Car boot sale diamond fetches £650k at auction
A diamond ring bought at a car boot sale for £10 has been sold for £656,750 at auction in London.
The jewel was expected to fetch £350,000, but went for almost double that at Sotheby's on Wednesday.
The
owner believed the "exceptionally-sized" stone was a piece of costume
jewellery when she bought it at West Middlesex Hospital in Isleworth,
west London, in the 1980s.
Unaware it was a 26 carat diamond, she wore it daily for decades.
The cushion-shaped white diamond is thought to have been from the 19th Century.
Ahead of the sale, the head of the auction house's London
jewellery department, Jessica Wyndham, said: "The owner would wear it
out shopping, wear it day-to-day. It's a good looking ring.
"No-one had any idea it had any intrinsic value at all. They enjoyed it all this time."
Ms
Wyndham said the owner - who does not want to be identified - assumed
it was not a genuine gemstone because it was in a "filthy" mount and it
did not have the sparkle of a diamond.
It wasn't until after 30
years of wearing the ring that the owners took it to Sotheby's and a
jeweller told them it may be valuable.
Another eye-catching item from the Sotheby's sale was a Cartier diamond brooch worn by Margaret Thatcher.
It was worn the day she offered her resignation as Prime Minister to the Queen.
With its geometric chevron design, the brooch was eventually sold for £81,250, having been estimated to fetch up to £35,000.
Proceeds from that sale will be donated to charity.
Ms Wyndham
said: "It was a thrill to bring the hammer down on two objects which
have been the subject of so much interest and attention over the last
few weeks and to see that attention translate into such strong bidding
competition."
BBC NEWS
Paris pollution victim sues France for bad air
A Parisian woman is taking the French state to court for failing to protect her health from the effects of air pollution.
Clotilde Nonnez, a 56-year-old yoga teacher, says she has lived in the capital for 30 years and seen her health deteriorate.
However, it became worse than ever when pollution in Paris hit record levels last December.
Her lawyer says air pollution is causing 48,000 French deaths per year.
"We
are taking the state to task because we think the medical problems that
pollution victims suffer are as a result of the authorities' lack of
action in tackling air pollution," François Lafforgue told Le Monde
newspaper.
More cases would be brought in the coming weeks, in Lyon, Lille and elsewhere, he added.
Paris
has struggled for years to combat high levels of smog and the
authorities have introduced fines for any vehicle not carrying a
"Crit'Air" emissions category sticker - part of a scheme to promote
lower-emitting vehicles.
Several routes in the capital now have
restrictions on car use and a 3km (1.8-mile) stretch of the Right Bank
of the River Seine has become pedestrianised.
Ms Nonnez says she
has led a healthy life, first as a dancer and more recently as a yoga
teacher, but has increasingly suffered from respiratory problems,
ranging from chronic asthma to pneumonia.
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When pollution hit the worst levels for a decade last December,
her existing bronchial condition prompted an acute pericarditis attack.
"The
doctor treating me says Paris air is so polluted that we're breathing
rotten air. She has other patients like me, including children and
babies too. My cardiologist says the same," she told the France Info
website.
BBC NEWS
Burmese military plane vanishes over Andaman Sea
Hopes are fading for the 120 people on board a Burmese military plane which has gone missing over the Andaman Sea.
The
army said the plane was flying between the southern city of Myeik and
Yangon (Rangoon). Search and rescue efforts are under way.
"Communication
was lost suddenly at about 1:35 pm [07:05 GMT] when it reached about 20
miles west of Dawei town," the army said in a statement.
There were 106 military personnel and family members and 14 crew on board.
The plane, a Y8 transporter made in China, was half an hour into the short routine flight.
Latest reports suggest that debris has been spotted in the sea by some of the military planes or ships dispatched to the area.
There were no reports of bad weather at that time. The plane was
purchased from China in March last year and had logged 809 flying hours,
the army said.
Myanmar has seen a number of aircraft incidents in recent years.
In
February 2016, the five-member crew of an air force plane died when the
aircraft crashed in the capital of Nay Pyi Taw. A few months later,
three officers were killed when a military helicopter crashed in central
Myanmar.
An Air Bagan commercial aeroplane made an emergency landing in 2012 and burst into flames, killing two people.
BBC NEWS
General election 2017: Voters to go to the polls
Millions of people will be casting their vote in the UK general election later.
Polls
open at 07:00 BST at more than 40,000 polling stations across the
country, with counting starting once voting ends at 22:00 BST.
A total of 650 Westminster MPs will be elected, with about 46.9 million people registered to vote.
That is up from the last general election, in 2015, when there were 46.4 million registered voters.
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Some votes have already been cast, through postal voting, which
accounted for 16.4% of the total electorate at the 2015 general
election.
Overall turnout in 2015, when the Conservatives won 331 out of 650 seats, was 66.4%, up from 2010.
Most polling stations are in schools, community centres and parish
halls, but pubs, a launderette and a school bus have been used in the
past.
A handful of seats are expected to be declared by midnight, with the final results expected on Friday afternoon.
Unusually,
no local elections are taking place at the same time, so results might
come through earlier than in recent general elections.
In 2015 the first seat to declare was Houghton and Sunderland South, at 22:48 BST.
To
form a majority in the House of Commons one party must win 326 seats -
in 2015 a Conservative majority was not confirmed until 13:34 BST.
Coverage
The
weather forecast is for some rain in south-west England, Northern
Ireland, Scotland and Wales on Thursday, with south-east England
remaining cloudy and dry.
Polls close at 22:00 BST, but officials say anyone in a polling station queue at this time should be able to cast their vote.
The BBC's main election programme, fronted by David Dimbleby, starts at 21:55 BST, with live coverage from scores of counts.
Dimbleby, fronting his 10th election night broadcast, will be joined by Mishal Husain, Emily Maitlis, Jeremy Vine.
Wales,
Scotland and Northern Ireland will have their own overnight programmes
but will join Huw Edwards from 07:00 BST on 9 June.
On the radio, an overnight broadcast by BBC Radio 4 will be hosted by Jim Naughtie and Carolyn Quinn.
On BBC Radio 5 live, the overnight show will be hosted by Stephen Nolan and Emma Barnett.
Full
coverage of the results as they come in will be on the BBC politics
online live page and front page scorecard, with all the big breaking
stories from around the country and analysis by correspondents.
BBC NEWS
Farc weapons handover begins in Colombia, Timochenko announces
Farc rebels in Colombia say they
have handed over 30% of their arms to United Nations (UN ) monitors,
under the terms of last year's peace agreement.
They will hand over another 30% of their arms next Wednesday, with the remainder due to be surrendered in a fortnight's time.
The weapons are to be stored at 26 locations around the country.
After five decades of war and years of negotiations, Farc and the government came to a peace agreement last year.
Farc, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is the country's biggest rebel group.
There are 7,000 fighters handing over their rifles and pistols and the group will become a political party.
Farc leader Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri, who is better known as Timochenko, made the announcement on social media on Wednesday.
The timeline will see them meet a 20 June deadline, which has been extended from the start of the month.
The
decades-long conflict between rebel groups, state forces,
paramilitaries and drug gangs killed hundreds of thousands of people and
displaced more than seven million.
The
peace deal was initially rejected in a referendum, then reworked and
implemented. Since it came in to force the national army has been
granted access to areas that were once occupied by the Farc and former rebels have been rejoining civilian life.
But in a move that threatened the process, a rebel was arrested in contravention of the deal's terms. President Juan Manuel Santos put the arrest down to "confusion" and the man was released.
For his efforts to reach peace with the Farc, Mr Santos was awarded last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
BBC NEWS
North Korea fires anti-ship missiles, says South Korea
North Korea has fired several anti-ship cruise missiles off its east coast, South Korea's military says.
Authorities said they appear to be short-range "surface-to-ship" missiles, launched on Thursday morning from the city of Wonsan.
They flew about 200km (125 miles) before landing in the water.
Repeated
missile tests by the North this year - not all of them successful but
all a breach of UN sanctions - have sparked international alarm.
Anti-ship
missiles are guided missiles and most of them skim the water. North
Korea has previously unsuccessfully tested anti-ship ballistic missiles,
experts believe.
On 29 May the North fired a Scud-type ballistic missile from the same location, which flew about 450km.
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Last Friday the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a new US
resolution to impose targeted sanctions on certain North Korean
officials and state entities.
The US has also ramped up its
military presence in the region in response to these missile tests. Two
US aircraft carriers have recently been carrying out naval exercises in
the Sea of Japan, reported Reuters news agency citing the US military.
However, South Korea said on Wednesday it was suspending the further deployment of a controversial US anti-missile defence system called Thaad, until an environment assessment is complete.
Pyongyang
has been testing its missiles at an unprecedented pace. Experts fear
the tests indicate progress towards Pyongyang's ultimate goal of putting
a nuclear warhead on a missile that could strike continental US.
BBC NEWS
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Apple to scan iPhones for child sex abuse images
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