Singapore is putting pressure on major retailers in Singapore to not use or sell materials produced by firms linked to fires in Indonesia.

Article: Mr Zuma was responding to allegations that he had "unduly benefitted" from an upgrade to his private home in Nkandla which cost taxpayers about $23m (Â£14m).
MPs from the new Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were not satisfied with his explanation and started chanting: "Pay back the money."
Parliament was suspended and security called to oust the EFF group.
Police entered parliament in Cape Town carrying riot shields, tear gas and batons but then aborted their plans to forcibly remove the EFF MPs.
The governing African National Congress (ANC) said it was "appalled" by the behaviour of the EFF parliamentarians.
The Democratic Alliance, the largest opposition party, said the EFF's "theatrics" meant South Africans "did not get answers from the president, to which they were rightfully entitled".
South Africans may be divided over the behaviour of the EFF in parliament but its leader Julius Malema posed questions many here still want answered.
Nkandla remains a sore point for many citizens and the president has been accused of failing to account to the public that elected him into power.
So while they may not support the chanting and disruption to a formal sitting, many are quietly applauding their stand.
Mr Malema has never been one to shy away from confrontation; it was with tough talking that he defended President Jacob Zuma before their fall-out.
However uncomfortable to watch, many see this as South Africa's democracy at work.
It is not clear when the session will resume - possibly on Friday.
Many MPs were waiting to question the president when the session was suspended.
After being pressed by Mr Malema on when he would repay the Nkandla money, Mr Zuma said he had "responded appropriately to parliament" and said it was now in the hands of the government.
The EFF has 25 MPs in the 400-member parliament after gaining 6% of the national vote in May's election.
It was the first election contested by the EFF, led by controversial former youth leader Julius Malema.
He formed the EFF last year following his expulsion...

Summary: An address to parliament by South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has been halted by opposition MPs.
###
Article: Could it be a topic that persuades undecided voters on polling day?
Always an emotive issue, religious slaughter has become an unexpected political battleground as the general election approaches.
Animal rights campaigners have long called for a ban on halal or shechita slaughter, which amongst other requirements specify slitting an animal's throat quickly with a sharp knife while it is still conscious.
The British Veterinary Association, the RSPCA, Compassion in World Farming and the National Secular Society all want to see an end to the religious slaughter of animals or to slaughter without pre-stunning.
However, in the run-up to the general election, opposition to those methods of slaughter would also seem to have become dog whistle politics: shorthand for targeting a specific religious minority - Muslims - without saying as much.
UKIP last week said it would ban all slaughter methods that didn't involve pre-stunning - causing controversy amongst British Muslims and Jews, some of whom warned that any such ban would in effect drive those who observe religious dietary laws out of the UK.
For many of the UK's almost three million Muslims, halal slaughter is a strict religious requirement, as is eating kosher for many of the UK's 300,000 Jews.
According to the Halal Authority Board, there is a strong strand of religious opinion that livestock should not be stunned before slaughter, but others feel that light stunning is permissible.
Its standards permit both types of slaughter, and dictate a number of requirements regarding animal welfare for both.
"If followed properly, both unstunned and stunned are extremely humane forms of slaughter and the evidence to suggest otherwise is completely wrong," according to its head of certification, Shaykh Tauqir Ishaq.
"Being cruel to animals is a sin in Islam, and we do not permit any form of cruelty in abattoirs certified by us.
"The discomfort and pain experienced by any animal should be absolutely minimised if not eliminated, and our standards reflect such...

Summary: It's a passionate conflict - animal welfare campaigners opposing the slaughter practices of religious minorities.
###
Article: Nick Weller, executive principal of Dixons Academies Trust, Bradford, was honoured in the Queen's birthday list.
Mr Weller said he was "humbled by the honour" and the schools' recognition.
After a teacher was stabbed at Dixons Kings Academy police arrested a 14-year-old boy on suspicion of attempted murder on Thursday.
Mr Weller said: "My main thoughts at the moment are with a colleague who is continuing to make steady progress in hospital and with a school which is also recovering from the event.
"Our academies and partnerships play a significant role in meeting the demand for new places in Bradford and improving schools in challenging circumstances."
The school where the stabbing occurred, formerly called the King's Science Academy, opened in 2011 and has since become part of the Dixons academy group. It has about 700 pupils.

Summary: The head of a schools group, including one where a teacher was stabbed by a pupil, has been awarded a knighthood for services to education.
###
Article: Reality Leigh Winner, 25, allegedly removed classified material from a federal site in the state of Georgia.
The charges were announced shortly after news website The Intercept published a National Security Agency briefing about alleged Russian meddling in last year's election.
The Trump administration has been seeking to fight leaks to the media.
Ms Winner was arrested on 3 June, the justice department said.
She is a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation and had been employed at an NSA facility in Georgia since February.
The accused faces a count of "gathering, transmitting or losing defence information".
Ms Winner was vocal in her opposition to President Trump on social media, using the hashtag #NeverMyPresident in one post and an expletive in reference to his plans for a border wall.
The Intercept's leaked document alleges that Moscow's military intelligence services attempted cyber-attacks on at least one US voting software supplier days before last November's US presidential election.
It also accuses the Russians of sending spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials.
However, there is no suggestion in the document that the hackers were successful.
Ms Winner, who graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio in 2011, was caught after investigators noticed that the leaked document appeared to have been folded or creased.
That suggested it had been "printed and then carried out of a secured space", according to an FBI affidavit in support of the arrest warrant.
Investigators determined that Ms Winner was one of only six people to have printed the document.
Examination of her email on her desk computer further revealed that she had exchanged emails with the news outlet, the indictment said.
When confronted, Ms Winner admitted printing the report despite not possessing a "need-to-know" about its content and said she was aware that the information "could be used to the injury of the US and to the advantage of a foreign nation", the affidavit...

Summary: A US government contractor has been arrested on suspicion of leaking top-secret information to a news outlet.
###
Article: A series of social media posts and adverts will aim to encourage more Chinese visitors to come to Scotland, as figures show tourism from China exceeded Â£43m over three years.
The Edinburgh Tourism Action Group posts, written in mandarin, will highlight key points of interests.
History, architecture, film locations and shopping are featured.
Edinburgh Castle had more than 160,000 Chinese visitors in 2015 and the city is said to be the second most popular UK destination among the Chinese, after London.
Robin Worsnop, Edinburgh Tourism Action Group chairman, said: "The growth of the Chinese visitor market to Edinburgh presents a great opportunity for the city's tourism sector.
"We know Chinese visitors love our historic, walkable city, our top attractions, our architecture and our unique links to major films like Harry Potter.
"Working together as a group of businesses, and supported by Scottish Enterprise and the VisitScotland Growth Fund, we're confident that these brand new official Edinburgh channels on Chinese social media platforms will help Scotland's capital become a 'must see, must visit' destination for Chinese visitors."
Manuela Calchini, regional director at VisitScotland, said: "China has huge growth potential for tourism in Scotland and we're delighted to support the Edinburgh Chinese social media campaign, through the VisitScotland growth fund.
"The campaign will give a platform to promote the very best of what Edinburgh has to offer, from its stunning architecture, fascinating history and world-renowned festivals to its delicious food and drink. And with the Scottish capital receiving 87% of Chinese visitors to Scotland, the success of this campaign will no doubt be felt far beyond the city walls.
"With Edinburgh playing a prominent role in the Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology, it is the perfect opportunity to encourage Chinese visitors to come face-to-face with history and explore our rich cultural heritage."

Summary: The history and culture of Edinburgh is to become the centre of a new tourism campaign in China.
###
Article: Seven firms, including major supermarkets such as NTUC FairPrice and IKEA, have been asked declare they are not doing so within a week.
The forest fires in Indonesia have deteriorated Singapore's air quality, causing a blanket of haze in the city.
FairPrice has said it removing products from one Indonesian firm.
The state-owned supermarket giant said that it was removing all paper products sourced from Asia Pulp and Paper Group (APP), following the notification from the government.
APP has been named by Singapore authorities as one of the companies suspected of contributing to the haze.
What is behind the South East Asia haze?
In a joint statement, the Singapore Environment Council (SEC) and Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) said they had asked the retailers to declare that they have "not procured or used wood, paper and/or pulp materials" from firms accused of contributing to the fires.
The SEC said retailers were "a good starting point" for firms to show their commitment to sustainable procurement processes and "for consumers to show their support for brands that have environmentally friendly practices"
The haze has caused hazardous air quality across the region. It has led to the cancellation of public events and schools closure over the past month, in Singapore as well as in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Anger has been rising in the region, with increasing pressure on the Indonesian government to control the annual burning of forests to clear land for palm oil and rubber plantations.

Summary:


There will not be a referendum on an additional council tax rise in Liverpool after the results of an online poll, the city's mayor has said.

Article: If it passes, the country will be the largest developed nation to end marijuana prohibition.
The law was tabled on Thursday, and would allow adults over 18 to possess up to 30g of dried marijuana.
The proposed legislation would allow the federal government to license producers, but provinces would be in charge of regulating consumer sale.
Other issues, such as pricing, taxation and packaging must still be worked out.
"This is a very important day, I've spent most of my adult life keeping children and communities safe," said MP Bill Blair during a press conference shortly after the legislation was presented to parliament.
The former police chief had chaired the government's cannabis task force, which laid out a blueprint for legal recreational pot in Canada.
The government is pitching the legislation as a way to keep pot out of the hands of minors and undercut organised crime.
The law would increase penalties for those who sell to children, and revamp impaired driving laws to make it easier to prosecute people who drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
It would allow police to test people's saliva if they think a driver has been using marijuana.
The current legal prohibitions have been an "abject failure" at keeping the children from getting a hold of marijuana, says Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.
Canada has some of the highest marijuana use in the world, according to the task force, especially amongst young people. About 30% of people aged 20-24 use cannabis.
The new framework would make it illegal to market marijuana products to children, or sell to anyone under 18. Provinces could raise the minimum age of consumption if they choose, the government says.
New laws would also increase the penalty for people who sell to the under-aged, as well as create a new offence for people "exploiting children in the trafficking of cannabis".
Trafficking cannabis outside the government's new legal framework would remain illegal.
Initially, only fresh and dried cannabis, cannabis oils, seeds and plants would...

Summary: Canada has laid out its plan to legalise the sale of recreational marijuana by June 2018.
###
Article: Philip Morant School and College in Colchester has told pupils and parents that they will no longer set homework and will instead select their own "appropriate" tasks.
The new scheme is optional but there will be rewards for completed tasks.
It said it believes the new approach will give pupils "greater responsibility for their own learning".
The school has called the new approach 'Prove It+' at Key Stage 3 & 4 and Independent Study Tasks at Stage 5.
In a letter, it explained how tasks will be uploaded onto the school's website and pupils can select what they want to do based on guidance from teachers, as well as their own targets and interests.
Some of the tasks "support community and charity awareness" to help "develop the whole child", the letter said.
Principal Catherine Hutley told the Daily Gazette that teachers will use the time previously spent on setting and marking home on planning lessons more precisely.
She said the move away from traditional homework had been discussed for about a year.
Parents have been involved in a consultation period which has included 30-minute workshops.

Summary: A high school has scrapped traditional homework in favour of a more "independent" approach to learning.
###
Article: The letter to the prime minister has been signed by the heads of every state school in West Sussex, who argue they need £20m in emergency funding.
They say the "distraction" of grammar schools cannot be a priority ahead of basic funding and staffing.
The government has promised a complete overhaul of school funding in England.
But the plans for a national funding formula, which would address inequalities in school funding, have been postponed.
The head teachers, from more than 250 primary, secondary, special schools, academies and local authority schools in West Sussex, say that without £20m emergency transitional funding, ahead of the funding formula, they will have to make cuts.
A group of pupils and head teachers will go to Downing Street on Tuesday to deliver the letter, which is also being sent to more than 100,000 West Sussex parents.
The lack of progress on funding, they say, has meant "a crippling effect on our already dire financial position".
The head teachers have told the prime minister that without extra funds there will be cuts to schools from next spring.
This could include reducing school hours, bigger class sizes, not replacing staff and making teachers redundant.
The head teachers have told the prime minister that schools have "no more fat to trim".
"Schools are struggling to function adequately on a day to day basis, and, in addition, we are severely hampered in our ability to recruit and retain staff, work with reasonable teacher-pupil ratios and to buy basic equipment," says the letter.
Jules White, head of Tanbridge House School in Horsham, said heads were not "sabre-rattling" and these were not empty threats.
"We will look at every option to avoid such drastic steps," he said, but school finances were so stretched they would have to take such difficult decisions.
Mr White said head teachers wanted the government to focus on the practical necessities before being "distracted" by policies such as expanding grammar schools.
"There are fundamentals - finance and the supply of teachers....

Summary: Head teachers have written to Theresa May to warn that a funding crisis could make schools reduce hours, lay off staff or stop teaching some subjects.
###
Article: In December 2011 the regions - Cardiff Blues, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets - imposed a salary cap of £3.5m a year when all four were posting losses.
The rise reflects improved finances, with extra money from Europe and a new deal with the Welsh Rugby Union.
Pro Rugby Wales declined to comment, but it is understood the decision was mutually agreed after a review.
It is hoped the extra cash will help the regions retain star players and potentially bring more "Welsh exiles" home.
Leigh Halfpenny, Jonathan Davies, George North and Luke Charteris are thought to be considering returning to Wales next season.
The Ospreys are hoping Dan Biggar and Alun Wyn Jones will agree to extend their current National Dual Contracts.
However, the regions - represented by Pro Rugby Wales - are expected to make building squad depth a priority, and not necessarily spend big figures on marquee signings.
The new ceiling - which is self-imposed - is still some way below that of England's Aviva Premiership.
Premiership Rugby Limited - the umbrella body that governs England's Premiership clubs - announced in October they would be raising their cap next season from £5.1m to £6.5m, and to £7m the season after that.
These figures exclude the salaries of two so-called "marquee signings" that remain outside the cap.

Summary: The four Welsh rugby regions have raised the amount they can spend on players' wages by £1m to £4.5m.
###
Article: Demand grew as more drugs became available and the £200m of original annual funding was under severe strain.  That has been increased to £280m but with a cap on the number of drugs which can be made available.
It has not been clear before now what might happen to the Fund, which is run for patients in England,  after the 2015/16 financial year, the last in which firm financing has been committed.
Labour has now come out with a pledge, if elected in May next year, to continue the work of the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) but to rebrand it and include treatment such as advanced radiotherapy as well as drugs.
The annual budget, under Labour's plan, would be increased from £280m to £330m.
Labour's Andy Burnham argues that it is perverse for the CDF to pay for expensive drugs which are not available on the NHS but not treatments.
Labour that 40,000 cancer patients each year stand to benefit from radiotherapy which they don't currently receive.
But Labour 's plan raises the question of how rising demand can be met if the Fund is expanded to include treatments as well as drugs.  Mr Burnham's extra £50m a year might be accounted for quickly and still leave oncologists and their patients feeling short-changed.
The funding for these cancer measures has come under scrutiny.
Labour wants to use a rebate from the pharmaceutical industry after a deal with the companies to cap the NHS medicines budget.  But the Conservatives say the money has already been committed to the NHS.  In other words, if Labour wants to re-direct it to the newly relaunched Cancer Drugs Fund, something else will have to be cut.
So what's the Conservative plan for the next parliament?
The Fund is of course David Cameron's baby, his personal initiative after taking office in 2010.
Government sources make it clear that Mr Cameron is committed to continuing the Fund from 2016 if he is still Prime Minister after the election. Technically, though, it is not yet a Conservative manifesto pledge.
All this begs a question - what do the pharmaceutical industry...

Summary: The Cancer Drugs Fund has been the subject of much debate in recent weeks following the decision by NHS England to limit the number of drugs which can be financed.
###
Article: Liverpool City Council used a online budget simulator to ask residents about a proposed council tax rise of 5%, plus a further 6% to pay for social care.
Joe Anderson said the plan would not go ahead after 57% of respondents said no.
He also revealed plans for a Liverpool lottery in his New Year message on his Liverpool Express blog.
He said following the "feedback... I will not be proposing to hold a referendum on any additional increase beyond the 4.99% limit set by government".
Work was continuing on the full details of the authority's budget, he said, which would then undergo consultation in 2017.
He added that he was "surprised and proud that so many, 43%, said yes".
"It's a truly heart-warming reminder of how caring our city really is," he said.
Green party leader Councillor Tom Crone said the consultation was a "sham exercise".
"The weak consultation was never going to secure support for a tax rise," he said.
He said the mayor's decision not to hold a referendum meant there would be "tens of millions of pounds more cuts to services in the coming years".
Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Richard Kemp, said: "The public were never going to buy it over concern about the waste of existing council tax income."
Mr Anderson said the Liverpool lottery card would help local causes, adding that more details of it would be revealed in the coming months.
"Liverpool people are amongst the most generous in the country and I believe will support the initiative to help us cope with the growing numbers of people dependent on us," he said.
Councillor Kemp said his party would oppose the lottery idea.
He said: "The overwhelming evidence is that existing lottery users are already from the most deprived parts of the community.
"A new Liverpool lottery will be a tax on the poor to pay for services to the poor."

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Kenyans have been voting in a key election - the first since the disputed contest of December 2007 that triggered weeks of bloodshed.

Article: The lender said the move was a "one-off depreciation" of 1.9% in a move to make the exchange rate more market-oriented.
It comes in the wake of a string of weak economic data from the world's second largest economy.
At the weekend, China reported a sharp fall in exports and a slide in producer prices to a near six-year low in July.
Exports fell by 8.3% in July, far worse than expected and the producer price index was down 5.4% from a year earlier.
The midpoint for the yuan is now set at 6.2298 to $1, up from 6.1162 yuan on Monday.
The People's Bank of China (POBC) manages the rate through the official midpoint, from which trade can rise or fall 2% on any given day.
Until now, it had been determined solely by the central bank itself.
Making the rate more market-based will mean the midpoint will now be based on overnight global market developments and how the currency finished the previous trading day.
The POBC's move comes amid speculation that China is preparing to widen the trading band for the currency from the current two percent range.
China has long kept tight control of the yuan value on concerns over financial volatility and losing its policy control.
Yet it is also under pressure to reform its currency policy as it pushes to become one of the International Monetary Fund's "special drawing rights" (SDR) reserve currencies.
These are currencies which IMF members can use to make payments between themselves or to the Fund.
Analysts ask, though, whether this really is a one-time move from China.
"The question on everyone's mind is whether this is the awakening of the dragon - ushering in a new global currency war?" Angus Nicholson, market analyst with trading firm IG wrote in a note.
"If this move ushers in a new era where the CNY [Chinese yuan] fixing is increasingly reflective of the spot market, it could be positive for its prospects being included in the IMF's special drawing rights basket of currencies this year."
Asian equities outside of China slipped on the news as investors weighed the...

Summary: China's central bank has devalued the national currency, the yuan, to its lowest rate against the US dollar in almost three years.
###
Article: The security protocol is used to encrypt Voice Over Internet Protocol (Voip) calls.
In a blog, University College London researcher Steven Murdoch described vulnerabilities in how such conversations were encrypted.
GCHQ said it did not recognise the findings.
Dr Murdoch did not say that the vulnerability would give direct access to conversations, but that it would make it possible to undermine the system's security.
The network operator could listen in to calls, or authorise someone else to, and anyone who hacked the system would be able to eavesdrop, he said.
One of Dr Murdoch's chief concerns was that the security standard has "key escrow" by design - meaning, for example, that a third party has access to data sent between two people in a conversation.
This, he said, is an example of a backdoor.
In this case, it could allow an intelligence agency, or the organisation which is using the standard, to intercept phone calls, Dr Murdoch said.
"I think this comes from a conflict of interest within GCHQ in that they are there to prevent spying but they are also there to spy - so they facilitate spying," he told the BBC.
Dr Murdoch added that he was aware of two products which use the standard, both of which are government certified.
"They could be in use inside government," he said.
The protocol in question is known as Mikey-Sakke (Sakai-Kasahara key encryption in multimedia internet keying).
It works by generating encryption keys that are used to encrypt and decrypt voice conversations.
Although it is technically possible to create these keys on two separate computers and only share part of those keys publicly, the Mikey-Sakke protocol does not do this.
Instead, keys are distributed by a third party to the conversation participants - the process known as key escrow - meaning that they are much more vulnerable to interception.
There are cases in which this would be desirable, commented Prof Nigel Smart, a cryptography expert at the University of Bristol.
"It could make sense to have a form of key escrow where...

Summary: A security researcher has said software developed by the UK intelligence agency GCHQ contains weaknesses making it possible to eavesdrop on phone calls.
###
Article: The findings catch evolution in the act of making this adjustment - as none of the critters have eyes, but some of them still have stumpy eye-stalks.
Three different species were studied, each representing a different subgroup within the same class of crustaceans.
The research is published in the journal BMC Neuroscience.
The class  of "malocostracans" also includes much better-known animals like lobsters, shrimps and wood lice, but this study focussed on three tiny and obscure examples that were only discovered in the 20th Century. It is the first investigation of these mysterious animals' brains.
"We studied three species. All of them live in caves, and all of them are very rare or hardly accessible," said lead author Dr Martin Stegner, from the University of Rostock in Germany.
Specifically, his colleagues retrieved the specimens from the coast of Bermuda, from Table Mountain in South Africa, and from Monte Argentario in Italy.
The animals were preserved rather than living, so the team could not observe their tiny brains in action. But by looking at the physical shape of the brain, and making comparisons with what we know about how the brain works in their evolutionary relatives, the researchers were able to assign jobs to the various lobes, lumps and spindly structures they could see under the microscope.
They were also able to infer what the brain of the creatures' most recent shared ancestor might have looked like.
"What I've done is looked at the structure, and interpreted it in an evolutionary context," Dr Stegner told the BBC.
Interestingly, while the areas devoted to touch and to smell had remained the same or even expanded in the 200 million years or so since the animals' ancestry diverged, the bits of the brain devoted to seeing had shrunk.
It is perhaps not a huge surprise that animals living in total darkness might start to shed, over many generations, the parts of their brain devoted to seeing. But this vanishing act had never been confirmed for these species - and the rate of the change was...

Summary: A study of blind crustaceans living in deep, dark caves has revealed that evolution is rapidly withering the visual parts of their brain.
###
Article: Only children whose parents can afford coaching can pass the toughest exams, says the report for the Cabinet Office.
Such schools "may owe their neighbourhood" more help for poorer children, suggests author David Boyle.
Grammar school heads said their schools were less socially selective than leading comprehensives.
The report, The Barriers to Choice in Public Services, looked at "whether inward-looking admissions criteria, for example by faith and super-selective schools, ought to be balanced by a broad duty to promote a social balance inside the school".
It suggests that "state-funded schools which do not adopt some responsibility for the wider well-being of their neighbourhood may not be fulfilling the social contract that people might reasonably expect of them".
"If schools narrow their intake to those who can afford the coaching to pass entrance exams, then they may owe their neighbourhood some route whereby less advantaged local people can aspire to get their children up to that standard."
Author David Boyle, of the New Economics Foundation, told BBC News that he was not suggesting that all children should be coached to pass entrance exams into "super-selective" schools, but that the need for coaching to pass some of the tests was "a clear barrier" to some families.
A duty along these lines would not undermine the academic focus of super-selective schools, argues the study.
Barry Sindall, chief executive of the Grammar School Heads Association, quoted from a 2008 Sutton Trust study which suggested that the social make-up of grammar schools was often more diverse than that of the top 100 comprehensives where entrance is decided on proximity to the school, pushing up house prices and excluding poorer families.
Mr Sindall said that many grammar schools already offered "test familiarisation" sessions so that children from poorer families did not turn up at the entrance exam never having encountered those type of questions before.
"We want to make sure they are entering for the tests on a level playing...

Summary: Some highly selective state schools should do more to help poorer children pass their entrance exams, suggests a government-funded study.
###
Article: Police said John McHale, 57, was strangled with a ligature and stamped on by David Platt before being doused with white spirit and set alight.
Mr McHale's body was found in March at Syl's Guest House on Manchester Road, Audenshaw.
At Manchester Crown Court, Platt, 39, was told to serve at least 30 years.
The fire service was called to the guest house, where Platt and Mr McHale lived, after the sprinkler system was activated.
Mr McHale, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was found buried under a pile of duvets, curled up in the foetal position, police said.
One of Platt's fingerprints was found by crime scene investigators on a bottle of white spirit left in Mr McHale's bedroom.
And a pillow matching a duvet found covering McHale's body was found in Platt's bedroom next door.
Lucy Marlow, senior crown prosecutor for the CPS in the North West, said Platt was a "dangerous man" who had carried out a "premeditated and brutal murder".
She said: "The offence was motivated by both the defendant's desire for financial gain and his belief that the deceased, who was a convicted sex offender, was a lesser person than him.
"David Platt has shown no remorse throughout the case and continued to deny all responsibility for the murder and arson, but following trial a jury found him culpable of the offences he faced.
"The CPS and police will continue to work together to bring to justice those who take the law into their own hands and attempt to deliver their own retribution."

Summary: A man found guilty of murdering a fellow Tameside guest house resident before setting fire to his body has been jailed for life.
###
Article: This time the poll was held under a new constitution, designed to prevent a repeat of that violence when more than 1,000 people died when supporters of rival candidates clashed.
They have been choosing a president, members of parliament and senators, the new posts of county governors and members of county assemblies. The presidential contest is seen as a two-horse race between Prime Minister Raila Odinga against Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta.
BBC correspondents around the country sum up how the voting went.
The queues in some places stretched for more than a kilometre, as voters in Kibera stood patiently in line.
The neighbourhood is one of Nairobi's largest slums. It is the constituency of Raila Odinga, one of the favourites for the presidential contest and the scene of some of the worst violence following the last election in 2007.
Today, many had arrived before dawn, waiting patiently in line, sometimes for hours.
Voters cast their ballots into colour-coded boxes - six each - for a variety of different representatives, local and national.
The memories of five years ago are still fresh and, as the campaign drew to a close, a sense of apprehension was palpable.
Police talked of conspiracies to cause chaos and warned that violence would be met in kind.
But, in Kibera at least, as the sun grew hotter and the umbrellas came out, the mood was up-beat.
"Peace, peace," one crowd shouted as a truck of paramilitary police trundled past.
We came across a man with dreadlocks and a pot of white paint. His message, "Peace wanted alive", can be seen daubed on walls and roads around the neighbourhood.
The real test of peace, though, is likely to come once all the ballots have been cast, and the results start coming in.
As the sun begins to set, the heat is easing and some polling stations are still open after the official closing time of 17:00, with queues of people determined to cast their vote.
Tensions have been running high in this insecure and arid region near the Somali border and there has been a heavy...

Summary:


A plan to increase the cost of speed awareness courses has been criticised as a "self-funding merry-go-round".

Article: Researchers in New Hampshire suggest the 180km-wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico was carved out by a smaller object than previously thought.
Many scientists consider a large and relatively slow moving asteroid to have been the likely culprit.
Details were outlined at the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
But other researchers were more cautious about the results.
"The overall aim of our project is to better characterise the impactor that produced the crater in the Yucatan peninsula [in Mexico]," Jason Moore, from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, told BBC News.
The space rock gave rise to a global layer of sediments enriched in the chemical element iridium, in concentrations much higher than naturally occurs; it must have come from outer space.
However, in the first part of their work, the team suggests that frequently quoted iridium values are incorrect. Using a comparison with another extraterrestrial element deposited in the impact - osmium - they were able to deduce that the collision deposited less debris than has previously been supposed.
The recalculated iridium value suggests a smaller body hit the Earth. So for the second part of their work, the researchers took the new figure and attempted to reconcile it with the known physical properties of the Chicxulub impact.
For this smaller space rock to have produced a 180km-wide crater, it must have been travelling relatively quickly. The team found that a long-period comet fitted the bill much better than other possible candidates.
"You'd need an asteroid of about 5km diameter to contribute that much iridium and osmium. But an asteroid that size would not make a 200km-diameter crater," said Dr Moore.
"So we said: how do we get something that has enough energy to generate that size of crater, but has much less rocky material? That brings us to comets."
Dr Moore's colleague Prof Mukul Sharma, also from Dartmouth College, told BBC News: "You would need some special pleading for an asteroid moving very rapidly - although it is possible. But of the...

Summary: The space rock that hit Earth 65m years ago and is widely implicated in the end of the dinosaurs was probably a speeding comet, US scientists say.
###
Article: The Mill O' Mains Community Pavilion is being demolished following Sunday's blaze, which is suspected of being started deliberately.
The volunteer-run pavilion was used for youth group and community activities, including providing meals for children.
The petition calls on Dundee City Council to build a replacement for the centre.
The council said it was left with "no other viable option" but to demolish the building.
The petition states: "The pavilion was a hub to the local community and a place for children from different backgrounds to have a place to play and relax.
"We would love to see it rebuilt for the community."
Dundee City Council leader John Alexander told the petitioners: "I'm currently working with officers to identify what led to the fire, what could have been done to prevent it and where we go from here.
"The bottom line is that we will absolutely be working with the community and local councillors.
"Local community officers have been working with key community activists and there will hopefully be some more detail and clarity in the coming days."
Police Scotland said the cause of the fire was still under investigation.
A Dundee City Council spokesman said: "Following the fire at the Mill o' Mains Community Pavilion we are left with no other viable option than to demolish the site.
"The building suffered extreme structural damage, having entirely lost its roof and most of its internal fabric during the fire.
"Work is currently underway to demolish the remnants of the building.
"At this stage our main focus is to clear the site and remove the danger."

Summary: A petition to rebuild a Dundee community centre destroyed in a fire has been signed by over 700 people.
###
Article: Widow Una Crown was found in her Magazine Lane home in Wisbech on 13 January. She had been stabbed and her body was burned.
A 58-year-old man was arrested in Wisbech earlier this week on suspicion of murder.
He has been released on bail pending further inquiries.
Mrs Crown was last seen alive on the morning of 11 January, but had spoken to a friend by telephone on the afternoon of the following day.

Summary: A man arrested on suspicion of murdering an 86-year-old woman found stabbed to death in her Cambridgeshire home has been released on bail.
###
Article: Ludgershall Town Council bestowed the honour to mark the friendship with 26 Engineer Regiment since it re-formed in the town in 2000.
Outside the town's Memorial Hall the regiment based at Perham Down, saluted civic dignitaries and senior officers.
The march with colours flying and fixed bayonets was led by the Band of the Corps of Royal Engineers.
During a ceremonial lunch held after the parade, the freedom citation was formally accepted on behalf of the Regiment by Lt Col Fossey.
Part of that citation read: "26 Engineer Regiment, Corps of Royal Engineers, has achieved for itself honour and renown everywhere not only for the valour of its officers and men but also by their pioneering exploits and achievements at home and overseas."
The tradition of granting the freedom of a town, or city, dates from when settlements were guarded from outlaws and feudal lords.
Bodies of armed men were refused entry into a town unless the citizens were confident that they meant no harm.
The granting became a mark of trust and confidence in how that body was held by the citizens of the town.
Other guests at the ceremony included Devizes MP Clare Perry, the High Sheriff of Wiltshire, Lady Gooch JP and Jane Scott, leader of Wiltshire Council.

Summary: More than 200 soldiers have marched through a Wiltshire town to accept the freedom of Ludgershall.
###
Article: Drake's One Dance has tumbled to number five, pushed aside by Justin Bieber's latest single, Cold Water.
Bieber's song is a collaboration with dance acts Major Lazer and MÃ˜, whose 2015 hit Lean On is Spotify's most-streamed song of all time.
"We are amazed at the support from the UK," Major Lazer said in a statement.
Cold Water racked up 102,000 combined sales (comprising 47,000 downloads and 5.6 million streams)  - almost double the number Drake achieved last week, in his fifteenth and final week at number one.
Adams' Everything I Do (I Do It For You) remains the UK's longest-running number one, having spent 16 weeks at the top in 1991.
Only Frankie Laine's I Believe has managed longer - 18 weeks - but that total was achieved over three separate spells in pole position.
The success of Drake's single was bolstered by its popularity on streaming sites, which allowed it to remain number one even when it fell to 14 in the "pure" sales chart.
His dominance raised questions about the way the charts are calculated, as songs that achieve popularity on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services linger in the Top 40 at the expense of new music.
This week is no exception. Apart from Bieber's single, there is only one new entry in the chart - by former Rudimental singer Anne-Marie, whose new song Alarm debuts at number 32.
On average, the songs in this week's Top 40 have been on the chart for 14 weeks each. Ten years ago, the average was 5 weeks.
Earlier this week, BBC Radio 1's head of music, Chris Price, suggested some music streamed from playlists, such as Spotify's "United Kingdom Top 50", should be excluded from the chart because they become self-perpetuating.
"Since the chart itself has such a massive impact on consumption, streaming editorial is being counted once when users discover music via playlists, and then many times more as later-adopting listeners discover them in the chart," he told trade paper Music Week.
The Official Charts, which compiles the weekly top 40, said its rules were constantly...

Summary: Bryan Adams has retained his record for the most consecutive weeks at number one, after Drake was finally dislodged from the top of the UK singles chart.
###
Article: Avon and Somerset Police wants to raise the cost of the course from £80 to £95 to help pay for its road policing unit.
The Alliance of British Drivers said the police should not be funded by people "who hadn't done much wrong".
Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens said she would not comment on the proposal, which would be discussed later on Monday.
Alliance spokesman Bob Bull described the courses as "not about safety", "more about making money" and a "self-funding merry-go-round.
He said people who were driving at "marginally over" the speed limit should not be penalised and that the police should be concentrating on catching drivers travelling at well over the limit.
In the report, the panel said it hoped the price rise would protect the unit from further cutbacks.
The course is offered to drivers who are caught travelling at 10% above the speed limit plus two mph, but not more than 10% plus nine mph.
At the new price the course would be £5 short of the £100 fixed penalty, but without drivers getting points on their licences.
A motorist who has attended one of the courses within the past three years is not eligible to have the option of attending again.
RAC head of external affairs Pete Williams described the increased cost as "an unwelcome surprise for drivers".
Mr Williams said with more than one million motorists attending the courses each year "there is big money to be made, either by the police or those running the courses".
Staffordshire £80
North Wales £85
Gloucestershire £90
Surrey £95
City of London & Metropolitan £97
Wiltshire Not offered
Source: National Association of Driver Intervention Providers

Summary:


Supermarket plant sales are reducing customers' choice, says Gardeners' World presenter Monty Don.

Article: The announcement came as the Edinburgh-based challenger bank saw underlying profit rise by nearly 5%, to £65m.
Total income was up more than 5% to £274m in the year to 12 March.
Sainsbury's said it performed strongly in the personal loans market, with 15% year-on-year growth in the number of advances to new customers.
The bank's portfolio of insurance products also continued to perform well, resulting in new business growth of more than 10% year-on-year.
Sales of new home insurance policies increased by more than 25%.
In an interim results statement, Sainsbury's said: "Given the bank's strong trading performance and the trust people have in the Sainsbury's brand, we have decided to launch new mortgage products in 2017.
"We believe these products will complement our existing financial services portfolio and we expect customers to respond well."
Sainsbury's also reported that it was "making good progress" in moving towards "a new, more flexible" banking IT platform.
It forecasts total transition costs to be "at the top of the £340m to £380m range".
Meanwhile, Edinburgh-based Virgin Money has reported a sharp rise in gross mortgage lending.
It said lending climbed by year-on-year by 30% in the first quarter to a record £2.1bn, giving the bank a market share of 3.4%.
The bank added that residential gross mortgage lending increased by 35%, while buy-to-let lending was up by 17%.
Credit card balances surpassed £1.8bn at the end of the quarter, up from £1.6bn as at 31 December.
Virgin Money said it was looking towards an "accelerated target" of £3bn of credit card "outstandings" by the end of 2017.
Chief executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia said: "I am delighted to report it has been another excellent quarter for Virgin Money.
"We had a record start to the year for mortgages and our savings franchise continues to flourish with a strong inflow of cash ISAs.
"I am particularly pleased with the performance of the credit card business which continues to exceed expectations one year on since launching to the public."

Summary: Sainsbury's Bank is set to launch new mortgage products in 2017 after reporting a strong trading performance in the last financial year.
###
Article: The devices will not be capable of displaying videos from the site thanks to changes made by YouTube to the way it handles uploads.
As a result, the app for YouTube will be removed from Bravia TVs by the end of this month, Sony said.
Sony has released a list of the 50 models across the range of TV sets that will be affected by the change.
In a statement posted to its customer support site, Sony said the television sets were not losing access because of a "failure" of the set.
Instead, it said, recent changes made to YouTube "exceed the capability of the TV's hardware".
This is believed to refer to Google's recent decision to start encrypting all connections to its video-sharing site. Encrypting and decrypting data can be a computationally intensive task that the processors in Bravia sets that handle net-connected functions cannot cope with.
Some owners of affected TV sets have already been reporting seeing error messages or video streams freezing during playback.
The TV sets affected span the range of Bravia devices from smaller sets only 20in (50cm) across to those that span 89in (2.2m) and cost Â£25,000.
James O'Malley, writing on the Gizmodo gadget site, said the change proved there was just one rule when it came to buying a smart TV.
"Buy a dumb screen, and plug something smart into it," he said.
It was far better to use a Chromecast, Firestick or Apple TV box for smart TV services rather than rely on the in-built capabilities of a TV that are likely to be outpaced by changes in technology in a few years, he said.
In March this year, many smart TV sets lost the ability to use Skype as Microsoft ended support for the app.

Summary: Sony Bravia smart TV sets made in 2012 will no longer be able to show YouTube videos after 30 September.
###
Article: Less than four weeks from the assembly election, the parties are promising reforms to the current system.
People can currently keep £24,000 of their assets before having to pay to go into a care home.
Labour want to increase that figure to £50,000, while the Conservatives want a £100,000 limit.
Labour said it was estimated about a fifth of people in residential care in Wales were paying for it themselves, and 28% of those in nursing homes.
Health Minister Mark Drakeford said his party was "committed to giving people extra help in their old age, giving a fairer deal to people who have played fair and paid in".
"There are more than 15,000 people, aged over 65, living in either care or nursing homes across Wales," he said.
"People regularly raise with me the amount of this care they have to self-fund.
"By more than doubling the capital limit to £50,000, thousands of people in Wales will be able to keep £26,000 more of their hard earned savings to help them meet their needs in later life."
In March, the Conservatives announced they would raise the limit to £100,000.
Leader Andrew RT Davies said he would lead "a government that delivers dignity and security in old age".
Plaid Cymru want to scrap social care charges altogether, at a cost of £226m over two assembly terms.

Summary: Allowing people to keep more of their savings instead of paying for care in old age is a "fairer deal" for "people who have played fair", Labour has said.
###
Article: On Tuesday ministers said a Welsh bid was not feasible after a study revealed costs of between £1.3bn and £1.5bn.
On Wednesday Plaid said ministers' estimates appeared to be "deliberately skewed" to appear more expensive.
Labour's Ken Skates said the figures were "based on a robust assessment".
The Commonwealth Games Federation had earlier said it was "surprised" by the figures provided by the Welsh Government.
In a letter to Economy Secretary Ken Skates, Shadow Sports Secretary Neil McEvoy said: "Given that the Commonwealth Games Federation has issued a statement seriously questioning your government's costing of £1.3bn to host the games, could you please issue your methodology and assumptions which underpin the feasibility study?
"The Glasgow games came in £32m under budget at £543m. Why would it cost more than double that figure to host the games in Wales?"
Speaking about the letter, Mr McEvoy called ministers' estimates "ambiguous at best" that seemed to have been "deliberately skewed to appear more expensive".
"That's why I want to see the detailed methodology behind these costs and proposals so that we can make an informed judgement of whether they are accurate - or whether we are being deliberately misled," he said.
But Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure Ken Skates said Plaid Cymru was not "comparing like with like", saying the figures were "based on a robust assessment of the total cost of delivery".
"They include the construction of necessary sporting facilities and additional infrastructure, the Games legacy, the delivery of all Wales benefits and the recommended contingency.
"Our understanding is that the Glasgow figure focuses solely on the operational delivery of the two week event."
The minister argued that a more accurate comparison would be the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, which he said had been widely quoted as being expected to cost more than $2bn in Australian dollars (£1.13bn).
Those games, he said, were "very much in line with our own projections".
Mr Skates added:...

Summary: Plaid Cymru has demanded that the Welsh Government explain why it believes that holding the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Wales would cost twice as much as the 2014 event in Glasgow.
###
Article: The 184 drivers were made redundant in 2012 when Stobart won the contract for Tesco's Doncaster distribution centre.
The case was due to be heard at an employment tribunal in Sheffield on Monday before the deal was struck.
Neither the company nor the drivers' union Unite would comment on the details of the settlement.
The dispute began when Eddie Stobart Ltd (ESL) took over the supermarket's distribution operation in August 2012.
ESL announced job losses following a reorganisation of the business.
Drivers took industrial action which ended in January 2013 when they accepted an improved redundancy package from ESL.
Last August, the former drivers staged protests outside Tesco depots in Doncaster, Goole and Widnes, claiming they had been unfairly dismissed.
In a statement at the time, Tesco said: "When we took the decision to transfer the drivers to ESL in 2012, we did everything we could to offer them all alternative roles at Tesco."
Although details of the final settlement have not been disclosed, a Stobart spokesman said the firm had "reached a without-prejudice settlement with the drivers in Doncaster".
A Unite spokesman said only about 45 drivers had since found other jobs.

Summary: Former Tesco delivery drivers who claim they were unfairly sacked by haulage firm Eddie Stobart have reached an out-of-court settlement with the company.
###
Article: Nurseries increasingly focus on plants that can be mass produced so the big stores can sell them cheaply, he says.
"You have these vast wholesale nurseries now supplying supermarkets - and that's a diminution of choice," he told Radio 4's You and Yours.
However, the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) says supermarket sales actually help grow the market.
According to Kantar World Panel, nearly 40% of gardeners get their plants, bulbs and seeds from supermarkets.
"That's bad," says Don. "It's rather like the vast suppliers supplying food - you get lots and lots of the same thing mass produced to be as cheap as possible."
The UK garden market is worth around Â£5bn, with some Â£1.4bn spent on garden plants by UK consumers in 2013, according to the HTA, the industry body.
The Gardeners' World presenter believes consumers should shop around.
"I'm a huge fan of independent nurseries. That is where you get the expertise, it's where you will find people who have devoted their life to growing something.
"They will grow geraniums or trees and they will really know about it, so when you contact them, they can give you great help and assistance."
Martin Simmons, HTA director of operations, said: "People often make impulse purchases of plants in supermarkets and if this then encourages them to buy more plants then this is good for the industry and helps to grow the market.
"Buying a plant in a supermarket may be the first step for some consumers, particularly younger ones. If this grabs their interest they will naturally seek out garden centres and retail nurseries."
Waitrose told the BBC it took quality seriously, and that its plants were supplied by two reputable nurseries who supply only garden centres - not other supermarkets.
Inviting Monty Don for a visit to talk to buyers, Asda said it works with a network of expert growers to ensure it offered quality.
Sainsbury's said it had a longstanding relationship with suppliers, many of whom were family businesses. It added that it always worked to give customers choice...

Summary:


The Football Associations of England and Scotland say they will ignore a ban on players wearing poppies in their upcoming match on 11 November.

Article: Worker output per hour in the UK fell 1.2% during the last three months of 2015 compared with the previous quarter, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Output per hour in manufacturing fell by 2% from the previous quarter, while in the service sector it dropped 0.7%.
Poor rates of productivity in the UK have been a concern to policymakers.
In last month's Budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility cut its growth forecasts for the UK economy after it lowered its predictions for productivity.
The fall in productivity in the fourth quarter of the year followed a 0.6% rise in the third quarter.
Over 2015 as a whole, output per hour rose by 1%, which the ONS said was the strongest increase since 2011.
The ONS said that labour productivity overall - covering output per hour, output per worker and output per job - was about 0.5% higher in the fourth quarter of 2015 than in the same period a year earlier.
"How productivity develops going forward is critical to the economy's growth potential," according to Howard Archer, an economist at IHS Global Insight.
"The crucial question for the UK economy is, does the fourth quarter of 2015 mark a temporary relapse in productivity. Or is it evidence that the UK has an ongoing serious productivity problem."
Suren Thiru, head of economics at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: "There are deep-rooted structural problems in our economy that have dampened productivity - from skills shortages, to infrastructure bottlenecks and limited growth finance.
"Delivering solutions to these critical issues would go a long way to achieving the productivity gains we need."

Summary: Productivity among UK workers at the end of last year fell at the fastest pace since 2008, official figures show.
###
Article: The Times quoted the mother of three as saying having children meant she had "a very real stake" in Britain's future.
She later said she was "disgusted" with the interview's presentation.
Times journalist Rachel Sylvester defended her article, saying she was "baffled" by Mrs Leadsom's reaction.
Mrs May, who has no children, has launched a "clean campaign" pledge and invited Mrs Leadsom "to join me in signing it". Her campaign team has declined to comment on the Times's story.
David Cameron also refused to comment on the row saying he was "playing no part" in the election and would say "absolutely nothing".
The Times headlined its front-page lead story: "Being a mother gives me edge on May - Leadsom."
It quoted the energy minister as saying Mrs May "possibly has nieces, nephews, lots of people.
"But I have children who are going to have children who will directly be part of what happens next".
Speaking outside her home in Northamptonshire, Mrs Leadsom said she was "disgusted about how this has been presented".
"In the course of a lengthy interview yesterday, I was repeatedly asked about my children and I repeatedly made it clear that I did not want this in any way a feature of the campaign," she added.
"I want to be crystal clear that everyone has an equal state in our society and in the future of our country.
"That is what I believe and it is what I have always believed... this campaign must at all times be principled and honourable."
In an earlier statement, she said the reporting had been "beneath contempt".
By BBC political correspondent Eleanor Garnier
We won't know the true impact of this row until the result of the leadership race is announced in September.
It is the Conservative Party membership that votes on who should be leader and there may well be some who would like their next leader and prime minister to be a mother.
But many others will say it doesn't matter at all and it shouldn't be used in any way to try to get ahead in the campaign.
That is why there has been such a huge reaction to Andrea...

Summary: A row has erupted after Conservative leadership candidate Andrea Leadsom was accused of suggesting that having children made her a better choice to be prime minister.
###
Article: Steven McIvor, 32, was one of two knife-wielding thieves who robbed the Letterbox Bistro in Balerno Main Street.
They stole Â£2,000 and 5,300 euros on 26 February 2016.
McIvor, from Edinburgh, had denied taking part in the robbery during a trial at the High Court in the city but was found guilty.
His co-accused Eddie Moffat, 27, was acquitted of the robbery charge on a not proven verdict, and admonished for a dangerous driving offence he admitted after spending almost 11 months in prison on remand. He was banned from driving for three years.
The owner of the post office/bistro business Steven Carlyle, 55, said he had been talking to his son when he became aware of two men entering the premises.
He told the court: "Then the language got worse and they demanded money. They were demanding all the money from the till and the euros."
The thieves had scarves over their mouths and each was armed with a knife.
Mr Carlyle said he pressed an alarm that was supposedly inaudible but turned out to be audible. He said: "That's when they started getting very agitated."
One of the intruders became very aggressive and a knife was thrust through a gap in a Perspex screen.
Mr Carlyle said: "They were swearing all the time, telling us to 'hurry up, get the money, get the cash'."
The trial judge, Lord Kinclaven, deferred sentence on unemployed McIvor, who has previous convictions for theft, for the preparation of a background report. He was remanded in custody.

Summary: A an has been convicted of taking part in an armed raid on a post office on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
###
Article: The ad triggered the devices to read out information about the burgers from online encyclopaedia Wikipedia.
However, somebody edited Wikipedia to describe the Whopper as the "worst hamburger product" and another added cyanide to the list of ingredients.
The BBC understands the ad was blocked.
Google did not publicly confirm this, saying only that it had "no involvement" in the campaign.
But Burger King confirmed to the BBC that after the first iteration of the ad was blocked, it ran a tweaked version on US TV.
According to a Burger King spokeswoman, the new ad was revoiced using a "different intonation" that bypassed the ban.
In the 15-second advert, a Burger King employee asks "OK, Google. What is the Whopper burger?"
The stunt has put Wikipedia in the spotlight after reports that Burger King's own marketing team edited the Whopper page shortly before the ad campaign.
The history of the page shows that changes were made on 4 April by Burger King Corporation. It edited the description of the product to include the lines "America's favourite burger" and "100% beef with no preservatives".
This change was quickly re-edited back to the original version.
Wikipedia has not responded to requests for comment.
Whether Burger King expected users to go on to make their own, less flattering edits is unclear but Emily Tan, technology editor at marketing news website Campaign, thinks it might have been aware such a reaction was likely.
"Burger King has a reputation as quite a provocative brand and the idea that users are hijacking a brand can charm and amuse people. There is a chance that Burger King expected this to happen," she said.
However, she thought it was less likely they expected the backlash from users about the intrusive nature of such adverts.
"People didn't like this invading their living rooms. Studies suggest that people feel quite close to these smart speaker devices, they become a personality, and when something you regard as your friend pipes up with information that you didn't ask for, that creeps people...

Summary: A Burger King TV advert which was designed to activate Google Home smart speakers and some Android phones to describe its Whopper burgers has been hijacked by members of the public.
###
Article: Writing in Nature, they say they have found 10 Jupiter-sized objects which they could not connect to any solar system. They also believe such objects could be as common as stars are throughout the Milky Way.
The objects revealed themselves by bending the light of more distant stars, an effect called "gravitational microlensing".
Objects of large enough mass can bend light, as Albert Einstein predicted. If a large object passes in front of a more distant background star, it may act as a lens, bending and distorting the light of that star so that it may appear to brighten significantly.
The researchers examined data collected from microlensing surveys of what is called the Galactic Bulge, the central area of our own Milky Way.
Using the data, they found evidence of 10 Jupiter-sized objects with no parent star detected within 10 Astronomical Units (AU). One AU is equivalent to the distance between our Earth and Sun.
Further analysis led them to the conclusion that most of these objects did not have parent stars.
Based on the number of such bodies in the area surveyed, the astronomers then extrapolated that such objects could be extremely common.
They calculated that they could be almost twice as common as "main-sequence stars" - such as our own Sun - which are still burning through their hydrogen fuel stock.
Co-author Takahiro Sumi, an associate professor at Osaka University in Japan, said these free-floating planets were "very common, as common as a regular star".
"The existence of free-floating planets like this is expected from planetary formation theory. What is surprising is how common they seem to be."
According to astronomical convention, planets orbit a star or stellar remnant, so if these objects do not have a host star, then they are not technically planets, even if they may have formed in the same way as what we call planets.
Indeed, the researchers hypothesise these objects were formed in a planetary disc, like the planets in our own Solar System, before gravitational forces ejected them from these...

Summary: An international team of astronomers claim to have found free-floating "planets" which do not seem to orbit a star.
###
Article: The two nations meet in a 2018 World Cup qualifier on Armistice Day, also known as Remembrance Day, when the United Kingdom remembers those who have lost their lives in war.
But Fifa, who are in charge of world football, say they do not allow any nations to have any political, religious or commercial messages on shirts.
They had turned down a request to allow England and Scotland's players to wear armbands with poppies on.
The FAs have now said that they will let their players wear the armbands anyway and will accept any punishment.
Poppies are worn by millions as a symbol to remember those who have lost their lives in war or been injured.
British Prime Minister, Theresa May, has said Fifa's refusal of players being allowed to wear poppies is "outrageous".
Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, she said: "Our football players want to recognise and respect those who have given their lives for our safety and security - I think it is absolutely right they should be able to do so."
The Football Association of Wales has also written to Fifa requesting permission to wear poppies on armbands during their game against Serbia in Cardiff on 12 November but has not yet said if it will ignore the ban.

Summary:


Sony has given up selling its line of Reader devices for e-books after failing to find a big enough market.

Article: Ashley Coe was working on a new solar plant for British Solar Renewables in Devon when a digger operating beneath the overhead cable caused the accident.
He suffered a serious brain injury and two other workers were also hurt, Exeter Crown Court heard.
Sub contractor Pascon was fined £35,000 for failing to manage the work safely.
Mr Coe was working for Walsall-based Pascon when the incident happened in March 2013 at Knockworthy Farm near Huntshaw.
The digger which struck the 33,000 volt cables was reversing while laying a cable in a trench and Mr Coe was helping to control the drum when he suffered the shock.
British Solar Renewables, of Butleigh, Somerset, admitted breaching the construction, design and management regulations by failing to ensure the safety of power cables.
Pascon admitted failing to plan, manage and monitor construction work adequately.
The court was told Mr Coe was left with mobility problems which prevented him from working again.  Fellow workers Malcolm Stewart and Andrew Capper suffered less serious injuries.
Simon Morgan, prosecuting, said the cables should have been protected by fencing, goal posts, and bunting to prevent vehicles operating beneath them and a banksman should have been used to ensure safe movement of plant.
BSR were fined £250,000 with £72,000 costs and Pascon were fined £35,000 with £25,000 costs.

Summary: A solar power company has been fined £250,000 after a worker suffered life-changing injuries when he received an electric shock from a high-power cable.
###
Article: Sky won five of the seven TV packages on offer, but paid 83% more than it did in the last auction three years ago.
However, shares in BT rose 3.65% after it paid £960m for two of the TV packages, 30% more than last time.
Analysts at Jefferies said the outcome had been "sobering" for Sky, but "reassuring" for BT.
Sky and BT paid a combined £5.136bn for the live TV rights deal - far in excess of what had been expected.
Jefferies said the deal would be "challenging to explain" to Sky shareholders.
"For Sky, a sobering result," Jefferies said. "Even with some claw back on costs/pricing, we expect [analyst] forecasts to move lower," it said.
The price Sky paid per year was about £330m more than City analysts had predicted.
Jefferies estimated that Sky would try to claw back about £200m a year through cost-cutting and £100m through incremental price rises.
Analysts estimate that Sky Sports has about five million subscribers, out of a total TV subscriber base of between 10.5 and 11 million people.
The BBC understands Sky plans to mainly fund its bid by taking costs out of its non-programming budget.
Sports and entertainment programming will not be affected, but areas such as customer services will find efficiencies by moving more online rather than being focused on call centres, for example.
Sky will also try to reduce the need for service visits by increasing the reliability of its set-top boxes, which are currently around 85% reliable, the BBC understands.
Subscribers are also likely to face some price rises, analysts believe.
Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown, said BT appeared to have got the better deal.
"Sky has paid dearly and is going to have to squeeze costs and customers to keep its finances on track," he said.
"BT has ended up with a good hand - Premiership, Champions League, FA Cup and European leagues, all for a fraction of the annual cost that Sky is paying for its Premiership position," he added.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme...

Summary: Sky's shares ended the day 2.2% lower after the company agreed to pay £4.1bn to show live Premier League football between 2016 and 2019.
###
Article: Naloxone was introduced in Northern Ireland in 2012 and is funded by the Public Health Agency (PHA) and Health and Social Care Board (HSCB).
The PHA said the medication was used 112 times, and 98 were "successful".
"That's 98 incidents when someone could have died but didn't thanks to naloxone being administered," the agency said.
The main risks for people who use heroin or other opioids are transmission of blood-borne viruses through sharing of injecting equipment, and accidental overdose.
Naloxone temporarily reverses the effects of overdose, allowing more time for emergency treatment.
It can quickly restore normal respiration to a person whose breathing has slowed or stopped as a result of overdosing with heroin or prescription opioid pain medications.
The 'Take Home Naloxone' programme was introduced in July 2012, as part of the Department of Health's strategy to reduce the harm related to substance misuse.
It comes in a pack containing syringes, and is supplied by the PHA to health trusts for distribution to homeless organisations, pharmacists, drug users and their carers.
Victoria Creasy, health and social wellbeing improvement senior officer at the PHA, said: "While only a very small portion of the population here use heroin or other opiate type drugs, those people who do are at a high risk of illness or death.
"It is therefore important that we look at ways that we can reduce the danger that these people face.
"Our priorities are to reduce these risks, through ensuring access to needle exchange services with trained staff, and providing access to naloxone.
"For the past five years, Take Home Naloxone has been available to anyone who is at risk of opiate overdose, through their local Trust Addiction Services or the Prison Service.
"By the end of March 2017, 1,250 packs had been supplied to those at risk."
She added: "The PHA is aware of 112 occasions when the Take Home Naloxone had been used to reverse an overdose, and of these 98 were successful; that's 98 incidents when someone could have died but...

Summary: A medication that reverses an overdose from opioids, including heroin, has helped prevent deaths in 98 potentially fatal overdoses in the past five years.
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Article: Code-named "Adeline", the system would see a booster's main engines fly themselves back to Earth after a launch.
The returned elements would then be refurbished and put on another mission.
Airbus says it has been working on the concept since 2010 and has even flight-tested small demonstrators.
Reporters were let into the Ariane production centre at Les Mureaux on the outskirts of Paris on Friday to inspect them.
The European aerospace giant is in a fierce multi-billion-dollar battle to defend the market position of Ariane, which has launched roughly half of all the large telecommunication satellites in orbit today.
Competitors such as America's SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) are also working towards making their rockets re-usable - an approach that is expected to drive down prices across the industry.
Airbus has recently begun development of its next-generation Ariane, and, in the present design, the recovery of components is not envisaged. But the company says the Adeline concept could be grafted on to this vehicle in due course.
"The current design for Ariane 6 is fixed. For its maiden flight in 2020, it will not change," explained Francois Auque, the head of space systems at Airbus Defence and Space.
"But it is absolutely normal that in parallel we begin to think about what will be the evolution of Ariane 6, because if we don't already pave the way for those evolutions we will not be in a position to implement them somewhere between 2025 and 2030."
The firm's engineers believe the basic Adeline idea could be incorporated into any liquid-fuelled launcher, however big or small.
It takes the form of a winged module that goes on the bottom of the rocket stack.
Inside are the main engines and the avionics - the high-value parts on all rockets.
The module would be integral to the job of lifting the mission off the pad in the normal way, but then detach itself from the upper-stages of the rocket once the propellants in the tanks above it were exhausted.
The Adeline module's next step would be re-entry...

Summary: Airbus, which leads the production of Europe's Ariane rocket, has developed a concept that could make future vehicles partially re-usable.
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Article: The military jet was heading for RAF Marham in Norfolk in July when it saw a Cessna C172 and dived 200ft (60m) underneath it to avoid it.
The UK Airprox Board report said Marham allowed the Typhoon to fly "into conflict" with the C172.
It said the C172 pilot had told RAF Marham of his plans to fly.
The near-miss happened in the skies near Fakenham shortly after 11:00 BST on 31 July.
The investigation report said Marham air traffic control air had not been able to detect the Cessna on the secondary surveillance radar (SSR) system it was using that day.
When the Cessna's pilot contacted them traffic information was not passed on to the Typhoon in time for the near-miss to be avoided.
The report classified the degree of risk of a collision as A, or high.
"The incident had just stopped short of an actual collision where safety margins had been reduced to the minimum," the report said.

Summary: An RAF Typhoon was allowed by air traffic control to fly too close to a private plane, causing a near-miss, investigators have concluded.
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Article: "We do not have plans to develop a successor Reader model at this time," the Japanese firm told the BBC.
The PRS-T3 was the last version made and will exist as long as supplies remain in Europe.
Earlier this year, Sony pulled out of selling e-books and directed its users in the US and Europe to the e-bookstore of rival Kobo.
North American customers using Sony Readers have been directed to buy books from Kobo since February this year, and European and Australian customers since May, a Sony spokeswoman said.
But users in Japan, Sony's home country, can continue to still get its line of Readers and access Sony's Reader Store.
The news was first reported by German site Lesen.
The dominance of Amazon's range of Kindles and the growing smartphone, tablet and so-called phablet market have made it hard for Sony's suite of e-readers and rivals like Nook to carve out a niche for themselves. According to The Bookseller, Amazon has around 90% of the dedicated e-reader market in the UK.
Canadian firm Kobo was bought by Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten, which is looking to grow its business globally in a bid to challenge Amazon.
The global market in dedicated e-readers peaked in 2011 with 23 million devices sold, but is expected to fall to 10 million by 2017 as phones and tablets eat into the overall market, according to the research consultancy Gartner.
Still, the sale of printed books will be outstripped by e-books by 2018, a report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers suggested.

Summary:


Council tax bills in England could cost an average of £200 more for band D properties by 2020, the Local Government Association has warned.

Article: The group, which refers to itself as Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, had not previously maintained an established online channel for its propaganda or any official social media presence in any language.
But on 18 January, an Arabic-language Twitter account purporting to be the official outlet for a new Boko Haram media group called Al-Urwah al-Wuthqa was launched and immediately promoted by key pro-IS media operatives.
Since then, the group has used the feed to publish a stream of propaganda, including several new videos, although there has been some disruption to its media activities following the suspension of the original account by Twitter.
The increased sophistication and organisation of the propaganda that followed the launch of the Twitter account bore signs of the influence of IS, which has honed its social media exploitation over the past year.
This appeared to indicate that the group may have been assisted by IS media operatives, or influenced by IS in an indirect way.
Boko Haram has followed the example of IS by publishing branded photographs of its militants and the areas under its control to illustrate its successes on the ground.
The Twitter feed has also been posting a stream of short statements about the group's activities, claiming operations in a timely manner, in the mould of Islamic State's one-line tweeted claims.
The videos released so far via the new Boko Haram Twitter account have been more slickly crafted than the group's standard grainy offerings, with professionally designed graphics and high-quality opening sequences.
This improvement and the use of multiple languages and well-presented subtitles - using English, Arabic, French and Hausa - suggested the group may have had outside help from IS media operatives.
Arabic-language jihadist anthems have also been used, one of which has been routinely used in IS propaganda.
The latest video, showing the beheading of two Nigerian "spies", bore remarkable similarities to IS beheading videos. The staging, slow motion techniques...

Summary: Following the launch of an official Twitter feed for the Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram in January, there have been multiple signs that the group's media operation has been influenced by the expansionist Islamic State (IS, formerly Isis or Isil).
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Article: The think tank uncovered an "inequality of opportunity" for children taking National 4 and 5s, which replaced the old standard grade exams in 2014.
Freedom of information requests found that some pupils were permitted to sit eight exams in S4, while others were limited to five.
The Scottish government said councils made their own decisions.
A spokesman said this ensured that they best met the needs of their pupils.
Reform Scotland said it was "ironic and disappointing" that Curriculum for Excellence reforms, brought in to broaden pupils' education, were in fact narrowing it and placing some young people at a disadvantage.
Keir Bloomer, a member of the Reform Scotland advisory board and chairman of the Commission on School Reform, said: "Our research shows that inequality of opportunity is now built into our examination system, not by the SQA but by decisions made mainly at council level.
"This is an unintended consequence of the way Curriculum for Excellence is being interpreted."
The research found while some local authorities imposed a blanket decision on the maximum number of exams across the council area, others allowed individual schools to decide.
Mr Bloomer, a former director of education at Clackmannanshire Council, said: "Decisions to reduce the number of subjects a student may sit seem to have been based on a crude calculation of the number of hours of study available in S4.
"However, this is effectively saying that nothing studied in earlier years counts towards the knowledge of the subject required for the exams."
He added: "This is not an issue of the preferences or ability of the student. Instead, it is a lottery based on the school a young person attends.
"The result is that a very able student at one school could emerge with fewer qualifications than a similarly-able student at a different school."
Scottish Conservative young people spokeswoman Liz Smith accused the SNP of "turning a blind eye" to inequalities in the exam system.
"It is not just national 4 and 5s that are suffering but highers...

Summary: Pupils face a "lottery" in the number of exams they can sit at Scottish schools, Reform Scotland has claimed.
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Article: The activity lets people roll down a hill in a large plastic ball.
Proposals for the centre, situated on Holyhead Road next to the Menai Strait, attracted 365 letters of objection, compared to 85 in support.
Anglesey council's planning committee met on Wednesday and was advised to refuse permission as it would have "a detrimental impact on the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty".
Members also agreed the impact on nearby listed buildings outweighed the economic and tourism benefits.
Plans included a zorbing run which would have been 640ft (195m) long and 39ft (12m) wide, the construction of a lodge and the demolition and rebuilding of a 590ft (180m) long stone wall.
Among the reasons given for refusal included the demolition of the stone wall, which would "result in the loss of a feature which contributes significantly to the appearance and character of this important sensitive location".
Zorb Snowdonia said it chose the site because "people want to visit beautiful areas".
Before the meeting, Anna Matthews from the company said plans fitted well for developments in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Summary: Controversial plans for an Anglesey zorbing centre have been refused.
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Article: Mr Pataki, who served as governor from 1995 to 2006, is positioning himself as a moderate in a heavily conservative field.
He joins seven other Republicans who have announced their campaigns, and several others who are expected to announce in the coming weeks.
After leaving the governor's office, he served as a UN delegate.
Mr Pataki launched a fundraising "super-Pac" earlier this year - a standard move for a politician considering running for America's highest office.
But his campaign was officially kicked off in a video posted to his website on Thursday morning.
In the video, titled George Pataki For President, he played up his role as a Republican governor in a state dominated by Democrats.
"Washington has grown too big, too powerful, too expensive and too intrusive," he said. "This is exactly what the founding fathers feared...It is time to stand up, protect our freedom and take back this government".
Amid thumping music, the campaign video pointed to his leadership during the attacks of 11 September 2001, and stressed that he would be a unifying candidate.
Since leaving elected office in the middle of the last decade, Mr Pataki has struck a moderate tone in the news media.
Could a former Republican governor from a large state who hasn't held public office in more than eight years have a shot at winning the Republican presidential nomination in 2016?
If the man's last name is Bush, the answer is yes. If it's Pataki, the odds are significantly longer.
So why does Jeb Bush of Florida consistently sit near the top of polls and dominate campaign fundraising, while George Pataki - the man who, along with Mayor Rudy Giuliani, became the face of New York's response to the September 11 attacks - barely move the needle?
There's the name, of course. But it's also likely the fact that Mr Pataki is part of a dying breed of Northeast Republican moderates who blend fiscal conservatism with social positions closer to those of the political left. He's in favour of same-sex marriage, supports legalised abortions and backs...

Summary: Former New York Governor George Pataki has entered the contest for the Republican presidential nomination.
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Article: Ministers feared protests might be so "widespread and powerful" that they could stop US cruise missiles from being based at RAF Greenham Common.
Newly-released files also show they were prepared for clashes between armed troops and objectors outside the base.
But they feared a public backlash if a protester was shot by US military.
To prevent that, Mrs Thatcher's ministers ordered British troops to be ready to tackle protesters as the American nuclear warheads were delivered in November 1983, documents released to the National Archives in Kew, west London, show.
The government worried it was losing the propaganda battle over nuclear weapons - particularly as 1983 was an election year.
At one point Foreign Secretary Francis Pym warned there was a risk of a mass movement and civil disobedience "so widespread and powerful that deployment of cruise would actually become difficult or impossible".
Ahead of a massive demonstration planned for Easter Monday, Mrs Thatcher's press secretary Bernard Ingham drew up a list of suggestions for getting media coverage and stealing some of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's thunder, files reveal.
They included photographs of Michael Heseltine visiting the Berlin Wall, and research on the many bank holiday activities which Mr Ingham thought were likely to be more popular than going on a CND demo.
Ideas included "motoring, watching football, racing, fishing... pigeon or whippet or tortoise racing".
There was also another suggestion which is redacted in the main copy of his memo in the file - a note says it has been "temporarily retained".
However, an unredacted copy of the same page appears elsewhere in the folder, from which it seems Mr Ingham's propaganda masterstroke was to release pictures of Prince William, then aged 10 months and on his first visit to Australia.
Mr Ingham's suggestion was acted on. When Prince Charles and Princess Diana landed at Alice Springs, a rather grumpy-looking William was duly brought down the aircraft steps by his nanny to be displayed to the...

Summary: Margaret Thatcher's senior aides used photos of a baby Prince William to try to distract attention from a 1983 anti-nuclear march, official papers reveal.
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Article: The claim comes after extra fundraising powers for councils were outlined in last week's government Spending Review.
But the LGA said councils would still face a combined shortfall of £6.8bn by the end of the Parliament.
The government said council tax was expected to be lower in real terms in 2020 than a decade earlier.
In the Spending Review, Chancellor George Osborne said local authorities responsible for adult social care would be allowed to increase council tax by 2% above existing limits.
By adding in the maximum new levies allowable without a referendum, the LGA estimated that Band D bills could cost an average of just under £200 more over the next five years.
It said this would not be enough, particularly as budgets continued to face new pressures such as those caused by an aging population.
Any shortfall might have to be made up by further increases to costs such as car parking charges, it added.
One senior councillor said councils were now also facing "a reckless gamble" of having to use cash reserves to fund services.
A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said: "In reality councils will have almost £200bn to spend on local services over the lifetime of this Parliament, a cash terms increase and a reduction of just 1.7% in real terms each year.
"The Spending Review offers a £3.5bn package for adult social care to ensure councils can support their older and most vulnerable residents, while at the same time council tax is expected to be less in 2019-20 in real terms than it was in 2010-11.
"With councils accounting for a quarter of all public spending it's right they continue to play their part in paying off the deficit."

Summary: