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Northern Ireland's first women-only temporary crisis accommodation has opened near Belfast city centre.

Known as a crash facility, and aimed towards people in urgent need of a place to stay, the centre is the only one in Northern Ireland exclusively for women.

Homelessness charity the Welcome Organisation, which manages the facility, said it was vital.

Figures collected by the charity indicate the number of women sleeping rough on the streets of Belfast had more than tripled in five years – from 17 in 2019/20 to 65 in 2024/25.

A facility user described it as "a lifeline".

Maria, which is not her real name, said that she has been homeless for 10 years and that sleeping rough on the streets of Belfast was "horrifying".

She said that while on the streets she had turned to drugs "to block out being homeless".

"I would be lost without the people who work here," she added. "I have never met better people. They want me to do well. They are rooting for me to be well and be better.

"It's the best thing for me because if I was left to my own devices I would end up doing stuff I shouldn't do. But the people here help me do well and I wouldn't let them down or disappoint them."

How does the Belfast crash facility work?

The facility, which is funded by the Housing Executive, currently helps 10 women, but Susan Duncan, from the Welcome Organisation, told BBC News NI there are plans to expand to 26 spaces by next year with more permanent accommodation.

The centre has 24-hour support and allows women to be in the bedrooms from 18:00.

Ms Duncan said the figures on women sleeping rough in Belfast are "very concerning" and that the people the facility helps "have nowhere else to go".

"We're talking about women with more complex needs. We have women turn up to our doors who are maybe experiencing domestic violence, that maybe have mental health issues or addiction issues."

Every woman that uses the service needs a referral to the Housing Executive to get a bed for the night.

Elma Newberry, the Housing Executive's director of strategic housing authority, underlined the importance for women to have access to women-only spaces.

"The complexities and the trauma that some of these women have been through is huge. They need a safe space," she added.

"Residents do need to move on because obviously a crash facility is an emergency facility, and it is very short-term. So, it is making sure they can continue with the support that they need to take them along into a permanent tenancy."

Ms Duncan said the facility is "excellent".

"People have their own space, it's friendly and homely and it is safe. And that is the most important part.

"You can't expect people to start rebuilding their lives without that feeling of security."

A man has been jailed for 18 years for raping and sexually abusing a number of young children.

James Laing, 39, of Ripon, was found guilty at trial of two counts of raping a child under 13 and six counts of sexual assault of a child, as well as causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and attempted sexual assault of a child under 13.

He was sentenced at York Crown Court on Friday to 18 years in prison and was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

Police staff investigator for North Yorkshire Police, Lorraine Whipp, said: "Laing denied the offences throughout the whole investigation, therefore making his victims face the trauma of giving evidence against him in court."

She added: "Laing has taken away the childhood of his victims, abusing them in the worst way possible.

"In their own words, he has ruined their lives, and although they are glad they are now safe and no-one can hurt them, it has also affected their trust in men."

Ms Whipp said the victims had been "incredibly brave" in reporting what had happened to them, and had found the court process "extremely difficult".

"I sincerely hope that the children can put this horrendous abuse and the experience behind them with the help of the agencies who are supporting them and live happy lives knowing that their abuser can no longer harm them," she said.

She said she hoped this outcome would encourage other victims of abuse to come forward knowing that "they will be believed, listened to and supported".

A driver is being treated for serious injuries in hospital after his car was found down an embankment on the A82 in the Highlands.

Police were alerted to the crash near Dunain, three miles (5km) south of Inverness, at about 06:00 on Sunday.

The 18-year-old man was the only occupant of a silver Volkswagen Golf GTI.

Police Scotland has appealed for information about a grey Mercedes A180 seen headed towards the crash site before returning to Inverness a short time later.

A review has begun looking at a council's decision to approve plans to redevelop the site of a former zoo.

Bristol City Council approved the plans to build 196 homes, a café, playground and conservation hub on Bristol Zoo's Clifton site after it closed in 2022.

A group of residents have opposed the plans – citing concerns over a potential loss of bio-diversity and green space – and fears that public access to the site's historic gardens are not guaranteed.

"We really need spaces where people can enjoy and take a respite from the city and there are vanishingly few of them," said Carrie Sage, co-founder of Save Bristol Gardens Alliance.

"It's completely the wrong plan for the wrong site and many trees will be cut down as a result as they add car parking and a road through the gardens as a result."

Fellow co-founder of the Save Bristol Gardens Alliance, Alastair Sawday, added: "The importance of green spaces in cities is going to become ever more relevant in the years to come so to have a 12 acre walled garden with so many amazing trees and herbaceous borders that is going to get tarmacked over is just wrong."

Under the current proposals – 80 of the 218 trees currently on the site would be removed – with 44 of those replanted and 470 new ones planted.

A man is in a critical condition in hospital four days after being attacked outside a Manchester city centre pub.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said the man, in his 30s, suffered "serious, life threatening" injuries after being assaulted just after midnight on 7 May outside a pub on Dantzic Street.

Det Insp Mark Astbury said: "We are continuing to investigate a serious assault which has left a man in critical condition in hospital."

"We are working to establish the full circumstances of the incident, and what led to it taking place.

"If anyone has any information, I would urge them to get in touch with us, either directly or anonymously."

A 14-year-old girl has been killed by a lion on the outskirts of Nairobi, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said.

The child was snatched from a residential compound on a ranch next to Nairobi National Park, according to the conservation agency.

The alarm was raised by another teenager and KWS rangers followed tracks to the nearby Mbagathi River, where they found the primary school girl's remains.

The lion has not been found but KWS said it had set a trap and deployed search teams to look for the animal.

The agency added that additional security measures had been taken to prevent any further attacks.

Nairobi National Park lies just 10km (six miles) from the city centre and is home to animals such as lions, buffalos, giraffes, leopards and cheetahs.

It is fenced on three sides to stop animals roaming into the city but it is open to the south to allow animals to migrate in and out of the area.

While lions often come into conflict with humans in Kenya, especially over livestock, it is not common for people to be killed.

Last year, CCTV footage captured the moment a lion snatched a Rottweiler dog from another home near Nairobi National Park.

KWS also reported that a 54-year-old man was killed by an elephant on Saturday. The incident happened in the central Nyeri county, about 130km (80 miles) north of Nairobi.

The elephant was grazing in Mere Forest when it attacked the man, who sustained serious chest injuries, fractured ribs and internal trauma.

He was taken to a nearby hospital where he died from his injuries.

Paula Kahumbu, head of the WildlifeDirect conservation group, said the deaths were not isolated incidents and urged KWS to improve "risk assessments and ensure accurate, real-time communication of wildlife movement and behavior, especially in known high-risk areas such as Savannah Ranch," where the 14-year-old was killed.

She also said that all lodges, camps, and residential developments near areas where wildlife lived should be "equipped with anti-predator deterrent systems – including lights, alarms, secure fencing, and anti-predator sprays".

"Prevention is our first and best line of defense," she added.

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As Birmingham's bin strikes enter their fifth week, the health secretary has said he is concerned about the impact of the walkout on public health.

Speaking to Times Radio, Wes Streeting said: "I certainly am concerned about the public health situation and the poor conditions we're seeing for people in Birmingham.

"As the bin bags are piling up, we see rats and other vermin crawling around."

Birmingham City Council said on Tuesday morning: "All of our waste wagons have been deployed from our three depots citywide this morning."

Asking residents to leave their bins out as they normally would, the authority said it would collect them "asap" and apologised for what it called "the current situation".

Natasha, whose 11-week-old son's immune system is impaired due to being born prematurely, told BBC Radio WM part of her street in Winson Green was "quite literally a waste site", blocking her route to the bus stop.

"That pathway is basically covered in black bin bags and physical household waste bins that are overflowing," she said. "You can clearly see where rodents have actually bitten into the bin bags and they've been opened up.

"Do I walk past that tip point, where all that rubbish is, where all the rodents are accumulating, and all the pests are?

"Or do I… walk on the road with my son's pushchair?

"Essentially, I'm having to choose between my son becoming possibly critically ill or being hit by a car."

Talks between bin workers and the city council ended on Tuesday without an agreement being reached.

"No resolution has yet been reached but Unite has put forward a range of fair and reasonable solutions to bring this dispute to an end," the union said.

During public questions at a council meeting on Tuesday, a resident in a rodent costume asked Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for environment, when the rat population would decline and when streets would return to an "acceptable state".

Mahmood said he understood and sympathised with residents' frustrations and that was why a major incident was declared.

The strike has made headlines around the world, and last week the city council declared a major incident.

With the backlog of waste growing by 1,000 tonnes a week, neighbouring Lichfield District Council is due to start sending crews to help clear it.

The impact of fly-tipping on communities in the West Midlands, due to the strike, was debated in the Commons on Tuesday.

Wendy Morton, Conservative MP for Aldridge-Brownhills said neighbouring councils must not be left out of pocket as result of the strikes which were having a "knock-on effect" in Walsall with extra demand on recycling centres and traffic building up.

Council tax payers in Walsall would end up footing the bill, she added, while she said she understood neighbouring councils were offering to help clear up the rubbish.

"If this were to be the case and other local authorities were helping, can we be reassured that any costs incurred would be funded by the government or Birmingham City Council because I don't feel it's the job of my local tax payers to be funding the clean-up of Birmingham's streets?," she added.

Morton urged ministers to condemn the strike and step in to bring it to an end.

Environment Minister Daniel Zeichner said while he recognises the gravity of the situation, it was best to work with people locally to find a solution.

Bin workers began indefinite strike action on 11 March, although walkouts have been taking place since January.

They are fighting plans to remove some roles and downgrade others.

Birmingham City Council said only a small number of workers would be facing pay cuts, and it desperately needs to save money after effectively declaring itself bankrupt in 2023.

England's health secretary's comments reflect the crisis point many in Birmingham feel the situation has reached.

Speaking to the BBC, one resident said he felt like he was "living in a Third World country", while others have complained of having to take their rubbish to temporary collection sites after coming home from long overnight shifts.

The council is advising people to continue putting out their household waste on collection days, saying workers who are not on strike will do their best to remove it.

A previous bin strike in 2017 went on for seven weeks before an agreement was reached.

Registration to vote in May's local and mayoral elections in England is to close on Friday.

Anyone who wants to vote has until 23:59 BST on Friday to submit an application to register.

There are local elections to 24 of England's 317 councils as well as some mayoral authorities on 1 May.

It's the first big set of polls since Labour's landslide victory in last year's general election.

About 1,650 seats will be contested on 14 county councils, eight unitary authorities, one metropolitan district, and in the Isles of Scilly.

There will also be mayoral elections in the West of England, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Doncaster, North Tyneside and – for the first time – in Hull and East Yorkshire, and Greater Lincolnshire.

Elections to all 21 county councils in England had been due to take place.

But last month, the government announced elections would be postponed in nine areas, where the councils are undertaking reorganisation and devolution.

On the same day, there is also a Westminster by-election in the Cheshire seat of Runcorn and Helsby.

There are no local elections scheduled in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Niki Nixon, director of communications at the Electoral Commission, said: "Tomorrow is the last day to register to vote ahead of the upcoming local elections on 1 May.

"You need to be registered before the deadline at midnight on Friday so you can have your say.

"If your details have changed or you've moved home since the general election last year, you'll need to register again.

"It only takes five minutes, and you can do it online at gov.uk/register-to-vote.

"And if you want to vote by post or by appointing a proxy to vote on your behalf, you'll need to apply before the deadlines next week – but you must be registered to vote first."

The areas where there are elections to county councils include: Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

The other elections are to the unitary authorities of Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Durham, North Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Shropshire, West Northamptonshire and Wiltshire, plus Doncaster Metropolitan Council and the Isles of Scilly, which has a unique governance structure.

A Welcome to Frome road sign has been moved to another Somerset town 10 miles (16km) away.

Drivers were left confused when the sign appeared on the B3355 going into Midsomer Norton on Friday.

It follows a spate of sign swapping across the West Country region in March, which included the welcome sign for Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire, ending up in Portland, Dorset – more than 60 miles (97km) away.

A spokesperson for Somerset Council said: "We are aware of this latest incident and remind those involved that this is an act of criminal damage which will need to be repaired at public expense. If residents see something like this happening they should contact the police."

Jersey politicians have unanimously backed a proposal to slap a lifetime ban on hit-and-run drivers.

Deputy Catherine Curtis proposed the creation of a new offence under the Road Traffic (Jersey) Law 1956 for failing to stop and report an accident following a serious or fatal injury.

The proposition requested penalties for an offence included, but were not limited to, a lifetime driving disqualification.

Curtis said a lifetime driving ban would stop dangerous drivers from getting back on the road and possibly hurting someone else.

The current penalties for causing death by dangerous driving, introduced in 1997, include a maximum of 10 years' imprisonment and a minimum of two years' driving disqualification.

In December 2024 Dylan John Pounds, 29, was jailed for 15 years for causing the deaths of a father and his 11-year-old son in a hit-and-run in Jersey.

Pounds, who was sentenced for seven offences, was banned from driving for 12 years.

'More responsible driving'

Curtis said she hoped stricter laws "bring some comfort to victims, their friends and families".

"I hope it will encourage safer and more responsible driving," she said.

The States Assembly voted to approve the proposition, as amended, with 47 votes for, no votes against and no abstentions.