Mexico vigilantes clash with Knights Templar cartel in Michoacan
Local police are searched by the Self-Defence Council of Michoacan
A group of vigilantes in Mexico has seized the small town of Nueva Italia after clashing with alleged members of the Knights Templar drug cartel.
More than 100 men entered the town in western Michoacan state on Sunday morning and disarmed local police.
There were exchanges of fire with alleged gang members before the vigilantes occupied the town.
The vigilante group was set up by residents who say the army and the police have failed to protect them.
The Knights Templar has been fighting the New Generation cartel, from neighbouring Jalisco state, for control of criminal activities in the area.
Vigilantes, also known as self-defence groups or community police, have been active in several Mexican states.
Vigilantes in Nueva Italia say they are liberating the area from the cartels
The vigilantes arrived in pick-up trucks and larger vehicles
In Michoacan they control several towns. A few days ago they launched an offensive, occupying the towns of Paracuaro and Antunez.
They say they are advancing towards Apatzingan, the alleged headquarters of the Knights Templar gang.
Federal troops were nowhere to be seen during the invasion of Nueva Italia, according to the AP news agency.
In Paracuaro, local reports say they were initially backed by the local population.
But later, residents rioted and set fire to many of the vigilantes' vehicles in a failed attempt to expel them.
The self-defence groups have been accused of siding with the New Generation cartel. They deny any involvement.
Correspondents say the clashes in Michoacan will be a major challenge for President Enrique Pena Nieto, who was elected a year ago promising to boost the economy and reduce violence levels.
More than 70,000 people have died in drug related violence in the past six years.
Anti-government protesters have carried out their threat to bring the city to a standstill, as Jonathan Head reports
Protesters are blocking roads in parts of the Thai capital, Bangkok, in a bid to oust the government before snap elections on 2 February.
The protesters have built barricades and occupied key road junctions, and want to replace the government with an unelected "People's Council".
The government has deployed 18,000 security personnel to maintain order.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has offered to meet protest leaders to discuss potentially delaying the polls.
Protesters allege Ms Yingluck is a proxy for her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by the military in 2006 and is currently in self-imposed exile.
Thaksin-allied parties draw considerable support from rural voters and have won the last four elections.
But the protesters claim the Thaksin-allied parties' populist policies have created a flawed democracy. The main opposition party is now boycotting the 2 February polls.
Anti-government demonstrators have called on Ms Yingluck - who has urged protesters to respect the democratic process and use the February elections to choose the next government - to step down.
Thailand's election commission has called for the vote to be postponed to May.
But this is unlikely to satisfy the protesters, who want the Shinawatra family to be purged from politics, and a two-year period without elections in which an appointed committee would reform Thailand's political system, the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok reports.
At least eight people have been killed since the protests began late last year. On Saturday, at least seven people were injured when unknown gunmen opened fire on demonstrators at the main rally site in Bangkok.
On Sunday night, an unidentified gunman attacked demonstrators at a protest site, shooting at least one man, officials said.
Police said a gunman also fired shots at the opposition party headquarters in a separate incident, although no casualties were reported.
'People's revolution'
Thousands are reported to have turned out for Monday's demonstrations. Protesters say they intend to achieve what they are calling a shutdown of the capital.
Protester Darunee Suredechakul told AP news agency: "The government has to go. Reforms must be carried out."
"We don't want to see the same old corrupted politicians returning to power over and over again," she added.
Anti-government protesters are blocking key roads in Bangkok
Protesters, who want to replace the government with an unelected council, say they will shut Bangkok down
Some major roads were nearly completely empty on Monday
Seven major intersections have been blocked by the anti-government protest movement, which has erected stages and piles of sandbags across the roads, the BBC's Jonathan Head reports.
The government says it wants life to continue as normal through the shutdown and has ordered extra trains to run on the mass transit system and provided thousands of additional parking places outside the city centre, our correspondent adds.
Protesters also plan to surround key ministries and cut off their power supply in a bid to prevent them from functioning. About 150 schools have been told to close.
The protesters say they will remain in place for several days - but say they will not target public transport or the airports, which were closed for several days by anti-Thaksin protesters in 2008.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, who was formerly a senior opposition party politician, described the movement as "a people's revolution".
Ms Yingluck was "no longer prime minister" in the eyes of the demonstrators, he told reporters on Monday.
Coup fears
The government says it is deploying 8,000 soldiers and 10,000 police to keep order.
The military - which has carried out several coups in the past - has refused to rule out another one. Some fear an escalation of violence could lead to a military intervention.
The government has so far worked to avoid confrontation with the protesters.
Ms Yingluck had "ordered all police and military personnel to exercise utmost restraint and not to use all kinds of weapons in handling the protesters", the deputy prime minister said.
The political unrest is the worst to hit Thailand since the protests of 2010, which were against a government led by the current opposition party and left more than 90 people, mostly civilian protesters, dead.
The current protests began in November after Thailand's lower house passed a controversial amnesty bill which critics said could allow Mr Thaksin to return without serving time in jail for a corruption conviction. The bill was later rejected by the Senate.
Thailand remains bitterly divided over Mr Thaksin, one of the most polarising characters in Thai politics.
He is deeply unpopular with urban and middle class voters, but commands strong support in the rural communities his policies helped, with thousands of villages in north-east Thailand calling themselves "red villages" to indicate their loyalty to his party.
Are you in Bangkok? Are you at a protest? Please tell us your story using the form below.
Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you canupload here.
More than 2.4 million volunteers vaccinate some 170 million children in India during every immunisation round
India is marking three years since its last reported polio case, a landmark in the global battle against the disease.
It is seen as confirmation of one of India's biggest public health successes, achieved through a massive and sustained immunisation programme.
India's health minister hailed it as a "monumental milestone".
In 2012 the World Health Organisation removed India from the list of polio-endemic countries. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria remain on it.
The list refers to countries in which the virus is circulating freely and the transmission of the infectious disease has not been stopped.
Despite India's success, health experts fear a resurgence of polio in other parts of the world.
Last case
"This monumental milestone was possible due to unwavering political will at the highest level, commitment of adequate financial resources, technological innovation ... and the tireless efforts of millions of workers including more than 23 lakh (2.3 million) vaccinators," Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters.
The WHO is expected to formally certify India's polio-free status next month after testing its last samples.
"India has now set other important public health goals as a result of the confidence that the country has got from the successful eradication of polio," Nicole Deutsch, head of polio operations for the UN children's charity Unicef in India, told the AFP news agency, citing a new measles eradication goal.
Only one case of polio was recorded in 2011, down from 741 in 2009. It came from the eastern state of West Bengal in 2011 when an 18-month-old girl was found to have contracted the disease.
Rukshar Khatoon is now going to school and leads a "normal life" although she still suffers pain in her right leg, her doctors and parents told AFP.
"She can now stand on her feet and walk, but can't run. When her friends play, she remains a spectator," her father Abdul Shah said.
Mr Shah said it had been a "grave mistake" only to get his son vaccinated for polio, but not his two daughters.
After the eradication of smallpox in 1980, polio is the second disease in India that has been eliminated through immunisation.
Nearly 2.3 million volunteers vaccinate some 170 million children under five years of age in India during every round of immunisation.
Polio is capable of causing crippling disability or death within hours. It plagued societies in ancient times - and was present in more than 100 countries even in the 1980s, when it left 350,000 people paralysed each year.
Despite a quarter-century-long vaccination programme, experts fear it could make a comeback in countries riven by conflict.
Outbreaks in Syria and Somalia, where vaccination programmes have been disrupted, could hamper efforts to rid the world of the disease,
Polio immunisation efforts have been suspended in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan because of attacks by militants who see the campaign as a Western plot.
BBC correspondents say unless immunisation is re-started promptly, polio could infect more children, with a risk it could spread beyond Pakistan's borders to India.
Poliomyelitis has existed as long as human society, but became a major public health issue in late Victorian times with major epidemics in Europe and the United States. The disease, which causes spinal and respiratory paralysis, can kill and remains incurable but vaccines have assisted in its almost total eradication today.
This Egyptian stele (an upright stone carving) dating from 1403-1365 BC shows a priest with a walking stick and foot, deformities characteristic of polio. The disease was given its first clinical description in 1789 by the British physician Michael Underwood, and recognised as a condition by Jakob Heine in 1840. The first modern epidemics were fuelled by the growth of cities after the industrial revolution.
In 1916, New York experienced the first large epidemic, with more than 9,000 cases and 2,343 deaths. The 1916 toll nationwide was 27,000 cases and 6,000 deaths. Children were particularly affected; the image shows child patients suffering from eye paralysis. Major outbreaks became more frequent during the century: in 1952, the US saw a record 57,628 cases.
In 1928, Philip Drinker and Louie Shaw developed the "iron lung" to save the lives of those left paralysed by polio and unable to breathe. Most patients would spend around two weeks in the device, but those left permanently paralysed faced a lifetime of confinement. By 1939, around 1,000 were in use in the US. Today, the iron lung is all but gone, made redundant by vaccinations and modern mechanical ventilators.
A major breakthrough came in 1952 when Dr Jonas Salk (L) began to develop the first effective vaccine against polio. Mass public vaccination programmes followed and had an immediate effect; in the US alone cases fell from 35,000 in 1953 to 5,300 in 1957. In 1961, Albert Sabin (R) pioneered the more easily administered oral polio vaccine (OPV).
Despite the availability of vaccines polio remained a threat, with 707 acute cases and 79 deaths in the UK as late as 1961. In 1962, Britain switched to Sabin's OPV vaccine, in line with most countries in the developed world. There have been no domestically acquired cases of the disease in the UK since 1982.
By 1988, polio had disappeared from the US, UK, Australia and much of Europe but remained prevalent in more than 125 countries. The same year, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution to eradicate the disease completely by the year 2000.
The WHO Americas region was certified polio free in 1994, with the last wild case recorded in the Western Pacific region (which includes China) in 1997. A further landmark came in 2002, when the WHO certified the European region polio-free.
In 2012, Polio remains officially endemic in four countries - Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and India, which is on the verge of being removed from the list having not had a case since January 2011. Despite so much progress, polio remains a risk with virus from Pakistan re-infecting China in 2011, which had been polio free for more than a decade.
Park Christmas club savings thief Joanne Jones jailed for 18 months
The court heard Jones stole the money to buy drink for her abusive and alcoholic husband.
A mother-of-four who stole nearly £8,000 from a Christmas savings club in south Wales has been jailed for 18 months.
Joanne Jones, 36, admitted taking £7,734.90 from 19 people in Treharris at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court.
Jones, now living in Brixham, Devon, was a Park Group representative and had been collecting regular payments since January 2013.
The judge called her behaviour a "disgraceful breach of trust".
Jones had caused stress and anxiety to the people who took out the accounts, said Judge Richard Twomlow.
He added her clients "were people you knew or family members and their Christmases were seriously affected by why you did".
Families thought their money would be returned in vouchers to buy Christmas presents.
Clare Fear, defending, told the court Jones stole the money to buy drink for her abusive and alcoholic husband.
Jones was also ordered to pay a £100 victim surcharge.
Victims Joanne McLean, Sarah Courtney and Helena Kinglake spoke to BBC Wales outside court
After the hearing, victim Joanne McLean, who lost £900, said: "This caused unbelievable stress for everyone, we're devastated by it.
"She breached our trust, not just the money that's gone but she was supposed to be our friend, we lost somebody that was supposed to be our friend.
"She got what she deserved."
Another victim Sarah Courtney added: "I was relying on all that [money] and I had to save again then. It's a lot for me."
Helena Kinglake, who lost about £230, said outside court: "I felt the sentence was deserved. It was a really close friend, a really close-knit community, we all lived a stone's throw from each other and she broke our trust as a friend and as an agent.
"We're all victims, her children are victims, she's a victim. But at the end of the day she did commit the crime and she got the sentence that she deserved."
Jones' mother, Mary Cassidy, also attended the hearing.
"I had to be there for my daughter," she said.
"I was one of the victims, too... I love my daughter, love my grandkids, I feel sorry for the people of Treharris and I feel sorry for the kids. Joanne put her hands up and that's it."
Arthur Scargill faces £100,000 legal claim from NUM
Dan Johnson investigates the financial affairs of former miners' leader Arthur Scargill from the Miners' Strike to the present day
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is threatening to sue its former leader Arthur Scargill for £100,000, a BBC Inside Out investigation has found.
The money was paid to cover legal bills run up by the International Energy and Miners Organisation (IEMO), of which Mr Scargill is president.
The IEMO spent it recovering a loan of £29,500 given to former NUM chief executive Roger Windsor.
The NUM is also questioning other payments of over £600,000 to the IEMO.
In a statement to the BBC, Mr Scargill said the £29,500 the organisation recovered from Mr Windsor had been donated to the NUM and if costs were recovered, it would pay back more to the union.
Mr Scargill said the NUM agreed in 1990 to pay costs for the IEMO's legal action against Mr Windsor, who had still not paid the IEMO his total debt.
Accounts 'refused'
The NUM's legal action would also be against Alain Simon, general secretary of the Paris-based IEMO.
The BBC Inside Out programme says little is known about the role of the IEMO. No accounts have been published since 1993.
In 2010, the NUM's current president Chris Kitchen stopped subscription payments of £20,000 a year to the IEMO, which had been paid since 1985 and totalled more than £464,000.
NUM president Chris Kitchen said he was refused access to the IEMO's accounts
"The trouble happened when I was asked to justify paying that amount of money and I asked for sight of accounts from the IEMO and was refused to be given them," he told the BBC.
"It's difficult, you can't justify expenditure if you can't know what it's been put to."
Mr Scargill said the NUM had breached its own conference decision when it stopped the payments.
He said the IEMO's accounts had always been presented in accordance with the instructions of its congress.
Meanwhile, the NUM is also asking questions about a one-off payment of £145,000 paid to the IEMO shortly before Mr Scargill retired from the NUM in 2002. The union's national executive committee was never consulted.
Mr Scargill said the payment was a grant and because it was made by an NUM trust fund, it did not need to be reported to the union's national executive committee.
Since he stepped down as NUM president 12 years ago, there have been many questions about the way Mr Scargill ran the union and especially what he did with its money.
The union's bosses discovered they were still paying £30,000 a year in rent for his London flat.
Documents arising from the case show that Mr Scargill, a fierce opponent of Margaret Thatcher, tried to use her "right-to-buy" legislation for council tenants when he made an application in 1993 to buy the Barbican flat at a discounted price.
Mr Scargill said the proposal, if accepted, would have been put to the NUM's national executive committee, and the flat would then have been transferred to the ownership of the NUM.
Other documents included a letter apparently from NUM vice-president Frank Cave setting out Mr Scargill's entitlement to remain in the Barbican flat at the NUM's expense for life. Mr Cave died of cancer a month after the letter was written.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Underhill said it was very unlikely Mr Cave had written the letter. There had been "a lack of transparency" in Mr Scargill's dealings, and he had been "prepared to be economical with the truth".
The judge said: "I believe he suffers to a high degree from the common tendency to reconstruct his recollection in a manner favourable to himself."
Mr Scargill said he played no part in writing the letter but, after an amendment to the letter made in Mr Scargill's own handwriting was produced in evidence, Mr Justice Underhill ruled against him.
Mr Scargill said he stood by his evidence, and that the judge "inexplicably disregarded" other evidence in the case, indicating Mr Cave had been "alert, aware and orientated" right up to the time of his death.
Watch the full Inside Out report on BBC One at 19:30 GMT on Monday 13 January or via the BBC iPlayer for seven days after initial broadcast.
Theories about the cannon's origins include a ship from the Napoleonic wars blown off course or a merchant ship caught in a storm
Two Georgian cannon have been uncovered on a beach in Porthcawl following the recent storms.
The cannon are approximately 5ft (1.5m) and 3ft (0.9m) in length.
One of the cannon, which were found on Pink Bay by two dog walkers, needed a team of around 17 lifeboat crew members, coastguards and local lifeguards to move it from the beach.
Porthcawl Museum will now work on preserving the find and carry out research into their history.
Carl Evans from Porthcawl RNLI was one of the team involved in the removal last Friday evening.
He said the recent stormy weather had washed away a lot of the sand from the beach.
Wheelbarrow
"Somebody was walking along the beach and saw the bit of metal and when they moved some stones they found the cannon.
"Paul Joseph from Porthcawl Museum went down there and found two cannon next to each other.
"He managed to get the 3ft cannon from the beach in a wheelbarrow.
The cannon was found on the beach by a walker
The cannon will have to be kept in salt water to preserve it
"With the 5ft one he called me to see if we could move it and some some members of the lifeboat crew, the coastguard and Rest Bay lifeguards came along.
"We managed to move it using the trailer from the lifeguard hut."
Mr Evans said the cannon was too heavy for six of them to lift.
At one stage, because of sand erosion, the team had to take it in turns to help lift the trailer over a 30ft (10m) stretch of rocks in front of the slipway.
Museum staff believe the cannon date from around the end of the 18th Century or the early 19th Century.
Ceri Joseph, a historian at the museum, told BBC Wales: "It's an incredible find for this area because it's a very rare piece of marine archaeology that we've never had before.
"We have got pieces from last century but this is quite something.
"We know there are wrecks off the coast here. At the moment we don't know if it's French or British.
"If it was a Navy ship, it could be that it was taking men from Bristol to Ireland.
"It could be from the Napoleonic war blown off course or it could just be a merchant ship caught in a storm, because of course in those days they would have carried cannon for protection."
Remains found in search for student Yulia Solodyankina 'not suspicious'
Yulia Solodyankina went missing ahead of her graduation
Police have said there appear to be no suspicious circumstances in connection with human remains found in Argyll last week.
The discovery, near Arrochar, has been linked to the search for 22-year-old Russian student Yulia Solodyankina.
The Edinburgh University physics student was reported missing in June of last year.
Police Scotland said formal identification has still to take place and DNA tests are to be carried out.
A spokesman added: "Inquiries are continuing and no further information is available at this time.
"However, there appear to be no suspicious circumstances in connection with the death."
Ms Solodyankina was last spotted at Glasgow's Buchanan Street bus station on 7 June.
Her parents made an emotional appeal after she disappeared, describing their daughter as "our life".
Based on previous trips Ms Solodyankina had made, detectives believed she boarded a bus in Buchanan Street, with the most likely destination the Highlands or Argyll.
Darren Murphy jailed for killing John Morrison in Glasgow
Mr Morrison died after being found in Glasgow's Argyle Street
A man who killed a former leader of East Dunbartonshire Council with a single punch days before Christmas has been jailed for five years.
Darren Murphy, 25, hit John Morrison in the face in Dunlop Street, Glasgow, on 22 December 2012, causing him to fall over and hit his head.
Murphy then left the 50-year-old lawyer in the street to go to a nightclub.
He claimed to have acted in self defence but was convicted of culpable homicide at the High Court in Glasgow.
Jailing him, temporary judge Norman Ritchie QC told Murphy: "Fatefully John Morrison's journey home that night crossed the route taken by you and your friends.
"It is not entirely clear what caused the altercation, but it is pretty certain it was not much."
The judge said Murphy's decision to confront his victim was "without proper reason".
Murphy looked ashen-faced as he was lead handcuffed to the cells. Many of his friends and family broke down in tears.
Mr Morrison - the former Lib-Dem leader of East Dunbartonshire Council - was attacked in the early hours of 22 December 2012.
The lawyer had earlier been on a festive night out with colleagues from Glasgow City Council, where he worked as a legal manager.
CCTV footage
His friend and workmate Jennifer McMartin told the jury: "He was in really good form that night.
"He said he was in a good place in his life both professionally and personally having met his partner David."
A jury rejected Darren Murphy's claim that he acted in self defence
The court was shown CCTV of footage of Mr Morrison later in the city's Argyle Street, close to the St Enoch Centre.
Murphy and his friends were in the same area heading to the Arches Nightclub.
Murphy's friend Samantha Mulgrew claimed during the trial that Mr Morrison, of Milngavie, suddenly appeared next to her mumbling, which gave her a "fright".
For some reason, Murphy and his group then turned on the solicitor.
CCTV showed the group heading towards him before one pushed Mr Morrison as he appeared to be walking away.
Seconds later - and out of shot - 6ft 1in tall Murphy then punched Mr Morrison in the face.
Murphy then carried on to the nightclub.
Mr Morrison died in the street despite medics coming to his aid.
The ferocity of the blow had also broken his eye socket and nose.
'Proper punch'
Ms Mulgrew later told police that he had landed a "proper punch" on the ex-council leader.
But, during the trial, Murphy, of the city's Bridgeton area, denied he had punched Mr Morrison - instead claiming he had "hit him with a palm" to get him away.
Murphy insisted he had "felt threatened" by Mr Morrison that night.
He then claimed he did not know Mr Morrison was seriously hurt at the time - but when he later discovered he had died he "felt sick".
The court also heard Murphy demanded that friend Graeme Thomson did not tell police he had punched the lawyer.
Boyd Douglas of TUV apologises to Sinn Féin's Anne Brolly
Anne Brolly took libel action against Boyd Douglas
A unionist councillor has issued a High Court apology to a Sinn Féin member for defaming her in a radio interview.
Boyd Douglas will also pay legal costs to Anne Brolly as part of a settlement reached in her libel action.
Mr Douglas, a Traditional Unionist Voice member of Limavady council, was sued over remarks he made in June 2011.
His comments came after a meeting of the council, on which Mrs Brolly also sits, was disrupted due to a union flag being displayed in the chamber.
Proceedings were brought against both Mr Douglas and the BBC.
In court on Monday, counsel for Mrs Brolly confirmed that both parts of the case have been fully settled.
Judgment was given for the BBC with no order for costs.
Mr Justice Gillen was also told the action against Mr Douglas had been resolved, with an apology then read out in court.
The agreed statement said: "In the course of a discussion on the Good Morning Ulster programme, broadcast by BBC Radio Ulster on 14th June, 2011, Boyd Douglas made remarks which were defamatory of Anne Brolly.
"It is accepted by Boyd Douglas that the remarks were wholly untrue.
"He unreservedly withdraws the allegations and apologises for the distress which they caused Anne Brolly."
Neither councillor was in court for the settlement.
However, Mrs Brolly's barrister added that an agreed sum in legal costs is to be paid by Mr Douglas.
In this footage, you can see a fish leaping from the water in the background and successfully catching a bird
African tigerfish have been filmed catching swallows in flight by scientists.
Some species of fish are known to feed on stationary birds but experts say this is the first evidence of one catching birds on the wing.
Tigerfish are a predatory freshwater species that are best known for their large, razor-sharp teeth.
The behaviour was filmed at Schroda Dam, a man-made lake in Limpopo Province, South Africa.
Researchers from the Water Research Group of North West University, South Africa, described their findings in the Journal of Fish Biology.
"The African tigerfish is one of the most amazing freshwater species in the world," said Prof Nico Smit, co-author of the study.
"It is a striking fish with beautiful markings on the body, bright red fins and vicious teeth."
The fish, Hydrocynus vittatus, is known as a voracious predator and according to Prof Smit, its characteristic jump makes it a favourite species for freshwater anglers.
It is a protected species in South Africa and Prof Smit and colleagues were conducting a study into how it uses different habitats in Schroda Dam.
Using radio tags to monitor the movements of individual fish, researchers found that they primarily fed on other fishes at dawn and dusk and withdrew to rest in deep, sheltered areas during the day.
But during a summer survey, the team recorded some unusual activity. The tigerfish swam out to open water in the mid-morning and were seen preying on swallows as they skimmed over the lake's surface.
Prof Smit said the team were "extremely surprised" by the behaviour which they were able to capture on film.
The fish have impressively sharp teeth
In the past, anecdotal evidence of birds disappearing as they flew over African lakes and pools has suggested that fish could be catching them for food but nothing conclusive had been recorded.
Bass, eels, piranhas and pike have all been acknowledged as freshwater species that prey on birds floating on the surface of the water or by the water's edge, but Prof Smit says this is the first record of freshwater fish catching birds in flight.
He suggested that the findings will change how scientists think about how energy transfers in freshwater eco-systems - and may also have implications for swallow conservation in the country.
By Angela Harrison Education correspondent, BBC News
Nine out of 10 new graduates are in work
A survey of 100 big employers suggests they are planning to increase the number of new graduates they take on this year.
The study, by High Fliers Research, says there will be a 9% rise in this recruitment - about 1,400 extra jobs.
Many of the jobs will go to people who have already worked for the organisations, either on work experience or placement, it suggests.
Previous forecasts have been less optimistic.
According to the study, the increase in what is known as entry-level graduate employment is the biggest in four years among this group of employers.
Average starting salaries are £29,000 a year, with higher amounts being paid by investment banks (£45,000) and law firms (£39,000).
Among the highest starting salaries for this year are at the European Commission and the supermarket chain Aldi, both offering rates of about £41,000.
'Significant increase'
The study says two-thirds of the employers are offering "paid work-experience programmes" for students and recent graduates, with more than 11,000 paid placements this year for first and second-year undergraduates.
In all, 37% of this year's entry-level positions are set to be taken by people who have already worked with the organisations in some capacity.
The largest recruiters of graduates in 2014 will be the charity Teach First, which takes on top graduates to be trained as teachers. It has 1,550 vacancies.
It is followed by financial services groups PwC (1,200 vacancies) and Deloitte (1,000 vacancies).
Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research, said: "This very significant increase in graduate vacancies at Britain's top employers means the job prospects for graduates leaving university this year are the best they've been since the start of the recession seven years ago."
A study last year from the Association of Graduate Recruiters was less optimistic, forecasting a 4% fall in graduate vacancies.
Nationally, about one person in 10 is believed to be out of work six months after leaving university, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa).
Among those who graduated in 2012, average wages were £21,000 a year for men and £19,000 for women.
About a third were working in sectors that did not require a degree, according to Hesa.
Are you a recent graduate or will you be leaving education this year? What has your job search been like? Did you do a work placement? You can send us your experiences using the form below.
Police say ambulance service putting demand on its resources
By Laurence CawleyBBC News
Essex Police Federation's Mark Smith said those who could have improved the situation, had not
Police in Essex have had to take patients to hospital when ambulances fail to show up more than 180 times in the past year, it has emerged.
When BBC News revealed police concerns about ambulance delays a year ago, police and the ambulance service said they did not record such incidents.
But figures obtained by the BBC show in 2013 Essex Police took 185 patients to hospital.
The East of England Ambulance Service said it needed more staff.
The worst month last year was March, when 22 patients were conveyed to hospital because of "excessive ambulance delays" or "no shows". In July, there were 20 such occasions and 21 in October.
The figures also show there were 121 incidents recorded as "excessive delays" in ambulances arriving at emergency incidents and 83 episodes classed as "inappropriate ambulance requests" of the police force.
Inappropriate requests, said Mark Smith, chairman of the Essex Police Federation, included the ambulance service calling the police with concerns about a violent person at the scene of an emergency.
'It's embarrassing'
But when police arrive, said Mr Smith, this is occasionally not the case and the police were not needed.
"This has been going on for more than a year now and those who can change it, haven't.
"We are talking about people who really need to go to hospital, such as those involved in very serious road traffic accidents."
He said he was "concerned" at the situation because officers were not only unable to do their policing duties when taking people to hospital but were ill-equipped to step in for paramedics.
He stressed he did not blame the front-line paramedics for the problem.
Tony Hughes, the GMB ambulance organiser for the eastern region, said: "We have heard about it and are obviously concerned, because the police aren't there to deal with those types of injuries and conditions.
"Our members don't tell us about it that often because it's embarrassing for them, having to rely on police officers.
"The police are there to do a totally different job. In the East of England Ambulance Service there just aren't enough staff to keep up with the demand that's there."
'Going to take time'
A spokesman for Essex Police said the force was "concerned" at the "increasing demand moving from the ambulance service onto police resources".
He said: "We monitor incidents of this nature closely and it is correct to say that incidents have increased slightly over the past 12 months."
A spokesman for the ambulance service said: "We recognise we do not currently have sufficient ambulances to respond to all emergency calls as quickly as we need to.
"Be assured that our staff are already working as hard has as they can, but we simply need more of them in order to improve our response times.
"It continues to be the case that we do not record the number of times when we are 'stood down' from an incident by other 999 colleagues on scene, which is when we are dealing with the call but are told we are no longer required. Instead, when this has happened, it is noted within the incident record."
The service said regular meetings were held with police and the fire service.
"As our new chief executive Anthony Marsh has made clear," the spokesman said, "priorities will focus on increasing front-line staffing on ambulances by recruiting student paramedics, qualified paramedics and technicians, and graduate paramedics.
"That is going to take time, but the process has already started."
Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer turned the game show format on its head with the surreal show Shooting Stars - and now the comedy duo are back. This time in a sitcom, filmed in front of a live studio audience.
'House of Fools' is set in Bob's house - with Vic playing the long term and mostly unwanted guest. Vic whose real name is Jim Moir joined BBC Breakfast to talk about the new show and why he enjoys performing in front of a live studio audience.
Anonymous online critics must be identified, says court
Directory and review site Yelp was founded in 2004
Users who have posted negative comments on the online review site Yelp must be identified, a US court has ordered.
The case involved the owner of a carpet-cleaning business who told the court bad reviews written about his company were not from real customers.
The court said anonymous users were not protected by the First Amendment, which allows free speech, if the review "is based on a false statement".
Lawyers for Yelp said they were disappointed with the ruling.
Joe Hadeed, who owns Hadeed Carpet Cleaning, which is based in Virginia, told the court seven users had left anonymous negative feedback about his business on Yelp.
His lawyers issued proceedings, demanding that Yelp reveal the names of the anonymous posters.
'False statement'
A court in Virginia ruled that Yelp had to comply as Mr Hadeed had provided "sufficient reason" for it to think the users might not have been customers and therefore would not be protected by freedom of speech laws.
In a statement, the judge said: "Generally, a Yelp review is entitled to First Amendment protection because it is a person's opinion about a business that they patronised."
He added that users had the right to express themselves anonymously without fear of being identified just because another person disagreed with them.
However, the statement went on to say: "If the reviewer was never a customer of the business, then the review is not an opinion; instead the review is based on a false statement."
In these circumstances the reviewer would not be entitled to anonymity, he said.
A lawyer representing Yelp said that Mr Hadeed had done nothing to justify the need to identify the anonymous reviewers.
"It's going to make it more difficult for the marketplace of ideas to get valuable information about companies," said Paul Levy.
Vince Sollitto, a spokesman for Yelp, said in a statement that other states in the US had "adopted strong protections in order to prevent online speech from being stifled by those upset with what has been said" and that Yelp was urging the state of Virginia to do the same.
"We are disappointed that the Virginia Court of Appeals has issued a ruling that fails to adequately protect free speech rights on the internet, and which allows businesses to seek personal details about website users — without any evidence of wrongdoing — in efforts to silence online critics," Mr Sollitto said.
Yelp allows users to post reviews about local businesses but warns that users will be breaking its content guidelines if they write a fake, or defamatory review. It says 47 million reviews have been written on its site since it started in 2004.
Conservatives will fight for EU reform, says William Hague
William Hague said he had never changed his views on the European Union
William Hague has insisted the Conservative leadership is "putting the case for a reformed Europe", despite rejecting a call by MPs for national parliaments to get a veto over EU laws.
The 95 Tory MPs want each state to be able to impose a "red card" if rules hurt the national interest.
The foreign secretary said this was impractical, as "common rules" had to be followed by all 28 EU members.
But he said national parliaments needed to have a "bigger role".
The Conservative leadership has promised that, if the party wins a majority at the next general election, voters will get an "in-out" referendum on EU membership before the end of 2017. This would follow a renegotiation of the UK's relationship with Brussels.
The commitment follows concerns over the direction the EU is taking - with eurozone countries becoming further integrated - and the effects of free movement of people across member countries.
'Common ground'
Meanwhile, the pro-European cabinet minister Ken Clarke has told the Financial Times that immigrants make the UK "far more exciting and healthier", dismissing claims that EU membership has caused "vast migrations" of foreigners.
The minister without portfolio also criticised "rightwing, nationalist escapism", which he said was informing debate on the issue.
The idea of a red card for of the EU's 28 national parliaments, proposed by the 95 MPs, was first put forward by the Commons European Scrutiny Committee last month.
In the letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, the MPs said the move would enable the government to "recover control over our borders, to lift EU burdens on business, to regain control over energy policy and to disapply the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights".
Mr Hague told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We do want to have a much bigger role for national parliaments. It's common ground in the Conservative Party and in the country that the powers of the European Union have increased too much, are too great and need to be diminished."
He added that a red-card system would "be part of the British position", but this would rely on groups of countries getting together to act - rather than individual member states having a veto.
Mr Hague said: "What you can't have in any system that relies on some common rules is each of the parliaments saying 'We are not going to abide by this or that arrangement'."
The foreign secretary, regarded as a Eurosceptic, also told Today: "I've never changed my view, which I characterise as in Europe but not run by Europe."
He said: "We are engaged in a negotiation process now... we are putting the case for a reformed Europe."
Asked about Mr Clarke's comments on immigration, Mr Hague said of people within the EU: "They should be able to move for work but not to take advantage of benefits systems."
Former Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, who also served as the EU's competition commissioner, told Today he agreed with Mr Hague, adding that "a country like the UK in practice relies heavily on a functioning single market across Europe".
He said: "If all parliaments and all member states were to be able to tear through small bits or big bits of the single-market legislation, then this would be a patchwork, not a market.
"One of the countries that would suffer most would be the UK."
A survey has suggested that more people think Britain should stay in the EU but try to reduce its powers (38%) than want to leave (28%).
The poll of more than 2,000 people for think tank British Future also found that people thought migrants who came to the UK from other European countries should learn English (69%), get a job and pay taxes (64%) and not claim benefits (48%).
Treasury says Scotland debt guarantee to 'calm jitters'
13 January 2014 Last updated at 12:24 GMT
The Treasury says it will honour all UK government debt issued up to the date of the referendum on Scottish independence.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said the guarantee was designed to calm market jitters about Scotland's ability to service its share of the debt.
But he added that an independent Scotland would still be expected to pay its "fair share".
Australian Open 2014: Andy Murray relaxed and pain free
At the start of an Australian Open which he does not expect to win, there is still a glow of self-confidence about Andy Murray.
He looks and talks like a man who is comfortable in his own skin, and with much to look forward to now that he is playing without pain for the first time in years.
A springtime clay court tour of Europe may yet be the ultimate test of his renovated back, but the signs are that the surgery he had in September has been something of a triumph for the Wimbledon champion.
And if he fails to reach a fourth Australian Open final in five years, or even make much impact in the second week, then so be it. Match sharpness takes time to build, and the benefits of an extended and gruelling winter training block in Miami will not truly be felt until a little later in the year.
Many great champions have a period where injury or illness denies them their best form. Rafael Nadal's left knee has often failed to offer him the support he needs, and Novak Djokovic - who had to wait three years for his second Grand Slam title - was dogged by asthma and allergies which only cleared up after he switched to a gluten and dairy-free diet.
Murray certainly has not written off the Australian Open and says that expectations can change during a Grand Slam. But he has played only two tour-level matches since September's Davis Cup tie in Croatia and one of those was in Doha against a Qatari wildcard ranked outside the world's top 2,000.
His back is not aching, but the rest of his body is and he says the pressure of playing in front of large crowds at Grand Slam level will tire him out even more. He believes aspects of his game have deteriorated in the absence of competitive action.
"Decision making - understanding how to play certain stages and certain points in the match [is one]," he told BBC Sport.
"Movement and anticipation can also take a bit of time to get used to again, and then here we are going to be playing in 40 degree heat so you can't prepare for that. It doesn't matter who you are - it's going to be horrible."
Four days of 40 degree heat are forecast from Tuesday and the connections of the world's elite will be doing all they can to make sure their player is not asked to play in the full glare of the afternoon sun.
A favourable early draw should allow Murray to clock up some miles in the first week, at which point life would get significantly tougher. He could run into last week's Auckland winner John Isner in the fourth round, Roger Federer or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals and then the world number one Nadal in the last four.
If Murray's back stays strong, then he has little to lose here in Melbourne. He is already a Wimbledon,US Open and Olympic champion and could be very hard to live with on the quicker surfaces of Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows later in the year.
For a man not renowned for his box of animated expressions, he has been in almost boisterous mood this week. He was very chatty before the BBC camera started rolling, and gave Heather Watson a big fist pump to celebrate her qualification as she sat in the interviewee's chair.
He confessed that his partner Kim has not received as many bunches of flowers as she perhaps deserves, and admitted that - in the early days of their relationship - he was trying to impress Ivan Lendl in the way you would a new girlfriend.
The Wimbledon champion is ready to return to the fray, knowing he could not have worked harder to get himself in the best physical shape possible for the first Grand Slam of the year.
Isn't this a free country , seems to be all the rubbish we allow in , so surely we can comment how we like
Comment number 67.
SA 7 Minutes ago
Come on Andy!!
Comment number 66.
toffeeapple 15 Minutes ago
I see the trolls are out in force again hiding behind computer screens
Best of luck to Andy! Quarter finals will be a good achievement considering the length of time he has been out
Comment number 65.
Mike 21 Minutes ago
Lot of touchy people on here NorthernApe , they don't like it because the truth hurts , he is nothing but a spoilt throw my toys out of my pram Scot , when he's losing you just watch him lose his temper , like I stated earlier The Truth Hurts
Comment number 64.
Andrina Millman 25 Minutes ago
Wish Andy the very best of luck . Hope he plays well and has a good run of matches - most of all hope that the surgery he had last year has resolved the problems he was sufffering with his back.
Local police are searched by the Self-Defence Council of Michoacan 
Vigilantes in Nueva Italia say they are liberating the area from the cartels 
The vigilantes arrived in pick-up trucks and larger vehicles 
Comment number 68.
Mike6 Minutes ago
Isn't this a free country , seems to be all the rubbish we allow in , so surely we can comment how we like
Link to this (Comment number 68)
Comment number 67.
SA7 Minutes ago
Come on Andy!!
Link to this (Comment number 67)
Comment number 66.
toffeeapple15 Minutes ago
I see the trolls are out in force again hiding behind computer screens
Best of luck to Andy! Quarter finals will be a good achievement considering the length of time he has been out
Link to this (Comment number 66)
Comment number 65.
Mike21 Minutes ago
Lot of touchy people on here NorthernApe , they don't like it because the truth hurts , he is nothing but a spoilt throw my toys out of my pram Scot , when he's losing you just watch him lose his temper , like I stated earlier The Truth Hurts
Link to this (Comment number 65)
Comment number 64.
Andrina Millman25 Minutes ago
Wish Andy the very best of luck . Hope he plays well and has a good run of matches - most of all hope that the surgery he had last year has resolved the problems he was sufffering with his back.
Link to this (Comment number 64)
Comments 5 of 68