Concerns had been raised about the "inappropriate" use of Redcar cemetery, on Teesside, as a PokeStop. Local Labour MP Anna Turley wrote to Nintendo about the issue and said she was "pleased" it had now been removed. The move will allow people to "pay respects to their loved ones in peace", she added. Ms Turley said: "It is clearly a very popular game that has encouraged people to explore their surroundings, which is great, but there need to be boundaries so that users can enjoy the game without upsetting others. "The developer has been quick to solve the problem to make sure that is the case." She asked Nintendo to consider avoiding places of worship and cemeteries after a constituent contacted her about the "impact on the people paying their respects to loved ones", she said. Game guidelines set out by Nintendo and its co-developer Niantic remind players to be respectful and conduct themselves "in an appropriate manner". Pokemon Go players have been involved in hundreds of police incidents since the gaming app phenomenon launched. Developer Niantic has been approached for comment. It has previously stated it takes the issue of "player safety" seriously. In County Down a man jumped out into a busy dual carriageway while trying to catch a Pokemon, while children got lost in caves in Wiltshire and, in America, a man crashed into a police car while playing behind the wheel.

Question: A cemetery which saw children " @placeholder about " playing Pokemon Go has been removed from the augmented reality game .


Prince, Princess and Coco are all under a year old and were taken from the home in Hallglen between 19:15 and 23:45 on Saturday. Owner Victoria Black returned from a night out to find the dogs gone, along with a three-figure sum of money and Christmas presents. Police Scotland said they were worried the thieves might try to sell the dogs. Prince is described as mainly black with tan and white patches on his stomach, Coco has short ginger hair and Princess has a long ginger coat. Appeals and pictures of the chihuahuas have been posted on dog websites and social media and their owner is offering a reward for their return. Ms Black posted on Facebook: "These dogs are my babies and I'm asking that if anyone can help with information in the recovery of my dogs there is a reward. Please help." Sgt Lyne Rushford said: "We are obviously concerned for the dogs' welfare and would be keen to speak to anyone who was in the area at the time, or who has information that can help us trace those responsible. "We would also ask anyone offered these dogs for sale to get in touch with us straight away."

Question: Three young chihuahuas have been @placeholder during a break - in at a house near Falkirk .


Owen Smith faced a bigger helping of humble pie than most - the Labour MP had launched some pretty savage attacks on Mr Corbyn during an unsuccessful attempt to unseat him as leader. Just to show there are no hard feelings, Mr Corbyn has drafted him back into his frontbench team as shadow Northern Ireland secretary. Then:  On Mr Corbyn's assertion the Tories were in retreat, Mr Smith told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg in September last year: "I think that's delusional. I think Jeremy needs to think a bit more about that straight, honest politics that he started his campaign with. The straight, honest truth is that we are right now at our lowest ebb in the polls, ever. If there was an election tomorrow Labour would be decimated, and that's got to be a shock to Labour's system." Now: "I was clearly wrong in feeling Jeremy wouldn't be able to do this well and I think he has proved me wrong, and lots of people wrong, I take my hat off to him.... I don't know what Jeremy's got, but if we could bottle it and drink it we'd all be doing very well." Hilary Benn, who was sacked from Labour's frontbench by Mr Corbyn, following reports he was trying to organise a coup against the leader, has also been fulsome in his praise for Mr Corbyn's campaign. Then: "He is a good and decent man, but he is not a leader." Now: "I think he fought a brilliant campaign, which enthused a lot of people with a message of hope over the politics of fear," Mr Benn told the BBC's Newsnight programme. Labour's former deputy leader cheerfully admits she got it wrong about Mr Corbyn, replying "delicious" when Lord Prescott's son David tweeted a picture of a pie with the word "humble". Then: "If you fail, you can't take the party down with you - that's not fair," Ms Harman told BBC Radio 4's Today programme in July last year, after a vote of no confidence in the Labour leader. Now: "The atmosphere is verging from on one hand relief to jubilant, and the Tories are in disarray. And Jeremy Corbyn has to take the credit for that, because he was the leader and he's gone forward," she told the same programme after the election. John Woodcock disowned Jeremy Corbyn at the start of the election campaign - telling his constituents to vote for him rather than the Labour leader. The Barrow-in-Furness MP hung on to his seat, where Britain's Trident nuclear submarines are built, by a narrow margin. He said he had "no idea" what had happened. Then: "I will not countenance ever voting to make Jeremy Corbyn Britain's prime minister." Now:  "I don't know what's going on in British politics!" Another trenchant Labour critic of Mr Corbyn's leadership, Jess Philips was returned with a massively increased majority last Thursday. The Birmingham Yardley MP  thinks everyone in Labour needs to eat a certain well-known metaphorical dessert but also warns the party not to be uncritical in its support for its leader. Then:  "I mean, the polling rate is terrible, it would be crass to say anything else. It would be crass of me to say, 'He could rally!' It's like - what's it called? - Monty Python, where he's like, 'It's only a flesh wound!' It is getting a bit like that," Ms Philips told an Institute of Government event, adding it would be the "ultimate selfish act" for Mr Corbyn to remain as leader. Now: "While I got his electability half wrong, I would be doing him and the country a disservice by donning the white robes of worship and ignoring my concerns," she wrote in the Guardian.

Question: Labour may not have won the general election , but it did far better than expected - @placeholder leader Jeremy Corbyn 's many critics to think again .


Graeme Phillips told the BBC the plans for up to 2,350 homes would "be an integration of the countryside on the edge of the town". On Tuesday, scores of protesters packed a sometimes heated council meeting. One, Patrick Moylan, told the BBC the plans were "grossly unfair" and placed a huge "burden of housing" on the town. "Cirencester, compared with a range of similar towns throughout the country is having a burden of housing placed on it which is two and a half times the average," he said. The Chesterton development, on land owned by Lord Bathurst, would see up to 2,350 homes, as well as businesses, a primary school and a GP surgery built south of Chesterton. An outline planning application has been submitted to Cotswold District Council. Protest group Save Our Cirencester say it effectively means another town being "bolted on to the side of Cirencester". The town is the main centre of the Cotswolds with a population of about 20,000. Mr Phillips told BBC Gloucestershire: "We've done a lot of work to make sure that what it definitely won't be is a soulless housing estate." He said he believed Cirencester was the "best place" to take a "significant proportion" of the 7,500 homes planned across the Cotswolds District Council area up to 2031. Lib Dem councillor Joe Harris said he accepted the need to build but added: "We just feel a 40% increase on the size of Cirencester isn't the right approach." He said he felt it would "change the character" of the town but felt it "probably was a done deal".

Question: The architect of a large development planned for Cirencester says it will not be a " soulless housing estate " - amid local anger over the @placeholder .


Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the mother and brother of Hassan Asif would be granted visas to Australia. Mr Asif was studying architecture at a university in Melbourne when he was diagnosed with terminal skin cancer in July. His case attracted wide media attention after he made an emotional plea to see his family before died. Mr Dutton's office told the BBC he received a call on Wednesday afternoon confirming the decision to grant Mr Asif's mother and brother a visa. Mr Asif told Network Ten on Tuesday night that it was difficult to face the prospect of death without his family around him and questioned why they had been denied visas. "I'm dying and it's really hard because of the pain. In these circumstances everybody would like to be with family," he said. At an earlier press conference, Mr Dutton said that in such cases immigration officials would have considered several factors before granting or denying visas, including the likelihood applicants might overstay their visa or make a claim for protection. "In some cases that can result in millions of dollars of expense to the taxpayer," he said. "It may mean that somebody is here on welfare for an extended period of time so the consideration has to be in the national interest." The Melbourne City Mission homelessness centre has been caring for Mr Asif, who was previously living in a squat. The centre's director, Sheridan Bruinhout, said Mr Asif had a relatively small social network because his focus had been on studying. But he was currently ticking off a "bucket list" that included getting his feet wet at the beach, going to the movies and visiting the Melbourne Aquarium, she said.

Question: A decision to deny a dying Pakistani student 's family a visa to visit Australia has been @placeholder .


Nature's Nether Regions by Menno Schilthuizen is one of seven books up for The Bookseller's annual award. Menopause memoir The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones and Divorcing a Real Witch - a practical guide for ending pagan relationships - also make the list. The winner will be named on 27 March. Also nominated is Where do Camels Belong?, an investigation of the species, and The Ugly Wife is Treasured at Home, an expose of love and sex under Maoist rule in China. Strangers Have the Best Candy, an account of speaking to strangers, and the academic papers from a two-day symposium of concrete pavements - Advanced Pavement Research - complete the shortlist. "This is one of strongest years I have seen in more than three decades of administering the prize, which highlights the creme de la creme of unintentionally nonsensical, absurd and downright head-scratching titles," said The Bookseller's Horace Bent. "Ultimately, it is a stunning collection of books. Let other awards cheer the contents within, the Diagram will always continually judge the book by its cover (title)." Members of the public can vote for their favourite on We Love This Book by 20 March. There is no prize for the winning title, but the person who nominated it will receive a "passable bottle of claret". Last year's prize was won by Mats and Enzo's How to Poo on a Date, with previous winners including The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories, Cooking with Poo and Living with Crazy Buttocks.

Question: A book about the @placeholder of genitals has been shortlisted for this year 's Diagram Prize for the oddest book title of the past year .


That is despite the result being an eight-month delay in Hearts passing into fan ownership. Present owner Ann Budge had proposed delaying the repayment of her £2.5m investment to help fund the project. Following a vote of foundation members, only 43 were against the proposal and 3,790 in favour. Hearts said on their website: "We are absolutely delighted that the foundation members have given such a resounding vote in favour of the offer from Ann Budge. "This significant milestone on the road to the 'new' Tynecastle once more demonstrates our collective strength." Hearts hope to fund the new stand via £3m from club reserves, £2.5m from benefactor contributions, £0.5m from commercial contributions, which leaves a shortfall of £6m once the club adds a contingency for an increase in costs. The Scottish Premiership club hope to build up further reserves and launch a new debenture scheme, but the delay of up to two years in the Foundation of Hearts buying Budge's stake will allow funds to go directly into the club in the meantime. "Assuming contributions continued at today's levels, majority ownership would pass to FOH only eight months later than originally envisaged," Hearts have stated. Full planning permission is still required from City of Edinburgh Council, but Hearts have already planned out the progress of the two-year project that will result in a stadium with a capacity up to 21,000. To prepare for the building of the new stand, the buildings behind the current stand - the administration block, the shop and nursery - would be knocked down, with temporary facilities being provided during construction. The temporary buildings will be occupied in October, with the demolition beginning the following month. Construction of the new stand will start over and behind the current stand during next season before being completed during the 2017 close season.

Question: Fans @placeholder the Foundation of Hearts has voted overwhelmingly in favour of helping to fund the Tynecastle club 's new £ 11 m main stand .


The dead man went into cardiac arrest after rescuers responding to reports of a drowning found him in the water off St Michaels Road, Stoke-on-Trent, at around 20:50 BST on Sunday, police said. Two men, aged 29 and 35, are being held on suspicion of murder. The deceased's name has not yet been released by police. More on this story and others across Staffordshire.

Question: Two men have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a man who died after being pulled out of a fish @placeholder .


BBC Radio 5 live has taken an in-depth look at the history of the genre in a special programme called the Beautiful Gamers, which you can watch on the BBC Sport website at 19:30 GMT on Thursday. And to mark the occasion, we've picked our eight most important football video games of all time. John O'Shea, the curator of a football video game exhibition at the National Football Museum called Pitch to Pixel, has told us why each game was so significant. Think we've missed one out? Tell us by joining in the debate on our Sportsday page. The Intellivision system looked more like an air conditioning unit than a home computer console - and it was a fetching beige colour too. Released in the same year Trevor Francis made his British record £1m transfer from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest, Intellivision Soccer (also known as NASL Soccer) is considered the first football video game. And yes, it was just matchstick men marching around a pitch, but who knows what would have happened without it? John O'Shea: "At the time the marketing slogan for Intellivision was 'the closest thing to the real thing'. And it basically was. It's very playable but it didn't become a huge success." This game for the Atari 2600 was as simple as Pele himself was magnificent. You controlled a formation of three dots, each one representing a player, and tried to shuffle the ball into the goal. It showed the power of getting a big name on your product, and also spawned an advert featuring Trevor Brooking with Morecambe and Wise. John O'Shea: "Atari were a totally new type of company. They were the first real computer games company coming out of Silicon Valley and they got Pele on board, who was this charismatic football star. They knew the hardware couldn't reflect what you see on TV, so they took this simple triangle formation and it's a game not unlike 'Pong'. It was very playable and popular and was the first success story." In all honesty, this game was slightly bonkers. There were no rules, so you could use your-muscle bound player to flatten your opponents. A great laugh when you were playing against a mate. There's an argument that it's more a 'beat 'em up' than a football game. Regardless, anyone who had a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) probably gave this game a whirl at some point. John O'Shea: "In the 1980s there were the Spectrums and Commodore 64s and this home computer revolution. But it was really the NES that brought the game play to the next level. It's a very peculiar game and is a lot of fun. It's not at all realistic, the players look like wrestlers, there were no fouls and it's graphically very strange. But it really did sow a seed that a computer game based on football could be very successful." Want to see a middle-aged football-game fanatic cry a tear of nostalgia? Ask them about Sensible Soccer - or Sensi, as it is affectionately known. Mainly found on the Commodore Amiga system, it captured the hearts of a generation and is a cult classic. The sequel Sensible World of Soccer was named one of the 10 most important games of all time by a panel of experts in 2007. John O'Shea: "Sensible Soccer is rightly regarded as not just a brilliant football game but as one of the greatest games of all time. The first version came out in 1992 but it really got into its stride in 1994 when it basically had all the leagues and clubs. It looked cool with a pixelated appearance from above and was very playable because it was so fast. The designer Jon Hare integrated the two aspects we think about with games now - the live action but also the management aspect." "Sensible Soccer was a phenomenon. When I was a kid I played Subbuteo - Sensible Soccer was my fantasy of electric Subbuteo that I could play without my dad being there. "I think Sensible World of Soccer was one of the most pirated games ever. Every 10 of 11 copies in the UK were pirated and I've yet to meet anyone from Poland or the Netherlands who bought the game. But we still made a load of money. "I knew Sensible Soccer, more than any other game, would be massive. You knew it was something special. It was like magic. "We're going to try and rekindle that by making Sociable Soccer. It's in the spirit of Sensible Soccer - the playability is similar. You pick the team you support - I'd say Norwich - and you join a fantasy clan. All the other Norwich fans are playing for Norwich as well and the table is sorted by average points scored." Can you imagine a game where you arrange contracts, plan training sessions and assign squad numbers? You've just imagined one of the most successful and enduring football games of all time. Created in 1992 by brothers Paul and Oliver Collyer, Championship Manager, the predecessor to Football Manager, is a stupendously addictive manager simulator that has even been cited in divorce cases. John O'Shea: "There was a sense in the gaming industry that live action was the way to go and the management stuff could be dumped. The creators of Championship Manager approached EA (Electronic Arts) about publishing their game and they were rejected. But they stuck to their guns. It's a game for the fans, for anyone who thinks they could manage a team better than the real manager." What a monster the Fifa series of games has become. Its beginnings were humble with Fifa International Soccer - it had a bug where you could score by standing right in front of the keeper when he kicked the ball out of his hands. An amazing way to wind up your mates. It has morphed year after year into the slick, crisp, realistic game you see today. John O'Shea: "EA were producing some brilliant sports games. When they went into the soccer arena they did change how football games looked. They had this isometric view point and the game felt more like it looked on TV.  They also had the licensing agreement with Fifa and have held that title every year." Now it's all face scanning and motion capturing and movie-style graphics. The latest Fifa release is light years from the first offering 23 years ago. It started life as ISS Pro in the 1990s, but in the early 2000s Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series blew a big raspberry at the stranglehold Fifa held on the football game market. It didn't have big-money licenses, so there were made up names (Aston Villa as West Midlands Village, anyone?), but playing PES was the equivalent of liking an obscure band. Did it make you a video game snob? Probably. Were you a better human being for playing it? Definitely. If hipsters were a thing at the time, they would have played Pro. In recent years Fifa has re-established itself as the market leader, but Pro Evo is still in there fighting. John O'Shea: "What ISS and Pro Evo did - particularly in the mid-2000s - was bring a level of fun and playability to the game that maybe had gone off the boil with Fifa. Pro Evo was the game for the connoisseur of football games and it's still a brilliant game." Pro Evo, which is part developed in Windsor in England, has played its part in the technological race. Here's the latest PES release, although those graphics a little over 10 years ago weren't too shabby to be fair.

Question: From matchstick men to movie @placeholder graphics , the football video game has come a long way in 37 years .


Xavier Bertrand said 9,000 migrants, many trying to get to the UK, were in a Calais camp known as the Jungle. Mr Bertrand said he wanted a new deal in which migrants hoping to claim asylum in the UK would be able to do so at a "hotspot" in France. Those who failed would be deported directly to their country of origin. Calais has become the focal point of France's refugee crisis. The Jungle camp is expanding and almost every night people there try to hide inside vehicles entering the port and the Channel Tunnel to get to Britain. Mr Bertrand wants changes to the bilateral agreement between France and the UK called the Treaty of Le Touquet. Under the treaty, British immigration officials check passports in Calais and their French counterparts do this in Dover. Mr Bertrand does not have the power to change the treaty but two of the candidates thought most likely to win next year's French presidential election support his idea that it be either reformed or annulled. It is understood Home Secretary Amber Rudd will go to Paris this week to discuss the treaty. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said border controls for migrants in France should be shifted back to the UK. Earlier this month, local councils in the UK said they should be involved in assessing the needs of child migrants in Calais before they arrive in the UK. About 4,000 lone children are claiming asylum in the UK, with their care and resettlement down to local authorities. The Local Government Association said earlier involvement would make it easier for councils to help children settle.

Question: The president of the French @placeholder that includes Calais has suggested migrants seeking asylum in the UK be allowed to lodge their claim in France .


The probationary officers made the video while working near the scene where 11 people died after a jet crashed on to the A27 on 22 August. The recording was made by the police cordon and accompanied by an inappropriate and offensive message. Sussex Police said the outcome of the interviews would be known this week. Both officers attended Regulation 13 meetings - which are specific to probationary officers - on 30 September. After the evidence had been assessed, a recommendation will be made to the Chief Constable as to their future, a spokesman for the force said. Last month, Sussex Police Deputy Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney said the pair would face disciplinary proceedings over the video, which was sent on social media, and a private message. Ms Pinkney said they had behaved in a "wholly disrespectful way".

Question: Two police constables who @placeholder themselves near the Shoreham air crash site have been interviewed by a chief officer over their conduct .


In November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stunned the country by announcing that 500 ($7.47; Â£5.96) and 1,000 rupee notes were as good as garbage. Despite his insistence that the ban was meant to curb black money and put terrorists out of business, many analysts said it was motivated by politics rather than economics, and done with an eye on the Uttar Pradesh - or UP - elections. Since the rise of the regional Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the late 1990s, India's national parties - the Congress and Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - have been often relegated to third and fourth positions in the state. This time around, the Congress has joined the governing SP as a junior partner in an alliance, and the BJP is making an all out effort to win back the state. In the past few days, I've travelled through several districts in the state to ask people if the currency ban - called demonetisation by Indian authorities and economists, and simply "notebandi" (Hindi for stopping of notes) here - is an election issue. The Indian election no-one can afford to lose The "notebandi" has without doubt touched every life, in the big cities, smaller towns, and tiny villages, and everyone talks about the problems they've faced. But will it impact the way people vote? In the main market in Barabanki town, not far from the state capital, Lucknow, the trading community is seething at the "BJP's betrayal". Traders have traditionally supported the BJP, and in the past they have also contributed generously to party funds. But this time, they tell me they will not vote for the party. "Notebandi is the biggest issue here," says Santosh Kumar Gupta, who along with his brothers runs the family hardware store. "The public has been really hassled. The government set limits on withdrawals and even those little amounts were unavailable because banks had no money." Mr Gupta points out that in his address to the nation, the prime minister said the government had been planning for it for six months and that people would face minor problems. "But there were lots of problems. Isn't he ashamed of lying?" he asks angrily. "Police used sticks to beat up people waiting in queues to withdraw their own hard-earned money. All small manufacturing units in Barabanki shut down for weeks. Thousands became unemployed. "There's a labour market a few metres from our shop and every morning, nearly 500 daily wage labourers from the nearby villages would gather to look for work, but for the first time, we saw there were no takers for them." His brother Manoj Kumar Jaiswal adds: "Traders are very angry with Mr Modi. He first said it was done to curb black money. Then he said it was done to promote digital economy. "You can use credit cards and (popular mobile wallet) Paytm in cities like Delhi and Mumbai, not in Barabanki. People here are illiterate, many people don't have bank accounts or credit cards." The Gupta family has 10 voters and not one will opt for the BJP. In Gosaiganj, on the outskirts of Lucknow, I stop to talk to people gathered at a tea stall. Raja Ram Rawat, a 60-year-old widower, lives with his two sons and four grandchildren. The small plot of land he owns is not sufficient to support the family and his sons work as daily wagers to supplement the family income. "Since 8 November, they've not been able to find work even for one day," he says. I ask him how they are managing. "Earlier if we bought two kilograms of vegetables, now we buy only one. That's how we are managing." A farmer in the group, Kallu Prasad, compares the ban to "poison" for his community - it came just as the rice crop had been harvested and the sowing season had begun for wheat, mustard and potatoes. "Normally we sell a kilo of rice for 14 rupees, but this time we had to sell it for eight or nine rupees. We couldn't buy seeds and pesticides in time. Farmers who grew vegetables were the worst affected. Since people had no money to buy vegetables, they had to just throw them away." In the holy city of Varanasi, walking through the narrow lanes of Lallapura area, where homes sit cheek by jowl, one cannot escape the noise of looms. Here, every home is a tiny factory where weavers work in semi-darkened rooms, using coloured silk threads to create beautiful patterns. Varanasi is famous for its hand woven silk and cotton saris and nearly a million people make their living from this cottage industry here. "It was like we were hit by a bolt of lightning," says factory owner Sardar Mohd Hasim, describing the moment of Mr Modi's announcement. Mr Hasim, who represents 30,000 weavers, says initially "about 90% of the industry" was affected since all their transactions happen in cash. "We had no cash to buy raw materials, we had no cash to pay wages to the workers. Nearly three months later, all my 24 looms are still shut. Most of my weavers are doing other jobs to earn a living." Varanasi has eight constituencies, and Mr Hasim insists that BJP will not win even one. "Why would anyone now vote for Modi?" he asks. One of his former workers, 40-year-old Mangru Prajapati, who is now back to work in Mr Hasim's brother's loom, agrees. He's the sole breadwinner for his family of eight - his wife, four children and elderly parents. "Earlier I would work six days a week. Now I consider myself lucky if I can find work even two or three days in a week. Survival has become very difficult." Rajan Behal, trader and leader of the organisation that represents traders, weavers and sellers, calls it a "major disaster". The ban, he says, couldn't have come at a worse time - November to February is the wedding season when sales peak, but this year it's been a wipe-out. The industry's annual turnover is estimated to be about 70bn rupees ($1bn; Â£835m) and the loss is estimated to be around 10bn rupees. A long-time BJP supporter, Mr Behal refuses to say who he will vote for but predicts that Mr Modi "will not win enough seats to be able to form a government in the state". It's an assessment challenged by senior BJP leader in the state Vijay Pathak, who pegs the party's chances of winning at "101%". He says that there were difficulties in the implementation of the currency ban, but insists that they have been able to convince the voters that it was done in the nation's interest. "We started our campaign with the aim to win more than 265 of the 403 seats. Now we believe we will cross 300." That, he says, is because people have faith in "the man who's taking the decisions"  - the prime minister. On this count, he's right - Mr Modi's personal stock remains high, especially with the youth. In Kukha Rampur village in Tiloi constituency in Amethi district, 21-year-old Tanu Maurya says she will vote for Mr Modi because he is "doing good work" and that the note ban was "a good decision even if it caused some hardships in the short term". Someone else voting for Mr Modi is Pramila Chaurasia, 19, the newest bride in the neighbouring Bhulaiya Purva village - as will most of her family and fellow villagers. Since his sweep of the 2014 general election, Mr Modi has not had much luck in state elections and he's desperate to reverse that losing trend. A victory in the politically key state of Uttar Pradesh would be a huge shot in the arm for Mr Modi and his party. But will the rupee ban help him or hurt his chances? When the votes are counted on 11 March, we will know whether it was a masterstroke or a miscalculation.

Question: As the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh holds a seven - @placeholder election to choose a new government , the BBC 's Geeta Pandey travels through the politically key state to see if the recent currency ban is an issue with the voters .


But the battle for second place seems to be hotting up, with opinion polls suggesting that Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives are currently neck and neck. Here, John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University and the chief commentator at whatscotlandthinks.org.uk, looks at what the polls have been saying, and what we should be reading into them. One of the first rules in the reporting of opinion polls is that those that purport to show a change in who is ahead and who is behind secure much more publicity than do those that suggest that little, if anything has changed. The exceptional is more interesting than the mundane. However, the exceptional may be just that - unrepresentative of the real picture, a "rogue" poll that misleads rather than informs. So what should we make of the poll from YouGov in Thursday's edition of the Times that has been widely reported as showing that the Conservatives have, for the first time since the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, overtaken Labour in voting intentions for this coming May's Holyrood election? Such an outcome would constitute an earthquake in Scottish politics. Not since 1959 have the Tories managed to outpoll Labour in a national election north of the border. Well, first of all, the YouGov poll does not constitute clear evidence that the Tories have overtaken Labour. True, with 20% of the vote to Labour's 19%, the party is put slightly ahead in the battle for constituency votes. But given the random variation to which all polls are subject, this statistically is simply a dead heat. We just cannot be sure which of the two parties is ahead. Meanwhile on the second of the two votes that voters will be invited to cast in May, that is, for a regional list, the poll did actually put the two parties neck and neck in 20% each. At the same time, no other poll has suggested the two parties are even equal with each other. Perhaps then it is but no more than a "rogue". That said, YouGov is not alone in one respect. In recent weeks every single poll has identified a modest but noticeable increase in Conservative support. Since the beginning of the year four companies have conducted polls of vote intentions for May's election. On average they have put the Conservatives on 17.5% (on both ballots). But when those same four companies polled back at the beginning of September they credited the Conservatives on average with just over 14%. While the result of one poll might be dismissed as an aberration, when four polls all point in the same direction we can be pretty sure that something really has happened. Meanwhile, Labour's support, already much diminished, has ebbed away yet further over the same period. Back in September Labour was averaging between 21% and 22%. Now the party stands between 19% and 20%. The party has apparently slipped by another couple of points. Between them the three point increase in Conservative support and a two point drop in Labour is enough to ensure that all the polls agree that the Conservatives are now breathing down Labour's neck, even if they may not necessarily as yet caught them up. But there are of course still three months to go to polling day. Perhaps the slow Tory advance will continue, in which case maybe they will be able to edge past Labour. But equally, of course, Labour might recover - and avert the threat that Ruth Davidson's party currently apparently poses. Read more analysis from John Curtice at What Scotland Thinks.

Question: Voters are to go to the polls in the Scottish Parliament election on 5 May - with the SNP apparently on course to win a second successive @placeholder .


The crushing of the rebel enclave in eastern Aleppo  represents a major propaganda victory for the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which now controls virtually all of the major population centres of the country. Aleppo though - the most populous city before the civil war and the country's financial centre - is the biggest prize. The capture of Aleppo represents a victory not just for Mr Assad but also for his Iranian and Russian backers. Aleppo itself may not matter much on Moscow's strategic chess-board. But the defeat of the rebel opposition there underscores the extraordinary turn-around in President Assad's fortunes. Before Russia intervened President Assad was on the ropes; his military power crumbling. External actors have propped up his government in large part to secure their own strategic aspirations. And these aspirations will play an important part in deciding what comes next. If the government can consolidate its hold on Aleppo, then it now controls a significant part of what might be termed "essential Syria" - the west of the country, its major cities and the Mediterranean coastline. One option would be for the Assad government to dig in and consolidate this "rump" Syria. Mr Assad himself, of course, has always insisted that his troops will remain on the offensive until all the territory held by the rebels is recaptured. This though may be nothing more than bravado. His army is overstretched and a shadow of the force with which he began this conflict. Indeed, as the ejection of its forces from Palmyra by the return of so-called Islamic State (IS) shows, the Assad government may be hard put to hang on to many of its gains. It is fundamentally weak and its success in Aleppo should not obscure this essential fact. Much of the regular Syrian army has disintegrated into a variety of loyalist militias, often with local or regional concerns. And much of the fighting has been spearheaded by Iranian-backed forces - Hezbollah from Lebanon and various other Shia Muslim militias. Many rebel fighters may have escaped the city to seek refuge in Idlib province, to the south-west of Aleppo. This could well be the next major battleground, if the government and its Russian backers want to maintain the momentum. Russia's view will be of critical importance. It cannot necessarily tell Mr Assad what to do, but it can certainly influence the means at his disposal - weaponry and air power. What will Moscow want to do next? Is it in its interest to see perpetual war in the region? Or might it seek to draw a line with the fall of Aleppo and seek some kind of arrangement or understanding with the incoming Trump administration in Washington? Any such deal of course would mean the US accepting Iran's growing significance in Syria. The Russian-leaning sentiments of some in the incoming US administration would be thrown into stark opposition to the strident hostility to Iran shown by many of Mr Trump's picks for the key security and defence jobs. But Washington's options are becoming limited. The fall of Aleppo places another nail in the coffin of the Obama administration's strategy of aiding the so-called moderate opposition. Of course Washington wants the moderate rebels to fight IS, but now they are likely to be under even greater pressure from government forces. The anti-Assad rebels now face a very difficult time. They have lost more than just a battle. They may not have lost the war - or at least not yet - but they are even further away from winning it. Their relationship with the incoming US administration is uncertain. Nobody knows what Mr Trump may do. Many analysts fear that moderate rebel groups will be pushed inexorably into the embrace of the more extreme Islamist factions. But beyond the geo-politics and the military campaigns, there is the devastating human tragedy of what has befallen the city. Once the fighting is over, the true scale of the calamity will be revealed. Aleppo - like many other places in Syria - needs massive and rapid assistance. In the longer term, there needs to be an epic battle to rebuild and reconstruct. But with the fighting continuing elsewhere and with so many people killed, maimed and displaced, a heavily-sanctioned Syria has neither the financial nor the human capital for such a task. In the wake of Aleppo's fall, all of the actors - both internal and external - are going to have to reassess their strategies. But this brutal and multi-faceted war is going to lose none of its complexity.

Question: The battle for Aleppo may be over but the struggle for the @placeholder of Syria will continue . Indeed , it may become even more chaotic and bloody .


Hamilton, trailing Vettel by 25 points in the championship, was 0.198seconds clear of the German with their team-mates Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen next. Fernando Alonso's return to Formula 1 after missing the Monaco Grand Prix ended with the Spaniard stopping on track. The two-time champion suffered a lack of hydraulic pressure, McLaren said. The team were unable to say what had caused the problem. Alonso was told by his engineer to stop on track. He pointed out that was he already at the hairpin, the last corner before the pit entry and it was easier to come back to the pits, but was ordered to stop. He flung the impact-protection foam out of his cockpit as he climbed out and was given a standing ovation and cheers by the crowd in the grandstands. "We are used to it," he told reporters on the way back to the pits. The failure came as McLaren executive director Zak Brown again said that Honda had to up their game if the partnership was to have a future. Two days after saying he had "serious concerns" about Honda, and a day after Alonso indicated he could leave McLaren at the end of the year if they were not winning by September, Brown told BBC Sport: "The plan right now is to have the Honda in the back of the car (in 2018) but some things need to happen between now and then for us to have the confidence we can be at the front of the field next year. "We need to get competitive and show regular signs that we are getting competitive. "Right now, we're not racing well, not finishing races and that can't happen any more. "We are starting to work on the 2018 car so we need to make any decisions that impact 2018 by the summer break. Something needs to change. If you keep doing the same thing, you are going to get the same result. Maybe take some risks, do things they wouldn't normally do. You can't keep doing the same thing and expect things to change." Asked if they had been discussing a customer engine supply with Mercedes, Brown said: "We have a plan B, a Plan C. We have some plans." Back at the front, it was for Mercedes an encouraging start to a weekend when ideally they need to start clawing back some ground in the championship. A poor weekend for Hamilton in Monaco allowed Vettel to extend a lead of nearly a a clear win by winning the race. The silver and red cars appeared closely matched throughout the session on a tricky, slippery Circuit Gilles Villeneuve that provoked a number of spins through the first session. The combination of a low-grip, low-abrasion track surface and asphalt that is in a park and rarely used for the rest of the year and therefore dusty and dirty makes for a treacherous experience for the drivers, with unyielding walls waiting for those who make mistakes in the wrong places. Behind Mercedes and Ferrari, Force India impressed, with Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon fifth and sixth quickest ahead of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who was separated from team-mate Daniel Ricciardo by Felipe Massa's Williams. Massa's team-mate Lance Stroll was five places and 1.2secs behind on his first experience at his home race. Alonso's team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne was 11th quickest, with the Spaniard's single lap putting him 16th.

Question: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton edged title rival Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari to set the pace in first @placeholder at the Canadian Grand Prix .


The 27-year-old is the subject of an internal investigation, the details of which have not been disclosed. In a short statement on their club website, Castleford - who lie fifth in the Super League table - said they would not comment further. Australia-born Carney has scored 63 tries in 62 games since joining the Tigers at the start of 2013, including 18 in Super League this season.

Question: Super League club Castleford Tigers have @placeholder winger Justin Carney .


In 1991 a German couple found Oetzi's mummified corpse embedded in a glacier, in a high mountain pass. Using 3D images of the corpse and forensic technology two Dutch experts - Alfons and Adrie Kennis - created a new Oetzi model. They gave him brown eyes. The model is on show at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano. The museum is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Iceman discovery - a find which became an international sensation. Oetzi was found still wearing goatskin leggings and a grass cape, and his copper-headed axe and a quiver full of arrows were lying nearby. He was named after the Oetz Valley, on the Italy-Austria border, where he was found. Researchers say Oetzi was about 159cm tall (5ft, 2.5in), 46 years old, arthritic and infested with whipworm.

Question: Oetzi the Iceman has @placeholder looking fighting fit - as a new model on show in the Italian Alps , where he died from an arrow wound some 5,300 years ago .


The three young terrier-type dogs were spotted by a passerby in the River Bann on Sunday. A spokesperson for the USPCA said the breed is sometimes used in illegal activities, such as badger baiting. A source  told the charity: "It's possible the dogs were pitted against badgers in a so-called 'chute' and have 'turned away' from the badgers. "Dogs that do that are considered to be of no use and are often disposed of in ruthless fashion." The charity said there was no evidence the dogs had been used to fight other animals, but they were "caked in mud". It is believed they had been in the water for some time. The USPCA is offering a Â£500 reward in the hope that somebody will come forward with information. Anyone who saw anything suspicious in that area should contact either the police, the USPCA or the animal welfare Department in Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council. The stretch of river is close to Lawrencetown between Gilford and Banbridge. A small road runs alongside it - and investigators think the dogs may have been dumped from a car.

Question: Three dogs found dumped in a river in Banbridge , County Down are thought to have been @placeholder and drowned .


His lawyer said Guzman had asked him to stop fighting his extradition because guards at his prison would not let him sleep. "El Chapo" Guzman was recaptured in January, six months after he escaped from prison. Prison authorities say he is woken and checked every four hours. Two US courts have requested Guzman's extradition on charges of drug trafficking in California, and murder in Texas. But Guzman's defence teams filed an estimated nine appeals against his extradition. Guzman's lawyer, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, said his client had told him to negotiate with the US authorities for a lighter sentence and confinement at a medium-security prison. Speaking on a Mexican radio station, Radio Formula, he said: "He has reached his limit, it is an act of desperation." Guzman escaped down a 1.5 km (1 mile) tunnel from the Altiplano maximum security prison outside Mexico City and was on the run for six months. He was returned to the prison in January but to a much harsher regime. Mr Rodriguez said his client was now kept isolated and segregated and complains his cell is small, cold and he does not see the sun. Previously, Guzman said he had been given an hour-and-a-half every day to talk to his lawyer and an hour in the prison patio. Every nine days, he had been allowed a four-hour conjugal visit and a four-hour family visit. Mr Rodriguez said it would take two months to organise his extradition to the US.

Question: The @placeholder Mexican drug lord , Joaquin Guzman , has asked to be extradited to the United States rapidly so he can receive better treatment in prison .


For a country where powerful army generals overthrew civilian leaders on at least three different occasions, Mr Musharraf's trial is unprecedented. It's the first time a former army chief is being held accountable for his alleged constitutional violations. Mr Musharraf denies the charges - if he is convicted he faces death or life imprisonment, the punishments for high treason in Pakistan. For pro-democracy activists, the indictment is as much about fighting the last military dictator, as it is about preventing any future military takeovers. But some believe that this is as far as it might go. Since Pervez Musharraf's return to Pakistan in March 2013, he has faced four criminal cases but was bailed in all of them. He was charged: His most serious challenge is a treason case, which bears five charges including suspending the constitution and imposing emergency rule. He has pleaded not guilty but could face death if convicted. Few believe the trial will actually lead to his conviction. The main reason, it would seem, is the support Mr Musharraf still seemingly enjoys in his parent institution, the armed forces. Conventional wisdom in Pakistan suggests the army would not allow their former chief to be disgraced in that manner. Analysts believe that over the years, Pakistan's powerful generals have conceded some space to the country's increasingly assertive democratic institutions, but there are limits to it. Mr Musharraf's rival, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, will be aware of not crossing any red lines. He needs his army chief on his side in helping run the country, tackling the Taliban threat and managing ties with India and Afghanistan. For his part, Mr Musharraf is now keen to get out of Pakistan. His team has asked the government to remove a travel ban to allow him to visit his elderly mother who is in hospital in the United Arab Emirates and to seek his own medical treatment abroad. As the prime minister, Mr Sharif could make that call on humanitarian grounds. It would allow him to take the high moral ground as a reformed statesman, not a vindictive politician interested in getting even with his once handpicked army chief who then overthrew his elected government and put him jail on terrorism charges. General Musharraf later allowed Mr Sharif and his family to go into exile in Saudi Arabia. Cabinet ministers insist that the government's treatment of Mr Musharraf is not about the bitter rivalry between him and Mr Sharif. But in a strange twist of fate, it is now up to the latter whether or not to allow his erstwhile nemesis to leave the country. Then, as now, the quiet, behind-the-scenes role of Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies is seen as the key to any arrangement that effectively allows Mr Musharraf to go into exile. But what if Mr Sharif is not ready to let Mr Musharraf off the hook so easily? Since his return from self-imposed exile in March 2013, the former president has faced a host of criminal and murder charges. The manner in which the government and the courts pursued one case after another gave credibility to claims by Mr Musharraf that he was being politically victimised. In late 2013, just as it was becoming clear that he would be granted bail in the last of those cases, came the government announcement that a special court would be constituted to try him for high treason. For the last three months or so, Mr Musharraf has avoided facing the court, citing security concerns and ill health. Now that the charges have been framed, some worry that the trial could drag on for months, if not years. Others point to the complex nature of the trial in trying to fix responsibility for alleged constitutional violations on one man. Mr Musharraf's team has maintained that he did not act alone in imposing emergency rule. A former Musharraf aide warns the trial would open up a Pandora's box. According to him, it would inevitably involve dragging several senior members of his government, as well as serving and retired military officials, into the case. His team says the former military president acted on the advice of the then prime minister and in consultation with his senior aides, who are said to have backed his controversial steps.

Question: The indictment of Pakistan 's former military president , Pervez Musharraf , on charges of treason is being seen as a milestone on the way to becoming a @placeholder democracy .


Barry Sheerman said those registering to take part included members of the Socialist Workers Party, the Green Party, the Conservatives and UKIP. Labour rejects claims of "hard left" and Conservative supporters signing up to back left winger Jeremy Corbyn. And a Labour spokeswoman rejected calls to suspend the leadership contest. She said said there was a "very robust" system in place to prevent fraudulent and malicious applications and additional checks are being carried out to make sure the rules are upheld. An exclusion list is being drawn up of those who have stood against Labour in the past or had helped others to oppose the party. The BBC understands that up to 1,000 applications have been rejected. One of Mr Corbyn's backers called Mr Sheerman's suggestion "ridiculous". Backbench MP Diane Abbott said it was coming from people "who think their side will lose". She added: "This election is being fought under rules that were agreed by the whole party last year." Under the new rules, introduced by previous leader Ed Miliband, people can sign up as registered supporters for Â£3 and take part in the vote. They are asked to confirm they "support the aims and values of the Labour Party". The popularity of Mr Corbyn's campaign has sparked warnings from the other candidates, Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall, about the party moving to the left. Mr Sheerman's comments follow similar sentiments from two backbench MPs, Graham Stringer and John Mann, who called for the leadership contest to be halted. The Huddersfield MP and former select committee chairman, first elected in 1979, told the BBC there were large numbers of people joining Labour to vote for the new leader and some of their reasons were "malign". Labour MPs were "dumbfounded" when they learned how the contest was to be run and the process was now in "real trouble", he said. At-a-glance profiles of the four contenders Labour's acting leader Harriet Harman has emailed the party's MPs with a list of new members in their constituencies asking them to pick out any suspicious names. Mr Sheerman said although he may be able to pick up some "usual suspects", many others would not be detected. He denied his concerns were in any way motivated by his support for Liz Kendall, saying he had fought against "entryism" before and believed the current process was flawed. Labour says the verification process is ongoing, and that ballot papers have not yet been sent out. Labour recently rejected an application from Conservative MP Tim Loughton, who said he tried to become a registered supporter to highlight flaws in the system. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's the World at One, Ms Kendall said it was "great" that more people were signing up to Labour and said she had not seen anything that concerned her. "The important thing is that the checks are put in place," she added. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, which stood in 135 constituencies in May's general election and includes the Socialist Workers Party, said reports of infiltration were down to "Blairite manoeuvres" against the Corbyn campaign. It said one of its members, former councillor Chris Flood, had been wrongly named in a report in the Times as having signed up. Labour's former communications director, Alastair Campbell, said the party "could be finished" if Mr Corbyn wins. On his blog, he warned of a "car crash" scenario and urged supporters to back "anyone but Corbyn", warning it would not be easy to replace him if he won and Labour was struggling in the polls.

Question: A senior Labour MP has called for its leadership contest to be " @placeholder " over fears it has been infiltrated by supporters of other parties .


Colonised by the Dutch in the 17th century, Aruba lies 15 miles north of the coast of Venezuela. Away from the beaches, hotels and casinos, much of the island is desert-like but a strong indigenous heritage, colonisation and Latin American influence have given it a distinctive social and linguistic character. A gold rush in the 1820s triggered an economic boom, with a petroleum refinery opening a century later. Its temporary closure in 1985 sparked an economic crisis and Aruba has since invested in tourism which is its economic mainstay. Aruba is susceptible to drug smuggling and illegal immigration but has passed laws to combat money-laundering. In 1986 Aruba pulled out of the Netherlands Antilles - a federation of Dutch Caribbean territories - and obtained separate status within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Dutch government controls defence and foreign affairs while the island's government handles local matters. Population 109,000 Area 75 sq miles (193 sq km) Major languages Dutch (official), Papiamento Major religion Christianity Life expectancy 73 years (men), 78 years (women) Currency Aruban guilder Head of state: The King of the Netherlands, represented by a governor. Prime Minister: Mike Eman Mike Eman was sworn in as prime minister of Aruba for a second term on 30 October 2013, following the parliamentary election win by his Aruba People's Party (AVP) on 27 September 2013. He first became prime minister in October 2009 after the AVP won parliamentary elections, defeating the centre-left People's Electoral Movement of Nelson Orlando Oduber, who had been prime minister since 2001. Mr Eman comes from a political dynasty. His grandfather Henny Eman was first prime minister of Aruba in 1986-89, and served a further term in 1994-2001, sandwiching the first term of Mr Oduber. Aruba observes freedom of the press, as guaranteed under Dutch law. The mostly widely-read newspapers are in the Papiamento language. There are two commercial TV stations. A cable TV subscription service provides access to foreign channels and there are a wide range of commercial radio stations available. 2500 BC-1515 - First inhabited by Amerindians of the Arawak tribe. 1499 - Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda discovers the island and claims it for Spain. 1636 - Aruba is colonised by the Dutch and forms part of the Dutch West India Company. 1806 - Aruba comes under British rule during the Napoleonic Was but is returned to the Dutch in 1816. 1954 - Aruba becomes part of the autonomous federation of the Netherlands Antilles. 1971 - Pro-independence struggle led by the People's Electoral Movement party (MEP) seek separation from Dutch Antilles administration. 1986 - Aruba obtains autonomous status within the Dutch kingdom. 1990 - Transition to full independence is postponed indefinitely at Aruba's request. 1996 - Aruba is included on US list of major drug-producing or transit countries. 2009 - OECD removes Aruba from an international list of uncooperative tax havens after it improves standards of transparency.

Question: A tourist magnet and a @placeholder exporter , Aruba is an autonomous territory of the Netherlands and one of the most prosperous territories in the Caribbean .


Rasmus Barlow, 16, was reported missing on Monday by his father leading to a large-scale search by police. His death is not being treated as suspicious and a file is being prepared for the coroner's office. Police said family liaison officers were continuing to support the teenager's family.

Question: A body found at the bottom of the @placeholder at Cheddar Gorge has been formally identified as that of a missing Strode College student .


The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) image shows a "Venturi", which emits propellant gases, like a car exhaust. Dutch prosecutors want more information from Russia about the Buk, which they say killed 298 people aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in July 2014. The West and Ukraine say Russian-backed rebels fired the Buk missile. Russia argues that Ukrainian forces downed MH17. The Boeing 777, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed in rebel-held territory. The JIT interim report explains the progress of the criminal inquiry. The experts are studying a mass of tiny fragments retrieved from the crash site. Last year, a Dutch Safety Board report concluded that MH17 was downed by a Russian-made Buk, but did not say who fired it. Board president Djibbe Joustra said at the time that the rebels were in charge of the area from which it was fired. Dutch prosecutors plan to present the results of their investigation in the autumn. They say it is at "a very advanced stage". But the JIT interim report says more technical and operational details about the missile are needed. The Boeing 777 crashed at the height of the conflict between Ukrainian government troops and pro-Russian separatists. Some families of the victims are suing Russia and its President, Vladimir Putin, in the European Court of Human Rights.

Question: International investigators have published a photo of a large Buk missile @placeholder found at the MH17 airliner crash site eastern Ukraine .


In Scotland, death rates for breast cancer have fallen by 33%, bowel cancer by 30%, lung cancer by 23% and prostate cancer by 11%. The figures come as the charity launches a new marketing campaign called We Will Beat Cancer Sooner. It calls on everyone across Scotland to join the fight against the disease now. Lung, breast, bowel and prostate cancers together account for almost half of all cancer deaths in the UK every year. Cancer Research UK said breast cancer scientists had been responsible for improving detection through screening, developing more specialist care and more effective treatments such as improved surgery, radiotherapy and drugs. In Scotland, about 1,300 people died of the disease per year 20 years ago, compared with 1,000 every year now. The charity said research had also meant fewer bowel cancer patients were dying thanks to improved early detection and the development of better treatments. Today almost 200 fewer Scots a year die from bowel cancer than 20 years ago. Cancer Research UK said there had been little improvement in the outlook for those diagnosed with lung cancer, so it had made it a priority to stem lung cancer mortality through earlier diagnosis and trials for improved treatments. Improvements in treatment - including surgery, hormone therapy, and radiotherapy - as well as earlier diagnosis, are thought to have contributed to the trend of reduced prostate cancer death rates. But not all cancer death rates have dropped. Mortality rates in liver, pancreatic, melanoma, oral and some digestive cancers have all increased. Lisa Adams, Cancer Research UK's spokeswoman for Scotland, said: "The latest figures highlight the good news, that research continues to save lives from cancer and offer hope that this progress will continue. "But while the death rate for the four biggest cancer killers falls, it's vital to remember that we need to do more to help bring even better results over the coming years. "There are more than 200 different forms of the disease. For some of these, the advances are less impressive, such as pancreatic, oesophageal and liver cancer. Far too many lives continue to be affected by the disease. "That's why we're calling on people across Scotland to back our new campaign and join the fight against cancer because, together, we will beat cancer."

Question: Death rates for lung , breast , bowel and prostate cancer @placeholder have fallen by 25 % in Scotland over the past 20 years , according to Cancer Research UK .


To recap very briefly, Nicola Sturgeon makes three broad points. (Keen readers of these musings will know that this plan was mooted here more than a month ago. Those reports resulted, at the time, in Parliamentary questions and a notably unconvincing non-denial from the Scottish government. ) There is, of course, a fourth element implicit in the syllogism. That of indyref2, the prospect of a further referendum on Scottish independence. Actually, Nicola Sturgeon made that prospect explicit by noting drily that there could be few involved in politics who had not yet grasped that the SNP favoured an independent Scotland. So why, asked one member of the wicked media, did she not jump straight to indyref2? Because, she said, she was conscious of her responsibilities as First Minister, not just SNP leader. And she had promised to examine options within the UK. Which brings us back to strategy. Firstly, Nicola Sturgeon is posing a challenge to the Labour Party. She is challenging them to say that, if they dislike Brexit, if they dislike Westminster Conservative control over, say, employment law, then they should follow her logic and argue for the devolution of substantial further powers to Scotland. In response, Labour stressed its own proposals for a UK-wide convention and the possibility of federalism. Secondly, the FM is posing a challenge to the PM. She is reminding Theresa May of the promise to consider the status of Scotland, to consider the support for the EU in Scotland's referendum out-turn. In response, the PM noted today that she would indeed consider the SG proposals seriously. Very seriously indeed. However, she added two points. That it would be the UKG which pursued a potential solution for the UK as a whole, factoring in Scotland.  And, secondly, that consideration did not mean mute acceptance. There might be some proposals which proved "impractical". Which brings us to another strategic element. Founded upon the fact that Nicola Sturgeon is not remotely surprised that her plans are not instantly acceptable to the UKG. I am certain that they will be considered in detail by UK Ministers. They will be discussed within the Joint Ministerial Committee set up for such purposes. However, there is little prospect of their being endorsed in full. For one thing, Conservative analysts believe Ms Sturgeon is "in denial" about the problems associated with her EEA plan. They say it would potentially pose problems for trade within the UK if Scotland had a distinctive trading arrangement with European countries but rUK did not. Scottish Ministers say that a customs border would not arise - because Scotland would leave the customs union if rUK did. What about entry for EU/EEA citizens to Scotland? Why would they not just slip over the Border from, say, Gretna to Carlisle? Ms Sturgeon says that could be addressed by checks on employment and housing in England. Further, SG Ministers say that a distinctive solution will have to be found for the island of Ireland. They insist it is not beyond the bounds of sentient thought to derive a distinctive solution for Scotland too. At which point UK Ministers revert to criticising the complexity of the Scottish plan:  its need for the transfer of further, substantial powers to Holyrood - including at least partial control over immigration. They cite too the hostility which might arise in some EU countries which also have potentially secessionist territories. Which brings me once more to strategy. Nicola Sturgeon is advancing these policy proposals with gravity and forethought. She genuinely argues that they could be workable - in the face of criticism - while acknowledging that they are "challenging". But, alongside that, she has a longer term strategic imperative too. If a referendum on independence is to be called, Nicola Sturgeon wants to be able to convince the people of Scotland that she examined every possible alternative, that she worked seriously with the UKG to advance the interests of Scotland within the ambit of the UK. She knows that a referendum called on a whim - or apparently driven by pique - would be less likely to result in victory for the SNP. Let us recall the broad background here. Left alone, without the Brexit vote, I do not believe that the First Minister would currently be contemplating indyref2 for some years. Perhaps not until the next Holyrood Parliament. However, Brexit changes things - as she reminded Tories at Holyrood who recalled that she had presently been cool towards the EEA. It may prompt a range of responses. It will anger Nationalists who remember that membership of the EU was cited as a pro-Union plus during the 2014 plebiscite. It may move some middle-class Scottish voters from a "No" vote on independence to a "Yes" vote as they are driven by their adherence to the European Union - and their vision of that collective approach vanishing. It may, likewise, move some working-class Scottish voters from a "Yes" vote on independence to a "No" vote - as they are motivated by their dislike and distrust of the EU. Ms Sturgeon may welcome the first development and believe that she can counter the second. Either way, she may feel - as voiced in an interview with me - that she has a "duty" to put the independence question to the people of Scotland once again. She is cautious. She remains, for now, unpersuaded. She remains keen to discern the emerging shape of post-Brexit UK in order to understand the revised status quo against which she would be counterposing independence. But the UKG is cautious too. Conservatives will voice doubts about the SG plan. But the Prime Minister and the Scottish Secretary will continue to treat them seriously. Very seriously. For now. Scottish and British politics:  on hold. But intriguing.  Always intriguing.

Question: Policy and strategy . The proposals from the Scottish Government on the @placeholder of Brexit are intriguing on both counts . Perhaps , however , it is the strategic element which will prove the most significant in the longer term .


In his first broadcast interview, Kweku Adoboli told the BBC that banking was still riven by conflicts of interest. He added that traders were pushed to make profits "no matter what". Asked if the crimes he committed - booking fictitious trades to cover up gambles in the hunt for profits - could happen again, he said: "Absolutely". Adoboli - the biggest rogue trader in British history and described by the prosecution at his trial as a "master fraudster" and "sophisticated liar" - now faces deportation to Ghana, where he was born. He said he is fighting the order as he is as "British in culture" as anyone living in the UK and could help the finance sector to reform by sharing his experiences. After coming out of prison a year ago, 36-year-old Adoboli, who has lived in Britain since he was 12, said he had been prevented from taking paid work. He is living with friends in Edinburgh and speaks for free at banking compliance conferences. I asked him if behaviour in banking had changed since he was found guilty in 2012 of two counts of fraud and sentenced to seven years in prison. "No, certainly not," he answered. "I think the young people I've spoken to, former colleagues I have spoken to, are still struggling with the same issues, the same conflicts, the same pressures to achieve no matter what. "And this goes back to the structure of the industry. People are required to take risk to generate profit, because yields in the industry are consistently compressed. "And if investment banks continue to chase the same level of profitability as they have in the past, the only way to generate those profits is to take more risk. "But from a politics angle, the desire is to limit that risk taking, to limit the profitability, but you have these conflicted goals. "And where the conflict comes is where people fall into this grey zone, and so I think it can absolutely happen again. "Especially as we go into what could be the next phase of the great financial crisis over the next 12 to 24 months." Adoboli said that he was sorry for his actions, which at one stage had the potential to undermine the whole operation of UBS after his possible losses rose to over £8bn ($10.6bn). His actions included setting up secret internal slush funds and booking fictitious deals to hide the amount of risk he was taking. Multi-million pound bets on movements in the stock markets also failed to come off. He claimed others at the bank knew of his actions and he was put under enormous pressure to make high levels of profit. UBS has denied that anyone else knew what Adoboli was doing and no charges have been brought against any other UBS traders. A number testified in court that Adoboli had been operating alone. I asked him if he should apologise. "Absolutely," he said. "I am devastated not for myself but for my institution and the people I have worked with. "The very first thing I did when I was arrested was say I'm sorry beyond words and I said it through my lawyers, but that is what I said. "During my trial I said it repeatedly. "And these are not just devices. It's how I feel, I failed. I made mistakes. "People around me made mistakes too, but that's not the point. "I unreservedly apologise for what happened - it was a huge failure and part of the redemption is about that. "Part of rehabilitation is about facing up to your choices, what was wrong with them, and how do you move forward. "The only way to move forward is to face it with full honesty. "I went to prison for it. I was asked to pay a price, to accept my dishonesty. "To accept that I was charged and found guilty of a criminal offence." Adoboli is one of the few bankers to be jailed in the UK since the financial crisis. I asked him if more people in the finance sector should face prison after fraudulent behaviour was found in a number of different markets including foreign exchange and the setting of inter-bank interest rates, known as Libor. "I think people need to be held to account for their failings but I'm not entirely sure - and this is a rather controversial view - I'm not entirely sure blame and sending people to prison is the answer," he said. "It might help society to know people are being held to account but it doesn't solve the problems. "This is why I say blame is not the answer. "People do need to be held to account. I went to prison. I learned from it." I asked Adoboli if he thought of himself as a criminal. "I don't think of myself as a criminal," he answered. "It's a label I have. "A lot of work has been done through my time in prison and with my friends and family to make sure I'm not left with this sense of - you are [only] a criminal. "[Yes] you made a terrible mistake. "You made a sequence of terrible choices, but your intentions were always in the right place. "I accept I was found guilty of a crime that had dishonesty central to it."

Question: The London trader who @placeholder the Swiss bank UBS £ 1.4 bn ( $ 1.9 bn ) has apologised and said that banking has not done enough to regain the public 's trust .


He's tweeted a picture of himself with a backstage pass around his neck to Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' Keep It Dangerous tour, writing "Keeping it in the family...LG x". It was unclear if and where he joined the band at a concert. On Saturday night the band played a gig in Milan and last Tuesday they played the O2 Arena in London. There was no reaction from Noel on Twitter after Liam's photo. Noel walked out of Oasis in 2009 after arguing continuously with Liam. At the time he said: "It's with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight. "People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer." Last week, Noel's new band took the number one in the Official Album Chart with Chasing Yesterday, although the record is down to fourth spot in this week's chart. Last month, Noel told the Times that he has never had "one serious offer" to get his old band back together, but hinted that it wasn't off the table. Liam Gallagher's band, Beady Eye, broke up last October. Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube

Question: Liam Gallagher has hinted on Twitter that he might have @placeholder the hatchet with his brother Noel .


Media playback is not supported on this device The U's will host Championship club Leeds in the fourth round after beating AFC Wimbledon 3-1 on Tuesday. The National League side famously beat Coventry, then in the top flight, at the third round stage in 1988-89. "Coventry was great but the present team are writing their own bit of history," he told BBC Radio 5 live. "No-one will ever forget Coventry but won't it be nice to have something more up-to-date for our younger supporters to enjoy?" Media playback is not supported on this device Sutton booked their place in the fourth round thanks to two late goals against the League One Dons in their third-round replay, having drawn the initial tie 0-0. The tie against the Whites on Sunday, 29 January (14:00 GMT) will bring back memories of Sutton's first appearance in the fourth round in 1969-70, when Leeds beat the U's 6-0 at Gander Green Lane. "Forty-seven years ago I was very young but I was there when we played Leeds in the fourth round," Elliott added. "Along with the two Wimbledon ties, it oozes nostalgia." Sutton, who are 15th in the National League, are the lowest-ranked side left in the FA Cup, With the tie against Leeds set to be televised, their earnings from their run are estimated to reach about £500,000 - money Elliott says will "come in handy". He added: "I am an accountant by trade to it is inbred in me that we don't get carried away with it. "It is a huge amount of money, and another sold-out gate for us. We will make sure it is used responsibly and wisely."

Question: Sutton United chairman Bruce Elliott hopes their FA Cup run will create memories which will @placeholder alongside their previous exploits in the competition .


Monmouth Conservative MP David Davies said he was "very pleased" with the news, which he received in a letter from Transport Minister Jesse Norman. Mr Davies said it proved the pledge was "not some wild manifesto promise". Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns has described the tolls as a "psychological barrier" to doing business in Wales. Prime Minister Theresa May announced in May that the tolls would be scrapped if the Conservatives won the general election in June, with the target date of the end of 2018 confirmed in July. The first Severn Bridge, which opened in 1966 under public ownership, was transferred to Severn River Crossings plc as part of the agreement under which the company built and financed the second crossing, which opened in 1996. Both bridges would be returned to public ownership once construction and maintenance costs had been recovered from the collection of tolls. Mr Davies had written to the Department for Transport on behalf of a constituent, seeking confirmation of the date of transfer. Mr Norman replied saying: "I am pleased to confirm that the bridges will revert to public ownership on 8 January 2018 and that all tolls will end at the Severn Crossings by the 31 December 2018." The Monmouth MP said: "I'm very pleased with it - it's the confirmation everyone had been expecting and not some wild manifesto promise. "It's going to be carried out in the timescale promised." Mr Davies said he understood there were some unexpected additional maintenance costs to be covered which meant that the tolls would not be lifted immediately. When asked to comment, the Department for Transport referred to the announcement in July, when Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said abolishing the tolls would "drive economic growth for businesses in Wales and the South West [of England] and further strengthen the bond between our two great countries". The Welsh Government has also been asked for a response.

Question: The Severn bridges will revert to public ownership on 8 January @placeholder tolls to be scrapped by the end of 2018 , the UK government has confirmed .


They said people were "acutely aware" of online surveillance by government,  companies and also their peers. The findings follow plans by UK ministers for new laws to help police and agencies monitor online threats. The academics are halfway through an 18-month research project into digital citizenship and state surveillance. They presented preliminary findings from focus groups, interviews with activists and opinion poll analysis at a conference on surveillance at Cardiff University. Cardiff University's Lina Dencik said: "Most people don't like that this is happening, and will try and monitor their online behaviour accordingly, but also feel powerless to do much about it." She added: "People want to know why and how their personal data is being collected and used, and what legal safeguards exist. "This is central at a time when one of the first acts of the newly-elected Conservative government has been to increase intelligence agencies' surveillance powers, while at the same time withholding the publication of annual transparency reports on the security services as initiated under the coalition government." The conference also heard from a lawyer representing the former CIA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden. Ben Wizner said the Snowden leak had led to journalists, politicians and courts in the US taking a tougher stance against granting additional surveillance powers to the intelligence agencies. But he said that in some countries, such as France, Canada and Australia, recent terror attacks had been "exploited". "What we see across the West is that politicians who say our existing institutions are strong enough to deal with this, we don't need to change our laws, are dismissed as weak and naive and politicians who say this is a war on terror, this is a new kind of threat, the greatest kind of threat we face are extolled as hard-nosed warriors," he said. Although the US authorities would like Snowden - who remains in Russia - to plead guilty, he said his popularity around the world meant "they don't relish the idea of grabbing him and prosecuting him". The Home Office has been asked to comment. The two-day conference, at the university's School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, is being held as part of the Digital Citizenship and Surveillance Society  research project.

Question: People in the UK are increasingly concerned about how information about them is @placeholder , Cardiff and Oxford university researchers have said .


It said clean-up costs and compensation claims for those affected by leaks at the plant may exceed initial estimates. Radiation leaks at the plant after last year's quake and tsunami saw thousands of people evacuated from the area. The firm has already received 1tn yen ($12.5bn; Â£7.8bn) in government aid. The utility was, in effect, nationalised after the government took a 50.11% stake in the group in exchange for the capital injection. The total clean-up costs and claims were initially estimated to be around 5tn yen. When contacted by the BBC, the company did not disclose how much it expected the costs to increase. However, according to some reports they are projected to double to 10tn yen. Along with compensation claims, the firm has also seen its operational costs rise in recent times. This was after the leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant resulted in other nuclear plants being shut, forcing it to rely on traditional thermal power stations to produce electricity. These power stations require fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas to operate which are relatively more expensive. The company, which provides power to some of Japan's most important economic areas, has already raised electricity prices in an attempt to offset the rising costs. Tepco said it was putting in place further cost cutting measures to save an additional 100bn yen a  year. It had previously set a target of reducing its costs by 336.5bn yen a year for the next 10 years as part of its restructuring plan.

Question: The owner of @placeholder the Fukushima nuclear plant , Tokyo Electric Power Company ( Tepco ) has requested further financial help from the Japanese government .


The metal sculpture will show two fists overlapped in the style of the song's "horse-riding" dance move. It will be erected outside the COEX shopping centre, where part of the video was filmed. Gangnam Style was released by South Korean singer Psy in 2012 and remains the most-watched YouTube video ever. It has been viewed more than 2.4 billion times. Gangnam tourism director Park Hee-Soo said he hoped the statue would "become a landmark for our district". "Tourists can take pictures under the statue and the song will play automatically when you stand there," he added.

Question: A statue dedicated to the South Korean music hit Gangnam Style is to be @placeholder in the Seoul district made famous by the song .


Blue-fronted Amazon parrot Charlie went missing from the Tropical Butterfly House, Wildlife & Falconry Centre, near Sheffield, on Wednesday. She was spotted by shoppers at Tesco in Dinnington, about two miles from home. It is thought the wind blew her off course and she was unable to find her way home. Abigail Carter, from the centre, said Charlie was found in a tree, covered in crumbs, and munching on the chocolate biscuit, given to her by a group of teenagers. She said although chocolate was not good for parrots, she praised the actions of the youngsters for keeping Charlie occupied for long enough for them to get to her. More on this and other stories from across Yorkshire Charlie was found on Thursday after an appeal on social media. Ms Carter also thanked everyone who had helped with the search for Charlie, who went missing during a flying display at the centre. She said the response to the appeal had been fantastic. To mark her return, Charlie, who is celebrating her 19th birthday, was treated to a special "non-chocolate" cake made from her usual diet of fruit, vegetables and mixed seeds.

Question: A @placeholder parrot has been returned to its home after a group of teenagers lured it with a chocolate biscuit in a supermarket car park .


On Thursday, Root himself said he was looking forward to the time when his leadership mettle would be examined. On the first day of the second Test, where South Africa moved on to 309-6, Root got his wish and, in turn, allowed the pressure to ease off the Proteas on more than one occasion. It was a fluctuating day - South Africa were attritional in the first session, fluent after lunch and had to recover following a four-wicket collapse in the evening. They were helped by England opting to use Liam Dawson ahead of fellow spinner Moeen Ali and again in the sleepy overs in the run-up to the second new ball. I'm not the only one confused by England's approach to Moeen, with both Root and coach Trevor Bayliss saying that he is now seen as the second spinner. When confidence is high - as Moeen's should be after taking 10 wickets at Lord's - it is reasonable to expect players to perform for you. Therefore, I was surprised when left-armer Dawson, despite what the England higher-ups are saying about his place in the pecking order, was used before Moeen at Trent Bridge. Media playback is not supported on this device Put simply, we know that Moeen is good enough at this level, but the same cannot yet be said about Dawson, who is playing in only his third Test. Indeed, Dawson was the most expensive of England's bowlers, often providing a release for the South Africa batsmen. It was almost as if Root felt like he had to bowl him simply because he was in the side. In all, the six bowlers that England have in their side is probably too many. It creates a problem for the captain in juggling them, and perhaps even puts doubt in a bowler's mind in that he may be thinking that he has to perform well quickly otherwise he will be replaced by one of the many other options. I would prefer to see England play an extra batsman, even if that does push the talented Moeen down to number eight. The make-up of this side is not one I expect to be mirrored during this winter's Ashes series. When England knew that the new ball was approaching, they allowed the game to drift, fiddling overs from Dawson and Keaton Jennings. It was almost as if they were waiting for James Anderson and Stuart Broad to take the wickets, rather than using the other two of their four seamers - Ben Stokes and Mark Wood - with the old ball. Often, the whole point of a new ball is that you are using it against a new batsman. England may have missed a trick by taking the foot off the gas at that moment. Root's other issue on Friday was the use of the review system, with both of England's referrals frittered away inside 24 overs. On both occasions, headstrong bowlers in Stokes and Broad wanted reviews, only to see that their lbw appeals were turned down for pretty obvious reasons. It's tricky for Root, because the new captain has to feel his way in, not only with the technology, but with experienced bowlers, of whom he wants to gain their trust. In these situations, bowlers are always likely to be biased, with a more streetwise skipper less likely to be concerned by their demands for a review. It is something that Root will learn from and he may well be saying to his players that more discussion is needed to ensure they get the reviews right. All in all, it was an excellent day of Test cricket that leaves the match set-up for the weekend and beyond. South Africa's Quentin de Kock, a freescoring left-hander, made batting look terribly easy before playing a horrible shot, while his opposite number Jonny Bairstow goes from strength to strength behind the stumps for England. After taking a wonderful catch at Lord's, Bairstow took a similar one here to remove Proteas captain Faf du Plessis. From being a keeper who made one mistake per Test, Bairstow has made a massive improvement. There has been talk of bringing in Jos Buttler to allow Bairstow to concentrate on his batting. I can tell you that Bairstow would be devastated if the gloves were taken from him. There was a lovely moment for Anderson, who became the bowler to take 300 Test wickets in England, but I thought he bowled a little too short, especially with the second new ball. Broad, on his home ground, was the pick of England's pace bowlers. It was Broad who took two wickets after tea to begin the South Africa collapse, only for Vernon Philander and Chris Morris to steady their situation. Their efforts have left the contest wonderfully even. Jonathan Agnew was talking to BBC Sport's Stephan Shemilt.

Question: After England handsomely defeated South Africa in the first Test at Lord 's , I @placeholder that new captain Joe Root had been given an easy ride .


The announcement came from Australian, Malaysian and Chinese ministers meeting to discuss progress. The plane, flying from the Malaysian capital to Beijing, disappeared on 8 March 2014 with 239 people on board. It is believed to have crashed off Western Australia, but so far no trace has been found. At the moment teams using sophisticated sonar equipment are scouring a 60,000 sq km (23,000 sq mile) area of seabed far west of the Australian city of Perth. About 40% of this remains to be searched. If nothing is found, the search will be extended by another 60,000 sq km to "cover the entire highest probability area identified by expert analysis", a joint statement from the ministers said. The additional search area could take up to a year to complete given adverse weather conditions in the upcoming winter months, the statement said. Investigators still do not know what happened to the plane. The search zone has been defined based on analysis of hourly "handshakes" between the plane and a communications satellite. There is still no explanation as to why it flew so far off course - making finding the plane and its "black box" voice recorders key to understanding its fate. "We are confident we are searching in the right area,'' Australian Transport Minister Warren Truss told journalists after the meeting. "We are confident we have the best search equipment... if the plane is in the area we will find it.'' How the search is conducted

Question: The search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will be @placeholder if nothing is found in the current search zone , officials say .


Amarjit Basi will leave his post as principal and chief executive of Cornwall College at the end of July. The college is the fifth largest in England with seven sites across the county employing around 2,800 people. Nick Varney, from the University and College Union, said now would be a good time for the college to "reflect on its remuneration policy". He said there was a "serious inequality of pay" and called for "a moratorium on the appointment of a new principal". Cornwall College did not comment on the circumstances of Mr Basi's departure. It said: "He has led the college to change its direction and structures, delivered a very good Ofsted inspection outcome and overseen the merger with Bicton College." The college wished Mr Basi well and said it would put in place the process of recruiting a new principal immediately.

Question: The boss of one of the largest employers in Cornwall has @placeholder his £ 200,000 - a- year position .


Experts and campaigners despair that transport doesn't get the prominence during elections they think it deserves considering it affects everyone. Remember that much of transport policy in London is devolved to the mayor, however there are some differences in how the main parties are approaching it. While there is not a huge amount of detail - for example none of the parties outline what they will do with rail fare increases - here are some highlights: We have come full circle with the Tories and Labour on this issue. Both have supported and opposed the enlargement of Heathrow at different times but now both support expansion. This is despite high profile members in both parties, like Boris Johnson and John McDonnell, opposing it. The parties now agree a third runway is needed for the economy and UK PLC. But it's not the end of the debate for this most contentious of issues. The Conservatives have said it before, and it is in the Labour manifesto, that they will only allow expansion if strict limits on night flights, pollution and noise are abided by. Campaigners have also moved in that direction and also want strong, legally binding limits on a third runway that could even stop it being built. The Liberal Democrats and the Greens oppose expansion so there are plenty of political battles ahead. This is where there are big differences between the two main parties. The Conservatives want to continue with its franchise system, with different rail companies bidding to run services. But Labour wants to renationalise the rail industry, so when franchises come up for renewal they will be put "back into public ownership". But it doesn't seem to be a move back to British Rail, the nationalised rail service which ended in 1997. As quoted in the Evening Standard, Labour would hand control of the capital's key commuter routes to Transport for London. The transport authority already runs a model where it pays a private operator to run a service on its behalf, for example the DLR and the London Overground. This means TfL sets the prices and keeps the farebox but also shoulders the revenue risk. Labour also seem to be saying private operators will still be involved in London's commuter routes although there is some debate over whether this is actually renationalisation. The Liberal Democrats say: "We will allow public sector bodies and mutual groups involving staff and passengers to bid for franchises." All the main parties now support HS2 but the Greens do still oppose it. And while the Liberal Democrats and Labour emphasise the need for Crossrail 2 - a rail line to link Hertfordshire to Surrey through central London - the Tories do not mention it in their manifesto. Many experts believe Crossrail 2 is crucial to London to relieve congestion as the city continues to grow. So is it dead? Well there is a school of thought that thinks it is still very possible and its omission from the Tory manifesto is more to do with political positioning than infrastructure investment, i.e. it could still go ahead with the right funding.

Question: Lurking under the @placeholder of Brexit and not getting much in the way of attention , are the main parties transport policies .


Bryony Esther, 32, from Leigh-on-Sea, was on a C2C service when 15-month-old baby Saffron awoke and needed feeding. Despite "hovering" near the priority seating area no-one offered to move and instead began sniggering, she says. Her Facebook post about what happened went viral, the Daily Mail said. C2C urged customers to be considerate. Live: For more on this and other stories from Essex Speaking to the BBC, Ms Esther said the incident unfolded as soon as she boarded the train with two of her children. "I sat my five-year-old down on what was an apparently vacant seat quite near the doors and immediately this man told me 'this seat is taken'," she said. "So we moved and we ended up stood by the toilets for the rest of the journey with a bike shoved into my legs. "It was quite unpleasant. My baby woke up and cried and she needed nursing back to sleep. "I hovered by the priority seat hoping to be offered one. I tried to make eye contact with the people sat in the priority seats but they just blanked me. "One of the people sat in the priority seats was the cyclist." Ms Esther, who was travelling to Great Ormond Street Hospital to visit her two-year-old son as he recovered from surgery, said she did not feel able to challenge the group. "I know a lot of people have unseen disabilities so I did not feel able to ask whether they could let me sit down," she added. "I lifted my top to feed her and then I looked up and realised there were five men watching and sniggering. "I felt quite intimidated and uncomfortable. I was really upset and I think this is part of wider society. "This isn't about breastfeeding. This is about a mum having to hold her baby on a moving train." A spokeswoman for train operator C2C said: "We welcome breastfeeding on all C2C trains and would hope our customers would be considerate to their fellow travellers and give up their seat when requested. "Unfortunately this does not appear to have happened on this occasion, and we are sorry for any inconvenience this caused."

Question: A woman forced to breastfeed her baby while standing up on a @placeholder train says she was left feeling " intimidated and uncomfortable " .