec energy & mining divisions said: "These hydro-power stations have enough capacity to power around 83,000 homes.
"Today Lochaber provides the power required to produce 47,000 tonnes...

Summary: Plans to create up to 600 jobs and invest £120m at the site of the UK's last remaining aluminium smelter yard at Fort William have been announced.
###
Article: The witness also said her family had been forced to move to Spain to escape her daughter's alleged abusers.
Sheffield Crown Court also heard how police lost tapes of an interview with defendant Sageer Hussain in 2003.
Eight men, including Mr Hussain, deny sexually abusing three girls between 1999 and 2003.
The mother of one of the alleged victims said in a statement: "Her character changed from a lovely girl to an animal. She became horrible."
She said at one stage she discovered a mobile phone in her daughter's bedroom and rang a number stored under the name 'Waleed'.
She said a man picked up the phone and said "I ain't done owt, I ain't touched her. It isn't me".
When she asked her daughter about the phone she said she burst into tears and said "They're raping me, they're raping me".
She told the court after her daughter went to the police in 2003 her family were repeatedly threatened.
"We were so distraught that we sold the business and the home and moved to Spain," she said.
Det Con Andy Stephanek, of South Yorkshire Police, told the court the force had lost the tape of an interview with Mr Hussain when he was first questioned about the allegations.
He said it appeared that "due to the passage of time they've been destroyed".
The trial continues.

Summary:


The new name of the Oxford University campus is "Oxford University".

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

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

Summary: Men from poor backgrounds are twice as likely to be single in their early 40s than those from rich families, research suggests.
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Article: Castrillo Matajudios has now reverted to its previous title - Castrillo Mota de Judios ("Jew's Hill Fort").
Some 50 people who live there voted to change the name last year.
The controversial name may have been adopted in Medieval times by Catholic converts from Judaism keen to show their loyalty to the state.
Castrillo Mota de Judios has a long Jewish heritage - it was founded  in 1035 by Jews fleeing persecution.
"The phrase 'Matajudios' did not correspond to the way this village thinks or acts these days, nor with our village flag, which has the Star of David on it," the village's mayor, Lorenzo Rodriguez, told the Independent after last year's vote.
The name change was approved by the regional government of Castilla y Leon, Associated Press reported.
Spain still has a village called Valle de Matamoros, or "Kill Moors valley" -  a reference to the North African invaders who conquered parts of southern Spain, although there are no plans to change its name.

Summary: The name of a Spanish village that translates as "Fort Kill Jews" has been changed following a referendum and local government approval.
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Article: There are already 400 operating across 11 bus routes in the capital and by May there will be a total of 800.
They are the Marmite of buses; some love them, some hate them.
Some have conductors (that don't take fares), and you can hop on and hop off the rear platform in traffic. On some you can't.
Critics think it would have been cheaper to buy hybrids off the peg, others think they are worth the premium.
It is one of the few areas where more staff have been taken on.
Transport-wise, they are a bit of an eccentric anomaly.
There have been problems with the on-board cooling leading to extremely uncomfortable conditions upstairs, and now I've learnt there have been problems with the batteries.
They have not been working correctly and the initial batch of batteries is having to be replaced.
Transport for London (TfL) bosses tell me the original Routemasters suffered various problems initially and compared to them they think this version has performed pretty well. The faulty batteries are being replaced under warranty.
Mike Weston, TfL's director of buses, said: "The New Routemaster is the cleanest and greenest bus of its class and there is absolutely no problem with its hybrid system.
"However, as part of the warranty provided by the manufacturer, a programme is under way to check and, if necessary, upgrade batteries on some of the fleet.
"If the batteries stop working properly the engine runs for longer to generate the electrical power needed.
"The battery packs are being upgraded as soon as possible and within the warranty period, at no cost to TfL or the taxpayer."

Summary: The march of the New Bus for London - or New Routemaster - as it has been rebranded, continues.
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Article: Norman Davies, 56, took the Patterdale terrier for a walk in May to a secluded area before holding her collar and cutting her with a kitchen knife.
Misty managed to escape and was found the next day before being taken to the vets, who were able to save her.
Davies, of Grafton Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, admitted causing unnecessary suffering at an earlier hearing before magistrates in Chester.
He admitted in an interview to slitting the three-year-old dog's throat because she was "urinating inside", the RSPCA said.
Davies has also been banned from keeping animals for life.
RSPCA inspector Lisa Lupson said: "Misty would have been absolutely terrified and it would have been excruciatingly painful for her.
"Davies cut clean through her skin but missed her main arteries. If Misty had not managed to get free when she did then she may not be here today - she had an incredibly lucky escape."
Misty has since been rehomed and is "making progress", she added.

Summary: A man who slit his pet dog's throat has been jailed for 18 weeks.
###
Article: Isis Academy in Oxford said it had rebranded as "Iffley Academy" to protect its "reputation, integrity and image".
The name 'Isis' was originally chosen as the school is near to the section of the River Thames of the same name.
Formerly Iffley Mead School, it became Isis Academy in 2013.
A statement issued by the school said it had changed name following "the unforeseen rise of ISIS (also known as ISIL and the Islamic State) and related global media coverage of the activities of the group".
"Our priority is to remove the detrimental impact which the name 'Isis' had on pupils, their families and our staff."
Last year a language school in the city removed Isis from its name for the same reason.
The Isis is the name given to the part of the River Thames above Iffley Lock in Oxford. It is also the name of the goddess wife of the god Osiris in Egyptian beliefs.

Summary:


The UK's first self-driven car licence will be granted in the UK on 1 July.

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

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

Summary: New research has shown that aggressive treatment of high blood pressure can significantly reduce risks of heart disease and death in people over 50.
###
Article: In June 1815, the Duke of Wellington sent a dispatch to tell Britain about the victory.
Major Harry Percy took it by boat to Broadstairs and then by fast carriage through Kent to London.
A replica horse-drawn post chaise visited the three places in Kent where Major Percy changed horses.
The route included Faversham and Sittingbourne on Saturday.
Major Percy also changed horses in Rochester but the carriage then visited Medway's Armed Forces Day at Great Lines Heritage Park, Gillingham.
New Waterloo Dispatch chairman Peter Warwick said the carriage would visit Walmer Castle, which was where the Duke of Wellington died and where he was also Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
The final Waterloo dispatch was being presented to the current Lord Warden, Admiral of the Fleet the Lord Boyce, on Sunday at Walmer at the end of this year's celebrations.
Following the victory of the Duke of Wellington's allied forces over Napoleon's French army, Major Percy set out from Belgium carrying the letter written by the Duke relaying news from the battlefield to an expectant nation.
But the ship carrying the dispatch began to drift in the Channel, resulting in the men having to row the 20 miles to shore at Broadstairs.
From there, the dispatch was taken by carriage to the Prince Regent, who was at a dinner party in London.
Once there, the Prince Regent initially thought Major Percy - who was still covered in blood from the fighting - was bearing bad news.
But after Wellington's victory was announced, guests rushed into the street to celebrate.

Summary: A horse-drawn carriage has been touring Kent in the finale of national celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.
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Article: Media playback is not supported on this device
Ali, who is widely regarded as the greatest boxer of all time, died aged 74 of "septic shock due to unspecified natural causes" last Friday.
On the eve of his funeral in Louisville, Kentucky, Haye called for him to be honoured by the UK.
"I believe Muhammad Ali is the perfect recipient," said Haye, 35.
Haye started a petition in February to get Ali an honorary knighthood, awarded to recognise non-British citizens who have made major contributions to the UK.
"Whilst it is a huge shame this did not happen when he was alive, to award it posthumously in honour of the incredible legacy he leaves would be perfectly fitting," he added.
World leaders will be among thousands attending Friday's procession and memorial service in Louisville, where Ali was born in 1942.
Former US President Bill Clinton and actor Billy Crystal are also set to speak, though current US President Barack Obama will miss the memorial.
Meanwhile, Britain's former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, who will help carry Ali's coffin, told BBC Sport he was "shocked" as well as "honoured" to be asked.
"I just want to make sure everything goes well. He was my hero, he inspired me just by being confident.
"His legacy is not just to sport, it is bigger than sport. Ali is the father of boxing."

Summary: Muhammad Ali should be given a posthumous honorary knighthood, according to Britain's former two-weight world champion David Haye.
###
Article: The first to hit the highway will be a Toyota Prius modified by search firm Google, which is leading the way in driverless car technology.
Its first drive included a spin down Las Vegas's famous strip.
Other car companies are also seeking self-driven car licences in Nevada.
The car uses video cameras mounted on the roof, radar sensors and a laser range finder to "see" other traffic.
Engineers at Google have previously tested the car on the streets of California, including crossing San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge.
For those tests, the car remained manned at all times by a trained driver ready to take control if the software failed.
According to software engineer Sebastian Thrun, the car has covered 140,000 miles with no accidents, other than a bump at traffic lights from a car behind.
Bruce Breslow, director of Nevada's Department of Motor Vehicles, says he believes driverless vehicles are the "cars of the future".
Nevada changed its laws to allow self-driven cars in March. The long-term plan is to license members of the public to drive such cars.
Google's car has been issued with a red licence plate to make it recognisable. The plate features an infinity sign next to the number 001.
Other states, including California, are planning similar changes.
"The vast majority of vehicle accidents are due to human error," said California state Senator Alex Padilla, when he introduced the legislation.
"Through the use of computers, sensors and other systems, an autonomous vehicle is capable of analysing the driving environment more quickly and operating the vehicle more safely."

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

Summary:


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

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

Summary: The North Circular has been named London's most polluted road in a study carried out for the mayor.
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Article: But a criminal probe is indeed continuing into alleged corruption at Brazil's largest business.
A number of directors at state-run Petrobras are accused of taking bribes from construction companies, in return for awarding them lucrative contracts.
Public prosecutors and federal police claim that bribes of up to 5% of contract values were being skimmed off.
And it is further alleged that some of these funds were funnelled to officials in the ruling coalition of the Workers' Party and Brazilian Democratic Movement Party.
In the wake of the continuing investigation, the federal prosecutor's office has launched a three-month, economy-wide anti-corruption campaign, including increased punishments for those found guilty, and improvements to the recovery of the proceeds of crime.
But as the Petrobras scandal continues to dominate the headlines in Brazil, how much of a corruption problem does the country have?
The Petrobras investigation, named Operation Lava Jato (or Car Wash in English), may be the biggest corruption probe in Brazil's history, but it is far from the first.
Instead for many commentators, corruption is endemic and institutionalised in Brazil.
Take the case of former billionaire Eike Batista, once the richest man in the country.
He fell from grace last year after his energy, mining and shipbuilding empire collapsed, and he was charged with insider trading and market manipulation, charges he denies.
Standing trial this year, the case was suspended back in February after the presiding judge - who had ordered the seizure of 1.5bn reals ($388m; Â£252m) of the businessman's assets - was found to be driving one of Mr Batista's luxury cars.
Separately, Mr Batista, 58, who was once worth as much as $30bn (Â£20bn), was fined 1.4m Brazilian reals in March by regulators for failing to alert investors about the imminent takeover of his EBX Group.
Meanwhile, both Brazilian investigators, and the US's FBI, are continuing to investigate allegations of corruption at last year's World Cup in Brazil.
"Unfortunately,...

Summary: When Petrobras was named the most ethical global oil and gas company in 2008, few would have imagined that the company would now find itself at the centre of the biggest corruption investigation in Brazilian history.
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Article: The Commons International Development Committee said dependable tax revenues were a far better route out of poverty than reliance on overseas aid.
In a report, it said supporting more efficient tax collection represented "excellent value" for UK taxpayers.
The UK spent £7.8bn on aid in 2011 and this is set to rise to £11bn by 2015.
The government welcomed the report and said it was "firmly committed to helping developing countries access more sustainable sources of revenue".
Amid cuts in other departments, the foreign aid budget is being protected to help the UK meet its target of spending 0.7% of national income on aid by 2013.
The cross-party committee said an efficient and transparent tax system was of "fundamental importance" to a country's economic and social development.
It urged ministers to support the authorities in developing nations to improve the collection rates of income tax, VAT and local property taxes and to ensure governing elites paid their fair share.
"If developing countries are to escape from aid dependency, and from poverty more broadly, it is imperative that their revenue authorities are able to collect taxes effectively," the committee's chairman, Lib Dem MP Malcolm Bruce said.
"The aim of development work is to enable developing countries to escape from over-reliance on aid.
"Supporting revenue authorities is one of the best ways of doing this: it represents excellent value for money, both for the countries concerned and for UK taxpayers."
In their report, the MPs expressed concern that recent changes to tax rules affecting UK-owned companies operating exclusively abroad could make it easier for them to use tax havens and reduce their tax liability in developing countries.
Aid agencies have estimated this could cost developing countries billions in lost tax revenues and the committee said the government should consider reversing the changes "as a matter of urgency".
"The government is committed to supporting economic growth in developing countries to reduce their dependency on aid....

Summary: The UK should give more priority to helping the poorest countries collect their taxes as part of its foreign aid strategy, MPs have suggested.
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Article: Under the terms of the deal, the two businesses will be run in a joint venture called Penguin Random House.
Bertelsmann will own 53% of the joint venture, while Pearson will own 47%.
The two firms said last week that they were discussing a deal. A report at the weekend also said News Corporation was planning a bid for Penguin.
The Sunday Times reported that News Corp - which owns publisher HarperCollins - was prepared to make a "substantial cash offer" for Penguin, expected to be about £1bn.
The tie-up between Penguin and Random House marks the first deal between the world's big six publishers. The others are Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster. It would bring together the publishers of the Fifty Shades series and Jamie Oliver's cookbooks.
When news of the talks emerged last week, industry observers said that such deals were inevitable as firms sought to adapt to the changing publishing landscape. They are being hit hard by the proliferation of ebooks and the closure of some traditional High Street book retailers.
The rapid take-up of ebooks means publishers are trying to bolster their negotiating strength, most notably with Amazon.
Pearson chief executive Marjorie Scardino, who is leaving the firm at the end of the year, said: "Penguin is a successful, highly-respected and much-loved part of Pearson. This combination with Random House... will greatly enhance its fortunes and its opportunities.
"Together, the two publishers will be able to share a large part of their costs, to invest more for their author and reader constituencies and to be more adventurous in trying new models in this exciting, fast-moving world of digital books and digital readers."
John Makinson, chairman and chief executive of Penguin, will be chairman of the merged group, with Random House boss Markus Dohle becoming chief executive.
Based on recent results, combining the two firms will create a business with annual revenues of about £2.5bn and about one-quarter of both the UK and US book markets.
In 2011, Random...

Summary: Publisher Pearson says it has agreed a deal with German media group Bertelsmann to combine their Penguin and Random House businesses.
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Article: Jacqueline McPhie, 46, took the money while vice president for finance at Altus Intervention in Aberdeen between March 2013 and April 2014.
McPhie, of Arbroath, admitted embezzlement and was jailed for three years and four months in July.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, she was ordered to pay back £587,434 through her "realisable assets."
She was given six months to pay the confiscation order.
McPhie diverted money from the business, which supplies equipment for North Sea oil and gas projects, to fund her lifestyle.
She bought an £80,000 Range Rover, and spent more than £60,000 on a new garage and driveway, £52,000 on a kitchen and £30,000 on a summer house in her garden.
McPhie had previously been given 300 hours of community service 16 years ago for stealing £250,000 from previous employers.

Summary:


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

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

Summary: Should a 14-year-old married girl who migrates to Europe be viewed as a child - or a spouse?
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Article: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels advanced into government-held western districts overnight but were pushed back by Wednesday morning.
The battle was the most intense in Aleppo for more than a year, it added.
Later, the US said an agreement has been reached with Russia to extend a truce in Syria to include Aleppo.
The Syrian military confirmed it would observe a 48-hour ceasefire in the city.
A surge in fighting in Aleppo in the past two weeks has killed almost 300 people.
The nationwide cessation of hostilities brokered in late February by the US and Russia, which back opposing sides in the war, is close to collapse.
A coalition of rebel groups fighting under the name "Fatah Halab" (Aleppo Conquest) launched the assault on the government's defensive lines in the west of the city on Tuesday by detonating a tunnel bomb, the AFP news agency reported.
Intense gun battles, air strikes and artillery attacks went on through Tuesday night. Intermittent clashes continued on Wednesday.
Activists also reported that government warplanes carried out more than 20 air strikes in the rebel-held eastern Ghouta outside Damascus, after a freeze in fighting declared by the government around the capital expired.
On Wednesday, the US State Department announced that an extension to the cessation of hostilities had been agreed with Russia on Tuesday.
"Since this went into effect today at 00:01 (local time; 21:01 GMT on Tuesday) in Damascus, we have seen an overall decrease in violence in these areas, even though there have been reports of continued fighting in some locations," a US statement said.
Al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliate that is allied to a number of rebel groups, is excluded from the cessation of hostilities.
The government and its ally Russia say only al-Nusra positions in Aleppo are being targeted, but the opposition and the US accuse them of indiscriminately attacking civilians and rebels abiding by the cessation of hostilities.
UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland complained later on Wednesday that the...

Summary: Dozens of people are reported to have been killed in fierce clashes between rebel groups and government forces in the divided Syrian city of Aleppo.
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Article: The robot fired its ChemCam laser at a tennis-ball-sized stone lying about 2.5m away on the ground.
The brief but powerful burst of light from the instrument vaporised the surface of the rock, revealing details of its basic chemistry.
This was just target practice for ChemCam, proving it is ready to begin the serious business of investigating the geology of the Red Planet.
It is part of a suite of instruments on the one-tonne robot, which landed two weeks ago in a deep equatorial depression known as Gale Crater.
Over the course of one Martian year, Curiosity will try to determine whether past environments at its touchdown location could ever have supported life.
The US-French ChemCam instrument will be a critical part of that investigation, helping to select the most interesting objects for study.
The inaugural target of the laser was a 7cm-wide rock dubbed "Coronation" (previously N165).
It had no particular science value, and was expected to be just another lump of ubiquitous Martian basalt, a volcanic rock.
Its appeal was the nice smooth face it offered to the laser.
ChemCam zapped it with 30 pulses of infrared light during a 10-second period.
Begin exploring Mars
Each pulse delivered to a tiny spot more than a million watts of power for about five billionths of a second.
The instrument observed the resulting spark through a telescope; the component colours would have told scientists which atomic elements were present.
"We got a great spectrum of Coronation - lots of signal," said ChemCam principal investigator Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico.
"Our team is both thrilled and working hard, looking at the results. After eight years building the instrument, it's pay-off time."
One aspect being considered by the team is whether the signal changed slightly as the laser burrowed through any exterior layers that might have coated Coronation.
"Coatings can tell you about, say, the weather or what has happened to a rock through the eons," Dr Wiens told the BBC last week.
"We will look at...

Summary: Nasa's Curiosity rover has zapped its first Martian rock.
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Article: The Offshore Contractors Association (OCA) and the Unite union have struck a deal over holiday entitlement and rota changes.
On Friday, Unite, the UK's biggest offshore union, said the agreement brought an end to a prolonged dispute.
Following a consultative ballot, more than 50% of members voted to accept the offer.
The deal is for improved holiday entitlement and a joint review of workers' shift rotations.
Bill Murray, chief executive of the Offshore Contractors' Association, said: "The OCA has listened to the union's concerns about the potential impact of equal time rotas on health and safety and work-life balance.
"At the same time, union officials and shop stewards understood the need to take action together to reduce costs and become more efficient if we are to prevent installations closing and jobs being lost.
"OCA member companies have committed to monitoring and quarterly reporting on the effects on health and safety and work life balance of equal time rotas.
"We have also clarified the situation regarding holidays, stating that employees will be entitled to request one rotation off from work time in each holiday year and that such requests will not be reasonably refused."
Unite's regional officer Tommy Campbell said: "What our oil and gas sector urgently requires now is a genuine co-operation between government, industry and the offshore trade unions to respond to this ongoing crisis, alleviating the pressure on the industry while protecting employment rights. "

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

Summary: