'Sneaky' Shops Sell Shrinking Items At Same Cost

Popular supermarket groceries are stealthily being sold in smaller quantities without a reduction in price, a consumer group has claimed.

Research by Which? suggests some brands of toilet rolls, biscuits and fruit juices have shrunken considerably - but many shoppers are unaware they are effectively paying more for less.

The weight of a typical pack of McVitie's dark chocolate digestives was recently decreased from 332g to 300g, a reduction of 10%, yet prices in Tesco are 10p higher than they were before.

Meanwhile, Asda left the cost of Tropicana's orange and raspberry juice at £2.48 - even though the carton size had been slashed from a litre to 850ml.

You may have thought your household was going through Andrex toilet paper at a rate of knots, when in fact the number of sheets on each roll has dropped from 240 to 221.

Despite this, the price of four rolls has remained around the £2 mark.

In some cases, prices have been lowered when a product has become smaller - with Sainsbury's and Waitrose reducing the cost of Percol fairtrade Guatemala coffee when the serving went from 227g to 200g.

But even then, shoppers have been left paying more per 100g than they originally were.

Several brands responded to the research by stressing it was up to supermarkets to decide their prices, but they did not reveal whether they had charged lower wholesale prices for the shrunken products.

Four in five consumers polled by Which? believe it is wrong for groceries to get smaller and cost the same - especially if shoppers aren't told about the changes.

The organisation's editor, Richard Headland, said: "Shrinking products can be a sneaky way of increasing prices. We want manufacturers and supermarkets to be upfront about shrinking prices so consumers aren't misled."

Steel crisis: Port Talbot boss to launch Tata UK buyout

Tata Steel's Port Talbot chief Stuart Wilkie is to launch a management buyout of the company's operations in the UK.

Tata is selling its entire loss-making UK business and has asked for expressions of interest as part of the sales negotiations process. 

Mr Wilkie was one of the main people behind a survival plan that was rejected by the Tata board in India and the UK business was put up for sale.

The steel crisis has been driven by falling prices and a global oversupply. 

In the UK, high energy costs and cheaper Chinese imports have exacerbated the issue.

The steel union Community said it would welcome "prompt discussions with Stuart Wilkie and any management buyout option".

BBC Wales business correspondent Brian Meechan said that, as with any potential buyer for Tata, the management buyout would require significant financial support from the UK government. 

"It's believed though that any management buyout would involve retaining the blast furnaces and making steel from scratch as opposed to the proposal by Liberty to turn it into a recycling facility," he added. 

Tata Steel directly employs 15,000 workers in the UK and supports thousands of others, across plants in Port Talbot, Rotherham, Corby and Shotton.

The UK operations are losing about £1m a day, and although Tata has not set a deadline for a sale but has stressed it does not want "long period of uncertainty".

'Co-investment'

Tata has sold its Long Products Europe business at the Scunthorpe plant, safeguarding 4,400 UK jobs, but workers are being asked to accept a pay cut and less generous pension arrangements.

Steel company Liberty House, owned by Sanjeev Gupta, has publicly expressed an interest in buying the Port Talbot works.

Mr Gupta has said he is still in the early stages of reviewing a takeover and there was no certainty he would make a bid.

Tata Steel said it was not publicly naming or confirming any potentially interested investors or bidders.

The government has resisted calls from unions and opposition politicians to nationalise the Port Talbot plant, Britain's biggest steelworks, to safeguard thousands of jobs.

However, last week the Business Secretary Sajid Javid raised the prospect of government involvement in the sale, possibly through "co-investing with a buyer on commercial terms".

On Monday he joined ministers and trade officials from 30 countries at a meeting in Brussels to discuss the global glut of steel.

Although that meeting broke up without agreement, Mr Javid said that China had vowed to address "a problem of overcapacity in their country".

Malaysia school shuts after 'mass hysteria' outbreak

A school in northern Malaysia has had to shut temporarily to handle what local media have called a case of "mass hysteria".

It started last week with several students and teachers of the school in the city of Kota Bharu claiming that they had seen spirits or had supernatural experiences.

School authorities shut the school and called in Islamic traditional experts, scholars and even witch doctors in prayer sessions and "exorcisms".

By Sunday, the school had reopened and school officials said things had gone back to normal - but questions remain and the case continues to generate intense interest in Malaysia.

What happened?

The school, SKM Pengkalan Chepa 2, is located in the highly traditional and religious state of Kelantan.

Last week, a small group of students began claiming they had seen a "black figure" lurking in the school. Soon, more students and even teachers claimed to have seen the same figure or experienced a supernatural presence.

One teacher told local news channel Astro Awani that she felt a "heavy" presence was hanging on to her, while another claimed that a "black figure" was attempting to enter her body.

A student meanwhile told newspaper Sinar Harian (in Malay) that he felt numbness in his hands while his mind "was all over the place".

About 100 people, mostly students, were affected, a senior school staff member confirmed to the BBC.

"Our students were possessed and disturbed [by these spirits]. We are not sure why it happened. We don't know what it is that affected us," she said.

"But the place is a bit old, and these children can be disobedient and sometimes throw their rubbish around the school grounds. Perhaps they hit some 'djinns' and offended the spirits," she added, using a local reference to ghosts.

The school shut on Thursday and invited Islamic preachers to recite the Koran and conduct prayers in the school. Local education authorities are also sending counsellors to the school this week.

The Kelantan state education department did not respond to queries from the BBC.

What is mass hysteria?

Based on the media reports, Robert Bartholomew, a sociologist who has researched mass hysteria in Malaysia, called it a textbook outbreak in an email to the BBC.

Mass hysteria or collective delusions are defined as the spontaneous and rapid spread of false or exaggerated beliefs within a population.

Outbreaks usually occur in small, tight-knit groups in enclosed surrounding such as schools, orphanages and factories. 

How common is it?

Several famous cases of mass hysteria or collective delusion have been documented throughout history all over the world - including "dancing mania" centuries ago, in which people reportedly would start dancing uncontrollably for hours.

In 2012, LeRoy, New York made headlines with high school students developing strange tics and verbal outbursts with no obvious cause. Eventually the New York state department of health found that those involved - mostly girls - were suffering from conversion disorder, a form of mass hysteria.

In South East Asia, during the 1970s there were several reported cases of mass hysteria outbreaks at factories in Singapore and Malaysia.

Mr Bartholomew, who once lived and did research in Malaysia, said the phenomenon is quite common in rural areas of the country. 

In 1987 there was an outbreak involving 36 Muslim girls in a Malay hostel in Alor Star, Kedah which Mr Bartholomew said had lasted five years. 

"The outbreak involved shouting, running and mental confusion, crying, bizarre movements, trances and spirit possession. The girls, ages 13-17, complained of too much religion and study, and too little recreation," Mr Bartholomew said. 

"Malays are susceptible because of their belief in an array of spirits," said Mr Bartholomew, adding that outbreaks tend to occur in all-female boarding schools as they are the strictest.

So what could have caused it?

Existing fears or beliefs often influence what is blamed for mass hysteria incidents - for example in LeRoy the HPV vaccine was first suspected followed by a decades-old chemical spill in the area. In Kota Bahru, school officials are pointing to the supernatural.

In some cases one person sets off a mass episode that is then exacerbated or prolonged by various factors.

In the case of LeRoy, New York some doctors said it had been sparked by one student actually diagnosed with Tourette syndrome.

Mr Bartholomew says his research points to deeper underlying causes in Malay girls who have been sent to boarding school.

"They are reluctant to attend such schools, where overcrowding is rife and privacy non-existent," he says. "Frustration and anger build over weeks or months. Eventually a single student becomes 'possessed' and is a seed or catalyst for the unfolding drama."

In the Alor Star case, school officials brought in witch doctors to help. "The use of so many bomohs and native healers can be a double-edged sword, especially if they fail, because they legitimise the supernatural aspects of the outbreak. As a result, the outbreak is likely to be prolonged."

Social media and media attention have been blamed for exacerbating the outbreak in some cases.

Dr Wan Zumusni Wan Mustapha, a university lecturer who lived and taught in Kelantan for 13 years, however, thought the incident had been blown out of proportion.

"It could have just been brought on by heat, stress or the haze," said Dr Zumusni, from the Universiti Teknologi Mara in Seremban.

Hillary Clinton Takes Comfortable Win In New York

Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has won a comfortable victory in the primary in her home state of New York.

The former US Secretary of State, who represented New York in the Senate for eight years, held a 16% lead on rival Bernie Sanders with around 70% of precincts reporting.

The victory will see Mrs Clinton attempt to recapture momentum lost to the Vermont Senator - who had won seven of the last eight state nominating contests.

Speaking after the result was announced, Mrs Clinton said "victory is in sight" as she played to her home crowd.

She said: "New Yorkers, you've always had my back, and I've always tried to have yours.

"Under the bright lights of New York, we have seen how it's not enough to diagnose problems - you have to actually explain how you're going to solve them."

Primark Profits And Sales Hit By Mild Winter

Fashion retailer Primark has posted a fall in half-year like-for-like sales for the first time in more than a decade as well as a drop in profits, amid mild winter weather.

Owner Associated British Foods said the clothing business saw a sales fall of "less than 1%" in the 24 weeks to 27 February.
Half-year operating profit at the chain was down 3% to £313m though revenues climbed 5% to £2.67bn amid continuing store openings.

ABF cheered investors as it revealed an encouraging start to its US expansion. Shares rose.

In March, the group had said a mild winter saw Primark endure a tough Christmas period but that sales had since fought back. Warmer winter weather tends to bring down demand for products such as knitwear and coats.

Announcing half-year results, ABF chief executive George Weston said: "Trading was weaker in the weeks leading up to and over Christmas, as a result of unseasonably warm weather across northern Europe."

He added that France had seen strong like-for-like sales growth a year after a bumper performance in its first year of trading in the country, while difficulties linked to expansion in Germany and the Netherlands eased.

"Early trading at our two stores in the US has been encouraging with very positive feedback," Mr Weston said. Footfall and sales in the US had increased steadily as awareness of the brand had started to increase "which started at a low level".

Six new stores were opened in the period - including a flagship site in Madrid - taking the total to 299 and ABF said the pace of expansion would accelerate in the second half.

The wider group - whose businesses range from sugar to groceries products such as Twinings and Ryvita - saw half-year pre-tax profits climb 4% to £466m on revenues down 2% to £6.1bn.

Depp's 'Godfather' Apology Mocked By Minister

Australia's deputy prime minister has joked that a video apology made by Johnny Depp and his wife is unlikely to win an Oscar.

The Hollywood star and actress-model Amber Heard released the video after she admitted failing to declare their dogs Pistol and Boo when they flew in to Queensland a year ago.

"It has to be protected."

Depp then deadpans that Aussies are "just as unique" as their wildlife.

The video - which has received more than two million hits on YouTube - has been compared with a hostage plea or North Korean-style propaganda on social media.

Barnaby Joyce, who is also the country's agriculture minister, last year threatened to have the couple's pet dogs put down unless they "b***ered off back to the United States".

And on Tuesday he could not resist a dig at Depp.

"I don't think he'll get an Academy Award for his performance ... he looked like he was auditioning for the Godfather," Mr Joyce told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

He went on: "At the end of it we've got a message that is going all around the world right now.

"It's going off like a frog in a sock telling people that if you come into this nation and you don't obey our laws, you're in trouble.

"That's what this is about, it's making sure we keep this nation, protect our flora, our fauna and protect our biosecurity laws."

 Australia has strict quarantine laws to prevent pests and diseases entering the country.

Dinosaurs 'Past Their Prime' Before Meteor Hit

Dinosaurs were heading for extinction millions of years before the meteor impact that is widely believed to have wiped them out, according to scientists.

Until now, most experts have thought dinosaurs were flourishing just before a huge asteroid or comet smashed into the Earth off the coast of Mexico.

New research suggests that in reality, more dinosaur species were disappearing than new ones were emerging up to 50 million years earlier.

Giant long-necked plant-eaters such as Diplodocus were vanishing at the fastest rate, while meat-eating relatives of Tyrannosaurus rex were in more gradual decline.

The scientists, whose findings are based on sophisticated statistical analysis and fossil evidence, believe the meteor impact 66 million years ago finished off a process that was already well under way.

Lead researcher Dr Manabu Sakamoto, from the University of Reading, said: "While the asteroid impact is still the prime candidate for the dinosaurs' final disappearance, it is clear that they were already past their prime in an evolutionary sense.

"Our work is ground-breaking in that, once again, it will change our understanding of the fate of these mighty creatures.

"While a sudden apocalypse may have been the final nail in the coffin, something else had already been preventing dinosaurs from evolving new species as fast as old species were dying out.

"This suggests that for tens of millions of years before their ultimate demise, dinosaurs were beginning to lose their edge as the dominant species on Earth."

The scientists say that for unexplained reasons, possibly linked to the break-up of continental land masses and sustained volcanic activity, dinosaurs stopped producing enough new species to replace those that were lost.

Because of this, they were unable to recover from the environmental crisis caused by the meteor impact, which blacked out the sun with millions of tons of dust, cooled the global climate and caused widespread loss of vegetation.

Huge herbivores with massive appetites would not have been able to feed themselves, and their predators in turn would have been left hungry.

A long gradual dinosaur decline may have set the stage for mammals, according to the researchers, whose findings appear in the journal Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences.

Co-author Dr Chris Venditti, also from the University of Reading, said: "The decline of the dinosaurs would have left plenty of room for mammals, the group of species which humans are a member of, to flourish before the impact, priming them to replace dinosaurs as the dominant animals on Earth."