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 British Medical Association's Dr Chaand Nagpaul said GP services were already at breaking point.
He will tell a conference that pledges to recruit 5,000 GPs in England would "fail dismally" as doctors were fleeing the profession.
The Department of Health said it was an "overly negative, pessimistic view".
During the election campaign, the Conservatives pledged access to GPs between 08:00 and 20:00, seven days a week, by 2020 in England.
The party also pledged everyone over 75 would get a same-day appointment.
But the proposals have been lambasted in the first major speech by GP leaders since the election.
Dr Nagpaul, the chairman of the BMA's GP committee, , will tell the annual conference of local medical committees: "The government must halt its surreal obsession for practices to open seven days when there aren't the GPs to even cope with current demands.
"It would damage quality care by spreading GPs so thinly, and replace continuity of care with impersonal shift work, and will reduce our availability for older, vulnerable patients."
He will argue no other country was attempting such a plan, while the NHS was pressing ahead with "fewer GPs per head than in Europe, while spending less on health compared to virtually all other comparable nations".
General practice is key to plans to shift more care out of hospitals into the community.
But Dr Nagpaul will use the speech to say demand on services has soared as practices are used as the "backstop for every problem in the NHS and beyond".
There were 40 million more GP appointments annually than five years ago, yet the proportion of NHS funds spent in general practice was falling, he will say.
Dr Nagpaul also pointed to a survey of 15,000 GPs which showed one in three intending to retire and one in five planning to move abroad in the next five years.
Many cited overwhelming workloads.
"It's absolutely pointless promising 5,000 extra GPs within this Parliament if we lose 10,000 GPs retiring in the same period," Dr Nagpaul will say, adding that it would be...

Summary: David Cameron needs to "get real" and ditch his "surreal obsession" with opening GP surgeries seven days a week, a senior GPs' representative says.
###
Article: Penalties for overstays in car parks on private land in England and Wales could in some cases be unenforceable in court, the charity said.
It said the penalties were much more expensive than compensation for a genuine loss incurred by landowners.
But the Independent Parking Committee said penalties are the only protection landowners have against losses.
The foundation also called for the government to ensure that extra parking charges were "reasonable and enforceable" and wants to see its argument tested in court.
Its report was compiled by barrister John de Waal QC, who also said parking companies were levying charges on drivers which were disproportionate to the losses suffered by landowners as a result of motorists' actions.
The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 banned clamping, towing, blocking-in or immobilising a vehicle without lawful authority on private land, in a bid to end abuses by rogue clamping firms.
However, the foundation said that private car parks were now using overstay penalty charges as an alternative, with a system of ticketing which was "barely regulated".
Drivers who stay longer than the time they have paid for may receive tickets demanding payments of up to £100, and significantly more in some cases, it said.
It cited the case of a woman from High Wycombe who, in 2014, had been penalty charged £100 for overstaying in a car park which cost 20p per hour.
The report also said European legislation, which requires contracts to be fair, meant so-called "early payment discounts" of penalty charges could also be unlawful because they constitute a "price escalation clause".
It said when parking signs were not clear or prominently displayed, the charge could also be challenged on the grounds of unfairness.
Foundation director Professor Stephen Glaister estimated overcharging in private parking penalties may have reached £100m in 2013, and said millions of drivers could be due a refund.
"We would like to see this legal argument tested in a higher court so that a binding precedent is set," he...

Summary: Millions of pounds of parking penalties could have been charged illegally, according to the RAC Foundation.
###
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 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: The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee said 7.3m tonnes of food was wasted in UK households in 2015.
The committee said shops should relax standards that prevent the sale of "wonky vegetables" to help cut waste.
And the next government should consider whether "best before" dates were needed, it said.
Committee chairman Neil Parish said: "One-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, and in the UK over £10bn worth of food is thrown away by households every year.
"Economically, food waste costs households hundreds of pounds a year and causes increased disposal costs to local authorities, pushing up council tax bills.
"Socially, it is a scandal that people are going hungry and using food banks when so much produce is being wasted.
"And environmentally, it is a disaster, because energy and resources are wasted in production only for the food to end up rotting in landfills where it produces methane - a potent climate-changing gas."
Food waste costs the average person in the UK £200 per year, the report said.
The average household lost £470 a year because of avoidable food waste, while those with children lost £700, it said.
The report said about two-thirds of the potential reduction in UK food waste would need to come from action at a household level.
It said it would be "hugely challenging" to reduce food waste further and would require "a considerable investment of resource".
In their report, Food Waste in England, the MPs said:
It also called for a review of whether "best before dates" were needed at all.
While "use by" dates refer to food safety, "best before" labels refer only to quality.
Foods will be safe to eat after the "best before" date, but may not be at their best.
The report said current date labelling was unnecessarily confusing, and guidance should be issued to the industry by the end of the year.
The report also highlighted the issue of suppliers' food being rejected for cosmetic reasons.
It said up to a quarter of apples, up to a fifth of onions and up to...

Summary: The level of household food waste in England is "unacceptable" and householders have a key role to play in reducing it, MPs have said.
###
Article: The work and pensions secretary says that the current system is too "binary" - with claimants deemed either fit or unfit for work.
Instead, claimants should be made to take up any work they can, even if it is just a few hours, he will say.
Labour says cutting benefits for people who are not able to work is punishing the disabled for government failures.
Mr Duncan Smith insisted that the "most vulnerable people in our society" will be protected under his latest reforms.
And despite the "scaremongering" of critics, he said, the UK spends more on the sick and disabled than the average of the other nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Mr Duncan Smith has also made his first public comments about revelations his department had used made-up stories from fictional sickness benefit claimants to demonstrate the positive impact of benefit sanctions.
The work and pensions secretary said the online examples were "drawn as a summary from real life cases but it wasn't a real life case".
He added: " It was quite wrong, those individuals [responsible] ultimately will face some form of disciplinary procedure."
Mr Duncan Smith's speech did not contain any policy announcements but aims instead to start a "conversation" about the next phase of welfare reform, according to DWP officials.
Mr Duncan Smith focused on the Employment Support Allowance, which is paid to those unable to work on health grounds. Those who receive the payment have their fitness to work tested under the Work Capability Assessment.
He believes those assessments should be more personalised, so if someone is able to work for a few hours they are helped to do so.
"It is right that we look at how the system supports people who are sick," he said.
Mr Duncan Smith argued what is needed is "a system focused on what a claimant can do and the support they'll need, and not just on what they can't."
He added: "Nearly 11 million adults in the UK have a common mental health condition and people are much more likely to fall out of...

Summary: Iain Duncan Smith is planning a shake-up of the rules on sickness benefit to encourage more people into work.
###
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...

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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.
###
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.
###
Article: The New Policy Institute (NPI) said the statistics suggested that people claiming Jobseekers Allowance in Dundee were about 50% more likely to be sanctioned than claimants in Glasgow.
People have their benefits stopped or cut for a variety of reasons.
The Department for Work and Pensions said staff have no sanctions targets and that sanction rates are falling.
People who are sanctioned can have their payments stopped for four weeks, or as much as three years, depending on how many times the rules are broken.
Reasons for sanctions include being late or not attending Jobcentre meetings and training, or not applying for enough jobs.
The DWP said the sanctions regime is a necessary part of the benefits system, but a committee of MPs has twice called for an inquiry into how they work.
According to analysis by the NPI, the monthly sanction referral rate in Dundee in 2014 was 509, or 12.4% - 4.7 percentage points higher than in Glasgow (1,327 or 7.7%).
In Scotland as a whole in 2014, the average monthly sanction rate for those aged under-25 was 8%, compared to 3.7% for those aged 25 and over.
The NPI director, Peter Kenway, said there did not appear to be any good reason for the disparity between Dundee and Glasgow in terms of the claimants themselves.
He said: "You'd expect some random fluctuation but the difference between 12% of people every month and 7.5% every month can't in any way just be put down to random day-to-day fluctuation.
"It's a clear sign that although it's the same system on paper, things are being run very differently in Dundee from the way it's run in Glasgow. To have the benefits system run unevenly and unfairly is completely unacceptable.
"It's not that people want a soft system, they want a fair and straight system."
He added: "What we've got at the minute is a harsh system that's being applied very unevenly. And there's no evidence to suggest that Dundee's got it right."
"I started on Jobseekers Allowance in mid-December last year. I got sanctioned on 29 January because I was 15 minutes late...

Summary: Evidence of a postcode lottery in benefit sanctions has been uncovered by a new analysis of the latest figures.
###
Article: They say the Lafayette meteorite shows signs of carbonation - where minerals absorb CO2 in a reaction with water.
Mars lost its protective blanket about 4 billion years ago, perhaps because of the loss of its magnetic field, space impacts, or chemical processes.
Carbonation may be the key factor, they write in Nature Communications.
The process occurs naturally on Earth - and has been proposed as a technique for mitigating climate change, by capturing CO2 from the atmosphere.
The 4.5cm Lafayette meteorite was discovered in Indiana, US in 1931, having plummeted to Earth about 3,000 years ago.
It formed in the Red Planet's crust about 1.3 billion years ago, and was ejected from the surface by a massive impact.
A team from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) performed microscopic analysis on a section of the rock - borrowed from the Natural History Museum in London.
They found that silicate minerals, such as olivine and feldspar, had interacted with CO2-rich liquid water to form siderite crystals.
The team says their discovery suggests liquid water was present on Mars more recently than some had thought.
They also say it represents the first direct evidence for carbonation on the Red Planet - and ties in with the discovery of carbonates by Nasa's Curiosity Mars rover.
"Carbonation could be the main force that turned Mars to stone," said lead author Dr Tim Tomkinson, of SUERC.
"We can't say for certain it's the dominant cause - the loss of Mars' magnetic field may also have led to the stripping of its atmosphere by the solar wind. And CO2 is also frozen in the poles of Mars.
"But carbonates do seem to be very abundant on the Martian surface."
The loss of its carbon dioxide cloak is likely to have caused Mars to cool. So understanding how the CO2 was removed "could provide vital clues to how we can limit the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and so reduce climate change" said Dr Tomkinson.
Mineral carbonation is widespread on Earth. For example, in Oman's Samail...

Summary: A meteorite reveals clues to how Mars lost its thick, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere and became a cold, rocky desert, researchers say.
###
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 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.
###
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.
###
Article: The first call, shortly before 11:00, was to assist an 8.3m yacht which had run aground near Glenmoriston.
Before returning to base, they were called to Temple Pier to help with a motor cruiser which had a rope caught in its propeller.
Shortly after returning to base at 14:45, the lifeboat was called out to a yacht drifting near Urquhart Castle.
A statement from the RNLI Loch Ness lifeboat station said: "A memorable day for the volunteers at Loch Ness boathouse in a year that is shaping up to be their busiest yet."
A lifeboat on Loch Ness was first introduced in 2008.

Summary: Loch Ness RNLI have attended three separate incidents on their busiest day ever.
###
Article: Apple, Facebook and Google were praised for "significant improvements" in energy transparency and attempts to move to 100% renewable energy.
But Amazon Web Services (AWS), which powers many net firms, only uses 15% clean energy, according to the report.
The retail giant hit back, branding the report "inaccurate".
The green activist group warned that more needed to be done to make the internet greener, particularly in countries experiencing huge net growth such as China.
The electricity demand of internet and cloud services has grown exponentially, according to the report, Clicking Clean: How Companies are Creating the Green Internet.
And it is expected to increase by 60% or more by 2020 as reliance on the internet increases.
"Apple, Facebook and Google are powering our online lives with clean energy and building a greener offline world for everyone in the process," said Gary Cook, Greenpeace's senior IT analyst.
It  represents a turnaround for Apple which two years ago was criticised in a 2012 Greenpeace report, How Green is Your Cloud.
The firm went from a 35% use of renewable energy in 2010 to 75% by the end of 2012.
Amazon though has remained on Greenpeace's blacklist.
Amazon Web Services, which hosts a large part of the internet including for companies such as Netflix, Spotify, Tumblr, AirBnB and Pinterest, currently only sources 15% of its electricity demand with clean energy, according to the report.
Coal powers 28% of the company's cloud, nuclear 27% and gas 25%.
"By continuing to buy dirty energy, Amazon Web Services not only can't seem to keep up with Apple, but is dragging much of the internet down with it," Mr Cook said.
Greenpeace also criticised Amazon and Twitter for their refusal to reveal any details about their energy footprint to their customers or the public.
In response, Amazon told the BBC: "Greenpeace's report misses the mark by using false assumptions on AWS operations and inaccurate data on AWS energy consumption."
It was not able to elaborate on what the inaccuracies were but said...

Summary: A Greenpeace report into the green credentials of tech firms has singled out Amazon as having the "dirtiest cloud" services.
###
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:


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.
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Article: First Minister Alex Salmond and shadow Scottish secretary Margaret Curran were concentrating on the drinks industry.
Campaigning has continued as polling suggested the pro-independence campaign may be closing the gap on its rivals.
It comes ahead of voters going to the polls in the 18 September Scottish independence referendum.
Tuesday is also the deadline for people in Scotland to register to vote.
Mr Salmond was setting out his vision of the gains of independence for the food and drink industry on a visit to Eden Mill distillery and brewery in Guardbridge, Fife.
"More and more people are waking up to the fact that Scotland has a strong and diverse economy on which we can build a more prosperous future with control of key economic levers," said the first minister.
"Scotland is currently in the international spotlight like never before, but the huge publicity generated by a 'Yes' vote - and the transition to independence - will be the opportunity of a lifetime for our food and drink sector to extend its global reach even further."
Ms Curran, who was visiting Glasgow's Tennent Caledonian Breweries, argued: "Around one million jobs in Scotland rely on companies based elsewhere in the UK and many more are with companies that rely on trade with England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
"Young people across Scotland can't afford to have opportunities cut off. We want a strong Scotland backed up by a strong United Kingdom. Being part of the UK means that we can share our resources across the country."
Meanwhile, the Yes Scotland campaign said support for independence had risen eight points in less than a month, pointing to a new YouGov poll indicating that, excluding "don't knows", 53% of those questioned planned to vote "No", while 47% would back "Yes".
Yes Scotland chief executive Blair Jenkins, said: "This breakthrough poll shows that 'Yes' has the big momentum - it's an all-time high for 'Yes' support in a YouGov survey so far, and an eight-point swing from 'No' to 'Yes' in just three weeks.
"We only need another...

Summary: Both sides in the Scottish referendum debate are focusing on jobs, just a few weeks ahead of the vote on the nation's future.
###
Article: Its analysis suggests Brexit would cause inflation to rise, eroding the value of state pension increases, costing recipients £137 a year.
Those with an additional pension pot worth £60,000 would see its value drop by £1,900, the Treasury said.
However, Vote Leave said the analysis was "utterly outrageous".
Former Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who is campaigning for Vote Leave, said: "This is an utterly outrageous attempt by the government to do down people's pensions and is little more than a cynical attempt to distract from the government's broken promises on immigration."
"The biggest threat to British pensions is the European Commission's proposals to undermine occupational pensions, which the government themselves have described as 'damaging and reckless'.
"Meanwhile, tax proposals from Eurozone countries will wipe billions off British assets hitting pension funds hardest," he said.
The Treasury analysis also looked at the impact Brexit would have on someone aged 50.
Its analysis found that an individual with pension savings of £20,000, who is contributing 8% of their earnings into a pension fund between now and 2030, would be between £223 and £335 a year worse off in retirement.
Chancellor George Osborne said: "Much of the [Brexit] debate so far has focused on the potential economic fallout of a vote for Leave for those now in work, in terms of the impact on their jobs.
"But it's important that pensioners understand what's at stake for them too on 23 June.
"Pensioners who have worked hard all their lives deserve dignity, security and certainty in retirement. That's what we all hope for and what any responsible government should seek to provide," the Chancellor said.
Pensions minister Baroness Altmann, told the BBC's Today programme, that there was a "consensus" among major economic bodies such as the Institute of Fiscal Studies, the OECD, the head of the IMF and the Bank of England  that the British economy would be weaker if there was a vote to leave the EU.
"I have looked at pensions for years....

Summary: The Treasury has warned that millions of current and future pensioners will be worse off if the UK leaves the European Union.
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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 UK government has agreed to extend the contract for the UK's last coastguard tug to allow an agreement to be reached.

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.
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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.
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Article: The European Commission has given Glybera marketing authorisation, meaning it can be sold throughout the EU.
It is a gene therapy for a rare disease which leaves people unable to properly digest fats.
The manufacturers say it will be available next year.
Gene therapy has a simple premise. If there is a problem with part of a patient's genetic code then change the code.
However, the field has been plagued with problems. Patients have developed leukaemia and in one trial in the US a teenager died.
In Europe and the US, the therapies are used only in research labs.
Glybera is used to treat lipoprotein lipase deficiency. One in a million people have damaged copies of a gene which is essential for breaking down fats.
It means fat builds up in the blood leading to abdominal pain and life-threatening inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis).
The only way to manage the condition is by having a very low-fat diet.
The therapy, developed by UniQure, uses a virus to infect muscle cells with a working copy of the gene.
The European Medicines Agency recommended the therapy was made available for the most severely ill patients earlier in 2012.
UniQure chief executive officer Jorn Aldag said: "The final approval of Glybera from the European Commission marks a major step forward in making gene therapies available not only for lipoprotein lipase deficiency, but also for a large number of rare diseases with a very high unmet medical need."
The company said it would apply for regulatory approval in the US and Canada.
China was the first country to officially sanction a gene therapy.

Summary: A treatment which corrects errors in a person's genetic code has been approved for commercial use in Europe for the first time.
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Article: The Anglian Sovereign covers Orkney and Shetland but was sent to shadow the escort of a cargo ship to Lewis after it ran aground on Monday night.
The incident came just days after the Western Isles' tug, Anglian Monarch, was withdrawn from coastguard duties.
Other UK emergency towing vessels were withdrawn last year.
In October, the UK government agreed to short extensions to the contracts for the hire of two vessels for Scotland following a campaign by local authorities and politicians.
The funding package for the Anglian Monarch ended at the weekend and at midnight for the Anglian Sovereign.
Talks are still going on between the UK government and the oil and gas industry about how future cover for the Northern Isles might be provided and funded.
Shetland Islands Council convener Sandy Cluness had described the withdrawal of the Anglian Sovereign without a deal being finalised as a "disgrace".
However, MP Alistair Carmichael has told BBC Scotland that the vessel will stay on duty to allow an agreement to be reached.

Summary: The contract for the UK's last coastguard tug has been extended after earlier plans to withdraw it from duties at midnight were abandoned.
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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:


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.
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Article: The Office of Rail and Road said 12.3% of trains - nearly one in eight - were not on time last year - the worst performance for a 12-month period since the year ending September 2006, at 12.5%.
More than a quarter of Govia Thameslink Railway services, owner of strike-hit Southern, were not on time, it said.
Rail operators said strikes had hit punctuality in south-east England.
But elsewhere, punctuality was at a "record high", said the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators and Network Rail.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union announced on Wednesday that its members on Southern will walk out for 24 hours on 22 February in the row over guards' roles on trains.
And on Thursday, it was announced that drivers' union Aslef had rejected a deal with Southern rail that would have ended their dispute.
The rail industry counts trains as being on time if they arrive at their terminating stations within five minutes of their schedule for commuter services and within 10 minutes for long-distance routes.
Lianna Etkind, of the Campaign for Better Transport, said the figures showed that train firms were "still delivering a very lacklustre service" despite "sky-high prices".
The figures also showed 3.8% of trains across Britain were cancelled or at least half an hour late last year.
Ms Etkind said the government needed to give passengers "an affordable and reliable rail service".
"They should begin by ensuring that rail contracts give stronger incentives for punctuality, reliability and passenger service, as has successfully happened on London Overground and Merseyrail," she said.
She also said there should be "investment into those worn-out parts of the network which cause delays".
A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group said: "In London and the south east, a combination of congestion on the network, prolonged strike action and disruption while major upgrades take place is hitting punctuality.
"Across the railway, train operators and Network Rail are working together every day to deliver more reliable and...

Summary: The number of trains that run on time in the UK has reached its lowest level in a decade, figures show.
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Article: Protests against the move led to looting in parts of the country, with shops attacked and roads blocked.
Some cash machines on Thursday were still issuing the old 100-bolivar notes, hours before they expired.
President Nicolas Maduro said new higher-denomination bills would be fully distributed in January.
He has closed the borders with Brazil and Colombia until Sunday to stop "mafias" hoarding the currency abroad.
Anger over the move led to skirmishes in six cities on Friday, the Associated Presss reported the authorities as saying, with 32 people being taken into custody and one injured.
The sense of frustration has been compounded because there has been no official explanation as to why bank branches throughout Venezuela do not yet  appear to have the larger denomination bank notes intended to replace 100-bolivar notes.
The opposition argues the currency initiative is another sign that President Maduro is ruining the economy and must be ousted.
Venezuelans have been queuing outside banks after they were given 72 hours to exchange the 100-bolivar note for new larger denomination notes and coins.
The 100-bolivar note is worth just two US cents on the black market.
Venezuelans mock 'useless' banknote
What's behind the crisis in Venezuela?
Some people on Thursday still received the 100-bolivar notes when they withdrew money at ATMs, then immediately had to queue up again to re-deposit the soon-to-expire notes.
"I don't get the joke," office worker Yarelis Carrero, who lives in the capital Caracas, told the AFP news agency. "When you withdraw cash at the ATMs, they give you 100-bolivar bills. And you can't get the new ones inside the bank, either."
Another bank customer said no-one had seen the new bank notes yet. "A guy I know who works for an armoured truck company said even they haven't seen them. Pure lies!" Saul Bernal said.
But President Maduro praised Venezuelans for their understanding in a televised address on Thursday.
"This is a big effort we're doing to tackle so many evils and tricks. We're burning...

Summary: Venezuela's highest denomination banknote has ceased to be legal tender, in a move that has caused cash chaos and long queues at banks.
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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.
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Article: Data from the country's Geonet network of around 1,200 GPS monitoring stations suggest a large displacement following the massive quake.
Dr Roger Musson from the British Geological Survey (BGS) told BBC News the movement observed following the quake was "in line with what you get when you have an earthquake this big".
The quake probably shifted Earth on its axis by about 6.5 inches (16.5cm) and caused the planet to rotate somewhat faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 millionths of a second.
Japan's meteorological agency has proposed updating the magnitude of the earthquake to 9.0.
This would make it the joint fifth biggest quake since instrumental records began, but other agencies have not yet followed suit.
Japan lies on the infamous "Ring of Fire", the line of frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions that encircles virtually the entire Pacific Rim.
The dense rock making up the Pacific Ocean's floor is being pulled down (subducted) underneath Japan as it moves westwards towards Eurasia.
Dr Brian Baptie, also from the BGS, explained that the quake occurred on the subduction zone along two tectonic plates, the Pacific plate to the east and another plate to the west, which many geologists regard as a continuation of the North American plate.
As the Pacific plate moves westwards underneath Japan, it drags the North American plate downwards and westwards with it.
As an earthquake occurs, the upper plate lurches upwards and eastwards, releasing strain built up as the two plates grind against one another.
In the most recent case, this movement gave a kick to the seabed, displacing a large amount of water and leading to the tsunami waves which devastated coastal areas in the Sendai region.
"The Pacific plate has moved a maximum of 20m westwards, but the amount of movement will vary even within the fault," said Dr Musson.
"That doesn't mean the whole country has shifted by that amount because the actual displacement will decay further from the fault."
Geonet is operated by Japan's Geographical Survey...

Summary: Japan's coastline may have shifted by as much as 4m (13ft) to the east following Friday's 8.9 Magnitude earthquake, according to experts.
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Article: The opening stage of the race this year runs from Edinburgh to Kelso.
Riders will pass through the Borders town twice on 3 September as well as a number of other places in the region.
Residents and businesses are being invited to attend a session in the town's Cross Keys Hotel on 18 July to hear what impact the race will have and how they can benefit.
Councillor Mark Rowley said: "It is fantastic that Kelso is once again hosting a stage finish of the Tour of Britain and it will be great for the town, and especially local businesses, as we expect thousands of people from across the Borders and beyond to visit to see the race."
He said that it was a chance for the town to show "all that it has to offer".
"Of course an event of this nature does require some restrictions in terms of roads and parking," he added.
"I would encourage residents and businesses in the town centre to take the opportunity to find out more about the potential impacts and marketing opportunities at the drop-in event."
Stage one will leave Edinburgh and head into East Lothian, before climbing into the Lammermuir Hills and the Scottish Borders.
The riders will pass through Duns before a point-scoring sprint in Coldstream and the first pass through the finish line in The Square in Kelso.
The race then heads out to Stichill, Gordon and then Smailholm, before a King of the Mountains climb from Clintmains to the top of Scott's View.
Another King of the Mountains climb features as the race heads out of Melrose before the riders head back to Kelso for the final sprint to the finish line.
Three hours of live television coverage of the stage will feature on ITV4.
It promises to be a busy day of cycling in the region as the annual Tour O' The Borders sportive also takes place on the same day, starting in Peebles.

Summary: Businesses in the Borders are being urged to tap into the economic benefits of the Tour of Britain.
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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 in a state of shock after the party's leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was forced to resign over a series of allegations of sexual harassment.
The party has been in a state of shock after the party's leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was forced to resign over a series of allegations of sexual harassment.

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.
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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: Ulster Farmer's Union president Ian Marshall told MPs that there were "husbands and wives who are completely opposed on this".
He said it was a "head versus heart" debate for many.
Mr Marshall said farmers were balancing the need for access to European markets against concerns over loss of identity.
But he repeated the union's position that in the "absence of a compelling case" for exit, it believed continued EU membership was the better option.
He told MPs that farming was not delivering profits and the industry relied on subsidies to survive.
Mr Marshall and the union's chief executive Wesley Aston were giving evidence to a parliamentary inquiry into issues around the referendum.
During more than an hour of evidence they were asked about subsidies, red tape and access to markets.
The officials said Northern Ireland's 30,000 farmers needed "information, guarantees and assurances to come to an informed decision".
The DUP's Ian Paisley said in "every day" of his 18 years as an elected representative he had had complaints from farmers about the complexity of the Common Agricultural Policy.
And he insisted that after an exit, the UK government would continue to provide financial support to farmers.
Mr Aston said key elements of any new UK arrangement post-Brexit would be a continuation of subsidies and measures to reduce red tape.
MPs were told that in 2013/14 farmers received Â£266m in direct subsidy support and a further Â£83m went to the wider rural economy.
The union officials questioned whether the UK government would replace EU subsidies to the same level.
Mr Marshall said in the absence of guarantees they would have "huge concerns" about what any new UK scheme would potentially look like.

Summary: Some Northern Ireland farm families are split down the middle over the EU referendum debate, a Westminster committee has been told.
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Article: The rare medals badge of honour, which includes four grand crosses, belonged to Lieutenant-General Rowland Hill.
The commander of the British Army fought with the Duke of Wellington in 1815 and served in the Napoleonic Wars.
Auctioneers said the historical brooch, which was discovered in its original box in Derbyshire, "honoured and recognised his many acts of bravery".
More stories from the East Midlands
The medals include the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, the Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order, the Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and the Sword and the Peninsular Cross.
Charles Hanson, of Hanson's Auctioneers, said the badge was one of the "richest historical" military finds he has ever come across and was "worthy of a place in a museum".
"I am delighted to see this important historical item honouring a war hero and great leader of men sell for well above its estimate of £1,000 to £2,000," he said.
Mr Hanson added that General Hill was an "extraordinary man".
"He led armies of up to 30,000 men in some of the most important battles of the 1800s in Egypt, Spain, Portugal and France," he said.
"He inevitably had brushes with death. At the Battle of Waterloo, where Hill commanded the II Corps, he was lost in the melee and feared dead but escaped unscathed."
Source: Hanson's Auctioneers

Summary: A military bar brooch featuring medals awarded to a Battle of Waterloo soldier has been sold for £7,800 at auction.
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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.
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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.
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Article: 19 February 2016 Last updated at 15:18 GMT
Researchers at the University of Roehampton, in England, studied a group of ten king penguins.
They measured the penguins' weight and studied their movements on a treadmill, finding that fatter birds were less steady on their feet.
The team think wobbly penguins may face greater danger from predators as they slide around and struggle to stay upright.

Summary: A new study has found penguins have more of a wobblier waddle when they put on weight.
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Article: The rock band are accused of lifting the opening guitar line from Taurus, a 1968 track by the band Spirit.
But Page testified that he had never heard the song until people started posting comparisons online a few years ago.
"I knew I had never heard that before," he said. "It was totally alien to me."
He added: "When it started, I was confused by the comparison… [I thought] 'What's this got to do with Stairway?'"
Page admitted to owning several Spirit albums, but only remembered buying two of them, neither of which contained Taurus.
Under questioning, he conceded that he did own a copy of the band's self-titled debut, on which the track appears, but could not recall how it came to be part of his collection - which amounts to 4,329 albums and 5,882 CDs.
His testimony was delivered to a room packed full of journalists, fans and curious onlookers. The musician arrived carrying a guitar case, raising the prospect that he might play the riff in question, but that did not happen.
Led Zeppelin are being sued by the estate of Spirit's late guitarist, Randy Wolfe (who performed under the name Randy California).
Michael Skidmore, who represents the estate, claims Page or singer Robert Plant heard Taurus during the late 1960s and copied it for Stairway To Heaven.
During Wednesday's hearing, Skidmore's lawyer Francis Malofiy referred to Page as a "session musician" and "the alleged composer" of Stairway, and said the band had become famous by making other people's music their own.
However, Malofiy was admonished by several times by US District Judge R Gary Klausner for asking irrelevant questions and labouring his point.
He first drew the judge's ire with a prolonged series of questions about Led Zeppelin's interviews in the 1960s and 70s, many of which Page did not recall.
As Malofiy continued to ask Page whether he had ever talked about being a fan of Spirit, Judge Klausner interrupted, saying: "How many times can we beat a dead horse?"
Overall, 50 objections were sustained against the prosecution. At one point during...

Summary: Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page has denied stealing the riff to Stairway to Heaven, as he took the stand at a copyright trial in the US.
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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: