Sinkhole opens up on Detroit street
20 January 2014 Last updated at 07:56 GMT
Work is underway to repair a sinkhole which has opened up on a street in Detroit.
Verity Wilde reports.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Bopara support for captain Cook
Alastair Cook: Ravi Bopara gives support for England captain
England all-rounder Ravi Bopara has backed Alastair Cook to continue as the side's captain in both the Test and one-day format of the game.
Cook said he could resign as skipper of the limited overs team after an ODI series loss to Australia following a 5-0 Ashes Test defeat.
"I would love for him to carry on and do both formats," said Bopara.
"I do believe that your best player should be your captain and I still believe that he is our best player."
More to follow.
Climate change and EU energy challenges
20 January 2014 Last updated at 09:57 GMT 
Gavin Hewitt Europe editor 
Germany has ambitious and expensive targets for renewable energy as nuclear is phased out 
US energy giant Chevron is exploring for shale gas at Pungesti, in Romania Moving targets
Gavin Hewitt Europe editor Climate change and EU energy challenges
Germany has ambitious and expensive targets for renewable energy as nuclear is phased out This week sees one of the EU's big announcements. On Wednesday it will set out its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and for increasing the use of renewables like solar panels and wind power.
It is a major moment because the EU has long regarded itself as the leader when it comes to addressing climate change. There are signs, however, that its early ambition may be hard to sustain.
These new proposals will replace the current 2020 strategy. By that date the target is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, for renewables to make up 20% of energy use and for energy efficiency to increase by a similar amount. There are some signs of success. By the end of 2012 the EU had cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 18%. By 2020 that figure might have reached nearly 25%.
But before judging these latest proposals it is worth stepping back and noting some key developments of recent years that have changed calculations.
Europe under pressureIn late 2009 the EU saw the UN Copenhagen summit on climate change as a chance to occupy centre stage. The EU had suggested $150bn (£91bn; 111bn euros) was needed each year up to 2020 to help the developing world cope with climate change. But when it came to the big decisions the EU was bypassed.
A deal was done between the two big carbon emitters - the United States and China - with countries like India and Brazil looking on. It was a cautionary tale and as a consequence we hear less about the EU leading the world.
Secondly, the eurozone crisis: European real GDP per capita today is still below what it was in 2007. Europe is chasing elusive growth. That is its priority.
Thirdly, Angela Merkel's U-turn. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011 the German chancellor took an usually swift decision: Germany moved away from nuclear power and bet its future on renewables.
Fourthly, energy costs. They are at least 25% lower in the United States, which has embraced fracking and the exploitation of shale gas. However concerned Europe is with climate change it also has to lower its energy costs and become more competitive.
So Europe in 2014 finds itself in a different place. Climate change arguably has become a more pressing challenge.
US energy giant Chevron is exploring for shale gas at Pungesti, in Romania The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that, despite international efforts, emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases grew between 2000 and 2010. Even so, the question which will arise this week is this: is the Europe of today less ambitious, is it more constrained by current economic realities and less evangelical in its carbon-cutting zeal?
So to the targets for 2030. The European Parliament and others are pushing for a binding target of cutting CO2 emissions by 40%. It may end up lower. The EU Energy Commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, is proposing 35%.
Then there is renewable energy. Germany, having decided to close its nuclear reactors, is pushing strongly for a binding target of 30% by 2030. The higher the target the better it is for those German industries investing in renewable technology.
But some other countries like France and Britain are very reluctant to have their energy mix determined by Berlin. Both countries see nuclear power as a key element in cutting emissions.
So it may be that the target ends up lower than 30% and not enforceable by sanctions.
And this is where the economic reality bites. Subsidies for renewable energy are a factor in keeping energy prices high, which is not good for Europe's exporters.
Then there is energy efficiency. Some are pushing for a target of 40%. Even the current target is not legally enforceable and some, like the UK, argue that the only target that really matters is greenhouse gas reduction.
On the journey towards cleaner energy there are many differences, although the need to move forward is not disputed. Many meetings over many months lie ahead to determine what the ambition is for 2030.
And this week we will learn whether Europe is still determined to set the pace when it comes to climate change and whether Europe, desperate to be competitive, can drive down its energy costs.
Snowden 'may have had Russian help'
20 January 2014 Last updated at 11:15 GMT 
Moscow granting Mr Snowden asylum was no coincidence, a senior US lawmaker says
Edward Snowden 'may have been working with Russia'
Moscow granting Mr Snowden asylum was no coincidence, a senior US lawmaker says US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden may have collaborated with Russia, the chairman of the US House Intelligence Committee has alleged.
"I believe there's a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms, of an agent in Moscow," Rep Mike Rogers told CBS's "Face the Nation" programme.
Mr Rogers offered no firm evidence to back his theory, and the FBI is said to remain sure Mr Snowden acted alone.
Mr Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia.
The former National Security Agency contractor faces espionage charges over his actions, but denies turning over documents to any foreign government.
'We don't know'Mr Rogers - a Republican who represents Michigan - told NBC that some the things Mr Snowden did were "beyond his technical capabilities".
It appeared "he had some help and he stole things that had nothing to do with privacy", such as large amounts of data on the US military, Mr Rogers alleged.
And it would cost the US "billions and billions" to put right its capabilities following the intelligence breaches, he said.
"I don't think it was a gee-whiz luck event that he ended up in Moscow under the handling of the FSB," he added, referring to the Russian state security organisation.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Californian Democrat who heads the Senate intelligence committee, told the same programme Mr Snowden "may well have" had help from Russia, but "we don't know at this stage".
Last week, the latest leaks to emerge via Mr Snowden suggested that the US had been collecting and storing almost 200 million text messages every day across the globe, according to the UK's Guardian newspaper and Channel 4 News.
US President Barack Obama has defended the collection of large amounts of data, but has proposed such "metadata" be held by a third party, with the NSA requiring legal permission to access them.
In its reporting of the accusations against Mr Snowden, the New York Times newspaper quoted a senior official with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation as saying that it was still the bureau's belief Mr Snowden had acted alone.
Runaway pupils found 'safe and well'
20 January 2014 Last updated at 11:00 GMT 
Police said the pair would face "a welfare de-brief following their arrival back in this country"
Runaway Stonyhurst pupils 'safe and well' in Dominican Republic
Police said the pair would face "a welfare de-brief following their arrival back in this country" Two pupils who ran away from a Lancashire boarding school to the Caribbean have been found "safe and well", police have confirmed.
Stonyhurst College students Edward Bunyan and Indira Gainiyeva, both 16, were last seen at Manchester Airport at 03:00 GMT on 13 January.
Lancashire Police said local officers had located the pupils in the Punta Cana area of the Dominican Republic.
Plans are now being made for their return to the UK, said police.
A Lancashire Police spokesman said the pair had been found "safe and well at a hotel".
He said they would be given "a welfare de-brief by police following their arrival back in this country".
He added that the police's "priority throughout has been to ensure the safety and welfare of these students" and that after officers had spoken to them, there would be no more "police involvement".
The teenagers disappeared from Stonyhurst College, near Clitheroe last week.
They are believed to have taken a taxi to Manchester Airport and flown to the Caribbean island.
Stonyhurst College, near Clitheroe, is an independent fee-paying boarding and day school, and was founded in 1593.
Overseas and UK children aged 13 to 18 are taught there with annual boarding fees of about £30,000.
There are 468 pupils at the school, of which 310 are boarders.
China economic growth rate stabilises
20 January 2014 Last updated at 11:02 GMT 
China has been looking to reduce its reliance on investment-led growth 
There have been concerns over the rising levels of bad debt at Chinese banks
China economic growth rate stabilises at 7.7%
China has been looking to reduce its reliance on investment-led growth China's economy, the world's second-largest, has shown signs of stabilising, as 2013's growth rate matched that for 2012, official data suggests.
Gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of 7.7% in the October-to-December period, down from 7.8% in the previous quarter.
But it was still higher than the government's target rate of 7.5%.
China is trying to maintain strong growth while rebalancing its economy.
China has said it wants to move away from an investment-led growth model to one driven by domestic consumption.
'Encouraging'"It's very much within the range of what the government was aiming for," David Wilder, head of the Beijing bureau of Market News International, a financial information provider, told the BBC.
"The fact is that the Chinese economy mustn't and can't grow at the double digit rates we're used to seeing. And in some regards slower growth is actually encouraging because it suggests that it's moving to a more sustainable pace."
Li Huiyong, an economist with Shenyin & Wanguo Securities in Shanghai, said: "We maintain our 2014 GDP growth forecast of 7.5% as we still need to be on guard for the risks from debt problems in the economy."
But some observers are sceptical about the latest figures.
Euan Stirling, investment director of UK equities at Standard Life Investments, told the BBC: "There's a broad belief that the growth rate is below that of the 7.7% published this morning - it's probably nearer 4% or 5%."
Underlying economic activity levels, such as industrial production and power demand figures, suggest lower growth rates, he said.
Debt concernsA government-led investment boom has been a main factor driving China's growth in recent years.
Chinese banks, especially the big four state-owned lenders, lent record sums of money in the years after the global financial crisis in an attempt to sustain the country's high growth rate.
However, there have been concerns that part of that money has gone towards unproductive investments and that banks may not be able to recover those loans.
There have been concerns over the rising levels of bad debt at Chinese banks If they cannot, it could have a significant impact on growth, some analysts believe.
Shadow bankingThere are also concerns over the growth of shadow banking - lending by non-banking companies - in the country.
Critics have warned that shadow banking makes credit less transparent and poses a major risk to China's economic growth.
China is thought to be drafting rules calling for greater supervision and monitoring of the shadow banks.
Banks have been told to publish data on 12 key indicators, including off-balance-sheet assets, to enhance their transparency.
Shen Jianguang, chief China economist at Mizuho Securities in Hong Kong, said: "The government's moves to curb shadow banking and local government debt will cap the growth of investment."
Many analysts have said that curbing lending growth to address these concerns could would probably have a negative impact on China's economic growth.
Growth boostChinese policymakers have taken various steps to open up new avenues of growth.
These include the launch of a free trade zone in Shanghai.
This is seen as a test bed for reforms in key areas of the economy, such as the financial and telecom sectors which have been tightly-controlled until now.
Earlier this month, China said it will open up to to foreign firms some telecom services within the zone, including call centres and home internet access provision.
It said it will also allow foreign firms to make gaming consoles within the free trade zone and sell them across China - lifting a ban on gaming consoles that has been in place since 2000.
Other measures to be trialled inside the zone include market-driven interest rates.
China's banking regulator, China Banking Regulatory Commission, said earlier this month that "more policies will be issued to support banking reform in the Shanghai free trade zone".
VIDEO: 'Devastation' after Ukraine clashes
'Serious devastation' after night of clashes in Kiev
20 January 2014 Last updated at 09:46 GMT
The BBC's Daniel Sandford has described a scene of "pretty serious devastation" in Kiev after pro-EU protesters clashed with police all night.
Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych has agreed to negotiate with the protesters and opposition leaders after the violent clashes.
He said a cross-party commission would be set up on Monday to try to resolve the deepening crisis. Opposition leaders confirmed this.
Sex assault jacket image released
20 January 2014 Last updated at 10:43 GMT 
The jacket is the George brand from Asda
Aberdeen sexual assault George at Asda jacket image released
The jacket is the George brand from Asda Police investigating a sexual assault in Aberdeen have released a photo of the jacket the suspect left behind.
The incident happened in the 'Woodies' area near Broomhill Terrace on the evening of Wednesday 11 December.
The khaki canvas jacket is the George brand from Asda.
The suspect is described as a white man, aged 20-30, 6ft tall, of medium build, with a "chiselled jaw", and short brown hair.
He was also wearing a white and yellow short sleeved striped polo shirt, and blue jeans.
Det Con Kirsty Munro said: "I would urge anyone who recognises the description of this male or the image of the jacket to make contact with the police and pass on their details.
"It may be that you know someone who once had the jacket but doesn't anymore."
Ambulance wait man may have 'lived'
20 January 2014 Last updated at 10:45 GMT 
Fred Pring was having treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Fred Pring died after 42 minute wait for ambulance
Fred Pring was having treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease A man who lay dying at home waiting more than 40 minutes for an ambulance may have survived if it had arrived within its eight minutes target time, a coroner has said.
Fred Pring, 74, from Flintshire, died 42 minutes after his wife, Joyce, had first called 999, an inquest was told.
Summing up on Monday, coroner John Gittins said it was not his role to apportion blame or responsibility.
The coroner said Mr Pring died of heart disease and pulmonary disease.
The Welsh Ambulance Service and the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board said they had deep regret regarding the case.
Mr Gittins said: "Although it cannot be established with certainty that Mr Pring would have survived if help had reached him sooner, it is probable that if an ambulance had arrived promptly after the first call, (that is to say within their target response time of eight minutes), he would have lived long enough to be transported to hospital where further medical treatment would have optimised the prospects of his survival."
Italian conductor Abbado dies at 80
20 January 2014 Last updated at 10:38 GMT 
Abbado was considered one of the greatest conductors of the last 50 years
Claudio Abbado, renowned Italian conductor, dies at 80
Abbado was considered one of the greatest conductors of the last 50 years Italian conductor Claudio Abbado, former musical director of La Scala, has died at the age of 80.
Abbado, who was appointed senator for life in Italy last year, had cancelled several recent performances and appearances due to ill health.
He also conducted the London Symphony Orchestra between 1979 and 1988, where he won plaudits for his concerts of his favourite composer, Gustav Mahler.
He was also musical director of Vienna's Staatsoper from 1986 to 1991.
In 1989, Abbado was elected head of the Berlin Philharmonic by its members, where he worked until 2002.
"This is such a painful moment. I can't speak," said Attilia Giuliani, head of the conductor's fan club in Milan.
'Revelatory concerts'Abbado was born into a musical family in Milan in 1933 and trained at the Milan Conservatoire before studying under Hans Swarowsky in Vienna.
His career began at La Scala in 1960 and he want on to become musical director of the famous opera house until 1986, before his work with Vienna's state opera and the Berlin Philharmonic.
In 1997, Abbado won a Grammy Award in the best instrumental soloist performance (with orchestra) category.
In 2012, he was voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame and awarded the conductor prize at the Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Music Awards.
The latter prize was given for his concerts with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in 2011.
The RPS praised Abbado, saying each of his concerts was "a performance of indelible, life-changing moments".
"His extraordinary, revelatory concerts with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra... changed perceptions, and raised the bar once again on what it is possible for a group of musicians to achieve."
Ahead of that concert, Abbado told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he was a "perfectionist" and that "without music, the world would be a terrible place."
Iran curbs uranium enrichment
20 January 2014 Last updated at 10:35 GMT 
The heavy water plant at Arak is one of several Iranian facilities under the international spotlight
Iran nuclear: Curbs on uranium enrichment begin
The heavy water plant at Arak is one of several Iranian facilities under the international spotlight Iran has begun curbing uranium enrichment under a deal which will also see international sanctions eased, the UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) says.
Earlier, centrifuges used for enrichment were disconnected at the Nantaz plant, Iranian TV reported.
The move is part of a nuclear deal reached with the US, Russia, China and European powers last November.
By the end of the day, Iran should be able to resume petrochemical and other exports, worth billions to its economy.
'Melting'"The IAEA inspectors in the Natanz plant are disconnecting cascades," the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi, said. "The sanctions iceberg against Iran is melting."
The IAEA confirmed that as of 20 January 2014, Iran had ceased enriching uranium above 5% purity, diplomatic sources in Vienna told the BBC.
"It's all fine, all their requirements have been fulfilled," an envoy to the UN agency told AFP.
A leaked copy of the inspectors' report suggested that enrichment above 5% purity had stopped at the Nantaz and Fordow facilities, Reuters news agecncy reported.
The nuclear deal is designed to prevent Teheran developing atomic weapons, though it denies trying to do so, saying its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.
Curbs on enrichment should pave the way for partial suspension of EU and US sanctions, allowing Iran to restart petrochemical exports and trade in gold, worth billions of dollars.
Once happy that Iran is halting uranium enrichment, European Union foreign ministers in Brussels are likely to vote in favour of the partial lifting of the sanctions by the end of Monday. The sanctions have been in place against Iran since 2006.
"This is an important day in our pursuit of ensuring that Iran has an exclusively peaceful nuclear programme", EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told reporters outside the meeting venue.
Under the terms of the November agreement, reached with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France - plus Germany, Iran will, according to US officials:
- Halt enrichment of uranium above 5% purity.
- Dilute its stockpile of 20%-enriched uranium, such that all will be gone within six months
- Allow daily access to the Fordo uranium enrichment site near the holy city of Qom
- Permit monthly inspections at the Arak heavy water reactor
In return, US President Barack Obama has said the US and the other five powers over the next six months will begin to implement "modest relief" so long as Iran fulfils its obligations.
"Meanwhile, we will continue to vigorously enforce the broader sanctions regime, and if Iran fails to meet its commitments we will move to increase our sanctions," he said.
The current six-month agreement is designed to provide breathing space while a more permanent deal can be reached.
Sounding a note of caution, former IAEA deputy director Olli Heinonen said that if Iran decided to renege on the deal, it would only need two to three weeks to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.
Man died waiting for ambulance
20 January 2014 Last updated at 10:35 GMT Fred Pring was having treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Fred Pring died after 42 minute wait for ambulance
Fred Pring was having treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease A Flintshire man who lay dying at home waiting more than 40 minutes for an ambulance may have survived if it had arrived within its eight minutes target time, a coroner has said.
Fred Pring, 74, from Mynydd Isa, died 42 minutes after his wife, Joyce, had first called 999, an inquest was told.
Summing up on Monday, coroner John Gittins said it was not his role to apportion blame or responsibility.
He said Mr Pring died of heart disease and obstructive pulmonary disease.
Police probed over starved boy death
20 January 2014 Last updated at 10:32 GMT
West Yorkshire Police probed over starved boy death
The police watchdog is to investigate officers' handling of concerns raised about a four-year-old boy who was found starved to death at his home almost two years after he died.
Allegations of neglect had been made to West Yorkshire Police before Hamzah Khan's body was found in 2011.
His mother Amanda Hutton was jailed for manslaughter in October.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it would examine what action the force took.
The good and bad of China's growth
20 January 2014 Last updated at 09:39 GMT 
Robert Peston Business editor 
A newly built housing project in Hangzhou, eastern China
Robert Peston Business editor The good and bad of China's growth
So the good news is that China's economy is growing at a marginally reduced annual rate of 7.7% per annum.
And the bad news is that China's economy is growing at a marginally reduced annual rate of 7.7% per annum.
What do I mean?
Well, whether or not you regard China's official economic statistics as beacons of empirical accuracy (few do), it is clear that there's no hard landing in China, no precipitate end of the high-growth era, whose implications (some bad, some good) would be felt the world over.
But there is an argument, which I have spent the last few months investigating in a film for BBC2 (which is finished, and will be broadcast soon-ish), that the current main sources of Chinese growth are unsustainable - and that the longer growth remains at this kind of rate, the more spectacular and damaging the eventual reckoning will be.
How so?
Well, the first thing to say is that it's all our fault (I am not being wholly flippant).
Because the big flaws in China's economy worsened in 2008, in the immediate aftermath of a banking crisis which was a Western phenomenon but which hobbled growth and demand almost everywhere.
In particular it undermined China's export-led economic model. When Europe and the US in effect went bust, we no longer wanted to buy all that lovely cheap stuff made in China, so China's economy ground to a halt, prompting the urgent need for another way.
A very courageous Chinese government might have taken the opportunity to engage in the kind of "demand rotation" that it and the world really needed - namely to put through big reforms which would have encouraged its 1.3 billion people to consume and spend much more.
This would have involved rapid liberalisation of its financial sector, to provide better returns on investment, and a fundamental loosening of the supply of consumer credit. And there would have been substantial steps towards the establishment of a proper welfare state, which would have obviated the need for the Chinese to save six times what we save (as a share of disposable income).
If there had been a significant rise in the share of the Chinese economy represented by consumption, from a third to nearer the two-thirds of mature decadent economies such as ours and that of the US, China's long term growth prospects would have been enhanced - and the stagnation of our economies would not have been so elongated, because there would have been much better opportunities for our own exporters.
However, it wasn't to be.
China's government took the view that re-engineering on that scale brought excessive risks, in that there undoubtedly would have been a marked deceleration of growth for some time, during the period of structural change, and the risks to political stability would have been too great.
The fear of the Chinese government was that unemployment would have risen to levels in which discontent with economic stewardship might have transmuted into open criticism of the one-party state. The bargain between Communist Party and people - prosperity as the dividend for sacrificing democratic rights - would have been broken.
So instead the government went for an apparently more direct and easy resuscitation - it created the mother of all investment and lending sprees.
To be clear, in 2007 most economists were even then arguing that China was too dependent on investment, with expenditure on plant, equipment, buildings and infrastructure already 40% of national income, or GDP.
But rather than there being a "rebalancing" away from investment, it actually shot up, to 50% of GDP. There was a splurge on remaking the urban and industrial landscape, more or less unprecedented in history.
Wherever you go in China, you can see the fruits, from the world's tallest skyscrapers and longest bridges, to roads that seem to go nowhere and mind-boggling numbers of unoccupied new homes.
What's more, those legacies of the Maoist era, the state-owned enterprises, had a new lease of life - on Beijing's orders - creating huge new productive capacity.
That yielded the short term benefit of expanding employment, and the long term cost of killing their profitability, because so much of the new capacity was beyond what the market could bear.
All of which was a bit short-termist, especially for a government famed for its 10-year plans. But the biggest danger stemmed from how all this investment and expansion was financed.
A newly built housing project in Hangzhou, eastern China The government ordered the banks to "open their wallets". And my goodness how the banks obliged.
And after Beijing became anxious that the growth in direct bank lending was perhaps more rapid than was consistent with the maintenance of proper credit standards, the banks showed the kind of creativity that would have made a bonus-bulging City or Wall Street investment banker proud. There was an explosion of lending through "shadow banks", which were nominally separate from the banking system, but much of the liability was still effectively with the banks.
The consequence was that lending has been rising at an unsustainably fast annual rate of 15% of national income per annum since 2008, so that total debts are now twice GDP, and the total liabilities of the banking system exploded by $15tn over that period.
Or as Charlene Chu, late of ratings agency Fitch puts it, just the increment in the balance sheets of Chinese banks since the 2008 crash is equivalent to the aggregate size of US commercial banks, whose balance sheets have grown to that point over a century.
Chu does not think an economy can be weaned off that degree of addiction to debt-fuelled growth without - ahem - there being some kind of shock to the economy.
But even if you thought she was being unduly pessimistic, you would want the rate of lending and investment to grow at least no faster than the economy - because the longer they grow faster than the economy, the greater the danger that eventually the debt burden and the write-offs of lousy investments become unaffordably big.
Or to put it another way, the longer that China has the wrong kind of rapid growth, the greater the risk that an eventual crash will muller China and bring contagion to connected financial institutions and economies.
That brings us back to those good and bad GDP figures published today.
They show that fixed-asset investment (excluding rural households) increased by 19.6% last year, down slightly from 20.6% in the previous year. But - and this matters - investment was up much more than retail sales (13.6% higher) and industrial production (9.7% up).
Or to put it another way, China remains hooked on debt-fuelled investment. There is no healthy rebalancing.
Now, the government has announced a 10-year plan, at its recent plenum, to gradually increase the share of consumption in growth, and tilt away from construction and investment.
Will they succeed? How long will it take? And what are the consequences for China and us if they don't?
Well, in the words of the original Batman and Robin TV series of the 1960s, tune into my BBC2 documentary (in just a few weeks) to find out (sorry for the shameless plug - and see my colleague Linda Yueh's note for more on all this).
RFU would block Anglo-Welsh - Lewis
Roger Lewis claims RFU would block Anglo-Welsh league bid
Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Roger Lewis claims the English RFU would block Welsh regions joining the Aviva Premiership.
Lewis was responding to confirmation the four Welsh rugby regions want to join the English Premiership if a new European Cup is not launched.
"The Rugby Football Union will not allow the Welsh regions to join the Aviva Premiership," Lewis said.
"They [the RFU] have told us. So that is not going to happen."
The Scrum V television debate brought the regions and the Welsh Rugby Union together in public for the first time to discuss the issues facing the game in Wales.
As well as a dispute between the Welsh Rugby Union and the regions, there is also a wider row over European rugby, which centres on who plays in the Heineken Cup, how much they are paid and who runs the European competition.
Newport Gwent Dragons chief executive Gareth Davies, who was also on Sunday's TV panel, confirmed the regions were ready to look at forming an Anglo-Welsh league with the Aviva Premiership clubs if there was no solution to the European rugby situation.
"The understanding we have with the English clubs is quite solid, whilst not underestimating the enormous hurdles that are in the way of that happening," said Davies.
"What other option do we have? Playing in a, with respect, reduced European competition and the Rabo [Pro12] doesn't have a sponsor next year and the Italians claim they are pulling out."
There were also claims during the programme that second-tier clubs in England would oppose Welsh regions joining an Anglo-Welsh league.
Chris Clarke, chairman of Cross Keys Rugby Club, said: "We played Ealing and Moseley and they told us that the (English) championships clubs had a meeting last Wednesday in a Birmingham hotel because of their opposition to any Welsh inclusion in their league."
The six unions representing England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy will meet again on Tuesday to try to sort out what next season's European Cup will look like.
Iran 'starts on nuclear curbs'
20 January 2014 Last updated at 10:02 GMT The heavy water plant at Arak is one of several Iranian facilities under the international spotlight
Iran nuclear: Curbs on uranium enrichment begin, state TV says
The heavy water plant at Arak is one of several Iranian facilities under the international spotlight Iran has begun curbing uranium enrichment, state TV says, under a nuclear deal which will also trigger an easing of international sanctions.
Centrifuges used for enrichment were disconnected at the Nantaz plant, according to TV.
Diplomats and officials close to the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, confirmed that the process had begun.
The move is part of a nuclear deal reached with the US, Russia, China and European powers last November.
Curbs on enrichment should pave the way for partial suspension of EU and US sanctions, allowing Iran to restart petrochemical exports and trade in gold, worth billions of dollars.
'Melting'"The IAEA inspectors in the Natanz plant are disconnecting cascades," the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi, said. "The sanctions iceberg against Iran is melting."
The IAEA would not comment officially on the results of its inspection, but told the BBC that a report had been sent to the parties to the nuclear agreement.
An envoy to the UN agency told AFP news agency that Iran had started implementing its side of the deal: "It's all fine, all their requirements have been fulfilled." Reuters said it had obtained a leaked copy of the inspectors' report.
The agreement is designed to prevent Teheran developing atomic weapons, though it denies trying to do so, saying its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.
Once it is happy that Iran has begun restricting uranium enrichment, the EU is expected to start the process of easing sanctions.
Ministers - including UK Foreign Secretary William Hague - are then likely to lead their EU counterparts in voting unanimously in favour of a partial lifting of the sanctions, which have been in place against Iran since 2006.
Under the terms of the agreement, reached with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France - plus Germany, Iran will, according to US officials:
- Halt enrichment of uranium above 5% purity.
- Dilute its stockpile of 20%-enriched uranium, such that all will be gone within six months
- Allow daily access to the Fordo uranium enrichment site near the holy city of Qom
- Permit monthly inspections at the Arak heavy water reactor
In return, US President Barack Obama has said the US and the other five powers over the next six months will begin to implement "modest relief" so long as Iran fulfils its obligations.
"Meanwhile, we will continue to vigorously enforce the broader sanctions regime, and if Iran fails to meet its commitments we will move to increase our sanctions," he said.
The current six-month agreement is designed to provide breathing space while a more permanent deal can be reached.
Sounding a note of caution, former IAEA deputy director Olli Heinonen said that if Iran decided to renege on the deal, it would only need two to three weeks to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.
Are you in Iran? Are you hopeful an easing of sanctions will benefit the nation? What will it mean for you? Send your experiences using the form below.
Rosetta: Earth waits on comet chaser
20 January 2014 Last updated at 10:02 GMT 
Europe's Rosetta spacecraft was launched from Earth in 2004 
Philae robot's task in November: No mission has ever attempted to make a soft landing on a comet before
Rosetta: Earth waits for comet-chaser signal
Rebecca Morelle explains how the mission will unfold
Rosetta, Europe's decade-long quest to put a robotic lander on a comet, has reached a key milestone.
The probe, which has spent the past two-and-half-years moving through space in a deep sleep, was expected to rouse itself at 10:00 GMT, ready to send a signal to Earth.
Receipt of this "I'm awake" message will confirm the great endeavour is still on course.
Rosetta is due to rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August.
The despatch and landing of the small robot currently piggybacking the probe is set for November.
The reactivation of Rosetta is occurring some 800 million km from Earth, out near the orbit of the planet Jupiter.
Controllers at the European Space Agency's (Esa) operations centre here in Darmstadt, Germany, do not know precisely when Monday's all-important contact will be made, but they anticipate their consoles lighting up sometime between 17:30 and 18:30 GMT.
"It will be transmitting just the 'carrier signal', so at that point there's no data coming down from the spacecraft," explained Andrea Accomazzo, Rosetta's spacecraft operations manager.
"We just receive a firm frequency. In theory, it would be like a continuous beep if you were to convert it into sound.
"We will see it on a screen that is basically a spectrum analyser. Although, we will have no information from the spacecraft, we will know just from that transmission that it must have done everything it had to do automatically and is in a safe status; and that everything that happens next is in our hands," he told BBC News.
Rosetta must work through a sequence of pre-programmed activities before sending the signal. None of these activities has a fixed time length.
They include warming the spacecraft's navigation instruments, and finding Earth on the sky so that the probe's main communications antenna can be pointed in the right direction for the call home.
First contact is likely to come through the US space agency's 70m Goldstone radio dish in California.
If the signal does not arrive as expected, controllers will hold off any intervention until Tuesday morning.
The Darmstadt team can send commands to Rosetta that would forcibly bring it out of its slumber, but the preference is to give the probe sufficient time to complete the necessary tasks automatically.
Rosetta was put into hibernation in June 2011 because its trajectory through the Solar System was about to take it so far from the Sun that its solar panels would produce minimal power. The decision was therefore taken to put the spacecraft in a deep sleep.
Europe's Rosetta spacecraft was launched from Earth in 2004 Launched back in 2004, the probe has taken a rather circuitous route out to its comet target.
This has involved making a number of flybys of the inner planets, using their gravity to pick up sufficient speed for the eventual comet encounter.
It has already delivered some fascinating science, particularly from the close passes it made to two asteroids - the rocks Steins, in 2008, and Lutetia, in 2010.
Once controllers have a full assessment of the health of Rosetta, they will initiate a series of burns on its thrusters to close the gap to 67P. Currently at a separation of nine million km, this will be reduced to a mere 10km by mid-September.
The landing of the three-legged robot called Philae in November is sure to be a nail-biting event.
"I know that Nasa colleagues talked about 'seven minutes of terror' for the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars; it'll be more like four hours of terror between the separation of Philae and its 'docking' on the comet," said Esa director general Jean-Jacques Dordain.
The intention is for Rosetta to follow the comet as it moves closer towards the Sun, monitoring the changes that take place on the body. Philae will report changes that occur at the surface.
Comets - giant "dirty snowballs", as some have called them - are believed to contain materials that have remained largely unchanged since the formation of the Solar System 4.6bn years ago, and Rosetta data should therefore help researchers understand better how our local space environment has evolved over time.
"Rosetta is a unique mission - unique technologically, unique scientifically, and unique philosophically because comets may be at the origin of who we are," Mr Dordain told BBC News.
Philae robot's task in November: No mission has ever attempted to make a soft landing on a comet before Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos
Report calls for fewer councils
20 January 2014 Last updated at 09:52 GMT 
Williams Commission report calls for fewer councils
Refuse collection is an important council service
Councils in Wales should merge leaving 10, 11 or 12 local authorities rather than the current 22, a report has recommended.
The Williams Commission said the changes must be agreed by Easter this year at the latest.
The re-organisation suggests reducing council numbers by mergers using existing boundaries.
Opposition AMs say they are concerned about the potential costs and loss of local identity in some areas.
The report, by former NHS Wales chief executive Paul Williams, considers how many areas of public services can be improved and made more accountable.
Attention is focused on the recommendations for local authorities, last re-organised two decades ago.
The report recommends that the new councils should be within current health board and police force areas and also not cross the geographical areas governing eligibility for EU aid.
In an interview for the BBC's Sunday Politics Wales programme, First Minister Carwyn Jones said the existing number of 22 local authorities was "too many".
"We have, at the last count, six local authorities who are in special measures with regard to education out of 22," he said.
"Now that's not sustainable in the future so we need to have a very hard, long and honest look at the structure of not just local government but all public services in Wales to make sure that the structure is far more sustainable and stronger in the future."
Conservative AM for Monmouth Nick Ramsay told the programme Welsh ministers should not "rush headlong" into a reorganisation that may not bring the improvements people expected but would cost money.
"It could also wipe off the map some areas of Wales which people identify with - we've got to be careful, people have a sense of identity - don't mess with that," he said.
In a newsletter to constituents, Conservative Preseli Pembrokeshire MP Stephen Crabb expressed fears that Pembrokeshire County Council would disappear.
"Local people fought hard to get Pembrokeshire back from the old Dyfed authority, and the case for having our own local authority is as valid now as it was then," he said.
Professor Stephen Martin, the director of the Public Policy Institute for Wales at Cardiff University, carried out research for the Williams Commission.
He said he believed the idea of reducing the number of councils was now "unstoppable".
"(But) there isn't one right size - we have to work out what we want local councils to do," he told BBC Radio Wales.
"Looking at the evidence after the initial cost of redundancies etc you get two to three years where there is a dip in the performance of services - then from five years in, services improve.
'Objective evidence'"The politics are quite tricky, but my own personal view is that the sooner the reorganisation happens the better because as soon as it's announced there is a hiatus in local council, people don't know what job they'll be doing, and major initiatives won't be developed."
In its submission to the commission, the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) - which represents local authorities in Wales - estimated the shake-up could cut 15,000 jobs, in addition to job losses that would result from budget cuts.
WLGA-commissioned research by accountants Deloitte indicated the cost of the changes was likely to be more than £200m.
Plaid Cymru local government spokesman Rhodri Glyn Thomas said the party would support re-organisation if there was a case made for it "based on independent, objective evidence".
"We have to look at what can be delivered nationally, what can be delivered regionally and what can be delivered locally, and then, when you look at the delivery of those services, the structures fall into place."
Liberal Democrats want the voting system for local elections changed as part of any shake-up, but they insist the cost of the changes must be kept "under control" and the quality of services not threatened.
The party's local government spokesman Peter Black said: "I'm prepared to support re-organisation if we get it right, and that means having councils which are representative, with a fair voting system, so that the outcome of elections are reflected in the way councils are elected."
Janet Finch-Saunders, the shadow minister for local government and Conservative assembly member for Aberconwy, told Radio Wales she did not think it was about council numbers.
"What we want to see are public services delivered well, with efficiency and transparency," she said.
"If you look at the predicted cost of full-scale reorganisation, anything between £200m and £500m, I think we'll wait and see what the report says and what the options are."
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