The robbery, which happened at a Bank of Scotland branch in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on Wednesday, sparked a bomb scare. The taxi driver picked up the man from The Avenue in Lochgelly and then made him carry out the robbery at the Mitchelston Industrial Estate branch. Police said the suspect may have been hanging about in Lochgelly beforehand and had a large blue canvas holdall. During the robbery, the taxi driver was forced to present a note to bank staff demanding money. A cashier handed over a four-figure sum but it was later recovered by police at the scene. A dedicated team of detectives have been checking CCTV footage from surrounding premises and carrying out door-to-door inquiries. Det Insp Charlie Duncan said: "I believe the male we are looking for may have been hanging about in the area of the small industrial estate on The Avenue, Lochgelly between 12.15pm and 12.40pm on Wednesday, before he was able to get a taxi to take him to Kirkcaldy. "I believe he was carrying a large blue canvas holdall with distinctive stripes on the corners. This male may have walked to this location from Lochgelly or may have been delivered there by another vehicle." He added: "I also know the male left the area of Carberry Road, Kirkcaldy, as he has been seen running along Carberry Place, which leads to the rear of the Asda store. "I believe he may have tried to leave the area immediately and in doing so may have again used a taxi or public transport, which would have been around 2pm. "I would ask anyone who believes they may have transported this male to come forward." The suspect was described as being as white, 5ft 6in tall, of heavy build. He was wearing a dark green baseball cap, a dark green scarf, a thick, dark blue jacket, tracksuit bottoms and sunglasses. He spoke with a distinctive Eastern European accent. Initial reports from the bank described how a possible explosive device was involved and nearby schools and shops were locked down while officers investigated the scene. Bomb disposal teams scoured the area but they later confirmed no explosives were involved in the incident, police said.

Question: Police have released more @placeholder about a man who abducted a taxi driver and forced him to rob a bank .


With the event reduced to 54 holes by bad weather, Levy completed his second round in 63, eight under par, to close in on a third European Tour title. Swede Michael Jonzon also shot a 63 to sit second on 13 under at Bad Griesbach, with England's Ross Fisher on 12 under after a six-under 65. Martin Kaymer, part of Europe's Ryder Cup team, is in a tie for fourth place. The German is 11 under overall after a seven-under 64. Alexander Levy: "I will just go and practise a bit, go for a gym session and be ready for tomorrow. I'm just trying to think about my own game and do the best I can." Ross Fisher: "There's still a lot to play for and it's nice to know that we've only got one round to go. It's a tough decision but I think they've made the right call." Martin Kaymer: "I just need to keep going, and obviously Levy is playing great golf. He played well last week too and you have to give him credit. It's a little bit of a different approach now from playing four rounds." We've launched a new BBC Sport newsletter, bringing all the best stories, features and video right to your inbox. You can sign up here.

Question: France 's Alexander Levy will take a four - shot lead into the final round of the fog - @placeholder European Open .


On page 77 of a notebook belonging to a domestic servant from East Yorkshire, there is a recipe for curry. Eleanor Grantham's Victorian version of Indian cuisine combines half a pound of meat, two sour apples and a cup of milk with unspecified amounts of dripping, onions and curry powder. But while its ingredients are unlikely to get mouths watering in the way a modern Madras might, it was good enough to grace the dinner table of Manor House in Willerby in 1890. "The earliest British recipe for curry was 1747, which is a lot earlier than this recipe, but as far as the region is concerned, it's the earliest recipe we've found," said Sam Bartle, collections officer at the East Riding Archive where the recipe was discovered. "I'm told the Victorians were quite keen on curry - it was the height of the British Empire so there were interactions with places like India, so it's not surprising." The hard-backed book was unearthed by a descendant of Ms Grantham, who recorded the recipes gathered during the course of her service. Though the curry's simplicity meant it could have been cooked by anyone, the cost of the spices 125 years ago meant it was reserved mainly for the rich. David Leaf, catering lecturer at East Riding College in Beverley, said: "In authentic Indian restaurants they would use a teaspoon of coriander, turmeric, ginger, paprika, etc. "Curry powder is probably an English product, because we didn't have all those spices in those days, because they were expensive of course. "[This] is a modern British version of a curry, using an amalgamated mixture of all those spices." A curry is essentially nothing more than a stew, Mr Leaf explained, a method of slow cooking in juices or sauce, or in this case, milk - a regular feature in Indian cooking. "It's a very simple recipe," he said. "I would think it would make an edible curry by English standards, but not by traditional, authentic Indian methods. "Have a go." No stranger to the stove, I accepted the challenge. There was a time when cooking in animal fat was the norm, with 'mucky fat sandwiches' a staple part of the British diet. But at a time where saturated fat is practically considered a sin, watching a wedge of dripping coat the base of my pan felt inherently wrong. As it sizzled away, I turned my attention to the rest of the ingredients. It was common for Victorian recipes to lack detail due to dishes being passed on by word-of-mouth and Ms Grantham's recipe was no exception. The only quantities specified were for the meat and apples, so I used my judgement and allowed a pair of chopped onions to sweat in the grease for 10 minutes before removing and frying a pile of curry powder. Chunks of apple from two Granny Smiths joined the yellow sludge, followed by half a pound of diced lamb and a sprinkling of flour. I was not convinced I was whipping up a culinary feast and my opinion did not improve when I added 200ml of milk and a dash of sugar and salt. After two hours on the hob, the meat was tender and the apple chunks had become an aromatic jus, but there was no denying its appearance was distinctly unappealing. A panel of brave work colleagues brandished their forks in the name of journalism with mixed feedback. The main complaints were that it was too sweet for some and too mild for most, but the overall conclusion was that, while it wouldn't be anyone's first choice, it was perfectly edible. Mohammed Aslam, head chef at Yorkshire-based Indian restaurant chain, Aagrah, said Ms Grantham's recipe is an example of how a traditional Indian curry has evolved over time. "Lamb and apples is one of the oldest recipes," he said. "It's a southern [Indian] style of cooking, because what they do in the south is seasonal - what they grow, they use, like apples. "At that time, it would be classed as a modern recipe, but not authentically Indian. The dripping is unusual. There's no dripping on the subcontinent, so that's the influence of British cooking. "In olden days we would use mustard oil or ghee as it's common in the villages to have a cow. In the East Riding, maybe not." The upper classes regularly dined on curry in the 1600s, said Dr Lizzie Collingham, author of Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors, but strong flavours fell out of favour in the late 17th Century when French cuisine became popular. It was not until the late 18th Century when Britain took control of Bengal that Indian cooking came back into fashion and by 1809 London's first curry house had opened. While The Hindostanee Coffee House did not last long, curry was appearing in Victorian recipe books, including Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management published in 1861. But by the time the kitchen moved out of the basement and into the main part of the house at the turn of the 20th Century, curry was again culled from the dinner menu due to the smell. "It was no longer seen as nice for middle class women to cook curry and the British started eating bland food," Dr Collingham said. "Then, in the 1940s, Bangladeshi sailors on steam boats jumped ship and started buying up old fish and chip shops and set up little restaurants and cafes to serve their own communities. "In the 1960s, there was a large immigration of people from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and that's when [curry] started coming back in a big way." According to National Curry Week, 23 million people eat the dish on a regular basis, with 18% of the UK's population eating Indian food at least once a week. Peter Grove, founder of the event, said new figures showed people are turning their nose up at the humble Chicken Tikka Masala for hotter and regional dishes. "Tikka Masala has been number one for many years and was described as Britain's national dish because it is a British/Bangladeshi creation, not authentically Indian," he said. "The gradual move to hotter dishes is inevitable, firstly because people are experimenting more but more because of popularity of curry as a whole." But the food being served in our restaurants bears little resemblance to its origins, warned Dr Collingham. "A peasant would eat rice and dhal, with chillies and onions. What we have in Indian restaurants was invented for the British or adapted for them," she explained. "But it's completely normal, it's what's been happening to Indian food for centuries. It's a product of the British relationship with India. "That's what happens when people travel and conquer each other's countries and eat each other's food."

Question: A Victorian curry recipe featuring sour apples and dripping has surfaced in East Yorkshire . It is one of the more extreme examples of how Indian cuisine has evolved in British @placeholder .


Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease which is prevalent in sub-tropical and tropical regions. It is a major cause of illness worldwide, causing about 100 million episodes of feverish illness a year. Its outbreak in Burkina Faso is causing alarm and officials are trying to avoid any widespread panic. One man told BBC Afrique's Yacouba Ouedraogo in the capital, Ouagadougou, that the disease had killed his brother quickly: "My younger brother did not even have a chance to say what was wrong. We just found him dead," he said. Dengue fever particularly affects young children and adults, but is not normally fatal, specialists say. Most people who get it will suffer from headaches and fever. Some get rashes, aches and pains and their symptoms usually last for two or three days. An infected person can feel tired for up to three months, but will not usually need treatment. Cases of the disease have been reported from all 12 districts of Ouagadougou, the World Health Organization says. Two other regions - the Sahel Region in the north and the Hauts-Bassins region in the west - have also reported cases.

Question: Dengue fever has killed at least 20 people in the West African state of Burkina Faso , where about 2,000 cases of the disease have been @placeholder .


More than 120 old or recent bruises and broken bones were discovered on Keegan Downer's body, Birmingham Crown Court was told. Kandyce Downer denies murdering the 18-month-old, after she collapsed at the family home in Birmingham. The child also had a "terrible" spiral leg fracture which had gone untreated. It left the girl "deformed" with one leg shorter than the other, the court heard. Nigel Power QC said Keegan also had seven recently broken ribs which would have made breathing "very painful", and an historic head injury at least several days old at the time she died. Forensic testing of the house where the toddler died revealed traces of her blood on the cot and bedroom wall. Born in March 2014 to a heroin-addict mother, the otherwise healthy girl was put with a foster carer by social services. The child was then placed with 35-year-old Downer as the legal guardian in January 2015. Keegan was described in court as a "healthy and happy baby" and lived at Downer's family home in Beckbury Road, Weoley Castle. She collapsed at home shortly before 10am on 5 September 2015. When paramedics arrived, Downer had Keegan lying down on a sofa and told them: "I don't know when she stopped breathing, because I was in the bath." Downer later told paramedics she had popped out and left the child alone during that morning. Keegan died from a combination of septicaemia, infection, blunt chest trauma and old head injuries. Of Downer, Mr Power said: "We say there is no other realistic candidate for the many and terrible injuries that led to Keegan's death." The trial of Downer, who also denies causing or allowing the death of Keegan, continues.

Question: A mother - of - four @placeholder a toddler to death months after she was made the child 's legal guardian , a court has heard .


McGee, 32, was in the starting team for Saturday's All-Ireland quarter-final defeat by Dublin while forward McFadden, 33, was a late substitute. McFadden played a record 170 games in a Donegal career which reaped an All-Ireland win and All Star award in 2012. McGee was also in that All-Ireland winning side and made 154 appearances for the Ulster county. St Michael's club player McAadden told the Irish Times: "I don't know was it 14 or 15 years? The game is changing all the time, and there is plenty of fine talent coming through, so it is time for them to take up the baton. "The future is bright for Donegal football." There are bound to be questions about the inter-county futures of other experienced Donegal stars. Midfielder Rory Kavanagh, who retired at the end of the 2014 campaign and is 34 next week, came back this year but failed to produce his best form. Neil Gallagher, another midfielder, missed this year because of injury while half-forward Christy Toye, a sub against Dublin on Saturday, could have played his last match. Media playback is not supported on this device

Question: Defender Eamon McGee has joined Donegal team - mate Colm McFadden in @placeholder his inter-county retirement .


BBC correspondents were quick to note the fancy Battersea venue's vibe was in stark contrast to the Labour and Tory manifesto launches. And we weren't the only ones to notice, either: Not everyone was impressed though: One of the party's prospective parliamentary candidates was slightly confused: But another candidate was loving it: [Note: "Bae" is slang for "babe" - not an acronym for British Aerospace...] And be warned, Bez - the Lib Dems are making a bid for the Party of Rave title: It seems the party mood didn't keep everyone entertained though:

Question: The Liberal Democrats may be @placeholder in the opinion polls but that did n't stop the party mood at the launch of their manifesto in London .


MP Damien Collins says British Cycling have been unable to deliver the relevant paperwork, though all parties deny any wrongdoing. Sir Dave Brailsford told the committee the package contained asthma medicine. "The apparent lack of knowledge of so many in the support staff did not chime with my own experiences," Cooke said. Wiggins announced his retirement on Wednesday but the contents of the package given to him at the end of a race in France in 2011 are the subject of a UKAD probe into alleged "wrongdoing". Team Sky principal Brailsford told a Department of Culture, Media and Sport select committee last week that the package contained fluimucil, an over-the-counter decongestant available relatively cheaply in France. Writing in the Guardian, 2008 Olympic road race gold medal winner Cooke says the explanations offered do not adequately explain why Team Sky went to such expense to have the drug delivered by British women's coach Simon Cope. "At the end of the three hours we were informed by Brailsford that the mysterious content of the jiffy bag was a ¡ê10 'decongestant' that was available over the counter in any of eight pharmacies located within 5km of where the team bus was parked in France," Cooke said. "It was an answer that raised even more questions than we had before, especially now we know Simon Cope spent two days travelling to deliver it." Cooke, who has spoken out about alleged sexism at British Cycling, also raised concerns about why Cope, a former women's coach at the governing body, was used to transport the package. Media playback is not supported on this device "Why did the top management deem it acceptable to use the publicly funded national women's team road manager, Simon Cope, in the role of a basic courier?" she said. "As the saga developed this year, Cope came up with information entirely new and disturbing to me. In an interview he said that in 2011 he had 'been working with Sky a lot' and been running training camps with Brad. "Throughout early 2011 I was attempting to get Cope to run a single training camp for the women riders he was meant to be managing. "Eventually I got Cope to agree to a camp to prepare for the world championships in Copenhagen and we both proposed it to Brailsford and (former technical director Shane) Sutton - the same pair who apparently think it fine to fly a courier with a ¡ê10 med 1,000 miles across Europe. "I have the email and Sutton's response turning down the training camp suggestion. Nothing was put in its place and so the women went to another world championships without having conducted a single team camp. Needless to say our team preparation was insufficient." Find out how to get into cycling with our special guide.

Question: Nicole Cooke says British Cycling has @placeholder " more questions than answers , " over the delivery of an over - the - counter drug to Sir Bradley Wiggins .


He called his visit to the USS Theodore Roosevelt "a symbol" of America's stabilising presence in the region. Mr Carter said any concern over his visit was due to "tension in this part of the world", blaming China for "most of the activity over the last year". His visit clearly irritated Beijing, a BBC correspondent in China says. A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman warned against "waving the banner of freedom of navigation to push forward the militarisation of the South China Sea and even provoke and endanger other countries' sovereignty and security interests". "In this aspect, we hope the relevant actions and intentions of the US can be made open and above board," she said before Mr Carter's visit. The US defence secretary flew on Thursday with his Malaysian counterpart to the Theodore Roosevelt, which was sailing some 70 miles (112 miles) north-west of Borneo. His visit comes a week after a US Navy destroyer sailed inside the 12 nautical mile radius that China claims as its territorial waters around one of its recently reclaimed islands. Countries in and around the South China Sea have wrangled for centuries over control of the ocean areas and its, largely uninhabited, islands. But tensions have increased in recent years as China has backed its expansive claims with island-building and navy patrols. The US alleges China has reclaimed almost 3,000 acres of land in the past 18 months, and fears the dispute could turn into one with global consequences.

Question: US defence secretary Ash Carter has visited an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea 's contested waters , in what is seen as a @placeholder to China .


Representatives from Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP, the Conservatives, Scottish Greens and UKIP will be in the studio panel. Presenter Sarah Smith, who will be chairing the debate, will put the questions you send in to the six guests. The politicians will tackle a range of subjects including the economy, welfare, defence, taxation, pensions and immigration. Email your questions to Scotland.2015@bbc.co.uk - Please put "election debate" in the message field. You can also post questions on social media by going to Scotland 2015's Twitter page @BBCScot2015

Question: As polling day fast approaches , the BBC 's Scotland 2015 programme is holding its final election debate @placeholder politicians answering your questions .


The boy stabbed Vincent Uzomah, 50, in a classroom at Dixons Kings Academy, Bradford, on 11 June. There was "clear evidence" he attacked Mr Uzomah because he was black, the city's crown court heard. He was handed an 11-year extended sentence, which includes six years' detention and five years on licence. The boy, who admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent but denied attempted murder, was told he could serve half of the six years in custody. He racially abused Mr Uzomah before stabbing him in the stomach with a kitchen knife he had brought to school, the court heard. Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, said the boy had discussed the attack with a friend beforehand, and later made "sick" boasts about his actions on Facebook. About 20 minutes after the attack, the boy, who was not arrested until six hours later, posted a status update containing the line "I stick a blade straight in his tummy". The post received 69 "likes", something the judge described as "an appalling reflection of a small microcosm of our society". Mr Sharp told the court the boy had taken a dislike to Mr Uzomah in the seven weeks he had worked at the school. "The defendant disliked him, claiming he couldn't teach, and freely referred to him by the epithet beginning with the letter n, including saying it in anger just before he attacked him," he said. He said the boy attacked Mr Uzomah after a row over his mobile phone. The teenager was described by witnesses as "getting angry, red in the face", Mr Sharp said. "He approached Mr Uzomah and reached into his pocket, but at that point he took out the knife and stabbed Mr Uzomah in the stomach. "Mr Uzomah thought he was going to die." Sentencing the boy, who cannot be named because of his age, Judge Durham Hall QC described him as "out of control" and a bully who "could not tolerate being told off". Speaking outside court, Mr Uzomah said: "As a Christian, I have forgiven this boy who has inflicted this trauma and pain on to me and my family. "It was, however, important for the law to run its course and for a strong message to be sent out, especially to kids of similar tendencies, that violence is never acceptable. "Our prayer for him is that he will make use of the opportunities and support that will be provided to him, to become a changed person who will make a positive contribution to society." Det Supt Simon Atkinson, from West Yorkshire Police, said: "This was a shocking and very serious attack on a man doing a job he loved, and he was lucky that the consequences were not more serious. "His attacker showed no concern by fleeing the scene...he worryingly showed a further lack of remorse towards his victim by boasting about it on social media." Outside court, Mr Sharp said it was "truly remarkable" that Mr Uzomah had forgiven his attacker. He said: "The victim has suffered serious physical and psychological injuries, has had to put his career plans on hold and is uncertain when, or if, he will feel able to return to teaching - a profession he loved. "It was also profoundly distressing to Mr Uzomah - and shocking - that the youth posted a Facebook update boasting of what he had done. This subsequently received 69 'likes' from his circle of acquaintances. "In the circumstances it is remarkable that Mr Uzomah has expressed his desire to forgive the attacker, whilst wishing to see justice done as a deterrent to others." In a statement posted on the Dixons Kings Academy website, the school said: "This was a very shocking crime, and today a young man has had to face the consequences of his actions. "We are pleased that Mr Uzomah is making a good recovery, and our school community will continue to do what we can to support Vincent and his family."

Question: A 14 - year - old boy who stabbed a @placeholder teacher before bragging about the racially - motivated attack on Facebook has been handed an 11 - year sentence .


The band were at the forefront of the Liverpool scene but never made it big. The tapes were recorded in March 1960, two years before Starr was poached by Brian Epstein to join The Beatles. Found in Storm's sister's cellar, the tapes will form the group's first and only album release later this month. Starr joined the group at the age of 18 in 1959, but the band got left behind during the Merseybeat boom in the wake of The Beatles' success. They only released a couple of singles, including one produced by Brian Epstein in 1964, but they failed to chart. Frontman Storm, born Alan Caldwell, was known for his gold lame costumes and on-stage charisma. He died in 1972 aged just 34. "Rory was a performer," his sister Iris Caldwell said. "He wasn't, like The Beatles, a brilliant songwriter. They called him The Golden Boy and Mr Showbusiness. "Rory was so far ahead of his time. He was doing glam rock then." Rod Stewart is among the artists thought to have been influenced by Storm's style, she said. Epstein did not give Storm a real shot at the big time because he "didn't want any major competition" for The Beatles, Caldwell believes. The tapes include tracks recorded at the Jive Hive club in Crosby, north of Liverpool, and at Storm's house, known as Stormsville, where bands including The Beatles would get together once clubs like The Cavern had shut at night. "I suppose these tapes have been in an old sealed box ever since [they were recorded]," Caldwell said. Author and Radio Merseyside presenter Spencer Leigh said the group were "crucial to the early years of Merseybeat". "Even though the playing is very rough and ready, they have tremendous presence and were probably considerably better than the Beatles were in March 1960," he said. Iris Caldwell's son Adam F, a Mobo Award-winning drum and bass DJ, said the recordings allowed a new generation to hear his uncle's style and personality for the first time. "The quality of the tape left a bit to be desired - it was over half a century ago - but the spirit and rawness suggest a whole scene waiting to happen," he said. "I am so proud that my uncle was, as has been suggested to me often, the father of the Liverpool sound." Storm's on-stage antics included climbing up to the high diving board during one gig at New Brighton swimming pool. "He had a cloak on and stripped right off to his little gold Speedos," Caldwell recalled. "He dived into the water, came up and carried on singing the song. "Another time, they had a box on the side of the stage. He made his entrance by jumping from the box onto the stage. He did manage to break a couple of ribs but he still finished the spot and then went off to hospital." Other than Starr and guitarist Lu Walters, whose whereabouts are unknown, the original members of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes have all passed away.

Question: Recordings by Rory Storm and the Hurricanes , Ringo Starr 's first band and one of the most popular groups of the early Merseybeat era , have been @placeholder after more than 50 years .


Minecraft will be made available to every post-primary school as part of an innovative technology project. It will be the first time that it has been made available to schools in this way. Licences for the game will be given to up to 240 sites in Northern Ireland. Minecraft is a Lego-style adventure game enabling players to use 3D blocks to create their own worlds while exploring worlds built by others. It has had over 100 million downloads since its launch in 2009. Now pupils in Northern Ireland will be able to use MinecraftEdu, a special version of the game that is more appropriate for the classroom. It can be used to inspire creative writing, engage young people in city planning, and even teach quantum physics. Londonderry-based innovation festival CultureTECH devised the project and secured ¡ê60,000 of funding from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure to provide free licenses to over 200 schools and 30 libraries. CultureTECH chief executive Mark Nagurski said the game's popularity meant it could easily be used to help children learn the STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - as well as art, history and computer coding. "We invited MinecraftEdu to CultureTECH last year and they spent a week at schools in Derry," he said. "The response was ridiculous - the engagement and excitement among the pupils was amazing. "What is really exciting is how Minecraft is being used by educators to help young people express their creative skills and develop their understanding of technology." CultureTECH will work with other organisations to provide training and support to teachers who want to use the programme. St Joseph's Boys' School in Derry has been running a pilot scheme of the project. History teacher Darren Currie said pupils' enthusiasm in lessons using Minecraft had been noticeable. "Our year nine pupils are participating in a collaborative project between the IT and history departments, constructing and labelling a plantation bawn from the early 17th century using Minecraft," Mr Currie said. "I admit I was very dubious at first because I've had to put a bar on my own children using it at home, but then you see what it can do in an educational context and it can have big benefits to improve learning." Culture minister Car¨¢l N¨ª Chuil¨ªn said the project had a role to play in education and economic development. "Game players regularly exhibit persistence, risk taking, attention to detail and problem solving skills. By making Minecraft available we hope to encourage this kind of behaviour."

Question: Fifty - thousand schoolchildren in Northern Ireland could soon be playing one of the world 's most popular video games in @placeholder .


After the WBA lightweight title defeat to Venezuelan Linares, promoter Eddie Hearn raised the prospect of Crolla moving to light-welterweight. "With the notice I'd certainly grow into that," said Crolla, 30. A move up opens the prospect of facing the winner of Scot Burns' unification bout with Julius Indongo on 15 April. Crolla added: "Physically I feel strong. I was as big as Linares in there tonight." Hearn said: "Ricky Burns could unify the division on 15 April. I wouldn't rule out the option of moving up to fight the winner." Crolla weighed in at a fraction under the 135lbs lightweight limit before his meeting with Linares, so a move to the 140lbs division looks physically within reach. Scotland's Burns has also made similar weight jumps, winning a world title at super-featherweight, moving on to do the same at lightweight and he now holds the WBA crown at light-welterweight. Indongo holds the IBF strap, while highly-rated American Terence Crawford - undefeated in 30 fights - holds the division's other titles. Sporting stitches above his left eye, Crolla told reporters that in the third round against Linares, he had aggravated a rib injury picked up in training, with trainer Joe Gallagher nodding when his fighter was asked if the rib was broken. Linares could now face WBC lightweight champion, American Mikey Garcia, while the IBF belt in the division is held by fellow American Robert Easter and Manchester's Terry Flanagan holds the WBO crown. "I'm going to have a break with my family now," added Crolla. "I feel like I'm improving in camps still. I believe there will be plenty of options and fights out there for us and I still want to be involved in those big fights. I think I've had a pretty tough two years."

Question: Anthony Crolla will consider moving up to Ricky Burns ' weight class to @placeholder " big fights " following his rematch defeat by Jorge Linares on Saturday .


Out Among the Stars comes out in March and features 12 tracks by the American singer, recorded for Columbia Records in 1981 and 1984. It includes duets with Cash's wife June Carter and friend Waylon Jennings. The tracks have never been made public before. They were not released at the time and the singer, who had fallen out of fashion, was later dropped by his record label. The recordings came to light only when John Carter Cash found them, gathering dust in a vault, while he was cataloguing the singer's private archive in 2012. He found hundreds of reels of unreleased live and studio recordings in the vault, including duets with Bob Dylan. It is the fourth posthumous album released since Johnny Cash died in 2003, aged 71. Speaking to the BBC, Carter Cash said: "There is more music to be released that is unheard, there are some great recordings. "But we don't want to release something unless it means something. "It has to be in line with what we believe my father would have wanted released". The unreleased recordings will bolster what is already a lucrative business for the Cash estate. In 2009, he sold more than three million records, reportedly earning more than $8m (?¡ê4.9m). But Carter Cash maintained "the world would be a darker place" if the music was not released and it was "worth doing" if fans around the world wanted to hear it. "Do you want to see another Picasso if there's one that nobody has ever seen before?" he asked. "I would say that probably the world would want to see another Picasso. And it's really the same thing. This is a work of art." To date, Johnny Cash sold more than 90 million records. He is best known for songs including Ring of Fire and I Walk the Line and famously performed for inmates in American prisons. "He would sing the songs for the underdogs," said Carter Cash. "He would reach out to people that no one else would reach out to."

Question: Johnny Cash 's son , John Carter Cash , has described a new album by his late father as " a great @placeholder " , saying there will be more records released in the future .


I found it at the Bitcoin London conference, the biggest event about the crypto currency yet staged in the UK. The crowd at this event is young, mostly male - and often evangelical about the subject they have come to discuss. These are interesting times to hold a Bitcoin conference. The currency has seen wild gyrations, with new investors rushing in, then rapidly finding that prices can go down as well up. Regulators have been taking a closer interest, particularly since another innovative currency scheme, Liberty Reserve, proved to be a haven for criminals and money launderers.  And on Tuesday, some of the biggest investors in Bitcoin, the Winklevoss brothers of Facebook fame, have announced plans to float a business based on the virtual currency. If you were looking for reasons to be either cheerful or cynical about the prospects for Bitcoin, you could have found both in the conference room high above Canary Wharf. What struck me was how professional, intense and deeply knowledgeable about their subject most of the speakers seemed. The professionals have moved in. "It's not a bunch of 16-year-olds in basements any more, it's institutions," as one speaker put it. There were lawyers, venture capitalists and software developers, as well as people who had just put a lot of their own money into Bitcoin. There was plenty of hype about the prospects for the currency: Other speakers predicted that Bitcoin would become the natural means of exchange in African countries, where so many people have mobile phones but so few have bank accounts. And another described how Iceland, already a digital pioneer, could switch entirely to Bitcoin. The strong libertarian tendency that is a characteristic of Bitcoin enthusiasts was on display too, with speakers railing against regulation in the United States: "Stay the hell away from the US" was the advice to a query from someone wanting to know where best to set up a Bitcoin business. Somewhat surprisingly, a lawyer who worked in this field told the conference that the EU was five years ahead in the way it thought about framing policies for Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. But amidst all the enthusiasm, there were still questions about the long-term viability of the idea and how likely it was to enter the mainstream. One sobering moment came when a software developer described how he'd lost 7,000 Bitcoins because they had not been backed up properly to his computer. That had cost him about $200,000 which he would never see again. "You get over it," he told the crowd. And the sheer complexity of getting and spending Bitcoins is another issue. Asked how the attractions of the currency would be communicated to the public, one speaker said everyone would need to learn computer science. Good luck with that... For myself, I am beginning to get the hang of how you obtain the virtual currency - it is spending it which is the bigger problem. I already had a Bitcoin wallet on my phone, which meant using the ATM at the conference was relatively simple. I showed the machine the barcode which is the public address of my wallet, and once I'd inserted a ¡ê10 note into the slot, it popped up as roughly 0.2 Bitcoin on the phone screen within seconds. In all I had 0.7 Bitcoin - worth about ¡ê43 at Tuesday's exchange rate. And by this time I was hungry. Sadly, nowhere nearby seemed to take Bitcoin in exchange for food. Evangelists for the crypto currency say it's flexible, durable, secure and transportable. Now all they need to do is make sure it's useable.

Question: On the 39th floor above Canary Wharf , overlooking London 's finance centre , I found a cash machine with a difference . This ATM chews up your ¡ê 10 notes rather than spewing them out , and in return you get a computer code . This is the world 's first Bitcoin cash machine and if the people showing it to me are to be believed , it shows us the @placeholder of money .


A 12-week consultation on the scheme, worth up to ¡ê1,200 a child, has begun. Families with two working parents could be able to claim, and ministers said carers who look after disabled relatives and others would be included. Chancellor George Osborne said stay-at-home mothers, who had made a "lifestyle choice", would not be eligible. The government says the overall scheme - set to replace the existing system of employer-supported childcare vouchers - will help 2.5 million families. It is aimed at getting more people back into jobs. The UK has some of the highest childcare costs in the world, with many people with two or more children saying it does not make financial sense for both parents to work. The new system is expected be phased in from autumn 2015, with children under five helped in the first year. It will then build up over time to include all children under the age of 12. Families with two working parents on less than ¡ê150,000 each would be able to claim up to ¡ê1,200 a year per child. Critics have said the focus on work will penalise parents who stay at home to look after their children, or are unable to work because they act as full-time "carers" for other adults. However, extra details released by the government on Monday make it clear that parents who do not work because they are carers will also be eligible. Carers are defined as those spending at least 35 hours a week looking after someone such as a disabled relative. But the scheme will not be extended to those who stay at home to bring up their children. Lisa Frederiksen, from Epsom, Surrey, was "staggered" by childcare costs for her children Casper, four, and Elizabeth, two. She said: "As a career-orientated woman, when I had my first child at the age of 40 I was staggered at the cost of childcare. "My employer would not agree to a part-time role, so I was faced with childcare costs of ¡ê1,200 per month. "After my second child, it became  apparent that working was not going to pay. With two lots of childcare and the costs of commuting, it just wasn't worth working. "My Danish husband's family cannot comprehend the cost of childcare here. They pay ¡ê300 a month for care in well-equipped, carefully staffed nurseries. "This new scheme is a drop in the ocean, but we need a radical rethink." Mr Osborne told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme: "This is help for formal childcare. Obviously it's not for stay-at-home mothers. "I have huge regard for mothers who want to stay at home and look after their children. That's their lifestyle choice. I want to help those families too. I'm not trying to be exclusive. "We have a proposal on married couples' tax breaks which I'm going to introduce in the Autumn Statement later this year... that will help stay-at-home mothers." Lynne Burnham, secretary of Mothers at Home Matter, called for a "level playing field" for all families, with the introduction of a "family allowance" for all households with children under the age of 16. She added: "It should not be for this government to dictate how a family chooses to care for its children." Under the proposal, parents will be required to open an online voucher account with a voucher provider and have their payments topped up by the government. For every 80p families pay in, the government will put in 20p, up to the annual limit of ¡ê1,200. The vouchers will be valid for any Ofsted-regulated childcare in England and equivalent bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Half of the funding for the new scheme will come from the abolition of the previous system of employer-supported childcare vouchers  - which is provided by only about 5% of employers - and in part by funding switched from elsewhere in Whitehall. A separate scheme will provide funding for parents who claim universal credit. It will see the state cover up to 85% of their childcare costs, up from 70% at present. For Labour, shadow children's minister Sharon Hodgson said: "Only David Cameron's government could be so out of touch that they expect families to be grateful for help with childcare in 2015 when they've already seen costs spiralling and support taken away."

Question: The government says it wants to expand a @placeholder childcare tax credit scheme to include parents who stay at home because they are full - time carers .


Media playback is not supported on this device As he took to the microphone against a backdrop of Murrayfield emptying its appreciation on top of his head, les yeux de glace - the 'eyes of ice' - were beginning to melt. He took one question and was gone. Two questions might have been too much even for one as tough as him. It was, in truth, an extraordinary end-game for Vern Cotter. Not the match - a solid but unspectacular bonus-point victory - but the aftermath of the match, the way the crowd responded to him. He had to be coaxed into walking around the pitch with his players. From the back of the west stand his discomfort was clear when the man on the PA system piped up: 'Let's hear it for Big Vern!' He hung around the back of the procession as a reluctant, and slightly embarrassed, participant but these moments would have been special to him. No question. He spoke about it later. Said it was a privilege to be in this job for three years. Said it was a lovely way to sign off, strolling around the stadium with his Saltire-waving daughter at his side, sure in the knowledge that no matter what results the later kick-offs brought, this was a season that brought respectability and hope back to the national team after pretty much 17 years of cowering behind the couch. This wasn't the way Scott Johnson bowed out or the way Andy Robinson left or the way Frank Hadden departed. It was a different galaxy compared to the last day of Matt Williams, which, let's face it, was a national day of celebration for anybody who cared about the fortunes of the team. It's worth remembering what it was like this time three years ago. The 2014 championship was the last before Cotter arrived - and it was grim. Scotland won one game, in the 79th minute in Rome, and lost the other four. It wouldn't have been so miserable had the other four been contests, but they weren't. Ireland had the game won before the hour-mark.  France won late on despite having precious little ball and Wales won 51-3 after Stuart Hogg was shown the red card. Scotland scored a mere 47 points in five games. They scored just four tries. Their points difference was minus 91. They were international no-marks. Disregarded also-rans. They ranked 10 in the world but now they rank fifth. As Twickenham illustrated in horrendous technicolour, they still have a way to go, but a lot has changed on Cotter's watch and that's why he got such an ovation on Saturday. We've all been around the block in the rugby world and it's hard to remember an international coach bowing out the way Cotter bowed out. Normally, they slip out the back door, unwanted and out of time. This was unique. This was a coach being love-bombed out the door, everybody clapping and cheering and asking each other, 'Why's he leaving? What did we do wrong?' Why's he leaving? Well, he doesn't want to, that's for sure. He wanted to stay, wanted to keep building, wanted to immerse himself further in the project. Circumstance intervened. The SRU feared - and they were right to fear - that Gregor Townsend, the country's one world-class homegrown coach, was going to be lost to England or France and the aesthetic of seeing him vanish with an unknown return date was something they couldn't tolerate. Cotter was a victim of that, not that he sees himself that way. He knows the way of the world. He accepted it and moved on. Sport doesn't tend to do amicable divorces. It doesn't do classy departures, but this was one. And even though the final-day drama of this Six Nations Championship lay in the  'Mousetrap' Test in Paris and the great ambush in Dublin, the scenes in Murrayfield were wonderful. Media playback is not supported on this device If you could have been at the press conference, it was priceless. There we were, trying to press Cotter's buttons, trying to bring him to a profound place where he would tear-up a little as he recounted his odyssey in Scotland. He gave a little, but not a lot. For the most part he was heroically deadpan, a tour-de-force of sternness. He wanted to keep it real, he wanted to talk about the Test against Italy, how it wasn't perfect, but how he admired his players' maturity in working through the tough spots and getting the result they needed. He was asked about legacy, but he wasn't going there. At a guess, he'd have thought it cringe-making to talk about himself in this scenario. Cotter's great strength as a rugby coach is in building a culture, not in talking about building a culture. He does it and doesn't see the point in revelling in it. He's a rugby man, not a show man. Scotland's loss is Montpellier's gain. Joe Schmidt is a go-to man for insight on Cotter. The Ireland coach, and fellow Kiwi, is a great mate of Cotter's. Theirs is a friendship forged in the French championship at Clermont, where they worked and worked and worked and finally succeeded and won the league title for the first time in the club's history. Cotter was head coach, Schmidt was his assistant. Bearing in mind that Schmidt is generally considered Ireland's greatest ever national coach, these are the kinds of things he says about his old mate. "I learned so many things from him, just about being decisive, just about trying to grow the key leaders. I just found that he had a real ability to crystallise messages and deliver them. That rugby intellect was something else. It's probably hard to specify and quantify because a lot of it is almost by osmosis. You pick things up and you probably don't specifically say, 'Oh, I learned that today'. I absorbed a lot from VC." These Scotland players would know the truth of Schmidt's message. They absorbed a lot, too. At the news conference, there were further attempts to tempt him out of his shell and spill the beans about what it all meant to him. He kept it to praise of the players and appreciation of the chance he'd been given in working with them. Then he was away, through the door, down the corridor, into the changing room and back to a group of players who will probably spend the rest of their careers repeating that line from Joe Schmidt: "I absorbed a lot from VC."

Question: He did n't quite crack , but Stern Vern was n't so firm out there in the middle on the full - time @placeholder .


They are doing their family's washing - rubbing and rinsing in cold water gushing from a galvanised pipe fed by a cliff-top spring. This might not be a remarkable sight in many parts of the world. But we are in the EU - in the centre of the second largest city in Portugal and the regional capital, Porto. Yet for those with unpaid electricity bills or for jobless families who can't afford to replace a broken washing machine, this free medieval equivalent of a launderette is the only place they can afford to use. Just across the water, there is one sign of Porto's export success. The clue is in the city's very name - it's famous for producing port wine. Every night, backlit advertising signs on a string of historic wine lodges twinkle on the Douro river below. From the southern side (officially it is Vila Nova de Gaia), you have the choice of six bridges to take you into Porto - a steep-sided patchwork of medieval and baroque architecture. But the reality is that many hundreds of the city's buildings are close to falling down. Walking round the centre, you find not just empty shops but whole blocks of abandoned property. Porto is fast becoming a kind of European Detroit or mini-Havana. Many say the place has always exuded an indefinable air of melancholy. But today every street corner is a monument to the economic crisis. But hardship can breed innovation - and there is an alternative for visitors bored with official tourist tours that gloss over the everyday realities. Some young out-of-work architects who refuse to leave the city or join the Portuguese brain-drain have opened an unlikely walking-tours agency they call The Worst Tours. Follow them for a couple of hours and you soon get lost up back alleys, past cheap taverns and through mean streets to old markets with crumbling masonry. The walks show the real impact of the bailout measures in sharp relief. Tax rises and welfare cuts have changed lifestyles and accelerated the neglect of the physical environment. Rival tours may focus on the historical highlights, but the truth is there are now far more lowlights - an estimated 2,000 businesses have closed in the city over the past two years alone. These tours are also unashamedly partisan. Above all, tour guide Gui Castro Felga says, she wants people to understand that austerity measures are not theoretical - they are something you can touch and feel as you walk around the country's second city. "The cuts that were supposed to make Portugal more competitive with places outside, but they are causing a downward spiral," she says. "People have less money and the result is that stores and local businesses close. It's hurting society deeply in practical terms." One surviving, second-generation family business is printers Molografica. It once kept 40 staff busy, but is now trying to keep 11 employed. Its rambling city centre offices house impressive digital machines that can process and print anything from full colour books to top quality brochures and tickets. But what Molografica needs is longer print runs, that will probably come only from customers who export goods or services outside Portugal. Inquiries in Porto may be up a little, but boss Mario Jorge Gomes says orders from industry customers are often much smaller than they used to be. He says: "I just had an inquiry for a thousand labels for clothing from an old customer. At one time it would be for 1,200 labels.  So you see that I can't create more jobs like the government wants us to. What I am waiting for is more orders." So if jobs are continuing to disappear from cities like Porto, then what will the jobless do - or at least where will they go? International labour organisation figures compiled in Lisbon show more lower income families heading for the coast. One such emigre is fisherman Augusto Braga, returning to the nearby port of Matosinhos - about 7km (four miles) north of Porto. This wasn't in his career plan. Made redundant from his job in security, he's returned to the traditional occupation of his family to make ends meet. "I took the job because they stopped paying my salary and I was made redundant," he says. "There were only small jobs on the land - not enough to live on. I like to be on the sea so it was the only choice." Family ties count here - the fishing cooperative is almost an extended family. It's also one that seems to tolerate cash-strapped locals who swarm round as the boats are unloaded - competing with voracious seagulls for a few dropped fish to sell or eat for lunch. One financial sign of the times is that, after years of decline, tinned sardines are making a comeback and more are going for processing. Not so long ago, Portugal's canneries looked outmoded. Yet now fresh fish is too expensive a treat for many, there's a ready market for cheap, yet high-quality, protein. The nearby Minerva factory of the family firm A Poveira cooks fish fresh from the local seas in the morning and its army of mainly women workers pack and can it in the afternoon. It's one of just seven surviving fish canneries in northern Portugal. New investors have put in 5m euros ($6.7m; ?¡ê4.2m), not just preserving the company but breathing new life into it. Fancier new varieties are boosting export orders and saving jobs in a region that badly needs more of both. One of the the longest serving workers is Rosa Macaes. As she speaks, she deftly tailors the sardines with scissors so they fit exactly the tins, nose to tail. "Times are more difficult and we all have to work longer than ever before," she says. "Everything is more expensive and it's more difficult to help my children and their families than in the past. It's very important to be in a job and I know many people who don't have one. But I believe the jobs are out there - they are hard and younger people just don't want to do them." Many might take issue with that in a country where unemployment is falling, but remains at nearly 16%. But as a visit to the country's second city so graphically illustrates, the road to economic recovery is long and the city of Porto and its people bear the scars.

Question: Half a dozen women are working outdoors at an ancient stone @placeholder set high above a river .


His private jet touched down at Prestwick Airport on Tuesday evening and he arrived at the hotel and golf course in Ayrshire a short time later. He confirmed last month he had purchased the complex from Dubai-based Leisurecorp for an undisclosed sum. Mr Trump said: "I think it is really beautiful and we are going to make it the finest in the world." The course will continue to be managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Turnberry is the only course in the Open circuit to be owned privately. Mr Trump has ambitions to host the Open at his other course in Aberdeenshire. In a statement in April, Mr Trump said: "I intend to invest many millions of dollars (pounds) in order to bring the hotel to the highest levels of luxury. "When completed, I believe that the Turnberry Hotel will be the finest and most luxurious hotel in all of Europe."

Question: US @placeholder tycoon Donald Trump is in Scotland making his first visit to Turnberry golf resort as its new owner .


Mr Gao - who was released from prison last week - was emotionless, "basically unintelligible" and had lost teeth through malnutrition, Mr Gensher said. As a prominent human rights lawyer, Mr Gao had defended China's Christians and followers of the Falun Gong movement. He is alleged to have suffered physical and psychological abuse in jail. As well as losing many teeth, Mr Gao's daily ration of cabbage and a single slice of bread had caused him to lose 20 kg in weight, according to a statement by US-based advocacy group, Freedom Now. The group said he had been confined to a cramped cell, with very little light, and had been largely deprived of human contact until his release. Freedom Now said Mr Gao's wife, Geng He, had spoken to her husband and was "completely devastated" by what the Chinese government had done to him. "The only thing I feared more than him being killed was his suffering relentless and horrific torture and being kept alive," she is quoted as saying. Ms He has urged the Chinese government to allow Mr Gao to seek treatment in the United States, where she and their two children have been living since 2009. 2005: Authorities close down Gao Zhisheng's law practice Dec 2006: Convicted of subversion and sentenced to house arrest Sept 2007: Says he was tortured during a period of detention Jan 2009: Disappears; last seen accompanied by security officials Mar 2010: Reappears for a month before disappearing again Dec 2011: State media says he has been jailed for three years Jan 2012: Gao revealed to be in Xinjiang prison Aug 2014: Gao freed from jail Mr Gensher said Mr Gao had been "in an incredibly bad way". "He is able to say a few words here and there and answering questions in a few words, describing what he went through," he said. "But he's not capable of holding any conversation and there are many occasions where he's just literally just muttering to himself." Mr Gao, 50, has been an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, and has defended activists and religious minorities in the past. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 for his work. He is known for campaigning for religious freedom, particularly for members of the banned group Falun Gong. He was arrested in early 2009 and accused of inciting subversion. Mr Gao was released briefly in 2010, and claimed he had been tortured in detention. Shortly after that he disappeared again. State media subsequently said in 2011 that he would be jailed for three years for violating probation rules. He was released from a prison in the western province of Xinjiang last week. The US, European Union and United Nations had repeatedly called on the Chinese authorities to release him.

Question: Leading Chinese dissident , Gao Zhisheng , has been " utterly @placeholder " after three years in jail , says his international lawyer , Jared Gensher .


Paula Vasco-Knight was suspended in February after being accused of nepotism for recruiting her daughter's boyfriend to a job at Torbay Hospital. She was suspended on full pay. Dr Vasco-Knight had decided to relocate to the north-west of England for "family reasons", said South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. The tribunal in January found Claire Sardari and Penny Gates had been victimised as a result of whistle-blowing about their concerns. The South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, was found to have  "dishonestly" suppressed a report into accusations of nepotism. Its chairman Peter Hildrew resigned immediately following the decision. Earlier in May it was believed Dr Vasco-Knight was challenging the tribunal. In a statement, South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said: "It is unfortunate that Dr Vasco-Knight's achievements have been overshadowed by the employment tribunal judgment. "Notwithstanding the judgment of the tribunal, Dr Vasco-Knight asserts that an independent report commissioned by a former chair of the trust prior to the tribunal found no evidence that Dr Vasco-Knight had breached trust policies." It added that "no payments have been made to her other than those to which she is entitled under her contract of employment". Dr Vasco-Knight was appointed a CBE in the New Year Honours List for services to the NHS.

Question: A suspended hospital chief executive who was @placeholder at an employment tribunal for her treatment of two whistle - blowers has resigned .


Rats injected with stem cells 30 minutes after a stroke had almost normal brain function restored within a fortnight. The Bolivian research team say the method has potential in human trials. Current best practice is to treat many patients with "clot-busting" drugs in the "golden hour" after a stroke has taken place. The research, published in the journal Stem Cell Research and Therapy, adds to others which have found that stem cells could aid stroke patients by boosting the body's ability to repair tissue damage. Stem cells are the body's "master cells", with the potential to become many different cell types, and theoretically replace cells lost through disease or injury. Recent tests in humans have show some promise, with stroke symptoms improving after an infusion of stem cells. The Bolivian team, from La Paz University Hospital, extracted a certain type of stem cells from fat and bone marrow, then injected them into the blood vessels of rats shortly after they had suffered an artificially-induced stroke. Even though the introduced cells did not appear to travel to the affected region of the brain, the rats still did better than other rats who did not receive the cells. Within 24 hours, they were already showing a speedier recovery, and two weeks later, they registered almost normal scores on behavioural tests. The researchers said the early introduction of the cells might even interrupt the typical "chain reaction" of tissue damage which follows a stroke, in which the initial injury harms additional cells in surrounding areas. Dr Exuperio Diez-Tejedor, who led the research, said: "Improved recovery was seen regardless of origin of the stem cells, which may increase the usefulness of this treatment in human trials. "Adipose (fat) -derived cells in particular are abundant and easy to collect without invasive surgery." The ease of collection, and the ability to use "allogenic" cells from other rats rather than having to harvest the animal's own cells and culture them, meant a treatment was available not weeks after a stroke, when the damage was done, but in this case minutes. They wrote: "From the viewpoint of clinical translation allogenic stem cells are attractive because they can be easily obtained from young healthy donors, amplified, and stored for immediate use when needed after a stroke." They suggested that it might be possible to overcome the risk of immune rejection of the donor cells in humans. However, a spokesman for the Stroke Association said that human trials of this particular technique would not be possible in the near future. Dr Clare Walton said: "Stem cells are an incredibly interesting area of stroke research and the results of this study provide further insight into their potential use for stroke recovery. "However, we are a long way off these types of treatments being used in humans and a lot more research is needed."

Question: Stem cells given in the vital @placeholder immediately after a stroke may aid recovery , suggest researchers .


The woman, 20, had agreed to ride with a man from their hostel in south-east Queensland to Brisbane, police said. But when he began driving in the opposite direction, she demanded to get out of the car. The man refused. Police intercepted the pair at Gympie, 90km (55 miles) from the hostel, after her father contacted them. The 22-year-old driver, from Sweden, was arrested and taken to hospital for medical treatment. The local Courier Mail newspaper named the woman as Mary Kate Heys, from Manchester. Police said she was not hurt. The newspaper quoted Ms Heys as saying that the man woke her up at 04:30 local time on Monday (18:30 GMT on Sunday) at the Mooloolaba hostel, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, and she agreed to go on a road trip with him. She reportedly began to feel unsafe when he changed plans and said they should drive to Far North Queensland. "I was so scared and I thought I was going to die," Ms Heys told The Courier-Mail. She sent her father text messages reading "I need you to call Australian Police" and "I've been taken by a man a€| please hurry", the paper reported. The Swedish man will not face charges after the British woman withdrew her complaint against him, police said.

Question: A British backpacker held against her will during a car trip in Australia was @placeholder by police after texting her location to her father in England .


Three decades of sustained economic growth, concentrated along the booming coast, has lured millions from the impoverished Chinese countryside. This great migration - unprecedented in human history - has put 46 Chinese cities over the one million mark since 1992, out of a national total of 102. And this is just the start. Special Report: The Power of Asia In Graphics: Rising Asia China's new billionaires Asia Business news Currently only about 40% of China's population lives in cities, roughly that of America in 1885. It is estimated that another 350 million Chinese will become urban by 2025, raising China's urban numbers to a cool billion. Accommodating all these people has meant building on a scale the world has never seen before. In the first 20 years of China's economic revolution, begun under Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s, China built some 6.5bn sq m (70bn sq ft) of new housing - the equivalent of more than 150 million average-sized apartments. In Shanghai there were no skyscrapers in 1980; today it has twice as many as New York.  Between 1990 and 2004 developers erected 85m sq m of commercial space in the city - equivalent to 334 Empire State buildings. Nationwide, China's construction industry employs a workforce of about 37 million. Nearly half the world's steel and cement is devoured there, and much of the world's heavy construction equipment has relocated to the People's Republic. Tower cranes, for example, have become the ubiquitous symbol of urban China. But China's urban revolution has also destroyed as much as it has built. In its head-long rush to be rich and modern, China has deprived itself - and the world - of a priceless heritage. Beijing, once among the world's great urban treasures, is fast becoming just another node of globalised consumerism; full of absurdly sanitised reconstitutions of its lost past, unaffordable to working people, lacerated by eight-lane highways. Urban development in China has also displaced more people than any nation in peacetime. In Shanghai alone, redevelopment projects in the 1990s displaced more residents than did 30 years of urban renewal in the United States. Because China's cities are growing outward as well as upward, urbanisation has also consumed a staggering amount of rural countryside. Between 1985 and 1995, Shanghai's footprint grew from 90 sq miles to 790. The "spreading pancake" of urban growth in China - "tan da bing", the popular Chinese expression for sprawl - has devoured some 45,000 sq miles of productive farmland over the last 30 years, nearly half the land area of the United Kingdom. Chinese suburban development is much more concentrated than in the US. Large detached homes owned by single-families - the American standard - are relatively rare. The basic unit of Chinese suburbia - with its mid-rise apartment towers, community centre and shared public spaces - is half way between a Maoist "dan wei" (work unit) and a Californian gated community. Nonetheless, such development on the urban periphery is fast making China a nation of motorists. China's domestic car market now exceeds America's, and the largest car showrooms in the world today are not in Los Angeles or Houston but the People's Republic. Accommodating the steady flow of new cars - Beijing and Shanghai average 1,000 new vehicle registrations a day - is a national road network on the verge of eclipsing the American interstate system as Earth's most extensive human artefact. And with cars and highways have come all the standard spaces of suburban consumerism - drive-through restaurants and big-box shopping malls, budget chain motels, and even that vanished icon of middle America, the drive-in cinema. None of this bodes well for planet Earth. How ironic that, just as the West has begun to get its environmental house in order - finally taking serious action to reduce its carbon footprint, combat global warming, and end its oil addiction - here come the millions of China, wanting the very lifestyle and material amenities that have put us on the verge of environmental collapse. If China were to match, per capita, car ownership in the US (which is falling, incidentally), it would mean more than one billion cars. The planet, in a word, would be fried. And this takes no account of India, which will soon overtake China as the world's most populous nation. Experts such as Paul Gilding have come up with a measure for our total global footprint in terms of our impact on the environment and resources. In his book The Great Disruption he concludes that our economy is operating at about 150% of capacity - in other words, the way we live will take between one-and-a-half planets to sustain. That is not just unsustainable, it is a catastrophe. And yet, who are we to say to China: "We've had our playful, wasteful day in the sun but you must now conserve." Happily, we don't need to; the Chinese are saying it themselves. Even as it sprawls, China is building more public transit than all other nations combined, and is well ahead of the US in developing sustainable building technologies and clean-energy alternatives such as solar, wind, and biomass. According to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts, China invested $34.6bn (?¡ê21bn) in the clean energy industry between 2005 and 2009 - nearly twice that of the US. We may have taught China to drive, eat, and buy its way to ruin; China may yet show us how to save the world. Thomas J Campanella is author of The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What It Means for the World. He is currently a Fellow in residence at the American Academy in Rome.

Question: To @placeholder about urbanisation in China is to traffic in superlatives .


We also discuss the growing importance of algorithms in our lives - and ask whether we should be worried that our gadgets are listening to us. The hottest ticket at the Cheltenham Science Festival was for a debate on the fake news phenomenon hosted by the comedian, and former theoretical physics student, Dara ?¡° Briain. He told a hilarious story about a fake news report of his death after a car driven by his chauffeur plunged into a Dublin ravine - who knew that city's geography was so perilous? But the debate swiftly turned serious when Nasa's former chief scientist Ellen Stofan pointed out that a decline in faith in science in areas like vaccine safety and climate change could have profound consequences for the planet. Expanding on this in an interview for Tech Tent, Dr Stofan told me these were life and death issues, and public misconceptions and mistrust of scientists was a matter of real concern. She'd found President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate "extremely disappointing", and was worried that the public was not aware that all the major scientific institutions were agreed that climate change was real and was caused by humans. And she blamed the internet - and the major tech companies - for spreading misinformation: "There's actually a profit motive in spreading misinformation...people try to find information that reinforces their opinion - and on the internet you can find just about any information." She said that, in trying to appear impartial,  the tech firms had helped those who were trying to spread untruths, and they needed to think carefully about putting such information out there without making its veracity clear to people. "A computer making a decision on our behalf for us - or with us."  I had asked Jeni Tennison for a simple definition of an algorithm - and the chief executive of the Open Data Institute came up with a pretty good one. Computers absorbing a torrent of data from social media and the internet of things are being programmed to make ever more decisions - from what you pay to insure your car to where you should go for dinner. But now more questions are being asked about how these algorithms work and whether they are always good for us. Jeni Tennison conceded there was a danger that they were built to reflect a Silicon Valley mindset - and said programmers everywhere needed to sit back and think about the effect on our lives. She was debating algorithms with Hetan Shah of the Royal Statistical Society. He's largely optimistic, seeing these data-driven recipes as improving areas like poverty reduction by mapping crop yields and predicting famine. But he sees a real risk of biased algorithms feeding off biased data: "The rules that have worked so far have been stretched to breaking point in a world where your fridge and your car are passing round data very quickly." He suggests that there could be a group of wise people who could start thinking about issues such as whether a driverless car's algorithm should always favour the safety of a driver in the event of an accident. This week Apple unveiled a wireless smart speaker the HomePod, a rather belated rival to the Amazon Echo and the Google Home, though one which claims superior audio quality. But yet again it seems we are being asked to invite a listening device into our homes. At a debate on listening gadgets in Cheltenham I found an audience pretty wary of this phenomenon - one man asked what Orwell would have thought of a world where we actually paid to be spied on. Audio signal specialist Professor Mark Plumbley from the University of  Surrey explained that the devices were generally only recording once they had been alerted by a wake word such as "Alexa" - but after that your voice data was heading off into the cloud to be processed. Security expert Dr Jason Nurse from Oxford University said we needed to ask how long these various services were holding recordings of what we said when talking to our devices. But his real concern was what happened if they were taken over by criminals: "If hackers got control of these devices then they could record all the time - and that's a pretty significant concern." Mark Plumbley is sceptical about the theory held by many that all kinds of online services are eavesdropping on us and then sending us adverts reflecting our overheard conversations. But he cautions that all kinds of apps now ask for permission to use the smartphone's microphone and we should be cautious before agreeing. Voice control has been the hot new trend in home gadgets for quite a while, and if the spate of TV adverts for the Amazon Echo and Google Home are anything to go by, the tech industry is convinced they are a hit with consumers. But maybe it is time to think more carefully about just who could be listening in when we talk to Alexa or Siri.

Question: In an era of fake news and alternative facts , how can scientists re-engage with the public and make sure they are respected and understood ? That 's a big theme at the Cheltenham Science Festival from which this week 's @placeholder of Tech Tent comes .


The man was arrested as he waited to board a plane at Johannesburg airport. Officials said a scan of his body revealed the diamonds he had ingested, worth $2.3m (?¡ê1.4m; 1.8m euros), inside. The man was reportedly of Lebanese origin and was travelling to Dubai. "We nabbed him just before he went through the security checkpoint," Paul Ramaloko, spokesman of the South Africa elite police unit the Hawks said, according to Agence France Presse. Authorities believe the man belongs to a smuggling ring. Another man was arrested in March also attempting to smuggle diamonds out the country in a similar way. South Africa is among the world's top producers of diamonds.

Question: South African police have arrested a man who they say @placeholder 220 polished diamonds in an attempt to smuggle them out of the country .


Some 30 hostages were freed overnight at Ouagadougou's luxury Splendid Hotel but there are fears that at least 20 people were killed. Gunmen stormed the hotel and a nearby cafe after setting off bombs. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has said it carried out the attack in the West African nation, monitors said. French President Francois Hollande - whose forces are part of the operation against the militants - condemned the "odious and cowardly attack". Remi Dandjinou, the Burkinabe communications minister, told the BBC there were between six and seven gunmen and they had been staying at the hotel. He also said a member of the government, Minister of Public Works Clement Sawadogo, was among those freed at the hotel. Thirty-three people were in hospital receiving treatment, he added. French special forces and Burkinabe troops have been deployed at the hotel, which is used by UN staff and Westerners. Hospital chief Robert Sangare quoted survivors as saying at least 20 people had died in the initial attack, before the security forces began their assault on the hotel. Interior Minister Simon Compaore said 10 bodies had been found on the terrace of the nearby Cappuccino cafe. The al-Murabitoun group, which reportedly merged with AQIM recently, was involved in the attack, monitors said. Who are al-Murabitoun? Witnesses said the gunmen had initially entered the Cappuccino cafe. One employee at the cafe told AFP news agency "several people" had been killed there. Eyewitnesses reported hearing exchanges of gunfire between the men and security forces, as well as sporadic gunfire from inside the hotel, which is close to the country's international airport. The SITE monitoring group, which analyses jihadist networks, reports that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has said it was behind the attack. The monitoring group specifically stated that those responsible were the al-Murabitoun group, which is based in the Sahara desert in northern Mali and contains fighters loyal to the veteran Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar. Last month, the group announced it had merged with AQIM. Belmokhtar, a one-eyed commander who fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, was once a member of AQIM but left after a falling-out with its leadership. Belmokhtar has been declared dead many times, the latest by a US air strike on 14 June last year in Libya - according to Libyan authorities - but his death has not been formally confirmed. AQIM and al-Murabitoun said they were behind an attack on a hotel in Burkina Faso's neighbour Mali in November, that left 20 people dead. Burkina Faso had recently held its first presidential election since a coup earlier last year. That coup toppled long-time leader Blaise Compaore, who had governed for 27 years. "We are still in a context of political fragility, so I think the timing of this attack is meaningful," Cynthia Ohayon, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, told the BBC from Ouagadougou. "The country has long borders with Mali and Niger, and we know there are armed groups present on the border, so this was probably something we had coming." In November, an AQIM attack on a hotel in the Malian capital Bamako left 19 people dead. Are you in the area? Let us know about your experiences. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your stories. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

Question: Exchanges of fire are @placeholder at a hotel in Burkina Faso 's capital as special forces seek to break a deadly siege by suspected Islamist gunmen .


The move has been recommended by a working group set up by the Scottish government after the Penrose Inquiry into contaminated NHS blood products. Thousands of people were infected with Hepatitis C and HIV through NHS blood products in the 1970s and 80s. But the inquiry concluded few matters could have been done differently. And it made only a single recommendation - that anyone in Scotland who had a blood transfusion before 1991 should be tested for Hepatitis C if they have not already done so. The working group was established by Health Secretary Shona Robison. It was charged with assessing the number of people who contracted Hepatitis C, and how many could still be undiagnosed. It also looked at whether uptake of blood tests had increased after the publication of the Penrose Inquiry report, and if any further action was needed to trace undiagnosed people. The working group's recommendations, which the Scottish government said would be carried out in full, are: The group estimated there could be "a small number" of undiagnosed people still alive in Scotland who were infected with Hepatitis C by pre-1991 blood transfusions. It said the risk of infection was small, but anyone who was seriously ill in hospital before September 1991 and thinks they might have had a blood transfusion will be encouraged to seek further advice. Health Secretary Shona Robison said: "The number of patients likely to be infected is very small, and the lack of historical medical records makes tracing them difficult. "However, it is possible there are still people yet to be tested and unaware of their infection, and so I have today accepted all these recommendations to ensure that everything possible is done to find people who may have been infected and offer them the best care and treatment. "Treatments for Hepatitis C have improved greatly in recent years. I would urge anyone who thinks they had a blood transfusion before September 1991 to seek advice from the Hepatitis helpline or their GP practice about a test if they have not yet done so." Support group Hepatitis Scotland welcomed the government's decision to accept all the working group's recommendations. Spokesman Leon Wylie said: "It is likely that there are actually very small numbers who may have been exposed to the infection this way but it is extremely important to make people aware they can have a test if they have been at risk. "Hepatitis C often does not show any real symptoms until a person has had the illness for many years and the good news is we now have medications that can cure it easily."

Question: People who had a blood transfusion before September 1991 and have still not been tested for Hepatitis C are to be @placeholder in an awareness campaign .


At a ceremony in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai said that from Wednesday "our own security and military forces will lead all the security activities". Observers say the best soldiers in the Afghan army are up to the task but there are lingering doubts about some. International troops will remain in Afghanistan until the end of 2014, providing military back-up when needed. The ceremony came shortly after a suicide bomb attack in western Kabul killed three employees of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and wounded more than 20. The attacker was believed to be targeting the convoy of prominent politician and Hazara leader Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, who escaped with light injuries. Meanwhile, sources close to Taliban representatives have confirmed to the BBC that they are opening an office in the Qatari capital Doha, possibly as early as Tuesday. It is seen as an important stage in establishing a political face for the movement. The Taliban has in the past refused talks with Mr Karzai's government, calling it a puppet of the US. But the Afghan president said on Tuesday he is sending representatives to Qatar to discuss peace talks with the movement. President Karzai has been outspoken about his upset at previous US and Qatari efforts to kick-start the peace process without properly consulting his government, the BBC's Bilal Sarwary reports from Kabul. There is also concern within the presidential palace that the Taliban will use the political office in Qatar to raise funds, our correspondent adds. Tuesday's ceremony saw the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) hand over control of the last 95 districts in a transition process that began in 2011. The last remaining districts included 13 in Kandahar province - the birthplace of the Taliban - and 12 each in Nangarhar, Khost and Paktika, all bastions of insurgent activity along the border with Pakistan. By David LoynBBC News, Kabul There are still 97,000 international troops in Afghanistan as part of the Nato-led mission but those numbers are reducing as the day for the end of combat operations comes closer. The forces are increasingly engaged in the complex business of closing bases and packing kit; very few now go out on patrol. The practical effect of today's event is not great - a handful of districts, mainly along the eastern frontier, and in Kandahar, move formally to full Afghan combat lead. But the symbolic impact is profound. For the first time since the departure of Soviet forces in 1989 and the years of civil war that followed, security across the whole of Afghanistan is now the responsibility of forces led by the Afghan government. Between now and the final exit of international combat troops at the end of next year, they will support combat operations only when requested. Alongside training the only other assistance is helicopters to take out casualties. The Afghan forces remain inconsistent, but those who train them say the best are as good as any army in a developing country. Afghan forces count cost of war Afghanistan profile - Timeline Deadly blast before handover President Karzai called it an historic day and a moment of personal pride. "This has been one of my greatest desires and pursuits," he said, "and I am glad that I, as an Afghan citizen and an Afghan president, have reached this objective today." He reiterated a shift in military strategy, ruling out the future use of air strikes on what he called Afghan homes and villages; the issue of Nato air strikes and civilian casualties has long been a sensitive one. Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Afghan forces were taking up the role with "remarkable resolve" but said there was still 18 months of hard work ahead for Isaf troops. "We will continue to help Afghan troops in operations if needed, but we will no longer plan, execute or lead those operations, and by the end of 2014 our combat mission will be completed," he said. Some Afghans who spoke to the BBC said security had improved in their areas after foreign troops left. "Now that the foreigners are gone, the security situation in the city and in the districts is much better," said one man from Kandahar. Another man, from Surkhroad district in eastern Nangarhar province, was less sure. "In the past when foreign forces were present in Surkhroad the security was fine," he said. "Now that the security responsibilities are being handed over to the Afghan forces, the security situation is currently ok, but there are some insurgents who are still firing from the eastern mountain areas." The number of Afghan security forces has been gradually increasing from fewer than 40,000 six years ago to nearly 350,000 today. However, as it has taken over more responsibility for security, the Afghan army has suffered a sharp rise in casualties. By comparison, international coalition casualties have been steadily falling since 2010. A high desertion rate among Afghan forces has also meant that thousands of new recruits are needed each month to fill its ranks. Despite the challenges, Isaf commander General Joseph Dunford recently told the BBC that the Afghan force is "getting good enough" to fulfil its role. In recent Taliban attacks on the capital Kabul, Afghan rapid reaction police tackled the insurgents without having to call in Isaf forces. The number of Isaf forces in Afghanistan peaked in 2011 at about 140,000, which included about 101,000 US troops. Isaf currently has about 97,000 troops in the country from 50 contributing nations, the bulk of whom - some 68,000 - are from the US. By the end of 2014 all combat troops should have left to be replaced - if approved by the Afghan government - by a smaller force that will only train and advise. The pressure on contributing nations to withdraw their troops has been exacerbated by a series of "green-on-blue" attacks in which members of the Afghan security forces have killed coalition troops. At least 60 Nato personnel died in such attacks in 2012. Many more Afghan security force members have died at the hands of their colleagues, in so-called "green-on-green" attacks. US President Barack Obama has not yet said how many troops he will leave in Afghanistan along with other Nato forces at the end of 2014. Washington has said that the Afghan government will get the weapons it needs to fight the insurgency including a fleet of MI-17 transport helicopters, cargo planes and ground support airplanes. Afghan army chief Gen Sher Muhammad Karimi said air capability was a key challenge. "We are limited in air transportation and in some places we still need Isaf to help us. Other than that we are fully capable of doing our job," he told BBC Pashto.

Question: Nato has handed over security for the whole of Afghanistan for the first time since the Taliban were @placeholder in 2001 .


The warning by Age UK and Carers UK came as the charities released figures showing there were 1.2m carers over 65 - a 25% rise in the past decade. The biggest increase though has been seen in the over 85s, with the numbers more than doubling to 87,000. The charities said these older carers needed better support. This issue includes NHS funding, GP access and social care, particularly of older people. Policy guide: Where the parties stand The majority of carers over 65 are looking after a partner, although some are looking after elderly parents, or grandchildren, or relations with disabilities, according to the charities. The research by the charities - based on Census data from 2001 and 2011 and their own analysis - estimated the care provided by older carers was worth ?¡ê15bn a year. It warned that despite the growth in numbers, few of the older carers were being offered support by the state. Last year just over 175,000 were given assessments by their local councils. One in three carers aged 65 to 74 provide over 50 hours of care a week, but for the over 85s group that rises to more than half. More than half of the younger age group said they were not in good health, compared to 40% of those who do not have caring responsibilities. Feelings of depression and anxiety were cited by one in three carers aged 65 to 74 and nearly half of the older age group. The BBC has launched an online guide to the care system for the over-65s. The "care calculator" covers residential care and the support provided in people's own homes, for tasks such as washing and dressing. Users can submit their postcode and find out how much each service costs where they live in the UK. There is also a dedicated BBC Cost of Care website, with news stories, analysis and video. Dave, 90, is typical of the generation of older people who find themselves caring for loved ones. The former tram driver has been looking after his wife Ethel, who has poor eyesight and limited mobility, for the last 20 years. He does not get any help. "We like to be independent and between us we manage to get by. We just accept this as the way it is. You just get on with it don't you?" Carers UK chief executive Helena Herklots said: "Caring is something that touches all of us at some point in our lives but this research shows that the number of older people are caring for others at a time when they are more likely to need care themselves. "Action is needed to ensure that older carers have the support they need so they don't have to care alone." Councillor Izzi Seccombe, of the Local Government Association, said: "Councils recognise that informal carers do a challenging job in very difficult circumstances." She said local authorities were doing their best to support them and she urged carers to come forward for help, saying that they did not always realise they were entitled to help.

Question: The number of older carers in England is rising , with @placeholder the pressures of looking after loved ones is damaging their health , research suggests .


Themicroscopic modelwas based on a 195-year-old design by the inventor Robert Stirling. Changes included the replacement of the original pistons with a laser beam. The physicists said they were "astonished" by how efficiently the machine converted heat into power - but said it did "not run smoothly" and had no practical use in its current form. A conventional Stirling engine has a cylinder of gas attached to a heat source at one end and a cold source at the other. The gas is alternately heated and cooled by being shifted to the different temperature locations. As the gas is heated it expands, driving a piston outwards which drives a wheel. This causes a displacer - also attached to the wheel - to move in the cylinder, shifting the majority of the heated gas to the cool area where it contracts, drawing the piston back in. This moves the displacer back to its original position shifting the gas back to the hot area, and the process repeats. A two cylinder variant of the engine uses two pistons rather than a displacer. "We wanted to understand how such a basic principle works, and if it works at all at a micron-length scale," Prof Clemens Bechinger told the BBC. "Nowadays everybody is trying to make things smaller - electronic circuits and mechanical devices get smaller and smaller - so we thought why not try to investigate this basic process at a micro-scale." The physicists carried out their research at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems at the University of Stuttgart and published it in the latest edition of the Nature Physics Journal. To adapt the engine down to micro-size, they replaced the cylinder of gas with a single micron-sized particle made of a plastic called melamine, roughly 10,000 times the size of an atom. The particle was submerged in a chamber of water four-thousandths of a millimetre high. The pistons were replaced with a focused infrared laser beam which acted as "optical tweezers", holding the particle in place. The stronger the laser's intensity the more the particle was confined to one spot. The weaker the intensity the more the particle was able to fluctuate around that spot exploring a larger space. The particle thus behaved in a similar way to the molecules in the original heat engine. When the particle was restricted in movement, it resembled the state the molecules would have been in when the gas was compressed. When it was able to move more freely it acted as the molecules would have done when the gas had been able to expand. Since it was impractical to recreate hot and cold heat baths at the micro-level, a second laser was used. It heated the mixture to 90C (194F) in less than 10 milliseconds. It then was allowed to rapidly cool back to room temperature as soon as the laser was turned off. Although this allowed the physicists to recreate the heat engine process, the amount of energy gained per cycle was not stable. "In contrast to a macroscopic heat engine where everything works in a very smooth and very deterministic fashion, our engine stutters," said Prof Bechinger. He said this was because the water molecules in the solution surrounding the microparticle were constantly colliding into it, causing energy to be passed back and forth. In the larger engine the amount of energy generated by the engine dwarfed that of the tiny collisions happening inside the machine, making them irrelevant. But in the microscopic engine the energy levels were much more similar and could even bring the process to a standstill in extreme cases. Although this made the amount of energy produced per cycle irregular, the team said they were surprised that on average, across a range of cycles, the micro-machine was as efficient as its larger counterpart. "That was something we did not expect when we started the project," said Prof Bechinger. Although the physicists conceded that a mini-steam engine would never be a practical power source, they said they hoped their research could now be used to create more stable power sources for micro-machines.

Question: The world 's smallest working " steam engine " has been @placeholder in Germany , according to a team of researchers .


Reckitt Benckiser gave ¡ê38,000 to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), ¡ê5,445 to Cornwall Council and more than ¡ê5,000 to the National Trust. The bottles started arriving on the Lizard in Cornwall in January but were also washed up in Devon. Agencies said the bottles posed a risk to wildlife. Click here for live updates on this story The MCA said it was thought the bottles had come from the MV Blue Ocean which lost a container holding nearly 19,000 of them near Land's End in May last year. The compensation figures were confirmed by the agencies involved in the clean-up. Justin Whitehouse, lead ranger for the National Trust on the Lizard said he did not believe the pollution in the sea had been serious. "Much of the clean-up was done by volunteers which wasn't factored into the cost," he said. "It was local people mucking in and helping out, but that's what we're good at." No-one was available for comment from Reckitt Benckiser but in January it said: "RB has strong history of environmental performance and the protection and preservation of the environment is our top priority."

Question: A firm has paid out nearly ¡ê 50,000 to clear thousands of its bright pink Vanish plastic detergent bottles that washed up on @placeholder .