A baby has been born to a previously infertile couple in Ukraine using a new type of "three-person IVF".

Article: The original ruling, made by the Belgian Privacy Commissioner (BPC) in November, relates to Facebook cookies that track the activity of non-users.
The company expects to receive an order this week, which it will contest.
But in the meantime, cookies will not be set for non-users and accounts will be needed to access content.
Cookies are text files, and some record the web activity of users. The one in question, which Facebook has named datr, can live in a web user's browser for two years.
Facebook has argued that the cookie provides better security for the site's members by preventing the creation of fake accounts, reducing the risk of accounts being hijacked, protecting users' content against theft and deterring denial-of-service attacks.
"We had hoped to address the BPC's concerns in a way that allowed us to continue using a security cookie that protected Belgian people from more than 33,000 takeover attempts in the past month," said a Facebook spokeswoman.
"We're disappointed we were unable to reach an agreement and now people will be required to log in or register for an account to see publicly available content on Facebook."
In a letter on Tuesday, the company told the BPC it would comply "fully" with the order as soon as it was received.
As well as blocking access to pages for non-users, datr cookies will no longer be set for non-users and existing cookies for such individuals will be deleted where possible.
Facebook also says it will implement cookies for users who are logged in to protect against certain attacks on its network.
"We continue to have significant concerns that requirements set forth during these proceedings in respect of cookie practices have not been applied fairly and equitably within Belgium to other internet services, as demonstrated in the reports we have submitted in the past," commented Facebook in the letter.
"I think the other protection authorities all over Europe will be looking at this," said Paul Bernal, a privacy commentator and law lecturer at the University of East...

Summary: Facebook has said that it will respond to a privacy ruling in Belgium by requiring users to log in to view pages on the site.
###
Article: The spectrum, formerly used by the Ministry of Defence, will provide 4G services for mobile companies.
The communications watchdog has suggested that a 42% share could be the largest one mobile company could own.
BT, which includes mobile network EE, currently owns 45%. Vodafone owns 28%, Three 15% and O2 12%.
These figures, provided by Ofcom, account for the existing spectrum available for "immediate use". The addition of the extra spectrum would bring BT/EE's share down to 42%, it said.
Firms have until 30 January 2017 to respond to the proposals.
However there is no suggestion that the cap could be extended to a different bandwidth of spectrum set aside to handle 5G when it launches in the UK, Ofcom added.
That comprises around 75% of the spectrum to be auctioned, it said.
EE chief executive Marc Allera said the firm disagreed with the idea.
"While we don't agree that competition measures should be introduced for this auction, we will now examine Ofcom's detailed proposal carefully and respond to the consultation," he said in a statement.
Three had lobbied for a 30% cap.
"If you've got one or two players in the market that dominate spectrum, then there is always a fear that innovation is slower because you don't have people pushing each other," Three chief executive Dave Dyson told the BBC in September.
Analyst Kester Mann from CCS Insight said the proposals represented "a partial victory" for Three.
"Expect this announcement to be just the start of another round of wrangling and protestation from the UK networks, that could see the award of licences further delayed," he said.
"Any additional hold-up works against Three and O2, which are most in need of new airwaves.
"The auction is crucial to UK providers as it will likely represent the last opportunity to buy mobile spectrum for several years."
Ofcom has not confirmed a date for the auction itself, which the BBC understands is expected to take place next year.
The total reserve price for all the spectrum on offer will be Â£70m ($86m).

Summary: Ofcom has proposed a cap on some of the newly available 4G spectrum it is preparing for auction, which would prevent BT from bidding.
###
Article: The Newport-based South Wales Argus saw the biggest drop, down 32.2% to an average of daily sale of 13,952 in the second half of 2013.
The figures came from the ABC, the organisation which measures newspaper circulation.
But some Welsh newspapers saw traffic to their websites rise by up to 35% as more people seek their news online.
The ABC figures showed that daily papers produced in Wales all saw sales fall in 2013:
However, some weekly papers saw their sales rise:
Other weekly papers did not fare so well:
The ABC has also published circulation details for smaller Welsh newspapers that only have their circulations audited every 12 months.
They include titles like the Glamorgan Gazette and the other "Celtic" weekly papers, and most of the other local weeklies around Wales.
The only one of these titles to record an increase in circulation was the Caerphilly, Ystrad Mynach & Bargoed Campaign with a 0.6% rise.
However, news websites have seen their users increase during 2013
Alongside its Wales Online and Daily Post websites, Trinity Mirror last year launched digital editions of its Western Mail, Daily Post and Wales on Sunday newspapers aimed at users of tablets and other mobile devices.

Summary: Circulations of all the daily Welsh newspapers have fallen since last year, according to official figures.
###
Article: Earlier, unionist leaders said the inquiry should look into the "parades impasse" and wider issues.
They made the call at a news conference to explain what they termed a "graduated response" to a Parades Commission ruling in north Belfast.
Theresa Villiers said the government would "look carefully at the proposal".
The Parades Commission, last week, ruled that the Ligoniel Orange Lodge should not make a return parade along a stretch of the Crumlin Road that separates unionist and nationalist communities on 12 July.
It is the second year in a row that such a ruling has been made.
Several nights of rioting took place after the same parade was stopped from returning along the road last year, with scores of officers injured.
On Thursday, unionist leaders and senior Orange Order officials signed a pledge calling for peaceful protests over the 12 July.
PSNI chief constable George Hamilton said the joint statement was "responsible and showed leadership".
By Mark DevenportBBC News NI Political Editor
The sight of unionists queuing up to sign a pledge evoked memories of the 1912 Ulster Covenant against Home Rule, albeit on a rather less dramatic scale.
If the joint unionist/Orange commitment to lawful protest helps ensure a peaceful 12 July, then it won't be just the PSNI Chief Constable who breathes a sigh of relief.
Peter Robinson says the unionist campaign will last long after the Twelfth weekend. That's where the quandary lies for Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers.
The parading inquiry demanded by unionists has already been opposed by nationalists. They view it as an attempt to undermine the Parades Commission, which has legal responsibility for marching disputes.
The Northern Ireland Office's initial response is intended to buy time. If the government does not offer the unionists their parading inquiry, they are promising consequences at every political level - council, assembly, Westminster and Europe.
Does that mean a repeat of the first minister's previous resignation threats or some other form of...

Summary: The NI secretary has said she would meet unionist and Orange Order leaders, to discuss their call for a commission of inquiry into the issue of parades.
###
Article: The Ellon-based company said in its blog it wants to build a hotel, restaurant and conference centre, creating 80 jobs.
However, BrewDog claims the council wants "60 times fair market value".
Aberdeenshire Council said it had a responsibility to ensure best value for public money.
Friends James Watt and Martin Dickie set up the sometimes controversial firm in 2007 in Fraserburgh.
BrewDog now employs hundreds of staff, and has bars around the world.
BrewDog said: "After well over a year of banging our heads against a brick wall with Aberdeenshire Council we feel we had no option but to let the public know what is happening.
"We are trying to grow our business and provide more local jobs and they are making this impossible.
"As a result it will cost Ellon employment, investment and facilities.
"This project would see us invest Â£5m into the local area and create over 80 new local jobs.
"However, the project cannot go ahead because the council are refusing to sell us the land at fair market value, indeed, they are insisting on charging over 60 times fair market value for the land we need to make this exciting local project happen."
BrewDog said it had land valued at Â£5,000 per acre, but was quoted Â£300,000 per acre.
Aberdeenshire Council chief executive Jim Savege said: "We are a proactive council with a commitment to working with local businesses.
"We also have a responsibility to ensure best value for public money.
"There are ongoing protracted negotiations with BrewDog and this announcement appears to be intended to weaken the council's position.
"We're disappointed that the company has sought to break confidentiality during what we regarded as live and ongoing discussions to achieve an agreement which is fair to both parties and which protects the interests of the local taxpayer, as well as creating opportunities for residents.
"At the heart of this is issue is that the land BrewDog wants has been already earmarked for the expansion of the local cemetery. We cannot sell land vastly below market value - the...

Summary: Craft beer company BrewDog and Aberdeenshire Council have become embroiled in a war of words over the cost of buying land for an expansion.
###
Article: The Times reports that doctors in Kiev used a method called pronuclear transfer in what is a world first.
It is not the first baby born with DNA from three parents, however.
The baby girl, born on 5 January, is thought to be the world's second "modern three-parent baby" - another child was created using a slightly different method in Mexico last year.
The Kiev team fertilised the mother's egg with her partner's sperm. They then transferred the combined genes into an egg taken from a donor.
The child has the genetic identity of the parents, alongside a tiny amount of DNA from the second woman.
Doctors developed three-person IVF to help women who are at risk of passing on serious genetic disorders, called mitochondrial disease, to have a healthy child.
Eggs from a mother with unhealthy mitochondria and a donor with healthy mitochondria are collected.
The Nadiya clinic in Kiev used the technique to treat an infertile couple, not a couple carrying a mitochondrial disease.
UK experts said this was "highly experimental".
Valery Zukin, who led the work, said they had a hunch it would work for the Ukrainian couple who had not been able to conceive with conventional IVF.
He said he had a second patient - in a similar situation - who is expected to give birth in early March.
The UK has already passed laws to allow three-person IVF for couples with mitochondrial diseases, although no such baby has been born in Britain yet.
The science is new and controversial and raises ethical questions, including how any child from the technique might feel about having DNA from three people.
Prof Adam Balen, chairman of the British Fertility Society, said: "Pronuclear transfer is highly experimental and has not been properly evaluated or scientifically proven.
"We would be extremely cautious about adopting this approach to improve IVF outcomes."

Summary:


Steve Dillon, the legendary British comic book artist, known for his work on Preacher, Punisher, and 2000AD's Judge Dredd has died aged 54.

Article: Daniel Climance was struck by the vehicle while out riding his bike at about 19:20 BST on Wednesday on Station Road in Purton, near Swindon.
He died at the scene. Wiltshire Police described it as a "tragic accident".
In a statement issued through the force, Daniel's family said he would be "sadly missed" by his brothers.
"Daniel was a local Wiltshire lad who divided his time equally between his mum in north Swindon and his Dad in Purton," the statement continued.
It said he was in his final year at Bridlewood Primary School and was looking forward to starting Bradon Forest School in September, joining his older brother Robbie.
"Daniel was a beautiful, loving child, with a fantastic sense of humour, caring and loving with a wide circle of friends," it said.
"He will be sadly missed by his brothers Robbie, George and Noah, and all of the extended family."
Daniel, who "loved" playing football for the Wootton Bassett under-11 team, had just completed his second-degree black belt in Taekwondo, of which he was "immensely proud", his family added.
Police said the roadsweeper was travelling towards Hook and was not believed to have been operating at the time.

Summary: The family of an 11-year-old boy who died after being hit by a roadsweeper in a Wiltshire town have paid tribute to their "beautiful, loving child".
###
Article: Mike Hookem, a UKIP MEP and ex-soldier, has urged the monarch to "intervene" on behalf of the 3.8 million people who voted for the party in May's election.
He said the UK's third largest party must be represented at national events.
Ministers said a 30-year old agreement stipulated that only leaders of parties with more than six MPs could take part.
UKIP won almost 12% of the national vote in May but only had one MP elected to Westminster.
Ahead of this Sunday's remembrance service, the party has written to Buckingham Palace appealing for UKIP's non-participation to be reviewed.
In his letter, Mr Hookem wrote: "I write to you as our Queen, asking for you to intervene on the part of over 3.8 million of your people to allow UKIP to have representation at the Cenotaph on 8 November as is right for the third most popular political party in the country."
Mr Hookem, who represents Yorkshire and the Humber in the European Parliament, has also demanded an explanation from Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, whose department is responsible for co-ordinating the invitations to the ceremony, as to why party leader Nigel Farage has not been asked to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph.
"It seems convenient the government can so easily dismiss the largest group of UK MEPs when it comes to including us in national events," he said.
In reply, Mr Whittingdale wrote: "The laying of wreaths by Parliamentary leaders is governed by a formula put in place in 1984 with the agreement of The Queen and the Speaker of the House of Commons following discussion with party leaders based on the number of Westminster parliamentary seats.
"This stipulates that only the leaders at Westminster of parties which had won and taken up six or more seats at the preceding general election should lay wreaths."
Under the formula, Plaid Cymru - which has three MPs - and the Green Party, which has a sole MP, are also excluded.
Mr Hookem, who served in both the RAF and the Army before being elected as an MEP, told the BBC he was unsatisfied with the...

Summary: The UK Independence Party has written to The Queen to complain about being excluded from the Remembrance Sunday events at the Cenotaph in Westminster.
###
Article: Newspapers have reappeared after the CGT union stopped the presses of all but the pro-communist L'Humanite yesterday, when they refused to run an opinion piece by CGT leader Philippe Martinez.
France's best-selling daily, Ouest-France, asks: "What is the answer, after eight days of protests?".
Like many papers, it sees the government and unions locked in an "arm-wrestling match", with few signs of avoiding the "great day of national protest in Paris on 14 June", the day after the bill goes before the Senate.
The headline in left-leaning Le Monde says the government is "seeking a way out of the Labour Law crisis".
It runs articles for and against the strikes on its opinion pages, with sociologist Daniele Linhart seeing the strikes as a "rejection of the managerial concept of labour... that depresses wages".
On the other hand, Raymond Soubie, an aide to conservative former President Nicolas Sarkozy, says the strike is no more than "weak social agitation", accusing the CGT union of "concentrating its action in sectors where it is strong, to give the illusion of breadth".
Le Monde's reporter Jean-Baptiste de Montvalon thinks the government has already lost the battle for public opinion, marshalling the results of several polls suggesting that a clear majority of voters blame the government for provoking the strike.
He acknowledges that low rates of union membership have left the CGT weak, but the government's "record unpopularity and divisions", and the way it has handled the labour law, leave it "little hope for recovery".
The conservative daily Le Figaro highlights "anxiety" in the governing Socialist Party over Prime Minister Manuel Valls' "intransigence"
Its front-page editorial criticises a "two-speed France" where public-sector workers lag far behind private employees in their number of working hours. It says the latest report on the topic, commissioned by the prime minister, "has joined the vast graveyard of reports on this waste of public money".
Le Figaro, like many other papers, asks whether the country...

Summary: The strikes and protests over labour law reforms dominate all the front pages of French newspapers today, and there is little optimism on left or right that an end to the crisis is near.
###
Article: The patient was being given palliative radiotherapy last September at the Western General Hospital.
A Scottish government report said the patient was given a dosage 100% greater than prescribed and there was a "significant possibility of serious harm".
NHS Lothian said it had offered its "sincere apologies" to the patient.
The mistaken dosage was given to the patient between 14 and 18 September 2015.
Mistaken calculations were made by two radiologists based at the hospital, who both administered a double dose after apparently making the same error.
The report said "a number of mistakes" had been made by staff, saying these should have been avoided due to the experience of the radiologists involved.
However, it concluded that none of these mistakes could "clearly" be identified as wrongdoing or negligence.
The new incident comes 10 years after 15-year-old Lisa Norris was overexposed to radiation at the Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow.
She received an overdose 58% greater than intended, although her dosage was higher than that of the patient involved in the 2015 case.
Lisa subsequently died but her death was not related to the overdose.
Dr David Farquharson, medical director of NHS Lothian, said: "We offered our most sincere apologies to the patient and their family following this very unusual and deeply distressing incident.
"Since then, we have ensured that they have been kept informed throughout the full and thorough investigation and reporting stages of the process.
"Cases such as these are thankfully very rare, but as soon as it was identified, we implemented a series of measures to minimise the risk of a similar incident.
"We carried out a robust internal investigation and immediately informed the external inspector."
He added: "In the report the inspector has expressed his confidence in the dedication of the commitment of Edinburgh Cancer Centre staff to the safety of patients in their care and acknowledges the many thousands of life-saving radiotherapy treatments that are successfully prescribed,...

Summary: A cancer patient in Edinburgh has been given twice the intended dosage of radiation by medical staff.
###
Article: Premiership title holders Sarries will host Saints, and Wasps will welcome Exeter to the Ricoh Arena.
Leicester face Stade Francais at home, having already played them twice in the pool stages, and Racing 92 will play reigning European champions Toulon.
It is the first time there is no Pro12 representation in the last eight of the competition.
Sarries, Leicester and Racing 92 guaranteed themselves a home tie in the quarter-finals last weekend, while Wasps joined them after winning Pool Five on Saturday, with three-time defending champions and Toulon joining them as one of the best runners-up.
Stade Francais were confirmed as one of the three best runners-up after they beat Tigers with a bonus point on Sunday, but the other two places went down to the wire.
Northampton's win over Scarlets on Saturday was enough to see them through as runners-up in Pool Three, and Exeter came through as winners of Pool Two on points difference after beating Ospreys.
Clermont Auvergne, last year's losing finalists, would have taken Exeter's place in the quarters had they kicked a late penalty which would have secured a vital losing bonus point against Bordeaux-Begles.
The quarter-final games will be played on the weekend of 8-10 April.
The winners of the Northampton v Saracens match will meet Wasps or Exeter in the semis, ensuring that at least one English team will reach the final in Lyon on 14 May.
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter.

Summary: Saracens, Northampton, Exeter, Wasps and Leicester have joined three French teams in the Champions Cup last eight.
###
Article: His brother Glyn confirmed the death on Twitter, saying his "big brother and hero" had died in New York City.
Dillon was a prolific artist who began professional work at age 16, drawing for Marvel UK's Hulk magazine.
He was best known for his US collaborations with writer Garth Ennis, creating classic cult comic titles.
In his Twitter profile, Dillon, originally from Luton, describes himself as: "A comic book bloke. Co-creator/Artist of Preacher. Co-founder/Editor of Deadline magazine. Artist on Punisher, Judge Dredd and many others."
He was born in Luton in Bedfordshire in 1962. When he was 16 he embarked on his first professional job, drawing the character Nick Fury for Hulk Weekly.
In the 1980s his career started to take off and he regularly contributed to Doctor Who Magazine, creating the character Abslom Daak.
More work followed and he was on the comic anthology Warrior from its inception in 1982.
He also drew for the British sci-fi and fantasy comic 2000AD, where he was perhaps best-known for his work as an artist on Judge Dredd.
Dillon arrived in the United States in the late 1980s, where some of his most popular strips were created.
The Hollywood Reporter says it was at DC's Vertigo imprint that he collaborated with author Garth Ennis, first on the critically acclaimed Hellblazer and then on Preacher.
Vertigo Comics paid tribute on Twitter, saying: "We lost a giant among creators and artists today. He will be missed by all of us here."
The Preacher strip inspired the US television series of the same name. In a statement, TV company AMC said: "Steve Dillon was an enormously talented illustrator who, with Garth Ennis, created a cult classic comic we were so proud to bring to television."
Dillon and Ennis then worked together on multiple series of the Punisher at Marvel, who have described the artist as "a great storyteller" on Twitter, and said they will remember his "incredible work".
On his blog of British comics, Lew Stringer who describes himself as one of Dillon's "legions of fans", paid tribute,...

Summary:

Article: {{document}}

Summary: ||| {{target}}


Nigerians have been reacting angrily to a draft bill being discussed in the Senate which aims to punish anyone who "propagates false information" on electronic media.

Article: The rarely seen event was witnessed by gig rowers in Newlyn Harbour in Cornwall.
Dolphin attacks on porpoises accounted for about one death a year on average, said Cornwall Wildlife Trust (CWT).
It is unclear why dolphins attack porpoises but it could be an aggressive response to feeding competition or even "misdirected sexual aggression".
More on the deadly attack, plus more Devon and Cornwall news
The pictures were captured by the Pendeen Pilot Gig Club in a training session.
CWT said: "We are unsure of why this happens and it is certainly not predation.
"Many theories have been put forward, including misdirected infanticide (bottlenoses will kill calves), misdirected sexual aggression or play behaviour and an aggressive response to feed competition are just some."
Marine Strandings Network said it found the carcass of the porpoise, which had "multiple severe injuries as a result of the attack".
"We do have a number of dead porpoise, and more unusually common dolphin, reported to us with injuries resulting from bottlenose dolphin aggression."

Summary: A bottlenose dolphin has been pictured flipping a porpoise into the air in a deadly attack.
###
Article: However, the fallout following the failed test of the Trident nuclear deterrent is also covered by a number of newspapers.
The Scotsman reports that Theresa May is facing "calls to come clean" over the incident. It said she failed to answer direct questions about her knowledge of the test.
Nicola Sturgeon has challenged the prime minister to make a full disclosure about what she knew about the misfire, according to The National.
Under the headline "Do Ya Think I'm Tipsy", The Scottish Sun reports that Sir Rod Stewart appeared to have had a few drinks before taking part in a live TV Scottish Cup draw. He turned the draw into "comedy gold", the paper said.
The Herald reports that there have been a "catalogue of blunders" at the body which distributes £1bn to Scottish universities. It claims two universities were forced to shelve or scale back redevelopment plans as a result of the problem.
Theresa May has insisted she "won't be afraid" to tackle Donald Trump as she prepares to become the first foreign leader to visit the White House since his inauguration, according to The Times.
The Daily Record reports on a legal wrangle which has led to a murder victim lying in a mortuary for two months. It says that defence lawyers cannot find a pathologist to do a second post-mortem examination on the body of Stewart Rexter.
One in seven murders is carried out by a criminal who was spared prison in favour of community service, according to the Scottish Daily Mail.
The Lord Advocate has apologised to the family of five people who died in a Western Isles storm a decade ago for the "unacceptable" way they were treated after the tragedy, the Press and Journal reports.
The Scottish Daily Express leads with news that a move to outlaw cheap deals on junk food and fizzy drinks is to take a major step forward.
Celebrities who joined protests against Donald Trump make the front page of the Daily Star.
And The Courier reports that NHS Tayside paid more than £1,200 for an agency nurse to cover one shift.

Summary: Photographs of the stars of the Trainspotting sequel dominate the front pages, following the world premiere of the much-anticipated film in Edinburgh.
###
Article: Councillors representing the New Forest National Park Authority voted in favour of instigating the Cycle Charter.
There are 30 clauses containing guidance for people organising cycling events in the New Forest.
The cap on the number of cyclists in large events has been called "discriminatory" by CTC, the national cycling charity.
New Forest National Park Authority chairman Oliver Crosthwaite-Eyre said: "The vast majority of cycle events are under this threshold and have been operating without any complaint for many years.
"The figure of 1,000 has been well received by parish councils.
"We hope that all event organisers will follow the charter's criteria even if they don't agree with it all."
The charter will be sent to all cycle event organisers, the authority said.
The Safety Advisory Group for the forest will work with event organisers and review each event on a "case-by-case" basis.
Sam Jones, campaigns co-ordinator for CTC, said: "The cap in cycling numbers was loosely justified on safety grounds.
"It is therefore mystifying and incredibly frustrating that our amendment, which placed the Safety Advisory Group at the very heart of decision-making for each and every cycle event, was rejected.
"Instead, an arbitrary and discriminatory cap with no foundation in evidence will be implemented."

Summary: A voluntary charter restricting the number of cyclists in events to 1,000 has been approved for the New Forest.
###
Article: It is another indicator of just how warm conditions in the polar north have been of late.
Temperatures of -5C have been logged when -25C would be the norm.
Ice extent - the two-dimensional measure of frozen ocean surface - is also well down, running currently at just over 9.4 million sq km.
Ordinarily, it would be at least a million sq km higher.
The latest volume assessment comes from the Earth-orbiting Cryosat mission.
This European Space Agency satellite carries a radar altimeter designed specifically for the purpose of studying marine floes.
At present, it is the only way to monitor sea-ice volume across the entire Arctic basin.
What is interesting in its new data is that average sea-ice thickness stands today at roughly 130cm.
This represents the 5th thickest November in the Cryosat record, meaning the low volume is pretty much all down to the low extent.
This is most evident at southerly latitudes in the Beaufort, East Siberian and Kara seas, where the warm October/November conditions have been very keenly felt.
"When the Autumn freeze-up occurs, it is the low latitudes that would normally see the fastest growth in ice, in areas of open water or over thin floes. But because of the warm autumn, these regions simply haven't been able to build this volume," said Dr Rachel Tilling from the Nerc Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at Leeds University, UK.
Cryosat's volume determination on Monday was for 10,200 cu km.
Scientists expect perhaps 300 cu km to be added to floes in the last days of the month.
The resulting 10,500 cu km would then match what was seen in November 2011 and 2012, taking account of the errors that exist in such measurements.
"There is no doubt that sea-ice growth this Autumn has been sluggish and with Cryosat we've witnessed the smallest November growth on record," explained Dr Tilling.
"Usually, it grows by about 160 cu km per day, but this November it's been 139 cu km per day - just under 10% lower."
Volume is really the key metric when considering the status of Arctic...

Summary: There is likely to be about 10,500 cu km of Arctic sea-ice by the end of the week - a volume that would tie for the lowest on record for a November.
###
Article: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had questioned whether it would be practically possible to implement the ceasefire.
Russian air strikes and support from Iran have helped President Assad win key battles. Internationally, the threat from so-called Islamic State and the growing role of jihadi groups within the Syrian opposition have caused those countries which had wanted him gone to consider whether that remains a viable policy.
Three experts spoke to the BBC World Service Inquiry programme before the Syrian government agreed to the terms of the latest deal, about whether President Assad has effectively won the war.
Jennifer Cafarella is the Syria analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, a US military think tank.
"President Assad certainly has momentum on the battlefield. The armed opposition is mobilising significantly in order to prevent him, however, it does remain likely that Assad will be able to encircle Aleppo, after which we're expecting to see a siege and starve campaign.
"The recapture of Aleppo City could actually be sufficient to encourage many Syrian opposition fighters to stop fighting, and to abandon the war against Assad.
"His strategy to date has been to recapture key strategic terrain as well as to collapse opposition pockets that pose a threat to the core regime-held terrain. He's not trying to recapture all of the rural terrain that the opposition holds. Rather, he's trying to make sure that his gains are durable, and that they shore up his position militarily in places like Aleppo City, Homs, and Damascus.
"The core deficit that the opposition has is air power. Assad's ability to use Russian air strikes, as well as to deploy barrel bombs is not something that the opposition can make up for without receiving shoulder-to-air missile systems that they could use to shoot down aircraft.
"I think it's likely that without Iran's backing, Assad would have lost the war much earlier on, and so the continued deployment of Iranian ground troops is really keeping the regime alive and sustaining...

Summary: The Syrian government and the main opposition umbrella group have accepted the terms of a US-Russia deal to cease hostilities from Saturday.
###
Article: Tweeters have been using #NoToSocialMediaBill to campaign against the proposal.
It proposes up to a seven-year sentence or $25,000 (£16,000) fine for anyone found to be sending "abusive messages".
Human Rights Watch condemns the move as an attempt to muzzle free speech.
Millions of social media users in Nigeria, as well as those sending text messages, could be affected, it says in a statement.
The bill does not define "abusive statement or messages."
There will be a public hearing on the bill before it can be passed.
Activists see the bill as an attempt to target critics of lawmakers and politicians.
The BBC's Nasidi Adamu Yahya in the capital, Abuja, says Nigerian MPs often come under the media spotlight because of the huge money they earn.
However, Senator Bala Ibn Na'allah of the governing All Progressive Congress, who sponsored the bill, said the publication of false stories was becoming rampant in the country.
"You can't write false stories just because it is social media," he told the BBC Hausa service.
The offences the proposed bill seeks to criminalise already exist under Nigerian laws including those on treason, defamation, and libel, our reporter says.
Nigeria has a vibrant civil society, with many activists who use social media for their campaigns. It has the largest number of mobile phone users in Africa.

Summary:


Egypt's internet activists have played a key role in the pro-democracy protests from the outset, but they tell the BBC that the online campaigning is evolving to suit their real-life activism in Tahrir Square.

Article: A total of 181,880 people were summoned to appear at magistrates' courts in England for the offence last year.
The figures, revealed in the House Of Lords, prompted some critics to accuse the BBC of "clogging up" the courts.
But the TV Licensing authority said most cases were dealt with in "bulk sessions" that took up a "small proportion" of court time.
The authority is contracted by the BBC to collect and enforce the fee, which is Â£145.50 for a colour television.
Most people who own a television set, or who stream live broadcasts through their computer, must pay the annual charge.
Those who do not face a fine of up to Â£1,000. Anyone who refuses, or is unable, to pay the fine could face prison.
The number of people caught watching TV without a licence has remained steady since 2010, at about 400,000.
However, the number of prosecutions for evasion has risen from 164,444 in 2010 to 181,880 in 2012, Ministry of Justice figures show. With magistrates handling 1.48m cases in 2012, licence fee evasion accounts for 12% of their workload.
Two-thirds of those prosecuted were women - believed to be because they are more likely to be at home when inspectors visit.
About 15% of the cases, a total of 26,745, were unsuccessful last year.
Lord Pearson, leader of the UK Independence Party in the House Of Lords, called the figures "outrageous".
"I believe that non-payment should be treated in the way that parking tickets are," said the peer, who is sponsoring a bill to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee.
"It is absurd that the courts are being clogged up by such a minor offence," he told the Telegraph.
The figures came to light after Lord Laird submitted a written question to Parliament.
A TV Licensing spokesman said: "We always prefer people buy a licence so we work with money advice organisations to inform the public of the many payment methods available, including small weekly cash payments.
"However, we have a duty to enforce the law on behalf of the 95% of people who pay. TV Licence evasion cases take up a...

Summary: More than one in 10 criminal prosecutions in 2012 were for non-payment of the BBC licence fee.
###
Article: Dr Alec High "repeatedly" engaged in sexual activity between 2013 and 2015 at the University of Leeds despite being warned not to, a General Dental Council (GDC) committee heard.
He was "erased from the register with immediate effect", meaning he can no longer practice dentistry.
Dr High had ignored a warning by a senior colleague, the committee heard.
The dentist, who had refused to attend the hearing in London, lied during a university investigation giving a false account of his whereabouts, the tribunal was told.
The allegations relate to the period between January 2013 and March 2015.
On one occasion, a colleague trying to comfort a grieving student overheard him having sex with a woman who was often seen coming and going from his office.
Dr High qualified in 1966 and worked for the NHS in the North East before moving to the University of Leeds in 1981.
He was a senior lecturer and consultant specialising in the head and neck, but left the university in 2014.
At the end of the two-day hearing, the GDC committee said: "Dr High continued with his inappropriate and unprofessional behaviour even following an informal warning.
"[We have seen] nothing to show Dr High has any insight into the seriousness of his actions or the potential consequences, and he has not provided any assurance that his misconduct would not be repeated."
The GDC said Dr High's breaches of the standards of the dental profession were "serious and fundamental".
The committee said: "Engaging in sexual activity during working hours at his place of work within the hearing of colleagues, and potentially also of students, would be considered deplorable by fellow professionals.
"Further, the deliberate and calculated false account provided by Dr High during the university's investigation with the intention to mislead investigators and undermine the allegations made against him was conduct that fell significantly below the standards expected."
The GDC continued: "Dr High's misconduct, including his unprofessional behaviour and dishonesty, was...

Summary: A dentistry lecturer who had sex in his office has been struck off the General Dental Council register.
###
Article: Inspectors found vulnerable prisoners held on the first-night wing were subject to "unacceptable abuse" and some prisoners felt "unsafe".
However, the report also said the jail was working well in other areas with "much good work".
Hull Prison, in East Yorkshire, is an inner-city prison holding more than 1,000 men and young offenders.
The report said too many of the inmates were in cramped cells designed for one prisoner.
Mr Hardwick, chief inspector of prisons, said: "Outcomes for prisoners at Hull were very mixed.
"On balance, we judged that enough of the basics were in place for most prisoners for outcomes to be reasonably good overall.
"Nevertheless, there were some serious concerns in all areas."
He said inspectors would return "more quickly than usual" to the prison to make sure progress had been made, although the prison was "working well" in comparison with others inspected recently.
Inspectors did find the prison was calm and said support for prisoners on the drug recovery wing was excellent.
About a third of those held in Hull Prison are serving sentences of four years or more for serious offences and many of these men are sex offenders.
The prison has seen an increase in population after two closed Victorian wings were brought back into use.
Michael Spurr, chief executive officer of the national offender management service, said: "I am pleased the chief inspector found Hull to be performing reasonably well..."
The inspection was carried out from 6 to 17 October 2014.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons is independent and reports on the treatment and conditions for prisoners in England and Wales.

Summary: "Serious concerns" have been raised over the operation of Hull Prison following an unannounced inspection.
###
Article: He has asked his party colleague Arlene Foster to take over as acting first minister, after the DUP failed to get enough support to adjourn the assembly.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "gravely concerned" but it would not be right to suspend the assembly.
The crisis was sparked by the murder of ex-IRA man Kevin McGuigan, last month.
Police said that IRA members may have been involved in the killing.
The political row escalated on Wednesday, when detectives arrested three senior republicans as part of the murder inquiry, including Sinn Féin's chairman in Northern Ireland, Bobby Storey.
All three men were released unconditionally on Thursday evening and Mr Storey's lawyer said he plans to sue for unlawful arrest.
With the exception of Mrs Foster, the DUP's ministers have all signed their letters of resignation.
Mr Robinson said: "The failure of the SDLP and Sinn Féin to implement the Stormont House Agreement, together with the assessment of the chief constable of the involvement of the IRA in murder, the continued existence of IRA structures, and the arrests that followed has pushed devolution to the brink," the DUP leader said.
"In light of the decision by republicans, nationalists and the Ulster Unionist Party to continue with business as usual in the assembly, I am therefore standing aside as first minister and other DUP ministers will resign with immediate effect with the exception of my colleague Arlene Foster."
The DUP leaded added he has "stepped aside but not technically resigned" and has asked Mrs Foster to play a "gatekeeper role".
"Arlene remaining in post allows us to ensure that no irrational financial decisions are taken by other parties in what might appear to be the last number of days of this assembly,"  he added.
Mr Robinson said he will not take his salary and will not carry out any departmental work at Stormont while Mrs Foster is in post as acting first minister.
Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly said Mr Robinson's decision to step aside instead of announcing his resignation was intended to...

Summary: Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson has stepped aside and other DUP ministers have resigned as a result of the political crisis at Stormont.
###
Article: Two clients paid money directly into Jonathan Green's bank accounts thinking they were settling bills with Graham Builders Merchants in Dundee.
The fraud was uncovered when the company noticed the discrepancies and challenged the 45-year-old.
A court was told that Green, from Letham, Angus had repaid the money in full from his pension fund.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told previously that Green worked for the firm as a sales manager for over a year.
Depute fiscal Saima Rasheed said the first client paid £7,763 into Green's bank account.
Miss Rasheed said: "When his employer chased the sum with the client, the accused told them he would 'fix it.'"
The court heard that a second client made three payments totalling £65,622 into Green's bank account.
After Green's employer noticed the discrepancy he wrote a letter of apology and said he had been in "financial difficulties."
Green admitted embezzling £73,386 from Graham Builders Merchants in Dundee between August 2011 and July 2012, while employed there as a contract sales manager.
Ross Bennett, defending, said Green had been sacked by the company when the fraud came to light and the money had been repaid in full.
He said that while £73,000 had been paid into Green's account, he had only kept £23,000 and forwarded the remainder to Graham Builders Merchants
Mr Bennett said: "This is very much a one-off. I would be surprised if Mr Green was ever in court again.
"If he is given a fine it will have to be a significant one."
Sheriff Lorna Drummond QC told Green: "You are well-thought-of, a family man, and a first-time offender.
"But I have to look at the amount embezzled, which was over a prolonged period of time.
"The sentence must deter others and a period of custody is inevitable."

Summary: A sales manager who embezzled more than £73,000 from his former employer has been jailed for a year.
###
Article: This revolution is the result of someone sending a Facebook invitation to many people.  I got it like other people on our network.  The buzz around it was then created on different social media websites and with videos.  I was here on 25 January when riot police forced us out and by the 28th, we were back following the violence.  I've been sleeping here most of the time since.
Our social network was established in 2005, when there was a democratic opening around the time of the presidential elections. People from different backgrounds all met through blogging and hoped to use technology for social change.  It meant we have all gained good contacts, experience and strong networks.
I like to think the social network is the people itself.  Things like Facebook, Twitter, SMS and phones are just social tools.  When they blocked Facebook and shut down technology, our network still operated because it's about people.  Internet activists are also people and a lot of our organising, social work and relationships are developed offline.
This is something that people dreamt of but didn't anticipate happening in reality.  If anything, it shows that all the effort we put in over the past few years has not been wasted.  It has climaxed into this critical mass of people you see in the square.
At the moment I'm not getting a lot of internet connection.  I'm trying not to drain my phone battery. We're still using it to distribute footage people are bringing to us that we've sorted through.
I hope the internet will continue to play a complementary role in activism.  At the moment we physically exist in downtown Cairo and I hope that when we have finished this sit-in, we will have won the right to organise ourselves outside the internet.
Twitter: Amr Gharbeia
I was involved in this revolution from the first day, 25 January, and I've now been spending my nights here for a while. For the past five years, I was very active online, blogging and tweeting.  As we live under emergency laws in Egypt it has been very difficult to meet or...

Summary:


A former SAS soldier has been jailed for possessing weapons and ammunition.

Article: That is the conclusion of astronomers who surveyed thousands of galaxies, living and dead, to assess whether the transition is rapid or slow.
In the dead galaxies they detected high levels of metals, which build up during star formation and point to a slow strangulation process.
The work appears in the journal Nature.
"Metals are a powerful tracer of the history of star formation: the more stars that are formed by a galaxy, the more metal content you'll see," said Dr Yingjie Peng from the University of Cambridge, the paper's lead author.
"So looking at levels of metals in dead galaxies should be able to tell us how they died."
If a galaxy's death was quick and violent, with the cool gas that feeds star formation stripped away by internal or external forces, it would immediately stop forming stars and its metal content would remain the same.
On the other hand, if the galaxy is cut off from its supply of gas but it continues to use up what remains, metal would continue to build up until the galaxy eventually "suffocates".
In a commentary for Nature, fellow astronomer Andrea Cattaneo from the Observatoire de Paris compared this tell-tale evidence to the high levels of carbon dioxide seen in a strangled human body.
"During [strangulation], the victim uses up oxygen in the lungs but keeps producing carbon dioxide, which remains trapped in the body," wrote Dr Cattaneo.
"Instead of building up CO2, the strangled galaxies accumulate metals - elements heavier than helium - produced by massive stars."
The team led by Dr Peng spotted that accumulation of metal when they compared the spectrum of light emitted by 23,000 red, passive galaxies and 4,000 blue, star-forming ones.
They used data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - a vast collection of detailed, multi-coloured images spanning a third of the sky, which has been used to compile a precise 3D map of the universe.
On average, the living, star-forming galaxies were four billion years younger than the dead ones. This matches the amount of time that the astronomers...

Summary: When galaxies stop making stars, their death is usually a slow process that chokes them of the necessary cool gases over about four billion years.
###
Article: It is one of the recommendations in a survey of major food processing companies.
Around 11,500 EU nationals currently work in food, mostly in the meat and vegetable sectors.
The Northern Ireland economy is heavily reliant on agri-food.
It is estimated to support 92,000 jobs, both directly and indirectly.
It generated Â£4.5bn in sales in 2014, a quarter of which was exported to EU countries, the bulk of it to the Irish Republic.
The report by the Northern Ireland Food and Drinks Association was carried out to assess the implications of  Brexit.
It says that, as well as setting the numbers, the responsibility for agreeing entry requirements for a "foreign labour pool" should also be devolved.
It added that if this does not happen, there is a risk some companies may relocate processing plants across the border to the Irish Republic, where free movement for EU nationals will continue.
Chair of NIFDA Declan Billington said the industry was "facing a period of great uncertainty".
He said his association was trying to help shape the plan for a post-EU market by highlighting areas of concern.
A huge amount of milk and meat crosses the border in both directions for processing.
The report, based on the responses of 39 companies, calls for a free trade agreement with Europe and the maintenance of the common travel area.
If a trade agreement proves difficult, tariff free quotas for key products should be put in place and there should be minimal disruption at the border for cross border trade, it said.

Summary: Stormont should have the power to decide the number of migrants who can come to Northern Ireland to work in agri-food after the UK leaves the EU, according to an industry report.
###
Article: As a reporter, I am used to getting out my notebook and writing down what's said by witnesses, lawyers and judges.
These days, you are just as likely to see reporters making notes on portable devices such as laptops and iPads.
Although some appeals may be televised live, photography and sound recordings are not generally allowed during a court hearing and courtroom artists must work from memory.
However, media representatives and legal commentators in England and Wales are allowed to send written reports of the proceedings directly from the court, using email or services such as Twitter.
Before this was first permitted at the end of 2010, reporters had to choose between delaying the news if they stayed in their seats and missing part of the story if they rushed out of court.
However, members of the public who want to send written reports from the courtroom must ask court staff for permission from the judge.
Until recently, it was believed that no permission was needed for people sitting in the public gallery merely to make written notes of the proceedings.
Only last week, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, recalled that "the principle of open justice is fundamental to the rule of law and to democratic accountability".
However, an internal document, the Crown Court Manual, distributed to staff by HM Courts and Tribunals Service and subsequently released in response to freedom-of-information requests, says there may be objections to note-taking for a "wrongful purpose".
That might arise when the intent was to brief a witness who is about to give evidence in a criminal trial.
Although it is normal practice for a witness to wait outside while others are giving evidence to the jury, and there may sometimes be security concerns, this seems a heavy-handed approach.
Evidence may normally be reported while a trial is proceeding and there would be nothing to stop a member of the public briefing a potential witness from memory.
But it emerged from a recent case that judges in Cardiff were...

Summary: When can you take notes in court?
###
Article: Brides-to-be Kate Holder and Tara Attis modelled their wedding dresses in a 1ft x 3ft window space in Bude, Cornwall from 11:00 BST on Saturday.
It was Ms Holder who emerged as the victor in the bride wars on Monday evening, after clocking up 58.5 hours on show.
She said she has bruised hips from sleeping on the wood in the window.
"I'm very tired and I probably got about four hours sleep each night," she said.
Ms Holder, 27, from Holsworthy, Devon, who said she "had to win", is due to get married in February and said her husband-to-be was "over the moon".
"I had massive support from my family and friends and when I finished I went home and had a glass of wine," she said.
Despite losing, Ms Attis, from St Austell, Cornwall, has reportedly invited Ms Holder to her own wedding.
Shop owner, Emily Benny, said the contest started last year, when the winner remained in the window for 36 hours.
Competitors in both years were allowed to take a toilet break every four hours, but had to sleep in the windows.

Summary: A "mannequin bride" who spent more than 58 hours in a bridal shop window has won £5,000 worth of wedding gifts.
###
Article: ComRes interviewed 6,345 people for Newsbeat during February.
They answered questions ranging from the big issues they think politicians should focus on to which leader you would go to the pub with on a night out.
The results give us a good idea of what you're bothered about in 2015.
Huddled around tables in a bar in Manchester's Northern Quarter eight young adults spoke to Newsbeat about the survey.
It's the sort of a pub conversation that politicians and their advisers would love to listen in on.
Whether you will vote
The views of our panel often echoed the survey, especially when it comes to actually voting on 7 May.
They put the regular claim that 18 to 24-year-olds being are "apathetic" to rest.
Most of the panel said they would definitely be voting because "it's vital that you take part and have a say".
Jess Taberner, 20, said: "Everyone should vote. Even if it's just 'I don't know who to vote for but I'll just put a tick in any box' because then at least they'd have a right to moan."
The survey suggests 47% of 18 to 24-year-olds will definitely vote or are "very likely to" while 15% said they definitely won't or are "very unlikely to vote".
Also in Manchester, Tom Bishop talked about his "desire for change" but he also challenged others in the room about the value of voting.
He thinks the parties standing don't reflect his views and that voting simply hands more power to the politicians he wants to see out of a job.
Compared to older voters, you seem to care more about keeping the cost of your shopping down, improving education and being able to afford to buy your own house.
But one of the biggest worries for people around the table: housing.
This reflects the 24% of 18 to 24-year-olds who raised it as a top priority for government in our survey.
Emily Yates, 23, told us why she had moved from the south east to Leeds. "[It was] pretty much all because of rent prices," she said.
We know that in England the number of people under 35 owning their own home has been falling in recent years, while the number...

Summary: No-one has ever asked this number of 18 to 24-year-olds about British politics in the run-up to a general election before.
###
Article: A 9mm self-loading pistol, ammunition, four Enfield pistols and a rifle component were found at Albert Patterson's house in Hereford, the Hereford Times reported.
The 65-year-old was jailed for 15 months at the city's Crown Court.
He had already admitted three firearms offences, possessing prohibited ammunition and possessing ammunition without a certificate.
More on this story and others from Herefordshire
West Mercia Police said Patterson was arrested in January last year and charged in December.
Two charges of possessing a prohibited weapon and a second charge of possessing ammunition without a certificate will remain on file following Wednesday's hearing.
Former SAS soldier Lofty Wiseman who helped train Patterson, described him as a "good lad" who had been naive.
"He broke the law unfortunately. He had to get punished," he said.
"If he wanted a weapon as a keepsake, you could have had it de-activated, but by having a weapon, a serviceable weapon and ammunition, I think it's the ammunition that's really been the nail in the coffin.
"If you have a weapon in a house with ammunition, there's always that temptation... you can never say you're going to use it but different circumstances, state of mind, if it's there, it can be used so that's where you must have laws."

Summary:


An advertising campaign promoting the South Wales Metro has been criticised as "useless" and a "cynical way of spending public money".

Article: In a letter to school governors seen by the BBC, the employers said the proposed strike action by some NASUWT members later this month is based on a ballot conducted five years ago.
In response, the NASUWT maintain their plans for action are entirely lawful.
Their members at schools in Belfast and Newtownabbey are due to stage a one-day walk out on 30 November.
The action is over pay, workload and job insecurity.
The letter is from the management side of the Teachers' Negotiating Committee.
It represents the main school employing bodies, including the Education Authority (EA) and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS).
The letter points out that the strike is based on a ballot taken "in November 2011".
"We reserve the right to challenge the legality of the current action with particular reference to the unacceptable continuous rolling over and escalation of the industrial action purportedly authorised by historic ballots notwithstanding clear changes to the nature of the disputes," it said.
Last month, all teaching unions in Northern Ireland rejected an offer which would have seen their pay frozen last year and a rise of 1% for 2016-17
The other teaching unions - INTO, UTU and ATL - are currently taking non-strike industrial action.
For example, INTO members are not attending school meetings arranged before school or at break or lunchtime.
The employers' letter said that they want to resolve the industrial action.
However, it said they "are concerned about the long-term nature of the industrial action the unions are currently engaged in and the detrimental impact on the education of pupils and effective running of schools".
In response, the NASUWT said that they are pursuing "a lawful trade dispute on pay, pensions, working conditions and jobs which has been recognised by the education minister
"The NASUWT's plans for strike action are entirely lawful and members participating in the NASUWT industrial action will continue to be protected in law by the existing yes vote from the ballot of all...

Summary: The body representing teaching employers is considering legal action against a strike plan by some teachers.
###
Article: The High Court refused to rule in a case brought by campaign groups seeking to exclude him from the 4 March poll.
Mr Kenyatta and Prime Minister Raila Odinga are seen as the favourites.
Mr Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto deny the charges brought against them in The Hague.
They are due to go on trial in April at the International Criminal Court  (ICC) in connection with the violence that followed disputed elections in 2007.
"The High Court lacks jurisdiction to deal with a question relating to the election of a president," the panel of five judges said in a statement read to a crowded courtroom.
"This is an issue that is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme Court," the judges said.
The BBC's Will Ross in the capital, Nairobi, says Mr Kenyatta's supporters celebrated in the streets after the ruling was announced.
Correspondents say it is not immediately clear if any application would be made to move the case to the higher court.
Edgar Kavu-Lavu from the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) - one of the civil society groups to bring the case to court - says they won't appeal as there is not enough time before the elections are held.
The ICC case against four Kenyans - including Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto - is taking centre stage in the elections and was an issue that featured prominently in the first presidential debate last week between the eight leading candidates for the post.
Mr Kenyatta was forced to fend off claims of impunity during the debate and was put on the spot by the moderators and his presidential challengers who demanded to know why he would not pull out of the race to concentrate on his case at The Hague.
Both he and Mr Ruto have been indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity emanating from the violence that killed more than 1,000 people and forced about 300,000 people from their homes after the disputed election that was won by President Mwai Kibaki, who is now stepping down after two terms.
Mr Odinga said he welcomed the High Court ruling.
"I have repeatedly said...

Summary: Kenya's deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta - accused of crimes against humanity - can stand in next month's election, after a court declined to bar him.
###
Article: Researchers at University College London and Newcastle University found listening to two notes played simultaneously makes the brain adapt.
Brain scans revealed highly specific changes in the hippocampus, which governs memory and navigation.
These correlated with the number of years tuners had been doing this job.
The Wellcome Trust researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to compare the brains of 19 professional piano tuners - who play two notes simultaneously to make them pitch-perfect - and 19 other people.
What they saw was highly specific changes in both the grey matter - the nerve cells where information processing takes place - and the white matter - the nerve connections - within the brains of the piano tuners.
Investigator Sundeep Teki said: "We already know that musical training can correlate with structural changes, but our group of professionals offered a rare opportunity to examine the ability of the brain to adapt over time to a very specialised form of listening."
Other researchers have noted similar hippocampal changes in taxi drivers as they build up detailed information needed to find their way around London's labyrinth of streets.
Prof Tim Griffiths, who led the latest study, published in Neuroscience, said: "There has been little work on the role of the hippocampus in auditory analysis.
"Our study is consistent with a form of navigation in pitch space as opposed to the more accepted role in spatial navigation."

Summary: Tuning a piano also tunes the brain, say researchers who have seen structural changes within the brains of professional piano tuners.
###
Article: The independent research institute said the pay gap between public and private sector workers had nearly returned to pre-financial crisis levels.
For men, there is little difference, but women in the public sector get paid 8% more than private sector staff.
However, the IFS points out that pensions must be considered too.
It said that a large majority of public sector workers were saving into more generous defined benefit, largely final-salary, pensions. This compared with 12% of private sector staff on pensions of this kind.
The report said that at the height of the financial crisis, between 2008 and 2010, private sector pay fell faster in real terms than public sector pay.
This had reversed since 2010, when public sector pay fell faster after taking the rising cost of living into account.
The IFS points to predictions from the Office of Budget Responsibility that pay will grow faster in the private sector over the next four years.
"If correct, this implies that the gap between public and private sector pay levels will fall back to levels last seen in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when there were recruitment and retention problems in parts of the public sector," the report said.
Frances O'Grady, general secretary of the TUC, said: "The pay squeeze looks set to go on and on, which will not only make public sector workers suffer further years of cuts in their living standards, but also hit the quality of the services that bind our society together."
However, Jonathan Cribb, the author of the report, said that the biggest difference between the private and public sector was the value of employers' contributions to pensions, which were much more generous in the public sector.
"Over the last 15 years, changes in the gap between total remuneration in the public and private sectors has been driven more by the changing value of pensions rather than headline pay. Pay and pensions need to be considered together," he said.
He also highlighted that there was a considerable variation in the pay gap between the public...

Summary: Pay in the private sector is likely to rise faster than public sector wages in the next four years, a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.
###
Article: The Slovenia-based firm said the culprits had exploited a bug in the virtual currency's underlying software to carry out the assault.
It is the second exchange to suspend operations. Tokyo's MtGox took a similar measure on Friday.
A third, Bulgaria's BTC-e, has warned that some transactions may be delayed.
Like Bitstamp, it cited a denial-of-service (DoS) attack as the cause.
The Bitcoin Foundation - a group of developers who maintain and promote the cryptographic code on which the currency relies - said that it was creating workarounds and fixes to tackle the issue.
It added that people who had funds stored with the affected exchanges should know that their savings were safe, albeit "tied up" for the time being.
"This is a denial-of-service attack; whoever is doing this is not stealing coins, but is succeeding in preventing some transactions from confirming," wrote Gavin Andresen, chief scientist at the foundation.
"It's important to note that DoS attacks do not affect people's Bitcoin wallets or funds."
Bitcoin is often referred to as a new kind of currency.
But it may be best to think of its units being virtual tokens rather than physical coins or notes.
However, like all currencies its value is determined by how much people are willing to exchange it for.
To process Bitcoin transactions, a procedure called "mining" must take place, which involves a computer solving a difficult mathematical problem with a 64-digit solution.
For each problem solved, one block of bitcoins is processed. In addition the miner is rewarded with new bitcoins.
This provides an incentive for people to provide computer processing power to solve the problems.
To compensate for the growing power of computer chips, the difficulty of the puzzles is adjusted to ensure a steady stream of about 3,600 new bitcoins a day.
To receive a bitcoin a user must have a Bitcoin address - a string of 27-34 letters and numbers - which acts as a kind of virtual post-box to and from which the bitcoins are sent.
Since there is no registry of these...

Summary: Bitstamp - one of the world's largest Bitcoin exchanges - has halted withdrawals after coming under cyber-attack.
###
Article: Liberal Democrat AM Eluned Parrott said the Welsh government had "wasted" more than £52,000 on them at railway stations in south Wales.
She accused ministers of spending public money to "promote themselves before an election".
The Welsh government said it was unapologetic about the campaign.
A spokesman said: "We are not going to apologise for informing the Welsh public about one of the most important economic and social projects in Wales' history.
"Are the Liberal Democrats really saying that we should not be providing people in Wales with this important information?"
Ms Parrott said her party backed the project, but added: "To all intents and purposes, here we have Labour ministers spending over £50,000 of public money to promote themselves before an election.
"This is money spent only on marketing the fact that one day, years in the future, there will be a Metro in south Wales.
"This is a cynical way of spending public money. The minister is wasting tens of thousands of pounds on a useless poster campaign."
Work on the Metro is set to start in 2017 and finish in 2020, a government spokesman said.
Formal consultation for the £600m programme to develop an integrated network of rail, bus and light rail services begins in 2016.

Summary:


Oldham Athletic have offered free entry to all fans for their rearranged League One fixture against Peterborough United on Tuesday, 24 January.

Article: The areas have been identified as having "high wildness" and include islands, mountain ranges, moorlands and blanket bogs, said the agency.
Among the 42 sites are parts of Jura and also Hoy in Orkney, Breadalbane-Schiehallion in Perth and Kinross, Lochnagar and Skye's Cuillin Hills.
Public comments have been sought on draft guidance on protecting the areas.
Other sites include Talla-Hart Fells north of Moffat, Causeymire-Knockfin Fells in Caithness and Ronas Hill and North Roe in Shetland.
SNH said descriptions were based on extensive field study work and illustrated with photographs and maps.
Peter Hutchinson, SNH's planning and renewables manager, said: "Our Wild Land Areas have a distinct and special character.
"They are part of Scotland's identity and bring broad and significant benefits. For example, they attract many thousands of visitors each year and provide important havens for Scotland's wildlife."
The public consultation on the draft guidance, which is designed to protect the areas from new developments, runs until 7 April.
Landscape conservation charity, the John Muir Trust, has welcomed the publication of the descriptions and draft guidance.
Stuart Brooks, the trust's chief executive, said: "We would applaud the work that SNH has carried out to create vivid and detailed descriptions of each individual wild land area, which examine landscape, ecology, geology, archaeology and current human activity.
"They will help bring to life Scotland's most beautiful, wild and remote places - turning lines on maps into real places."

Summary: Descriptions of 42 Wild Land Areas of Scotland have been published by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).
###
Article: The Home Affairs Committee heard evidence about the councils, which use Islamic law to grant divorces.
Maryam Namazi, of One Law for All, said the council process was "tantamount to abuse", with women told to stay silent and domestic violence justified.
Khola Hasan, a woman who sits on a UK Sharia council, said they offered women a service not available elsewhere.
At the hearing, witnesses explained that even after a civil divorce, a family or community might not accept the marriage was over until a religious divorce had taken place.
MPs also heard that between 30 and 40% of Muslim marriages were religious only, meaning the women did not have the same rights as wives in a civil marriage.
Zlakha Ahmed, founder of Rotherham-based domestic violence organisation Apna Haq, said that without Sharia councils most of the women she had helped would still be in "limping marriages".
She said their husband might be living with another woman, while they did the housework and were treated as a slave.
But asked if the councils were discriminatory, she nodded, saying: "There are certain behaviours that need challenging."
Another witness - Shaista Gohir, chair of the Muslim Women's Network UK - called on the government to make civil marriage compulsory before Islamic marriage, and fine imams who contravened this.
She said her organisation was trying to encourage more Muslim women to get a civil marriage.
Ms Gohir said it was then a case of educating Muslim communities that a civil divorce meant a religious divorce, which would eventually make Sharia councils redundant.
She advised against sudden abolition of the councils, saying it would drive the problem underground, push up Sharia divorce charges and reduce transparency.
In the meantime, she called for councils to:
She also suggested that the government should draw up a list of those councils which followed best practice.
Khola Hasan, who also gave evidence, told the BBC that the UK's estimated 30 Sharia councils were giving Muslim women a service they could not get...

Summary: Sharia councils discriminate against Muslim women when they are seeking a religious divorce, MPs have been told.
###
Article: In the latest Republican debate for White House hopefuls, Mr Trump told his rival: "There's a big question mark over your head."
The constitution mandates the president be a "natural born citizen" of the US.
Issues of national security, the economy and foreign policy have also played heavily in the debate.
In the polls, the pair are leading the five other candidates, who were also on the stage in North Charleston.
The debate came just two weeks before the first real test of the campaign, when voters in Iowa pick their Republican and Democratic choices for president.
"Cruz acquitted himself well, cementing his status as the front-runner's chief opponent," writes Howard Kurtz for Fox News. "But Trump didn't suffer, and in fact may have had his strongest debate performance... The two-man top tier remains just that, way ahead of the rest of the field."
"For much of his career in Washington, Ted Cruz has been dismissed as a cartoonish sideshow," Michael Barbaro notes in the New York Times. However, he "did not just dominate much of the Republican debate, he slashed, he mocked, he charmed and he outmanoeuvred everybody else on stage".
"Donald Trump and Ted Cruz had an unofficial non-aggression pact at the first five Republican presidential debates... but the sixth one Thursday night quickly became a flurry of mutual scorn," writes Susan Page in USA Today.
"There were only three real players in this exercise: Trump, Cruz and Rubio," according to Josh Marshall on the Talking Points Memo website. "Trump wins, Cruz loses a bit of ground but not much and the clock continues to run out on Rubio."
Meet the candidates
Winners and losers
The debate as it happened
Highlights
The sixth Republican presidential debate was the political equivalent of a wrestling "battle royale", where fists fly, chairs are thrown, the crowd cheers and the referees flee for safety.
There could have been no clearer indication that the Cruz-Trump honeymoon was over. The two candidates who stand atop the Republican presidential opinion polls had...

Summary: Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has attacked Ted Cruz over his birth in Canada, saying it raises questions about his presidential eligibility.
###
Article: That's 70 every day. The vast majority were men.
Those figures do not make Japan's the highest suicide rate in the world in a developed nation.
That dubious title belongs to South Korea.  But it is still far, far higher than virtually all other wealthy countries.
It is three times the suicide rate in the United Kingdom.
The grim self-immolation of a 71-year-old man aboard a Japanese bullet train on Tuesday has once again rammed the issue back in to the headlines here.
What drove a quiet, elderly man, to douse himself with fuel and set fire to it in a packed carriage on a speeding train?
As he tipped the liquid over himself he is reported to have shooed away other passengers, telling them it was dangerous.
Some said there were tears in his eyes as he did so.
Now, as they start to dig in to his background, members of the Japanese media are turning up the tell-tale signs of a man on the edge. He lived alone and had no job. He spent his days collecting aluminium cans to sell for recycling.
Neighbours told reporters they had heard him smash a window after locking himself out of his dilapidated apartment.
Others said they rarely saw him outside, but could often hear the sound of a television playing. Poor, old and alone. It is an all too familiar tale.
"Isolation is the number one precursor for depression and suicide," says Wataru Nishida, a psychologist at Tokyo's Temple University.
"Now it's more and more common to read stories about old people dying alone in their apartments," he says. "They are being neglected. Kids used to take care of their parents in old age in Japan, but not any more."
People often cite Japan's long tradition of "honourable suicide" as a reason for the high rate here.
They point to the Samurai practice of committing "seppuku" or to the young "kamikaze" pilots of 1945, to show there are distinct cultural reasons why Japanese are more likely to take their own lives.
To an extent Mr Nishida agrees.
"Japan has no history of Christianity," he says "so here suicide is not a sin. In fact, some...

Summary: Last year in Japan, more than 25,000 people took their own lives.
###
Article: In a report, net firm Akamai said in the last 10 months it had seen 141 attacks on its customers by the group.
The gang, called DD4BC, threatens to swamp servers with data unless a ransom of up to 50 bitcoins (Â£8,000) is paid.
The attacks mounted by the gang can flood sites with more than 56 gigabits of data a second, it said.
DD4BC had been active since September 2014, said Akamai in a report about the group, but had recently stepped up its attacks against net-based businesses.
"The latest attacks - focused primarily on the financial service industry - involved new strategies and tactics intended to harass, extort and ultimately embarrass the victim publically," said Stuart Scholly, manager of Akamai's security division, in a statement.
Mr Scholly said that as well as threatening to knock companies offline, DD4BC said it would also post messages on social networks to shame firms if they did not pay up.
DD4BC had a substantial network of computers to call on to mount its attacks, said Akamai, and was capable of rapidly increasing the amount of data being directed at a site to overwhelm it.
The group's main tactic is to use what are known as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks which, on average, were able to pipe about 13.3 gigabits of data every second (gbps) towards victims. The average connection that most firms have to the net can run at a speed of about 10gbps, said Akamai, so such an attack would completely overwhelm that link.
The largest attacks seen by Akamai involved more than 56.2 gigabits of data per second - far more than most companies could cope with.
In emails sent to targets, DD4BC claimed to have the ability to direct about 500 gigabits of data at victims but Akamai said it had seen no attacks of this magnitude.
Analysis of the attacks DD4BC had carried out showed it was using 10 separate methods of generating DDoS data floods. One method exploited weaknesses in the WordPress blogging tool to bounce data at targets.
The payments demanded by the group ranged from 25 to 50 bitcoins....

Summary: Banks, media groups and gaming firms are being hit with extortion demands by a cyber gang who threaten to knock them offline unless they pay up.
###
Article: The original game was postponed on 26 November because of a frozen pitch.
The offer from the Latics is for both home and away supporters visiting SportsDirect.com Park.
Oldham, who are next to bottom of the table, three points from safety, have just exited a transfer embargo and reappointed John Sheridan as manager.
"We want as many supporters to welcome back the manager to the football club as he takes his place on the sidelines for the first time," said a club statement.
Supporters are, however, being invited to make a donation to a local charity.
Brentford were the first team to offer free entry for a league game in England when they played Peterborough in 2001.

Summary:


One tenth of the workforce at a Welsh Government-funded careers service is facing redundancy, according to Unison.

Article: To New Zealanders, their big brother across the Tasman Sea in Australia was always brash and exciting. Lured by the prospect of well-paid jobs and sunshine, the Kiwis have traditionally flocked west in vast numbers.
But things are changing. New Zealand has a renewed sense of confidence, and buoyed by the international success of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies it is not only foreign tourists that are heading to Middle Earth. Others are seeking fresh opportunities in a "rock star" economy.
For the first time in 24 years, more people are now heading east from Australia to New Zealand.
The end of a long mining boom in Australia and the rebounding of its trans-Tasman neighbour's fortunes are among the main factors.
"We've been describing New Zealand as a rock star in the sense that it has been outperforming almost all of the other developed world economies over the past couple of years," says Paul Bloxham, HSBC's chief economist for Australia and New Zealand
Recent figures show that employment growth in Australia is running at 2%, while across the Tasman Sea the Kiwis are enjoying rates of more than 3%.
The government in Wellington is expecting a budget surplus within the next year or two, while its counterpart in Canberra can see only deficits ahead.
At the heart of the Kiwi recovery are construction booms in Auckland and post-earthquake Christchurch.
"The tide has turned a little bit now and we are seeing Australians suddenly taking more notice of what's going on in New Zealand that has an economy which is growing really strongly," says Peter Townsend, chief executive of the Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce.
"New Zealand has the second-largest diaspora in the world, as I understand it on a per capita basis, so we have a million Kiwis living offshore.
"It is the New Zealand way to go offshore and experience new things, and the economic positioning of New Zealand now and the rebuild of Christchurch is attracting some of those Kiwis back home," he says.
Official reports show that New Zealand...

Summary: It has long been like a fractious, but ultimately friendly, relationship between siblings.
###
Article: Avon and Somerset chief Nick Gargan was suspended over allegations he made inappropriate advances to female staff.
The police watchdog said he may have breached the Data Protection Act by sending emails with personal data to individuals unconnected to the force.
Mr Gargan, who denies the charges, is due to be interviewed soon.
Rachel Cerfontyne, of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), said: "Mr Gargan has now been served with a notice informing him that this aspect of his conduct is subject to a criminal investigation."
Investigators have "examined a large amount of computer and telephone data" during the probe, with 50 members of staff from the force providing "information and intelligence", said the IPCC.
Speaking on behalf of Mr Gargan, a spokesman for the Chief Police Officers' Staff Association said Mr Gargan would "continue to cooperate" with the investigation.
"Chief Constable Gargan is pleased that progress has been made in relation to the allegation concerning inappropriate behaviour and that this allegation is no longer being treated as a criminal matter," the statement continued.
"He is keen to return to work and hopes that the investigation can be progressed expediently."

Summary: A chief constable being investigated for gross misconduct will also be interviewed on suspicion of data protection offences.
###
Article: John Grainger, 33, was shot before his headless body was found in Wellington Street, Stockport, on 26 January. His head was found by firefighters.
At Manchester Crown Court, Joseph Jenkins, 30, who denied murder, was ordered to serve a minimum of 32 years.
Anthony Jenkins, 34, pleaded guilty and must serve a minimum of 30 years.
Police said the two brothers and Mr Grainger had been drinking at pubs in Stockport on the eve of the attack. The three then continued drinking at Joseph Jenkins' flat in Covent Gardens.
The brothers then attacked Mr Grainger with a hammer, stabbed him in the legs then shot him in the knee and the head.
He was decapitated with an electric jigsaw in the bathroom, the jury heard during the trial.
During the trial of Joseph Jenkins, the court heard the brothers used a can of petrol to set  Mr Grainger's body alight in nearby Wellington Street.
His body was found on a verge by fire crews tackling a blaze close by.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said the brothers had been stopped by officers in the area because they were acting suspiciously.
Anthony Jenkins was found to have six shotgun cartridges in his pocket and blood on his trainers.
The shotgun said to have been used to kill Mr Grainger was found the next day under a parked car, close to where both had been stopped in the street, the jury heard.
Senior investigating officer Andy Tattersall said: "The Jenkins brothers put Mr Grainger through a horrifically violent and cruel attack before shooting him.
"What followed was nothing short of macabre."

Summary: Two Stockport brothers have been given life sentences for shooting dead a man, decapitating him and setting his body on fire.
###
Article: Writing in JAMA Pediatrics, the researchers said this might be because babies born vaginally are exposed to healthy gut bacteria that play an important role in regulating diet.
The study followed more than 22,000 babies into adulthood.
But experts said there were likely to be many different factors at work.
These include the diet of the mother, whether she had diabetes during pregnancy and whether the baby was breastfed.
Babies born via Caesarean are less likely to be breastfed, and this has been shown to lead to an increased risk of obesity. Children's diets also have an effect on their future weight.
In the UK, about 26% of babies are delivered by Caesarean section - an operation where a cut is made in the tummy and womb to get the baby out. Rates have been rising steadily over the past few years, according to the Royal College of Midwives.
In this study, American researchers from Harvard Medical School and other institutions found that babies delivered by Caesarean were 15% more likely to grow up to be obese after adjusting for a number of factors, including the mother's weight and age.
In families where children were born by different methods, those born by Caesarean were 64% more likely to be obese than their siblings born by vaginal delivery.
But the researchers could not say Caesareans were the cause of obesity or explain the mechanisms behind the link.
Their best guess was that differences in gastrointestinal microbiota, or healthy gut bacteria, between babies born by different methods could have an effect.
Microbiota is the term used to describe the microbes that colonise our bodies and which vary from one person to another. They are linked to some diseases but can also be used to treat disease and promote health.
A technique called "vaginal seeding" can be used to transfer maternal vaginal fluid - which contains the healthy bacteria - to a baby born by Caesarean but doctors say there could be risks with infection.
Dr Simon Cork, research associate in the department of investigative medicine at...

Summary: Babies born by Caesarean are at higher risk of becoming obese, especially compared with siblings born by vaginal delivery, a large study suggests.
###
Article: They are angry about moves by the British government to ban the use of the leafy substance from this July.
Last year, the UK government decided - against some expert advice - to treat khat as a class C drug to "protect vulnerable members of our communities".
It is traditionally used by Ethiopian, Kenyan, Somali and Yemeni communities.
The mildly narcotic leaf - a herbal stimulant - is already banned in most of Europe and in a number of other countries, including the US and Canada.
The MPs say that the British move will force almost two million people out of jobs in Meru, which is one of Kenya's 47 counties and lies to the north-east of Mt Kenya.
It is not clear how many British nationals own farms in Meru.
But the MPs say they have about a quarter of the farmland in Meru, including wheat and barley farms.
Florence Kajuju, one of the MPs behind the motion, said the government had the right to compulsorily buy property for later public use.
The arable land in Meru owned by UK farmers should be made available to locals as areas used to grow khat could not be used for other crops, she said.
"If they cannot allow us to access their market then they should also then be willing to let go of tracts of land that could be occupied by the Meru people," Ms Kajuju told the BBC.
She said Kenyans were used to fighting for their rights as they had had to do so to gain independence from Britain.
Correspondents say even if the motion was passed by MPs it is unlikely the government would implement it given its policy of accommodating foreign investors.
Source: www.talktofrank.com
Ms Kajuju travelled to the UK last year to appeal for the ban not to be enforced, saying it was important that the British government was not duped by a misinformation campaign.
Khat was not only of economic importance but of cultural significance to many Africans, she said.
Last year, the UK's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said there was "insufficient evidence" that khat caused health problems although regular users suffered...

Summary: A group of Kenyan MPs have said they will table a motion in parliament for British farmers to be ejected from the khat-growing Meru region.
###
Article: A total of 60 jobs at Careers Wales, which employs around 600, are to be axed, the union has said.
Careers Wales said it is facing a "budget shortfall" and "all options" are being explored.
The Welsh Government said it was aware Careers Wales was consulting on a "voluntary release scheme".
Unison said all employees of Careers Wales, which provides careers advice and information and is funded by Welsh ministers, had been written to asking if they would take voluntary redundancy.
The union said that, although Careers Wales' core funding for the year remained at £18m from the year before, the organisation was facing a £2.7m cut in overall funding for 2016-17 through the withdrawal of a fund that had prevented redundancies in the last financial year.
The Welsh Government said the fund was a one-off project actually worth £1.7m, and it was disingenuous to suggest extra funding had been withdrawn.
Jeff Baker, Unison regional organiser, said: "The government's plans don't make any sense."
"The Welsh Government hasn't concluded its strategic review with Careers Wales and by slashing funding to that organisation, it's forcing Careers Wales to sack people and its future is threatened.
"This is a ridiculous way to plan and fund a key public service."
Unison said Careers Wales staff numbers have halved in the last five years and it was making the staff cuts despite bidding to provide the Welsh Government's Employability and Apprenticeship training programme.
Richard Spear, chief executive of Careers Wales, said: "An anticipated reduction in our overall funding for 2017-2018 and a need to make further savings has resulted in a budget shortfall for the organisation.
"All options are being explored to address this shortfall.
"We will attempt to make the required savings via a voluntary early release scheme, in line with compulsory redundancy-avoidance best practice."
He said a 30-day consultation had started.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: "We are aware of Careers Wales' decision to initiate consultation on a voluntary...

Summary: