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How football helped Algeria's liberation movement - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The story of a couple on a secret mission to recruit footballers at the height of Algeria's fight for independence.
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Africa
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Mohamed Maouche says he and his wife, Khadidja, were the first ambassadors of the revolution
One day in late 1958, at the height of the Algerian war of independence, an Algerian couple in their early twenties hopped into a fast car, put on some music and set off on honeymoon from the French capital Paris.
Mohamed and Khadidja Maouche spent the next 48 hours on a whirlwind tour. In a MG convertible - painted British racing green - they drove west to Le Havre, then south to Rennes and Bordeaux, east to Nimes, before heading back up north to Troyes and Reims.
Mohamed was a footballer and had a letter from his club, Stade de Reims, stating that he was authorised to be on leave so that he could celebrate his marriage.
Mohamed and Khadidja were newlyweds - but their honeymoon was an elaborate disguise.
Khadidja secretly recruited Algerian players in France for the liberation movement
In fact, they were on a covert operation for the independence movement Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN), which four years earlier had started a fight against French rule in Algeria.
Their secret mission was to persuade Algerian-born footballers to secretly abandon their top-flight French clubs to play for a team set up by FLN.
Khadidja's role was pivotal. She worked with a collective of Paris-based Algerian lawyers who defended FLN activists and at 20 years old, was the FLN's youngest liaison officer in France.
"I was in charge of contacting the players, either before or during the games," Khadidja says.
"No-one knew I was married to Maouche. They would just be told a FLN activist wanted to speak to them. I would talk to them individually to say: "It's an order, that's it," and they all agreed."
The Algerian couple toured France in this MG convertible as they recruited players for the FLN
Mohamed and Khadidja's enterprise was risky. Both had already served time in prison and were under surveillance by the French intelligence services. Khadidja was also on the target list of La Main Rouge, a shadowy group sponsored by the French state to eliminate FLN members and supporters.
But Mohamed remembers those days of danger and the "crazy" story of the car with affection.
"We had to be sure of ourselves. If you weren't sure of yourself there was no point in going on such missions because, in the worst case scenario, this could cost you dearly. So we were very relaxed."
They drove for 48 hours, practically non-stop, and music was a constant companion.
Mohammed Maouche left French club Stade de Reims and joined the FLN team in 1960
"I loved music so much because it was also a good way to pass the time," Mohamed says.
"There was this one song we used to play. It was by Richard Anthony and it was about a little MG. It was extraordinary. With hair flying in the wind in the open-top car. Oh, we were so young," he giggles.
After recruiting the players, Khadidja and Mohamed instructed them to slip over the border to Switzerland.
Khadidja was told by the FLN man in charge in Geneva to go to a supermarket called Mi-Gros to collect forged travel documents. As she shopped, she was approached and greeted by a man.
"He kissed me and while he was kissing me he said "open your bag!"
In went 15 passports, which allowed Khadidja, Mohamed and the footballers to go to Italy and catch a ferry to Tunisia - where the FLN was based.
There, they joined nine other footballers - three of whom were part of the French 1958 World Cup squad and whose defection earlier in the year struck a real blow to the French establishment.
The FLN team was ready to kick off and over the next four years until independence in 1962, the players went on tours to countries including Iraq, Vietnam and Hungary to highlight the Algerian struggle for independence. They played attacking, entertaining and winning football before huge crowds of up to 80,000.
"We were the first ambassadors of the revolution and the Algerian people," Mohamed believes.
"Because most people did not know that there was a real war in Algeria. We spoke to people after the match and the next day there were interviews and that's how they discovered Algeria. We were true ambassadors."
Le onze de l'independence, as the FLN team was also known, proved to be a powerful way of winning hearts and minds. Seeing a team of eleven in white shorts and green shirts on the football pitch made an imagined Algeria real.
Mohamed Maouche finally joined the FLN team in 1960 and recalls his first match against Libya, which they won 11-0.
"It was really extraordinary because we lined up and the flags go up… and when I saw our flag, the national emblem in the air… with its star and crescent, my heart was racing and I had goosebumps and we all said 'Vive l'Algerie'."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-38488060
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FA Cup: Ali Al-Habsi's mistake gifts Marcus Rashford goal - BBC Sport
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2017-01-07
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Reading goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi makes a horrible mistake to gift Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford a second goal during the Red Devils' 4-0 FA Cup third-round win at Old Trafford.
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Reading goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi makes a horrible mistake to gift Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford a second goal during the Red Devils' 4-0 FA Cup third-round win at Old Trafford.
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38542870
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Football sex abuse: Junior clubs must get coaches cleared or face suspension - BBC Sport
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2017-01-07
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Junior football clubs in England face immediate suspension from the Football Association if their coaches are not cleared to work with children.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Junior football clubs in England face suspension from the Football Association if their coaches have not been cleared to work with children.
The warning, in a letter to clubs from the FA, follows allegations of historical child abuse in the sport.
It is FA policy that all coaches of youth teams must have an FA accepted in-date criminal records check (CRC).
The FA says while 99.7% of clubs have been compliant, there are more than 2,500 coaches without an in-date CRC.
There are also nearly 5,000 youth teams without a named coach.
FA chairman Greg Clarke has written to clubs demanding they update their information on the FA's Whole Game System (WGS) by midnight on 15 January.
Failure to do so will mean "clubs will face suspension from all football activity without further notice", the FA says.
Furthermore, a club's affiliation will be removed as of midnight on 28 February if they remain non-compliant with the requirement that their coaches having an in-date CRC.
The letter warns clubs that if they "have a coach who is not compliant with this, you must not allow them to coach, train, supervise or assist at matches with any youth teams, until this requirement is met".
It continues: "This is an essential aspect of any club's responsibilities when working with U18s and, as a club, you are responsible for ensuring that no-one coaches, or has unsupervised access to children, until they have an FA accepted check."
The spotlight has fallen on abuse in football since a number of former footballers came forward publicly to tell their stories.
Police said in December there are 429 potential victims linked to football, some as young as four at the time of the alleged offence, and 148 clubs are now involved, with 155 potential suspects identified.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38537776
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Florida airport shooting: Shouts of 'run, run' - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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Passengers describe what they saw and heard during a shooting at Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida.
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Travellers have been stranded at Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida after a gunman opened fire earlier on Friday, killing five people.
The suspect has been identified by police as 26-year-old Esteban Santiago, an Iraq war veteran.
Some airport passengers described what they saw and heard.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38541460
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Katie Ormerod wins first World Cup big air title in Moscow - BBC Sport
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2017-01-07
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British snowboarder Katie Ormerod wins her first World Cup big air title in Moscow.
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Last updated on .From the section Winter Sports
Snowboarder Katie Ormerod has become the first Briton to win a World Cup big air.
The 19-year-old pipped Austria's Anna Gasser to claim her maiden victory in extreme -29C temperatures in Moscow.
Big air will make its Winter Olympics debut in PyeongChang in South Korea in February 2018.
Ormerod scored 153.75 as the judges counted the two best runs out of three with Gasser, the World Cup leader, notching up 153.50.
The Yorkshire teenager said: "It was by far the coldest and some of the toughest conditions I've ever had to compete in but an amazing place. I'm stoked to be on the podium with some awesome riders, Anna Gasser and Klaudia Medlova."
It was Ormerod's third World Cup podium this season.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/38544558
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European Champions Cup: Racing 92 7-32 Munster - BBC Sport
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2017-01-07
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Munster honour the memory of Anthony Foley with a bonus-point victory over Racing 92 in their rearranged European Champions Cup tie.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Munster scored four tries to thrash Racing 92 in the European Champions Cup tie rearranged after the death of their head coach Anthony Foley in October.
Simon Zebo, CJ Stander and Andrew Conway all touched down as the visitors led 25-0 at the break in Paris.
Niall Scannell dived over to secure the bonus point before Matthieu Voisin scored a consolation try for the much-changed French champions.
Victory moves Munster top of Pool 1, three points clear of Glasgow Warriors.
The Irish side have now won nine out of 10 competitive games since the sudden death of Foley at their team hotel prior to the original date of this fixture.
They face Pro12 rivals Glasgow at Scotstoun next Saturday before the return leg in Limerick on 21 January against last year's runners-up Racing, who are still without a point in this season's competition.
The significance of the match was marked at the Stade Yves-du-Manoir with the home side - led by former Munster fly-half and current Racing coach Ronan O'Gara - wearing red shirts with Foley's name and the number eight on the back for their pre-game warm-up.
The Racing fans also raised a banner of Foley's nickname 'Axel', while there were 30 seconds of applause prior to kick-off.
Fittingly in honour of back-row forward Foley, Munster's pack dominated both the scrum and the line-out from the start, with number eight Stander scoring a remarkable try to cap a man-of-the-match performance.
After charging down Benjamin Dambielle's attempted clearance for Rory Scannell to gather, Stander rejoined the line to hand-off Racing flanker Chris Masoe on the 22 and maintain his momentum over the try line despite the attentions of two defenders.
A fine showing from the Munster pack continued after the break, as hooker Niall Scannell touched down from the back of a rolling maul for the bonus-point try.
Both sides made extensive changes for this tie but with perhaps differing aims - Racing moving fly-half Dan Carter to the bench and resting several stars, while Munster were able to recall wing Zebo and scrum-half Conor Murray,
Building on the control exerted by their pack, the Ireland international pair routinely threatened with ball in hand as Murray's miss-pass set Zebo free to score his 50th try for Munster and their 400th in European competition.
Murray was also involved for his side's third try on the brink of half-time, running down the blind side of a maul and putting in a grubber kick to the corner for Conway to collect and finish.
The only blemish on Munster's performance came when Murray and Zebo failed to field substitute Carter's grubber kick, with Racing full-back Juan Imhoff able to kick ahead and Voisin gathering to score.
Yet the visitors eased through the final stages to set up a potential Pool-deciding clash with Glasgow next weekend.
Replacements: Chavancy for Laulala (57), Carter for Thomas (57), Brugnaut for Vartanov (51), Lacombe for Chat (51), Gomes Sa for Ducalcon (51), Williams for Van Der Merwe (62), Fa'aso'o for Masoe (57).
Replacements: Saili for Taute (56), Earls for R. O'Mahony (56), Archer for Murray (66), Kilcoyne for Cronin (56), Marshall for N. Scannell (62), Williams for J. Ryan (66), Foley for D. Ryan (74), O'Donoghue for O'Donnell (48).
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38531902
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CES 2017: Amazon's virtual aide Alexa shouts above rivals - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Many products at CES the year feature voice-activated virtual assistants - but Amazon's Alexa is in far more than most.
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Technology
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A fridge with personality was launched at CES this year
Virtual assistants are everywhere at CES this year - but one speaks louder than the rest. Amazon's Alexa has popped up in a bewildering list of devices including fridges, cars and robots.
Manufacturers are clearly interested in making their appliances voice-operable, and many see Alexa as a great way to do this.
But having Alexa also allows the appliances to gain capabilities, such as streaming music and turning smart lights on and off.
How did Alexa come out on top and how will it benefit Amazon?
The firm was quick to notice the potential of voice control following the rise of smartphone apps that could interact with appliances, answers tech analyst Dinesh Kithany at IHS Technology.
"Alexa's rivals haven't been promoted quite as well," he told the BBC, though he noted companies adopting the assistant must think of genuinely useful ways to integrate it into their products.
Manufacturers are able to design new "skills" for the assistant - meaning the AI is not limited to what Amazon has built in.
Alexa can, with a quick bit of programming, be adapted to lock car doors or tell you when your washing machine's cycle will finish.
Perhaps this is how Amazon has cornered so much of the market - by explicitly designing a flexible AI that allows companies to implement it as they see fit.
Over the last seven years, the world has witnessed the rapid proliferation of Google's Android operating system - now in more smartphones than any other OS by far, as well as many TVs, watches and computers.
Part of this meteoric rise is down to the fact that Google gives Android away for free to device manufacturers - just like Amazon is doing with Alexa.
Despite the search giant having a long history of voice recognition research, it has only just started promoting its own Google Assistant to third parties. That gives Amazon first-mover advantage.
Who would have thought an online retailer would be leading the virtual assistant revolution?
While a glance around CES's show floors suggests Alexa is poised to dominate, it's worth remembering that this is a US trade show.
Amazon is not quite as global a company as Google or Microsoft - the online retailer doesn't have a website for countries in Scandinavia, the Middle East or Africa, for example.
And not all implementations of Alexa make the assistant easy to access, notes Lauren Goode at news site The Verge.
She tested headphones by OnVocal that make the aide accessible - via a tiny button that needs to be pressed to activate it.
"You'd kind of think that walking around while wearing these is just as good as having an Echo strapped to your body. It's not," she wrote.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
She's the star of CES even though her creator isn't exhibiting on the show floor. Amazon's Alexa was the first voice assistant to turn up in a compelling consumer product, the Echo speaker, rather than just on a smartphone.
Although Google Home has now joined the fray it's clear who's in the lead. Across CES, you can hear Amazon's creation at work.
Who'd have thought a few years back that an online retailer with a patchy record when it comes to hardware devices would be the single most influential player at a consumer electronics event?
In the past, it has been Apple and Google who've been able to dominate CES without even turning up - now Amazon is looking like the tech industry's thought leader.
Nvidia has chosen to integrate Google Assistant with its new streaming box
While Alexa may be popular, it certainly has rivals.
Nvidia announced at CES that its media streaming device, Shield, would feature Google Assistant - allowing users to display photos on their TV screens via voice command, for example.
It can also connect with the Nest smart thermostat and adjust the temperature - or turn on smart home devices.
Microsoft's Cortana will, of course, be available in Windows 10 devices - a wide array of which were launched this week.
But curiously, despite publishing a teaser video for a Harman Kardon speaker featuring Cortana last month, the product failed to materialise.
Harman Kardon told the BBC that the device was "not ready for display".
A Harman Kardon speaker featuring Cortana, though teased in December, was not at CES
The battle of the AIs doesn't even end there. In October, Samsung acquired fledgling AI Viv and is expected to launch it with the firm's Galaxy S8 smartphone later in 2017.
It is worth noting that the South Korean tech giant has also agreed to buy Harman Kardon.
Will Viv nudge out Cortana in future Harman Kardon speakers and one day give Alexa a run for its money? It's anyone's guess at this point.
And there was an interesting announcement from Mattel's Nabi brand, which makes child-friendly tech.
Its new Aristotle speaker incorporates Alexa and will soon feature Cortana, too.
Parents can even set it so that children speaking to the device must say "please" when uttering a command.
It should be no surprise that more than one branded virtual assistant can be accessible via a single device - they are summoned from the cloud, after all.
In the future, other appliances might allow users to call on the virtual assistant of their choice by name for specific tasks. Not just one digital butler, but a whole staff.
Apple's Siri is not to be forgotten. It can be used to interact with several smart home devices unveiled at CES - including a smart smoke detector by Netatmo and Chamberlain garage door openers.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Even more voice-activated assistants are entering the market - Olly the robot develops a different personality to suit each of its users
Voice control is "the way of the future", said tech analyst Adam Simon from Context.
"It has really galvanised the smart home market," he said. "At last we've got something bringing it together."
One downside cited by some is the potential for a greater proliferation of microphones and AIs to erode privacy - particularly in intimate settings such as the bedroom.
But Mr Simon told the BBC that consumers would decide whether or not to tolerate this.
"My own inclination is that people will accept that this is a necessary evil," he said.
Follow all our CES coverage at bbc.co.uk/ces2017
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38539326
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FA Cup: Bournemouth, Stoke & West Brom beaten by lower league sides - BBC Sport
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2017-01-07
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Premier League sides Bournemouth, Stoke City and West Brom are knocked out of the FA Cup by lower league opposition in the third round.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Premier League sides Bournemouth, Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion were knocked out of the FA Cup by lower league opposition in the third round.
A much-changed Bournemouth were beaten 3-0 by League One Millwall, while Stoke lost 2-0 at home to Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Everton were beaten by Leicester and Hull knocked out Swansea in two all-Premier League ties.
Sign up for the 2017 FA People's Cup and take your chance to win tickets to the FA Cup final and achieve national five-a-side glory.
Two non-league sides will be in Monday's fourth-round draw after securing replays.
National League leaders Lincoln City came close to causing an FA Cup upset as two goals from former Derby striker Theo Robinson saw them 2-1 up at Ipswich before Tom Lawrence equalised late on.
Lincoln's league rivals Sutton also earned a replay as they draw 0-0 at home to League One AFC Wimbledon.
FA Cup holders Manchester United beat Reading 4-0 in the early game to progress, while 2013-15 and 2014-15 winners Arsenal came from behind to win 2-1 at Preston in the late game.
They were joined in the fourth round by Premier League champions Leicester, who won 2-1 at Everton thanks to an Ahmed Musa double.
• None Watch all of the latest FA Cup highlights and reaction here
New Hull City head coach Marco Silva watched his side beat Swansea 2-0, a result which meant defeat for Swans boss Paul Clement in his first official match in charge.
Brentford came out on top of Saturday's highest-scoring game as the Championship outfit beat non-league Eastleigh 5-1.
Some empty seats, but non-league fans travel in numbers
A number of games featuring Premier League sides had low attendances as the top-tier clubs entered the competition.
A crowd of 6,608 watched Hull City versus Swansea at the KCOM Stadium, with 210 supporters making the trip from Wales.
At Norwich, who average 26,000 in the Championship, just over 12,000 watched the draw with Premier League side Southampton.
And Sunderland, usually watched by more than 40,000 fans at the Stadium of Light, drew a crowd of just 17,632 for the 0-0 draw against Burnley.
However, non-league fans eager to witness an FA Cup upset travelled in big numbers to games.
Seventh-tier Stourbridge went into the third round as the lowest-ranked side left in competition and took more than 2,000 supporters to Wycombe, where an Adebayo Akinfenwa late winner sent the League Two side through.
"The FA Cup win will make a difference," said Stourbridge manager Gary Hackett. "Financially, it will put the club in a very strong position, and I think people will remember this day for a long, long time - albeit in defeat."
Eastleigh, meanwhile, had more than 1,500 supporters at Brentford - just 500 fewer than the National League side averages for home games.
When is the draw for the FA Cup fourth round?
The draw for the FA Cup fourth round takes place on Monday, 9 January at 19:10 GMT.
It will be live on BBC Two and there will also be live text commentary on the BBC Sport website plus BBC Radio 5 live coverage.
The fourth-round ties will take place on the weekend beginning 28 January.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38544536
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Covering Turkey's terror: 'Each time it hits hard' - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The BBC's Mark Lowen reflects on the 18 months of terror attacks in Turkey.
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Europe
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Ulas Arik, centre, buried his father on New Year's Day, hours after the attack
Just 12 hours had passed, but for Ulas Arik it was beginning to sink in. His father Ayhan, a driver, had taken foreign tourists to Istanbul's Reina nightclub to see in the New Year.
As the party continued inside, Ayhan waited at the door, drinking tea with a policeman. When the gunman struck, Ayhan was shot in the head. He died instantly.
In the biting wind of New Year's Day, we stood in an Istanbul mosque watching Ulas and his family bid farewell to his father. The young boy, perhaps 14 years old, stood beside the coffin, which was draped in a Turkish flag. And he wept. He touched the flag - the red that once symbolised the blood of martyrs fighting for Turkey. Then he slumped onto the coffin, broken-hearted.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Mark Lowen was one of the first journalists allowed into the nightclub site
Standing there among the journalists and mourners, I reflected on how often this scene had been repeated in the past year, on how many funerals I'd watched as terror has gripped Turkey, and about how we, as journalists, intrude upon personal grief.
Our route here is now a tragically well-worn path: the morgue, the homes of relatives, the funeral. And yet each time it hits hard.
There was something particularly emotional about watching Ulas at the funeral that day and meeting those who had witnessed the massacre in the Reina nightclub.
Like Tuvana Tugsavul, who worked there and who ran into the bathroom to escape the attack. Her eyes ringed with fatigue, she told me how the power was suddenly cut and she thought the gunman would blow himself up.
"I sent messages to my friends saying 'this is the end… I love you… goodbye.'"
Tuvana survived the attack, hiding in one of the club's bathrooms
And then there was the poignancy of the words of Sezen Arseven, whose partner Mustafa was killed: "I lost my other half", she wrote, "my partner, my love".
All this grief adds up to a national trauma. Twenty-eight attacks in a year and a half have killed more than 500 people. After each one, the government says "Turkey will defeat terrorism". Politicians must say such things, but the words lose meaning when the attacks keep happening.
There is a certain defiance here: after the twin bombings at Besiktas football stadium in Istanbul last month, crowds gathered at the site for days, one woman telling me "the terrorists want us to stay inside, not to go out and enjoy ourselves - but then they would win".
But there is also, of course, deepening fear: that a city to which Arab tourists came to enjoy themselves on New Year's Eve was consumed by horror; police and soldiers wonder if they'll be blown up on patrol; that Turkey has gone from being a stable corner of the Middle East to yet another troubled hotspot.
One friend tells me she wouldn't take the metro in Istanbul anymore, another that he would avoid public gatherings and concerts. Three years ago, Istanbul topped lists of the world's must-visit cities. Now tourism is plummeting and businesses are closing down.
No matter that this is a huge country and the likelihood of an attack on its golden beaches is minimal - tourism works through image, and Turkey's has been blackened.
If only this nation could come together in times of tragedy, it might help ease the pain. But Turkey is torn by anger and division.
The damage seen a a local cafe after a 5 January car bomb in Izmir, which killed two people
In the run-up to the Reina attack, Islamist newspapers condemned Christmas and New Year celebrations as an affront to Muslim values, some showing a Santa Claus figure being punched.
Daring to criticise the government's policies is like poking a wasps' nest, unleashing vitriol on social media the likes of which I've never seen. Supporters of President Erdogan insist the west has abandoned Turkey to fight terrorism alone; pro-government newspapers churn out conspiracy theories that the CIA is behind the attacks.
One front page superimposed Barack Obama's face onto that of the nightclub killer. A famous fashion designer and outspoken critic of the government was deported from northern Cyprus this week for tweets deemed to insult Turkey. As he landed in Turkey, he was set upon by an organised mob on the runway, who had conveniently been informed of his flight details through a state news agency report. He has now been arrested while the thugs roam free.
Gloom has descended onto this beautiful and fascinating country - and nobody knows how or when it will lift.
People do still go about their daily lives. But when my phone beeps with an alert, I always wonder if it's another attack. There is a lovely Turkish expression that is normally used to mean "get well soon".
But these days it is on everyone's lips, urging their country to get through this time: geçmiş olsun - "may it pass".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38535906
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US torture victim's family thanks police - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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The family of a man in Chicago whose torture was broadcast on Facebook thanks community and police.
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The family of a man whose torture was broadcast on Facebook have thanked the community and local police for their response.
They have asked for privacy from the public as they "cope and heal".
Four people have been charged with hate crimes in relation to the Chicago assault, that police say lasted two days.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38535446
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Syria conflict: Car bomb kills dozens in Azaz - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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At least 43 people have been killed in a car bomb blast in the rebel-held Syrian town of Azaz, near the Turkish border.
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At least 43 people have been killed in a car bomb blast in the rebel-held Syrian town of Azaz, near the Turkish border.
The explosion occurred outside a courthouse in the town, just 7km (four miles) from the Turkish frontier.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38541465
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3D printouts used to rebuild bike crash victim's face - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A man who lost part of his face in a cycling accident has his jaw rebuilt with the help of a 3D printer.
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Essex
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. George Boden has had his jaw rebuilt thanks to a 3D printer after a horrific bike accident
A man who lost part of his face in a cycling accident has had his jaw rebuilt with the help of a 3D printer.
George Boden, from High Easter, near Chelmsford, Essex, was riding his bike in 2011 when he crashed face-first.
Surgeons took bone from his shoulder and a titanium plate to make a new jaw, but he was left with no bottom teeth and a mouth the size of a walnut.
But 3D printed models were used to plan more surgery to refine his jaw and create new teeth.
Mr Boden said: "I was out for a training spin, looked at my watch and the next minute I'd slammed into a piece of machinery around the corner.
"It's not a good idea to hit something with your chin at 30mph [48kmph], which is exactly what I did. It ripped the whole of my jaw off."
Maxillofacial surgeon Iain Hutchison rebuilt Mr Boden's face with the help of the 3D printout
Doctors covered his rebuilt jaw with a skin flap, but then decided to input his CT scan into a 3D printer to produce a more finely detailed model of his jaw.
His surgeon Iain Hutchison said: "We use it to plan the operation. We use it to design exactly what we are going to take."
The model was also used to make bespoke teeth implants to perfectly fit his new jaw, while another device was also printed to stretch his mouth.
Mr Boden said the technology gave him hope when he most needed it.
"I've found two things," he said. "First of all if you know you are going to get a solution you can keep going and secondly, red wine helps enormously."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-38543516
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Running towards Paralympic dream with NHS blade - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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Ben is one of the first children to be fitted by the NHS with a false leg especially designed for sport.
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Ben is one of the first children to be fitted by the NHS with a false leg especially designed for sport.
He was born with a condition known as fibular hemimelia – giving him a foot with only three toes, and leg that failed to develop.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38538659
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The straight A student who dropped out of university - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A promising student has gone viral with a Facebook post that dismisses higher education as "a scam".
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BBC Trending
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Billy Willson received a 4.0 grade point average, the equivalent to straight As, for his first semester at Kansas State University. He decided that it would also be his last.
In a strongly worded Facebook post, Willson uploaded a photograph of himself standing outside the university's sign, holding his middle finger up to it. In the accompanying text he wrote:
"YOU ARE BEING SCAMMED. You may not see it today or tomorrow, but you will see it some day," he wrote.
"You are being put thousands into debt to learn things you will never even use. Wasting 4 years of your life to be stuck at a paycheck that grows slower than the rate of inflation. Paying $200 for a $6 textbook."
Billy and his girlfriend Brittany Quinn at a Kansas State University football game
His post, which has been shared more than 10,000 times in little more than a fortnight and has provoked a vigorous debate in the comments, appears to have struck a chord with other young adults who are wondering if pursuing higher education is worth the time and money.
Willson, who was on an Architectural Engineering undergraduate course told BBC Trending that the "cost of inflation is relatively small compared to the cost of college over the last 30 or so years. I mean, it really is ridiculous how the cost of college has gone up."
He's backed up by data. According to the US Department of Education the average annual increase in college tuition in the United States, between 1980-2014, grew by nearly 260% compared to the nearly 120% increase in all consumer items.
In 1980, the average cost of tuition, room and board, and fees for a four-year course was over $9,000. That cost now is more than $23,000 for state colleges. If you want to go private it's more than $30,000.
A similar hike in tuition fees has also been seen in England. In 2012, the government backed initiatives from some universities to charge more than the £9,000 tuition fee limit.
In the post Willson also cited higher education debt as a reason to leave university and enter the work place. Students in the United States are estimated to be in around over $1.2 trillion of loan debt with 7 million borrowers in default.
Willson says that when he first told his parents that he was leaving university, they were "very upset" but are now supportive of his decision. So were dozens of others of people who commented on Facebook.
Trey Foshee wrote: "Years and money wasted. Very much agree. I have two degrees that I would sell back right now if they'd let me."
Others, like Blair Brown, agreed with Willson also pointed out that some professions do require a university degree.
"Being an engineer, scientist, or computer technician could be learned rather quickly through apprenticeships, independent study, and hands-on experience. Human nature is to learn by doing, not learning to do. As for more professional careers such as medical doctors and lawyers, university study is admittedly necessary," Brown commented.
Not everyone was supportive however, a comment on The Collegian, Kansas State's student newspaper accused Willson of adding to stereotypes about his generation:
"First of all, thanks for continuing to destroy the millennial reputation with your entitled, everything-should-be-easy, get-me-rich-fast mentality... You have completely just destroyed your reputation. When you fall hard and fast...you are going to need a real, big kid job and guess what? Something called Google exists and even my grandma can dig up dirt on you."
Willson, who told Trending that he is currently employed for a trade show sales team and his employers did Google him and they saw the funny side. He adds that he hopes enough work experience will allow him to be employed by an architectural engineering team in the future.
He doesn't think university will play any part in that future.
"They would have to make a massive change to the system before I would consider that and I don't think they'll do that while I'm still young enough to want to go"
A shocking, graphic video showing torture and racial abuse led far-right activists to link the perpetrators to the Black Lives Matter movement. READ MORE
You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-38512064
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Doping: Cycling chiefs criticised by anti-doping chief over evidence to parliament - BBC Sport
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2017-01-07
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The chairman of UK Anti-Doping criticises senior cycling officials over their evidence to a parliamentary committee hearing.
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Evidence given by cycling chiefs including Sir Dave Brailsford to a parliamentary select committee has been described as "extraordinary" by the chairman of UK Anti-Doping (Ukad).
David Kenworthy told the BBC that the answers presented by figures within British Cycling and Team Sky to the Commons' Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on anti-doping - specifically about a mystery medical package delivered to Sir Bradley Wiggins - were "very disappointing".
Kenworthy, who is stepping down from his Ukad role soon, also says Russia should be banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics after a report into state-sponsored doping in the country.
He said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had made "a complete muck-up" by not suspending the entire Russian team from the Rio Games last summer.
Ukad has been investigating allegations of wrongdoing in cycling after it emerged that a mystery medical package was delivered to a Team Sky doctor for Wiggins on the final day of the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine, which the Briton won.
In December, team boss Brailsford told MPs on the select committee he had been informed by former Team Sky medic Dr Richard Freeman that the package contained a legal decongestant called Fluimucil.
British Cycling president Bob Howden had told MPs he did not know the identity of the package, delivered by Simon Cope - a coach then employed by the governing body - but that documentary evidence of the medication would be supplied.
Brailsford also suggested that Wiggins' medical records had been provided to Ukad, verifying his explanation.
However, Kenworthy - who has been chairman of Ukad since its establishment in 2009 - said: "There's still no definite answer from anyone who was involved. I still don't know what was in there; I'm no nearer finding out than you are.
"People could remember a package that was delivered to France, they can remember who asked for it, they can remember the route it took, who delivered it, the times it arrived. The select committee has got expense sheets and travel documents.
"So everybody can remember this from five years ago, but no-one can remember what was in the package. That strikes me as being extraordinary. It is very disappointing."
When asked about Brailsford's Fluimucil explanation, Kenworthy said: "Well that's what Dave Brailsford came out with at the hearing. But actually, if you recall, he didn't say: 'I know that's what it was'. He said: 'I have been told that's what it was'.
Cope has previously said he did not know what was in the Jiffy bag he was asked to deliver to France.
When asked if British Cycling should have kept records of medication taken abroad by one of its coaches, Kenworthy said: "One would think so, one would hope so.
"Here's an individual [Cope] who's carrying a package containing medicine across international boundaries, and he's no idea what's in them.
"One could say he could be putting himself at risk if they are drugs which one could not properly transport. Someone should be inquisitive enough to say: 'Well what is it I'm actually taking?'"
Kenworthy's comments are likely to increase pressure on Brailsford, who has faced intense scrutiny since his appearance before the select committee, with critics questioning why Team Sky had an innocuous decongestant delivered all the way from their Manchester headquarters to France, when it could have been easily sourced locally.
Brailsford has admitted "badly" handling the crisis after providing initial explanations for the delivery to the Daily Mail that later turned out to be wrong.
Committee chairman Damian Collins MP has said witnesses may be recalled, along with new ones.
"We're not giving up on this, and we'll dig and delve and find out what was in that package," warned Kenworthy.
British Cycling say they cannot comment while a UK Anti-Doping investigation is ongoing.
However, Team Sky said: "As we have said from the start, we are confident that there has been no wrongdoing. We are continuing to co-operate fully with Ukad and we look forward to the conclusion of the investigation."
Wiggins - Britain's most decorated Olympian - has been under scrutiny after he was granted a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) to take powerful anti-inflammatory drug triamcinolone before the 2011 Tour de France, his 2012 Tour win and the 2013 Giro d'Italia.
His use of the corticosteroid, revealed by Russian computer hackers, had been approved by British authorities and cycling's world governing body, the UCI. There is no suggestion that either he, British Cycling or Team Sky have broken any rules.
Wiggins announced his retirement last month, and Kenworthy said: "One of the tragedies of all this is you've got probably one of the greatest cyclists that the UK has produced, who's just coming to his retirement, and all the talk is not about the successes that he's had, but about this package.
"It just undermines yet again the joy of sport."
'More extraordinary than a James Bond novel'
Kenworthy also waded into the debate surrounding the recent Russian doping scandal, saying he was "absolutely horrified" by last month's damning Wada independent report by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren into state-sponsored cheating.
The report alleged that more than 1,000 Russians benefited from a doping cover-up between 2011 and 2015, and that the London Olympics were "corrupted on an unprecedented scale".
Following an initial report last summer, the IOC refused demands to suspend Russia from the Rio Olympics, but when asked whether the country should now be banned from the next Winter Olympics in 2018, Kenworthy said: "Yes, I think they should. I think they should have been banned from the Olympics in the summer.
"The International Paralympic Committee in my view got it right - they banned Russia. I think the IOC made a complete muck-up of it.
"There was too much politicking going on, that was the problem. People were probably trying to protect vested interests. It's so important that we get this right because we are in danger of losing the confidence of spectators. If they stop going what's the point of having sport. I was lukewarm [about Rio] because I'd seen the Russian thing.
"It was just extraordinary what was done. It's more extraordinary than a James Bond novel, and it just debases all of sport.
"We're still getting denials of any wrongdoing and strange statements about whether it was state-sponsored or not - what we now need to do is get Russia back in the fold, and that is taking some considerable time and effort."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/38535591
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CES 2017: New routers defend smart homes against hacks - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Security firms unveil new internet routers that can stop smart household gadgets being hijacked.
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Technology
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The futuristic looking Core is controlled via a smartphone app
Security firms have launched routers at CES that can stop smart household gadgets being hijacked by hackers.
Symantec, BitDefender and Intel unveiled devices that scrutinise data as it flows across home networks.
The companies say routers with built-in defences will be essential as homes are filled with net-connected gadgets.
The routers also come with parental control features that help manage how much time children spend online and what they see.
"You will have to buy a security solution for your internet-of-things," said Alex Balan, chief security researcher at BitDefender.
The "internet of things" refers to the growing collection of smart gadgets that can be controlled via the net.
"Pretty soon everything will be connected one way or another and managed by a smartphone app," said Mr Balan. "You won't be able to avoid it."
But that interconnectivity and ease of use comes at a cost, he said, adding that the end of 2016 had seen a surge in attacks that compromised net-connected CCTV cameras, televisions and media servers.
BitDefender unveiled a new version of its Box router while Arris revealed that it was adding Intel's security software to its devices
The poor security on these gadgets led to them being enrolled in massive networks by hackers who use them to carry out overwhelming attacks. One network, called Mirai, staged some of the biggest net attacks ever seen.
The problem has got so serious that the US Federal Trade Commission has kicked off a competition to create tools that consumers can add to their home network that can protect IoT devices from attack. Cash rewards of $25,000 (£20,000) will be given to the best entrants.
"Security for these devices has to start at the network level," said Gareth Lockwood from Symantec. "There's no other way to do it."
As the entry and exit point for home networks, routers were the best place to put a security system that can watch for malicious traffic coming in and cut off hackers trying to access insecure kit.
The show floors of the CES tech expo are packed with new internet-connected products for the home
While current home routers do have security systems, most are pretty basic, said Mr Lockwood, and none is ready for the explosion of smart devices predicted to be in use soon.
"If we look forward four to five years from now we expect to see between 20 to 30 billion devices in homes," he said. "There'll be tens of devices per household."
Read all our CES coverage at bbc.co.uk/ces2017
The three companies launching secure routers at CES are taking slightly different approaches to solving the IoT headache though one common feature they share is a smartphone-based management system.
All three will face competition from established devices such as the Cujo smart firewall and the Home Halo and Eero products as well as from Asus which has teamed up with Trend Micro to put security software on its routers.
The devices launched at CES will only initially be available in the US but will reach other regions later in 2017. Typically, buying one of the secure routers includes a subscription to a firm's standard security software that runs on desktops, laptops and tablets.
All three also include net access control systems that let parents decide for how long different gadgets can be used and which sites youngsters can visit. Some, such as the Norton Core, have an internet pause button that cuts off access for everyone in a household.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38415067
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The woman who looks after celebrities' skin - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Su-Man Hsu runs a skincare company, but she started life in a mud hut in Taiwan. How did she make her journey from there to facialist to Hollywood celebrities?
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Business
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Can you imagine telling an Oscar-winning actress that her face was sagging? It sounds like the stuff of a peculiar dream.
But that's precisely what London-based facialist Su-Man Hsu did. And the actress? None other than Juliette Binoche, star of films such as Chocolat, The English Patient and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Su-Man describes the French actress's arrival for her appointment for a facial treatment like this: "She came... and I said, 'What's happened to you? Stagnating body, sagging, sagging.'"
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Ms Binoche didn't speak to Su-Man for the whole of the session. "I thought, 'OK then, it's got to be something I said, I'll just move on and forget about it,'" Su-Man recalls.
But the story doesn't end there. A year later her phone rang and on the other end was Juliette Binoche, in London for work, asking Su-Man to come and see her.
Glowing - but Juliette Binoche and Su-Man Hsu had a sticky start to their relationship
Su-Man recalls that Ms Binoche reminded her of what she'd said and quite how badly it had gone down.
"I said, 'Why did you call me then?' She said because she tried it in France, she tried everywhere and no-one [was] like me. And from then on we became best friends, we're still in contact with each other and I became her facialist."
It was a turning point for Su-Man. She says that on the strength of Ms Binoche's recommendations her business took off. Other celebrity fans include the actresses Anne Hathaway and Freida Pinto.
It's a good story to dine out on, but actually it's just one stop on a journey where, in Su-Man's words, "everything's just emerged. A beautiful accident."
Su-Man's parents didn't speak to her for almost two weeks when she said she wanted to pursue a career as a dancer
Su-Man was born in Taiwan and lived in a tiny village until she was 14, in what she describes as a mud hut. "Outside's raining, inside's raining, and you need to put all the pots and pans [out], otherwise you'd just slip away. And in the summer you sometimes see little baby mice fall from the ceiling," she says.
They had four neighbours and after that there was nothing between them and the next village except rice fields. The family had no car but would use a cart drawn by oxen to get around.
Su-Man was the youngest of 10 siblings and her illiterate parents struggled to support the family. On days when there was no rice to eat, everyone - including the animals - would eat porridge.
Or, she says, they would shoot the swallows living in the roof with a slingshot, and then barbecue them.
Su-Man's route away from her parents' smallholding was to become a dancer - despite her mother and father's opposition to it as a career. She worked in Germany, where she met her British-Pakistani husband, and then in Brussels.
Su-Man was the rehearsal director for Akram Khan's dancers at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012
When the couple came to live in the UK, Su-Man performed her final dance in the King and I at the London Palladium, and then embarked on her second career looking after people's faces.
She didn't, however, say farewell to dancing completely. One of the highlights was still to come - she was rehearsal director for dancer Akram Khan's ensemble at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.
Su-Man was already well-versed in Shiatsu massage techniques, having used them to help her recuperate after an accident at the age of 20. So when she came to set up Su-Man Skincare she developed treatments that combined massage with her own serums and toning products. To start with she made those in her kitchen and tried them out on herself and her clients.
When clients began to ask her whether they could buy the products, she took the plunge and ordered 5,000 jars (the minimum order) to sell them in.
Su-Man explains that her technique combines nature and science and is a mix of Eastern skincare, based on prevention of problems, and Western science, which corrects them.
If you spend just five minutes extra on your face, she promises, it will repay you by looking younger and happier.
The power of touch: Su-Man Hsu at work
With this belief in natural methods for skincare, she has no time for customers who go down the artificial route offered by Botox. Her message to those who are tempted is unequivocal: "You go there, don't come back to me."
And with a dancer's view of the world, she adds: "The body is designed to be moved, it's not designed to sit there like a wall. If you can't see your expression when you speak, it's almost like you wipe out your history.
"You don't want people to know who you are, what's your future, where you come from. That saddens me."
Although Su-Man's business includes Hollywood stars amongst its clientele, she is keen to stress her belief in not forgetting how and where you started. Her products, she says, are rooted in her background. She takes her cue from the way her mother looked after them as children, using whatever was to hand.
Su-Man has travelled a long way from her first home, but says it's crucial to remember your roots
"We used rice water on our face, and used flour mixed with egg, things like that, as a mask, or even hair shampoo. We would collect roots from the mountain and we would chop it and put it in the water to wash our body.
"We used the leftover green tea to splash on our face to soothe it because we were exposed to such intense sun, and discarded water melon, rubbing our face, exfoliating, all that stuff."
And just to make sure that she keeps all that in mind, almost every day while she meditates Su-Man listens to a track which plays her the sounds of her village at night.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38368726
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The Bank's 'Michael Fish' moment - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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As the Bank of England's chief economist admits economists were wrong ahead of the financial crisis and post the Brexit vote - he says it's time for a better understanding of what economic data are telling us.
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Business
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BBC weather presenter Michael Fish reading the signs available to him
"The only function of economic forecasting," JK Galbraith once said, "is to make astrology look respectable."
With disarming honesty, the Bank of England's chief economist, Andrew Haldane, has admitted that criticisms that economic forecasts had been wrong before the financial crisis and wrong about the immediate impact of a Brexit vote were a "fair cop".
The profession, he said, was facing a crisis of confidence.
Mr Haldane went on to describe the failure to understand the impact of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 as the profession's "Michael Fish moment" - when the weather forecaster suggested in 1987 there wasn't a hurricane on the way before record high winds devastated large parts of the south east of England.
To be clear, Mr Haldane was talking about economists as a whole - not just the Bank - and said he still fundamentally agreed with the Bank's central forecast - made last November - that 2017 and 2018 could see a "material" slowdown in economic activity and a significant rise in inflation.
The Bank was right to suggest that sterling would fall in value following a Brexit vote.
But, consumer confidence has held up far more robustly than expected and, yet again, it is clear that while economic models can make reasoned judgements about the future, those judgements can prove erroneous.
Particularly when they attempt to account for "shock" events - the financial crisis (when forecasts undercooked the effects) or the vote to leave the European Union (when models over-cooked the short term effects and failed to account for "dynamic" policy responses such as the Bank itself cutting interest rates to new record lows).
Mr Haldane said that economists could learn from meteorologists, who now use much more data to understand how weather patterns develop.
Meteorology is, of course, a science.
Economics is a study, ultimately, of human behaviour - what millions, billions, of people may or may not do, given a certain set of circumstances.
Making judgements on that is always going to be a tricky, imprecise business.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38528544
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Brazil prison riots: What's the cause? - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A spike in violence violence in Brazil's prisons has cast a spotlight on failures its penal system.
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Latin America & Caribbean
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A spate of violence in Brazil's prisons has cast a spotlight on a system which appears to be near a state of collapse.
Almost 100 inmates lost their lives in the first week of January alone - brutally murdered, the guards apparently unable to stop the bloodshed.
But how has it come to this?
A crackdown on violent and drug-related offences in recent years has seen Brazil's prison population soar since the turn of the century.
The prison in Roraima state where 33 inmates were killed on 6 January held 1,400 inmates when a deadly riot started. That is double its capacity.
Overcrowding makes it hard for prison authorities to keep rival factions separate. It also raises tensions inside the cells, with inmates competing for limited resources such as mattresses and food.
In the relatively wealthy state of Sao Paulo, a single guard oversees 300 to 400 prisoners in some prisons, Camila Dias, a sociologist at the Federal University of ABC in Sao Paulo and expert on Brazil's prison system, told Reuters.
That means it is relatively easy for prisoners - and gangs - to take control of the facilities. As a result, "when the prisoners want to have an uprising, they have an uprising," Ms Dias said.
Killings are already common within the walls of Brazil's prisons - 372 inmates lost their lives in this way in 2016, according to Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper - but this recent surge has been linked to the breakdown in a two-decade truce of sorts between the country's two most powerful gangs.
A lack of guards means prisoners can take control, experts say. Pictured: A riot in 2014
Up until recently, the Sao Paulo-based First Capital Command (PCC) drug gang and Rio de Janeiro's Red Command had a working relationship, supposedly to ensure the flow of marijuana, cocaine and guns over Brazil's porous borders and into its cities.
But recently they have fallen out - although the exact reasons why remain unclear.
And following the government crackdown on criminal gangs, there are thousands of members of both gangs locked up inside Brazilian prisons.
Rafael Alcadipani, a public security expert at the Getulio Vargas Foundation think tank in Sao Paulo, told Reuters it means any feud between the two sides on the streets will almost certainly spill over into the largely "self-regulated" jails.
"We see that as soon as we have a gang war, these killings are inevitably going to happen because the state has no control over the prisons," he said.
The army patrols outside a prison in northern Brazil where more than 30 inmates died
Following the deadly riots in Amazonas, state governor Jose Melo asked the federal government for equipment such as scanners, electronic tags and devices which block mobile phone signals inside prisons.
His request illustrates the lack of basic equipment in prisons which house large numbers of prisoners.
He also said that the state police force was struggling to cope and requested that federal forces be sent.
Poorly-trained and badly-paid prison guards often face inmates who not only outnumber them but who also feel they have little to lose as they face long sentences already.
Following the 1 January riot, which left 56 inmates dead in a prison in Manaus, the Brazilian government announced a plan to modernise the prison system.
But with Brazil going through its worst recession in two decades and a 20-year cap on public spending in place, it is hard to see how the government plans to fund it.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-38534769
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BBC Sound Of 2017 winner: Ray BLK - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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Ray BLK, the Sound Of 2017 winner, explains how her south London neighbourhood shaped her music
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It helped her deal with growing up in a tough south London neighbourhood.
And that "hood" has shaped the music she has created so far.
She says 2016 was a whirlwind of a year - and it looks like 2017 could follow suit with Ray BLK named the winner of BBC Sound of 2017.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38499321
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'Winter from hell' has arrived - doctor's NHS crisis warning - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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Dr Mark Holland says predictions of "a winter from hell" in England's NHS hospitals are coming true.
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There is a "humanitarian crisis" in NHS hospitals in England, the British Red Cross has said.
The charity said volunteers and staff had been helping patients get home from hospital and called for more government money to stabilise the situation.
Dr Mark Holland, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said the description "humanitarian crisis" had some truth in it.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38541462
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Ant and Dec board game makers apologise over errors - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway board game is found to have multiple errors.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Ant & Dec have hosted Saturday Night Takeaway on ITV since 2002
The makers of Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway board game have apologised after it was found to have several errors.
The game features cards with a series of quiz questions, but some of the answers given are incorrect.
One answer claims the moon is 225 miles away from the earth - instead of about 238,900 miles.
Manufacturers Paul Lamond Games said they "unreservedly apologise" and added replacement cards would be issued.
It is understood at least six of the 50 answers in one round of the game - which costs £19.99 - are incorrect.
One answer placed Stonehenge in Somerset instead of Wiltshire and a maths question suggested two cubed was bigger than three squared.
It also said Albert Einstein died in 1949 instead of 1955 and gave the number of Coronation Street episodes to date as 8,000, when the actual figure is more than 9,000.
One customer who bought the game told The Sun: "I couldn't believe it, the answers are so ridiculous... [but] the kids won't accept the game could possibly be wrong."
A representative for Paul Lamond Games told the BBC: "We have been made aware of some mistakes with the answers to the questions within the first production run of this game."
"These have now been corrected and we would like to unreservedly apologise for these errors.
"Any affected customer can email us stating their name and full address and we will send out a replacement set of corrected cards free of charge."
The company's email address is available on their official website.
Ant & Dec - whose full names are Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly - have hosted Saturday Night Takeaway on ITV since 2002, although the show took a four-year break from 2009.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38529009
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Terminally-ill man seeks law change over assisted suicide - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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Motor neurone disease patient Noel Conway wants a review of the law so he can end his life when his condition deteriorates.
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Motor neurone disease patient Noel Conway is seeking a review of the law on assisted suicide. The terminally-ill man wants to have medical assistance to end his life when his condition deteriorates to a point that he feels is insufferable.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38532004
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Sainsbury's in Singhbury's Aylesbury shop name sign row - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A shopkeeper removes his shop sign after supermarket giant Sainsbury's said customers "raised concerns".
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Beds, Herts & Bucks
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The shop's owner said Sainsbury's thought his sign looked like their own supermarket signs
A shopkeeper removed the sign outside his store after supermarket giant Sainsbury's said it looked too much like theirs, he has claimed.
Singhbury's Local in Aylesbury put its orange sign up last year.
Co-owner Inderjit Singh Nagpal said Sainsbury's objected, but he said "Singh" was his middle name, "bury" referred to Aylesbury and the colour orange was important to Sikhs.
Sainsbury's said it contacted the shop after its customers raised "concerns".
The sign was erected early last year but removed from the shop front in October.
A spokeswoman for the supermarket said: "There were no legal proceedings around this but we did contact the owners after customers raised their concerns with us."
Initially Mr Nagpal told the BBC it had been taken down because of water damage. However, he has now said it was because Sainsbury's contacted him.
There is currently no sign above the Weedon Road store
He said although he was prepared to change the colour of the sign, he would not change the name because he could justify it.
Mr Nagpal said he hoped his legal representatives and Sainsbury's would reach a decision next week.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-38529780
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Week in pictures: 31 December 2016 - 6 January 2017 - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A selection of the best news photographs from around the world, taken over the past week.
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In Pictures
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A man prepares graves for inmates who died during a prison riot in the city of Manaus in Brazil. The 17-hour uprising was the deadliest in Brazil in years and resulted in the deaths of 56 inmates.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-38517449
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Jeremy Corbyn: Red Cross NHS warning 'unprecedented' - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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The Red Cross is warning there is a "humanitarian crisis" in its hospitals in England, something the NHS denies.
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The Red Cross is warning there is a "humanitarian crisis" in its hospitals in England, something the NHS denies.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the remarks from the charity were "unprecedented" and "the biggest wake-up call ever".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38543947
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Donald Trump taunts Schwarzenegger over Celebrity Apprentice ratings - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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US president-elect Donald Trump taunts new Celebrity Apprentice host Arnold Schwarzenegger over the show's ratings.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Mr Trump described himself as a "ratings machine"
Donald Trump has taunted Arnold Schwarzenegger, his replacement as host of The Celebrity Apprentice, saying the actor was "destroyed" in TV ratings.
"So much for being a movie star," wrote the US president-elect, who described himself as a "ratings machine".
In response, the actor called on him to work for all Americans "as aggressively as you worked for your ratings".
Monday's season launch was seen by an estimated 4.9 million people - down 43% on the last season premiere in 2015.
Schwarzenegger has received mixed reviews for his debut as the new star of the show.
The veteran action star and former California governor has replaced Mr Trump's "You're fired" catchphrase with "You're terminated" - a reference to his role in The Terminator film and its sequels.
In the tweets, sent on Friday, Mr Trump wrote: "Wow, the ratings are in and Arnold Schwarzenegger got "swamped" (or destroyed) by comparison to the ratings machine, DJT.
"So much for being a movie star - and that was season 1 compared to season 14. Now compare him to my season 1."
More than 11 million people watched the opening episode of Celebrity Apprentice in 2008, according to Variety.
Referring to Republican Ohio governor John Kasich and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Mr Trump added: "But who cares, he supported Kasich & Hillary."
In return, Schwarzenegger tweeted: "There's nothing more important than the people's work, @realDonaldTrump."
He added: "I wish you the best of luck and I hope you'll work for ALL of the American people as aggressively as you worked for your ratings."
Mr Trump starred in The Apprentice until 2015, when his political career took over.
The contestants on the current series, who compete to raise money for charity, include boxer Laila Ali, Boy George and Motley Crue singer Vince Neil.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38531417
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CES 2017: Razer gaming laptop has not one but three screens - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Gaming PC maker Razer unveils a concept laptop with three screens at the CES tech show in Las Vegas.
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Technology
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Razer claims its three-screened concept laptop is a world first
Gaming PC maker Razer has unveiled a concept laptop with three 4K screens at the CES tech show in Las Vegas.
The firm claims Project Valerie is the world's first portable laptop of its kind.
Two additional screens slide out from the central display via an automatic mechanism.
One analyst praised the design, noting that gamers were increasingly splashing out on high-end laptops.
All three screens are 17in (43cm) in size.
When folded up and closed, the laptop is 1.5in thick. Razer said this was comparable to many standard gaming laptops, which tend to be chunkier than home and office devices.
"We thought, 'This is crazy, can we do this?'," a company spokesman told the BBC.
"The answer was: 'Yeah, we are crazy enough, we can do it'."
Project Valerie is still a prototype and Razer has not yet published a possible release date or price.
Project Valerie has special hinges that automatically deploy its two additional screens
Gamers commonly used more than one monitor these days, said gaming analyst Jonathan Wagstaff at Context.
"Although it is unusual, it doesn't surprise me," he told the BBC.
"It is something people will buy - I think it will sell."
He added that increasing numbers of gamers - particularly those who travel to e-sports tournaments - are in the market for portable computers with high specs.
But Mr Wagstaff added that industry data he had reviewed suggested widening interest in such machines from architectural and graphic design firms, as well.
"That is interesting, that is traditionally the territory of Apple's products," he said.
Project Valerie was just one of several gaming laptops shown off at CES.
Consumer electronics giant Samsung also launched its first gaming laptop - called Samsung Notebook Odyssey - in 17in and 15in models.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38526705
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CES 2017: Strap turns your finger into a phone - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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BBC Click's Marc Cieslak reports on a device that allows one of your fingers to make phone calls.
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A strap which effectively turns one of your fingers into a phone - which can send and receive calls -has been developed.
The strap sends vibrations down the wearer’s hand and can be fitted to any watch.
BBC Click's Marc Cieslak tried it out at the CES tech show in Las Vegas.
Follow all our CES coverage at bbc.co.uk/ces2017
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38532572
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FA Cup third-round predictions - Lawro vs the YouTubers on every tie - BBC Sport
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2017-01-07
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BBC Sport football expert Mark Lawrenson and YouTubers Reev, Blue Moon Rising TV and Spurred On predict the outcome of all 32 FA Cup third-round ties.
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The FA Cup third round is famous for shocks and surprises - but who will provide them this year?
BBC Sport's football expert Mark Lawrenson has taken a look at all 32 of this weekend's ties and given his verdict on who will make it into round four.
This week Lawro is up against a trio of YouTubers - Manchester City fan Alex from Blue Moon Rising TV, Tottenham supporter Barnaby from Spurred On and Arsenal fan Reev.
Alex and Barnaby have both got involved in BBC Sport's No Guts, No Glory campaign to share their tales of the magic of the FA Cup while Reev will be behind the scenes of the BBC's coverage of West Ham v Man City on Friday, and posting material on his social media platforms telling his story of the FA Cup on behalf of the Football Association.
All kick-offs 15:00 GMT unless otherwise stated.
Gap = how many league positions separate each team
This will be a great trip for Plymouth fans and will earn some money for the club too, but I cannot see them causing Liverpool many problems at Anfield.
Liverpool will make a lot of changes and I am expecting to see quite a few young players start for them, but Reds boss Jurgen Klopp will put some experience in there too. Argyle are going well at the top of League Two and he will know he cannot take too many chances.
Liverpool obviously do not want a defeat but they will want to avoid a replay too because that would mean another road trip in what is already an extremely busy month for his side because of both legs of their EFL Cup semi-final.
* Away team to win at home in the replay
Crystal Palace boss Sam Allardyce will shuffle his team and use some fringe players but he will not want the indignity of being beaten at his former club Bolton, where he did so well between 1999 and 2007.
Wanderers are playing really well but they have got other things on their mind - they are second in League One and promotion is their priority.
Bournemouth will be too strong for Millwall and I am expecting Chelsea versus Peterborough to be pretty one sided in favour of the Premier League leaders.
* Away team to win at home in the replay
Reading are third in the Championship and flying. They have showed real resolve at times too, like they did when they came from 2-0 down to beat Bristol City last time out.
It will be interesting to see how Royals boss Jaap Stam's return to Old Trafford goes but, even if Manchester United pick some of their fringe players, I would expect the holders to go through.
Stoke and Tottenham should also make pretty comfortable progress but I can see Norwich, Burton and Sheffield Wednesday causing some upsets.
Norwich boss Alex Neil had been under serious pressure but his side beat Derby last time out and he could go from zero to hero if they beat Southampton.
Burton are struggling in the Championship but they fight all the way and I can see them getting past Watford via a replay, as one of my shocks.
I have not been convinced by Middlesbrough at home and Sheffield Wednesday are an attacking team who will cause them plenty of problems.
As for Preston against Arsenal, can I just pick my own team to win? I would just be happy if we give the Gunners a good game and got a replay. I think we will, because we are extremely competitive.
* Away team to win at home in the replay
I have no idea what kind of teams Manchester City and West Ham will put out but, if both managers field weakened line-ups, I would fancy City to get through. It is the same with Everton against Leicester.
Sunderland will be weakened for a different reason, because they have a shortage of fit players but I can see Burnley resting a few, so the Black Cats might just squeak through.
After their recent change of managers, it is a different situation for Hull and Swansea, who will both see the importance of winning their tie.
It will be Tigers boss Marco Silva's first game in charge while Paul Clement will want to build on Swansea's excellent win over Crystal Palace.
* Away team to win at home in the replay
Eastleigh had a cracking win over Swindon in round one but, since then, Ronnie Moore has left and Martin Allen has taken charge.
I don't see Allen helping them cause another upset because his old side Brentford play some nice football and score some good goals on their day.
Ipswich have not won back-to-back games all season and are not having a great time of things but Mick McCarthy's side never give up the ghost. It might be difficult for them against Lincoln, the National League leaders, but I still think they will get through.
* Away team to win at home in the replay
Brighton are top of the Championship and promotion is the priority for them but I still think they will have too much for MK Dons.
I don't see Huddersfield or Bristol City having too many problems either, but Rotherham are rock bottom of the Championship and Oxford will fancy their chances.
* Away team to win at home in the replay
Birmingham have taken only one point from four league games since Gianfranco Zola took over as manager and I think their poor form will continue against Newcastle in the pick of the all-Championship ties.
* Away team to win at home in the replay
Sign up for the 2017 FA People's Cup and take your chance to win tickets to the FA Cup final in May and achieve national five-a-side glory.
I am at Holker Street with Football Focus on Saturday (at 12:00 GMT on BBC One and the BBC Sport website) before Barrow take on Rochdale.
I just wonder if this game comes at the wrong time for Barrow, who had not lost for 23 games since August until they were battered by Gateshead on New Year's Eve, but maybe they had one eye on this tie.
There will be a fantastic atmosphere because the game is a 4,400 sell-out - Barrow's biggest crowd in 27 years - to see them try to get to the fourth round for the first time in their 116-year history.
It will not be easy for them, because Rochdale are going well at the top end of League One so even a draw would be a fantastic result for the National League side.
That would also mean Barrow earn more money from the replay, something I like to see the little clubs get out of the FA Cup.
Sutton and AFC Wimbledon are only five miles apart and, as well as it being a derby, Sutton play on a 3G pitch which will be a bit different for the League One side too.
But, having seen them in their amazing comeback to beat Curzon Ashton in round two, I am backing Wimbledon. They have got some very quick attackers and I think they will have too much for Sutton.
* Away team to win at home in the replay
Stourbridge are the lowest ranked team left in the competition, are unbeaten since October and are in the third round for the first time in their 141-year history.
The Evo-Stik Northern Premier Division side have had a great run but, sadly for them, I think it will end here against a Wycombe side who are in decent form themselves, and have won 10 out of their last 11 games in all competitions.
At least one League Two team will be in round four which is a good thing.
Accrington lost narrowly when they went to Kenilworth Road in November but their form has slumped in the last few weeks.
The pressure will be off Stanley on Saturday, however, and I have a feeling they will nick a win, leaving Luton to focus on trying to get promoted.
A correct result (picking a win, draw or defeat) is worth 10 points. The exact score earns 40 points.
Last time out, Lawro got six correct results, including one perfect score from 10 Premier League games, giving him a total of 90 points.
That was enough to beat comedian Arron Crascall, who managed four correct results with one perfect score for 70 points.
We are also keeping a record of the totals for Lawro and his guests (below), and showing a table of how the Premier League would look if all of Lawro's predictions were correct.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38509635
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Wayne Rooney: Man Utd captain honoured to match Sir Bobby Charlton goals record - BBC Sport
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2017-01-07
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Wayne Rooney targets home games against Hull and Liverpool after matching Sir Bobby's Charlton's Manchester United scoring record.
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Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney says he is "honoured" to be level with Sir Bobby Charlton as the club's all-time leading goalscorer - but wants to break the record soon.
His FA Cup strike against Reading took Rooney, 31, to 249 goals in 543 games, reaching the landmark 215 matches and four seasons quicker than Charlton.
"It's a proud moment," he said.
"We've got two home games coming up this week so hopefully I can get the next one in one of those."
United play Hull City in the first leg of their League Cup semi-final on Tuesday (20:00 GMT kick-off), before taking on Liverpool in the Premier League at 16:00 on 15 January.
"This club is a huge part of my life and I'm honoured to be up there alongside Sir Bobby," said Rooney after Saturday's 4-0 win over the Royals at Old Trafford.
• None Listen: Rooney was always going to break records - Moyes
'He was always going to break records'
United manager Jose Mourinho said: "A more special day will arrive. It was great but I want one more goal. He is an amazing guy in the group and we all want him to do it. To have Wayne as the top scorer in a club like this is magnificent for him."
Reading boss Jaap Stam, who played 127 times for United, added: "Wayne has been a great player from the beginning. He is a player who works very hard for the team and you could see that in the game. With the quality he has as an individual and the quality players he is playing with, it makes him an outstanding player.
"It is not surprising he has scored this many goals. Even when they are 4-0 up, he is still sprinting and running for the ball."
In 2015, Rooney surpassed World Cup winner Charlton's England scoring record of 49 goals and has since taken his international tally to 53.
The United landmark comes during a season in which the England captain has been left out of the starting line-up for both club and country, his record-equalling goal being just his fourth of the campaign.
Former United manager David Moyes, now at Sunderland, added: "First of all it's congratulations. To even get mentioned in the same breath as Sir Bobby Charlton, who for so many people is a great for what he did with England and Manchester United, is an achievement.
"You have to give Wayne Rooney credit for the limelight he has had to work under and the pressure people continually put on him.
"He has had a great career. It comes to an end at some time in football and sometimes you drop off a little bit but Wayne was always going to break the records in my eyes. The times I have worked with him he was always very good. A great player, a great trainer and someone who always wanted to go about his business well."
How has Rooney done it?
The signs were there from the very start that Rooney's could be a stellar Old Trafford career.
In his first game following a £27m move from Everton in 2004, he scored a hat-trick against Fenerbahce in a 6-2 Champions League win.
He has not looked back since, reaching double figures in every season at the club, including a career-high 34 in all competitions in 2009-10 and 2011-12.
Rooney and Charlton are ahead of some of the finest players that Manchester United and British football has known.
Charlton, who came up through the United youth system, spent 17 years at Old Trafford before finishing his career with spells at Preston and Irish side Waterford United.
And despite his consistency over such a long period, he never managed to hit the 30-goal mark in a single season, coming closest when he struck 29 times during his third season at Old Trafford.
Despite Rooney's scoring bursts, his goals have not come at the fastest rate. Tommy Taylor, who was a two-time title winner with United in the 1950s, holds that honour, just ahead of former Netherlands international Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Rooney's ratio of 0.459 goals per game puts him eighth on the list, while Charlton (0.328) does not even make the top 10.
Where does Rooney rank in list of Man Utd greats?
Rooney has secured his place in Manchester United history and Old Trafford's hall of greats with his record-equalling goalscoring feats.
However, he will have to resign himself to never being held in the same esteem, and place of legend, as the likes of Charlton, George Best and Denis Law.
Indeed, despite his lofty place in United's record books, the 31-year-old will never be revered by United's supporters in the same manner as the maverick Old Trafford catalyst Eric Cantona, the great leaders Roy Keane and Bryan Robson, and brilliant home-grown products such as Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville.
This may seem brutally unfair given his contribution to United's successes, but there are several factors at work when his place in the club's historical affections is measured.
Rooney was an expensive import from Merseyside, while Charlton, who survived the 1958 Munich air disaster, led United to their first European Cup in 1968 and stands alongside his great mentor Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson as an iconic Old Trafford figure.
Best and Law came alongside Charlton as United's 'Holy Trinity' as the club emerged from the tragedy of Munich, while Cantona was the great transformer in the early 90s and the likes of Robson and Keane were world-class players and warriors.
Rooney's chequered history with the club and its fans will also have an impact on his legacy when his contribution to United - a truly great one when judged solely in a football context - is reflected upon.
In many eyes, Rooney will never quite be forgiven for the episode in October 2010 when he decided he wanted to leave, then further strained his relationship with club and fans by issuing a statement which effectively said United lacked ambition and questioned the quality of his team-mates.
This was resolved within days when he signed a new five-year-contract, but the memory has lingered for many. There was another disagreement late in the 2012-13 season as Ferguson prepared for retirement and made it clear Rooney again wanted to leave - a claim that led to the player being jeered by some fans as he collected his title winner's medal at Old Trafford.
Fans and those who record history and legends take these matters into account.
What must also be remembered is that Rooney has had a stellar United career littered with trophies, brilliance and game-changing moments. He fully deserves to be remembered as one of the greats of Old Trafford.
There will, however, be many more remembered before him.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38543968
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Preston v Arsenal: Calum Robinson goal gives Preston surprise lead - BBC Sport
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2017-01-07
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Great skill from Aidan McGeady in midfield helps to set up Callum Robinson for a simple side-foot finish as Preston take a deserved 1-0 lead at home to Arsenal in the FA Cup 3rd Round.
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Great skill from Aidan McGeady in midfield helps to set up Callum Robinson for a simple side-foot finish as Preston take a deserved 1-0 lead at home to Arsenal in the FA Cup 3rd Round.
Listen to live commentary of Preston v Arsenal on BBC Radio 5 live and the BBC Sport website & app
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38544838
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Trump v Spies: A very public row which could damage both - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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US leaders and its spies have fallen out before, writes Gordon Corera - just never this publicly.
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US & Canada
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Donald Trump and US spies have disagreed openly on hacking during the US election
It is not unprecedented for political leaders to fall-out with spies. But a row has never before played out so publicly - with rival pronouncements over Twitter and in front of Congress.
Two competing forces are clashing. First, the intelligence community's credibility, which has been called into question by President-elect Donald Trump.
And second, the legitimacy of Mr Trump's presidency, called into question by the intelligence community's conclusion that the Kremlin sought to support his election.
Neither side is likely to back off and both may come out damaged.
Relations between political leaders and intelligence officials have always had their ups and downs.
In the late 1970s, after a series of Congressional committees raised fears of the CIA having got out of control, President Carter brought in a new director, Stansfield Turner, who cleared out the agency of many of its staff leading to much unhappiness.
CIA Director James Woolsey did not so much have a bad relationship as no relationship at all with Bill Clinton, to the extent that when a small aircraft crashed on the White House lawn, the joke was that it was Mr Woolsey trying to get a meeting with the president.
Under George W Bush, there was real tension, especially in the aftermath of the intelligence community's failure over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and on briefings about the future of Iraq.
President Bush appointed Republican Congressman Porter Goss to try and align the agency more closely with the White House.
But the result was a disastrous falling out between Mr Goss's senior staff and top officials at the CIA. Goss only lasted a year.
It is a precedent that incoming CIA Director - another Republic Congressman, Mike Pompeo - will only be too aware of as he prepares to take the helm.
One thing that has been notable is that since his nomination he has offered very little public comment.
On the whole, those close to the CIA have suggested officials there are less worried by his nomination than that of other officials like incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
He is reported to have a degree of animosity towards the CIA and the Directorate of National Intelligence (which plays an over-arching role) after his stint running the Defence Intelligence Agency.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. CIA director John Brennan tells the BBC what global threats Donald Trump will face as US president
There are reports that the Trump team may also push through reforms of the intelligence community - which might be seen by some insiders as a veiled threat.
This could aim to reduce the role of Director of National Intelligence and could also push the CIA towards a different operational stance.
The CIA has just undergone a major re-organisation under John Brennan.
In an interview in November, Mr Brennan told me he would be highlighting to his successor the importance of modernisation and also ensuring the most diverse possible workforce.
He also confessed that while he was hopeful he would get the chance to advise the incoming team on how to best employ the range of covert capabilities that the CIA has its disposal - which include drone strikes - he did not know how far the new team would take that advice on board.
Staff at the agencies will be wondering what policies they will be expected to carry out.
Donald Trump talked of a return to waterboarding during the campaign.
The legacy of the use of such techniques during the Bush years continues to be highly sensitive within the agency with battles in the Obama administration over how far to distance itself from the agency's past.
The NSA, which has also undergone a bruising internal reform process, may also be worried.
After the trauma of the Snowden revelations and the subsequent emphasis on not being a 'rogue agency', and on compliance, there may now be concerns over whether a new president may deploy its powerful capabilities in a way which might, if it became public, be highly controversial.
The CIA under President Barack Obama has tried to distance itself from its less salubrious past
The intelligence community has historically gone through cycles in which first a president pushes for controversial covert action, be it assassination plots, domestic intelligence collection or waterboarding.
But then after it is revealed, there is a swing of the pendulum the other way by a new administration, often leaving officers feeling exposed for past actions.
They may be wondering whether the pendulum is about to swing again. But in the Trump era they also may be wondering whether something different is about to happen.
When weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq, spies and politicians in London and Washington engaged in an uneasy truce.
Both sides realised they had been complicit in the presentation of intelligence to the public which proved wrong and that if they turned on each other in a blame game, it would be bloody, vicious and self-destructive.
Mr Trump plays by different rules to previous US leaders
But in this current stand-off, the situation is different, not least because we are at a moment of transition and the current intelligence officials are on their way out and may feel they have little to lose by speaking out.
Donald Trump also plays by different rules.
But the result is that if a public spat continues and even escalates, both the intelligence community and the incoming political leadership could emerge damaged.
And the only people who will be smiling will be America's adversaries
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38534773
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Productivity gap yawns across the UK - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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There are mammoth variations in the rate of productivity across the UK - the Office for National Statistics is trying to understand why.
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Business
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Tower Hamlets - which includes Canary Wharf - is the most productive part of the UK
Productivity, or more precisely the lack of productivity, is one of the great puzzles of the British economy at the moment.
Productivity growth since the credit crunch has been dreadful and that matters, because unless we make more and work more efficiently we cannot pay ourselves more.
In an attempt to understand what is going wrong, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is bringing all its productivity statistics together and conducting new research. It throws up some interesting details and possible explanations about what is going wrong.
Output per hour worked increased by 0.4% in the three months to September last year, that is an improvement but according to (ONS) economist Richard Heys: "It is still weak compared to that experienced in the recent past."
Part of the reason for low productivity lies in Britain's regions. While London and south-eastern England have productivity well above the national average and equal to the levels seen in rival economies like France and Germany, the rest of the country lags behind.
Tower Hamlets, which includes the financial district of Canary Wharf, is the most productive part of the country, a huge 79% more productive than average.
Powys in central Wales is the least productive and, overall, Wales and Northern Ireland have productivity levels 19% below the national average.
The only towns in the country that have above average productivity are London, Aberdeen (centre of the off-shore oil industry) and Bristol (a high tech and aviation industry hub).
The Bristol area is one of the most productive in the country
The least productive city is Sheffield, once home to a huge steel industry but now lagging well behind; Sheffield is 19% less productive than the national average.
This part of the productivity puzzle is perhaps the best understood. The most productive industry is finance and that is concentrated in London, while many regions suffer from poor infrastructure and communications and have never recovered from the loss of major parts of their economy in previous decades: mining, heavy engineering, ship building and many more.
Perhaps more interesting, is new research by the ONS into the efficiency of family-owned and run manufacturing firms.
That found well-structured management practices were better among larger businesses, multinationals and family-owned businesses that were not managed by members of the owning families. To put it bluntly the management of family-run firms (which make up more than half of all manufacturing companies) is awful.
Even a small improvement in management would see a huge boost in productivity in such businesses.
At first sight this might seem strange, but there is a fairly obvious explanation.
What are the odds that the best-qualified and most competent person in the world to run a business just happens to be the son or daughter of the current boss?
As one economist has put it, this is like selecting the children of previous gold medallists to be members of the country's next Olympic team, rather than picking the best athletes.
There is also the issue of how such companies will attract top staff if they know nepotism means they will never make it to the top, which helps explain why the handling of promotions was one of the issues most associated with productivity.
Solving the productivity gap in the UK will not be an easy job, certainly better regional policies would help, but just convincing family- run firms to appoint competent outsiders to run their business would also have a huge effect.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38528549
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Qatar Open: Sir Andy Murray to face Novak Djokovic in final - BBC Sport
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2017-01-07
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Sir Andy Murray is to meet Novak Djokovic in the Qatar Open final after the world number one beat Tomas Berdych in the semis.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Sir Andy Murray will face defending champion Novak Djokovic in the Qatar Open final on Saturday after beating third seed Tomas Berdych in the semis.
Murray won 6-3 6-4 against Czech Berdych, who needed treatment on an ankle injury after the first set.
It will be the 19th ATP final meeting between Murray and the man he replaced as world number one in November.
Second seed Djokovic survived five match points on his way to beating Fernando Verdasco in his semi-final.
Murray, who won the tournament in 2008 and 2009, has now recorded 28 consecutive victories in ATP Tour matches.
"I want to try and keep it going - I feel a little bit like this year's a fresh start," he told Eurosport.
"It's been the perfect week to get ready for the Australian Open."
Earlier, Serb Djokovic made only one unforced error in the decider to win 4-6 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 after Spaniard Verdasco, ranked 42nd in the world, controlled the first two sets.
"It's definitely one of the most exciting matches I have played," Djokovic said. "I haven't saved five match points many times. He should have finished it off."
You can follow live coverage of the Qatar Open final in Doha between Murray and Djokovic on the BBC Sport website from 15:00 GMT.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38535586
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Om Puri: The actor who never got his due - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Film writer Aseem Chhabra on how Indian film actor Om Puri never got the recognition he deserved.
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India
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Om Puri was known for his gritty performances
One of India's finest actors, Om Puri, died in Mumbai on Friday, aged 66. Film writer Aseem Chhabra believes he never got the recognition he deserved.
In one scene he spoke in a delightful Punjabi accented English and cautiously suggested to Charlie Wilson, a Congressman from Texas played by Tom Hanks, that covert aid to the mujahideen, fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, should pass through the hands of the Pakistani government.
I wanted to write something on this terrific actor, one of the few from India who straddled so many film spaces - from Bollywood to Indian art house indies, British Asian immigrant stories and big Hollywood productions.
But the publicists for the film and even the studio Universal Pictures informed me that they had no images of Puri.
Sadly this amazing actor had left no impression on the publicists who were mostly focused on promoting Hanks and his co-star Julia Roberts.
Puri acted in over 300 film projects in India and abroad, and yet he did not get the kind of recognition that he surely deserved.
He won two National Awards in India in the acting category (Arohan, 1982 and Ardh Satya, 1983), and was recognised at a number of film festivals, including a lifetime achievement medal at the prestigious Telluride Film Festival.
Director Roland Joffé cast Puri in a supporting role in City of Joy
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Om Puri found international fame for his roles in films such as East is East
He was even nominated for a Bafta film award in 2000 for playing the lead in Ayub Khan Din's autobiographical British film East is East.
But unfortunately in the last decade or so Puri, the actor, was largely forgotten in the West and even in India.
He did play one last big role in the West - that of an Indian chef in a remote French town in The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), opposite a feisty Helen Mirren.
It was a rare moment when Puri was suddenly, albeit briefly, the focus of a film produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey.
While promoting that film, Puri told me that Hindi cinema mostly concentrated on younger, good-looking actors. And the industry had relegated him to roles of the father of a lead actor or a police officer. He was rarely offered meaty roles, he complained.
He was always hungry for more challenging work and recognition.
In another interview while promoting East is East (1999), Puri told me that his big regret was that he would never get the kind of roles given to Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro.
But Om Puri was as great an actor as Hoffman and De Niro.
In fact, one can say he was even better, given the number of films he acted in and the range of his performances.
Puri (left extreme)'s comic timing was perfect in Jaane Bhi Do Yaro
Puri was one of the most versatile Indian actors
His comic timing was perfect and we can see that in the cult classic indie Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983) and later on in Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool - a modern-day take on Macbeth, where Puri played one of the witches, along with his colleague and friend Naseeruddin Shah.
Also in the same time period he played a sleazy photographer in Shyam Benegal's Mandi (1983).
He was the voice of an angry, frustrated cop in Ardh Satya (1983), but was equally charming and seductive with his co-star, the late Smita Patil. And in Aakrosh (1980) he was the oppressed peasant who barely uttered a word.
Puri became one of the first Indian actors of his generation to crossover to the West with his work in British films - East is East, its less successful sequel West is West (2010), the rarely seen Brothers in Trouble (1995), the Hanif Kureishi scripted My Son the Fanatic (1997), and the mini-series White Teeth (2002), based on Zadie Smith's bestseller novel.
That was a time when nearly every Indian or Pakistani role in a British production was offered to Puri.
Hollywood came calling as well.
Mike Nichols also cast him in an important role in Wolf (1994) where Puri shared screen time with Jack Nicholson. And earlier Roland Joffé cast him in a supporting role in City of Joy (1992).
Om Puri acted in the TV series Jewel in the Crown
In 1994, Ismail Merchant cast Puri as a hapless college professor who sets out to interview an ageing and overweight Urdu poet (Shashi Kapoor) in In Custody, based on Anita Desai's Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel.
Puri was perfect in the film, displaying his frustration as he observed the decline of Urdu language and poetry.
But it is the sad reality of the film business, that talented men and women find it harder to get juicy roles as they get older. And Puri had to face that fact.
Om Puri died too soon. But he has left a huge body of work reflecting his four decades as a film actor. He should get the most attention that a master actor of his stature deserves.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-38527144
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Is your child a cyberbully and if so, what should you do? - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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What should you do if you find out your child has been bullying others online?
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Technology
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One in five teens claims to have been cyberbullied but few admit to being the bully
Parents worry about their children being bullied online, but what if it is your child who is doing the bullying?
That was the question posed by a BBC reader, following a report on how children struggle to cope online.
There is plenty of information about how to deal with cyberbullies, but far less about what to do if you find out that your own child is the source.
The BBC took advice from experts and a mother who found out her daughter had been cyberbullying her school friends.
Nicola Jenkins found out that her 12-year-old daughter was posting unpleasant comments online from her teacher
Few parents would want to admit that their child was a bully but Nicola Jenkins has gone on record with her story. You can watch her tell it here.
"Nobody thinks that their own child is saying unkind things to other children, do they? I let them go on all the social media sites and trusted the children to use it appropriately.
"Our form tutor phoned me up during school hours one day to tell me that there'd been some messages sent between my daughter and two other friends that weren't very nice. One of the children in particular was very upset about some of the things that had been said to her.
"Her friend's mum spoke to me about it and showed me the messages that had been sent. When I approached my daughter about it, she denied that there had been anything going on. It took a while to get it out of her, but I was angry with her once I actually found out that she had been sending these messages.
"I spoke to her teacher and to the other parents, and between us we spoke to the children to let them know that they can't be saying unkind things and to just make them aware that whatever they do is recorded and can be kept. And they all did learn a lesson from it.
"I removed all the social media websites from her so she wasn't able to access them for a while and then monitored her input and what she's been saying to people.
"But it did make me feel angry and quite ashamed that my daughter could be saying things like that to her friends, but she has grown up a bit since then and she's learnt her lesson.
"You want to trust your children, but they can get themselves into situations that they can't get out of.
"And as they get older, they look at different things. I know my son looks at totally different things to what my daughter does, so it's just being aware of what they are accessing and make sure that they are happy for you to look at what they are looking at as well."
There is plenty of advice for parents on coping with cyberbullying but less on what to do if your child is the bully
According to not-for-profit organisation Internet Matters, one in five 13-18 year olds claim to have experienced cyberbullying but there are few statistics on how many children are bullying.
Carolyn Bunting, general manager of Internet Matters, offers the following advice:
"First, sit down with them and try to establish the facts around the incident with an open mind. As parents, we can sometimes have a blind spot when it comes to the behaviour of our own children - so try not to be on the defensive. Talk about areas that may be causing them distress or anger and leading them to express these feelings online.
"Make clear the distinction between uploading and sharing content because it's funny or might get lots of 'likes', versus the potential to cause offence or hurt. Tell them: this is serious. It's vital they understand that bullying others online is unacceptable behaviour. As well as potentially losing friends, it could get them into trouble with their school or the police.
"If your child was cyberbullying in retaliation, you should tell them that two wrongs cannot make a right and it will only encourage further bullying behaviour. Stay calm when discussing it with your child and try to talk with other adults to work through any emotions you have about the situation.
"Taking away devices can be counterproductive. It could make the situation worse and encourage them to find other ways to get online. Instead, think about restricting access and take away some privileges if they don't stop the behaviour.
"As a role model, show your child that taking responsibility for your own actions is the right thing to do. Above all, help your child learn from what has happened. Think about what you could do differently as a parent or as a family and share your learning with other parents and carers."
Twitter's image has been tarnished by trolls
Many critics blame social media for not doing enough to deal with cyberbullying. Abuse is prolific on Twitter and it has pledged to do more, including improving tools that allow users to mute, block and report so-called trolls.
Sinead McSweeney, vice-president of public policy at Twitter, explained why the issue is close to her heart:
"As a mother of a seven-year-old boy, I've always tried to strike the right balance between promoting internet safety and encouraging the type of exploration, learning and creativity that the internet can unlock."
She offered the following advice:
"If you find that your child is participating in this type of behaviour, a good first step is to understand the nature of the type of material they're creating, who is the target, and try to ascertain their motivations.
"If the bullying is taking place on a social media platform, make sure to explain to them why the behaviour is inappropriate and harmful, and to supervise the deletion of the bullying content they have created. If it continues, it may be worth seeking additional advice from a teacher or trusted confidant."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38529437
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How Japan has almost eradicated gun crime - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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Japan has one of the lowest rates of gun crime in the world, and the rules around ownership are very strict.
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Magazine
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Shotguns and air rifles are the only firearms you can legally buy in Japan
Japan has one of the lowest rates of gun crime in the world. In 2014 there were just six gun deaths, compared to 33,599 in the US.
If you want to buy a gun in Japan you need patience and determination. You have to attend an all-day class, take a written exam and pass a shooting-range test with a mark of at least 95%.
There are also mental health and drugs tests. Your criminal record is checked and police look for links to extremist groups. Then they check your relatives too - and even your work colleagues. And as well as having the power to deny gun licences, police also have sweeping powers to search and seize weapons.
That's not all. Handguns are banned outright. Only shotguns and air rifles are allowed.
The law restricts the number of gun shops. In most of Japan's 40 or so prefectures there can be no more than three, and you can only buy fresh cartridges by returning the spent cartridges you bought on your last visit.
A photo posed by models - even Japanese gangsters rarely use guns these days
Police must be notified where the gun and the ammunition are stored - and they must be stored separately under lock and key. Police will also inspect guns once a year. And after three years your licence runs out, at which point you have to attend the course and pass the tests again.
This helps explain why mass shootings in Japan are extremely rare. When mass killings occur, the killer most often wields a knife.
In a world where a lot is going wrong there is also a lot going right. So what if you could build a country with policies that actually worked, by homing in ideas around the world that have been truly successful?
The current gun control law was introduced in 1958, but the idea behind the policy dates back centuries.
"Ever since guns entered the country, Japan has always had strict gun laws," says Iain Overton, executive director of Action on Armed Violence and the author of Gun Baby Gun.
"They are the first nation to impose gun laws in the whole world and I think it laid down a bedrock saying that guns really don't play a part in civilian society."
People were being rewarded for giving up firearms as far back as 1685, a policy Overton describes as "perhaps the first ever gun buyback initiative".
"The moment you have guns in society, you will have gun violence but I think it's about the quantity," says Overton. "If you have very few guns in society, you will almost inevitably have low levels of violence."
Japanese police officers rarely use guns and put much greater emphasis on martial arts - all are expected to become a black belt in judo. They spend more time practising kendo (fighting with bamboo swords) than learning how to use firearms.
"The response to violence is never violence, it's always to de-escalate it. Only six shots were fired by Japanese police nationwide [in 2015]," says journalist Anthony Berteaux. "What most Japanese police will do is get huge futons and essentially roll up a person who is being violent or drunk into a little burrito and carry them back to the station to calm them down."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Japanese police practise martial arts every week and avoid using weapons whenever they can
Overton contrasts this with the American model, which he says has been "to militarise the police".
"If you have too many police pulling out guns at the first instance of crime, you lead to a miniature arms race between police and criminals," he says.
To underline the taboo attached to inappropriate use of weapons, an officer who used his gun to kill himself was charged posthumously with a criminal offence. He carried out the act while on duty - policemen never carry weapons off-duty, leaving them at the station when they finish their shift.
The care police take with firearms is mirrored in the self-defence forces.
Journalist Jake Adelstein once attended a shooting practice, which ended with the gathering up of the bullet casings - and there was great concern when one turned out to be missing.
"One bullet shell was unaccounted for - one shell had fallen behind one of the targets - and nobody was allowed to leave the facilities until they found the shell," he says.
There is no clamour in Japan for gun regulations to be relaxed, says Berteaux. "A lot of it stems from this post-war sentiment of pacifism that the war was horrible and we can never have that again," he explains.
There are a limited number of longstanding rifle owners in Japan - when they die their heirs must hand the rifles in
"People assume that peace is always going to exist and when you have a culture like that you don't really feel the need to arm yourself or have an object that disrupts that peace."
In fact, moves to expand the role of Japan's self-defence forces in foreign peacekeeping operations have caused concern in some quarters.
"It is unknown territory," says political science professor Koichi Nakano. "Maybe the government will try to normalise occasional death in the self-defence force and perhaps even try to glorify the exercise of weapons?"
According to Iain Overton, the "almost taboo level of rejection" of guns in Japan means that the country is "edging towards a perfect place" - though he points out that Iceland also achieves a very low rate of gun crime, despite a much higher level of gun ownership.
Henrietta Moore of the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London applauds the Japanese for not viewing gun ownership as "a civil liberty", and rejecting the idea of firearms as "something you use to defend your property against others".
But for Japanese gangsters the tight gun control laws are a problem. Yakuza gun crime has sharply declined in the last 15 years, but those who continue to carry firearms have to find ingenious ways of smuggling them into the country.
"The criminals pack the guns inside of a tuna so it looks like a frozen tuna," says retired police officer Tahei Ogawa. "But we have discovered cases where they have actually hidden a gun inside."
Join the conversation - find the BBC World Service on Facebook and Twitter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38365729
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10 things we didn't know last week - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Emails are more likely to contain grammatical mistakes when sent on Mondays, and more news nuggets.
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Magazine
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1. Emails you send on Mondays contain more grammatical mistakes than those sent on other days.
2. The Queen of Sweden thinks her palace is haunted by ghosts.
3. You can use a display computer in an Apple store all day and no-one will ever ask you to leave.
4. Gary Lineker and Jonathan Agnew regularly receive soiled loo paper in the post.
5. It's possible to travel by train all the way from Yiwu in eastern China to Barking in east London.
6. The British government thinks people have £433m of pound coins stashed away in their homes.
7. In the US, at least one person a week is shot by a toddler.
8. Only one member of the US Congress identifies as unaffiliated with any religion.
9. There are 79 organs in the human body, one more than previously thought.
10. The most popular condiment eaten with chips in Australia is chicken salt. Which contains no chicken.
Seen a thing? Tell the Magazine on Twitter using the hashtag #thingididntknowlastweek
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Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi writes choral music for Birmingham Cathedral - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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Black Sabbath founder Tony Iommi swaps his heavy metal roots for an ecclesiastical project by writing and producing a piece of choral music.
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Birmingham & Black Country
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Dean Ogle said Tony Iommi's song was a "wonderful gift" for the cathedral
Black Sabbath founder Tony Iommi has swapped his heavy metal roots for an ecclesiastical project by writing and producing a piece of choral music.
The five-minute acoustic arrangement for Birmingham Cathedral was a huge departure for the musician once accused of being a Satanist.
The 68-year-old said the song, How Good It Is, was to give something back to the city he hails from.
He said the track was "just a little bit different to Sabbath".
The project was born out of his friendship with the Dean of Birmingham, the Very Reverend Catherine Ogle, which developed when he was battling cancer in 2012.
The lyrics for the piece were inspired by Psalm 133 which talks about people living together in unity which "is what Birmingham is all about", Dean Ogle said.
Tony Iommi (l), Ozzy Osbourne (centre) and Geezer Butler (r) formed their first band in 1968
"Tony and I were introduced by a mutual friend and we discussed a possible music collaboration sometime in the future," she said.
"Then, when Tony was unwell, we got to know one another better when I began to pray for him and kept in touch with Tony and his wife about his health.
"This is a most wonderful gift Tony offered to the cathedral."
Iommi, whose band's front-man is well-known hell-raiser Ozzy Osbourne, said the group, whose reputation is for being pioneers in heavy metal, have previously done instrumental work with orchestras which was something he enjoyed.
"This is a completely new piece of music and I'm really pleased with it."
As for their famed links with the occult, Iommi admitted in a BBC interview in 2013 that the group had "dabbled" in their younger days, but felt it was really an image invented by their record label when a picture of an upside down cross was used on their first album.
Tony Iommi plays his guitar with the choir
"People used to think we were Satanists but we weren't," he said.
"The songs were the opposite and all about the dangers of Black Magic and Satanism.
"The closest we came was Black Magic chocolates."
The new song was played to the public in the cathedral on Thursday which garnered a "beautiful" reaction, Dean Ogle said.
"We're so pleased with what people have been saying.
"We're particularly touched by Tony's fans who have got in touch to say how much they like it - some are quite surprised but 'beautiful' is a word that keeps coming up.
"Who knows if there will be more collaborations?"
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-38541889
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Ed Sheeran lyric 'driving at 90' prompts Suffolk Police plea - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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A new song by Ed Sheeran which features the lyrics "driving at 90" prompts police to say, "please slow down".
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Suffolk
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Ed Sheeran describes "driving at 90" in his new song Castle on the Hill
A new song by Ed Sheeran which features the lyrics "driving at 90" has prompted a safety warning by police.
Castle on the Hill, released on Friday, has been described as a "love song for Suffolk".
In addition to describing the Framlingham area where he grew up, Sheeran sings "driving at 90 down those country lanes".
Sgt Chris Harris, from Norfolk and Suffolk Roads Policing, responded by tweeting "please slow down".
The new singles are the first to be released since he announced in December 2015 that he would be taking a break from music "to travel the world".
They are taken from his forthcoming album, which is called ÷ (Divide).
Police respond to Sheeran's new song by urging drivers to slow down
On the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Sheeran said he wrote Shape of You with the singer Rihanna in mind.
While in his homage to growing up in Suffolk, Castle on the Hill, he says he "can't wait to go home".
Sgt Harris said: "Know you want to go home but please slow down on Suffolk roads."
And warned to "drive to arrive".
Sheeran is not the first singer to reference excessive speed in his lyrics.
In Crosstown Traffic, Jimi Hendrix sang "ninety miles an hour, girl, is the speed I drive".
The BBC has approached Sheeran's representatives for a comment.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-38532571
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China's Great Wall filmed by drone - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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How drone photography shed new light on the Great Wall of China for one British obsessive.
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British geographer, conservationist and author William Lindesay has had a lifelong obsession with the Great Wall of China.
Three decades ago, he left his home on Merseyside to live near the wall so he might better be able to study it.
In 2016 he and his family travelled 15,000km (9,320 miles) around the wall network, filming it from the air with a drone.
Mr Lindesay and his sons, Jim and Thomas, spoke to the BBC about their epic journey and how they shot it.
Read their full story here: One man's mission to walk Great Wall
Footage by James and Thomas Lindesay at Depictograph.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-38325450
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CES 2017: China vows to innovate not imitate - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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At CES in Las Vegas, China is shedding its reputation as the counterfeiting capital of the world.
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Technology
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LeEco sounds French to some - but the firm is a home-grown Chinese venture
China's disregard for intellectual property, and a turn-a-blind-eye culture when it comes to blatant counterfeiting, is notorious - the butt of many jokes.
And it’s been fair. In China they don't just counterfeit devices, they counterfeit entire shops - a knock-off Apple store was closed down in 2015.
Instances like this play into the West’s view of China as the world’s shameless imitator. A place where great ideas from the US and Europe go off to be assembled as cheaply as possible.
It's time to update that view.
At CES, the US's biggest trade show, Chinese companies could be found competing not only on price, but on fantastic ideas and design.
As China's consumers have matured - and by that I mean, got a lot richer - so too has its technology industry.
Like many a British popstar, China is intent on breaking America. But the question is whether Chinese firms can earn greater trust from Western consumers.
Occupying a sizable booth in CES's North Hall is LeEco. It's pronounced "Luh" and "eco" as in ecosystem.
On display here is a concept Tesla-like sportscar, some Smart bikes with Google's Android software built in, and a 12in (30cm) TV. The point: they do a lot.
Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, chief executive of LeEco, has been at CES this year
LeEco was for a while known as the Netflix of China, a company that streamed content and eventually started making its own original material. Now it's branching out quickly into hardware - and started selling devices in the US at the tail end of last year.
"People assume LeEco… they think it sounds French,” says Kenny Mathers, from LeEco's marketing team.
"Our name means joyful ecosystem. When consumers get to pick up our products they’re delighted with build quality and design."
Sounding French is a good thing for a Chinese company, Mathers acknowledged, as it removes a trust barrier for people used to words like Apple rather than, say, Xiaomi. That said, I’ve heard at least five different pronunciations of LeEco this week.
Looking around the booth I spotted what looked very much like a GoPro camera, and I put it to Mathers that even here we're still seeing a disregard for Western intellectual property.
"I wouldn’t say that," he said.
"I would say that there’s a lot of innovation in our products. We've had a huge number of innovations in our phone line - we were the first company to remove the audio jack."
He is of course referencing Apple’s controversial decision to remove the headphone socket from its latest iPhone - though I’m not sure that’s been a particularly popular move by either company.
LeEco won't be drawn on reports of its money woes - back in China it’s reported that Haosheng Electronics, one of LeEco’s suppliers, is taking legal action over unpaid bills. LeEco has denied reports it has failed to meet its financial obligations.
According to the latest figures from research firm Gartner, sitting third in the global smartphone sales race - behind Samsung and Apple - is Huawei.
Already the biggest supplier of telecoms infrastructure in Europe, Huawei was one of the early entrants into Western markets - though in the US it was coy. The company made Google's Nexus 6P, released in 2015, but until now hadn't undertaken any serious attempts at pushing its own brand.
Huawei unveiled its Mate 9 phablet at the Las Vegas tech show
The new Mate 9, a so-called phablet, is the company's first high-end device to be launched in the US. One stand-out feature is a built-in voice assistant.
Curiously, while the company makes its own AI assistant, it has opted to integrate Amazon’s Alexa into this device instead. I wondered if it was because US users might not trust a Chinese firm with such broad data gathering. But Richard Yu, Huawei's chief executive (for the consumer side of things), gave a simpler explanation.
"Amazon Alexa is the best in this country,” he told me.
"We want to bring to the consumer the best services. In the China market we have our own - we have no intention to do this [in the US] in the short term."
Last year, Huawei had an unexpected gift: Samsung’s devices kept on catching on fire.
"Their problem has given Huawei more opportunity to be in the market," Mr Yu said, though he felt the Mate 9 would have given Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 a run for its money even without the problems.
He said China deserved its reputation as an imitator in years past, but was quickly shaking off that image.
"Chinese vendors are getting stronger and stronger on innovation.
"It's not like 10, 20 years ago where many in China would learn [from the West]. There is more original innovation from China now.
One Chinese telecoms firm, ZTE, impressed CES crowds with a spot of American basketball - on stilts
"Thirty years ago China was a very poor country. Like North Korea. Very poor. Nothing.
"Within 30 years everywhere in China is changing, growing. In Huawei we have huge investment in innovation."
This year he said he expected the company to spend $10bn (£8.1bn) on research and development - roughly in line with Apple.
But spend isn't everything. No amount of money can buy a Steve Jobs or a Jony Ive. And the cultural boundaries are proving both frustrating and fascinating - what is a massive hit in China can fall desperately flat elsewhere.
But while American firms have struggled to make headway in China, Chinese firms are accelerating into the West. With high specifications and low prices, you shouldn't bet against them.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38541208
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Wayne Rooney equals Sir Bobby Charlton's Manchester United scoring record - BBC Sport
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2017-01-07
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Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney moves level with Sir Bobby Charlton as the club's all-time leading scorer.
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Wayne Rooney has moved level with Sir Bobby Charlton as Manchester United's all-time leading goalscorer.
The 31-year-old's FA Cup strike against Reading took him to 249 in 543 games, reaching the landmark 215 matches and four seasons quicker than Charlton.
The record had stood since 1973 but Rooney now seems certain to beat it.
"This club is a huge part of my life and I'm honoured to be up there alongside Sir Bobby," said Rooney following the 4-0 win.
"It's a proud moment. To do it at a massive club like Manchester United, I'm hugely honoured."
Manager Jose Mourinho added: "A more special day will arrive. It was great but I want one more goal! He is an amazing guy in the group and we all want him to do it. To have Wayne as the top scorer in a club like this is magnificent for him."
In 2015, Rooney surpassed World Cup winner Charlton's England scoring record of 49 goals and has since taken his tally to 53.
The United landmark comes during a season in which the England captain has been left out of the starting line-up for both club and country, his record-equalling goal being just his fourth of the campaign.
'There was a warmth around the stadium'
As Old Trafford celebrated the occasion, the stadium announcer made sure he remembered the 'other' player: 'Manchester United's goalscorer, and equalling Sir Bobby Charlton's record of 249...'
Up in the directors' box, blinking through his glasses under a dark, brimmed hat, Charlton looked down. Wife Norma sat alongside, applauding generously.
At 79, Charlton was not on his feet like others around him as the ball lobbed in off Rooney's right knee. But close by, Sir Alex Ferguson, who paid £27m to buy the then 18-year-old striker from Everton in 2004, was up and applauding.
The genuine enthusiasm and warmth around the stadium as Rooney celebrated the landmark was an acknowledgement of what he has achieved.
How has Rooney done it?
The signs were there from the very start that Rooney's could be a stellar Old Trafford career.
In his first game following a £27m move from Everton in 2004, he scored a hat-trick against Fenerbahce in a 6-2 Champions League win.
He has not looked back since, reaching double figures in every season at the club, including a career-high 34 in all competitions in 2009-10 and 2011-12.
Rooney and Charlton are ahead of some of the finest players that Manchester United and British football has known.
Charlton, who came up through the United youth system, spent 17 years at Old Trafford before finishing his career with spells at Preston and Irish side Waterford United.
And despite his consistency over such a long period, he never managed to hit the 30-goal mark in a single season, coming closest when he struck 29 times during his third season at Old Trafford.
Despite Rooney's scoring bursts, his goals have not come at the fastest rate. Tommy Taylor, who was a two-time title winner with United in the 1950s, holds that honour, just ahead of former Netherlands international Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Rooney's ratio of 0.459 goals per game puts him eighth on the list, while Charlton (0.328) does not even make the top 10.
Where does Rooney rank in list of Man Utd greats?
Rooney has secured his place in Manchester United history and Old Trafford's hall of greats with his record-equalling goalscoring feats.
However, he will have to resign himself to never being held in the same esteem, and place of legend, as the likes of Charlton, George Best and Denis Law.
Indeed, despite his lofty place in United's record books, the 31-year-old will never be revered by United's supporters in the same manner as the maverick Old Trafford catalyst Eric Cantona, the great leaders Roy Keane and Bryan Robson, and brilliant home-grown products such as Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville.
This may seem brutally unfair given his contribution to United's successes, but there are several factors at work when his place in the club's historical affections is measured.
Rooney was an expensive import from Merseyside, while Charlton, who survived the 1958 Munich air disaster, led United to their first European Cup in 1968 and stands alongside his great mentor Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson as an iconic Old Trafford figure.
Best and Law came alongside Charlton as United's 'Holy Trinity' as the club emerged from the tragedy of Munich, while Cantona was the great transformer in the early 90s and the likes of Robson and Keane were world-class players and warriors.
Rooney's chequered history with the club and its fans will also have an impact on his legacy when his contribution to United - a truly great one when judged solely in a football context - is reflected upon.
In many eyes, Rooney will never quite be forgiven for the episode in October 2010 when he decided he wanted to leave, then further strained his relationship with club and fans by issuing a statement which effectively said United lacked ambition and questioned the quality of his team-mates.
This was resolved within days when he signed a new five-year-contract, but the memory has lingered for many. There was another disagreement late in the 2012-13 season as Ferguson prepared for retirement and made it clear Rooney again wanted to leave - a claim that led to the player being jeered by some fans as he collected his title winner's medal at Old Trafford.
Fans and those who record history and legends take these matters into account.
What must also be remembered is that Rooney has had a stellar United career littered with trophies, brilliance and game-changing moments. He fully deserves to be remembered as one of the greats of Old Trafford.
There will, however, be many more remembered before him.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38097719
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What marks does Obama's presidency deserve? - BBC News
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2017-01-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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What is the Obama administration's legacy and will it survive Donald Trump?
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US & Canada
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It's almost time to close the book on Barack Obama's eight years as president. Before he relocates to Washington's posh Kalorama neighbourhood, however, here's a take on what he tried to do - and how well he did it.
Although there are letter grades attached to each section, these assessments are not a reflection of the wisdom of his actions, only in how well he was able to advance his agenda over the course of his presidency.
While a liberal might give his environmental policy high marks, a conservative would likely flunk him. What can't be argued, however, is that he accomplished a considerable amount during his eight years.
Going unmeasured are a number of Mr Obama's intangible or indirect accomplishments.
While the White House sported rainbow-colouring the night after gay marriage became legal nationwide, that was the result of a Supreme Court decision not presidential action. And while Mr Obama often spoke movingly about race relations in the US, particularly after the shooting at a black church in South Carolina, there was little in the way of policy elements accompanying his words.
Mr Obama does have an ample record to judge, however. Here's a look at eight key areas - along with consideration of their "Trump-ability" - how easy it will be for incoming president Donald Trump to undo what Mr Obama has accomplished.
Tell Anthony on Twitter @awzurcher how you would grade Barack Obama's presidency.
Comprehensive healthcare reform had been the Democratic Party's holy grail for decades, always seemingly just out of reach. Under Mr Obama, they finally claimed the prize.
Due to an electoral setback in the Senate before the bill's final passage, however, the massive piece of legislation was a half-baked cake, making implementation a challenge. The federal healthcare insurance marketplace website, essentially unusable for months after launch, was a very visible, politically devastating mistake.
To the surprise of Democrats, many Republican-controlled states opted not to expand Medicaid healthcare coverage for the poor. More recently, insurance premiums for exchange-based policies will increase markedly in some US states - which will be a financial blow to less affluent Americans not covered by government subsidies.
Much of the law operated as intended, however. The percentage of Americans without insurance dropped from 15.7% in 2011 to to 9.1% in 2015. More than 8.8 million Americans have signed up for coverage through the federal exchange in the current enrolment period - a record high. Insurers can't deny individuals coverage for their pre-existing medical conditions, and there are no lifetime dollar caps on coverage.
Despite its shortcomings, passage of the Affordable Care Act, in the words of Vice-President Joe Biden, was a big expletive-ing deal.
Trump-ability: Republicans have been trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act from the moment Mr Obama signed it into law. Mr Trump regularly condemned the programme as a failure. Now, Republicans are setting the wheels in motion to tear up the reforms "root and branch", in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's words.
Republicans will be able to shred the programme even with their slim majority in the Senate thanks to presidential authority and legislative manoeuvres.
Enacting a replacement plan, however, will be more difficult. At the moment, they seem determined to jump off the repeal bridge without figuring out exactly where they will land, but Mr Trump has cautioned his congressional colleagues to be careful with how they go about the task.
Mr Obama's administration helped negotiate the Paris climate agreement, in which the US joined 185 countries in pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It enacted a host of new regulations governing pollution from coal-fired power plants and limiting coal mining and oil and gas drilling both on federal lands and in coastal waters. Mr Obama also used his executive authority to designate 548 million acres of territory as protected habitat - more than any prior president.
The past eight years weren't without missed opportunities, however. Early in his administration, when Democrats had large majorities in Congress, the House of Representatives passed a stringent cap-and-trade programme for controlling carbon emissions. The Senate focused on financial and healthcare reform first, however, and the Democratic majority was gone before they could take action.
That may be as close as Democrats come to any sort of comprehensive environmental legislation for a great many years.
Trump-ability: US participation in the Paris accord is still uncertain given that the president-elect promised to abandon it. While the withdrawal procedure is supposed to take four years, Mr Trump's team is reportedly searching for ways to speed up the process.
Other Obama-era executive accomplishments, however, will be more difficult to roll back. Proposed regulatory changes will require an extended approval process and are sure to face a flurry of lawsuits from environmental groups. Congress could speed things up, but Democrats in the Senate have enough votes to block their efforts if they stick together.
Mr Obama made completion of two major trade agreements - the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership - the cornerstone of his second term in office.
The TPP is destined for the dustbin without even consideration by the US Congress, thanks to a coalition of opposition from Democratic left and the economic nationalists who are sweeping to power with Mr Trump.
The TTIP, which is still in negotiation and attempts to reduce trade barriers between the US and the EU, is being abandoned by politicians on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Obama administration did successfully implement free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia and South Korea, but they are dwarfed by the size and scope of the now-doomed regional deals.
Trump-ability: Mr Trump can and will give a death blow to any hopes Mr Obama may have had of cementing a lasting trade legacy through the TPP and TTIP. More than that, the new president is poised to roll back the trade legacies of previous presidents, as he's pledged to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement - which was concluded under President Bill Clinton - or perhaps even withdraw from the deal entirely.
His promises to enact draconian import tariffs on some foreign goods would also run counter to US commitments to the World Trade Organization, which could undermine the entire foundation of the current global trade regime.
When Mr Obama took office, the US economy was in freefall. Unemployment had spiked to double digits, housing prices had collapsed and the financial industry teetered on the brink of collapse.
The picture eight years later is one of stability and modest growth, although critics will argue that things could be better (and blue-collar Trump voters in the industrial states seemed to agree).
Policy-wise, Mr Obama pushed through a major stimulus package and financial reform legislation early in his first term. His administration oversaw a support structure that saved General Motors from a bankruptcy that would have devastated the US auto industry.
The Home Affordable Refinance Program, run by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, allowed several million US homeowners to avoid foreclosure and refinance high-interest mortgages.
The president negotiated an agreement that rolled back many of the George W Bush era tax cuts in exchange for across-the-board spending freezes. He frequently called for a raise in the federal minimum wage, but he was unable to generate any support for such actions in the Republican-controlled Congress.
Although the stock market is reaching new highs, 2015 household income is still below what it was in 2007. Considering where his presidency started, however, the current state of economic health is perhaps the president's most noteworthy legacy.
Trump-ability: Republicans cutting taxes when they hold power is as certain as the sun rising in the east. Tax-reform, which will likely include a return to Bush-era rates along with even more substantive changes, appear all but certain for passage. Mr Obama's financial reform legislation also could be poised for weakening, as it was frequently the target of Mr Trump's anti-regulation ire.
Although conservatives liked to criticise Mr Obama's efforts to bolster US companies as "picking winners and losers", early evidence (Carrier, Ford Motors, etc) indicates that's one tradition Mr Trump appears likely to continue, albeit with a sharper edge for businesses that don't comply to his wishes.
Mr Obama will leave the White House with two prominent feathers in his foreign policy cap - the Iran nuclear deal and normalised relations with Cuba. Say what you will about the merits of the accomplishments (and many have), they represent a notable thawing in relations between the US and two long-time antagonists.
He also oversaw the drawdown of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan - fulfilling a key campaign promise.
Elsewhere, however, the president's international policy has been characterised by strained relations and festering problems. His planned "reset" of US-Russian relations upon taking office was followed by the nation's Ukrainian intervention and allegations of meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
The Arab Spring uprisings that began in 2010 spread unrest throughout the Middle East, culminating in a Syrian Civil War that facilitated the rise of the so-called Islamic State and a devastating refugee crisis that has roiled European politics.
North Korea continues to develop its nuclear weapons programme seemingly undeterred, and Mr Obama's plans for an "Asian pivot" in US foreign policy have done little to keep Chinese regional ambitions in check.
Responsibility for this global unrest can't all be laid at Mr Obama's feet, of course, but it's a mark on his permanent record nonetheless.
Trump-ability: Mr Trump has criticised the Iranian nuclear deal, although unlike some other Republicans he hasn't vowed to abandon it entirely. He may find renegotiating the multi-party agreement more difficult than he might think. As for Cuba, he has the executive authority to roll back all of Mr Obama's diplomatic overtures to the communist island, including relaxed sanctions and travel restrictions - although he's kept his options open so far.
The president-elect also seems more likely to favour closer relations to Israel and a renewed attempt at improving relations with Russia (a re-reset). In Syria, he has criticised Mr Obama's actions but hasn't advocated a coherent counter-policy, so there's no telling how - or if - he'll change course.
One thing is for certain, however. At least rhetorically the Trump administration will be a marked departure from Mr Obama's internationalist foreign policy, which leaned heavily on co-operation and co-ordination with allies.
The long-term trend of declining crime rates continued over the past eight years, although a number of large cities have seen a recent uptick in their murder rates. While public safety was a 2016 campaign issue, much of Mr Obama's efforts while president were directed at criminal justice reform.
In 2010 he signed a law that brought the mandatory minimum prison time for crack cocaine possession - which disproportionately involves black drug offenders - more in line with powder cocaine sentences.
In January 2016, Mr Obama took a series of executive actions to limit the use of solitary confinement in federal prisons and provide greater treatment for inmates with mental health issues. He has also used his presidential power to commute the sentences of more than 1,000 non-violent drug offenders and supported a Justice Department policy that resulted in the early release of about 6,000 individuals.
Although Mr Obama has backed bipartisan sentencing reform legislation in Congress, the 2016 presidential election - and Mr Trump's tough-on-crime rhetoric - has been attributed with frustrating those efforts.
Gun control wasn't a top priority for Mr Obama when he took office, but in the early months of his second term - after the 2012 mass shooting of schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut - Mr Obama made a strong push for greater restrictions on some types of military-style semi-automatic rifles and more thorough background checks for firearm purchases.
Those efforts ran head-on into the National Rifle Association's formidable lobbying power, however, and aside from a few executive actions, no new policies were enacted. In 2015, Mr Obama told the BBC that his failure in this area was his greatest frustration as president.
Trump-ability: Given that Mr Trump regularly painted a bleak picture of crime levels in the US, lamented that law enforcement was too constrained by "political correctness" and opined that prison inmates were being treated too well, it's safe to say he will pursue a decidedly different course on public safety than Mr Obama.
Sentencing reform - in limbo for the past year - will be an exceedingly low priority for Republicans in Congress now, and Mr Obama's gun-control executive actions are likely to face the chopping block.
There was a point, shortly after Mr Obama's re-election in 2012, where comprehensive immigration reform seemed inevitable.
The president and his fellow Democrats were in favour, and rattled Republicans saw granting permanent residency to some undocumented workers and streamlining the US immigration system as a means to curry favour with the growing bloc of Hispanic voters.
A grass-roots revolt within the Republican Party derailed those plans, prompting Mr Obama to take a series of executive actions providing normalised status to undocumented immigrants who entered the US as children and the immigrant families of US citizens and permanent residents. (The latter policy has since been suspended during a protracted legal battle over its constitutionality.)
While these efforts attracted widespread praise from pro-immigration activists and Hispanic groups, the Obama administration's policy of increasing removal of other undocumented immigrants has prompted some to call him the "deporter in chief".
From 2009 to 2015, the Obama administration deported more than 2.5 million people - most of whom had been convicted of some form of criminal offence or were recent arrivals.
Trump-ability: Mr Trump may very well drop the US defence of the portion of Mr Obama's immigration action that's currently under legal challenge. He could also unilaterally resume deportation of others given normalised status by Mr Obama's executive efforts, although that will be more controversial.
The president-elect has pledged to deport more than three million undocumented immigrants currently living in the US - including visitors who have overstayed their visas - although given Mr Obama's track record it may be a difference of extent, not substance.
At one point, Mr Trump was pledging to remove everyone not lawfully in the US - more than 11 million by most estimates - which would be a marked departure not just from Mr Obama's policies but those of every modern US president.
Whatever his other successes during his time in office, Mr Obama's presidency was a beating for the Democratic Party.
In 2009, when Mr Obama was swept to power, Democrats had large majorities in the US Congress and control of 29 of 50 governorships. Since then, he has seen his party's power steadily erode. The House of Representatives has been in Republican hands since 2010; the Senate since 2014. Democrats control the governor's mansion in only 16 states.
The situation is even more dire in state legislatures - the proving grounds for young politicians with national ambitions. Republicans hold sway in 32 legislatures, while Democrats have majorities in only 12 (the rest are divided).
If the party doesn't make inroads in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Florida and Wisconsin by 2020, those legislatures will draw congressional district maps that make recapturing the House of Representatives a tall task for Democrats for another decade.
Mr Obama's political constituency - young voters and minorities - proved enough to win him the presidency twice, but it was a fragile coalition that could not be counted on in mid-term congressional and legislative elections or, for that matter, by Hillary Clinton last year.
While Mr Obama can boast considerable accomplishments over his eight years in office, if his party can't regain its footing after a string of devastating electoral setbacks, he won't have any legacy worth writing about before too long.
Trump-ability: Barring a major political realignment in the liberal fortress of California, things can't get much worse for Democrats at the state level. In Congress, however, Mr Trump has a decent shot at expanding the Republican Senate majority in 2018, given that Democrats have to defend 10 seats in states that Mr Trump won last year.
There's always the chance that Republicans could overreach in their efforts to enact their agenda. An economic decline or foreign policy fiasco could tank Mr Trump's approval rating and make winners of even unlikely Democrats.
The durability of Mr Trump's own political coalition of disaffected working-class whites, evangelicals and other traditional Republican voters is still an open question as well. While Republicans may feel the future belongs to them, when Mr Trump's time in the Oval Office comes to an end, there's no telling what kind of grades will his legacy receive.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38525529
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FA Cup: West Ham 0-5 Manchester City highlights - BBC Sport
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2017-01-07
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Pep Guardiola's first taste of the FA Cup ends triumphantly as Manchester City thrash Premier League rivals West Ham 5-0 in the FA Cup third round at London Stadium.
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Pep Guardiola's first taste of the FA Cup ends triumphantly as Manchester City thrash Premier League rivals West Ham 5-0 in the FA Cup third round at London Stadium.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38536413
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Liverpool 0-0 Plymouth Argyle - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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Liverpool's youngest ever starting line-up are held to a frustrating draw by resolute League Two side Plymouth Argyle in their FA Cup third-round tie at Anfield.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
The youngest Liverpool starting line-up in the club's history were held to a frustrating draw by resolute League Two side Plymouth Argyle in their FA Cup third-round tie at Anfield.
The hosts, whose side had an average age of 21 years and 296 days, had 80.3% possession in the first half but struggled to break down their gritty opponents, with Sheyi Ojo failing to take their best chance when he missed a header from close range.
Divock Origi also had a goal disallowed for a foul on Gary Miller before Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp brought on first-team regulars Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana and Roberto Firmino in search of a breakthrough.
Sturridge sent a 25-yard shot just wide, looped a header over and fired into the side-netting - but the Reds could not find the cutting edge to break down an organised and disciplined Plymouth.
Craig Tanner would have been clean through on the Liverpool goal but for a Kevin Stewart challenge as the Pilgrims earned a replay at Home Park.
Both sides now go into the fourth round draw, which will be made live on BBC Two and online from 19:00 GMT on Monday.
• None Watch all of the latest FA Cup highlights and reaction here
• None All the FA Cup third-round reports in one place
Liverpool boss Klopp made 10 changes for the game - including defender Joe Gomez returning to first-team action for the first time since 1 October, 2015 following a knee ligament injury, and 17-year-old forward Ben Woodburn making his first start for the club.
And, despite his side enjoying plenty of possession - 87.2% after the first 15 minutes - they could not find the creativity to pierce the banked masses of Plymouth players.
Ojo failed to make proper contact with a header from five yards and Woodburn - showing some neat footwork at times - had a shot saved, but chances were few and far between for the youthful Reds, who managed just four efforts on target from 28 overall.
German Klopp said before the game he could be criticised if his team selection backfired and, even with the introduction of Sturridge, Lallana and Firmino, his much-changed side could not find a winner.
Such was the effort and application put in by Plymouth, who are second in League Two, Klopp congratulated their players on the pitch after the final whistle.
The visitors set up in a 4-5-1 formation and their focus on containment rather than posing any attacking threat resulted in keeper Luke McCormick having the most touches - 52 - of any Pilgrims player.
It was a team effort, but centre-backs Sonny Bradley and Yann Songo'o epitomised the dogged spirit and endeavour of their side and were key to the result.
Plymouth took nearly 9,000 fans to Anfield and, although they had little to cheer from an attacking point of view with their team managing just three touches in the Liverpool box, they were celebrating at the end and have a replay to look forward to at Home Park.
"The character and work rate we showed was unbelievable," said Plymouth midfielder Graham Carey.
"The atmosphere has been brilliant and it will be the same when they come to our place. I've come here as a fan before - the hairs are standing up on the back of my neck."
What they said:
Liverpool manager Klopp: "They created small spaces and we made our own problems. A game like this is not easy to make exciting.
"We had a young side so that's difficult. We can do better and if we do better then we have a good chance of making the next round.
"With our other line-up it could be possible that the result was still the same - not likely, but possible. It was a good experience for the boys."
Plymouth boss Derek Adams: "We had a very good defensive display. We allowed Liverpool the ball. When we had the ball we still created a couple of opportunities.
"We had gone in at half-time at 0-0 and that was important. We knew Liverpool might start the second half at a better tempo and we coped with that well. We knew we would get a bit of belief as well.
"We've had a couple of opportunities in the game that we might have done better with, but that would be asking too much."
On an injury to Gary Miller: "He's either got a broken ankle or ankle ligament damage. We'll see what happens. It's disappointing for him and the team."
Former Wales and Arsenal striker John Hartson on BBC Radio 5 live
"Plymouth gave everything. They have left everything out there on the Anfield pitch.
"Liverpool paid the price for too many changes. They never really created enough opportunities for their strikers. It's a day to give Plymouth the credit."
• None The Reds have drawn four of their past five FA Cup matches at Anfield 0-0.
• None Liverpool had 76.7% on Sunday. Only against Burnley and Sunderland in the Premier League this season have they had more in a game.
• None The last fourth-tier side to claim a draw in an FA Cup game at Anfield were Doncaster Rovers in January 1974.
• None The Pilgrims avoided defeat in an FA Cup game against a top-flight team for the first time since drawing against Everton in the fourth round in 1989 (before losing the replay).
• None Liverpool midfielder Kevin Stewart made the same amount of successful passes (53) as the whole Plymouth team during the first half.
Liverpool go to Southampton on Wednesday for the first leg of their EFL Cup semi-final (19:45 GMT kick-off), while Plymouth continue their League Two promotion challenge when they host Stevenage on Saturday at 15:00.
• None Attempt blocked. Divock Origi (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Adam Lallana.
• None Attempt missed. Lucas Leiva (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right.
• None Sheyi Ojo (Liverpool) wins a free kick on the right wing.
• None Attempt blocked. Kevin Stewart (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Adam Lallana.
• None Attempt missed. Jake Jervis (Plymouth Argyle) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left.
• None Attempt missed. Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool) left footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Sheyi Ojo following a corner.
• None Attempt blocked. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) right footed shot from a difficult angle and long range on the left is blocked. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold.
• None Attempt missed. Divock Origi (Liverpool) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Adam Lallana with a cross.
• None Attempt missed. Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool) header from the right side of the six yard box is too high. Assisted by Roberto Firmino with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38481646
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Peter Sarstedt's most famous song - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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Peter Sarstedt, who took Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)? to the UK number one spot in February 1969, has died aged 75.
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Peter Sarstedt, who took Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)? (Ray Singer: United Artists) to the UK number one spot in February 1969, has died aged 75.
His family said he had been battling Progressive Supranuclear Palsy for six years.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38549476
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Your pictures: My own bed - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Each week, we publish a gallery of readers' pictures on a set theme. This week it is "My own bed".
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In Pictures
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Anna Grayson: "This is a scene I had been thinking of shooting anyway, in honour of Tracey Emin. The aftermath of the Christmas hols seems to have given my bed the right feel. I bumped into Tracey Emin a few years ago, and she kindly agreed to let me photograph her (it is in the frame on the right above the bed). She was very encouraging about the importance of doing art, and not long after that I chucked in work and went to art college. One of the things I enjoy doing is recreating famous works of art as photographs. So this is an homage and thank you to Tracey."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-38510863
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Referee Mike Dean one of Premier League's best - Mark Halsey - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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Mike Dean remains one of the Premier League's best referees despite an "indifferent" festive period, says ex-colleague Mark Halsey.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Mike Dean remains one of the Premier League's best referees despite an "indifferent" festive period, says former official Mark Halsey.
Dean has received criticism for some of his recent performances and the number of red cards he has shown - five in 15 matches this season.
Ex-Premier League referee Halsey thinks Dean can come across as "arrogant".
He also believes only a handful of referees are "trusted" for the league's most important games.
Dean, who has been a Premier League referee for 16 years, controversially sent off West Ham's Sofiane Feghouli during the Hammers' defeat by Manchester United on 2 January, while the red card was later rescinded by the Football Association.
That dismissal was the official's 26th since the start of the 2013-14 season - the highest number by any current Premier League referee in that period.
"If you look back over the December period, he has had an indifferent period," Halsey, 55, told BBC Radio 5 live.
"I have disagreed with some of his decision-making, especially the sendings-off.
"It is not an easy job to do. He is one of the most experienced and is a very good referee - one of the best of the bunch we have got.
"He does come across as a little bit arrogant. I would like to see that taken out of his game and perhaps he would get a lot more respect from the paying public and the media.
"But that is not the way he is off the pitch - if truth be told, the players like him."
• None Listen to more from Halsey on BBC Radio 5 live
Halsey, who retired in 2013, says the standard of officiating has "got steadily worse" since Keith Hackett retired as general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) in 2010.
"Mark Clattenburg is by far our best referee, then there is Martin Atkinson, Michael Oliver, Andre Marriner, Anthony Taylor and Mike Dean. The top games, the big derbies, can only be refereed by four or five referees. The PGMOL do not trust the others to take control of those games," he said.
Halsey also criticised the new way referees are assessed. There is now an "evaluation system" that can take up to 10 days to issue feedback rather than an assessor at the ground.
He added: "It could be 10 days before you get closure on a game on a Saturday. You can go into your next game without any closure on a previous game.
"Look at the top referees, they are confused. There is no leadership or direction coming from within."
'Clattenburg could go to China'
Clattenburg, 41, has said he would consider officiating in the Chinese Super League.
He refereed the finals of the FA Cup, the Champions League and the European Championship in 2016.
Asked if he would be surprised if Clattenburg went to China, Halsey added: "No I wouldn't. There is no love lost between Clattenburg, the FA, and PGMOL.
"There is a lot to sort out. It needs a massive overhaul. We have got excellent referees not being coached correctly - people involved in referring who have never been involved in referring at that level."
Take part in our Premier League Predictor game, which allows you to create leagues with friends.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38549470
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CES 2017: Nokia Android phone spurns the West - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The first Android smartphone to carry Nokia's brand is announced as a China exclusive.
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Technology
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The Nokia 6 is the first Android smartphone to bear the brand under a deal with HMD Global
The first in a series of Nokia-branded Android phones is to be released exclusively in China.
The device will be marketed in partnership with the local internet retail giant JD.com.
The team behind the Nokia 6 phone said the handset's "premium design" would appeal to the local market.
The announcement coincided with the final day of the CES tech show in Las Vegas, where other new mobile phones and gadgets have been launched.
Nokia no longer manufactures phones that carry its name but has instead licensed its brand to another Finnish company, HMD Global.
Until now, the only phones that had been released under the deal had been more basic "feature phone" models.
HMD Global may wait to unveil details of Android smartphones for other markets until next month in Barcelona
The Android device had been highly anticipated and marks Nokia's return to the smartphone market after a series of Windows Phone models. Nokia also briefly sold Android-based handsets - known as Nokia X - in 2014.
Microsoft used Nokia's brand for a short time after buying the company's mobile devices the same year, but later referred to the devices solely by their Lumia name.
Nokia once dominated the mobile phone market but struggled after the launch of the iPhone a decade ago, and the subsequent release of Google's Android operating system.
HMD Global had previously indicated it would release several Nokia-branded Android phones in 2017.
It is expected to provide details of at least some of the other launches at another trade show - Barcelona's Mobile World Congress - in February.
"The decision by HMD to launch its first Android smartphone into China is a reflection of the desire to meet the real world needs of consumers in different markets around the world," the firm said in a statement.
"With over 552 million smartphone users in China in 2016, a figure that is predicted to grow to more than 593 million users by 2017, it is a strategically important market where premium design and quality is highly valued by consumers."
HMD Gobal sells feature phones, including the Nokia 150, in other parts of the world
The Nokia 6 phone runs Android 7.0 - the latest version, also known as Nougat - and features:
The specifications are mid-range, and so is the price: 1,699 yuan ($245; £200).
That makes it slightly more expensive than Huawei's Honor 6X but cheaper than Xiaomi's Mi 5s.
"Nokia remains one of the most recognised mobile phone brands on the planet," commented Ben Wood from the CCS Insight technology consultancy.
"HMD Global will be hoping it can capitalise on this as it seeks to relaunch Nokia devices in 2017.
"It will be hoping the brand will help it stand out in the incredibly crowded Android smartphone market, which is characterised by cut-throat competition and a sea of design sameness. "
Brandon Ackroyd, Head of Customer Insight at Tiger Mobiles believes that Nokia will launch the Nokia 6 globally if the device has a successful launch in Asia.
"If the Nokia 6 performs well in China then it's highly likely we will see a new international variant of the handset sometime in 2017. We'll be keeping our eyes on the certification websites in the coming months looking for a variant with more connectivity options like GSM, LTE, and CDMA that will make the device compatible with networks worldwide."
Follow all our CES coverage at bbc.co.uk/ces2017
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38546676
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Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Aston Villa - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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A much-changed Tottenham side score two second-half goals to see off Aston Villa and move into the fourth round of the FA Cup.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Ben Davies scored his first goal for Tottenham as the eight-time winners ground out an FA Cup third-round win over a stubborn Aston Villa side.
After a dreadful first-half showing, Spurs improved and the Wales left-back found the breakthrough against their Championship opponents with a deft header.
Son Heung-min then wrapped up the victory when he converted Moussa Sissoko's pass to put Mauricio Pochettino's side in Monday's fourth-round draw.
Tottenham have moved into third place in the Premier League on the back of a five-match winning run, but their second string struggled to click against a Villa side set out to frustrate.
Without the rested Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen, the hosts were short of ideas and the tie looked destined for a replay until unlikely goalscorer Davies arrived inside the penalty area.
Villa mustered one shot on target all game and Steve Bruce will now turn his attention to overhauling a seven-point gap to the Championship play-off places.
• None Watch all of the latest FA Cup highlights and reaction here
• None All of the third-round reports in one place
Tottenham were excellent in beating Premier League leaders Chelsea 2-0 in midweek but, perhaps unsurprisingly, were nowhere near that level in the opening hour.
Of the XI who started against Chelsea, only Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier kept their places - and it showed.
Alli, Kane and Eriksen had contributed 30 of Spurs' 51 goals this season, and 11 of 33 assists, before kick-off and without them Pochettino's side looked toothless.
Stand-in striker Vincent Janssen, who has scored just three penalties in 23 appearances now, was particularly lightweight and it was only when Alli finally replaced him after an hour that Tottenham found a way through.
It was another replacement, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou, who crossed for Davies to head home before Son - who had moved up front once Janssen went off - buried the second.
A top-four finish remains Pochettino's most pressing assignment but, after a dismal Champions League campaign, a first FA Cup win since 1991 is also surely high on his list.
Six at the back, one shot on target
Villa were beaten FA Cup finalists in 2015 and Bruce took Hull to Wembley a year earlier, but a repeat never looked likely as the visitors effectively played with a back six for large periods.
With top goalscorer Jonathan Kodjia away on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast, they posed little threat and their only real chance came when James Chester and then Gabriel Agbonlahor had shots blocked from the same free-kick.
A return to league duty now awaits. Villa were 19th when Bruce took charge in October, but after just three defeats in 14 games since they could challenge for a place in the play-offs.
What the managers said
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino: "It's always difficult in the FA Cup, but we played a team that had very good organisation and it was tough to break them. We had lots of possession and a lot of patience to try and build from the back.
"At 0-0 we changed the system a bit to try and change the game and from that we scored.
"I'm pleased for the players that haven't played too much, it's important for them to build their confidence."
Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce: "We had to defend well and run a million miles because they are a very good side. We had a big chance in the game.
"I was a touch disappointed with the goal because they didn't have to do much - one cross into the box and we didn't deal with it.
"You need your goalkeeper to play well and Sam Johnstone looks a very good young goalkeeper - I think he'll relish the challenge to play week in, week out.
"They are a very good side and that has to be the aspiration for us at Aston Villa."
This year Tottenham have taken Manchester City to the cleaners, beaten Chelsea and were the better team against Manchester United for 60 minutes.
A trophy is the obvious thing they are missing. The big thing Mauricio Pochettino has changed is the mentality. It's about delivering it now.
Vincent Janssen is making life far too easy for defenders. He keeps coming towards the ball instead of getting into the six-yard box where he could actually score goals.
He is taking the easy way out and he looks to me that he is frightened of missing chances.
Unless he starts getting into the right areas, he is not going to score goals.
The stats you need to know
• None Tottenham have won nine of their past 10 games in all competitions against Aston Villa, including the past three.
• None Spurs had just one shot in the first half at White Hart Lane for the first time since failing to register one against Hearts in a Europa League qualifier in August 2011.
• None Excluding penalties, Vincent Janssen has had a total of 33 shots without scoring in all competitions for Spurs - the most of any Premier League striker.
• None Son Heung-min has scored as many goals already this season as the whole of the last campaign for Tottenham (eight).
• None Attempt saved. Son Heung-Min (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Josh Onomah.
• None Attempt blocked. Ross McCormack (Aston Villa) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
• None Attempt missed. Ross McCormack (Aston Villa) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high from a direct free kick.
• None Attempt missed. Josh Onomah (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right.
• None Offside, Aston Villa. Aaron Tshibola tries a through ball, but Ross McCormack is caught offside.
• None Leandro Bacuna (Aston Villa) wins a free kick on the right wing.
• None Goal! Tottenham Hotspur 2, Aston Villa 0. Son Heung-Min (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Moussa Sissoko.
• None Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur) wins a free kick on the right wing.
• None Attempt saved. Moussa Sissoko (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Ben Davies. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38481612
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The woman who looks after celebrities' skin - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Su-Man Hsu runs a skincare company, but she started life in a mud hut in Taiwan. How did she make her journey from there to facialist to Hollywood celebrities?
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Business
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Can you imagine telling an Oscar-winning actress that her face was sagging? It sounds like the stuff of a peculiar dream.
But that's precisely what London-based facialist Su-Man Hsu did. And the actress? None other than Juliette Binoche, star of films such as Chocolat, The English Patient and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Su-Man describes the French actress's arrival for her appointment for a facial treatment like this: "She came... and I said, 'What's happened to you? Stagnating body, sagging, sagging.'"
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Ms Binoche didn't speak to Su-Man for the whole of the session. "I thought, 'OK then, it's got to be something I said, I'll just move on and forget about it,'" Su-Man recalls.
But the story doesn't end there. A year later her phone rang and on the other end was Juliette Binoche, in London for work, asking Su-Man to come and see her.
Glowing - but Juliette Binoche and Su-Man Hsu had a sticky start to their relationship
Su-Man recalls that Ms Binoche reminded her of what she'd said and quite how badly it had gone down.
"I said, 'Why did you call me then?' She said because she tried it in France, she tried everywhere and no-one [was] like me. And from then on we became best friends, we're still in contact with each other and I became her facialist."
It was a turning point for Su-Man. She says that on the strength of Ms Binoche's recommendations her business took off. Other celebrity fans include the actresses Anne Hathaway and Freida Pinto.
It's a good story to dine out on, but actually it's just one stop on a journey where, in Su-Man's words, "everything's just emerged. A beautiful accident."
Su-Man's parents didn't speak to her for almost two weeks when she said she wanted to pursue a career as a dancer
Su-Man was born in Taiwan and lived in a tiny village until she was 14, in what she describes as a mud hut. "Outside's raining, inside's raining, and you need to put all the pots and pans [out], otherwise you'd just slip away. And in the summer you sometimes see little baby mice fall from the ceiling," she says.
They had four neighbours and after that there was nothing between them and the next village except rice fields. The family had no car but would use a cart drawn by oxen to get around.
Su-Man was the youngest of 10 siblings and her illiterate parents struggled to support the family. On days when there was no rice to eat, everyone - including the animals - would eat porridge.
Or, she says, they would shoot the swallows living in the roof with a slingshot, and then barbecue them.
Su-Man's route away from her parents' smallholding was to become a dancer - despite her mother and father's opposition to it as a career. She worked in Germany, where she met her British-Pakistani husband, and then in Brussels.
Su-Man was the rehearsal director for Akram Khan's dancers at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012
When the couple came to live in the UK, Su-Man performed her final dance in the King and I at the London Palladium, and then embarked on her second career looking after people's faces.
She didn't, however, say farewell to dancing completely. One of the highlights was still to come - she was rehearsal director for dancer Akram Khan's ensemble at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.
Su-Man was already well-versed in Shiatsu massage techniques, having used them to help her recuperate after an accident at the age of 20. So when she came to set up Su-Man Skincare she developed treatments that combined massage with her own serums and toning products. To start with she made those in her kitchen and tried them out on herself and her clients.
When clients began to ask her whether they could buy the products, she took the plunge and ordered 5,000 jars (the minimum order) to sell them in.
Su-Man explains that her technique combines nature and science and is a mix of Eastern skincare, based on prevention of problems, and Western science, which corrects them.
If you spend just five minutes extra on your face, she promises, it will repay you by looking younger and happier.
The power of touch: Su-Man Hsu at work
With this belief in natural methods for skincare, she has no time for customers who go down the artificial route offered by Botox. Her message to those who are tempted is unequivocal: "You go there, don't come back to me."
And with a dancer's view of the world, she adds: "The body is designed to be moved, it's not designed to sit there like a wall. If you can't see your expression when you speak, it's almost like you wipe out your history.
"You don't want people to know who you are, what's your future, where you come from. That saddens me."
Although Su-Man's business includes Hollywood stars amongst its clientele, she is keen to stress her belief in not forgetting how and where you started. Her products, she says, are rooted in her background. She takes her cue from the way her mother looked after them as children, using whatever was to hand.
Su-Man has travelled a long way from her first home, but says it's crucial to remember your roots
"We used rice water on our face, and used flour mixed with egg, things like that, as a mask, or even hair shampoo. We would collect roots from the mountain and we would chop it and put it in the water to wash our body.
"We used the leftover green tea to splash on our face to soothe it because we were exposed to such intense sun, and discarded water melon, rubbing our face, exfoliating, all that stuff."
And just to make sure that she keeps all that in mind, almost every day while she meditates Su-Man listens to a track which plays her the sounds of her village at night.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38368726
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Mark McCall: High tackle guidelines will see more sent off for 'accidental' challenges - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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Saracens boss Mark McCall fears more matches will have players sent off as referees begin to interpret new guidance on high tackles.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Saracens boss Mark McCall fears more Premiership matches will have players sent off as referees start to interpret new guidance on high tackles.
Sarries had Richard Barrington red-carded after 10 minutes in their draw with Exeter after hitting Geoff Parling with his shoulder in a collision.
"It wasn't a reckless challenge and it wasn't a dangerous challenge, it was just an accident," he said.
"It's luck of the draw and you're going to end up with a crazy situation."
Under new rule interpretations brought in at the start of 2017 any contact with the head in "reckless tackles" will be penalised by referees with at least a yellow card.
Barrington knocked former England lock Parling out as he supported what was a high tackle by skipper Brad Barritt - who went unpunished.
"That would have been accidental a while ago and now it's a problem, now it's red card in a match of big significance and it's 15 versus 14," McCall told BBC Radio 5 live.
"In the old days red cards were for reckless, dangerous challenges and we're going to end up with a lot of games 15 against 14 or 14 against 14 for challenges which aren't reckless or dangerous, but are accidental and just happen."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38543671
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Brazil prison riots: What's the cause? - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A spike in violence violence in Brazil's prisons has cast a spotlight on failures its penal system.
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Latin America & Caribbean
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A spate of violence in Brazil's prisons has cast a spotlight on a system which appears to be near a state of collapse.
Almost 100 inmates lost their lives in the first week of January alone - brutally murdered, the guards apparently unable to stop the bloodshed.
But how has it come to this?
A crackdown on violent and drug-related offences in recent years has seen Brazil's prison population soar since the turn of the century.
The prison in Roraima state where 33 inmates were killed on 6 January held 1,400 inmates when a deadly riot started. That is double its capacity.
Overcrowding makes it hard for prison authorities to keep rival factions separate. It also raises tensions inside the cells, with inmates competing for limited resources such as mattresses and food.
In the relatively wealthy state of Sao Paulo, a single guard oversees 300 to 400 prisoners in some prisons, Camila Dias, a sociologist at the Federal University of ABC in Sao Paulo and expert on Brazil's prison system, told Reuters.
That means it is relatively easy for prisoners - and gangs - to take control of the facilities. As a result, "when the prisoners want to have an uprising, they have an uprising," Ms Dias said.
Killings are already common within the walls of Brazil's prisons - 372 inmates lost their lives in this way in 2016, according to Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper - but this recent surge has been linked to the breakdown in a two-decade truce of sorts between the country's two most powerful gangs.
A lack of guards means prisoners can take control, experts say. Pictured: A riot in 2014
Up until recently, the Sao Paulo-based First Capital Command (PCC) drug gang and Rio de Janeiro's Red Command had a working relationship, supposedly to ensure the flow of marijuana, cocaine and guns over Brazil's porous borders and into its cities.
But recently they have fallen out - although the exact reasons why remain unclear.
And following the government crackdown on criminal gangs, there are thousands of members of both gangs locked up inside Brazilian prisons.
Rafael Alcadipani, a public security expert at the Getulio Vargas Foundation think tank in Sao Paulo, told Reuters it means any feud between the two sides on the streets will almost certainly spill over into the largely "self-regulated" jails.
"We see that as soon as we have a gang war, these killings are inevitably going to happen because the state has no control over the prisons," he said.
The army patrols outside a prison in northern Brazil where more than 30 inmates died
Following the deadly riots in Amazonas, state governor Jose Melo asked the federal government for equipment such as scanners, electronic tags and devices which block mobile phone signals inside prisons.
His request illustrates the lack of basic equipment in prisons which house large numbers of prisoners.
He also said that the state police force was struggling to cope and requested that federal forces be sent.
Poorly-trained and badly-paid prison guards often face inmates who not only outnumber them but who also feel they have little to lose as they face long sentences already.
Following the 1 January riot, which left 56 inmates dead in a prison in Manaus, the Brazilian government announced a plan to modernise the prison system.
But with Brazil going through its worst recession in two decades and a 20-year cap on public spending in place, it is hard to see how the government plans to fund it.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-38534769
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Giant wire spool rolls down Pennsylvania motorway - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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A wire spool that fell off a truck rolls down a Pennsylvania motorway with cars swerving to avoid it.
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A wire spool that fell off a truck in south-western Pennsylvania continued down a motorway with cars swerving to avoid it until it came to a stop.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38544525
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Snow covers Greek beach as Europe freezes - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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Icy temperatures across southern and eastern Europe have left more than 20 people dead and blanketed the Greek islands and southern Italy in snow.
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Icy temperatures across southern and eastern Europe have left more than 20 people dead and blanketed even the Greek islands and southern Italy in snow.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38550369
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Syria conflict: The biblical river at the heart of a water war - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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From ancient to modern times, Syria's Wadi Barada has been a vital water source, says Diana Darke.
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Middle East
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The Barada river runs through the heart of Damascus
The flashpoint for Syria's war, six years old this March, has in recent days taken the form of an elemental struggle over water.
The drinking water supply to some 5 million residents in the Syrian capital, Damascus, was cut on 23 December by the Damascus Water Authority, who say rebels have contaminated it with diesel. Rebels deny this, saying bombing by the government has damaged the infrastructure.
The historic water source of Ain al-Fijeh lies in the valley of Wadi Barada, 18km (11 miles) north-west of the capital, where a cluster of 10 villages has been under rebel control since 2012.
Local people joined the revolution early on in protest against government neglect, corruption and land grabs made legal under new state land measures, where whole hillsides were requisitioned for sports clubs and luxury hotels.
Both sides have blamed the other for damaging the water supply
Water provision to Damascus has been drastically reduced
On 22 December the Assad government, using barrel bombs dropped from helicopters and supported on the ground by Lebanese Shia militia fighters of Hezbollah, began a campaign to take control of the strategic valley and springs.
The timing was significant, just days before the announcement of the countrywide ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey on 29 December.
The Barada Gorge was cut through the Anti-Lebanon Mountains eons ago by the Barada river, which still runs through the centre of Damascus.
Today the river is just a shadow of its former self, diminished for most of the year by drought and pollution to a dirty trickle by the time it reaches the city centre.
But in earlier times it was the source of the city's legendary fertility, and the reason for its location in an oasis of gardens and orchards known as the Ghouta.
The river was and still is fed by the meltwaters of Mount Hermon, Syria's highest peak. Mentioned no less than 15 times in the Bible, it retains its snow-capped summit till early June.
The amount of snowfall in winter is a direct indication of how much water Damascus will have throughout the year.
The Barada river, known in ancient times as Abana, was supplemented through seven further rivers whose course was diverted by means of elaborate channels constructed as far back as the Roman era.
Guided by aqueducts into the centre of Damascus, the city was fed by a complex network of waterways and channels that allowed water to flow in and out of every house.
Sophisticated Ottoman water distribution points throughout the city also allocated water in agreed quantities to the public bathhouses, mosque ablution areas and public drinking fountains.
Even today most houses have a special drinking tap in their kitchen directly connected to the spring.
In high summer families would come to Wadi Barada on Fridays and holidays, often renting a riverside platform for the day.
Rigged up as tent awnings open only onto the river side, they formed an idyllic private arbour where families could relax, enjoying the coolness of the fast-flowing river.
Little iron ladders were fixed onto the platforms, so that children could climb down and swim.
A swimming platform and ladder used by picnicing families along the river
In the 16th Century it was along the banks of the Barada river on the outskirts of Damascus that the first coffee houses grew up.
Pilgrims would assemble, waiting for the annual Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca to set off in one huge joint caravan, protected in numbers from raiding desert tribesmen.
Many engravings from the 19th Century show scenes of coffee houses on the banks of the brimming Barada.
Near the village of Souq Wadi Barada, huge gaping holes in the cliff above can be still be accessed.
They are part of the original Roman water system: elaborate tunnels cut into the rock, conducting the meltwaters into the aqueducts of Damascus.
On sections of the old Roman road between Baalbek and Damascus, inscriptions in Greek, the official language, and in Latin, the language of the soldiers, can still be seen, describing how the road was rebuilt higher up to avoid destruction by flooding.
Latin inscriptions can be seen at the side of the road above Wadi Barada
For Hezbollah too the battle is a geographical one. They regard this area as their backyard, connected to their Baalbek stronghold in Lebanon.
The Syrian government claims there are fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) present in Wadi Barada, to justify its ongoing campaign. Local residents insist there are only Free Syrian Army moderates.
Since both UN monitors and Russian officials have been denied access to the area by Hezbollah checkpoints, the truth remains hidden - as so often in Syria - behind the fog of war, or in this case, beneath the waters of the Barada.
Wadi Barada and villages in the valley
Diana Darke graduated in Arabic from Oxford University and is the author of several books on Middle East society, including My House in Damascus: An Inside View of the Syrian Crisis (2016). Follow her on Twitter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38532338
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FA Cup: FA chief Martin Glenn says it plans to increase prize fund - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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The Football Association plans to increase FA Cup prize money in the coming years, according to chief executive Martin Glenn.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
The Football Association plans to increase FA Cup prize money with the aim of helping lower league clubs, says chief executive Martin Glenn.
In October, the FA signed a six-season overseas broadcast rights deal for the FA Cup - reportedly worth £820m.
Glenn said the FA could raise the current £25m fund because of the deal, which starts from the 2018-19 season.
"The FA Cup is a great way of redistributing money to the lower leagues," Glenn told BBC Radio 5 live.
"The prize fund is £25m," Glenn told Sportsweek. "We're looking to increase that over the coming years and hopefully benefit the smaller clubs."
Glenn also said the FA may look at introducing a "unity" payment which would help split money more equally. Under the current system, clubs receive a larger amount of money if their game is televised.
Sports minister Tracey Crouch warned last month that the government will legislate to force through FA reforms if the governing body does not make changes itself, setting a deadline of April for the FA to "set a path to reform".
Glenn reiterated some of the concerns of five former FA executives, including previous chairman Greg Dyke, who said the organisation was held back by "elderly white men".
Figures show that of the FA Council's 122 members, 92 are aged over 60, eight are women and four are from ethnic minority backgrounds.
"It's over-represented by white males who are quite old and it doesn't reflect the people actually in the game and that's the opportunity," said Glenn.
"With council reform, we'd like to see term limits and the government would like to see term limits so you can't stay there for life.
"You might do three sets of four years and then move on so fresh blood can come through."
The FA Cup third round saw many top-flight sides rotate their squad, with Bournemouth making 11 changes before they lost 3-0 away at League One side Millwall.
But Glenn said he is happy for teams to use the competition to juggle their resources.
"I think Bournemouth were an outlier. Eddie Howe can make his own reasons for it," he said.
"It doesn't upset me. The Premier League teams really understand the value the FA Cup brings them.
"People want to do well in the cup, but the positive side is that these bigger clubs have big squads, you want to give people game time.
"Giving a chance for young players to get real-game experience is not a bad thing."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38546432
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Huge rotor blade artwork installed in Hull for City of Culture 2017 - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A 250ft-long rotor blade forming a new art installation is lifted into position in Hull.
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Humberside
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A 250ft-long rotor blade forming a major new art installation is lifted into position.
A 250ft-long (75m) rotor blade forming a new art installation has been lifted into position in Hull.
"The Blade" is the first in a series of temporary commissions marking Hull's year as UK City of Culture.
The 28-tonne structure will remain on display in Queen Victoria Square until 18 March.
The artwork was transported from the Siemens factory on Alexandra Dock, where it was made, through the city overnight in a complex operation.
More than 50 items of street furniture had to be removed to allow it to reach the square.
It arrived on Sunday morning and large crowds gathered to watch it slowly lifted into its final position by late-afternoon.
Large numbers of people gathered to watch the blade being lifted into place
It runs across the whole length of the square, rising to 16ft (5m) at one end allowing traffic to pass beneath it
Project director Richard Bickers said it had been a demanding effort.
"Blade is not only a dramatic artistic installation, but in terms of its transportation and exhibition, a significant engineering feat.
"A major challenge we encountered was manoeuvring the structure through Hull's narrow city centre streets."
The artwork has been designed by Nayan Kulkarni who said he was impressed by the smooth operation to install it.
"They did a study, they did a drawing, they planned the route meticulously.
"The drawings looked difficult, the movements through the city were graceful, I mean it looked effortless."
The huge structure was made by workers at Siemens' new Alexandra Dock factory
It was transported from the factory to the city centre overnight
More than 50 items of street furniture, including traffic lights and lamp posts, had to be temporarily removed
B75 rotor blades - which would normally form the top of a wind turbine - are the world's largest handmade fibreglass components to be cast as a single object, organisers said.
Martin Green, CEO and director Hull 2017, said: "It's a structure we would normally expect out at sea and in a way it might remind you of a giant sea creature, which seems appropriate with Hull's maritime history.
"It's a magnificent start to our Look Up programme, which will see artists creating site specific work throughout 2017 for locations around the city."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-38547052
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Entertainment Week in Pictures: 1-7 Jan - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A look at some of the events in the world of entertainment and arts over the past week, including the first cast photo of Pitch Perfect 3.
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Entertainment & Arts
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The new judges of The Voice UK were pictured together ahead of the launch of the show's first series on ITV. Sir Tom Jones, Jennifer Hudson, Gavin Rossdale and Will.i.am make up the panel of the talent competition, which has switched channels after five years on BBC One.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38521682
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The Black Dahlia: Los Angeles' most famous unsolved murder - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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As the 70th anniversary of the Black Dahlia murder approaches, the public fascination with Elizabeth Short and her grisly death hasn't dimmed.
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US & Canada
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As the 70th anniversary of the Black Dahlia murder approaches the public fascination with Elizabeth Short and her grisly unsolved death hasn't dimmed. James Bartlett takes a look at how Los Angeles remembers the famous murder.
Few people noticed the dark-haired woman when she was dropped off at the swanky Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, but when her torso was found nearly a week later, Elizabeth Short became a household name.
On the morning of 15 January 1947, Betty Bersinger was walking with her young daughter along a barely developed street in the planned neighbourhood of Leimert Park when she saw what she thought was two halves of a tailor's mannequin.
Short had been cut in two, neatly at the waist, and drained of blood. She had been mutilated, her intestines removed, and her mouth slashed from ear to ear - a gruesome cut known as a Glasgow Smile. Her body had then been washed clean before being dumped in an empty field.
An ensuing media frenzy followed, thanks to the "brutal, misogynistic and ritual nature" of the killing, says Glynn Martin, former Los Angeles police sergeant and historian. More than 50 suspects were interviewed, both male and female - some of whom confessed to the crime. But the murder was never solved, only adding to the crime's mystique.
There was also the connection to the glamour of the area.
"She lived in Hollywood, had aspirations to be an actress," Martin says.
The murder became "a sad cliche - the ultimate warning tale".
"A starry-eyed young girl comes to Hollywood, and things go very bad for her," he says.
Then, of course, there was the memorable nickname, a twist on the previous year's Veronica Lake-Alan Ladd film The Blue Dahlia, and reference to Short's striking dark hair.
In the decades since, the Black Dahlia case has inspired university theses, art projects and the name of a death metal band, as well as references in video games and television shows. In 2006, it even got the major motion picture treatment, an adaptation of James Ellroy's best-selling novel inspired by the case.
Ellroy himself says he doesn't have any hope the culprit will be found.
"It's never going to be solved because it was not meant to be solved," he says.
Kim Cooper and her husband Richard Schave run Esotouric's literary, crime and culture bus tours of Los Angeles, and Cooper says that many people who come on their Black Dahlia tour "have their heads full of misinformation".
"While we debunk the many theories about possible killers, we try to focus on the story of Elizabeth Short as a person."
But even the tour operators can be surprised, like when an older man joined one of their true crime tours, claiming a connection to the Black Dahlia.
"He told us that he had been a paper boy at the time, and had rushed to be one of the first at the crime scene. It was the first naked woman he ever saw," Cooper says.
"I think it affected the rest of his life."
Like the 19th Century killings by Jack the Ripper in London, Short's murder continues to bring forth new theories.
Most recently, Steve Hodel, a former homicide detective, claimed his physician father George was the killer, and also responsible for other notable murders.
A cadaver dog searched Hodel's former home in 2013 and seemingly "alerted" for human remains - though, of course, Short's body had long been found.
During my research for Gourmet Ghosts, a series of true crime books, I found that many talkative Los Angeles bartenders claim their joint was actually the last place Short was seen alive, not the Biltmore.
Some theorised her murder was the result of a date turned violent, or that the perennially-broke Short left to hitchhike home, a common practice at the time, and got into the wrong car.
"I was regularly asked about the Black Dahlia on the reference desk," says Christina Rice, senior librarian of the photo collection at the Los Angeles Public Library. One woman came in looking for maps from 1947 because "she was going to use her psychic abilities to solve the murder".
The only copy of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner's microfiche for the second half of January was stolen years ago, Rice says, adding Short was just one of many women brutally killed in the post-war years in California.
The Biltmore, where you can buy a Black Dahlia cocktail
As soon as the corpse was discovered, the Los Angeles Herald-Express and the sensationalist Los Angeles Examiner made full use of the cosy relationship that all newspapers had with the Los Angeles police department.
At the time it was common to see suicide notes and bloodstained bodies - albeit sometimes airbrushed or altered, like Short's naked body, onto which photo editors superimposed a blanket - on the front page. Suicide photographs even added arrows showing how victims had taken their final fall.
The Examiner also added complete fabrications to the Black Dahlia story, exchanging in their reporting the suit Short had been seen wearing for a tight skirt and blouse and implying sexual misadventures.
The newspaper also deceived Short's mother about her daughter's death, using a ruse about "Beth" winning a beauty contest, then flying her to Los Angeles before telling her the real news - ensuring the scoop of a mother responding to the tragedy.
Officially the case remains open, and today, the Biltmore Hotel serves a Black Dahlia cocktail of vodka, Chambord black raspberry liqueur and Kahlua. The drink, perhaps appropriately, tastes bitter.
James Bartlett is a writer and author of Gourmet Ghosts.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38513320
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Russian skeleton athletes have suspension lifted by IBSF - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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Four Russian skeleton athletes, including 2014 Olympic champion Alexander Tretiakov, have their provisional suspensions lifted.
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Last updated on .From the section Winter Sports
The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) has lifted the provisional suspension of four Russian skeleton athletes, including Sochi gold medallist Alexander Tretiakov and bronze medallist Elena Nikitina.
The Russians were suspended following the second McLaren report which alleged "a state-sponsored doping programme" in the country.
The IBSF said there was currently insufficient evidence to continue with the provisional suspension.
Further investigations will be carried out by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and IBSF into alleged doping.
The two 2014 Winter Olympic medallists, along with Maria Orlova and Olga Potylitsyna, will be free to compete at next month's bobsleigh and skeleton World Championships in the German resort of Konigssee.
The championships were due to take place in the Russian city of Sochi, but it was stripped of its hosting rights by the IBSF in December, following the publication of the McLaren report.
Britain's Lizzy Yarnold, who won gold in Sochi, is due to compete in Germany.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/38548269
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Saving Sally: The little Filipino film that needed saving - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The cult Filipino romance, with its gadgets and animated monsters, and the fans who saved it from obscurity.
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Asia
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Set in an animated Manila, 'Saving Sally' has been billed as a teenage love story
It's a tale of unrequited teenage love terrorised by giant animated monsters in the chaotic streets of Metro Manila.
Saving Sally tells the story of Marty, a young aspiring Philippines comic book artist, played by Enzo Marcos.
He falls in love with his best friend Sally, a gadget inventor - portrayed by Filipina actress Rhian Ramos - who is also the centre of Marty's universe.
The story quickly unfolds with stunning cartoons which tell the story of Marty's lonely world.
Like every love story, there are numerous complications and challenges for the hero.
Namely defending the love of his life from a beastly rival and her difficult parents, who take the form of monsters because to Marty, that is simply what they are.
"Sadly, Marty also has the innate ability to do nothing about everything despite his vivid fantasies of defending Sally from the big bad world," described the film's director Avid Liongoren.
Marty often dreams of defending Sally from the evils of her world
While it has been described as a "typical teen movie about love, monsters and gadgets", the film also touches on serious issues prevalent in Philippine society.
"On the surface, it's a fun and straightforward love story, with good laughs and visual gags that reference Filipino as well as Western pop culture," said screenwriter Charlene Sawit-Esguerra , who wrote and conceptualised the film.
"But it also touches on darker themes like physical abuse and escapism."
Saving Sally's darker themes are mixed in with the teenage love story
After an arduous 10-year journey and a series of setbacks, the team's efforts paid off. Saving Sally gained an entry into the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).
The annual festival serves as an outlet to better promote local talent in the Pinoy film industry. But the MMFF sadly still could not save Sally.
The humble film was not widely shown in local cinemas.
The Philippine skyline takes centre stage in this film, which features stunning artwork
Its creators said the answer could lie in the nature of the domestic cinema industry.
Largely unregulated, Philippine cinemas have built a notorious reputation for favouring commercial successes movies like Hollywood blockbusters and "manufactured" romance dramas.
"They pick the films that they think people will watch. So it is more of a perception that since ours is a small, non-studio film, no-one would want to watch it," explained Mr Liongoren.
Ms Sawit-Esguerra said "demand" was often a deciding factor before a film could be considered for screening.
"Theatre owners here think that local audiences will only watch films starring big-names and A-list stars, produced by major studios. Saving Sally has neither," she said.
"Because of this, many cinemas don't want to take the risk and would rather see how audiences responds to our movie first."
Saving Sally earned a festival entry but was not widely screened in cinemas
To film critic Oggs Cruz, another problem with the film lay in its animation, the very thing that its makers fought so hard to create.
"While most Filipinos enjoy animated films, the animated aspect in Saving Sally doesn't favour its commercial ability," he told BBC News.
"It is an adjunct of the main characters and I don't think it has any effect in its marketability. Sadly it won't entice children or adults."
"A lot of Filipinos are proud of their heritage but ironically, they would rather watch the latest Star Wars movie than support local film festival entries.
"It's a losing situation for the film makers whose work will get pulled out for more commercially viable movies that will earn more money."
The show's creators turned to the power of social media and launched an online campaign to save Sally, calling on audiences to contact theatre owners demanding they screen the film.
"Let your voices be heard. Please help us make noise and reach out," read a Facebook post on the movie's official page which drew close to 50,000 reactions and was shared more than 10,000 times.
Thousands of curious Facebook users and fans began to show their support for the film by leaving comments and writing posts using the hashtags #ShowSavingSally and #ImSavingSally.
"It was worth the wait and our money. Great storytelling and amazing animation - good job," gushed Dicay Galvez from Makati city who shared his joy in finally being able to catch the film.
"I cannot imagine the love and passion that went into this film, it may be a typical love story but the entirety of the movie itself is a work of art," wrote Ace Antipolo in an Instagram post.
"Big movie companies in the Philippines just don't put this kind of effort anymore but the efforts of a small group of people who worked for 10 years just to complete this beautiful masterpiece will be cherished forever."
"I guess business is business but I just don't understand why some cinemas saved spots for other movies over Saving Sally. Please show it in Bacolod," said Fraire Acupan.
Given its animation-meets-real life component which plays out heavily, and its slacker hero, Saving Sally has drawn comparisons with popular 2010 geek sleeper hit Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
But will Sally see a similar indie cult following to that which Scott Pilgrim enjoyed?
Its makers said the public response "has been incredible" and fan demand played a crucial role in boosting the film.
Saving Sally was shown on around 50 screens to begin with, but was expected to close at 86 screens.
"Theatres have relented to the barrage of messages from Filipino youngsters wanting to see our film," said Mr Liongoren.
Ms Sawit-Esguerra said: "Saving Sally surpassed what it was expected to earn, according to Industry experts. It also made it to the top four of the festival films based on how it did at the Philippine box office."
She also added that they have received offers for a North American release but that has not yet been finalised.
"We've also been invited to film festivals in Portugal, Spain and Belgium," she said.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38486968
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James Haskell: Wasps boss jokes about 35-second return by England flanker - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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Wasps boss Dai Young jokes about James Haskell's "outstanding" contribution after he lasts less than a minute on his return.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Wasps director of rugby Dai Young joked about James Haskell's "outstanding" contribution after he lasted just 35 seconds on his return from injury.
Haskell, 31, made his first appearance since playing for England against Australia last summer as a replacement in Wasps' 22-16 win over Leicester.
He appeared to be knocked out after tackling Freddie Burns but was then able to walk off the pitch.
"The most important thing is that he is fine," said Young after the match.
Speaking to BBC Coventry & Warwickshire, he added: "He would have obviously have wanted a lot more, but thankfully he is OK.
"Everybody was concerned initially but once they seen he was OK, he is getting a little bit of stick in the dressing room.
"It was an outstanding 35 seconds, wasn't it?"
• None Match report: Wasps return to the top after holding off Leicester fightback
Asked about Haskell's chances of playing against Toulouse in the European Champions Cup next week, Young said: "It all depends on what the medical team say now and after looking at him.
"It will be tight and fingers crossed he will be available, but obviously player welfare is the most important thing."
Young said that Haskell would have to "go through the protocols" introduced around concussion, adding: "It's a six-day protocol, so he has got to tick all the boxes."
England head coach Eddie Jones will surely be relieved that Haskell's latest setback appears not to be serious, as he has several injury problems among his forwards in the build-up to the Six Nations.
Billy and Mako Vunipola have already been ruled out of the tournament and former skipper Chris Robshaw is to see a specialist about a shoulder injury.
Meanwhile, Joe Launchbury has a calf problem and George Kruis is out of action with a fractured cheekbone.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38550179
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Is your child a cyberbully and if so, what should you do? - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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What should you do if you find out your child has been bullying others online?
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Technology
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One in five teens claims to have been cyberbullied but few admit to being the bully
Parents worry about their children being bullied online, but what if it is your child who is doing the bullying?
That was the question posed by a BBC reader, following a report on how children struggle to cope online.
There is plenty of information about how to deal with cyberbullies, but far less about what to do if you find out that your own child is the source.
The BBC took advice from experts and a mother who found out her daughter had been cyberbullying her school friends.
Nicola Jenkins found out that her 12-year-old daughter was posting unpleasant comments online from her teacher
Few parents would want to admit that their child was a bully but Nicola Jenkins has gone on record with her story. You can watch her tell it here.
"Nobody thinks that their own child is saying unkind things to other children, do they? I let them go on all the social media sites and trusted the children to use it appropriately.
"Our form tutor phoned me up during school hours one day to tell me that there'd been some messages sent between my daughter and two other friends that weren't very nice. One of the children in particular was very upset about some of the things that had been said to her.
"Her friend's mum spoke to me about it and showed me the messages that had been sent. When I approached my daughter about it, she denied that there had been anything going on. It took a while to get it out of her, but I was angry with her once I actually found out that she had been sending these messages.
"I spoke to her teacher and to the other parents, and between us we spoke to the children to let them know that they can't be saying unkind things and to just make them aware that whatever they do is recorded and can be kept. And they all did learn a lesson from it.
"I removed all the social media websites from her so she wasn't able to access them for a while and then monitored her input and what she's been saying to people.
"But it did make me feel angry and quite ashamed that my daughter could be saying things like that to her friends, but she has grown up a bit since then and she's learnt her lesson.
"You want to trust your children, but they can get themselves into situations that they can't get out of.
"And as they get older, they look at different things. I know my son looks at totally different things to what my daughter does, so it's just being aware of what they are accessing and make sure that they are happy for you to look at what they are looking at as well."
There is plenty of advice for parents on coping with cyberbullying but less on what to do if your child is the bully
According to not-for-profit organisation Internet Matters, one in five 13-18 year olds claim to have experienced cyberbullying but there are few statistics on how many children are bullying.
Carolyn Bunting, general manager of Internet Matters, offers the following advice:
"First, sit down with them and try to establish the facts around the incident with an open mind. As parents, we can sometimes have a blind spot when it comes to the behaviour of our own children - so try not to be on the defensive. Talk about areas that may be causing them distress or anger and leading them to express these feelings online.
"Make clear the distinction between uploading and sharing content because it's funny or might get lots of 'likes', versus the potential to cause offence or hurt. Tell them: this is serious. It's vital they understand that bullying others online is unacceptable behaviour. As well as potentially losing friends, it could get them into trouble with their school or the police.
"If your child was cyberbullying in retaliation, you should tell them that two wrongs cannot make a right and it will only encourage further bullying behaviour. Stay calm when discussing it with your child and try to talk with other adults to work through any emotions you have about the situation.
"Taking away devices can be counterproductive. It could make the situation worse and encourage them to find other ways to get online. Instead, think about restricting access and take away some privileges if they don't stop the behaviour.
"As a role model, show your child that taking responsibility for your own actions is the right thing to do. Above all, help your child learn from what has happened. Think about what you could do differently as a parent or as a family and share your learning with other parents and carers."
Twitter's image has been tarnished by trolls
Many critics blame social media for not doing enough to deal with cyberbullying. Abuse is prolific on Twitter and it has pledged to do more, including improving tools that allow users to mute, block and report so-called trolls.
Sinead McSweeney, vice-president of public policy at Twitter, explained why the issue is close to her heart:
"As a mother of a seven-year-old boy, I've always tried to strike the right balance between promoting internet safety and encouraging the type of exploration, learning and creativity that the internet can unlock."
She offered the following advice:
"If you find that your child is participating in this type of behaviour, a good first step is to understand the nature of the type of material they're creating, who is the target, and try to ascertain their motivations.
"If the bullying is taking place on a social media platform, make sure to explain to them why the behaviour is inappropriate and harmful, and to supervise the deletion of the bullying content they have created. If it continues, it may be worth seeking additional advice from a teacher or trusted confidant."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38529437
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Newspaper headlines: May's 'shared society' and 'rebel's' Brexit meeting - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Brexit continues to be the focus of some front pages, while the Sunday Telegraph leads on comments from an article written by Theresa May in the newspaper.
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The Papers
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Sir Ivan Rogers resigned from his position last week
The Sunday Times leads with a claim that Britain's former ambassador to the EU, Sir Ivan Rogers, held secret talks with David Cameron before Christmas to warn that Theresa May was failing to plan for the risk of a "disorderly" Brexit.
A source tells the paper Sir Ivan fears a hard Brexit "will lead to mutually assured destruction between Britain and the rest of the EU" and that the UK will "crash out" with nothing.
The paper adds that news of his meeting with Mrs May's predecessor will fuel "the fears of her allies that senior officials were in private contact with leading Remain supporters".
In The Observer a Canadian official warns that Britain risks a "catastrophic" Brexit because the government is so dismissive of the concerns of trade experts.
John Langrish helped to negotiate a trade deal between the EU and Canada - a process which took more than a decade - and believes a British agreement could take just as long because of the complexities involved.
He writes that "undoing nearly 45 years of integration and shared law will not be pleasant" and cannot be done in a "mutually beneficial" way in the two-year time frame.
The Sunday Express says the man named as Donald Trump's new ambassador to the EU supported Brexit and believes Britain will be "moved to the head of the queue" when it comes to negotiating a new trade deal with America.
Professor Ted Malloch, a friend of former UKIP leader Nigel Farage who lives in the UK, tells the paper the leverage Mr Trump can provide could offer an alternative to hard or soft Brexit.
"7,000 Hospital Beds Are Lost Under Tories" declares the Sunday Mirror, as it cites official figures showing the number of acute beds that have closed since 2010.
It says government plans to save £20bn over the next five years will mean even more hospital places will disappear.
Chris Moulton, of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, tells the Sunday People hospitals "are at rock bottom" and can't afford to cut back any more.
NHS England responds that lengths of stay have fallen significantly, with many patients being discharged the same day.
After Saturday's warning by the Red Cross about the state of the health service, the Observer accuses the government of a "woeful" response to the looming funding crisis.
It advises Theresa May that a failure to address the issue in her speech on Monday "will speak volumes about where her true priorities lie".
For the Mail on Sunday, it is a "scandal" that is unacceptable in "a country as rich as ours". It suggests it can be readily tackled, by diverting the money set aside for foreign aid.
Education leaders are said by the Sunday Telegraph to be concerned about government plans to place student feedback at the heart of a new ranking system for universities.
Academics warn the measures could lead to institutions giving in to student demands, however unreasonable they may be.
One professor, Lady Woolf, describes the new approach as a "direct threat to academic standards".
The Department for Education insists it is critical to ensuring young people can access high-quality teaching.
With the headline "Jail Tinmates", the Sunday Mirror reveals that tinned tuna has been placed on the list of prison contraband.
Prison inspectors have found that inmates are getting friends to smuggle in the canned goods because of the poor quality of food in jail.
It says Muslim prisoners are having to supplement their diet because of a failure to prepare halal foods separately.
And the Sun on Sunday carries a "world exclusive" interview with a man from Gloucester - who is four months pregnant.
Hayden, who was born a girl but is now legally male, says he has delayed his hormone treatment to have a baby using donor sperm.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-38545668
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Florida airport shooting: Shouts of 'run, run' - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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Passengers describe what they saw and heard during a shooting at Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida.
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Travellers have been stranded at Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida after a gunman opened fire earlier on Friday, killing five people.
The suspect has been identified by police as 26-year-old Esteban Santiago, an Iraq war veteran.
Some airport passengers described what they saw and heard.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38541460
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Qatar Open: Novak Djokovic beats Sir Andy Murray in final to end Brit's winning streak - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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Novak Djokovic withstands a comeback from Sir Andy Murray to defend his Qatar Open title and end the Briton's winning streak.
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Novak Djokovic withstood a comeback from Sir Andy Murray to defend his Qatar Open title and end the Briton's winning streak of 28 consecutive ATP Tour matches.
Murray remains world number one despite the 6-3 5-7 6-4 defeat by the Serbian world number two.
The Scot saved three match points to come from a set and a break down to win the second set and level the match.
But Djokovic broke in game seven of the decider to win in two hours 54 minutes.
Both players now head to Melbourne for the Australian Open, the year's first Grand Slam, which starts on 16 January.
"Its a tough one to lose," said Murray, 29. "It was high level tennis, some of the points were physically tough. But it's a great way to start the new year and I look forward to the next few weeks."
This was the 36th meeting between the pair and Murray had won the last time they met at the ATP Tour Finals in November, a victory that kept him at world number one.
The Scot has never beaten the Serb after losing the first set and he was soon trailing as Djokovic broke in the eighth game following a string of unforced errors from Murray.
Djokovic broke again in the second set and served for the match at 5-3 but Murray fought back and reeled of four straight games to level.
The 12-time Grand Slam champion looked to be tiring in the third and was 0-30 on his own serve at 2-3 down but he fought back to hold and then broke Murray for the third time in the match as he won his second title in Doha.
"To win here, against the biggest rival, is a dream start," said Djokovic, who was penalised a point in the second set for smashing his racket.
Djokovic is the defending champion in Melbourne, having won his sixth Australian Open title last year as he condemned Murray to a fifth defeat in the final of the tournament.
The end of his winning streak will be less of a concern to Murray than the fact he was beaten by Djokovic - who appears to be nicely back on track.
The world number two played a phenomenal deciding set - showing great resilience after Murray had turned the second set on its head. The win is sure to give Djokovic renewed confidence as he heads to Melbourne as a six time Australian Open champion.
But Murray also looks to be in fine form: if they stay free of injury, these two look likely to dominate 2017 as well.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38543404
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NHS running blade fuels boy's Paralympic goal - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Ben Moore is one of the first children in England to receive a false leg for sport, on the NHS.
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Health
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At the age of 10, Ben Moore took a brave decision.
He chose to have the lower part of his right leg amputated and was fitted with an artificial limb.
Ben was born with a condition known as fibular hemimelia - giving him a foot with only three toes and a leg that failed to develop.
It left him struggling to walk and frequently in pain.
Ben was fitted with an artificial leg after his amputation - which he says was fine for walking around school, but which did not match his sporting ambitions.
Frustratingly for a boy already keen on sport in primary school, he could not keep up with his friends.
However, his prosthetist Clare Johnson recommended him to become one of the first children to be fitted with a false leg designed specifically for sport by the NHS - and now his sights are set on competing at a future Paralympics.
Ben, now 13, says: "It has turned out really well. All my PE teachers like it that I've got a prosthetic leg and that I'm still doing sport. They say I have a lot of grit and zest!"
He was fitted with his new blade just before Christmas and switches between that and his other prosthetic leg depending on what he is doing.
Ben says his blade means he can now compete on the sportsfield
"Ben has been empowered by his blade," says Clare. "We hope it will give him a level playing field so he can compete with his peers and participate in more sports with a lighter prosthetic."
Clare adds that although she was able to make an attachment for Ben's disordered right leg as he was growing up, it was not possible to include the sort of components that could give him a spring in his step.
After three weeks practising with the blade, Ben returned to Clare's treatment room at Brighton General Hospital and tried jogging, running and playing indoor tennis.
He has also just taken on his able-bodied cousin in a straight race and won.
"The blade feels good," says Ben. "The spring of it is the bit that makes me go faster."
"I wanted the blade to do more running, so I didn't have to stick with cricket and stuff like that to do with upper body. I wanted to do more things with my lower body, run faster and get a bit more speed in football."
There are about 1,500 children in England who have lost all or part of a limb and 1,100 of them either lack a leg or have one which does not work properly.
It is the first time the NHS has fitted some of them - in Brighton, North Cumbria and Luton - with false legs especially designed for sport.
Ben is one of "several hundred" children who will receive sports prostheses each year
While Ben has his blade, a child from Cumbria has been given a water limb called a "swim fin" which will make swimming with friends possible.
The £1.5m programme is intended to help what the NHS says will be "several hundred" children each year.
The cost of a blade, together with the follow-up training and assessment, is estimated at around £1,000, but it could be several times that amount in the private sector.
Clare says that by preserving the health of the children who get prostheses, the scheme could actually save money.
She says it also supports the health service's campaign to encourage healthy lifestyles among children.
"I don't like the idea that there are a lot of obese children and couch potatoes. I like to think that I have given (Ben) the blade and that he will show to other children that if he can do it, then everyone can do it. Sport is for everyone, not just a small elite."
Kathleen Moore says her son is a fighter
Ben's mother Kathleen is proud of her son's determination to play different sports, which have also included touch rugby.
"He's been up against it," she says, "but despite everything he fought back and he's a little fighter to this day. Now he's got the blade, the sky's the limit."
Don't bet against seeing Ben competing for Great Britain in a future Games.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38517649
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David Price: British heavyweight to fight Christian Hammer on Eubank Jr undercard - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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British heavyweight David Price will fight on the undercard of Chris Eubank Jr's latest bout in London next month.
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Last updated on .From the section Boxing
British heavyweight David Price will fight Germany-based Romanian Christian Hammer at London's Olympia next month.
The fight on 4 February will be on the undercard of Chris Eubank Jr's latest bout , when he takes on Australian Renold Quinlan.
However the super-middleweight main event could be under threat, with Quinlan threatening to pull out .
Liverpool heavyweight Price, 33, will take on Hammer, 29, who has only four defeats in his 24-bout career.
One of those losses was a nine-round defeat to Tyson Fury in February 2015.
Hammer's most recent fight was a victory against Erkan Teper in October, the German who beat Price in 2015 before failing a drugs test.
Price has won two fights, each inside two rounds, since the defeat to Teper.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/38547536
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Katie Ormerod wins first World Cup big air title in Moscow - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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British snowboarder Katie Ormerod wins her first World Cup big air title in Moscow.
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Last updated on .From the section Winter Sports
Snowboarder Katie Ormerod has become the first Briton to win a World Cup big air.
The 19-year-old pipped Austria's Anna Gasser to claim her maiden victory in extreme -29C temperatures in Moscow.
Big air will make its Winter Olympics debut in PyeongChang in South Korea in February 2018.
Ormerod scored 153.75 as the judges counted the two best runs out of three with Gasser, the World Cup leader, notching up 153.50.
The Yorkshire teenager said: "It was by far the coldest and some of the toughest conditions I've ever had to compete in but an amazing place. I'm stoked to be on the podium with some awesome riders, Anna Gasser and Klaudia Medlova."
It was Ormerod's third World Cup podium this season.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/38544558
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European Champions Cup: Racing 92 7-32 Munster - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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Munster honour the memory of Anthony Foley with a bonus-point victory over Racing 92 in their rearranged European Champions Cup tie.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Munster scored four tries to thrash Racing 92 in the European Champions Cup tie rearranged after the death of their head coach Anthony Foley in October.
Simon Zebo, CJ Stander and Andrew Conway all touched down as the visitors led 25-0 at the break in Paris.
Niall Scannell dived over to secure the bonus point before Matthieu Voisin scored a consolation try for the much-changed French champions.
Victory moves Munster top of Pool 1, three points clear of Glasgow Warriors.
The Irish side have now won nine out of 10 competitive games since the sudden death of Foley at their team hotel prior to the original date of this fixture.
They face Pro12 rivals Glasgow at Scotstoun next Saturday before the return leg in Limerick on 21 January against last year's runners-up Racing, who are still without a point in this season's competition.
The significance of the match was marked at the Stade Yves-du-Manoir with the home side - led by former Munster fly-half and current Racing coach Ronan O'Gara - wearing red shirts with Foley's name and the number eight on the back for their pre-game warm-up.
The Racing fans also raised a banner of Foley's nickname 'Axel', while there were 30 seconds of applause prior to kick-off.
Fittingly in honour of back-row forward Foley, Munster's pack dominated both the scrum and the line-out from the start, with number eight Stander scoring a remarkable try to cap a man-of-the-match performance.
After charging down Benjamin Dambielle's attempted clearance for Rory Scannell to gather, Stander rejoined the line to hand-off Racing flanker Chris Masoe on the 22 and maintain his momentum over the try line despite the attentions of two defenders.
A fine showing from the Munster pack continued after the break, as hooker Niall Scannell touched down from the back of a rolling maul for the bonus-point try.
Both sides made extensive changes for this tie but with perhaps differing aims - Racing moving fly-half Dan Carter to the bench and resting several stars, while Munster were able to recall wing Zebo and scrum-half Conor Murray,
Building on the control exerted by their pack, the Ireland international pair routinely threatened with ball in hand as Murray's miss-pass set Zebo free to score his 50th try for Munster and their 400th in European competition.
Murray was also involved for his side's third try on the brink of half-time, running down the blind side of a maul and putting in a grubber kick to the corner for Conway to collect and finish.
The only blemish on Munster's performance came when Murray and Zebo failed to field substitute Carter's grubber kick, with Racing full-back Juan Imhoff able to kick ahead and Voisin gathering to score.
Yet the visitors eased through the final stages to set up a potential Pool-deciding clash with Glasgow next weekend.
Replacements: Chavancy for Laulala (57), Carter for Thomas (57), Brugnaut for Vartanov (51), Lacombe for Chat (51), Gomes Sa for Ducalcon (51), Williams for Van Der Merwe (62), Fa'aso'o for Masoe (57).
Replacements: Saili for Taute (56), Earls for R. O'Mahony (56), Archer for Murray (66), Kilcoyne for Cronin (56), Marshall for N. Scannell (62), Williams for J. Ryan (66), Foley for D. Ryan (74), O'Donoghue for O'Donnell (48).
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38531902
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Weekend Edition: The week's best reads - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Stories you may have missed in the past seven days, including the women who invented the "Brazilian" wax and the spy who was an imposter son.
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Magazine
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"Are you crazy? I'm not touching you there." That was the response when Brazilian Janea Padilha asked a beautician to remove most of her pubic hair in the late 1970s. But that was then and Janea, who went home and did it herself, so inventing the Brazilian wax, is one of the J Sisters. Their salon in New York now turns over millions of dollars a year catering to the grooming demands of the rich and famous. "It's an inspirational story of self-made women who came from nothing, illegal immigrants who made it in America," says Laura Malin, author of a forthcoming book about the sisters.
In 1977, Dutch woman Johanna van Haarlem finally tracked down the son, Erwin, she had abandoned as a baby 33 years earlier. She immediately travelled to London to meet him. What followed was a scarcely believable story of deception and heartbreak, ending in Erwin van Haarlem's unmasking in court as an imposter and Soviet spy. More than two decades after his release from prison, the man newspapers called the "spy with no name" was living in Prague, where Jeff Maysh went to hear his story.
"It was on the second day of our trek that I realised it was missing," says Eloise Dicker. "We had packed up the tents and loaded the horses. I reached up to the horse's mane to pull myself up and saw that my wrist was bare. 'My mum's bracelet! It's gone,' I thought, and immediately burst into tears. That bracelet was a physical part of my mother who is no longer physically in the world. It became part of me, and now was gone." Some weeks later, having returned to Europe from Kyrgyzstan and made peace with the loss, Eloise received a Facebook message that changed everything.
"Ever since guns entered the country, Japan has always had strict gun laws," says Iain Overton, author of Gun Baby Gun. "They are the first nation to impose gun laws in the whole world and I think it laid down a bedrock saying that guns really don't play a part in civilian society." Tough regulations extend to the police, who rarely use firearms - so how do they deal with incidents of violence and what is the effect of strict gun laws on crime in Japan?
After an hour's bus journey through forest from the town of Mae Sot, Mae La appears suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere. In the morning mist, thousands of bamboo huts cling to steep limestone crags. It is the largest of nine refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, and home to almost 40,000 people. Many families have been there for decades, but instances of suicide in women before and after childbirth appeared worryingly high. Researcher Gracia Fellmeth went there to find out why young women have been killing themselves.
"Magazine stories come and go," says National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore. "But I had not seen the plight of endangered species getting better so I thought about what I could do to actually make a difference." The answer he decided on was to make professional studio-style portraits of species close to extinction. He has now photographed more than 6,000 species in 40 countries and the results, preserved in the National Geographic Photo Ark, are amazing.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38522061
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FA Cup: Chelsea 4-1 Peterborough United highlights - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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Chelsea captain John Terry is sent off on his first start since October as the Premier League leaders overcome League One Peterborough 4-1 in the FA Cup third round.
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Chelsea captain John Terry is sent off on his first start since October as the Premier League leaders overcome League One Peterborough 4-1 in the FA Cup third round.
Watch all the best action from the FA Cup third round here.
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38545733
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Orphaned baby otter in roadside rescue - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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An "almost lifeless" baby otter is rescued from the side of a busy main road after being initially mistaken for a discarded "old mail sack".
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Cambridgeshire
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The baby female otter was "lifeless and unresponsive" when she was found at the side of the road
An "almost lifeless" baby otter was rescued from the side of a busy main road after being initially mistaken for a discarded "old mail sack".
Cyclist Robert Spooner spotted her in the dim light near Peterborough.
"I couldn't just leave it there," he said, so he carried the otter to his mother's house, who looked after it until rescue centre volunteers arrived.
They said the otter had made a "great recovery" but would not have survived in the wild without his help.
Mr Spooner said it took him a "few seconds" to realise what he had come across at the side of the road a few days before Christmas.
The otter responded well to treatment and was able to go for a swim at the rescue centre
A passing motorist did not have time to help, but a pedestrian offered to push his bicycle while he scooped up the otter and carried it to his mother's house.
"She was a little surprised when I arrived with it," he said.
She called Fenland Animal Rescue and kept the otter hydrated, and warm in a box.
The otter was "lifeless and unresponsive" when it was first found, but "soon responded and recovered well", Joshua Flanagan, from rescue organisation, said.
He then had to find a new home for the creature.
Otters are social creatures and ideally should be with others of a similar age
"Otter pups are entirely dependent on their mothers for the first year of their lives.
"Coupled with them being a social species, it is best that they are recovering in an environment with other otters of a similar age," he said.
After contacting sanctuaries across the country they eventually found a new home for the otter - more than 500 miles (800km) away on the Isle of Skye.
The International Otter Survival Fund has agreed to take her in.
The otter pup is being transferred to a centre where there are otters of a similar age
But transferring her there has not been simple for the volunteers.
So far they have managed to get her to a "half-way house" near Manchester.
She will then be driven to the Scottish border where she will be handed over to a member of the otter charity for the final leg to the Isle of Skye.
"When she is of age and independent, she will be released back into the wild in a suitable area," Mr Flanagan added.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-38467791
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10 things we didn't know last week - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Emails are more likely to contain grammatical mistakes when sent on Mondays, and more news nuggets.
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Magazine
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1. Emails you send on Mondays contain more grammatical mistakes than those sent on other days.
2. The Queen of Sweden thinks her palace is haunted by ghosts.
3. You can use a display computer in an Apple store all day and no-one will ever ask you to leave.
4. Gary Lineker and Jonathan Agnew regularly receive soiled loo paper in the post.
5. It's possible to travel by train all the way from Yiwu in eastern China to Barking in east London.
6. The British government thinks people have £433m of pound coins stashed away in their homes.
7. In the US, at least one person a week is shot by a toddler.
8. Only one member of the US Congress identifies as unaffiliated with any religion.
9. There are 79 organs in the human body, one more than previously thought.
10. The most popular condiment eaten with chips in Australia is chicken salt. Which contains no chicken.
Seen a thing? Tell the Magazine on Twitter using the hashtag #thingididntknowlastweek
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38517967
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CES 2017: Roam-E drone takes flying selfies - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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A new type of fold-up drone that follows its owner taking selfies is previewed at the CES tech show.
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A new type of fold-up drone that follows its owner about taking selfies is being previewed at the CES tech show in Las Vegas.
Roam-E uses facial recognition software to keep on course and stays airborne with just two rotors.
But could it pose a safety risk? Chris Foxx reports.
Follow all our CES coverage at bbc.co.uk/ces2017
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38541534
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CES 2017: Amazon's virtual aide Alexa shouts above rivals - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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Many products at CES the year feature voice-activated virtual assistants - but Amazon's Alexa is in far more than most.
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Technology
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A fridge with personality was launched at CES this year
Virtual assistants are everywhere at CES this year - but one speaks louder than the rest. Amazon's Alexa has popped up in a bewildering list of devices including fridges, cars and robots.
Manufacturers are clearly interested in making their appliances voice-operable, and many see Alexa as a great way to do this.
But having Alexa also allows the appliances to gain capabilities, such as streaming music and turning smart lights on and off.
How did Alexa come out on top and how will it benefit Amazon?
The firm was quick to notice the potential of voice control following the rise of smartphone apps that could interact with appliances, answers tech analyst Dinesh Kithany at IHS Technology.
"Alexa's rivals haven't been promoted quite as well," he told the BBC, though he noted companies adopting the assistant must think of genuinely useful ways to integrate it into their products.
Manufacturers are able to design new "skills" for the assistant - meaning the AI is not limited to what Amazon has built in.
Alexa can, with a quick bit of programming, be adapted to lock car doors or tell you when your washing machine's cycle will finish.
Perhaps this is how Amazon has cornered so much of the market - by explicitly designing a flexible AI that allows companies to implement it as they see fit.
Over the last seven years, the world has witnessed the rapid proliferation of Google's Android operating system - now in more smartphones than any other OS by far, as well as many TVs, watches and computers.
Part of this meteoric rise is down to the fact that Google gives Android away for free to device manufacturers - just like Amazon is doing with Alexa.
Despite the search giant having a long history of voice recognition research, it has only just started promoting its own Google Assistant to third parties. That gives Amazon first-mover advantage.
Who would have thought an online retailer would be leading the virtual assistant revolution?
While a glance around CES's show floors suggests Alexa is poised to dominate, it's worth remembering that this is a US trade show.
Amazon is not quite as global a company as Google or Microsoft - the online retailer doesn't have a website for countries in Scandinavia, the Middle East or Africa, for example.
And not all implementations of Alexa make the assistant easy to access, notes Lauren Goode at news site The Verge.
She tested headphones by OnVocal that make the aide accessible - via a tiny button that needs to be pressed to activate it.
"You'd kind of think that walking around while wearing these is just as good as having an Echo strapped to your body. It's not," she wrote.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
She's the star of CES even though her creator isn't exhibiting on the show floor. Amazon's Alexa was the first voice assistant to turn up in a compelling consumer product, the Echo speaker, rather than just on a smartphone.
Although Google Home has now joined the fray it's clear who's in the lead. Across CES, you can hear Amazon's creation at work.
Who'd have thought a few years back that an online retailer with a patchy record when it comes to hardware devices would be the single most influential player at a consumer electronics event?
In the past, it has been Apple and Google who've been able to dominate CES without even turning up - now Amazon is looking like the tech industry's thought leader.
Nvidia has chosen to integrate Google Assistant with its new streaming box
While Alexa may be popular, it certainly has rivals.
Nvidia announced at CES that its media streaming device, Shield, would feature Google Assistant - allowing users to display photos on their TV screens via voice command, for example.
It can also connect with the Nest smart thermostat and adjust the temperature - or turn on smart home devices.
Microsoft's Cortana will, of course, be available in Windows 10 devices - a wide array of which were launched this week.
But curiously, despite publishing a teaser video for a Harman Kardon speaker featuring Cortana last month, the product failed to materialise.
Harman Kardon told the BBC that the device was "not ready for display".
A Harman Kardon speaker featuring Cortana, though teased in December, was not at CES
The battle of the AIs doesn't even end there. In October, Samsung acquired fledgling AI Viv and is expected to launch it with the firm's Galaxy S8 smartphone later in 2017.
It is worth noting that the South Korean tech giant has also agreed to buy Harman Kardon.
Will Viv nudge out Cortana in future Harman Kardon speakers and one day give Alexa a run for its money? It's anyone's guess at this point.
And there was an interesting announcement from Mattel's Nabi brand, which makes child-friendly tech.
Its new Aristotle speaker incorporates Alexa and will soon feature Cortana, too.
Parents can even set it so that children speaking to the device must say "please" when uttering a command.
It should be no surprise that more than one branded virtual assistant can be accessible via a single device - they are summoned from the cloud, after all.
In the future, other appliances might allow users to call on the virtual assistant of their choice by name for specific tasks. Not just one digital butler, but a whole staff.
Apple's Siri is not to be forgotten. It can be used to interact with several smart home devices unveiled at CES - including a smart smoke detector by Netatmo and Chamberlain garage door openers.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Even more voice-activated assistants are entering the market - Olly the robot develops a different personality to suit each of its users
Voice control is "the way of the future", said tech analyst Adam Simon from Context.
"It has really galvanised the smart home market," he said. "At last we've got something bringing it together."
One downside cited by some is the potential for a greater proliferation of microphones and AIs to erode privacy - particularly in intimate settings such as the bedroom.
But Mr Simon told the BBC that consumers would decide whether or not to tolerate this.
"My own inclination is that people will accept that this is a necessary evil," he said.
Follow all our CES coverage at bbc.co.uk/ces2017
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38539326
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Week in pictures: 31 December 2016 - 6 January 2017 - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A selection of the best news photographs from around the world, taken over the past week.
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In Pictures
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A man prepares graves for inmates who died during a prison riot in the city of Manaus in Brazil. The 17-hour uprising was the deadliest in Brazil in years and resulted in the deaths of 56 inmates.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-38517449
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CES 2017: China vows to innovate not imitate - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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At CES in Las Vegas, China is shedding its reputation as the counterfeiting capital of the world.
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Technology
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LeEco sounds French to some - but the firm is a home-grown Chinese venture
China's disregard for intellectual property, and a turn-a-blind-eye culture when it comes to blatant counterfeiting, is notorious - the butt of many jokes.
And it’s been fair. In China they don't just counterfeit devices, they counterfeit entire shops - a knock-off Apple store was closed down in 2015.
Instances like this play into the West’s view of China as the world’s shameless imitator. A place where great ideas from the US and Europe go off to be assembled as cheaply as possible.
It's time to update that view.
At CES, the US's biggest trade show, Chinese companies could be found competing not only on price, but on fantastic ideas and design.
As China's consumers have matured - and by that I mean, got a lot richer - so too has its technology industry.
Like many a British popstar, China is intent on breaking America. But the question is whether Chinese firms can earn greater trust from Western consumers.
Occupying a sizable booth in CES's North Hall is LeEco. It's pronounced "Luh" and "eco" as in ecosystem.
On display here is a concept Tesla-like sportscar, some Smart bikes with Google's Android software built in, and a 12in (30cm) TV. The point: they do a lot.
Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, chief executive of LeEco, has been at CES this year
LeEco was for a while known as the Netflix of China, a company that streamed content and eventually started making its own original material. Now it's branching out quickly into hardware - and started selling devices in the US at the tail end of last year.
"People assume LeEco… they think it sounds French,” says Kenny Mathers, from LeEco's marketing team.
"Our name means joyful ecosystem. When consumers get to pick up our products they’re delighted with build quality and design."
Sounding French is a good thing for a Chinese company, Mathers acknowledged, as it removes a trust barrier for people used to words like Apple rather than, say, Xiaomi. That said, I’ve heard at least five different pronunciations of LeEco this week.
Looking around the booth I spotted what looked very much like a GoPro camera, and I put it to Mathers that even here we're still seeing a disregard for Western intellectual property.
"I wouldn’t say that," he said.
"I would say that there’s a lot of innovation in our products. We've had a huge number of innovations in our phone line - we were the first company to remove the audio jack."
He is of course referencing Apple’s controversial decision to remove the headphone socket from its latest iPhone - though I’m not sure that’s been a particularly popular move by either company.
LeEco won't be drawn on reports of its money woes - back in China it’s reported that Haosheng Electronics, one of LeEco’s suppliers, is taking legal action over unpaid bills. LeEco has denied reports it has failed to meet its financial obligations.
According to the latest figures from research firm Gartner, sitting third in the global smartphone sales race - behind Samsung and Apple - is Huawei.
Already the biggest supplier of telecoms infrastructure in Europe, Huawei was one of the early entrants into Western markets - though in the US it was coy. The company made Google's Nexus 6P, released in 2015, but until now hadn't undertaken any serious attempts at pushing its own brand.
Huawei unveiled its Mate 9 phablet at the Las Vegas tech show
The new Mate 9, a so-called phablet, is the company's first high-end device to be launched in the US. One stand-out feature is a built-in voice assistant.
Curiously, while the company makes its own AI assistant, it has opted to integrate Amazon’s Alexa into this device instead. I wondered if it was because US users might not trust a Chinese firm with such broad data gathering. But Richard Yu, Huawei's chief executive (for the consumer side of things), gave a simpler explanation.
"Amazon Alexa is the best in this country,” he told me.
"We want to bring to the consumer the best services. In the China market we have our own - we have no intention to do this [in the US] in the short term."
Last year, Huawei had an unexpected gift: Samsung’s devices kept on catching on fire.
"Their problem has given Huawei more opportunity to be in the market," Mr Yu said, though he felt the Mate 9 would have given Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 a run for its money even without the problems.
He said China deserved its reputation as an imitator in years past, but was quickly shaking off that image.
"Chinese vendors are getting stronger and stronger on innovation.
"It's not like 10, 20 years ago where many in China would learn [from the West]. There is more original innovation from China now.
One Chinese telecoms firm, ZTE, impressed CES crowds with a spot of American basketball - on stilts
"Thirty years ago China was a very poor country. Like North Korea. Very poor. Nothing.
"Within 30 years everywhere in China is changing, growing. In Huawei we have huge investment in innovation."
This year he said he expected the company to spend $10bn (£8.1bn) on research and development - roughly in line with Apple.
But spend isn't everything. No amount of money can buy a Steve Jobs or a Jony Ive. And the cultural boundaries are proving both frustrating and fascinating - what is a massive hit in China can fall desperately flat elsewhere.
But while American firms have struggled to make headway in China, Chinese firms are accelerating into the West. With high specifications and low prices, you shouldn't bet against them.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38541208
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Premiership: Wasps 22-16 Leicester Tigers - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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Wasps hold off a tremendous fightback from Leicester to beat a Tigers side in their first match since Richard Cockerill's sacking.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Wasps flanker James Haskell was taken off the field just 36 seconds into his comeback game after appearing to be knocked out in the win over Leicester.
Haskell, who had been out for seventh months with a toe injury, came on as a second-half substitute but was forced off after a tackle on Freddie Burns.
Peter Betham's try reduced the deficit but Jimmy Gopperth's penalty ensured Wasps returned to the top of the table.
Leicester, playing their first match since the sacking of director of rugby Richard Cockerill, suffered a third successive defeat, albeit one with the consolation of a losing bonus point, and are fifth in the table.
Tigers will come away from the match with many positives under head coach Aaron Mauger, which did not look likely during the first-half blitz from Wasps.
Wade scored his ninth Premiership try of the season early on, before Taylor was put over in a drive and Robson crossed following a fast break out by man of the match Thomas Young.
After the break Tigers came out strongly, and after Betham finished off a move started by Tom Brady, Burns' penalty made it 19-16.
But Dan Cole's yellow card for being offside helped the hosts regain some impetus, and Gopperth's kick from the resulting penalty made it a six-point game.
Tigers made late changes in search of a potentially decisive try, but poor handling from Betham and George Worth in particular cost them dearly.
The match attracted Wasps' best Premiership attendance of the season of 27,930, with the club having been watched by well over 50,000 supporters in two successive games at the Ricoh Arena for the first time.
Wasps director of rugby Dai Young: "The first half, we came out of the blocks, got some quick ball to play off and we were probably disappointed that we didn't come away with some more points on the board.
"Once you give a team like Leicester a bit of momentum, it's very hard to snatch it back. I thought we were in total control in the first half, and pretty much hanging on for dear life in the last 10 minutes.
"You know the players Leicester have got, they are a proud bunch and never know when they are beaten.
"I am pleased we have won - I don't want to downplay that - but we constantly talk about learning from every game."
Leicester head coach Aaron Mauger: "I don't think you could ever question the character of our guys. We talked about playing for each other before we got on the bus.
"I was really proud of the way the guys responded in the second half. I thought we put ourselves in a situation to win the game.
"There was a lot of emotion going around, especially in the first part of the week, but everyone has taken responsibility for the situation.
"We have lost some good men this season due to our performances, and we are all responsible for that."
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38501396
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Jeremy Corbyn: Red Cross NHS warning 'unprecedented' - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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The Red Cross is warning there is a "humanitarian crisis" in its hospitals in England, something the NHS denies.
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The Red Cross is warning there is a "humanitarian crisis" in its hospitals in England, something the NHS denies.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the remarks from the charity were "unprecedented" and "the biggest wake-up call ever".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38543947
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FA Cup: Pedro strike puts Chelsea ahead against Peterborough - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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Pedro finds the top corner of the net to put Chelsea 1-0 up against Peterborough in their FA Cup third-round tie at Stamford Bridge.
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Pedro finds the top corner of the net to put Chelsea 1-0 up against Peterborough in their FA Cup third-round tie at Stamford Bridge.
Watch all the best action from the FA Cup third round here.
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38545730
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The US Air Force's commuter drone warriors - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Once soldiers left their families and went off to war. But drone pilots commute to work - and war - each day. They speak to Vin Ray about their strange double life.
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Magazine
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Drone pilot Lt Col Matt Martin says his role is "surreal"
In the past, soldiers went off to war and left their families behind. But drone pilots commute to work - and to war - each day. Vin Ray was given rare access to the only US Air Force base devoted entirely to flying drones, where he discovered the pilots' strange double life.
If you're a drone pilot, there's a strong possibility you live in Las Vegas. And your commute to work is against the traffic.
We were told to drive northwest out of the city on US Route 95. The road stretches out through the barren, inhospitable scrub of the Nevada desert.
Pay attention, we were told, because the signpost is small. In fact, it's very small. But we eventually arrived at our destination: Creech US Air Force Base, a small, flat, city in the desert. And the only air base devoted to flying drones.
Inside the base, comparisons with science fiction are hard to avoid. A drone looks like a conflation of a giant insect and a light aircraft. It's unmanned.
Standing by a runway, we watch a drone land and pass right in front of us.
The camera underneath its chin, swivels quickly sideways and looks right at us - someone, somewhere on the base, is watching us.
I'm escorted through a non-descript door in the side of what looks like a beige metal shipping container. It's cramped inside. At the far end there's a pilot seated on the left, who flies the drone and fires the missiles.
The sensor operator sits on the right - they operate the camera and fix the laser on the target for the missile to hit. They're focused on a bank of screens, switches and buttons. This is today's kind of cockpit. But it doesn't feel like a battleground.
For a start, there's a sensory deficiency. From my experience on the ground, you can taste war - you can smell it and you can certainly hear it. In here there's a just a mute video.
But that's not the only difference.
Traditionally, soldiers in a war zone are based together. They have each others' camaraderie, and they're separated from their families.
But it's not the same if you're commuting to work every day.
Obviously, the drive itself is simple. But the psychological journey is altogether different. Imagine. Between six in the evening and six in the morning you might collect your kids from school, pick up some groceries on the way home and help make dinner.
But between 6am and 6pm you have a licence to kill.
This commute is familiar to Lt Col Matt Martin. He's a hugely experienced former drone pilot. He exudes a quiet strength and a ready charm.
But he talks about his schizophrenic existence, his inability to have a normal life and the strain it took on his family.
"It's a surreal enterprise," he says. "You only have the drive to work and then you're flying. So for me, I would take that drive to switch gears. I would step into my cockpit and be totally immersed in flying the drone. Then a few hours later I would step out and be back in Las Vegas, in a totally different time zone, different time of day."
Here's what the base commander Col Case Cunningham told me: "When they walk through the gate, they're in a war. Although physically they are at home, mentally they're at war. So in effect we're asking them to redeploy every single day, to go back home and be parents and be loved ones - and then come back to war again".
Such are the new frontiers of the modern battlefield.
These drone pilots can sit in Nevada and watch a potential target 8,000 miles (12,000km) away for months on end, building up what they call "patterns of life" - building what's been called a "remote intimacy" with their prey - all in the knowledge that, one day, they may kill them.
A conventional fighter pilot will fire missiles and then head back to base. But drone pilots are required to circle for some hours afterwards, to assess the damage. The picture they're looking at is extraordinarily clear - and the damage is often in the form of body parts.
Small wonder that Creech now employs a psychologist for drone pilots suffering stress. Drones are globalising the battlefield, blurring the boundaries between war and home.
As we get ready to leave the base, the moon rises over the mountains and darkness falls quickly. There's a long traffic jam as some of the 3,500 air staff wait at the gates to leave the base - a snake of red tail lights heading back to Vegas and the warmth of their families.
And when they get home? Well, friction can stem from one simple question: "How was your day?"
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38506932
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CES 2017: VR flight kit turns slobs into Superman - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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A virtual reality contraption aims to give gamers a full-body workout while simulating the sensation of flying.
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But a start-up has created a virtual reality contraption that simulates flight while giving players a tough workout.
Chris Foxx met the firm's co-founder at the CES tech show in Las Vegas.
Follow all our CES coverage at bbc.co.uk/ces2017
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38541530
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Will snow rescue Swiss Alps after dry start to winter? - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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After a difficult Christmas period and one of the driest Decembers, Swiss resorts are praying for snow.
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Europe
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Hoteliers have had a difficult Christmas period and hope for more wintry weather
Snow is finally falling across the Alps, after one of the driest Decembers on record.
In the Swiss Alps, the last time so little snow fell over the Christmas period was in 1864, according to measurements taken by the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research.
For mountain resorts that do up to a third of their business over Christmas and New Year, this is a worry. While this December's glorious winter sunshine certainly showed off the Alps in all their splendour, many tourists arrive expecting to be able to ski.
Christoph Marty, a snow climatologist with the institute, understands why hoteliers have been gazing anxiously at the sky. "It definitely affects business," he says. A post-Christmas survey of ski resorts and lift operators by Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger showed that 56% of them expected to make losses in December.
There has been little snow for the snow-grooming machines to work with
The last three years have been a "row of Decembers without snow", says Mr Marty. While it may be too early to confirm a pattern, even the possibility that snow will not fall until after the festive season is a concern.
So most resorts across the Alps are turning to artificial snow. Snow cannons have been used for many years to patch up vulnerable sections of a slope, but in the last decade their use has increased dramatically.
Fifty percent of Swiss slopes can now be snowed artificially. In neighbouring Austria the figure is 70%. It is, as Christoph Marty points out, an expensive business.
"We need a lot of water for artificial snow, and there is a lot of consumption of power," he says. "This is one reason why lift tickets are not cheap."
Switzerland's ski resorts have realised they cannot just rely on snow cannons
Environmentalists have been watching the increased use of artificial snow with concern.
Swiss group Pro Natura says the creation of reservoirs, simply to provide water for snow cannons, is damaging to the mountain landscape, while the energy required to power all the cannons over a season would be enough to fuel a small town.
There is one big challenge to the nightly army of snow cannons: they cannot be used unless the temperature is below freezing.
That means resorts, even if no natural snow falls, must have cold weather in November to get their slopes ready for Christmas.
For the lower resorts, and the cross-country ski runs in the valleys, this is problematic, and so some have turned to a new method: snow farming.
This involves creating tonnes of snow during the coldest months of January and February. Snow cannons are parked next to rivers in the valleys, water is pumped out of them and turned into vast mounds of snow, which is then buried in sawdust and stored, over the summer, until it is needed the following season.
Mounds of "farmed snow" have appeared beside some of the Swiss ski slopes
"Up to 30% of it melts," says Christoph Marty. Nevertheless, more and more resorts, determined to guarantee snow in December, are turning to farming.
It has, this season, made for some odd pictures: ribbons of snow on the ski slopes winding their way down through green fields.
The sport of skiing developed, of course, out of the natural winter conditions in the mountains.
But that was before winter package holidays: the first skiers, over a century ago, did not expect guaranteed snow from November to April.
Today the winter sports business is worth billions, and many mountain communities depend on it. Creating the right conditions for skiing is no longer a matter for the weather gods, it is a high-tech industry.
For anyone who still believes the snow beneath their skis simply fell from the skies, the truth is far more complicated than that.
The scenery in the Swiss Alps may be stunning this winter, but the valleys are hoping for far more snow
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38516688
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CES 2017: Searching for the sounds of tech - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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CES is an overwhelming visual feast - but can this year's gadgets delight the ear as well as the eye?
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Technology
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Can CES delight the ear as well as the eye?
CES is a visual feast of lights, colour, people, costumes - and of course endless gadgets.
There are plenty of striking pictures from the show floor.
But are any of the exhibitors interested in delighting your ears?
Rather like the city of Las Vegas itself, it has its own distinctive beat.
There's the hubbub of chatter. The hiss of vending cart coffee machines. The thumping bass and discord of various sound systems vying for attention. The amplified echo of a hundred demonstrations. The ringtones and message alerts from thousands of mobile phones.
And also - this being a tech fair - the whizzes and ticks and buzzes and bings of robots and drones.
Robots make quite a racket - just what you'd expect at a football match
After hours of stalking the vast halls of CES besieged by visuals, I decided to try and find beguiling sounds instead.
Things did not get off to a good start.
The first robot I encountered - a service machine designed to guide people around museums - responded to my greeting by asking me whether I was "fickle after kissing".
Its mortified owner told me it was confused. It wasn't the only one.
Next, I asked one of the show guides where I could find some interesting noises, and was promptly escorted to a section of the show floor dedicated to in-car speakers.
I had to explain that as much as I admire Lady Gaga, the strains of her hit Bad Romance blasting out of the back of a Jeep rammed floor-to-ceiling with sub woofers wasn't what I had in mind either.
It was in a start-up zone called Eureka Park that I struck audio gold.
Some gadgets, like the cuddly Talkies, can't wait to speak up
I was drawn in by the sound of crickets - very incongruous in a giant exhibition hall with no natural light, let alone greenery. It was coming from an air purifier called Clair with a built-in Bluetooth speaker nestling at a tiny stand towards the back.
"When people sleep they need fresh air and also this kind of sound can help people sleep better," said a spokesman who introduced himself as Bono from South Korea.
"So, we put them both together."
It's the sort of stuff that's perfect for radio, in fact. After that, I captured the warm American male tones of a virtual assistant designed for cars and the staccato gunfire of a man who was evidently immersed in a VR game of mortal combat that only he could see.
Next came machine-like marching sounds from a team of forearm-sized Aelos robots playing miniature football, and a delegate attempting to play Let It Be by The Beatles on a Magic Instruments digital guitar. It's supposed to be easy to learn. Perhaps he tried the wrong tune.
The Emys robot has a natural sounding voice - and looks like a cross between ET and a Ninja Turtle
I bonded with natural-voiced Emys, a Kickstarter-funded desktop robot that looked like a cross between ET and a Ninja Turtle. It has been designed to teach young children foreign languages (did you know that castle in Spanish is castillo?).
I also hugged a gurgling Talkie - a cuddly little monster with wi-fi that you can use to exchange voice messages with your children.
Olly, a robot that claims to adapt to the personality of its owner, told me about feeling both happy and sad in a mournfully child-like voice.
"By the end of the day I'll be dead," complained an uncomfortable promotions girl, fidgeting in a pair of towering stilettos.
"And if I'm not - just kill me."
Meanwhile, a little bat-shaped speaker chimed like a casino slot machine, as it tried to re-establish a connection with the smartphone it was supposed to be streaming music from.
What's the sound of CES? It's all of those things. All at the same time. All day long. And it's music to my ears.
Listen to Zoe's radio report on The World This Weekend, on Radio 4 at 13:00 GMT
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38540739
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Joint bank accounts: For better or worse? - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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The convenience of a joint bank account is popular among couples with shared household bills - but there are pitfalls too.
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Business
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A barnacle removal bill is an unlikely inspiration to set up a joint bank account. Yet, for two keen sailors, opening an account together was the most efficient way to organise the costs of running their boat.
Fees for maintenance, mooring, and fuel all needed to be paid, so the yacht-owning duo stepped into their local bank branch on the south coast of England and signed up.
The manager that day was Eric Leenders, now the managing director of retail banking at the British Bankers' Association.
"Typically joint accounts are used by couples for pooled income and expenditure, the trigger is often when they move in together and start paying the bills," he says.
"But, on occasions, they are used to share funding for a particular project."
It is the mundane reality of keeping heads above water financially - rather than keeping a vessel shipshape - that prompts most people to open a joint bank account.
Any couple or group of people can open an account together, generally a regular current account with some added terms and conditions. Yet, experts stress there are benefits and pitfalls to sharing a bank account with anyone - even within an intimate relationship.
Today, couples are living together and marrying later in life. Having increasingly led independent financial lives, the relevance of joint accounts may be questioned.
While the vast majority of banks and building societies offer them, they do not collect and share any data so we can only speculate that the popularity of these accounts is fading.
Fiona Cullinan, a 48-year-old digital editor, says she never had a joint bank account, even during more than two years of marriage - until last month.
"This is probably a legacy of not wanting to argue about money and also being independent, as once bills and standing orders are set up, it is hard to shift everything over - or so I thought," she says.
"In September I lost one of my jobs and so a joint account started to make more sense to help with cash flow. It was really simple and took about 30 minutes at the bank to set up.
"Now that everything doesn't go out from my account, it is a lot less stressful. A secondary bonus is that the burden feels more shared as my husband is now more involved in household finances - he set up a household budget spreadsheet to check things are on track each month. I now feel we are more of a team."
Applying for a joint account is much the same as opening a current account individually. Applicants often tick a box to make the account a joint version, then fill in their individual section of the form and provide the normal proof of address and identity.
Many banks allow customers to add a second name to an existing account, following the normal checks.
Convenience is generally the main benefit, with the account used to pay household bills, although wages are often still paid into an individual's own current account.
"Two people with two accounts often become two people with three accounts," says Eric Leenders, of the BBA.
There is no limit on the number of people who can sign up, but primarily they are used by couples who are married, in civil partnerships or who live together, or by friends who share a home. Banks says that couples separated by work postings are also among those who are keen.
Mr Leenders says that reward or packaged current accounts can lend themselves to joint opening owing to household benefits, such as insurance, that may be included. He stressed that anyone signing up should read the terms and conditions to check the extent of this cover.
The Money Advice Service, a government-funded, independent organisation, points out there are limitations for anyone who needs longer term access to someone else's finances.
"If, for example, you have an elderly relative who is having trouble keeping on top of their money - a joint account is not your best bet," it says.
Couples' finances have been used in comedy turns such as the Joint Account TV series
The key decision when setting up the account is whether one individual can withdraw money, sign cheques and make payments or whether both, or all, need to sign.
This is made official under what is known as the mandate. This should also cover the rules over who must give permission for changes in the terms of the account or close it.
Whatever the decision, all parties usually get a payment card and a cheque book, if it is available with the account.
Digitally, each person will have their own log-in details, with their own password, so this needs to be set up individually. In reality, this means each remembering another password, although mobile banking now uses encrypted password saving and fingerprint logins.
Joint accounts allow people to share the rewards and convenience, but they also share the risk.
Opening a joint account means a couple will be co-scored by credit reference agencies, so if one has a poor credit history it can affect the other.
Getting out of debt also falls to both, or all, of those signed up - as a group and individually. Typically, each account holder is responsible for paying back all the money owed, so one could become liable for repaying the other person's debt.
A bank might take money from that person's sole account to cover the overdraft in the joint account - but only if both accounts are with the same bank.
"Banks are not in the business of making good customers bad customers," says Mr Leenders, pointing out that banks' lending code requires them to treat customers sympathetically.
He stresses that people should inform their bank about a relationship breakdown, or any sign of transactions that have not been agreed, to freeze the account - otherwise it can be difficult to retrieve this money.
Cases that have gone to the financial ombudsman include:
At its worst, extravagant spending by one partner from the joint account, or sole control of a joint account can be a sign of financial abuse.
Spending jointly earned money, taking out loans in a partner's name, demanding payment for utility bills from their own savings, or scrutinising every penny that a partner spends are all signs of such bullying, charities and the TUC say.
Worse, it can be the forerunner of even more serious emotional, or physical, abuse.
Women are often the victims, but men - particularly those with disabilities - can also be vulnerable.
Under the Serious Crime Act - implemented in 2015 - coercive and controlling behaviour between partners, which could include financial abuse, became illegal for the first time.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38508810
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Syria conflict: Car bomb kills dozens in Azaz - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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At least 43 people have been killed in a car bomb blast in the rebel-held Syrian town of Azaz, near the Turkish border.
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At least 43 people have been killed in a car bomb blast in the rebel-held Syrian town of Azaz, near the Turkish border.
The explosion occurred outside a courthouse in the town, just 7km (four miles) from the Turkish frontier.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38541465
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Wayne Rooney: Man Utd captain honoured to match Sir Bobby Charlton goals record - BBC Sport
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2017-01-08
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Wayne Rooney targets home games against Hull and Liverpool after matching Sir Bobby's Charlton's Manchester United scoring record.
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Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney says he is "honoured" to be level with Sir Bobby Charlton as the club's all-time leading goalscorer - but wants to break the record soon.
His FA Cup strike against Reading took Rooney, 31, to 249 goals in 543 games, reaching the landmark 215 matches and four seasons quicker than Charlton.
"It's a proud moment," he said.
"We've got two home games coming up this week so hopefully I can get the next one in one of those."
United play Hull City in the first leg of their League Cup semi-final on Tuesday (20:00 GMT kick-off), before taking on Liverpool in the Premier League at 16:00 on 15 January.
"This club is a huge part of my life and I'm honoured to be up there alongside Sir Bobby," said Rooney after Saturday's 4-0 win over the Royals at Old Trafford.
• None Listen: Rooney was always going to break records - Moyes
'He was always going to break records'
United manager Jose Mourinho said: "A more special day will arrive. It was great but I want one more goal. He is an amazing guy in the group and we all want him to do it. To have Wayne as the top scorer in a club like this is magnificent for him."
Reading boss Jaap Stam, who played 127 times for United, added: "Wayne has been a great player from the beginning. He is a player who works very hard for the team and you could see that in the game. With the quality he has as an individual and the quality players he is playing with, it makes him an outstanding player.
"It is not surprising he has scored this many goals. Even when they are 4-0 up, he is still sprinting and running for the ball."
In 2015, Rooney surpassed World Cup winner Charlton's England scoring record of 49 goals and has since taken his international tally to 53.
The United landmark comes during a season in which the England captain has been left out of the starting line-up for both club and country, his record-equalling goal being just his fourth of the campaign.
Former United manager David Moyes, now at Sunderland, added: "First of all it's congratulations. To even get mentioned in the same breath as Sir Bobby Charlton, who for so many people is a great for what he did with England and Manchester United, is an achievement.
"You have to give Wayne Rooney credit for the limelight he has had to work under and the pressure people continually put on him.
"He has had a great career. It comes to an end at some time in football and sometimes you drop off a little bit but Wayne was always going to break the records in my eyes. The times I have worked with him he was always very good. A great player, a great trainer and someone who always wanted to go about his business well."
How has Rooney done it?
The signs were there from the very start that Rooney's could be a stellar Old Trafford career.
In his first game following a £27m move from Everton in 2004, he scored a hat-trick against Fenerbahce in a 6-2 Champions League win.
He has not looked back since, reaching double figures in every season at the club, including a career-high 34 in all competitions in 2009-10 and 2011-12.
Rooney and Charlton are ahead of some of the finest players that Manchester United and British football has known.
Charlton, who came up through the United youth system, spent 17 years at Old Trafford before finishing his career with spells at Preston and Irish side Waterford United.
And despite his consistency over such a long period, he never managed to hit the 30-goal mark in a single season, coming closest when he struck 29 times during his third season at Old Trafford.
Despite Rooney's scoring bursts, his goals have not come at the fastest rate. Tommy Taylor, who was a two-time title winner with United in the 1950s, holds that honour, just ahead of former Netherlands international Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Rooney's ratio of 0.459 goals per game puts him eighth on the list, while Charlton (0.328) does not even make the top 10.
Where does Rooney rank in list of Man Utd greats?
Rooney has secured his place in Manchester United history and Old Trafford's hall of greats with his record-equalling goalscoring feats.
However, he will have to resign himself to never being held in the same esteem, and place of legend, as the likes of Charlton, George Best and Denis Law.
Indeed, despite his lofty place in United's record books, the 31-year-old will never be revered by United's supporters in the same manner as the maverick Old Trafford catalyst Eric Cantona, the great leaders Roy Keane and Bryan Robson, and brilliant home-grown products such as Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville.
This may seem brutally unfair given his contribution to United's successes, but there are several factors at work when his place in the club's historical affections is measured.
Rooney was an expensive import from Merseyside, while Charlton, who survived the 1958 Munich air disaster, led United to their first European Cup in 1968 and stands alongside his great mentor Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson as an iconic Old Trafford figure.
Best and Law came alongside Charlton as United's 'Holy Trinity' as the club emerged from the tragedy of Munich, while Cantona was the great transformer in the early 90s and the likes of Robson and Keane were world-class players and warriors.
Rooney's chequered history with the club and its fans will also have an impact on his legacy when his contribution to United - a truly great one when judged solely in a football context - is reflected upon.
In many eyes, Rooney will never quite be forgiven for the episode in October 2010 when he decided he wanted to leave, then further strained his relationship with club and fans by issuing a statement which effectively said United lacked ambition and questioned the quality of his team-mates.
This was resolved within days when he signed a new five-year-contract, but the memory has lingered for many. There was another disagreement late in the 2012-13 season as Ferguson prepared for retirement and made it clear Rooney again wanted to leave - a claim that led to the player being jeered by some fans as he collected his title winner's medal at Old Trafford.
Fans and those who record history and legends take these matters into account.
What must also be remembered is that Rooney has had a stellar United career littered with trophies, brilliance and game-changing moments. He fully deserves to be remembered as one of the greats of Old Trafford.
There will, however, be many more remembered before him.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38543968
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Can factory serve the perfect cuppa? - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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Former naval officer Andrew Gadsden explains how he came to open a tea room in a factory warehouse in Portsmouth.
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It might be a noisy tea room, but you won't find many that get you this close to the source of the manufacturing process.
Former naval officer Andrew Gadsden explains how he came to open his tea room, All About Tea, in a factory warehouse in Portsmouth.
This video is part of a series from the BBC Business Unit called My Shop. The series focuses on distinctive, independent shops and is filmed on a smartphone. To suggest a shop email us. For the latest updates about the series follow video journalist Dougal Shaw on Twitter or Facebook.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38533947
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Swim team swaps pool for snow - BBC News
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2017-01-08
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The swim team at US university Georgia Tech couldn't make it to their event, so they did the relay in the snow outside their hotel.
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The swim team at US university Georgia Tech couldn't make it to their event, so they did the relay in the snow outside their hotel.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38547477
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Peter Sarstedt's most famous song - BBC News
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2017-01-09
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Peter Sarstedt, who took Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)? to the UK number one spot in February 1969, has died aged 75.
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Peter Sarstedt, who took Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)? (Ray Singer: United Artists) to the UK number one spot in February 1969, has died aged 75.
His family said he had been battling Progressive Supranuclear Palsy for six years.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38549476
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Liverpool 0-0 Plymouth Argyle - BBC Sport
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2017-01-09
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Liverpool's youngest ever starting line-up are held to a frustrating draw by resolute League Two side Plymouth Argyle in their FA Cup third-round tie at Anfield.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
The youngest Liverpool starting line-up in the club's history were held to a frustrating draw by resolute League Two side Plymouth Argyle in their FA Cup third-round tie at Anfield.
The hosts, whose side had an average age of 21 years and 296 days, had 80.3% possession in the first half but struggled to break down their gritty opponents, with Sheyi Ojo failing to take their best chance when he missed a header from close range.
Divock Origi also had a goal disallowed for a foul on Gary Miller before Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp brought on first-team regulars Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana and Roberto Firmino in search of a breakthrough.
Sturridge sent a 25-yard shot just wide, looped a header over and fired into the side-netting - but the Reds could not find the cutting edge to break down an organised and disciplined Plymouth.
Craig Tanner would have been clean through on the Liverpool goal but for a Kevin Stewart challenge as the Pilgrims earned a replay at Home Park.
Both sides now go into the fourth round draw, which will be made live on BBC Two and online from 19:00 GMT on Monday.
• None Watch all of the latest FA Cup highlights and reaction here
• None All the FA Cup third-round reports in one place
Liverpool boss Klopp made 10 changes for the game - including defender Joe Gomez returning to first-team action for the first time since 1 October, 2015 following a knee ligament injury, and 17-year-old forward Ben Woodburn making his first start for the club.
And, despite his side enjoying plenty of possession - 87.2% after the first 15 minutes - they could not find the creativity to pierce the banked masses of Plymouth players.
Ojo failed to make proper contact with a header from five yards and Woodburn - showing some neat footwork at times - had a shot saved, but chances were few and far between for the youthful Reds, who managed just four efforts on target from 28 overall.
German Klopp said before the game he could be criticised if his team selection backfired and, even with the introduction of Sturridge, Lallana and Firmino, his much-changed side could not find a winner.
Such was the effort and application put in by Plymouth, who are second in League Two, Klopp congratulated their players on the pitch after the final whistle.
The visitors set up in a 4-5-1 formation and their focus on containment rather than posing any attacking threat resulted in keeper Luke McCormick having the most touches - 52 - of any Pilgrims player.
It was a team effort, but centre-backs Sonny Bradley and Yann Songo'o epitomised the dogged spirit and endeavour of their side and were key to the result.
Plymouth took nearly 9,000 fans to Anfield and, although they had little to cheer from an attacking point of view with their team managing just three touches in the Liverpool box, they were celebrating at the end and have a replay to look forward to at Home Park.
"The character and work rate we showed was unbelievable," said Plymouth midfielder Graham Carey.
"The atmosphere has been brilliant and it will be the same when they come to our place. I've come here as a fan before - the hairs are standing up on the back of my neck."
What they said:
Liverpool manager Klopp: "They created small spaces and we made our own problems. A game like this is not easy to make exciting.
"We had a young side so that's difficult. We can do better and if we do better then we have a good chance of making the next round.
"With our other line-up it could be possible that the result was still the same - not likely, but possible. It was a good experience for the boys."
Plymouth boss Derek Adams: "We had a very good defensive display. We allowed Liverpool the ball. When we had the ball we still created a couple of opportunities.
"We had gone in at half-time at 0-0 and that was important. We knew Liverpool might start the second half at a better tempo and we coped with that well. We knew we would get a bit of belief as well.
"We've had a couple of opportunities in the game that we might have done better with, but that would be asking too much."
On an injury to Gary Miller: "He's either got a broken ankle or ankle ligament damage. We'll see what happens. It's disappointing for him and the team."
Former Wales and Arsenal striker John Hartson on BBC Radio 5 live
"Plymouth gave everything. They have left everything out there on the Anfield pitch.
"Liverpool paid the price for too many changes. They never really created enough opportunities for their strikers. It's a day to give Plymouth the credit."
• None The Reds have drawn four of their past five FA Cup matches at Anfield 0-0.
• None Liverpool had 76.7% on Sunday. Only against Burnley and Sunderland in the Premier League this season have they had more in a game.
• None The last fourth-tier side to claim a draw in an FA Cup game at Anfield were Doncaster Rovers in January 1974.
• None The Pilgrims avoided defeat in an FA Cup game against a top-flight team for the first time since drawing against Everton in the fourth round in 1989 (before losing the replay).
• None Liverpool midfielder Kevin Stewart made the same amount of successful passes (53) as the whole Plymouth team during the first half.
Liverpool go to Southampton on Wednesday for the first leg of their EFL Cup semi-final (19:45 GMT kick-off), while Plymouth continue their League Two promotion challenge when they host Stevenage on Saturday at 15:00.
• None Attempt blocked. Divock Origi (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Adam Lallana.
• None Attempt missed. Lucas Leiva (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right.
• None Sheyi Ojo (Liverpool) wins a free kick on the right wing.
• None Attempt blocked. Kevin Stewart (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Adam Lallana.
• None Attempt missed. Jake Jervis (Plymouth Argyle) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left.
• None Attempt missed. Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool) left footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Sheyi Ojo following a corner.
• None Attempt blocked. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) right footed shot from a difficult angle and long range on the left is blocked. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold.
• None Attempt missed. Divock Origi (Liverpool) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Adam Lallana with a cross.
• None Attempt missed. Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool) header from the right side of the six yard box is too high. Assisted by Roberto Firmino with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38481646
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CES 2017: Nokia Android phone spurns the West - BBC News
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2017-01-09
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The first Android smartphone to carry Nokia's brand is announced as a China exclusive.
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Technology
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The Nokia 6 is the first Android smartphone to bear the brand under a deal with HMD Global
The first in a series of Nokia-branded Android phones is to be released exclusively in China.
The device will be marketed in partnership with the local internet retail giant JD.com.
The team behind the Nokia 6 phone said the handset's "premium design" would appeal to the local market.
The announcement coincided with the final day of the CES tech show in Las Vegas, where other new mobile phones and gadgets have been launched.
Nokia no longer manufactures phones that carry its name but has instead licensed its brand to another Finnish company, HMD Global.
Until now, the only phones that had been released under the deal had been more basic "feature phone" models.
HMD Global may wait to unveil details of Android smartphones for other markets until next month in Barcelona
The Android device had been highly anticipated and marks Nokia's return to the smartphone market after a series of Windows Phone models. Nokia also briefly sold Android-based handsets - known as Nokia X - in 2014.
Microsoft used Nokia's brand for a short time after buying the company's mobile devices the same year, but later referred to the devices solely by their Lumia name.
Nokia once dominated the mobile phone market but struggled after the launch of the iPhone a decade ago, and the subsequent release of Google's Android operating system.
HMD Global had previously indicated it would release several Nokia-branded Android phones in 2017.
It is expected to provide details of at least some of the other launches at another trade show - Barcelona's Mobile World Congress - in February.
"The decision by HMD to launch its first Android smartphone into China is a reflection of the desire to meet the real world needs of consumers in different markets around the world," the firm said in a statement.
"With over 552 million smartphone users in China in 2016, a figure that is predicted to grow to more than 593 million users by 2017, it is a strategically important market where premium design and quality is highly valued by consumers."
HMD Gobal sells feature phones, including the Nokia 150, in other parts of the world
The Nokia 6 phone runs Android 7.0 - the latest version, also known as Nougat - and features:
The specifications are mid-range, and so is the price: 1,699 yuan ($245; £200).
That makes it slightly more expensive than Huawei's Honor 6X but cheaper than Xiaomi's Mi 5s.
"Nokia remains one of the most recognised mobile phone brands on the planet," commented Ben Wood from the CCS Insight technology consultancy.
"HMD Global will be hoping it can capitalise on this as it seeks to relaunch Nokia devices in 2017.
"It will be hoping the brand will help it stand out in the incredibly crowded Android smartphone market, which is characterised by cut-throat competition and a sea of design sameness. "
Brandon Ackroyd, Head of Customer Insight at Tiger Mobiles believes that Nokia will launch the Nokia 6 globally if the device has a successful launch in Asia.
"If the Nokia 6 performs well in China then it's highly likely we will see a new international variant of the handset sometime in 2017. We'll be keeping our eyes on the certification websites in the coming months looking for a variant with more connectivity options like GSM, LTE, and CDMA that will make the device compatible with networks worldwide."
Follow all our CES coverage at bbc.co.uk/ces2017
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38546676
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Hope for a fresh settlement in Cyprus - BBC News
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2017-01-09
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Cars, streets and a plane crumble in Cyprus's hastily established 'buffer zone' between Turkish and Greek territory - but there is fresh hope for a deal.
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Europe
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There is small corner of Europe where time has stood still since 1974. Whole neighbourhoods lie deserted. Houses crumble gently into empty streets.
Cars that were once new and shiny sit enshrouded in dust in garages. Debris litters the runway of a former international airport, the solitary abandoned passenger jet a ghostly reminder of the tourists who used to arrive here daily.
Welcome to the "buffer zone" in Cyprus.
More than 40 years ago, this thin strip of land more than 100 miles (160km) long was hastily established after a coup inspired by Greece failed and Turkish forces invaded.
Since then, UN peacekeepers have patrolled the empty streets and manned the distant watchtowers that separate the Greek Cypriot south from the Turkish Cypriot north in this former British colony.
The buffer zone divides the Greek south of Cyprus from the Turkish north
For more than 40 years, this is how Cyprus has remained - a divided island in the eastern Mediterranean where no plan to end the conflict has ever quite overcome the status quo.
For politicians and diplomats are yet again heading for Geneva hoping that a solution might be in sight. After visiting Athens and Ankara last week, the UK's foreign office minister, Sir Alan Duncan, tweeted he was "hopeful" that a settlement may be in reach.
The aim is some kind of united but federal Cyprus where power is shared between the two communities.
How this might work in practice has defeated all previous diplomatic efforts.
Next week the two sides will meet for a fresh round of talks. If they make progress, then ministers from the three countries that currently guarantee Cyprus's security - Britain, Greece and Turkey - will join.
The two British military bases on the island will be unaffected by the negotiations.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson will represent the UK. New UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will be there.
If a deal looks likely, then it is even possible that British Prime Minister Theresa May might attend, along with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
Mrs May spoke to Mr Erdogan this weekend and they agreed that these talks were "a real opportunity to secure a better future for Cyprus and to guarantee stability in the wider region", according to the Mrs May's office.
But - and it is a big but - we have been here before. Previous attempts at a deal have been defeated by the complexities of the island's politics and tensions between Greece and Turkey. So no-one is guaranteeing success next week.
Cars from the 1970s are gathering dust in a show room in the buffer zone
And yet there are signs that this time there could be some progress. Diplomats say that both the Greek Cypriot leader, Nicos Anastasiades, and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart, Mustafa Akinci, appear genuinely committed to achieving a deal.
For both of them failure is an unattractive option.
Turkey appears willing to see if progress can be made. Supporting northern Cyprus is expensive and President Erdogan has more room to manoeuvre than his predecessors.
A lot of progress has been made already in talks that have been going on for 19 months. But the sticking points that remain are significant.
And then there is the really hard question - what kind of a deal would be acceptable to the peoples of Cyprus?
Any agreement hammered out in Geneva would not just have to be acceptable to both sides' negotiators and the governments of Greece and Turkey. It would also have to backed by the people in both north and south Cyprus in two referendums later this year. The last time there was a putative deal in 2004 it was overwhelmingly rejected by Greek Cypriots.
So there are hurdles ahead and no guarantees of success. But some diplomats are expectant. "I don't imagine we could be in a better place," said one. "But everything is very fluid and nothing will be easy."
Even the chance of a deal is quickening pulses in UK government circles. Good news is scarce on the international stage at the moment, and a settlement in Cyprus would be a small beacon of hope.
It would be reaffirmation that talking and co-operating can produce results at a time when many countries seem to prefer using force.
It would allow Mrs May to show the world that - despite Brexit - Britain is still engaged in the world. And above all it would solve a problem that has bedevilled Greek-Turkish relations for so long and given headaches to both the EU and Nato
That is the prize up for grabs over the negotiating tables in Geneva next week.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38544859
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Society and the Conservative Party - BBC News
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2017-01-09
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A look at how Conservative leaders have attempted to define what society should, and should not, be.
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UK Politics
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Theresa May has set out her vision for a "shared society" in which the state has a role in helping people who are struggling to get by. It marks the latest attempt by a Conservative leader to spell out what society should, or should not, be.
Margaret Thatcher's remark about society was one of her most famous
In a 1987 interview with Woman's Own magazine, Margaret Thatcher said there was "no such thing as society", and that line went on to become one of her most famous.
It has been much debated over the years, with critics seeing it as evidence of a heartless approach where needy individuals are left to fend for themselves.
But Thatcher's supporters complain the quote is taken out of context, and in her memoirs the former PM said it had been "distorted beyond recognition".
More recently, polling has found that while a strong majority of people disagreed with the "no such thing" line in isolation, most agreed with the longer version.
Here it is: "I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it... They're casting their problem on society.
"And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families, and no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first.
"It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."
Thatcher's successor, John Major, entered Downing Street in 1990 promising to create a "classless society", which he described as a "a tapestry of talents in which everyone from child to adult respects achievement".
He was still talking about it in his party conference speech the following year: "I spoke of a classless society. I don't shrink from that phrase.
"I don't mean a society in which everyone is the same, or thinks the same, or earns the same. But a tapestry of talents in which everyone from child to adult respects achievement; where every promotion, every certificate is respected; and each person's contribution is valued. And where the greatest respect is reserved for the law."
Next up was William Hague, who called for a "responsible society", and said Thatcher's famous line had been wilfully misinterpreted and used against the Conservatives.
"A strong society rests on responsible individuals and families. They need to be able to turn to straightforward, reliable help when times are bad," the Tories' 2001 manifesto said.
"But that should not become dependence on the state when times are good."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. David Cameron: "I think we're onto a really big idea, a really exciting future for our country"
"There is such a thing as society; it's just not the same thing as the state," declared David Cameron in his 2005 victory speech after becoming Conservative leader.
Five years later, the idea of a Big Society was a key strand of the Conservatives' 2010 general election manifesto.
It involved allowing voluntary groups and charities to run public services, encouraging people to do more volunteering and giving local groups more power to take decisions affecting their area.
After becoming PM, Cameron described building the Big Society as his "great passion", hoping "people power" would help keep pubs and museums open and mean more residents getting involved with their communities.
But there were reports Conservative candidates found it a hard concept to explain on the doorstep, and the Tories' political opponents said it was simply a way of hiding cuts to local services as the new government reduced public spending.
Mentions of the Big Society became less prominent over the course of the Parliament, and the theme featured little in the 2015 general election campaign.
Having quit frontline politics after the 2016 EU referendum, Mr Cameron now works with the National Citizen Service, describing the organisation as "the Big Society in action".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prime Minister Theresa May said she wanted to "build a better Britain"
In what has been seen as a break from David Cameron's championing of voluntary work, Theresa May has stressed the role of the state in creating "a society that works for everyone".
The so-called shared society, she says, "doesn't just value our individual rights but focuses rather more on the responsibilities we have to one another" and respects "the bonds of family, community, citizenship and strong institutions that we share as a union of people and nations".
In a speech setting out her vision, she said there was "more to life than individualism and self-interest".
"We form families, communities, towns, cities, counties and nations. And we embrace the responsibilities those institutions imply.
"And government has a clear role to play to support this conception of society."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38553797
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Can Bangalore win its battle against rubbish? - BBC News
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2017-01-09
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The BBC meets a group of concerned citizens who are working to clean up Bangalore.
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India
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Youth for Parivarthan has more than 1,200 volunteers
The southern Indian city of Bangalore was long known as the garden city, famed for its lush public parks and gardens, trees and hedges. But four years ago, it was renamed the garbage city, after it began drowning under mounds of rubbish. Some concerned citizens, however, are working to clean up the city, writes the BBC's Geeta Pandey from Bangalore.
On a Sunday morning, about two dozen young men and women arrive outside the Aishwarya Agate apartment complex in the JP Nagar district, armed with paint, buckets, brushes and rollers.
For the next few hours, these volunteers from the non-governmental organisation Youth for Parivarthan (Youth for Change) get busy, trying to beautify the wall across the compound.
Ugly fading pamphlets are peeled off, the grey wall is hosed clean with a jet of water, a coat of terracotta paint is applied, patterns are drawn with chalk and then painted over with fine brush-strokes.
Geeta Pandey recently spent 10 days working on a series of stories in Bangalore. This is her seventh and final report. You can find the other reports here:
The volunteers include lawyers, engineers, accountants, students and even an actor.
This is their 94th project, says Amith Amarnath, the group's founder and president.
"We did our first project in June 2014. There was a small children's park near my home, filled with garbage. It would stink all the time, everyone was complaining about it," he told the BBC. "So one day, I thought we should stop complaining and start acting."
Mr Amarnath and a few of his friends went and cleaned up the place. Then they painted the park walls and installed benches to dissuade people from throwing rubbish there again.
The volunteers begin by scraping off ugly fading pamphlets
Bright paint is used to lend cheer to the surroundings
Bangalore is often described as the Silicon Valley of India. The city has witnessed rapid growth in the past two decades.
But along with that prosperity have come problems like traffic snarls and thousands of tonnes of daily garbage.
The city of 11.5 million people daily generates 8,000 tonnes of rubbish which is collected and transported to landfills outside the city, says Bharath M Palavalli of Fields of View, a non-profit which has been working to create awareness about Bangalore's garbage problems.
By law, this garbage should be segregated at source between wet food waste and dry recyclable waste like plastics and paper.
Youth for Parivarthan's first project was a small children's park
The volunteers cleaned up the park, painted its walls and installed benches to dissuade people from throwing rubbish there
"Ideally what happens in Vegas should remain in Vegas," says market researcher and civic evangelist V Ravichandar.
"Garbage should be sorted and dealt with in the neighbourhood and only 15% should go to landfills."
But civic authorities have long followed the policy of collecting and transporting all the city's garbage to nearby villages instead.
The flaws of the policy became glaringly obvious in 2012 when garbage collectors went on a strike over a pay dispute with the civic authorities and the city began to drown in rubbish.
Debris is removed from the location
Mr Ravichandar describes what happened next as "a perfect storm".
"At the same time, one landfill was closed by the pollution control board for being environmentally hazardous, and another was shut down because local farmers protested.
"For two weeks, untreated waste was being dumped on the city streets daily. It had been drizzling for days and there were things putrefying," says Mr Ravichandar.
But that became the turning point for the city when it came to garbage management.
Most of the volunteers are students or working professionals
They work a few hours on each Sunday to beautify their city
With more awareness, residents in many areas have now begun to segregate their garbage and dry waste collection centres have come up in several neighbourhoods.
"In areas where people are more aware and the residents' associations are strong, rubbish is getting picked up regularly and things have visibly improved," Mr Ravichandar says.
But many "black spots" remain in the city - and that's where groups like Youth for Parivarthan come in.
The wall across from the Aishwarya Agate apartment that the volunteers are beautifying today used to be a garbage dump until a few days ago.
Patterns are drawn with chalk on the wall and then painted over with fine brush-strokes
Resident Purushottam Joshi says he is very happy that these young men and women have done this wonderful work here
For the past 14 years, resident Purushottam Joshi says every time he stepped out of the gates, he would be greeted by the stench of rotting garbage.
"We petitioned the local legislator, our MP, the district collector, even the police, but nothing happened. Now I'm very happy that these young men and women have done this wonderful work here," he says.
Home-maker Lavanya Shankar says she's "extremely happy" to see the "extremely clean" wall. "This is the street where we live, where our children play, and it's wonderful to see this change," she says.
Mr Amarnath says their reward is the appreciation they receive from the public.
The volunteers get down to beautifying the drab wall
They pose for a photograph in front of the finished wall
"Initially we would spot places to fix, but now people write to us on social media, seeking our help. Earlier, people thought we were just jobless youth, with nothing to do. But ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his Swachch Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Campaign), public support has been growing for us."
As the volunteers pose for a photograph in front of the finished wall, they say they know that their efforts are like "a drop in the ocean". But, as Mr Amarnath says, "every drop must count".
"If we want to see the change, we have to be more involved and aware. If we sit at home and think the government would do everything, then nothing would get done."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-38494440
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Newspaper headlines: Johnson's meeting with Trump team and 'polar blast' - BBC News
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2017-01-09
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Some front pages focus on Boris Johnson's trip to the US to meet Donald Trump's team, while others warn a cold snap is on its way.
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The Papers
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The Daily Telegraph leads with Boris Johnson meeting Donald Trump's top advisors in what its headline calls a "Brexit boost".
It says the foreign secretary seized the opportunity to strengthen trade deals and the "special relationship".
But The Guardian says it came against a backdrop of critical remarks by Theresa May, who on Sunday declared the president-elect's remarks about women "unacceptable".
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is in New York visiting Donald Trump's advisors
The paper also highlights Mr Johnson's past comments, describing Donald Trump as "betraying a quite stupefying ignorance that makes him unfit to hold the office of president" before, after his victory, calling for an end to the "whinge-o-rama".
The past insults are remembered too by The Daily Mail, which says the trip came as ministers tried to mend fences with the incoming US president.
The Financial Times, meanwhile, says one of those Boris Johnson met - Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner - has also held recent talks with a man it calls "one of China's most politically connected tycoons".
For the paper, the meeting, about a potential real estate deal, raises fresh questions about conflicts of interest in the incoming administration.
The Times leads with Theresa May calling for what its headline describes as a "revolution in child mental health care".
The paper sees it as a significant but overdue victory for its campaign and believes her determination to tackle the issue will "be a yardstick by which her social compassion is judged."
"May declares war on school cyber-bullies" is the headline for The Daily Mail, while The Financial Times focuses on Mrs May's plan to shift away from David Cameron's Big Society and use the power of government to help struggling working families.
There's much coverage too of the prime minister's hint in an interview on Sunday that Britain won't stay in the single market after Brexit.
"I'll dig my heels in" is the headline for The Sun, which believes Mrs May is instead hoping to retain tariff-free access with "a jumbo trade deal".
The Daily Express' editorial says she spoke "the words we have all been waiting to hear".
But The Daily Mirror's associate editor, Kevin Maguire, says the prime minister was "afraid to give straight answers to direct, pertinent questions about the future."
A government source is quoted by both the Daily Mail and The Telegraph as saying this week's wave of strikes has been co-ordinated by unions to inflict "maximum pain" on the public.
With the headline "Millions left stranded as strikes bring transport system to a halt", the Daily Express argues, in its editorial, that the reasons given for the Tube and rail walkouts are just a smokescreen for a crude political agenda.
But, with the headline "Army of new drivers to defeat rail strikes", The Times says a national recruitment campaign will be launched under government plans to combat the industrial action.
Snowy scenes from across Europe abound in many of the papers - with what The Daily Star's front page dubs a "killer arctic storm" set to reach Britain later this week.
But The Times reports that tens of thousands of winter holidays face ruin because of a lack of snow in the Alps.
The Times reports that there has been a lack of snow in the Alps
It says dozens of the most popular resorts could have to turn off their snow cannons, which have proved vital in creating ski runs during weeks of unseasonably dry weather.
And finally The Daily Mail reports that, while many women spend hundreds of pounds on lotions and potions, scientists in the US have found the secret to looking youthful could come from stimulating the skin's own fat cells.
The Express believes it could lead to a new generation of anti-aging treatments and scar-free healing for wounds.
The headline writers for both the Express and the i choose the same pun: "The end of the line for wrinkles".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-38550893
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