A ban on the use of social media in the New Forest has been approved by the New Forest Commission.
The ban is a major step forward in the fight against the proposed bill.
The New Forest Commission has been criticised for its "unacceptable" approach to the issue.
The Commission has also criticised the use

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

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

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

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

Summary: A voluntary charter restricting the number of cyclists in events to 1,000 has been approved for the New Forest.
###
Article: Tweeters have been using #NoToSocialMediaBill to campaign against the proposal.
It proposes up to a seven-year sentence or $25,000 (£16,000) fine for anyone found to be sending "abusive messages".
Human Rights Watch condemns the move as an attempt to muzzle free speech.
Millions of social media users in Nigeria, as well as those sending text messages, could be affected, it says in a statement.
The bill does not define "abusive statement or messages."
There will be a public hearing on the bill before it can be passed.
Activists see the bill as an attempt to target critics of lawmakers and politicians.
The BBC's Nasidi Adamu Yahya in the capital, Abuja, says Nigerian MPs often come under the media spotlight because of the huge money they earn.
However, Senator Bala Ibn Na'allah of the governing All Progressive Congress, who sponsored the bill, said the publication of false stories was becoming rampant in the country.
"You can't write false stories just because it is social media," he told the BBC Hausa service.
The offences the proposed bill seeks to criminalise already exist under Nigerian laws including those on treason, defamation, and libel, our reporter says.
Nigeria has a vibrant civil society, with many activists who use social media for their campaigns. It has the largest number of mobile phone users in Africa.

Summary:


The BBC has been criticised for its "unprofessional behaviour" and "unprofessional behaviour".
The BBC has been criticised for its "unprofessional behaviour" and "unprofessional behaviour".
The BBC has been criticised for its "unprofessional behaviour".
The BBC has been criticised for its "unprofessional behaviour".

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

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

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

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

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

Summary:

Article: {{document}}

Summary: ||| {{target}}


The Crown Court has been criticised for its handling of the case, which was dismissed by the court last week.
The Crown Court has also been criticised for its handling of the case, which was dismissed by the court last week.
The Crown Court has also been criticised for its handling of the case, which was dismissed

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

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

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

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

Summary: When can you take notes in court?
###
Article: A 9mm self-loading pistol, ammunition, four Enfield pistols and a rifle component were found at Albert Patterson's house in Hereford, the Hereford Times reported.
The 65-year-old was jailed for 15 months at the city's Crown Court.
He had already admitted three firearms offences, possessing prohibited ammunition and possessing ammunition without a certificate.
More on this story and others from Herefordshire
West Mercia Police said Patterson was arrested in January last year and charged in December.
Two charges of possessing a prohibited weapon and a second charge of possessing ammunition without a certificate will remain on file following Wednesday's hearing.
Former SAS soldier Lofty Wiseman who helped train Patterson, described him as a "good lad" who had been naive.
"He broke the law unfortunately. He had to get punished," he said.
"If he wanted a weapon as a keepsake, you could have had it de-activated, but by having a weapon, a serviceable weapon and ammunition, I think it's the ammunition that's really been the nail in the coffin.
"If you have a weapon in a house with ammunition, there's always that temptation... you can never say you're going to use it but different circumstances, state of mind, if it's there, it can be used so that's where you must have laws."

Summary:


The government has been criticised for its "unfair" approach to the issue of the railway system.
The government has been criticised for its "unfair" approach to the issue of the railway system.
The government has been criticised for its "unfair" approach to the issue of the railway system.
The

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

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

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

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

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

Summary:


The game was postponed on 26 November because of a frozen pitch.
The offer from the Latics is for both home and away supporters visiting SportsDirect.com Park.
Oldham, who are next to bottom of the table, three points from safety, have just exited a transfer embargo and reappointed John Sheridan as

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

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

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

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

Summary: Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has attacked Ted Cruz over his birth in Canada, saying it raises questions about his presidential eligibility.
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Article: The original game was postponed on 26 November because of a frozen pitch.
The offer from the Latics is for both home and away supporters visiting SportsDirect.com Park.
Oldham, who are next to bottom of the table, three points from safety, have just exited a transfer embargo and reappointed John Sheridan as manager.
"We want as many supporters to welcome back the manager to the football club as he takes his place on the sidelines for the first time," said a club statement.
Supporters are, however, being invited to make a donation to a local charity.
Brentford were the first team to offer free entry for a league game in England when they played Peterborough in 2001.

Summary:


Careers Wales has been given a life sentence for shooting dead a man, decapitating him and setting his body on fire.
The man was decapitated with an electric jigsaw in the bathroom, the jury heard during the trial.
The man was decapitated with an electric jigsaw in the bathroom, the jury

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

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

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

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

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

Summary:


The company said it had been working flat out to get these payments updated for our customers no later than Saturday.
Its parent company RBS said about 600,000 payments were affected.
It said it had now identified and fixed the underlying problem.
Ulster Bank said it had now identified and fixed the underlying problem

Ulster Bank is working to restore payments and direct debits that were delayed by a computer glitch involving the RBS group of banks.

Article: Christy Norman, 70, from Poole, Dorset, told a court she dialled 999 and performed CPR while everyone else fled.
The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), which supported her, said she was only a cleaner working two days a week at the brothel in Bournemouth.
Norman denied assisting in the brothel's management but was found guilty at Poole Magistrates' Court.
She was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay Â£400 court costs.
Cari Mitchell, from the ECP, said the "traumatised" defendant was only guilty of trying to save a life.
Ms Mitchell, who was present in court, said: "It is a terrible injustice that a woman who performed a civic duty by trying to save another human being should find herself with a criminal record.
"Shame on the police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the judge.
"If they had any morals or were in anyway concerned for women's safety this prosecution would never have been brought."
The man had asked to come and sit in the Bunnies Ranch premises on 19 May 2016 after feeling unwell, the court heard.
He then collapsed and Norman spent eight minutes performing CPR before paramedics and police officers arrived. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Norman was later arrested and charged.
In a statement, the CPS said Norman was "clearly involved in the running and management of the brothel".
District prosecutor Tim Cole said: "She had been publicising the Ranch's services on local sex sites and was keeping a book where she would record the sexual practices of the employees with their clients."
Norman, of Arley Road, was "too upset to comment", the ECP said.

Summary: A woman who tried to save a man's life at a brothel has been found guilty of helping to run the establishment.
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Article: The company said like-for-like sales grew by 4% in the year to April, although trading in southern Europe continued to perform badly.
It said it expected underlying profits before tax to be at the top end of market expectations of Â£75-85m.
Sales fell 8% in Italy, Greece and Turkey, where economic growth has been relatively weak.
Dixons also said trading at its online electric retail site, PIXmania, "continues to be very challenging".
Sales at the website were down 24% for the year.
In contrast, sales at UK and Ireland operations, which consist of Currys, Currys Digital, PC World and Dixons.co.uk, grew 7%.
Dixons.co.uk closed in October last year, though PC World and Currys continue to trade online, alongside PIXmania.
Chief executive Sebastian James said he believed the company had "a clear business model that allows us to flourish in an internet world".
"We remain steadfastly focused on sorting out our businesses in more challenged markets and, in particular, PIXmania," he said.
"Above all, we are enjoying the feeling of a little wind in our sails and we want to make sure that, in spite of continued economic uncertainty, this carries on into next year and beyond."

Summary: Dixons Retail, the owner of Currys and PC World, has reported growth in sales in the last 12 months.
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Article: The 577kg probe separated successfully from its mothership on Sunday at 14:42 GMT (15:42 BST; 16:42 CEST).
It is now on a direct path to intercept the top of the Red Planet's atmosphere on Wednesday.
The module will then have just under six minutes to reduce its 21,000km/h entry speed to zero in order to make a relatively soft flop-down on to Mars' dusty surface.
Schiaparelli is a technology demonstrator. It is intended to showcase the European Space Agency's (Esa) ability to land on Earth's near neighbour.
The organisation's only previous attempt was a very short-lived effort - the UK-led Beagle-2 robot in 2003.
This craft managed to make an intact touch-down but then failed to deploy its solar panels properly, blocking any contact with home.
Schiaparelli will hope to fare better, albeit with a planned surface operation of only a few days that will be sustained by batteries.
Esa controllers in Darmstadt, Germany, were able to confirm the separation of the module from its carrier satellite - the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter - thanks to a radio transmission beamed across more than 170 million km of space.
Schiaparelli is now on its own; there is nothing anyone can do to change its trajectory or to give it new commands.
Its landing sequence on Wednesday is fully automated. The probe will rub off most of its entry speed thanks to a heatshield that will push up against the Martian air. The combination of a big parachute and a cluster of rockets will then bring it to a near standstill just above the surface. Schiaparelli's final two metres will see it dump down on to its belly.
The Esa probe will emit UHF tones during its entry, descent and landing phases, which an Indian radio telescope will endeavour to capture and relay to Darmstadt. If the Indian facility can still hear Schiaparelli at 15:00 GMT (16:00 BST; 17:00 CEST) on Wednesday, it will mean the Italian-built module is safely on the surface.
While the landing attempt will no doubt occupy the media's and the public's attention in the coming days, Esa also has...

Summary: Europe's Schiaparelli spacecraft is on course to land on Mars.
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Article: A spokesman for the bank said they were "working flat out to get these payments updated for our customers no later than Saturday".
Its parent company RBS said about 600,000 payments were affected.
It said it had now identified and fixed the underlying problem.
Ulster Bank said concerned customers should "come into a branch or get in touch with our call centres".
"We will ensure no customers are left out of pocket as a result of this issue," a spokesman said.
In 2012, the RBS group was hit by a major IT meltdown that led to a large fine.
RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank customers were affected in June 2012 after problems with a software upgrade. On that occasion, the IT failure affected more than 6.5 million customers in the UK over several weeks.
The banking group said it had invested hundreds of millions of pounds to improve its computer systems since then.

Summary:


A Lady Penelope puppet, donated by the son of Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson, is to be sold for charity.

Article: An investigation by the commission found that 307 payments totalling £184,676 were missing from the party's spending return.
The commission said it had referred the matter to the police to see if any criminal offences had been committed.
The Lib Dems said "human error and failures of process" were to blame.
Bob Posner, director of political finance at the Electoral Commission, said their investigation uncovered "systemic failures in ensuring that the rules were being followed".
"This is an experienced party that failed to meet the basic requirements of the law, and cases like this undermine voters' confidence in our political finance system," he said.
"This is why we have applied the highest financial penalty available to us."
The commission repeated its call for an increase to the maximum penalty, saying a £20,000 fine was no longer a strong enough deterrent to the larger political parties which spend millions of pounds.
The commission said it had notified the Metropolitan Police that the campaigns officer, Tim Gordon, may have committed a criminal offence if he "knowingly or recklessly signed a false declaration" about the spending.
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said the mistakes had been caused by issues with a small number of local accounting units.
He said steps were being taken to ensure these mistakes were not repeated, and the party would co-operate fully with any investigation.
"We always endeavour to ensure our reports of national campaign expenses are completed in full, in good time and according to all applicable rules," he added.
The Liberal Democrats were badly defeated in 2015, keeping just eight of the 57 seats they had won in 2010.
In October, Labour was also fined a maximum £20,000 for failing to declare all of its general election expenses, including an 8ft stone tablet, known as the "Ed Stone", that was carved with ex-leader Ed Miliband's key pledges.

Summary: The Liberal Democrats have been fined £20,000 by the Electoral Commission for failing to declare all their spending in the 2015 general election campaign.
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Article: Soaring temperatures this week helped the three-day show in Harrogate attract 134,837 visitors - just 274 short of the record 135,111 set in 2006.
Last year's event was cancelled after one day, costing organisers about ??2m.
Show director Bill Cowling said: "I am absolutely delighted with our visitor numbers this year."
Mr Cowling said the success of the show was "a welcome boost" after what had been a difficult year in the aftermath of last year's cancellation - the first in its 155-year history.
The Yorkshire Agricultural Society, which organises the show, commissioned research earlier this year which showed that it generates about ??15m for the local economy each year.

Summary: Attendance at this year's Great Yorkshire Show came close to the highest on record - a year after the event was cancelled due to heavy rain.
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Article: A decision to boost the west London hub's rail links was agreed by Heathrow, Transport for London (TfL) and the Department for Transport (DfT).
In May, Heathrow chiefs lost a High Court challenge over access charges they can levy on Elizabeth Line trains.
Crossrail was named the Elizabeth Line in honour of the Queen.
From December 2019 Heathrow will be served by six Elizabeth Line trains per hour, two of which will run to Terminal 5.
This will increase the total number of Heathrow trains departing central London from 18 per hour to at least 22.
Legal action was triggered after the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) decided the amount which Heathrow Airport Ltd could charge Crossrail, and others, for using the spur could not include any amount connected to the recovery of the spur building costs.
The airport applied for a judicial review at London's High Court, arguing the decision was irrational and ORR had no power to reach any decision over the access charge at all.
But Mr Justice Ouseley ruled the challenge failed on all grounds.
Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye described the agreement on increasing train services as "a big step forward".
He said: "Heathrow, TfL and the DfT are working together to boost rail connections to the UK's hub, giving our passengers more choices to travel sustainably between Heathrow and London.
"With 22 trains per hour, an ambition to add even more services and easy to use Oyster and contactless ticketing, Heathrow will be at the heart of an integrated transport network and our passengers will reap the benefits."

Summary: The new Elizabeth Line service will be extended to Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport, it has been announced.
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Article: Mr Anderson, who also created science-fiction series Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and Stingray, died in 2013 following a battle with Alzheimer's disease.
His son Jamie, from Highworth in Wiltshire, said the proceeds will be donated to the Alzheimer's Society.
The 19in (48cm) replica with optic eyes and the "same make of teeth as the original", is being auctioned on eBay.
The science-fiction fantasy about a daring rescue squad, was filmed in a studio on the Slough Trading Estate in Berkshire and was first aired on TV screens in October 1965.
At its peak, Thunderbirds was attracting an audience of 100 million fans in 66 countries around the world.
But, according to Jamie Anderson, after his father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2011 - he "had no idea" he was its creator.
"For a man who made Thunderbirds, created it and was best known for that - he would say to me: What was that show that I made?," he said.
"I could say the name 'Thunderbirds' and it meant nothing to him.  For the disease to affect him in that way, was a really distressing thing to see."
Donated by a fan to the son of her original creator, the Lady Penelope puppet boasts a head made of fibre glass - like the original - and real human hair.
"Before Dad died he fulfilled his ambition of raising awareness of dementia and funds for Alzheimer's Society," said Mr Anderson.
"He'd be so pleased to know of the sale of one of his most iconic characters in aid of a charity that was so close to his heart."

Summary:


The government has been trying to reduce the amount of electricity in the country, but the government has been trying to reduce the amount of electricity in the country.
The government has been trying to reduce the amount of electricity in the country, but the government has been trying to reduce the amount of electricity in the country.

A power cut left Venezuela's parliament in the dark as it discussed a law dedicated to the energy sector.

Article: He died in the US, where he lived and had been a citizen since the 1960s.
He became famous after writing about his experiences as a teenager in Nazi concentration camps, where he lost his mother, father and younger sister.
He dedicated his life to ensuring the atrocities committed under the Nazis were never forgotten, and the president of the World Jewish Congress has called him "a beacon of light".
Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust remembrance centre announced his death on Saturday.
US President Barack Obama said Mr Wiesel was "one of the great moral voices of our time".
Elie Wiesel was born in Romania in 1928. In 1940 his town, Sighet, was part of a region that was annexed by Hungary. Four years later the town's entire Jewish population, including 15-year-old Elie and his family, was deported to Auschwitz.
Mr Wiesel's mother and one sister were killed in Nazi death chambers. His father died of starvation and dysentery in the Buchenwald camp. Two other sisters survived.
After the war, Mr Wiesel lived in a French orphanage and went on to become a journalist.
He wrote more than 60 books, starting with Night, a memoir based on his experiences in the death camps.
It included the lines: "For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living.
"To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time."
Mr Wiesel's use of the term Holocaust helped cement the word's association with Nazi atrocities against the Jews.
In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for his role in speaking out against violence, repression and racism.
When accepting it, he said: "Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides.
"Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
After Mr Wiesel's death, the head of the World Jewish Congress said he was "undoubtedly one of the great Jewish teachers and thinkers of the past 100 years".
Ronald...

Summary: The Holocaust survivor and Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel has died aged 87.
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Article: This dense region of gas and dust some 6,500 light-years from Earth hosts copious numbers of bright new stars.
Radiation from these objects is sculpting the clouds of gas and dust, producing in places great columns and curtains of material.
The picture is being featured on the BBC's Stargazing Live series.
Brian Cox and Dara O'Briain are presenting the popular programmes this week from Jodrell Bank radio observatory in Cheshire.
Look just below the centre of the image and you will see the columns that were famously dubbed the "Pillars of Creation" when they were pictured by the Hubble telescope in 1995.
But Herschel and Hubble see distinctly different things in the nebula.
Hubble is sensitive to optical light, the kind of light we detect with our eyes. This is easily blocked or scattered by the dust, and shows us merely the shape of the billowing clouds of material.
Herschel, on the other hand, is sensitive to much longer wavelength radiation, in far-infrared. This enables it to detect the emission coming directly from the cold gas and dust that cloaks so much of the region.
It is a powerful ability that enables Herschel to look inside the columns and curtains, at the places where dense gas is collapsing under its own weight to trigger the nuclear reactions that give rise to new stars.
Herschel's is a false colour image in which the bluer material is relatively warm and the redder material is relatively cold. It is "relative" because these are temperatures below minus 200C.
"The Eagle Nebula is one of the iconic regions of space popularised by Hubble but this has been our first chance to look at it with Herschel," explained Professor Glenn White from the Open University.
"The dusty material you see in Herschel's image is the material that will form the next generation of stars.
"Where you see little points, what you're looking at are the cocoons, the envelopes, inside which young stars are forming. Those stars will eventually blow away all the material that surrounds them and their optical light will become...

Summary: Europe's Herschel space telescope has produced a majestic new version of a classic astronomical target - the Eagle Nebula (also called M16).
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Article: The contamination affected two batches of Kania Gravy Granules, which were found to contain xylene.
Customers have been advised not to eat the products, and return them to the supermarket for a full refund.
Lidl has said it takes the issue "very seriously" and is working with its supplier to identify the cause.
An alert from the FSA  said exposure to xylene in food products posed a health risk.
"The contaminant levels in this [gravy granules] product exceed those set to minimise this risk and the product is therefore being recalled as a precaution," the FSA said.
Xylene is a petrochemical used as a solvent in products such as paints and inks.
Exposure can cause irritation of the mouth, throat, nose and lungs and in severe cases lead to heart problems, liver and kidney damage and coma, according to Public Health England.
The products affected are 300g packets of Kania Gravy Granules for meat and for chicken with best before dates of October and November 2017.
Other Kania products are not affected by the recall.
Lidl will display notices in all stores that sold the products, and customers are being urged to return the granules for a full refund.
A spokeswoman for Lidl said: "We were very sorry to hear of this matter and can confirm that an investigation was launched as soon as we were made aware.
"We are taking the issue very seriously and are working closely with our supplier to identify the cause."

Summary: Unsafe levels of a paint thinner chemical have been found in gravy granules sold at Lidl, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has said.
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Article: Lights first went off as Ramon Lobo, a pro-government lawmaker, defended the energy policies of President Nicolas Maduro, reports said.
Opposition MP Luis Florido quipped on Twitter: "The country's reality has hit them in the face."
The session was later suspended. Venezuela faces a severe electricity crisis and shortages are frequent.
Reports said other buildings in the same area of the capital, Caracas, were also hit by power cuts, on Wednesday afternoon.
Venezuela's National Assembly is controlled by the opposition.
Delsa Solorzano, an opposition MP, tweeted a video of the chamber in the dark.
MP Freddy Guevara, also from the opposition, said: "What a shame: the parliament session was interrupted because the energy went off. Right on the day we're discussing the energy sector law."
Oil-rich Venezuela is in the middle of a deep economic crisis caused by a drop in global oil prices. The country is suffering from a shortage of basic goods, food and electricity.
Earlier this year, the government introduced power rationing and a two-day working week for public sector workers as ways to tackle the crisis.
It said a major drought, which dramatically reduced water levels at its main hydroelectric dam, was to blame. But the opposition accused authorities of mismanagement.
Some of the measures have already been lifted.

Summary:


The festival is set to take place on the River Thames over the next few days.
The festival is set to take place on the River Thames over the next few days.
The festival is set to take place on the River Thames over the next few days.
The festival is set to take place on the River

Organisers of the Henley Royal Regatta are supplying hours of CCTV footage to police after a woman was raped.

Article: They were found to have improperly taken their oaths of office in 2016.
The ruling comes just weeks after Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Hong Kong against challenging the mainland's authority over the city.
The territory saw major pro-democracy protests in 2014 demanding electoral reform and more autonomy from Beijing.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, became a special administrative region of China in 1997. It is governed under the principle of "one country, two systems", enjoying a high degree of autonomy.
The four disqualified lawmakers are all members of the territory's pro-democracy movement. At the oath-taking ceremony in October 2016,
The ruling is a serious blow to the pro-democracy bloc in the Legislative Council and will affect its bargaining power.
The BBC's Hong Kong correspondent Juliana Liu said the crowd waiting outside the court went silent after news emerged the four had been disqualified. Some members of the public cried and embraced each other in response to the ruling.
The court's move comes after Beijing made the unprecedented step of issuing an interpretation of Hong Kong's Basic Law.
The city's quasi constitution does not mention any consequences if officials fail to be sworn in properly, nor whether they would be able to retake the oath.
But China's parliament in Beijing decided that officials must "accurately, completely and solemnly" read out the portion of the oath that swears allegiance to Beijing.
This interpretation led to the the disqualification of two pro-independence lawmakers in November 2016.

Summary: Hong Kong's High Court has disqualified four lawmakers who protested against Beijing when they were sworn in to the city's Legislative Council.
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Article: Colin Evans, 39, was found dead at home in Broomfield Road, Chelmsford, Essex, in September 2014.
He had been stabbed multiple times by Jose Correia Agrela, of no fixed address, who fled wearing his victim's clothes and taking his pet dog.
Agrela, 30, was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years and three months at Chelmsford Crown Court.
On sentencing, Judge Christopher Ball QC told him he had abused the help of a man who "had befriended you, offered you food and friendship".
Agrela denied murder - trying to claim someone else killed Mr Evans while he had been out walking the dog, Sweep - but was convicted in court last month.
Det Ch Insp Martin Passmore, from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said Mr Evans had invited Agrela into his home "as an act of charity after he became homeless".
"It beggars belief that Agrela could launch such an attack on a man who had given him a roof over his head," he said.
He added the sentence length reflected the "savage nature of the attack".

Summary: A homeless man who brutally murdered a cafe worker who had "befriended" him has been jailed for more than 20 years.
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Article: The Dumfries and Galloway festival is staging its biggest ever programme when it gets under way later this month.
It is now opening a campsite in Duncan Park, which will have portable toilets and showers and a cooking area, and will cost Â£12 a night.
A total of 236 authors are set to take part in talks, workshops and signings between 23 September and 2 October.
Last year, organisers said 10,000 people visited the town during the festival but accommodation was hard to organise.
EventScotland is supporting the organisation of the site, while extra ferries are also being put on from Northern Ireland.
Artistic director Adrian Turpin said: "In 2015, around 22,000 tickets were issued for our events and over 10,000 people visited the Wigtown Book Festival; normally the town's population is 900.
"We've been very lucky to work with EventScotland and introduce a campsite connected to the book festival in the area for the first time to help the town accommodate the population swell."
He added: "Wigtown is Scotland's National Book Town, it's a great place to come and discover books, meet people and see the area that inspired some of Robert Burns's best work.
"As one of the world's best natural beauty spots, Dumfries and Galloway is famed for its incredible green landscape, rolling hills and views of the Milky Way.
"I hope that the new camping and ferry crossing opportunities encourages more people to come to the area and the 2016 Wigtown Book Festival."

Summary: Wigtown Book Festival is setting up a campsite for visitors to help with accommodation pressures.
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Article: The woman, aged in her 20s, was attacked after leaving the event's Chinawhite enclosure early on Sunday, with men she met there.
She walked with them to the Harpsden Road and Reading Road area and was raped outside a car, which the men then drove off in.
A passerby found the victim near the Three Horseshoes pub shortly after.
Daniel Grist, secretary of the regatta, said: "We have been liaising with Thames Valley Police, regarding this terrible incident, which took place after Regatta facilities had closed and racing had finished for the day on Saturday 1 July.
"The Chinawhite area is not located on land managed by Henley Royal Regatta but we will continue to assist Thames Valley Police and are working with them to secure CCTV footage to assist in identifying the perpetrators."
Thames Valley Police is appealing for witnesses, and specially-trained officers are supporting the woman, who left the Chinawhite enclosure between 00:00 and 02:30 BST.
Det Ch Insp Lis Knight said such incidents were rare in the area.
The Â£3m rowing regatta sees more than 200 races take place on the river Thames over five days.
The annual regatta, which has been held since 1839, was expected to attract 200,000 spectators to this year's event.

Summary:


A man has died in a collision between a tractor and a motorcycle in Lincolnshire.

Article: Advocate General Cruz Villalon said the ECB's Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) programme is compatible, in principle, with EU law.
But he said that if the programme is implemented, its compatibility will depend on certain conditions being met.
The bond-buying is aimed at avoiding a break-up of the euro, but has faced a legal challenge from Germany.
Announced in 2012, the OMT plan has never been put into practice, although it has helped restore confidence in eurozone markets.
However, with the eurozone facing the threat of deflation and recession, there is increasing pressure on the ECB to start a separate programme of quantitative easing (QE), which would involve starting a bond-buying operation similar to OMT.
Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, said: "Overall, then, the final hurdle to quantitative easing appears to have been cleared.
"But given the ECB's natural caution, Germany's objections and the limited effects of QE in other countries, it would be hopeful to expect it to transform the eurozone's economic outlook."
Analysis: Andrew Walker, BBC World Service economics correspondent
The sighs of relief from the ECB and eurozone finance ministries are almost audible.
It's worth emphasising just how successful the OMT programme has been in taking the heat out of the eurozone financial crisis. Of course, the wider economic challenges are still profound. OMT will not fix them. But it did bring real calm to the financial market dimension of the crisis, despite the fact that the ECB has not spent a single euro under the programme.
It's a striking example of how a policymaker's statement that it's willing in principle to do something can sometimes shift expectations so much that the announcement alone gets the intended result. As for quantitative easing - which we expect the ECB to embark on soon - this legal opinion may not have a direct bearing, but QE is also about bond-buying, so it could have presented some serious legal complications.
The Advocate General has avoided...

Summary: A top European Union lawyer has said that the European Central Bank's planned bond-buying programme is legal.
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Article: "He is a martyr. May his soul rest in peace," Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said, indicative of the esteem in which the late sheikh was held in Iraq.
For many Shia there, Sheikh Nimr was an icon for his vocal support for anti-government protests by fellow Shia in Sunni Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province.
No wonder they took to the streets of Baghdad in their thousands after Sheikh Nimr, along with 46 other people, was executed on 2 January, all convicted of terrorism.
With the devastating civil war in Iraq between Sunnis and Shia in 2006-2007 still fresh in people's minds, his execution threatens to inflame Iraq's sectarian tensions.
Two Sunni mosques have been attacked and two people killed in apparent retaliation for Sheikh Nimr's death.
Leading Shia political and military figures in Iraq openly bear animosity towards Saudi Arabia.
They are particularly critical of Riyadh's ultra-conservative form of Islam, which they perceive as the nucleus of the extremist ideology of al-Qaeda and its splinter groups, like the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS).
"This is an ideological battle with Sunni extremists that must be fought to the end," Jaafar al-Husseini, spokesman for the Shia Hezbollah Brigades militia, told me.
The Iranian-backed group is one of several militias that constitute the backbone of nearly 120,000 volunteers, mainly Shia and known as the Popular Mobilisation (PM) forces.
Able-bodied Shia men took up arms against IS in response to a fatwa (edict) by Sheikh Sistani in June 2014 as large parts of the Iraqi army collapsed in the face of the IS advance.
The massive force of Shia volunteers has become the most successful example of boots-on-the-ground in Iraq.
And despite accusations by international human rights groups of human rights abuses against Sunnis, the Popular Mobilisation forces remain hugely popular in Shia-majority areas.
"We should not have any relations with Saudi Arabia," Mr Husseini said in a decisive tone.
The growing Saudi-Iranian crisis has put Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi...

Summary: Within hours of Saudi Arabia's execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, the highest Shia authority in Iraq spoke out against what he called the shedding of "pure blood".
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Article: Its report suggests that leaving the EU could mean that the UK economy would be 6% smaller by 2030.
If that figure is divided between the 26.7 million households in the UK, that is equivalent to each household being £4,300 "worse off".
The full report says that if the economy is smaller then that would have an impact on the amount of government income it receives from business and personal taxes.
The report suggests leaving the European Union and signing a "Canada-style" bilateral agreement with the rest of the EU could mean tax receipts falling by £36bn, or a third of the annual NHS budget.
The report says that could mean an 8p increase in the basic rate of income tax.
The Treasury report does admit there are better scenarios. Or, to be more accurate, less bad scenarios.
If the UK signs a "Norway-style" agreement with the EU and becomes a member of the European Economic Area then the impact on the economy of leaving the EU would be reduced.
Under that scenario, the economy would shrink by 3.8%, an impact on households of £2,600.
There is also a worse scenario.
If the UK's relationship with the rest of the EU was governed by the rules of the World Trade Organization, then by 2030 the UK economy could be 7.5% smaller, the report argues.
That would mean - if divided equally by the total number of households - each household's "economy" being £5,200 smaller.
The Treasury says that its estimates are cautious and based on well-understood economic models.
Sources also say that respected studies of the impact of Brexit, such as from the London School of Economics, say that the impact could be worse.
Critics of this approach say that forecasts out to 2030 are open to a great deal of interpretation and have to be based on assumptions that can be disputed.
Vote Leave also argues that government economists are often wrong, pointing to the suggestion that the UK joining the Exchange Rate Mechanism in the 1990s would be good for the UK economy.

Summary: The Treasury has revealed the full range of its analysis of the possible economic costs of the UK leaving the EU.
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Article: The crash happened at about 14:15 BST on the B1191 at Thornton, near Woodhall Spa.
Lincolnshire Police said the motorcyclist killed in the collision lived locally, but has not released any further details. The tractor driver was not injured.
The force has appealed for witnesses to the collision to come forward.
The B1191 was closed in both directions between the B1192 Tattershall Road junction in Woodhall Spa and the A158 Jubilee Way junction in Horncastle

Summary:


The Scottish government has been accused of disabling Microsoft's software in preference for its own, leaving computers insecure.

A hospital has suspended visits to patients on all its wards following an outbreak of the norovirus bug.

Article: This at least is my mantra when attempting to interpret data I've requested through legislation - be it from local authorities, health boards or the police.
It's all too easy to look at a data set, tot up the numbers, and jump to a conclusion.
The practice of data journalism - more than anything - requires not only a double-checking of your arithmetic but, above all, context.
The Scottish Conservatives research on the number of headteacher vacancies in the country's schools is a case in point.
They say: "Many Scottish primary schools are struggling to recruit heads."
But, what is meant by "many"?
Well, let's take a closer look.
The Conservatives' figures reveal 51 primary schools in Scotland are without a headteacher.
Granted, while this situation is far from ideal, bear in mind there are 2,056 primary schools in Scotland.
So, does 2.5% of Scotland's primary schools count as "many"?
Let's dig a little deeper.
The Conservatives include statistics from the local authorities of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire where the 16 leaderless primary schools account for nearly one third of the national total.
Aberdeen City Council is listed as having the most head teacher vacancies (10) which, when divided by the number of primary schools in the area, equates to 21% of primary schools.
That's a fifth of schools, which is not an insubstantial number.
And what about Aberdeenshire, which has the second largest number of vacancies with six?
Well, when divided by the number of primary schools in the area (150), that equates to just 4% of schools.
By contrast, let's look at East Dunbartonshire Council where there's just four vacancies.
However, with only 39 primary schools, that actually equates to a higher vacancy rate of 10% - more than double the figure for Aberdeenshire.
This shows us that you can't simply look at the raw numbers, the picture changes when you provide context.
There are also a number of other factors to bear in mind when looking at these figures.
Whenever I submit FOIs (freedom of information requests) I'm...

Summary: With the great power of the Freedom of Information Act, comes great responsibility.
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Article: Microsoft technical expert Patrick Barker said he had found Samsung software downloading and running a file called Disable_Windowsupdate.exe, while helping a user with a computer problem.
He said "a few Samsung-manufactured computer systems" were affected.
Samsung said it was just giving customers the choice about running Windows software.
"It is not true that we are blocking a Windows 8.1 operating system update on our computers," Samsung said in a statement.
"As part of our commitment to consumer satisfaction, we are providing our users with the option to choose if and when they want to update the Windows software on their products."
According to Samsung, the SW update allows users "to download the newest drives, updates and software for your Windows PC".
But the response baffled Mr Barker.
"I never implied it specifically blocked a Windows 8.1 OS system update, just that their SW Update software is preventing Windows Update from automatically installing updates, and forcing the user to have it set to 'let me choose whether to download and install,'" he wrote in his blog.
"It's disabling Windows Update from working as the user intends it to," he added.
Mr Barker said if the Windows Update was turned on manually, it was disabled by the Samsung update when the machine was rebooted.
The software did not come pre-installed on computers but downloaded in the background, he said.
"It doesn't appear to uninstall properly," he added.
Parts of the software remained, including the folder that contained the command to disable Windows Update, he wrote in his blog.
Microsoft said: "Windows Update remains a critical component of our security commitment to our customers."
"We do not recommend disabling or modifying Windows Update in any way as this could expose a customer to increased security risks.
"We are in contact with Samsung to address this issue."
Security consultant Graham Cluley said that turning off Windows Update was a  "risky move" for any company.
"As there are many instances of malware trying to...

Summary: Samsung has been accused of disabling Microsoft's software in preference for its own, leaving computers insecure.
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Article: A meeting of Scottish Borders Council heard an initial capital grant of £1.3m was being provided in 2016/17.
The scheme will receive 80% of overall project costs from the government.
The funding comes ahead of a public exhibition in Hawick town hall on Tuesday and Wednesday which will give the public an opportunity to comment on the scheme.
Councillor Gordon Edgar said: "It is hugely positive news for Hawick that the Scottish government has provided the first tranche of funding for the town's flood protection scheme, and included the project on its priority list.
"The next aim is to now get the scheme built and that is why the public exhibition this month remains so important.
"As the scheme is currently in its outline design phase, it is a lot easier for us to address any concerns now than if objections are brought up at a later stage, which could result in delays to the overall project."
The public exhibition runs from 09:00 to 21:00 on both days.

Summary: A first slice of funding for the £36m Hawick flood protection scheme has been confirmed by the Scottish government.
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Article: Four wards were closed to visitors at Arrowe Park Hospital, Wirral, on Monday before the visiting ban was extended on Thursday.
The ban does not affect Wirral Women and Children's Hospitals.
Gaynor Westray, director of nursing and midwifery at the hospital, said the decision was "in the best interests of our patients".
She said: "The safety of our patients is paramount to us and it is never an easy decision to make but this will help us contain the spread of this highly contagious bug."
The hospital has also asked the public to not visit its accident and emergency department if they have symptoms of the bug.
Norovirus - which causes vomiting, stomach cramps, fever and diarrhoea - is easily spread from person to person.
Symptoms usually begin between 12 to 48 hours after a person becomes infected, with most healthy people making a recovery within one to three days.
Arrowe Park has not given an indication of how long the ban is likely to remain in effect.

Summary:


The man was found dead at the scene of the attack on the same day as the attack on the same day as the attack on the same day as the attack on the same day as the attack on the same day as the attack on the same day as the attack on the same day as the attack on the same day

A vicar arrested in connection with historical sexual abuse has been suspended by the Church of England.

Article: Each year more than 1,500 seals are born on the islands, which are situated off the Northumberland coast and are managed by the National Trust.
Rangers spend two months each autumn monitoring what is one of the largest Atlantic grey seal colonies.
In 2015, 1,876 pups were recorded - the highest number since 1971.
The arrival of the pups begins as early as mid-September in some years and the majority are born in November, the National Trust said.
Ranger Ed Tooth said: "A lack of predators and a plentiful supply of sand eels and gadoids (cod) - which make up a majority of the seals' diet - has contributed to the success of the colony.
"The seals have also selected a different location for their rookeries, the breeding sites for the seals.
"This has resulted in mortality rates dropping, possibly because the islands offer better protection from storms and high seas."
The rangers, who live on the islands for nine months of the year, count the seals every four days.
The youngsters are sprayed with a harmless dye to show the week they are born to allow conservation staff to keep track of their numbers.
Mr Tooth added: "Waiting for the first seal pup to be born is always an exciting time of year.
"It's impossible not to be fascinated by the bright white, fluffy, wide-eyed pups even though we will hopefully see more than 2,000 pups over the coming weeks."

Summary: The first seal pups of the year have been seen on the Farne Islands, triggering the start of the annual census of the animals.
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Article: The Welsh Local Government Association also wants food outlets to be banned from being within 400m of schools.
These proposals are part of its manifesto for the next Welsh government.
A budget shortfall of Â£941m for councils by 2020 has been predicted by the WLGA.
As part of its proposals, the organisation said proceeds of the 5p levy on plastic bags should be spent on front-line services, raising up to Â£22m.
It also wants responsibility for public health services to be given to Welsh councils, as has happened in England.
A preventative care fund, paid for by money owed to the Welsh government as part of a UK government commitment to increase spending on the English NHS, should be set up to pay for services aimed at keeping people healthy and out of hospital, it has said.
WLGA leader Bob Wellington said: "As local government leaders we make it clear that the current approach for funding and running public services in Wales is clearly not working and that the next Welsh government must free up and trust local government to work with its communities to deliver a better solution."
As well as scrapping the Â£60 a week cap on how much councils can charge for non-residential care, it wants an end to to protected school budgets.
Amid ministers' plans to cut the number of local authorities from 22 to single figures, the WLGA has also called for "clarity" from the Welsh government about council merger plans.

Summary: More power and freedom on how cash is spent should be given to local councils, the body representing them has said.
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Article: Rhys Jones, 36, originally from Blackwood, Caerphilly county, died from his injuries after the attack in Clarence Place on 24 November.
Rhys Barnes, 28, from Newport, admitted his murder at Cardiff Crown Court.
On Thursday, he was told he had shown "no remorse or regret" for the "brutal" attack and was jailed for life. He must serve a minimum of 26 years.
The court heard the stabbing followed a row over a woman who Barnes believed to be his girlfriend, but was also having a "physical relationship" with Mr Jones.
Barnes stabbed the father-of-two after the woman claimed he had punched her in a row.
The court heard Barnes told her: "I'm not having somebody hitting a girl" and threatened to kill him before picking up a knife.
Prosecutor Michael Jones said Barnes was "crying and angry that someone hit a girl he liked" and told a friend: "He's not going to get away with it."
Mr Jones was found dead the following morning. Police went to Barnes's neighbouring flat at the Solas homeless shelter where he was found covered in blood next to a steak knife.
Barnes told police: "He hit my girlfriend this morning so I... stabbed him."
Mr Jones suffered 16 different wounds to his chest, back, left arm, his trunk and thigh after being stabbed 13 times.
Records of Cardiff Eleri Rees said: "It was a brutal and sustained attack."

Summary: A man who stabbed another man to death at a homeless shelter in Newport has been jailed for life.
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Article: The 51-year-old man, who has not been named, was arrested in North Yorkshire on Wednesday following a complaint made to Durham Constabulary.
The force said the man had been bailed pending further inquiries.
The vicar has been suspended for the duration of the investigation by the Bishop of Leeds, the Diocese of Leeds said.
It added in a statement: "Appropriate pastoral and safe guarding arrangements have been put in place.
"No further statement will be made at this time."

Summary:


The city of Richmond is the most important city in the world, with a population of around 1,000 people.
The city is home to the largest number of people in the world, with a population of around 1,000 people.
The city is home to the largest number of people in the world, with

Zac Goldsmith will contest the 2016 London mayoral election for the Conservatives, it has been announced.

Article: The former Nottingham Forest manager, 48, will work alongside Redknapp, assistant manager Kevin Bond and first-team coach Joe Jordan.
A QPR spokesman said it was "an open-ended arrangement" with no fixed timescale.
Cotterill, who has managed six clubs, was sacked by Forest in July 2012 after nine months in charge.
QPR, who were without a win this season in the Premier League before Redknapp took over in November after the departure of Mark Hughes, have since secured nine points from nine matches, including a shock 1-0 win at Chelsea on 2 January.
"Steve Cotterill has just come in on a short-term deal to help us out. He's bright and has got something to offer," said Redknapp.
"He'll spend his time with the rest of the backroom staff. We need as many people helping us out as possible."
Cotterill began his career at Cheltenham, leading them out of the Conference in 1999 and then to promotion to League One three years later.
He had a short spell as Stoke boss and was then assistant to Howard Wilkinson at Sunderland before spending three years at Championship side Burnley.
He led Notts County to the League Two title in 2010 during a three-month stint at Meadow Lane, before taking over at Portsmouth in June of that year.
Pompey finished 16th in the Championship in Cotterill's one full season in charge before he replaced Steve McClaren at Forest, helping the club avoid relegation by finishing 19th but leaving in July last year following the takeover by the Al Hasawi family.

Summary: Steve Cotterill has joined QPR manager Harry Redknapp's backroom team in a short-term coaching role.
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Article: The bay was named ninth best worldwide, moving up from tenth in last year's survey.
It was also in the top three best in Europe, behind beaches in Lampedusa, Italy, and Formentera in Spain,
Economy minister Edwina Hart said being named a top world beach could "change perceptions about Wales".
The beach was ranked ahead of places in the Seychelles, South Africa and destinations in Mexico and Australia.
According to the voters, the world's best beach is Baia do Sancho in Brazil's Fernando de Noronha, an island archipelago with UNESCO world heritage status.
However TripAdvisor said Rhossili's ranking proved that people in the UK did not have to go halfway round the world to find a good beach.
James Kay, a spokesman for the company, said: "These awards recognise the best beaches in the UK and worldwide, according to the travellers that have visited and given them the highest levels of praise.
"To have a Welsh beach named among not only the best in Europe, but the best in the world, just goes to show how lucky we are in the UK to have such stunning scenery right on our doorstep."
Last year, a travel writer from Australia expressed amazement that Rhossili could be listed ahead of many beaches in his home country.
Swansea councillor Nick Bradley called the news "fantastic", adding: "The national and international exposure that this award brought Rhossili Bay in 2013 was both appropriate for all those involved in its upkeep and significant in terms of the impact it has had on the tourism industry locally and nationally."
In the UK poll, Woolacombe beach in Devon and Porthminster beach in Cornwall came second and third.
Edwina Hart said: "It's fantastic news for Wales that Rhossili has kept its title as the UK's number one beach for the second year in a row, seeing Rhossili named among the best beaches in the world can change people's perceptions about Wales and also instils an enormous amount of pride locally in what we have to offer as a holiday destination.
"Having this news just before the Easter holidays is a...

Summary: Rhossili beach in Gower has been named one of the top 10 beaches in the world and the best beach in the UK in a survey by travel website TripAdvisor.
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Article: 27 November 2013 Last updated at 15:30 GMT
A new study in Nature Communications has found that the shape of the seahorse's head means it can move through the water without making large ripples.
It means the creatures they eat are not tipped off that they are there until it is too late.
The seahorses were filmed catching prey under a microscope which gave scientists a much better understanding of how they hunt.
To their victims, seahorses are more like sea monsters, says Brad Gemmell from the University of Texas at Austin.
"The seahorse is one the slowest swimming fish we know of, but it's able to capture prey that swim at incredible speeds."
"People don't often think of seahorses as amazing predators, but they really are."

Summary: Seahorses might not be the fastest swimmers but they are very good at sneaking up on their prey.
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Article: The Richmond Park and North Kingston MP said he was "honoured" after winning 70% of the 9,227 votes cast using an online primary system.
He beat London Assembly Member Andrew Boff, MEP Syed Kamall and London's deputy mayor for crime and policing Stephen Greenhalgh.
Mr Goldsmith's main rival is likely to be Labour's Sadiq Khan.
Mr Khan beat former cabinet minister Tessa Jowell and a number of other current MPs to win the Labour nomination last month.
Caroline Pidgeon is the Lib Dem candidate, Sian Berry will contest the election for the Greens and UKIP has chosen its culture spokesman Peter Whittle. Former Respect MP George Galloway is also running.
Mr Goldsmith, who was the favourite for the Tory nomination, balloted his constituents earlier this year to seek permission to stand.
At the very point of his entry into the race for London mayor, Zac Goldsmith's decision revealed two big characteristics.
Only a politician with an acute sense of accountability would have sought permission to stand through a ballot of his constituency members in Richmond and North Kingston.
Only someone with his personal wealth would have been able to afford the estimated Â£60,000 cost of doing it.
Both characteristics could come to feature heavily in the months to come.
Read the whole article
He won Friday's vote comfortably, getting 6,514 votes, more than the other three candidates combined.
Syed Kamall came second with 1,477 votes ahead of Stephen Greenhalgh (864) and Andrew Boff (372).
Mr Goldsmith - who first entered Parliament in 2010 - told the BBC's Daily Politics that he hoped his environmental record would appeal to Green and Lib Dem voters and he also hoped to "reach out" to UKIP supporters frustrated with politics as usual and the UK's relationship with the EU.
Mr Goldsmith, who has confirmed he would stand down from Parliament if he became mayor, triggering a by-election, said he wanted to build on current mayor Boris Johnson's achievements.
But he said anyone who attempted to replicate Mr Johnson's style of leadership...

Summary: