Monaco 1984 is one, so is Donington 1993. Then there's Barcelona 1996, Silverstone 2008 and Nurburgring 1968. All wet-weather races. All exceptional. Mention these grands prix to F1 devotees and they will nod approvingly, because these were occasions when a driver delivered something remarkable that marked him out as a cut above his peers. In the case of Brazil 2016, we may well have another entry to that list - and the man responsible was a 19-year-old named Max Verstappen. "We witnessed something very special," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said of his driver. "The way he drove was outstanding. It stands out to me like Ayrton Senna in Monaco and other great drives in history." High praise indeed for a man occupying the third step of a podium. Verstappen dropped to 16th after a pit stop with 16 laps to go but fought back to finish on the podium in treacherous wet conditions. Yet his drive was about more than this late climb through the field. He also overtook Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen early on and produced a superb pass on Mercedes' Nico Rosberg to take second place midway through the race. He would have finished there, behind winner Lewis Hamilton, had Red Bull not put him on intermediate tyres at a crucial point. The decision turned out to be an error and Verstappen had to pit again for extreme wet tyres, prompting his climb back. He also rescued a huge spin on the pit straight, preventing the car from hitting the wall and managing to hold on to second. He said it was "50-50" between skill and luck. Horner said: "His move earlier in the race on Rosberg was brave, skilful and totally courageous and later in the race the inter tyre looked like the tyre to be on. "We could see others starting to go quicker and we took the gamble and then the rain just intensified slightly, particularly around Turn 12. We had to abort that and fit a new set of extreme and then it was over to Max." Verstappen looked completely out of the picture when he pitted under the safety car for extreme wet tyres late on. But Red Bull knew what their man was capable of, and so did he. "Can you make your way through the field on full wets?" came the question from the pit wall. Verstappen said he could and dived in for fresh boots. What followed was hugely impressive, to say the least. The midfield runners were swiftly dispatched and, within a couple of laps, Verstappen was up to 12th place. That became 11th when he passed the Williams of Valtteri Bottas, while team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had no answer either as the teenager moved back into the points. Daniil Kvyat was next, then Esteban Ocon's Manor and the Sauber of Felipe Nasr. Nico Hulkenberg? No problem. Sebastian Vettel? Done in a few corners. Verstappen even rudely ran the Ferrari off the track for good measure. Carlos Sainz was his next victim as he moved into fourth, and then came the podium-clinching move on Sergio Perez - a gutsy, around-the-outside pass at Turn 10 that he completed in Turn 11 having corrected a big slide on his way through. The Mercedes were too far up the road to do anything about, but Verstappen had made his point. Thirteen places made up in 16 laps. Job done. "It was a lot of fun, with some scary moments," Verstappen said. "I was a bit disappointed after the last pit stop, but I kept my head down and just kept pushing and I went for it. To come back on to the podium was amazing. "It was crazy. I thought 'now my race is over'. But the car was great. We had great grip. All the race we had good pace. We could have definitely fought for second but to come back in such a style is also a lot of fun." Verstappen said it was "one of" his best races and his "best ever" in the wet. But he said that his win in the Spanish Grand Prix in May would have a bigger place in his heart. "Barcelona will always be better because it is a race victory but to come back from 16th felt like a race victory." Nico Rosberg on Verstappen's amazing half-spin: "I arrived in the straight and saw him pointing 90 degrees towards the wall - I was thinking, 'what the hell?!'" Jos Verstappen, Max's father, who started 106 Formula 1 races: "I have never seen something like this, he has surprised even me. I have seen many races he did, but today it was incredible. He did himself proud. It is what we want to see more of in F1." Mercedes team boss Toto Wolf: "It was the Verstappen show. It was really unbelievable driving, great entertainment. Physics are being redefined." Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda: "Verstappen was outstanding, the way he passed everybody so it was an interesting race.  I knew the guy is good but he proved to everybody what he can do." Horatio McSherry: Max Verstappen is driving like a man possessed. Utterly extraordinary. One of the greatest drives I've seen in nearly 30 years of F1. Lauren McCarthy: This driving by Verstappen is simply ridiculous. How on earth is he 19, absolute genius. JavelBleach: Wow. Best race I've seen from one driver for a very long time. Ayrton Senna - 1984 Monaco GP A race remembered as the moment Ayrton Senna truly announced his arrival in the sport. Starting 13th on the grid, the Brazilian, in only his sixth F1 race, came through the field in atrocious wet conditions, passing established front-runners to sit second behind Alain Prost's McLaren when the race was brought to a premature halt on lap 31. It was just a second place and only half points were awarded, but a statement had been emphatically made. F1 had a new star. Ayrton Senna - 1993 European GP Fast-forward nine years and Senna was at it again. By now his reputation as master of wet conditions was legendary, but even so his charge from fifth to first place on the opening lap at Donington had jaws on the floor. It is routinely held up as the best single-lap performance in the history of the sport - and to back it up he won the race by over a minute from second-placed Damon Hill, and by a lap from great rival Prost. Michael Schumacher - 1996 Spanish GP The drive that gave Michael Schumacher his first Ferrari win and earned him the reputation as a legend in the wet. Just two weeks earlier he had slid out of the lead on the first lap at a wet Monaco, but in Barcelona - with the rain pounding down once again - he delivered one his most celebrated drives. The Ferrari was a long way from the best car in the field, but on this day and in Schumacher's hands it was peerless. He took the chequered flag by 45 seconds from Jean Alesi. The 'Regenmeister' had landed. Lewis Hamilton - 2008 British GP We knew Lewis Hamilton was good by midway through 2008, but maybe it took this race to tell us just how good. Hamilton trailed Ferrari's Felipe Massa in the drivers' championship heading into the ninth race of the season, and the two could not have had more contrasting fortunes on this soggy Silverstone day. Massa spun five times en route to a miserable 13th place, two laps down on race winner Hamilton, who judged the conditions to perfection, keeping the car on the island and winning by more than a minute from the chasing pack. Come season's end, he would be champion by a point from Massa, and this was arguably the race where the tide turned. Jackie Stewart - 1968 German GP A truly startling drive from a man who in a few short years would retire from Formula 1 as a three-time world champion. On 4 August 1968, Jackie Stewart had no world titles and just two wins to his name, but by the end of the day the sport had a new superstar. In wet and foggy conditions at the unforgiving 14-mile Nurburgring, and sporting a broken wrist, Stewart produced a performance of immense skill and bravery to win by four minutes from Graham Hill. Stewart later described it as "a tremendously satisfying race to win, but I was very pleased to get it over with".

Question: More than 900 Formula 1 races have been held since 1950 , yet very few are @placeholder in the collective consciousness of fans .


They say it is the unfortunate but unintended consequence of what have otherwise been very successful efforts to improve air quality. It turns out the filters put on vehicle exhausts to remove fine particulate material have also unbalanced the chemistry behind ozone formation. Chemical reactions that would normally remove ozone have been subdued. The insight comes from a study looking at London's air quality records. "Peak ozone levels have come down since the 1990s, but we haven't had the gains we expected on ozone," said Dr Erika von Schneidemesser from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, Germany. "The data we've got from monitoring sites in London, and also the modelling work we have done, has helped us understand why ozone has behaved the way it has - at least in London," she told BBC News. Dr von Schneidemesser was speaking here at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, the world's largest annual gathering of Earth scientists. Ozone  in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) is regarded as a serious pollutant that can cause respiratory problems, and even damage masonry and agricultural crops. The principal originating source is the emissions from road vehicles.  These include the exhaust gases such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), and carbon monoxide (CO). Ozone is the product of these gases' participation in a complex series of chemical reactions where sunlight and heat act as catalysts.  Summer months are generally worse for O3. Dr von Schneidemesser and colleagues used the data from London's dense network of air quality monitoring sites to try to assess the performance of the ozone-producing reactions over the past 15 years. They found that although the ozone precursors have been falling, the ratio of two NOx gases in the atmosphere has changed. In constant conditions, there is a neat cycle in which nitrogen dioxide (NO2) helps to form ozone and nitric oxide helps to break it apart. This cycle appears to have been perturbed by control measures that were actually intended to remove the fine particles and black carbon (soot) in vehicle exhausts. The measures achieved the desired outcome but also altered the relative emissions of the different NOx gases. "There's this balance between the NO and nitrogen dioxide NO2, and the diesel filters that we've been retrofitting on to things like buses mean that we now have a larger amount of primary NO2 and so you get a reduction in NO that is much greater than the reduction in NO2.  This means basically you are taking away some of the ozone suppression," said Dr von Schneidemesser, who is also affiliated to the University of Leicester, UK. Whereas NO in the atmosphere has been reducing by 5-20% per year, NO2 has been falling by just 1-5% per year. "As these levels continue to go down, we should then eventually see a reduction in ozone. It's just that the initial steps have had the opposite effect." Further work is required, but the researchers' suspicion is that London's experience is not unique. The big traffic-choked cities of Europe will all suffer from similar emissions inventories. The one rider here is that southern European cities will have more sunlight and heat to drive ozone producing reactions. But the London observations are unlikely to be the whole story.  Scientists say it's also that European ozone levels are being influenced by what is happening in other regions of the world. "There is an import of ozone and precursors from outside, and this influences what we call background ozone; and that's going up as global pollutants, particularly in Asia, go up.  And that's affecting European ozone levels," explained co-worker Prof Paul Monks at the University of Leicester. "So, for something like ozone, we've probably got to move to a more global treaty-like situation. We've got to look at control measures in other countries as well as our own. "Peak ozone has gone down since the 1990s, but it has bottomed out now; and it's remaining fairly flat despite emissions reductions." Ozone's NOx cycle (1) The Sun's ultraviolet light breaks oxygen atoms off nitrogen dioxide molecules (2) Oxygen atoms then react with oxygen molecules in the air to produce the ozone (3) But ozone is destroyed by nitric oxide, reforming molecular oxygen and nitrogen dioxide Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

Question: Scientists think they have @placeholder one key reason why ground - level ozone remains stubbornly high in Europe .


Sir David Normington said plans to allow ministers to choose people deemed unsuitable by advisers were "worrying". The former Commissioner for Public Appointments said the role risked being reduced to that of a "bystander". Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock said appointments had to be speeded up and ministers fully engaged. Officials said changes stemming from a review by the businessman Sir Gerry Grimstone would strengthen current procedures and that transparency and accountability would remain "key elements". It comes amid reports of increasing intervention by ministers over appointments to key positions, including on behalf of those with links to the Conservative Party. Sir David, who retired from the role of Commissioner last week after five years, told MPs that the current system allowed departmental ministers to choose their preferred candidate from a selection of people judged "appointable" by an advisory panel. However, the former permanent secretary at the Home Office said the government was considering allowing ministers to ignore the panels' recommendations and choose candidates from "below the line". Ministers would also, he said, be able to appoint without an open competition without first seeking the approval of the Commissioner. "I am absolutely clear that these are ministerial appointments and ministers must choose," he told the Commons Public Administration Committee. "There is absolutely no question about this." But he said he was worried that the "good intentions and principles" espoused by ministers about ensuring appointment on merit and robust safeguards were not being "carried through" in the government's proposals. "It looks like there is an intention to allow ministers to say 'well I know the committee did not approve that person but actually we think they ought to be appointed'. "I am not quite sure about the practicalities of that. I don't think I would want to be someone who the panel had said was not suitable and the minister then appointed. That looks a very difficult proposition." He said the proposed changes, in the round, looked "like a very big shift in the direction of ministers". "The thing that worries me is that it dismantles the current system. I am very concerned about it. I almost never speak out publicly on these matters but I am very concerned about this." Sir David is due to be succeeded in the role by Peter Riddell, a former political journalist who has been head of the Institute for Government. Asked about how the role - which was created in 1995 - may change in future in light of the government's proposed changes, Sir David said. "I am a little fearful about what may happen here. I have tried in my role to head things off before they get out of hand. "I think what may happen here is the appointment is made and the commissioner has no option to pop up and say the appointment is not acceptable." Activist websites such as ConservativeHome have been urging Conservative supporters to apply for key public appointments, arguing Whitehall has been dominated for the past two decades by those with a New Labour background and outlook on the role of the state. The government has said political activity should not be a bar to being considered for public appointments but candidates would be expected to be open about "significant" levels of party involvement or support. Sir Gerry Grimstone, the chair of Standard Life, told MPs that ministers were sovereign but "appropriate constraints" on their behaviour were written into the rules - which he said were designed to secure the best and most diverse appointments. "I have given the Commissioner very strong powers of intervention," he said. Mr Hancock. who has ministerial responsibility for the civil service, said the current system of public appointments was "much too bureaucratic, unclear and too slow", with "good people being put off" as a result. "We need to improve the system because my ultimate goal is to get the very best people we can," he told MPs He said the Commissioner's role, as it was originally envisaged, was as a "regulator and auditor of the process not someone actually running the process" and the Grimstone review had clarified this. The Cabinet Office has said ministers must be free to reject advice from their advisory panels on the merit of candidates. In such cases, the recruitment process would either by re-run with a new panel or ministers would be able to choose someone themselves as long as they "explain their decision publicly". The proposed changes will be incorporated in a governance code, setting out the new public appointment principles.

Question: Ministers are seeking to " dismantle " the existing system for making senior appointments to public @placeholder , a former top civil servant has claimed .


Slade has begun to recapture the form he showed before he broke his leg against Wasps in December 2015. The 23-year-old has been linked as replacement for George Ford, who has been tipped to leave the Rec. "I've had a couple of chats with Henry and we've had a bit of a joke about the rumours flying around," said Baxter. He told BBC Sport: "There is no truth in the rumour about him having any interest in going to Bath." In July, Slade agreed a deal with the Chiefs until 2019. England head coach Eddie Jones was critical of Slade's form late last season, saying it was difficult to judge if he had the quality to be a Test player because of the position he was starting for Exeter. "Also, if he does end up playing at 10 it won't be because we're being told by Eddie Jones that he needs to play at 10," added Baxter of versatile Slade, who has predominantly played at centre for the Chiefs because of the form of fly-half and captain Gareth Steenson. "And he won't be playing 10 because I'm worried that if we don't play him at 10 he'll go and play for Bath because they're losing George Ford. "It's not unsettling to us as a club, to me or to Henry. I don't believe for one instance it's unsettling for Bath or the other clubs that get linked into their rumours. "I don't know anything about the George Ford scenario, but Bath will know what's going on. "It won't be unsettling for them about what's happening with George Ford because they'll know exactly what the scenario is, just like us it's not unsettling for me to read anything about Henry because I know he's under contract here, I know he's fully committed to us, he's desperate to do things for us, play well for us and to win things."

Question: Exeter head coach Rob Baxter says he and Henry Slade have @placeholder about rumours linking the England back with a summer move to Premiership rivals Bath .


Nottingham-born Woodburn, 17, received a first squad call up for the World Cup qualifier on Friday, 24 March. Wales boss Chris Coleman has rejected suggestions that Woodburn being eligible for England was a factor in the player's call-up. "I don't know why Chris is denying it," said former Wales striker Saunders. "You can't buy or sell players and we're only a small country. "If someone is eligible for us and there's a bit of potential there then he's (Coleman) done the right thing. "He's Welsh and he's playing for us. It's good news for the squad." Media playback is not supported on this device Woodburn is eligible for Wales through his maternal grandfather and has already played at under-16, under-18 and under-19 level. The forward has made seven appearances for Liverpool this season and become the youngest scorer in the club's history with a goal against Leeds United in the EFL Cup in November. "He's got a good attitude and nothing fazes him. Top players have that sort of attitude about them," former Liverpool striker Saunders told BBC Radio Wales Sport. "He doesn't look like a rabbit in headlights when he plays for Liverpool. He's a talented player and scores goals." Wales are third in Group D, four points behind Martin O'Neill's Republic of Ireland, who are top and Coleman said Woodburn's inclusion is not a spur of the moment decision. "He's been in our system for five years, so we know all about him," Coleman said. "He's done well this season. We are looking forward to having him on board" "If we want to put him on for tactical reasons, it would be for that, but not because we are worried about anyone else looking at him."

Question: Liverpool teenager Ben Woodburn must be @placeholder by Wales against Republic of Ireland to tie him to the national team , Dean Saunders says .


The prime minister and his wife attended the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara in Gravesend on Saturday. He took part in the nagar kirtan (procession) and was given a tour of the Gurdwara, which is thought to be one of the largest outside India. It was Mr Cameron's first visit to Kent during the general election campaign. Vaisakhi is the Sikh New Year festival and is one of the most important dates in the Sikh calendar. It also commemorates 1699, the year Sikhism was born as a collective faith. Up to 10,000 people were expected to take part in the festivities, which saw a procession set off from the temple at about 11.30 BST and then make its way through the town before returning to the Gurdwara. Gurjit Bains, of the Gudwara's executive committee, said: "This will be our biggest ever. Every year we've grown, we've got people from the Medway towns and some of our stallholders are from Birmingham as well so it's a big mix of people. "There are not only people from the Sikh community here, they're from all walks of life. "We have so many people who are not Sikh coming [to the celebrations] and it's really, really nice to see that." Anne-Marie Bunting (Liberal Democrat) Tan Dhesi (Labour) Adam Holloway (Conservative) Mark Lindop (Green) Sean Marriott (UKIP)

Question: David and Samantha Cameron @placeholder thousands of people celebrating the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi in Kent.


The northern districts of Port Loko and Bombali, and Moyamba in the south, will in effect be sealed off immediately. Nearly 600 people have died of the virus in Sierra Leone where two eastern districts are already blockaded. Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has said the world needs to act faster to halt the West Africa Ebola outbreak. "There is still a significant gap between where we are and where we need to be," Mr Obama told a high-level United Nations meeting on Ebola. In other developments: Mr Koroma's announcement follows a three-day nationwide lockdown that ended on Sunday night. Two eastern districts have been isolated since the beginning of August and the extension of the indefinite quarantine means more than a third of Sierra Leone's 6.1 million population now finds itself unable to move freely. Source: Afri-Dev.Info Ebola drains weak health systems During Sierra Leone's three-day curfew, more than a million households were surveyed and 130 new cases discovered, the authorities say. President Koroma said the move had been a success but had exposed "areas of greater challenges", which was why other areas were being quarantined. Only people delivering essential services can enter and circulate within areas under quarantine. In a televised address, the president acknowledged that the blockade would "pose great difficulties" for people. "[But] the life of everyone and the survival of our country take precedence over these difficulties," he said. According to WHO, the situation nationally in Sierra Leone continues to deteriorate with a sharp increase in the number of newly reported cases in the capital, Freetown, and its neighbouring districts of Port Loko, Bombali, and Moyamba, which are now under quarantine. The BBC's Umaru Fofana in Freetown says Port Loko is where two of the country's major iron ore mining companies operate and the restrictions are likely to hamper business. The WHO said despite efforts to deploy more health workers and open new Ebola treatment centres in the worst-affected countries, there was still a significant lack of beds in Sierra Leone and Liberia, with more than 2,000 needed. The situation in Guinea had appeared to be stabilising, but with up to 100 new confirmed cases reported in each of the past five weeks, it was still of grave concern, it said. Ebola virus: busting the myths A new BBC Ebola programme with the latest news about the outbreak is broadcast at 19.50 GMT each weekday on the BBC World Service.

Question: Sierra Leone 's President Ernest Bai Koroma has widened a quarantine to @placeholder another one million people in an attempt to curb the spread of Ebola .


The European champions looked in control when Ronaldo scored twice in the first 18 minutes. His opener was a penalty and his second was a header from Nacho's cross - his eighth La Liga goal in four games. But Carlos Carmona pulled one back and Duje Cop missed a penalty for the visitors with 13 minutes left. The Croatia international, who appeared to check his pulse just before taking the kick, fired high and wide after Nacho was penalised for fouling Victor Rodriguez. Real went seven points clear briefly, but Sevilla beat Valencia 2-1 on Saturday evening to trim that lead by one point. Champions Barcelona can take it back down to four points on Sunday at Real Sociedad (19:45 GMT). Ronaldo's double takes him up to 10 La Liga goals for the season, two above Barcelona pair Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez in the golden boot race. Match ends, Real Madrid 2, Sporting de Gij¨®n 1. Second Half ends, Real Madrid 2, Sporting de Gij¨®n 1. Corner,  Real Madrid. Conceded by Lillo. Attempt blocked. Isco (Real Madrid) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Cristiano Ronaldo. Attempt saved. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Isco. Corner,  Sporting de Gij¨®n. Conceded by Nacho. Attempt blocked. Marco Asensio (Real Madrid) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Isco. Attempt saved. Duje Cop (Sporting de Gij¨®n) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Isma L¨®pez with a cross. Substitution, Sporting de Gij¨®n. Nacho Cases replaces Rachid. Substitution, Real Madrid. Isco replaces Mateo Kovacic. Penalty missed! Bad penalty by Duje Cop (Sporting de Gij¨®n) right footed shot is high and wide to the right. Duje Cop should be disappointed. Nacho (Real Madrid) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Penalty conceded by Nacho (Real Madrid) after a foul in the penalty area. Penalty Sporting de Gij¨®n. V¨ªctor Rodr¨ªguez draws a foul in the penalty area. Substitution, Sporting de Gij¨®n. V¨ªctor Rodr¨ªguez replaces Moi G¨®mez. Substitution, Sporting de Gij¨®n. Borja Viguera replaces Carlos Carmona. Foul by Marcelo (Real Madrid). Lillo (Sporting de Gij¨®n) wins a free kick in the defensive half. Attempt missed. Lucas V¨¢zquez (Real Madrid) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Cristiano Ronaldo with a cross following a set piece situation. Substitution, Real Madrid. Marcelo replaces Sergio Ramos. Substitution, Real Madrid. Marco Asensio replaces James Rodr¨ªguez. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the attacking half. Foul by Lillo (Sporting de Gij¨®n). Attempt missed. Luka Modric (Real Madrid) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Mateo Kovacic. Foul by James Rodr¨ªguez (Real Madrid). Rachid (Sporting de Gij¨®n) wins a free kick in the defensive half. Carlos Carmona (Sporting de Gij¨®n) is shown the yellow card. Pepe (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the defensive half. Foul by Carlos Carmona (Sporting de Gij¨®n). Attempt missed. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Luka Modric with a cross following a corner. Corner,  Real Madrid. Conceded by Jorge Mer¨¦. Attempt blocked. Mateo Kovacic (Real Madrid) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Pepe. Danilo (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the defensive half. Foul by Moi G¨®mez (Sporting de Gij¨®n). Attempt saved. Nacho (Real Madrid) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Cristiano Ronaldo. Rachid (Sporting de Gij¨®n) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Mateo Kovacic (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the defensive half. Foul by Rachid (Sporting de Gij¨®n). Foul by Lucas V¨¢zquez (Real Madrid). Isma L¨®pez (Sporting de Gij¨®n) wins a free kick in the attacking half.

Question: Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice but Real Madrid rode their @placeholder to beat Sporting Gijon and go six points clear at the top of La Liga overnight .


A few minutes earlier, I had received a rather brusque phone call from a man called Major General Joseph Zoundeiko, who wanted me to come and see him immediately. Gen Zoundeiko is the army chief of staff of what his headed notepaper describes as the "Forces Republicains" of the Central African Republic. To you and me, he is a rebel leader - part of the loose alliance of mostly Muslim forces known as Seleka which ousted CAR's president last year and held power until January. Trying to understand the political power dynamics here is not easy. The fact that the general represents men with guns - how many is unclear - gives him a certain status, but in conversations with government officials, diplomats and experts here, I have not been able to determine whether he is a minor pawn, an emerging threat, or a measured heavyweight. The only certainty about politics in CAR is the breathtakingly transparent cynicism of almost every single person involved. This is a game of thrones in which the fate of one of the world's poorest nations is seldom even acknowledged. Towns like Bambari, and its desperate population, are incidental factors in a narrow contest for power, and access to resources, in the only place that counts - the capital, Bangui. The general's aide ushered me into the villa, clutching a yellow dossier with a statement that Mr Zoundeiko intended to read out to me. It concerned the recent cease-fire announcement negotiated abroad - this is a country whose fate always seems to be determined elsewhere - and supposedly now in force across CAR. Gen Zoundeiko mumbled his way a little hesitantly through the script - his French is a bit rusty, and the document clearly was not his work - but the overall message was clear. The ceasefire would not be respected by the Seleka military, which had not been consulted properly or involved in the ceasefire negotiations. So they were rejecting their political leaders' directive. "We want peace. We don't want war. But we want sincere negotiations," he announced. Then the general went further. For a long time the rebels have been muttering about the possibility of partitioning CAR along religious lines - dividing it into two independent countries as was done recently in neighbouring Sudan, with Muslims taking over the north-east, and Christians getting Bangui and the south-west. It has never been clear the extent to which this is a serious suggestion, or merely a bargaining ploy. Or a bit of both. It seems monumentally unpractical on many levels, and given the current mess in South Sudan, the international community is unlikely to back another break-up. But tens of thousands of Muslims have been forced out of their homes, with many fleeing into Cameroon or Chad, and in Bambari most Muslims I spoke to felt partition was the right policy. Gen Zoundeiko was adamant. "This state - this nation - is finished," he told me. The words hung in the air. I suggested it was a pity that Muslims and Christians could not be reconciled and share one country. "Yes. But we've been chased away by our Christian brothers," he said. "Today you'll find no Muslims in Christian neighbourhoods. But in Muslim neighbourhoods you'll still find Christians living under the protection of our soldiers." I asked him where he proposed drawing a new international border - and whether Bambari, previously a predominantly Christian town, would become the capital of a new northern Muslim country. "That's for the future to decide," he said abruptly. And with that, we left Bambari for the 10-hour drive back to the capital. More militia checkpoints. Another puncture, and a few hours at a roadside tyre-repair stall. It struck me that for CAR's political class, Bambari is simply a bargaining chip - a spot on the map to be haggled over, along with ministerial posts and salaries, at any future peace talks. In contrast, I thought of Joseph Bama, the tireless doctor coping with a steady influx of wounded civilians at Bambari's dilapidated hospital. I called him on the phone from Bangui. "Three more cases yesterday, another casualty this morning. "But I'm an optimist. You have to be," he said hurriedly before rushing back to the wards. Read Andrew Harding's previous reports from his trip in CAR:

Question: On a dirt side - street between the @placeholder petrol station and the hospital in Bambari in the Central African Republic , five well - armed soldiers were standing guard outside the tall gates of what must once have been a rather grand colonial villa .


Such access has a major impact on people's ability to prepare for, survive and recover from disasters. In the Philippines, for example, 99% of people can access a mobile phone. Text messaging and Twitter saved many lives in a 2012 typhoon, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent says. Other examples of technology helping save lives or aid recovery include the use of text messages to deliver hurricane warnings in Haiti and a computerised barcode system to monitor the distribution of humanitarian supplies in Syria. The author of the IFRC's annual World Disasters report notes that while "the overall number of people affected by disasters decreased in 2012, the number of people affected in the poorest countries increased, with over 31.7 million people affected". "They are also often the ones with the least access to technology," said Patrick Vinck. IFRC Secretary General Bekele Geleta expressed hope that "governments and affected people in disaster-prone countries can take advantage of innovations such as weather prediction software, satellite imagery and mass alert systems, increasing their resilience to disasters and their ability to recover quickly when they do happen". "Typhoon Bopha affected 6.3 million people in the Philippines, and thousands of lives were saved because 99% of the population have access to a mobile phone and could receive early warnings and information on staying safe." he said. However the report also warns that humanitarian agencies should not make the mistake of listening only to those who are connected and excluding those who are not. It urges the private sector, humanitarian organisations, governments and local communities to work together to ensure access to technology for such populations.

Question: Some of the countries most prone to natural disasters also have least access to life - saving @placeholder and technology , a major study says .


"Why should I feel any pain or trouble in cutting off the hand that was raised against the Holy Prophet?" Those are the words of 15-year-old Qaiser (not his real name) who chopped off his right hand just a few days ago believing he had committed blasphemy. Many believe fellow villagers started shaming the boy after the local cleric had made the accusation of blasphemy - and that is why Qaiser felt the need to prove his love for the Prophet Muhammad. On 11 January, Qaiser was attending a celebration of the Prophet's birth at a mosque in his village in north-eastern Punjab. The cleric hosting it worked the crowd into a fervour and, a few hours into the celebration, called out: "Who among you is a follower of Muhammad?" Everyone raised their hands. He followed it with another question: "Who among you doesn't believe in the teachings of the Holy Prophet? Raise your hands!" Qaiser, mishearing, inadvertently raised his hand. Witnessed by about 100 worshippers, the cleric immediately accused him of blasphemy and the boy returned home to prove his love for the Prophet - by cutting off his own hand. For a 15-year-old, Qaiser looked exceptionally frail when I met him. But his fight with pain and fear was outweighed by a sense of religious righteousness. "When I raised my right hand unwittingly, I realised I had committed blasphemy and needed to atone for this," he told the BBC. It appears it didn't matter to him whether it was a mistake or not - he couldn't live with the shame of the accusation without punishing himself, so had to undo it. "I came back home and went to the grass-cutting machine, but found the place dark so I took my uncle's phone to point some light at my hand. I placed it under the machine and chopped it off in a single swirl." Qaiser picked his severed hand up from under the machine and, bleeding profusely, placed it on a tray and took it back to the mosque, less than 100 metres from his home. Asked about everyone's reaction, he said: "They didn't say anything. A few people came forward to take me to the hospital, before I passed out." Religious fervour did not only override empathy among the villagers - even Qaiser does not seem disposed to self-pity. "I didn't feel any pain when I chopped it off so why would I feel any now? The hand that commits blasphemy should be chopped off," he said, with a restrained smile. His entire village is celebrating the act of expiation. The extreme nature of this "devotional" act has made Qaiser into a revered figure. He is being heralded among the villagers, and to a certain degree by himself, as a righteous hero. Most of his fellow villagers are illiterate and belong to an extremely conservative Islamic sect - their profoundly religious life is reflected in the mosques you find every few paces in this part of Pakistan. But Qaiser's act has even drawn admiration from surrounding villages. Farooq, a man in his mid-thirties, was one of those who came to pay his respects. Appearing at Qaiser's home, he took the boy's left hand, kissed it and pressed it against his forehead. Following local custom, he also placed some cash in the pocket of the teenager he hails as a hero. "I heard that a boy sacrificed his own hand for the love of our Prophet. I came here to meet him." "The boy's gesture to show his love for the Prophet is unmatchable. I'm here to encourage him and to pay homage," he continued, his eyes brimming with tears of affection. Qaiser is the youngest of five children and the first to continue his school studies into his mid-teens. He had always been known for his strong religious convictions. While Qaiser was having his wounds dressed in a poorly-equipped clinic, his father told us: "I hardly make ends meet." Breaking down, he added: "I don't even have money to pay the nurse. I also want a new hand for my son. My only solace is that he did for the Prophet." The cleric has been arrested under anti-terrorism laws, and denies charges of inciting hatred and violence. But the family does not want the cleric to be punished. That Qaiser punished himself so severely after being accused of blasphemy is unprecedented in Pakistan. But some say he may have been spared a worse fate in an increasingly conservative country, where people accused of blasphemy, or those who defend them, can end up victims of mob violence and lynching. In 2011, Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was murdered by one of his own bodyguards in the capital, Islamabad, after criticising Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws and voicing support for a Christian woman sentenced to death for a blasphemy charge she denies. Another outspoken critic of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, Shahbaz Bhatti, the country's first minorities minister and a Christian, was also shot dead in 2011. Many will find the story of what Qaiser did to clear his name disturbing but it highlights the extreme sensitivity around the issue of blasphemy in Pakistan. What may have started as a simple misunderstanding went on to have life changing consequences for a child.

Question: After a Pakistani boy cut off his own hand following a public accusation of blasphemy , BBC Urdu 's Iram Abbasi travelled to his village in Punjab province to find out what happened . She is the first international broadcaster to speak to him . Some readers may find the @placeholder that follow disturbing .


Tiles Bar gave up trying to spell the club's name and instead went for "A German Team" on a sandwich board advertising the Champions League clash against Celtic a fortnight ago. The German team changed their English language Twitter handle to match. The bar now has a sign saying: "A German Team v A Glasgow Team". Borussia Monchengladbach face Celtic in Germany on Tuesday evening in their second Champions League meeting. The Germans won the first game in Glasgow 2-0. Ahead of the match, Gladbach fans were so desperate to get hold of merchandise referring to their club as A German Team that 2,000 scarves sporting the branding sold out within two days. Speaking on the BBC's Good Morning Scotland Radio programme, the man who wrote the sign, assistant manager of Tiles Bar, Brian Pickering, said: "It's been crazy. It just exploded. It snowballed so quickly. "A lot of the local newspapers seemed to pick it up, then it got on to the TV stations, Match of the Day and CNN. It's just incredible." He added: "The team took it in great spirit. We had a bit of a joke about it on Twitter." Borussia Monchengladbach also used "a German Team" on their teamsheet on social media. The club's head of corporate communications, Markus Aretz, told BBC Radio Scotland scarves were in such demand the team ordered another 2,000 to sell ahead of the latest fixture. He said: "When we came back from Glasgow everyone was so enthusiastic about our travel to Glasgow. All the supporters were happy with the result, of course, but also happy with the way they were welcomed in Glasgow and Scotland. "We thought about doing something for the match when they come to play here so we produced the scarves and within two days they were sold out." He said he knew lots of people struggled to pronounce the side's name but that they liked to see the "funny" side of it. Mr Pickering said the fuss over the sign had been attracting German fans to the Edinburgh pub. He added: "We've shown the last three Monchengladbach games in the pub and it seems to be that some of the Germans in town make their way here to watch the game. It's been a great response."

Question: An Edinburgh pub which went viral after it gave German football team Borussia Monchengladbach a new title has updated its @placeholder ahead of the latest match .


Around 2,900 staff had been due to walk out from Friday in a long-running dispute about pay and benefits. BA had said the crew's pay and rewards are in line with competitors but Unite said the action was about benefits not being reinstated for crew who took part in earlier industrial action. The union says talks will now be held at conciliation service Acas to reach an agreement. Unite said the cabin staff, who work on both short and long-haul routes as part of the airline's "mixed fleet" agreement, are paid less than other BA crew. "Mixed-fleet" cabin crew have staged 26 days of strikes so far, and Unite says that as a result, 1,400 of its members have had their travel benefits taken away. BA had called the new strike "completely unnecessary" adding it "had reached a deal on pay, which Unite's national officers agreed was acceptable". But the union said action had come about because the airline had treated staff who had participated in earlier strike action unfairly. "Punishing staff for using legitimate industrial means to reach a wage deal is a culture that Unite cannot accept," it added. It comes after the airline suffered an IT failure which left 75,000 passengers stranded over the bank holiday weekend.

Question: British Airways cabin crew have suspended a @placeholder four - day strike .


The trunks of two pines on West Cliff Green, Bournemouth, were each drilled up to 15 times last June. A third pine was damaged the following month and a "crystal-like" substance was discovered on its bark. Tests revealed the substance was the herbicide glyphosate, the borough council said. Residents have said they are "appalled" by the loss. Nick Colledge, from Bournemouth Borough Council, said the samples from all three trees "tested positive for very high levels of the herbicide glyphosate". In a bid to prevent further damage and save the pines, the holes were plugged with wooden dowels to stop any other substances from being poured inside, and CCTV was installed in the area last October. But two of the trees have now died and the third is in a poor condition, the council said. Chris Colledge, of West Cliff Green Residents' Association, said: "Residents and a number of hoteliers along West Cliff are absolutely appalled that someone should take the law into their own hands, with a motive of whatever purpose, and target these beautiful trees." The council now plans to plant six new trees around the existing damaged trees. Dorset Police is investigating the damage, but no arrests have been made.

Question: Two of three pine trees that were deliberately drilled and had @placeholder poured into them have died .


HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has announced a voluntary redundancy scheme affecting staff in four of its offices in NI. The offices affected are in Enniskillen, Londonderry, Newry and Belfast. An HMRC spokesperson said the redundancies were necessary as more customers choose to do business with them online. The number of staff eligible to apply for redundancy is 24 in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh; 77 in Londonderry; 134 in Newry, County Down, and five in Belfast. The HMRC spokesperson said: "An increasing number of customers are choosing to do business with us through our online services, which has reduced our need for physical sites. "This change has seen the nature of our work shift away from the mass processing work of the past to the more specialist, but less labour-intensive, roles required in effective policing of the tax system. "As a result some areas of our work do not require as many staff." The spokesperson added: "We are not closing any offices today." Sinn F??in MPs Conor Murphy and Michelle Gildernew, along with SDLP MP Mark Durkan, are to travel to Westminster to press the UK government to reconsider the job losses. Mr Murphy, MP for Newry and Armagh, said: "This has come out of the blue for the workers. "They have been told they have to agree to a voluntary exit scheme by 18 December, and are adamant there is no opportunity for redeployment."

Question: Almost 250 civil service jobs could be @placeholder in Northern Ireland .


When we arrived in darkness all was calm and quiet. We were greeted courteously by men carrying copies of the US constitution, who told us they were unarmed. They had draped the US flag over a sign at the entrance to the wildlife refuge and they offered us a cup of coffee. The guards told us that the armed men inside were not taking visitors at present but would be happy to come out and meet the media face to face in the morning. One of the men tried to give me a small US Fish and Wildlife Service sign from the building "as a souvenir". "It's mine," he said, "I paid for it," making a reference to his taxes. A short distance away, down a slope in the darkness, sat the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge itself, a collection of more than a dozen buildings which serves as the headquarters for a sanctuary established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908. A spot popular with birdwatchers keen to catch a glimpse of a greater sandhill crane may seem an improbable symbol of oppression but the men here insist the federal government has overreached its authority and has no right to this land. The refuge abuts property owned by the two men whose incarceration sparked this whole protest, Dwight Hammond and his son Steven. Their lawyer told the BBC that the Hammonds, who have already served time in prison for setting fires which spread to public land, had travelled to California on Sunday to hand themselves in after federal prosecutors won an appeal that resulted in lengthier jail terms. Publicly they have distanced themselves from the action, taken by people who are not neighbours or locals. But some people in the community around the town of Burns say while they do not approve of the methods, they are in tune with the sentiment. Back at the bird reserve, the mood changed slightly as the day dawned, the birds started singing and the winter sun struggled to pierce the hazy clouds. The media were now at the gate in force and the men there were more reluctant to talk. "We need to stick to the narrative," one told us as he explained why we needed to wait for their leader Ammon Bundy. Down a slight hill, we could now see the headquarters clearly, the red roofs of the sheds standing out against the snow. Several dark-clad figures moved around in the complex. At the top of a metal observation tower two men surveyed the surroundings. There was not much for them to see apart from satellite trucks, camera crews and a solitary, unexplained drone. For miles around there was no sign at all of any law enforcement officers although the word in Burns, some 30 minutes away, is that the hotels are packed with FBI agents. Critics of this occupation are putting pressure on the federal authorities to enforce the law and end it. They have accused the occupiers of this building of being domestic terrorists, using force to impose their will. Those involved insist they are patriots and they claim they have the law on their side. The US constitution prohibits the federal government from owning this land, they say. When Mr Bundy emerged to speak to the media he refused to tell me how many people were inside the bird sanctuary or how many were armed but, after the news conference, camera crews were given a limited tour of the site. Several children also came along although the militia men said the youngsters were visitors who were not staying on the site. We were told we would not be shown anything relating to "operational security" or anything that would "put lives at risk" and, indeed, we were kept away from any weapons on the site. A number of US government vehicles sat in the car park, covered in snow. We were not allowed into most of the buildings and saw no more than a dozen men and one woman inside. We were taken into a building where one of the protestors said he had been sleeping. It appeared to be a gym for the federal employees who usually manage this land. There were cans of chicken noodle soup, oranges, apples and other food. Through a glass window we could see a man and a woman cooking food in a kitchen. The site appeared to be in good condition. Not all of the men here were keen to talk but those who were have urged supporters to take up arms and join them to assert the rights of ranchers in the American west, rights which they say have been trampled by a federal government over-reaching its authority. They say they are prepared to stay here for years to make that point and, so far, there is no sign at all of them leaving or being forced from this land. But with the absence of law enforcement this is not a stand-off. Not yet anyway.

Question: The latest clash between Washington and the west is playing out on a snowy desert @placeholder in the wilds of Oregon .


Security researcher Hugo Teso was able to "hijack" the systems to feed false navigation information to a simulated jet that made it change course. Mr Teso built his simulator using spare parts from real jets for sale on the eBay auction site. Authorities say actual flight computers are not compromised by his work but want to find out more. The loopholes in the flight management system were detailed by Mr Teso during a presentation to the Hack In The Box conference in Amsterdam. Mr Teso, who is also a qualified commercial pilot, said he had spent the past four years investigating the many different computer and data systems found on aircraft which help them fly and navigate safely. "I expected them to have security issues but I did not expect them to be so easy to spot," he said. "I thought I would have to fight hard to get into them but it was not that difficult." Mr Teso set out to find a way to subvert the flight management systems (FMS) found on many different aircraft. He planned to feed them fake or booby-trapped data via well-known radio communication systems. Old aviation equipment was bought via eBay to help Mr Teso interrogate the code these systems ran. This hardware was used to build a simulated aircraft that ran many of the systems found on commercial aircraft and could swap data via radio with the air traffic and navigation systems used in the real world. The lab work produced an attack toolkit that could influence the FMS of the simulated aircraft as it was "in flight". "I can influence the guidance and navigation of the aircraft," he told the BBC, adding that the system had "limitations". "It requires some careful planning and timing to achieve results," he said. Despite this, he said, publicity about the talk had led the European Aviation and Safety Agency (EASA) and the US Federal Aviation Administration to get in touch seeking more details. Now, he said, Mr Teso and n.runs, the German security company he works for, are setting up meetings to pass on his findings. In a statement, EASA said it was aware of Mr Teso's work and presentation. "This presentation was based on a PC training simulator and did not reveal potential vulnerabilities on actual flying systems," it said. "There are major differences between a PC-based training FMS software and an embedded FMS software." The version used on flight desks was hardened to avoid many of the loopholes found in the training systems, it added. Mr Teso said there was little risk that malicious hackers would be able to use what he found. "You would have to have solid knowledge of aviation and its protocols and that's not easy to get," he said, adding that he planned to keep on with the research. He said there were lots of other "approach vectors" for hacking aircraft systems.

Question: Aviation agencies in Europe and the US are keen to quiz a hacker who @placeholder flight deck computers .


Mrs Brooks said she "didn't think anybody, me included, knew it was illegal". She told the Old Bailey she felt "shock and horror" after she discovered murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked. Mrs Brooks, one of seven defendants on trial, denies four charges. She said she was never asked to sanction the accessing of voicemails for a story during her time as editor of the newspaper. "No journalist ever came to me and said 'We're working on so and so a story but we need to access their voicemail and we need to ask for my sanction to do it'," she said. "Even though I didn't know it was illegal, I absolutely felt it was in the category of a serious breach of privacy." Mrs Brooks denies conspiring to hack phones, conspiring to commit misconduct in public office, and conspiring to cover up evidence to pervert the course of justice. Mrs Brooks said she knew nothing about the tasking of the convicted phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire to access 13-year-old Milly's voicemails in 2002. She told the court she only became aware Milly's phone had been hacked on 4 July 2011. The NoW was closed later that month following the revelations. Asked about her reaction to hearing the schoolgirl's phone had been targeted, the 45-year-old said: "Shock, horror, everything. I just think anyone would think that that was pretty abhorrent, so my reaction was that." The court heard Milly's mobile phone was hacked between 10 and 12 April, when Mrs Brooks was on holiday in Dubai with her former husband, Ross Kemp. Her barrister, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, asked: "Was that ever brought to your attention at any point, firstly during your holiday in Dubai?" "Absolutely not," Mrs Brooks said. "Or thereafter?" Mr Laidlaw asked, to which she replied "No". Mr Laidlaw also questioned Mrs Brooks about how often she was on her phone during the Dubai holiday. He referred to past evidence given by William Hennessy, who was at Dubai at the same time with Dean Keyworth, a friend of Andy Coulson, and who spent some time with Mrs Brooks and Mr Kemp. He had said he remembered Mrs Brooks walking away to take a call about "the missing Surrey girl". Mrs Brooks said she did not remember saying that, and that had she referred to Milly, it would have been by name and not as "the missing Surrey girl". The court heard that Mrs Brooks made four calls to the editor's desk at the NoW on 12 April, sent four texts to Mr Coulson's mobile and received a call from his phone. Mr Laidlaw asked her if that was an unusual number of calls to be making while on holiday. She said it was normal given it was a Friday night - when she would usually check to see "how the paper's going" before it went to print. Taking Mrs Brooks through call records between her phone and the NoW editor's office, Mr Laidlaw also asked her what she would have done had someone told her on the Thursday or Friday that they thought they had a lead on Milly's whereabouts. "Tell the police," Mrs Brooks said. "I would have assumed probably that they would have told the police before me. If they had not, I would have told them to do so." The court also heard that a full transcript of a voicemail message mistakenly left on Milly's phone by a recruitment agency had been included in the first and second editions of the NoW that weekend - 14 April 2002. But references to the voicemail were omitted from the third edition, which was the main selling edition of the paper, the court heard. Mrs Brooks, who was in Dubai until the Sunday, said she played no part in the change. She also denied having anything to do with pushing the story from page nine to page 30 of the third edition. The Old Bailey earlier heard details of a contract which agreed to pay convicted phone hacker Mulcaire ?¡ê1,769 a week, or ?¡ê92,000 a year, to supply information. Mrs Brooks said she had not seen the contract, which started on September 1, 2001. Read profiles of the defendants Mulcaire was jailed in 2007, along with the the NoW's then-royal editor, Clive Goodman, after admitting intercepting voicemails. Mrs Brooks said a lot of investigators were used during the late 1990s and early 2000s, adding that it was "pretty normal" in Fleet Street. She said investigators did the "leg work" for journalists, citing an example when the newspaper traced convicted paedophiles living in the community. She said she had "never heard the name of Glenn Mulcaire" before his arrest. All seven defendants deny the various charges against them.

Question: Rebekah Brooks has told the phone - hacking trial she did not realise the @placeholder was illegal when she was editor of the News of the World


Ajer, 17, will join the club on a four-year deal in the summer, after agreeing personal terms following a trial. The midfielder has captained and been a regular for IK Start in Norway, but recognises he has to develop further to succeed at Celtic. "I come here as a 17-year-old that surely no-one has heard about, so I need to prove myself," he said. Media playback is not supported on this device "I expect much from myself." Highly-rated in his homeland, the Norway Under-17 cap revealed his decision to join the Scottish champions was influenced by the presence of his compatriot Ronny Deila as Celtic manager. The midfielder did not seek assurances about Deila's long-term future at the club before committing to a contract, though. "He's the manager now and that's what's important," Ajer said. "You don't know what will happen. Ronny's a great manager and I am really sure that he will be manager for a long time. "Back in Norway, he won the Premiership and I will prove that I am good enough to play. "I'm a full member of the A squad. I need to prove myself, develop and be good in training. Hopefully I will play a lot, that's my goal. "I'm a holding midfielder that likes to be on the ball and win it back again. I've had many role models who I've seen on YouTube, such as Patrick Vieira - a great player in that position. "At Celtic, there are holding midfielders who are so good that I need to learn from. I can't wait to start training with them and learn everything. "I've played almost 50 matches in the Premiership in Norway and I felt I was ready to come to such a big club as this and develop as much as I can." Ajer admitted other teams had been keen to sign him but that Celtic was his "number one club", explaining: "I wanted to come here. "My parents have my whole life told me to keep my feet on the ground and never think you are better than someone else, you have to prove yourself," he added. "I will [now return home to] take the driving licence and finish second grade at my high school, so I have many things to do back in Norway."

Question: Kristoffer Ajer says he has joined Celtic to show he can @placeholder at a higher level .


There will also be daily reports after each session and contributions from the 5 live F1 team from the second test - as well as a special 5 live season preview show coming from Barcelona on March 3. The 2016 season gets under way on 20 March, with the first race in Melbourne, Australia. Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona - 22-25 February Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona - 1-4 March Ferrari - launched Haas - launched Force India - launched Renault - launched McLaren - launched Mercedes - launched Red Bull - launched Sauber - 1 March Toro Rosso - launched Williams - launched Manor - launched

Question: You can @placeholder Formula 1 testing on BBC Sport live , with track updates , expert analysis , social media reaction , debate , voting , the latest pictures and more from Barcelona .


The deadline set by Aberdeen City Council for claims related to Hazlehead Crematorium passed at 17:00. Baby and adult ashes were mixed together at the crematorium and given back to relatives of the adult. The parents of the infants were told there were no ashes. Thompsons Solicitors told BBC Scotland they were dealing with 171 cases. Aberdeen City Council said it could not confirm the number of claims it had received. The council announced in December last year that it had approved a new financial compensation scheme for those affected. BBC Scotland revealed in 2013 that no ashes had been offered to the families of infants cremated in Aberdeen over a five-year period.

Question: A solicitors ' firm acting for families affected by the baby ashes scandal in Aberdeen has @placeholder 171 cases for compensation .


Amina Al-Jeffery, 21, who has dual British and Saudi Arabian nationality, claims her father Mohammed Al-Jeffery locked her up after she "kissed a guy". She has described "metal bars" on her bedroom and being a "locked-up girl with a shaved head", her lawyers said. They are asking the High Court in London to come to her aid. Her father disputes his daughter's allegations. Ms Al-Jeffery was taken to Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, by her family four years ago, Mr Justice Holman was told. Barristers representing her said it had been difficult to receive instructions from her - but she had spoken to a member of staff at the British Consulate in Jeddah. She told them there had been a "practice" of "locking her in her room", and her younger sister had been told she was an "evil girl". A sister had seen her in Saudi Arabia and found "a locked-up girl with a shaved head", she told them. She also said "metal bars are no longer in her room" but "she is still locked up in the house" and "not allowed to use the phone or internet", her lawyers said. She spoke of being "prevented from going to the bathroom" and being "forced to urinate in a cup", and said her father had hit her, the court heard. Lawyers representing Ms Al-Jeffery said they have taken legal action in London in a bid to protect her. Her father, an academic in his 60s, had objected to her returning to the UK, Henry Setright QC said. Her mother and siblings were back in South Wales, he said. "She has expressed a wish to return to England but has been prevented from doing so by her father," he argued in a written document give to Mr Justice Holman. Her father's treatment "has extended to depriving her of food and water, depriving her of toilet facilities, physical assault and control of her ability to marry who she wishes and creating a situation in which she feels compelled to marry as a means of escape", he added. He said it amounted to a breach of her "fundamental human rights". The judge, Mr Justice Holman, said on Wednesday that issues raised were "important and difficult" and that he had to consider whether he had the power to make orders relating to a woman abroad. The "right thing" might be to order that she was taken to the British Consulate in Jeddah, he said. If she sought sanctuary, Foreign Office staff would then have to make decisions, he added. Mr Al-Jeffery, who disputes the claims against him, had written a letter earlier this year refusing to return his daughter to the UK, Mr Setright said. "I am unwilling to do this as I fear she will go back to her old destructive lifestyle," he wrote. "As her father, I fear for her health and safety and only want what is best for Amina, so she may focus on her education." His lawyer, Marcus Scott-Manderson QC, said none of the claims against his client were "remotely admitted", and urged the judge to proceed with caution when deciding whether to make orders. He said the Saudi government was paying Mr Al-Jeffery's legal bills, via the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Neither Miss Al-Jeffery nor Mr Al-Jeffery have been at the hearing in London, which is expected to end on Thursday.

Question: A Swansea woman has been @placeholder by her father in a house in Saudi Arabia for four years , a court has been told .


Hilary Benn will be shadow foreign secretary in the new Labour leader's first shadow cabinet. Lord Falconer will be shadow justice secretary, Angela Eagle will be shadow business secretary and Lewisham MP Heidi Alexander will oversee health. Chuka Umunna said he was leaving the front bench by "mutual agreement". Mary Creagh, shadow international development secretary, said she was also returning to the backbenches. Ms Eagle was also announced as shadow first secretary of state and will deputise for Mr Corbyn at Prime Minister's Questions when David Cameron is away. Seema Malhotra has been named shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, while Diane Abbott - a high-profile supporter of Mr Corbyn - is shadow minister for international development. It was confirmed earlier that Rosie Winterton will continue as chief whip and Ian Murray will continue as shadow Scottish secretary. BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said Mr Corbyn has achieved part of his first goal as leader - to include people from the centre of the party, including well-known names. But our correspondent added many MPs will find the appointment of Mr McDonnell - a key ally of Mr Corbyn on the left - "very hard to stomach". In other developments: Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson had urged MPs to back Mr Corbyn. But the other leadership candidates Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall, as well as Ms Creagh, Tristram Hunt, Rachel Reeves, Chris Leslie, Jamie Reed, Emma Reynolds and Shabana Mahmood said they would not serve in Mr Corbyn's shadow cabinet. Ms Cooper will, however, chair a new party taskforce on refugees. Mr Umunna - who pulled out of the leadership race days after declaring his candidacy earlier this year - described leaving the shadow cabinet as one of the most difficult "personal political decisions" he has had to make. "Whilst there is much on which Jeremy and I agree, there are a number of key points of difference on policy which I believe it would be dishonest to deny exist," he said. He added he would "find it difficult to abide by the collective responsibility" of being in the shadow cabinet - "not least on the European referendum". Mr Corbyn has said he is not content with the EU as it stands, but wants to stay to fight for a "better Europe". He had previously refused to rule out campaigning to leave. Few MPs backed Mr Corbyn in the leadership contest - which he won with 59% of the vote - but his deputy Mr Watson told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show there was "zero chance of a coup". He did however concede that he had differences with Mr Corbyn over the leader's desire to scrap the Trident nuclear deterrent and take the UK out of Nato. But he said his message for those refusing to serve in the shadow cabinet was "there's always someone else that can do a front bench job". What the media says about Corbyn Business reaction to Corbyn win Beginner's guide to Corbyn Who are Jeremy Corbyn's main allies? 24 things that Jeremy Corbyn believes The Jeremy Corbyn Story

Question: Jeremy Corbyn has named John McDonnell shadow chancellor and @placeholder leadership candidate Andy Burnham shadow home secretary .


Seamus James Laverty, 58, of Deer Park Road in Toome, pleaded guilty to 16 counts of fraud by false representation at Antrim Crown Court. Laverty sold ordinary glass as fire safety glass between 2010 and 2013 when he worked on the factory floor of Glassworks Ireland. The fraud totalled ¡ê145,000. The glass was sold to the construction industry and later used in buildings across Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and England. These include the Ulster Hospital, Strathearn School in east Belfast, Lisburn Road Methodist Church in Belfast, Magherafelt High School in County Londonderry, Carrickfergus Primary School in County Antrim, Tallaght Hospital in Dubin and Manchester University. A whistleblower, who was a competitor of Laverty, became suspicious of his company's cheap tenders and acquired a sample of fire safety glass from Glassworks Ireland. He discovered it was, in fact, ordinary laminate glass which had been stamped as fire resistant. The whistleblower alerted police and an investigation began. The court heard that Laverty had his own glass business but had gone bankrupt, so the company was taken over by his son under a new name. He was an employee of his son's business when the fraud occurred. A judge described the case as "chilling". Referring to potential harm to members of the public in a fire, he said: "By the grace of God it was avoided but that's no thanks to you." The judge added that because of the extreme financial pressures Laverty had been under and mental difficulties he had experienced because of those, he was prepared to "temper justice with mercy". Members of Laverty's family wept as he was sentenced to two years - one year to be served in prison and the other on licence. A police spokesperson said Laverty's actions were "absolutely reckless". They added: ""This was a fraud designed to make large amounts of money but which put lives, many of them vulnerable lives, at risk."

Question: A County Antrim man has been jailed for a year for selling fake fire safety glass that was later @placeholder at schools , universities and hospitals .


A CCTV image of the men, believed to be working with others, has been released by Sussex Police. Victims' purses and wallets were stolen as they left stores and cash withdrawn from nearby ATM machines before they became aware of the theft. One one occasion they targeted a person in a hospice shop. There have been 22 such reports in Sussex since November last year, mostly in supermarkets, but also from pubs and fast food restaurants. The amounts stolen vary but have reached as much as ¡ê3,500. The men are described as being of Eastern European appearance, one bald and the other with dark hair. Investigator Kayleigh Bartup said: "We are working with the large supermarket brands to raise awareness about these incidents among staff and customers. "Be alert and aware of strangers when shopping and never leave your bag or trolley unattended at any point. Try not to be distracted by strangers, and also be alert for any suspicious activity around your vehicle. "It appears that these men, and others, may strike up to twice a day in different towns, and then lay low for a while, so we need to maintain awareness even when there are no reports."

Question: Two men are suspected of stealing nearly ¡ê 20,000 from shoppers by watching them enter their Pin @placeholder and then stealing their bank cards .


Housing Minister Mostafa Madbouly said the project would cost $45bn (?¡ê30bn) and take five to seven years to complete. He said the aim was to ease congestion and overpopulation in Cairo over the next 40 years. The announcement was made at an investment conference that aims to revive the Egyptian economy. The gathering, in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, has attracted pledges worth $12bn (?¡ê8bn) in aid and investment from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Mr Madbouly said the population of greater Cairo, estimated at about 18 million, was expected to double within 40 years. The Egyptian parliament and its government departments and ministries, as well as foreign embassies, would move to the new metropolis, he said. "We are talking about a world capital," he added. Developers say the new city - the name of which has not been revealed - would include almost 2,000 schools and colleges and more than 600 health care facilities. They say the project will create more than a million jobs. It is planned to be built over 700 sq km (270 sq miles) and house about five million residents. Planners say the proposed city's site "is situated along the corridor between Cairo and the Red Sea, providing linkages to significant shipping routes. It will be built by Capital City Partners, a private real estate investment fund led by Emirati Mohamed Alabbar.  Dubai businessman Mr Alabbar built the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. "It is a natural extension for the city of Cairo," Mr Alabbar told the BBC, saying that the new development would sit on the edge of the existing city. "It is a wonderful opportunity to be able to design something from scratch, and to design it keeping in mind the needs of the Egyptian people and the Egyptian government." He said that the builders would be deploying the most advanced design techniques on the project, and that the city would breed "confidence" and "pride" in Egyptians. The new capital is as yet unnamed, but it sounds like an Egyptian version of Shangri La. It's being billed as a smart sustainable city, on a grand scale. If and when it's completed  - and that could take years - it will be about the size of Singapore, with an airport larger than Heathrow. The idea is to lure Egyptians away from the chaotic sprawl of Cairo - where congestion and pollution seem as constant as the waters of the Nile. The authorities say it will spark a renaissance in the economy. Perhaps, but many here recall other flagship projects - which stalled in the past. Egyptian bureaucracy can be as enduring as the pyramids. President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi can't afford this to fail. Without tangible economic progress there could be more unrest ahead. The move follows those of a number of other countries, including Brazil and Nigeria, that have shifted their capital cities. The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, has praised recent economic reforms in Egypt, and urged businesses to invest in the country. Mr Kerry was also attending the economic conference in Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss ways to revive the Egyptian economy. Dozens of major infrastructure projects have been unveiled, attracting billions of dollars' worth of outside investment.  Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have each pledged $4bn of investments in Egypt, The conference comes after years of political upheaval and severe, ongoing, tensions in Egypt. Foreign investment contracted after the 2011 uprising, from $13bn in 2007-2008 to just $2.2bn, and annual economic growth fell from 7% to about 2%. The International Monetary Fund now envisages 3.8% growth for the financial year to July 2015, and 4.3% in 2015-2016. Foreign direct investment was $4bn in the previous financial year, and Investment Minister Ashraf Salman says it be $8bn in this financial year.

Question: The Egyptian government has announced plans to build a new capital to the @placeholder of the present one , Cairo .


The Jamaican Defence Force said the plane went down about 14 miles (22km) north-east of Port Antonio. The US had earlier scrambled two F-15 fighter jets when the plane failed to respond to air traffic control. The two people known to be on board have been named as Larry Glazer, a property developer from Rochester, New York, and his wife Jane. The couple were both licensed pilots. The plane's pilot had indicated there was a problem and twice asked to descend to a lower altitude before permission was granted, according to a recording of the radio conversation with US traffic controllers. Contact with the plane was lost a short time later. Maj Basil Jarrett of the Jamaican Defence Force told reporters that an oil slick had been spotted about 14 miles north-east of the coastal town of Port Antonio but there was no sign yet of any wreckage. He said search and rescue teams were scouring the waters for possible survivors. As darkness fell, Jamaica suspended the search until first light on Saturday. The plane, a Socata TBM-700 built in 2014, took off from Rochester at 08:26 (12:26 GMT) en route to Naples, Florida. The North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) was alerted to the unresponsive plane about an hour into its flight and sent two fighter jets to monitor it. A spokesman said it was not possible for the fighter pilots to see inside the plane as the windows were frosted or fogged over. A tweet from Norad suggested the pilot or pilots could have been be unresponsive due to "possible hypoxia" - oxygen deprivation. On a recording made by LiveATC - a website that monitors air traffic control recordings - and quoted by the Associated Press, the pilot can be heard saying:  "We need to descend to about (18,000 feet). We have an indication that's not correct in the plane." A controller replies: "Stand by." After a pause, the controller tells the pilot to fly at 25,000ft. "We need to get lower," the pilot responded. "Working on that," the controller says. Controllers then clear the plane to descend to 20,000ft and the pilot acknowledges the command. Minutes later a controller asks the plane to identify itself. There is no response. According to FlightAware, the plane never carried out the last descent to 20,000ft. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo paid tribute to the couple. "The Glazers were innovative and generous people who were committed to revitalising downtown Rochester," he said. The couple's three children said in a statement they were "devastated". The US Federal Aviation Administration said it co-operated with Cuba air traffic control in monitoring the plane, despite the countries not having full diplomatic relations for more than half a century. Cuba said it had authorised the US military to fly a C-130 cargo plane and two fighter jets over its airspace to investigate the incident.

Question: An unresponsive private plane has crashed in the sea off Jamaica , officials on the @placeholder have said .


There's an elephant in the room. Well, not an elephant as such. Not an elephant at all, in fact. A bulldog. The football chat is parked for a minute until we figure out why all these bulldogs are hanging about in his office at McDiarmid Park. There are bulldogs on a calendar behind his desk. There's talk about a bulldog called Winston - and there's a toy bulldog draped in a union flag beside his telephone. There's a story that goes with that, he says. That's Jack, the desktop bulldog from Skyfall, the chap that M bequeaths to Bond upon death and which James is still in possession of in Spectre. Are you following this? Jack is memorabilia now. The 007 people have probably made fortunes selling replicas to bulldog lovers everywhere, such as the Wrights of Perth. "My wife, Anne, got me him for Christmas," said the 53-year-old St Johnstone manager. "We have a real one of our own - Winston. Born on the day we won the Scottish Cup final. A pedigree dog. Has cost us thousands in vet fees. "I've got asthma and I'm allergic to him, but he's fantastic. The boys here say he looks just like me. "Actually, I might bring him in next week. He can go and chase Murray Davidson around for a bit." Wright lords it over McDiarmid Park like a colossus, a big bear of a man who continues to do an outstanding job. On a budget as tight as a gnat's behind, St Johnstone have, of course, gloriously and historically won the cup on his watch and have finished sixth, fourth and fourth in the league in his three full seasons. They currently sit fifth, just one point off Hearts in fourth and only six behind Rangers in third. They go to Ibrox on Wednesday night. We can add layers to that. In all competitions, St Johnstone had a win percentage of 48% in season one under Wright, then 39%, then 43% and now 44%. They are two points ahead of where they were this time last season, which is a fair old feat in itself given that the league is stronger now than it was then. The numbers would be better had they not lost to Kilmarnock on Saturday, a performance that had Wright fuming. Killie, for some bizarre reason, have become the unlikeliest of bogey teams, beating St Johnstone in four of the last five meetings. Wright rated it as the worst performance of the season and maybe even the worst performance of his time in Perth. That's one thing about him - he doesn't mess about. No sugar-coating, no soft-soap. Saints are in an awkward little run, losing three of their last four, including a cup exit to Partick Thistle, but only a daftie would bet on this continuing for much longer. They've been in ruts before and have dug themselves out. We look at them now and almost take top-four for granted. Wright doesn't, but it's understandable why many others do. "You mentioned the 39% from three seasons ago - we lost Stevie May, scored 34 goals (only relegated St Mirren scored fewer), finished fourth and got into Europe," he recalled. "It may not be pretty, but we had a lot of injuries, so we adapted, we were ruthless, we won games 1-0, we won games from 1-0 down. To me, that was an achievement because somehow we managed with 34 goals to do what we did. "The year we won the cup, we played 50 games and the 50th game was our 23rd clean sheet. People say you're organised. I don't see what's wrong with being organised. "I'm not surprised, but I never take it for granted because you have to work so hard in this league. I'm pleased where we are." Wright arrived into English football with Newcastle pretty late, as a 24-year-old out of Ballyclare in Northern Ireland. "I always felt I was behind the eight-ball a little bit and people were questioning my ability," he admits. "I had that attitude that I was going to prove people wrong. You can't have success without a great work ethic, it doesn't matter how much ability you have. "If you look at Celtic's quality this year - the work ethic of that team has gone up maybe 20 to 30%. "I don't go on about philosophy. Maximise what you've got, that's it. "We're mentioned as a long-ball team and we're not. How do you play long ball with Blair Alston, David Wotherspoon and Danny Swanson in your team? "It's a perception of what we are. We're a strong team, we have players who are strong characters who want to win and put their bodies on the line. "We all know it's a challenge to get top-six, but there's that fear of not getting it that drives me on." There's an in-joke about Wright at McDiarmid Park, a gag that gets a new airing anytime there's a big job available in Scotland or in the Championship in England. "That'll be the gaffer away," the dressing room says. "Removal men coming today, Tommy, aye?" Wright is going nowhere, not yet anyway. After Mark Warburton exited Ibrox, he got some mentions as the type of strong leader that Rangers need, but the Glasgow club look to be heading in a different direction. "When are you leaving?" is a question he gets a lot to the point that he wishes people would stop asking it. It's flattering and all of that, but it's hypothetical. Wright is more nose to the grindstone than head in the clouds. "It's become a wind-up in here," he says. "With this dressing room, it's just constant ribbing. "Somebody left a black bag outside my office the other day. (Stevie) MacLean says Anne was in to clean up my stuff. It very quickly passes - and they get plenty in return, trust me. "The one thing I do know is that, if a club knocks on the door and wants to take me away from St Johnstone, I'll be ready for that. "I've done the work, I know I'm capable of making the step up and that's no disrespect to the club I'm at, because I love it here. But I'm ambitious and if I wasn't ambitious then my chairman would be worried. "I'm proud of the work we're doing. There's different aspects to management. There's the tactical side, but then there's getting the best out of people, man-managing people, exhausting every ounce, squeezing everything you can out of the resources you've got. "The chairman can never say he doesn't get value for money, because I'll squeeze everything out." On Wednesday, St Johnstone visit Ibrox. Win that game and they move to within three points of third place. Lose it and the gap rises to nine and maybe that chance of third goes out of the window. It's a hard one to call. Saints are in a bit of a dip, but Rangers are in a trough. They've met four times in Wright's spell in charge and it's been a win apiece with the most recent matches ending in a pair of 1-1 draws. "I look at Rangers and they have a lot of gifted footballers and they have a lot of possession of the ball and the one criticism would be that they don't turn that possession into enough goals," Wright suggests. "They're still a good side that can hurt teams, particularly at home, because they have so much of the ball. I'm almost waiting for them to turn a team over, but it hasn't happened. "I got on really well with Mark [Warburton], but it always looked like there was something just not right. Whatever that is, only Mark could tell you. "I felt there was too many stories linking him with other clubs. Either somebody was being mischievous or it was genuine, but he probably had to answer too many questions about his future for too long. I was surprised when he went, though." Wright picked up on some chatter linking him with the job at Rangers and he was flattered, of course, but he was hardly drumming his fingers on his desk and waiting for the phone to ring. "I'd take that call, but it hasn't happened," he admits. "I'm very happy here. " Not news to the St Johnstone fans, of course, but surely music to their ears nonetheless.

Question: You want to concentrate on Tommy Wright 's words . You want to listen to him as he talks about the values of his St Johnstone team and how he likes to think that it 's built in his own hard - working @placeholder , but there 's a problem .


The free school, planned for September 2017, will use staff and educational expertise from Highgate, where pupils pay ?¡ê18,705 per year. Spurs will be the school's main financial sponsor and provide premises. Highgate's head teacher says it will allow the school to offer an education to poorer families "on our doorstep". The proposed London Academy of Excellence Tottenham plans to offer A-level courses in the London Borough of Haringey, subject to a four-week consultation which begins next week. Highgate has already been involved in Stratford's London Academy of Excellence, which has been successful in getting pupils into top universities. That school has provided the model for the Tottenham school and has been supported by other schools such as Eton. The plan for the school promises an "academically-rigorous curriculum" aimed at pupils living in Tottenham from "disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds". Haringey council leader Claire Kober welcomed the proposal as a "significant step in our ambition to ensure that young people in Tottenham have access to the same level of opportunity as any of their peers in London". Adam Pettitt, Highgate's head, said the school would enable "bright local children, especially those with disadvantaged backgrounds, to access a high-calibre academic education and first-rate preparation for university and employment". "Although Highgate School is situated in an affluent area of London, some of the least affluent and most challenged parts of the whole city are on our doorstep." Donna-Maria Cullen, executive director for Spurs, said the project would help to regenerate "one of the poorest parts of Britain". "What has become evident to us is both the thirst for teaching at the highest level and a real need to retain the brightest schoolchildren in Tottenham," she added.

Question: Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and a leading private school , Highgate School , are proposing a @placeholder sixth form in north London .


An image of a Kyrgyz passport purportedly belonging to the suspect circulated on social media. But Kyrgyz authorities said they had questioned the man and that he had played no part in the attack. Turkish media have run images of a suspect, saying they were given out by the police. But the police have given no official details of the search for the suspect. The passport image circulated on social media shows a similar-looking man to the suspect, but the head of the Kyrgyz security services told the BBC that the passport holder was not involved. Rakhat Sulaimanov said the man had been questioned by both their agents and Turkish security and that he had nothing to do with the attack. The Kyrgyz authorities say they were not contacted by their Turkish counterparts about the possible connection. Tairbek Sarpashev from the Kyrgyz state registration service, said they only started to investigate the man in question after seeing the media reports. Turkish media have said the man police are investigating is from Central Asia and had rented a flat in the central city of Konya with a woman believed to be his wife and two children, who have been detained. As more details emerge about the Istanbul nightclub gunman, it looks increasingly likely that - unlike most of the attacks in France and Germany last summer - the murderer had at least some rudimentary military training. Like the IS gunmen who attacked Paris in November 2015 and the jihadists who attacked Mumbai in 2008, he arrived on the scene with several full magazines for his assault rifle, each containing 30 rounds. Reports from the scene say he fired more than 100 rounds, shooting at the wounded and setting off explosive devices as a distraction as he reloaded. After nearly six years of civil war in Syria, and a still-active insurgency in Iraq, governments in both Europe and the Middle East are deeply concerned that fanatical jihadists who have spent time in those arenas will try to import their lethal skills into other countries. Some reports suggest police have gathered details of the man from calls he made on the mobile phone of the taxi driver who took him to the nightclub. However, nothing has been officially confirmed as Turkish authorities have given no details. The only official statements came from Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus, who said on Monday that authorities had fingerprints and a basic description of the suspect. Twelve people were arrested on Monday and another two foreigners were detained at Istanbul's Ataturk airport on Tuesday. Late on Tuesday, Turkey's parliament extended a state of emergency imposed following a failed military coup in July.  It will now be in force until at least mid-April. Mr Kurtulmus said the extension was necessary as followers of the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen - whom the government blames for instigating the coup - were still active in public institutions. He added: "Regardless of which terrorist organisation they are (...) and regardless of their motivation, we are determined to fight all terrorist organisations in 2017 and we will fight till the end." The Islamic State (IS) group has said one of its militants carried out the Istanbul attack and a huge manhunt is now underway to find him, with officials at airports and border crossings on high alert. The gunman arrived at the club by taxi early on Sunday, before rushing through the entrance with a long-barrelled gun he had taken from the boot of the car. The attacker fired randomly at people. About two-thirds of those killed were foreign, according to local media. The victims 20 August 2016: Bomb attack on wedding party in Gaziantep kills at least 30 people, in an attack claimed by IS 28 June 2016: A gun and bomb attack on Ataturk airport in Istanbul kills 41 people, blamed on IS militants 19 March 2016: Suicide bomb kills four people in shopping street in Istanbul. IS blamed 12 January 2016: 12 Germans killed by IS bomber in tourist area of Istanbul 10 October 2015: More than 100 killed at peace rally outside railway station in Ankara; blamed on IS 20 July 2015: 34 people killed in bombing in Suruc, near Syrian border; IS blamed

Question: Kyrgyzstan has @placeholder out a suspect named in media reports in connection with the new year attack on an Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people .


It replaces defective genetic material in the egg in order to eliminate rare mitochondrial diseases. After the consultation into "three-person IVF", ministers will decide whether to allow it in patients. A ?¡ê5.8m centre at Newcastle University, funded by the Wellcome Trust, will investigate the technique's safety. Mitochondria can be found within almost every human cell, and provide the energy they need to function. Like the nucleus of the cell, they contain DNA, although in tiny quantities. Approximately 1 in 5,000 babies is born with inherited defects in their mitochondrial DNA, the effects of which can be very severe, or even fatal, depending on which cells are affected. Scientists believe they have found a way to substitute the defective mitochondria and hopefully prevent the child from developing a disease. They take two eggs, one from the mother and another from a donor. The nucleus of the donor egg is removed, leaving the rest of the egg contents, including the mitochondria, and is replaced with the nucleus from the mother's egg. The resulting embryo has properly functioning mitochondria from the donor, and should, in theory, be healthy. This replacement is like replacing a battery and therefore has no impact on the DNA that determines other factors, such as appearance. Even though the child would have a very limited genetic contribution from the third person, there is still opposition from some groups, who say such genetic manipulation carries risks. Currently, a change in the law would be needed before it could be offered to patients. Announcing the consultation, David Willetts, minister for universities and science, said: "Scientists have made an important and potentially life-saving discovery in the prevention of mitochondrial disease. "However, as with all developments in cutting-edge science, it is vital that we to listen to the public's views before we consider any change in the law allowing it to be used." It is hoped the consultation will be complete by the end of this year. Sir Mark Walport, from the Wellcome Trust, said the technique might prevent previously incurable diseases. "We welcome the opportunity to discuss with the public why we believe this technique is essential if we are to give families affected by these diseases the chance to have healthy children, something most of us take for granted." Prof Doug Turnbull, from Newcastle University, added: "Every year we see hundreds of patients whose lives are seriously affected by mitochondrial disease. "We want to make a major difference to the lives of these patients." Groups representing patients and their families also welcomed the announcement. Alastair Kent, from Genetic Alliance UK, said that the impact of mitochondrial disease could be "devastating". He said: "It will be quite a long time before this is available as a clinical service, and our primary concern is to make sure the technique is safe. "But it would be sensible and reasonable to offer it to prevent these conditions."

Question: Public opinion will help decide the @placeholder of a controversial genetic technique to stop serious conditions being passed from mother to child .


BBC London has learned that 823 staff took redundancy while 54 left for other reasons such as retirement when the offices closed in 2015. The TSSA union said it was a waste of money as 325 jobs were reintroduced following a review. The cost was "significantly less" than the savings that were made, TfL said. The plan, announced in 2013 by then mayor Boris Johnson, has prompted numerous strikes. TfL wanted to close the offices to help pay for the 24-hour Night Tube service which is marking one year in operation this Saturday. When Sadiq Khan became mayor, he ordered London Travelwatch to carry out a review which found that staff were not visible enough and more were needed. Ben Stevenson from the TSSA, said: "As a union we didn't want anyone to be made redundant as it is one of the most stressful situations anyone can go through." He said it was right staff were paid what they were legally entitled to but that too many people left the company. "Our objective was to get as many jobs back as possible to ensure the safety of the public and the service," he added. TfL said it had always planned to review staffing levels following the ticket office closures. A TfL spokesperson said: "The one-off voluntary severance costs associated with the closure of ticket offices in 2016 are significantly lower than the hundreds of millions of pounds we will be saving across our business plan from these changes. "We are now undertaking the biggest overhaul in our history which will save ¡ê4bn over the next few years and enable us to deliver a modern, affordable and accessible transport network for all Londoners."

Question: About ¡ê 45 m was @placeholder by Transport for London ( TfL ) making more than 800 people redundant over the controversial plan to close Tube ticket offices .