POPE BENEDICT is "making Francis' life a misery" as rumours of a major row between the two Vatican titans continue to boil, an expert has warned.

Profits of £2.6million have been donated to NHS Charities Together after Saturday's Virtual Grand National.

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) recently published new preliminary figures for aid in 2013.

It showed official development assistance (ODA) aid from wealthy governments had increased to just under $135 billion in 2013 (at constant 2012 prices). This is roughly 0.3% of GNI (Gross National Income) of the donor nations.

Yet, over 40 years ago nations promised to reach 0.7% of their GNI by the mid-1970s. While each year the amount of aid falls quite short of that 0.7% target (less than half of that target), the quality and effectiveness of that aid is often questionable, sometimes benefiting the donor more than the recipient due to the types of conditions attached to this aid.

This update includes a number of new and updated charts and graphs.

Read full article: Foreign Aid for Development Assistance

Rory McIlroy is teaming up with Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff to help raise funds for COVID-19 relief in a skins match.

MALDIVES holidays are on the bucket list of so many Britons thanks to the picture postcard-worthy scenery and year-round sun. Kandima Maldives is one of many hotels in the Indian Ocean nation, so what makes it stand out? This writer headed to the resort to find out.

STATE pension age is continually being reviewed and altered by the government. The latest change occurred earlier this week.

Liverpool tried to sign Tanguy Ndombele last summer from Lyon and now French reports claim they will return for the Tottenham midfielder.

Crusader has received fresh reports from readers of scam automated phone calls that claim to be from their bank or card company saying there has been a suspicious transaction on their account.

The Food Standards Agency has appointed Professor Robin May as its Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA).

RANGERS legend Ally McCoist has hailed sub Kyle Lafferty after the stunning win over St Johnstone.

THANKFULLY, the Government is still encouraging us to get out and exercise - as long as we keep the two-metre distance rule.

Rangers beat Aberdeen 5-0 in the Scottish Premiership to go within a point of Celtic at the top of the table, and former Rangers star Alan Hutton has hailed striker Jermain Defoe as “unbelievable” after Steven Gerrard’s sixth win of the season.

INVERNESS Caley Thistle brought Celtic’s perfect Premiership start to a shuddering halt with a last-gasp leveller in the Highland capital.

KATE and Prince William took part in a surprise party over video call to celebrate the 75-year anniversary of VE Day.

Josh Maja features in the new season of Sunderland 'Til I Die on Netflix - but what was his salary at the club and how much more did he earn from his move to Bordeaux?

Magnitude   Mw 6.1 Region   SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE Date time   2019-12-25 20:20:15.5 UTC Location   25.38 S ; 115.87 W Depth   20 km

Magnitude   Mw 6.1 Region   CENTRAL EAST PACIFIC RISE Date time   2020-03-22 22:38:05.3 UTC Location   4.68 S ; 104.87 W Depth   10 km

KEIR Starmer has done more to tackle antisemitism in the Labour Party in four days than predecessor Jeremy Corbyn did in four years, a former party member has said.

BORIS Johnson praised a 102-year old Second World War veteran as "awesome" yesterday during a VE Day video call.

Ontario’s minister of long-term care has announced that the provincial government will conduct a review of the long-term care system once the COVID-19 pandemic settles.

Newcastle are closing in on a £300m takeover which could see the club transformed into a major player.

Mauricio Pochettino has been linked with Newcastle ahead of an imminent multi-million pound takeover.

NORWEGIAN CRUISES is the latest cruise line to extend its sailing suspension, with holidays now cancelled right up until June 30. Can cruisers get their money back?

CRUISE holidays are on hold for now, however, many cruise enthusiasts continue to hold out hope for future cruises. For those looking to cruise in the future, but faced with a tighter budget, the good news is there are some ways you can save on sailings.

CRUISE holidays are popular all over the world, but especially with Britons. However, cruises are not as luxurious as they seem according to some cruise ship staff who have revealed their worst moments on board liners.

CRUISE ship holidays were a popular vacation choice for many Britons before the coronavirus pandemic struck. The crisis has hit the industry hard, leaving some reluctant to go on a cruise again - but now 12 travel writers have united to reveal why they love cruising so much.

CRUISE holidays are currently on hold, but new plans to implement safety regulations means that travellers must fit certain health criteria in order to sail. What will the new measures entail?

CRUISE holidays offer a number of luxurious leisure activities as part of the package. However, for an extra cost passengers can enjoy more exclusive experiences, but only if they stick to this rule.

CRUISE lines are assuring older passengers that they will not be discriminated against for future travel, despite being classed as some of the most vulnerable to coronavirus.

CRUISE holidays have been hugely impacted by the coronavirus crisis with cruises cancelled left, right and centre as the pandemic batters the travel industry. Now a fresh blow comes as two major cruise lines announce cruises won't be returning until autumn.

CRUISE holidays may begin for guests the moment they step onboard, however, the planning and preparation needed to create the ultimate experience begins long before. Journey Planner Denitza Dimitrov, one of the forces behind river cruise company Emerald Waterways, explains how her job helps to make cruise dreams a reality.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told an international video conference that we face a battle of "humanity against the virus". How right that is - and the battle has started. According to Professor Nicholas Hart, one of the doctors who saved Mr Johnson's life, "COVID-19 is this generation's polio."

OSCAR-WINNER Dame Judi Dench at 85 becoming the oldest cover star of Vogue this month highlights how older generations are still making valuable contributions to our national life-and should not be locked behind closed doors.

Epidemics aren't new. This is how Hoosiers have weathered them in the past.

Keeping him in office prevents the left from destroying America with their socialistic ideology, a letter to the editor says.

Some ethics experts say Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard's push for coronavirus testing at Indianapolis lab Aria Diagnostics raises flags.

St. Thomas Aquinas Church has long worked with communities in Haiti and Africa. The church responded to the president's recent comments.

The cost of Britain's controversial new aircraft carriers is set to rise by at least £1bn, and perhaps almost £2bn, as a result of the government's decision taken last October to make them compatible with different aircraft than those originally envisaged.

I have learned that the working assumption of the contractors on the project, which are BAE Systems, Thales UK and Babcock, is that the carriers will now cost taxpayers some £7bn in total, compared with the £5.2bn cost disclosed by the Ministry of Defence last autumn - and up from the £3.9bn budget announced when the contract was originally signed in July 2008.

One defence industry veteran said the final bill was bound to be nearer £10bn, though a government official insisted that was way over the top.

The Ministry of Defence and the Treasury believe that total final costs could be nearer £6bn, if only one of the carriers is reconfigured to take the preferred version of America's Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

An MoD official said no final decision had been taken on whether the first carrier to be built, the Queen Elizabeth, or the second carrier, the Prince of Wales, or both would be reconfigured.

He said it would probably be the case that changing the design specification for the Prince of Wales would be the cheapest option. But if that happened, it is not clear when - if ever - the Queen Elizabeth, due to enter service in 2019, would actually be able to accommodate jets (as opposed to helicopters).

Whatever happens, the increase in the bill will be substantial - and is only regarded by the Treasury as affordable because the increment is likely to be incurred later than 2014/15, when the expenditure constraints put in place by the Chancellor's spending review come to an end.

The Treasury is adamant that the MoD will receive no leeway to increase spending before then.

An MoD spokesman sent me the following statement late last night:

"The conversion of the Queen Elizabeth Class...will allow us to operate the carrier variant of the Joint Strike Fighter that carries a greater payload, has a longer range and is cheaper to purchase. This will give our new carriers, which will be in service for 50 years, greater capability and interoperability with our allies. Final costs are yet to be agreed and detailed work is ongoing. We expect to take firm decisions in late 2012."

The disclosure of the rise in costs is bound to reopen the debate about whether the UK really needs new carriers, especially since the UK will be without any aircraft carrier till 2019, following the decision to decommission Ark Royal.

British Tornado jets are currently active in Libya, flying from a base in Italy, without the use of a British aircraft carrier.

The latest increase in likely expenditure on the enormous carriers - which are almost the size of three football pitches - stems from the decision of the Ministry of Defence in October to change the design one or both of them so that they can be used by the carrier version of America's Joint Strike Fighter.

This would mean they have to be fitted with catapults and traps - or "cats and traps" - rather than ramps.

The likely final cost will depend on whether the cats and traps are cheaper traditional steam devices, or newer-technology electromagnetic ones - and also whether the cats and traps are fitted to both carriers or just one.

Industry and government sources tell me that even if the MoD goes for the cheaper option, and even if the cats and traps are fitted to only one carrier, the additional bill will still be of the order of £1bn.

The hope however would be that in the longer term savings could be achieved because the maintenance costs of the more conventional Joint Strike Fighter should be lower.

One of the reasons the refit could be relatively more expensive is that for one of the carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth, there would have to be a retrofit - because so much work has already been done on it.

"Retrofitting is always very pricey" said a senior defence executive.

The carrier project has been beset by controversy and cost increases.

In June 2009, I disclosed that the carrier costs had soared by more than £1bn as a result of a decision taken by the previous government to delay their entry into service.

Then last October the government, in its Strategic Defence and Security Review, came close to cancelling one or both carriers.

In the end, it committed to build both, but with the strange caveat that it might end up using only one of them. This was the reason given by the Prime Minister David Cameron in the Commons for building both:

"They [the previous government] signed contracts so we were left in a situation where even cancelling the second carrier would actually cost more than to build it; I have this in written confirmation from BAE Systems".

However in a memo to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Ministry of Defence estimated that cancelling both contracts would have saved £2bn and cancelling just one would have saved £1bn.

The MoD told MPs that "as the cancellation costs would have had immediate effect, the costs in the short term would have been significantly higher than proceeding with both carriers as planned; nearly £1bn more in financial year 2011/12 if both carriers had been cancelled".

The MoD was also concerned that cancelling the carriers would have undermined British capability and know-how in the manufacture of complex warships.

The carriers, called Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers, are being built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, whose members are the UK defence giant BAE systems, the British engineering group Babcock, and Thales of France. The Ministry of Defence is also described as both a member of the Alliance and a customer.

Update 15:06:It has been pointed out to me, by what you might term a grizzled sea dog, that the UK does still possess two ships that can take aircraft. They are HMS Illustrious and HMS Ocean (which is a commando carrier with a flat top).

However they can't accommodate jet airplanes, only helicopters - so for veteran sailor it was a terrible error for the government to scrap the illustrious Harrier jumpjet.

He also takes the view, which I've heard from many other military personnel, that it would be bonkers to convert only one of the new carriers to take the carrier version of the Joint Strike Fighter - because if that were to happen, one of the carriers would be an enormous white elephant, and the other would not be able to provide a service for 100% of the time (it would need periodic servicing).

That said, the cost of retro-fitting the first carrier being built now and also redesigning the other one would certainly be nudging £2bn, maybe more.

He believes there is powerful strategic logic to building two new huge ships able to handle jets.

The problem for David Cameron is that he may find it hard to make the strategic case, since last autumn he justified building the two on the basis that it would not save any money to cancel one - which is not the most positive case for what turns out to be a very substantial public investment that anyone has ever advanced.

Como crise atingiu primeiro americanos, na opinião de analistas e operadores de empresas de remessas migrantes devem se recuperar financeiramente a tempo de socorrer familiares em suas cidades originais.

A economia italiana está enfraquecida há anos, mas a pandemia acabou deteriorando ainda mais a situação financeira de famílias e negócios, que agora estão na mira do crime organizado.

Vice President Mike Pence toured a GM facility making hospital ventilators for about an hour Thursday.

Washington teeters on the brink. If there is no agreement on a budget by midnight on Friday, the federal government will shut down. While cops and soldiers, air traffic controllers and others deemed essential won't down tools this is serious, at least according to the Obama administration. A senior administration official has told us loans to small businesses and home buyers will stop, which will have an impact on an already fragile housing market. Military and civilian workers won't be paid. The lions at the zoo will be fed (and unlike last time their waste should be collected) but the gates won't open to visitors. National parks will close. This is, of course, the most serious, as I am planning a vacation to one of them next week.

I am just back from the Capitol, and talking to people at a Tea Party rally. Their view might be summed up as "bring it on!" They were chanting "Shut it down!" Several made the point that if non-essential parts of the government shut down, they'd be quite happy. If it's not essential, the view is, then the government shouldn't be doing it anyway.

I suspect there will be a deal. There is too much for both sides to lose in the blame game that would follow. But the strength of the Tea Party has already made it hard for their leadership to compromise, and will make selling any deal tough. President Barack Obama and the Democrats don't have quite the same problem but the cuts he has accepted have already upset supporters.

Compromise is a peculiar business, I reflected as I started reading a book called At the Edge of the Precipice, by Robert Remini, the former historian of the US House of Representatives. It is about the 1850 compromise over slavery. He writes that the man at the centre of this, Henry Clay, "understood the importance of compromise... each side must feel that it has gained something that is essential to its interest as the result of the compromise. To achieve that goal each side must surrender something important to the opposing side. Both sides can then claim victory."

His contention is that compromise prevented an early civil war that the North would have lost, having neither leadership nor material to win at that stage. The argument is that it prevented the splitting of the US into two nations and thus was a good move. All history is hindsight, but I am uncertain about praising an agreement on the grounds that it turned out that it came unstuck later with better results. It was hardly the argument at the time. And compromises depend who is at the table. The compromise was between white gentlemen, while the slaves themselves had no say. Perhaps they might have had some thoughts about the value of compromise.

What's this got to do with today's politics? Simply that like Mr Remini, most Americans admire politicians who can behave with dignity and find a way through a difficult problem, by giving and taking. Bipartisanship is one of the highest ideals of US politics. But many of the politicians might question the morality of this. Enough of them might see the matters of practicality and principle at stake as too important to allow the other side to claim any sort of victory.

Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers announced Friday that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a nervous system disorder.

Simon Bogg says it took him 10 days to make the sculpture in tribute to the "absolute legend".

The director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health told residents Wednesday not to visit their mothers on Mother's Day, even if wearing masks and keeping six feet apart.

By Audrey Hatter | Staff Writer According to the the Cable News Network (CNN) website, the...

How do we keep fit while heeding the government's new advice on avoiding unnecessary social contact?

A rare but dangerous syndrome spotted in children has been linked to coronavirus.

The Food and Drug Administration authorises emergency use of the experimental anti-viral drug.