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The air service linking north and south Wales will continue for another four years as its annual assembly government subsidy rises from £800,000 to £1.2m.
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The BBC’s Jon Donnison said the area has had little rain in recent months
About 40 prison guards have died after being trapped in a forest fire that is raging out of control in northern Israel, police say.
All the dead were on a bus which was caught in the inferno, in the Carmel Mountains near the city of Haifa, they said.
Hundreds of people, many of them prison inmates, have been evacuated from the area.
Scores more have been injured, the ambulance service said.
The Israeli prison service said the bus was carrying guards to help with the evacuation of nearby Damon Prison because of the blaze.
The men had not worked at the prison but had raced to the area from central Israel to assist in the rescue, prison service spokesman Yaron Zamir said.
A fire brigade spokesman told the Jerusalem Post that the blaze had travelled 1,500m (4,920ft) in less than three minutes.
“The bus had no chance. They tried to escape but were burned alive. It was a horrific scene,” the spokesman told the newspaper.
No inmates were reported injured.
“This is a disaster of unprecedented proportions,” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“We are harnessing all the forces of the state to deal with this disaster and rescue those who are injured and to stop the fire,” Mr Netanyahu said.
He called on Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Russia to help Israel tackle the fire.
The fire in the northern Carmel region broke out about midday, and hundreds of firefighters were battling the flames on the ground and from the air amid heavy winds.
Emergency crews from across the country tried to reach the scene, weaving through heavy rush hour traffic as night fell.
“We’re on a road that takes you down Carmel Mountain and everything is burning on both sides,” a paramedic supervisor from the ambulance service, Erez Geller, told the BBC.
“It’s dark now and this makes it very complicated with the fire. It’s a catastrophe because we have so many fatalities.
“We have had several fires in the last 10 to 12 years but nothing like this,” Mr Geller said.
Israeli media said it was the biggest forest fire in the country’s history, with 7,000 acres (2,800 hectares) of land destroyed by Thursday evening.
The cause of the blaze is unknown.
Israel is currently suffering a period of drought with no significant rain since the spring.
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The electoral commission said Mr Ouattara had won 54% of the vote The Ivorian military has sealed the country’s borders and cut international media as tensions rise over the outcome of the presidential election run-off.
It comes after the Constitutional Court rejected a declaration by the electoral commission that opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara had won.
Supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo had tried to block the long-delayed result, alleging fraud in the north.
The UN Security Council asked both sides to show restraint.
“The air, land and sea border of the country are closed to all movement of people and goods,” Ivorian military spokesman Babri Gohourou said.
The border would remain closed until further notice, Mr Gohourou added.
Shortly after, the military announced “the immediate suspension of all foreign news channels” in the country, including CNN, France24 and Radio France International FM.
The announcement of the result of Sunday’s run-off had been much delayed, leading to heightened tension in the country.
Supporters of President Ggagbo had tried to block the result, saying there had been fraud in the north, the region where Mr Ouattara is most popular.
The north is also controlled by former rebels.
The head of the independent electoral commission (IEC) , Youssouf Bakayoko, said Mr Ouattara had won 54% of the vote, compared to 46% for Mr Gbagbo.
He was speaking under armed guard at a hotel, rather than from the commission’s headquarters.
Laurent Gbagbo (left)
Age: 65Southerner, ChristianFormer history teacher, now presidentTook 38% of the first-round vote
Alassane Ouattara (right)
Age: 68Northerner, MuslimEconomist and former prime ministerTook 32% of the first-round voteCountry profile: Ivory Coast
At about the same time, the head of the Constitutional Council, Paul Yao N’Dre, who is seen as being close to Mr Gbagbo, said it was taking over the declaration from the election commission.
“Because of disagreements on the results of some regions, the independent electoral commission wasn’t able to give the provisional results,” Mr N’Dre said.
“The Constitutional Council – responsible for sorting out disputes in presidential elections – finds itself in charge, to find a solution to the disagreements, and proclaim the definitive presidential election results.”
The election was intended to reunify the world’s largest cocoa producer which split in two after a civil war in 2002.
But the BBC’s John James in Abidjan says there will now be a tug of war between the two bodies with the outcome unclear.
After a closed-door meeting, the members of the UN Security Council appealed to both sides to solve their difficulties peacefully.
The council members “reiterated their readiness to take the appropriate measures against those who obstruct the electoral process and, especially, the work of the IEC,” the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said after the meeting.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy hasd urged the constitutional council to “respect the will clearly expressed by the Ivorian people”, while the US White House said that “no party should be allowed to obstruct further the electoral process”.
The International Criminal Court said it would be monitoring acts of violence.
Both the army and UN peacekeepers have been patrolling Abidjan’s streets since Sunday to prevent an outbreak of violence.
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Sixteen people were murdered after police had been contacted with concerns about their safety during 2009-10, according to the police watchdog.
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Improving the life chances of children under five is the key to reducing inequality in later life, a major report into child poverty recommends.
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UK Alcohol sales this Christmas are forecast to drop after new figures reveal the extent of falling consumption over the past decade
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Driving time limits for gritters have been suspended The wintry weather is causing further disruption across Scotland as overnight temperatures dropped as low as -20C in some places.
Icy roads are widespread and some schools are closing for a fifth day.
These include all schools in Fife, East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian, North Lanarkshire and the Scottish Borders.
Transport Scotland urged drivers who have to travel to make robust plans in advance.
And Chief Constable Kevin Smith, chairman of the Acpos road policing business area, added: “Motorists need to pay extra attention and be prepared to adapt to changing conditions.
“Even the most experienced motorists can find themselves getting into difficulties when the roads are icy or covered in snow.
“Our advice is to consider if your journey is absolutely necessary and if you must drive then ensure that you and your car are adequately prepared for the journey ahead.”
On Thursday night more than 200 train passengers became stranded for almost five hours near Forgandenny, outside Perth.
ScotRail said the incident happened when the freezing temperature caused the loss of air pressure required to work the systems on the Glasgow to Aberdeen train.
The train left Glasgow at 1542 GMT. The passengers were not on the move again until just before 2130 GMT after a replacement train was sent.
A ScotRail spokesman urged customers to check its website before setting out and to allow more time for journeys.
The regulations dictating how long snow clearance drivers can be behind the wheel were suspended on Thursday due to the severe and prolonged weather conditions facing Scotland.
First Minister Alex Salmond said: “By temporarily suspending time limits on driving time for gritters, we can ensure more roads are kept clear and give local authorities greater flexibility to deal with these difficult conditions and keep Scotland moving.”
He told the Scottish Parliament that Scotland had two months’ supply of grit, even with heavy use.
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The payments map has changed as technology has advanced For the first time, UK consumers have spent more using their debit cards than with cash over the course of a year, data suggests.
Spending on debit cards reached £272bn in the 12 months to October, figures from the UK Payments Council show.
The statistics, released every three months, showed spending on cash stood at £269bn over the same period.
Credit card usage remained steady but there was a further decline in the number of cheques written.
August Bank Holiday spending on plastic meant debits cards overtook cash for the first time, the Council said.
“Cash is too cumbersome for many consumers these days – they prefer a card for anything more than the smallest transactions,” said Sandra Quinn, of the Payments Council.
“We now expect our debit cards to be accepted everywhere we go – in pubs and clubs, at the corner shop, online and on the High Street.”
There were 1.6 million more transactions on debit cards every day between July and September compared with the same three months a year earlier, the Council said. The amount spent rose by almost 11%.
Withdrawals from cash machines dipped slightly during the same three months, and credit card usage has remained relatively steady.
Some experts suggest that technology will be developed that allows the chips currently used in debit cards to be placed in everyday items such as mobile phones – further accelerating non-cash payments.
But historically, lower-income families have argued that they find it easier to budget using cash.
The figures also chart the further decline of cheques with 104 million fewer written in the UK in the 12 months to October, compared with the previous year.
The Council has recommended that cheques be phased out by 2018, but only if adequate alternatives were developed.
But this has been met with a degree of backlash by some MPs and consumer groups.
Last month David Ward, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East, launched a campaign to save the cheque saying its potential demise was a “cost saving exercise for the banks”.
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Democrats say the US cannot afford to keep tax rates low for the wealthy at a time of budget deficits The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would extend tax cuts for middle-class Americans while letting them lapse for the wealthy.
The Democratic-led bill keeps tax rates low for Americans making less than $200,000 (£128,122) a year.
Those rates were enacted by President George W Bush and the Republicans in 2001 and 2003.
The bill is expected to fail in the Senate, where Republicans favour low rates for all taxpayers.
The tax cuts are due to expire at the end of this year, which would see rates for all US taxpayers rise and potentially hinder the country’s fragile economic recovery by decreasing the amount of money Americans have available to spend.
The bill passed by the House would permanently extend the lower tax rates for individuals making less than $200,000 a year and for households making less than $250,000 a year.
“The president continues to believe that extending middle-class tax cuts is the most important thing we can do for our economy right now”
Robert Gibbs White House spokesman
The Republican Party favours extending the Bush tax cuts for all taxpayers, even though that move would add billions of dollars to US budget deficits.
President Barack Obama favours the House approach, and on Tuesday cited “broad agreement” that taxes on middle-class Americans should not rise on 1 January.
“The president continues to believe that extending middle-class tax cuts is the most important thing we can do for our economy right now and he applauds the House for passing a permanent extension,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
He said negotiations with the Republicans were “ongoing and productive” but that an agreement had not yet been reached.
“Any reports that we are near a deal in the tax cuts negotiations are inaccurate and premature,” Mr Gibbs added.
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Criticism in the cables of the British military effort in Afghanistan goes back to 2007 The latest US diplomatic documents released by Wikileaks contain harsh criticism of the British military effort in Afghanistan.
The cables say US officials and Afghan President Hamid Karzai believed UK forces were not up to the task of securing Helmand province on their own.
A US general, Gen Dan McNeill, is quoted as saying that British forces have made a mess of Helmand.
The details have been published in the Guardian newspaper.
Criticism of the British military effort goes back to 2007 when Gen McNeill was the US general in charge of Nato forces.
At a meeting with Senator John McCain in December 2008, President Karzai said he was relieved that US marines were being sent to reinforce the British-led mission in Helmand and “related an anecdote in which a woman from Helmand asked him to ‘take the British away and give us back the Americans’.”
A cable dated late 2008, from the US embassy, says “we and President Karzai agree that British forces are not up to the task of securing Helmand” without US support.
In another cable, the then Afghan foreign minister, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, expressed disappointment at the ordering of an extra 2,000 British soldiers to Helmand, saying: “They were not ready to fight as actively as American soldiers.”
In 2007 Gen McNeill was said to be “particularly dismayed by the British effort”. He is reported to have said that “they had made a mess of things in Helmand, their tactics were wrong”.
This time the private, unvarnished reports from US diplomats have the potential to offend America’s strongest ally in Afghanistan.
They reinforce a criticism made before of British forces that they have not been aggressive enough or present in sufficient numbers.
This should not come as a huge surprise. President Karzai has been critical of British military efforts in the past. British commanders have long acknowledged that, until the recent US reinforcements, they did not have sufficient forces to stabilise the major population centres within Helmand.
The blunt private comments are also contradicted by more recent public praise from US military commanders.
US Marine, Major General Richard Mills said the UK’s efforts in Sangin had been “simply nothing short of remarkable”.
And they need to be tempered by the realities on the ground. The US Marines who have now taken over Sangin have found it to be just as dangerous and deadly as the British.
Yet these words could still cause hurt and offence – not least for the families of those 345 British servicemen who have lost their lives in Afghanistan.
A deal with the Taliban which allowed British troops to be withdrawn from Musa Qala in 2006 “opened the door to narco-traffickers in that area, and now it was impossible to tell the difference between the traffickers and the insurgents.
“The British could do a lot more, he said, and should, because they have the biggest stake”.
According to the Guardian, criticism of the British operation in Helmand centres on its failure to establish security in Sangin.
Helmand governor Gulab Mangal told a US team led by vice-president Joe Biden in January 2009 that American forces were urgently needed as British security in Sangin was inadequate.
He is reported to have said British troops “must leave their bases and engage with the people”.
The Governor was reported in another cable around the same time to have told British officials: “Stop calling it the Sangin district and start calling it the Sangin base – all you have done here is build a military camp next to the city.”
Responding to the latest leaks, a Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “UK forces did an excellent job in Sangin, an area which has always been and continues to be uniquely challenging, delivering progress by increasing security and taking the fight to the insurgency.
“That work is now being continued by the US Marines as part of a hugely increased Isaf presence across the whole of Helmand Province.
“Both Afghan leaders, including the Governor of Sangin, and the US Marines have publicly recognised and paid tribute to the sacrifice and achievements of the UK forces in that area.”
Meanwhile, former defence secretary Geoff Hoon revealed he had written a paper at the time of the Helmand deployment – which took place under his successor John Reid – raising concerns about the manpower available for the operation.
Mr Hoon told The Times that his paper “basically said that we could do this, but only once we had drawn down significant numbers in Iraq”.
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Mr Rangel, who pleaded for leniency, said he had made “serious mistakes” Veteran New York Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel has been censured by the US House of Representatives for ethics violations.
The House earlier rejected calls by some congressmen to reduce punishment for the 80-year-old lawmaker.
Mr Rangel was found guilty of failing to disclose income and pay taxes on rental property, among other charges.
The lawmaker stood in front of the chamber while Speaker Nancy Pelosi read the formal censure resolution.
The House voted by 333 to 79 to censure Mr Rangel. It was only the 23rd time the House has invoked the most serious punishment it can order short of expulsion.
Mr Rangel, who was found guilty of 11 ethics violations last month, said he was sorry he had put fellow House members in an embarrassing position, but added that he felt good.
“I know in my heart that I am not going to be judged by this Congress, but I am going to be judged by my life,” he said.
Before the vote Mr Rangel acknowledged he had made “serious mistakes”.
Some Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the House said Mr Rangel did not deserve such severe punishment.
Mr Rangel was first elected to Congress in 1970 from a heavily Democratic district in New York City’s Harlem district.
Despite the charges against him, he won re-election on 2 November with 80% of the vote.
He stepped down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which handles tax legislation, amid the ethics allegations in March.
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Hamid Karzai views himself as a “national hero”, says Mr Eikenberry The US envoy to Kabul viewed Afghan President Hamid Karzai as “paranoid” and “weak”, fresh disclosures of US diplomatic cables by Wikileaks show.
In them, Karl Eikenberry says Mr Karzai has “an inability to grasp the most rudimentary principles of state-building”.
The cables also show deep concern about corruption in the Afghan government.
The documents are among the latest batch of hundreds being released by the whistle-blowing website.
In the cables dated July 2009, published by the Guardian newspaper, Mr Eikenberry says that four recent meetings with Mr Karzai were “cordial” but that they “raised certain concerns for me about the status of the US-Afghan relationship”.
He says he has been “troubled” by some of Mr Karzai’s views, including his belief that the US and Iran were both backing candidates running against him in the elections, held in September 2009.
Mr Eikenberry says he identifies two sides to Mr Karzai – one is a “paranoid and weak individual unfamiliar with the basics of nation building” while the other is “an ever-shrewd politician who sees himself as a nationalist hero” who can save Afghanistan from being split by political rivals.
“In order to recalibrate our relationship with Karzai, we must deal with and challenge both of these personalities,” he writes.
Similar views are given in a February 2010 cable, reporting a meeting Mr Eikenberry had with Afghan Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal.
Mr Zakhiwal describes the president as an “extremely weak man” prone to believing reports of plots against him.
In a cable from 2008, David Cameron – UK Conservative opposition leader at the time and now prime minister – is reported to have said Mr Karzai’s sphere of influence was decreasing every year.
Mr Eikenberry’s reports also express concern over rampant corruption in the Afghan government.
He cites “credible sources” in Ghazni as saying that “some of the most senior government officials in the province have chronically engaged in significant corrupt acts”, including embezzlement of public funds and stealing humanitarian aid.
In October 2009 he writes that “vast amounts of cash” are being smuggled out of Afghanistan, sometimes by senior government figures.
More than $190m (£121m) in cash was taken through Kabul International Airport between July and August 2009, he says.
He reports that Vice-President Ahmad Zia Massoud was questioned in Dubai after arriving there with $52m (£33.4m) in cash, but was released without charge and allowed to keep the money.
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The air hostess calendar, the dog who took a shine to a microphone and the lawnmower boat that could be a car. It’s Newsbeat’s Odd Box.
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Australia lose three wickets before reaching double figures after choosing to bat in the second Test against England in Adelaide.
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A million books, including works by Alan Bennett and Nigel Slater, will be given away free in the UK and Ireland on 5 March for the first World Book Night.
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