The German government has announced plans to build a new nuclear power plant in the country.
The plan is to build a new nuclear power plant in the country, but the government has not yet decided on the location.
The new plant would be located in the country's northernmost region, the Duchy of Sax

A Hitler lookalike has been arrested in Austria on charges of glorifying the Nazi era, local officials say.

Article: Austfonna on Norway's Svalbard archipelago covers just over 8,000 sq km and had been relatively stable for many years.
But the latest space data reveals a marked acceleration of the ice in its main outlet glacier to the Barents Sea.
The research was presented in Brussels on Thursday to mark the launch of the EU's new Sentinel-1a radar spacecraft.
This satellite has been in orbit barely a month but is already being tasked with a range of science observations and other duties.
European Commission officials are keen to showcase the platform's capabilities before it goes into full service, including what it can do at high latitudes.
Radar is particularly useful in these regions. It senses the surface whatever the weather conditions and even in the darkness of polar winter.
Scientists had suspected the Arctic's Austfonna Ice Cap was losing substantially more ice through its major drainage glacier at Cap Mohn, and asked if Sentinel-1a could take some pictures.
"We've observed Austfonna with various satellite radar datasets over the past 20 years, and it hasn't done very much," explained Prof Andy Shepherd from Leeds University, UK.
Copernicus uses a range of technologies to get a broad picture of the health status of the planet
"But we've now looked at it again with the new Sentienl-1a spacecraft, and it's clear it has speeded up quite considerably in the last two or three years. It is now flowing at least 10 times faster than previously measured."
That previous measurement was done using the German national TerraSAR-X radar mission.
The speed of a glacier is judged by how far prominent features such as a big crevasse travel in time.
An "ice cap" is much smaller than an "ice sheet", a term that more properly describes the huge frozen masses covering Greenland and Antarctica.
An ice cap does, however, share a similarity with its bigger cousin in that it too has glaciers flowing away in many directions.
The Earth's ice caps and glaciers have become a key focus for scientists because these are the ice fields that...

Summary: Melting at one of the largest ice caps on Earth has produced a big jump in its flow speed, satellite imagery suggests.
###
Article: The 25-year-old man reportedly calls himself Harald Hitler.
The man, sporting a side parting and a trademark moustache, had been seen having his photograph taken outside the house in Braunau am Inn in which Adolf Hitler was born.
The lookalike had recently moved to the town on the German border, police spokesman David Furtner told the BBC.
Mr Furtner said this was not a joke or a piece of performance art.
"The young man knows exactly what he is doing," the police spokesman said.
He said the man had also been spotted in Vienna and Graz.
Pictures of the man were published by Austria's Heute.at news website on Monday.
Glorifying the Nazi era is a crime in Austria.
Last October, the Austrian authorities decided to demolish Hitler's birthplace house to stop it becoming a focal point for neo-Nazis.
Hitler was born in a rented room on the top floor of the building on 20 April 1889.
During Nazi rule, the house was transformed into a shrine to Hitler as the town drew in a wave of tourists.
But as the Nazis began to lose control in 1944, it was shut.

Summary:


The Welsh government has agreed to pay £2.5bn to the Welsh government for the construction of a new public park in the north of the country.
The new park will be built on the site of the former Royal Navy base at Newport, which was built in the 1950s.
The new park will be

Battersea Power Station is being offered for sale on the open market for the first time.

Article: John Davies says more needs to be spent on marketing the project, which is heavily backed with public money.
Take up in areas that have had it for a year is 19% with just over £300,000 spent on marketing, which is around 1% of the overall cost so far.
But ministers said take up was where they expected it to be at this stage.
The Welsh government signed the deal - the largest of its kind in the UK - with BT in 2012 to roll out super fast broadband across Wales.
Download speeds of up to 80 megabits per second (Mbps) are being offered to domestic customers, compared to the average download speed currently available in Wales of around five to six Mbps. Even faster speeds are available to businesses.
The project, called Superfast Cymru, aims to ensure that 96% of homes in Wales are covered by 2016 and is seen as vital for Welsh businesses in an increasingly competitive global market.
Welsh ministers are spending £58m on the scheme, with a similar amount coming from the UK government and £90m from European funding.
In two years, the aim is for around 700,000 premises to have access but so far it has gone past the 150,000 mark.
Mr Davies, who chairs the Welsh advisory committee for the communications watchdog Ofcom, said the project was transformative but more needed to be done to make people aware of when it is rolled out in their communities to encourage demand for the high-speed broadband.
He said: "For small and medium sized businesses, it gives them an opportunity to compete on equal terms with businesses elsewhere in the UK and elsewhere in the world, and on the back of that they should be able to cut their costs and increase their revenues."
He added: "There is undoubtedly take up, there are undoubtedly benefits accruing now.
"The question is, if more is done on the stimulation side, can those benefits come through faster?"
In a statement the Welsh government said: "We are at an early stage in the programme and the marketing activity.
"Current take up figures for cabinets that have been in place for over one...

Summary: Wales is not making the most of a £425m contract to roll out superfast broadband in rural areas, according to the former head of BT in Wales.
###
Article: It is hoped the sale, to be handled by estate agent Knight Frank, will cover the Â£502m debts accrued by a firm which tried to redevelop the landmark site.
The 39-acre property is on the Thames and a new public park is planned there.
Chancellor George Osborne has confirmed government backing for plans to extend the London Underground's Northern Line into the heart of the area.
Stephan Miles-Brown, head of residential development at Knight Frank, said: "This is the first time Battersea Power Station has ever been offered for sale on the open market.
"As one of the UK's most recognisable landmarks, Knight Frank anticipates considerable interest in a scheme that is among the most exciting in the world today.
"Battersea Power Station is as iconic as the Chrysler Building in New York or the Eiffel Tower, and familiar to people who may have never even been to London."
The Grade II listed building opened in 1933 and generated power until 1983.
As such any building work would require listed building consent - even minor works, such as painting.
It was acquired by Real Estate Opportunities, the majority owner of the holding company, in 2006.
Last year its debts on the project were called in by creditors.

Summary:

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The government of Uzbekistan is facing pressure to prove that it is ending the use of child labour during the cotton harvest.

A second manufacturing unit at the Ineos KG ethylene plant in Grangemouth will be brought back to life eight years after it was mothballed.

Article: Uzbekistan is one of the world's leading producers and exporters of cotton, a mainstay of its economy.
Human rights campaigners say hundreds of thousands of children are being forced to bring in the harvest for minimal wages and under harsh, sometimes dangerous, conditions.
As the picking season gets under way in the Central Asian country, dozens of leading international clothing companies have pledged to avoid Uzbek produce.
In the US, the organisers of New York Fashion Week recently cancelled a show by the Uzbek president's daughter, amid protests by labour rights activists.
Gulnara Karimova was forced to hire a private venue in Manhattan to unveil her new collection, with protesters gathering outside the opulent Cipriani restaurant, waving placards and chanting.
Islomiddin Dolimov, a leader of an Uzbek opposition group who took part in the protest, said: "The main reason is to show how children are forcibly being taken to the cotton fields in Uzbekistan and to say it is time to stop this."
The Uzbek government denies that children are forced to harvest cotton and has signed up to International Labour Rights standards.
But so far it has refused to let international inspectors into the country to independently verify the progress the authorities say they have made.
The BBC's Uzbek service has received reports of school children being bussed to agricultural areas in various parts of the country.
One human rights worker in Uzbekistan said she had talked to a 10-year-old girl who said her class was made to pick cotton in the mornings and attend lessons only in the afternoon.
The activist was later detained by police for questioning.
"They said, 'you have no right to be here,' and started putting pressure on us, demanding that we should sign a paper stating that we will never visit the area again," she told the BBC.
Officers confiscated her bag, papers and camera and threatened to strip her to find the memory card, she said.
More than 60 international companies have now signed a pledge to not knowingly source...

Summary: Pressure is growing on the government of Uzbekistan to prove that it is ending the use of child labour during the cotton harvest.
###
Article: The firm successfully completed operational trials of the Train 2 unit ahead of it receiving shale gas ethane from the US this autumn.
New docks and a new pipeline network have been built to receive the gas.
The company said the move means it is now in "great shape" to run the plant at full capacity.
The KG ethylene cracker was unable to operate at full capacity in 2008, leaving Ineos "no option" but to close the second manufacturing unit.
Ineos said the US ethane will be used as a supplementary feed for the KG ethylene plant and will allow the plant to run at increased rates.
Gordon Milne, Ineos Grangemouth operations director, said: "With the successful completion of the Train 2 trial we are now in great shape to receive shale gas from the US and to finally run the Grangemouth plant at full rates.
"All the parts of the jigsaw are finally coming together and Grangemouth will soon be back in the premier league of European petrochemical plants."
The plant's chief executive John McNally said: "Bringing the site back into profitability is the best way to secure our future here in Scotland.
"We know that ethane from US shale gas has transformed US manufacturing and we are now a step closer to seeing this advantage being brought to here to Grangemouth."

Summary:


The South will have three teams, with one based at The Oval with Surrey, who pipped a joint bid by Middlesex and the MCC for the one London spot.
There will also be a team based in the south west and another in Hampshire.
The north will have two sides, in Lancashire

The six team hosts for this summer's inaugural Women's Cricket Super League have been announced.

Article: A study by Swansea and Milan universities found young people had "negative moods" when they stopped surfing the net.
Heavy internet-users also tended to be more depressed, the research found.
Internet addiction is said to be a clinical disorder marked by out-of-control internet use.
Swansea University said around half of the 60 young people it studied spent so much time on the net that it had negative consequences for the rest of their lives.
The results are part of a study looking at the negative psychological impacts of the internet.
The university said over the past decade internet addiction had became widely debated in medical literature.
Its research said the so-called addicts' web usage was varied, but it was common for them to gamble and access pornography online.
Prof Phil Reed, of Swansea University's college of human and health sciences, said: "Although we do not know exactly what internet addiction is, our results show that around half of the young people we studied spend so much time on the net that it has negative consequences for the rest of their lives.
"When these people come off-line, they suffer increased negative mood - just like people coming off illegal drugs like ecstasy.
"These initial results, and related studies of brain function, suggest that there are some nasty surprises lurking on the net for people's wellbeing.
"These results corroborate previous reports regarding the psychological characteristics and traits of internet users, but go beyond those findings to show the immediate effect of the Internet on the mood of those who are addicted."
The study explored the immediate impact of internet exposure on the mood and psychological states of internet addicts and low internet-users.
The 60 volunteers, made up of 27 men and 33 women aged in their 20s, were given psychological tests to explore levels of addiction, mood, anxiety, depression and autism traits.
They were then given exposure to the internet for 15 minutes and re-tested for mood and anxiety.
The research found the mood of...

Summary: Internet addicts can suffer a form of cold turkey when they stop using the web - just like people coming off drugs, according to research.
###
Article: The south will have three teams, with one based at The Oval with Surrey, who pipped a joint bid by Middlesex and the MCC for the one London spot.
There will also be a team based in the south west and another in Hampshire.
The north will have two sides, in Lancashire and Yorkshire, while the Midlands team for the Twenty20 league will be at Loughborough University.
Loughborough is also the long-term base of the England women's team.
All six hosts have been awarded hosting rights for a four-year period from 2016-2019.
The tournament will be played in a Twenty20 format this season, before adding a 50-over competition in the future.
The group stage of the 2016 competition will run from 30 July to 14 August, with the top four teams qualifying for a finals day.
Further details, including team names, will be revealed at a later date.
"This is a key day in the creation of the Women's Cricket Super League," said England & Wales Cricket Board chief executive Tom Harrison.
"The bidding process for obtaining the hosts was competitive from the outset."
There were 28 initial expressions of interest for the WCSL.
Hampshire Cricket with partners: Berkshire Cricket Ltd, Dorset Cricket Board, Isle of Wight Cricket Board, Oxfordshire Cricket, Southampton Solent University, Sussex Cricket Ltd, Wiltshire Cricket Ltd
Lancashire County Cricket Board with partners: Lancashire County Cricket Club, Lancashire County Cricket Club Foundation
Loughborough University
South West: Somerset County Cricket Club, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, University of Exeter
Surrey County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club

Summary:


The genetic disease Harry Maceachen has inherited from his mother, Alison Price, is a rare genetic disease that affects the testes.

The grandmother of a four-year-old boy who received part of his father's liver has said all is going "according to plan" following the operation.

Article: Millions of spermatogonia produce a constant supply of sperm in the testes.
But the University of Oxford study showed mutant spermatogonia gain a "tumour-like" competitive edge, leading to a greater proportion of sperm becoming defective.
Experts said couples should consider having children earlier in life.
A range of diseases including autism and schizophrenia are more likely with older dads due to mutations in their sperm.
And the risk of very serious health problems goes from around four in every 200 births to five in every 200 once the father passes the age of 50.
The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analysed 14 testes from men aged between 39 and 90.
The sexual organs were considered healthy, but were removed for other conditions such as a hernia causing swelling in the groin.
The researchers explored the "massive tangle of spaghetti" inside the testes to find the areas producing diseased sperm.
The analysis of the DNA - the instructions for life - in those defective zones showed mutations linked to a range of bodily processes.
They were linked to malformations and a predisposition to cancer, but they also had a role in growth and reproduction in the testes.
The same mutations that were ultimately damaging to children were encouraging the defective spermatogonia to spread - leading to a greater proportion of sperm being defective.
Prof Andrew Wilkie, one of the researchers, told the BBC: "This is why we call it selfish selection.
"These mutations within the testes get an advantage over their normal neighbours, but if that sperm fertilises an egg then that [mutation] carries a disadvantage to that person and causes disease.
"It's the first time anyone has been able to look at a piece of testis and say that's where this is happening."
That "selfish" growth is more commonly seen in cancer.
The researchers were able to find the mutations because their impact is so severe.
It is still unclear what the study means for the sections of DNA that increase the risk of disorders...

Summary: Mutant sperm-factories spread in men's testicles as they age to increase the risk of children with genetic diseases, researchers have shown.
###
Article: Harry Maceachen, from Shrewsbury, was born with a rare disease and had the life-saving transplant on Thursday.
His father Simon donated part of his liver after no suitable match was found from the organ donor register.
Grandmother Alison Price, a former theatre sister, said: "The consultants are very happy with their progress."
She said it had been a "very, very difficult 12 months", adding: "The operations were satisfactory. Everything is going on according to plan....the consultants are very happy with their progress."
Harry was born with biliary atresia, which meant he had blocked bile ducts.
He had a transplant before his first birthday but that liver had begun to fail, so a second one was required.
Harry underwent the operation on Thursday at Birmingham Children's Hospital and Mr Maceachen was operated on at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the city.
His grandmother said: "I used to look after him (Harry) three days a week when his mother went back to teaching and he got to know me very well.
"I think we've got a special bond. He was born on my 63rd birthday."
She said Harry's two-year-old brother, Sam, has been "impeccably behaved".
"It's hard for him. It's the first time he's been away from his mother for as long as this and he obviously misses Harry, as we all do."
She added: "It's brilliant with the support (the family have) had and the support we've had as grandparents.
"The whole family's pulled together and they have a wonderful lot of friends."

Summary:


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Cinemas in the US are scheduling extra screenings of 12 Years a Slave after it won the best picture Oscar.

Article: Six cats which went missing in the Croydon and Norwood areas in south London were later found dismembered.
It was initially thought the animals had been killed by foxes.
But animal rescue workers have now urged owners to keep their pets indoors "where possible", saying it had become clear that "something sinister" was going on.
Boudicca Rising of South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (SNARL) said her organisation had received a "deluge" of further concerns from local residents.
The animals had suffered "gruesome" injuries which appeared to have been made by a blade, she told BBC Radio 5 Live.
She urged anyone who comes across an injured animal in the area to contact her group.
A spokeswoman for the RSPCA said: "We will be surveying any evidence we are given to see if there is deliberate cruelty involved here."
"Thankfully acts of deliberate violence against dead cats are rare and thorough research has shown that these kind of injuries can be caused by wildlife after death."
She added the police were leading on the investigation but said the RSPCA will provide any support as needed.
The Met confirmed it had received reports of animals being harmed and was working with Surrey Police.
Sgt Ross Spanton, of Surrey Police said:  "I would like to reassure the local community that active enquiries are under way to identify those responsible and I would urge anyone with any information to contact the police."

Summary: Animal welfare workers believe the same person may be responsible for a string of "gruesome" cat killings.
###
Article: Steve McQueen's drama will play at more than 1,000 locations in the US and Canada from Friday, up from 411 last weekend, according to Variety.
The memoir on which the film is based has seen a similar boost, jumping more than 300 places in Amazon.com's chart.
Solomon Northup's book is now in 16th place, having previously been ranked in 326th place before Sunday's ceremony.
The title charts even higher on this side of the Atlantic, currently occupying third place in the Amazon.co.uk bestsellers' countdown.
12 Years a Slave was named best picture at this year's Oscars and won additional honours for supporting actress Lupita Nyong'o and screenwriter John Ridley.
The film has made more than $50 million (Â£27 million) in North America, according to the Box Office Mojo site, and has just been released on DVD and Blu-ray.
McQueen's film tells of how a free-born black man, played by British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, is kidnapped and forced into slavery before finally winning his freedom 12 years later.
Interest in Northup's 19th Century memoir has been revived following the success of the film, with many public high schools adding it to their curricula and reading lists.
According to Screen Daily, film distributor Lionsgate is also planning to increase the number of screens that Dallas Buyers Club is playing on in the US and Canada.
The film, about an HIV positive rodeo cowboy who uses illicit means to obtain unlicensed Aids medication, also received three Oscars on Sunday.
Stars Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto were named best actor and best supporting actor respectively, while the film received an additional accolade for its make-up and hair styling.
Meanwhile, the Walt Disney studio has announced that Frozen - winner of this year's best animated feature Oscar - has now made more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office.
It says the film is now the biggest non-sequel animated film ever released and the second biggest animated film of all time globally, after Toy Story 3.

Summary:


The ACT test is being held in South Korea, but the test is being held in Hong Kong.

An examination for students in South Korea and Hong Kong hoping to study at US colleges has been cancelled after "credible evidence" emerged that it had been leaked in advance.

Article: The singer gave the record player as a wedding gift to Ellen Marschhauser in Germany in 1959, where he was stationed during his Army service.
She and husband Jim Jenkins retired to Cornwall, where she died in 2010.
The Perpetuum Ebner Musical 5v Luxus was expected to fetch £2,000, but sold for £4,400 to an overseas bidder at Penzance Auction House.
Proprietor David Lay said he had never come across anything that had created so much interest.
Mr Jenkins said the record player had also been a "thank you" from Elvis to his wife for doing some translation work for the singer's father, Vernon.
He said he and his wife had used the record player at parties, but it had been put away in the loft when the needle broke.
As well as playing records on it, it is believed that Elvis also used the player as an amplifier for his guitar.

Summary: A record player that once belonged to Elvis Presley has sold for double its estimated price at auction.
###
Article: Administrators of the ACT test took the decision just hours before some 5,500 students were due to sit it.
The ACT is one of two entrance exams available to international and domestic students wanting to go to a US college.
This is not the first cheating scandal to hit the tests in East Asia.
The other entrance exam - the SAT - was cancelled in South Korea in 2013 because some of the questions were leaked.
The ACT test was due to be held at 56 test centres in both South Korea and Hong Kong on Saturday morning.
The Associated Press said teachers at some of Seoul's private "cram schools" said they were not notified until about an hour before the students were due to sit the test.
ACT Inc, an Iowa-based non-profit organisation that was operating the test, said it took the decision after receiving "credible evidence that test materials intended for administration in these regions have been compromised".
The organisation said in a statement that all students would get a refund but would only be able to resit when the tests are held again in September.

Summary:


A new breed of polar bears is being developed in Scotland.

YouTube has warned it will clamp down on users who buy 'fake views' to make their videos look more popular than they really are.

Article: Polar bear cubs were last born in the UK almost 25 years ago.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) has begun preparations to pair up two bears at its Highland Wildlife Park near Aviemore.
A crate has been placed in the male bears' enclosure which will be used to transport Arktos to where the female, Victoria, is kept.
RZSS said captive breeding formed an important part of conserving polar bears, which are classified as "vulnerable" on the International Union Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.
But animal welfare organisations OneKind Scotland and Born Free Foundation said tackling climate change to better protect wild bears should be the focus of conservation efforts rather than captive breeding.
Arktos shares an enclosure with a younger male bear called Walker.
The older bear has been selected for breeding because he is considered to be a genetically more important male, according to RZSS. Walker's genes are already well represented within the captive population.
Victoria, who was brought to Scotland from Aalborg Zoo in Denmark last year and is kept in an enclosure about a mile away from the males, previously raised cubs in 2008.
Over the course of about a month, park staff hope Arktos will become accustomed to the 3m (9ft 10in) by 1.5m (4ft 11in) by 1.8m (5ft 10in) crate to a point where he can be safely locked inside and moved to the Victoria's enclosure.
Arktos will later be moved back to his own enclosure. RZSS said the areas where it keeps polar bears were larger than those of any other zoological institution in the world.
Douglas Richardson, head of living collections at the park, said: "When we first take Arktos to Victoria, he will live in a separate enclosure adjacent to hers.
"The two bears will be able to communicate and interact through a secure large fence to start with. We fully expect to see them showing an interest in each other right away.
"As with any introduction of large predators, the process must be approached slowly and carefully, paying close attention...

Summary: An attempt to breed polar bears in Scotland looks set to go ahead this year.
###
Article: With 100 hours of video added to the site every minutes it can be hard to get noticed, so some people buy fake views.
There are many companies that will sell YouTube views, likes or comments for a fee.
Most videos have genuine views but the website wants to crack down on the small number that don't.

Summary:


A new NHS trust set up to run Stafford's hospital requires improvement, inspectors have said.

Article: Despite the win, party members were left in shock when the council's Tory leader Robert Gould lost his seat to the Liberal Democrats.
UKIP was left without a seat while the Liberal Democrats won 11 seats, the Green Party won two and the Labour Cooperative retained one seat.
The ruling Conservative group will meet next week to elect a new leader.
The authority previously had 45 councillors, but now has one more following a boundary review.
In 2013, the Conservatives had 27 seats, Liberal Democrats 12, while Labour took three and its "sister party" Labour and Cooperative won two. UKIP gained one seat.
Election 2017: Full results from across England
Mr Gould lost his Sherborne Town seat by 22 votes as Jon Andrews for the Liberal Democrats gained the seat with 1,493.
The local election comes amidst plans to reorganise local government in Dorset with two unitary authorities.
The authority has said it will not be revealing plans for the restructure until after the general election on 8 June but, if they go ahead, it could mean Dorset residents face another election in two years' time.
Mr Gould replaced Spencer Flower as leader in 2014.
Councillor Flower, who won Verwood for the Tories alongside his wife Toni Coombs, said overall it was a "strong performance" for the party.
"Politics is a surprise, you get occasions where you get outcomes you didn't expect. It's obviously always very disappointing when you lose a colleague but it happens and we just need to move on from there," he said.
Representing UKIP, who failed to win a seat, Robin Grey said it had been a "very bad night".
Labour's David Stokes said: "It's been a difficult night in the county as a whole but our share of the vote has increased. We're very optimistic."

Summary: The Conservative Party has retained control of Dorset County Council after winning 32 of the 46 seats.
###
Article: The verdict came from the Care Quality Commission's first inspection since the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust was created in November.
The hospital was at the centre of a Â£6m public inquiry into care failings.
But despite the CQC's overall finding being critical, the trust said it was "highly complimentary" about the standard of care in some areas.
Inspectors visited County Hospital, formerly Stafford Hospital, and Royal Stoke University Hospital, also run by the trust, in April. They carried out unannounced inspections in May.
Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which ran Stafford, was dissolved in November after a report concluded it was not "clinically or financially sustainable".
700,000
People served by the hospital trust
194,954
Combined A&E visits to the two hospitals (2013-14)
1,508 Beds provided across the two sites
8,848 Equivalent full-time staff employed by the trust
The NHS in Staffordshire was given almost Â£300m to create the new trust and relocate some services in the county.
The CQC said it recognised "that the leadership of the new trust has had the significant task of bringing together two organisations at a challenging time. We have seen that progress has been made but there is still more to be achieved".
The trust was rated as good overall for how caring its services were, but told it required improvement to ensure safe, effective and well-led services. It received an inadequate rating in relation to whether services were responsive.
Several initiatives within children and young people's services at Stoke were rated as outstanding in relation to whether they were caring.
Outstanding work was also seen in the specialised neurological unit at County Hospital, inspectors said.
But the trust was told it must address high waiting times in its emergency department, and inspectors noted the Royal Stoke had "consistently and frequently failed the four-hour waiting time target".
It also said the trust should review capacity and adequacy of critical care services, and...

Summary:


Tougher dog control measures could soon be implemented in Oxford.

Article: Paramedics were ruled out of strike action on Thursday evening when management declared a "major incident".
Staff were canvassed on Friday to see if they would remain on duty to respond to serious and life-threatening calls if the major incident was stood down.
Only 10% of the 41 crews said they would remain on duty.
The Ambulance Trust said in the absence of a concrete commitment from enough staff to sustain a safe service, the trust said it had been left with no option but to keep the major incident in place.
The trade union, Unison, said the decision came as no surprise to them and that there was a serious loss of good will among ambulance staff.
In a text to staff at 2340 GMT on Thursday, the Ambulance Service said: "Please be advised that a major incident has been declared due to critical levels of cover and in line with the guidance issued by your union you are expected to report for duty as normal."
Management said they had been forced to take the measure "to maintain a safe level of ambulance cover".
Unions reacted angrily accusing management of "pulling a stunt" and said the move was "provocative".
The Ambulance Service said it was "inundated" with calls saying staff would be striking.
In a statement to the media, it said it had "exhausted all alternative contingency options, and lives would be at risk if we allowed the situation to deteriorate further".
Due to previous agreements between management and unions, it meant crews were required to turn up for duty on Friday.
In a tweet, the Ambulance Service added: "Two cities and many towns without ambulance cover is the only reason NIAS declared major incident."
John McPoland of the Ambulance Service said at midnight there were seven crews available for all emergencies across Northern Ireland.
"If we hadn't have declared a major incident because the level of services had decreased so much, we would be left with a situation this morning, where rather than having to explain a major incident, I could have been in here trying to explain to some family why a...

Summary: The Ambulance Service has said it will keep a "major incident" in place for the remainder of today's strike.
###
Article: The city council has proposed that owners face harsher fines for dog fouling and is asking the public to take part in a consultation.
Dogs could be banned from play areas in parks and owners set limits on the number of dogs they take for walks in public.
Authorised officers would also have the power to request dogs be put on a lead.
Councillor John Tanner, board member for the Cleaner Greener Oxford campaign, said: "There is nothing more annoying than getting dog mess on your shoe or in the wheels of the pushchair.
"Oxford City Council wants to get tough with irresponsible dog owners."
The consultation runs until 31 January and a report is presented to the city's executive board in March.
If approved, the new dog control orders would come into effect on 1 April.

Summary:


The police are investigating the death of a man who was found dead in a car park in the city of London.

A social worker who failed to make regular visits to convicted criminals with mental health problems has been struck off.

Article: But 130 mile (209km) away its lesser-known namesake, Downing Street in Newport, has no such claim to fame.
While one has been home to prime ministers for almost three centuries, the other has some residents who have never seen the inside of a polling station.
One is lined with armed police officers, the other with wheelie bins.
And according to Zoopla, there is a Â£1.72m difference in average property prices.
Homes that share a postcode with London's 10 Downing Street are worth on average Â£1.8m. But if you share a postcode with 10 Downing Street in Newport, your property will be worth on average less than Â£80,000.
The street falls in the constituency of Newport East where Labour's Jessica Morden is seeking re-election. The Independents, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, UKIP and Plaid Cymru are also fielding candidates.
Emma Lewis, 32, who lives on Downing Street, in the Newport suburb of Lliswerry, has never voted.
"It doesn't make any difference never mind who's elected, they're all just the same," she said.
And she believes politicians are self serving: "They're all out for themselves. It never changes anything for the better. The poor person always ends up out of pocket."
Across the road, Graham Jones, 70, does not have much love for a lot of politicians either.
"[The elections is] a chance to get rid of this stinking government that we've got," he said.
"The best thing that this country's got is the National Health Service. To see this Conservative government trying to privatise it so that their cronies can make more money is not on."
Mr Jones is a Labour supporter and has displayed a campaign leaflet in his front window.
He said when the snap election was called he felt "out of this world" and "totally elated".
"The National Health Service would be safe with a Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn," he said.
"Hopefully he'll add his weight and nationalise the industries from private ownership back into public hands such as the railways, our electric, gas, you name it. The quicker we get them...

Summary: Downing Street in London is home to one of the most photographed front doors in Britain.
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Article: Kerri Imelda Doherty was supposed to see four offenders at least once a month, a Care Council for Wales (CCW) hearing in Cardiff was told.
The men needed regular visits because they could suffer a relapse which could put the public at risk.
Ms Doherty denied any wrongdoing but three allegations were found proven.
A fourth charge of acting "dishonestly" was found not proven.
The hearing was told Ms Doherty worked for Vale of Glamorgan council as a senior social worker and had years of experience.
Part of her job was to make sure people who had committed "significant crimes" but were living in the community, complied with Crown Court orders issued under the Mental Health Act.
Ms Doherty said visits had happened every six weeks but council mental health services manager Andrew Cole, giving evidence on the first of a two-day hearing, said the visits were less frequent.
"[This led] to a potential increased risk of somebody's mental health deteriorating and an escalation in their behaviour - which is more likely to go undetected," he said.
Mr Cole also said the minimum four-week frequency of visits was set by doctors and would have been "clearly marked" on official documents.
In her evidence, Ms Doherty told the panel she often had an excessive work-load, inadequate management support and often felt "left out on a limb".
The hearing was also told that bereavement had caused her to "burn out" and that her life had become "chaotic" as a result.
Ms Doherty, who had been subject to a suspension order since the allegations came to light in 2014, told the hearing she was not seeking to return to social care.
A report by the care watchdog said: "The committee finds that only a Removal Order will be adequate in this case given the seriousness of the impairment."

Summary:


The Russian government has been accused of spying on the Internet for years.
The Russian government has been accused of spying on the Internet for years.
The Russian government has been accused of spying on the Internet for years.
The Russian government has been accused of spying on the Internet for years.
The Russian government has

A new law imposing restrictions on users of social media has come into effect in Russia.

Article: Brig Gen Mohammed Suleiman was shot by a sniper while at a beach resort near the Mediterranean port of Tartous.
Israel has never commented publicly on suspicions that it was involved.
But a document leaked to The Intercept website by American whistleblower Edward Snowden says Israeli naval commandos were behind the shooting.
Former US intelligence officers said its classification markings indicated the National Security Agency (NSA), for whom Mr Snowden worked as a contractor, had made the discovery through monitoring Israeli communications.
Arab media reported at the time of Suleiman's killing said he was shot in the head and neck by a sniper on board a yacht on the night of 1 August 2008 while he was having dinner at his beachfront home.
Some sources said Suleiman was President Bashar al-Assad top security aide; others that he served as Syria's "liaison" with the militant Lebanese Shia movement, Hezbollah.
A 2007 cable from the US embassy in Damascus, published by Wikileaks in 2010, described him as "special presidential adviser for arms procurement and strategic weapons".
Another cable, sent after Suleiman's assassination, said the officer enjoyed a reputation as having "special status and proximity to Bashar". He was believed to have "managed special projects for Assad, some of which may have been unknown to the broader Syrian military leadership", it added.
The cable also said "the most obvious suspects are the Israelis".
[Syrian government] security services are well aware that the coastal city of Tartous would offer easier access to Israeli operatives than would more inland locations such as Damascus," it explained.
On Wednesday evening, The Intercept published a top-secret entry in the NSA's internal version of Wikipedia, called Intellipedia, which appeared to confirm the embassy's suspicions.
"The assassination of Syrian Brigadier General Mohammed Suleiman by Israeli naval commandos near Tartous, Syria, was the first known instance of Israel targeting a legitimate government official," it states.
The...

Summary: Israeli special forces were responsible for the assassination of a Syrian military official in 2008, a leaked US intelligence file says.
###
Article: It means bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers must register with the mass media regulator, Roskomnadzor, and conform to the regulations that govern the country's larger media outlets.
Internet companies will also be required to allow Russian authorities access to users' information.
One human rights group called the move "draconian".
The law was approved by Russia's upper house of parliament in April.
It includes measures to ensure that bloggers cannot remain anonymous, and states that social networks must maintain six months of data on its users.
The information must be stored on servers based in Russian territory, so that government authorities can gain access.
Critics see it as the latest in a series of recent moves to curb internet freedom.
Hugh Williamson, of New York-based Human Rights Watch, has called the law "another milestone in Russia's relentless crackdown on free expression".
"The internet is the last island of free expression in Russia and these draconian regulations are clearly aimed at putting it under government control," he added.
Opposition figures have used the internet to air their views, with some gaining millions of followers.
Commentators opposing Vladimir Putin often face restrictions in broadcast outlets and newspapers.
Analysis: Famil Ismailov, news editor, BBCRussian.com
Russian bloggers are bracing themselves for the moment when Russia's new "information security law" comes into force on 1 August. Some already share advice on how to use proxy servers in order to access social media sites that, in their view, are under threat of being closed.
It is hard to see how the law will be enforced. The servers for most of the popular social media platforms that many Russians use are based outside Russia.
Many popular bloggers are already looking for, and apparently finding, ways to "cheat" the feature that counts page visits and keep their daily unique visitor numbers just under 3000, or to make sure that the statistics are hidden altogether.
Anton Nossik, who is considered Russia's...

Summary:


The government has been trying to get the IMF to give Greece a bailout of €1.6bn, but the IMF has refused to give it.

Scotland gets ready to welcome the new year with Hogmanay celebrations.

Article: "The four instalments for the IMF in June are €1.6bn, this money will not be given and is not there to be given," Nikos Voutsis told Greek TV.
Greece has to come to a deal with the IMF and EU to secure the final tranche of its bailout from the institutions.
The finance minister meanwhile told the BBC that progress was being made.
Yanis Varoufakis said Greece had worked hard to meet its end of the deal with its lenders, and that now it was up to the international institutions to reciprocate.
"Greece has made enormous strides at reaching a deal," he told the Andrew Marr Show.
"It is now up to institutions to do their bit. We have met them three-quarters of the way, they need to meet us one-quarter of the way."
Analysis: Joe Lynam, BBC business correspondent
The Greek interior minister Nikos Voutsis is "of the far left" in a hard left-wing Syriza party but should not be disregarded as on the fringe, or irrelevant, within the government.
He is one of a number of different voices around the cabinet table with varying degrees of influence. So his comments that Greece cannot and will not pay the IMF €1.6bn next month should not be fully discounted.
There is a theory that the Prime minister Alexis Tsipras allows his ministers to let off steam in interviews in order to give him leverage when negotiating with creditors in Brussels or Berlin.
It is also true that the Greek Finance Minister Varoufakis has been sidelined by Athens.  All areas of discussion with the troika (EC, ECB and IMF), must be agreed by Mr Tsipras personally.
The Greek government, EU and IMF have been locked in negotiations for four months over economic reforms the IMF and EU say must be implemented before more money is made available.
Greece's last cash injection from its international creditors was in August and the final €7.2bn instalment from its two €240bn EU-IMF bailouts is now seen as vital.
But first it has to meet the 5 June repayment deadline. If it fails to come to a deal with its partners, there is a fear it could default on its...

Summary: Greece cannot make a repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due on 5 June as it does not have the money, the interior minister says.
###
Article: Thousands of people gather in Edinburgh, in Scotland, every year for a big parade, food and fireworks.
They are celebrating Hogmanay - which is a Scottish word that means 'new year'.
Hogmanay celebrations take place all over Scotland and lasts for three days, beginning at the end of December and ending on January 2nd.
There are lots of different stores as to how Hogmanay began, but many people think that some of the traditional Hogmanay celebrations were brought to Scotland by the Vikings in the 8th and 9th Centauries.
Fires were lit to ward off 'evil spirits' and celebrate the arrival of Winter Solstice.
The first written mentions of "Hogmanay" come from 1604, although many of the traditions come from before that.
Around 450 years ago, there were many arguments about the Christian religion in a period called the 'Reformation'.
Celebrating Christmas was discouraged, and as a result celebrations around the New Year became more popular in Scotland.
Despite the fact that celebrating Christmas became popular in Scotland again, many people continued to celebrate Hogmanay as well.
There are lots of traditions which people take part in to celebrate Hogmanay.
One of the first is to clean the house and remove any old ashes in the fire - this is to symbolise clearing out the old year to welcome in the new one.
'First-footing' is also a tradition celebrated at Hogmanay.
To bring good luck to their homes, the first person through the door on Hogmanay should bring things like coal, shortbread or cake.
Fire and fireworks are a big part of Hogmanay celebrations, which link back to the idea of warding off 'evil spirits'.
A huge fiery parade usually takes place to mark the start of Hogmanay, where some people dress up in Viking clothing.
When the clock strikes midnight on New Year's eve it is tradition for people to hold hands and sing 'Auld Lang Syne', the words to which were written by famous Scottish poet Robert Burns.

Summary:


The company has been investing in technology, with more than a fifth of its members (22%) using its app in breakdowns, while its newly-launched in-house underwriter recorded 115,000 car insurance policies in its first year, more than expected.
The company has been investing in technology, with more

The AA has warned that it may have to raise its prices because the government has doubled the tax rate on insurance policies in less than two years.

Article: HMP Northumberland in Acklington, which houses more than 1,300 male prisoners, will be managed by Sodexo Justice Services from December.
The company said it had begun talks with union officials about reducing the site's current workforce of 580.
The Prison Officer's Association (POA) accused the firm of "putting profit before public safety".
Sodexo, which already operates one prison in Scotland and three in England, was awarded a 15-year contract worth about £250m to manage HMP Northumberland earlier this year.
The National Offender Management Service said Sodexo had produced a "compelling bid" to run the prison, formed after the merger of Castington and Acklington jails.
In a statement, the company said: "We are currently in consultation with the Ministry of Justice and the recognised unions regarding employment arrangements at HMP Northumberland.
"We have shared our proposed reduction in staffing numbers. We aim to achieve this reduction by voluntary means if possible.
"Formal consultation with employees will commence after 1 December 2013 when HMP Northumberland employees transfer to Sodexo Justice Services."
A spokesman for the POA said: "The announcement that 200 jobs will go at HMP Northumberland will place private profit before public safety.
"We insist that Sodexo now provide safe systems of work, risk assessments and staff profiles to ensure that HMP Northumberland is safe, secure and decent for staff, prisoners and the public.
"The POA will not tolerate unsafe working practices and unsupervised prisoners.
"The warehousing of prisoners will not provide the promised rehabilitation revolution."
Sodexo Justice Services is part of the French multinational Sodexo Group, which provides services including catering, cleaning and security.
HMP Northumberland was criticised in 2012 after inspectors found a third of inmates spent days in their cells "doing nothing".

Summary: Up to 200 jobs are to go at a Northumberland prison which is about to be privatised.
###
Article: The breakdown service, which also reported a rise in personal memberships of 0.4% to 3,335,000 in the six months to the end of January, said it had so far absorbed the price rise.
Insurance premium tax (IPT) was 6% in 2015, but is going up to 12% from June.
The AA said it would look at its fees if the tax increased again.
"We have managed to protect our members," the AA explained. "But this is an industry-wide challenge and we will need to review our pricing policy in the context of any future increase in IPT."
The increase in memberships - an "important milestone", according to the company - halted a long-standing drop in figures.
It came after the AA signed up more members, with a 19% rise in new business year-on-year, and kept more existing customers, with its retention rate improving to 82%.
It added that there was a 5% rise in the number of breakdown call-outs in the 12 months to the end of January, again reversing a trend of gradual decline, which it described as "unhelpful for costs in the short term".
However, the company explained that this did increase the chances of people renewing their membership.
The AA has been investing in technology, with more than a fifth of its members (22%) using its app in breakdowns, while its newly-launched in-house underwriter recorded 115,000 car insurance policies in its first year, more than expected.

Summary:


The Home Office has been seeking to deport Eric Johnson, a Jamaican father, from the UK as a "foreign criminal".

A man jailed for manslaughter has won his battle against deportation after judges ruled he was being discriminated against because his parents were unmarried.

Article: Maureen Watt made the pledge as MSPs unanimously backed the general principles of the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Bill on Thursday.
The bill was brought forward in response to the scandal at the Mortonhall crematorium in Edinburgh.
Staff at the crematorium had secretly buried the ashes of babies for decades.
The parents of the infants had been told there were no ashes left when young babies were cremated.
Concerns were later raised about other crematoriums across Scotland.
The new legislation follows on from the recommendations of Lord Bonomy's Infant Cremation Commission.
Ms Watt set out plans to bring forward a series of amendments in response to calls from Holyrood's Health and Sport Committee to strengthen its provisions.
Committee convener Duncan McNeil said MSPs had heard moving evidence of the "long-lasting and devastating" impact of the ashes scandal.
He said: "The bereaved parents who shared their views with the committee sent a very clear message - this bill must ensure that the poor practice of the past should never happen again."
Ms Watt said the bill would make "valuable and much needed" improvements to burial and cremation laws which were more than 100-years-old.
She said there were a number of problems with the current system, including an overly-complicated process that can be "difficult to understand at the best of times, let alone when dealing with the loss of a loved one."
Ms Watt added: "There can also be a lack of clear information given to the person who is making the funeral arrangements.
"Lord Bonomy's Infant Cremation Commission identified all too clearly the potential impact of these problems.
"The steps taken in this bill will help ensure that such failings can never occur again."
The minister confirmed amendments to ensure that women experiencing a pregnancy loss were put at the centre of decision-making over any remains, to improve the process following a post 24-week termination and to strengthen what crematoriums and funeral director could do with ashes.
Labour MSP Jenny...

Summary: New legislation on cremations will ensure that Scotland's baby ashes scandal will never be repeated, the public health minister has said.
###
Article: Born to a Jamaican mother and British father, Eric Johnson, 31, moved to the UK from the Caribbean aged four.
The Home Office had been seeking to deport him as a "foreign criminal".
The Supreme Court ruled this was discriminatory, saying he would not be removed if his parents had married.
The deportation case came down to "an accident of birth" was the view of the five Supreme Court justices on Wednesday.
Lady Hale, who headed the panel, said in a written ruling: "In this case, what needs to be justified is the current liability of the appellant to be deported when they would not be so liable had their parents been married to one another at any time after their birth.
"That is a present distinction which is based solely on the accident of birth outside wedlock, for which the appellant is not responsible."
Johnson began his fight with the Home Office in 2011, after being jailed for nine years in 2008.
The justices pointed out that new immigration rules that came in to effect in 2006 gave people in Johnson's position automatic British citizenship at birth, but that the changes had not been applied retrospectively.
The law is quite complex around the definition of a British citizen, but here are the guidelines from the Home Office:

Summary:


A new code of practice on police stop-and-search powers has come into force.

Article: The group - chaired by anti-Brexit Labour MP Chuka Umunna - warns in a report that anti-immigrant rhetoric is making it harder for new arrivals.
It calls for government action to encourage "meaningful social mixing".
Leave Means Leave said there was nothing poisonous about wanting to take back control of Britain's borders.
In its report, the cross-party group on social integration, says migrants should be treated as Britons-in-waiting who can eventually gain citizenship instead of being viewed as security threats.
Mr Umunna said: "The demonisation of immigrants, exacerbated by the poisonous tone of the debate during the EU referendum campaign and after, shames us all and is a huge obstacle to creating a socially integrated nation.
"We must act now to safeguard our diverse communities from the pedlars of hatred and division while addressing valid concerns about the impact of immigration on public services, some of which can contribute to local tensions."
The group calls for local authorities to be given a legal duty to promote integration and for new arrivals to be put on the path to citizenship straight away.
It also proposes that businesses employing large numbers of immigrants should pay a levy that could be used to help ease the strains of migration on communities.
And the group repeats a call it made last year to allow different parts of the UK to set their own immigration policy, an idea rejected by the Home Office.
Critics have accused the group of trying to keep EU freedom of movement through the back door.
Richard Tice, co-chairman of pro-Brexit campaign Leave Means Leave, said: "This is typical of Chuka Umunna - a member of the metropolitan liberal elite who is completely oblivious to the concerns of millions of hard-working British families across the country.
"There is nothing 'poisonous' about wanting to take back control over Britain's borders, in fact he should be ashamed to suggest there is."
He claimed Mr Umunna was "in complete denial about the referendum result and is trying to retain a form...

Summary: The poisonous tone of last year's Brexit campaign has led to the demonisation of immigrants, the head of a group of MPs has said.
###
Article: The code received widespread support during consultation and was unanimously approved by the Scottish Parliament.
It was introduced following concerns over the number of people being searched without a legal basis.
The code says statutory searches must be "necessary, proportionate and in accordance with the law". There is also specific guidance on dealing with children and vulnerable adults.
Non-statutory or "consensual" stop-and-searches are now banned entirely.
The new code was drawn up by an advisory group led by John Scott QC.
Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said: "The ability of police to stop and search individuals can be an intrusion into liberty and privacy, but remains a valuable tool in combating crime.
"I have spent some time with police officers using the new code on our streets and am in no doubt that such searches will be carried out with fairness, integrity and respect.
"The views expressed during the consultation period were absolutely key to shaping the new code."
The code states that stopping and searching must be done for a good reason and be both "necessary and proportionate".
This means that officers must have a "reasonable suspicion" based on "facts, information and/or intelligence" that the person being searched is likely to be carrying an illegal item.
Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams said: "Police Scotland welcomes the introduction of the code and has worked closely with the Scottish government to support its development.
"It provides clear guidance to all our officers and places the rights of the individuals at the centre of any decision to carry out a search.
"In preparation for the introduction of the code, all frontline officers have received training and we will continue to work closely with partners, particularly children and young people, to monitor its impact."

Summary:


The UK government has announced that it wants assembly elections to be held every five years instead of four.
However, separate proposals to re-draw the boundaries of assembly constituencies have been dropped.
Welsh Secretary David Jones said the Westminster coalition wanted a "fairer and more transparent" political system.
Of the

ScotRail said it has reached an in-principle agreement with the RMT union to bring to an end a dispute over driver-only operated trains.

Article: It also announced that it wants assembly elections to be held every five years instead of four.
However, separate proposals to re-draw the boundaries of assembly constituencies have been dropped.
Welsh Secretary David Jones said the Westminster coalition wanted a "fairer and more transparent" political system.
Of the 60 AMs, 40 represent constituency seats and 20 are elected from five regional lists.
Since the 2007 elections, a ban on so-called dual candidacy has barred candidates from standing in both contests at the same election.
The dual candidacy ban was strongly opposed by other parties when it was introduced by the last UK Labour government.
When he introduced the ban, then Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said it was an "abuse" of the system to allow candidates to get elected on regional lists when they had lost first-past-the-post contests in constituency elections.
The ban has resulted in some assembly members losing their seats without being able to rely on the insurance policy of standing in both categories.
After consulting on changes to the assembly's voting system, the UK government said it would scrap the ban "to avoid a disproportionate impact on smaller political parties".
In other changes, politicians will be prevented from sitting simultaneously as MPs and AMs, and the period between assembly elections will be permanently extended to five years.
The next assembly election has already been postponed until 2016, extending the current term to five years, to avoid a clash with the next UK general election.
The changes follow a consultation on a green paper, launched by the UK government in May last year.
The Wales Office confirmed that a proposal in the green paper to re-draw constituency boundaries has been abandoned.
It follows a vote in the House of Commons in January to block a review of parliamentary boundaries before 2015.
Since the outset of devolution, assembly seats have shared the same boundaries as Welsh parliamentary constituencies.
Mr Jones said: "Since coming to power in 2010, the...

Summary: A ban on Welsh assembly candidates standing for election in constituencies and on their parties' regional lists will be lifted, the UK government says.
###
Article: The company said the agreement included a guarantee that a conductor would be retained as the second member of staff on board new trains being rolled out next year.
The dispute led to several days of strikes over the summer.
Further industrial action was suspended earlier this month for more talks.
ScotRail said the RMT would now present the proposal to its members in a company-wide vote.
The company said discussions had also taken place with Aslef, the train drivers' union, and a similar in-principle agreement reached.
The RMT said it would make its position clear once the proposed deal has been discussed by its national executive on Tuesday.
ScotRail Alliance managing director Phil Verster said: "I am pleased that we have reached an in-principle agreement with the RMT and Aslef unions that, if formally agreed, will bring this dispute to an end.
"This will end the uncertainty for our people and our customers, and will allow us to concentrate on delivering the best possible service for Scotland, every single day.
"What we have put forward in our proposal will make our service more efficient and more effective while maintaining and enhancing the service we provide to our customers.
"It means that the new faster, longer, greener trains that will arrive in autumn next year really will be a revolution in how we deliver our service."
An RMT spokesman said: "After long hard hours at the negotiating table, and a sustained period of determined and solid industrial action involving our members, RMT's team will be reporting back to the unions executive tomorrow where the details will be considered in full.
"A further statement will be issued by the union after that executive meeting."

Summary:


Astronomers have identified the most distant object yet in the Solar System.

Article: "Inevitably there comes a time when all shows should end and Downton is no exception," said the programme's executive producer Gareth Neame.
Created by Julian Fellowes, the show follows an aristocratic family's fortunes from 1912 to the mid-1920s.
Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern have played the Earl and Countess of Grantham since the show began in 2010.
The drama has won a string of awards since its inception, including two Baftas, three Golden Globes and 11 Primetime Emmys.
Its success both at home and abroad was recently demonstrated when the Duchess of Cambridge went to see it being filmed at Ealing Studios in west London
"The Downton journey has been amazing for everyone aboard," said Lord Fellowes, whose next project will be The Gilded Age, a period drama set in New York.
"People ask if we knew what was going to happen when we started to make the first series and the answer is that, of course we had no idea.
"Exactly why the series had such an impact and reached so many people around the world, all nationalities, all ages, all types, I cannot begin to explain."
"But I do know how grateful we are to have been allowed this unique experience."
Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter and Dame Maggie Smith are among other regulars on the show, which has seen both the masters and the servants at the titular stately home - actually Highclere Castle in Hampshire - deal with numerous tribulations.
One of its most controversial storylines involved the rape of Joanne Froggatt's character Anna, while the sudden demise of Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens) was greeted with dismay by the show's many fans.
More recently viewers have seen Bonneville's character bid farewell to his beloved dog Isis and both Anna and her husband (Brendan Coyle) face prison for the murder of her attacker.
The show has also had a glitzy array of guest stars, among them Shirley MacLaine, Paul Giamatti, Richard E Grant and Nigel Havers.
"We wanted to close the doors of Downton Abbey when it felt right and natural for the storylines to come together...

Summary: The next season of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey will be its last, its makers have announced.
###
Article: Observations with Japan's Subaru telescope reveal the likely icy body to be some 15.5 billion km from the Sun - about three times further away than even far-flung Pluto.
Scientists say their initial studies suggest that the object - catalogued as  V774104 - is some 500-1,000km across.
It will need to be tracked over time to learn the shape and extent of its orbit through the Solar System.
The discovery was announced at the 47th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences, taking place in National Harbor near Washington DC.
The team behind the find is led by Scott Sheppard, from the Carnegie Institution for Science, and Chad Trujillo, from the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii.
They specialise in detecting Solar System outliers.
The previously recognised most distant object is the dwarf planet Eris.
This body, which has a moon, Dysnomia, moves between 5.7 billion km and 14.6 billion km from the Sun.
To put some of these numbers in context: Earth is 149 million km from the Sun, and even the most distant major planet - Neptune - seems close at 4.5 billion km, by these standards.
That said, the Voyager 1 probe is further away - just. The epic robotic explorer has now ventured 20 billion km from home.
The big question is whether V774104 sweeps inwards from its present location, like Eris, or outwards, like the objects known as 2012 VP113 and Sedna.
These bodies are currently slightly closer in than Eris, but investigations of their orbits show they will reach far deeper into space, out to 66 billion km and 140 billion km, respectively.
Models for Solar System formation suggest that such objects were probably not created in these weird, eccentric orbits.
One explanation is that they have been perturbed gravitationally and pulled on to their strange trajectories by a passing planet - perhaps one that was expelled from our Solar System early in its history.
Some scientists even speculate that such objects could have been stolen from a star that formed from the same "nursery" of...

Summary:


Lethal Weapon will be the latest film to be remade for the small screen after the Fox network decided to turn it into a TV show.

Article: Launched in December, the satellite has now taken up its observing station some 1.5 million km from Earth.
Engineers are currently commissioning Gaia's two telescopes and its three instruments, getting them ready to begin mapping the precise positions and motions of one-thousand-million stars.
As part of that process, an image has been produced of a small star cluster.
This grouping is sited in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a companion galaxy to our own Milky Way, some 160,000 light-years in the distance.
If the picture just released by the European Space Agency looks somewhat underwhelming, that is not really surprising - taking pretty vistas of the sky is not what this mission is about.
Rather, Gaia's job when operational will be to track and characterise points of light moving across its big camera detector - be those stars, asteroids, comets or the flashes generated by exploding objects such as supernovae - to work out how far away they are and how they are moving in relation to everything else.
Prof Gerry Gilmore, the UK Gaia principal investigator from Cambridge University, told BBC News: "This image tells us that they've turned on the electronics, that they've turned on the computer, and that they've turned on Gaia's incredible British-built camera - and it's all working.
Gaia - The discovery machine
"Gaia was not designed to take Hubble-like pictures; this is not its operating mode at all. What it will eventually do is draw little boxes around each of the stars you see in this picture and send just that information to the ground."
The satellite has been given an initial mission duration of five years to make its 3D map of the sky.
By repeatedly viewing its targets, it should get to know the brightest stars' coordinates down to an error of just seven micro-arcseconds - an angle equivalent to a euro coin on the Moon being observed from Earth.
One of the benefits of such study will be to refine the distance "ladder" used to measure scale in the Universe.
This ladder describes a number of techniques...

Summary: Europe's billion-star surveyor, Gaia, is on track to begin operations in the next two or three months.
###
Article: The first Lethal Weapon film, which came out in 1987, starred Danny Glover as a veteran police officer and Mel Gibson as his volatile new partner.
It was a hit and went on to spawn three sequels over the subsequent 11 years.
Lethal Weapon joins films like Rush Hour, Uncle Buck, Training Day and Minority Report in being remade for TV.
According to reports, Fox has signed up to make a "put pilot" of Lethal Weapon - the industry term for a pilot episode that is seen as being virtually guaranteed to become a full series.
It will follow a similar storyline to the film, although Gibson and Glover will not reprise their original roles.
The show will be written by Matt Miller, whose previous credits include Forever and Chuck.

Summary:


The chief executive of Barnet Council has left his role after a blunder led to some voters being turned away from polling stations on Thursday.

Article: Mr Sanders remains a dogged pursuer but Mrs Clinton has 1,691 of the 2,383 delegates needed to win, AP reports.
He is still attracting tens of thousands to his rallies, on Friday calling for a "political revolution".
Mrs Clinton pointed out she has "2.6 million more votes" than Mr Sanders.
Saturday's voting is just for the Democratic nomination.
Mr Sanders has spent the week on the west coast, rallying support among liberals and the left-wing.
Late on Friday in Seattle's Safeco baseball stadium, he repeated key elements of his policy platform, urging economic equality and universal health care.
He said: "Real change historically always takes place from the bottom on up when millions of people come together. We need a political revolution!"
Mr Sanders is trying to build on overwhelming victories in Tuesday's caucuses in Idaho and Utah.
However, he also suffered defeat in Arizona, and although his delegate haul from the three states was 20 higher than Mrs Clinton, he has failed to make major inroads into her lead.
Mrs Clinton has also been campaigning in Washington state. She told supporters in Everett: "We are on the path to the nomination, and I want Washington to be part of how we get there."
She also focused on this week's deadly attacks in Brussels, condemning Republican rivals Donald Trump and Ted Cruz for their "reckless" foreign policies.
Opinion polls are scarce and tricky in caucus elections - a series of meetings in which voters give their support for candidates with an open show of hands.
However, Mr Sanders has used his appeal with grassroots activists to benefit from the voting system in the past. He has done particularly well among young voters.
Washington is the biggest prize, with 101 pledged delegates available. Hawaii has 25 delegates at stake and Alaska 16.
Whatever happens on Saturday, the battle will be won and lost in far bigger states still to come. In RealClearPolitics poll averages, Mrs Clinton has the lead over Mr Sanders by nine percentage points in California, 34 points in New York...

Summary: Bernie Sanders will try to claw back Hillary Clinton's lead in the race for the Democratic nomination for the US presidency on Saturday in caucus votes in Washington state, Hawaii and Alaska.
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Article: Andrew Travers left the authority by "mutual agreement" after the error, officials said.
Voters were initially turned away from all 155 polling stations in the borough because their names were missing from the poll list.
An independent investigation has been launched, the council said.
In a statement issued through the council, Mr Travers said: "I have enjoyed my time at Barnet and I believe the changes we have put in place and the continued programme of growth and transformation will enable the borough to continue to thrive."
A council spokesperson said Mr Travers had "made a valuable contribution to the council during his three and half years as chief executive."
Deputy chief executive John Hooton will take over temporarily while longer term arrangements are put in place, the council said.
On election day, staff at one station said just three of the first 30 voters to show up were on the register. The rest were told to come back later.
Barnet Council apologised for the problems and later offered emergency proxy votes to residents who had been affected.
But voters in the area questioned how the result could be "fair" when not everyone was able to have their say at the ballot box.
A statement released by Mr Travers on Thursday blamed electoral registration lists for the problems.
The council's review will conclude by the end of May and the findings will be presented publicly to the General Functions Committee.
It will look at the "appropriateness" of arrangements in place for the EU Referendum in June.
A spokesman said it was currently in discussions to establish who would lead the investigation.

Summary:


The council's waste service has been criticised for its lack of transparency.

Black bin bags could be collected every three weeks in Pembrokeshire as the council looks to meet "severe budget cuts" and performance targets.

Article: Sir John Sawers warned the crisis was no longer about just Ukraine, saying it was "much bigger and more dangerous".
Any attempt by Western countries to arm Ukraine could lead to an escalation on the ground and even cyber attacks by Russia against the West, he warned.
Fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels has continued, more than a day after a ceasefire was due.
Sanctions have already been imposed on Russia, and EU leaders have threatened Moscow with further measures if the planned ceasefire is not respected.
US President Barack Obama has said the US is studying the option of supplying lethal defensive arms to Ukraine - if diplomacy fails to end the crisis in the east of the country.
However, giving a speech at King's College London, Sir John, who left MI6 in November, warned any attempt by the West to arm the Ukrainian government could lead to an escalation of tensions with Russia.
"Sanctions on Russia are imposing costs. But the Ukraine crisis is no longer just about Ukraine. It's now a much bigger, more dangerous crisis, between Russia and Western countries, about values and order in Europe," he said.
Western countries could "take on Moscow" by providing weapons to Ukraine so it can defend itself and introducing more stringent sanctions, he said.
But Sir John warned Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely to respond.
"As long as Mr Putin sees the issue in terms of Russia's own security he will be prepared to go further than us.  So he would respond with further escalation on the ground.  Perhaps cyber attacks against us.
"We have thousands of deaths in Ukraine. We could start to get tens of thousands, then what?"
The crisis might end up with a "new debilitating frozen conflict in Ukraine, for well into the future," he warned.
"That is a wretched outcome for Ukrainians. But it may be the least bad attainable outcome."
Sir John, who also served as ambassador to the UN and as a foreign policy adviser to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, said that recent interventions in Afghanistan and...

Summary: The conflict in Ukraine is now part of a much bigger crisis between Russia and the West, MI6's former head has said.
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Article: The move is just one of several waste and recycling options considered by the council on Thursday.
Black bags are currently collected fortnightly.
The council's head of environment, Richard Brown said there will be "high public interest" whatever they come up with.
A report before the policy scrutiny committee outlined the challenges faced by the council's waste service as a result of funding pressures.
It said Â£1.2m needed to be saved over the next four years. This is in addition to potential fines for missing statutory performance targets.
Five options were presented to the committee. They looked at what was being collected, how often and by what means.
Options for black bin bag collection were weekly, fortnightly and three-weekly, while limiting the number of customer-provided sacks to two or three.
Pembrokeshire council  stopped supplying residents with free black bags in 2016.
The report also outlined an opportunity to save money by working with Ceredigion council, which faces "many of the same challenges".
The committee's comments will be reported to Pembrokeshire council's cabinet before a decision is made.
Mr Brown said waste services "was the one service we all have a vested interest in" and that they have to "do the best they can" and "look at future change".

Summary:


The Foreign Office says it is urgently investigating reports that a British man has died at a shooting range in Thailand.

Article: He said the quicker it began, the less likely the UK was to be "dragged down" should the Eurozone collapse.
The former SDP leader accused Downing Street of "manipulating the FTSE 500" to back the Remain campaign.
The Bank of England, the IMF and Barack Obama are among those to have warned about the impact of a British exit.
A Treasury analysis suggested the UK economy would be 6% smaller if it left the EU than it would otherwise be by 2030, which Chancellor George Osborne said would leave a £36bn hole in the public finances.
But in a speech in London, the former Labour foreign secretary and SDP leader Lord Owen said: "There is no fine calculus that can weigh up the consequences of either [remaining in the EU or leaving].
"Economics is not pure science, there are too many behavioural consequences to assess. Almost all the forecasts are ridiculously short-term."
The peer, who backed Britain's membership in the 1975 referendum, dismissed Treasury projections as "ridiculous".
He accused No 10 of "manipulating the FTSE 500 corporates" during EU negotiations - referring to a letter from the boss of Serco to David Cameron mentioning how EU support could be "mobilised" among some of the UK's largest firms.
Lord Owen said: "With few exceptions, the voices of doom we hear today were telling the British people 17 years ago we had to join the euro."
How trade and the UK's economy are affected by membership of the EU.
He added: "Technically anyone can always predict a short-term hit to the economy if one pre-supposes a big enough psychological or confidence set-back."
But he said in the long term, other factors were more which influenced the economy such as "the pace of technical change and other influences on 'total factor productivity'".
He suggested Britain could save £10bn a year - about £190m a week - by leaving.
Vote Leave's official position is that leaving the European Union would save £350m a week - a figure that has been criticised for not taking into account money which flows back to the UK from the EU.
The...

Summary: Vote Leave's Lord Owen has dismissed the "voices of doom" warning against Brexit and said the sooner the UK can quit the EU, the better.
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Article: Local reports from the southern resort island of Phuket say a British man died after turning a pistol on himself.
The Foreign Office (FO) could not confirm the reports.
An FO spokesman said: "We are urgently working with the authorities in Thailand to establish whether a British national has died in Phuket."
The Bangkok Post, quoted a taxi driver who said the man had hailed him near a local resort and asked to be taken somewhere where he could shoot. He had shown no signs of stress while in the taxi, the driver said.

Summary:


The Scottish Government has announced that it will be selling the gold from the Cononish mine near Tyndrum.
The gold was sold in "rounds" stamped with the Scottish Gold Mark and a unique serial number.
The average price was Â£4,557.9 per ounce, which Scotgold

Westminster should listen to the assembly before triggering the Brexit process, the Welsh Government's top law officer has said.

Article: Mining firm Scotgold Resources extracted the gold from 2,400 tonnes of ore which was taken from Cononish mine near Tyndrum.
The gold was sold in "rounds" stamped with the Scottish Gold Mark and a unique serial number.
The average price was Â£4,557.9 per ounce, which Scotgold said was a premium of 378% over current prices.
Richard Gray, the chief executive officer of Scotgold, said: "This unique and historic event is the first demonstration of our ability to attract a premium for Scottish gold.
"The next opportunity to show the continued support for this precious metal from the Highlands will be the conclusion of agreements with members of the Scottish jewellery trade, who appreciate the value that can be added to their products by the proven provenance of the stag's head Scottish Gold Mark."
News of sales will be published in the New Year.
The gold rounds were minted by Baird & Co Bullion Merchants and sold in a sealed bid auction.
The Cononish project was first launched nearly a decade ago but has faced delays as a result of falls in the price of gold, lack of finance and problems with planning permission.
Scotgold has a licence to look for gold in an area covering more than 4,000 sq km of the Highlands, and is confident that other deposits similar to Cononish can be found.
The price of gold has recovered this year, having slumped from about $1,770 an ounce in August 2012 to just over $1,000 last December.

Summary: The first gold to be commercially mined in Scotland has been sold at auction in Edinburgh.
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Article: Counsel General Mick Antoniw said he was "delighted" by the Supreme Court ruling against the UK government on Brexit.
The Supreme Court said UK ministers were "not legally compelled" to consult the assembly and that AMs have no veto.
Mr Antoniw said it is likely AMs would get a vote on the triggering process.
But he said it will not be a veto on leaving the EU.
AMs could decide to hold a vote in the assembly on article 50 if they feel that the legislation on article 50 affects devolution.
There is a convention - called the Sewel Convention - whereby the assembly has a say on legislation in Westminster that affects devolution in the form of a vote in the chamber.
But Tuesday's ruling that AMs do not have a veto on Brexit means that whether or not the vote has meaning will depend on the UK government's reaction.
Mr Antoniw told AMs on Tuesday: "As the Article 50 Bill proceeds through Parliament, we would expect the UK government to respect the Sewel Convention, so that Parliament has the opportunity to listen to the assembly and to the other devolved legislatures."
Mr Antoniw said there was "every likelihood of a vote (in the assembly) because a trigger bill will impact on Welsh legislation".
The court ruled Theresa May cannot trigger Article 50 - the formal exit process from the EU - without the backing of MPs and peers.
The court also said UK ministers were "not legally compelled" to consult the devolved legislatures in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Analysis by BBC Wales political correspondent Daniel Davies
It sounds like the eleven Supreme Court judges sent the Welsh Government packing.
They all agree: there's no legal reason for Theresa May to consult the assembly.
But there is a political reason for Parliament to listen. And if Parliament must vote on Brexit, it leaves the door ajar for the assembly to influence things.
That means there might be a vote in the assembly on triggering Article 50, as well as in Westminster.
I am also sorry to disappoint anyone who hopes that a vote in Cardiff Bay...

Summary:


The number of homes repossessed in the UK fell again in the second quarter of the year as fewer owners fell behind on mortgage repayments.

Article: But yesterday's announcement by Ed Miliband that as prime minister he would abolish non-dom status may well be the last nail in the coffin of a political approach - not quite an ideology - which had at its core the idea that it was better to get the wealthy and powerful in the tent, rather than doing what they typically do if they are outside the tent.
To understand the scale of the shift, I spoke to a New Labour veteran. This is what he said to me about the non-dom cull: it would "alienate some people whose goodwill is a good investment for us, send the wrong signal about the UK and [is] a rather useless piece of posturing (as the last Labour government concluded for 13 years)".
In other words, it is a powerful and important symbolic break with the Blair era. But Ed Miliband would say the policy is about a good deal more than gesturing. At its kernel, for him, is a big change in his assessment of how to fulfil Labour's mission of helping the poorest.
Tony Blair's view was that reaching an accommodation with the wealthiest and most powerful was not only the route to electoral success, but was also the best way of stimulating economic growth that would generate the tax revenues that could then be deployed to lift up the poorest.
Until the great crash and recession of 2008, he and his successor Gordon Brown could argue that their calibration of Labour's style of left-wing politics, as friendly to the City of London and to those accumulating vast fortunes here, had helped to generate prosperity which in turn could be used to fund a massive expansion of spending on schools and hospitals - and therefore went with the grain of Labour history.
But for Miliband, that calculation has had to be re-done, as living standards were savagely squeezed in the years after that profound economic shock, and the welfare state has been rolled back.
Miliband would also say that the stagnating gap between the incomes of rich and poor and the widening wealth gap have shown that collaborating with the wealthy has not delivered...

Summary: The last rites have been read over New Labour, as opposed to Miliband-brand Labour, quite a few times over the past few years.
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Article: The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said that 2,500 homes were repossessed in April, May and June, down from 3,000 in the previous quarter.
This was also a fall from 5,400 in the same quarter last year.
Lenders said low interest rates were keeping the numbers down but homeowners must prepare for a rate rise.
"This trend is very welcome. Low interest rates are acting as a significant support for homeowners in general, and are likely to be helping to stave off low level arrears for stretched households in particular," said CML director general Paul Smee.
"As ever, we urge borrowers to think ahead to when interest rates rise, and to contact their lender without delay if they are in difficulty. Prompt action helps to prevent problems worsening."
Earlier this week, it was revealed that more than a million householders had never experienced a rise in the Bank of England's base rate while owning a home.
Some 11.1 million mortgages are outstanding in the UK, with loans worth more than Â£1.3 trillion.
The CML figures showed that 1,800 homes were repossessed from owner-occupiers, and 700 were seized from landlords in in the buy-to-let market in the second quarter of the year.
The number of owners falling into arrears on mortgage repayments had also fallen in the second three months of the year compared with the first quarter, the CML said.
Some 100,700 owner-occupiers, and 5,700 landlords, had arrears of more than 2.5% of the mortgage balance.
Ministry of Justice figures, also published on Thursday, show that the number of homeowners in England and Wales facing court action at the earliest stage of the repossession process fell during the second quarter of the year.
However, the number of tenants evicted by landlords in the second quarter of the year rose by 4% compared with the same period last year, to 10,361. Seasonally adjusted figures show a 1% decrease compared to the first three months of the year.
Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: "These figures are a stark warning that relentless rent rises...

Summary:


The United States has announced that it will not renew its support for the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.
The United States has also announced that it will not renew its support for the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.
The United States has also announced that it will not renew its support for the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.

The departure from the helm by Uzbekistan's long-serving President Islam Karimov is likely to have wide-ranging repercussions for the region.

Article: Roy Moore, 69, violated judicial ethics with an order seen as directing probate judges to deny marriage licences to gay couples, a judicial panel ruled.
The decision was a "politically motivated effort" by radical groups, he said. His lawyer has vowed to appeal.
It is the second suspension for Mr Moore, an outspoken conservative.
In 2003, he was removed for refusing to take down a monument of the Ten Commandments he installed at a state building.
He was re-elected as chief justice of the state's Supreme Court in 2012.
In Friday's decision, the nine-member Alabama Court of the Judiciary unanimously decided to suspend him for the remainder of his term without pay.
The move essentially removes Mr Moore from the bench, as he will be unable to seek re-election at the end of his term, in January 2019, because of age restrictions, his lawyer Mat Staver said.
Reacting to the decision, Mr Moore said in a statement: "This was a politically motivated effort by radical homosexual and transgender groups to remove me as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court because of outspoken opposition to their immoral agenda."
The panel found that Mr Moore's ruling in 6 January showed "disregard for binding federal law" after the US Supreme Court landmark decision in June 2015 affirming gay marriage rights.
Testifying in his defence, Mr Moore said there was uncertainty after conflicting opinions on gay marriage from state and federal courts.
Mr Moore is known for his opposition to same-sex marriage, and has called homosexuality an "inherent evil" in the past.
His suspension was celebrated by the civil rights group that filed the complaints in 2003 and 2016.
"Moore was elected to be a judge, not a preacher," Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement.
"The people of Alabama who cherish the rule of law are not going to miss the Ayatollah of Alabama."

Summary: Alabama's top judge has been suspended for the remainder of his term for defying federal court rulings that legalized same-sex marriage.
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Article: The Uzbek government announced his death on Friday after a period of rumours about his ill health.
As is often the case with strongman regimes, no tried and tested succession mechanism is in place in Uzbekistan, and the transition of power may well be a complicated process.
Uzbekistan is the most populous Central Asian country and has the largest army.
Mr Karimov, who came to power during the Soviet era, has led the country since independence in 1991.
During his long rule, President Karimov has built a relatively stable secular regime in a region threatened by Islamist radicalism.
But many believe this has been done at the expense of human rights, and has often been an excuse to hound legitimate opposition.
It also has not completely eradicated the long-term risk posed by Islamist militancy.
Many Uzbek Islamists have simply dodged the tight security at home by fighting for the Islamic State group abroad, but should the secular government weaken, they might be tempted to come back.
Some also say that Uzbekistan's fractured and exiled opposition may turn to Islamism to boost its appeal in the majority Muslim country.
Positioned on the ancient Great Silk Road between Europe and Asia, Uzbekistan enjoys a strategic location that has attracted the interest of many foreign states throughout its long history.
Most recently, it has been one reason why Russia and Western powers have been vying for a foothold.
In 2001, Uzbekistan allowed the US to use its air bases in support of military action in Afghanistan, but four years later all foreign troops were evicted following Washington's criticism of the Uzbek government's human rights record.
Moscow will be keen to ensure that Mr Karimov's successor leans towards Russia rather than the West.
So far, unlike most Central Asian countries, Uzbekistan has been wary of Russian influence. In 2012, it withdrew from the main Russia-led regional military bloc, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.
Political instability caused by Mr Karimov's demise could be felt far beyond...

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