Under the terms of the deal, BMG has acquired the rights to theme tunes from hit BBC programmes including Mrs Brown's Boys and Frozen Planet as well as background, or incidental, music from Doctor Who and Wolf Hall. The catalogue includes works by BAFTA-nominated composers including Murray Gold, for Doctor Who, Paul Englishby for Luther and Debbie Wiseman for Wolf Hall. Alexi Cory-Smith, the executive vice-president of BMG UK, said: 'It is a real honour to be entrusted with these great BBC works. Shows like Luther, Doctor Who and Mrs Brown's Boys and many others in this catalogue are household names. We are committed to providing them with similarly unrivalled service and transparency.' While BMG will now have the right to exploit the music for commercial use by companies including advertisers, studios and advertising agencies, the BBC will retain a tight rein on ensuring that its assets are not exploited 'negatively.' BBC Worldwide has a similar brand protection in place in its deal with Immediate Media, which publishes its portfolio of magazines including Radio Times and Top Gear Magazine, with the corporation continuing to have 'brand oversight' of its key assets. 'We're looking forward to working with BMG to ensure the value of these compositions continues to be properly and appropriately recognised,' said Dominic Walker, the director of radio and music at BBC Worldwide. BMG owns a range of music catalogues including Chrysalis, which includes artists such as Blondie and David Gray, and Virgin Music, which includes publishing rights for Tears For Fears, Take That, Robbie Williams, Nirvana and Iggy Pop. 
1 Olympics 2016 - Sun BBC1 - 8.18m
2 Coronation Street - Wed ITV - 7.08m
3 EastEnders - Thurs BBC1 - 6.63m
4 Emmerdale - Tues ITV - 6.04m
5 BBC News - Sun BBC1 - 5.12m
6 Brief Encounters - Mon ITV - 5.07m
7 Olympic 2016 - Mon BBC2 - 4.94m
8 Six O'Clock News - Wed BBC1 - 4.88m
9 Ten O'Clock News - Fri BBC1 - 4.66m
10 Long Lost Family - Wed ITV - 3.78m
Obviously with Olympic coverage dominating BBC1, BBC2 and BBC4's schedule, this particular week's list is somewhat shorter than usual. Don't worry, dear blog reader, we'll be back to normal in a couple of weeks. These consolidated figures include all viewers who watched programmes live and on catch-up during the seven days after initial broadcast, but do not include those who watched on BBC's iPlayer or ITV Player via their computers. Among the highlights of BBC1's Olympics programmes were Sunday evening collection of Max Whitlock and Louis Smith in the gymnastics, Mark Cavandish in the cycling, Andy Murray in the tennis and Usain Bolt in the one hundred metres (8.18 million), Monday's team gymnastics, diving and rugby sevens (6.79 million) and Wednesday's cycling, shooting, canoeing and swimming medal successes for Britain (6.15 million).
On BBC2, aside from their own Olympic programming, Inside The Factory: How Our Favourite Foods Are Made was the channel's most-watched non-Olympic programme of the week with 2.32 million viewers; Dragon's Den had 2.34 million. Match of The Day 2 attracted 2.20 million, followed by Gardeners' World (2.16 million), Brexit: The Battle For Britain (1.95 million), Full Steam Ahead (1.88 million), Only Connect (1.85 million) and University Challenge by 1.64 million. The movie Captain America: The First Avenger was Channel Four's highest-rated broadcast of the week (1.98 million), followed by Nine, Nine, Nine: What's Your Emergency (1.85 million), Location, Location, Location (1.74 million), The Supervet: Bionic Specials (1.70 million), shameful and wretched pile of festering attention-seeking faeces Naked Attraction (1.65 million) and Celebrity First Dates (1.59 million). A particularly good episode of Eight Out Of Ten Cats Does Countdown was seen by 1.57 million. Channel Five's top performer was, inevitably, sick Victorian freak show Z-List Celebrity Big Brothers - with 2.01 million - ahead of The Dog Rescuers With Alan Davies (1.24 million), GPs: Behind Closed Doors (1.12 million), Neighbours (eight hundred and eighty thousand) and Cricket On Five (seven hundred and two thousand). 
None of the Sky Sports channels appears to have submitted any data to BARB for this particular week - presumably because they were too ashamed to admit how badly the BBC's Olympic coverage had hit them, hard, in the knackers till their eyes watered. Thus, this blogger is unable to supply the usual data for Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2, Sky Sports 3, Sky Sports 4, Sky Sports 5, Sky Sports News (although Gillette Soccer Saturday's first episode of the new premier League season would, likely, have been the most watched programme there) and Sky Sports F1. Endeavour was ITV3's top-rated drama (1.06 million viewers). Lewis was seen by nine hundred and forty seven thousand, Foyle's War by six hundred and thirty six thousand and Doc Martin by five hundred and forty nine thousand. Paul O'Grady: For The Love Of Dogs was watched by four hundred and forty thousand people with, presumably, nothing better to do with their time. Benidorm headed ITV4's weekly list with three hundred and fifteen thousand whilst Mister Bean was watched by three hundred and ten thousand. Why, for the love of God, why? ITV2's most-watched broadcast of the week was the movie The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, which drew eight hundred and two thousand viewers. 
A Family Guy repeat had seven hundred and fourteen thousand. The Americans headed ITV Encore's top ten with sixty eight thousand viewers, narrowly ahead of the seven hundred and fifty ninths repeat of Vera (which had sixty seven thousand). BBC4's list was, like BBC1 and BBC2, dominated by Olympics coverage, with Thursday night's programme - featuring handball, volleyball, judo, fencing and basketball,plus Britain's Semi-Final win in the rugby sevens over South Africa - attracting a whopping 1.47 million viewers, at that time one of the highlight audiences in the channel's history. (Though, that figure would soon be beaten two or three times in the following days on overnights alone.) Sky1's weekly top-ten was headed Zoo (four hundred and fifty nine thousand), The Last Ship (three hundred and eighty two thousand), Don't Tell The Bride (three hundred and seventy nine thousand) and The Simpsons (three hundred and sixty three thousand). Sky Atlantic's list was topped by Ray Donovan (two hundred and fifty one thousand). Ballers was seen by one hundred and forty one thousand, Band Of Brothers by one hundred and twelve thousand and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver by one hundred and six thousand. On Sky Living, Shades Of Blue drew four hundred and eighty two thousand, Chicago Fire had four hundred and forty seven thousand, Unforgettable, four hundred and eight thousand and Criminal Minds, one hundred and ninety eight thousand. 
Sky Arts' Master Of Photography attracted an audience of ninety eight thousand. Discovering Film drew forty two thousand, Dag had thirty one thousand and Legends In Concert: Dean Martin got twenty seven thousand. 5USA's Chicago PD was watched by four hundred and eighty seven thousand viewers. NCIS: Los Angeles attracted four hundred and one thousand, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, three hundred and eighty nine thousand and NCIS, three hundred and sixteen thousand. NCIS also topped the weekly top-ten for CBS Action (one hundred and one thousand). FOX's list included Outcast (three hundred and twenty six thousand), Someone Knows My Name (two hundred and fifty nine thousand), Family Guy (one hundred and forty five thousand), Tyrant (one hundred and thirty two thousand) and NCIS (one hundred and twenty four thousand). The Universal Channel's list was headed by Mister Robot (one hundred and sixty one thousand), Motive (one hundred and twenty one thousand) and another, older, episode of NCIS (one hundred and seven thousand). On Dave, Suits was the highest-rated programme with three hundred and ninety five thousand punters. That was followed by Mock The Week (two hundred and sixty three thousand), Qi (two hundred and fifty seven thousand) and Would I Lie To You? (two hundred and forty nine thousand). Drama's Judge John Deed was watched by three hundred and thirty nine thousand viewers. The Doctor Blake Mysteries had two hundred and ninety three thousand, as did Silent Witness. 
Alibi's highest-rated programme was Rosewood (three hundred and twenty nine thousand), followed by New Tricks (one hundred and seventy seven thousand), Father Brown (one hundred and thirty seven thousand), Inspector George Gently (one hundred and sixteen thousand) and Rizzoli & Isles (one hundred and thirteen thousand). The latest episode of Yesterday's repeat run of One Foot In The Grave was seen by two hundred and twenty six thousand. The Two Ronnies was watched by one hundred and ninety six thousand, Jeeves & Wooster by one hundred and eighty eight thousand and 'Allo 'Allo also by one hundred and eighty eight thousand. On the Discovery Channel, Yukon Men's latest series continued with ninety nine thousand viewers. Misfit Garage had an audience of ninety seven thousand, Street Outlaws was watched by eighty six thousand, Alaskan Bush People by eighty four thousand and Deadliest Catch by seventy nine thousand. Discovery History's Hitler: Germany's Fatal Attraction topped the weekly-list with twenty six thousand viewers, whilst War Digs With Harry Harris, Al Murray's Road To Berlin and Time Team all attracted twenty six thousand. On Discovery Science, How It's Made was seen by sixty six thousand viewers. Discovery Turbo's most-watched programmes was, as usual, the cult favourite Wheeler Dealers (forty four thousand). Bitchin' Rides had thirty three thousand. 
National Geographic's list was headed by Yukon Gold which had seventy four thousand viewers. The History Channel's top-ten was led by The Bastard Executioner (one hundred and twenty one thousand). On Military History, One Thousand Ways To Die was watched by forty one thousand. Dateline With Tamzin Outhwaite, The Perfect Murder and Murder On CCTV were ID's top-rated programmes of the week (with forty thousand viewers, thirty eight thousand and thirty six thousand Murder-lovers respectively). Killer Kids and Behind Bars: World's Toughest Prisons headed CI's list (sixty three thousand and sixty thousand). Crimes That Shook Australia and Crimes That Shook Britain both attracted fifty two thousand. Wouldn't it be, like, totally amazing if it was the same fifty two thousand punters? But, it probably wasn't. GOLD's repeat of Fawlty Towers drew one hundred and forty four thousand. Comedy Central's largest audience of the week was for an episode of Friends (one hundred and twelve thousand). 
Your TV's Snapped: Killer Couples had sixty one thousand viewers. On More4, Phil Spenser's Stately Homes was the highest rated programme with four hundred and ninety four thousand. Come Dine With Me attracted three hundred and forty four thousand. E4's latest episode of Hollyoaks drew nine hundred and ninety thousand viewers. The Horror Channel's broadcast of American Haunting attracted one hundred and twenty thousand viewers. Nude Nuns With Big Guns had eighty five thousand viewers who, obviously, were in no way attracted by the perfectly extraordinary title (for what was, in fact, a very ordinary movie!) Dark Matter, headed Syfy's top-ten with three hundred and sixty five thousand. Countdown To A Catastrophe had thirty two thousand on Eden. Tanked was the Animal Planet's most-watched programme with thirty nine thousand. On W, Tuesday night's EastEnders repeat was seen by one hundred and ninety seven thousand,followed by One Born Every Minute (one hundred and seventy five thousand) and Doctor Who (one hundred and fifteen thousand for a repeat of Deep Breath). Wynonna Earp was watched by one hundred and eighty one thousand on Spike. Car Crash TV drew one hundred and seventy five thousand.The BBC achieved a record television audience for an overseas Olympics as over forty five million punters tuned-in to Rio 2016. A total of 11.1 million viewers watched Jason Kenny win the Keirin cycling gold on BBC1, on Tuesday evening. In an almost unbearably tense final Kenny managed to hold his nerve and take his third medal at these Olympics, adding to the titles he won in the team and individual sprints and, in the process, managed to push the Ten O'Clock News back to 11.30pm! Twice the race was stopped after riders appeared to break the rules by passing the motorised derny as it left the track. BBC2 and BBC4 also had their highest viewing figures of 2016. BBC Sport's online coverage set new records, reaching 68.3 million online devices in the UK and 102.3 million globally. The biggest single day for digital traffic was Sunday 14 August with nineteen million unique browsers across the world.
That date became known as 'Super Sunday' after Great Britain won five gold medals, making it the country's most successful day at an overseas Olympics ever. Mark Cavendish helped BBC2 reach a peak audience of 7.5 million when he won silver in the Omnium on Monday 15 August, while BBC4 drew in a 2016 high of 3.4 million viewers. Barbara Slater, the BBC director of sport, said: 'We are delighted that so many people came to the BBC for our Olympics coverage and joined us in celebrating the extraordinary success of Team GB. We are incredibly proud to bring moments of national significance such as these magnificent games to the widest possible audience.' A total of 29.3 million global browsers have followed the games in Rio via live pages on the BBC Sport website and app with streams, text updates, clips, medal tables, schedules and catch-up. No fewer than thirty million UK browsers have streamed the action on BBC iPlayer and on BBC Sport. The most popular streamed event was the men's singles tennis final, in which 1.9 million browsers followed Andy Murray as he retained his Olympic title by beating Juan Martin Del Potro. The total of 'unique browsers' is calculated by the number of devices - televisions, computers, mobile phones and so forth - being used to view online coverage, which is why it was possible for the UK digital audience to total 68.3 million, even though that is, actually, greater than the country's population (unless there are about three million immigrants that nobody knows about. For God's sake nobody tell UKiP or we'll never hear the end of it). Ben Gallop, BBC Sport's head of digital and radio, said: 'With Team GB performing heroics, we wanted to deliver all the medal moments and breathtaking action to audiences wherever they were online - and in doing so we're delighted BBC Sport has cemented its position as the number one digital destination for sport.'The Rio Olympics ended with a spectacular carnival-inspired closing ceremony on Sunday night and the official handover to 2020 hosts Tokyo. The colourful ceremony, lasting almost three hours, celebrated Brazil's arts and was held in a wet Maracana Stadium. Among the highlights were Tokyo's impressive showcase and a vibrant carnival parade. 'These were a marvellous Olympics, in a marvellous city,' claimed International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach. 'Over the last sixteen days a united Brazil inspired the world, in difficult times for all of us, with its irresistible joy for life.'
Don't you just wish, dear blog reader, that they still made movie posters like this, part the second. Brazil's Olympics took off when Rio native Rafaela Silva won judo gold on day three. And, they finished on a high as their men's volleyball team beat Italy for gold on the closing day of the games. The hosts finished thirteenth in the medal table with nineteen medals, seven of which were gold. None got a bigger reception than when Neymar scored the winning penalty in the shootout as Brazil beat Germany to win their first men's Olympic football gold. It came in front of seventy eight thousand fans in the Maracana, two years after Germany had thrashed hosts Brazil seven-one in the 2014 World Cup semi-finals. The build-up to the games was dominated by the Russian doping scandal, fears over the Zika virus and issues with the city's security, infrastructure and venues. The games were not affected by any major incidents, but they did not pass without some hitches: There were scores of empty seats at many venue, controversial decisions marred the boxing tournament, there were security problems, including a bullet shot into the media tent at the equestrian venue and a media bus being attacked, the layout of the cycling road race course was heavily criticised after several riders were injured in accidents, the Russian swimmer Yuliya Efimova, who had previously been banned for doping, was repeatedly - and disgracefully - booed for the dreadful crime of 'trying to jump higher than a Brazilian.' 
And, of course, there was the saga of the diving pool turning a livid shade of green. You, literally, couldn't make it up. Although, as it happens, US swimmer Ryan Lochte did. The gold medallist was - eventually, after much prodding - forced to grovellingly apologise to the people of Brazil for 'over-exaggerating' claims that he and three team-mates were robbed at gunpoint in Rio. Or, lying, in other words. The IOC announced in June that a group of ten refugee athletes would compete in an Olympics for the first time. The team of swimmers, judokas and runners competed under the flag of the IOC. 'We are equal now,' said marathon runner Yonas Kinde, who is originally from Ethiopia. 'We compete like human beings, like the others.' Elsewhere, USA's Abbey D'Agostino and New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin were given fair play awards after stopping to help each other during their five thousand metres Semi-Final. And, there were several proposals as the love bug bit Rio. One of the hottest tickets in town seemed to be for Dan Walker's BBC4 Olympic coverage from Copacabana beach. Highlights included a Brazilian hen party popping in, which ended with Dan getting an invitation to the wedding and, of course, the Copacabinmen.
In that same interview, Gleave suggested that the British team were 'underperforming' (the only other team to do so, he stated, were Mongolia). Interestingly, after three subsequent days of Britain not 'underperforming' or anything even remotely like it, suddenly Gleave - who, remember, doesn't get many predictions wrong - had revised his 'expected medals total' up to sixty. Wrong again, Si. You're really not very good at this malarkey, are you? 'Predicting medals per event is a very challenging process, particularly if trying to get the colour of the medal correct,' he later weaselled to the Beeb. Which, kind of renders your 'job' as 'head of analysis' somewhat redundant one could suggest, y'daft plank. As previously noted by this blog, just stick to guessing in future, Si me auld sparra, it's served most of us very well over the years. And, if this bloke tells you who he predicts is going to win the US Presidential election, dear blog reader, be sure you put your mortgage on whoever he's predicted to lose. 
From just five million smackers per year before Atlanta, UK Sport's spending leaped to fifty four million quid by Sydney in 2000, where Britain won twenty eight medals - their best performances since the 1920s - and leaped to tenth on the medal table, a performance which was slightly bettered in Athens in 2004 and smashed in Beijing in 2008. By the time of London 2012 - third in the medal table, sixty five medals - that spending had climbed to two hundred and sixty four million notes. Between 2013 and 2017, almost three hundred and fifty knicker in mainly lottery funds will have been lavished on Olympic and Paralympic sports. While the financial support is welcome and is a significant reason behind the stunning improvement, that funding brings its own pressures. A more professional environment with all the coaching, nutritional, scientific support has allowed supremely talented individuals to prosper, but there is now an expectation to succeed and with so many sports fighting for the cash pot, failure results in funding cuts. About three-quarters of Britain's total Olympic funding comes directly from the National Lottery, making it broadly immune from many of the cuts that have affected much of the government's spending since 2008. It has reinvigorated some sports and altered others beyond recognition. Gymnastics, given nothing at all before Atlanta, received £5.9 million for Sydney and £14.6 million in the current cycle. 
In Rio, Max Whitlock won two gymnastics golds; his team-mates delivered another silver and three bronzes. As a talented teenage swimmer, Adam Peaty relied on fundraising events laid on by family and friends to pay for his travel and training costs. That changed in 2012, when he was awarded a grant of fifteen grand and his coach was placed on an elite coaching programme. In Rio, Peaty became the first British male to win a swimming gold in twenty eight years - much to the green-eyed fury of the rest of the world who mutter, darkly about how the British manage to keep beating them. Britain's tally of six golds continued their amazing success in track cycling, in which they have won twenty of the thirty golds on offer over the past three games. Of those wins, twelve have come in individual races - to Sir Chris Hoy (three), Jason Kenny (three), Laura Trott (two), Victoria Pendleton (two), Sir Bradley Wiggins and Rebecca Romero. The other eight were won in team events. Such success has made cycling Britain's top sport by a very wide margin, with twenty five golds from the past five Olympics, almost double the amount achieved in rowing - Britain's second-most successful sport over the same period. Rowing was, in fact, Britain's best-funded sport in the last Olympic cycle, awarded £32.6 million by UK Sport. Cycling was second, receiving £30.2 million. Despite winning three golds and two silver medals in Rio, rowing fell one short of its minimum medal target of six. It was one of two sports that narrowly failed to live up to pre-games expectations, with GB's modern pentathletes failing to win a medal after being set a minimum target of one (archery, fencing and weightlifting were not set a medal target). Otherwise every other sport in which Britain was targeted to win at least one medal met, or exceeded, those expectations. Cycling winning twelve medals - six of them gold - beat the maximum target of ten it was set. Which was nice. Particularly as it got the Aussies and the French and the Germans all stroppy and discombobulated. And, that's never a bad thing. (There's actually a very good piece on the BBC Sport website about the French reaction to Britain's success, which is both illuminating and, in a way, rather sad.)
'Like every other sports nut in the country I'm sleep-deprived,' writes yer actual Keith Telly Topping's favourite TV reviewer, the Metro's Keith Watson. However, Keith had a few complaints, noting that Judy Murray 'wasn't the only one with her finger poised over the mute button as the English language got mashed into submission by commentators who favoured fanboy cheerleading over describing what was actually happening.' The gold medal in Keith's table 'for Most Mutable Presenter' goes to Gabby Logan. 'For someone who once came third for Wales at cartwheeling or something. Logan certainly knows everything there isn't to know about athletics. Never one to pipe down And let Michael Johnson speak sense, she had me muting for Britain.' Also attracting yer man Watto's ire was 'the miseries who complained about BBC4 being used for something other than documentaries about canals and Victorian undergarments- seriously, can't you exist for a fortnight without those?' What, Victorian undergarments? Sixteen days without them and yer bits might be a bit chaffed, Keith mate. Trust one who knows.
Some of Solo's teammates spoke out publicly after the Sweden game, saying that they were 'disappointed' with Solo's comments. 'That's not our team,' midfielder Megan Rapinoe said. 'That's not what this team has always been. That's not what this team will be in the future. It's frustrating sometimes as an athlete, you're thrust into the spotlight and I think this team has always done a really amazing job of understanding that we have this incredible platform, let's do something good with it. Let's inspire, let's be badass, let's be fierce, let's be competitive. But we're gracious and we're humble and we play the game a certain way, whether we win or lose. We've been on the winning side quite a bit and when we find ourselves on the other side, we need to handle that graciously. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.' Is it just this blogger or, does anybody else really dislike people who, even when they're apologising for something, still manage to big-up themselves and their achievements? Former national team player and current ESPN analyst Julie Foudy was also highly critical of Solo in the immediate aftermath of the Sweden game. 'I shook my head. I thought, why is that necessary?' Foudy said. 'There's a long history and tradition with our national team of respecting others when you lose, so I don't agree with it at all. To call them cowards for playing a tactically smart game is ridiculous and classless. And it really doesn't represent the house that we built with the US team.' THis is not the first national team suspension for Solo who, as noted, has considerable form in being ungracious, sneering and arrogant in the past. The goalkeeper was also suspended for thirty days last year for 'an incident' during a January training camp. Solo was reportedly in a car with her husband, the former NFL player Jerramy Stevens, when Stevens was pulled over at 2am, arrested and very charged with driving under the influence. That came a year after Solo was accused of domestic violence following 'an altercation' with her half-sister and seventeen-year-old nephew. Those charges were eventually dismissed, but that decision was reversed on appeal. The case is still going through the courts. Solo also infamously criticised coaches after being benched for Briana Scurry in a 2007 World Cup Semi-Final. 'It was the wrong decision and I think anybody that knows anything about the game knows that,' she said at the time. 'There's no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves. And the fact of the matter is it's not 2004 anymore, it's 2007 and I think you have to live in the present. And you can't live by big names. You can't live in the past.' And, speaking of naughty American sports-type person, the swimwear manufacturer Speedo and the fashion label Ralph Lauren are dropping their sponsorship of disgraced Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte. The companies made their announcements after Lochte lied about being robbed at gunpoint by a policeman after a night out during the Rio Olympics. Speedo said: 'We cannot condone behaviour that is counter to the values this brand has long stood for.' Lochte and three team-mates had in fact vandalised a petrol station toilet door.
They had been returning to the Olympic village after a night out in Rio when they tried, unsuccessfully, to use the locked toilet and urinated outside instead. Ralph Lauren, which has removed Lochte's image from its website, said that its sponsorship had been 'only for the Rio Olympics' and 'would not be renewed.' The value of Lochte's Speedo sponsorship has not been disclosed. The contract reportedly expires this year after ten years. Speedo said that it would donate a fifty thousand dollar portion of Lochte's sponsorship fee to the charity Save The Children's Brazilian operation. The US business magazine Forbes calculated that in the year of the 2012 London Olympics, Lochte earned about two million dollars in sponsorships from companies such as Gillette, Nissan, AT&T and Gatorade. Lochte's performance at Rio did not reach the heights of London, but Forbes estimated his endorsements would still have been between one and two million dollars. Lochte is one of the most successful swimmers in history, with twelve Olympic medals and he once had his own reality television show. In Rio, he swam in two events, winning a gold medal in the four by two hundred metres freestyle relay along with team-mate Jack Conger. 
Lochte's behaviour has been met with disdain - and not a small amount of furious anger - in the US and he has been widely pilloried and mocked in the US media and by many members of the general public. On 19 August the New York Post carried a front-page headline describing him as The Ugly American, along with the slogan Liar, Liar, Speedo on fire. After first claiming that he and his three team-mates had been 'robbed' by 'bogus policemen,' Lochte later back-tracked and admitted that he had, while still drunk, 'left details out' and 'over-exaggerated some parts of the story.' Despite the mass of evidence stacked against him, including CCTV footage, however, he continues to deny that he actually lied in his initial account to Brazilian police: 'I wasn't lying to a certain extent,' he claimed in a TV interview to utter derision from many Americans. 'I over-exaggerated what was happening to me.' I think it's the 'to a certain extent' defence, after the statement that he was not lying which makes it genius, dear blog reader. You've almost got to admire sheer bloody-minded stubbornness like that. Lying, sir? Not me, sir? I said a load of things that weren't true, but I wasn't lying, sir. Meanwhile, that defence was looking even less feasible after he was snitched up good and bleeding proper by one of his co-accused. Which, admittedly, was funny. 'We appreciate his many achievements and hope he moves forward and learns from this experience,' Speedo said of Lochte. Syneron Candela - a hair removal company - is another sponsor of Ryan Lochte. It said on Sunday that its sponsorship of the swimmer was 'an ongoing investigation.' The swimmer's other sponsors - for the moment, anyway - include mattress maker Airweave. 
Wu suggested legal action would be taken against those who have accused the AIBA of corruption. In addition to the Conlan result other controversial decisions in Rio included another Russian, Evgeny Tishchenko, being awarded victory against Kazakhstan's Vassiliy Levit in the heavyweight boxing final. 'I felt in my mind, nothing wrong [about the decision]. But the next day, suddenly it becomes a very controversial issue. It was really surprising,' said Wu, who was at ringside for the fight. As well as gesturing at the judges, Belfast fighter Conlan swore and claimed he was 'robbed' and 'cheated' following his bantamweight quarter-final exit at the hands of Nikitin. And, he wasn't the only one, either, Paddy Power seemed to have agreed with him. 'The International Olympic Committee says this is totally unacceptable. He put himself in a difficult position, I can tell you,' added Wu. AIBA sent home several referees and judges after debatable verdicts at the games and the fall-out from the Conlan fight is set to result in a change to the scoring system at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Wu said: 'We always assign the evaluators of the referees and judges to watch for fair play. If they find certain referees and judges not meeting expectations, or if some mistake is made, then immediately we interview them. The [suspension usually] runs three days. This time, we sent them home. Our policy is zero tolerance. I want perfect. The best. Since [the Conlan fight], we want to totally review our [scoring] system and how to improve. It will be transparent. We will continue to work to make it in a more perfect condition.' 
'I have not decided yet, but maybe I will move to another country.' So, there's a chance for Bahrain to pick up another potential medallist for Tokyo. Asked if he was worried about being sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee, Lilesa said: 'I cannot do anything about that. This was my feeling. I have a big problem in my country, it is very dangerous to make protest in my country.' Rule fifty of the Olympic charter bans political displays or protests and the IOC say they are 'gathering information' about the case. Of course, they have a long history of attempting to stamp down on any hint of political protest. The American duo of Tommie Smith and John Carlos were, infamously, stripped of their medals after the pair did the so-called 'black power salute' on the medal stand at the 1968 Summer games. (Actually, it was a Black Power salute, or anything even remotely like it, rather it was a - dignified protest against America's treatment of its black population.) There has been a wave of protests in Ethiopia in recent months over a series of frustrations, including attempts by the governments to reallocate land in the Oromo and Amhara regions. Protesters in the Amhara region - from the Welkait community - first took to the streets of the city of Gondar in July over the reallocation plans. The Oromos, who make up around a third of the population, have joined the protests over long-held frustrations that they are excluded from the country's political process and the economic development. New York-based Human Rights Watch says that more than four hundred people were killed in clashes with the security forces in Oromia, although the government disputes this figure. 
We cannot take water from any other team. I saw the Indian board there but there was nothing,' she said. 'I had a lot of problem, I fainted after the race. I was administered glucose, I thought I would die.' Jaisha said she got 'no response' from officials when she asked why water was not provided to her at the stalls. 'I don't know who to blame for this. Maybe nobody realises the seriousness of a marathon, the fact that we have to run forty two kilometres,' she said. India's Sports Minister Vijay Goel has said that he will 'investigate' the allegation. 'I'll look into this and if there was negligence of any sort, action will be taken,' he told NDTV. India finished with two medals at the games, fewer than the six medals it won during its best-ever performance in London four years ago. Indian boxers were threatened with disqualification after they turned up in shirts which didn't have India's logo - a key requirement at the games. Goel himself was, reportedly, warned after some of his staff allegedly 'behaved rudely' and tried to enter venues without proper accreditation. The minister received further criticism when he wished luck to Indian sprinter Srabani Nanda, but ended up posting the picture of another athlete, Dutee Chand, with his tweet. The appointment of a radiologist as the chief medical officer of the Indian team in Rio also received criticism. Authorities, however, said that the radiologist, the son of a senior sports official, 'knew sports medicine well.' Some hockey players complained that they were invited to an official function to celebrate India's Independence Day, but 'were only given peanuts to eat instead of proper dinner.' 
A three-person IOC panel then had the final say. In the end, more than two hundred and seventy Russian athletes were cleared to compete at the Olympics, with Russia winning fifty six medals in total and finishing in fourth place in the medals table. Russia had been set to take two hundred and sixty seven competitors across eighteen sports at the Paralympics. The CAS statement added that it had 'not looked' at the 'natural justice rights or personality rights' of individual Russian athletes in making its decision. IPC president Sir Philip Craven, who has described Russia's anti-doping system as 'broken, corrupted and entirely compromised,' and claimed the country had put 'medals over morals,' said he was 'greatly encouraged' by the CAS decision. He said it was 'not a day for celebration,' adding: 'We have enormous sympathy for the Russian athletes who will now miss out. It is a sad day for the Paralympic movement,' said Craven. 'But, we hope also a new beginning. We hope this decision acts as a catalyst for change in Russia and we can welcome the Russian Paralympic Committee back as a member safe in the knowledge that it is fulfilling its obligations to ensure fair competition for all.' Russian sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, claimed that the ban was 'political' and 'not within legal framework,' while the Russian Paralympic team's lawyer Alexei Karpenko, called it 'a black day for the sports judiciary.' He said: 'I can only express huge disappointment at the ruling. The rights of Russian Paralympians have been blatantly violated. Regardless of whether the Russian Paralympics Committee is guilty of the charges, punishing innocent athletes and not allowing them to defend themselves - which was an opportunity afforded to the Russian Olympics athletes - this is a flagrant violation of human rights.' 
Good luck with that mate, with Eric Idle around. Idle has written songs for the Christmas special, which will be choreographed by Arlene Phillips and combine 'fascinating facts about the birth of the universe with larger-than-life comedy characters.' Foxy Coxy finds himself in a major musical at Rutland Weekend Television, after thinking he is booked to give a lecture. Idle said: 'I am very pleased that Rutland Weekend Television is back on BBC TV with a Christmas special only forty one years after its last one. The world's smallest TV station takes on the world's largest subject: the entire universe.' He added: 'It's fitting that forty one years after Rutland Weekend Television produced a Christmas special with George Harrison, it is back with the Beatle of science, Brian Cox.' Though, whether Coxy will get to sing anything as deliciously mad as 'The Pirate Song' is another question entirely. 'No doubt what Rutland did for TV in the Sevenites it will now do for science – and set it back forty years.' Heh. Coxy added: 'I've made many television documentaries over the years and a constant complaint has been that the music is too loud and obscures the science. This undermines my credibility as a serious scientist. I expect The Entire Universe to be the final nail in the coffin.' This should be worth watching!
David Walliams is to front a revival of the quiz show Blankety Blank in a one-off Christmas special of the TV quiz show - the first full episode since 2002. It was formerly hosted by Sir Terry Wogan, Les Dawson and ... Lily Savage. Walliams tweeted a photograph of former host Sir Terry, saying that he had 'very big shoes to fill.' The panel show, to be broadcast on ITV, will see six celebrities help two contestants win prizes by filling in blanked-out words in a phrase.
Thandie Newton is to star as the guest lead character in the next series of hit BBC drama Line Of Duty. The actres will join returning cast members Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar on the show when she takes on the role of DCI Roz Huntley. The character is described as the police anti-corruption squad's 'most devious opponent yet.' Newton said she 'couldn't be more thrilled' to join the drama, which begins filming its fourth series in Belfast next month. 'I watched the last three seasons of Line Of Duty with breathless admiration for its creators, both behind and in front of the camera,' she said. Compston added: 'It's a testament to how well Line Of Duty has done [in the] last few years that we can attract someone of Thandie Newton's calibre to the show. It's great to have her on-board.' Newton shot to international stardom after appearing in 2000 film Mission: Impossible II and went on to appear in The Chronicles Of Riddick, 2012 and Crash. She also appeared on the small-screen in ER, The Slap and US drama Rogue - and will next be seen in the upcoming TV adaptation of Westworld. The actress follows in the footsteps of Lennie James, Keeley Hawes and Daniel Mays, who have guest-starred as the lead character in Line Of Duty for the past three series. BAFTA-winner Jason Watkins, Lee Ingleby and Royce Pierreson will also appear in series four, which will move to BBC1 after its ratings success on BBC2. Creator and writer Jed Mercurio said that he was 'looking forward to tormenting the nation with ever more diabolical plot twists.'
Mercer's takeover bid sparked an ultimately successful campaign by Hibs fans to thwart the deal, but feelings were running high and spilled into trouble at the match. Robertson told the BBC: 'The place was packed to the rafters and it was a horrible atmosphere. Hibs fans were going bananas and rightly so, Hearts fans weren't too happy about it either. We were the Anti-Christ at the time, we were the enemies.' He said that a senior police officer had came into the dressing room at half-time with other officers and told players: 'We fear another pitch invasion, you know, we're going to basically say if you score another goal and Hibs fans invade, we may have to stop the game, so you know, if you can help it, don't score!' Robertson added: 'We were all looking stunned, thinking - some strange request, that. He went out the door and Sandy Clark [the then Hearts caretaker manager] said "Yeah, yeah officer, no problem at all, no worries, I know where you're coming from, we'll leave it at that." He shut the door and said: "Nah, that ain't happening guys!"' As it happened Hearts failed to find the net again in the second half and the score remained three-nil. Rod Petrie, current chairman of Hibs, reflected on the significance of the Hibs fans' campaign. He told the documentary: 'It was probably close to the club's darkest hour and everybody who was part of Hands Off Hibs deserves great credit for the passion that they showed and the determination they showed to save the football club.' Hearts supporter Alex Salmond said: 'Anybody who really understands football understands that you can't have yin-without-yang. You can't have Hearts without Hibs, you can't have Celtic without Rangers and you cannot, must not, ever effectively deprive people of their football loyalties.' 
Channel Four News has previously made it clear that Manji was rostered to present that day ten days before the Nice terror attack although,quite why they felt they needed to dignify these spiteful, ignorant, wicked whinges with any form of response other than withering contempt is another matter entirely. The former Sun editor attacked Channel Four and Manji in a subsequent column saying: 'Was it appropriate for her to be on camera when there had been yet another shocking slaughter by a Muslim? Was it done to stick one in the eye of the ordinary viewer who looks at the hijab as a sign of the slavery of Muslim women by a male-dominated and clearly violent religion?' The Sun quickly distanced itself from MacKenzie's column, deleting a tweet promoting it as his comments promoted widespread criticism. Manji accused MacKenzie of attempting to 'smear' her religion and 'intimidate Muslims out of public life.' More than eight hundred people have complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation about the column. Ofcom assessed the seventeen whinges it received that using Manji was 'inappropriate' but deemed that there were 'no grounds' to launch a full investigation into any potential breach of the broadcasting code. 'We received a small number of complaints that it was inappropriate for a presenter wearing a hijab to present a report on the attack in Nice,' said a spokesman for Ofcom. 'We won't be taking the matter forward for investigation. The selection of a presenter is an editorial matter for the broadcaster and the way in which the presenter chose to dress in this case did not raise any issues under our rules.' 
However then the five-minute news item, which was broadcast at 9pm, added: 'I mean, we are governed by a bunch of bureaucrats that don't speak English in a funny place called The Hague, which makes no sense at all and it tells Britain what to do, it takes British money, it doesn't send much of if it back – it's a very unfair one-way street when you begin to dig into it and the biggest thing of course is that all of this is all a disguise over the immigration issue.' At 9.50pm, ten minutes before the polls closed, there was a further news item which included statements including that the BBC was 'like a running ad for Remain' and that there was 'a lot of establishment pressure' on the public to vote for Remain. 'I don't know why any Brit, maybe I'm just too much of a Yank, why would any Brit wanna offshore its sovereignty to Brussels?' the news report said. 'There is a lot of propaganda out there and usually that type of brainwashing does work. Politicians, moronic celebrities who don't know anything about trade imbalances, they are waiting on this, the media – the BBC is like a running ad for Remain, and it goes on and on.' Faux News said that the edition of the programme did not 'advocate a particular position on the vote.' One or two people even believed that. It added that it 'presented a summary of the positions others are advocating as to whether the UK should remain an EU member.' However, Ofcom said that this was a right load of old bollocks and that the programme broke the UK broadcasting rules relating to the 'discussion and analysis of election and referendum issues' on polling day. 'Following a careful investigation, we found that Fox News breached broadcasting rules by showing a discussion about the EU referendum while the polls were open on the day of the referendum,' said a spokesman for Ofcom.
'The News of the World was not a major profit engine,' says Sherman, who has covered the media since his early days at the Observer. 'By the time the scandal hit, newspapers had fallen on hard times. The News of the World used to be the FAUX News of the Murdoch empire years ago, but it was a dwindling asset – FAUX News is still in its prime. So to have a scandal that rocks it to the core poses a great risk to the corporate parent.' The scandal is so damaging because supporters and detractors of the network all agree on one thing: FAUX News is Roger Ailes. Or was. The man at the centre of that maelstrom is as mercurial and interesting as any in the media world, Sherman says. Ailes is 'a world-historical figure' whose harsh perspective came to define American conservatism in his twenty years running the most-viewed cable news network in America. 'I think he's kind of a historical icon, very much on the level of a J Edgar Hoover; someone who will define their age,' Sherman says. 'He transcends the medium of television.' Contrary to conventional wisdom, Sherman believes Ailes accomplished that transcendence by using FAUX News not as a means to advance a particular established brand of conservatism, but as his personal megaphone. 'He has sort of contradictory positions that are not necessarily completely in-sync with the [right-wing think-tanks] Cato Institute or the Heritage Foundation; classically conservative institutions in America. He's very populist, he's nationalist, he's not for open borders. I reported in my book that one of his immigration plans was to dispatch Navy Seals to the Mexico border with orders to shoot-to-kill anyone crossing. That's not a very nuanced immigration position. At least Donald Trump only wants to build a wall; Roger Ailes wants to kill people.' That minor point of difference aside, in many ways Trump himself is the avatar of Ailes's philosophy and now, Ailes is his advisor. Trump swept the US Republican primaries not by virtue of his political acumen or even basic competence, but on a wave of populist rage beloved of FAUX News viewers but anathema to moneyed conservatives. 'Donald Trump has really repelled a lot of mainstream and conservative Republicans,' Sherman observes. 'So that's really one of Roger Ailes's legacies: reshaping the Republican party as a populist, blue-collar, white nativist party. The Washington elites and the conservative intellectuals, because of Ailes's power, had to kind of hold their noses and graft themselves onto it. Without question, I don't think Roger Ailes is a conservative in the mould of a Bill Buckley. He's unique to Roger Ailes.' Sherman has the New York media world at home as well as at work. His wife Jennifer Stahl has worked at ProPublica and the New Yorker and his father, an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, has written the occasional op-ed. His career is a stark contrast to Ailes's own: the FAUX News executive worked nearly every job in television during his ascendancy; Sherman has stretched his professional legs occasionally, but he's written about media since 2003. The writer has interviewed twenty women alleging sexual harassment by Ailes; he says their stories are disturbingly similar. 'That's one of the reasons I found these stories so credible,' he says. 'These are women who live all over the country and the time period spans from the 1960s to the mid-2000s and what's remarkable over that forty-to-fifty-year period is that the pattern is exactly the same.' He was surprised, however, by how 'cavalier' Ailes appeared to be during those encounters. 'What's remarkable to me is that for a man as paranoid as he is, that Roger Ailes would be so reckless in his personal behaviour,' Sherman says. 'Because while I knew that he had sexually harassed women in the past, I just couldn't imagine that so many women had experienced it and he'd be able to keep it a secret for so long.' Now Ailes has lost his perch in television – Sherman says he understands that the former executive's 'non-compete clause' bars him from re-entering the media world until he's eighty years old. The consequences of his absence from TV will be major, Sherman predicts. 'We'll see conservative media splintered across the ideological spectrum,' Sherman suggests and, already, sees attention shifting to outlets such as Breitbart, the Conservative site that is also avowedly pro-Trump. 'That'll be really interesting because FAUX was this amazing unifier of all the strands of conservatism together. Ailes used his ruthlessness to kind of keep everyone in line. Now that he's out of the picture, one of my FAUX sources joked that inside FAUX News it's kind-of a Lord of the Flies situation where everyone's trying to kill each other. We could see that transposed to the conservative media landscape as a whole.'
Home Office doctors gave the go-ahead for experimental drug trials on children at two approved schools in the 1960s, National Archives files show. Parents were not consulted and the issue of consent was 'left to managers.' At Richmond Hill Approved School in North Yorkshire, housing pupils aged fifteen and older, the most disruptive boys were given an anti-convulsant drug to see if it would control behaviour. The trial of a sedative on girls at a school near Leeds did not proceed. The proposal had been to give all girls at Springhead Park Approved School in Rothwell, which cared for fourteen and fifteen-year-olds, Haloperidol, a powerful sedative now used largely as an anti-psychotic. Approved Schools were on a level between between a children's home and borstal. While children were usually sent there by juvenile courts, they were not imprisoned; the sites were funded and inspected by the Home Office and run by voluntary organisations. The National Archives files feature discussions about the plans for the drug trials from three doctors who are all now deceased. In a document dating from late 1967, Doctor JR Hawkings, a psychiatrist attached to Richmond Hill, wrote to the Home Office asking for permission to conduct a drug trial on boys who were 'impulsive, explosive, irritable, restless and aggressive.' He wanted to give some of them a drug called Beclamide. The anti-convulsant, which has sedative effects and was prescribed for epilepsy, is no longer widely in use. Although Hawkings said that this would be 'a perfectly normal and legitimate therapy for certain types of disturbed adolescent,' he also said it had not been 'widely tested' on such boys. It was to be a 'double blind' trial, with a control group given a placebo and another group given the drug. But there is no indication that the trial was discussed or explained to participants, or any suggestion that their consent was sought prior to the trial. The papers show Home Office psychiatrist Doctor Pamela Mason 'welcomed' Hawkings's plan. On 1 November 1967 she wrote: 'From the clinical or practical point of view these are the boys that can produce considerable problems within a school and this sort of research into possible drug treatment is to be welcomed. I would recommend maximum support for this project.' According to notes on the file, the trial went ahead in 1968, with boys given the drug for six months. There is no record of the outcome in the documents, nor was any paper published in a medical journals.
And the files show that the school headmaster told the Home Office 'in view of assurances from the school doctor, from Doctor Hawkings, and from the doctor acting for the manufacturers, the managers had decided that there was no need to consult the parents.' Bob Hammal, a teacher at Richmond Hill between 1968 and 1972, was 'appalled' to learn of the trial. He remembered there were challenges - but generally recalls 'a good relationship' between staff and the boys. 'What really did shock me more than anything was that parental consent was not sought and was not thought to be necessary by the powers-that-be,' he said. Hammal believes that had he, or other colleagues, known at the time, they would have tried to stop it, or acted as a whistleblower if that was not possible. As the Richmond Hill trial got under way, a second trial was proposed, again by a school psychiatrist, at Springhead Park Approved School for girls in Rothwell near Leeds. This was a sister-school to the better known Duncroft in Surrey, a small institution for girls of higher intelligence. In November 1968, Doctor Joyce Galbraith wrote to Doctor Mason at the Home Office 'in strict confidence.' She said that she was 'increasingly concerned' about the tone of the school and unrest amongst the staff. To calm the situation, she suggested giving Haloperidol to every girl in the school, for eighteen weeks. She wrote: 'My suggestion is that we should try some form of drug trial to see if, by allaying the anxiety of the girls chemically, we might perhaps settle the school a little bit more, and give the staff an opportunity to put their own house in order.' Again, Mason supported the plan. The papers in the the National Archives show she wrote: 'I think this sounds a valuable treatment approach to the very real problems that arise from the special nature of girls in residence and in particular the problems presented by younger immature disturbed adolescent girls.' The files also show that Shelagh Sunner, headmistress of the school between 1966 and 1982, did not support the trial. Speaking to the BBC about the National Archives material, she said drugs were 'not the solution' for 'her' girls. 'They weren't mentally sick kids,' she said. 'They needed to work through their emotions.' The trial did not take place after the school's managers blocked it, worried about what the girls' parents would think. Sunner said she was 'not surprised,' though, that the Home Office had initially endorsed it. 'I think they were scratching their head about what they were going to do with this generation of maladjusted kids - because the approved schools were full and there were a lot of them.' 
Nor did he have any history of smoking. Doctors prescribed the steroid prednisolone and the immunosuppressive drug azathioprine, but they had little or no effect. The only thing which seemed to work was a three-month sojourn in Australia. While there, the man's symptoms improved significantly and he said that he could walk along the beach 'for more than six miles' without stopping. Doctors later realised that the reason his breathing had improved in Australia was that he had left his bagpipes in the UK. At home, the man played his bagpipes daily, even as his breathing deteriorated and more medications were added to his drug regimen. Eventually, the patient's condition became so bad that he was hospitalised. There, doctors treated him with a cocktail of IV antibiotics and an antifungal drug. After he was admitted to the hospital, it occurred to someone to test his bagpipes to see whether they were the source of his HP. The hunch proved to be correct. Samples of air from inside the bag were found to contain the fungi Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, Fusarium oxysporum and various species of Penicillium. The neck of the blowpipe added Trichosporon mucoides to the mix and the chanter reed protector - the part of the instrument responsible for carrying the melody - had many of these same fungi as well. In retrospect, the instrument seems like an obvious culprit. Several of these fungi are known to trigger HP, the report authors wrote, and 'the moist environment of bagpipes promotes yeast and mould contamination, thereby making the chronic inhalation of offending antigens a likely trigger.' The authors were able to find two other cases of musicians being sickened by their instruments. The condition of both - a saxophone player and a trombone player - improved after they 'made a habit of cleaning their instruments' with disinfectants and antiseptics. Sadly, the hospitalised patient never got a chance to improve his bagpipe hygiene. He died several weeks after entering the hospital. It started as a routine hearing in a Georgia courtroom but ended as 'an extraordinary display of vulgarity - between a defendant and judge.' Denver Fenton Allen, the defendant in a murder case, repeatedly threatened a judge and hurled crude obscenities and aggressive remarks during a hearing, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Allen was appearing before Bryant Durham Junior, a superior court judge in Floyd County. The hearing, held in Rome, Georgia, last week, lasted less than twenty minutes. But, in that brief time, Allen and Durham launched a series of obscenities and aggressive remarks at each other in 'a heated exchange' which was filled with 'offensive language,' according to a transcript of the hearing published online. It began when Durham told Allen that he was finding the defendant 'in contempt of court,' after Allen had made 'a obscene comment.' Allen replied: 'I don't care.' Durham said: 'I know you don't. And I sentence you to twenty days for that. If you say anything else, I'm going to add twenty days for everything you say.' Allen responded: 'Fuck you.' 'Forty days,' said the judge, who appeared t be rather enjoying himself. 'Fuck you, again!' Allen retorted and was told he now faced sixty days in The Big House. 'Go fuck yourself,' he continued. 'A year,' said Durham, clearly feeling the twenty days per comment thing wasn't working. 'Your mama!' was Allen's next pithy comment. 'Ten years!' said Durham. Allen responded with another crass statement. 'You know something, this is going to be an interesting trial,' Durham said.
The, already charged, conversation continued to spiral downwards from there, as Durham and Allen - who reportedly stands accused in the fatal attack of an inmate - escalated their verbal exchange. Allen often used sexually graphic language, mixed with obscenities. The judge, for his part, said concerning the defendant: 'You know, you look like a queer.' At which point, suddenly, this rather amusing judge suddenly starts to seem a whole hell of a lot less funny. 'Well, okay,' Allen responded. 'So now, you're calling me a queer in the courtroom.' 'I didn't call you one,' Durham said. 'I said you looked like one.' Hmm. An interesting legal distinction, yer honour. Doesn't make it any less homophobic, however. As the clash dragged on, Durham eventually told Allen that he had 'a constitutional right to be a dumbass.' And, later, Allen issued his threat. 'How about this?' he said. 'I'll kill your whole family. When I get in this trial, I will murder your whole family. I'll cut your children up into pieces. I'll knock their brains out with a fuckin' hammer and feed them to you.' 'Are you taking this down?' Durham asked and a court reporter confirmed that they were. He later told Allen that he did not, in fact, have any children. It's unclear if Durham's comments could result in any disciplinary action being taken against him. The Journal-Constitution reports: 'The judge, while provoked in the extreme, made comments that could land him in trouble with the state judicial ethics agency. He not only exchanged vulgarities with Allen, he also said it was his 'guess' that he'd find Allen guilty and that Allen would find out "how nasty I really am."' As the conversation was ending, Durham told Allen that if a similar scene played out again, the defendant would not be staying in the courtroom. Allen responded with a vulgarity. 'Okay,' said Durham. 'I'm subpoenaing you's all in the courtroom,' Allen replied, as he was being escorted out. A full transcript was posted online by law blogger Keith Lee. Quite entertaining it is too. Well, apart from the sickeningly homophobic bit.
A magistrate court in southern Laamu Atoll has released a young man arrested on charges of assault on the condition that he goes fishing to earn an income and attends prayers at the island mosque. Ali Thasmeen, aged nineteen, was arrested on the island of Gan for his alleged involvement in a gang fight. The magistrate court released him on Thursday with a set of conditions. 'He signed an agreement. It says he was released from police custody with conditions,' a court official confirmed. These include staying home between 10pm and 7am and attending religious sermons at the mosque. The same court had conditioned the release of a twenty two-year-old man in October on cutting and maintaining his hair 'nice and short.' Critics suggest that the conditions are possibly illegal. 'I don't know whether or not a court can order a person to pray. I suppose that could come under the Islamic Shariah. But a court cannot order a person to go fishing for sure,' said opposition MP, Fayyaz Ismail. The Maldivian Democratic Party lawmaker himself was remanded for more than two weeks when he refused the criminal court's conditions to avoid protests last year. The high court later ruled that the condition were unconstitutional. Lawyer Hussain Shameem, who contested the protest ban, says that the appellate court ruling means that courts can only set conditions on the release of individuals under investigation to ensure that they turn up at court. The criminal court last month released a group of people arrested from the opposition's weekly prayer gathering on the condition they 'stay away' from Malé's main mosque, the Islamic Centre. The opposition has meanwhile criticised the courts' practice of remanding individuals arrested for political activities for long periods of time, despite laws saying that courts can only hold an individual on remand if there is 'reason to believe they may tamper with evidence,' fail to attend court proceedings or abscond from trial.
The shifts, which astronomers call 'wobbles,' are caused by the gravitational tugging of a planet roughly 1.3 times the size of Earth on the parent star. Based on the timing of these wobbles, scientists determined that the planet circles its host star in just eleven days, compared to Earth's three hundred and sixty five-day orbit around the sun. That puts the planet far closer to its parent star than Earth's orbits around the sun. However, Proxima Centauri is so much smaller and dimmer than the sun that its planet's orbit is suitably positioned for liquid water despite being just over four-and-a-half million miles away. 'Chances are good that it's a viable, Earth-like planet today,' said astronomer Pedro Amado, with the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía in Granada. But scientists are unsure if red dwarf stars like Proxima Centauri are good hosts for life. Planets orbiting close enough to keep water liquid would be blasted with one hundred times more high-energy radiation than Earth receives from the sun, though what impact that would have on life is a matter of scientific debate. 'We don't think it's a show-stopper,' Amado said. Magnetic fields and an atmosphere offer a planet some protection. It is unknown if Proxima B has either. Before the discovery of Proxima B, the nearest Earth-like planet to the sun was circling a star known as Wolf 1061, located about fourteen light-years away. Proxima B may not be flying solo. 'We have some suspicions that there is another signal around the star,' Reiners said. More research is needed to determine if there are multiple planets circling Proxima Centauri. The discovery is expected to bolster a one hundred million dollar project unveiled in April and backed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner to develop a miniature laser-powered spacecraft which can make the trip to the Alpha Centauri system in about twenty years. 'We hope to build a whole system that will send nanocraft to Proxima Centauri and Alpha Centauri within a generation,' said Worden, the executive director of Breakthrough Starshot, an initiative that aims to deploy thousands of tiny spacecraft to travel to our nearest neighbouring star system and send back pictures.A lawnmower has been blamed for wrongly triggering sensors which predict when the Northern Lights will be visible in the UK. A 'red alert' issued via the Aurora Watch mailing list was swiftly withdrawn after sensor readings were found to be 'spurious.' An investigation revealed a lawnmower had got too close to one sensor, triggering 'a massive spike' in data. Aurora Watch said that it was 'looking into' ways to avoid the incident being repeated. Well, don't get the lawnmower too close would appear to be one potential solution. Just sayin'. The bogus alert was issued during the afternoon of 23 August, after a magnetometer at the University of Lancaster recorded 'a surge' in geomagnetic activity. Aurora Watch is run by scientists at the university and takes readings from lots of magnetometers to work out when the aurora borealis will be visible across Britain. The project draws on magnetometers in Lancaster, Aberdeen, the Faroe Islands and further field. The alert was withdrawn four hours after being released as it emerged only one sensor had recorded the spike in activity. A later update posted to the Aurora Watch webpage said an investigation had revealed that a groundskeeper using a 'sit-on mower' to trim the grass had been 'driving too close to the sensor,' prompting the spike. 'We'll work with the facilities team to try and avoid an incident such as this occurring in the future,' said the scientists. They explained that any metal placed on the instrument or machinery operating nearby could trick it into recording more activity than was actually present. Readings from the Lancaster sensor were not typically used to trigger alerts, they said, but problems with the main sensor in Aberdeen on 23 August meant it had become the lead monitor.
