Drivers Vote In Favour Of Night Tube Pay Deal

Night tube was due to start running last September

London Underground drivers have voted nine to one in favour of accepting a new pay deal allowing the night tube to go ahead.

After months of negotiations,  88% of members of the Aslef union backed the four-year wage deal.

The four-year deal includes above-inflation pay-rises backdated from April last year, and a £500 bonus to drivers and other staff connected with the introduction of the night service.

The night tube was due to start running last September, but ground to a halt with a  series of strikes over pay and conditions.

It will roll out on the Central, Piccadilly, Jubilee, Victoria and Northern lines first.

Aslef officer Finn Brennan said: "Aslef members on London Underground have voted by a huge majority to accept the improved offer on pay and night Tube.

"Last year management tried to force through changes to rosters that would have meant unlimited increases in weekend and night shifts with a pay rise of just 0.5%.

"[Our members] have achieved an above-inflation pay rise and real improvements in conditions that will give drivers, and other grades, much more flexibility and control over their work/life balance in the future."

Last week, 84% of members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) also voted in favour of the offer.

Steve Griffiths, London Underground's chief operating officer, said: "I'm pleased that Aslef members have voted to accept our offer. This is a fair and affordable pay deal, which includes complete protection of employee work/life balance.

"We continue to focus on the recruitment and training of part-time drivers to deliver the night Tube for London as quickly as possible."

Porn ring behind Kenya Project X 'sex party'

An international pornography ring was behind a controversial sex party that was planned for Saturday in Nairobi, Kenya's film board has said.

The party, called Project X, has attracted attention after a publicity poster was circulated, declaring "no one goes back home a virgin".

Film board head Ezekiel Mutua said the party was organised so people people could make pornographic films.

The organisers have now cancelled the event following the social media storm.

They blamed journalists for labelling it a sex party and called "some media houses... narrow minded", according to a statement quoted in several reports.

It adds that the party was supposed to be a place "where young adults can meet up, socialise and have a good time".

The raunchy publicity material showed half-naked women with the promise that it would be "one night to lose your mind".

The Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) said there had been a rise of young people being blackmailed after being filmed having sex.

At a press conference in the capital, Nairobi, Mr Mutua said the party had been cancelled following "immense public pressure" from "Kenyans of goodwill", police and politicians.

'Decadent'

He called it a "decadent event" and said the "KFCB took up the matter after getting a tip-off that the party was to be used by unscrupulous business people to promote drugs, illicit sex and the making of pornographic films".

The police are investigating whether the organisers were breaking the law.

The planned party has led to Project X trending on Twitter in Kenya, with many social media users wondering what was wrong with the event, though there has also been some criticism.

Kenya's growing youthful population, and its exposure to a global youth culture through social media, is challenging some of the more traditional values in the country, the BBC's Ruth Nesoba in Nairobi says.

Project X takes its name from a 2012 Hollywood film that showed a group of teenagers organising a party which gets out of control.

Royals Hit Slopes For First Family Holiday

Prince George and Princess Charlotte got to enjoy playing in the snow for the first time when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took them on a short skiing holiday.

The trip to the French Alps last week was the first time the family have been on holiday together, and they have released six photographs to mark the event.

The images show a relaxed William and Kate holding their two children and engaging in a snowball fight.

One picture captures the moment a snowball hurled by Kate hits William in the chest.

Determined not to be caught out a second time, the Duke is seen in another image playfully grappling with his wife and knocking a snowball from her hand.

Charlotte is seen smiling broadly as she is held up by her father, with a wintry backdrop to the image.

The family are also pictured together with the Duke and Duchess crouching down as they hold their children, while another image shows William putting his arm around Kate.

A Kensington Palace spokesman said: "This was their first holiday as a family of four and the first time either of the children had played in the snow.

"It was very special and fun short holiday for the family, and they are grateful that John Stillwell (Press Association royal photographer) was able to capture the moment so well.

"The Duke and Duchess hope people enjoy the photos."

Facebook Addiction 'Result Of Brain Evolution'

Thousands of years of brain evolution have left people prone to Facebook and Twitter addiction, a psychologist has said.

Since the beginning of the human race, our brains have gradually increased in size over countless generations.

But that hit a wall around 20,000 years ago when the pattern started to reverse. Professor Bruce Hood believes it is due to our increased domestication.

He says our predecessors were geared up for a constant survival battle, but we are now "natural gossips" whose brains craze constant engagement with others.

Social media allows us to indulge this urge on a larger scale, the American academic says.

Addicted to Facebook? Evolution could be to blame

"The fact that many people have a compulsion to engage with lots of people via social media isn't really that surprising," he said.

"Our brains have evolved for us to be social animals.

"What's interesting is that you might assume that the wider exposure to differing views that social media brings would make us all much more open-minded.

"What we see in reality of course is the opposite. People seem more likely to slot into niche groups of thought online than in real life."

He makes the claim in his latest book, Domesticated Brain.

He says that as people settled into fixed communities their brains relaxed as they did not need to outwit everyone around them.

This opened up opportunities for higher thinking, he said.

It also marked the start of "group intelligence" in which knowledge is passed down through generations.

Sheen Seeks To Cut $55k A Month Child Support

Charlie Sheen is seeking to alter his divorce settlement with his ex-wife Brooke Mueller which currently sees him pay her $55,000 (£39,000) a month in child support.

The television star recently sold his profit participation rights to Two And A Half Men for nearly $27m (£19m), a court filing has shown.

But it stated that his income has changed significantly and he cannot afford to continue to pay Mueller the set amount for their twin boys.

Two And A Half Men was once TV's top-rated comedy but Sheen left the show in 2011.

His filing estimates a cut in his monthly income from more than $600,000-a-month down to nearly $167,000 as a result of the sale.

He lists more than $12m (£8.5m) in debts, the majority of which is owed on mortgages, taxes, and legal fees.

Sheen and Mueller were married for only three years

The actor disclosed in November that he has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, but has said he is healthy due to the medication he takes.

His last major project was the FX comedy Anger Management, which aired from 2012 to 2014.

Sheen and Mueller ended their marriage in 2011 after less than three years. He also has two daughters with actress Denise Richards.

One aspect of Sheen's divorce settlement with Mueller was that his child support payments for their sons could not be lower than the amount the actor paid to support his daughters with Richards.

Sheen is now seeking to have that provision removed and a judge has scheduled a hearing for 13 April.

Northern Lights Stage Spectacular UK Show

The Northern Lights provided a spectacular show for stargazers in parts of the UK overnight.

The phenomenon known as the Aurora Borealis was visible as far south as Oxfordshire as skies cleared, painting the night sky with shades of green, pink, purple and blue.

The ethereal spectacle is caused when solar particles are thrown out into space and collide with the Earth's magnetic field.

In the UK, it is usually only visible in the far north of Scotland.

However, a "lucky combination" of conditions in the lower atmosphere and in space meant the aurora was visible across large parts of Scotland and England.

Met Office space weather adviser Amanda Townsend said: "Once in a while the solar winds are enhanced to levels stronger than normal, with particles at higher speeds, and on this occasion it has connected really well with the Earth's magnetic field."

Those who missed Sunday night's show will have a second opportunity to see the dazzling performance tonight.

"The strongest part of the geomagnetic storm has passed and it probably won't be as strong on Monday night, so the main places to see aurora will be in north Scotland," Ms Townsend added.

E.U. Leaders Gather for Refugee Summit as UNHCR Declares ‘Humanitarian Crisis’

Leaders from the European Union and Turkey are convening an emergency summit in the Belgian capital Brussels on Monday, in order to address the continent’s rapidly escalating refugee problem.

The meeting comes after U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Babar Baloch declared a “humanitarian crisis” on the Greek-Macedonian border, where some 13,000 people are living in temporary shelters designed for 2,000, or out in the open.

They are hoping to cross Macedonia to reach Western Europe, but local authorities are only allowing 250 people to enter the country each day, al-Jazeera reports. It said that Baloch had described the gravity of the situation as “a wake-up call for the E.U. leaders.”

The summit’s objective is to contain the flow of migrants into Europe, with E.U. leaders offering Turkey more than $3 billion to house them and reportedly rehabilitate those who fail to find asylum in Europe, the BBC says.

More refugees arrived in Europe by boat during the first six weeks of 2016 than during the first four months of last year, according to the UNHCR. At least 18 people drowned off the Turkish coast on Sunday in an attempt to reach Greece.