The government has announced a £1.5bn investment in the capital's transport network.
The money will be used to improve the capital's transport links, including the Jubilee line, Crossrail and the Thameslink.
The money will also be used to improve the capital's transport infrastructure, including the Crossrail

Ticket offices will start closing on the London Underground later in a move that has prompted past strikes.

Article: The EY Scottish Item Club predicted a rise in employment and house prices.
It raised its growth forecast for the Scottish economy to 2.4% this year - 0.7% higher than its previous prediction in December.
But it warned that September's referendum carried risks for the economy - whatever the result.
The item club's latest summer update predicted substantial growth this year and further growth of 1.9% in 2015 and 2016.
However, it forecast UK growth would be 0.5% higher than Scotland's in both 2014 and 2015.
The group said that was due partly to the relative size of Scotland's public sector and lower population growth.
The item club also predicted 45,000 new jobs would be created in Scotland this year, and 33,000 in 2015.
But it suggested it could take until 2018 before Scotland's employment rate returned to the levels seen before the financial crisis.
Average house prices in Scotland are predicted to rise by nearly 7% this year and 5% in 2015, "after a period of stasis".
According to its prediction, the average price in Scotland is likely to be about 67% of the UK average in 2015.
Dougie Adams, senior economic advisor to the item club, said: "This year is shaping up to be the best for Scottish economic growth since the onset of the financial crisis, with business investments and exports adding momentum to the consumer-driven recovery.
"A handful of sectors including transport, food services and retail are expected to create employment while public administration and manufacturing shed jobs.
"We expect financial services, education and health to tread water."
The forecaster warned that its predictions were subject to "international and home-grown risks", including the impact of September's independence referendum.
It argued that a Yes vote would bring uncertainty for business on key economic issues such as the currency and Scotland's place in Europe.
But it also warned that a No vote would bring the Scottish Parliament more tax powers than it has ever had - and that could change the UK's economic landscape.
Mr...

Summary: Scotland is set to enjoy its best year for economic growth since the financial crisis, according to a leading economic forecaster.
###
Article: South Wimbledon and Queensway stations will be the first to see their staff moved from ticket offices into ticket halls and on to platforms.
Transport for London (TfL) said it would save £50m annually as it tries to save £4.2bn by 2020.
But Manuel Cortes, from the TSSA union, said London Mayor Boris Johnson was "rushing through" the closures.
Mr Cortes, leader of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association said: "Talks on the safety implications of closing over 250 stations have not even been concluded.
"The mayor doesn't seem concerned about how millions of tourists will cope with fewer staff to help them on their way."
TfL said all stations would remain staffed and 150 new ticket machines would be installed by April 2016.
It added that new visitor centres would be created at larger stations such as Victoria and King's Cross to help visitors.
Nick Brown, London Underground's chief operating officer, said more staff were being placed "where they can offer the best possible assistance" as only 3% of Tube tickets were bought at ticket offices.
He said: "This forms part of our wider vision for the Tube, which includes a 24-hour weekend service on core parts of the network."
But the changes have led to previous strikes by the Aslef and RMT unions.
Labour's London Assembly transport spokeswoman Val Shawcross said: "When he was elected, Boris Johnson promised Londoners he would protect the capital's ticket offices, but today he starts the process of dismantling each and every one of them.
"Whilst there is obviously a big role for ticket machines to play, there is no substitute for a member of staff."
London Underground said after 100 meetings with unions the number of roles to be reduced had fallen from 950 to 897 with no member of staff facing compulsory redundancy or losing money.

Summary:


A new report has found that the number of people who have been abused in prison is on the rise.
The report, by the charity Prisoners' Rights, found that the number of people who have been abused in prison has risen by more than 50% in the past five years.
The report also found that

Police investigations into claims of historical child abuse should "take precedence" over a UK government-ordered inquiry, a Welsh MP says.

Article: Twenty "listeners" met and spoke to prisoners suffering from depression and mental health problems, including some who were suicidal.
Details of the number of calls have been released to mark the 10th anniversary of the scheme.
It operates in Maghaberry and Magilligan prisons.
There are currently more than 1,300 prisoners in the two jails.
The prison authorities have been strongly criticised in a series of inspection reports for treatment of vulnerable prisoners, including those with mental health problems.
The scheme is run by the Samaritans, who provide a 12-week training course for prisoners who pass an initial selection and vetting process.
Volunteers working for the charity outside the prison answered a further 1,500 telephone calls from prisoners in Northern Ireland last year.
The Listener scheme has been operating for 25 years in prisons across the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Case study: The Listener who helps fellow inmates
The Samaritans said it is essential because research shows that prisoners are eight to 10 times more likely to die by suicide than the rest of the population.
According to the charity, around 23% of male prisoners and 46% of women prisoners suffer from anxiety and depression.
The first Listener programme in Northern Ireland began operating in Magilligan prison near Limavady in 2002.
The scheme in Maghaberry started in 2006.
A programme for women prisoners and young offenders is being developed at Hydebank in south Belfast.
Gillian McNaull, the Samaritans' regional prisons support officer, oversees the Listener scheme.
She said it works well because many prisoners prefer to talk to fellow prisoners.
"The prisoners who are suffering emotional distress know that the Listeners know what life in prison is like and know what they are going through," she said.
She believes those who volunteer to help their fellow inmates also benefit.
"I think there is something very redemptive about the process in that people who are in prison for punishment are being given a chance and are being...

Summary: Prisoners trained to help fellow inmates in emotional distress in NI's two largest jails were contacted more than 1,600 times last year.
###
Article: Cardiff North MP Jonathan Evans said it was "a tragedy" there was no agreement on who should chair the inquiry, set up after claims of paedophiles operating in Westminster in the 1980s.
The Conservative MP said cases should be investigated by the police first.
Child abuse survivors have urged the government to scrap the inquiry.
Instead, they want it replaced with a more powerful body.
It comes after Home Secretary Theresa May told inquiry members their panel might be disbanded.
The Met Police said earlier this month that detectives were investigating three alleged murders as part of their investigation into historical child abuse.
Mr Evans, who is chairman of the Welsh Tory party and a former deputy chairman of the Welsh NSPCC council, said: "Now I hear that a number of the groups who are representing victims have suggested the whole of the process should be stopped and a different sort of inquiry created.
"I don't know exactly what the terms of that inquiry should be and I'm not really sure what they mean by setting up a stronger inquiry because I think the inquiry that was being set up was a pretty strong one."
He said ongoing police inquiries introduced a "new dimension", and that they appeared to be proceeding on the basis of new evidence "in which the police have already made it clear to the media that there are real issues that are being investigated".
"It seems to me that those police inquiries have got to now take precedence. We ought not to have a situation in which we set up an inquiry and then we can only do half the job because police inquiries are ongoing."
Mr Evans, who was a Wales Office minister in the 1990s when the UK government set up the Waterhouse inquiry into abuse allegations at children's homes in north Wales, added: "It seems to me that the police inquiries are now at the forefront."
He said Mrs May should not be blamed for delays to the inquiry, which has been held up by the resignation of her first two choices of chairperson.
Victims must have confidence in the process, Mr Evans...

Summary:

Article: {{document}}

Summary: ||| {{target}}


The UK's armed forces are increasingly reliant on the internet for their operations.
The Royal Navy is one of the most important users of the internet, with a large proportion of its ships and aircraft based in the UK.
The Royal Navy has a long history of using the internet to support its operations.
The Royal

Criminals and terrorists are using the so-called dark net to buy weapons, a new study has suggested.

Article: For the last few years, four small UK minehunters have been maintaining a valuable if unsung presence in the waterway. It is one that Britain's allies value very highly, according to the Navy.
We joined one of the ships, HMS Middleton, as she headed out to sea from her base in the port of Bahrain. As we set sail, the international significance of the Gulf was evident.
As well as the four British minehunters, a frigate and a patrol craft from the Bahraini navy, dotted around the port were a French naval support ship, a US amphibious assault ship, some American minehunters and perhaps most intriguingly, a US Coastguard cutter.
There was also a huge British amphibious support ship, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Lyme Bay, another of the total of a dozen British naval vessels in the region. Lyme Bay acts as a mother ship for the minehunters.
Those minehunters themselves are hardly the biggest or most glamorous of warships. HMS Middleton is just 645 tons, with a crew of just 46. But their potential value massively outweighs their size.
If the Gulf were to be mined, the bigger ships - even the mighty US Navy aircraft carriers - would be relying on them to carry out their task.
None of the Royal Navy personnel in the Gulf will point a direct finger, but one of the West's nightmare scenarios is that the Gulf could be mined as part of a confrontation with Iran.
That could shut off the source of 40% of the world's oil shipments by sea and have a devastating effect on the world economy.
The waterway has been mined before. And in both the recent confrontations with Iraq, Royal Navy vessels have played a crucial role in mine clearance.
Mines could also be attractive to a terrorist group. Like their land equivalent the roadside bomb, they are simple, cheap, but devastating.
The purpose of the ships now is to build confidence. And they are also there to gain vital local knowledge so that they could respond immediately if the need arose.
"We're the core of a deployed force which proves that the UK can deploy and sustain a force...

Summary: Away from the headlines, the Royal Navy is carrying out a key security task in the Gulf.
###
Article: Those selling the illicit weapons often disassembled and sent them in different packages or embedded them in old stereos or printers, the report found.
Researchers found that firearms and related goods generated 136 sales per month and a monthly revenue of $80,000 (Â£62,000).
The firearms trade has gained attention following recent terrorist attacks.
The dark net is a part of the internet that requires specific software to access, in order for users to remain anonymous.
While the trade was unlikely to fuel large-scale terrorist operations, it had the potential to become the platform of choice for "lone-wolf" terrorists to obtain weapons and ammunition, the report said.
Non-profit organisation Rand Corporation Europe, working with Manchester University, found 52 unique vendors selling weapons or similar items such as ammunition, explosives, or components such as silencers across 811 listings and 18 markets.
Police believe the 2016 Munich shooting, which left nine people dead, used weapons purchased on the dark net.
Lead author of the research, Giacomo Persi Paoli, said: "Recent high-profile cases have shown that the threat posed by individuals or small groups obtaining weapons illegally from the dark web is real.
"The ability to not only arm criminals and terrorists, who can make virtually anonymous purchases, but also vulnerable and fixated individuals is perhaps the most dangerous aspect."
Guns account for less than 1% of items sold on the platform, with its main trade being in narcotics.
Nevertheless, the volume being sold "can be considered sufficiently high to be a cause of concern for policy makers and law enforcement agencies", said the report.
The study involved collecting data from 12 dark net marketplaces during a week in September 2016.
Most of those selling guns were based in the US, but Europe was the most popular destination for the weapons they sold.
Judith Aldridge, co-investigator on the study, said: "In very simple terms, anyone can connect to the dark web and within minutes have access to a...

Summary:


"The study found that people with disabilities were more likely to be in crisis situations than those without disabilities.
"The study also found that people with disabilities were more likely to be in crisis situations than those without disabilities."
### Summary: "The study found that people with disabilities were more likely to be in crisis situations

Welfare reforms are making people live in "constant fear" of cuts to their benefits, according to a report.

Article: Ruddington Parish Council faced some opposition when it decided to install dog poo bag dispensers around the Nottinghamshire village.
Now, some of the bags disappear almost as soon as they are restocked.
It is costing the council hundreds of pounds a year, so it has decided to remove some of the dispensers.
Nick Tegerdine, chairman of the council's environment and policy committee, said: "I really do worry what it is all about.
"There's a militant fringe of dog walkers in Ruddington who take the view that their dog can go wherever it likes and do whatever it likes, and I did get some opposition when we first proposed putting these dispensers in."
Other theories are that people are stealing them to use as nappy sacks, or taking dozens at a time and stockpiling them.
"What's happened is that certain dispensers are emptied systematically almost as soon as they are full," said the councillor.
"You're certainly barking if that's the attitude you take."
Like many areas, Ruddington has had an ongoing problem with dog poo not being cleaned up.
Last year, the council handed out chalk and asked residents to draw sad faces on the pavement next to dog mess to encourage owners to clean up.

Summary: "Militant" dog walkers could be responsible for stealing large quantities of dog poo bags, according to a councillor.
###
Article: The study by Napier University found those on benefits were anxious that changes to their circumstances would push them into "crisis situations".
Scottish Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil urged the UK government to rethink its reforms.
But the Department for Work and Pensions said the changes were designed to help people into work.
The Welfare Reform Tracking Study, which was carried out by Edinburgh Napier University on behalf of the Scottish government, also highlighted criticism of how the details of reforms were communicated to recipients of benefits.
Some disabled people who took part in the study said they felt they had to present themselves in a "negative light and focus on their limitations" when claiming.
Other participants spoke of stress, anxiety and depression brought on by assessments, and a fear of further changes.
Mr Neil accused the UK government's "austerity agenda and benefit cuts" of having a "damaging effect" on people in Scotland.
He added: "Their approach is slashing the incomes of some of our poorest households and pushing 100,000 children into poverty.
"The study is further evidence that people are living in constant anxiety about changes to their entitlements and are already suffering from the effects of around Â£6bn of cuts taken from Scottish welfare expenditure over the last five years.
"Despite these frustrations we will do all we can to use our new powers to make our system fairer and simpler and work to improve the experience for people."
However, a spokesman for the Department of Work and pensions said the reforms were about giving people peace of mind.
He added: "Reforms to welfare are designed to help people into work, giving more people the peace of mind and security that comes with a steady income - there are now near record numbers of people in Scotland in a job.
"The government provides a safety net to support millions of people who are unemployed or on low incomes, spending Â£94bn a year across the UK on working age benefits."

Summary:


A private cleaning firm has been hired to clean the school ahead of its reopening.
The firm, which is based in Gloucestershire, will begin work on Friday.
The school is expected to reopen on Monday.
The firm, which is based in Gloucestershire, will begin work on Friday

A school has been forced to close until Monday after more than 145 pupils and staff came down with a sickness bug.

Article: The jet overshot the runway at Blackbushe Airport in July 2015 and crashed into a car auction site.
The Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) said emergency warnings prior to landing may have "saturated the pilot's mental capacity".
The pilot and three passengers survived the crash but died in a severe fire.
Bin Laden's half-sister, Sana Mohammed Bin Laden, her mother, Raja Bashir Hashim, and his brother-in-law, Zuhair Hashim, were killed, along with pilot Mazen Al-Aqeel Da'jah Salem.
The AAIB report said the private Saudi-registered Phenom 300 jet, travelling from Milan, Italy, landed at high speed and touched down on 31 July 2015 with only 438m (1,437 ft) of runway remaining.
It collided with an earth bank before crashing into a British Car Auctions site, losing one of its wings and bursting into flames among parked cars.
Airport firefighters, who arrived on the scene within five minutes, were unable to control an "intense" blaze involving leaking fuel.
Eyewitnesses at the scene said there had been a "ball of flames" and "several explosions".
The AAIB said the three passengers appeared to have made an unsuccessful attempt to open the cabin door.
The report said the 57-year-old Jordanian pilot may have become "fixated on landing" because of "a very high workload situation" in the final minutes of the flight.
He made an emergency climb to avoid colliding with a microlight, and then came close to a second light aircraft.
The jet then began "a very high-speed descent", dropping at up to 3,000ft per minute.
The pilot ignored six "pull up" warnings from the aircraft's Terrain Avoidance and Warning System (TAWS), touching down at a speed of about 135 knots (155mph).
The AAIB said the 66 messages and alarms in the final three-and-a-half minutes of the flight may have created "audio overload" and "mental stressors".
"It is possible that in these circumstances the pilot... fixated on his initial strategy (landing) and lacked the mental capacity to recognise that the approach had become unstable," the report...

Summary: A pilot may have been suffering from "mental overload" when he crash-landed, killing three members of Osama Bin Laden's family, an inquiry has found.
###
Article: Dene Magna School in Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire, has about 750 pupils on its roll.
Headteacher Stephen Brady said: "It's just got worse and worse - we had to send 26 pupils home today, sometimes common sense has to rule."
A private cleaning firm will begin a deep clean on Friday to sterilise the school ahead of it reopening.
The school normally has an attendance of 97%, with fewer than 20 students off in a day, but on Thursday this had fallen to 80%.
"We've had a steady increase in the number of students and staff coming down with this. I think we've been hit with what is a perfect storm of bugs," Mr Brady said.
"Some of the students have experienced nausea and sweating, others with vomiting and diarrhoea."
He also said a supply teacher had come in for one day but was forced to go home, after falling ill within a matter of hours.
It is expected that the pupils will recover from the bug within 72 hours.
"My only message is with the students don't let them go out and about at the weekend," added Mr Brady.
"If you can keep them in so they don't spread this amongst their friends.
"A good wash would go down very well so they can be back on Monday, nice and healthy."

Summary:


The firm said that it was working to improve the performance of its broadband services.
The firm said that it was also working to improve the performance of its mobile broadband services.
"We are working to improve the performance of our mobile broadband services," it said.
"We are also working to improve the performance of

Sky has acknowledged that some of its customers are experiencing slow internet speeds as a consequence of it signing up new subscribers.

Article: "I'd so much rather talk about this than about politics."
This, from a thinker most famous as a fearless firebrand, sounds rather incongruous. But as Prof Dawkins hunches over his laptop to dig up examples of biomorphs - the computer-generated "creatures" he conceived in the 1980s to illustrate artificial selection - it is transparently, genuinely felt.
Later, we touch on the fact that he sees public debate as a scientist's responsibility. Right now, he wants to talk about molluscs.
Pretend molluscs.
"I don't know whether you know the classic book by D'Arcy Thompson, On Growth and Form? He showed that all mollusc shells are a tube, which is enlarging as it coils around. You only need three numbers to specify a mollusc shell."
Those three numbers can be plotted inside a cube, Prof Dawkins explains. "Evolution is then just a walk through this cube of all possible shells."
In a computerised game he wrote in 1996, people could construct their own such walk by choosing for themselves which offspring would "breed" in successive generations of shells.
This game has now been resurrected online to mark the 20th anniversary of the book it arose from, Climbing Mount Improbable.
Its mollusc shells are presented alongside an ancestral explanatory exercise: the biomorphs. These were first programmed 10 years earlier, when Dawkins wrote The Blind Watchmaker. He clearly remembers getting lost in the work.
"When I discovered that I could actually start getting something that looked like an insect, I got really obsessed with the idea of breeding insects."
As the biomorphs grow from simple, branching stick-shrubs into more elaborate and occasionally familiar shapes, they make an important point - and one that is better grasped by being involved than by hearing it explained.
"You get much more of an idea of what it's like to breed dogs from wolves, or to breed cauliflower from wild cabbage," Prof Dawkins says, clearly enjoying the sight of the spindly shapes evolving again on his screen.
Like Darwin long before him, Dawkins...

Summary: As The Selfish Gene notches up 40 years in print, BBC News asked Richard Dawkins whether his most famous book is relevant today (answer: yes), whether he has any regrets about public spats over religion (no), and whether he is quitting Twitter (sort of).
###
Article: The firm said that it was working to boost capacity at telephone exchanges in the worst hit areas.
The news coincided with the launch of Sky Go Extra - a service allowing users to download movies and TV shows so they can be watched offline.
One expert said the product might add to the strain.
Sky Go Extra still works at slow internet speeds - however, Sky's other streaming services rely on the user having a 2 megabit per second connection. Some subscribers have complained their download speeds have fallen below this level at peak times.
A Sky spokeswoman apologised for the problems.
"Following a combination of an underlying increase in network traffic as well as a high rate of new customer additions, we are aware of capacity issues in a small number of exchanges," she said.
"We are working on adding new capacity to those exchanges as quickly as we can. We apologise to all customers who have been impacted by this issue."
She confirmed a report by The Register that users in Doncaster, North Wales and Bristol were among those affected, but declined to be more specific or name other locations.
However, the firm has provided an online postcode checking facility for its subscribers to check if their local exchange has been flagged as having an issue.
Sky also indicated that less than 5% of its broadband customer base used the affected exchanges.
Andrew Ferguson, editor of the Thinkbroadband news site noted that Sky had recently run a major promotion highlighting the fact it did not place "fair use" caps on the amount of data its customers use.
As a result, he said, the firm had probably attracted subscribers who downloaded significantly more than the average 23 gigabytes per month consumed by the average UK broadband user.
"Sky had this problem last year in some of its exchanges, and it's definitely not the only service provider to have experienced this problem," he told the BBC.
"It's very much related to the firms' promotional activities. Sky has also been pushing its fibre products recently - they offer higher...

Summary:


The government of Venezuela has said it will not allow the US to use its military bases in Venezuela to help the opposition.
The US has said it will not allow the US to use its military bases in Venezuela to help the opposition.
The US has said it will not allow the US to use its military bases in

The Colombian government and the left-wing Farc rebel movement have both asked the UN for a mission to oversee the end of their decades-long conflict.

Article: But what might this mean for Qatar's economy and people doing business there?
With a population of about 2.7 million people, this tiny nation on the north-east coast of the Arabian Peninsula is trying to punch above its weight.
People know about it thanks in part to its national airline (Qatar Airways), its international news station (Al Jazeera) and through sport (notably winning the right to host the 2022 football World Cup and being a former sponsor of perhaps the world's most famous club, Barcelona).
And with a distinctive skyline in the capital Doha, it has succeeded in attracting multinationals to open offices there.
So these latest developments mean there's a lot at stake.
Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways and Dubai's Emirates are suspending all flights to and from Doha, starting from Tuesday morning. Both carriers operate four daily return flights to Doha.
Budget carriers FlyDubai and Air Arabia are also cancelling routes to Doha, with other airlines, including Bahrain's Gulf Air and Egyptair expected to follow suit.
It comes after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt all said they would stop flights in and out of Qatar, and close their airspace to the country's airline, Qatar Airways.
And it is Qatar's flag carrier that risks being the biggest loser. Its flights to places like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Cairo will stop. That is dozens of flights a day.
Qatar Airways has already said it is cancelling its services to Saudi. It said: "All customers booked on affected flights to and from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be provided with alternative options, including the option of a full refund on any unused tickets and free rebooking to the nearest alternative Qatar Airways network destination."
But being banned from large chunks of airspace in the region would also cause a major problem, forcing it to alter flight paths, inevitably adding time to some flights.
And as well as cranking up fuel bills, that could annoy passengers.
Qatar Airways' growth has come through positioning itself as a hub airline,...

Summary: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Libya, Yemen and the Maldives have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar.
###
Article: Negotiators for the two sides at peace talks in Cuba said they would ask the UN to send a 12-month mission to oversee any ceasefire.
The UN has yet to agree to the proposal. The two sides have been holding peace talks for three years.
Both sides say they hope to reach a final peace deal by March 2016.
The BBC's Colombia correspondent Natalio Cosoy says the mechanism would only start to work once a final deal is agreed.
However both sides have insisted the announcement is more than a mere formality, suggesting it should be read as a signal that a definite deal is close, our correspondent adds.
"We have decided to ask the UN Security Council to create (a mission) of unarmed observers for a period of 12 months," the two sides said in a joint statement at peace talks in the Cuban capital, Havana, on Tuesday.
They said the mission would guarantee that any ceasefire and disarmament would be genuine and permanent, reports say.
Humberto de la Calle, the government's lead negotiator, described the announcement as a "transcendental" moment.
He said it was an "unequivocal demonstration of our desire to end confrontation", according to the Associated Press.
The joint announcement in Havana is a clear indication that the Colombian peace process is moving towards its final phase.
Since the negotiations were launched in November 2012, the Farc has announced several unilateral ceasefires and urged the government to do the same.
But even though the government has scaled down military operations recently, it has refused to join the Farc in a bilateral ceasefire.
President Juan Manuel Santos has said repeatedly that the rebels must first agree to lay down their weapons and give up their armed struggle.
Government and negotiators have now invited the UN Security Council to join them as an honest, reliable broker and oversee the end of the conflict.
The two sides have invested too much politically to let more than three years of negotiations fail at such a late stage, when difficult issues such as justice for the victims have...

Summary:


The survey found that staff were "very satisfied" with their work, but that they were "not very confident" about the future.
The university is now working with staff to develop a "positive work environment" and to "engage with staff in a constructive way".
The university is also working with staff to

Fewer than a third of staff at Queen's University believe it is being led effectively, according to a survey conducted by the university itself.

Article: The valleys, channels and deltas viewed from orbit have long been thought to be the work of water erosion, but it is Nasa's latest rover, Curiosity, that has provided the "ground truth".
Researchers report its observations of rounded pebbles on the floor of the Red Planet's 150km-wide Gale Crater.
Their smooth appearance is identical to gravels found in rivers on Earth.
Rock fragments that bounce along the bottom of a stream of water will have their edges knocked off, and when these pebbles finally come to rest they will often align in a characteristic overlapping fashion.
Curiosity has pictured these features in a number of rock outcrops at the base of Gale Crater.
It is confirmation that water has played its part in sculpting not only this huge equatorial bowl but by implication many of the other landforms seen on the planet.
"For decades, we have speculated and hypothesised that the surface of Mars was carved by water, but this is the first time where you can see the remnants of stream flow with what are absolutely tell-tale signs," Dr Rebecca Williams from the Planetary Science Institute, US, told BBC News.
The American space agency first announced the discovery of the pebbles in September last year, barely seven weeks after Curiosity had landed in Gale.
Researchers have since been studying the robot's pictures in more detail and have now written up a report for Science magazine - the first scholarly paper from the surface mission to make it into print; and the study reinforces the initial interpretation.
It describes the nature of the outcrops, and estimates the probable conditions in which their sediments were laid down.
The pebbles range in size from about two to 40mm in diameter - too big to have been blown along by the wind.
These clasts, as scientists will often call them, are cemented together in a sandy matrix to make a rock type referred to as a conglomerate.
In many places, the clasts are touching each other, and the pictures show examples of so-called imbrication - an arrangement where...

Summary: Scientists now have definitive proof that many of the landscapes seen on Mars were indeed cut by flowing water.
###
Article: The BBC has obtained details of the major survey.
Almost 70% - 2,479 - of the university's 3,600 staff took part in the survey earlier this year.
Only 29% of staff who responded agreed senior leaders provided "effective leadership". One in five said the university managed change effectively.
Fewer than a third gave positive responses to questions about leadership and direction.
Queen's recently introduced major changes to some faculties and more than 140 staff left under a voluntary redundancy process in 2015-16.
However, staff were more positive about other aspects of the university, with two-thirds saying they were proud to work there.
Almost nine in 10 who responded said Queen's had a high standing in Northern Ireland, while two-thirds would recommend it as a "great place to study".
The vast majority of respondents - 89% - said that they found their work interesting.
While only a quarter of staff agreed that "Queen's works as one university", more than three-quarters said it was "committed to world class research".
However, fewer than a third of staff believed any action would be taken as a result of the survey.
In a statement, a Queen's spokesperson said the university was committed to "staff engagement and a positive work environment".
"The positive results highlight a number of key strengths, including staff respect, interesting work and a sense of personal accomplishment.
"The university is now working in partnership with staff in the development of action plans in response to the results.
"This process will enable staff to initiate change in those areas highlighted as challenges and to build on the strengths identified in the survey."
The survey was carried out in April, but the results have just been circulated.

Summary:


"I am delighted to endorse the nomination of Lisa Duffy for the leadership of UKIP.
"I have known her for many years and have always found her to be a very honest and open person.
"I have no doubt that she will be a great leader for UKIP and I am sure that she will be a

UKIP ex-deputy chairwoman Suzanne Evans says she has given up hope of becoming the party's next leader - but insists she will not "give up" on UKIP.

Article: Changes will include an end to major government reforms being introduced during the academic year, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said.
The pledge follows the biggest survey of teachers undertaken in 10 years.
The National Union of Teachers said the measures were "simply insufficient".
Almost 44,000 people - the majority of them classroom teachers - responded to the Department of Education's Workload Challenge survey.
They cited excessive amounts of time spent recording data and dealing with bureaucracy as factors which contributed to "unnecessary" or "unproductive" workloads.
Other reasons included unrealistic deadlines and excessive marking - with some saying they marked up to 120 books a day.
Teachers had been left feeling "browbeaten and undervalued", said Mr Clegg as he announced the series of commitments alongside the education secretary.
They include:
Ms Morgan said the changes would tackle the root causes of excessive workloads.
"It is no secret that we have made some very important changes in schools - changes that we know have increased the pressure on many teachers," she said.
"We know there is no quick fix but we hope the commitments we have outlined today will support and empower the profession, and free up teachers to focus on what matters most in their jobs."
However, the National Union of Teachers said teachers would be "bitterly disappointed" by the measures.
"At a time when the number of teachers leaving this proud profession is at a 10-year high, this announcement on workload is simply insufficient," said general secretary Christine Blower.
She said the government should immediately tackle its "out-of-control accountability system", which had "Ofsted at its centre".
More than half of respondents said the perceived pressures of Ofsted inspections contributed to unnecessary workloads.
HM Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said Ofsted was working to "dispel some of the myths that may have led to unnecessary workloads".
"It is very important that schools...

Summary: "Unnecessary and unproductive" teacher workload will be reduced with a series of "decisive measures" to be introduced in England, ministers have announced.
###
Article: Ms Evans, who is currently suspended from UKIP, said she would "very much like" to run but a "handful of people at the top" had ensured she could not.
Ms Evans' six-month ban for bringing the party into disrepute - claims she has dismissed - means she cannot stand.
She said she would back councillor Lisa Duffy to succeed Nigel Farage.
Ms Evans said UKIP needed to "break free of its hard-right image and set itself firmly in the common sense centre-ground" and also conduct some "internal reform".
The leadership contest has been prompted by Mr Farage's decision to stand down following the UK's vote to leave the European Union, saying his "political ambition has been achieved".
In a statement in Westminster, Ms Evans, who had been touted as a possible successor, said: "I'd very much like to run in that election.
"Unfortunately there are a handful of people at the top of UKIP who, for whatever personal reasons of their own, have made quite sure I can't."
She claimed the party rulebook had been "abused" to suspend her to prevent her from representing the party in May's London Assembly elections and the upcoming leadership contest.
Her six-month suspension handed down in March came after an internal disciplinary meeting found she had publicly criticised a fellow candidate and held herself out as a party spokeswoman without authority.
Ms Evans - who has always rejected the claims against her - lost a High Court bid to overturn the decision.
In the statement, she said: "I have to face up to reality, there's no way they're going to allow me to put my name on the ballot paper... I've now given up hope of becoming the next leader of UKIP."
Ms Evans said she had questioned whether to stay on in a party that "allows, and arguably encourages senior figures to behave like this", but she said the support from members had made her "more determined ever not to give up on UKIP".
She also said that with the right leader, the "sky was the limit for the party".
Endorsing Lisa Duffy, a district councillor for Ramsey in...

Summary:


The law will give the Italian government more power to select candidates for the lower house of parliament.
The law will also give the Italian government greater control over the selection of candidates.
The law will also give the Italian government greater control over the selection of candidates.
The law will also give the Italian government greater control

The Italian parliament has approved a long-debated and extensive electoral reform that aims to give the country more political stability.

Article: Met Office statistics show that an average of 760mm (2.5ft) of rain fell across the country in December, January and February.
This resulted in a spate of floods which inundated homes and caused chaos on the roads and railways.
December was the wettest month recorded while January and February saw much higher rainfalls than normal. Argyll was the wettest area.
It had 1,055.7mm (3.5ft) of rain over the three months.
"It's been a truly remarkable winter in Scotland," said a Met Office spokeswoman.
"Winter was the second-wettest across the UK as a whole and it turned out to be the warmest on record for England and Wales.
"But Scotland endured the worst rain it has ever seen - and these records go back to 1910."
Scotland's two wettest winters have happened in the last three years. The rainfall total of 756mm (2.5ft) for 2015/16 exceeded the previous record for winter 2013 /14 of 744mm (2ft).
More than 100 homes were evacuated in Hawick, Roxburghshire, on 5 December as torrential rain swept in ahead of Storm Desmond.
Tayside and Perthshire also endured flooding events, with the River Tay peaking at levels not seen for a decade.
In the new year, Storm Frank resulted in bridge pillars on the West Coast Rail Line being almost washed away. The damage took almost two months to repair.
February's rainfall total of 147.2mm (6in) was 13% up on normal. January's figure of 257.5mm (10in) showed a rise of 45% of the average for the month while December's 351.4mm (14in) was more than double the amount usually experienced that month.
The Met Office spokeswoman added: "While the three-month period was remarkable for its rainfall, it must be remembered that it followed on from a very wet November as well.
"Winter also brought less sunshine in each of the three months we call winter. In January, Scotland got just 63% of the sunshine hours it would normally expect."
The coldest temperature of winter was Minus 14.1 Celsius (6.6F) recorded at Braemar, Aberdeenshire, on the morning of 14 February.
There is also a risk of snow and...

Summary: This winter was the wettest recorded in Scotland since records began in 1910.
###
Article: The measure guarantees a majority of seats to the party that wins the most votes in an election.
It is a key element of a package of reforms promised by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
The law seeks to end Italy's post-war era of revolving governments, political horse-trading and unstable coalitions.
The lower house of parliament gave final approval to the bill by 334 votes to 61.
The proportional election system awards 340 out of 630 seats to any party that wins more than 40% of the national vote.
If no party reaches that threshold, there is a second-round run-off between the two parties with the most votes.
The electoral reform is expected to come into force next year.
After the vote, Mr Renzi said: "Commitment achieved, promise respected. Italy needs people who don't always say no."
Critics have accused the 40-year-old former mayor of Florence who became prime minster last year of trying to consolidate his grip on power.
They complain that the law awards too much power to single parties, gives party bosses too much scope to select candidates, and denies voters the chance to directly choose representatives. Opposition parties boycotted Monday's vote.
Renato Brunetta, parliamentary head of centre-right opposition party Forza Italia, said afterwards that it was "a very ugly day for our country's democracy".
Mr Renzi wants to further transform the Italian system by abolishing the Senate and replacing it with a non-elected body with lesser powers.
Currently, legislation is often held up because identical versions of bills have to be approved by both houses.

Summary:


A fawn born after its mother was hit by a car has died, a vet has said.
The fawn was found at the roadside in Cambridgeshire, and staff at Fenland Animal Rescue said it was in a critical condition.
The fawn was taken to the centre on Sunday, and staff

Splits within the EU on the relocation of 120,000 migrants have been further exposed as leaders hold an emergency meeting in Brussels.

Article: A driver took the fawn's injured mother to Fenland Animal Rescue after finding her at the roadside in Cambridgeshire.
A scan found the doe was heavily pregnant, and she gave birth at the centre last Sunday, staff said.
The fawn died on Friday from a brain injury most likely caused by the accident, a vet told rescuers.
Read more animal stories from the BBC on Pinterest
Fenland Animal Rescue's founder Joshua Flanagan said the baby's death was "a sad day for everyone".
"But this is, unfortunately, the harsh reality of wildlife rehabilitation for ourselves," he added.
Mr Flanagan had previously said deer were difficult to treat and often had to be put down as human contact causes them too much stress.
But the mother was "still doing fine", he said.
He added: "She went a little funny after [the fawn] passed, but due to her being so young she never really understood what was happening anyway.
"She is now back to her full self and eating fine."
The centre is set to release the doe back into the wild on Christmas Eve - earlier than initially planned.

Summary: A fawn born after its mother was hit by a car has died from a brain injury, animal rescuers have said.
###
Article: Slovakia is launching a legal challenge to mandatory quotas that were passed in a majority vote on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Hungary's prime minister has proposed a radical budgetary revamp to raise funds.
The summit will focus on tightening EU borders and aiding neighbours of Syria, from where many migrants come.
The talks were continuing well into the night, having started just after 19:00 Brussels time (17:00 GMT).
Draft proposals seen by the BBC, that are being discussed at the summit, include:
European Council President Donald Tusk called for "a concrete plan" to secure the EU's external borders, "in place of the arguments and the chaos we have witnessed in the past weeks".
As she arrived at the summit, Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite said it was "not a lack of European unity, but a lack of European wisdom" that had led to this point.
On arriving, British Prime Minister David Cameron said the UK would be giving another £100m ($152m) to help Syrian refugees, including £40m towards the World Food Programme.
"We need to do more to stabilise the countries and the regions from which these people are coming," he said.
The UK has opted against taking part in the relocation scheme and has its own plan to resettle migrants directly from Syrian refugee camps.
The scale of the problem was highlighted again on Wednesday when Croatia revealed that 44,000 migrants - including 8,750 on Tuesday - had arrived there since Hungary completed a fence along its border with Serbia last week.
Analysis: Chris Morris, BBC Europe correspondent
As thousands of people continue to arrive on European shores, EU leaders are trying to focus on longer term solutions, to try to stem the flow.
The EU can't ignore the divisions and disagreements that have emerged in the last few weeks between member states that have different ideas about how this crisis should be confronted.
One EU official said there was a need to clean up the bad blood around the table.
Progress may be made this evening, but it will take years of political engagement...

Summary:


A new report has found that the number of people trafficked into the UK has risen by more than a third in the past year.
The Home Office said it was "committed to tackling modern slavery" and that it was "committed to tackling modern slavery in Nigeria".
The report, which was published last

Clamping down on the problem of Nigerians being trafficked to the UK is a main priority, the first independent anti-slavery commissioner says.

Article: Dolphins are one of Aberdeen's biggest tourist attractions, with the city regarded as being among the best places in Europe to spot them.
Volunteers from RSPB Scotland's Dolphinwatch expect thousands of visitors to try to catch a glimpse of the spectacular sea antics over the summer.
The Dolphinwatch project was pioneered in 2013.
The team will be at Torry Battery from 11:00 to 18:00 every Thursday to Sunday until 16 August.
Dolphinwatch team member Helen Hiley said: "Aberdeen is such a fantastic place to see dolphins and it's amazing to have a wildlife spectacle like this so close to a city centre.
"You often get great views of them feeding and playing at the harbour entrance."
Amateur photographer David McCulloch, who took a recent dramatic shot which has proved popular on social media, described the experience of capturing the image as "out of this world".

Summary: Aberdeen's annual Dolphinwatch project is getting under way.
###
Article: Kevin Hyland told the BBC it was "deeply concerning" that hundreds of Nigerians were brought in every year for prostitution or forced labour.
Mr Hyland said the problem of such exploitation was "enormous".
The Home Office said it was "committed to tackling modern slavery" and was addressing specific issues in Nigeria.
The commissioner, who has only been in post for six months, says he can't think of anything more worrying than women and children being raped and forced into domestic servitude.
Latest figures from the National Crime Agency show that more than 2,000 potential trafficking victims were referred to the authorities in 2014 - 244 of whom were from Nigeria, a 31 per cent increase from the previous year. The highest number of potential victims were identified as being from Albania.
Campaigners believe the real figure of potential trafficking victims from Nigeria could be much higher, however.
Mr Hyland, the former head of the Metropolitan Police's human trafficking unit, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I am extremely concerned about this. And we're talking about several hundred every year.
"This isn't just a one-off - it's continuous - so the treatment of these people, what they go through, is actually a very serious crime, so for me it's a big problem.
"But also I think the fact that there is a demand for this kind of exploitation in the United Kingdom really concerns me, that there are people who will want to buy sex, will want to exploit, will want to have children as what are current-day slaves, so that is a really serious problem."
Research published by the Home Office in December estimates that there are between 10,000 and 13,000 potential victims of slavery in the UK.  Home Secretary Theresa May, speaking last year, described the scale of abuse as "shocking".
Melissa (not her real name), who is in her 20s, was trafficked to the UK to work for a Nigerian woman in London as a domestic slave.
From the age of 10, she was made to clean the kitchen, sell food on a market, feed and bathe other...

Summary:


A Coventry man who won £1m on a ticket bought in Leicester has failed to claim his prize.
The man, who is from Leicester, bought the ticket in the city's Haymarket shopping centre on Saturday, May 11.
He said he had not checked his ticket since he bought it.
C

A motoring festival which has been running for 30 years is to be cancelled, organisers have said.

Article: Lottery organisers Camelot said the window for claiming the Euromillions winnings closed at 23:00 BST on Sunday.
Camelot said unclaimed money would be added to the money in the National Lottery Good Causes fund.
Leicester's lord mayor Abdul Osman started a countdown timer to the deadline near the Haymarket clock tower last week but the prize went unclaimed.
A spokesman for Camelot said: "Unfortunately, I can confirm that the ticket-holder did not come forward within the deadline to claim their prize and has now sadly missed out on this substantial amount of money.
"I would urge all National Lottery players to check their tickets on a regular basis."

Summary: A lottery player who won £1m on a ticket bought in Leicester has failed to claim their prize.
###
Article: The Coventry Festival of Motoring, which attracted 40,000 visitors in 2014, has had ??20,000 of funding withdrawn by the city council.
However, organisers Culture Coventry said the funding withdrawal was "not the only reason" they had made the decision to cancel the event.
It said events planned for 2015 and 2016 have been axed.
Organisers said they had not ruled out reviving the festival, but it would remain on hold indefinitely.
The free heritage event, which features classic cars, was due to take place in August at Stoneleigh Park.
It is organised by Culture Coventry, a trust set up to manage four of the city's visitor attractions.
Chief executive Gary Hall said he had just found out about the council's funding withdrawal.
"I have to look at the ongoing viability of the show and with cuts coming from the city council and other sponsors, we would not be able to grow it as we have in recent years," he said.
"It is a lot of money and, as a charity running four attractions in the city, we have to look at what benefits we are getting."
He said the charity was reopening Coventry's Transport Museum in June following a ??9m redevelopment.
"Unfortunately, we have to put all of our resources into promoting the museum," he said.
Mr Hall said the charity would run "a number of events" throughout 2015 to bring classic car owners into Coventry.
Coventry MotoFest, a more recent addition to the city's festival calendar, which features car races and displays, will go ahead in May, as planned.

Summary:


The Royal Mail has announced a new policy to protect the post boxes in its network.
The company has pledged to preserve the post boxes in its network, and to use forensic tags to identify the origin of the boxes.
The company has also pledged to use forensic tags to identify the origin of the boxes, and to

Australian laws forbidding people working in the country's detention centres from speaking out about what they see have raised grave concerns in the medical community.

Article: There are some 85,000 boxes - the classic pillars and others mounted on walls or posts - across England, and about 115,300 in the UK.
Royal Mail has pledged to conserve them in their existing locations.
Forensic tags are invisible markers, usually liquids, which show up under ultra-violet light in cases of theft.
The new commitments are contained in a joint policy document between Royal Mail and Historic England.
They update the original policy document from 2002 to recognise changes in legislation and allow for recent developments, such as painting 110 post boxes gold to celebrate London 2012 British Olympic and Paralympic champions.
New measures in the document include the use of forensic tags, permanent metal marking and electronic tracking to discourage the theft and damage of boxes.
Permanent metal marking and forensic tagging allows police to identify the origin of a post box if it sold as metal or as a post box.
The Royal Mail said the prevention of crime would "always be the primary objective" and it said every opportunity should be taken to identify areas potentially at high risk of crime and implement the new technology.
Historic England has also renewed its commitment to work with Royal Mail using heritage protection measures to ensure that post boxes are kept and well cared for wherever possible, the organisations said.
The agreement serves as a code and guide for Royal Mail staff responsible for managing the stock of post boxes.
It will be adapted to reflect the individualities of post boxes around the UK, Royal Mail said, with equivalent policies with heritage agencies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Royal Mail already has a rolling maintenance programme of its post boxes to repair those which have fallen into disrepair or become shabby.
The post boxes tend to be repainted, on average, every few years, but this can change depending on if they are near to areas with more corrosive air, such as those near the sea.
The roadside post box was introduced in Britain following the 1840...

Summary: Forensic tags and electronic tracking are among proposals set out by the Royal Mail and Historic England to preserve the country's post boxes.
###
Article: When Peter Young was in charge of mental health services at Australia's refugee detention centres, he says it became increasingly clear that authorities wanted to "keep the lid" on health issues that asylum seekers were experiencing.
The senior Australian psychiatrist says immigration authorities wanted details about the high rates of mental illness among children at the centres to be removed from his official reports.
He was asked to delete clinical opinions that made a direct link between prolonged detention and mental health problems.
Dr Young was director of International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) - a private health service contracted by Australia's Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) to provide health care to detention centres - a role he held for three years.
Its services covered the country's controversial offshore facilities on the Pacific island of Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, where all asylum seekers who try to reach Australia by boat are sent - never to be resettled in Australia even if their refugee claims are proven.
In advising on treatment, Dr Young argued with authorities who considered acts of self-harm by detainees as "a type of bad behaviour, rather than a manifestation of people in extreme states of hopelessness".
He says he was later refused permission to use data he had collected about health issues in detention centres in presentations or publications.
"They made it very clear this type of information should never get into the public domain," he told the BBC.
Now there is fear that health workers could go to prison for such revelations under new Border Force laws that threaten "entrusted people" with up to two years in prison if they reveal protected information about Australia's detention facilities.
In recent months, hundreds of doctors and nurses have staged public protests in cities across Australia, posing with their hands over their mouths to highlight the risk of being silenced.
Their concerns are shared by Australia's 13 peak medical...

Summary:


The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the Airbus factory in Hamburg.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the Airbus factory in Hamburg.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the Airbus factory in Hamburg.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the Airbus factory in Hamburg.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the

The Duchess of Cambridge tried her hand at conducting a prestigious symphony orchestra on the final day of the royal tour of Germany.

Article: Coed Felinrhyd is a place where geography and legend meet, and was named in the 12th Century Mabinogion Welsh myths.
Much of the woodland dates from the last Ice Age.
Now the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) has created a trail through one of the UK's "most magical" ecosystems.
Hidden off a lay-by near the picturesque village of Maentwrog, this 221-acre pristine woodland is home to flora and fauna scarcely seen elsewhere, including otters, bats, and rare birds.
"You'd associate most rainforest with central or south America - but this wood has a lot of similar processes going on," explains Jo Kemp, project officer with the RGS's Discovering Britain project.
The wood's sheltered gorge setting, together with the streams and waterfalls that cross the landscape, have created an ecosystem where plant life thrives.
"There's an oak tree canopy which maintains the moist humidity you can really feel here, and it remains sheltered from the hard frosts of Snowdonia and the strong winds of the coastline," Jo says.
"There are elements of this wood that potentially remain untouched since the last Ice Age, 10,000 years ago - which makes it particularly unique not only in Wales, but in the whole of Britain."
As soon as you enter the rainforest, it immediately looks different to any other Welsh woodland.
The oak at the walk's entrance is covered in tree lungwort, a lichen now limited to only a few wild areas of Britain.
"It only likes less acidic bark," Jo explains. "As oak trees get older, their bark becomes less acidic.
"So its presence tells us that this bit of woodland is quite special and particularly ancient."
A rare Ice Age species of lichen was identified in Wales for the first time at Coed Felinrhyd in 2015, evidence that the forest dates back to a time when trees first re-colonised the country.
As we move further through the woodland, Jo points out the filmy fern plant growing from a tree base. "It's just one cell thick - and it's really quite scarce," she says.
"The fact it is here demonstrates just how unique an...

Summary: There may not be monkeys swinging from the canopy - but Snowdonia's 10,000-year-old Celtic rainforest shares other links to its Amazonian cousins.
###
Article: Her Royal Highness took the baton at the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra's new home, the Elbphilharmonie concert hall.
It was part of an event where 250 schoolchildren were introduced to music in front of the Duke and Duchess.
The Royal party are due back in the UK on Friday evening, after a five-day tour that began in Poland on Monday.
On the last day of the tour, the Duchess, who comes from a musical family and played the flute at school, took the musicians through the first notes of Beethoven's fifth symphony.
The royal couple then listened to a performance of a symphony especially adapted for young people, and then went on stage to learn more about the orchestra.
Earlier, Catherine and William walked around the stage accompanying six children trying out different instruments, including a violin, flute, timpani [kettle drums] and trombone.
Later the Duke of Cambridge gave Prince George and Princess Charlotte a guided tour of a helicopter at the Airbus factory in Hamburg.
Prince George tried on a pilot's helmet while Princess Charlotte played with buttons in the cockpit.
The Duke flew helicopters when he was an air ambulance pilot.
Antoine van Gent, head of flight testing at Airbus, said: "The Duke was very relaxed showing his children the professional aircraft he uses.
"George was excited, with the first helicopter he wanted to sit in the cockpit and then he wanted to sit in the next one, he already knew there was a difference between them."
Charlotte was less impressed after taking a tumble on the concrete after leaving the aircraft but Mr van Gent said she enjoyed playing in the pilot's seat.

Summary:


The man who killed his wife and two children in a car crash in the US in 2007 was sentenced to life in prison.
The man, who was in his 30s, was found guilty of manslaughter and was given a life sentence.
The man's wife, who was in her 20s, was given a

A man has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years after being convicted of "a horrendous catalogue" of abuse against a woman for more than a decade.

Article: And when it is in a cutting edge sport like Formula 1, then teams such as Williams Martini have to make sure every penny they spend is put to best inventive use.
The UK-based team's IT director Graeme Hackland says they spend about Â£100m ($154m) a year in F1, compared with what he says is Mercedes' outlay of Â£300-350m, and Ferrari's of Â£250-300m.
But despite the spending disparity, the UK-based team, which has won the constructor's table nine times, hopes that technology, rather than splashing cash, can help them close the gap.
"We believe we can take them on," the 48-year-old South African, who has worked in F1 for 18 years, tells the BBC.
"We can't follow what Mercedes do. We want to beat people who are out-speeding us.  If you can innovate, and not just follow what other people out there are doing, then you give yourself a chance."
And Mr Hackland, who is in his second year at Williams, says that he has seen an improvement over the past 18 months, as the team has cut the lap time difference between itself and Mercedes from 1.6 seconds, to 0.8 seconds.
The team - preparing for this Sunday's US Grand Prix - now has hopes of halving that figure again, and believes the power of technology, including working with outside experts, can help shave off further tenths of seconds.
"The challenge is finding partners - those that have digital technologies that will help us get back to the front of the grid - to come and work with us," Mr Hackland says.
Whereas at one time an F1 team's mechanics were armed with nothing more than a bag of spanners and an oily rag, nowadays there are dozens of team technicians, all keenly looking at banks of screens churning out a stream of race and car data.
There are 200 sensors on the Williams F1 cars, pouring out information on things like fuel levels, oil, water, exhaust and tyre temperatures, as well as speed, engine revs per minute (RPM), clutch fluid pressure, and G-force.
However, F1 regulations mean that there can only be a certain number of team members at race trackside, so...

Summary: When your closest sporting rivals are running a business with an annual team budget worth more than three times your own, then you need to be innovative in sustaining a challenge.
###
Article: Michael Pepper, 67, from Glasgow, raped the woman on various occasions between 1986 and 2001.
He also hit her with a baseball bat and bottle, cut off her clothes, struck her with a knife, kicked her on the body and caused her to fall downstairs.
Pepper was also placed on the sex offenders register.
Jailing him at the High Court in Glasgow, judge Johanna Johnston QC told Pepper: "Your actions blighted this woman's life. You now accept your guilty, albeit at a late stage.
"However, this woman had to come to court and give evidence of a very private nature.
"This was a horrendous catalogue of offending."

Summary:


The European Commission has approved a new £24.5bn nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset.
The project will be built by EDF Energy, the UK's biggest energy company.
The project will be the first in the UK in nearly 20 years.
The project will be built by the

The SNP will chair two House of Commons select committees at Westminster, it has been announced.

Article: The European Commission said Britain had agreed to "modify significantly" the financing for the project, reducing the burden on British taxpayers.
In total 16 commissioners voted in favour of the project, just ahead of the 15 votes needed for approval.
EDF Energy is due to build the plant, the first in the UK in almost 20 years.
The Commission had been examining whether the funding for the project broke state aid rules.
However, it said the changes agreed by the British authorities would cut the subsidy by more than £1bn, meaning that state aid would remain "proportionate to the objective pursued, avoiding any undue distortions of competition".
The Commission said these changes made meant gains generated by the project would be better shared with UK consumers.
It estimated the project would now cost £24.5bn to build. The updated figure, much higher than the government and EDF's original £16bn forecast, includes the impact of inflation as well as interest costs for the 10 year construction period.
This is the first time that the European Commission has approved significant state aid for a new nuclear power plant - and as such, it is a big step forward for the European nuclear industry.
The decision will serve as a precedent for other countries, such as Poland and the Czech Republic, that want to know how much public money they can offer to companies as they look to expand their nuclear industries.
But the legal fight over the funding for Hinkley Point C is almost certainly not over. The European Court of Justice will be asked for an opinion.
Austria says the Commission's decision is supported by neither economic nor ecological sense.
And other member states are concerned that it flies in the face of the EU's stated aim of promoting renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.
The government had already agreed that French firm EDF will be paid a so-called "strike price" of £92.50 for every megawatt hour of energy Hinkley C generates. This is almost twice the current wholesale cost of electricity, but this...

Summary: A new £24.5bn nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset is to go ahead after it received final approval from European Union regulators.
###
Article: Nationalist MPs will take control of the UK Parliament's energy and climate change select committee and Scottish affairs select committee.
The SNP won 56 of the 59 Westminster constituencies at the general election two weeks ago.
That resulted in the party being the third largest, behind the Conservatives and Labour.
Parliamentary convention dictates that the official third largest party at Westminster gets to chair a number of select committees.
SNP chief whip Mike Weir said both committees were especially important to Scotland in this parliament.
He said: "We will be seeing one of the major bills coming forward in the Scotland Bill on more powers for Scotland, and of course the energy and climate change committee is of particular importance with our oil and gas sector and renewables industry.
"The SNP chairing these committees will allow us to make progress on these important issues, and will help us get the best deal for Scotland."

Summary:


The first Star Wars film was released in 1977.
The franchise has been a huge success in Australia, with the first film grossing A$1.5 billion (Â£1.2 billion) in the country.
The second film, Rogue One, was released in December 2015.
The film has been

A Sydney police officer and huge Star Wars fan has become a local hit after creating a Darth Vader costume painted with the Australian flag.

Article: Many popular courses at universities in the Republic are inaccessible to Northern Ireland students.
This is due to a system that compares A-level results with the Republic's Leaving Certificate qualification.
Now, Trinity College Dublin and Dublin City University say they want to change entry requirements for NI students.
Sixth-form pupils in Northern Ireland sit A-level exams, whereas students in the Republic sit Leaving Certificate exams.
Most pupils in Northern Ireland study for three A-levels, whereas pupils in the Republic study for least six Leaving Certificate subjects.
In 2005, a points system was devised to help universities on both sides of the border compare the results of pupils taking the different exams.
However, that has meant that many Northern Ireland pupils cannot apply for popular courses in the Republic unless they do four A-levels.
In the 2011/12 academic year - the most recent for which there are figures - only 925 out of almost 7,500 pupils in Northern Ireland took four A-level exams.
Under the current points system, the top A-star grade at A-level is worth 150 points, whereas the top A1 grade in a Leaving Certificate subject is worth 100 points.
Therefore a student getting six top grades at Leaving Certificate level will get 600 points, whereas a student getting top grades in three A-levels can only achieve 450 points.
Most popular courses at Irish universities - such as law, maths or psychology at Trinity College Dublin - require a pupil to get well over 500 points to apply for entry.
Janet Goodall, a senior teacher at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, says that this means some of their brightest pupils cannot apply to southern universities.
"I have one student who is likely to achieve an A-star in A-level maths and an A-star in further maths."
"Because he is not doing four A-levels, he will have no access to study maths at Trinity."
Prof Brian Walker of Queen's University Belfast is a Trinity graduate. He says that it is vital that the admission procedures are changed.
"Trinity...

Summary: Two of the Republic of Ireland's leading universities are considering an increase in their intake of students from Northern Ireland.
###
Article: The 39-year-old, who goes by the name Mick Fett, was born the year the first film in the series came out.
Since the 1990s, Fett has amassed a vast collection of action figures, costumes and other merchandise.
His collection fills the five-bedroom home he shares with his girlfriend and is estimated to be worth A$500,000 (Â£300,000; $370,000).
"I mentioned that I had some Star Wars stuff when we first got together," he told the BBC. "She was a bit overwhelmed at first and then she sort of adapted."
The suburban house is filled with a life-size Han Solo carbonite statue, priceless vintage toys and a vast collection of creatures from across the galaxy.
There's an entire room dedicated to arcade games and even a pod-racer in the backyard. Only one room does not have Star Wars memorabilia in it - the main bathroom.
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"When I'm not dressing up in Star Wars costumes, I wear a uniform," he said.
"It's two different worlds. The guys at work can't believe what I do in my Star Wars time and all my Star Wars friends can't believe I'm a police officer."
The idea to redecorate the Darth Vader costume began when he attended an overseas Star Wars convention.
He originally intended to attend the event as a Stormtrooper with an Australian flag cape. But at the suggestion the idea evolved.
"One of my mates said: 'Why don't you go out and spray paint the entire costume?' I thought - instead of doing a Stormtrooper why not Vader?"
The Down Under alter ego of the Sith Lord has since become a huge hit - at home and abroad.
"I don't know whether Aussie Vader is a villain or a Rebel," he laughed. "I'm a bit of a Rogue One myself."
"One of my favourite sayings is 'May the Force be with you, mate,'" he said.
"The cape is an Australian flag. I've got beer cans on my belt and blue flames airbrushed onto my helmet and chest piece. I've even made a custom light-sabre with a didgeridoo handle."
He has already...

Summary:


The government is to launch a national survey of the happiness of UK citizens.
The survey will be carried out by the Office for National Statistics, which will be based in the House of Commons.
The government is to announce later this month the findings of a survey of 1,000 people, to be carried out by

Turkey processing firm bosses have been jailed after leaving large amounts of meat defrosting in dirty water before selling it, Newport council has said.

Article: The Office for National Statistics is to devise questions for a household survey, to be carried out up to four times a year.
This follows calls by David Cameron, when leader of the opposition, to look at "general wellbeing", arguing there was "more to life than money".
Downing Street promised an announcement "reasonably soon".
Happiness measuring is expected to begin as soon as next spring with the results published regularly, possibly on a quarterly basis
Such a move has been proposed by two Nobel Prize-winning economists and is being considered by the governments of France and Canada.
After becoming Conservative leader in 2005, Mr Cameron said gauging people's wellbeing was one of the "central political issues of our time".
He said: "It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money, and it's time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB - general wellbeing."
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In its recent Spending Review, the government said there was "widespread acknowledgement that GDP is not the ideal measure of well-being".
A Downing Street spokesman said: "There is a huge literature on this issue and it's something that the prime minister spoke about in opposition and it's something this government says it is going to look at.
"But as to precisely what we are going to do and when we are going to do it, you should wait and see."
Almost 30 MPs have signed a Commons motion, proposed by Lib Dem Jo Swinson, arguing that "promoting happiness and well-being is a legitimate and important goal of government".
Ms Swinson said: "This is a positive and forward-looking move by the government, which will give us a much better idea of the health of UK society.
"Relying solely on GDP to track the nation's progress excludes many of the things that we all know to be important, but that can't be measured by money.
"What gets measured gets done.  While it's not government's job to make people happy, regular measures of wellbeing will at least make sure it is taken into account."
Existing surveys suggest Britons' happiness has...

Summary: The government will attempt to measure the happiness of UK citizens, it is expected to announce later this month.
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Article: Severnside Provisions, of Leeway Industrial Estate, was also ordered to pay £400,000 at the city's crown court on Friday.
Directors Anthony O'Sullivan, 47, and Martin Lincoln, 46, were given 24-week terms after admitting 12 offences.
An investigation was launched in December 2013.
In a statement, Newport city council said the pair were warned in 2010 that their company was not permitted to carry out turkey processing.
However, it said records showed that large quantities of meat was sold by Severnside Provisions in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
After an investigation started, environmental health officers found large quantities of turkey defrosting outside in dirty water and being processed in a garage in "unhygienic conditions".
Items seized were destroyed but the Food Standards Agency launched a national recall after finding turkeys had already been sold to butchers' shops and restaurants.
The council said O'Sullivan and Lincoln had admitted 12 food hygiene offences, including that they sold food that was unsafe and failed to keep equipment clean.
As well as being jailed, the two directors were ordered to pay a confiscation award of £271,815 under the Proceeds of Crime Act and council costs of £35,185.
The company was also fined £100,000.
Newport councillor Bob Poole said: "This company was putting people's health at serious risk for the sake of profit."

Summary:


The BBC has announced that it will be launching a new music channel, BBC Music, in the autumn.
The new channel will be available on Freeview and will be available to all BBC TV and radio stations.
The new channel will be available to all BBC TV and radio stations, including BBC Radio 1, BBC

The Official Chart Show is being moved from Sunday to Friday evenings, as part of a big shake-up of the music charts.

Article: Media playback is not supported on this device
Bobsleigh was first created in the late 19th Century when Swiss pioneers paired together two skeleton boards, along with a steering mechanism, to create a toboggan for use in the resort town of St Moritz.
This form of toboggan allowed for multiple passengers - and later team members as bobsleigh became a highly competitive international sport, harnessing the latest in aerodynamics technology.
Bobsleigh, like sister-sport skeleton, relies on the start for much of what follows. You need to push the sled down the track before jumping in - logic dictates that the faster you push it, the quicker you'll go once you're on-board.
That means the push-start is vital and bobsleigh athletes train hard to be exceptionally strong and quick. Current GB bobsleigh athletes have set faster 100m times than many dedicated 100m runners, for example. So if you sign up for bobsleigh, you can expect an intense workout alongside sitting in a technologically advanced barrel while plummeting down an ice slope.
British Bobsleigh is the governing body in charge of the sport and provides access to facilities and training, centred around the GB team's complex at the University Of Bath.
British Bobsleigh offers a membership package which gives members the chance to compete at the British Championships, alongside a Try it! page with more details.
Tourists in continental Europe, many of them British, first made the sport of toboggan - and later bobsleigh - both practical and popular. The first bobsleigh club was opened in the resort town of St Moritz in 1897.
According to the International Olympic Committee, the name 'bobsleigh' comes from the effect of the sleigh on competitors as they bobbed along the track.
The importance of a decent start in any bobsleigh race was soon recognised and, as competitions became more organised and professional, a weight limit was placed on a whole team in an effort to help teams get a good start without gifting any other team an unfair advantage.
In 1924,...

Summary: Although sledding has been around for many hundreds of years, the bobsleigh is a fairly new invention.
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Article: Every week BBC Radio 1 plays a countdown of the week's top songs, based on downloads and online streaming.
In May, the programme will move from Sunday to Friday evenings.
CBBC will also launch a TV version of the Official Chart Show, presented by Cel Spellman.
The new programme will be broadcast live from the Radio 1 studios and presented by Greg James and will play the top 20 songs of the week.

Summary:


The US has warned that it will not be able to support the ceasefire in Syria until the US withdraws its troops from the country.
The US has also warned that it will not be able to support the ceasefire until the US withdraws its troops from the country.
The US has also warned that it will not

The US has said it is suspending talks with Russia over Syria, accusing Moscow of having "failed to live up" to its commitments under a ceasefire deal.

Article: With more than 80% of contested seats now declared, Aung San Suu Kyi's party has more than the two-thirds it needs to choose the president, ending decades of military-backed rule.
A quarter of seats are automatically held by the military, meaning it remains hugely influential.
Under the constitution, Ms Suu Kyi cannot become president herself.
Despite this, the election was seen as the first openly contested poll in Myanmar - also known as Burma - in 25 years.
Analysis: Jonah Fisher, BBC News, Yangon
Next stop for Aung San Suu Kyi are talks with President Thein Sein and the army Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing. They are likely to happen in Nay Pyi Taw next week.
There is plenty to discuss and Ms Suu Kyi is likely to try and reassure them that her government will be inclusive, and not purely made up from her NLD party.
Then there is the thorny issue of the upcoming "lame duck" parliamentary session. Incredibly, the members of the old pre-election Burmese parliament are due to gather next week for a final session that runs until the end of January.
It has full powers to pass legislation and with the vast majority of the MPs having been booted out on Sunday this could be an opportunity for all manner of consequence-free political skulduggery.
Only once the "lame duck" session ends will the new NLD-dominated parliament gather. It will immediately choose a new speaker, quite possibly Ms Suu Kyi, before selecting two vice-presidents and a president.
By early Friday, the NLD needed two more votes to reach the threshold required for a majority.
Then at midday, the electoral commission said the party had taken 348 of the 664 seats in the two houses of parliament. This represents a two-thirds majority of the contested seats.
With votes still being counted, the NLD's tally rose to 369 seats later in the day. The final tally is not expected for several days.
Confirmation of the victory came exactly five years since Ms Suu Kyi was released from house arrest by the military.
The process of choosing a new president will...

Summary: Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy has won a landslide election victory, officials say.
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Article: Washington blamed Russia and the Syrian government for intensifying their attacks against civilians.
Last week, the US warned it would halt the talks unless Moscow stops bombing the city of Aleppo.
Russia said it regretted the US move, accusing it of shifting the blame for the collapse of last month's truce.
Aleppo, Syria's largest city in the north, has come under heavy aerial bombardment since the end of the ceasefire two weeks ago.
The main trauma hospital in the rebel-held eastern part of the city was hit in an air strike for the third time in a week, activists said on Monday.
Hundreds of people, including children, have died since government forces launched an offensive to take full control of Aleppo after the week-long truce lapsed.
Some 250,000 people are trapped in eastern Aleppo.
In a statement, state department spokesman john Kirby said: "The United States is suspending its participation in bilateral channels with Russia that were established to sustain the cessation of hostilities.
"Unfortunately, Russia failed to live up to its own commitments... and was also either unwilling or unable to ensure Syrian regime adherence to the arrangements to which Moscow agreed.
"Rather, Russia and the Syrian regime have chosen to pursue a military course," Mr Kirby said, admitting that "this is not a decision that was taken lightly".
He said Moscow and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's troops had been "targeting of critical infrastructure such as hospitals, and preventing humanitarian aid from reaching civilians in need, including through the 19 September attack on a humanitarian aid convoy".
Moscow strongly denies involvement of its own or Syrian planes in the deadly aid convoy strike, and says the incident was caused by fire on the ground and not by an air strike.
In response to the US suspension of the talks, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: "We regret this decision by Washington."
"Washington simply did not fulfil the key condition of the agreement to improve the humanitarian...

Summary:


The UK's biggest supermarket chain has been forced to cut its prices by up to 10% in a bid to win back shoppers.
The price cuts are part of a wider price war, which has seen the price of a litre of milk rise from £1.50 to £1.60.
The price

The UK Wife Carrying Championships have a winner!

Article: Sterling has fallen sharply against the euro, meaning southern shoppers can get much better value in northern shops.
It shows that since the vote, south-to-north traffic flows from 10:00-11:00 on Saturday are up from 3% year-on-year before the vote to 29% year-on-year.
The border-crossing data was gathered by Ireland's National Roads Authority.
The largest increase in the opposite direction is 18:00-19:00 on a Sunday, which analysis from Goodbody Stockbrokers suggested possibly reflected a return from a weekend spent in Northern Ireland.
While the overall impact on consumer spending in the Republic would be relatively modest, "the economic impact on border counties could be significant", said Goodbody Chief Economist Dermot O'Leary.

Summary: There has been a surge in Saturday morning shoppers travelling to Northern Ireland from the Republic since the EU referendum, road traffic data suggests.
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Article: 18 March 2014 Last updated at 09:22 GMT
Richard Blake-Smith and his partner Anna beat Vytautas Kirkliauskas of Lithuania, carrying his wife, Neringa Kirliauskiene.
Rich said: "We put in a whole week's work, running around the athletics track near where we live - and it's paid off"
"We were pushed hard, especially by the Lithuanians there."
Competitors must tackle a 380-metre course, hurdling over haystacks, scrabbling up a steep slope, and dodging water pistols.
You don't need to be married to take part.
The race saw all combinations of competitors - men carrying women, men carrying men and one woman carrying a woman.
Rich and Anna will now compete at the World Championships in Finland in July.

Summary:


The report says the programme has not delivered the expected savings.
The report says the programme has not delivered the expected savings.
The report says the programme has not delivered the expected savings.
The report says the programme has not delivered the expected savings.
The report says the programme has not delivered the expected savings.

Hungary traces its history back to the Magyars, an alliance of semi-nomadic tribes from southern Russia and the Black Sea coast that arrived in the region in the ninth century.

Article: Transforming Your Care (TYC) was a plan to change how services are delivered.
But the programme has only realised £28m of the £130m saving anticipated.
In a report the Auditor General, Kieran Donnelly, said the pace of change is not what was envisaged.
This is the first time officials have commented on the management and delivery of the programme, which was published in 2011.
While acknowledging it was an ambitious shared vision, Mr Donnelly said the programme has so far not achieved what it set out to do.
"The impact of TYC has been much more limited than expected and the hoped-for shift of services from hospitals into people's own homes has not happened as rapidly as had been intended," he said.
The message "could do better" rings loud and clear from the report.
It is the first official confirmation of what many health professionals have been saying for some time about TYC.
According to Mr Donnelly, that is because there was no action plan, funding or leadership to help deliver it.
"A precise action plan had not been established at the outset of the programme setting out clear, measurable aims and objectives together with an appropriate set of performance indicators for assessing its performance," he said.
However, the auditor also stresses the importance of having leadership to drive the process forward. In fact, the report says "leadership of the highest order will be vital in moving the reform process forward".
The core objective of TYC was to shift the delivery of services away from hospitals and into the community to allow more people to be cared for in the community and at home.
It would also allow for funding to be transferred from hospital to community care.
But that clearly has not happened.
While the plan was to reallocate £83m of resources from secondary care to primary/community by March 2016 - instead that figure has been closer to £65m.
There are huge obstacles in the way of delivering health and social care and that is also acknowledged by the Auditor General.
Mr Donnelly said the scale and...

Summary: A lack of planning and funding has meant the biggest overhaul of the health service in Northern Ireland for decades has not had the expected impact.
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Article: After centuries as a powerful medieval kingdom, Hungary was part of the Ottoman and then Habsburg empires from the 16th century onwards, emerging as an independent country again after World War I.
The Hungarian language belongs to the Finno-Ugric family and is one of the handful of languages spoken within the European Union that are not of Indo-European origin.
A landlocked country, Hungary is home to Lake Balaton, the largest in central Europe, and to a large number of spa towns and hot springs.
Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring
It has especially rich traditions in folk and classical music and was the birthplace of numerous outstanding performers and composers, including Franz Liszt, Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly.
Hungary became co-equal partner with Austria in a dual monarchy in the mid-19th century after an unsuccessful revolt against the Habsburgs in 1848. After a period of turmoil following World War I, an independent kingdom of Hungary was established under the authoritarian regency of Admiral Miklos Horthy.
The redrawing of European borders that took place after World War I left about five million ethnic Hungarians living in neighbouring countries. Their status remains a sensitive issue and has complicated Hungary's relations with its neighbours.
Following World War II, in which Admiral Horthy had allied himself with Germany, Hungary fell under communist rule. An uprising in 1956 was crushed by Red Army forces, but Hungary did later become the first Eastern European country to gain some economic freedom.
Hungary played an important part in accelerating the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe when it opened its border with Austria in 1989, allowing thousands of East Germans to escape to the West. Just a few months later the Berlin Wall was history.
Hungary's post-communist economic transition was achieved relatively smoothly. Within four years of the collapse of communism nearly half of the country's economic enterprises had been transferred to the private sector, and by 1998 Hungary...

Summary:


The Scottish Parliament has been given the green light to consider a proposal to allow the Scottish Government to set up a new body to oversee the Scottish Parliament.
The proposal, which was tabled by the Scottish Government's new Scottish Affairs Committee, was approved by the Scottish Parliament's Standing Committee on Wednesday.
The proposal would

Donald Trump has called off a rally in Chicago after protests against the Republican presidential front-runner led to violent clashes.

Article: The deadline for members of the public, interest groups and institutions to send their proposals to the Smith Commission closed at 17:00 on Friday.
Provisional numbers showed it had received 14,000 emails and letters from the general public.
And it had received more than 250 submissions from institutions.
The commission, headed by Lord Smith of Kelvin, is currently considering greater autonomy for the Scottish Parliament in the wake of September's "No" vote on Scottish independence.
Lord Smith said: "When I accepted the invitation to lead the commission I was determined to make sure that the public and Scotland's civic institutions would have the chance to have their say.
"I believe we have undertaken a broad ranging programme which has been as extensive as it was possible to achieve in the time available.
"I have been delighted by the response and want to thank the many individuals and organisations who worked hard to make substantial and thoughtful submissions."
He said the political parties would have the chance to reflect on the submissions before any decisions are made.
Lord Smith added: "They will be given full access to all submissions and we will shortly hold a dedicated session of all-party talks to discuss them."
Trade unions, charities and industry bodies have made submissions and Lord Smith has held a number of meetings around the country to discuss the proposals.
The commission was set up after David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg made a vow in the run-up to the referendum that there would be further substantial devolution if Scotland rejected independence and stayed in the UK.
But Lord Smith - who recently chaired the organising committee for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games - has stressed it is not solely the three main Westminster parties who will be involved in the negotiations.
The SNP are represented on the Commission by Finance Secretary John Swinney and MSP Linda Fabiani; Labour by Holyrood finance spokesman Iain Gray and Westminster shadow pensions minister Gregg McClymont; the...

Summary: The commission set up to discuss further devolution to the Scottish Parliament has received more than 14,000 submissions.
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Article: Hundreds of protesters gathered at the venue at the University of Illinois at Chicago hours before Mr Trump was due.
Inside the auditorium, fighting broke out between supporters and protesters, who waved flags and chanted.
A statement from Mr Trump's campaign said the candidate decided to postpone the event after meeting with police.
In pictures: Chicago rally hit by protests
What Trump says about protesters at his rallies
However, a Chicago Police Department spokesman said the force had not recommended that Mr Trump postpone the rally.
The clashes began more than an hour before the event was due to start, and continued after it was cancelled, minutes after Mr Trump was to have appeared.
There were chants for Mr Trump from his supporters and for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders from some of the protesters.
There were several violent clashes sparked by Trump supporters attempting to wrestle flags from protesters.
One protester had to be physically removed from the stage by what appeared to be a Secret Service agent.
Violent clashes continued outside the venue, with helicopter footage showing chaotic scenes as police attempted to control the large crowds.
One protester, student Ali Alhechimi told the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper: "This is a victory. This is an absolute victory. I want to thank everyone who showed up."
The full statement from Mr Trump's campaign read: "Mr Trump just arrived in Chicago and after meeting with law enforcement has determined that for the safety of all of the tens of thousands of people that have gathered in and around the arena, tonight's rally will be postponed to another date.
"Thank you very much for your attendance and please go in peace."
Speaking to Fox News after the events, Mr Trump denied using hate speech or playing any part in fostering division.
"I represent a large group of people that have a lot of anger," he said. "There is tremendous anger out there on both sides."
Discussing the decision to cancel the rally, he said: "I think it was a very good thing we did, I...

Summary: