The fire authority has been working with the PCC to develop a model for the fire service.
The fire authority said it was looking at the feasibility of bringing both fire services under her authority.
The fire authority said it was looking at the feasibility of bringing both fire services under her authority.
Ms Goldsmith said

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

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

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

Summary: A photographer has followed in the footsteps of a pair of pioneers from the 1900s - almost literally.
###
Article: Watchdog Rospotrebnadzor claimed the restaurants had breached  "numerous" sanitary laws.
McDonald's said it was looking at the complaints, adding its "top priority is to provide safe and quality products".
The watchdog also announced checks at McDonald's in the Urals, in central Russia, said the Itar-Tass news agency.
The Moscow closures and the unscheduled Urals checks come amid rising tensions between Russia and the West over the crisis in the Ukraine.
Previously, when diplomatic tensions have been high, the regulator has controversially banned products including wine from Georgia, cheese from Ukraine and apples from Poland, according to BBC Moscow correspondent Daniel Sandford.
Earlier this month, Russia imposed a "full embargo" on food imports from the EU, US and some other Western countries, in response to sanctions over Ukraine.
The regulator's actions in Moscow and the Urals are part of an ongoing investigation into McDonald's food standards in Russia.
In July the watchdog filed a lawsuit in Moscow urging the restaurant chain to withdraw certain products.
McDonald's said that restaurants on Pushkin Square, Manezh Square and Prospect Mira in Moscow had been temporarily closed, and said it wanted to "re-open the restaurants as soon as possible".
"We will continue taking care of our employees and will do our best to continue the success of McDonald's business in Russia," the firm added.
Quentin Peel, former Moscow bureau chief for the Financial Times, told the BBC that the checks and closures were "propaganda".
McDonald's opened in Moscow 24 years ago, and has been seen as a symbol of Western capitalism in Russia, Mr Peel said.
"It's an extraordinary decision, because McDonald's is the great symbol of the West, but at the same time they've set up the most extraordinary network of suppliers in Russia to keep the whole system going.
"There are now something like 300 McDonald's across the country, and they've got an enormous network of people providing them with potatoes, and beef, and everything that goes...

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

Summary:


The US military has been trying to stop the US missile attack on a Syrian town, but the US has not been able to stop it.
The US has been trying to stop the US missile attack on a Syrian town, but the US has not been able to stop it.
The US has been trying to stop

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

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

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

Summary: Last week one of China's biggest community sites, Baidu, sparked an outcry when it admitted it allowed healthcare companies to moderate online health forums.
###
Article: The animal, which was suffering from a rare condition in its belly called balloon syndrome, had swollen to twice its normal size.
Vets in Bude, Cornwall, think the animal swelled up after picking up an infection and gas was produced by bacteria.
The hedgehog is now being fed worms before being released.
Adam Revitt, of Locke and Preston Vets, who looked after the hedgehog when it was brought to them in early May, said: "If it had continued to blow up it could have ruptured.
"More concern to me was that the air was putting pressure on the hedgehog's chest so it couldn't breath or move, therefore there was a danger of it suffocating or starving to death.
"I used a needle and syringe to drain the air. It took about five minutes to drain all the air out."

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

Summary:

Article: {{document}}

Summary: ||| {{target}}


The Times of London's daily newspaper, the Daily Courant, was published in Fleet Street on 11 March 1702.
The Times of London's daily newspaper, the Daily Courant, was published in Fleet Street on 11 March 1702.
The Times of London's daily newspaper, the Daily Courant, was

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

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

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

Summary: Hotel occupancy and revenue fell in Scotland in September but remained higher than any other area of the UK, according to a regular survey.
###
Article: Meet 26-year-old Melanie Biggs who has spent the last 15 years of her life Morris dancing, sometimes wearing black paint on her face.
On occasions the dance groups she has been a part of were labelled "racist", but Melanie has claimed they were not being "disrespectful" because it is an English tradition.
"I never felt bad. I just felt that people were being ignorant," she said.
It is not often Morris dancers are in the news, but that was before a photograph emerged showing the Prime Minister David Cameron standing with his young daughter and a group of blacked-up Morris dancers.
Anti-discrimination campaigners have told Newsbeat that the practice is "out of date" and "deeply hurtful" to the millions of black people living in modern Britain.
Mr Cameron's official spokesman has refused to answer questions about the picture, which was taken at the Banbury Folk Festival on Saturday.
However, people like Melanie insist blacking-up has no racial connotations.
"In the 16th Century, Morris dancing was banned," she explained. "This was a big problem for many poor people who were out of work and used to dance for money.
"The beggars started covering their faces in soot so they could continue dancing without being recognised. Blacking-up is now commonly accepted as a form of disguise."
"I have danced with people from all sorts of cultures including an Arab man who didn't black up because he didn't need to.
"Some teams have chosen not to black-up their faces because of political correctness, but I believe it is a part of English tradition which deserves its place in history."
However, while the charity Show Racism the Red Card has accepted the importance of celebrating traditional events it has said blacking up is no longer "relevant".
A spokesperson said: "The use of blackface is an out-of-date practice demonstrating that public attitudes have moved on and crude caricatures of black people should be considered unacceptable in modern day Britain."
When asked about the Prime Minister's decision to pose for a photo with...

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

Summary:


The government of the United Kingdom has been forced to impose a "mansion tax" on the UK's NHS, which is a tax on the NHS.
The government of the United Kingdom has been forced to impose a "mansion tax" on the NHS, which is a tax on the NHS.
The government

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

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

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

Summary: Just when it looked as though there could be a pause in the eurozone's Greek crisis, the International Monetary Fund has launched a blistering attack on the bailout deal forced on Athens by Germany and other eurozone governments.
###
Article: In the letter, sent two years before To Kill A Mockingbird came out in 1960, she listed six ideas that she thought would occupy her for the next 15 years.
But she has not written a full novel since To Kill A Mockingbird's success.
However a manuscript she wrote before that book, Go Set A Watchman, has been found and will be published next week.
Lee wrote Go Set a Watchman in the mid-1950s - but her editor persuaded her to turn some of the story's flashback sequences into a separate novel.
That novel became To Kill A Mockingbird, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and is regarded as one of the greatest novels of the 20th Century.
In 1958, she wrote to her friend Joy Brown who, along with her husband Michael, had given her money to leave her job and focus on writing.
Lee told them she was trying to finish "My Novel". She described it as "the hardest damn thing to write I've ever attempted" and added: "I'm about six weeks' gone with another one."
Lee then went on to list ideas for future books. "I have my work cut out for me for the next fifteen years:
"Can you feed and lodge me so long?" Lee then asked.
The first idea "Race Novel" was in keeping with the themes of both To Kill A Mockingbird and Go Set A Watchman, which document racial tension in the southern US.
Mrs Brown said the author was interested in the Victorian era, and the third idea refers to Graham Greene's nickname for his less serious works.
The fourth signals her intention to write about her home town of Monroeville, Alabama.
Of the final idea, she wrote that her agent Annie Laurie Williams would "sell this to the movies".
"The heroine will be named Portulaca Brown, an Anglo-Indian," she wrote. "She will have all her teeth, and they will gleam beautifully in Technicolor on a Stethoscopic Screen. There will be a Plot."
Lee and Brown had and still enjoy a close friendship, and the author went on to provide what may have been a light-hearted outline.
"Portulaca Brown, an Anglo-Indian, is dissatisfied with her lot," she wrote. "She wants...

Summary: Author Harper Lee had plans to write a string of novels after To Kill A Mockingbird, according to a letter she wrote before the book was published.
###
Article: Female officers will be able to wear a headscarf under their caps or berets, provided it is plain and is the same colour as the uniform.
Headscarf bans on university campuses and state institutions - except for the judiciary, military and police - have also been lifted in recent years.
The garment has been controversial in Turkey for years. Secularists regard it as a symbol of religious conservatism.
Since the 1920s, Turkey has had a secular constitution with no state religion.
The opposition have accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) of trying to reinterpret secularism.
However, public debate has also evolved to accept the hijab as an expression of individual liberties, correspondents say.
No strong opposition has been voiced against this latest move.
President Erdogan has long embraced Turks' right to express their religious beliefs openly, but he says he is committed to secularism.
In 2010, the country's universities abandoned an official ban on Muslim headscarves.
Three years later, women were allowed to wear headscarves in state institutions - with the exception of the judiciary, military and police. That year, four MPs wore headscarves in parliament.
Most people in Turkey are Sunni Muslims.

Summary:


The UK government has been trying to protect the UK's natural resources, but the UK government has been trying to protect the environment.
The UK government has been trying to protect the environment.
The UK government has been trying to protect the environment.
The UK government has been trying to protect the environment.
The

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

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

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

Summary: The mental health trust for Norfolk and Suffolk is being recommended to be placed in special measures after being rated inadequate.
###
Article: Curtis Fields in Weymouth, Dorset, and Clayton Fields in West Yorkshire were both taken off the village green list after the court found problems with the way they were registered.
The ruling presents no immediate threat to the traditional English greens of popular imagination - many with cricket pitches, oak trees and country pubs.
Most of these classic and quintessentially English spaces were registered long before 1970 when the rules changed.
However, the judgement might affect those greens added more recently.
Many wouldn't fit the traditional image of a town green at all. Some are open fields at the back of housing estates, others are scrappy bits of land on the side of railway tracks.
But if local people can show that they have been using this land continuously over the past 20 years, then they have the opportunity to register the land as an official "green". This offers the highest protection against development.
House builders say some campaign groups have been using the process simply to thwart builders.
"It's not an epidemic but there have been a significant number of groups abusing the legislation merely to stop development on that site," said Andrew Whitaker, of the Home Builders Federation.
After intensive lobbying by the house-building industry, the law was changed last year.
The regulations were significantly tightened so that an attempt to register a green cannot be considered when somebody has made a planning application, or a local development plan is being produced.
That was a setback for the Open Spaces Society, which has been trying to protect greens for almost 150 years.
"We are now being squeezed on both sides," said Kate Ashbrook, who runs the society.
"The government is squeezing us by saying land under planning threat cannot be registered. But the Supreme Court is also saying that you might be able to de-register a green that's already on the list."
The battle over Curtis Fields in Weymouth has been going on for several years.
It was registered as a town green in 2001, and then...

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

Summary:


The UK's flood control programme has been criticised for its lack of transparency and lack of transparency.
The UK's flood control programme has been criticised for its lack of transparency and lack of transparency.
The UK's flood control programme has been criticised for its lack of transparency and lack of transparency.
The UK's flood

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

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

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

Summary: The "cost of dying" is more than 10% higher than it was this time last year, according to a report.
###
Article: The Eurogroup agreed to a series of measures, which include waiving an interest rate increase which was due to take place next year.
Other measures will also lighten the burden, without cutting the overall debt pile.
But ministers did not sign-off a second review of Greece's bailout programme, which could unlock further debt relief.
Greece has needed three bailouts since 2010 and relies on credit from international bodies to avoid bankruptcy.
Monday's measures to ease the debt burden are being seen as a reward for the progress that Greece has made in cutting spending and reforming its economy.
"This will start helping the Greek economy all at once," said Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos.
It's not the first time Greece has received debt relief from the eurozone. It probably won't be the last either.
It is not a reduction in the value of the outstanding debt - a "haircut" for the lenders.
That has been ruled out many times by the eurozone. It would be politically toxic back home for the likes of Germany.
The relief comes instead in the shape of lower interest rates and longer repayment periods.
That is still worth having. If you take this kind of thing far enough it gradually takes a loan closer to being a grant.
All the same, the pressure on the eurozone to do more for its biggest bailout customer will surely come back.
But eurozone ministers said there were still questions to be answered over reform efforts, which is why the latest review of the bailout process has still not been approved.
Differences also remain over Greece's 2018 budget plan.
A successful review would trigger further talks over debt relief.
They could even result in Greek bonds being approved for purchase by the European Central Bank, which would be an important breakthrough.
Talks over the bailout programme have been complicated by disagreement between the International Monetary Fund and European officials.
The IMF wants a reduction in the face value of Greek debt, but that is opposed by European ministers and, in particular, Germany.

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

Summary:


The UFC has been in talks with the UFC since the end of the year, but it has not been clear whether the UFC will be able to continue its sponsorship of the event.

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

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

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

Summary: Devices for playing music come and go - cassette tapes, MP3 players and CDs have all had their time as digital downloads take over.
###
Article: Det Supt Steve Fulcher did not caution Christopher Halliwell before the former taxi driver led him to the body of Becky Godden in 2011.
As a result, Halliwell was never charged over her death.
In October 2012, Halliwell was jailed for life for the murder of 22-year-old Sian O'Callaghan.
Mr Fulcher was brought before the formal misconduct hearing after an inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
The IPCC found Mr Fulcher had breached the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (Pace) and it recommended Wiltshire Police should consider a charge of gross misconduct against Mr Fulcher.
The hearing is due to continue tomorrow.
Miss Godden was last seen alive by a police officer in Swindon in December 2002.
Halliwell led police to her body in a shallow grave in Eastleach, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, in 2011, shortly after he confessed to killing 22-year-old Miss O'Callaghan, from Swindon.
In October 2012 the former taxi driver was jailed for life for Miss O'Callaghan's murder.
However, a High Court judge ruled his confessions over Miss Godden were inadmissible, as there had been "wholesale and irretrievable breaches" of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (Pace) guidelines.
Under Pace rules, which govern the questioning of suspects, Halliwell should have been cautioned several times during cross-examination.
But during a court hearing in 2012, Mr Fulcher, who advised officers across the country on how to conduct murder investigations, admitted he had not "considered it".
He added: "I believed that again, the right thing to do was take the information he was prepared to give, but I accept he was not cautioned at that time."
Mr Fulcher also admitted during cross-examination that he had become "frustrated" that Halliwell had refused to answer any more questions, having finally spoken to a solicitor.
"I thought it was utterly ridiculous that someone would take me, 12 other people and a surveillance helicopter to the deposition site of two bodies and then seek to find some loophole or quirk in...

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

Summary:


The council has been working with the council to ensure the public knows urinating in the street will not be tolerated.
The council has been working with the council to ensure the public knows urinating in the street will not be tolerated.
The council has been working with the council to ensure the public knows urinating in

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

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

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

Summary: Revellers will receive £75 fines if they are caught urinating in streets and doorways instead of using open-air urinals in Swansea city centre.
###
Article: The quarterly house price index compiled by the Ulster University suggests prices dropped 6.5% between the end of 2015 and this March.
Its report said there was "a mini-correction" in the market.
It said uncertainty at the outcome of the 23 June EU vote "will undoubtedly have impacted negatively on the market."
Last week, official government figures showed Northern Ireland property prices fell for the first time in three years.
The university's research suggests the average house price in the first quarter of 2016 was Â£146,472.
Over the quarter, all property types, with the exception of semi-detached bungalows, suffered reduced price levels.
Professor Stanley McGreal from Ulster University said: "The research statistics are reflective of mixed feelings by the sector across Northern Ireland.
"Some estate agents attribute the apparent slowing in first quarter simply to a seasonal fluctuation, others attribute it to house buyers' concerns of economic uncertainty."

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

Summary:


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

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

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

Summary: More than 1.8 million penalty charge notices have been issued to drivers failing to pay the new cashless payment system on the Dartford crossing.
###
Article: Combined Parking Solutions took Edward Wales to court for parking in a SkyPark car park in Glasgow, used by McDonald's customers, on 33 occasions last year.
Mr Wales and the company reached a settlement before a civil hearing.
The company warned there was a misconception that drivers could park in private car parks.
There are a number of red signs at the car park site on Houldsworth Street in the west of Glasgow warning of the maximum stay conditions for customers of the nearby McDonalds restaurant.
If they stay more than two hours they receive a fixed parking charge of £100 which is reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days. It increases to £150 per ticket to cover costs if it remains unpaid.
The company claimed that on each occasion Mr Wales was issued with a ticket he did not appeal, and that he later said he had been told and read online that charges for private parking were not enforceable in Scotland.
Mike Perkins, operations manager of Combined Parking Solutions, said: "Yet again this is another case of someone logging onto the internet forums or listing to unqualified people that parking charges are not enforceable and yet again the courts agree they are fully enforceable and they continue to do so.
"If Mr Wales had consulted a real solicitor from the outset he would have only received one charge at £60 and not almost £3,000."

Summary: A man who repeatedly parked in a private car park for longer than the two-hour limit has had to pay almost £3,000 in unpaid parking fees.
###
Article: Net mortgage lending fell to £2.4bn in the April-to-June quarter, down from £3.5bn a year earlier.
The building society also said more people opened a current account with it during the three-month period than with any other provider.
Nationwide's profits for the quarter fell 20% to £322m, after last year's results were helped by a one-off gain.
A year earlier, the building society had received a £100m boost to its profits from the sale of its investment in Visa Europe.
Announcing the latest results, chief executive Joe Garner said "Profit performance in the first quarter remained comfortably within our strategic target range and, after allowing for one-off items, was broadly consistent with the prior period."
Nationwide had a 13% share of the mortgage market in the quarter, down from 15% in the same time last year.
A spokesman for the building society said it expected its buy-to-let lending to remain "broadly flat".
Nationwide had "raised the bar for landlord's affordability before most other lenders with the aim of helping ensure our borrowers can meet future repayments", he added.
"This, together with a softening of lending due to Stamp Duty and tax changes, led to a decline in buy-to-let."
In the first quarter Nationwide opened 202,000 new current accounts, a rise of 17% on the same time last year.
The company also said that more than a fifth (22.4%) of all people switching current accounts had moved to Nationwide.

Summary:


The man has been criticised for his role in the campaign for the Labour Party's candidate for the party's candidate for the party's candidate for the party's candidate for the party's candidate for the party's candidate for the party's candidate for the party's candidate for the party's candidate for the party's candidate for the

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

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

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

Summary: Public health chiefs have advised the health secretary to introduce a sugar tax as part of a range of measures to tackle child obesity.
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Article: He told BBC Two's Newsnight programme he did not like the idea of "clobbering people" and preferred a Lib Dem idea of adding new council tax bands.
"It will take longer to introduce, that's true, but it will be more effective and efficient," he said.
Labour said it was right to ask the rich to make a bigger contribution.
The mansion tax is one of Labour's main 2015 manifesto commitments, with the proceeds due to be used to fund the recruitment of 38,000 new GPs, nurses, midwives and other NHS professionals.
Several Labour candidates for Mayor of London in 2016 have expressed concerns that the steep rise in house prices in the English capital in recent years will see family homes become liable for the tax.
And Lord Mandelson, a leading Blairite who served as business secretary in the last Labour government, suggested it was not the best way to address problems of inequality and concentration of wealth among an increasingly small, international elite.
"We don't have an efficient way of taxing property in Britain," he said. "I don't happen to think the mansion tax is the right policy response to that, I think it's crude, I think it's short-termist.
"What we need is what I think the Liberal Democrats are proposing and that is the introduction of further bands that relate to different values of property within the council tax system. That's what I would like to see.
"It will take longer to introduce, that's true, but it will be more effective and efficient in the long term than just sort of clobbering people with a rather sort of crude, short-term mansion tax".
Under its plans, Labour has said most people who own homes worth between £2m and £3m will pay £250 a month in extra taxes while owners of homes worth "tens of millions" and second home owners would pay much higher rates.
It has said the tax would apply to fewer than 0.5% of homes in the UK, since the threshold for the tax will rise in line with average prices for high-value properties, not inflation.
Labour MP and London mayoral candidate Diane Abbott...

Summary: Labour's proposed "mansion tax" on properties worth more than £2m is "crude" and "short-termist", ex-Cabinet minister Lord Mandelson has said.
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Article: He is appealing against an appeal court ruling lifting a ban on him being named in the media in England and Wales.
The Supreme Court said it will now hear arguments about whether it should grant an appeal, and if so, decide if it should be "allowed or dismissed".
An interim injunction will remain in place until the end of the hearing.
On Monday, Court of Appeal judges gave the man - who has young children, and whose spouse is also in the public eye - until 10:00 BST on Tuesday to apply to take the case to the UK Supreme Court.
In that ruling, they said there must be no publication leading to disclosure of the celebrity's identity before 13:00 BST on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court said that interim injunction will now remain in place until the conclusion of the next hearing.
The Sun on Sunday wants to publish an account of alleged extra-marital activities by the man, who is referred to as PJS.
But he argues he has a right to privacy and has taken legal action.
Monday's court judgement said the celebrity had "occasional sexual encounters" with another person - referred to in court as AB - starting in 2009.
They had a text message exchange in December 2011 in which they discussed a "three-way" with AB's partner, CD.
Accordingly, the three met for a three-way sexual encounter.
In January, the two other parties approached the Sun On Sunday with the story.
That month a High Court judge refused to impose an injunction barring publication.
But the man appealed and two appeal court judges ruled in his favour. They prevented him being identified in publications in England and Wales.
Lawyers for News Group Newspapers - publishers of the Sun On Sunday - then asked Court of Appeal judges to lift the ban.
They argued that stories had been published in the US, Scotland and elsewhere where the injunction does not apply. The story had also spread across the internet and on Twitter.
PJS opposed that application and said the ban should stay.
On Monday, the judges ruled that PJS was now unlikely to be able to get a permanent...

Summary:


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

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

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

Summary: The national minimum wage will increase by 19p an hour to £6.50, the government has announced.
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Article: Militia groups aligned to the UN-brokered Libyan Government of National Accord launched an operation in May to rid Sirte of IS and regain control of the city. The battle to expel the jihadists has achieved more success recently with the help of US air strikes.
It has damaged the jihadists, but does not spell the end for their presence in the country.
Losing Sirte is a blow to the group's image. In its propaganda, IS had repeatedly portrayed the city, close to western Europe, as a key position outside of its main areas of operation in Iraq and Syria.
IS turned key buildings in Sirte into its own institutions and prisons, and used the local radio station to air its propaganda.
The city, which was the birthplace of former leader Muammar Gaddafi, also brought IS close to Libya's oil-rich area.
No, but it is still present elsewhere in the country.
Its militants have long been fighting other forces in pockets of Libya's second city, Benghazi, and have recently launched several attacks on its western outskirts.
IS took complete control of Sirte in June 2015 after it was pushed out of its initial stronghold of Derna in Libya's far east by rival militias aligned with al-Qaeda
There are no reliable figures about the number of IS militants in Libya but it is estimated that the group has about 5,000 fighters in the country, many of who were thought to have been deployed in Sirte.
Caught on the back foot, the group may initially dissolve into desert areas and revert to earlier tactics.
Before it lost Derna, the group made its presence felt elsewhere in Libya by carrying out repeated bombings in the key cities of Tripoli and Benghazi, as well as of oil installations partly run by Western companies.
And now, putting up resistance as it loses the battle in Sirte, IS has again been employing suicide bombings as a means of attack.
Some believe IS fighters might flee to remote areas in the south. If they choose this route, they could head for the Sahel-Sahara area, where other jihadists are present and operate relatively...

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

Summary:


The SDSR is a "new" weapon, with a range of weapons that can be used to destroy enemy ships.
The SDSR is a "new" weapon, with a range of weapons that can be used to destroy enemy ships.
The SDSR is a "new" weapon, with

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

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

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

Summary: Japan's Emperor Akihito has strongly indicated he wants to step down, saying he fears his age will make it difficult to fulfil his duties.
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Article: B2Space and Snowdonia Aerospace Centre want to create 93 specialist jobs at Llanbedr airfield, Gwynedd.
The number is based on it launching 30 satellites a year by 2020 for purposes including tracking changes to the environment and coastlines.
The former military airfield is also one of eight shortlisted by the UK government to launch commercial space flights.
B2Space's Valentin Canales said about 3,000 micro satellites will need launching in the next five years as we "use space in a way that hasn't been considered before".
His firm and the aerospace centre have bid for grants totalling £10m to make the field, near Harlech, a key UK site for this.
Other possible uses for them include providing communications to remote areas or for natural disaster management.
"Wales is already a centre of excellence for aerospace manufacturing and has the physical and intellectual infrastructure to support the growing space market," said Mr Canales.
His firm will relocate from Bristol to Llanbedr if the project is successful in providing people, companies and organisations with access to small satellites.
A spokesman for the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre said the development of a low-cost satellite launch operation will be a catalyst for innovation and jobs.
"The project has the potential to attract technology, research, and investment from around the world," added John Idris Jones, chairman of Snowdonia Enterprise Zone.
"The development means lots of opportunities for the north Wales supply chain and will provide a real boost to the wider Wales space sector."
Llanbedr has also bid to become the UK's first commercial passenger spaceport and bids for £10m funding were submitted to the UK Space Agency in April.

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

Summary: