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Original 106 is a local radio station for the Aberdeen area in the UK

COVID-19: Top Chinese official admits efficacy of China's vaccines is low
China's top disease control official has admitted that the efficacy of the country's coronavirus vaccines is low - and mixing them is among the strategies being considered to boost their effectiveness.
Gao Fu, the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said efficacy rates needed improving, in the rare admission.
Giving people doses of different vaccines is one way to improve vaccines that "don't have very high rates of protection", he said.
Live COVID updates from across the UK and around the world
"Inoculation using vaccines of different technical lines is being considered," he added, during a conference in the Chinese city of Chengdu.

England's coronavirus restrictions will be eased further on Monday, with pubs and restaurants allowed to serve customers outdoors.

The Countess of Wessex has shared details of Prince Philip's final moments, describing his death as very peaceful.

Richard Okorogheye: Police searching for missing student find a body in Epping Forest pond
Police searching for missing student Richard Okorogheye, who went missing two weeks ago, say they have found a man's body in a pond in Epping Forest, Essex.
The 19-year-old left his family home in Ladbroke Grove, west London, on the evening of Monday 22 March, boarded a bus, and later took a 20-mile taxi ride from the W2 area of the capital to a residential street in Loughton, Essex.
Specialist police search officers and dog units have been searching Epping Forest after CCTV captured him
walking towards the forest in the early hours of Tuesday 23 March - the last time he was seen.

Second man due in court over death at Aberdeen high rise
A 17-year-old is set to appear at Aberdeen Sheriff Court today after he was arrested and charged in connection with a death at a high rise in Aberdeen.
Scott Hector, 20, died following an incident at Marischal Court on Friday - his death is being treated as murder. 
An 18-year-old will also appear in court today after he was charged on Saturday in connection with the same incident. 
Police were called out to the property at round 7am on Friday. 
Mr Hector's family paid tribute to their "dearly beloved son" in a statement. 

Rowley Regis dog attack: Two escaped animals who killed great-grandmother 'humanely destroyed'
Lucille Downer, 85, died after being attacked by the animals on Friday in Rowley Regis.
A statement from
West Midlands Police said the owner of the animals, who has been arrested over the attack, transferred possession of the canines to the force, who then had them put down.
The statement said: "The ownership of the dogs was voluntarily transferred to police.
"Following specialist advice it was established the dogs could never be rehomed due to the violent act and should be humanely destroyed.
"This has happened although further analysis will take place to determine what breed they were."

Rapid, twice-weekly COVID tests to be offered to everyone in England - including home delivery
It is aimed at people without symptoms, because one in three people with
coronavirus don't have them and may be spreading the virus unwittingly.
The government says the offer is currently for England only and the devolved administrations in
Scotland,
Northern Ireland will make their own decisions.
A major marketing campaign encouraging people to take up the offer of twice-weekly lateral flow tests will also start in England this Friday.
Tests will be available through:
• A home ordering service, which allows people to order lateral flow tests online to be delivered to their home

Broadcasters are required to take better care of TV contestants' mental health under new Ofcom rules that come into force today.

Mozambique insurgency: Unseen pictures show 'carnage' of Islamic State attack that killed British man
Mozambique is in the throes of an insurgency by Islamic State-linked militants, which has left a British man among those killed.
Dozens were killed in an attack last month in the town of Palma - with Briton Philip Mawer among them.
Chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay reports on pictures of the aftermath passed exclusively to Sky News.
The first pictures of the attack by Islamist militants on the northern
Mozambique town of Palma show scenes of absolute carnage and a hectic rescue mission to save survivors who were being hunted down by insurgents.

Another 10 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported in the UK for the second day running, while new cases are at their lowest since early September.

Taiwan: At least 48 killed and dozens injured after train 'crashes into truck' and derails
At least 48 people have died and more than 100 others have been injured after a train derailed in eastern Taiwan, officials have said.
The train, carrying around 490 people, is believed to have come off the rails in a tunnel just north of Hualien causing some carriages to hit the wall of the tunnel.
It is believed to have hit a truck that was "not parked properly" and is suspected to have slid onto the train tracks in the mountainous area, the official Central News Agency said.
Between 80 and 100 people have been evacuated from the first four carriages of the train, while carriages five to eight have "deformed" and are hard to gain access to, firefighters said.

North-east hospital patients to benefit from new surgical robots
NHS Grampian has unveiled three new surgical robots as part of a £3.5 million investment in improving patient care and reducing waiting times in the region.  
Medics in the north-east were the first at a board in Scotland to have a robotic-assisted surgical system in 2015, and since then have seen improved and shorter recovery times for those who are operated on using them.
The latest cutting-edge surgical technology, two new da Vinci Xi robots, and a Mako Robotic-Arm Assisted Surgery System for orthopaedic joint replacement surgery, comes as NHS Grampian moves to increase capacity, as it looks to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic to treat more patients more quickly.

Boris Johnson's most senior black adviser to step down in May
Samuel Kasumu will leave his post as special adviser for civil society and communities in May.
The news comes a day after a government-backed review of racial disparities in Britain
was published.
Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities' 258-page report was criticised for being "steeped in denial".
But a Number 10 spokesman rejected reports that Mr Kasumu's resignation, first reported by Politico, was linked to this.
"Mr Kasumu has played an incredibly valuable role during his time at No 10," he said.
"As he previously set out, he will be leaving government in May - this has been his plan for several months and has not changed.

North-east rail passengers face second weekend of disruption due to strike action
Rail passengers in the north-east are facing a second weekend of disruption due to strike action.
Members of the RMT union will walk out on Sunday in a dispute with ScotRail over rest day working pay.
Staff already took part in industrial action last Sunday, resulting in services to and from Aberdeen being cancelled.
Mick Cash, RMT general secretary, said: "I have no doubt that our ScotRail members will continue to show full support and stand shoulder to shoulder during the days of industrial action exactly as they did last Sunday. 

The mother of a student who has been missing for more than a week believes he met someone online who built his confidence and trust.

More than 3.7 million people in England and Wales have been told that after today they no longer need to shield from the coronavirus.

Britney Spears says she cried for two weeks over the recently-released documentary about her career.

In many ways Minari is a quiet, gentle film but it’s impact on awards season has been quite the opposite, with the drama leading nominations and making history in the process.

The UK is no longer a country where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities, a government-ordered review has argued.

Armie Hammer: Police launch investigation after Hollywood actor accused of rape
The US star has denied any wrongdoing.
The confirmation from detectives of an inquiry came moments after a 24-year-old woman appeared at a news conference and alleged she had been raped and assaulted by the actor in 2017.
The woman, who lives in Europe and was identified only as "Effie", gave a graphic description of her interactions with
Mr Hammer and told reporters: "I thought he was going to kill me."
Since January, a number of the actor's former partners have alleged he was physically and emotionally abusive.
A series of images, purported to be screen shots of direct messages he sent, were posted anonymously, detailing disturbing and violent sexual fantasies including cannibalism and rape.

More than two million people receive first dose of a coronavirus vaccine in Scotland
Scotland's coronavirus vaccination programme has reached the two million mark for people being provided a first dose of a vaccine.
The milestone was reached today, just more than three months after the first Covid-19 vaccine was administered north of the border.
44% of the adult population across the country have now had a first dose.
Across the UK, more than 25 million people have been offered a first dose of a vaccine.
Department for Health figures show nearly half of all British adults have received a jag.
Meanwhile, Scotland's vaccination programme is making progress through groups 6 and 7 on the priority list.

Aberdeenshire Council pledge to minimise job losses in budget
In the meeting, councillors pledged to minimise compulsory redundancies for their north-east staff.
They had to find £24 million for the upcoming year and opted to avoid cuts by adapting a policy of "natural wastage". 
It means they are likely to not replace staff who retire or leave but will "train and upskill" their current employees to fill the empty roles. 
Councillor leader Andy Kille said: "Every resident in Aberdeenshire will feel the the benefit of this budget, the investment we're making today will reach every corner of the wards we represent." 

Original 106 is a local radio station for the Aberdeen area in the UK