Speaking to 1Xtra's Semtex, the rapper said: "I'm not trying to tell people not to use it and I'm not saying that you should use it. "I'm just saying here's the information that I've gathered. "I've put it into five minutes, and I want you to take that information and go and research yourself." Swiss, who is best known for being part of So Solid Crew, added: "Gather the information and then make a decision on what you want to do with it." Before the show, Radio 1Xtra explained to Newsbeat that: "The track, which tackles the complex issues around the word, will be played in the late-night specialist show with full warnings ahead of its play and an appropriate introduction giving context to the song. "The decision to play the track is based on musical merit and it is in line with audience expectations." Before playing the five-minute track in full during his 22:00 - 01:00 show, Semtex reflected the mixed response the track has had online. He said: "In case you haven't heard it this is a track that stopped the internet this week. "It didn't break the internet it stopped the internet. "It stopped everybody to put down what they were doing and think about what this guy was saying on the track. "Some people got offended, some people were like 'I'm glad somebody said that', other people were educated." The track opens with a series of samples referencing black slavery, including quotes from Django Unchained and references several cases of when the media has reported the term being used in a negative way. A sequence of lyrics, which ends with the song's title, reiterate the point Swiss made during the interview. "It can be a term of endearment or an emotional trigger. "It can be the difference between jovial and bitter. It depends on how it's presented, said, spoken delivered. But the expression presents a social dilemma. "Everybody should understand the historical picture before we ever choose to use the word nigger." After the track was played a clip of Professor Randall Kennedy Harvard University, who teaches a course on race relations, explained the thought that some rappers put into their use of the N-word. He said: "With hip-hop there have been some who have put great store on the spelling... because that differentiates from [the traditional spelling] which has principally been used a as racial slur." Following the clip Semtex added: "I think in hip-hop it's confusing" before playing a Y.G track and referring to a Rick Ross song which both contain heavy use of the word. He asked Swiss if hip-hop is at fault for using the word, even when it's seemingly used in an endearing way. "I don't think hip-hop's at fault," replied the rapper. "A lot of negative things are celebrated in our society. "I think the word's got a strange journey. "The way our language works if that it can change over time. "It has no sort of loyalty to any gender, any race or any time period. Words can change and this

Summary: Swiss has said the aim of his new track is for people to educate themselves about the use of the N-word, rather than trying to stop them using it.


"Where is Mullah Omar?" is a question sources say is being increasingly and angrily directed at the commander regarded as the acting head, Akhtar Mohammad Mansour. Commander Mansour has long been reported to be fighting off threats to his authority from more hardline Taliban opposed to any peace talks, including Abdul Qayum Zakir. The Taliban are also facing a growing challenge from the still small, but increasingly significant presence of the so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan. Videos have emerged of disgruntled Taliban fighters swearing allegiance to the IS's self-declared Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Iraqi cleric, who also declared a modern day caliphate in areas under IS control in Iraq and Syria, has publicly mocked the religious and political leadership of Mullah Omar. In a Taliban movement said to be founded on a pledge of allegiance to the Amir ul-Mumineen (Commander of the Faithful), Mullah Omar's authority was regarded as a binding force of political and military strength. "I really hope peace talks are concluded before Mullah Omar dies," a former senior Taliban official nervously remarked to me several years ago with unexpected candour about the movement's leader. "When he's gone, it will be much harder to maintain Taliban unity," he admitted with palpable concern. Our conversation, outside Afghanistan, took place at a time when Nato-led forces were killing many mid-level Taliban commanders in their operations in southern Afghanistan. That was raising concern that younger, more radicalised fighters, without a strong allegiance to the Taliban leader, would rise through the ranks and be hard to keep in line. In 2010, when US diplomats first engaged in face-to-face talks with the Taliban through what later became known as the movement's Political Office in the Gulf state of Qatar, they first sought to establish that the Talibs were acting with Mullah Omar's authority. At the time, US diplomats involved in the process told me credible assurances were received that Syed Tayyab Agha, his former personal secretary, had his blessing. That green light was, however, said to be strictly limited to negotiations with the Americans about Taliban prisoners and the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan. They eventually resulted in last year's swap of the remaining American soldier in Taliban captivity, Bowe Bergdahl, for five Taliban members held at Guantanamo Bay. This year, in the midst of a series of unprecedented informal meetings between the Taliban's Political Office and Afghan government officials, Taliban sources emphasised they still did not have formal authorisation from Mullah Omar to negotiate officially and openly with the Afghan government. That again raised the most salient issue: how to get a ruling from a leader who has not been seen in public since late 2001 when the Taliban movement was ousted in Afghanistan after the attacks of 11 September. Even his recorded messages stopped several years ago. Taliban officials often insisted their leader had to keep an exceptionally low profile because of US efforts to kill or capture him. But he was widely rumoured to be in Pakistan, despite Islamabad's denials. A senior Afghan official told me a few years ago

Summary: Whether or not Mullah Omar is dead or alive, his long absence from public view is posing a growing threat to the strength of his splintering Afghan Taliban movement.


The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) hopes they will end a wide variation in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. They include advice on diagnosing how far the cancer has progressed, identifying the best treatment, and improvements to follow-up care. Melanoma is a form of skin cancer that claims more lives than any other. In 2012, the UK saw more than 2,000 deaths from melanoma and the number of melanoma cases is growing faster than any of the 10 most common cancers. Experts believe this is largely down to the boom in foreign holidays over the past 40 years and, more recently, a big increase in the use of sunbeds. Prof Mark Baker, from NICE, said everyone wants to enjoy the sun, but there are safe ways to do so. "Using a sunscreen with a high SPF, spending time in the shade between 11:00 and 15:00, ensuring you don't burn, and covering up with a hat, T-shirt and sunglasses. "But overexposure to ultraviolet light from the sun can have very serious repercussions. "Melanoma causes more deaths than all other skin cancers combined. Its incidence is rising at a worrying rate, faster than any other cancer. "This new guideline addresses areas where there is uncertainty or variation in practice, and will help clinicians to provide the very best care for people with suspected or diagnosed melanoma, wherever they live." Experts warn that even though more people are now aware of the dangers of too much sun, it will be a generation or so before the number of melanoma deaths starts to fall.

Summary: New guidelines for diagnosing and treating melanoma skin cancers have been issued to the NHS in England.


Protests have been held at the Little Plumpton site since shale gas extraction was approved in 2016. More officers are needed as activity increases, costing an extra £200k this financial year, said a spokesman. Last month, the Home Office said the force would "continue to have" resources "to keep communities safe". Planning permission for energy firm Cuadrilla to carry out fracking at the Preston New Road site was initially declined by Lancashire County Council, but that decision was overturned by Communities Minister Sajid Javid in October. Protests have been held regularly at the site since initial works began in January. Energy firm Cuadrilla has said drilling would start in the spring. It would mean that, for the first time, UK shale rock will be drilled horizontally, which is expected to yield more gas. However, the process has prompted environmental concerns. A force spokesman said the additional £450,000 a month policing cost would be kept under review and published. "We also estimate we will have spent up to £200k additional costs in the current financial year. "The increase is because activity at the site is increasing and so are the number of officers there."

Summary: Policing the fracking operation in Lancashire will cost the force an additional £450,000 a month while it continues, say police.


The airline has been loss-making in all but two years since 2003, when it was bought by the States for £5m. Previously the Treasury and Resources Department had expected Aurigny to return to profit by 2016, but that has now been revised to 2018. Its report, which will be voted on next month, said the "ongoing loss-making position" was a "cumulative result of a number of key factors". Cabernet Ltd, the holding company for Aurigny Air Services and Anglo Normandy Engineering, operates through borrowing guaranteed by the States. The debt to be written off is £19.9m accumulated from 2003 to 2014 and the expected £5.3m loss up to 2017 - £2.3m in 2015, £1.5m in 2016 and £1.5m in 2017. It will be paid out of the island's capital reserve. Aurigny performance in 2014 Aurigny has borrowed more than £50m, guaranteed by the States, to support its business and the purchase of new aircraft. The proposals also include allowing the department to be able to provide short-term borrowing to Cabernet to cover the annual losses. The department's report said it was "firmly of the view" retaining the company "remains overwhelmingly in the Bailiwick's strategic interest", although it said this included recognising the "risk that ongoing financial support will be required". Treasury Minister Gavin St Pier said it was a "strategic asset" acquired to secure the route to Gatwick, which "is as important now as it was in 2003".

Summary: Aurigny could have debts of more than £25m paid off by Guernsey's government.


A census of Scottish Christians found that there are around 390,000 regular churchgoers north of the border, down from 854,000 in 1984. The research also revealed that 42% of churchgoers were aged over 65. One leading cleric said the findings presented a "crisis and an opportunity" for Christians in Scotland. The statistics were revealed in the results of 2016 Scottish Church Census, which was recently published by Brierley Consultancy. Other key findings include: Lead researcher Dr Peter Brierley said the figures indicated a crisis in Christianity across Scotland. "We are living in the 21st century and one of the features of the 21st century is that people's allegiance to particular faiths is no longer as strong as it used to be," he said. He said the main reason for the decline in church attendance was the deaths of elderly churchgoers. "Part of the problem is the proportion of people in the church who are elderly is much greater than in the population of Scotland as a whole," he said. "So, you have a great number of churchgoers dying. The rate of replacement is not as many. That's the basic reason for decline. "It's not that people are moving away from the faith, although I'm sure some are, but in general terms that is not the case. "There are also quite a lot of invisible Christians who used to go to church, still believe in God, but they have moved house, perhaps to a rural area, and simply haven't found a church to go to." The census also revealed growth among some denominations in some parts of Scotland. Attendance among the Pentecostals has doubled since 2002 and now stands at 19,000, making up 5% of all churchgoers in Scotland. The census also revealed a growth in new churches - 12,000 people regularly attend around 300 new churches started since 2002. Researchers said many immigrant churches and so-called "Messy Churches", which are more informal gatherings, account for much of the new growth. They credit a 2% growth in church attendance in Aberdeenshire to the influx of a large number of Polish migrants, mostly Roman Catholic, to the oil industry. The Reverend Dr David Pickering, Moderator of the United Reformed Church Synod of Scotland, said the census did not make "terribly happy reading". He said: "It's a crisis and an opportunity. Both present themselves. "The Scottish Church Census doesn't make terribly happy reading. But it also presents a new opportunity for the church to portray the love of God and the good news of Jesus in a new way for a new generation. That's an opportunity and a challenge for us. "Although I wish it were different, I think we must acknowledge that most congregations have more older people than younger, and most young people simply do not see the relevance of God, of Jesus, of the church, to their lives. "And, of course, there are now more things to do on Sundays than there were even a generation ago. "I think if the church doesn't respond [to the decline in numbers], it is a

Summary: The number of people who regularly attend church services in Scotland has fallen by more than half over the last 30 years, according to a new survey.


Arguing in Cardiff for a Remain vote, Leanne Wood did not think her side had lost but said: "It's close". She was speaking alongside ex-Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who said the positive case for the EU had been missing from the campaign. But Commons leader Chris Grayling, in Caerphilly, said the Brexit case was an "overwhelmingly positive one". He was campaigning in the south Wales valleys for a Leave vote alongside Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies, Monmouth Tory MP David Davies, and UKIP AMs Nathan Gill and Mark Reckless. The two sides have been stepping up their campaigns with just one week to go before the UK's in-out referendum on 23 June. Talking to BBC Wales in Cardiff city centre on Thursday, Mr Salmond agreed the vote was close, describing it as "nip and tuck". "There's going to be a strong remain vote in Scotland as in Northern Ireland," he said. "I'm hoping for a Remain vote in Wales to make it a Celtic triple, as it were. "It's on a knife edge in England." Mr Salmond predicted a "surge of European enthusiasm" as "you go deep into the European football championships". "What the campaign has been missing has been the positive aspect of Europe," he said. Claiming the EU had been a force for peace and prosperity, Mr Salmond urged voters not to "jeopardise what we've built over 60 years". Asked if she had been taken aback by the strength of the Leave campaign in Wales, Ms Wood said: "Yes, I have." "I've been quite surprised by how so many people have been able to be persuaded around this question of fear of immigration. "We've got a week now to try to persuade as many people as possible that it is in Wales' best interests to Remain as a part of the European Union," she added. Earlier, Ms Wood said politicians in Wales wanting the UK to stay in the EU had failed to organise a "proper, decent campaign". She told BBC Radio Wales the assembly election in May had "dominated all of us in Wales on the political scene". "The timing of this referendum was a bit of a disaster from a Welsh perspective," she said. "It's been very difficult and challenging." Mr Grayling and his fellow Brexit vote campaigners gatherer around the Tommy Cooper statue in Caerphilly on Thursday, with drivers tooting their horns as they drove past. "This is a battle between those who don't like the European Union and say we should definitely leave, and those who don't like the European Union but say 'oh well, we should stay'," he said. "I have to say there is little support for the EU anywhere in the United Kingdom." Mr Grayling added: "I know how tough it is in parts of the valleys - I've been here many times before. "I've seen some of the challenges in and around this area. "I've spoken to some of the people who face the consequences of migration into this area." Mr Gill, UKIP Wales' leader, said that Leave had the

Summary: The leader of Plaid Cymru has said she has been taken aback by the strength of the campaign in Wales to leave the EU.


The 26-year-old had a loan spell at Stanley in 2014, making three appearances, and played five games with Bristol Rovers last term. Despite joining the Spireites on a permanent basis in May 2013, Chapman played just one first-team game. "It's strange to be back but it's nice," Chapman told the club website. "I knew the goalkeepers from last season had gone on to pastures new and the manager [John Coleman] gave me a call asking if I was interested in coming back and I was delighted to." Coleman added: "It's a key position and I'm hopeful of bringing another keeper in over the next few days - and the aim is to get two good goalkeepers fighting for one place."

Summary: Accrington Stanley have re-signed goalkeeper Aaron Chapman on a two-year deal, following his release by League One side Chesterfield.


An international team of researchers found that the region was, in total, home to an estimated 390 billion trees. Writing in Science, they added that the rarest 11,000 species made up only 0.12% of tree cover. However, they added that the new data could help unlock ecological secrets held by the biodiversity hotspot. The results were based on a survey of 1,170 plots and half-a-million trees across the six-million-square-kilometre area, often described as the lungs of the world. The authors said that the underlying cause of the hyper dominance of the 227 species, which accounted for 1.4% of the estimated number of species in the region, remained unknown. "We knew that, normally, a few species dominate ecosystems, but if you have a system that has 16,000 tree species but just 227 make up half of the trees, that was pretty surprising even for us," said lead author Dr Hans ter Steege from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands. He told the Science podcast: "We don't really know why these species are so incredibly dominant because they do not have any particular ecological feature that stands out." In the paper, Dr ter Steege and the team of more than 100 scientists wrote that there was no evidence that two key functional traits for trees - seed mass and wood density - played a part in determining what species dominated the landscape. "The 227 hyperdominant species include both shade-tolerant, typically large-seeded climax species with dense wood and shade-intolerant, small seeded pioneer (species) with light wood," they observed. The most dominant species was indentified as Euterpe precatoria, a palm tree native to central and southern America, with a mean estimate population of more than five billion individuals within Amazonia. Conversely, the researchers noted that the rarest 5,800 species had communities with fewer than 1,000 individuals, adding: "which is sufficient to classify those that are endemic as globally threatened". They suggested further analysis would show that the species identified as hyperdominant would be "disproportionately resistant to pathogens, specialist herbivores and other sources of frequency-dependent mortality". Dr ter Steege said the data could also be used by conservationists to find out what species were found in protected areas, such as national parks, and what ones were located in unprotected areas, and were therefore vulnerable to threat such as deforestation.

Summary: Despite being home to about 16,000 tree species, just 227 "hyperdominant" species account for half of Amazonia's total trees, a study suggests.


Charles Henry Chester, 86, from Bedlington was killed when his Nissan Micra collided with a Vauxhall Astra near Hartford Bridge. Katherine Scott, 93, from the Morpeth area, and a passenger in the Astra, also died. Its driver remains in the Royal Victoria Infirmary with injuries which are not thought to be life threatening. Police have renewed a appeal for witnesses to the incident at 12:05 BST.

Summary: Northumbria Police has named two people who died in a crash in Northumberland on Wednesday.


Ukraine prosecution officials said there was no evidence of a crime but one politician called for the president to face impeachment proceedings. Eleven million documents from Mossack Fonseca show how some of its clients use it to avoid tax and launder money. The firm says it did nothing illegal. The Panamanian firm is alleged to have set up a company in the British Virgin Islands for Mr Poroshenko called Prime Assets Partners, which describes itself as a holding company of the Roshen confectionery group. Before becoming president, Mr Poroshenko had been known as the "chocolate king". During his presidential campaign in 2014, Mr Poroshenko vowed to sell most of his business assets. He won the election and was sworn in in June 2014. The assets were transferred to the newly created holding company. In October 2014 a Ukrainian bank, of which Mr Poroshenko owns a controlling stake, sent a letter of recommendation to Mossack Fonseca saying that his accounts had been "conducted properly up to our satisfaction", according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Journalists from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) argued that President Poroshenko's action might be illegal on two counts: starting a new company while president and not reporting the company on his disclosure statements. The BBC cannot independently confirm this. Anti-corruption group Transparency International also believed that the "creation of businesses while serving as president is a direct violation of the constitution". But a spokesman for Mr Poroshenko said the company it set up for the president had no active assets and was part of a legitimate corporate restructure aimed at helping to sell the Roshen group. None of the three associated accounts held more than â‚¬2,000 (Â£1,600; $2,270), he said. The Ukrainian leader went on Facebook to insist that, on becoming president, he had delegated management of his assets to consulting and law firms. "I believe I might be the first top office official in Ukraine who treats declaring of assets, paying taxes and conflict of interest issues profoundly and seriously, in full compliance with the Ukrainian and international private law," he wrote. Legal firm Avellum, which was given the task of selling Roshen, said that using a company with foreign jurisdiction was the only way to move the company into a blind trust. "Any allegations of tax evasion are groundless," it told Reuters news agency. However, Oleh Lyashko, head of the populist Radical party which had earlier been part of the governing coalition, called for impeachment proceedings to be initiated, although that was unlikely to take place.

Summary: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he did nothing wrong, after leaked documents suggested he had set up an offshore company as a tax haven using Panamanian legal firm Mossack Fonseca.


The rail network has more than 9,000 locomotives - 43 of which are still steam-powered. This vast fleet pulls almost half a million wagons and more than 60,000 passenger coaches over 115,000 or so kilometres (70,000 miles) of track. The railways operate more than 12,000 trains, carrying some 23 million passengers daily. This vast public enterprise is virtually a state within a state. It runs schools, hospitals, police forces and building companies and employs a total of 1.3 million people, making it the seventh biggest employer in the world. But it could soon be broken up. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been chided for a lack of radical reform since he took power last year. Yet potentially hugely controversial proposals to restructure the country's railways slipped through last week with barely a ripple. They came from a committee exploring options for reform of Indian Railways, the state-owned enterprise that runs the country's train network, and borrow heavily from the British experience of railway privatisation. The committee's interim report is unambiguous: Indian Railways needs a bracing injection of competition. It says the network should be opened up so private companies can run passenger and freight services in competition with the state. It argues the track should be separated from the train operation business, just it was in Britain. And, just as in Britain, it proposes the whole thing be overseen by an independent regulator whose job is to ensure the new private operators get fair access to the track. The committee wants to shake up the rolling stock business too. Private companies already make wagons for the network - they should be allowed to supply passenger coaches and locomotives as well, the report argues. The authors fear that Indian Railways' manufacturing operations would wither in the face of competition so it suggests they be placed in a new independent company. This would remain publicly owned but would be arms-length from the state and would be free to set salaries and borrow money as it saw fit. In the meantime, management structures and accounting systems across the network need to be completely overhauled. It is impossible to work out whether a project makes money or not, complains committee chief and economist Bibek Debroy. The report also urges that Indian Railways should stop running its myriad hospitals, schools, police forces and other non-core activities. India's biggest railway union has attacked the report, claiming it is an attempt to privatise the railways. That's something Mr Modi has explicitly ruled out. "We are not privatising railways," he assured trade unions last year. "You do not have to worry, it is neither our wish or nor thinking." Yet Mr Modi could adopt all the committee's recommendations without breaking his promise to the unions. The report's authors are careful to avoid the "P" word. "There is a difference between privatisation and competition," explains Gurcharan Das, one of the committee members and a former chief executive of Proctor and Gamble India. "We don't want to sell off the railways, what we want to do is introduce competition. That will bring

Summary: India is a trainspotter's paradise.


The vehicles, which come in various sizes, will distribute post from the central London depot. They were produced by Oxfordshire-based carmaker Arrival, which recently opened a new factory in Banbury. Another batch of 100 electric vans for Royal Mail has also been ordered from Peugeot. Having already been trialled by Royal Mail, these will enter service in December. Arrival says the nine vehicles it has supplied come in sizes of three and a half, six and seven and a half tonnes. Although the current prototype versions of the vans are fitted with wing mirrors, a spokeswoman for Arrival told the BBC they will be removed from the final design - as cameras will be used to monitor traffic to the rear instead. Royal Mail was "delighted" to be collaborating with Arrival, said Paul Gatti, Royal Mail Fleet's managing director. "We will be putting them through their paces over the next several months to see how they cope with the mail collection demands from our larger sites," he added. Royal Mail's fleet comprises about 49,000 vehicles in total. "European postal providers, starting with DHL in Germany, have been taking this approach for a while now," said Ananth Srinivasan, a mobility expert with research consultancy Frost & Sullivan. He added that five countries - the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain - had the potential to convert significant proportions of their fleets to electric vehicles in the coming years. "Our research indicates that by 2025 these countries may have 100,000 postal service vehicles going electric between them," he told the BBC.

Summary: Royal Mail is beginning trials in London of nine fully electric vans with ranges of up to 100 miles.


Swansea's 1-0 win over Everton, after Hull had lost 2-0 at Sunderland, saw the Welsh side climb out of the bottom three with two games remaining. But the Swansea boss says there is still work to do and his side must remain focused. "It can swing so quickly the other way," Clement said. "We have to really focus on making sure we do a good job at Sunderland. "We know that Hull have got a difficult game with Crystal Palace still not out of it and that's going to be hard. "But the most important thing is to do a good job when we go to Sunderland." The Swans were bottom with only 12 points from 19 games when Clement was appointed in January. Clement says keeping Swansea City in the Premier League would be the highlight of his career and eclipse winning the Champions League. Media playback is not supported on this device Clement was Carlo Ancelotti's assistant when Real Madrid won the Champions League in 2014. He was also the Italian's number two when Chelsea won the Premier League and FA Cup double in 2010. "I've been in a very privileged position in the past to have worked with some fantastic teams and different players and got my hands on some unbelievable silverware," Clement said. "But this will be the best by far if we manage to stay in this league, because I'm the one making the decisions. "I'm the one in charge and because of the position when I came into this club. "It was difficult for the supporters and for the players. I was the third coach in one season, so it will be a fantastic achievement if we do it." Fernando Llorente scored the only goal against Everton as Swansea's win combined with Hull's defeat against already-relegated Sunderland saw Clement's side move out of the bottom three. Swansea travel to Sunderland next Saturday and the club's players will cover the cost of 3,000 away tickets. "We have picked up seven points from games against Stoke, Manchester United and Everton and that's a tough run," Clement added. "Now we go to Sunderland and I am glad they won. "One because it helped us, but also because it shows we can not underestimate them."

Summary: Paul Clement says Swansea City cannot waste their opportunity after moving out of the Premier League relegation zone.


The incident happened at Llanymynech near the Cross Keys hotel on Saturday, affecting the A483 until it reopened at about 15:00 BST. Dyfed-Powys Police said highways officials had put a diversion in place after the collision on the adjacent B4398 road.

Summary: A two-vehicle collision closed a main road leading to hold-ups in Powys.


Fellow centre Duncan Taylor, of Saracens, is back after missing the autumn Tests through injury. Uncapped Edinburgh forwards Simon Berghan and Cornell du Preez are included but David Denton is not fit. Alasdair Dickinson is also absent through injury, while fellow Edinburgh prop WP Nel is listed but is a doubt with a neck problem. Nel lasted just 27 minutes of his return from a long injury lay-off at the weekend and is awaiting the results of a scan. This year's championship will be New Zealander Cotter's last in charge of the national side. He will take over as Montpellier coach this summer and will be replaced by Glasgow Warriors' Gregor Townsend. The Scots open their Six Nations campaign at home to Ireland on 4 February before facing France away eight days later. With Dickinson missing and doubts over Nel, Newcastle front-rower Jon Welsh returns for the first time since the 2015 World Cup. John Hardie, who started all five matches in last year's tournament, is another Edinburgh player in Cotter's plans working his way back to fitness. Edinburgh lock Ben Toolis is also selected having not appeared since the Six Nations of 2015. "It's a well-balanced and exciting group that have played a lot of rugby together, know each other well and are ambitious to do well in a Scotland jersey," said Cotter. "I think if we get our mind-set right we can be competitive and push for wins in every game in this campaign." Last year, Scotland finished fourth in the championship after victories against Italy and France. In November's autumn Tests, the Scots beat Argentina and Georgia after a narrow defeat by Australia. BBC Scotland's Tom English The competition in Scotland's midfield is now fierce. This is probably - almost certainly - the best set of centres the country has ever had. Cotter has named five - Mark Bennett, Alex Dunbar, Huw Jones, Matt Scott and Duncan Taylor. Alasdair Dickinson's injury is a blow. Scotland could do with his experience at loosehead. Scotland squad: Forwards: Alex Allan, Zander Fagerson, Gordon Reid (all Glasgow Warriors), Simon Berghan, Allan Dell, Willem Nel (all Edinburgh Rugby), Jon Welsh (Newcastle Falcons), Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors), Ross Ford, Stuart McInally (both Edinburgh Rugby), Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors), Richie Gray (Toulouse), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby), Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors), Ben Toolis (Edinburgh Rugby), John Barclay (Scarlets), Cornell Du Preez, John Hardie, Hamish Watson (all Edinburgh Rugby), Rob Harley, Josh Strauss, Ryan Wilson (all Glasgow Warriors) Backs: Greig Laidlaw (Gloucester), Ali Price, Henry Pyrgos, Finn Russell (all Glasgow Warriors), Duncan Weir (Edinburgh Rugby), Mark Bennett, Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors), Huw Jones (Stormers), Matt Scott (Gloucester), Duncan Taylor (Saracens), Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors), Damien Hoyland (Edinburgh Rugby), Sean Maitland (Saracens), Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors), Tim Visser (Harlequins) 4 February - Scotland v Ireland (14:25) 12 February - France v Scotland (15:00) 25 February - Scotland v Wales (14:25) 11 March - England v Scotland (16:00) 18 March - Scotland v Italy (12:30)

Summary: Scotland head coach Vern Cotter has recalled Gloucester centre Matt Scott to his squad ahead of the Six Nations.


A spokesman said the woman's attacker covered her mouth and dragged her backwards in Spotland Road, Rochdale at about 06:45 BST on Tuesday. He said she lost consciousness and woke up on the floor having been raped. She then walked to a nearby butchers' shop and told staff she had been assaulted. Supt Alistair Mallen said it was "vile, wicked and despicable crime". The woman's attacker was described as white. Officers are reviewing CCTV footage, speaking to people in the area and carrying out forensic tests. "I am sure the entire community will share our revulsion at this," Supt Mallen said. "I now want people... to imagine if that had been your mum or grandma. "I want to harness these feelings and use them to help the police do their job - catch this man and put him before the courts."

Summary: A 90-year-old woman was dragged off a street and raped in Greater Manchester, police have said.


The Indomitable Lions, who lifted the trophy on Sunday after beating Egypt 2-1 in the final in Gabon, attended a ceremony in Yaounde on Wednesday. They presented the Nations Cup trophy to President Biya at Unity Palace. Later, they travelled in open-top vehicles through the streets of the capital to parade the trophy to fans. Cameroon's players were given medals by the president, who said their victory should be celebrated by Cameroonians as one nation. At the end of the ceremony Cameroon First Lady Chantal Biya posed for a series of photos with the players - at one point she used Fabrice Ondoa's phone to take a 'selfie' with them. Cameroon's success in Gabon ended a 15-year wait to win the tournament again and gave them their fifth title. The country will host the next edition of the Nations Cup in 2019.

Summary: Cameroon's Africa Cup of Nations-winning squad have been given a special state reception by the country's president Paul Biya.


Williams, aiming for a 22nd Grand Slam singles title, thrashed Magdalena Rybarikova 6-2 6-0 in just 42 minutes. Djokovic, a defeated finalist in three of the last four years, beat Chinese Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu 6-4 6-1 6-1. Earlier, Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber was beaten by world number 58 Kiki Bertens. Fifth seed Victoria Azarenka was another high-profile casualty, forced to retire with a thigh injury when trailing Italy's Karin Knapp 4-0 in the third set. But nine-time champion Rafael Nadal advanced at speed and in style, taking only one hour and 20 minutes to overcome Sam Groth 6-1 6-1 6-1. The 29-year-old Spanish fourth seed, who hit an astonishing winner through his legs in the third set, will face Argentine world number 99 Facundo Bagnis in the second round after taking his career French Open record to 71 wins and two losses. Djokovic will face Belgian Steve Darcis next, ahead of a potential third-round encounter with British number two Aljaz Bedene in the third round. Djokovic, who won bronze at the Beijing 2008 singles and came fourth at London 2012, believes ranking points should be on offer at the Olympics. The Olympics is organised by the International Tennis Federation, which has not reached an agreement with the men's and women's tours to recognise players' performances at Rio 2016. John Isner admitted that the lack of points on offer was "a pretty big factor" in his decision not to represent the United States at the Games. Australian Bernard Tomic and Austria's Dominic Thiem have also made themselves unavailable to their countries. "We have the best players in the world participating in arguably the fifth Grand Slam. It's of that importance for all of us, even more, because it happens every four years," Djokovic said. "I would definitely encourage people to rethink getting points out there." Third seed Kerber, who has yet to advance past the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, lost 6-2 3-6 6-3. The German, 28, lost her opening matches at the Madrid and Rome tournaments and a shoulder injury ruled her out of Nuremberg last week. Bertens, from the Netherlands, won the title in Nuremberg. "First rounds are always tough in the tournament, especially for me. What can I say? It happens," said Kerber, who stunned Serena Williams in Melbourne to win her maiden Grand Slam title earlier this year. Eugenie Bouchard is now down at 47 in the rankings but her form of late has been a little more encouraging and she eased past Germany's Laura Siegemund 6-2 6-2. The Canadian had a difficult season in 2015 after reaching the top 10 the previous year and found the whole experience so stressful it led to an eating disorder. She said: "I felt a lot of pressure and kind of this expectation that if you win a match it's normal and if you lose it's a disaster. "Before matches I was very nervous and definitely had trouble eating. I just felt like it would come right back up. It's a difficulty I went through. And not just before matches, but it

Summary: Top seeds Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic eased through to the French Open second round with comprehensive victories.


Former world heavyweight champion Bruno says he would like to box again, but has battled with bipolar disorder since he was diagnosed in 2003. David Haye, who is also a former heavyweight champion, says Bruno would need to face boxers of a similar age. But Hearn said: "Frank is a national institution. He needs help and support, but not through returning to boxing." Bruno, who has not fought since losing the WBC belt to Mike Tyson in 1996, said on Monday he wanted to return to the ring, but had been denied a licence by British boxing officials. "He won the heavyweight world title. It would be a travesty to see him back in the ring," said Hearn. "It's not the answer but I fully understand all the things that boxing can give him, and I hope he can find that through being involved in the sport, whether it's coaching, whether it's being an ambassador because he trains all the time and that's because he feels he needs to." Fellow Briton Haye does not feel Bruno should meet boxers in their 20s or 30s. "As long as he fights somebody his own age, I've got no problem with that," Haye, 35, told Radio 4's Today programme. Haye made a comeback of his own in January, taking 131 seconds to win his first fight in three-and-a-half years. He added that Bruno was in "fantastic shape" but added there should be a seniors division in boxing, as there is in tennis. Promoter Kellie Maloney said Bruno should not risk his health and instead channel his energy into other things, like training up-and-coming boxers. "He's got a lot of knowledge and he could pass that on to the young fighters," said Maloney. "There's so much more out there for him."

Summary: Frank Bruno returning to boxing at the age of 54 would be a "travesty", says promoter Eddie Hearn.


"If you have money then you can control people," she seems to say on the tape which has been widely circulated. Ms Hammah has not yet commented on the tape or her sacking. The BBC's Sammy Darko in Accra says she played a key role in President John Mahama's election last year. Some pundits will feel vindicated over her sacking, as they warned that she was too young and inexperienced to serve in government, our correspondent says. In August, she said there was a lot of pressure on her to steal public money because people thought that, as a minister, she was rich. She described such demands as "obnoxious", reports the Ghanaweb news site. "Corrupt politicians are the reflection of [a] corrupt society!" it quotes her as saying. Ms Hammah first came to the public attention after stumbling several times while making a speech and then saying she had been given the wrong text. On the tape, which has not been independently verified, she says: "I will not quit politics until I make one million dollars." She also criticising another deputy minister, calling her "senseless, ugly, loud and egoistic". Information Minister Mahama Ayariga did not give any reason for Ms Hammah's dismissal in her one-sentence announcement. But it comes 24 hours after the tape went viral on social media and was played on a local radio station. Her driver has been questioned by the police, after she lodged a complaint, saying her right to privacy had been infringed. Police spokesman Freeman Tetttey told the BBC they were investigating whether an offence had been committed.

Summary: Ghana's Deputy Communications Minister Victoria Hammah has been sacked after she was recorded allegedly saying she would stay in politics until she has made $1m (£600,000).


Pipe, 26, hit Rhys Morris over the head with a wine bottle outside a nightclub in Park Street in September 2009. Mr Morris, 29, was left with a four-inch hole in his skull and needed emergency surgery. Pipe had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Jailing Pipe at Bristol Crown Court, Judge Mark Horton called the player a "talented man with too much time and too much money''. He added: ''A tragedy would be too small a word to describe the tale which has led us to this courtroom." The former Welsh under-21 international, who has also played for Coventry City, was released by Rovers at the end of last season and is currently without a club. The court heard that Pipe had been drinking heavily at Antix nightclub with friends before the attack. He had become involved in a dispute over a woman and once outside the club he hit Mr Morris with the bottle. The court heard that Mr Morris, who needed metal plates inserted into his head after the attack, was an "entirely innocent" bystander. Pipe, who was identified by CCTV, told police that he had no memory of the event. He had made 89 appearances for the Pirates after signing from Notts County in 2007.

Summary: Former Bristol Rovers midfielder David Pipe has been jailed for 38 months for fracturing the skull of another man in an unprovoked attack in Bristol.


French media reported that a five-year deal had been agreed to host the race at Le Castellet, near Marseille. Ecclestone told Reuters: "Yes, I think it will happen," adding that it would be held in late July, not a month later as the initial reports had suggested. France hosted the first ever grand prix in 1906 but lost its slot in 2008. There have been several attempts since to revive the race but this one looks to be the first to succeed. A news conference has been organised for an announcement about the future of the French Grand Prix in Paris on Monday, to be hosted by Christian Estrosi, the president of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur. The French sports newspaper L'Equipe reported that a five-year deal had been agreed with the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region in association with the city of Toulon, department of Var and the French motorsport association. Le Castellet - also known as the Circuit Paul Ricard - last hosted the French Grand Prix in 1990. From 1991-2008 it was held at Magny-Cours in central France. Ecclestone's family trust owns the track but the 86-year-old said: "It's nothing to do with them at all. I think they are renting it to the people that are going to be the promoters." He said the race would be held on "more or less sort of the German date probably", without specifying what that meant for the future of the German Grand Prix. That race has dropped off the calendar for next year because the Nurburgring, one of two venues that alternate as hosts, cannot meet its financial obligations under its contract with F1. But Hockenheim, which held the race in 2016, has a contract to do so again in 2018. The return of France will be greeted with widespread delight by both F1 insiders and fans of the sport. This is because of its historic significance and because it is another race in the sport's heartland of Europe rather than, as has been the recent trend for new events, in a country where the sport has limited support and no heritage. F1 is in the process of being bought by US group Liberty Media, and it has said that protecting races in F1's heartland is a major priority, along with expanding its presence in the US, the rest of the Americas and Asia.

Summary: The French Grand Prix will return to the Formula 1 calendar after an absence of 10 years, the sport's boss Bernie Ecclestone has said.


The wall at Oxgangs Primary collapsed during stormy weather in January 2016. A senior employee at the subcontractor that built it, VB Contracts, told the BBC the inner and outer walls were not constructed at the same time. Architecture professor Alan Dunlop said this "design issue" could have been the root of the problem at Oxgangs. VB Contracts went bust in 2010, but the BBC spoke to a former employee, who did not want to be identified, as part of the BBC Scotland Investigates: How Safe is My School? programme, which was broadcast on Monday evening. The collapse of the Oxgangs wall led to 17 schools across Edinburgh being closed over safety concerns. They have all since reopened. The schools had all been built or refurbished following a Â£360m deal between the city council and a private finance consortium under the Public Private Partnership 1 (PPP1) scheme. The lead contractor for the Edinburgh schools project, Miller Construction, was bought by Galliford Try in 2014. Miller Construction had outsourced some of the work to VB Contracts, which was responsible for the brick and blockworks at Oxgangs Primary, and built the wall that collapsed. Internal blockworks for such walls are generally built at the same time as the brick which forms the outside skin of the building. This allows the builder to ensure the two parts are properly connected, with wall ties in the right places. But the former employee said Miller Construction had told VB Contracts to build the internal wall at Oxgangs first so the building could be made water and wind tight as quickly as possible in order to allow inside work such as plastering to get started. It was the outer wall that subsequently fell down at Oxgangs school. Architect Alan Dunlop told the BBC the way the walls were built was therefore not "standard practice" and in his view was at the "root of the problems" at Oxgangs school. He said: "If you're going to do that, I would expect a method statement for that to be done. That's a design issue. It's not an add, it's not something you do ad hoc. And you have to do it properly and you have to specify the right wall ties for doing it. "In the evidence of the photographs that we have seen, that doesn't look to be the proper wall tie that you would actually use in circumstances like that." Mr Dunlop added: "The evidence is clear in the Oxgangs project. The wall collapsed and evidently it doesn't look as though it was safe at all. That's another whole shocking and worrying aspect of this whole process." In a statement, Galliford Try said it had contractual responsibility for four of the 17 Edinburgh public private partnership schools built 10 years ago. The statement added: "Work required to reopen those four schools temporarily closed has been completed and the schools opened on 24 May and 6 June 2016. "Throughout, Galliford Try's priority has been to ensure the children return to their studies at the earliest opportunity. We worked tirelessly with

Summary: The collapse of a wall at an Edinburgh primary school could have been caused by the way it was built, a BBC Scotland investigation has found.


He has made 155 appearances for the Lions since signing from MK Dons for an undisclosed fee in January 2014. The 30-year-old played 56 games in all competitions last season. "Having such success last season made it an easy decision for me to sign another contract," Williams told the club website.

Summary: Millwall midfielder Shaun Williams has signed a 12-month contract extension with the newly-promoted Championship club, with an option for an extra year.


Zhang Dejiang, the leader responsible for Hong Kong affairs, arrived amid discontent with alleged interference by Beijing. Mr Zhang said he was in Hong Kong "to listen to all sectors of society". More than 6,000 police have been deployed amid planned protests by pro-democracy groups. In a five-minute speech on arrival, Mr Zhang, 69, conveyed "President Xi Jinping's warm regards and well wishes for the people of Hong Kong" and said he came "with the care of the central government and all Chinese people". Noting his trip had "attracted wide attention", he said: "I will listen to the chief executive and the [Special Administrative Region] government regarding their work, and to all sectors of society about what recommendations and requirements they have about implementing the principles of "one country, two systems". He heads China's Hong Kong and Macau affairs office but is also chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, making him China's third-highest ranking leader after President Xi and Premier Li Keqiang. Mr Zhang is to speak at a policy conference on President Xi's One Belt, One Road economic project that aims to improve connectivity between China and Eurasia. He will meet a group of four pro-democracy legislators at a reception, ahead of a banquet. As head of Hong Kong affairs, Mr Zhang was responsible for a key decision in 2014 on Hong Kong's political future and is the highest-ranking mainland official to visit since then. The mini-constitution, or Basic Law, under which Hong Kong is governed, says the ultimate aim is for the leader to be elected by universal suffrage. Although China had promised direct elections by 2017, it said in 2014 that the leader, or chief executive, put up for election would come from a list of two or three candidates chosen by an effectively pro-Beijing nominating committee, angering pro-democracy campaigners. The decision led to full-scale protests, dubbed the Umbrella Movement. Tens of thousands of protesters camped in the streets for weeks but the camps were gradually dismantled with no concessions from the government. Current Chief Executive CY Leung remains unpopular. Commentators will be watching and listening carefully to see whether Mr Zhang will hint at endorsing him for another term. Following the 2014 protests, a number of so-called "localist" groups sprung up and showed themselves willing to use violence to battle what they see as a dilution of the city's identity, fearing growing social and political influence from mainland China. In February, hundreds of demonstrators dug up and threw bricks during a violent clash with police trying to shut a night food market. The market was seen by the protesters as a symbol of local traditions. There have also been increasing concerns over the freedoms Hong Kong enjoys - unseen on the mainland - which were integral to the agreement that enabled Hong Kong to be returned to China by the British in 1997. They include freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, travel and trade union membership. One incident that raised particular concern was the disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers known for publishing controversial books

Summary: Tight security is in place in Hong Kong for the visit of the most senior official from Beijing since large pro-democracy protests in 2014.


More than 200 houses inside the enclave were burnt down. Residents reportedly refused to return the body of a Bangladeshi villager allegedly killed by the Indians. The Indian enclave, Garati, is situated inside Bangladesh, about 3.5km (two miles) from the border which is not properly demarcated. About 2,000 people live in the enclave, which is surrounded by the Bangladeshi district of Panchagarh. Indians allege that the intruder from Bangladesh was a robber but villagers from the neighbouring area deny the accusations. Reports say only half the population of the enclave has returned to the area so far. Hundreds of people have spent the last few nights out in the open as their homes were destroyed in the violence. Residents of the enclave say they had lost household goods and valuables in the mob attack. "Normalcy is slowly returning to the area. We have deployed additional forces to prevent further violence," Shahriar Rahman, a senior police official in the district of Panchagarh, told the BBC Bengali service. There has been no comment yet from the Indian side on the incident. Local journalists say this is the first major attack on an Indian enclave in many years. The incident has once again highlighted the tense relations in the border areas. India and Bangladesh have enclaves in each other's territory and the two sides have been holding talks for years to resolve all border-related issues. The two countries share a border of more than 4,100km (2,550 miles). There are more than 100 Indian enclaves inside Bangladeshi territory and there are about 50 Bangladeshi enclaves in India - thousands of people live in them. Residents of these enclaves often complain that there is virtually no infrastructure and no government. They say there is a lack of water, roads, electricity, schools and medicine. Activists say neither government is seriously interested in addressing the plight of people living in the enclaves.

Summary: Police in Bangladesh say they have arrested 11 people over an arson attack on a village in an Indian enclave inside Bangladeshi territory.


The Russian, 28, has been taking the drug since 2006 for health issues. But it was banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) on 1 January and the former world number one has been provisionally suspended from 12 March and could eventually be hit with a four-year ban. It appears a lot of athletes take meldonium, but what exactly is it, where does it come from, will we be hearing a lot more about it now and how easy is it to get hold of? Watch: Sharapova reveal she failed test Meldonium - also known as mildronate - is a drug designed to treat ischemia, a condition where there is a reduction in blood supply to body tissue. It is also said to have benefits for diabetes sufferers. According to Dr Tom Bassindale, a lecturer in forensic science at Sheffield Hallam University, it was developed in Latvia and approved in the early 2000s to treat diabetes and various heart-related diseases. Dr Bassindale says it has the ability to adjust the body's use of energy, stimulating glucose metabolism and also helping to clear fatty build-up in the arteries. Media playback is not supported on this device The ability to increase oxygen movement to muscles means meldonium could have a positive effect on stamina and endurance. Dr Bassindale said: "It's advertised as giving a mental focus, removing external stress so you feel sharper. There is a slight central nervous system effect, like with stimulants such as caffeine, which gives you a sharper edge. "But it will aid recovery quicker from a hard effort, whether that's playing multiple games of tennis or a cyclist coming back the next day for another stage. There is also an endurance effect." In a word: yes. It is not licensed in the UK, so is therefore illegal to sell there. But it is not illegal to import it from abroad for personal use. Following Sharapova's announcement, Russian supplements website RUPharma told BBC Sport it is had sold 150 packets of the drug in 24 hours, compared with 850 in the past 12 months. The website says it has increased the price of a packet of 40 250mg tablets from £15 to £27 and employ a new member of staff to deal with the demand. "As a joke, we now call mildronate the Sharaponate," said a spokesperson, who added that most of their sales are to UK and USA customers and the majority are for sport, rather than medicinal, use. The UK government's Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency urges people to not buy unlicensed drugs from abroad, as there is no guarantee that customers know if the product is safe. Assuming the product is what it says on the label, there are no tests that show any serious side effects. A Latvian manufacturer of the product - OlainFarm - says it is possible that some using the drug will suffer "headaches" and "agitation". It is also possible for there to be some skin irritation, though this is "very rare". RUPharma said: "We do not know of any negative side

Summary: Meldonium was barely on the radar until five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova revealed she recorded a positive drugs test for the substance.


Human Rights Watch (HRW) says it has analysed images of the Rohingya village of Wa Peik in Rakhine state. According to HRW the images show that during the period when Wa Peik was being burned, there were military trucks active at a nearby army post. This proves that soldiers were in the area, the group says. "It's difficult to believe that militants burned down over 300 buildings in Wa Peik over a one-month period while Burmese security forces stood there and watched," said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "Burmese government officials have been caught out by this satellite imagery, and it's time they recognise their continued denials lack credibility." Asked about the allegations, the main government spokesman, Zaw Htay, said he would not be commenting as an investigation into events in northern Rakhine state was under way. A government appointed team has spent the past few days visiting affected villages and is expected to release its findings at the end of January. This is the third Human Rights Watch report on the current crisis and the burning of Rohingya villages. On previous occasions the government denied that soldiers were to blame, saying the Rohingya have been setting fire to their own homes to attract international sympathy. The rights campaigners go on to say that their analysis of when and where the villages burned shows a methodical approach, making it more likely to have been carried out by the military. Independent journalists have not been allowed into northern Rakhine since armed militants attacked border posts on 9 October, killing nine policemen. The area has been closed since then amid allegations of army atrocities against the Rohingya. The latest figures from the United Nations show that since then 27,000 Rohingya have fled across the border into Bangladesh.

Summary: New satellite images establish a link between the Burmese army and the burning of Rohingya Muslim villages, human rights campaigners say.


Mr Hands said officials would be able to choose the type of products to be covered by agreements. The union operates alongside the EU's single market and free trade area. It comes after the Brexit secretary said the UK would consider paying for "best possible" single market access. The customs union includes all 28 EU nations, but also Turkey, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra and non-EU UK territories such as the Channel Islands. They enjoy free trade with each other, but must impose the same tariffs on goods from nations outside the pact and are barred from doing bilateral trade deals with other countries. Bloomberg news agency published remarks Mr Hands made in an interview this week in which he said the "history of international trade has got all kinds of examples of customs unions". He said the UK could be selective about which individual sectors it wished to be covered by any customs union arrangement. Mr Hands added: "You can choose which markets, which products the customs unions affect and which they don't, so there isn't a binary thing of being inside the customs union or outside of the customs union." As the pound posted its fifth consecutive week of gains against the euro, Mr Hands's words were cited by financial market commentators as further evidence that fears over a "hard Brexit" were easing. In the Commons on Thursday, Brexit Secretary David Davis had said the "major criterion" was getting the best access for goods and services to the European market. Later, in a speech to CBI Wales in Cardiff, Mr Davis sought to reassure business leaders that immigration controls after Brexit will not be imposed "in a way that it is contrary to the national and economic interest". But Brexit-backing Tory MP Peter Bone said "people would be absolutely outraged" if the UK continued to pay the EU after Brexit. And another prominent Leave campaigner and former Conservative cabinet minister, Iain Duncan Smith, told the BBC he believed Mr Davis had been simply not ruling anything in or out of the government's Brexit negotiations.

Summary: The UK could seek a deal which would allow sections of the economy to remain within the EU's customs union after Brexit, international trade minister Greg Hands has suggested.


Prof Wendy Savage told the Mail on Sunday that withholding the information because of fears over sex-selective abortions was "outrageous". Some hospitals have a policy not to reveal the sex, but Professor Savage said it was a woman's right to know. She also said it was a "woman's right to decide" when to ask for an abortion. Speaking after MPs voted to introduce a bill to repeal an 1861 law criminalising abortion this week, she told the Mail on Sunday: "It's her body and her foetus, so she should have that information. Parents who want to find out the sex of their foetus can usually do so in a mid-term scan at about 20 weeks but some hospitals have a policy of not telling, according to the NHS Choices website. Some hospitals say they are too short-staffed to establish the sex and there have been concerns that the scans can sometimes be inaccurate. But experts have also claimed that the policies may be intended to prevent the risk of selective abortions. "She is the one taking the risks. "If a woman does not want to have a foetus who is one sex or the other, forcing her is not going to be good for the eventual child, and it's not going to be good for (the mother's) mental health," she added. Professor Savage, 81, a retired obstetrician and gynaecologist and a member of the British Medical Association's (BMA's) ethics committee, was speaking to the paper in a personal capacity. Under the 1967 Abortion Act in England, Scotland and Wales, a pregnancy can be aborted before 24 weeks if two doctors approve it. The law does not apply in Northern Ireland, where abortion legislation is based on the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. The majority of abortions in England Scotland and Wales take place before 24 weeks, and are allowed in exceptional circumstances after that time. More than 90% take place at 13 weeks or earlier, according to the BMA. Prof Savage added: "The foetus is a potential human life at that stage (in the womb); it is not an actual human life... I think you've got to concentrate on the (rights of the) woman." Prof Savage said in her long career she had "only a couple of cases" of being asked to approve an abortion past 24 weeks. "It's not something women tend to do," she said. "This is another myth propagated by the anti-abortion lobby, like women wanting sex selection." She also advocated making abortion pills, for early termination, available over the internet, without it being mandatory to consult an expert. MPs last week voted in favour of progressing the Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill. It would remove criminal sanctions over abortion for women and doctors in England and Wales. A spokesman for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said although the comments came in a personal capacity they were in the context of the "BMA's exploration of further abortion liberalisation". And, he said, in light of a recent Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists event presenting

Summary: Women should be told the sex of the foetus when they are scanned during pregnancy, a senior, retired obstetrician has said.


In the three months to August, output fell by 0.8%, the biggest such decline since March 2013. Meanwhile, the UK trade deficit was £3.3bn in August, a narrowing of £1.2bn from July, it said. But the deficit was larger than expected and is set to weigh on growth, the ONS added. An ONS official said the weak figures for construction in August may have been linked to wet weather during the month. Housebuilding fell by 3% from July and output in other parts of the sector also contracted for the first across-the-board decline since 2010. The trade figures showed the UK's deficit in its trade in goods narrowed to £11.1bn in August compared with £12.2bn in July, although some analysts had expected it to shrink further. The deficit of £11.1bn on goods was partly offset by a £7.9bn surplus on services. Exports increased by £0.8bn, boosted by cars. The combined goods deficit for July and August is already twice that of the previous quarter, and is likely to have a negative effect on overall GDP growth. The UK's economy grew by 0.7% in the second quarter of the year, but Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight said overall growth prospects for the third quarter had received a "double blow" from the construction and trade data, which was "seriously bad news overall". "Overall, the data reinforce our belief that GDP growth is likely be no better than 0.5% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter, and there is now a significant risk that it could have been weaker still." David Kern, chief economist of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: "The large trade deficit remains a major national problem. Greater efforts are needed to support our exporters and to secure a long-term improvement in our trading position."

Summary: Construction output fell 4.3% in August, its sharpest drop since late 2012, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.


Rod Mackenzie, described as a life-long crofter, was one of six commissioners elected in March and represents the East Highlands. Mr Ewing said the appointment would bring stability to the Crofting Commission. The regulatory body had been involved in a lengthy row that saw calls for the last convener to resign. Earlier this year, Scottish ministers urged for action to address "worrying failures" indentified by a review of the commission. The review ordered by the government found "personality clashes" amid issues with management at the organisation. Crofting is carried out in the Highlands, Northern and Western Isles and Argyll. Mr Ewing said: "As a life-long crofter, Mr Mackenzie will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role and I look forward to working collaboratively with him in the future. "With the appointment of the new convener, the creation of the new board of commissioners and the recruitment of a new chief executive earlier this year, I believe crofting can look forward to a period of stability and a positive focus on issues that will greatly improve the lives of those living in remote and rural areas." Mr Mackenzie said he was delighted to be selected for the role. He said: "We've had several meetings of the board of commissioners since the elections in March, both for business and for training as a new group coming together and I've been impressed by just that - how everyone wants to come together, to do a good job for crofting. "And what I've quickly learnt is that it is no simple thing. As a public regulator, you are working within constraints - there's no magic wand. "But what there is, is the will to work together to make a difference."

Summary: A new convener of the Crofting Commission has been appointed by Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing.


Apple won a ban on the devices, claiming Samsung had copied its iPhone and iPad. South Korean Samsung had been unable to sell products in Australia since July. The two companies are engaged in legal battles in more than 10 countries since April accusing each other of infringing smartphone and tablet patents. Last month, Samsung won an appeal against a temporary ban on sales. However, Apple was awarded a stay of the orders. On Friday Apple's bid to extend the ban was turned down by the High Court. The ruling is a rare win for Samsung as it allows the company to sell its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in time for the busy Christmas shopping season, a lucrative time for the industry. The decision comes after a US court ruled against Apple's bid to ban Galaxy phones and tablets, another win for Samsung. Apple has appealed against that ruling. However, the legal tussle in other markets is not going as well for Samsung. The company said on Friday that a French court had turned down its request to ban sale of the latest iPhone in that country.

Summary: Australia's High Court has lifted a ban on the sale of Samsung's Galaxy tablet in the country in time for the Christmas shopping season.


Media playback is not supported on this device Ethiopian great Kenenisa Bekele, who won last year's Berlin Marathon in the second-quickest time ever, heads the men's elite field along with Kenya's Stanley Biwott. In the women's race, Great Britain's Jo Pavey will have qualification for this year's world championships in her sights as part of a strong field. Six-time Paralympic gold medallist David Weir has said he will retire after the men's elite wheelchair race. BBC One will have comprehensive coverage from 08:30 BST on race day, with BBC Red Button viewers able to watch the elite races from start to finish. Fans can also watch the amateur runners complete the 26.2 mile course with a special Finish Line stream, available via Connected TV and on the BBC Sport website. You can also follow text updates from 08:30 to 16:00 on the BBC Sport website, plus live radio commentary on BBC Radio 5 live. Saturday, 22 April 13:15-13:45, Marathon Preview, BBC One Sunday, 23 April 07:50-08:50, Marathon Preview, BBC Red Button (repeat) 08:00-14:00, BBC Radio 5 live sports extra (simulcast of BBC London's coverage) 08:30-14:30, BBC One 08:50-12:30, Elite Races, BBC Red Button and online 12:30-16:00, Finish Line, Connected TV and online 18:00-19:00, Highlights, BBC Two *All times listed are BST. Fixtures and event start times are subject to change. The BBC is not responsible for any changes. Also, coverage on BBC Red Button can be subject to late schedule changes, so details may differ from this page. Media playback is not supported on this device National and regional variations have been included in this list where possible. Please check your local listings for more detailed information. You can view all our TV and Red Button broadcasts as well as listen to our radio sports programming on the BBC iPlayer.

Summary: On Sunday, 23 April, the world's best elite runners as well as keen amateurs take on one of the most iconic races - the London Marathon.


President Uhuru Kenyatta and Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn agreed the deal in the border town of Moyale. The deal aims to tackle youth unemployment by creating jobs in the energy, mining and livestock industries. Tensions between rival ethnic groups have risen due to lack of land and water. There was a heavy security presence ahead of the meeting on the Kenya-Ethiopia border. "This is a historic function," Kenya's President Kenyatta was quoted as saying. He said a tarmac road would be built by September 2016, linking the two countries' capital cities. Cross-border raids have forced thousands to flee their homes in recent years.

Summary: Kenya and Ethiopia have signed a UN-backed trade deal worth $200m (Â£130m) in a bid to ease cross-border conflict.


The world champion went into Saturday's racing as the overall leader and managed a victory and a third place. With the lowest score winning, Scott is on 22 points - 16 clear of Slovenia's Vasilij Zbogar with three races left. Scott, 29, is a four-time world champion bidding to follow in the footsteps of compatriot and four-time Olympic champion Sir Ben Ainslie. "It's looking good going into the next two races but there's still a lot to play for," said Scott. "Obviously having that points margin is a big confidence booster but I think the thing for me to be focusing on is that it isn't over. "You can't get complacent. You have to attack days like I've done today so nothing really changes. But clearly having that margin is a good place for me." Nick Thompson's medal hopes in the Laser category took a blow, as he finished 22nd in the 10th race, dropping to sixth. Thompson, 30, was second after six races, but is 10 points outside the top three going into the medal race, which is worth double points. Alison Young kept alive her hopes in the Laser Radial, winning the penultimate race to be eighth going into the medal race. Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves dropped to third in the Nacra 17 mixed category, after they finished outside the top 10 in three of their four races on Saturday. Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth are sixth in the women's 49er class while in the men's equivalent Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign are 12th. Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign have risen from 14th to 12th in the 49er fleet, but face a tough ask to finish in the medal hunt.

Summary: Britain's Giles Scott enjoyed another dominant day in sailing's Finn class to close in on Olympic gold.


That includes broadband operators, schools, universities and libraries. Ofcom said that the savings could be passed on to consumers. It follows a review that found the former state monopoly had "significant" market power. BT said that more regulation could damage investment in infrastructure. "These are proposals for discussion, so we'll be making our views known to Ofcom. We don't expect a final decision for some time," the company said in a statement. "We believe there should be less regulation in this market, not more, as businesses already have diverse and growing choice amongst a large number of providers." The consultation - which runs until July - will consider a form of charge control that aims to bring prices down over a three-year period. The charge controls relate to two groups of services - older leased lines that offer speeds up to 8Mbps (megabits per second) and newer Ethernet lines that offer speeds up to 1Gbps (gigabit per second). "The slow speed traditional service on up to 8Mbps leased lines is not likely to help mobile and other broadband operators, since slow lines like this are not sufficient for modern backhaul," said Andrew Ferguson, editor of broadband news site ThinkBroadband. "The real market is the Ethernet sector where the price reduction will be very welcome by those buying these lines." But he added: "There is also the real risk that BT - if revenue is reduced in one area - will seek to maintain profits by increasing prices elsewhere." Ofcom is also proposing that companies providing leased lines should be granted access to BT's networks through a process known as dark fibre. This would involve BT giving competitors physical access to its fibre-optic cables, allowing them to take direct control of the connection. It is called dark fibre because the cable would not be lit using BT's electronic equipment. Instead the competitor would install its own equipment at either end of the cable. Ofcom expects to publish its decision in the first quarter of next year, with any price cuts coming into effect in April 2016.

Summary: UK regulator Ofcom is proposing cutting what BT charges for its leased telecoms lines, which could see significant price cuts for those who buy them.


A section of Victoria Pier in Colwyn Bay collapsed into the sea in February and a fire broke out there in March. The planning and listed building consent applications have been submitted by the owners, Conwy council. They include redeveloping a shortened pier and salvaging heritage elements of the structure for potential use in its restoration. The Colwyn Victoria Pier Trust wants to restore the pier to its original 1900 length, complete with kiosks and a pavilion, but has recognised the remaining pier needs to be dismantled "so the community can move forward". The 116-year-old pier was already closed to the public for safety reasons before its partial collapse. The council said the applications would be registered by the planning authority in due course and then be subject to the usual planning process. Once they have been considered and assessed, the listed building consent application will be submitted to the Welsh Government. That decision will be made by a Welsh Government minister who will be advised by CADW. In 2013, Conwy council voted to demolish the pier but this move was refused by the Welsh Government in 2015.

Summary: Permission has been requested to dismantle and redevelop a Grade II-listed pier in Conwy county.


It said fracking could be safe for human health and the environment, but added that the industry needed to be more transparent. The report did not look at fracking's cost and climate change implications. The task force is an independent body funded by the oil and gas industry. There has been a great deal of public opposition to fracking - which involves blasting shale rock with water, sand and chemicals to release the gas trapped inside - in both the UK and elsewhere. There are concerns over the possibility of water contamination, methane leakage, earth tremors and disruption to local communities. However, the government is keen to exploit the UK's shale gas resources to reduce dependence on imported gas and increase energy independence. And this latest report suggests that, if regulations are tightened and a National Advisory Committee is established to monitor data from any shale gas operations, fracking could be safe. Lord Smith, chair of the Task Force on Shale Gas, said: "Our conclusion from all the evidence we've seen is clear. Only if the drilling is done properly and to the highest standard, and with rigorous regulation and monitoring, can shale gas fracking be done safely for local communities and the environment." But the report did say that the practice of injecting waste water back into rock formations, which has been associated with earthquakes in the US, should be avoided. Lord Smith said: "We have not yet concluded that fracking is a good idea for the UK. "We still have to look at climate change and the economics. It would be premature to make conclusions yet on whether it is a good or bad thing." He added that if fracking would lead to a "substantial raising of greenhouse gas emissions", it should not be allowed. Environmentalists argue that if we are to avoid dangerous levels of climate change, fossil fuels need to be left in the ground in favour of cleaner, renewable energy such and wind and solar power. The task force will publish two further reports this year, covering climate change and economics. A final report on the potential risks and benefits of shale gas for the UK will be published in the spring of 2016.

Summary: Fracking could potentially be done safely in the UK under "rigorous regulation", but it is too early to say whether it would be "a good idea", the Task Force on Shale Gas has reported.


Nicola Collingbourne was found at her home in Ivel Court on the Jackman's Estate in Letchworth on Tuesday. Yvonne Caylor, 52, of Grove Road in Hitchin, will appear before Hatfield Remand Court on Monday. Hertfordshire Police said officers want to speak to anyone who saw a person "of large build wearing a high-vis jacket" near the flat on Monday morning.

Summary: A woman has been charged with murder after a 26-year-old was found dead at a flat in Hertfordshire.


The fifth most common cancer in UK women affects more than 6,500 a year. Researchers funded by the Department of Health compared the survival rates of 20,000 patients in five countries - Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and the UK. The UK ranked worst. Its record of managing advanced stages of the disease was particularly poor. Survival rates have been improving - more than two-thirds of women with this cancer survive more than a year now in England and Wales compared with fewer than half in the mid-70s. But they still lag behind other countries. As the symptoms of ovarian cancer are similar to those of other conditions, it can be difficult to recognise until the disease is more advanced, and experts had thought late diagnosis could explain the UK's poorer track record. But the findings, in the journal Gynecologic Oncology, suggest problems accessing successful treatment are to blame. Lead author Dr Bernard Rachet, of the Cancer Survival Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "Our research is the first population-based study to examine whether low ovarian cancer survival in the UK is due to more women being diagnosed with advanced disease, or to the outcome of treatment in the UK being inferior at each stage. "The results show that the proportion of women with advanced disease is similar to that in other countries, but that survival for women with advanced disease is much lower. "This suggests that the success of treatment is lower in the UK, and more effort should be made to ensure that UK women with ovarian cancer have the same access to the best treatments." One year survival was 69% in the UK compared with 72% in Denmark and 74-75% in the other three countries. Women with advanced stages of the disease fared the worst - 61% survived for at least a year in the UK compared with up to 74% elsewhere. The UK was also worse at recording how far tumours had spread. Although these percentage differences may not sound large, they are significant and big in terms of avoidable cancer deaths, say the researchers. Past work by some of the same team suggested around 500 ovarian cancer deaths a year could be avoided in Britain if the country had a survival record that matched the rest of Europe. Sara Hiom, of Cancer Research UK (CRUK), said: "This disturbing research advances our knowledge about what needs to be done to tackle lower ovarian cancer survival in the UK." A recent study by the charity predicted that many cancers would see improvements in survival rates over coming years. CRUK estimates ovarian cancer death rates will drop by 43% by 2030. Gilda Witte of the charity Ovarian Cancer Action said: "We believe that women who have reached the advanced stages of the disease should have the opportunity to be treated within expert specialist centres, where they will benefit from the expertise of leading specialist surgeons implementing the latest research within experienced multidisciplinary teams. "We know that when these conditions are in place, it drastically increases a

Summary: Women in the UK are dying unnecessarily of ovarian cancer because of a lack of access to the best treatment, say experts.


Sitting in an urban utopia - a sky garden overlooking Hong Lim Park, surrounded by hanging vines, infinity pools, pavilions shaped like giant birdcages and 15,000 square metres of greenery - Townsend announced his line-up to face Italy at the air-cooled indoor national stadium on Saturday amid an architectural wonder. What Townsend is about to build on the rugby field is unknown, but this was the first stop. In the absence of Richie Gray through injury and his brother Jonny, who sits out Saturday's Test but will feature against the Wallabies next weekend, he has a new second-row partnership. Glasgow's Tim Swinson and Ben Toolis, the Edinburgh lock being one of the few who managed to rise above the team's malaise in the season just gone, pair up in the engine room. "Ben gets his reward for the form he's been in with Edinburgh," said Townsend. "His work-rate, his physicality, his athleticism is really good and it gives Jonny the chance to get up to full match fitness." This will be Toolis' second cap and his first start. His one and only cap lasted just eight minutes off the bench in a game that has gone down as one of the most painful in recent years, for Scotland as a collective and for Toolis as an individual. It was February 2015 and the lock replaced his Saturday partner, Swinson, after 69 minutes of the Six Nations game with Italy at Murrayfield. Scotland were ahead 19-15 at the time. In the 77th minute, Toolis got sin-binned and the Scots ended up losing the game in what was arguably the low point of Vern Cotter's time in charge. Toolis hasn't played a Test since. Against the same opposition in Singapore, Toolis has a shot at changing his Scotland story. With Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour away with the Lions, Townsend has converted Duncan Taylor into a full-back and, on the wing, he gives Damien Hoyland his first cap since last summer. It will be Hoyland's second start for Scotland in what will be his third cap. His debut was also against Italy in August 2015. WP Nel returns at tight-head after the most frustrating injury-plagued year of his career, the same going for Taylor who has not played for his country in 12 months, a period that he described last week as a "mental battle". The Saracen had two different hamstring injuries that put him out for two months, two operations on his ankle that cost him four months, a head injury that kept him out four weeks, then shoulder damage that had him in treatment for another four. He made it back in time for Saracens' Champions Cup retention, appearing as a second-half substitute. Josh Strauss also comes into the side after being invalided out of the Six Nations in France while at the peak of his powers. Townsend joked that, in the searing humidity in training, his players have been using Strauss' magnificent beard - in its own way a fabulous creation to rival anything on the Singapore skyline - as a

Summary: As settings go, the roof of the Scotland team hotel in downtown Singapore wasn't the worst place for Gregor Townsend to name his first team as coach of the national side.


The Royals secured their play-off place with a 1-0 win over Wigan on Saturday and are third with a game left to play. "For us, it's important to stay up there and be happy with where we are going into the semi-final," Stam said. "It's going to hard and a big battle as all the teams up there are good and have quality individuals." Stam, who took charge of Reading in the summer, praised the squad's achievement in finishing in the top six. "I'm very proud of the players," he told BBC Radio Berkshire. "A top six finish is something you hope for at the beginning of the season, but that depends on the progress of the team. "It's a big achievement and a big compliment to the squad in how they've done this season." Reading travel to Burton for their final game of the regular season on Sunday and would face sixth-placed Fulham in their play-off semi-final as things stand. But, former Manchester United defender Stam is not too concerned with who they might face. "We're going to give it our best shot," he said. "We want to finish the final game well as we don't want to go into the play-offs with a disappointment."

Summary: Reading manager Jaap Stam believes momentum rather than a highest-placed finish will be most important going into the Championship play-offs.


According to a pair of scientific studies, key genes in the immune system come from our ancient "cousins". The findings, which appear in The American Journal of Human Genetics, suggest we have Neanderthals to thank for being able to fight off pathogens. But interbreeding may have had a downside, as the same genes may have made us more prone to allergies. Modern-day people can trace their ancestry to a small population that emerged from Africa about 60,000 years ago. As the African humans spread out across the world, they came into contact with other ancient humans based in Europe and Western Asia. Genetic evidence suggests that these different "tribes" interbred, with part of the genome of Neanderthals still present in humans alive today. About 1% to 6% of the modern Eurasian human genome seems to come from Neanderthals and Denisovans - another extinct member of the human family. Scientists in Germany analysed the genes of both modern humans and our ancient relatives to find the source of changes in our immune system's genetic blueprints. They found some of the fragments of Neanderthal DNA in humans alive today play a key role in the immune system as the front line of defence against pathogens such as bacteria, fungi and parasites. "The evidence suggests that this genetic region contributes to the immune system of modern day humans," Dr Michael Dannemann of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, told BBC News. "At some point in history it might have been an advantage to have these Neanderthal genes in terms of fighting off infections or lethal pathogens from 10,000 years ago. "It could also still be an advantage today but this is difficult to pinpoint." Dr Danneman, a co-researcher on one of the papers, said this inheritance from the Neanderthals could also have left some people more prone to allergies - because of the effect on the immune system - although this needs further investigation in the laboratory. A second group of researchers - in France and the US - independently analysed genetic data on modern people from the 1000 Genomes project together with the genome sequences of ancient humans. They came to similar conclusions - that a particular cluster of important human immune genes come from Neanderthals and Denisovans. Dr Lluis Quintana-Murci of the Unit of Human Evolutionary Genetics, Institut Pasteur, Paris, said the findings came as a big surprise. "Our big surprise was to find that this gene region has such a high Neanderthal ancestry because this region has been shown to have a major biological relevance in host survival against pathogens," he said. "Maybe we should thank Neanderthals for having given us diversity in innate immunity to survive better against pathogens." Follow Helen on Twitter.

Summary: We may owe our ability to fight disease to our extinct relatives - the Neanderthals and Denisovans.


The Iraqi authorities hope the joint offensive will succeed in pushing IS out of the city, which would be a crushing defeat for the militants and leave them with very little territory in Iraq. But over the past week IS has been hitting back hard on the battlefield, and in various towns and cities. It is gradually revealing a battle plan which it has probably been working on since it seized control of Mosul in June 2014, knowing that this day of reckoning would eventually come. This is the latest tactic deployed by the militants since the offensive began, with a spate of attacks around the country starting last Friday in the strategic, Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk. At least 100 IS gunmen and suicide bombers, including some who had been members of sleeper cells living inside the city, tried to take control of key government and police buildings as well as attacking a power station being built there. As they entered Kirkuk, they called on Sunni Muslims to come out of their homes and fight with them and some heeded the call, according to one source who spoke to the BBC. At least 98 people were killed in the attack, most of them civilians. Sources say 2,000 Kurdish fighters (known as the Peshmerga) were pulled back from the Mosul offensive, to help bring the situation in Kirkuk back under control. The security forces' commander in Kirkuk, Halo Najat, told the BBC he believed the militants also planned to cut the main road from Baghdad to Kirkuk and the road from Kirkuk to Mosul to disrupt supply lines for Iraqi and Kurdish troops involved in the Mosul offensive. However, they were killed before they could do this. Since the assault on Kirkuk, there have been attacks on the town of Rutba in western Iraq and the Sinjar region to the west of Mosul. The sight of a cluster of cars or trucks speeding towards the front lines of the Mosul offensive has sparked panic among some Iraqi troops and Kurdish fighters, who know it is highly likely the vehicles are packed with explosives and driven by suicide bombers. This is a new tactic by IS designed to make it difficult for troops to stop all the vehicles reaching their positions. Small arms fire is not effective as the vehicles normally have armoured plating around them. Destroying them requires several anti-tank missiles to be fired rapidly. The alternative is to call for air strikes, if there is time. The militants try to conceal suicide vehicles before they are used. As the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces have advanced towards Mosul, regaining control of towns and villages which had been in the hands of IS, they have discovered networks of tunnels dug in many areas, a classic tactic for guerrilla warfare. They seem to be primarily defensive, designed to protect the militants from air strikes, artillery and other attacks. Inside the tunnels troops have found sleeping bags, food supplies, water, and even electricity cables so the users have light. The tunnels are often dug beneath

Summary: After more than a week of fighting, the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces are now getting close to the eastern outskirts of Mosul, the last city in Iraq still under the control of so-called Islamic State (IS).


Mr Green was charged after arriving at Livingston police station. Mr Whyte later attended a police station in Glasgow and was detained in custody. A third man, former Rangers co-administrator David Whitehouse, was earlier arrested in England. All three men are expected to appear at Glasgow Sherriff Court on Wednesday. Craig Whyte, 44, took over Rangers in May 2011. The club entered administration the following year. Charles Green led the consortium which bought Rangers assets in 2012 following the club's liquidation. But he stepped down from Rangers a year later following allegations that he was working in conjunction with Craig Whyte. A police spokesman said: "Police Scotland can confirm a 44-year-old man has been arrested and is presently detained in police custody in connection with an ongoing investigation into an alleged fraudulent acquisition of Rangers FC in 2012. "A report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal." An earlier police statement said a 62-year-old man had been arrested and detained over the same investigation. Arriving at the police station on Tuesday morning, Mr Green, 62, said: "I've been invited to attend an interview with Police Scotland. I have done that on a number of occasions in the past." Asked why he was there, Mr Green replied: "Well, one of the difficulties with today is my legal people had asked Police Scotland to provide us information that we're likely to be questioned on and they wouldn't provide that so I'm at a loss really." David Whitehouse, 50, who worked for administrators Duff and Phelps, had earlier been arrested in connection with the 2012 acquisition. Police said in a statement: "Following a Police Scotland operation on Tuesday, a 50-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation into the alleged fraudulent acquisition of Rangers FC in 2012. "Around 6am officers from Police Scotland's economic crime unit, assisted by officers from Cheshire, attended at an address in England and detained the 50-year-old man. "He has now been arrested and is presently detained in police custody."

Summary: Former Rangers owner Craig Whyte and ex-chief executive Charles Green have been arrested as part of an inquiry into the "alleged fraudulent acquisition" of the club in 2012.