The discharge of black smelly wastewater at the base of Niagara Falls has prompted calls for a criminal inquiry.

Article: Yet this is the messaging service which could soon be banned by the British government because its use of encryption makes it too private for the security services to access. That at least was the story repeated in several newspapers in recent weeks, and frequently denied by Downing Street.
But this morning even the Financial Times seemed to back it up. In an article about the battle between governments and corporations over access to encrypted messages it says this: "David Cameron, UK prime minister, has proposed a complete ban on strong encryption 'to ensure that terrorists do not have a safe space in which to communicate'."
WhatsApp is just one of the services that uses strong encryption for their messages, along with Apple's iMessage and Skype's internet calls. Both the US and UK governments have expressed growing concerns that criminals and terrorists are making use of such services to communicate, knowing that they are completely private.
So does the prime minister really want to ban them? The idea first arose in a speech he made in January which posed this rhetorical question: "In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which even in extremis, with a signed warrant from the Home Secretary personally,  that we cannot read?" His answer was no.
That was seen as a clear signal that the government would demand that corporations like Facebook, Apple and Microsoft - which owns Skype - should either provide a backdoor to their encryption or stop using it completely. The government insisted that this was an over-interpretation of his remarks, and everything went quiet for a while.
Then after the election it became clear that a new and comprehensive communications data bill would clarify and extend the access of the police and security services to data held by the internet companies.  That brought more speculation about a ban on end to end encryption.
That was reinforced when in a response to a question from a Conservative MP, the prime minister used a very similar form of words...

Summary: Eight hundred million people around the world use WhatsApp to communicate, we learned this week from its owners, Facebook.
###
Article: The top-level figure - that Scotland's population has grown to a record high of 5.37m - is no surprise. It's been growing steadily since 2000 and NRS statisticians predict it will continue to do so until at least 2039.
But beneath that top number is a huge amount of other data, contained in almost endless spreadsheets, which is published each year as part of the review.
The statistics paint a fascinating and occasionally surprising picture of Scotland - the state of the nation, as the NRS puts it.
Births, deaths and marriages are the bread and butter of the NRS's annual review.
1. The figures tell us there were 55,098 births and 57,579 deaths registered.
2. There were also 29,691 weddings and 1,671 of them were same-sex marriages.
3. Only 64 couples opted for a civil partnership last year - 33 of them male couples and 31 female couples.
4. Of the deaths, 1,150 were related to alcohol.
5. 147 men died in transport accidents, compared to 44 women.
6. There were 504 adoptions - the highest figure for 10 years
7. In 2014, there were 433,235 people in Scotland aged over 75.
8. NRS statisticians predict this figure will grow to more than 800,000 by 2039 - an increase of 85%.
9. If you were a woman aged 50 or 51 last year, there were more of you than anyone else.
10. Your life expectancy at birth in Glasgow was 73.4. In East Dunbartonshire, it was 80.7.
11. The average age at death last year was 76.9.
12. The area of Scotland with the fastest growing population over the last 10 years is East Lothian - up 11.1%.
13. Argyll & Bute and Inverclyde are the fastest shrinking - both down 3.8%.
14. 24 is the most common age for people to leave Scotland. The destination for 2,060 of you last year was elsewhere in the UK, with 1,011 going abroad.
15. If you're aged 90 or more and moved to Scotland from overseas last year, there are seven others who did just that.

Summary: The National Records of Scotland (NRS) has published its annual review of the country's population statistics in 2015.
###
Article: The announcement from the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) comes in the run-up to crucial local elections in August - and in the aftermath of violent protests in the northern province of Limpopo in which more than 20 schools were torched.
"As the SABC, we are very clear that we are going to cover protests that are happening and we are going to make sure that we are going to do that without fear or favour," its statement said.
"When we are covering those protests where there are people destroying the property, we are not going to show that footage on our television. If there is sound that will encourage that behaviour then we will not use that sound on our radio stations."
South Africa has a history of violent demonstrations, going back to the days when people protested against white minority rule under the violent apartheid system.
The school burnings over the past month were prompted by villagers angered that moves to include their neighbourhoods into a new municipality would delay efforts to get them better housing and water.
The education ministry says hundreds of school children may miss their mid-year exams.
The government has provided more than 76 mobile classrooms but teaching has not yet resumed.
The SABC's ban has ignited wide condemnation from free-speech advocates, including the South African National Editor's Forum (Sanef).
"We would like to urge the SABC to review that decision because there is no evidence at the moment to prove that the broadcast of such incidents fuels them," Sanef chairman Mpumelelo Mkhabela said.
"Until such time that there is such research and concrete proof, I do not think such a drastic decision should be taken by the SABC."
Opposition parties, which regularly complain that the public broadcaster has turned into a state broadcaster, also weighed in.
Inkatha Freedom Party's parliamentary whip Liezl van der Merwe accused the SABC of flouting the Broadcasting Act.
She said the SABC, sometimes referred to by its critics as Fawlty Towers after the British sitcom...

Summary: South Africa's public broadcaster has come under fire for its decision to ban the broadcast of footage showing the "destruction of property" during violent protests.
###
Article: Prince Philip is being treated at King Edward VII hospital in central London for an infection arising from a pre-existing condition.
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said the 96-year-old would stay in the private hospital overnight, but continued to be in good spirits.
The BBC understands his hospital stay is "not a cause for serious concern".
The duke was with the Queen at Trooping the Colour on Saturday and the opening day of Royal Ascot on Tuesday.
However, after being admitted to hospital on Tuesday evening, he missed Wednesday's State Opening of Parliament, where his place was taken by the Prince of Wales, and a second day at Ascot.
Prince Charles, on a visit to Finsbury Park following Monday's terror attack, said his father was "getting better".
It is understood the duke was not admitted to hospital as an emergency but, on a doctor's advice, was driven from Windsor Castle on Tuesday evening.
Earlier, BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt said that, given the duke is being treated for a pre-existing condition, it is safe to assume that he is suffering from the recurrence of the bladder infection he suffered twice in 2012.
He is not bedridden, according to officials, but up and about inside the private hospital.
Prince Philip has spent much of his life in good health, but he was treated for a blocked coronary artery in 2011 and the bladder infection the following year.
The latter saw him miss much of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
The duke backs healthy eating and exercise.
He drinks moderately, takes the stairs and says he still fits into the uniform he wore on the day he married the Queen, almost 70 years ago.
Prince Philip said in May that he would retire from royal duties this autumn, a move supported by the Queen.

Summary: The Duke of Edinburgh is to spend a second night in hospital after being admitted as "a precautionary measure".
###
Article: He said a hard border, with customs checks, will have to be re-introduced because of the UK's decision to leave most of the customs union under Brexit.
Mr Ahern drew a comparison with the IRA's Border Campaign in the 1950s.
But he said he did not expect a return to large-scale violence.
Mr Ahern was speaking to BBC Newsnight ahead of elections to Northern Ireland's Assembly on Thursday.
The elections were triggered after Sinn FÃ©in, which has shared power with the Democratic Unionist Party for 10 years, withdrew its support from the executive, in a row over a renewable heating scheme.
But there has also been a loss of trust between between Sinn FÃ©in and the DUP over issues such as the legacy of the Troubles and the impact of the Brexit vote.
The UK government has pledged to ensure there will be no return to the "hard border" of the past between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
But Mr Ahern told Newsnight that the UK's decision to sever its links with most of the EU's customs union means that a hard border, with customs checks, will have to be re-introduced.
"Nobody envisaged that this would end up where it is. And a year ago, I would not say there was a voter that was on the outside that thought of a customs union on the border," he said.
"I tried to warn of that, but people didn't want to listen to it - including the Conservative politicians who should have."
The former prime minister said that the re-introduction of border posts could be used by dissident Irish republicans to justify their existing campaign of violence.
"The 1956-62 border campaign was targeted in a very clear way against checks on the border. There were mainly southern IRA activists who attacked the posts on the border.
"There is no doubt about it. Those people - small as they are - are always dangerous because anyone who plays the game of armed struggle or violence is always the danger.
"They would see checks on the border, and customs officers on the border, and the identification of the border, as in some way justifying...

Summary: The former Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern has warned dissident Republicans could use a re-introduction of border posts in Northern Ireland to justify their campaign of violence.
###
Article: The Niagara County Legislature voted in favour of asking New York's attorney general to investigate on Thursday.
The local water authority said the colour was caused by residue from black carbon filters used to clean the water.
The water authority says July's treatment process was necessary and the discharge within "permitted limits".
An inky and foul-smelling cloud of water appeared at the base of Niagara Falls on 29 July 2017.
Some initially suspected an oil spill, but the Niagara Falls Water Board (NFWB) said it was caused by a "routine" water treatment and apologised for causing alarm to residents and tourists.
In a statement the board said the "inky water" was the result of a "necessary and short term change in the waste water treatment process" at its plant near the city of Buffalo.
Officials say the plant had the correct paperwork to release the discharge - which came from one of its five sediment filtration basins and was being flushed out over the weekend in preparation for contractors to begin upgrade work.

Summary:


Reported incidents of livestock worrying have risen by 55%, according to police.

Article: The funding is compensation for fresh produce which will not be sold. Instead it will be distributed free to schools, hospitals and other institutions.
Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, grapes and pears are included in the scheme.
Russia has banned many food imports, angry at EU-US sanctions over Ukraine.
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted on Monday that the EU sanctions must stay in place "in order to show how serious we are" on the Ukraine crisis.
She was speaking in Latvia, an EU member state with a large ethnic Russian minority. Its Baltic neighbour Lithuania is especially hard hit by the Russian import ban.
EU and US sanctions are targeting top Russian officials and key economic sectors, such as energy and finance, as Western leaders accuse the Kremlin of destabilising eastern Ukraine by supporting the pro-Russian separatists there.
The first round of Western sanctions came after Russia annexed Crimea in March.
Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday he did not think the Russian ban would push up food prices, but he added: "I hope these measures won't last very long".
The embargo would encourage competition, giving Russian farmers more market access, he argued. He criticised "a situation where all the apples, for example, come from Poland or some other products - say fish is an example - all from Norway".
In the EU the biggest exporters of fresh fruit and nuts to Russia were its neighbours Poland (339m euros) and Lithuania (309m euros) in 2013. They were also the biggest for fresh vegetables (Lithuania - 340m and Poland - 173m).
Last week the Commission announced plans to pay peach and nectarine growers for 10% of their crop, and the new funding expands that aid to many more producers.
The crops affected by the EU compensation scheme are those in full season now, with no storage option for most of them and no immediate alternative market available, a statement from Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said.
"All farmers of the concerned products - whether in producer organisations...

Summary: The European Commission has announced emergency EU funding of 125m euros (£100m; $170m) for fruit and vegetable growers hit by Russia's ban on most imported Western food.
###
Article: As Wimbledon warms up, University of Sussex researchers say they have found the pitch of grunts can help predict who will win a match.
Footage was analysed from 50 matches featuring some of the world's top 30 players and showed grunts were higher pitched in matches they lost.
Researchers said they could often predict the match winner from listening to players' grunts.
Grunts from both male and female players were measured during serves, backhand and forehand shorts by researcher Jordan Raine, together with mammal communication experts Professor David Reby and Dr Kasia Pisanski.
They recorded at what stage of each match the grunts were produced, as well as whether the players won or lost the match.
While the pitch generally increased as matches progressed, the study, published in the journal Animal Behaviour, found the likely match outcome was often apparent from the outset.
Mr Raine, who is also university tennis team captain, said this suggested shifts in pitch may reflect longer term physiological or psychological factors, including a players' "previous encounters, form, world ranking, fatigue, and injuries".
But he added it could be something many players have tuned into for a long time, with the form of non-verbal communication linked with an animalistic display of dominance.
When a selection of the athletes were played short clips of other players' grunts with no other information, they could tell which of two grunt sequences produced by the same player came from a match that the player lost.
Mr Raine added: "Male red deer use the roars of competing males to assess their size, and therefore who is likely to emerge from conflict victorious. Humans are no exception."
He said that because "anatomy and physiology affect the vocal apparatus of all mammals in the same way", the noise animals made inadvertently gave others clues about their "physical attributes and internal state, whether dog, deer, or Novak Djokovic".
Grunting has been a controversial part of tennis for a number of years, the 1990s Yugoslav...

Summary: A low-pitched grunt is a winning giveaway in tennis, a study has shown.
###
Article: The Food and Drug Administration said the ban would prevent under-18s from using sunlamp tanning beds, which have been linked to increased rates of skin cancer including of melanoma.
Tanning beds typically expose the users to 12 times more UV rays then the sun.
Market research firm IBIS World estimates the US tanning market to be a $3bn industry.
According to a 2013 study, 1.6 million minors used tanning beds in America.
"Today's action is intended to help protect young people from a known and preventable cause of skin cancer and other harms," said FDA acting commissioner Stephen Ostroff in a statement on Friday. He added that under-18s were at "greatest risk" for these adverse effects.
A study by the American Academy of Dermatology found that people who use tanning beds are 59% more likely to develop melanoma than those who have never used them.
The FDA also proposed requiring new safety standards including requiring emergency shut-off switches, making warning labels easier to read and improving protective eyewear.

Summary: US health officials have proposed a ban on tanning beds for minors to help address the risk of skin cancer.
###
Article: Clarach landed in Glaslyn, Snowdonia, on Tuesday.
Welshpool-based Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust said she was the first chick from the Dyfi Osprey Project to be seen again as an adult.
The organisation said: "We've witnessed another milestone in the developing story of Welsh osprey recolonisation."
Clarach was born in 2013 and migrated in September that year.
Emyr Evans, Dyfi Osprey Project manager, said: "When they're chicks they migrate, mostly to Africa, and they stay there for two or three years. Then they come back, but two thirds usually die on the journey.
"It's an enormous task and challenge to try and find the birds, but what happened yesterday is that one of our adults was re-sighted as an adult back in Wales. This is the first time any of the Dyfi birds have been re-sighted back as adults."
It is not known if Clarach came back to Wales last year, but was not recorded.
A blog post on the Dyfi Osprey Project's website called this "the promised land" and apologised to any visitors on Tuesday who "may have encountered crying, shouting and hysterical volunteers".

Summary: An osprey from a Powys breeding programme has returned to its nest, becoming its first to be re-sighted in the UK, a wildlife trust has said.
###
Article: Mark Barnes said the attack on some versions of the Echo let him do almost anything he wanted to it.
Mr Barnes managed to enter the device's software innards via connections found on its base.
He said taking over the device was "trivial" once an attacker had access to an Echo.
Amazon's Echo uses artificial intelligence (AI) to respond to voice commands from users to carry out many different functions, including answering queries, playing songs and ordering goods from a retailer.
The hack started by peeling off the rubber base of the Echo to expose a grid of electrical contacts, wrote the researcher from MWR Info Security in a blog.
Connecting to one of the contacts let Mr Barnes watch the Echo's boot-up procedure and work out how it was configured. Armed with this knowledge Mr Barnes wrote software that, once loaded on a small memory card and connected to one contact pad, gave him control over the device.
Using this he examined how it handled audio and then created attack code which forwarded everything it heard to a remote server.
That deep access meant he had complete control over the code the device ran and what it did with customer data, he said.
Amazon did not comment directly on Mr Barnes' findings but said in a statement: "Customer trust is very important to us.
"To help ensure the latest safeguards are in place, as a general rule, we recommend customers purchase Amazon devices from Amazon or a trusted retailer and that they keep their software up-to-date."
The security researcher acknowledged that the requirement to get physical access to the device to carry out the attack was a "major limitation".
However, he added, it was possible that Echo owners would take their devices with them on holidays or business trips - situations that could expose them to attack. Second-hand devices may also be compromised in some way.
The attack was carried out on the versions of the Echo that were released in 2015 and 2016. More recent versions of the Echo are not susceptible to the same attack.
Mr Barnes recommended...

Summary: Amazon's Echo smart speaker can be hacked to send the audio stream of everything it hears to an attacker, says a researcher.
###
Article: There were 70 reports during the lambing season earlier this year compared with 45 over the same time last year.
Police Scotland said the crime, which involved dogs chasing farm animals, had previously been under-reported.
It said 60% of this year's incidents were detected and the dogs' owners reported to the procurator fiscal.
Most of the offences reported were in Aberdeenshire, Highlands and Islands and Lanarkshire.
Sheep were the most common animal affected. Other animals involved included horses and cattle.
In 79% of incidents, livestock were killed or injured, and on average this involved two or three sheep per incident.
Most incidents - 70% - involved only one dog and in 73% of cases the offending dog was local to that area, with more than half of all incidents involving a dog roaming free and where no owner was present.
Insp Jane Donaldson, Police Scotland's rural crime co-ordinator, said the rise in reports followed a campaign encouraging farmers and crofters to contact police about livestock worrying incidents.
She said: "Livestock worrying has previously been under-reported.
"Farmers were often reluctant to report incidents to police, particularly where there was a 'near miss' and no physical damage was done to their livestock.
"A significant part of the spring campaign was to get this message out to farmers and encourage them to report all incidents and I think that this is reflected in the increase in reported crimes.
"More accurate reporting has improved our understanding of the problem, increasing intelligence about the how, where and why these incidents are occurring."
Anne Gray, policy officer with Scottish Land and Estates, said: "We are very pleased with how successful this year's campaign has been and we will continue to support the initiative going forward.
"It is vital that livestock worrying incidents are reduced.
"No-one wants to see this type of completely unnecessary suffering and the higher the profile of these incidents the more, we hope, it will prompt the small minority of...

Summary:

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Boris Johnson "should have known better" when he gave his wife a "backie" on his bike while cycling in London, safety campaigners have said.

Article: The US president signed the executive order to stop federal money going to international groups which perform or provide information on abortions during his first week in office.
Known as the "Mexico City Policy", or global gag rule by critics, it was no surprise that he reinstated it. First introduced by Ronald Reagan in 1984, it has been become a game of policy ping pong between Republican and Democrat presidents.
Supporters of the ban say it protects the fundamental right to life.
But some health workers in Africa say when it was last put in place under George W Bush in 2001, it had far-reaching consequences.
"Women could not have access to contraceptive services and so they were getting unintended pregnancies and that increased the number of unwanted pregnancies and as such they went to the backstreet to do unsafe abortions," says Kenyan gynaecologist Dr John Nyamu.
The policy blocks US funding to overseas organisations that "support or participate in the management of a programme of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation".
It even affects countries like Kenya - where abortion is illegal unless a mother's life is at risk - as some family planning clinics or organisations get their funding from US pro-abortion groups.
The Trump order goes even further than previous Republican administrations, which only targeted reproductive health services, by extending the ban to cover all global health assistance provided by all departments or agencies.
"By removing funding from organisations that also deal with malaria and other child health issues, the policy could threaten progress on many fronts, including efforts to reduce HIV-related deaths and new infections, and decrease childhood mortality through malaria prevention and treatment initiatives and immunisation programs," Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a statement.
The medical charity does not receive US government funding - so is not affected by the policy - but it fears that women's lives could be endangered.
Unsafe abortion is one of the five...

Summary: Donald Trump's pro-abortion funding ban has infuriated many global health organisations as they say it will unintentionally lead to more abortions and more deaths in Africa.
###
Article: He said the UK government was opening negotiations over a £1bn tidal lagoon energy project in Swansea, and on an infrastructure "city deal" for Cardiff.
Severn Bridge tolls - currently £6.50 for cars and £13.10 for vans - will be cut in 2018 to £5.40 for both.
However, Wales' Finance Minister Jane Hutt said the "devastating impact" of austerity cuts was set to continue.
Giving his sixth Budget speech in the House of Commons, the chancellor hailed "a truly national recovery" and record levels of employment.
It was Mr Osborne's final chance to woo floating voters ahead of the general election on 7 May.
He insisted that deficit reduction remained his top priority, but also unveiled measures to raise the tax allowance to £10,800 next year and the starting point of the 40p tax rate to £43,300 by 2017.
The chancellor also announced plans to scrap annual tax returns and replace them with "digital tax accounts", allowing people to manage their affairs using smartphones or computers.
Other measures include:
The National Farmers' Union welcomed a promise that farmers will be able to assess their income for tax purposes across five years as "fantastic news".
The Wales Air Ambulance service has also been promised a share of an extra £10m funding.
Some of the plans in Mr Osborne's statement are likely to depend on a Conservative victory on 7 May - whoever wins the election is likely to set out another Budget later this year.
Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb, a fellow Conservative minister, hailed it as "a Budget to help secure Wales' future".
"It is a Budget that will cement the economic recovery in Wales, that backs business in Wales and that will make a real difference to the lives of hardworking people right across our nation," he said.
The Labour Welsh government's finance minister Jane Hutt said the Budget would result in an extra £18m coming to Wales in 2015-16 under the Barnett formula, but that would be overshadowed by the Treasury's wider cutbacks.
"The UK Government's austerity programme during this Parliament has...

Summary: Chancellor George Osborne has said more power is being given to Wales, as he delivered his Budget speech.
###
Article: Although the solitude provided by the surrounding seas and oceans has been - at times - the UK's greatest defence, it can also pose the greatest threat to the estimated three million people that live within its coastal reaches.
The danger of the sea was brought home for thousands of people in the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK during the night of 31 January 1953.
A massive storm surge swept into unsuspecting, sleeping communities, claiming the lives of 2,551 people, damaging almost 50,000 properties and killing tens of thousands of livestock.
Described as one of the UK's worst natural disasters in modern times, the Great North Sea Flood inundated 1,000 miles of coastline and left 380 square miles of land submerged under seawater, ruining vast areas of valuable farmland.
"1953 exposed the weaknesses of the east coast flood defence system in a dramatic and tragic manner," explained Phil Rothwell, head of flood and coastal risk strategy for the Environment Agency.
"Following on from that, there was significant investment in the weak points and where the problems were likely to be greatest."
He told BBC News that it led to a re-evaluation of defences around the entire coastlines of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
One of the outcomes from the process was the design and construction of the Thames Flood Barrier, which began operating in 1984.
"Although we tend to think of the 1953 flood as a South-East event, the impact was felt all along the [North Sea] coast," he explained.
While 307 people in England died in the flood, 19 people in Scotland also lost their lives.
'Extreme storm surge'
Chris Hughes, a researcher at the National Oceanography Centre and the University of Liverpool, explained that a storm surge referred to a rise in sea-level on top of the tide.
"Storm surges of some kind happen every day," he told BBC News.
"It only gets unpleasant for people when you have an extreme storm surge, which is what we are seeing at the moment.
"This requires a combination of usually low atmospheric...

Summary: The United Kingdom is an island nation with more than 11,000 miles of coastline.
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Article: The book, The New Harvest, by Harvard University professor Calestous Juma, calls on African leaders to make agricultural expansion central to all decision-making.
Improvements in infrastructure, mechanisation and GM crops could vastly increase production, he claims.
The findings are being presented to African leaders in Tanzania today.
The presidents of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are holding an informal summit to discuss African food security and climate change.
Speaking to the BBC ahead of the meeting, Professor Juma said African leaders had to recognise that "agriculture and economy for Africa are one and the same".
"It is the responsibility of an African president to modernise the economy and that means essentially starting with the modernisation of agriculture," he said.
Global food production has rocketed in recent decades but has stagnated in many parts of Africa, despite the continent having "abundant" arable land and labour, says Professor Juma.
He estimates that while food production has grown globally by 145% over the past 40 years, African food production has fallen by 10% since 1960, which he attributes to low investment.
While 70% of Africans may be engaged in farming, those who are undernourished on the continent has risen by 100 million to 250 million since 1990, he estimates.
The professor's blueprint calls for the expansion of basic infrastructure, including new road, irrigation and energy schemes.
Farms should be mechanised, storage and processing facilities built, while biotechnology and GM crops should be used where they can bring benefits.
But what was needed above all else was the political will at the highest level.
"You can modernise agriculture in an area by simply building roads, so that you can send in seed and move out produce," he told the BBC.
"The ministers for roads are not interested in connecting rural areas, they are mostly interested in connecting urban areas. It's going to take a president to go in and say I want a link between agricultural transportation...

Summary: A new book claims Africa could feed itself within a generation, and become a major agricultural exporter.
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Article: Currently two unsuccessful reviews every 80 overs are allowed in Tests and one per innings in one-day games, but DRS did not previously feature in T20s.
The ICC proposed no loss of a review if a decision is "umpire's call" and the creation of a Test world championship.
If approved, the changes would begin on 1 October.
The ICC's 15-strong cricket committee, chaired by outgoing India coach Anil Kumble, includes a number of other leading ex-players including Andrew Strauss, director of England Cricket, Mahela Jayawardene and Rahul Dravid, plus Australia coach Darren Lehmann and director of England Women's Cricket Clare Connor.
They met in London this week and Kumble said: "We have had a wonderful couple of days discussing cricket issues and there are a number of highlights."
Find out how to get into cricket with our inclusive guide.
Should the ICC chief executives' committee approve the changes, the two new reviews after 80 overs ruling, which is currently employed in Test cricket, would be removed.
It also proposed to emulate the MCC's red card policy and give umpires the power to send players from the field in the most serious incidents of player misconduct.
All other offences would continue to be dealt with under the ICC Code of Conduct.
The committee also suggested introducing restrictions on bat dimensions - thickness of edges and depth of bat - plus a batsman will have made their ground "when a bat bounces after being grounded behind the crease by a running or diving batsman".

Summary: The Decision Review System (DRS) could be introduced in Twenty20 internationals under new proposals from the International Cricket Council.
###
Article: The mayor of London has been criticised for pedalling his barrister wife Marina Wheeler through the capital on Thursday on a bicycle designed for one person.
Giving a backie is illegal under the terms of the 1998 Road and Traffic Act. Offenders can be fined up to Â£200.
The mayor has apologised, saying he did not know he was breaking the law.
Sam Jones, from cycling charity CTC, said his actions were "very naughty".
Mr Jones said: "We wouldn't encourage other cyclists to carry passengers in such a fashion. We would never encourage cyclists to break the law."
The footage of Mr Johnson and his wife, obtained by the Sun newspaper, was shot by passengers in a passing car as the couple cycled along a road in North Kensington.
It shows Ms Wheeler sitting on the saddle, without a helmet, holding her handbag as her husband stands on the pedals.
After the passengers informed the mayor he was breaking the law, Mr Johnson stepped off the bike and said: "Night, night," to them.
They can be heard in the video asking the mayor: "Mate, you all right? Saddling, that's a good one, eh?" Another says: "You're not allowed to do that, mate."
Section 24 of the Road and Traffic Act states: "Not more than one person may be carried on a road on a bicycle not propelled by mechanical power unless it is constructed or adapted for the carriage of more than one person."
The mayor, whose responsibilities include London transport, is a keen cyclist and cycles available for public hire in London have gained the nickname "Boris bikes".
Mr Johnson's official spokesman said: "The mayor wishes to apologise for offering his wife a short-lived lift on the back of his bike!
"He was unaware that he was apparently in contravention of the Road and Traffic Act. He wasn't intending to ride all the way home from North Kensington to North London with Marina on the back; rather he was attempting to transport his wife to a main road, from where they hailed a black cab for her.
"As everyone knows the mayor is a huge supporter of cycling, and an even bigger...

Summary:


Cities in California cut water use by 31.3% in July, exceeding a state-wide mandate of 25% to combat a record four-year drought there, officials say.

Article: The Rail, Maritime and Transport union said members will walk out from 21:30 GMT on 7 March to 03:59 on 8 March.
The union claims the type of breathalyzer used did not account for people with diabetes.
London Underground said the man was dismissed for failing two breath tests which were unaffected by the condition.
It said the case had gone through a full disciplinary hearing and appeals process, as well as a separate independent director's review.
The transport authority said it had explored in detail the suggestion that diabetes could affect the breathalyser result, but concluded that the type of test it used was not affected by acetone, which is produced in the bloodstream of people with the condition.
Mick Cash, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, said there had been a campaign of "misinformation and smears" against his organisation.
He said: "This action is the first stage as part of a rolling programme of industrial action and I urge all RMT London Underground train operators and instructor operators to stand firm together against this and any future injustices against RMT members."
Nick Brown, chief operating officer of London Underground (LU), said: "This indefensible strike is about one RMT member dismissed for failing two alcohol breath tests.
"We will not be swayed by it as we will never compromise on the safety of our customers and staff. You wouldn't let someone who had been drinking alcohol drive your family in a car, and we don't let people who have been drinking alcohol drive people's families in Tube trains.
"For the RMT leadership to announce a strike regardless shows how completely out of touch they are, just as the timing demonstrates that they know they have very little support from their members on this issue."
Members voted by 299 votes to 221 to take action. The turnout was 42%.
LU said the number of drivers who had voted to take strike action represented 8% of all drivers.
In December, RMT workers held a 24-hour strike on the Northern line over the same issue.

Summary: Drivers on London Underground are to go on strike over the sacking of a colleague for failing an alcohol breath test.
###
Article: The Liberal Democrats, Greens, UKIP, DUP and UUP have all said they'll stand aside in at least one constituency.
There won't be national deals though. Co-operation will be limited to local agreements. And it's difficult to be sure how big the impact will be.
Britain's first-past-the-post electoral system means that lots of MPs are elected on fewer than half of the votes cast in their constituencies.
At the last election, 333 out of 650 winning candidates received less than 50% of the vote.
Those MPs could have been defeated if all the people who voted against them had gone for the same alternative candidate.
Clearly, that would never happen everywhere. But parties who agree on some of the main issues potentially have a lot to gain if they can co-ordinate their supporters.
One option is to encourage tactical voting. A more direct approach is to enter some sort of alliance or pact which sees parties choosing not to put forward candidates in certain seats.
Even without an agreement, parties can try to affect the result simply by choosing not to contest some constituencies.
There's going to be more co-ordination of this kind in 2017 than we've seen at previous elections.
As a strategy, though, it does rely on voters being prepared to vote for a candidate from a party which would not have been their first choice.
One part of the country where electoral deals have been used before is Northern Ireland.
In 2015, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) agreed a pact not to stand against each other in four constituencies: Belfast North, Belfast East, Fermanagh & South Tyrone, and Newry & Armagh.
The deal was pretty successful. The unionist candidate won in three of the four seats. And the Sinn Fein majority was halved in Newry and Armagh.
This year, the UUP have said they won't put up candidates in Belfast North, Belfast West and Foyle. And the DUP won't stand in Fermanagh & South Tyrone once again.
The parties have held discussions about the possibility of extending the pact but without...

Summary: The 2017 general election looks set to see more co-operation between political parties than ever before.
###
Article: The University of Exeter's art and history faculties have combined to use the historic artefacts to prompt discussions about "difficult topics".
The objects are kept in the vaults of the Science Museum in London and are not normally on public display.
Now they are going on show in Exeter as part of the new teaching programme.
The scheme, Sex and History, is aimed at school pupils aged 14 to 19.
It was developed with the help of a group of sixth form students from Exeter College, who used illustrations of the objects as a basis for exploring ideas around sex and sexual relationships.
The academics behind it believe that it offers "a safe environment" for young people to discuss how sexual practices and conventions have changed through history, and give them opportunities to examine their own views and concerns about sex.
The team was led by Exeter's professor of history Kate Fisher, and Rebecca Langlands, a classicist.
Prof Fisher said the "intriguing artefacts from ancient cultures act as a productive and challenging stimulus, but they also provide a safe distance to discuss sensitive subjects without embarrassment."
"They were talking about history, about places and times far away," she said.
"It was no longer sex education or about putting them in the spotlight, but it was about broader cultures."
Dr Langlands believes the objects were a perfect catalyst for discussion.
"They immediately kick-started conversations with young people in a way that is usually very difficult to achieve in a classroom context," she said.
"Traditionally sex education can be uncomfortable for teachers and pupils alike, and the availability of internet pornography poses new challenges.
"Young people are often well aware of the biological facts of reproduction, sexually transmitted diseases and contraception, but lack the opportunity for discussion of important wider social issues such as body image, love, consent, and intimacy."
Laura Kerslake, a lecturer in Ethics at Exeter College, where the scheme was piloted, said the objects...

Summary: Objects including a chastity belt, Roman phallic amulets and an entwined ivory couple from China are being used to teach sex education to teenagers.
###
Article: The Bank of Scotland examined house prices in towns within an hour's commute of Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
It measured them against average earnings, both locally and in relation to the nearest city.
Despite being almost 40 miles away, Motherwell topped the list as the most affordable commuter town to Edinburgh.
The North Lanarkshire town had an average house price of £130,268 compared to £225,133 in the capital.
Greenock was found to be the most affordable town in commuting distance to Glasgow, with an average house price of £120,927 compared to the Glasgow figure of £161,623. Motherwell came in second.
The report on Aberdeen found Arbroath - more than 50 miles and an hour's drive away - was the best value, with an average house price of £127,497 compared to £210,522 in Aberdeen.
The bank said commuters with a half-hour drive into Aberdeen faced average property prices of £234,143.
A separate study, How Scotland Lives, found that a shorter commute to work led to increased happiness, with those having less than a 15-minute journey claiming to be happiest.
Graham Blair, mortgage director at Bank of Scotland, said: "The length of the commute to work is a key factor when deciding where to set up home. Scotland has some great commuter towns where considerable savings on property can be made.
"However, the decision to commute is not one that should be made just on the finances. We know from our How Scotland Lives research that those who don't have to travel long distances to work are often happier.
"There are many things to take into account when looking for a new home, not just the journey time to work.
"Quality of schools, sense of space and sense of community are also important to many house hunters across Scotland."

Summary: Motherwell, Greenock and Arbroath are Scotland's most affordable commuter towns, according to a banking survey.
###
Article: Gross new business inflows for the period totalled £23.4bn - well up on the first half of 2014.
But outflows amounted to £34.7bn, substantially higher than a year ago.
Aberdeen blamed weak investor sentiment towards emerging markets and "expected structural outflows" from some institutional clients.
Despite the net outflow of funds, revenue in the first half rose by 20% to £605.2m, while underlying pre-tax profit was 25% higher at £270.2m.
Assets under management stood at £330.6bn at the end of March - about £6bn more than the same period last year.
The company said it would pay an interim dividend of 7.5p per share, an increase of 11% on last year.
In early trading, Aberdeen's share price was down by nearly 2.9% to stand at 450.30.
Chief executive Martin Gilbert said: "I am pleased to report that the group has increased its underlying profits by 25% as we benefited from the diversifying effects of the acquisition of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, which we completed a year ago.
"We remain strongly cash generative and we again increased our dividend, whilst also adding to our regulatory capital headroom.
"Gross new business inflows have continued to grow.
"However, they have been offset by outflows, which reflect changes in asset allocation driven by macro-economic factors and some structural outflows from certain clients."
He added: "Despite these headwinds we are well positioned for the long term: financially strong, with a global distribution platform and a diversified range of capabilities and solutions for the evolving investment environment."
The asset firm's results were released on the day that banking giant HSBC said it would make a decision on whether to move its headquarters out of the UK within months rather than years.
There has also been recent speculation that Standard Chartered - whose second biggest shareholder is Aberdeen Asset Management - may be considering a similar move.
Asked by the BBC News Channel if he had thought of moving his headquarters from Aberdeen, Mr Gilbert...

Summary: Aberdeen Asset Management has reported a continued outflow of funds, after a net £11.3bn was withdrawn by investors in the six months to 31 March.
###
Article: It shows Californians are starting to understand "that we are in the drought of our lives," state water regulator official Felicia Marcus said.
It is the second month in a row the state has exceeded emergency conservation regulation.
California has been dealing with record low water levels for four years.
California Governor Jerry Brown imposed the state's first mandatory water restrictions four months ago, ordering a 25% reduction in all towns and cities.
In June, the state used 27% less water than it used in the same period of 2013, when the drought emergency was first declared.
This saving rose to 31.3% in July, with a cumulative saving for both months of 29.5%, the State Water Resources Control Board reported on Thursday.
Felicia Marcus, who chairs the board, praised the "millions of conscientious Californians" who she described as "the real heroes here".
She said record rain in July had played a role, as well as better enforcement, including warnings and penalties, and messaging by the water agencies.
But, she warned, "this isn't your mother's drought or your grandmother's drought, this is the drought of the century".
Drought monitors say 92% of California is currently in severe drought or worse, down from 94% at the start of the year.

Summary:


A paedophile, branded "calculating and predatory", has been jailed for 15 years for a string of sex attacks on girls as young as six years old.

Article: Mr Turnbull told journalists at No 10: "We move quickly. Australians are fleet of foot. We don't muck around. We're very simple. So we will move as quickly as the UK will move."
Ahead of the Downing Street talks, the two leaders visited Borough Market.
Two Australians died in June's van and knife attacks in south-east London.
During a Downing Street press conference, Mr Turnbull said Australia "had been the first on the phone" to call for a free trade agreement with the UK following Britain's decision to leave the EU.
He said Australia stands "ready to enter into a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom as soon as the UK is able to do so - so once that Brexit has been achieved, then we look forward to speedily concluding a free trade agreement".
Mr Turnbull said he hoped the EU deal could be finalised before the expected date of Brexit in March 2019.
He said a UK agreement could follow swiftly: "My government's position is very simply this: economic prosperity has been demonstrated to be delivered by free trade and open markets - that is one of the major reasons why Australia has had 26 years of uninterrupted economic growth."
He said Mrs May's vision for post-Brexit Britain "is one filled with optimism". "It's not a counsel of despair as some people have said."
Turning to the PM, he added: "I know Theresa that you believe passionately that the British people can do anything, can achieve anything and that your post-Brexit Britain will be a Britain with big horizons, big opportunities, free trade, open markets.
"You're right, that is the future. That's where our prosperity has been delivered and I know that it's where your prosperity will come."
Mrs May said a trade deal with Australia was a "priority" for the UK after Brexit, to expand on the Â£14bn-worth of trade between the two nations.
"We've both made clear our intention to continue to deepen our trade and investment relationship as the UK leaves the EU," she said.
"Our Brexit negotiations have started well, and I have made clear to prime minister...

Summary: Australia is "very keen" to secure a trade deal with the UK post Brexit "as quickly as possible", Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull has said.
###
Article: The independent inquiry is looking in detail at historical abuse of children in residential care in Scotland.
The inquiry has been separated into a series of phases, the first of which continues on 31 October.
Phase two starts on November 28 with a study of homes run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.
Applications to appear in relation to this case study are now open, with a particular focus on Smyllum Park in Lanark and Bellevue House in Rutherglen. The deadline for applications to appear, for people with a direct or substantial interest in the hearings, close on 4 September.
Further case studies will be announced in due course.
More than 60 institutions including several top private schools and church bodies are being investigated as part of the probe, which is chaired by Lady Smith and is due to report no sooner than October 2019.
The inquiry states its purpose as being "to investigate the nature and extent of abuse of children whilst in care in Scotland", while considering "the extent to which institutions and bodies with legal responsibility for the care of children failed in their duty", in particular seeking any "systemic failures".
However, it does not cover children who were abused while living with their natural or adoptive families, while using sports and leisure clubs or attending faith based organisations on a day to day basis. The inquiry will also not examine allegations of children being abused in non-boarding schools, nursery or day-care centres.
The evidence given at hearings will supplement written statements taken from witnesses in advance, and the inquiry is continuing to take statements from survivors of abuse in private sessions.
The first phase of hearings, which began in May, heard apologies from groups who said they "deplored that physical sexual abuses could occur".
The inquiry, which had cost more than Â£7.8m as of 30 June, is taking place at Rosebery House in Edinburgh.

Summary: The second phase of hearings in the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry is to open with a case study centring on care establishments run by a Catholic order.
###
Article: Sandy Cooper, 72, was one of three people chosen to represent Elgin City North ward. He stood as an independent.
He tendered his resignation in a letter to the council's chief executive.
Completed forms for new nominees must be lodged by 12 June. The by-election will be held on 13 July, with the count the following day.

Summary: Nominations for potential candidates in a Moray Council by-election have opened after a new councillor resigned just five days after being elected.
###
Article: Presiding Officer Elin Jones has called the 60-member Senedd "over-stretched".
A new report by Prof Roger Scully suggests 87 AMs - three for each of the 29 new, larger constituencies being proposed - to handle the increasing workload.
Rachel Banner, who campaigned against more assembly powers in 2011, said parties had denied wanting more AMs.
Wednesday's report by the Wales Governance Centre and Electoral Reform Society puts forward options the authors think could gain support from across the parties, particularly as the biggest party - Labour - is not significantly adversely affected.
Powers over elections are set to be devolved in the Wales Bill, currently passing through Parliament, but to change the system, two-thirds of AMs would need to agree.
Prof Scully, of the Wales Governance Centre, said he thought cross-party agreement was "possible".
He said it seemed "do-able" to get Labour, Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives "on board", with the agreement of UKIP - which has been sceptical about increasing the number of AMs - "more possible after the discussions that we had with them".
The report said there would need to be changes to the electoral system if the number of AMs was to be increased.
Currently there are 40 constituency AMs elected through first-past-the-post, and 20 regional AMs elected through the proportional additional member system.
With Parliament set to cut the number of Welsh MPs to 29 in new, larger constituencies, the report suggested these boundaries are also used as the basis for assembly elections with three members per seat - a total of 87.
The report suggested two preferred options:
The analysis said a new electoral system should produce results that are at least as proportional as the existing system - where the share of seats a party gets reflects the share of the vote.
"We think they are workable options that might plausibly be able to get consensus," said Prof Scully.
The UK government's St David's Day agreement in 2015 found consensus among assembly groups that the institution's...

Summary: Agreement between assembly parties to boost the number of AMs is "possible", a leading academic has said.
###
Article: The Department of Finance has asked departments to outline what reductions to their revenue would look like if a 4%, 8%, or 12% cut was implemented.
Officials have said it is an "information-gathering exercise".
Any decisions will be made by a new Northern Ireland Executive or by direct rule ministers.
Northern Ireland has effectively been without a devolved government since January.
Its institutions collapsed amid a bitter row between the DUP and Sinn FÃ©in about a botched green energy scheme.
Subsequent talks failed to reach an agreement.
Health and social welfare is exempt from the cuts scoping exercise, while some aspects of policing and education will be protected under the terms of the Fresh Start Agreement of November 2015.
The Department of Finance said the exercise will help to plan the revenue budgets up until 2019-2020, but that the capital budget is increasing in real terms and will be unaffected by the cuts scenarios.
A Department of Finance spokesperson said: "Under normal processes, at this time of the year NI Civil Service departments begin budget planning for the next financial year.
"The Department of Finance has commissioned an information-gathering exercise to collect the necessary data that will allow a future executive to make key, informed decisions on a budget for 2018-19 and beyond.
"This process is for information-gathering purposes only, covering a number of scenarios for non-protected areas. It will be for an incoming executive to make decisions about funding levels and final budgets.
"Similar to previous budgets, it is proposed to provide full protection from reductions for health and welfare reform with some protection for education and PSNI budgets."

Summary: Northern Ireland's government departments have been asked to identify potential cuts of between 4% to 12% ahead of the next budget.
###
Article: Andrew Hocking, 57, of West Sussex, sexually assaulted four girls, aged between six and 12, from 1976 to 1990 in Gloucestershire and Hampshire.
He was found guilty of one count of rape and six indecent assaults following a trial at Lewes Crown Court.
Sussex Police said Hocking showed "no genuine remorse" for his actions.
"Hocking stands out as cold, calculating, predatory and ruthless," said Det Con Chris Smith.
"Despite the strong evidence against him, he put the victims through the ordeal of having to recount their episodes of abuse."
Detectives discovered records of allegations of indecent assaults on a seven-year-old girl at his home in Alveston, Gloucestershire in 1976 and 1977, while they were investigated him over the making of indecent images of children.
Police were contacted by three woman claiming they had been attacked, when they were aged six, seven and 12, by Hocking at his address in Fareham, Hampshire, in the 1980s and 1990, following an appeal for information.
Following a trial, Hocking was convicted of one count of rape and six indecent assaults and cleared of one indecent assault.
The 57-year-old admitted making indecent images of children and possession of extreme pornography at an earlier hearing.
He was ordered to be put on the sex offenders register for life.

Summary:


Delta, United and American Airlines have banned the shipment of big-game trophies on flights after the illegal killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe.

Article: The think-tank expects the US economy to grow just by 2% this year and 2.8% next, down from its November forecast of 3.1% and 3% respectively.
It blamed the cut on "transitory disruptions", including a strong dollar and bad weather early in the year.
It also cut its global growth forecasts for both this year and next.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development expects the world economy to grow 3.1% this year and 3.8% in 2016, down from its prediction six months ago of 3.6% and 3.9% growth respectively.
It blamed the cut on an unexpectedly weak first quarter, with world growth its lowest since the financial crisis.
"The global economy is expected to strengthen, but the pace of recovery remains weak and investment has yet to take off," OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria said.
Overall, the OECD said the economy's "B minus" grade equated to just "muddling through".
And it said to accelerate world growth, both businesses and government needed to invest more.
"By and large, firms have been unwilling to spend on plant, equipment, technology and services as vigorously as they have done in previous cyclical recoveries," it said.
The OECD said many governments had also delayed investing in infrastructure, negatively affecting jobs and living standards.
The think-tank also expects China to grow more slowly than it last predicted in November, expanding 6.8% this year rather than 7.1%.
But the OECD hiked its growth forecasts for the eurozone economy, crediting bolder-than-expected monetary easting by the European Central Bank for the increase.
It now expects growth in the euro area to rise by 1.4% this year and 2.1% in 2016, up from 1.1% and 1.7% respectively.
Overall the OECD said the global recovery since the 2008 economic and financial crisis had been "unusually weak".
"To move from a 'B-minus' grade to an 'A' means boosting investment in order to create jobs and stimulate consumption," said OECD chief economist Catherine Mann.

Summary: The OECD has slashed its US growth forecast for this year and next and given the global economy a "B minus" in its bi-annual assessment.
###
Article: The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has published its assessment of the Smith Commission's plans, saying that "big issues have yet to be resolved".
Its main concern is with the calculation of the UK Treasury's block grant to the Scottish Parliament.
As more powers are devolved to Holyrood, it means the grant funding formula will have to be adjusted.
The IFS calculates the share of taxation under Holyrood control or assigned to it as a share of UK tax take would rise from 13% to more than 50% under the plans.
It says the changes to the block grant should be "relatively easy" in the first year. But in subsequent years it becomes more difficult to calculate what should happen if Westminster raises tax to pay for shared provision, such as UK debt reduction, but Scotland does not.
"Inflation and economic growth mean that the amount raised from a tax or spent on a particular area tends to grow over time," according to David Phillips, author of the IFS report.
"The Smith Commission recognises this, by stating that these block grant reductions or additions should be 'indexed appropriately'. But what does this rather cryptic phrase mean?"
One challenge it identifies is to find a balance between giving Scottish ministers the autonomy to adjust tax rates and benefit from growth in the tax base, while also providing UK protection against sudden shocks.
Another problem the IFS sees with the Smith Commission plans, published last month, is that there is supposed to be compensation between Westminster and Holyrood when a taxation decision has an impact on each other. This could be to compensate for loss to each other's treasuries, or as a penalty for harming one another.
But this is seen as very hard to calculate, and also hard to get to a common understanding of how this should be calculated.
"The Smith Commission has provided a set of proposals for further devolution of taxes and spending, agreed by the five main Scottish parties. This is a significant achievement," reports the Institute.
"But many difficult issues...

Summary: The cross-party agreement on devolving more tax powers to Holyrood may not be feasible or fair, it has been claimed.
###
Article: Anyone who earns interest on a savings or current account will no longer have 20% tax automatically deducted by their bank or building society.
They will instead be subject to a new Personal Savings Allowance (PSA), allowing them to earn up to £1000 a year tax-free.
As a result of the changes - announced in last year's Budget - the government says that 95% of us will no longer have to pay any tax on savings.
In total, individuals will benefit by more than £1bn - the cost to the Treasury in 2016/17.
Investors who rely on income from share dividends also face a new tax regime; some will gain, while others will lose heftily.
All bank and building society accounts; unit trusts; open ended investment companies; investment trusts; credit unions; government and corporate bonds; peer-to-peer lending.
Essentially all savings accounts and funds which do not make direct dividend payments.
Basic rate taxpayers (20%) will be allowed an annual income of £1,000 in interest before they pay any tax. Those on the higher rate (40%) will have an allowance of £500 in interest.
Those on the top rate (45%) will have no allowance at all.
In the meantime those who earn less than £17,000 (including their savings income) will not have to pay any tax at all.
This follows a change in April 2015, which meant that anyone earning less than their personal allowance plus £5,000 does not have to pay tax on savings income.
While many people may not have claimed for this - as they would have had to fill out an R85 form - they will now automatically benefit from all savings interest being paid tax-free. (See table below).
As long as you earn less than £1000 in annual interest (£500 for higher rate tax-payers), you don't need to do anything. The bank or investment fund will pay your income without tax deducted.
If you exceed your PSA, you will have to pay either 20% or 40% tax on the difference. But you don't necessarily have to complete a self-assessment tax return. This is because HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will be told by the bank that you...

Summary: From 6 April, millions of savers in the UK will see a radical change to the way their nest-eggs are taxed.
###
Article: NHS-led consortium UnitingCare Partnership was selected from a shortlist of three organisations.
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) consultation cost £1m, Stop the NHS Sell-Off claimed.
The CCG said the cost should be seen in the context of the five-year contract.
UnitingCare is a consortium of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust with Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Martin Booth, from Stop the NHS Sell-Off in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said the £1m spent on the process was "both unnecessary and highly wasteful".
However Dr Arnold Fertig, the CCG's clinical lead for older people, said: "The programme costs cover engagement and development work, not just procurement.
"The competitive tendering process has led to the development of new ideas.
"There will be a new-style contract, with payment linked to better patient experience... they should notice that services are better and more joined up."
The campaign group gathered 5,500 signatures from people opposing the transfer of NHS services to a private company.
What does the £800m five-year contract cover?
The CCG currently has seven contracts with different NHS organisations to supply these services.
The other groups bidding for the contract - Care for Life and Virgin Care - have 10 days to challenge the decision to name UnitingCare Partnership as the CCG's "preferred bidder".
The GP-led commissioning group announced plans to outsource its older people's healthcare and adult community services in May 2013.
UnitingCare should begin its new contract on 1 April.

Summary: Campaigners have attacked the process to award an £800m contract to supply older people's healthcare in Cambridgeshire as "unnecessary".
###
Article: Alfred Rouse tried to fake his own death by leaving a man to burn in his Morris Minor in Hardingstone, Northamptonshire, in 1930.
DNA testing based on people with an unbroken maternal line back to a relative from the time have so far failed to identify Rouse's victim.
Techniques that do not require this link will be used to widen the search.
Forensic science expert Dr John Bond, from the University of Leicester, said: "It's looking at more of the genome and it's more sensitive to the nuclear DNA, which means we're not solely reliant on the mitochondrial DNA anymore.
"Hopefully we will at some point reach a positive outcome and be able to put a name on the gravestone finally in Hardingstone Cemetery."
Philanderer Rouse, 36, was in financial trouble when he set his car alight - and was later hanged for the murder.
A DNA profile was found in an archived slide in 2013 and has been used to disprove theories of family connections to the case.
With nine families' claims ruled out earlier this year, Dr Bond said he may have been "somewhat naive" to believe it would be a relatively short search.
"What I hadn't appreciated was just how many families had people who just disappeared around 1930," he said.
Dr Bond said it was believed Rouse, who lived in London, could have tempted the victim to travel with him on the pretence of finding him work in Leicester.
"There were a lot of people at that time of Depression when it would have been difficult to find work, might have had difficulties holding down family life, might have been tempted by the offer of work somewhere else around the country and thought Rouse was doing them a favour," he said.
Dr Bond hopes a renewed appeal based on the next generation sequencing tests in the spring will encourage people with connections to London or Leicester to come forward.
"There's at least two other families who in the past we've had to say no to as they couldn't supply this unbroken maternal line, so in the fullness of time we hope to be able to say 'we'd be able to help you now',"...

Summary: The identity of a man who was burned to death 85 years ago could be revealed through a new batch of DNA tests.
###
Article: The airlines announced that they would no longer transport lion, rhinoceros, leopard, elephant or buffalo remains.
They have not, however, given official reasons for their announcements.
Delta flies direct to a number of African cities and was subjected to an online petition to ban such shipments.
American Airlines and United fly to fewer sub-Saharan cities than Delta, but United said in a tweet its decision to stop carrying trophies was "effective immediately".
United spokesman Charles Hobart said: "We felt it made sense to do so."
Cecil was shot illegally in July by US dentist Walter Palmer of Minnesota. Zimbabwe is seeking his extradition and that of a doctor from Pennsylvania, named as Jan Casimir Seski, who is suspected of killing a lion in April.
Mr Palmer is believed to have paid about $50,000 (Â£32,000) to hunt Cecil, a major tourist attraction in the Hwange National Park.
He says he thought the hunt was legal and was unaware Cecil was protected, but the killing triggered a huge online backlash.
Delta would not answer questions from journalists as to why it made its decision on Monday, nor would it detail how many hunting trophies it has transported in recent years.
"Effective immediately, Delta will officially ban shipment of all lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo trophies worldwide as freight," the company said in a brief statement.
Its announcement came as several other airlines indicated that they are - or soon will be - stopping the transport of all trophy-hunting kills.
As recently as May, Delta said it would continue to allow such shipments.

Summary:


A man was limp "like a teddy bear" after he was restrained by bouncers on the ground outside an Aberdeen bar, a murder trial has heard.

Article: Dr Gethin Thomas, a coaching science lecturer, also believes children should be split by ability as young as possible.
The Irish and Welsh rugby unions suggest starting scrums at under-nine level; they start at under-10 in England and under-11 in Scotland.
But Dr Thomas said children should not be in scrums until they are 13.
The call comes after World Rugby's chief medical officer, Dr Martin Rafterty, said changes could be made to tackle laws in order to reduce the risk of concussion.
When it comes to tackling, the home nations are almost unanimous in the way they introduce it to young players.
They all begin with tag rugby and bring in tackling at under-nine level, except for Ireland, where they start contact a year earlier.
Dr Thomas, who lectures at Cardiff Metropolitan University and Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, recently worked with the Rugby Football Union in England.
He said: "I wouldn't introduce scrums until 13 or 14 years old and when I spoke to a number of elite coaches, they agree.
"The same goes with lineouts - there's no reason to begin lineouts unless you can lift and individuals aren't strong enough to lift."
Last month, Wales and Worcester Warriors forward Jonathan Thomas was forced to retire from rugby on medical advice, after he was diagnosed with epilepsy thought to have resulted from multiple head traumas.
Wales wing George North also suffered from concussion in the run up to the World Cup, after suffering four blows to the head in a five-month period last season.

Summary: Banning scrums in children's rugby could help cut the number of injuries in the game, an academic has said.
###
Article: The aim of the redundancy scheme is to cut around 3,000 civil service jobs.
The first 1,200 civil servants are due to leave on 30 September.
But that is now uncertain due to the Stormont Executive's continuing disagreement on welfare reform and the budget.
Dr Malcolm McKibben told a Stormont committee on Wednesday that "we can't go past the end of August in terms of confirming if they're leaving or not.
"People clearly have plans made if they are allowed to exit," he said.
The voluntary redundancy scheme was part of the Stormont House Agreement. It was struck between the Executive parties and the British and Irish governments in December.
The scheme allowed the Executive to borrow up to Â£700m to fund 20,000 redundancies across the wider public sector.
But with the welfare reform part of the agreement collapsing it is doubtful if the redundancy scheme can proceed as planned.
More than 7,000 civil servants expressed interest in the scheme and 1,200 of those have been told they can leave, depending on funding.
If the Executive is not allowed to borrow the money it would have to pay for the scheme by making cuts to day-to-day departmental spending.
Dr McKibben raised the prospect that there could be negotiations with the Treasury to allow the scheme to proceed as planned, even if the rest of the Stormont House Agreement is not implemented.
"If the welfare reform issue isn't sorted out in the near future clearly we're going to have to engage with the Treasury to see if access to this money can be maintained.
"Whether or not they will allow that to be pulled out of the Stormont House Agreement I don't know."

Summary: The head of the Northern Ireland civil service has set an August deadline for deciding whether the first tranche of voluntary redundancies will go ahead.
###
Article: Ms Dugdale received 90% of the support from constituency Labour parties who nominated a candidate.
She is also backed by 80% of the local councillors who nominated a leadership candidate, and 10 trade union and affiliate groups.
She is standing against Ken Macintosh in the contest to replace Jim Murphy.
MSP Richard Baker has secured the most constituency Labour party nominations in the contest for deputy leader.
Ms Dugdale, a Lothians MSP, is supported by 30 of her fellow parliamentarians, while Mr Macintosh, currently the party's social justice spokesman, is backed by seven and the Scottish Co-Op group.
He has 10% of the support from constituency Labour parties, and 20% of the support from councillors.
Following the close of supporting nominations, Ms Dugdale said: "To have the support of the overwhelming number of local party members, councillors and trade unions is an honour.
"I take nothing for granted and will work hard to change this support into votes when the ballot opens a week on Monday.
"The support I have received so far shows I am winning the argument amongst party members, but the real task is to win back people across the country."
Mr Macintosh has previously said he offers "a change in direction" for the Scottish Labour party.
He said: "I want to break up the party machine and put the members and supporters in charge of this party."
Mr Baker secured 20 constituency Labour Party nominations, compared with 18 for rival deputy leader candidate MSP Alex Rowley and 11 for Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson.
Mr Baker said: "I'm grateful to members across the country who have put their trust in me through constituency nominations.
"My platform is clear: I want us to be a strong, united party in next year's election, with policy formed by members across Scotland."

Summary: Kezia Dugdale has secured the majority of supporting nominations in her bid to become Scottish Labour leader.
###
Article: By ruling that the right to privacy is "an intrinsic part of Article 21 that protects life and liberty", the verdict overturned two previous rulings by the top court which said privacy was not a fundamental right.
Many believe the ruling has immediate implications for the government's vast biometric ID scheme, covering access to benefits, bank accounts and payment of taxes.
Also, the verdict espouses a set of beliefs and lays down the groundwork for scrapping a controversial 2013 ruling by the top court, that upheld a law criminalising gay sex. (Last year, the court agreed to revisit the judgement.) It  provides a boost to petitioners for LGBT rights. It says you cannot compel people to incriminate themselves when accused of an offence, something common in India.
"The sheer sweep means the judgement will become a reference point in a lot of areas of law," leading lawyer Rebecca John told me. "I think it will have far reaching implications on Indian life."
At a time when many Indians worry that some of their essential private freedoms are under threat - the right to eat what you want, and the way you want to dress, for example -  the judges offer some stirring passages in what is a largely a cogent and well-researched 547-page verdict:
The judgement is, in parts, a rousing philosophical articulation of the right to privacy and the importance of an independent, dignified life for the individual. The verdict is remarkable because, as scholar Pratap Bhanu Mehta told me, it "asks us to look at a system of rights as an interconnected whole" rather than dealing with them in isolation.
What appears to be less clear are the implications the judgement will have on the use of state power in collecting personal information. For one, it recognises that there are compelling state interests in collecting such information.
It talks about a "careful and sensitive balance between individual interests and legitimate concerns of the state" like national security, prevention and investigation of crime and ensuring social welfare...

Summary: In many ways, Thursday's Supreme Court ruling that Indians have a fundamental right to privacy is one of country's most significant judgements in the last two decades.
###
Article: After a government inspector found "serious shortcomings" in its original plan for 29,000 properties, the local authority announced 7,000 extra homes.
Extra development sites have been allocated, with a number of extra greenbelt sites being earmarked around Knutsford, Wilmslow and Macclesfield.
Cheshire East's revised plan will now be submitted back to the government inspector in June.
Councillor Rachel Bailey, who is due to become the next leader of the Conservative-run council, said: "We are doing everything possible to progress the Local Plan and to speed up its completion."
The authority insisted its previous plan - for 29,000 homes - was criticised by the government inspector only because the borough's economy was likely to grow faster than anticipated.
Cheshire East Council has previously described itself as being "besieged" by housing developers.
A local development plan would make it more difficult for developers to build on land which has not been earmarked for development.

Summary: Plans to build 36,000 new homes have been approved by Cheshire East Council.
###
Article: Kiel Hauley, 33, Jonas Marcius, 23, and Adrian Morley, 33, deny assaulting and murdering Craig Grant, of Inverurie, outside the Galleria shopping centre in August last year.
Witness Shaun Wheeldon said he saw Mr Grant being held on the pavement.
He said he was "shocked" to see Mr Grant's face was light grey.
Mr Wheeldon told the High Court in Aberdeen he could see two men restraining Mr Grant on the ground outside Tonik and stopped to speak to a bouncer.
He said:  "He just said he had been in the club and he was highly drunk."
Mr Wheeldon said there was "quite a commotion" outside the bar with a lot of people standing outside.
Advocate depute James Keegan QC asked: "How did you react when you saw his face?"
He replied: "I was shocked at the colour of him. He was light grey."
Mr Keegan asked: "When you saw the colour of him what did you think?"
He replied: "That he was in a bad way."
He said Mr Grant's friends were trying to intervene when police arrived at the scene because he had shown no response on the ground.
He told the court police took over and tried to sit him up.
He said: "They sat him up like a teddy bear. It wasn't a recovery position."
Mr Keegan asked: "When you say a teddy bear what do you mean by that?"
He replied: "Because he was limp."
The trial continues.

Summary:


Nye Davies of Cardiff University's Wales Governance Centre profiles the Welsh Conservative campaign

Article: Their numbers had plummeted in the last 100 years because of hunting and a lack of prey.
Writing in the
          Journal of Wildlife Management
, researchers say the cougar is now spreading far outside their traditional western habitats.
But they say the return of the big cats raises important questions about how humans can live with these predators.
Such has been the decline of the cougar in some parts of the United State that the US Fish and Wildlife service declared the eastern cougar
          extinct
 just last year.
For decades mountain lions were seen as a threat to livestock and humans and many States paid a bounty to hunters for killing them.
Their habitats were restricted to the areas around the Black Hills of Dakota. But in the 1960s and 70s the animals were reclassified as managed game species, so hunting was limited and numbers started to grow.
Anecdotal evidence indicates that mountain lions started to spread far and wide during the 1990s - this perspective was confirmed last June when a young male was hit by a car and killed in Connecticut.
Genetic analysis indicated that the animal originated from the Black Hills and had travelled approximately 2,900km (1,800mi) via a number of States.
Now researchers have published the first scientific evidence that cougars have returned to the mid-west and are now to be found as far south as Texas and as far north as the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba.
They say that limits on hunting and the return of elk and mule deer that cougars prey on have been key to increasing the overall population which is now said to number around 30,000.
And as the populations have grown, the territorial instincts of the big cats have forced them to conquer new ground. Michelle LaRue from the University of Minnesota, is one of the authors of the paper.
"What's happening is that, as the young males are moving out of the areas they were born in, they are coming into contact with other young males and they don't have anywhere else to go so they're kind of being...

Summary: The American mountain lion or cougar is now re-populating parts of the US, scientists say.
###
Article: Mr Holliday said there was an opportunity "to come back with some serious suggestions".
Last week's Queen's Speech appeared to water down commitments to a price cap.
Instead it said ministers were "considering the best way" to protect those on the poorest-value tariffs.
Before the election, the government had proposed intervening in the energy market to help millions of domestic gas and electricity customers by cutting around £100 off their energy bills.
Last year, a landmark investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority concluded that many households on standard variable tariffs were paying too much for their energy.
It calculated consumers were overpaying by up to £1.2bn a year and recommended a price cap for households using pre-payment meters.
Several large suppliers have questioned the findings. But they have come under increasing political pressure for their treatment of loyal customers on standard tariffs.
Mr Holliday, a former chief executive of National Grid, said the energy industry's reaction to the idea of a price cap was mixed.
He was speaking at the launch of the Energy Institute's annual barometer, which gathers the views of industry members.
The survey, completed by 466 members across the energy sector, indicates that that some see merits in a price cap to tackle affordability and poverty.
But most respondents were against a cap. "There were lots of people identifying the negative impact on investment, decarbonisation and on competition in the supply industry" said Mr Holliday.
"When you looked across the whole of the participants here... more than half were not in favour of a price cap," he added.
The Energy Institute's barometer for 2017 also identified Brexit as a "material concern" to the energy sector.
Members of the institute were concerned about uncertainty around energy policy, the availability of skilled labour, future trading arrangements, energy costs, security of supply and investment.
"The stakes are high for the UK's energy economy", said Mr Holliday.
"Sound policy...

Summary: Energy suppliers have a "window of opportunity" to address government proposals for a cap on energy prices, according to Steve Holliday, the vice president of the Energy Institute.
###
Article: The Hampshire force tweeted: "Officers assisted driver on driving test who took wrong turn off roundabout and ended up on M27. Test abandoned & driver failed."
On the same motorway, on the same day, police also stopped a driver for watching YouTube on a smartphone.
Another driver was pulled over for using an iPad.
The road policing unit said the learner driver ended up on the eastbound carriageway at junction seven for Hedge End.
A spokesman said the learner and the instructor pulled the VW Passatt on to the hard shoulder before officers assisted the vehicle off the motorway.
A provisional licence does not allow learner drivers to use motorways.

Summary: A learner driver took a wrong turn and ended up travelling on a motorway in the middle of a test, police have said.
###
Article: Now it finds itself in the eye of the storm, as Syrian government troops press in around its southern edge with the help of intensive Russian air strikes, militants from the self-styled Islamic State (IS) gain new ground on the city's northern approaches and regime and rebel forces battle it out daily in the battered streets of the divided city itself.
Whether the series of ground offensives recently unleashed by the Syrian army will lead to a drive to regain control of Aleppo itself is the kind of issue that President Assad will have discussed with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, during his surprise visit to Moscow on Tuesday.
For the moment, most attention is focused on a belt of villages around 10 miles south of the city.
That's where regime forces began another offensive last week, pushing into areas held by an array of non-IS rebel groups as Russian jets carried out a flurry of attacks to prepare the way.
Panic-stricken civilians fled their homes in a string of villages as Syrian troops battled forward and bombs and missiles exploded around them.
Estimates for the number of displaced vary, with the UN saying 35,000 left that area and other sources giving much higher figures.
But most of the Syrian army's offensives seem to be aimed at securing its own supply lines - along the main arterial highway linking Damascus to Aleppo via Homs and Hama, rather than making spectacular thrusts deep into rebel-held territory.
Story of the conflict
Where key countries stand
What is Russia's endgame?
Profile: Bashar al-Assad
24 hours in a fuel tank
The goal so far appears to be to improve the limits of the areas under regime control - the main cities and the coastal belt - and make them more defensible.
The Russian intervention has made that possible. But there is a limit to what air power can achieve - as the Americans and their allies are experiencing both in Syria and Iraq - in the absence of cohesive, effective and motivated ground forces.
Russian jets can't compensate for President Assad's basic problem -...

Summary: Aleppo, Syria's second city in status but largest in practice, was late to join the war that has ravaged many parts of the country.
###
Article: However I have now encountered a new justification - official briefing papers that apparently cannot be shown to the public because they are too succinct and not verbose enough.
This involves documents prepared by the civil service to brief the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock if he became prime minister following the 1992 general election.
The information commissioner has just ruled that officials would react to the release of these papers by no longer writing "succinct and focused" briefings for incoming prime ministers. He has backed the government view that instead they would compose documents that are "excessively detailed" and "verbose".
I requested the material in November 2012 under the Freedom of Information Act, because I thought it could be of substantial historical interest to learn more about how the civil service prepared for the possibility of Lord Kinnock (as he now is) taking over as prime minister.
Although in fact Sir John Major remained in 10 Downing Street with a 21-seat Conservative majority, a Labour victory had seemed a plausible possibility to many in the run up to the election, in line with much of the opinion polling.
I also thought that since more than 20 years had passed, publishing the information now would not have a damaging effect on the candour of comparable briefings in the future.
After the Cabinet Office rejected my FOI request, I complained to the information commissioner, who has now issued a decision that largely dismisses my appeal.
According to the commissioner's ruling, the government argued that releasing these documents would result in future ones being more verbose.
The ruling says: "It was not asserted that disclosure would necessarily make briefings less frank. Instead the briefings would be drafted with an eye on likely future publication and would be more likely to be excessively detailed - the Cabinet Office used the description 'verbose'."
This was the opinion of the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, the minister who normally considers FOI applications that...

Summary: As a journalist who often makes freedom of information requests I have come across a range of reasons from public authorities for keeping documents secret.
###
Article: There is no doubt what this election is about for the Conservatives. Theresa May has repeated "strong and stable" and it does not seem as though she will stop any time soon.
The prime minister is determined to make this election about Brexit and how a vote for the Tories means a vote for her to have a "strong hand" at the negotiating table with the EU.
An added dimension to this election is the potential for the Conservatives to make significant gains in Wales.
Recent polling data from the Wales Governance Centre suggests the Conservatives may be on course to become the largest party in Wales, a huge electoral breakthrough which would see the Labour Party losing its position as the dominant party in Wales, which it has held since 1922.
The significance of this was not lost on the Conservatives.
Almost immediately after the first piece of polling data suggested a Tory breakthrough, Theresa May held an event in Bridgend, a constituency high up in the party's targets in Wales.
As noted by Prof Laura McAllister, losing Bridgend would be a symbolic blow for Welsh Labour as it is the assembly seat of First Minister Carwyn Jones.
In order for the Conservatives to win seats like Bridgend, the party is determined to push the narrative of May vs Corbyn.
The opinion polls do not reflect favourably on Labour's leader in Wales and Mrs May will be repeating mantras about "strong and stable" leadership and Mr Corbyn's potential "coalition of chaos".
The repetition of these phrases is likely to draw groans every time they are used, but Mrs May is determined to hammer home the point that the choice is between her and Mr Corbyn on 8 June.
This is being done to the extent that Welsh Conservative election posters focus on Theresa May and do not focus much on "Welsh" Conservatives.
As well as attacking Mr Corbyn, this election is also being campaigned on Brexit.
The mantra of "strong and stable leadership" in Brexit negotiations will appeal to those who want to see a tough stance towards the EU and it has already seen votes...

Summary: