The BBC's Helen McCrory has been given the chance to take part in a new series of the BBC's investigative journalism series, The Peaky Blinders.
The series, which is set to air in the autumn, will follow the life of Emma Blunt, a barrister who is to play the role

Plans set out by the Sussex police and crime commissioner (PCC) to take responsibility for fire services in East and West Sussex - and potentially merge them - have met with opposition.

Article: She will play campaigning defence solicitor Emma Blunt in the six-part series, which is described as an "exciting, visceral political thriller".
Harbinson said it was a legal thriller "but one that's written in the crash zone where law and politics collide."
The Peaky Blinders actress said she was "thrilled" to be leading the new drama.
"When l was at drama school l was inspired by Prime Suspect, watching as Britain led the way in creating strong female characters to lead their dramas," she said.
"It's a thriller that starts deceptively small, then begins crossing borders to different cultures and continents."
She said she knew and admired Harbinson's writing for Homeland, which starred her husband Damian Lewis in its early series, and can't wait to start filming.
The drama will follow Blunt as she investigates the killing of a schoolgirl in East Anglia and tries to free the man she thinks was wrongly convicted of the girl's murder.
As part of her investigation she starts to sense that forces in the police and the intelligence services want to stop her uncovering the truth.
Harbinson, who was also an executive producer on 24 and Person of Interest, said he was "delighted" that McCrory had agreed to play the lead role.
"She is a complex and contradictory character, and I am incredibly lucky to have someone of Helen's wit, warmth and intelligence bringing her to life," he said.
Harbinson said he immediately said yes when he was asked if he was interested in writing a legal series inspired by the work of campaigning lawyers like Gareth Peirce, who helped gain the release of Guildford Four member Gerry Conlon, and Helena Kennedy.
"Much of the work I've done in America in the last 10 years (24, Person of Interest, Homeland) has been about life in the post 9/11 (and post 7/7) world," he said. "The so-called war on terror has put serious stress on the ordinary workings of the law.
"National security justifies all sorts of police and state over-reach - and the great majority of us are prepared to accept this.
"So I...

Summary: Helen McCrory is to star in an ITV legal thriller from Homeland writer and executive producer Patrick Harbinson.
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Article: Henry Iddon clambered up some of England's highest mountains to capture images of the landscape and climbers using a Victorian glass plate camera.
The large camera originally belonged to the pioneers of landscape and climbing photography, George and Ashley Abraham.
The Lake District images are on display at Keswick Museum and Art Gallery until 12 May.
Mr Iddon said: "With mobile phone cameras and Instagram, photography has become something very immediate, something that is easy to do with little thought.
"Professional photographers can take thousands of photos on a shoot and later edit the best ones to make them perfect.
"That sort of technology wasn't available to the Abraham brothers.
"Firstly, the camera and equipment were much, much bulkier and heavier than their modern-day counterparts. They had to be carried up some of England's biggest mountains to get the necessary shots.
"When they had climbed the mountain, they then had to be very careful with the way they prepared the shot.
"They were extremely limited with the number of photographs they could take - the glass plates the camera used were heavy so they could only take a handful with them on each expedition."
He added: "It is amazing to think that over 100 years ago rock-climbing was in its infancy, yet with this camera, the Abraham brothers were instigating a whole new genre of photography.
"It's a real privilege to take that process full circle and shoot the extreme sports of today with a camera that was doing the same thing in the late 1890s."

Summary: A photographer has followed in the footsteps of a pair of pioneers from the 1900s - almost literally.
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Article: The move is part of national fire service reforms unveiled by Home Secretary Theresa May last week.
Sussex PCC Katy Bourne said emergency services would have an increased duty to collaborate under the new bill.
But West Sussex County Council (WSCC) said it already had an excellent model.
East Sussex's fire authority said it would co-operate with the PCC but it believed collaboration could be achieved without elaborate structural change.
Ms Bourne said she had written to WSCC leader Louise Goldsmith and Phil Howson, East Sussex Fire Authority chairman, to request they begin to look at the feasibility of bringing both fire services under her authority.
"Just as we have one police force that effectively manages the county, we need to understand if one fire service not two could achieve the same," she said.
Ms Bourne's letter met with cross-party opposition from WSCC.
And Ms Goldsmith also invited the home secretary to visit West Sussex and see an alternative to the government's preferred plan.
Ms Goldsmith said West Sussex fire service was already integrated within the council and served communities.
She added last year's Shoreham air disaster showed how West Sussex emergency services already worked together.
East Sussex Fire Authority said it was willing to co-operate with the PCC to determine whether proposals could improve delivery of services and create efficiencies.
In a statement, it added: "[The fire authority] believes whilst close collaboration between the emergency services is essential, it can be achieved without elaborate structural change.
"It is also the fire authority's considered view that it is more accountable to the community it serves because its members are elected councillors."

Summary:


The US has been accused of using its military to attack Syria, but the US has denied this.

North Korea says a US missile strike on Syria "proves a million times over" that it was right to strengthen its nuclear programme, state media report.

Article: Yes, Hillary Clinton's lead in pledged delegates and total votes, as well as her vast advantage among the "superdelegate" party officials and officeholders, means she likely will accrue the necessary support on Tuesday to be the nominee even before polls close in California.
But the Sanders campaign is asserting that a win on the west coast, where surveys show the race is close, will fuel his efforts over the coming weeks, setting the stage for a showdown with Mrs Clinton on the floor of the Democratic convention in July.
At a press conference in Los Angeles on Saturday morning Mr Sanders emphasised this point, urging the reporters in attendance to refrain from calling Mrs Clinton the presumptive nominee.
"I have heard reports that Secretary Clinton has said it's all going to be over on Tuesday night," Sanders said. "I have heard reports that the media, after the New Jersey results come in, are going to declare that it is all over. That simply is not accurate."
The Vermont senator's pitch is that, unencumbered by Mrs Clinton's low approval ratings and controversy surrounding her use of a private email server while at the State Department, he's the better candidate to run against Republican Donald Trump in the autumn general election.
His team points to numerous opinion polls showing that he performs better in hypothetical presidential matchups than Mrs Clinton. (Clinton's team counters that his numbers are inflated because he's largely stayed above the fray on the campaign trail.)
After Tuesday, when all but the District of Columbia will have held their nomination contests, Mr Sanders will no longer be able to make that case to most American voters.
His goal, then, will be to convince enough superdelegates - who are not officially committed to a candidate until they cast their ballots at the Democratic convention - to switch their support to him. A win in California, the nation's most populous state, would feature prominently in his closing arguments.
"At the end of the nominating process no candidate will...

Summary: For Bernie Sanders and his die-hard supporters, California - the Golden State - is his golden ticket.
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Article: This led to questions about the control of information online and highlighted the declining trust in China's healthcare system.
Baidu is an internet juggernaut that owns search engine and social media services. Its forums are hugely popular, with 1 billion participants taking part in 19 million discussions which allow many Chinese people to converse about the issues that matter to them.
This scandal first came to light when a whistleblower posted about irregularities within a popular forum for people with haemophilia, an inherited and rare condition that affects the blood's ability to clot.
He alleged that the original volunteer moderator had been replaced with another one who paid for the position, and that this new individual was unqualified and posting information about dubious healthcare providers, as well as censoring criticism on the forum.
Baidu later said it would "stop all partnerships with commercial enterprises" when it came to its health forums, and only allow non-profit groups to moderate.
But it left many netizens outraged and condemning the practice as unethical.
With more than 7,000 participants, the forum was seen as an important independent information resource particularly given concerns about China's healthcare system.
Prof Jin Lei, a medical sociologist with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, says there is a general lack of trust in China's healthcare system.
This mistrust has been building since the 1980s when market reforms saw a slash in government funding for hospitals. Most hospitals are state-run, but state financing can now account for as little as 10% of costs.
This has led to the issue of hospitals aggressively pushing marked-up drugs and high cost services to patients, as well as more serious problems such as accepting and demanding bribes, taking kickbacks from medical suppliers, and selling counterfeit drugs, says Prof Jin.
Many Chinese patients also prefer going to the top public hospitals for treatment, rather than seeking help at lower-tier providers.
"So the doctors and...

Summary: Last week one of China's biggest community sites, Baidu, sparked an outcry when it admitted it allowed healthcare companies to moderate online health forums.
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Article: They cited an unnamed government spokesman saying Friday's strike was an "intolerable act of aggression against a sovereign state".
The strikes followed Wednesday's suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held Syrian town which killed 89.
North Korea has carried out tests to develop a nuclear missile.
The UN has banned it from missile or nuclear tests.
But it has repeatedly broken those sanctions. It has successfully tested nuclear bombs of increasing power and claims to have been able to make warheads small enough to fit on a missile, but some experts have cast doubt on those claims.
On Friday, US missiles struck a Syrian airbase, killing at least six people. It was the first US attack on a Syrian government facility, although the country had previously targeted the Islamic State group in the region.
"The US missile attack against Syria is a clear and intolerable act of aggression against a sovereign state and we strongly condemn it," a government official in North Korea said, as quoted by the KCNA news agency.
"The reality of today shows that we must stand against power with power and it proves a million times over that our decision to strengthen our nuclear deterrence has been the right choice.
"Only military power of our own will protect us from imperialistic aggression.
"We will keep bolstering our self-defensive military might in various ways in order to cope with the ever-intensifying US acts of aggression."

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The number of people killed by the coronavirus in the UK has risen to 1,890, with the number of cases rising to 1,890,000, according to the latest figures from the NHS.

The last two journalists working in Fleet Street are leaving what was once seen as the centre of UK journalism.

Article: Some activists say the market for rugs and ornaments made from the bears is driving them to extinction.
But others argue that the most pressing problem for the species is climate change and the disappearance of polar ice.
The issue will be decided at a UN wildlife conservation meeting in Thailand in March 2013.
The Humane Society International/UK says that polar bears have been brought to a tipping point by climate change but that increased hunting in recent years is pushing the species "beyond the brink".
"The drivers for the increase in recent years in the trade in polar bear parts are the extremely worrying and rapidly increasing prices being paid on international markets for polar bear parts," said Mark Jones, executive director of the Humane Society International/UK.
He points to the fact that in the five years up to 2012 there has been a 375% increase in the number of polar bear skins offered at auction, some selling for as much as $12,000 (Â£7,400).
Every year around 600 bears are legally killed by hunters in Canada and in the decade to 2010 more than 30,000 bear parts were traded as trophies, rugs and ornaments.
Opponents of the trade have now proposed a ban on the international sales of polar bear parts. It will be tabled at the next meeting of the Convention on the trade in endangered species (CITES) taking place in Thailand next March.
The move is being supported by the US and Russian governments. The last time an attempt was made to change the ruling in 2010, it was defeated after the UK and the EU voted against.  Mark Jones believes the UK government's position is very influential and wants them to support the ban.
"We urgently need the British government to step forward and be a champion for polar bears by supporting their maximum protection," he added.
But some prominent campaigners are against changing the protected status of the bears. WWF has had a long association with the iconic species but believes that the threat from international trade is not significant compared to the threat from...

Summary: Wildlife campaigners are at odds over a new attempt to ban the global trade in polar bear parts.
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Article: Accountants BDO found occupancy fell year-on-year by 1% to 87.3% - higher than the rates recorded for England, Wales and regional UK.
Rooms yield stood at Â£65.90 in Scotland, well ahead of other UK areas.
Edinburgh and Glasgow had the highest occupancy in the UK, including London, at 92.1% and 91.6% respectively.
Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow experienced double-digit falls in revenue, but all three cities remained in the top 10 of anywhere in the UK.
Only Inverness bucked the trend by seeing revenue increase by 8.8% to Â£62.35 per room.
Alastair Rae, from BDO, said: "Aberdeen aside, the drop in revenue in Edinburgh and Glasgow is due to very high numbers last year when Edinburgh was basking in a late festival rush as well as multiple major conferences, while Glasgow was still on a post-Commonwealth Games high.
"The country is becoming an all-year-round destination through a combination of being a fantastic tourist destination coupled with a major conference, concert and business centre.
"So despite these falls in revenue, the hospitality sector must be feeling reasonably confident for the rest of the year.
"Aberdeen is, of course, the exception and is still coming to terms with the fall in oil prices which make the hospitality sector highly vulnerable to price fluctuations.
"I would expect this situation to continue for some time to come."

Summary: Hotel occupancy and revenue fell in Scotland in September but remained higher than any other area of the UK, according to a regular survey.
###
Article: Reporters Gavin Sherriff and Darryl Smith worked for the Dundee-based Sunday Post, which closes its London office on Friday.
For decades Fleet Street was synonymous with the nation's biggest newspapers.
Ex-Sunday Express editor Robin Esser said it was once a "very, very important place" through which most of the public received its information.
The first British daily newspaper, the Daily Courant, was published in Fleet Street on 11 March 1702.
At its height, "the Street of Shame" - as it was dubbed by some - was the pinnacle of a journalist's career, with nearly every national paper and several provincial newspapers having offices within a half-mile radius.
Mr Smith, 43, worked as a feature writer for the Sunday Post and was based in the street for 25 years.
He is quick to point out that the paper's London address is the same as Sweeney Todd's barber shop, where the fictional character took a razor to his clients' throats.
Although the death of journalism has finally arrived here, he says it was announced too soon by some of London's tour guides.
"I was standing by the window once a few years ago, and a tour bus had stopped outside. I heard the guide tell the passengers that Fleet Street no longer had any journalists working here.
"I stuck my head out and shouted: 'We are still here'."
The street was famous for its many bars and pubs, constantly occupied by journalists both socialising and seeking stories, and Mr Smith tells a tale of once needing to speak to a colleague in the notorious El Vino wine bar - which for many years refused to serve women.
He says he was not allowed in until he squeezed into an ill-fitting jacket, provided by the staff.
"There is so much history here, and to be one of the last ones, I feel unworthy of the torch that I'm carrying."
Mr Sherriff, 54, has worked on Fleet Street for 32 years, and rose to become the Post's London chief reporter. He says on his first ever day he walked into a smoke-filled newsroom to the sound of typewriters being bashed about.
"The phones didn't even...

Summary:


The European Union has said it will not be able to meet its financial commitments to Greece until the country's debt is paid off.

Turkey has lifted a ban on policewomen wearing the Islamic headscarf.

Article: Mr Murphy has pledged that a UK-wide "mansion tax" would allow a future Labour government to create 1,000 new nursing posts in Scotland.
He said most of the money raised would come from London and the south east.
Labour MP Diane Abbott accused him of "unscrupulous" behaviour, but Mr Murphy insisted his plan was "sensible".
Mr Murphy compared the plan to spend money levied on English homes on Scottish nurses with the way the oil wealth from the North Sea was shared around the UK.
"It's part of pooling and sharing your resources across these islands, it's pretty sensible," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme, and pointed out the property tax was Labour Party policy.
Labour has pledged to impose what it calls a "mansion tax" - a levy on homes worth more than Â£2m across the UK to fund the NHS - if leader Ed Miliband wins the general election.
In his first major policy announcement, Mr Murphy said he would use Scotland's share of the money, allocated under the Barnett formula, to pay for extra nursing staff, if Labour wins May's UK General Election and then the Scottish Labour Party wins the Holyrood election in 2016.
But Ms Abbott, the Labour MP for Hackney who hopes to run for London mayor, told the World at One she was very surprised that Mr Murphy was "making these boasts".
With phrases like "fiscally vindictive" and "highly unscrupulous" being hurled around, it's clear that a political row is playing out which is as bitter as it is old.
It is being contested on familiar turf: does the rest of the UK, and particularly wealthy London, subsidise Scotland?
The front pages of the London editions of The Times and The Daily Telegraph both concentrate on a "pledge" from the Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy, made as he kicked off his campaign for the general election.
"Mansion tax to fund nursing in Scotland" is The Times' headline. "Labour tax on 'wealthy English' to fund nurses in Scotland" is the Telegraph's take.
Believe it or not, those headlines will suit Mr Murphy. The new leader of the Scottish...

Summary: Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has rejected claims he is trying to "buy" Scottish votes with money "expropriated" from London.
###
Article: It estimates that Greek government debt will now reach a peak of close to 200% of GDP or national income over the next two years - which it regards as impossibly and unsustainably high.
It says that Greece's debt can now only be made bearable through "debt relief measures that go far beyond what Europe has been willing to consider so far".
And it makes three other savage criticisms of the reforms forced on Greece by the rest of the eurozone, and whose main elements are being rushed through the Athens parliament today.
It does not believe Greece will be able to achieve continuous budget surpluses of 3.5% of GDP or national income over several decades, as demanded by eurozone creditors.
It regards forecast rates of growth for Greece as unrealistically high.
And it believes that the governance of Greek banks is lamentable, at the heart of so many of Greece's economic woes, and not remotely being solved.
So why does this intervention by the IMF, in a statement issued tonight matter?
Well for two very big reasons.
First is that it will make it much harder for the government of Alexis Tsipras to persuade the Athens parliament to back painful austerity measures in votes today demanded by eurozone creditors as the sine qua non of keeping Greece in the eurozone.
But why on earth should Greek MPs vote for a painful economic reform package which the IMF - the supposed global arbiter of these things - does not believe will put the country back on the path to prosperity?
Second the eurozone creditors, and Germany in particular, forced Alexis Tsipras - against his strong preference - to accept IMF participation in the next formal bailout package to be negotiated if Greek MPs pass the initial reform measures tonight.
They told him, in effect, he would be turfed out of the eurozone and into national ruin unless he took more of the IMF's money and fiscal bossiness.
Which also look tragically comic tonight - with the IMF saying that if it's all the same to Mrs Merkel, it would rather not touch Greece with a barge pole.
Or to...

Summary: Just when it looked as though there could be a pause in the eurozone's Greek crisis, the International Monetary Fund has launched a blistering attack on the bailout deal forced on Athens by Germany and other eurozone governments.
###
Article: Female officers will be able to wear a headscarf under their caps or berets, provided it is plain and is the same colour as the uniform.
Headscarf bans on university campuses and state institutions - except for the judiciary, military and police - have also been lifted in recent years.
The garment has been controversial in Turkey for years. Secularists regard it as a symbol of religious conservatism.
Since the 1920s, Turkey has had a secular constitution with no state religion.
The opposition have accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) of trying to reinterpret secularism.
However, public debate has also evolved to accept the hijab as an expression of individual liberties, correspondents say.
No strong opposition has been voiced against this latest move.
President Erdogan has long embraced Turks' right to express their religious beliefs openly, but he says he is committed to secularism.
In 2010, the country's universities abandoned an official ban on Muslim headscarves.
Three years later, women were allowed to wear headscarves in state institutions - with the exception of the judiciary, military and police. That year, four MPs wore headscarves in parliament.
Most people in Turkey are Sunni Muslims.

Summary:


The UK government has announced a £1.5bn investment in the development of the UK's offshore oil and gas industry.
The investment will be used to develop the UK's offshore oil and gas industry, including the development of the UK's first offshore wind farm.
The investment will be made through the UK's

Early agreement has been reached on North Sea fishing quotas for next year, with an increase in key stocks for Scottish fishermen.

Article: William Hague set out some of the UK's ideas on reforming the EU at a policy conference outside Berlin.
He said a "crisis of legitimacy" is undermining EU institutions.
National parliaments can currently raise a "yellow card" to make the European Commission reconsider laws.
Mr Hague proposed extending this principle by creating a "red card" system
This would "give national parliaments the right to block legislation that need not be agreed at the European level", Mr Hague said.
As with the yellow card system, this proposal would require a minimum number of national parliaments to agree in order to take effect, so a single government would not be able to ignore directives it disagreed with.
Mats Persson, of the Open Europe think-tank, welcomed the move.
Mr Persson said: "Allowing national parliaments to block unwanted EU law would go a long way to bring back democratic accountability over EU decisions."
"However, whilst it's encouraging that the UK government is looking at this, it must press ahead with this reform now to avoid the impression that it has no immediate strategy in Europe - a charge that's becoming more frequent."
Mr Hague was addressing the Koenigswinter Conference, a think-tank which aims to improve British-German relations.
He called on Britain and Germany to co-operate to "build a more competitive, flexible, democratically accountable European Union."
Mr Hague argued some British people were concerned that they had little say about how the European Union affected their lives.
He said: "Too often, the British people feel that Europe is something that happens to them, not something they have enough of a say over. That the EU is happy speaking but does not seem interested in listening. That the EU is sometimes part of the problem, not the solution."
He added: "Trust in the institutions is at an all time low.  The EU is facing a crisis of legitimacy."
The foreign secretary claimed the solution to this crisis was to give national parliaments more power, because "they are the democratic levers...

Summary: The EU needs a "red card" system for national parliaments to block laws passed in Brussels if they think EU officials are going too far, the UK foreign secretary has said in a speech.
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Article: The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) was "not a safe, effective or responsive service", said the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The report said there were also concerns about a lack of beds and "urgent action" was needed.
The trust said it would improve services and put patients first.
The CQC report found:
The report recommends leadership "must be more visible and accessible to staff".
But the report also said: "Staff were kind, caring and responsive to people and were skilled in the delivery of care."
Dr Paul Lelliott, CQC's deputy chief Inspector of hospitals, said: "We found a number of serious problems when we inspected the services run by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.
"We were concerned about the safety and quality of care provided by some of the trust's services," he added.
"We were also struck by the low morale of many of the staff that we interviewed who told us that their voices were not heard by those managing the trust."
Trust chief executive Michael Scott said: "Our priority is to make sure we work with staff to improve the services we provide across Norfolk and Suffolk.
"We are under new management, the new team is bedding in, and there is no complacency on our part about the need to continue to deliver improvements.
"I would like to assure our patients, staff and our partners that this is a turning point for the trust and we will continue to do everything possible to address all of the recommendations the CQC has made."
A spokesman for the Campaign to Save Mental Health in Norfolk and Suffolk said: "The regulator confirms what our campaign has consistently said for more than a year."

Summary: The mental health trust for Norfolk and Suffolk is being recommended to be placed in special measures after being rated inadequate.
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Article: Total catches of cod, haddock and plaice have been increased, the Scottish government said.
Catches of saithe, whiting and herring will be decreased in line with long-term management plans.
Talks between the EU and Norway agreed the total allowable catch for cod would be 29,189 tonnes, 5% up on 2014.
The increase will give UK fishermen an additional 542 tonnes and Scottish fishermen around 343 tonnes.
A 6% increase in the haddock catch to 40,711 tonnes gives the UK an additional 3,468 tonnes and Scottish fishermen more than 2,500 extra tonnes.
Scottish Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead said: "I am pleased there has been an increase in the quota of these key stocks for next year which is in line with the recent scientific advice that the stocks are in good shape.
"It is welcome the agreement has been reached quickly this year compared to the protracted talks last year and will provide certainty for the industry about opportunities in 2015 and avoids any delays to the commencement of fishing in the new year.
"There is much to be done to prepare for the discard ban which starts to come into force for white fish from 2016. This outcome will help these stocks continue to rebuild next year while also helping to minimise discards, and should provide a sound launchpad for establishing the following year's quota under the ban.
"We now look ahead to the crucial December EU fisheries council when we will be highlighting again that our vessels need to retain the number of days they can go to sea as any cut would simply be counterproductive."
UK Fisheries Minister George Eustice said the agreements were an "excellent result for the UK".
He said: "It sees UK fishermen getting a 5% increase in their quota for cod - the second successive rise in annual cod quota in two years. The increase is an encouraging sign that we are achieving our goals; a thriving fishing industry with sustainable fish stocks.
"The deal also saw a 7% rise in North Sea haddock and 15% rise in plaice quotas. This is great news for our fisheries ahead...

Summary:


The cost of dying is more than 10% higher this time last year, according to a report.

Flooding across parts of the UK last winter was the most extreme on record, experts have said.

Article: The novel technique boosts the data about height changes that are gathered by radar instruments on satellites.
Known as swath altimetry, it permits researchers to see broader regions of the ice sheets in any one pass overhead, and at a much finer scale.
Areas of melting or accumulation can now be investigated with 100 times more information.
The new approach has so far been applied only to a small set of data acquired by the Cryosat spacecraft.
But the intention eventually is to go back and reprocess the entire six-year archive of observations made by this European Space Agency (Esa) mission.
Swath altimetry will totally change the way scientists are able to study some phenomena, says Dr Noel Gourmelen from Edinburgh University, UK.
"The temporal and spatial improvements mean that if we have a surge in a glacier, it now makes it much easier to look at where that event initiated. Did the whole glacier start moving at once? Or did the change start at the ocean, meaning the ocean was having an impact on the glacier? Or perhaps it was further back, meaning different processes were involved. Now, we're better able to trace the history and the causes of the surge," he told BBC News.
To be clear, swath altimetry changes nothing about how Cryosat operates - only in the way its data is processed.
The spacecraft already has a special radar designed to meet the peculiar challenges of observing ice sheets.
With its twin antennas, the instrument can work in an interferometric mode, detecting not just the distance to a spot below it on the ice but also the angle to that location.
Without this ability, it would struggle to map effectively the steep slopes and ridges found at the edges of the ice sheets - the very locations where recent melting and thinning have been most pronounced.
But even in this improved mode, standard data processing concentrates on the nearest radar echo return point and ignores much of the energy in the rest of the signal. Swath processing, on the other hand, unpacks it all, revealing a line of...

Summary: European scientists have found a way to super-charge their study of the ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.
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Article: The average cost of services including probate, headstones, flowers and the burial or cremation fee is now £8,427, according to insurer SunLife.
The average cost of a funeral has increased by 87% since the survey was first conducted in 2004.
SunLife described a 39% jump in estate administration fees as a "significant" factor in this year's increase.
The figures are set out in SunLife Direct's annual Cost of Dying report, which said that hiring a professional such as a solicitor now accounts for more than a third of expenditure associated with a person's death.
The report found that saving money was a key motivation for the increased number of people who choose to manage their loved ones' affairs without professional help.
Responding to the survey's findings, a Law Society spokesperson said that enlisting a solicitor "may save time and money in the future by ensuring things are done right the first time".
Another factor influencing how much people spent was the type of funeral, since cremation tends to be less expensive than burial.
The average burial cost is now £3,982, a rise of 2% since last year and 89% since the survey began in 2004.
Dr Kate Woodthorpe, a sociologist from the University of Bath and author of the SunLife report, said the costs of funerals were rising "on numerous fronts".
Funeral directors' fees reflect the costs of "staff salaries, the expense of running a business, but also the costs recovered by local authorities", she explained.
"Local authorities are trying to preserve land by removing subsidies for burial, and in the case of cremation trying to recover the costs of meeting mercury emissions targets," she said.
A spokesman for the Local Government Association responded that local government funding had been "slashed" over the past three years which meant "councils have been forced to examine all their services carefully".
"Where services have been subsidised by council tax payers previously, as has been the case with some cemeteries and crematoriums, councils have had no choice but to...

Summary: The "cost of dying" is more than 10% higher than it was this time last year, according to a report.
###
Article: Gales and heavy rain swept across large parts of the UK, causing devastating flooding in Cumbria and Lancashire, as well as parts of southern Scotland.
On the first anniversary of Storm Desmond, experts say November to January were the wettest three months since UK records began in 1910.
Review author Terry Marsh said flooding was "extensive and repetitive".
Storm Desmond began battering parts of the UK on 5 December, depositing a record month's worth of rain on Cumbria in just one day.
About 5,200 homes were flooded in Cumbria and Lancashire, while tens of thousands more lost power after an electricity sub-station in Lancaster was flooded.
The storm caused an estimated insurance bill of more than Â£1.3bn.
Major storms "Abigail", "Frank" and "Gertrude" also hit the UK last winter.
A study by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), in collaboration with the British Hydrological Society, found many rivers across northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland saw record peak flows during the three-month period.
It found the rivers Eden, Tyne and Lune in England saw record peaks of around 1,700 cubic metres per second. Experts say such levels could fill London's Royal Albert Hall in less than a minute.
Although last winter's floods were more extreme in scale, flooding in 1947 had a greater impact in terms of homes flooded and crops destroyed, the appraisal found.
However, lead author Terry Marsh from CEH said the national scale of last winter's floods were "the most extreme on record".
"The associated flooding was both extensive and repetitive, and total river outflows from Great Britain following the passage of Storm Desmond in December exceeded the previous maximum by a substantial margin," he said.

Summary:


The first time a fighter has been knocked out in a fight, it's usually because of a mistake.

Conor McGregor says he is back on the card for UFC 200, but event organisers claim no new talks have taken place.

Article: The probe passed within 500km of the pockmarked surface on Monday - its fifth such encounter in the spacecraft's 11-year tour of the ringed planet.
Cassini is now engaged in a series of observational "lasts".
And in 2017 it will put itself on a destructive dive into Saturn's atmosphere.
"I am moved, as I know everyone else is, looking at these exquisite images of Dione's surface and crescent, and knowing that they are the last we will see of this far-off world for a very long time to come," said Carolyn Porco, who leads the imaging team on the mission.
"Right down to the last, Cassini has faithfully delivered another extraordinary set of riches. How lucky we have been."
The closest ever approach to Dione was in 2011, when the US, European and Italian space agency mission swept just 100km above the moon.
Dione has a diameter of 1,122km, making it the fourth largest of Saturn's 62 moons. It has an icy exterior and a rocky interior.
Cassini has detected a wispy oxygen atmosphere at the world, and has also seen signs that it may still be active, with what appear to be regions on its surface that have been altered by internal processes.
Next year, Cassini will begin a series of manoeuvres to put itself in orbits that take it high above, and through, Saturn's rings.
Then, in 2017, once the probe's fuel has all but run out, ground controllers will command the spacecraft to plunge into the planet's atmosphere, where it will be destroyed.
As Cassini hurtles towards Saturn, it will become incredibly hot, will melt and ultimately will be crushed by huge pressures.
The mission is being disposed of in this way to be sure there is no possibility that debris from Cassini can one day land on Enceladus and Titan. These moons have been talked of as candidates for extraterrestrial life, and scientists would not want them contaminated by any Earth microbes that might still be on the probe - however unlikely that might be.
The coming months will see Cassini make final, farewell passes of a number of moons.
Referring to Monday's...

Summary: The Cassini mission to Saturn has returned its final close-up images of the gas giant's Dione moon.
###
Article: But one system invented some 200 years ago lives on.
In the mountains of western Switzerland, one company still makes automatic music boxes for enthusiasts around the world.
Reuge is considered the last major manufacturer of a traditional device that once rivalled watches as one of Switzerland's greatest exports.
Founded in 1865 by watchmaker Charles Reuge, the company has survived the advent of the phonograph - as well as more recent inventions - to continue making music boxes in a small factory in Sainte-Croix.
The village once specialised in the industry and had dozens of cylinder music box manufacturers, but they have all but disappeared.
"It's a musical medium out of its time," says Jean-Claude Piguet, author of the book The Music Box Makers, The History of the Music Box in Sainte-Croix.
"I think it's interesting that an ancient art is capable of adapting and renewing itself to suit modern tendencies."
The Reuge factory in Sainte-Croix, which is the subject of a new short documentary by UK film-maker Florence Kennard, has been celebrating its 150th anniversary.
Inside, a team of fewer than 40 workers use specially-made machinery to produce rotating barrels with pins that will pluck finely-tuned steel combs to play melodies.
It is a skill that is not taught at college but instead passed down through the generations in Sainte-Croix.
Powered by springs, some music boxes can have tens of thousands of pins and play a variety of 'airs' - from Mozart to the Star Wars theme.
Hearing the comb play its first notes can be "spectacular", says music box maker Didier Cote, "because each and every musical box comb is unique".
Cylinder music boxes reached the height of their popularity in the second half of the 19th Century when they were a principal form of entertainment.
More common nowadays are the novelty musical jewellery boxes, perhaps with a pirouetting ballerina inside, given to children.
But enthusiasm for the traditionally crafted machine endures.
"Music boxes are somehow quite captivating," says Alison Biden,...

Summary: Devices for playing music come and go - cassette tapes, MP3 players and CDs have all had their time as digital downloads take over.
###
Article: The 27-year-old had been set for a rematch with Nate Diaz, who beat him in their welterweight fight in March, at the Las Vegas event in July.
After a dispute over promotional duties, UFC president Dana White said organisers were looking for a replacement for the Irishman.
But McGregor said on Sunday: "Happy to announce that I am back on UFC 200."
Writing on social media, he added: "Shout out to Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta on getting this one done for the fans. Respect."
But US media, including the Los Angeles Times, quoted White as saying: "We haven't talked to Conor or his manager since the press conference. I don't know why he would tweet that."
And McGregor's manager John Kavanagh later added: "I'm 51% optimistic and 49% pessimistic, if you want to know my feelings on it."
McGregor started speculation he was quitting last week when he tweeted: "I have decided to retire young. Thanks for the cheese."
But in a statement two days later, he said: "I am not retired."
White claimed McGregor was withdrawn from the card for refusing to fly to Las Vegas for a news conference and promotional photographs.
In his statement, the fighter claimed he was being asked to do too much promotional work by the UFC and was not able to concentrate on his training.

Summary:


The council has warned that hackers could exploit a "vulnerability" in its operating system to gain user rights to the affected computers.

Parliamentary candidates for Newcastle-under-Lyme all called for a "joined-up policy" on health and social care in north Staffordshire at a public debate.

Article: It said attackers could exploit this by requesting users to preview or open a specially crafted email or web content.
Microsoft said it was "aware of targeted attacks" and was investigating.
The issue affects Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Office 2003 - 2010, and Microsoft Lync.
Recent versions of Microsoft Windows and Office are not affected by the issue - which centres on a graphics component. Details of which products are at risk are listed on the firm's site.
Microsoft said it would take appropriate action to address the issue, which "may include providing a security update through our monthly release process or providing an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs".
In the meantime, it has advised customers to apply workarounds - a setting or configuration change that "does not correct the underlying issue but would help block known attack vectors before a security update is available".
According to Microsoft, the flaw lies in the handling of the Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) image files by a graphics processing component in the affected software versions.
In a blog post on the Microsoft Security Response Centre, Dustin Childs a communications manager, said any move by hackers "requires user interaction".
He said that the attacks are disguised as an email requesting potential targets to open a specially crafted Word attachment.
If the attachment is opened or previewed, it attempts to exploit the issue using a malformed graphics image embedded in the document.
"An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the logged on user," Mr Childs said.
Microsoft added that hackers could also exploit the issue via a web-based attack.
"An attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit this vulnerability and then convince a user to view the website," it said.
However, it added that an attacker would have "no way to force users to view the attacker-controlled content".
"Instead, an attacker would have...

Summary: Microsoft has warned that hackers could exploit a "vulnerability" in its operating system to gain user rights to the affected computers.
###
Article: The council started to provide portable urinals two years ago following complaints by local businesses.
The move was welcomed by many traders in Wind Street, which is popular with drinkers, but the problem has not gone away.
From Friday, police will start handing out fixed penalty notices.
"Urinating in public is a major irritation to authorities and businesses who are left to clean up their own doorways and streets after people under the influence of alcohol feel it is acceptable to treat the city centre like a toilet," Ch Insp Dean Thomas said.
"It is certainly not acceptable and I am pleased the police are able to work with the council in enforcing fixed penalty notices against those caught in the act."
The pilot operation between the council and police is aimed at ensuring the public knows urinating in the street will not be tolerated.
The council deploys portable urinals every weekend in the city centre at known problem areas and says they are well used.
But not everyone chooses to use them, prompting the latest move follow a warning two years ago that  anyone caught would be fined or arrested.
Bruno Nunes, owner of Peppermint bar and Bambu Beach bar, welcomed the action.
"The impact of this action will be felt not only by those hit in the pocket, but the many others who will hear about the tough stance being taken," he said.
Council cabinet member June Burtonshaw said: "Public urination is a contentious issue that has been troubling authorities, organisations and businesses working together to create a cleaner, healthier and safer city centre.
"We've tried the soft approach, which has had some effect, but now it is time to get tough. Urinating in shop doorways, alleys, lanes or bushes is not acceptable.
"There are toilets provided in every night-time venue, as well as the additional portable urinals on the streets. If people still can't control their bladders, they could find themselves with a hefty fine."
Similar toilets are used in other UK cities including Manchester, Bristol, Cambridge and...

Summary: Revellers will receive £75 fines if they are caught urinating in streets and doorways instead of using open-air urinals in Swansea city centre.
###
Article: The candidates were responding to a question about proposed changes to health care in Staffordshire at a debate run by BBC Radio Stoke.
They were asked about a consultation by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) which buy health services in the area.
The consultation is looking at reducing bed-blocking and improving efficiency.
Ian Wilkes, for the Liberal Democrats, told the debate, at St George's Centre in Newcastle, health care and care in the home were not "joined-up".
"When you come out of hospital there should be care ready and waiting," he said.
Phil Wood for UKIP, said at the moment too many people in the NHS were "trying to protect their own budgets and let someone else have the problem".
He said his party would put £3bn a year in to stop "[its] creeping privatisation".
Replying, Sam Gibbons, the Green Party's candidate, claimed UKIP leader Nigel Farage had said he would like a private-style health care system.
Mr Gibbons said cuts had meant managers at hospitals, including his mother who was a nurse and ward manager, still provided clinical care alongside "heavy workloads".
Labour's Paul Farrelly said the first question should be "what does the individual need?" and not "whose budget is it coming from?".
Questioned on Labour's objection to plans for the tendering of NHS cancer and end-of-life contracts across Staffordshire, he claimed the area was being used as "a guinea pig for further creeping privatisation".
Tony Cox, parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party, said his party recognised "there needs to be better integration" between health and social care but the move had been hampered by "some reluctance" from councils and some NHS departments.
"But locally this year Staffordshire County Council have this year invested another £20m into social care which is where we've realised the pressures are actually happening," he said.
David Nixon is standing as an independent a parliamentary candidate for Newcastle-under-Lyme.
The candidates for this constituency are
Conservative, Tony Cox
Labour,...

Summary:


The government has announced a £1.5bn investment in the National Health Service (NHS) to help it meet the cost of the new £1.5bn-a-year National Living Wage.
The government said the investment would help it meet the cost of the new £1.5bn-a

Nationwide has reported a sharp fall in mortgage lending, mainly due to making fewer buy-to-let loans.

Article: Ujjal Singh, 63, who was visiting from Ipswich, died from a knife wound to the neck after he was found in Lidiard Street, Crumpsall, on 1 December.
He had argued with Naunihal Singh, 54, who was visiting from India, about their respective son and daughter's ability to conceive, police said.
At Manchester Crown Court Naunihal Singh was jailed for 21 years.
He was told he must serve at least 17 years.
Police said on 30 November the pair had a "heated discussion, which was fuelled by alcohol" and Ujjal Singh accused Naunihal Singh's son of "firing blanks".
During a series of arguments, Naunihal's son punched a glass photo frame, injuring his hand.
Ujjal Singh was put to bed while the remaining family members, with the exception of Naunihal Singh, went to hospital to get the hand treated.
While Ujjal Singh was sleeping, Naunihal Singh went into his room and stabbed him in the neck.
Police said he then fled, leaving the family to discover the "horrific scene" when they returned.
He handed himself into police two days later.
Senior investigating officer Bob Tonge, said it was a "heinous crime" that "ended in absolute tragedy".
"The one saving grace is that he has not subjected them to further torment by making them endure a trial and has faced up to his crime and subsequent, inevitable punishment."

Summary: A man has been jailed for life after pleading guilty to stabbing his son's father-in-law to death as he slept.
###
Article: The free-flow Dart Charge replaced toll booths on the Kent side a year ago.
Figures showed that out of nearly 42 million chargeable journeys, UK drivers had about 1.5 million penalty notices and foreign drivers more than 340,000.
The AA said the system still had faults, but Highways England said there was still more work to do.
Edmund King, from the AA motoring organisation, said: "We still think it could be even better if they scrap the tolls altogether.
"You get some other drivers who hesitate around the crossing because they're a little unsure about how they pay, when they should pay, what hours apply, and even the signs aren't clear."
The Freedom of Information request submitted by the BBC showed that 41,367,973 chargeable journeys were recorded, 1,519,162 penalty charge notices were issued to UK drivers and 340,861 to overseas drivers.
Under the Dart Charge, the penalty fine is Â£70, which is reduced to Â£35 if paid within 14 days, but increased to Â£105 if a driver does not pay.
Dart Charge project director Nigel Gray said the scheme had successfully sped up journeys, with peak-time return trips now 15 minutes shorter, and hundreds of thousands of drivers had also benefitted from discounts of up to a third.
He said more work had to be done on improving traffic flow on the Kent side, but the Dart Charge was a medium-term solution to congestion at Dartford, while the long-term answer was a third Lower Thames Crossing.
He said: "Figures show that the vast majority of people are paying their Dart Charge on time and non-payment is being followed up appropriately.
"The first penalty issued for any vehicle includes an offer to pay any outstanding crossing charges within 14 days and have the penalty or penalties cancelled. This approach has been very successful and we have no plans to end it."

Summary: More than 1.8 million penalty charge notices have been issued to drivers failing to pay the new cashless payment system on the Dartford crossing.
###
Article: Net mortgage lending fell to £2.4bn in the April-to-June quarter, down from £3.5bn a year earlier.
The building society also said more people opened a current account with it during the three-month period than with any other provider.
Nationwide's profits for the quarter fell 20% to £322m, after last year's results were helped by a one-off gain.
A year earlier, the building society had received a £100m boost to its profits from the sale of its investment in Visa Europe.
Announcing the latest results, chief executive Joe Garner said "Profit performance in the first quarter remained comfortably within our strategic target range and, after allowing for one-off items, was broadly consistent with the prior period."
Nationwide had a 13% share of the mortgage market in the quarter, down from 15% in the same time last year.
A spokesman for the building society said it expected its buy-to-let lending to remain "broadly flat".
Nationwide had "raised the bar for landlord's affordability before most other lenders with the aim of helping ensure our borrowers can meet future repayments", he added.
"This, together with a softening of lending due to Stamp Duty and tax changes, led to a decline in buy-to-let."
In the first quarter Nationwide opened 202,000 new current accounts, a rise of 17% on the same time last year.
The company also said that more than a fifth (22.4%) of all people switching current accounts had moved to Nationwide.

Summary:


The government has announced a new plan to tackle childhood obesity.
The new plan will see a £1.5 billion investment in schools, a £1.5 billion investment in the NHS and a £1.5 billion investment in the local authority.
The government has also announced a £1.5 billion investment

A celebrity who wants an injunction to keep an extra-marital relationship out of the media will put his case at the Supreme Court on Thursday.

Article: The front-runner is a former state governor and Dalit (formerly untouchable) leader, Ram Nath Kovind.
He is being challenged by opposition candidate and India's first woman speaker Meira Kumar who is also a Dalit.
Indian presidents are not elected directly by the people but by an electoral college made up of members of parliament and state assemblies.
The results of the poll are expected to be announced on 20 July.
The winner will replace Pranab Mukherjee, a political veteran of the main opposition Congress party, who has held the post from 2012.
Polling began in parliament in the capital, Delhi, and state capitals, at 1000 (04:30GMT). Voting is expected to end at 1700 hours.
A total of 4,896 lawmakers - parliamentarians and legislators - are expected to vote in Monday's election.
Mr Kovind, 71, a trained lawyer, has been a two-time BJP MP and governor of the Bihar state. If elected he will be India's second Dalit president.
Congress veteran Meira Kumar, 72, a former lawyer and diplomat, is also from the Dalit community. She has been elected to parliament five times and holds a seat in the state of Bihar.
She is the daughter of the late Babu Jagjivan Ram, a prominent Dalit leader and former deputy prime minister of India.
The Indian president's position is largely ceremonial, but presidents do play decisive roles in in determining who forms the government when national elections do not produce clear results.

Summary: Voting is being held in India to elect a new president.
###
Article: Ahead of their child obesity strategy, ministers asked Public Health England to review the evidence on how to reduce sugar consumption.
But PHE has come under criticism for not releasing the findings of its report.
And the body has now confirmed a sugar tax is one of its recommendations.
The acknowledgement came after PHE director of diet and obesity Dr Alison Tedstone appeared before MPs on Tuesday saying the organisation "does see a role for a fiscal approach" and the higher the tax increase "the greater the effect".
Afterwards, sources at PHE confirmed the report specifically called for him to consider a sugar tax, adding this was not the most important of its recommendations.
In her evidence to the Health Select Committee Dr Tedstone said action was also needed on promotions and advertising, citing:
The food industry must also be pressured to cut the amount of sugar in its products in the same way it had done with salt, Dr Tedstone said.
But she added: "PHE does see there is a role for a fiscal approach in reducing sugary drink consumption.
"The higher the tax increase the greater the effect," she said, pointing out that in Mexico a fizzy drinks tax had led to a 6% fall in consumption, with the biggest impact on the poorest people.
"The point of the tax is to nudge people away from purchasing these things towards purchasing things that are more consistent with a healthy balanced diet," she said.
However, Dr Tedstone also said that her review had concluded tax was only the fourth most effective way to fight obesity.
"We think there could be bigger impacts from getting a handle on promotions, and of getting a handle on the deep, consistent advertising our children are exposed to on unhealthy foods," she said.
About 40% of food sold in England was discounted and these deals were "heavily weighted" towards sweet and fatty products, Dr Tedstone's research found.
She said these promotions did not cut costs for consumers but simply "lead to us buying more food".
She added: "PHE are advising that promotions need...

Summary: Public health chiefs have advised the health secretary to introduce a sugar tax as part of a range of measures to tackle child obesity.
###
Article: He is appealing against an appeal court ruling lifting a ban on him being named in the media in England and Wales.
The Supreme Court said it will now hear arguments about whether it should grant an appeal, and if so, decide if it should be "allowed or dismissed".
An interim injunction will remain in place until the end of the hearing.
On Monday, Court of Appeal judges gave the man - who has young children, and whose spouse is also in the public eye - until 10:00 BST on Tuesday to apply to take the case to the UK Supreme Court.
In that ruling, they said there must be no publication leading to disclosure of the celebrity's identity before 13:00 BST on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court said that interim injunction will now remain in place until the conclusion of the next hearing.
The Sun on Sunday wants to publish an account of alleged extra-marital activities by the man, who is referred to as PJS.
But he argues he has a right to privacy and has taken legal action.
Monday's court judgement said the celebrity had "occasional sexual encounters" with another person - referred to in court as AB - starting in 2009.
They had a text message exchange in December 2011 in which they discussed a "three-way" with AB's partner, CD.
Accordingly, the three met for a three-way sexual encounter.
In January, the two other parties approached the Sun On Sunday with the story.
That month a High Court judge refused to impose an injunction barring publication.
But the man appealed and two appeal court judges ruled in his favour. They prevented him being identified in publications in England and Wales.
Lawyers for News Group Newspapers - publishers of the Sun On Sunday - then asked Court of Appeal judges to lift the ban.
They argued that stories had been published in the US, Scotland and elsewhere where the injunction does not apply. The story had also spread across the internet and on Twitter.
PJS opposed that application and said the ban should stay.
On Monday, the judges ruled that PJS was now unlikely to be able to get a permanent...

Summary:


The government has announced a new minimum wage of £6.50 an hour.

Three has announced that it has abolished international roaming charges in seven countries.

Article: Duesseldorf, Muenster, Essen and Mainz are among the major centres to have cancelled events on Rose Monday.
However, Cologne is going ahead with its parade, with some restrictions.
The city stepped up policing for its first major public event since New Year, when many women were victims of sexual assaults and mugging.
More than one million people were expected to attend events in Cologne for carnival week, which began last Thursday.
Ahead of the carnival, organizers printed leaflets in Arabic and other languages explaining the event and stressing there would be zero tolerance by police over sexual assaults, the Deutsche Welle website reported.
Many of the assaults on New Year's Eve were blamed on migrants, especially from North Africa.
Other cities reported to have called off their Rose Monday parades because of the weather include Krefeld and Hagen.
German weather forecasters said a low-pressure system was expected to bring gales on Monday, with winds gusting at up to 100 km/h (60 mph) in places. Thunderstorms and heavy showers could also be expected.
Duesseldorf's carnival committee leader Michael Laumen told ARD TV that the gale warnings made it "simply too dangerous" to go ahead with the parade.

Summary: Traditional carnival parades have been called off in a number of west German cities and towns because of warnings of storms on Monday.
###
Article: The new rates will be implemented in October and will benefit a million workers.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said he had accepted a recommendation from the Low Pay Commission that the minimum wage should increase by 3%.
It is the first time in six years that the rise will be higher than inflation.
The rate for 18 to 20-year-olds will go up by 10p to £5.13 an hour, a 2% increase.
The rate for those aged 16 and 17 will rise by 7p to £3.79, also a 2% rise.
Apprentices will earn an extra 5p an hour, taking their wages to at least £2.73.
The consumer prices index (CPI) rate of inflation is currently 1.9%.
"The recommendations I have accepted today mean that low-paid workers will enjoy the biggest cash increase in their take-home pay since 2008," said Mr Cable.
He also suggested that all companies should consider helping their staff to share in the fruits of an improving economy.
"I urge businesses to consider how all their staff - not just those on the minimum wage - can enjoy the benefits of recovery," he said.
Meanwhile, the man who set up the minimum wage 15 years ago, said it is in need of major reform.
Professor Sir George Bain, founding chair of the Low Pay Commission, said the benchmark was a "child of its times" when launched in 1999.
But speaking to BBC Newsnight on Wednesday, he said it had become a "blunt instrument" and that many employers could now afford to pay their workers much more.
"If you set it at the 'living wage', which is about £7.65 an hour, you would cause massive unemployment in areas like retail and social care," Sir George added.
"But there's only about five sectors where this is true. There's a whole range of sectors where you could easily afford to pay more than the minimum wage."
Sir George, who has chaired a review of the minimum wage for think-tank the Resolution Foundation, also said there should be a "special case for London to have a higher national minimum".
His report also recommends that the Low Pay Commission give longer-term forecasts for the benchmark, to help employers...

Summary: The national minimum wage will increase by 19p an hour to £6.50, the government has announced.
###
Article: The service is available to Three customers travelling to the Republic of Ireland, Australia, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, Sweden and Denmark.
European authorities have been clamping down on roaming charges.
But Three is the first network to abolish them altogether, albeit in selected countries, where it has sister networks.
Three says customers on a pay monthly contract would be able to use their allowances of free minutes, texts and data with no extra charges for being abroad.
However, those on unlimited plans will be subject to some restrictions.
In a press release, Thomas Malleschitz, marketing director at Three, said: "By abolishing expensive roaming charges in select countries, we are allowing our customers to get even more value from their minutes, texts and data abroad by removing the fear associated with staying in touch while travelling."
Analysts say that other operators of mobile phone networks are likely to follow Three's lead, particularly those who already have a presence in other countries.
Matthew Howett, a senior analyst at consultancy firm Ovum, says the deal from Three is also interesting because it applies to nations outside the European Union, where there has been pressure from authorities to lower roaming charges.
"Reducing roaming charges outside of that bloc will welcomed by many, since prices have remained stubbornly high in some countries," he said.

Summary:


The Japanese government has announced plans to scrap the use of the old-fashioned "toss" in the national team's first two matches of the World Cup.
The move, which is expected to be announced in the coming days, will be made in the first two matches of the tournament, which will be played in

Ten retired senior military officers have written to the prime minister to voice their concerns over the loss of the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.

Article: The England and Wales Cricket Board is considering the proposals, which are designed to encourage counties to produce a better standard of pitches.
"I'm all for playing on wickets where there's no advantage to batting or bowling first," said Morgan.
"It poses challenges for the batters, more so towards the end of the game."
Morgan, whose side are preparing for a three-match Twenty20 series against Pakistan, also believes the proposals - which are likely to be trialled in Division Two of the domestic four-day game - would encourage spin bowlers.
"If it's to improve the standard of wickets that we play on, and potentially produce a couple of wickets where spin might be conducive to that particular ground, I think absolutely," Morgan, 29, told BBC Test Match Special.
"The benefit in county cricket might not be at the very beginning, but potentially for younger guys coming through - they'll develop different skills which will in turn give them a greater base, if they do get picked for England, to play around the world and do it successfully."
England's Twenty20 side are beginning to focus on the World T20, which is being held in India in March, and play the first of three matches against Pakistan on Thursday.
They have only played twice in this format in 2015, but have beaten India, New Zealand and Australia in their last three matches.
They have a good record against Pakistan, winning seven of their 10 meetings against the 2009 world champions, and enter the contest having won the the one-day international series which preceded it 3-1.
"The formula we play with in ODI cricket, and the aggression we play with, actually complements our T20 team," said Morgan.
"There's not a great deal of change in personnel for this series which is encouraging because the cricket we have been playing in the ODIs will hopefully rub off on the T20 side. I like to think the skills are transferrable, especially with the bat.
"It's a learning curve for us and if we can start the series well, our learning will increase rather than if we...

Summary: England limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan believes plans to scrap the toss in some County Championship games next season will benefit the national team.
###
Article: The revered 82-year-old emperor's comments came in only his second-ever televised address to the public.
Emperor Akihito did not explicitly say he wanted to abdicate as he is barred from making political statements.
PM Shinzo Abe said the government would take the remarks "seriously" and discuss what could be done.
"Upon reflecting how he handles his official duty and so on, his age and the current situation of how he works, I do respect the heavy responsibility the emperor must be feeling and I believe we need to think hard about what we can do," he said.
Akihito, who has had heart surgery and was treated for prostate cancer, has been on the throne in Japan since the death of his father, Hirohito, in 1989.
In his 10-minute pre-recorded message, he said he had "started to reflect" on his years as as emperor, and contemplate his position in the years to come.
Why can't the emperor abdicate? Abdication is not mentioned under Japan's existing laws, so they would need to be changed for the emperor to be able to stand down. The changes would also have to be approved by parliament.
What do the public think? Most support the emperor's desire to step down - a recent survey by the Kyodo news agency found more than 85% saying abdication should be legalised. But the move is opposed by some more conservative sections of Japanese society.
Is this the first time a revision of the law has been discussed? A debate about whether or not a woman would be able to ascend the throne was triggered in 2006 when the emperor had no grandsons, but was postponed after a boy was born to the imperial family.
What does the emperor do? The emperor has no political powers but has several official duties, such as greeting foreign dignitaries. Japan's monarchy is entwined in the Shinto religion and the emperor still performs religious ceremonies. He also plants and harvests a small rice paddy inside the palace while the empress raises silkworms.
If he were to abdicate, it would be the first time a Japanese emperor has stepped down since...

Summary: Japan's Emperor Akihito has strongly indicated he wants to step down, saying he fears his age will make it difficult to fulfil his duties.
###
Article: A former field marshal, three generals and six admirals say the loss of Ark Royal and its fleet of Harrier jets has damaged Britain's defence capabilities.
They say Britain can no longer mount amphibious operations without putting troops' lives at "considerable risk".
Defence Secretary Liam Fox has defended the "difficult decisions".
The BBC's defence correspondent, Jonathan Beale, said the letter, which was leaked to the Daily Telegraph, raises questions about what military rescue operation forces could mount in the future.
In December, Dr Fox announced that the frigate sent to evacuate British nationals from Libya - HMS Cumberland - is to be decommissioned in April, following the strategic defence and security review (SDSR).
Our correspondent says this is not the first time former military top brass have warned that recent cuts in the armed forces have left Britain dangerously exposed.
Labour has already called for the defence review to be reopened in light of events in Egypt, Bahrain and Libya.
The letter - written before the current evacuation operation in Libya - is signed by, among others, Field Marshal Lord Bramall, a former chief of the defence staff; Maj Gen Julian Thompson and Adm Sir Jeremy Black, who commanded the carrier Invincible during the Falklands conflict.
Dr Fox insists Britain still has the "right military assets" in place to respond to crises.
But this group of former military commanders is calling on the prime minister to reassess the decisions made in the defence review.
They have called for a re-evaluation of the SDSR, which they say is "unduly trusting in an uncertain, fast-moving and dangerous world".
However Dr Fox defended the steps taken to tackle the Â£38bn deficit left by Labour and said the review would not be reopened.
"For our future carrier strike capability, it makes strategic sense to move towards greater inter-operability with the US and France and installing catapult and arrestor gear will deliver this.
"Sustaining both Tornado and Harrier would be prohibitively...

Summary:


A man has been jailed for three years for the murder of a woman who was found dead in a garden in the village of Ballymena.
The victim, who was found dead in her garden, was found by her husband, who was out on a job.
The victim's body was found in a

A woman thought her husband had "lost the plot" when he woke her up to tell her there was a raccoon on their roof.

Article: He added that "the buck must stop" with LTA chief executive Michael Downey, who he says has done "a poor job".
Following Great Britain's Davis Cup victory, Andy Murray said that speaking to the LTA about the future of British tennis is a waste of his time.
"The LTA do not run the game very well. They haven't for many, many, many years," Lloyd told BBC World Service.
"They have poor management, poor systems."
The former Davis Cup captain and successful businessman said the LTA had invested millions "but not in the right places".
LTA boss Downey said in a statement on Tuesday: "We value the opinions of all of our players on how we grow the game in Britain and our door is always open to Andy, Dan [Evans], Dom [Inglot], James [Ward], Jamie [Murray] and Kyle [Edmund] to hear their views and work collaboratively with them and all of our partners."
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Murray criticised British tennis' governing body after inspiring his country's first Davis Cup win in 79 years against Belgium in Ghent over the weekend.
The 28-year-old said he "did not know where the next generation are" and that on a visit to the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in October he found "not one person using any of the indoor courts and not one person in the gym".
Lloyd, 67, who accused Murray of not putting enough back into the British game before the Davis Cup final, said it is "fantastic" that the Scot spoke out as he has "enormous power in controlling the way the game should be run".
"Someone must take the blame," Lloyd added. "Bob Brett was hired [as director of player development] and then left within a year, not because he wasn't good but he was in the wrong job. They hired him for a job that he can't do.
"You've got to put people in the right positions if you're running a company. The buck has to stop at the chief executive's door. He has done a poor job."
Lloyd, who says he twice applied for the LTA chief executive job but was turned down on both occasions, believes the governing body squanders the annual...

Summary: British tennis is "a mess" and the Lawn Tennis Association must make changes, says former player David Lloyd.
###
Article: Mairead McCallion was taken into police custody and her partner was arrested in 2014 after he allegedly attacked her.
She was rushed to hospital hours later after being sick in the back of a police car, and died the next day.
A Police Ombudsman's report says the officers failed in their duty of care.
It says they did not alert a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) doctor who examined her that Ms McCallion, from Omagh in County Tyrone, had claimed to have suffered a head injury.
This was in spite of the fact police officers are taught to immediately seek medical attention when dealing with a possible head injury.
The family of 36-year-old Ms McCallion said they believe she might still be alive if the doctor had been alerted and she had been taken to hospital immediately.
"She told the police officers her partner had pulled her hair, banged her head against the wall and threw her into the garden," her sister Patricia O'Brien said.
"She had clumps of hair visibly hanging off her shoulders - that should have been taken very seriously.
"Had that have been taken seriously, Mairead should have been given urgent medical attention.
"That did not happen."
Ms McCallion had previously suffered domestic abuse, and had been drinking on the day she told officers she had been assaulted in February 2014.
The Police Ombudsman's report says that made it even more important that a PSNI doctor who examined her at Omagh police station was told about her head injury claims.
As part of their training, police officers are told that alcohol consumption can mask symptoms of a head injury such as slurred speech.
The officers who spoke to Ms McCallion when she claimed to have been assaulted told the ombudsman's investigators that they assumed she would make the doctor aware of her head injury.
The ombudsman says that was wrong, and they had a duty to inform the doctor and other colleagues.
"It was inappropriate that the officers put the onus on Mairead to pass on the details of her injuries in an unfamiliar setting to an unfamiliar...

Summary: Two police officers have been disciplined for not seeking medical attention for a woman who died after telling them her head had been hit against a wall during an assault.
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Article: The runaway critter was spotted on top of the house in Cambridgeshire.
Fenland Animal Rescue was called in, but it was "a bit of a wrestle as he was not the friendliest of raccoons", said the charity's Josh Flanagan.
"That said, I've never met one before, and we don't train in raccoon rescue techniques," he added. They are hoping to locate the animal's owner.
Click here for more news from Cambridgeshire
"Raccoons aren't native to this country, so he must have escaped from somewhere," Mr Flanagan said.
"You can imagine their surprise when the householders saw one on their roof.
"The woman thought her husband had lost the plot, but when she looked out, there it was, staring back at her through the window."
With the animal jumping from the house to a garden shed roof, it was a short game of "cat and mouse" as Mr Flanagan tried to catch him.
"At one point I was sat on the rooftop with him, and we were both eating bananas. I don't think I'll ever experience anything like that again, but it's why I do this job," he said.
Eventually the animal was brought down safely, using a control pole.
A few days after its ordeal, the racoon is settling in - but "causing havoc" - at the rescue centre's Whittlesey base.
"He's a devilish boy, a bit vicious," Mr Flanagan said. "They look all cute and adorable, but they're not."
If no one comes forward to claim him, he will be moved to a specialist rescue centre "where he can live his life in a safe and secure environment with other raccoons to call friends".

Summary:


The government has announced it will be introducing a new tax on the sale of alcohol.
The new tax will be introduced in the autumn, with a maximum levy of £1,000.
The government has also announced it will be introducing a new tax on the sale of tobacco.
The new tax will be introduced

Leicester Cathedral has defended its decision to stage Shakespeare's Richard III a few feet from the monarch's final resting place.

Article: Regulators say the reforms will end the phenomenon of "too big to fail" banks.
The proposals, set out by global financial regulators are designed to avoid the need for taxpayers to bail out the banks in a future crisis.
Instead investors will be required to accept a loss on their investments.
Leaders of the G20 group of nations will be asked to endorse the reforms.
Under the proposals drawn up by the Financial Stability Board (FSB), chaired by UK Bank of England governor Mark Carney, banks will be required to issue "buffer bonds" by 2019 equivalent to 16% of the risk-weighted assets they hold, rising to 18% in 2022. Such assets can include government debt and cash.
In the event of a financial crisis the value of those bonds could be written down and used to raise funds for the bank.
As a result investors in those bonds would bear the burden of keeping the bank solvent by taking a "haircut" or loss on their investments.
The reform means investors will be the first to take a financial loss before taxpayers are asked to bail out the bank in question.
The "buffer bonds" are the last major reform to be announced by the FSB since the G20 tasked it with introducing changes to the regulate the banking industry in 2009.
The FSB has since increased bank capital requirements and imposed restrictions on bankers' bonuses.
Mr Carney said many key reforms have already been implemented.
"As a consequence, the financing capacity to the real economy is being rebuilt and significant retrenchment from international activity has been avoided," Mr Carney said in a letter to G20 leaders ahead of their summit next week.
The FSB believes the reforms will allow a big bank to fail without creating the level of panic in financial markets after Lehman Brothers went under in 2008.
The "buffer bonds", known as Total Loss-Absorbing Capacity or TLAC, are on top of the minimum core capital requirements a bank must already hold.
The FSB is also assessing the risks to financial stability from the activities of big asset managers and said it...

Summary: The world's top 30 banks will be required to issue "buffer bonds" as the final part of reforms designed to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.
###
Article: Malcolm Beer made his comments ahead of a Windsor council aviation forum later.
He said a third runway north-west of the airport could create the need to use greenbelt land for housing.
A Heathrow spokesman said: "There will be little or no need for additional house-building over and above current local authority plans."
The housing concern comes after a recent report by the Airport Commission, which stated the Heathrow expansion would create between 47,400 and 112,400 jobs by 2030, which in turn would require an extra 29,800 to 70,800 homes to be created in the surrounding area, including Windsor, Slough and London boroughs.
Mr Beer said "anxious" Windsor residents associations would be organising a public meeting in the next 10 days ahead of the commission's public consultation deadline on 3 February.
Mr Beer, who is on the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Borough aviation forum committee, said: "We have an enormous housing problem in the area.
"We are having a real problem considering if we have to release greenbelt land for housing, which is an unpopular suggestion.
"Apart from the noise, the whole area will be urbanised - that's what a lot of people don't realise.
"The impact will be felt across the Thames Valley - it's commercial greed gone mad."
The borough council forum will present its own residents' poll plans after a Heathrow report stated most residents were in favour of expansion.
The Heathrow spokesman said the expansion plans would benefit 700,000 existing residents in the area "who are unemployed, under-employed or are commuting out of the area at present".
The aviation forum takes place at 19:00 GMT at The Guildhall Chamber, Windsor.

Summary: Creating up to 70,800 homes if Heathrow expansion plans go ahead would cause "absolute turmoil", a Windsor councillor has said.
###
Article: The Richard III Society branded the decision as a "monumental mistake" which would be "humiliating" to the king.
However, the Very Revd David Monteith, Dean of Leicester, said the play would be "sensitive" towards him.
He was reburied at the cathedral in 2015 in a specially designed tomb.
The remains of the last Plantagenet monarch were placed under the cathedral two years ago, after they were discovered under a car park in the city in 2012.
Shakespeare's play is critical of the king, calling him a "poisonous bunch-back'd toad."
Philippa Langley, from the Richard III Society, is not against the play but is opposed to it being performed in Leicester Cathedral.
"To perform this play right beside this man's grave is quite frankly, a deliberate humiliation," she said.
"This is not what the great city of Leicester and its people is about."
Source: Royal Shakespeare Company
The Cathedral has said the show will go ahead as planned in July, despite the criticism.
"King Richard III lies in peace," Revd David Monteith told BBC East Midlands Today.
"What we now know is that he belongs to the whole nation and not just to one section of people particularly committed to his story.
"I've heard most people say how glad they are that Richard III, the Shakespeare play, will be performed here."
The play will also be performed at Peterborough, Ely, Gloucester, Bristol and Salisbury cathedrals in July.

Summary:


The Scottish government has announced that it will be investing £1.5 million to build a new £1.5 million rail line from Glasgow to Carlisle.
The new line will run from the Glasgow to Carlisle line, which is currently under construction, to the new Carlisle to Glasgow line.
The new

Transport officials from the Scottish government have held talks on the possibility of extending the Borders Railway beyond Tweedbank.

Article: The EC's doubts about the arrangement were detailed in a document on Friday.
The EC said that its "preliminary view is that the tax ruling... by Luxembourg in favour of Amazon constitutes state aid."
However, Amazon said it "has received no special tax treatment from Luxembourg".
"We are subject to the same tax laws as other companies operating here [in Luxembourg]," it said.
The Luxembourg finance ministry said: "Luxembourg is confident that the state aid allegations in this case are without merit and will be able to convince the Commission of the legitimacy of the anticipatory decision in question and that no competitive advantage was granted," it said.
The European Commission began a probe of the tax arrangement last year, saying that it had suspicions it broke EU rules.
The Commission document, which was sent to the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs in October, gives its rationale for launching the investigation.
The Commission said it had "no indication" that the tax arrangement was "compatible with the internal market".
The current European Commission chief, Jean-Claude Juncker, was prime minister of Luxembourg when the deal was struck.
Mr Juncker has come under pressure over claims that around 340 global companies were granted tax  avoidance deals during his 18 year tenure in Luxembourg.
Commission doubts over the Amazon deal included whether Luxembourg had properly looked into Amazon's "transfer pricing" proposals about how money would be moved between different Amazon subsidiaries.
Doubts also existed about whether the country had assessed that the proposed tax regime was in line with market conditions before agreeing the deal in 2003, the European Commission document said.
The Commission also had questions about how royalty payments between certain Amazon companies were calculated, and whether "Amazon has a financial incentive to exaggerate the amount of the royalty" between its Luxembourg head office company and an Amazon firm that holds shares in the head office company.
"If the royalty is...

Summary: The European Commission has disclosed a preliminary finding that Amazon's tax arrangements in Luxembourg probably constitute "state aid".
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Article: In 2013, 284 out of every 100,000 people died from cancer. In 2003, it was 312. Improvements in diagnosis and treatment are thought to be the reason.
The death rate for men fell 12% and for women by 8%, narrowing the gender gap.
But the actual number of cancer deaths rose - from 155,000 in 2003 to 162,000 in 2013 - as more people live longer and develop the disease in old age.
"The population is growing, and more of us are living longer," Cancer Research UK chief executive Sir Harpal Kumar said.
Almost half of all the cancer deaths in 2013 were from lung, bowel, breast or prostate cancer.
Although the combined death rate for these four cancers had dropped by about 11% over the past 10 years, some other cancers, such as liver and pancreatic, had increased death rates.
Sir Harpal said: "Too many people are still being diagnosed with and dying from cancer, not just here in the UK but around the world."
He said CRUK was focusing research on how to achieve earlier diagnosis and manage hard-to-treat cancers.
"Our scientists are developing new tests, surgical and radiotherapy techniques, and drugs," he said.
"It's important to celebrate how much things have improved, but also to renew our commitment to saving the lives of more cancer patients."
Cancer Research UK compiled the cancer death rate data, which was taken from cancer registries in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Summary: Cancer death rates in the UK have fallen by about 10% in the past 10 years, the latest figures show.
###
Article: Infrastructure minister Keith Brown has confirmed that officers have discussed a feasibility study on linking the rail line with Carlisle, through Hawick.
News of the discussions emerged in response to a parliamentary question tabled by MSP Jim Hume.
The new 30-mile Borders Railway is expected to open in September.
In answer to Mr Hume's question, Mr Brown said the government had played an active part in taking forward the Borders Railway Blueprint for the Future.
He added: "Transport Scotland officials have already met with partners and offered initial advice on a scoping document which will explore the possibility of extending the Borders railway towards Hawick and Carlisle."
The announcement was welcomed by the Lib Dem MSP for the south of Scotland.
Mr Hume said: "I have no doubt that such a project would greatly benefit communities not just in the Borders but also in Dumfriesshire, and would draw even further on the already clear tourism opportunities from the line reaching Tweedbank.
"Local campaigners such as the Campaign for Borders Rail have kept the focus on this issue and this positive response from the Scottish government must now be the building blocks for progress on an extended rail link.
"I will continue to encourage Ministers to drive the initiative forward."

Summary:


Japan's Nikkei index closed lower, with shares in Toshiba sinking nearly 10% as the firm predicted record losses.

Article: They include a new setting that filters out age-inappropriate titles, so that youngsters do not see them in Google Play's market places.
The move was announced at the search giant's annual developers' conference.
It follows the firm's decision to hand over responsibility for age-rating its apps to a third party.
Google Play was created just over three years ago, and sells films, ebooks, music, magazines and apps for Android devices.
The store has more than one billion active users, and has recorded more than 50 billion app downloads over the last 12 months.
Last year's release of Android Lollipop added the ability to set up "restricted profiles", which can be used to prevent access to some apps, including the Play service itself.
The new update presents a version of Play that screens out potentially unsuitable content and highlights child-focused material.
Users will not, however, be locked into this version of the store, so parents may still wish to supervise their children's activity.
A new label will be used to flag titles that are ad-supported and new icons will provide information about the age range at which an app is targeted.
It coincides with a switchover to a new grading scheme run by the International Age Rating Coalition.
The body will issue age classifications based on an app's content - taking into account factors such as nudity, violence and references to gambling and drugs.
Unlike Google's earlier self-run system, the ratings will also be location-specific. So, an app might get a different grade for users in North America to those in Europe, Brazil or Australia.
Read more about how the new app rating scheme works
Google is also making other child-focused changes including:
"The character pages will include, for instance, Dora the Explorer where familiar icons can be associated with a broad range of content, including ebooks, TV and video," Mark Bennett, head of Google Play's Europe team, told the BBC.
"Parents will be able to go to those pages and their children explore the franchise."
The...

Summary: Google has added new features to its online media and app store to help parents ensure the content is suitable for children.
###
Article: Peter Neumark said he wanted to turn Classic Motor Cars Ltd in Shropshire into an employee-owned trust, meaning the 60 staff will own and run the firm.
It follows the John Lewis department store model, in which staff share benefits and profits from the business.
Mr Neumark said he "couldn't think of a better set of owners" to run the firm he started 23 years ago.
"If I keel over tomorrow - which I'm not planning to, but you never know - then it was important to me that this business had a good home and I can't think of a better set of owners than the employees themselves," he said.
The Bridgnorth-based company, which turned over more than Â£5m last year, has restored numerous classic vehicles, including many famous Jaguars.
New chairman, David Barzilay, it was important the skilled workforce was able to continue.
"Restoring cars in a traditional manner has been something of a dying art." he said.
"Classic Motors Cars is one of the companies that has brought that back from the brink.
"We have just over 60 people here but we have seven apprentices - one for every 10 members of staff - because we believe these skills are very important and should be maintained."
Mr Neumark said the move was "great for the staff, great for Shropshire and the West Midlands and great for the classic car world, which every year creates several billions for the British economy and is respected worldwide".

Summary: The founder of a classic car restoration company has given the business to his employees.
###
Article: The Nikkei 225 closed down 0.4% at 18,916.02, although the index had been as much as 1.6% in earlier trade.
Shares in Toshiba fell 9.8% on reports it was expecting record losses for the year to March.
After the market closed, Toshiba said it would cut 6,800 jobs at its consumer electronics division and report a record loss of 550bn yen ($4.53bn).
The news follows findings that Toshiba had overstated its operating profit for the past six years by a total of 151.8bn yen.
The US dollar fell to 121.20 yen, compared with last week's rate of 123 yen after the US rate rise, and the stronger yen weighed on Japan's major exporters.
Toyota shares closed down more than 1% and Honda ended down 0.7%. A stronger yen makes the products Japan's big exporters make more expensive to buy overseas.
Lower oil prices continued to weigh on energy-related shares. The price of Brent Crude fell to its lowest since 2004 in overnight trade to $36.17 a barrel, before recovering slightly to $36.49. West Texas Intermediate prices fell to $34.53 a barrel.
In China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed up 0.2% at 21,791.68, while the Shanghai Composite index closed up 1.8% at 3,642.47 - a four week high.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index recovered early losses to close just 0.05% higher at 5,109.05.
South Korea's benchmark Kospi index closed up 0.3% at 1,981.19.

Summary: