A new report has found that the number of people living in poverty in Scotland has fallen by more than a third since the financial crisis.
The Scottish Government has said that the number of people living in poverty has fallen by more than a third since the financial crisis.
The report, by the Scottish Centre for Social Justice

The Scottish town which 'won' two Carbuncle honours for its ugly shopping centre has scooped Best Town at the Scottish Design Awards.

Article: The Treasury said that the "extensive" review would make sure that shoppers got the discounts they are entitled to.
Tax-free shops should not charge VAT, if passengers are going outside the EU.
In August it was revealed that some airside retailers were not always passing VAT savings on to customers, but were keeping the money instead.
The Treasury said some shops were keeping as much as half the money they should be giving to consumers.
"VAT relief at airports is intended to cut prices for those travellers - not be a windfall gain for shops," said Chancellor George Osborne.
"But many people could be paying over the odds for their purchases because the government's VAT concession isn't passed on. This is simply unacceptable," he said.
At the moment airport retailers are not legally obliged to provide a VAT discount, so it would need a change in the law to make them do so.
Some retailers have claimed it would be too difficult to introduce dual-pricing for EU and non-EU travellers - and that such a requirement would lead to delays for passengers.
WH Smith, one of the shops originally criticised, said it would co-operate with the inquiry.
Boots, which also came in for criticism, has already announced a review of its own policy.
"Since taking our decision in August 2015 to no longer ask customers to show us their boarding passes we have been continuing with our strategic review and, working together with the Airport Authorities, we are nearing conclusion," the retailer said.
"We will participate with the government review as we receive further details," it added.
Who is entitled to VAT savings?
Anyone travelling outside the 28 countries of the European Union (EU). Travellers within the EU or the UK have to pay existing rates of duty and VAT.
Do you have to show a boarding pass?
If you are buying cigarettes or alcohol in a duty free shop, you are legally obliged to show your boarding pass, to prove you are travelling outside the EU. If you are buying other goods - say books, snacks or cosmetics - you are still...

Summary: Airport shops could be forced to give VAT discounts to passengers travelling outside the European Union, following the launch of a government inquiry.
###
Article: Mr Burnham told the Guardian the role was "a cabinet-level job, which needs cabinet-level experience".
The Leigh MP said Westminster had "become a bit of an irrelevance for some people" adding that "we really need to change the way politics works".
The first elections for the role, currently filled by interim mayor Tony Lloyd, will be held in 2017.
Mr Lloyd and another former Labour minister, Ivan Lewis, are also seeking Labour's nomination.
Mr Burnham, the former health secretary, had been expected to announce his candidacy on Thursday but his intentions became clear when one of his Twitter profiles was rebranded as "Andy4Manchester".
As a national political figure over many years, Andy Burnham will be seen as the first genuine big hitter to throw his name in the hat to become Greater Manchester mayor.
The Leigh MP's move will be read by many as him giving up on a Labour return to government in 2020, but it's also a sign of the shift in power from Westminster to the North West.
Mr Burnham wasn't part of any negotiation for devolution to Greater Manchester and he was completely taken by surprise by the deal to merge health and social care, claiming the area was taking responsibility for an "NHS funding crisis" rather than anything else.
But time passes quickly in politics and Mr Burnham now sees opportunity where he once predicted disaster.
He'll be up against two well-established candidates for Labour who have spent months visiting local party groups to garner support.
He may find that being a big player in the national game doesn't particularly endear you to those who've stayed home to hold the fort but he's a formidable addition to the panel Labour members will eventually choose from.
The race to be the mayor of Greater Manchester has just got a bit more interesting.
Powerful regional mayors are a key part of the government's drive to devolve more responsibility to local authorities for Whitehall.
About 2.7 million people live in Greater Manchester, which has been at the forefront of the devolution project...

Summary: Shadow home secretary Andy Burnham will put himself forward to become the mayor of Greater Manchester.
###
Article: A firm in north Wales wants to bring the PooPrints service from the United States to the UK with up to 15 councils reportedly interested in the scheme.
Councils could make owners in problem areas register their dogs to a database which involves a mouth swab taken.
Then, DNA could be taken from mess left on a street, path or grass and used to find a match on the database.
Gary Downie, managing director of Streetkleen Bio in Ruthin, Denbighshire, believes local authorities can use new powers granted by the Antisocial Behaviour and Policing Act 2014 to force dog owners to comply.
"The purpose of the system is to get cleaner, safer open spaces," he said.
Councils the company is in talks with include Kingston-upon-Thames in south-west London, Aberdeen and Cheshire East.

Summary: DNA in dog mess could be used to catch owners who fail to clear up their pet's mess.
###
Article: Cumbernauld has the dubious distinction of winning the Plook on the Plinth title for having Scotland's "most dismal" town centre in 2001 and 2005.
Judges have compared it to Kabul and described its shopping centre as a rabbit warren on stilts.
Now an online poll has seen it top a public vote for civic pride.
The Scottish Design Awards is organised by Urban Realm - which also organises the Carbuncle awards.
During the past few weeks of online voting, Cumbernauld residents helped the town move ahead of rivals such as Broughty Ferry, Dunkeld, East Kilbride, Eaglesham Linlithgow, Peebles and Pitlochry.
When the polls closed at midnight on Thursday, Cumbernauld had narrowly beaten Peebles.
The prize will be collected by a delegation from the town at a ceremony in Glasgow on Friday evening.
The Carbuncle Awards were created by Gordon Young, now editor of The Drum, one of the sponsors of the Scottish Design Awards.
He said: "The initial complaints against the town concerned the disastrous design of the town centre.
"There has been some investment in that area but the level of improvement is not great.
"However, Cumbernauld's real success story is how it has prospered despite these problems."
Mr Young said "the surrounding countryside, the high demand for housing, rich and diverse suburbs, transport links to Glasgow and Edinburgh and a vibrant community spirit" had all helped make Cumbernauld "a decent place to bring up a family".
He added: "Basically, economic success plus people power have made it a nice place to live."

Summary:


A British man who was vaccinated against polio has been producing the virus for nearly 30 years.
### Article: A British man who was vaccinated against polio has been producing the virus for nearly 30 years.
### Article: A British man who was vaccinated against polio has been producing the virus for nearly 30 years.
###

SeaWorld has been banned from bringing wild killer whales to its park in San Diego, America.

Article: With more than 10,000 people aged 11 to 25 responding, 53% wanted votes at 16, with 29% saying no and 18% unsure.
Presiding Officer Dame Rosemary Butler said it gave a "crucial insight" into young people's views.
But Conservative Monmouth MP David Davies has warned votes at 16 would undermine the legal protection 16 and 17-year-olds currently receive.
The report comes as the UK government plans further devolution which will including giving the assembly control over its own elections, including the voting age currently set at 18.
Supporters of a lower voting age claim it will boost young people's interest in politics, pointing to the Scottish independence referendum in which 16 and 17-year-olds were allowed to vote.
Dame Rosemary said she was "inspired" by many of the comments given by young people in the survey, including one who spoke of "citizens playing their part as equally as politicians".
"Young people are integral to the process of shaping the future of our nation - we must give them the right support so that we optimise their contribution," she said.
But she added politicians had to tackle the "information vacuum", as many young people said they wanted to vote but did not understand the political process.

Summary: Most young people in Wales want the voting age lowered to 16, according to consultation by the Welsh assembly.
###
Article: Over the year, export volumes fell 2.1% compared to the previous 12 months.
Meanwhile, separate figures showed the value of retail sales remained flat between April and June, with growth much lower than levels across the UK.
The number of retail sales rose 1% in Britain in the second quarter of 2016, but north of the border the rise was 0.2%
Business minister Paul Wheelhouse said the export figures showed Scotland's place within the European single market was "absolutely vital".
He said: "These statistics remind us that Scotland's economy continues to face substantial challenges.
"Subdued global demand and the impact of a lower oil price environment have contributed to a drop in first quarter export volumes for companies working in several parts of the Scottish economy."
Mr Wheelhouse added: "While Scotland's economy is fundamentally strong, our continued EU status - and, thereby, our place in the world's biggest single market - is absolutely vital when it comes to promoting trade and protecting jobs, investment and long-term-prosperity, and this why we are committed to pursuing every possible avenue to maintain our place in the EU."
The figures showed a 3.3% increase in food and drink exports while the amount of textiles, clothing and leather goods sold abroad from Scotland went up by 2.1%.
The decline in exports was recorded ahead of the UK's vote for Brexit, which some economists have suggested could make British goods and services more attractive to overseas buyers as a result of falls in the value of the pound.
The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) said the latest retail figures continued the recent "trend of effectively flat retail sales".
SRC head of policy and external affairs Ewan MacDonald-Russell said: "This comes against the backdrop of an industry going through an intense period of structural, economic and regulatory change.
"Retailers are responding to this environment by becoming more innovative and productive through investment in people, technology and more efficient logistics...

Summary: Scottish manufactured exports fell by 0.5% in the first three months of 2016, according to the latest figures.
###
Article: He had an immune disorder that mean the weakened polio virus used to vaccinate him in childhood survived in his body.
Over time it has mutated into a form of the virus that can cause paralysis and he had no idea the jab had not worked.
Polio is only endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria although Nigeria has now gone more than a year without a case.
The discovery was made by a team from the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire.
They now warn that similar cases could trigger new outbreaks and hamper efforts to eradicate the disease.
They wrote in the journal PLOS Pathogens: "While maintaining high immunisation coverage will likely confer protection against paralytic disease caused by these viruses, significant changes in immunisation strategies might be required to effectively stop their occurrence and potential widespread transmission."
The man had a full course of polio vaccinations, including three doses of weakened live virus at five, seven and 12 months old, followed by a booster when he was about seven.
He was later diagnosed with a condition that suppresses the immune system, affecting its ability to kill viruses in the gut.
His stool samples contained high levels of polio virus - the researchers estimated the man had been shedding live polio in his stools for as long as 28 years.
The virus had also mutated dramatically and were no longer the weakened, or "attenuated", versions of the virus which are used in the vaccinations.
The infection was neutralised by using blood plasma taken from people with healthy immune systems who had been immunised against polio.
According to the scientific team, several highly mutated polio strains, originating from vaccines, had recently been isolated from sewage samples in Slovakia, Finland, Estonia and Israel.
All bore the molecular fingerprints of "iVDPVs" - vaccine-derived polio viruses from immunodeficient individuals.
The researchers are calling for enhanced surveillance including sewage sampling and stool...

Summary: A British man who was vaccinated against polio has been producing the virus for nearly 30 years.
###
Article: It has also been told to stop breeding orcas in captivity in a ruling from the California Coastal Commission.
They gave the park permission to double the size of its orca enclosures on the condition that breeding and bringing in new whales stopped.
It comes after criticism of the way the whales are treated there, something SeaWorld has always rejected.
Animal rights activists have welcomed a ruling by the California Coastal Commission, an agency that makes big decisions on major building projects in that area of America.
SeaWorld had put in plans to spend $100m (Â£65m) to expand its orca facility, which the commission approved.
But their decision came with several conditions. SeaWorld cannot add any new whales from the wild to its San Diego tanks, and none of the 11 orcas currently at the park will be allowed to breed there.
SeaWorld said it was disappointed with the ruling. They issued a statement that said: "Breeding is a natural, fundamental and important part of an animal's life and depriving a social animal of the right to reproduce is inhumane."
Groups that have criticised the park said they were pleased with the decision.
The group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said: "The commission's action ensures that no more orcas will be condemned to a nonlife of loneliness, deprivation and misery."
The breeding ban will not apply to the 13 other whales at SeaWorld attractions in San Antonio and Orlando.

Summary:

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A new study has found that the risk of developing bowel cancer is higher in people who have a family history of the disease.
The study, published in the journal Gut, found that the risk of developing bowel cancer was twice as high in people with a family history of the disease.
The researchers said the findings were

Being overweight in adolescence is linked to a greater risk of bowel cancer later in life, a study suggests.

Article: The team at Anglia Ruskin University analysed translations from ancient Iraq or Mesopotamia.
Accounts of soldiers being visited by "ghosts they faced in battle" fitted with a modern diagnosis of PTSD.
The condition was likely to be as old as human civilisation, the researchers concluded.
Prof Jamie Hacker Hughes, a former consultant clinical psychologist for the Ministry of Defence, said the first description of PTSD was often accredited to the Greek historian Herodotus.
Referring to the warrior Epizelus during the battle of Marathon in 490BC he wrote: "He suddenly lost sight of both eyes, though nothing had touched him."
His report co-authored with Dr Walid Abdul-Hamid, Queen Mary College London, argues there are references in the Assyrian Dynasty in Mesopotamia between 1300BC and 609BC.
In that era men spent a year being toughened up by building roads, bridges and other projects, before spending a year at war and then returning to their families for a year before starting the cycle again.
Potential triggers for post-traumatic stress disorder
How is PTSD diagnosed?
Prof Hacker Hughes told the BBC News website: "The sorts of symptoms after battle were very clearly what we would call now post-traumatic stress symptoms.
"They described hearing and seeing ghosts talking to them, who would be the ghosts of people they'd killed in battle - and that's exactly the experience of modern-day soldiers who've been involved in close hand-to-hand combat."
A diagnosis and understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder emerged after the Vietnam War. It was dismissed as shell shock in World War One.
Prof Hacker Hughes said: "As long as there has been civilisation and as long as there has been warfare, there has been post-traumatic symptoms. It's not a 21st Century thing."

Summary: Evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder can be traced back to 1300BC - much earlier than previously thought - say researchers.
###
Article: At least 80 people died in the fire on 14 June, although the final toll will not be known for many months.
Nearly 400 holidays have been offered by the Grenfell Tower Holiday Appeal Facebook Group, set up by Angie Mays and Kay Gilbert from Devon.
The man and his family will have a week in a cottage in Marsden, Yorkshire.
More on the holiday offer for Grenfell victims and other Devon news.
The firefighter's wife, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect her husband, said: "What Kay and Angie have done from the kindness of their hearts will help so many families at such a distressing time in their lives.
"This has been the most horrific job of my husband's career and he has been utterly broken by it - as we all have - trying to support him emotionally, and trying to understand what he has been through, not to mention praying he comes home in one piece.
"Thanks to the utter kindness of these wonderful ladies and all of the generous donations to this cause, we will be able to go away for a week as a family for some much needed R&R.
"This means the world to me that I can take them away from it all, if just for a moment."
Ms Mays, a fundraiser from Ilfracombe, said short-stay offers have come mainly from small businesses, B&Bs and guesthouses all over the UK, but also in Spain and Cyprus, adding that other firefighter families are also in the process of taking up offers.
Other donations include counselling sessions, beauty treatments and meals.
Separate Facebook groups have been also set up to provide holidays in Cornwall and the Highlands.

Summary: A firefighter "utterly broken" by the Grenfell Tower blaze is to take up the offer of a free holiday with money raised by members of the public.
###
Article: Because I have been told that Labour's leader, Ed Miliband, wants to next month announce an eye-catching policy of cutting maximum university fees for students by a third, from £9,000 to £6,000.
But this would not be cheap: it could cost around £2.5bn a year, based on the £7.6bn that is expected to be lent to students this year to pay for their tuition fees.
In practice the cost might turn out to be less, because the current system imposes a hidden charge on government - in that many thousands of students are expected to be unable to repay their loans over coming years. The IFS calculates this hidden cost to the public purse, the disguised public sector subsidy, as 43.3p for every £1 lent.
This cost, of expected loan write-offs, might be lower under Labour's lower-fee system, since the smaller loans might be more affordable for more students
Even so, to be a credible commitment - at a time when the public sector deficit is £91bn - Labour would have to find a new tax to cover the significant cost.
So the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, has been asked to make the sums add up.
As I understand it, he has not yet done so.
Ed Miliband told Labour's conference in the autumn of 2011 that he would cut student fees by a third if the party was in power then. But it has never been a manifesto commitment.
At the time, he said it would be paid for by increasing corporation tax paid by banks - but those funds are no longer available because they have already been tapped by George Osborne.
The preferred option, I am told, is to find an equivalent tax to the raid on the banks. But I understand that Ed Balls and Ed Miliband are also examining whether to replace the system of funding via student loans with a new tax on new graduates - by which those who benefit from a university degree would pay a higher tax rate.
The fee reduction would be aimed at reinforcing Labour's support among younger voters, especially those who turned against the Liberal Democrats when - as part of the government - they abandoned their opposition to fee...

Summary: We may be about to learn how much of a constraint Labour's promise to make no unfunded spending promises really is.
###
Article: Researchers followed nearly 240,000 Swedish men for 35 years.
The analysis, published in the journal Gut, showed overweight teenagers went on to have twice the risk of bowel cancer. The figures were even higher in obese teens.
The World Cancer Research Fund said the link between obesity and cancer was "strong".
Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the world, with nearly 1.4 million new cases each year.
Processed red meat and abdominal fat have been linked to the disease.
The participants in the study were aged between 16 and 20 at the start.
The overwhelming majority were a normal weight, but 6.5% were overweight and 1% were obese.
There were 855 cases of colorectal cancer in the study.
However, the results showed not all weights were affected equally.
Those who were obese were 2.38 times more likely to have developed a bowel tumour.
The study, led by Orebro University Hospital in Sweden and Harvard University, said: "Late adolescence marks the transition from childhood to adulthood and is a period of accelerated growth, especially among men, thus this period may represent a critical window."
"It is important that we understand the role of exposures in childhood and adolescence in the development of colorectal cancer.
"In fact, the strong association observed between adolescent obesity and early-to-mid-life colorectal cancer, coupled with the increasing prevalence of adolescent obesity, may shed light on the increase in colorectal cancer incidence among young adults," he added.
Rachel Thompson, from the World Cancer Research Fund, said the evidence suggested that obesity was a risk factor for bowel cancer.
"This finding is interesting because it gives an indication that bowel cancer risk might be affected by our lifestyle habits throughout the life course," she said.
"In some ways, research into the relationship between factors like obesity and cancer risk is still in its infancy.
"It will be interesting to see if further research emerges in the future to back up the apparent relationship between...

Summary:


A Saudi prince was detained at Beirut's airport after two tonnes of pills branded as Captagon were found in cases due to be loaded onto a private jet.
The prince, who is the son of King Salman, was detained after a customs officer found the pills in a case of beer.
The prince was detained for

The Lebanese authorities have foiled an attempt to smuggle a huge quantity of drugs to Saudi Arabia, officials say.

Article: Peter Logan, 45, from Glasgow, committed the rapes over 18 years at addresses in Glasgow and Carnoustie.
He was found guilty of two rape charges, one of indecent assault and two of assault at the High Court in Glasgow.
Logan was finally brought to justice after the daughter told her mother that Logan had raped her when she was aged between 15 and 18.
The mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, confronted Logan and both women went to the police.
Logan, whose science fiction novel Pen was published in 2015, claimed the women were liars and denied all the charges against him.
Defence counsel John Scullion said: "He was convicted of very serious offences.
"It is fair to say the jury also acquitted him of very significant aspects of the indictment.
"Given the nature of the convictions, the accused accepts your lordship must impose a significant sentence of imprisonment."
Judge Lord Kinclaven said: "As was rightly said there is no alternative to a significant custodial sentence."
A spokesman for children's charity NSPCC Scotland said: "Logan has been proven to be a sexual monster who inflicted pain, fear and misery on a mother and daughter over a prolonged period of time.
"The seriousness of his crimes is reflected in the lengthy prison sentence handed down and we now hope that his victims are given the help and support needed to recover from what has happened to them."

Summary: An author who raped a woman and her daughter has been jailed for 11 years.
###
Article: The Republican People's Party (CHP) accused broadcaster TRT of "abusing public office" and vowed to take legal action.
It has previously protested at TRT "bias" towards President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The election will take place on 7 June.
In a statement on the CHP website (in Turkish), deputy leader Bulent Tezcan said: "By taking the decision not the broadcast the advertisement, TRT has created a new scandal.
"The main purpose of state-funded television in all democratic countries is fairness of broadcasting. TRT's direction are committing the crime of abuse of public office," he added.
Mr Tezcan also reminded the broadcaster that it is "owned by the public".
TRT has so far declined to comment.
The opposition advert featured the slogan "we applaud as a nation" and criticised the "oppression" of justice, freedom and secularism in the country.
It urged voters to attend the party's first mass election rally on Saturday.
The controversy follows a ruling by a court in Ankara on Thursday, which ordered CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu to pay damages for insulting President Erdogan in a speech in 2013.

Summary: Turkey's state television has banned the main opposition party's election campaign advert because it directly targets the government.
###
Article: Large majorities in the state House and Senate dismissed objections by Democratic Governor Pat Quinn.
The state had been under court order to adopt a concealed carry law.
The debate over gun rights in the US has raged since December, when a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children, at a school in Connecticut.
Gun rights proponents say the US constitution protects an individual's right to carry guns, while opponents of the concealed carry law feared it would allow virtually unregulated possession of handguns in the city of Chicago, which is grappling with a severe gun violence epidemic.
In December, a federal appeals court struck down Illinois' ban on carrying a concealed weapon as a violation of the US constitution's guarantee of the right to bear arms. The court gave the state six months to write a law legalising it.
Mr Quinn vigorously opposed a concealed carry law, but the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal.
In May, the state legislature passed a bill despite his objections. He vetoed the bill, suggesting restrictions on concealed weapons that would satisfy him.
On Tuesday, legislators in the House and Senate easily mustered a two-thirds majority needed to override Mr Quinn's veto, barely beating the court deadline.
"Following a weekend of horrific violence in Chicago in which at least 70 people were shot and 12 killed, this was the wrong move for public safety in Illinois," Mr Quinn said in a statement after the vote.
He said legislators had "surrendered" to the National Rifle Association, a powerful gun rights lobby funded in part by weapons manufacturers.
He warned the new law would allow people to carry guns in pubs and bars, and allow people to carry virtual arsenals on their persons.
Gun rights proponents, meanwhile, celebrated.
"This is a historic, significant day for law-abiding gun owners,'' Representative Brandon Harris, a southern Illinois Democrat said, according to the Associated Press.
Referring to the clause in the US constitution that refers to gun ownership, he said, "They...

Summary: Illinois has become the last state in the US to allow residents to carry concealed handguns, after lawmakers overrode the governor's veto.
###
Article: Five Saudis, reportedly including a prince, were detained at Beirut's airport after two tonnes of pills branded as Captagon were found in cases due to be loaded onto a private jet.
It was the largest drug smuggling operation yet uncovered at the airport.
Captagon pills, which typically contain amphetamine and caffeine, are consumed widely in the Middle East.
The drug has helped fuel the conflict in Syria, generating millions of dollars in revenue for producers inside the country as well as being used by combatants to help them keep fighting.
NNA reported that 40 bags of Captagon pills were found by inspectors from the Gendarmerie in cases due to be put on board a jet bound for Hael, in northern Saudi Arabia.
It did not identify the Saudi citizens who were detained, but sources told the Associated Press and the AFP news agency that they included a Saudi prince.
In April 2014, Lebanese security forces foiled an attempt to smuggle 15 million Captagon pills hidden in shipping containers full of corn from Beirut's seaport, according to AFP.
Captagon, originally the trade name for the synthetic stimulant fenetylline, was first produced in the 1960s to treat hyperactivity, narcolepsy and depression.
However, it was banned in most countries by the 1980s because of it was too addictive.
In 2013, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said 64% of global seizures of amphetamine took place in the Middle East, and that most of the amphetamine was in the form of Captagon pills.

Summary:


The BBC has urged Kenyans to verify stories by visiting the BBC website.
The BBC has urged Kenyans to verify stories by visiting the BBC website.
The BBC has urged Kenyans to verify stories by visiting the BBC website.
The BBC has urged Kenyans to verify stories by visiting the

A fake video report about Kenya's election that is made to appear as if it is from the BBC's Focus on Africa programme has been circulating on social media.

Article: The increase is particularly pronounced among middle-age white people who now account for a third of all US suicides.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report did not offer an explanation for the steep rise.
However, other experts have pointed to increased abuse of prescription opiates and the financial downturn that began in 2008 as likely factors.
The report did not break down the suicides by education level or income, but previous studies found rising suicide rates among white people without university degrees.
"This is part of the larger emerging pattern of evidence of the links between poverty, hopelessness and health," Robert D Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard, told the New York Times.
CDC reported on Friday that suicides have increased in the US to a rate of 13 per 100,000 people, the highest since 1986.
Meanwhile, homicides and deaths from ailments like cancer and heart disease have declined.
In the past, suicides have been most common among white people, but the recent increases have been sharp.
The overall suicide rate rose by 24% from 1999 to 2014, according to the CDC. However, the rate increased 43% among white men ages 45 to 64 and 63% for women in the same age-range.
In 2014, more than 14,000 middle-aged white people killed themselves.
That figure is double the combined suicides total for all blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders, American Indians, and Alaska Natives.
The suicide rate declined for only two groups: black men and all people over 75.

Summary: The suicide rate in the US has surged to its highest level in almost three decades, according to a new report.
###
Article: The EU home affairs sub-committee said that net migration - immigration minus emigration - was consistently higher from outside the EU.
An immigration system for when the UK leaves the EU has not yet been outlined by ministers.
The government said it was considering "various options" as to how EU migration might work.
It has pledged to reduce net migration to below 100,000 by 2020.
Prime Minister Theresa May has said she aims to trigger Article 50, to begin the two-year process of leaving the EU, by the end of this month.
In the report, the committee said: "Until end June 2016, migration to the UK from outside the EU was consistently higher than EU migration, even though the relevant policy levers are under national control.
"Restoration of national control over EU migration may or may not, therefore, deliver a reduction in overall net migration."
In the most recent official figures, covering the year to the end of September, both immigration and net migration from the EU were higher than that for the rest of the world for the first time.
Overall, net migration to the UK dropped to 273,000 in the year to September, down 49,000 from the previous year.
The committee said that cutting EU immigration is unlikely to provide a "quick fix" for low wages.
Factors such as the National Minimum Wage, National Living Wage and inflation were more significant in driving or impeding real wage growth for low earners, the report said.
It also said that extending the work permit system used for non-EU nationals to those from the EU would disproportionately affect some employers' ability to sponsor EU workers, and could result in labour shortages in areas including the NHS and horticulture.
The report endorsed the pursuit of a "two-way agreement", suggesting that offering preferential treatment to EU nationals in the UK's future immigration regime could increase the likelihood of securing a reciprocal approach to UK nationals in the EU.
Committee chairwoman Baroness Prashar said: "The precise manner in which the government...

Summary: Net migration to the UK may not fall as a result of ending EU free movement post-Brexit, a Lords report has said.
###
Article: John Falconar Slater was best known for his paintings of land and seascapes in the north-east of England.
Painting with a distinct impressionist style, one of his most celebrated works was Stormy Sea at Cullercoats.
Mr Slater was also part of the Cullercoats Colony - a group of professional artists from the North East who captured the character of the fishing community and the surrounding coastline throughout their work.
Born in 1897 in Rye Hill, Newcastle, in his later life Mr Slater lived in Whitley Bay before moving to Cullercoats 12 years before he died in 1937.
Now, on the 75th anniversary of his death, the current owners of the artist's final home are commemorating his life with a Blue Plaque.
Steve and Alwyne Barrigan approached North Tyneside Council earlier this year to request the blue plaque at their house on St Oswin's Avenue.
Blue plaques commemorate the links between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked.
Mr Barrigan said: "We have lived here for many years and when we discovered that John Falconar Slater had lived here we were inspired to mark his legacy in some way.
"This is a great achievement for us, Cullercoats and the North East."
Elected Mayor Linda Arkley was due to officially unveil the £300 plaque on Wednesday.
She said: "It is fantastic that we have been able to honour such a great artist and also fulfil a longstanding wish of Alwyne and Steve.
"The commemorative plaques are just one of the ways in which we are able to celebrate the borough's talent and heritage."

Summary: The life of a Tyneside artist is being honoured with the unveiling of a commemorative plaque at his former home.
###
Article: The report contains a bogus poll indicating that President Uhuru Kenyatta will win August's election.
The BBC has urged Kenyans to verify stories by visiting the BBC website.
A recent survey suggested that 90% of Kenyans had seen or heard false news in the run-up to the poll.
Many of the people surveyed felt that some news items had been deliberately misleading.
It also found that while traditional media remained the most trusted source of information, large numbers of people got their news from Facebook and WhatsApp.
The origin of the fake BBC news story is not clear but it began to be shared on WhatsApp on Friday morning.
A fake report made to look as if it came from CNN has also been circulating.
The presidential election on 8 August will see incumbent President Kenyatta run against seven candidates including his main challenger, opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Summary:


A large hole that appeared behind a row of houses was in one of the UK's most susceptible areas for sinkholes, the British Geological Survey has said.

Article: Eight thousand yuan ($1,300; Â£830): That was the price for a cute four-year-old Burmese girl from a broken home.
Crouched in the doorway of her bamboo house, Khin Khin Oo's grandmother Ma Shan told me the story. "I grow corn and rice but my son is a heroin addict so we have no money," she said.
Ma Shan's family life is in disarray. Just a couple of metres away in the dark of the house, her son sits listening to us talk about him, staring blankly ahead.
Ma Shan's daughter isn't in much better shape. She ran off with another man (according to Ma Shan, having been drugged with spiked orange juice), leaving her two small children to live with her parents.
One of them, an energetic boy, plays in the mud by the stilts of the bamboo house, as we look at pictures of his sister Khin Khin Oo.
"One day her father Soe Khine came back for her," Ma Shan recounted. "But after she'd been away four days I knew something was wrong."
Fearing the worst, Ma Shan turned detective and, with a village elder, went to speak some of Soe Khine's friends. They quickly found out he was in financial trouble.
"He'd lost all his money playing cards," she said, shaking her head.
At that point, the Burmese police became involved. They found Soe Khine and he confessed that with the help of a local Kachin woman, he had sold his daughter to a Chinese trafficker.
The police followed the trail to the Chinese border town of Ruili, where they discovered that Khin Khin Oo had been traded again, this time for 12,000 yuan ($2,000; Â£1,277), to a childless couple who wanted to adopt.
After a week and a joint operation with the Chinese police, Khin Khin Oo was rescued and returned to her grandmother.
"While she was gone, I didn't even want to eat. I was so worried," she said.
Luckily Khin Khin Oo had been well treated, with the Chinese couple seemingly unaware that she'd been trafficked.
She was returned to her grandmother in Hankan who, fearing for her safety, sent her back to China this time to live with an aunt.
The trafficking of Burmese children...

Summary: It's been a year since Khin Khin Oo was sold by her father.
###
Article: And if you have ever experienced a scorchingly hot Brazilian day, you'll know that this is actually a wise thing. You really do want your lager to be super-chilled in such climatic conditions.
While you can easily buy a cold beer from a supermarket or beach vendor, for many Brazilians their preferred port of call is still a boteco, the humble bar or pub.
Most botecos are small, family-run businesses, which, for reasons lost in the mists of time, don't actually serve draft beer. Instead the beer - always lager - typically comes in large 600ml bottles.
The idea is that friends share a bottle - or many - between them, which they drink while eating plates of petiscos (snacks).
The petiscos are typically something deep fried, such as breaded cod balls, or a pastel, which is a type of small pasty that also gets the hot oil treatment.
Imagine an authentic Spanish tapas bar, only with no sherry, and more use of a fryer.
With hundreds of botecos in Rio de Janeiro alone, the more ambitious ones try to boost their business by standing out from the crowd.
One way many do this is by entering an annual Brazil-wide competition to find the best botecos in the country.
Now in its 15th year, and free to enter, the Comida di Buteco contest judges bars according to four criteria - the quality of the food, the hygiene standards, the service, and crucially - the temperature of the beer.
Each boteco is judged by both a panel of judges, who visit anonymously and provide 50% of its final score, and by popular vote.
This year 45 bars in Rio entered the competition, which ran for a month until the middle of May. Each puts forward one dish upon which their food should be marked.
Botecos that take part generally enjoy a big boost in trade during the four weeks of the event, and then over the longer term if they win a prize.
David Bispo, owner of boteco Bar do David, says that entering Comida di Buteco "transformed" his business.
The 43-year-old opened his bar five years ago when he found himself out of work.
A fisherman by trade, and...

Summary: There is a saying in Brazil for how most people like their beer to be served - estupidamente gelada (stupidly cold).
###
Article: Jody Williams, from the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, told the BBC such weapons, which do not yet exist, would be regarded as "repulsive".
But some scientists argue existing laws are sufficient to regulate their use, should they become a reality.
The UK government has said it has no plans to develop such technology.
Weapons with a degree of autonomy, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles - commonly known as drones - are already widely used on the battlefield.
Such weapons are described as "human-in-the-loop" systems because they can only select targets and deliver lethal force with a human command.
But organisers of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots - a global effort being launched on Tuesday - say advances in robotic technology mean it is only a matter of time before fully autonomous "human-out-of-the-loop" systems - capable of firing on their own - are developed.
They argue that giving machines the power over who lives and dies in war would be an unacceptable application of technology, and would pose a fundamental challenge to international human rights and humanitarian laws.
Estimates vary over how long it could be before such weapons are available, but the group says a new treaty is needed to pre-emptively outlaw their development, production and use.
Campaign leader Ms Williams, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work in bringing about a ban on anti-personnel landmines, told BBC News: "As people learn about our campaign, they will flock to it.
"The public conscience is horrified to learn about this possible advance in weapons systems. People don't want killer robots out there.
"Normal human beings find it repulsive."
But some experts have questioned the need for a ban, arguing instead for an open debate about the legal and ethical implications of such weapons.
Roboticist Professor Ronald Arkin, from the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US, told the BBC: "The most important thing from my point of view is that we do not rush these systems into the battlefield.
"A moratorium as opposed to ban...

Summary: A pre-emptive ban is needed to halt the production of weapons capable of attacking targets without any human intervention, a new campaign has urged.
###
Article: Twelve homes were evacuated after the hole opened in Ripon, North Yorkshire, at 22:30 GMT on Wednesday.
The hole measured about 20m (66ft) by 10m (33ft) and 9m (30ft) deep.
The BGS said Ripon lies in one of the most susceptible areas of the UK for sinkholes because of its "Permian gypsum deposits".
It said these can dissolve more quickly than surrounding limestone, leading to the enlargement of underground caves.
Experts are still examining data from the site behind the houses in Magdalen's Road but, releasing its initial findings, the BGS said sinkholes were often caused by surface water penetrating the ground, or fluctuations in groundwater levels.
In 2014, a 100-year-old detached house in an adjoining street was demolished after a 25ft-wide (8m) sinkhole opened.
According to the report, the wider area of Ripon periodically encounters sinkholes and in the 1980s and 1990s a hole was appearing every two to three years.
No-one was injured in the latest collapse with the back gardens of two properties the worst affected.
A sewerage system connected to several of the properties on the terrace fell in as the hole appeared.
One resident described seeing the ground moving and finding her steps leading into the garden had gone.
On Friday, further cracks appeared in the ground and on walls at the site.
Ben Cairns, North Yorkshire Fire Service station manager, said: "Our main concern at the moment is what impact the weather is going to have for the next few days."
The BGS is continuing to analyse data from the site.

Summary:


A man has been arrested after a woman was found dead in a car in a car park in the city centre.
The woman, who was in her 20s, was found in the car park of the Royal Victoria Hospital in the city centre on Monday.
Police said the woman had been stabbed in the neck and

It started as a mission to collect whiskey for a party towards the end of World War Two and ended in a blazing inferno in which 11 US personnel died.

Article: The unemployment total fell to 1.65 million in the March-to-May period, down 54,000 from the previous quarter, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
The figures cover the period before the UK vote to leave the European Union.
But some analysts warned the outcome of the vote meant the positive trend was unlikely to continue for much longer.
"The vote to leave the EU will almost certainly now cause some firms to put hiring decisions on hold or cut back headcounts altogether.
"Indeed, we expect the unemployment rate to begin to drift up over the coming quarters. The upshot is that these may be the best set of labour market figures for a while," said Paul Hollingsworth, UK economist at Capital Economics.
The Bank of England had a similar view in its separate monthly summary of business conditions, which was also released on Wednesday.
It said: "A majority of firms spoken with did not expect a near-term impact from the result on their investment or hiring plans.
"But around a third of contacts thought there would be some negative impact on those plans over the next twelve months."
In the March-to-May period, the number of people in work rose by 176,000, with the employment rate remaining at a record high of 74.4%.
Earnings, not adjusted for inflation and excluding bonuses, rose by 2.2% compared with last year.
There were 23.19 million people working full-time, 401,000 more than for a year earlier.
"The labour market continued to strengthen in spring 2016, with record employment and the unemployment rate at its lowest since 2005," said ONS statistician Nick Palmer.
The inactivity rate, the proportion of people of working age considered economically inactive, was the lowest since comparable records began in 1971 at 21.6%.
If the unemployment number does start to rise that could take the momentum out of wage growth, according to Samuel Tombs, the chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
"Rising unemployment and falling job vacancies [is likely to] ensure that wage growth does not respond fully to the...

Summary: The UK unemployment rate has fallen to 4.9%, the lowest since July 2005, according to official figures.
###
Article: Esso's Midline Pipeline, which carries fuel from Southampton to Birmingham, has twice been tampered with recently, in parts of Hampshire and Wiltshire.
There have been other breaches of fuel lines in the south of England, according to Hampshire Police.
Its detectives are working with West Mercia, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire police forces and fuel companies.
A major fuel leak was reported at the beginning of April, in Manton, Wiltshire.
Esso said the leak had occurred following an attempt by thieves to tap the buried pipeline and environmental specialists were working to monitor any impact and take appropriate further action.
Up to 150,000 litres of fuel was reported to have seeped out.
Then, on 17 April, a tapping device was found on the pipeline 37 miles away (59km) at East Wellow, Hampshire, after police discovered 30,000 litres of stolen diesel in tanks at a nearby industrial storage unit.
Hampshire Police said it believed the tanks were being filled from a "sophisticated system" which had tapped into the line.
Two men, aged 32 and 34, from Salisbury in Wiltshire were arrested and remain on police bail on suspicion of conspiracy to steal fuel.
Esso said the recent incidents had caused it to "strengthen" its security and monitoring procedures.
"Our pipeline network has been in place for decades and tapping incidents are rare," said a spokesperson.
"We have security and detection measures in place at all company facilities, including our petroleum product pipelines, and we work closely with the police to detect and close down illegal activity relating to our assets."

Summary: Two cases of theft from an underground fuel pipeline are part of a much wider police investigation, it has emerged.
###
Article: Chief executive Katrina Percy resigned on Tuesday following pressure over the way Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust investigated patient deaths.
Ms Percy's salary is quoted in the trust's annual report as between £180,000 and £190,000.
Sara Ryan said: "It is a scandal... it doesn't happen in the real world."
An NHS England-commissioned probe found 272 of the 722 deaths over the last four years at the trust were dealt with properly.
In June, the trust accepted responsibility for the death of Ms Ryan's 18-year-old son Connor Sparrowhawk, who drowned in a bath at Slade House in Oxford.
Southern admitted it caused the death of Connor, who had suffered an epileptic seizure before he died in July 2013, and offered his family £80,000 compensation.
Talking about Ms Percy's new job, Ms Ryan said: "This is public money that is paying for this ridiculously over-inflated salary.
"She failed as a chief executive. How she could possibly keep the same salary?"
Gail Hanrahan, from the Oxfordshire Family Support Network, said people were "really angry".
She added: "It's typical NHS culture, just shifting the deck chairs.
"There seems to be no consequences for her after years of documented failure... nothing surprises me anymore with what the trust do.
"They seem to go against everything that makes sense to everybody.
"It makes you wonder what you have to do to get sacked from a high powered NHS job."
Rob Greig, the former Department of Health director for learning disabilities, said the salary was not appropriate for an advisory role.
"Any reputable job evaluation process would not conclude that those two jobs merited the same salary."
The trust's chairman Tim Smart described the job as an "alternative role working with local GP leaders providing strategic advice on the transformation of local health services".
"There is vital work that needs to be done for which she is ideally suited," he said.

Summary: An NHS trust's decision to move its boss to a new role with the same salary is a "scandal", according to the mother of a teenager who died under its watch.
###
Article: On 14 April 1945, just a month before the end of World War Two, 10 US servicemen and one woman died after their Flying Fortress bomber crashed in the Isle of Man.
Lt Robert Vielle, an experienced and decorated pilot, had been flying a B-17G from England to Northern Ireland when he hit bad weather over the Irish Sea.
The aircraft veered off-course by several miles before coming down and bursting into flames in a field above Port St May.
The exact cause of the crash has never been ascertained.
Those on board had been sent on a peaceful mission to Northern Ireland to collect supplies of whiskey for a party at the US Army Air Force station at Thurleigh in Essex.
Ivor Ramsden, a keen historian and aviation expert, said the flight was an example of the "sheer madness of war".

Summary:


A new report has found that the UK's biggest fish and chip shop chain is not doing enough to protect its fish.
The report, by the Marine Conservation Society, found that the company is not doing enough to protect its fish stocks.
The report said: "The company is not doing enough to protect its fish

More than 1,000 young spiders from a hybrid species have been released into the Suffolk broads.

Article: Four buildings had to be temporarily closed in the capital after defects were discovered in schools built by Miller Construction a decade ago.
The new surveys centre on schools built by the same company in Glasgow, Fife and Inverclyde.
The contractor said inspections were "a precautionary measure".
Hundreds of bricks were blown from the wall of Oxgangs primary school during Storm Gertrude in January.
A safety inspection revealed issues with how the external wall was erected when the school was built in 2005, as part of the Public Private Partnership 1 project.
Oxgangs was part of a wider programme that saw 17 schools built or refurbished following a deal between the council and a private finance consortium.
When the wall collapsed, wider inspections revealed similar problems at three other schools in Edinburgh - St Peter's RC Primary, Firrhill High and Braidburn Special Schools.
All were built around the same time by Miller Construction - which was bought over by Galliford Try in 2014.
The four schools were deemed unsafe for pupils and temporarily closed.
They are due to reopen after the Easter holidays.
A spokesperson for Galliford Try said: "The four schools temporarily closed in Edinburgh comprised the second phase of the PPP1 programme, which was completed by Miller Construction in 2005.
"We have already started remedial work at Oxgangs Primary School and are assessing the requirement for work on the further three schools.
"Any remedial work required will be carried out as quickly as possible allowing the children to return to their studies with the minimum disruption.
"While we are not aware of any defects, as a precautionary measure, we have contacted the clients of the PPP school projects Miller Construction undertook in Glasgow, Fife and Inverclyde.
"Further investigations will be carried out as appropriate."
Signed in 2001, Edinburgh's Public Private Partnership deal for schools was worth £360m.
In return for 30 years of fixed payments from the council, a private consortium designed, built and...

Summary: Safety inspections will be carried out at schools across Scotland following the collapse of a wall at an Edinburgh primary, BBC Scotland has learned.
###
Article: Tony Rucinski was suspended from the Â£90,000-a-year role by the Board of Community Health Councils (CHC) in February 2016.
No reason has been given publicly for his suspension or sacking.
The Welsh Conservatives raised concerns over a lack of transparency in the case. Dr Rucinski said he cannot comment for legal reasons.
The Welsh Government said it was a matter for the CHC board.
Opposition AMs have previously criticised the lack of information given by the board and the Welsh Government about Mr Rucinski's lengthy suspension.
In a statement, the board's acting chief executives Alyson Thomas and Clare Jenkins said: "We can confirm that the employment of Dr Tony Rucinski as the chief executive officer of the Board of Community Health Councils in Wales has now been terminated.
"It would be inappropriate for us to make any further comment on an internal HR matter."
In response to a Freedom of Information request, the board said the bill for extra salary payments to other staff to cover for Dr Rucinski while he was suspended, stands at Â£58,135.
The organisation describes itself as the "independent voice of patients" in Wales.
It and the seven CHCs it oversees had an annual budget in 2015-16 of Â£3.8m.
Dr Rucinski was appointed as chief executive of the board in a newly-created role in July 2015.
At the time, he told BBC Wales he had been "put in place to make things happen" but was suspended seven months later.
Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said: "Dr Rucinski's sacking is the latest episode on a worrying journey towards the total dismemberment of Community Health Councils and the removal of a vital plank of scrutiny."
"The Welsh Government's lack of communication to AMs and the public throughout this protracted case shows their outright disdain for the vital role Community Health Councils play in holding ministers to account."
He said Health Secretary Vaughan Gething's "silence" on the issue had been "deafening".
Some 18 months on from the initial suspension "we are still left waiting for...

Summary: The suspended chief executive of the NHS patients' watchdog in Wales has been sacked, it has been confirmed.
###
Article: But the judges have banned the practice of refunding the bride price on the dissolution of a marriage.
The custom of paying bride prices is widely practiced in Africa, but traditions vary, as some BBC Africa colleagues explain.
A bride price here is known as "lobola", where the groom's family presents either money or cows or both to the bride's family as a gesture of his willingness to marry her.
The payment of lobola is a sign of the man's commitment to take care of his wife and is seen as a symbolic act and a necessary part of upholding culture, rather than a purchase.
The term "lobola" is also used in southern Zimbabwe, but in Shona communities it is known as "roora" and while the tradition is to give cattle, this is now often replaced by cash - the amount is subject to negotiation.
There are several stages to the tradition and it is seen as a way of thanking the bride's family for bringing her up, but there is no sense that the bride is being bought.
The payment of bride price is customary in Senegal but largely symbolic.
A small amount of money and a kola nut is given to the bride's family at the mosque, after that the sum handed over can be any where from less than $100 to tens of thousands.
The Kenyan constitution outlaws the obligation to pay a bride price but it is widely understood that it will be paid.
Pastoral communities insist that it is paid in cattle and it has been cited as a cause of cattle rustling, whereas families in other communities will accept cash.
There is a sense that a transaction has taken place over the bride.
The bride price is commonly paid in Burkinabe culture and is largely a symbolic act.
There is no set amount and a little money is given, but it is mainly in goods such as kola nuts, drinks, cigarettes - and some ethnic groups may give a goat.
However, a bride's family is not normally too demanding.
In Niger there is an official maximum rate for a bride price of 50,000 CFA francs ($83, Â£54) but many pay much more than this.
The price is agreed between the families, but it...

Summary: Uganda's top court has ruled that "bride price", when a man pays his future wife's family for her hand in marriage, is legal.
###
Article: The Dolomedes plantarius spiderlings were released into suitable dykes at Castle Marshes between Lowestoft and Beccles on Wednesday.
About 4mm, they are hybrids between species found in Sussex and Suffolk.
The 1,600 spiderlings were hand-reared in the kitchen of project leader Dr Helen Smith, with the surplus reared at the John Innes Centre in Norwich.
Dr Smith said: "The hybrids bring the advantage of increased genetic variability to the new population.
"This... should give the new population at Castle Marshes the best potential to adapt to its surroundings and to cope with the impacts of climate change."
The project was organised by Natural England and Suffolk Wildlife Trust and was aided by a grant from the BBC Wildlife Fund.

Summary:


The European Professional Football Leagues group has said it will hold a general assembly of its member leagues in Geneva on 6 June.
The group said it will "take stock" of the situation in the European leagues and "discuss the future of the European leagues".
It said it will also "discuss the future

European leagues are free to schedule domestic games on the same nights as Champions League and Europa League ties after an agreement with Uefa ended.

Article: Sunday's game was called off before kick-off after a suspect device -  which turned out to be a dummy bomb - was discovered in a toilet.
However, some estimates suggested as many as a third of fans did not return for the rescheduled fixture.
Fans faced strict security controls in and around the ground before kick-off.
Conor McNamara, BBC Radio 5 live's commentator at Old Trafford, said: "I'd guess we're two-thirds full. Loads of empty seats here."
After Sunday's game was called off, United agreed to refund all tickets and to allow ticket holders from both clubs to watch the rearranged game for free.
Bournemouth then offered away fans with valid tickets free coach travel for the 500-mile round trip to the rescheduled fixture.
United have the highest average attendance in the Premier League, at 75,000, and it is estimated that their ticket gesture will cost the club about £3m.
United went into Sunday's final round of Premier League fixtures with a chance of qualifying for next season's Champions League, but Manchester City's draw at Swansea meant Louis van Gaal's side needed an unlikely 19-goal victory on Tuesday.
BBC Sport's Simon Stone at Old Trafford.
"Manchester United are known for their worldwide support and it is true that fans tend to come from far and wide to games at Old Trafford.
"Evidently, with the FA Cup final to come on Saturday, many decided, at 48 hours' notice, this was a match too far.
"United count season ticket holders in their attendance figures whether they are present or not. Officially, since the ground was expanded to its current capacity, their lowest Premier League crowd was 73,401 for the visit of Stoke in January 2011.
"I can say with absolute certainty that the crowd tonight is below that, although the same could be said for the visits of Aston Villa and Crystal Palace last month, when higher figures were recorded."
The Sir Alex Ferguson Stand and the Stretford End were evacuated and sniffer dogs brought in to search the ground, with an "operation red code" alert issued over the...

Summary: Manchester United have thanked fans for returning to Old Trafford for a rearranged game with Bournemouth, two days after it was abandoned.
###
Article: Derek Forsyth and David Hunter, from accountancy firm, Campbell Dallas, said the venue would close immediately.
They will now "see whether elements of the business may be resurrected".
Glasgow Licensing Board cut the venue's opening times following police concerns about drug and alcohol incidents. The nightclub was its main source of funds.
Founded in 1991, the Arches employed 133 staff in full and part time posts.
Mr Forsyth said the closure and redundancies were unavoidable.
"The Arches was facing unsustainable cash flow problems and despite an immense effort by the board and funding partners it was clear that administration was the only option for the companies," he said.
"As a result of an uncertain future income profile the venue will immediately close.
"The prospect of job losses has been well documented, and it is with great regret that we have had no option but to make 129 members of staff redundant with immediate effect."
Mr Forsyth said a small number of people would be "retained to assist with the administration" and his team would work with "relevant agencies" to support those losing their jobs,
He added: "We have already contacted various funding partners and stakeholders to consider all options going forward and to see whether elements of the business may be resurrected.
"The Arches is an internationally recognised brand and we would encourage interested parties to make contact as soon as possible."

Summary: Administrators for the Arches venue in Glasgow have made 129 staff redundant after the business collapsed following the loss of its nightclub licence.
###
Article: UK government papers from 30 years ago, released by the National Archive, include briefings from David Willetts.
He said Scotland benefited from Â£900m "over-provision" compared with England.
At the time he was serving in the Number 10 Policy Unit.  He later served as a minister under David Cameron and is now a Conservative peer.
In a briefing he wrote for the prime minister, dated 8 January 1986, he said Scotland was a "juicy target" for the Treasury to "pursue".
But he also noted that George Younger - who was Secretary of State for Scotland at the time - was "reported to be very 'emotional' on the subject" of cuts and "may well threaten to resign" at the prospect.
In another document, from the 12 February 1986, he said the position of the Tories in Scotland was "so bad that it might not deteriorate any further", and that the "envious North of England" might "welcome an attack on the pampered Scots", leading to more votes for the Tories.
Commenting on the release of the files, SNP MP Stewart Hosie said: "No one will be surprised at secret Tory plots to slash Scotland's budget."
He added: "To describe Scotland as 'pampered' and  a 'juicy target' may go some way to explaining why the Tories were wiped out in Scotland."

Summary: An advisor to Margaret Thatcher argued that the "pampered Scots" were a "juicy target" for spending cuts, according to newly-released records.
###
Article: "This will give all European Leagues total freedom to schedule their matches as they see fit," said the European Professional Football Leagues group.
The agreement ended on 15 March.
It had been in place between the EPFL and Uefa to boost attendances and television viewing figures for European matches.
Arsenal's FA Cup replay against Hull City in March 2016 was given special dispensation to be played on the same night as the Champions League last 16.
Manchester City hosted Stoke City in a rearranged Premier League fixture last month on the same night as the Champions League last-16 ties between Barcelona and Paris St-Germain, and Borussia Dortmund and Benfica.
The Premier League said the scheduling of the match on Wednesday, 8 March was "unavoidable", it was reported.
It was also reported in April 2013 that the Football Association was fined £1.1m for allowing domestic matches to be played on the same night as European games.
The EPFL said it will hold a general assembly of its member leagues in Geneva on 6 June.

Summary:


A new study has found that people with a genetic variation in a gene called PDSS2 tend to drink fewer cups of coffee, a study carried out at the University of Edinburgh has found.
### Article: A new study has found that people with a genetic variation in a gene called PDSS2 tend to

Researchers have identified a gene that appears to curb coffee consumption.

Article: The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said 549 miners would receive eight weeks' back pay of up to £3,800 each.
The union claimed miners at the North Yorkshire pit, which closed in 2015, received smaller payouts than workers at Thoresby in Nottinghamshire.
It successfully argued the closure of the two pits had been the same and therefore payouts should be similar.
Miners at Thoresby, which closed in July 2015, were granted a "protective award" when UK Coal, the mine's owner, and the government accepted the mine was closed without proper consultation with workers.
The union successfully argued before an industrial tribunal in Sheffield the same circumstances applied to the closure of Kellingley six months later, yet there was no agreement to provide the same level of financial support to workers.
An NUM spokesman said it was "money the men were entitled to and shouldn't have had to fight for".
Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, whose constituency includes Kellingley, said: "This tribunal judgement proves that the government's decision to deny the Kellingley miners the same support as the Thoresby miners was an outrage and a betrayal of the Yorkshire miners who kept working until the very end."
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has been approached for comment.

Summary: Miners made redundant through the closure of Kellingley colliery are to receive additional payments.
###
Article: Victoria Prentis said that former armed forces inmates and women had "particularly low reoffending rates".
The Justice Select Committee member made the comments in a debate on the prison population, which has nearly doubled since the 1980s to 85,000.
But she admitted the proposal was just "tinkering around the edges".
The Banbury MP member added Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) prisoners - who remain in prison for public safety - could also be released.
In the Commons debate on Wednesday, she said: "Women prisoners and veterans have very low reoffending rates. But this is tinkering around the edges of the large prison population at the moment."
In November last year Justice Secretary Liz Truss unveiled a White Paper detailing Â£1.3bn investment in new prisons over the next five years, and plans for 2,100 extra officers.
But some high-profile prison riots in HMP Birmingham, Bedford and Lewes towards the end of 2016 led the National Council of Independent Monitoring Boards to claim low staffing levels had contributed to the disruption.
Ms Prentis added: "If we can't recruit, as I accept the department is trying desperately hard to do, would the minister commit today to at least considering whether we should have a shift in the sentencing framework, a shift... to community-based alternatives?"
Prisons minister Sam Gyimah, responding to a range of points at the end of the debate, said: "It is incredibly simplistic to say that the problems in our prisons are simply due to staffing. There is the rise of new psychoactive substances and old taboos in prisons have been broken.
"It used to be the case that prisoners never attacked a female prison officer. Now, we see that routinely on our wings. Our prisons have changed and to deal with that complex problem, we need a multifaceted set of answers. That is what this Government are delivering."

Summary: Women and army veteran prisoners should be considered for early release to ease pressure on the prison population, according to a Conservative MP.
###
Article: Almost 5,000 people will begin degree apprenticeships in 2017-18, nearly eight times as many as when the scheme launched in 2015, says Universities UK.
The scheme was already reaching people who would not otherwise have gone to university, the report found.
But more needed to be done to communicate the benefits, said UUK President Dame Julia Goodfellow.
The degree apprenticeship scheme operates across England and Wales, although people can apply from throughout the UK.
The UUK study, launched to coincide with National Apprenticeships Week and based on a survey of 66 English universities, found:
The current growth was driven by the need to meet key skills shortages, the researchers found, with chartered management, digital and technology solutions and engineering the top three areas of provision.
"Degree apprenticeships could play a key role in reducing skills gaps and skills mismatches," says the report.
Additionally, with course fees shared between government and employers, the scheme offers particular benefits to people who might not have considered a degree, says UUK.
However, the report also found "a general perception among institutions" that awareness of the scheme among individuals and employers remained too low.
The report urges government and universities to increase efforts "to publicise and improve understanding of degree apprenticeships and their fundamental role in supporting social mobility and raising productivity".
Many larger companies, which are liable to pay the apprenticeship levy of 0.5% on payrolls from next month, are already aware of degree apprenticeships, say the researchers, but they want greater efforts to make small and medium sized enterprises aware of them.
'Artificial divide'
"Many people feel they have been left behind in the drive to increase higher level skills in recent years,"  said Dame Julia.
"Degree apprenticeships are an excellent way to get to these harder-to-reach groups while, at the same time, ensuring that what we deliver on campus meets the needs of students, the...

Summary: Degree apprenticeships, encompassing university and work, are "on the verge of significant success", says a report.
###
Article: People with a DNA variation in a gene called PDSS2 tend to drink fewer cups of coffee, a study carried out at the University of Edinburgh has found.
It suggests the gene reduces cell ability to break down caffeine.
This causes it to stay in the body for longer and means those with the gene get the same caffeine hit through less coffee.
One scientist working on the project said it suggests the "drive to drink coffee may be embedded in our genes".
The researchers studied the DNA of 370 people living in a small village in southern Italy and 843 people from six villages in north-east Italy.
The subjects were asked to complete a survey including a question about how many cups of coffee they drank each day.
The team found people with the PDSS2 DNA variation tended to consume fewer cups of coffee than people without the variation - equivalent to one fewer cup daily on average.
Researchers replicated the study in a group of 1,731 people from the Netherlands. The result was similar but the effect of the gene on the number of cups of coffee consumed was slightly lower.
The scientists said the change could be down to the different styles of coffee drunk in the two countries.
In Italy, people tend to drink smaller cups such as espresso whereas in the Netherlands the preference is towards larger cups which contain more caffeine overall.
Dr Nicola Pirastu, a Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, said: "The results of our study add to existing research suggesting that our drive to drink coffee may be embedded in our genes.
"We need to do larger studies to confirm the discovery and also to clarify the biological link between PDSS2 and coffee consumption."
The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports and was conducted at the universities of Edinburgh and Trieste, the Burlo Garofolo Pediatric Institute in Italy, the Erasmus Medical Centre and PolyOmica, a data analysis company based in Groningen, the Netherlands.

Summary:


the year.
The company said it was "encouraged" by the "strong performance" of its premium brands, including Chivas Regal, James

One of the biggest Scotch whisky distillers has seen faster growth in sales of its Irish whiskey brand, according to new figures.

Article: But not so George Osborne. Because on Friday he announced he would redeem Â£218m of a so-called consolidated loan - a class of gilt-edged stock commonly known as Consols - which were issued in 1927 by his undistinguished (at the Treasury) predecessor, Winston Churchill.
The Treasury has had the option to repay or redeem the loan since 1957, according to the original prospectus terms.
But it has never done so, because 4% interest looked very good value for taxpayers.
So why is the chancellor paying off the loan now?
Well it is because - as I assume you know - the interest rate the government currently has to pay is exceptionally and amazingly low.
I wrote about this recently in a column about how investors are placing bets that the long term growth prospects for the UK and other big rich economies are lacklustre at best, and why they are prepared to lend colossal sums to the supposedly safe-as-houses government at rates of interest that don't match the rate of inflation.
Here is one measure of these extraordinary market conditions. Last Tuesday the Debt Management Office, which borrows on behalf of HM Treasury, sold Â£4bn of a loan that doesn't have to be repaid till 2068 and on this loan it is paying an interest rate, or yield, of 2.966%.
In other words, it is borrowing for 54 years at an interest rate of less than 3%.
Now the last time the interest rate paid by the government was almost as low as this when issuing gilts or borrowing for such a long period was in August 1937, 34 years before George Osborne was born.
And the Debt Management Office has no record of ever having paid a lower rate of interest when selling a loan of that kind of ultra-long maturity.
So of course there is logic to the chancellor repaying the perpetual loan, the Consols, on which he pays a 33% higher rate of interest of 4%.
That looks like smart business for taxpayers.
But is he tempting fate in the decision to repay?
Chancellors should not be superstitious, I suppose. But some might wonder whether in deciding to repay a loan which...

Summary: If most of us could borrow money at 4% interest, and would never have to repay it, we would be pretty happy.
###
Article: Lawyers for Liam Adams said the level of media coverage on both sides of the Irish border even before his trial turned it into "a national issue".
They also argued guidance to the jury may have wrongly shifted the burden onto him to prove he was innocent of a string of sexual assaults on his daughter Áine. The appeal continues.
Liam Adams, 59, formerly of Bernagh Drive in Belfast, is serving a 16-year jail sentence for the offences against his daughter, who waived her right to anonymity.
The abuse was said to have been committed over a six-year period between 1977 and 1982 when she was aged between four and nine.
He consistently denied the allegations throughout a second trial at Belfast Crown Court in 2013.
However, a jury convicted him of 10 offences against his daughter: three charges of rape, four counts of indecent assault and a further three counts of gross indecency.
At the start of his appeal on Wednesday, he smiled at his wife Bronagh and other relatives who had gathered in the public gallery to support him.
Opening the case, his barrister said they were challenging what she said was the trial judge's failure to direct the jury on how they should assess issues about the extensive publicity before and after a first trial that had collapsed due to legal reasons.
She said a television documentary had sparked widespread media attention.
Her client's brother, Gerry Adams, revealed in an interview that his father subjected family members to sexual abuse, the court heard.
Giving evidence as a prosecution witness at the first trial, the Sinn Féin president claimed his brother confessed to him that he had "molested" his daughter.
Focusing on the level of publicity, the barrister said that by the time of the second trial, any jury member would have heard about the case and her client's earlier battle against being extradited from the Republic of Ireland.
"What makes this case different from a case where someone who is well-known to the public is being tried for serious criminal offences... (is) the...

Summary: Jurors who found a brother of Gerry Adams guilty of raping his own daughter were not properly directed on how to deal with widespread publicity in the case, the Court of Appeal has heard.
###
Article: Green Party politicians Caroline Lucas MP and Baroness Jenny Jones argued a long-standing doctrine protecting MPs' communications was being breached.
But in a landmark decision the Investigatory Powers Tribunal said the so-called "Wilson Doctrine" was no bar to the incidental collection of data.
Ms Lucas said the decision was a "body blow" for democracy.
The Wilson Doctrine came into being in 1966 when the then Labour prime minister, Harold Wilson, gave assurances to MPs that their phone calls would not be intercepted without him knowing - and that he would tell Parliament of any change in that policy.
The doctrine has been repeatedly reaffirmed, including by Prime Minister David Cameron.
However, Ms Lucas, Baroness Jones and former MP George Galloway argued that GCHQ was acting outside the long-standing doctrine by bulk collecting communications data from the internet, which would inevitably include correspondence between parliamentarians and their constituents.
By Dominic Casciani, BBC Home Affairs correspondent
The IPT couldn't have been clearer about the worthlessness of the Wilson Doctrine had they shoved a copy of Hansard from 17 November 1966 into the courtroom shredder.
But while their ruling may come as something of a shock to some MPs - it's been abundantly clear for almost a decade that the doctrine's days were numbered.
Wilson gave his guarantee to MPs when the UK refused to admit that it even had spooky agencies working in the shadows. Today, there is legislation that sets out how agencies can intercept communications.
The existence of those laws has led to repeated questions about whether Wilson is still needed. MPs like Caroline Lucas argue that it still is because of the sensitive work that some parliamentarians do in holding the executive to account.
"We are satisfied that the Wilson Doctrine is not enforceable in English law by the claimants or other MPs or peers by way of legitimate expectation," said the IPT.
"The Wilson Doctrine has no legal effect, but in practice the agencies must...

Summary: MPs have no protection from having their communications read by UK security agencies, a tribunal has said.
###
Article: Pernod Ricard, which is based in France, is the second biggest distiller of Scotch after Diageo.
Its brands include Chivas, The Glenlivet and Ballentine's.
However, the distiller reported that Jameson's, the biggest-selling Irish whiskey, continued to be the star performer among its premium brands.
American sales of the Cork-distilled whiskey were up more than 10%.
In its update for investors, the drinks company reported total sales rose 3% in the first three months of 2017, and the detail gave some pointers to the market for whisky and other drinks around the world.
Pernod Ricard reported the Chinese market "remains challenging for Scotch", while there were more positive sales figures for Martell brandy.
Imported spirits have been held back in China by official disapproval of conspicuous business hospitality and gifts. Bar and restaurant sales were reported to remain in decline.
The company said Korean sales continue a "strong decline" across its brands.
It also reported on the disruptive effect in India of the government removing large amounts of the nation's paper money from circulation, and a new law that will forbid the sale of alcohol close to highways.
In Latin America, which has been a strong growth area for Scotch exports, Brazilian sales were weaker due to prolonged recession. But sales across the Pernod Ricard brands were strongly up in other countries, led by Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay and Cuba.
The UK market was described as resilient and "dynamic", because its products were being imported ahead of price increases in March, linked to the weakening of sterling. Among the stronger performers were Absolut vodka and Jameson's.
With its full year results for 2015-16, Pernod Ricard reported Jameson's global sales were up 12% by volume and 16% by value.
In Scotch whisky, Ballentine's rose 5% by volume over the year, while Chivas was down 5% and Glenlivet single malt by 2%.
Another French company with a stake in Scotch whisky, Remy-Martin, this week reported that its sales of "Progressive Hebridean"...

Summary:


The European Union has said it will not allow the Russian government to block access to the internet in the country.
The EU's top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, said the bloc would not allow the Russian government to block access to the internet in the country.
"We will not allow the Russian government to

A bill to restrict foreign ownership in Russia's media will soon go before the parliament, which is dominated by MPs loyal to President Vladimir Putin.

Article: In a growing row between the government and bakers, officials said that bakeries could face fines if people had to queue to get their bread.
Severe shortages of basic goods mean that Venezuelans often have to queue for hours to buy essential items.
The government says the shortages are caused by an "economic war".
Venezuela does not produce wheat and relies on imports bought in by the government which it then sends to mills where it is ground and then distributed.
The government blames bakers for the bread shortages, accusing them of using the flour allocated to them to bake pastries rather than simple baguette-style bread in order to maximise their profits.
Croissants and other sweet baked goods are more expensive than baguettes and French-style breads, as the prices for the latter are controlled by the socialist government.
Under the new regulations, bakers will be forced to use 90% of the flour they are given to bake ordinary bread and only 10% for pastries and other sweetened goods.
On Sunday, President Nicolas Maduro announced that inspectors would be sent to 709 bakeries in the capital, Caracas, to ensure they were complying with the new rules.
He said that those "speculators who hide the bread from the people will face the weight of the law".
"They're going to pay, I swear. Those responsible for the bread war are going to pay and they better not complain that it was a political persecution," he added.
Vice-President Tareck El Aissami warned that "bakeries which do not follow [the rules] will be occupied by the government".
But the baker's federation, Fevipan, says it cannot produce more bread unless its members are given more flour.
On Tuesday, it said in a tweet [in Spanish]  that 80% of bakeries had "zero inventory", while the remaining bakeries had only received 10% of the monthly supplies".
"When there's flour, we sell bread, but they only send it every 15 or 20 days," a worker in a Caracas bakery told the Agence France Press news agency.
"We are given 20 sacks and normally we'd need eight a day,"...

Summary: The Venezuelan government says it will expropriate bakeries which fail to abide by new government regulations aimed at tackling bread shortages.
###
Article: Opened in 2012, the institute aims to develop academic, economic and social ties with China.
The university's vice chancellor Prof Paddy Nixon has said the institute is not at risk.
UU decided to close its school of modern languages earlier this year as part of a response to budget cuts.
However, it said they would "continue to support the teaching of Chinese" in schools across Northern Ireland.
Although UU decided to close its school of modern languages, the university said it would "continue to support the teaching of Chinese" in schools across Northern Ireland.
Degrees in Chinese, French, Spanish and German will not be taught after 2019.
In its original bid for the Confucius Institute in 2011, UU said it wanted to lead "the development of the study of Chinese language and culture throughout Northern Ireland at all levels".
It also said it was "committed to the study of languages for professional life".
But in the letter to UU's vice-chancellor Professor Paddy Nixon, seen by the BBC, the nine academic staff in the university's modern language department warned: "Our reputation at a whole series of levels will be further damaged when the Confucius Institute, in the bid for which we showed unwavering commitment to the promotion of modern languages, is withdrawn from us, as inevitably it must, and relocated elsewhere in NI."
They also said the decision to close the school will cause "enormous damage" and expressed concern about how existing students will be able to finish their degrees.
In the letter, the staff took issue with "the reassurance given to new students and those in the early stages of their studies... that the quality of their student experience will be in no way compromised".
"It is hard to understand how you can give these students such an assurance," the letter said.
"No-one knows and no clear decision has as yet been taken, let alone communicated to interested parties, what the exact scenario for teaching out the final year of an honours degree in modern languages at Ulster University will...

Summary: Modern languages staff at Ulster University (UU) have warned its vice chancellor that its Confucius Institute may have to close.
###
Article: Chris McGimpsey made his remarks after the zoo was criticised by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (Eaza).
Eaza found many of the enclosures were too small and it listed seven minor concerns about the welfare of animals.
Belfast City Council, which owns the zoo, has said work is already under way to rectify the issues Eaza has raised.
The European body's findings were revealed earlier this week by the Belfast Telegraph.
Mr McGimpsey, an Ulster Unionist councillor in the city, is an animal rights activist and a long-time critic of zoos.
Speaking on the BBC's Nolan Show on Wednesday night, he said: "I think people should stay away until we're confident that the animals are being kept in proper husbandry conditions."
He said the council had sought accreditation from Eaza but it had responded with a long list of "very severe concerns" about the operation of Belfast Zoo.
"They talk about the sea lions being kept in fresh water instead of salt water; they talk about sea lions being kept in water that is unclean and they talk about them being kept in a compound that is not deep enough."
Mr McGimpsey, added: "Elephants, in their natural environment, maraud in their lives over 1,000 sq km; [247,100 acres].  Elephants in Belfast Zoo have two thirds of an acre."
Eaza's letter to the council also said the buildings where lemurs are kept are far too small and that rabbits and reptiles are not housed in acceptable conditions.
It raised concerns about the "unacceptable" level of aggression between Andean bears and the "questionable welfare" of the male.
Mr McGimpsey claimed the facility was "not up to standard" and was "not something that Belfast City Council can be proud of".
However, he added that he hoped the improvement works would be completed by April next year.
It is not the first time the UUP councillor has publicly criticised Belfast Zoo.
In September, he joined calls for the "Victorian peep show" to be shut down.
He said it should be replaced with a conservation area for priority species that are native...

Summary: A Belfast councillor has urged the public to stay away from Belfast Zoo until it addresses criticism of the conditions in which it keeps animals.
###
Article: If made law, the measure will put a 20% ceiling on any foreign stakes in Russian media, including those held indirectly through Russian partners.
Russia's main media outlets are state-owned or controlled by loyal oligarchs.
But top Putin ally Sergei Zheleznyak said Russia was facing "an information war unleashed against the country".
Russian TV news has accused the Ukrainian government of provoking clashes in eastern Ukraine through acts of aggression, including indiscriminate shelling of civilians.
The Kiev government blames pro-Russian separatists for the violence, and says Russia has fomented it by supplying soldiers and heavy weapons to the rebels.
The media bill is to go before Duma (lower house) deputies on 23 September, Itar-Tass news agency reports.
The restrictions would apply to magazines and internet publications as well as newspapers and broadcast media.
The bill is highly likely to become law as it was proposed by MPs who usually support the pro-Kremlin group United Russia.
BBC Monitoring reports that foreigners directly own stakes in some Russian mainstream media:

Summary:


The government has announced a new £1.5m fund to help people with disabilities and older people to access the internet.
The fund will be used to help people with disabilities and older people to access the internet.
The government said the scheme would help people with disabilities and older people to access the internet, and

The amount of radon gas found in the Channel Islands is associated with the geology of the island and not construction materials, a survey finds.

Article: There were secret ballots for five positions, with Dai Lloyd of Plaid Cymru elected health committee chair.
Labour's Lynne Neagle will lead the education committee and Conservative Russell George the economy committee.
Conservative AM Nick Ramsay will chair the public accounts committee, scrutinising spending by public bodies.
AMs agreed on Tuesday which party the chairs for each committee would come from, with a Labour AM chairing six of the committees, Plaid Cymru three, the Conservatives two and UKIP one.
Only five of 13 of the assembly's committee chairs were contested. In seven other cases, only one AM was nominated and so there was no ballot.
Scrutiny of the First Minister Committee will be chaired by Ann Jones - the position comes with the job of being deputy presiding officer.
The results of the ballots were:
Those who have been appointed unopposed were:
The committees were divided among the parties based on the number of AMs they have.

Summary: Assembly members have voted for the first time to decide who leads some of the body's influential committees.
###
Article: Carillion is part of a joint venture that has won a bid to design and build part of the Â£56bn high speed rail link.
But last week its chief executive stepped down and the firm warned results would fall short of forecasts.
A spokesman for HS2 Ltd said it was "confident" in the joint venture.
He said: "Obviously in the light of last Monday's announcement by Carillion, HS2 has carried out additional due diligence and sought re-assurance of both it and its two partners in the joint venture - Kier and Eiffage - that they remained committed and able to deliver the contract.
"Each company's boards have both given that assurance and confirmed that they underwrite the performance of each other in delivering the contract. And that is the key point. HS2, of course, will continue to monitor the situation."
Carillion disclosed on Monday that it had appointed consultancy firm EY to help with a strategic review of the business "with a particular focus upon cost reduction and cash collection".
Under its interim chief executive Keith Cochrane, Carillion said it was taking immediate action to generate significant cashflow in the short term and cut its debt.
Carillion's share price jumped by 23.33% to 69.25p, but it still remains far below the pre-profit warning level of 191p.
The consortium of Carillion, Kier and Eiffage of France is one of a number of partnerships that have won  contracts to build tunnels, bridges and viaducts between London and Birmingham for the first phase of HS2.
The spokesman for HS2 Ltd pointed out that each of the contracts had two parts, beginning with a 16-month design period where the government and the joint venture work closely together before starting on the second construction phase.

Summary: The government was forced to seek assurances from Carillion's partners on the HS2 project that they can step in to deliver on the work if necessary after the company warned on profits.
###
Article: Chairman from the bottom two divisions indicated at a meeting in September that they are in favour of 3G surfaces being used from 2015-16.
The proposal could be approved at a further meeting in November.
"The PFA are surprised and disappointed by the recent decision," the PFA's Simon Barker told BBC Sport.
"It is a concern that the PFA as representatives of the players has not been asked to make representations before the club chairmen voted as ultimately it will be our members playing on these pitches."
Barker, assistant chief executive at the PFA, added that the League Managers Association had also not been consulted and raised fears over injuries and damage to the sport's integrity.
And he added that a survey of the PFA's members two years ago conducted as part of a wider consultation by the Football League saw players vote overwhelming against the reintroduction of artificial pitches.
Back in September, 26 out of 46 chairmen voted in favour of introducing the surfaces in theory after watching a presentation on the benefits of 3G surfaces.
Barker believes that the enthusiasm from chairman for a return to artificial pitches is based on inflated promises of income generated by installing a 3G surface.
"It would seem that they are being driven by promises of increased commercial revenue streams and not for reasons of quality, integrity and safety," he said.
"Discussions we have had with knowledgeable sources within the game suggest that figures quoted from additional revenue from hiring out an artificial pitch are often hugely inflated."
Former Blackburn Rovers, QPR and Port Vale midfielder Barker believes that the long-term dangers of playing on artificial surfaces, outlawed in English professional football in 1995, have not been examined.
"There have been no studies on long-term injuries with players playing regularly on artificial surfaces," he said. "This area is of major concern to the PFA and could lead to litigation if a player's career was cut short due to injuries associated with playing over an...

Summary: The Professional Footballers' Association has criticised Football League plans to introduce artificial pitches in League One and League Two.
###
Article: The three-month tests of 137 island homes, 73 in Guernsey and 64 in Jersey, measured the level of gas in the walls.
Radon occurs naturally in areas with a large amount of granite and 99 of the homes tested were below target levels.
Fourteen island homes were above the target level and owners have been told to ensure there is good ventilation.
The survey was carried by the islands' authorities with the UK Health Protection Agency. The 137 properties were selected to cover a range of geological conditions and population areas.
The aim was to find out more about radon and its distribution.
Val Cameron, the Channel Islands strategic lead for environmental health, said: "The recent survey updates and confirms the information from previous surveys; this is that radon is associated with the granite geology of the island, and not the construction material of an individual building."
International research has found exposure to radon gas can increase the chances of contracting lung cancer for people who smoke.
Dr Susan Turnbull, medical officer of health for Jersey, said: "To help put the main risk factors for the commonest form of lung cancer into perspective, for every 100 cases of lung cancer around 95 will have been caused by smoking alone, about four will be due to the combined effects of smoking and radon exposure.
"Only one will be due to radon exposure alone. So it is a real risk, albeit a low one. The most sensible thing anyone can do to reduce their risk of getting lung cancer is to stop smoking."
Mrs Cameron said: "Of the homes surveyed, some were identified as being above the action level. Advice has been given to those householders about measures to remedy the problem."
Previously radon surveys were carried out in Jersey in 1987, 1992 and 1997, and in Guernsey in 1985. In 2012, tests were also carried out in Herm, Alderney and Sark.
In 1984 the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and the International Commission on Radiological Protection reported on the need for a reduction of radon exposures in homes.

Summary: