Jeremy Corbyn has accused the chief of the defence staff of political bias after he criticised the Labour leader's anti-nuclear stance.

Article: However, for a pair of kestrels nesting on the Forth Road Bridge, it has become home.
Bridge workers discovered the birds of prey while repairing steelwork underneath the carriageway.
They have built a nest with six eggs inside the end of a girder hanging over the Firth of Forth estuary.
The birds have been named Mr and Mr Younger, after Younger's Kestrel Lager.
David Gill, Amey maintenance supervisor, said: "When we saw the eggs, we immediately cleared the area and instructed staff to avoid carrying out any works that might disturb the nest.
"I've heard of kestrels nesting on the bridge before, but it's pretty unusual. You'd think they might prefer a quieter location.
"We're happy to have them here though, and have affectionately named them Mr and Mrs Younger.
"We'll come back and finish our repairs once the chicks have hatched and flown the nest.
"In the meantime, we've carried out a temporary repair on a local defect quietly and there won't be any impact on users of the bridge."
Kestrels are fully protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which makes it an offence to kill, injure or take a kestrel, or to take, damage or destroy an active nest or its contents.

Summary: For most young couples, the inside of a steel girder with 80,000 vehicles a day thundering overhead would not seem like an ideal location to start a family.
###
Article: The proposal followed a consultation which attracted more than 600 responses.
It would also see the introduction of a licensing scheme for the killing of wild salmon caught in rivers.
The moves have been welcomed by the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards.
Scotland's biggest salmon netting company, Usan Salmon, said it was confident it would be allowed to start catching again once accurate salmon stock measurements have been taken.
A Scottish government notice states: "In terms of paragraph 11 of schedule 1 to the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 2003 (the Act) notice is hereby given that the Scottish ministers propose to make conservation regulations under section 38 of the Act to introduce a licensing system for the killing of wild salmon in Scotland and a prohibition on the taking of salmon outwith inland waters."
It said: "The general effect of this proposal will be: (a) to prohibit the taking of Atlantic salmon outwith inland waters. (b) to prohibit the killing of salmon in Scotland without a licence."
Objections to the regulations must be submitted by 19 August.
The Scottish government said no decision had yet been taken but it would consider all the responses.
A spokeswoman said: "Our consultation on wild fisheries reform is ongoing and we are in the process of engaging with stakeholders."

Summary: Plans for a complete ban on catching wild salmon using coastal nets have been announced by the Scottish government.
###
Article: The diplomat, Thae Yong Ho, had served as deputy to the ambassador and was responsible for promoting the image of his country to British audiences.
He had reportedly lived in the UK for 10 years with his wife and family and disappeared from his home in west London several weeks ago.
Neither the Foreign Office nor the embassy has commented.
Read more: My friend the North Korean defector
"A DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] diplomat in London is going through procedures to seek asylum in a third country," a report in the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo said.
"The DPRK Embassy made belated attempts to figure out the diplomat's whereabouts, but has failed," the paper's report added, citing an anonymous source.
The paper said that in this context "a third country" means one that is neither North nor South Korea.
By the BBC's Korea correspondent Stephen Evans
North Korea has an embassy in west London. The diplomats there can be charming, particularly over curry at their favourite curry house. Their children are in nearby state schools and one is a stalwart of the local tennis club.
The other side of their lives, though, involves keeping tabs on North Korean defectors who often settle in New Malden in south-west London.
Two of the officials were probably the men who turned up at a barber shop in London to object to a picture in the window of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, with the caption "bad hair day".
They are also thought to have escorted Kim Jong-un's brother to an Eric Clapton concert in the Albert Hall.
My friend the North Korean defector
Mr Thae's main mission in London had been to spread the message that North Korea and its leadership under Kim Jong-un had been misreported and misunderstood.
In one speech, he argued that it was the British who had been brainwashed by their ruling class. "If the people in this country, or in America, knew that there is a country in the world, where there is a free education, free housing, free medical care, then they'd have second thoughts," he said, to...

Summary: A diplomat at the North Korean embassy in London has defected and fled abroad with his family, BBC News understands.
###
Article: That's the conclusion of a new analysis presented here at the UN climate conference near Paris.
Researchers said construction would see emissions four times higher than the 2 degree target by 2030.
They say the building plans are in conflict with the carbon cutting agendas of countries like India and China.
The Climate Action Tracker analysis says that 2,440 coal fired power stations are planned around the world before 2030.
Emissions from the world's existing plants will be 150% higher than what is consistent with a 2 degree target, says their report.
COP21 Live: read the latest from Paris
But if all those in the planning stage are actually built, the outlook would be far more pessimistic.
"If all of them were to be built, they would emit 6.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide in 2030," said Dr Niklas Hohne, one of the research team.
"If you add all of the power plants that are existing today and will still be operating in 2030, you come to 12 gigatonnes from coal fired power in 2030 and that's actually 400% higher than is necessary for 2 degrees."
Scientists say the 2 degrees target is the threshold of dangerous warming. Temperatures have already gone up around one degree from pre-industrial times, according to the latest research.
The coal study looks at eight countries including India, China, Indonesia and the European Union. All of them have submitted national carbon cutting plans, termed INDCs, promising to reduce or cap their emissions.
But many of these countries are pushing ahead with plans for coal fired power as a way of getting as many of their people on the electricity grid as rapidly as possible.
"For seven of the nine countries, the planned coal plants threaten their INDCs," said Markus Hagemann of the NewClimate Institute, who took part in the study.
"This would lead to higher emissions from coal plants and it would undermine the country's efforts and it could also lead in a worst case to a displacement of renewable energy."
The researchers believe that in many nations the apparent contradiction is...

Summary: Attempts to keep global warming to 2 degrees will be wildly off course if all planned coal fire plants are built.
###
Article: How is it some firms have been able to bounce back while others are unable to survive?
Both the German car giant Volkswagen and South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung have been mired in controversy in recent times.
VW is still dealing with its diesel emissions scandal, and Samsung has had to face overheating phone batteries.
Yet both have put these corporate disasters behind them.
VW has just seen its pretax profits rise 44.3%, while Samsung's operating profits have gone up by 48%. Other firms have not been so fortunate.
In 2015, it emerged that Volkswagen had fitted illegal software to its diesel vehicles allowing them to cheat on emissions tests. It meant VW's diesel vehicles were able to emit up to 40 times the legally allowable pollution level.
The revelations came as a shock to many, and played havoc with VW's reputation as a seller of solid, dependable German cars.
The scandal sparked a global backlash against the firm, and multiple lawsuits.
VW has so far agreed to pay about $25bn (Â£19bn) to address US claims from owners, regulators, states and dealers - and it is under increasing pressure to pay up in other countries, too.
Yet this public relations disaster has not stopped VW from overtaking Toyota as the world's largest carmaker, and nor has it permanently hit its profit-making abilities.
As the scandal broke, VW put together a comprehensive plan to deal with it. It has acknowledged its wrong-doing - pleading guilty in the US as part of an agreement with regulators.
At the same time, the group has embarked on a significant cost-cutting exercise - dropping unprofitable models - and is focussing on emerging markets and investing heavily in electric vehicles.
"One could argue that this crisis was a catalyst for VW," says Shwetha Surender, principal consultant at analysts Frost & Sullivan.
"The company has restructured itself in a way which it might not have done, had the emissions scandal never happened."
The scandal has cost VW billions, but could have cost it even more if it had mishandled things,...

Summary: What changes a corporate branding disaster from being a costly and damaging affair, to one with fatal consequences for the company concerned?
###
Article: Gen Sir Nicholas Houghton told the BBC's Andrew Marr that refusing to launch nuclear weapons would "seriously undermine" Britain's "deterrent".
And he said he would be worried if such a view "translated into power".
Mr Corbyn called on the defence secretary to "take action" against Sir Nicholas over his comments.
In a statement, the Labour leader said: "It is a matter of serious concern that the chief of the defence staff has today intervened directly in issues of political dispute.
"It is essential in a democracy that the military remains politically neutral at all times.
"By publicly taking sides in current political arguments, Sir Nicholas Houghton has clearly breached that constitutional principle. Accordingly, I am writing to the defence secretary to ask him to take action to ensure that the neutrality of the armed forces is upheld."
Mr Corbyn, a leading member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, sparked a row with his shadow cabinet at his party's annual conference when he revealed that would never press the "nuclear button" - and he has since praised Scottish Labour's rejection of Trident.
Mr Corbyn has said he was elected Labour leader on a platform of opposing Trident renewal and that he is committed to "promoting an international nuclear weapons convention which would lead to a nuclear-free world".
Asked about Mr Corbyn's refusal to use nuclear weapons, Sir Nicholas said: "It would worry me if that thought was translated into power as it were."
He added: "The whole thing about deterrence rests on the credibility of its use.
"When people say you're never going to use the deterrent, what I say is you use the deterrent every second of every minute of every day and the purpose of the deterrent is that you don't have to use it because you successfully deter.
"If a prime minister said they would never press the nuclear button, "the deterrent is then completely undermined," he added.
"Most of the politicians I know understand that and I think that, dare I say, the responsibility of power is probably...

Summary:


The company that conducts most of America's rocket launches has released details of its next generation vehicle.

Article: Figures from the Labor Department showed the US economy created 178,000 jobs in November, while the jobless rate fell to 4.6% from 4.9% in October.
The data adds to recent evidence of healthy growth in the economy, although wage growth was weaker than expected.
Most analysts think the Federal Reserve will raise rates at its next meeting.
"This was the last hurdle on the path to a December hike, and it has been cleared convincingly," said Luke Bartholomew, investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management.
"It is now incredibly hard to imagine what would stop the Fed from going [for a rate rise]."
The Federal Reserve will hold its next two-day policy meeting on 13-14 December.
Last month, the chair of the Fed, Janet Yellen, indicated that the US central bank could raise interest rates "relatively soon", adding that the US economy was "making very good progress".
Recent figures indicated that the US economy grew at an annual pace of 3.2% in the third quarter of the year.
The US economy has been creating jobs at an average of 180,000 jobs a month this year, although that is down on the average of 229,000 recorded in 2015.
Despite November's robust jobs figures, earnings grew by less than expected. Average hourly earnings fell 0.1% from the month before, and that reduced the annual increase in wages to 2.5% from 2.8% in October.
The job creation figures for September and October were also revised, with the latest estimates indicating that 2,000 fewer jobs were added in the two months than previously thought.
Before these figures the markets were pretty clear about what they think the Federal Reserve will do when it meets later this month; it will raise interest rates. The jobs numbers have further reinforced that expectation.
It was a pretty robust figure for job creation, well ahead of economists' estimates of what is needed to keep up with a growing population.
Also striking was a decline of 220,000 in the number who are working part-time for economic reasons.  This is another measure of what economists call...

Summary: The US unemployment rate fell to a nine-year low in November, adding to expectations that US interest rates will rise later this month.
###
Article: The average home in Dwyfor put 22% less waste in their black bins in November 2014 than in the same month in 2013.
As a result, recycling and composting rates in the county have increased from 54% in March to 57.4% last month.
The council said the waste reduction in the Dwyfor area alone would save it Â£100,000 a year.
The first phase of three-weekly bin collections was introduced in October, with 19,000 households in Meirionnydd and 26,000 in Arfon set to follow suit next year.
Food waste and recyclable products are still collected weekly.
The council said it was now well placed to hit Welsh government targets, which require councils to recycle at least 58% of their waste by March 2016, and 64% by 2020.
Councillor Gareth Roberts said: "The people of Dwyfor have delivered an early Christmas present for our environment and for the Gwynedd council taxpayer."
Waste collection changes were introduced in Gwynedd to help the council bridge a Â£50m funding shortfall between now and 2017/18.

Summary: The amount of waste sent to landfill in Gwynedd has fallen since controversial three-weekly bin collections were introduced to the first 15,000 homes.
###
Article: Drew Nelson says an impasse at Westminster "will help to focus minds".
As part of its Northern Ireland Plan, which will form the basis for negotiation should next month's general election prove inconclusive, the Democratic Unionist Party says it will ask Westminster for "legislation for a new way forward on parading which respects the fundamental rights of assembly".
The Orange Order says the the Public Processions (Northern Ireland) Act 1998 is weighted heavily in favour of nationalist protestors.
Mr Nelson, the order's Grand Secretary, told the BBC One Northern Ireland programme The View "whichever party is in power they should review and amend this legislation because the legislation is flawed - not to buy some votes to keep them in power for a few years but because it's the right thing to do".
"Opportunities arise at different times and if there is a hung parliament, which is speculation at the moment, it may be that will help to focus the minds," he added.
"Anyone who can achieve some advantage by using some leverage would be foolish if they didn't take that opportunity and, if the unionist family which is returned to Westminster have an opportunity by virtue of their numbers to exercise greater influence than they are able to when it is not a hung parliament, then they should take that opportunity"
But others tell the programme that in their view neither the Conservatives or Labour are likely to negotiate on parades to buy DUP support.
Garvan O'Doherty, a Londonderry businessman who helped broker agreement on parades in the city, said he would "suggest the two main parties will stay clear of this issue".
"It is too hot for them and it is up to us locally to resolve once and for all," he said.
"We've go to stop going round in circles. We need to make a stand and we need to compromise."
A former parades commission chair Peter Osborne agrees.
"If you go back 20 years, you see in Portadown and elsewhere from then on that if you take these issues into high level political involvement it won't work," he...

Summary: A senior Orangeman says a hung parliament may provide an opportunity for unionists to push for new parades legislation more favourable to the Loyal Orders.
###
Article: St Patrick's Church in Glenamaddy, County Galway, offered people the traditional blessing from the comfort of their cars on Wednesday morning.
Hundreds availed of the service over an hour and a half.
Parish secretary Breda Keaveney said the unique event was "very peaceful and so dignified".
"The weather stayed dry, the sun was shining down on us and the mood was overwhelmingly respectful - it was a beautiful event," said Ms Keaveney.
Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent, a season of reflection and preparation before Easter.
Catholics traditionally attend a Mass at which their foreheads are marked with ash in the shape of a cross.
The Galway church's modern approach was designed to appeal to those who do not have time to attend Mass.
St Patrick's conveniently has a lane that leads right up to its front door.
Locals drove to the door, received their ashes and drove off on their way to work, school or the shops.
"We had people with hospital appointments, people going to work, parents, farmers, school children, bus loads of people," said Ms Keaveney.
"We just couldn't have anticipated how popular it would be - thankfully there were four of us on hand because we had hundreds to get through, but everyone was very patient.
"The response was so positive, everyone was very complimentary and encouraging. At the end of the day, we're in changing times and you have to move with them and not be judgemental.
"We're lucky that we have a very lively, youthful parish who are open to new ideas."
The idea, which was first reported last week, was agreed by the church's pastoral council and parish priest Fr Paddy Mooney.
"We looked at the situation on the ground. People and families are on the move all the time," he told the Irish Catholic.
"It's about meeting people where they are."
The church also set up a Lenten petition box in its grounds that allows people to submit prayer requests during Lent without having to leave their car.
"We're just putting it in front of people to help them think of Lent, as a reminder of it,"...

Summary: A unique drive-thru Ash Wednesday service at an Irish church has been described as "beautiful and overwhelmingly respectful".
###
Article: But then again, not many debutant playwrights used to be the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Set in 1581, Dr Rowan Williams' first play, Shakeshafte, opens this week at Swansea's Dylan Thomas Theatre.
The work, which deals with the so-called lost years of William Shakespeare's life, imagines he was a Catholic fleeing Elizabeth I's Protestant spies.
It depicts a meeting between Shakespeare - posing as a schoolmaster under the pseudonym Will Shakeshafte - and martyred Jesuit priest St Edmund Campion.
Swansea-born Dr Williams was Archbishop of Canterbury between 2002 and 2012, and since stepping down has spent four years as master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, studying the life of the Bard.
Although it was written in 2014, this week will be the first time the play has been performed in public, to coincide with the 400th anniversary celebrations of Shakespeare's death.
Speaking on its completion, Dr Williams said: "Shakespeare knows exactly where he does, and doesn't, want to go, in matters of church and state.
"He deliberately puts some of his plays right outside the Christian, Tudor/Jacobean framework.
"King Lear takes place in a pre-Christian Britain. Some people argue that Cymbeline is about a rupture with Rome, leading to a reconciliation.
"I think Shakespeare did have a recusant Catholic background.  My own hunch though is that he didn't go to church much."
Although a fictional account, Shakeshafte draws on known historical events.
While there is relatively abundant information on Shakespeare's early life and family background, during his 20s in the 1580s, virtually no documentary evidence can be found of his existence.
In 1985 literary academic E. A. J. Honigmann unearthed a will, which he claimed showed that in 1581 a 'Will Shakeshafte' was acting as a schoolmaster for a Catholic family in Houghton Tower, Lancashire.
Mr Shakeshafte had been recommended for the post by John Cottam, who is reputed to have been Shakespeare's last schoolmaster in Stratford.
Edmund Campion is also known to have visited Houghton...

Summary: Not many debutant playwrights can sell out a theatre.
###
Article: The concept will be known as Vulcan, and it is expected to start operations in 2019.
United Launch Alliance - the joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin - currently flies the Atlas and Delta rockets.
These are routinely used to loft Nasa science probes, spy satellites and other US national security missions.
In time, both vehicles will be retired as the new Vulcan components come on stream.
The first element to be introduced will be the first-stage booster, which will feature an all-new, all-American liquid-fuelled engine.
This will enable ULA to end its use of Russian-made RD-180 rocket motors – something Congress has mandated.
Politicians on Capitol Hill dislike the fact that American national security missions are launched with the aid of Russian propulsion technology.
ULA's preference is to incorporate a liquid methane-oxygen power unit currently being developed by Blue Origin, the space company run by Amazon entrepreneur Jeff Bezos.
When the new Vulcan booster makes its debut, it will initially be married to the current Centaur upper-stage of the Atlas.
But early in the 2020s, this too will be replaced by a bespoke upper-stage that should give the new rocket a performance that allows it to exceed even the Delta IV Heavy – the biggest, most powerful rocket in the world today, capable of putting upwards of 25 tonnes in a low-Earth orbit.
Critically, though, the Vulcan will be substantially cheaper to build and operate.
"A Delta IV Heavy at today’s launch rates costs about $400m, give or take, depending on the mission and its complexity. I fully expect the Next Generation Launch System to be less than half that," said Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance.
Some cost savings will be made by recovering and reusing the engines on the first-stage booster following a flight.
The idea is that after separation from the upper-stage, the engines would detach from the propellant tanks and fall back to Earth, deploying an inflatable shield to protect them from burning up on re-entry into...

Summary:

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Mystery surrounds the fate of more than 100 teenage girls who were abducted from a school in the remote north-east of Nigeria.

Article: A machine that can "smell" dollars - like a sniffer dog senses narcotics - is being developed.
For the first time, chemists have captured the unique fragrance of US paper money.
They announced their discovery at the American Chemical Society meeting.
"Money sniffing is an unknown art. No-one had ever tried to find these aromas," said Dr Joseph Stetter, of KWJ Engineering.
"We found that US currency emits a wide range of volatile organic compounds that make a 'fingerprint' we can identify in less than a minute."
His firm is developing a handheld cash detector for border police, called the Bulk Currency Detection System (BCDS).
In the past fiscal year, US officials seized more than $106m in smuggled cash heading to Mexico - the bulk of it laundered drug money.
But that's only a whisker of the estimated $39bn that crosses the border undetected every year - hidden in clothing, baggage and vehicles.
Current checks are done by guards with dogs - but training is expensive and time-consuming.
Airport-style X-ray scanners have had some success detecting currency - but they are large and impractical for busy border checkpoints.
To find a swifter solution, the US Department of Homeland Security made a public challenge to scientists to develop "a device that will search for and identify bulk quantities of currency - secreted on persons, in hand baggage and luggage, and/or in privately owned vehicles."
This money-sniffing machine must pass three intimidating challenges.
First - it must be precise enough to pick up the whiff of dollar bills amid a cacophony of background aromas.
"It has to work even in the presence of car exhaust, perfumes, food, and at a range of temperatures and humidity," said Dr Suiqiong Li, a researcher at KWJ.
"You need a smart algorithm to sort the needle from the haystack."
Next - it has to deliver a reading within seconds at hectic border crossings. There is no time to send samples off to a lab.
And finally, the probe has to be portable - light enough for a guard walking up and down a line of...

Summary: Criminals are smuggling billions in US bank notes into Mexico every year, but help could be on the way for border guards.
###
Article: Palaeobiologist Matt Friedman told the BBC that the fish provided crucial evidence about the evolutionary development of jawed vertebrates.
As a remote relative of humans, it provides important evolutionary clues.
"It is the deepest branch of our family tree that bears the kinds of jaw bones found in humans," Dr Friedman said.
The fossil was found at China's Xiaoxiang Reservoir, and was reported by the journal Nature on Thursday.
Scientists say that the heavily armoured fish, Entelognathus primordialis, is a previously unknown member of jawed vertebrates also known as gnathostomes. It has a complex small skull and jaw-bone structure.
"This is an unexpected discovery that inverts schoolbook teaching on the evolution of bony skulls," Dr Friedman told the BBC.
"Up until now it had been thought that the anatomical peculiarities of bony fishes - the group that would eventually give rise to human beings - are specialisations that arose later in vertebrate evolutionary history in our own bony fish lineage."
"But now that narrative has been turned on its head."
Dr Friedman said that the fish's jaw was much more like that of a modern bony fish - which is why its discovery may offer a new perspective on the early evolution of these creatures.
His review of the significance of the fossil find also appears in the latest edition of Nature.
Scientists say that the evolution of jaws is one of the key episodes in the evolution of vertebrates, but the gap between jawed and jawless vertebrates is so large that it is hard to work out the individual evolutionary steps in the transition.
"While this fossil does not tell us anything about the origin of jawed fishes from jawless ones, it does tell us about subsequent modifications to jaw structure that we thought were unique to bony fishes," Dr Friedman said.
It is thought that modern jawed vertebrates, such as sharks and bony fishes, emerged from a collection of jawed, armoured fishes known as placoderms.
Entelognathus primordialis has jaw-bone features previously restricted to...

Summary: A leading British scientist has said that the discovery of a 419-million-year-old fish fossil in China is a stunning and spectacular development.
###
Article: Solihull Sixth Form College admitted the decision was "extreme", but said it had taken it in response to mobile phones being used during toilet breaks.
The college said in the past mobiles had been smuggled into the toilets by an "inventive" minority of students.
Principal Paul Ashdown sent an email to parents explaining the new policy.
In a statement, the college said it was implementing the measure during examinations to make students aware that it was simply not worth trying to cheat.
The statement said: "A very small minority of students attempt to cheat and they use increasingly inventive and sophisticated techniques, including using mobile phones smuggled into the toilets.
"The majority of students will not need to use the toilet during an exam. But, if they do, our experienced invigilator team will supervise closely but sensitively to ensure that no cheating takes place."
Students caught cheating risk being disqualified from that exam by the exam board, and possibly disqualified from all their other exams, according to the college.
The statement also said: "We are protecting the future chances of our students by implementing strict security measures."
Mobile phones are banned from exam rooms, which is standard practice, according to the college.
In a post on the Solihull Updates Facebook page, Birmingham student Abby Carter said: "Not being allowed to close the door is absolutely ludicrous, accompanying to the toilet and even a pat down and check of the cubicle would be fine, but being made to use the toilet with the door open is disgusting! This surely cannot be legal!"
The new rule is due to come in when mock exams take place later this month.

Summary: A college's exam students will have to be accompanied to the toilet during loo breaks and leave the cubicle door open, after attempts to cheat last year.
###
Article: Australia sends asylum seekers to the Manus Island detention centre under its offshore processing policy.
But the five judges on the Supreme Court's bench ruled the camp breached section 42 of the constitution, which guarantees personal liberty.
The court said "all steps" should be taken to end the "illegal" detention.
Currently around 850 men are held on the island, around half of whom have been judged genuine refugees.
Papua New Guinea's constitution guarantees personal liberty for all people, except in defined circumstances relating to crime, illegal immigration and quarantine.
In 2014, Papua New Guinea's government amended section 42 of the constitution to add a paragraph that allowed for "holding a foreign national under arrangements made by Papua New Guinea with another country".
But the Supreme Court ruled this amendment was unconstitutional, as it did not meet a requirement to respect "the rights and dignity of mankind".
It said that because the asylum seekers and refugees had not voluntarily entered Papua New Guinea, the situation of illegal immigration did not apply to them.
"The detention of the asylum seekers on Manus Island in Papua New Guineaâ€¦ is unconstitutional and illegal," it said.
"Both the Australian and Papua New Guinea governments shall forthwith take all steps necessary to cease and prevent the continued unconstitutional and illegal detention of the asylum seekers or transferees at the relocation centre on Manus Island and the continued breach of the asylum seekers' or transferees' constitutional and human rights."
Manus Island: Australia's Guantanamo?
Australia's controversial asylum policy
Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said in a statement that the court's decision did not change Australia's immigration policy.
"People who have attempted to come illegally by boat and are now in the Manus facility will not be settled in Australia," the statement said, repeating the government's long-standing policy.
The opposition Labor party urged the government to hold urgent talks...

Summary: Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court has ruled that the detention of asylum seekers and refugees on Manus Island is unconstitutional.
###
Article: Although both he and his research have been discredited, the MMR scare still casts a long shadow.
That may seem improbable, given that MMR coverage rates now exceed the level they achieved before his claims were published in 1998.
First dose MMR coverage for England now stands at 89% in England and  92.7% in Wales - and latest quarterly figures for both countries suggest rates are edging towards the crucial 95% uptake the World Health Organisation says is needed to provide herd immunity and provide full protection.
But in 2004 it fell to 80% in England and 78% in Wales.  That means more than 100,000 children were not protected in that year alone.
There is now a huge cohort of children who are not protected and this has allowed the measles virus to circulate - often infecting babies who are too young to have had the MMR vaccine.
There were 2,016 confirmed cases of measles in England and Wales in 2012, the highest total for 18 years.
The number of cases in the current Swansea outbreak has reached 620.
"The age range of those most affected exactly maps the period after the Wakefield scare, so very many are in the 10-14 age group", said Dr Paul Cosford, medical director, Public Health England.
Children should get two doses of the MMR vaccine - at around 13 months and a second pre-school booster.
The first gives about 95% protection against measles, while two doses gives 99-100% protection.
In Swansea it has taken a huge outbreak of measles to prompt parents to get their children immunised.
Parents there have been praised by public health officials for bringing their children to special drop-in vaccine clinics.
But immunisation officials want parents elsewhere to be proactive and not wait until they see an outbreak of measles in their area before getting their children immunised.
"The message is that it's never too late to get immunised - that means both teenagers and young adults.
"Parents who are unsure whether their children have had the MMR vaccine can check with their GP," said Dr Cosford.
Measles is a highly...

Summary: It is 15 years since Dr Andrew Wakefield published research suggesting a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
###
Article: The military says all but eight of the 129 girls have escaped, but parents of the girls say many are still missing.
It is thought Islamist militant group Boko Haram took the girls to forested areas near the Cameroonian border.
The group is waging a bloody campaign for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
Nigerian students living in fear
What is Nigeria's Boko Haram?
Also on Wednesday, 18 people were killed in an attack in the Gwoza district of north-eastern Nigeria, local officials told the AP news agency.
The BBC's correspondent in Lagos, Will Ross, says the Nigerian military's statement that most of the girls had escaped their captors contrasts sharply with other information available to the BBC, including the claims of parents of pupils at the school. They insist "many" of their children are still missing.
The raid on the boarding school is a great source of embarrassment for the Nigerian authorities who say their military campaign against the militants is succeeding, he adds.
Hours before the military issued its statement, the governor of Borno state Kashim Shettima said the vast majority of the girls were still missing and offered a reward of 50m naira ($308,000; Â£184,000) for information.
The air force, army, police, local defence units and volunteers have all been involved in the search for the schoolgirls.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the "shocking" mass abduction and called for the girls' immediate release.
"The targeting of schools and schoolchildren is a grave violation of international humanitarian law," he said in a statement.
"Schools are, and must remain, safe places where children can learn and grow in peace."
The BBC's Hausa Service says Boko Haram has kidnapped civilians in the past - usually women to work as sex slaves.
Gunmen reportedly arrived at the school in Chibok, a remote area of Borno state, late on Tuesday, and ordered its teenage residents on to lorries.
A local politician said about 50 soldiers had been stationed near the school ahead of annual exams, but were...

Summary:


Throughout the election campaign BBC Wales News is answering young voters's questions and reflecting their views through our interactive #iNeverKnew project.

Article: The Foreign Office warned the Home Office against giving the teenage athlete "special treatment" to enable her to compete at the 1984 Olympics.
Ministers said any circumvention of the ban on South Africans competing may hurt the UK's anti-apartheid stance.
But the Home Office said Budd's "talent" made the case a priority.
Budd, who set a world record for the 5,000m at the age of 17 and became a household name for running barefoot, registered as a British citizen in April 1984 in time for her to compete at the Los Angeles games four months later.
She ran for Britain in the 3,000m - where she tangled with the American Mary Decker in one of the most famous moments in Olympic history and ultimately finished down the field.
A media campaign was launched to encourage Zola Budd's father to urge her to apply for British citizenship, by virtue of her paternal grandfather being British, thereby bypassing the boycott on South African athletes taking part in international competition because of its apartheid policy.
Previously unseen files, released by the National Archives, reveal wrangling over the issue broke out at cabinet level with the then Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe urging the then Home Secretary Leon Brittan to delay the decision on whether to grant the runner a British passport.
In a draft letter to Mr Brittan in March 1984, in which Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was copied in, Mr Howe wrote: "I think the consequences for the government could be very damaging if we laid ourselves open to the charge that this young girl was receiving special treatment, gifted and exceptional though she may be."
The letter warned that the move could lead to possible withdrawals by other nations from the Olympic Games and the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, and suggested it would undermine the Gleneagles agreement, a Commonwealth pact discouraging sporting contact with South Africa and be seen as a "device to circumvent anti-apartheid politics".
It added: "To give exceptional treatment to a South African national to...

Summary: A campaign to fast-track British citizenship for South African runner Zola Budd triggered a major government rift, newly released documents show.
###
Article: Like bats who emit sounds in order to navigate, researchers can now plug sounds into a computer algorithm to map a room.
The team were able to build a full 3D image of a room using four microphones to record echoes bouncing off walls.
Writing in the journal PNAS, the researchers say the technology could one day help solve crime.
The ability to use sounds to navigate the world, called echolocation, is already used by dolphins and bats. Though rare, some blind people have also been known to possess this skill.
But now with the help of a computer algorithm, the echoes from a chirp like sound can reveal the shape of a room.
The algorithm could also distinguish between stronger and weaker echoes and whether they had bounced one or more times around the room.
Walls made from different materials all reflect sound differently, but it was not the amplitude that the algorithm was looking at, rather the differing arrival times between the echoes. The same result could therefore be achieved from any sound, according to the researchers.
"Our software can build a 3D map of a simple, convex room with a precision of a few millimetres," said lead author of the study, Ivan Dokmanic from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland (EPFL).
"Each microphone picks up the direct sound from the source, as well as the echoes arriving from various walls.
"The algorithm then compares the signal from each microphone. The infinitesimal lags that appear in the signals are used to calculate not only the distance between the microphones, but also the distance from each microphone to the walls and the sound source," added Mr Dokmanic.
There are numerous potential applications for the research, Mr Dokmanic told BBC News.
Architects building a concert hall for example, might know the specific acoustics they want a new building to have. Using this new algorithm they could now "plug" certain echoes into a computer and "get the kind of space needed to produce those echoes".
He also explained that virtual reality could benefit from...

Summary: The shape of a room can be modelled using echoes produced from sound, new research has found.
###
Article: Residents in Peterborough complained after hearing Wajid Hussain's van driving along to Teddy Bears' Picnic.
Officials say he was using the tune for longer than the four seconds he was allowed to play it.
The city council also refused his licence because of complaints relating to his parking and where he was operating.
Licensing regulatory officer Darren Dolby said it sent a strong message to other vendors to abide by trading laws.
The council received a total of 14 complaints about Mr Hussain, who trades as Adam Ices, over a three-month period.
These included parking his van dangerously, trading without consent in certain areas of Peterborough and playing his chimes for longer than allowed.
Only two of the complaints related to the van's chimes.
Members of the city council's licensing team gave evidence that Mr Hussain had been given a number of verbal and written warnings to comply - but this advice had been ignored.
Mr Dolby said: "We are pleased that the decision to revoke Hussain's licence was upheld by the committee."
A spokesman from the Ice Cream Alliance, the UK trade association for ice cream manufacturers and retailers, said: "The restrictions on chimes are part of a national code of practice which ice cream sellers have to adhere to.
"We have asked the government to relax these restrictions but until they do, all our members are advised to work within this code."
Mr Hussain told the BBC he did not wish to comment.

Summary: An ice cream van owner has been banned from trading - because he played his chimes for too long.
###
Article: The draft report, apparently written for the UK government, was obtained by the Intercept website from US whistle-blower Edward Snowden.
It suggests that "life-saving intelligence data" could be missed.
Its release comes as the Investigatory Powers Bill goes through Parliament.
Extracts from the the document read: "The security service... can currently collect significantly more than it is able to exploit fully.
"This creates a real risk of intelligence failure from the service being unable to access potentially life-saving intelligence from data that it has already collected."
The report is marked classified and dated 12 February 2010.
It was allegedly prepared by British spy agency officials to brief the government's Cabinet Office and Treasury Department about the UK's surveillance capabilities.
Those capabilities are currently due to be updated via the controversial Investigatory Powers Bill, which is now at the report stage in Parliament.
It aims to give legal backing to the bulk collection of internet traffic, as well as requiring service providers to store browsing records for 12 months.
The government said these added powers were necessary in the fight against terrorism
A revised version was drawn up earlier this year after a raft of concerns about whether it had got the balance between privacy and security right.
The government needs the bill to go through before the end of year, when the current laws regulating surveillance expire.
Critics of the bill said the alleged leaked document showed mass surveillance was not the answer.
Open Rights Group communications director Pam Cowburn told the BBC:  "We have been calling on the government to make the operational case for costly bulk surveillance programmes that allow the collection of vast amounts of data.
"As today's leaks show, there are genuine concerns that mass surveillance is making us less, not more, safe.
"If the Investigatory Powers Bill is passed, even more of our data will be collected, with internet service providers being forced to record...

Summary: Spy officials allegedly voiced concerns back in 2010 that so much data was being collected by the UK security services, they risked overlooking useful intelligence.
###
Article: The BBC found "Captionbot" was able to recognise James Bond actor Daniel Craig but not an Apple watch.
A bot is a computer program that is able to communicate with humans using artificial intelligence.
The tech giant's Twitter chatbot Tay had to be taken offline after it began tweeting abuse.
"The more you chat with Tay the smarter she gets," the firm said when it launched, but people soon found they were able to teach the Twitter account to tweet extreme views and inappropriate remarks.
Tay's successor, Captionbot, has a stable of "siblings" including a bot which matches faces with celebrities, one which guesses the age of the person in a photograph and another which guesses dog breeds.
Built by Microsoft's Cognitive Services division, it uses the developer's' computer vision API (application programming interface) which extracts information from images from input such as tags.
It also uses the firm's Emotions API which analyses facial expression for a range of "universally communicated" emotions including anger, disgust, happiness and surprise.
While bots such as Captionbot may seem trivial they showcase the potential of the technology, Dr Aleks Krotoski told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"If you think about all the stuff we do cognitively, to identify an image and put it in its context, trying to get a bunch of ones and zeros to do that is actually incredibly difficult," she said.
"Captioning looks to identify the context as well as the subject in each picture - that's very important for things like mapping and driverless cars."
The tech giants are excited by the potential of bots - Facebook announced big plans for the AI programmes at its annual developer conference earlier this week.
One of the first to launch on its platform will be Spring, an AI concierge.
"Spring is actually going to build an experience where everything is automated except customer service," Facebook's head of messaging David Marcus told the BBC.
"It's bot for 99.9%, but then if you have a problem, a human can actually jump in and...

Summary: Microsoft's latest bot, designed to describe the contents of photographs, says it is "still learning" after receiving mixed reviews online.
###
Article: The aim is to cut through the jargon and present election news in a different way.
If you've got a question about the election or want to know what the parties will do for you, let us know.
Follow our reporter Steffan Messenger on Facebook, where he'll be posting all our #iNeverKnew coverage and focusing on the issues you feel passionately about - your cash, your career, your future.
And check out our guide to what the parties say they'll do for young people here.

Summary:


School lunches can tempt fussy eaters to try new foods, a survey for the School Food Trust has suggested.

Article: Alan Hepper, an MOD engineer, was giving evidence at the inquest into the death of 11-year-old Francis Rowntree.
He said there was limited testing on rubber baton rounds before their introduction in July 1970.
Francis, known as Frank by his family, was shot by a soldier with a rubber bullet in west Belfast in April 1972.
He died in hospital two days later.
That same year, accident and emergency doctors at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital had wanted to publish their findings in the British Journal of Surgery, but were told by a scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defence that it would not be in the public interest.
The information pointed out that 80% of inpatients hit by the rounds had injuries to their head and neck.  It also suggested that Frank Rowntree had been hit from two to three yards.
'Tumbled in the air'
It suggested that soldiers must be made aware of the consequences of using  the weapon, that it could kill, blind, or seriously injure some organs.
The tests on potential wounding by the baton rounds had been carried out at the Defence, Science and Technological Laboratory, Porton Down, Wiltshire, by firing them in controlled circumstances at sheep.
The court heard also that tests showed that the batons tumbled in the air and often hit their targets side-on, although they could also hit end on, causing rather more injury or damage.
Mr Hepper, who works at Porton Down, agreed with a barrister for the Rowntree family that the chances of a target being struck end-on increased if a round was fired within 5-6 metres.
It is thought that Frank Rowntree was struck from close range.
Mr Hepper told the inquest that the effect and accuracy of the rubber baton round was tested more after its initial introduction.
'Far too dangerous'
He also said that the amount of gunpowder used was increased twice in a bid to make it more accurate.
A wooden baton round had been tested but quickly deemed to be far "too dangerous" and was never used operationally here.
The rubber baton round was then developed at the request...

Summary: An inquest has heard that information about serious injuries caused by rubber baton rounds fired by the Army was not made public in the early 1970s.
###
Article: A software update was released last week to iPhone, iPad and iPod owners to protect users from "an attacker" who may "capture or modify data".
It was later discovered that the problem also existed on Apple laptops and desktop computers running OS X.
On Tuesday, Apple issue a security fix through its software update service.
The problem was first spotted on Apple's mobile devices which run the iOS 7 operating system. It related to the way secure connections are made between Apple's safari browser and websites, including banking sites, Google and Facebook.
These sites have digital security certificates that allow an encrypted connection to be established between a user's computer and the website. This means any data that is sent over the connection should be secure.
However, a vulnerability in the code for Apple's iOS and OS X operating systems meant the security certificates were not being checked properly. This meant hackers could impersonate a website and capture the data that was being sent over the connection before letting it continue its journey to the real website.
Apple released a fix for mobile devices running iOS 7 last week but a spokesperson issued the following statement about OS X: "We are aware of this issue and already have a software fix that will be released very soon."
The fix was released on Tuesday.
According to researchers the security flaw had existed for months but no-one had reported it publicly.
Graham Cluley, a security analyst, said it was a failing by the company that it had not been identified earlier.
"It's pretty bad what Apple have done, they've seriously dropped the ball. How much the problem has been exploited is hard to say. Hackers may now be trying to take advantage while users wait for the security fix."

Summary: Apple has issued a fix to a flaw in its OS X operating system which previously left users vulnerable to security breaches while browsing online.
###
Article: He retained his seat with a total of 50,915 votes. The total turnout for County Durham was 17.7%.
Praising staff at Durham Constabulary, he said: "Four more years of success, four more years of giving you the police service that you deserve."
Mr Hogg was a senior police officer in Durham and Cleveland during a 30-year career.
The Labour candidate won the race to become Durham's first police and crime commissioner in 2012.
Mr Hogg was assistant chief constable in Durham and deputy chief with neighbouring Cleveland before retiring in 2008.
He became an expert on policing football hooligans and worked at international tournaments including the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
Last year, Mr Hogg offered cannabis users the chance to avoid prosecution by giving users of the class B drug the option to take part in a course to deal with their habit rather than being arrested.
He also said drug addicts should have access to "consumption rooms" where they could inject prescribed heroin legally to help take drugs off the streets and reduce crime.
Elections for police and crime commissioners were held in the 41 police force areas of England and Wales on Thursday.
Candidates which were standing in Durham Constabulary are listed below.
Candidates are listed alphabetically by surname. BBC News App users: tap here to see the results.
More information is available on the Choose my PCC website.

Summary: Labour's Ron Hogg has been re-elected Durham's Police and Crime Commissioner.
###
Article: Last year, almost 10 million bottles were sold in the UK, less than half the 22 million bottles sold in 2005, according to The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA).
Other fortified wines have also seen UK sales slide over the decade.
The number of bottles of port sold has declined by a quarter and vermouth has seen sales tumble by two-thirds.
In contrast, sales of gin have boomed.
The WSTA earlier this month dubbed 2016 "the year of gin" after reporting UK sales broke the Â£1bn mark for the first time ever.
The WSTA blames the plunge in fortified wine sales - which include port and sherry - on increasing taxation.
It says that since 2007, fortified wine duty has increased by 53%, adding Â£1 to a bottle of port or sherry.
The sharp drop in the pound since the Brexit vote is also likely to weigh on sales as the cost of importing wine from overseas increases.
The body has launched a "Save Santa's Sherry" campaign to and revive the sector.
"Whether it's the sherry shared as an aperitif or left out for Santa, a port to accompany the cheese course at the end of Christmas lunch or vermouth shaken or stirred in a classic Martini - these drinks have been enjoyed by the British for centuries," said WSTA chief executive Miles Beale.
"It would be incredibly sad to see the British traditions associated with these drinks, which have been passed down through the generations, disappear," he added.

Summary: It may be a traditional Christmas tipple, but sales of sherry have more than halved over the past decade.
###
Article: Emmerdale, EastEnders, Coronation Street and Hollyoaks were examined over a two-week period.
The study also looked at exercising, drinking water and healthy eating.
Emmerdale characters managed to consume 46 alcoholic drinks during the research period, with Coronation Street not far behind on 40 beverages.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Emmerdale said it was a "small community", adding: "Characters regularly meet in the pub where the focus is on story as opposed to alcohol intake. We present a balanced view of alcohol as we take our responsibilities for portraying alcohol consumption seriously."
Hollyoaks was named the healthiest UK soap overall, while EastEnders came second, followed by Emmerdale in third and Coronation Street in fourth spot.
In total, 48% of activity in Hollyoaks was considered healthy, with EastEnders on 36%, Emmerdale on 18%, and Coronation Street on 15%.
The Hollyoaks characters were the most active, with characters sitting down for just 15% of the episodes compared with Coronation Street's cast, who spent 31% on the couch.
EastEnders characters enjoyed the most nights out, with 11 in total, while there were no evenings out on the town on Coronation Street.
Corrie's characters also consumed the most takeaways, while Emmerdale consumed the least.
A spokesperson for Coronation Street said: "We present a balanced view of alcohol consumption, healthy eating and the lifestyles of our characters as we take our responsibilities for these issues seriously. Characters do frequent the pub but we also see them engaging in exercise and we have explored lifestyle related health issues through many different storylines."
Lee Matthews of Fitness First, which conducted the study, said: "While studying Hollyoaks, we saw that despite there being three big nights out, there were zero instances of smoking shown on screen. In comparison there were 13 instances of jogging, walking and playing a sport.
"Hollyoaks has demonstrated perfectly that we can play hard and still incorporate healthy habits along...

Summary: Emmerdale is the "booziest" British soap, according to a study on the depiction of alcohol consumption and healthy habits on TV soaps.
###
Article: Researchers found that four out of five children in England who ate school lunches had tried food at school that they had not tried at home.
Half of parents questioned said their children had asked for foods they had eaten at school to be cooked at home.
The survey, of about 1,000 parents, found the most popular vegetables were carrots, sweetcorn and peas.
Aubergine, chickpeas and spinach were among the least popular.
Of the parents questioned, 628 had children who ate school lunches.
(% denotes proportion of parents who said their child would eat each vegetable)
England's School Food Trust commissioned the research after a survey by the Mumsnet website suggested some parents gave their children packed lunches because they thought they were too fussy to eat anything else.
Trust chairman, Rob Rees, said: "Every parent knows it's a nightmare watching their child push food around the plate.
"School meals can be a great way to help parents encourage their children to try new foods and to increase the variety of foods in their diet."
Mumsnet co-founder, Carrie Longton, said: "Getting children to eat healthily is every parent's dream, but meal times at home can often be a battle ground and emotionally charged.
"From Mumsnetters' experience it seems that once at school there's a desire to fit in with everyone else and even some positive peer pressure to boast about the variety of what foods you can eat.
"School meals have also moved on quite a bit from when Mumsnetters were at school, with healthier options and more variety."
School meals in England now have to comply with strict nutritional guidelines.
About four in 10 primary school children in England now eat school lunches, slightly more than in secondary schools.
More children in Scotland eat school lunches - about 46%.
The survey was conducted online between 26 February and 5th March among a panel of parents who had at least one child in school aged 4-17 years old.

Summary:


A new deal to secure the air link between Dundee City Airport and London Stansted for another two years has been announced.

Article: Sir Peter Fahy is concerned the force "will not be able to deploy enough officers and PCSOs into the local community to gather intelligence".
GMP has lost 1,100 officers since 2010, leaving about 6,800.
Policing Minister Mike Penning said there was "no question" police would have enough resources to do their work.
In 2010, GMP said 3,100 jobs - 1,500 officers and 1,600 civilian workers - had to go over a four-year period to meet the government's 25% spending cuts.
Sir Peter said: "It's really pretty stark now.
"I can't reduce much further the number of officers for instance investigating rapes and domestic violence.
"We then have to look at day-to-day neighbourhood policing and that is the risk - we end up being a reactive police force.
"We need to be in communities, preventing things before they happen."
Tony Lloyd, Greater Manchester's Police and Crime Commissioner, said crimes including violent crime and domestic violence rose by 8% this year.
He said: "We have already lost 1,100 police officers from the streets of Greater Manchester and this year we are facing another cut of £41m, which [means] there will be hundreds of fewer police officers on our streets.
"To be losing almost half the policing budget by 2020 is unpalatable."
Ian Hanson, chairman of the area's Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said: "We are in a position where we are going to ask ourselves 'Can we afford the luxury of community policing?'
"In the 1970s and 80s we went to crime after it happened."
He added: "We've got one of the best police forces in the country and now we're under threat and once it's gone, it's gone."
Mr Penning said: "While we acknowledge that the police funding settlement is challenging there is no question that the police will still have the resources to do their important work.
"What matters is how officers are deployed, not how many of them there are in total.
"The reduction in crime nationwide demonstrates there is no simple link between officer numbers and crime levels, the visibility of...

Summary: Greater Manchester Police (GMP) risks "being a reactive force" if up to 400 officers are axed to save £41m next year, the chief constable said.
###
Article: Oil and Gas UK found more than 100 platforms are expected to be completely or partially removed from the UK and Norwegian continental shelves by 2025.
More than 1,800 wells are also scheduled to be plugged and abandoned and 7,500km of pipeline decommissioned.
But the industry body said there was not "a rush to decommission".
It pointed out that while 52 new projects appeared for the first time in its annual Decommissioning Insight survey, most had been "a long time in the planning".
Total decommissioning expenditure in the UK and Norway last year was £2.1bn, compared with just under £1.6bn in 2014.
The total amount forecast to be spent on decommissioning on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) between 2016 and 2025 is £17.6bn - up on the 2015 survey's 10-year forecast of £16.9bn.
Forecast activity on the UKCS is higher than on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, where fewer fields are reaching the end of their field life. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has estimated that annual expenditure on decommissioning will average about £1bn per year until 2020.
Mike Tholen, Oil and Gas UK's upstream policy director, said: "With low oil prices continuing, you might expect decommissioning to be a key focus for the sector in the years ahead, however we are not witnessing a rush to decommission.
"Different factors are at play and the picture is much more complex.
"Some companies are deferring cessation of production as field life has been extended by sustained efficiency improvements; others are delaying activity due to cash-flow constraints; while elsewhere, companies may be expediting decommissioning to take advantage of falling costs in the current downturn."
The Scottish government's minister for Business, Innovation and Energy Paul Wheelhouse said he would be visiting the north east later this month to focus on the opportunities of decommissioning.
He added: "Work is well under way with Scottish Enterprise to develop a decommissioning action plan by the end of the year and we are also working closely with Scottish ports...

Summary: An industry survey has forecast a "gradual but steady" rise in offshore oil and gas decommissioning in the UK and Norway over the next 10 years.
###
Article: Yet Starbucks' founder, Howard Schultz, came up with the idea for his coffee chain whilst sipping espresso in a Milan bar.
So what? you may say. He took a good product, repackaged it and globalised it.
But to many Italians, the coffee served by Starbucks and other branded outlets is as far away from proper Italian coffee as you can get, despite the Italian-sounding offerings on their menus.
Now - time for disclosure - I am part-Italian and like most Italians, I like to think Italy represents the height of coffee culture, the standard against which all coffee should be measured.
When Italian friends and family shudder in disgust at the idea of sullying their precious cappuccino with a dash of hazelnut syrup or a sprinkling of cinnamon, I nod knowingly.
At home I have a moka machine, which is to the Italian kitchen what the kettle is to the British. As far as I'm concerned, the cappuccinos, lattes and espressos served in branded coffee chains taste scorched and bitter, a shabby imitation of the real thing.
But am I missing the point? Is my palate so provincial that it hasn't caught up with the changing tastes of the global coffee market? Because it appears that not only has Italian coffee been taken out of Italy, but the Italian is also being taken out of the coffee.
The International Coffee Organization says that globally consumption has grown by nearly 42% since the beginning of this century. So we're drinking more of it than ever before, which explains the expansion of many coffee chains in the past few decades, but we're not drinking it in the Italian way.
"I think a caricature of Italian espresso was what was exported," says award-winning barista James Hoffmann of London's Square Mile Coffee Roasters. He's part of a generation of highly-trained baristas driving innovation in the sector through more sophisticated espresso-based brews.
"Global espresso culture is now a long way from what is considered traditional Italian espresso," Mr Hoffmann says.
8.5bn
kilos of coffee is consumed globally every...

Summary: Starbucks is everywhere, but not in Italy.
###
Article: The first release of Android Wear is designed for smartwatches and helps them follow voice commands.
Google said it was also working with electronics firms, chip makers and fashion labels on wearable gadgets running Android.
One of the first Android Wear devices will be Motorola's Moto 360 smart watch that will go on sale in the summer.
The search giant's work on Android Wear builds on its experiences with Google Glass augmented spectacles.
Android Wear was announced via the official Google blog and marks a significant move for the company into the wearables sector.
In a blogpost Sundar Pichai, head of Android at Google, said the software would prove useful for gadgets that monitor key health parameters or which people use when they go running or cycling.
It could also lead to a class of devices that respond quickly to spoken commands including answering short questions, booking a taxi or sending a text without having to tap anything on a smartphone touchscreen.
Google said it was working on a new user interface for Android that reacted quickly, was driven by a person's voice and which drew on contextual information, such as a user's location, to be useful.
Software development kits which application developers can play with have also been released.
"We're always seeking new ways for technology to help people live their lives and this is just another step in that journey," wrote Mr Pichai.
The decision to move into wearables would pitch Google into more intense competition with arch-rival Apple, said Stuart Miles, founder of tech news site Pocket-lint.
"It's a threat to Apple because the Android ecosystem is growing so fast," he said.
Some of the early designs for Android Wear smart watches looked great, he added, and if that were combined with a good second-screen notification system it could win people over and get them to defect from Apple,
However, he said, his experiences of living with a Pebble smart watch for the last four months showed that people had yet to adapt to the appearance of such...

Summary: Google has announced a version of its Android operating system designed specifically for wearable devices.
###
Article: Jeremy Cox is looking after his wife Roz who has been diagnosed with dementia.
"I think one of the things you've got to be aware of is, without a drug like this, what the situation is, it's desperate.
"You just go on into the final stage of being spoon-fed baby-food in a care home."
The statistics back up the human stories too.
Alzheimer's Research UK estimates that a treatment that could slow dementia progression by 25% would halve the number of people who reach the most debilitating severe form of the disease.
At the moment there is simply nothing to stop that happening.
Current medication, such as Aricept, can manage only the symptoms of dementia by helping the dying brain cells function.
The modern history of dementia research has been unbelievably bleak. More than 100 trials in the past three decades have produced just a handful of drugs that manage symptoms and nothing to stop the death of the brain.
Compare that to the phenomenal progress that had been made in heart disease or cancer.
That is why even the slightest hint of progress - for those in the mildest stage of Alzheimer's - is creating excitement.
Provisional data suggests that the drug solanezumab may slow the progression of the disease by 34%.
The implication is that the amount of cognitive decline normally seen in 18 months would take 24 months with the drug - allowing patients to spend longer in the mild phase of the degenerative disease.
Be in no doubt that it would be a hugely significant moment if such as drug was available.
However, today is not the day to jump up and down proclaiming a breakthrough in slowing the pace of Alzheimer's.
The limited data which has been released is the scientific equivalent of a poll before a general election or a trailer ahead of a movie.
It provides captivating clues, hints and teases, but nothing definitive.
Next year, when further trial results are due, we will know for certain whether solanezumab is the breakthrough everyone hopes it could be.
But even if everything goes perfectly it could take years to...

Summary: Talk to anyone affected by Alzheimer's and the need for a drug to slow the progression of the disease is clear.
###
Article: The UK and Scottish governments and Dundee City Council have agreed a public service obligation (PSO) contract worth almost Â£3.7m.
Loganair will continue to operate the route from 26 March.
The service will see two return flights each weekday and one return flight on a Sunday.
The UK Government will contribute 50% of the total funds, with the Scottish government putting in Â£1.4m and Dundee City Council providing Â£400,000 of funding.
UK Aviation Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said: "I am delighted that Loganair will continue to operate this direct air service between Dundee and London Stansted for another two years.
"Passengers and businesses will continue to benefit from the connectivity this route provides. It will further boost trade and tourism opportunities will continue to flourish in Scotland."
Scotland's Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said: "The award of this contract to Loganair is welcome news which provides continuity of service on this important route.
"This flight not only provides a direct link to London, but also offers passengers a wide number of onward connecting destinations from Stansted. This will continue to benefit business and leisure travellers alike."
Dundee City Council leader Ken Guild added: "Securing the route for a further two years through this latest PSO gives the council and its partners an opportunity to build on the service and attract other routes."
The UK government funding is through the Regional Air Connectivity Fund, which aims to maintain connectivity between London and smaller regional airports, where routes are at risk of being withdrawn.

Summary:


A motorist who fatally injured a cyclist has been convicted of causing death by careless driving.

Article: The Confederation Internationale de la Peche Sportive says accepting fishing as an Olympic discipline would enlarge the universality of the Olympic idea because angling is so popular.
Fish caught would be returned to the water unharmed.
But critics say fishing involves too much luck, is incomprehensible to outsiders and too boring to watch.
They reject Confederation president Ferenc Szalay's assertion that angling's "ancient and fair competition system" matches Olympic ideals.
Fishing is among a raft of sports aiming to secure Olympic status.
Skateboarding, surfing, climbing, Karate and baseball/softball have already been confirmed for Tokyo 2020.
The IOC said it hopes the "innovative" move will draw in new audiences by focusing inclusions on youth-oriented sports.
The five extra sports, which do not replace any of the 28 already on the Tokyo schedule, will include 18 events and involve hundreds of athletes.
Baseball and softball featured separately between 1992 and 2008, but made a joint bid to be readmitted.
Fishing has featured at the Olympics once before - it was an unofficial sport at the 1900 Paris games. Only six nations took part and there is no record of the eventual winner.

Summary: The international governing body for fishing has applied for angling to be part of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
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Article: The Hang Seng index closed up 2.7% at 26,944.39, its highest closing level since January 2008.
The surge in interest was triggered by Beijing's move last month to let mutual funds invest in Hong Kong through the connect plan.
The Shanghai Composite ended down 0.9%.
The mainland index closed at 3,957.53 as investors rushed to buy relatively cheaper Hong Kong shares.
Chinese investors had used the entire 10.5bn yuan ($1.69bn) daily investment quota for buying Hong Kong stocks under the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme for a second day.
Shares in the rest of Asia were mixed despite a rise in US markets on Wednesday.
Investor sentiment remained cautious following the latest committee minutes from the Federal Reserve, which showed the central bank was split over when to raise interest rates.
Japan's Nikkei 225 closed up 0.75% at 19,937.72, edging closer to the key threshold of 20,000 which was last seen in 2000.
Analysts said the psychologically important level was likely to be hit soon.
Shares in Asia's biggest clothing retailer, Japan's Fast Retailing, closed up nearly 2% after it raised its annual profit forecast by 20% on Thursday.
The owner of Uniqlo, which has been expanding aggressively overseas, said its net income would be 120bn yen ($998m) for the year ending in August, up from its previous forecast of 100bn yen.
The company's profits were boosted by sales outside Japan.
In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed down 0.48% at 5,932.20 as a result of falling oil prices, which analysts said would affect the energy sector.
US-based oil and gas giant, Apache, said it was selling its Australian operations for $2.1bn (Â£1.4bn) as it shifts its focus back to North America.
"Following the sale of our Australian assets, about 70% of Apache's production will come from North America onshore," said the firm's chief executive, John Christmann.
South Korea's benchmark Kospi index closed down 0.02% at 2,058.87.
After a surprise cut in March, South Korea's central bank said on Thursday it would hold...

Summary: Hong Kong shares surged to seven-year highs on Thursday as mainland Chinese investors poured money into the market via the new stock connect trading link.
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Article: A million listeners is a big drop. However, quarterly radio listening figures have a habit of bouncing around.
Look over the long term and what's surprising is that in an era of huge technological change, radio listening has stayed so stable overall.
In March 2006, Radio 1 had a weekly reach of 9.9 million listeners aged over 15. In March 2016, it had 9.9 million.
However, there are trends hidden in the figures.
The number of hours that 15-24 year-olds listen to radio has gone from 29 million hours in 2010 to 16 million in 2016.
That young audience has dropped from 3.7 million (45%) to 2.9 million (36%).
But why do people care so much about Radio 1's figures?
The BBC worries about it because it is their most successful youth brand and the corporation as a whole struggles to reach young people.
The external attention is harder to fathom. The era of Radio 1 being the most listened-to radio station passed long ago.
The big shift has not been the decline of Radio 1, it has been the rise of Radio 2. In 1999, Radio 2 had 9.6 million listeners - it now has 15.5 million.
Radio 1's success in the 1970s and 80s means that the middle-aged people who are avid consumers of news retain an interest in the one bit of youth culture that they still recognise.
Indeed, Radio 1 has 4.1 million listeners over the age of 35 - and around 800,000 of them are over the age of 60.
It is worth noting that this 4.1 million figure hasn't changed much, even though BBC 6Music - which is aimed at this older audience - has seen its reach go from 200,000 to 1.4 million.
Around 11 million hours of Radio 1's listening is by people over the age of 45. The problem for Radio 1 is that today's generation gap is more about the way we consume music than the music itself.
No wonder Radio 1's press release wants to point out how many hits the station's channel is getting on YouTube.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

Summary: BBC Radio 1's audience has dropped to its lowest level for more than a decade after the station lost a million listeners over the past year.
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Article: Ten years ago there was terrible post-election ethnic violence in the country, which nobody here wants to see repeated.
But with opinion polls predicting a very close race between incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga, there are fears there could be trouble ahead.
What happens to Kenya is less about who wins the elections and more about how those who lose take their defeat.
The success of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) computerised voting system is key to the process being considered free and fair.
If it fails - as it did in 2013 - the votes will be counted manually, and in a country where vote-rigging has been alleged in the past, the loser will no doubt challenge the result.
In 2013, Raila Odinga turned to the courts claiming electoral fraud, and lost.
This time - his fourth and probably last attempt to become president - he may turn to the streets if he considers the election to have been stolen.
In theory, the voting system is a good one:
But if the computer system goes down, verifying the voters' roll will be a lot harder, and may raise suspicions.
More on Kenya's elections:
The murder of a key figure a week before the poll - the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) head of technology - has really put the country on edge.
Chris Msando was in charge of the electronic system, and was the man who appeared on TV to reassure the public it would work - and couldn't be hacked.
When his tortured, strangled body was found dumped in a forest, it raised suspicions that somebody was planning to interfere with the election.
The IEBC insists the system will still work and successfully carried out a public "dry run" to prove it.
But a quarter of polling stations are apparently outside cellular data range.
On top of that, on Friday armed men raided a Nairobi building where the opposition is running its own parallel count and took computers. Later two foreign data analysts working for the opposition were expelled from Kenya.
More than 180,000...

Summary: Kenya is holding its breath as the blaring speakers of the election campaign cars finally fall silent ahead of Tuesday's vote.
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Article: The European Space Agency has amended an August 2015 contract with Airbus Safran Launchers (ASL), to unlock a further €1.7bn (£1.5bn; $1.9bn).
It tops up initial monies of €680m and means ASL can now complete development of the Ariane 6.
This new rocket will replace the Ariane 5 but, crucially, aims to cut current launch prices in half.
The move to a new vehicle is seen as vital if Europe is to maintain its competitive position.
The Ariane 5 is still the dominant player in the market for big commercial satellite launches, but this position is being challenged by a new wave of American offerings, in particular from the California SpaceX company.
This US firm’s Falcon 9 rocket already undercuts the Ariane 5 on price and will get even cheaper if efforts to fly each vehicle multiple times prove successful.
The contract amendment signed in Paris follows approval by key committees at Esa in the past few days.
They signalled their contentment with the preliminary design progress on the Ariane 6 and the reorganisation in Europe’s rocket industry required to implement vehicle production.
The last detail to be agreed was the establishment of a second line of fabrication for the carbon-fibre casings of the 6’s strap-on, solid-fuel boosters.
This will be in Germany and will supplement the line already planned in Italy.
Many boosters are required, not only for the 6 but to use as the first stage on an upgrade to a smaller rocket known as Vega.
"Thanks to the trust and support of Esa and its member states' representatives, the industry has met its commitments and proved its ability to fulfil its role as a design and industrial authority," said Alain Charmeau, CEO of Airbus Safran Launchers.
“We have met the deadlines and quality objectives set, and now, thanks to the industrial organisation rolled out in record time, we can continue to develop a flexible, modular and competitive launcher that will fly in 2020".
The Ariane 6 will come in two versions. One, known as Ariane 62, will loft medium-sized spacecraft into orbit -...

Summary: The final tranche of R&D funding needed to introduce a new rocket for Europe was committed on Wednesday.
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Article: Alasdair Dudgeon was killed near the Kincardine Bridge on 6 January 2013 when James Sneddon knocked him off his bike in the early hours of the morning.
Mr Dudgeon suffered a broken neck and internal injuries as he commuted to his work at a bakery near Falkirk at 02:00.
Sneddon, 42, was found guilty of causing the 51-year-old's death, after a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Mr Dudgeon, of High Valleyfield in Fife, regularly cycled to and from his work as a baker at Tesco in Camelon, just outside Falkirk.
He was cycling on the A985 road between the Longannet roundabout and the Kincardine Bridge when he was hit by a Vauxhall Astra driven by Sneddon, of Falkirk.
Sneddon called an ambulance, but paramedics found no sign of a pulse on the victim before taking him to Forth Valley Hospital in Larbert, where he was pronounced dead.
Witnesses said weather conditions were clear and visibility was reasonable on the night of the crash, with a police officer noting that the red flashing light on Mr Dudgeon's bike was bright enough to be seen from 300m away.
Prosecutors said that although Mr Dudgeon had not been wearing a high visibility jacket, Sneddon should have seen him well before the collision and should have taken steps to avoid the cyclist.
The Crown originally charged Sneddon with causing Mr Dudgeon's death by dangerously failing to observe the cyclist and colliding with the rear of his bike, which he denied.
After a trial, the jury found him guilty on the lesser charge of death by careless driving. He will be sentenced later after background reports are compiled.

Summary:


A man who coerced a woman into having sex with a stranger before sending "revenge porn" to her family has been jailed for six years.

Article: The sport is to be one of 18 disciplines included at the event, which will be held in the Gold Coast from 4-15 April 2018.
It follows a special request to the Games organisers from the Queensland authorities.
Commonwealth Games Scotland chairman Paul Bush said the announcement was a "huge boost" for beach volleyball.
He said: "We will now continue to work closely with colleagues at Scottish Volleyball to develop the necessary criteria to ensure that we can select a team that competes with distinction.
"There is no better place to showcase this exciting sport than in Gold Coast."
The announcement was also welcomed by Lynne Beattie, who captained Great Britain's London 2012 Olympic volleyball team and who is Scotland's number one international beach athlete.
"I would be overjoyed at the opportunity to represent Scotland at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and look forward to hearing more about the qualification process later in the year," she said.
The Gold Coast Games will become the first to include beach volleyball and extends the number of sports involved from 17 to 18.
Annastacia Palaszczuk, Queensland state's premier, said: "The Games is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to showcase Queensland to the world and, with beach volleyball now locked in to make its Commonwealth Games debut, vision of the Gold Coast's iconic beaches will be beamed to an audience of over 1.5 billion people around the world."
Two 12-team tournaments will be contested, one for men's teams and one for women's teams, consisting of two players per team.
A qualification system will be developed in collaboration with the international volleyball federation, FIVB, and will be finalised by July.
Volleyball Scotland chief executive Margaret Ann Fleming said: "I am confident that our athletes are ready to embrace this opportunity and I look forward to 2018 with optimism."
The news of beach volleyball's inclusion has also been welcomed by Volleyball England chief executive Lisa Wainwright.
"This is fantastic news which has been many years in the...

Summary: Scotland are hoping to put together a beach volleyball team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.
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Article: The code will be made freely available for manufacturers who want to launch their own gaming hardware.
The announcement is the first of three due this week as Valve lays out what it calls the "future" of gaming.
The company is widely anticipated to launch its own machine to run SteamOS, believed to be called the Steam Box.
The console could potentially disrupt a market currently dominated by the Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Wii.
Ahead of a hardware reveal, Valve outlined its plans for the Linux-based operating system that will be available for download "soon".
"As we've been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we've come to the conclusion that the environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself," a message on Steam's website read.
"SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen."
Linux is a open-source operating system - meaning people can freely build-upon and adapt its source code.
Crucially, there are no licensing costs involved, so manufacturers can distribute Linux-powered machines more cheaply than those running systems such as Windows.
SteamOS will encompass Steam's already huge customer base, estimated to be about 50 million active users.
Steam is Valve's distribution service through which it sells both its own games and those of its various publishing partners.
It began life in 2002 as a way for Valve to make it easier for users to update games, but it now is a significant channel for selling titles - and is also used as a community tool for setting up multiplayer matches and other online events.
Valve does not release sales statistics for games sold through Steam - but estimates from consultancy IHS Screen Digest suggest it is responsible for 75% of PC game sales, bringing in about $1bn (Â£620m) in 2012.
There are more than 2,000 games on the service.
However, despite the service's popularity, it is currently reliant on something of a sinking ship, argued...

Summary: Video games developer and publisher Valve has announced SteamOS, a free operating system it hopes will help bring PC gaming into the living room.
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Article: The 11-year-old bird, called Arthur, was swept away by strong winds during a display at the Royal Bath and West Show on Wednesday.
The "massive great" bird has since been spotted in Castle Carey in Somerset and Devizes in Wiltshire.
Birds of Prey Displays is asking anyone who sees him not to approach him and to contact them instead.
The white-headed vulture was taking part in an Eagle and Vulture show on the opening day of the show in Shepton Mallet, when it was blown off course.
Ben Potter, the bird's owner, said the "massive great big glove puppet of a vulture" should be easy to spot.
"He's a 12lb vulture, with a 6ft wingspan - you can't miss him," he said.
"And he will make himself really obvious to people because he knows people are part of his life so he will be quite visual."
Since Wednesday, the massive bird has been spotted in a field in Castle Cary, been seen being "harassed by two rooks" as it flew over Sparkford in Somerset, and surprised a driver in Devizes in Wiltshire.
"If you see it give me a call and I'll come and get it," said Mr Potter.
"The only thing I do ask is that people don't go to him - not because he's dangerous - mainly because he'll be spooked and keep moving and moving and moving."

Summary: A vulture that went missing in Somerset four days ago has still not been caught despite several sightings.
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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.
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Article: A year later, Rajabhakti Park has become a millstone around the neck of the military government, and a symbol of how their efforts to promote the monarchy - at an awkward moment as Thailand faces its first royal succession in nearly 70 years - can go wrong.
The project has been tarnished by allegations of corruption - a scourge General Prayuth promised to tackle when he seized power last year.
Other government-backed ventures intended to showcase support for the monarchy have been similarly tainted. Not just by allegations of mismanaged funds, but also by the mysterious deaths in custody, or disappearances, of people who had been close to Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn.
The monarchy is an acutely sensitive topic in Thailand, made all the more delicate by the severity of the lese majeste law which inhibits any public debate about the institution.
The officially-sanctioned view of the monarchy is that it is loved and respected by all Thais, who support the law.
In fact, there are Thais who take a different view, but who do not dare to express it publicly.
From the moment it seized power last year, the military made protecting the monarchy from any kind of critical scrutiny a top priority.
It ordered the police to be more rigorous in prosecuting anyone caught saying anything negative about the royal family. It insisted defendants be tried in military courts, and sometimes in secret.
Around 100 people have been charged with lese majeste since the coup, and sentences have become harsher, with one young mother-of-two being given a 28-year sentence in August.
At the same time, the military set about trying to burnish the public image of Prince Vajiralongkorn, in preparation for him to succeed the ailing King Bhumibol.
The lese majeste law makes it impossible for anyone in Thailand to speak frankly about members of the royal family. The commonly-used way to describe the comparison between the heir and the King is that "he does not enjoy the same popularity as his father."
In August, the government organised a mass...

Summary: When the Thai army decided last November to use a plot of land it owns near the royal resort town of Hua Hin, to construct a park containing 14 metre-high bronze statues of seven past kings, it must have seemed an ideal way for the military to demonstrate its abiding loyalty to the monarchy.
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Article: Clive Weatherhogg set up meetings between the woman and a man he found through an adult website, and filmed them having sex.
A court heard he sent a message containing a sexually explicit clip to the victim's sister on Christmas Day.
Weatherhogg, 42, was also placed on the sex offenders register.
He had denied the charges but was found guilty following a trial at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Sheriff George Way remitted the case to the High Court in Edinburgh to be dealt with because its greater sentencing powers.
Weatherhogg, formerly of Guthrie, near Forfar, was found guilty of coercing the woman to engage in sexual activity and intercourse with the man between 10 September, 2013 and 17 September the following year.
He was also convicted of intentionally causing the woman's sister and father to look at sexual images and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner on 25 December, 2014.
The woman told the trial she had felt "blackmailed" by Weatherhogg.
Lady Wolffe told the Weatherhogg that she had to pass a sentence on him that "reflected society's abhorrence" at such conduct.
The judge said that Weatherhogg, a first offender, had been assessed as posing "a moderate risk" of sexual re-offending.
Defence counsel Jonathan Crowe said it had been "a dramatic shock" for Weatherhogg to be placed on remand ahead of sentencing.

Summary: