Brexit plan published in government White Paper

The government has published an official policy document setting out its Brexit plans.

The White Paper lays out the government's 12 "principles" including migration control and "taking control of our own laws".

Brexit Secretary David Davis said the UK's "best days are still to come", outside the EU.

Labour said the document "says nothing" and had been produced too late for "meaningful" scrutiny.

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The White Paper's publication comes after pressure from MPs across the House of Commons.

It sets out the themes of the government's goals for its negotiations with the EU, as announced by Prime Minister Theresa May last month.

These include:

• Trade: The UK will withdraw from the single market and seek a new customs arrangement and a free trade agreement with the EU.
• Immigration: A new system to control EU migration will be introduced, and could be phased in to give businesses time to prepare. The new system will be designed to help fill skills shortages and welcome "genuine" students.
• Expats: The government wants to secure an agreement with European countries "at the earliest opportunity" on the rights of EU nationals in the UK and Britons living in Europe.
• Sovereignty: Britain will leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice but seek to set up separate resolution mechanisms for things like trade disputes.
• Border: Aiming for "as seamless and frictionless a border as possible between Northern Ireland and Ireland."
• Devolution: Giving more powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as decision-making is brought back to the UK.

The document says the government will "keep our positions closely held and will need at times to be careful about the commentary we make public", with MPs offered a vote on the final deal.

Labour is calling for a "meaningful vote" that could send the prime minister back to the negotiating table if the deal is deemed unsatisfactory by MPs.

Formal negotiations can begin once the UK has given notice of Brexit under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which Mrs May has promised to do by the end of March.

On Wednesday evening MPs voted to allow the PM to do this as they backed the European Union Bill by 498 votes to 114.

MPs will discuss the bill in more detail next week when it reaches the committee stage in the Commons, and Labour has vowed to force through amendments.

Hundreds of amendments have already been tabled for debate between Monday and Wednesday, with objectives set out in the government's strategy expected to attract more.

A total of 47 Labour rebels voted against the bill.

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Longer holidays?

A chart on page 32 of the Brexit White Paper has raised a few eyebrows by claiming UK workers are currently entitled to a generous 14 weeks of annual leave.

It comes in a section comparing employment rights in the UK with the rest of the EU.

According to the government, the correct figure for someone working five days a week is 28 days.

The slip perhaps reflects a possible rush to publish the White Paper with metadata on the file suggesting it was still being worked on at 04:15 GMT.

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Shadow cabinet members Rachael Maskell and Dawn Butler quit the party's front bench shortly before Wednesday evening's vote, and in total, 13 Labour frontbenchers voted against their own party position which was to support the bill.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said other parties had also been divided on the issue, with two of the Liberal Democrats' nine MPs abstaining despite orders to oppose the bill.

Mr McDonnell said a decision on whether frontbench rebels could remain in their jobs would be taken "in due course", and that the atmosphere in his party was "one of mutual respect", with determination to oppose a "reckless Brexit".

He said Labour "may look divided" but would unite after the government triggers official negotiations under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty while "the Tory Party will split apart".

Mr McDonnell also said shadow home secretary Diane Abbott had missed the vote because she "wasn't very well".

'Calibre judged'

The Brexit bill was published last week, after the Supreme Court decided MPs and peers must have a say before Article 50 could be triggered.

It rejected the government's argument that Mrs May had sufficient powers to trigger Brexit without consulting Parliament.

Iain Watson, BBC political correspondent, said a "sizeable" Labour rebellion could grow further if amendments were not passed.

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The SNP, Plaid Cymru and seven out of nine Liberal Democrats opposed the government's bill, alongside Tory Ken Clarke.

The SNP's foreign affairs spokesman at Westminster, Alex Salmond, said there would be "detailed questions" about the bill during its next stage.

He said "the calibre of the government will be judged by how they respond to the amendments".

Mr Clarke, the only Conservative MP to defy his party by voting against the bill, said the result was "historic", but the "mood could change" when the "real action" of negotiations with the EU starts.

Exit talks with the EU are expected to last up to two years, with the UK predicted to leave the 28-member organisation in 2019.

Russian critic Vladimir Kara-Murza suffers sudden organ failure

A prominent Russian opposition activist has been hospitalised with organ failure, two years after he almost died of suspected poisoning.

Journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who works for pro-democracy group Open Russia, fell ill at about 05:00 local time (02:00 GMT).

Mr Kara-Murza's wife told the BBC she was on her way to hospital where her husband is in a medically-induced coma.

The activist nearly died when he suffered sudden kidney failure in 2015.

"He is already on life support and in a medicated coma. It's the same clinical picture [as last time]," Evgenia Kara-Murza told the BBC.

"The reason is unclear like last time. He's been active and healthy [recently]."

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The journalist's wife said he had suffered the same sudden onset of symptoms as in his previous illness.

"The ambulance took him directly to the hospital where the same medical team has since been trying to determine what is happening," she said.

"He was brought there conscious but was put in a medicated coma and on life support later, because his organs began shutting down like last time."

Mr Kara-Murza had spent the previous evening at the home of his parents-in-law.

On Wednesday he had posted a Facebook tribute to his friend Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader and former deputy prime minister of Russia who was shot dead in February 2015.

Writing in Russian, he shared a photo of roses on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge where Mr Nemtsov was killed, and the words: "We're here. We remember."

Image copyrightFACEBOOK/ VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA

Image captionMr Kara-Murza posted a tribute to Mr Nemtsov on Facebook a day before he fell ill

No cause was ever established for Mr Kara-Murza's last illness, but tests confirmed that he had ingested a poisonous substance.

Then aged 33, he was in a coma for almost a week and struggled to communicate when he regained consciousness.

Fears were raised that the journalist could have been deliberately poisoned.

In 2015, the chief doctor at the Moscow hospital treating Mr Kara-Murza told the BBC that tests had revealed traces of an anti-depressant.

He speculated that the citalopram, which the activist was taking, may have accumulated in his body if he had a prior, undetected kidney problem.

It may also have reacted with an antihistamine Mr Kara-Murza used for hay fever.

His father rejected that theory, saying he did not believe an innocuous nasal spray could have triggered the "nuclear explosion" in his son's kidneys.

Yemen al-Qaeda: US says raid was 'very thought-out process'

The White House has said a raid in Yemen on an al-Qaeda stronghold that likely killed civilians was a "very thought-out process".

As many as 23 civilians were killed in the raid on a village in Yakla district on Saturday, including 10 children, rights group Reprieve says.

They included the eight-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, a militant killed by a US strike in 2011.

The raid was the first such operation authorised by President Donald Trump.

The US military had previously said a Navy Seal died and three others were injured. But the US Central Command (Centcom) later said that those killed could include children.

Several Apache helicopters were reported to have taken part in the operation, which killed 14 militants, including three al-Qaeda leaders, according to the US military.

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White House spokesman Sean Spicer told journalists: "It's hard to ever call something a complete success when you have a loss of life or people injured."

"But I think when you look at the totality of what was gained to prevent the future loss of life... I think it's a successful operation in all standards."

He made no mention of civilian victims.

Earlier on Thursday, Reprieve said a newborn baby was among 10 children killed in the attack.

It also cited local reports as saying that a heavily pregnant woman was shot in the stomach during the raid and subsequently gave birth to an injured baby boy who later died.

Images of several dead children emerged on social media soon after the attack took place.

Earlier this week, Pentagon spokesman Capt Jeff Davis told reporters to "take reports of female casualties with a grain of salt", adding that they had been "trained to be ready and trained to be combatants".

But US military Central Command on Wednesday acknowledged that a number of civilians had been "likely killed in the midst of a firefight".

Al-Qaeda has taken advantage of the civil war in Yemen to entrench its presence in the south and south-east of the country.

For the past two years, Yemen has been embroiled in fighting between forces loyal to the internationally recognised president, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and Shia Houthi rebels.

Fukushima nuclear disaster: Worker sues Tepco over cancer

A Japanese court has begun hearing the case of a man who developed leukaemia after working as a welder at the damaged Fukushima nuclear site.

The plaintiff, 42, is the first person to be recognised by labour authorities as having an illness linked to clean-up work at the plant.

He is suing Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the complex.

The nuclear site was hit by the earthquake and tsunami in 2011, causing a triple meltdown.

It was the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. An exclusion zone remains in place around the site as thousands of workers continue clean-up efforts.

'Expendable labourer'

The man, from Japan's Fukuoka prefecture, was a welder for a sub-contractor.

He spent six months working at Genkai and Fukushima No 2 nuclear plants before moving to the quake-hit Fukushima No 1 plant, where he build scaffolding for repair work at the No 4 reactor building. His cumulative radiation exposure was 19.78 millisieverts.

This is lower than official limits - Japan currently allows workers at the damaged plant to accumulate a maximum of 100 millisieverts over five years. A dose of 100 millisieverts over a year is seen as enough to raise the risk of cancer.

But in October 2015, a health ministry panel ruled that the man's illness was workplace-related and that he was eligible for compensation.

"While the causal link between his exposure to radiation and his illness is unclear, we certified him from the standpoint of worker compensation," a health ministry official said at the time.

The man is now suing Tepco and the Kyushu Electric Power Company (Kepco), which operated the Genkai plant, for JPY59m ($526,000, £417,000).

"I worked there [Fukushima No 1 plant] because of my ardent desire to help bring the disaster under control but I was treated as if I was a mere expendable labourer," Kyodo news agency quoted him as saying.

"I want Tokyo Electric to thoroughly face up to its responsibility."

When he filed the suit late last year, his lawyers said he had been "forced to undergo unnecessary radiation exposure because of the utilities' slipshod on-site radiation management".

Tepco and Kepco have asked the court to reject the suit, questioning the link between his radiation exposure and leukaemia, Kyodo reported.

Tens of thousands of workers have been employed at the Fukushima site since the disaster in March 2011. Late last year the government said estimates of clean-up costs had doubled to JPY21.5 trillion ($188bn, £150bn).

US defence chief Mattis says South Korea alliance is 'strong'

US Defence Secretary James Mattis has reassured the leader of South Korea that the alliance between the two nations remains strong.

Mr Mattis said the relationship would only be strengthened in the face of threats from North Korea.

It comes after President Donald Trump accused South Korea and Japan of not paying enough for US military support.

The visit to Seoul is the first foreign trip by a senior official in the Trump administration.

Mr Mattis took the opportunity to commit to the continuation of US support through previously agreed security deals.

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During his campaign last year, Mr Trump threatened to withdraw US forces from South Korea and Japan if they failed to increase their financial support to US military operations.

He also suggested that the two countries could be allowed to arm themselves with nuclear weapons, an idea that was rejected by both nations.

Mr Trump has also said that he is willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, contradicting longstanding US, South Korean and Japanese policy.

Image copyrightREUTERS

Image captionNorth Korea has been making seemingly rapid progress in its nuclear and missile programmes

After landing at the US military's Osan Air Base, south of Seoul, he went to US Forces Korea (USFK) headquarters in the capital, where he was briefed by Commander Vincent Brooks on the security situation in the Korean peninsula, said officials.

He will be in South Korea until Friday, and will hold talks with his Korean counterpart, Han Min-koo, among other officials.

The Pentagon said the visit would "underscore the commitment of the United States to our enduring alliances with Japan and the Republic of Korea, and further strengthen US-Japan-Republic of Korea security cooperation".

Mr Mattis told reporters he would discuss the planned deployment of a US missile defence system in South Korea, and North Korea's nuclear programme.

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Image copyrightAP

Image captionSouth Korean and US Marines recently held a joint winter exercise in Pyeongchang

Analysis: Stephen Evans, BBC News, Seoul

Secretary Mattis has indicated he will emphasise that US alliances in East Asia will remain strong. But what the Trump administration will do about the North Korean nuclear arsenal remains unclear.

There is a view in South Korea that Mr Obama's policy of "strategic patience" (squeeze Pyongyang and wait for it to buckle) has not worked, and that a deal may have to be done with Kim Jong-un.

Nobody thinks, though, that the North Korean leader is going to give up on his plans to have effective nuclear weapons.

Any deal would probably have to accept that it gets the bomb but then agrees to limit its development and that of missiles to fire them. Would Mr Trump buy that?

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Image copyrightREUTERS

Image captionMr Mattis flew in to Osan Air Base south of Seoul

The visit comes amid increasing threats from North Korea that it is ready to test-fire a new intercontinental ballistic missile at any time.

Under the Obama administration, the US and South Korea agreed to the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defence system to defend the South from North Korean missiles.

But the move has angered China, which says it threatens its own security and goes "far beyond the defence needs of the Korean peninsula".

There are just under 28,500 US military personnel based in South Korea, as part of a post-war arrangement. South Korea pays about $900m (£710m) annually towards the deployment.

On Friday, Mr Mattis will travel to Japan, for talks with Defence Minister Tomomi Inada.

There are a further 50,000 soldiers plus their dependents and support staff in Japan. The US pays about $5.5bn for its Japanese bases in 2016, with Japan paying a further $4bn.

Donald Trump Promised to Lower Your Taxes. Will He?

Donald Trump was swept into office on a pledge to cut taxes more than any President has in nearly four decades. And if the first few weeks of his presidency are any indication, this POTUS aims to make good on his pledges—even the controversial ones.

He also starts with the strongest hand of any newly seated GOP President since 1929, with solid control of the House and Senate. “Congress is in the mood to adopt a comprehensive overhaul, not just tinkering,” says Alan Viard, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. But while Trump and congressional Republicans agree on broad goals like lower rates, their approaches differ—on issues ranging from corporate tax rates to the treatment of key deductions.

Even the pundits are wary of guessing how things will unfold. But here's a roundup of what the experts believe are the reforms that Washington is most likely to tackle, those it still needs to hash out, and a few that could come as big curveballs.

5 Things We Learned About Warren Buffett From His New HBO Documentary

Earlier this week, HBO aired "Becoming Warren Buffett," a documentary that chronicles the upbringing and personal philosophy of the stock market titan.

Chock full of the traditionalist eccentricities the "oracle of Omaha" is best known for--like his love of Coca Cola, and the fact that he lives in the same house he bought in 1958 for $31,500--the film also reveals a surprising set of facts even Buffett die hards may have missed. Here are five of our favorites.

The stock market dictates his breakfast

Buffett, who drives himself to work to Berkshire Hathaway every day, makes an early morning pit stop at McDonald's drive-thru. When the stock market is up, he spends $3.17 on his breakfast -- the cost of a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich. When the market is down, Buffett opts for a Sausage McMuffin with egg and cheese. When he's "not feeling so prosperous," he buys two sausage patties for a grand total of $2.61.