US economic growth slowed sharply in the first quarter of the year, growing at an annual rate of 0.1%.

The rate is the slowest for a year and a large fall on the 2.6% increase in gross domestic product (GDP) in the final quarter of last year.
An unusually cold and disruptive winter, coupled with tumbling exports, contributed to the decline, the US Commerce Department said.
But it said economic activity already appeared to be bouncing back.
Business investment fell by 2.1%, with spending on equipment plunging by 5.5% at an annual rate compared with a year earlier.
Residential construction, which was inevitably hit by the unusually cold winter fell by 5.7% although it was also hit by higher house prices and a shortage of available homes for sale.
By Andrew WalkerBBC World Service Economics correspondent
This is a standstill number. If we follow the British practice of giving the figures as a quarterly growth rate to one decimal place we get 0.0%.
Yes, we knew that bad winter weather would be, as it were, a headwind that would slow the US economy down. But this was a much sharper loss of momentum than expected.
It does give some support to the views of the Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen that the economy is not back to normal health and will need the stimulus from Fed policies for some time yet.
Still, consumer spending was quite strong in the new figures and the chances are that the slowdown in growth will be relatively short-lived.
The US trade trade deficit deficit widened, thanks to a sharp fall in exports which shaved growth by 0.8 percentage points in the first quarter. Businesses also slowed their restocking, with a slowdown in inventory rebuilding reducing growth by nearly 0.6 percentage points.
But consumer spending - which drives 70% of growth in the US economy - grew by 3%, although the increase was dominated by a 4.4% rise in spending on services, reflecting higher utility bills during the bitterly cold winter.
A cutback in spending by state and local governments also helped offset a rebound in federal activity after the 16-day partial government shutdown last year.
But most economists expect a strong rebound in growth in the April-June quarter. The consensus view is the economy will expand by 3% in the second quarter.
Analysts said stronger growth will endure through the rest of the year as the economy derives help from improved job growth, rising consumer spending and a rebound in business investment.
"Everything else is showing us that the economy is picking up," said Gus Faucher, from PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh.
"This weakness is not carrying through to the second quarter."
In fact, many analysts believe 2014 will be the year the recovery from recession finally achieves the robust growth needed to accelerate hiring and reduce still-high unemployment.
If the economy rebounds as strongly as they suggest, it will have experienced the fastest annual expansion in the economy in nine years.
The last time growth was as strong was in 2005, when GDP grew 3.4%, two years before the nation fell into the worst recession since the 1930s.
Unemployment is expected to fall to 6.2% by the end of this year from 6.7% in March.
Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors, said he expected job growth to average above 200,000 a month for the rest of the year - starting with the April jobs report, which will be released Friday.
"Those are the types of job gains which will generate incomes and consumer confidence going forward," he added.
The growth figures come a few hours before a policy statement from the US Federal Reserve, the country's central bank.
But few expect the disappointing news to have any impact on the scaling back of the Fed's economic stimulus, which has seen it cut bond purchases by $10bn per month.
"We rule out that the Fed will modify its policy outlook on the back of today's GDP report and the gradual tapering is set to continue in the coming months," said Annalisa Piazza, from Newedge Strategy in London.


West Brom will pay tribute to former striker Jeff Astle by wearing a replica 1968 FA Cup final kit at home to Leicester on 11 April.

Astle, who scored 174 goals in 361 games for the club, netted the winner as Albion beat Everton 1-0 at Wembley.
The kit will be part of 'Astle Day' where his family will launch a foundation to help sufferers and research of the brain condition which caused his death in 2002.
The England cap was 59 when he died.
Media playback is not supported on this device
The condition - chronic traumatic encephalopathy - is usually linked to boxing.
And Astle's family have been lobbying the Football Association to introduce new laws on head injuries in amateur football.
Albion will wear shirts numbered 2-11, with a blank goalkeeping jersey to mirror the one worn by John Osborne at Wembley.
It will be the second time the Premier League has granted permission for a kit change following Manchester United's switch to a retro design for the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster in 2008.


A court in China has sentenced a woman who posed as a Qing dynasty princess in order to run a fraud scheme to 13 and half years in jail.

Wang Fengying had called herself "Princess Changping" and claimed to be a descendent of the Aisin Gioro Manchu royal family.
She and her accomplice conned their victims out of more than 2 million yuan ($313,600; £204,100) within one year.
They were caught in 2014 after one of her victims complained to the police.
Wang was also fined 500,000 yuan, said the Lianhu District Court in the central Shaanxi province on Monday.
The accomplice, Yang Jianglin, received a 12-year jail sentence and a 500,000 yuan fine.
The Aisin Gioro family ruled China from 1644 until the 1911 revolution that toppled the monarchy and installed a republican government.
Wang and Yang set up a fake company that bought large quantities of counterfeit US dollars and gold bars, which they told victims was just a small portion of Wang's assets.
The rest was locked away, they said, and could not be released through usual methods. She said she needed money for "ensuring good relations" to unlock them as well as for delivery fees, according to a 2014 report on her arrest by CNWest news portal.
Investors were told that if they managed to help unlock these assets, the government would give them a reward three times the value.
Among the items found during a police raid at Wang's office were 41 gold bars - it was not clear whether they were fake or real - ancient-looking keys, and a treasure map.
Unusually, the court ruling ended with a personal note from the unnamed judge, who said there was "no such thing as a free lunch".
"I hope that members of the public, when encountering someone who says they have a far-fetched and mysterious personal history and who tells you that you can get a high return on your investment, keep an alert mind and not easily be swayed by the lure of money.
"Think before you act. Perhaps in this way, you can steer clear of the traps laid by fraudulent cheats."


A tipper truck which killed four people when its brakes failed had clocked up almost 450,000 miles (724,000km), the driver's trial has heard.

Mitzi Steady, four, Robert Parker, 59, Philip Allen, 52, and Stephen Vaughan, 34, died in the crash in Bath in February 2015.
Bristol Crown Court heard the truck was an "accident waiting to happen".
Driver Phillip Potter, 20, denies causing the deaths by dangerous and careless driving.
His boss Matthew Gordon also denies 14 offences while the truck company's mechanic Peter Wood denies four charges.
Mr Potter and Mr Gordon were driving two trucks carrying 30-tonne loads from a Wiltshire quarry on 9 February, the court heard.
Mr Gordon, who was driving in front of Mr Potter, stopped his truck on Lansdown Lane in Weston village but Mr Potter's brakes failed and he had to swerve to avoid a collision, the court heard.
The truck hit several pedestrians including Mitzi and her grandmother Margaret Rogers and a car containing Mr Allen and Mr Vaughan, both from Swansea, and Mr Parker, from Cwmbran, south Wales.
Prosecutor Adam Vaitilingam QC said: "(Mr Potter's) lorry continued to career down Lansdown Lane out of control.
"It caused absolute devastation.
"By the time it finally came to a stop, four people had suffered fatal injuries - a four-year-old girl who had been crossing the road with her grandmother and three men who had been travelling together in the same car."
Mr Vaitilingam called Mr Potter "an inexperienced driver who had only been in the company for a matter of days".
He said Mr Gordon's firm, Grittenham Haulage Limited, was set up in December 2013 and was "a shambles from start to finish" with no transport manager in place at the time of the crash.
The firm did not carry out the recommended brake efficiency tests on the vehicle, which was "an accident waiting to happen," he said.
Mechanic Peter Wood was employed to carry out inspections on the trucks.
The final safety check on the vehicle was in January 2015, weeks before the crash, when he deemed it safe to drive, the court heard.
Mr Vaitilingam said: "If Mr Wood did carry out a safety inspection that day it was wholly inadequate.
"On the date of the crash the lorry had serious and long standing defects with its braking system, meaning that it was and had been for some time in a dangerous condition.
"This sort of catastrophic brake failure doesn't just happen through bad luck."
Mr Potter, of Dauntsey, Wiltshire, is also charged with causing serious injuries to Karla Brennan and Margaret Rogers - Mitzi's grandmother - by dangerous driving.
He denies a total of 10 charges against him.
Mr Gordon, 30, also of Dauntsey, denies 14 charges against him.
Mr Wood, 55,  from Brinkworth, Wiltshire denies the four charges against him.
The trial continues.


Martin O'Neill says he has not given up on qualifying for Euro 2016 despite seeing his Republic of Ireland side held to a 1-1 draw by Scotland.

The result means Ireland have not won any of their last four Group D fixtures and they stay in fourth place, two points behind their Dublin opponents.
"We wanted to get ahead of Scotland and they will be delighted to go away with something on the board," said O'Neill.
"But there is still a distance to go and we have not given up on this."
O'Neill felt the Republic had dominated the first half and had been unlucky to see Shaun Maloney's shot deflecting in off skipper John O'Shea for the equaliser early in the second.
"We had been dominant and did not want half-time to come," added the Republic manager.
"Their goal was poor for us. The shot looked like it was going miles wide before hitting John O'Shea and going in.
"That put us on the back foot for about 10 minutes and Scotland had their best spell of the game.
"But we fought back well and piled on a little pressure and I felt we were going to win it in the end."


NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has found a new job, his lawyer says.

The former US spy agency contractor will work for a major private website in Russia, where he was granted asylum after fleeing the United States.
"Edward starts work in November," his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Mr Snowden, 30, fled to Russia in June after leaking details of far-reaching US telephone espionage.
Mr Kucherena would not disclose which site has employed Mr Snowden, citing security concerns.
However, Mr Snowden had a very public job offer earlier this year from the head of VKontakte, a popular social networking site seen as a rival to Facebook.
Pavel Durov, who founded VKontakte in 2006, invited Mr Snowden through a post on his own webpage to join the company's St Petersburg headquarters to work on data protection.
Little has been heard of Mr Snowden's private life in Russia, where he has lived since being granted temporary asylum in August.
Leaks from the former intelligence analyst have rocked the US government, revealing an extensive programme of espionage that covered China, Russia and Western allies including Germany and Brazil. The US wants him extradited to face trial on criminal charges.
Mr Snowden spent more than a month in a hotel at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport before being allowed into the country.
It is unclear whether he remains in Moscow, though tabloid pictures of the former contractor occasionally surface.
A Russian website, Life News, this week published a smartphone picture it said was purchased from a reader for 100,000 rubles (Â£1,943), purporting to show Mr Snowden taking a boat trip down the Moscow River through the city's centre. Mr Snowden was without his trademark glasses but wearing a red shirt and cream-coloured cap; the photo's background includes Moscow's landmark Christ the Saviour cathedral.
In an accompanying interview, Mr Kucherena told Life News that Mr Snowden was learning to speak Russian and had visited the Kremlin and other museums and cities in the country.
"He's already gone a pretty long way, in terms of Russian words, in terms of knowledge of our culture...
"For the time being, given his interest in Russia, given the attitude of Russians towards him ... given the love for him, he's receiving a fair amount of correspondence, and I don't think he has any desire to leave for another country at the moment," Mr Kucherena said.
The lawyer did not disclose where Mr Snowden is living but said he will work in information technology at "our country's largest website".
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview recently that Mr Snowden could "feel safe" in Russia, though he told the Associated Press news agency that he found him "a strange guy".
VKontakte has itself come under pressure from the Russian government, as legislators try to gain more control over what is said online. Mr Durov's residence and VKontakte headquarters were both raided by police earlier this year, ostensibly in a traffic accident investigation.
The site has nearly 80 million users, according to industry researcher Comscore, including about 47 million inside Russia, and is controversial for allowing users access to pirated music and video content.


Chinese authorities in Tibet say they plan to name and shame tourists leaving graffiti on Mount Everest.

Tourists were increasingly leaving comments like "I was here" in several languages on monuments and signs at Base Camp on the Chinese side of the mountain, they said.
They plan to erect tablets tourists can deface instead, to meet their demands for somewhere to leave their mark.
The Great Wall of China also recently introduced a designated graffiti zone.
Officials in Tibet told local media that as tourists already have to register to enter the scenic area, it would be easier to identify the culprits.
"Starting this year, we will set up a blacklist system to punish badly-behaved tourists, such as those who leave graffiti. The blacklist will be made public through media outlets," said Gu Chunlei, deputy head of Tingri County tourism bureau.
May is the peak time for tourism to Everest in Tibet, with 550 visits a day to the base camp there at the height of 2015, according to Xinhua.


Gareth Bale scored one and assisted another as Real Madrid began their La Liga title defence with an easy victory at Deportivo La Coruna, although Sergio Ramos was sent off in injury time.

With Cristiano Ronaldo suspended, Bale tapped in from Karim Benzema's scuffed shot to put Madrid ahead.
Casemiro ended a move with 44 passes by converting Marcelo's cross, before Toni Kroos smashed in from Bale's pass.
Keylor Navas then saved Florin Andone's penalty, before Ramos was dismissed.
The Madrid defender picked up his second yellow card for a high elbow in an aerial challenge, having received his first for shoving Fabian Schar's face.
Depor centre-back Schar had pushed his head close to Ramos' in an angry confrontation - for which he too was shown a yellow card - but the Spaniard's violent retaliation might easily have been punished with a straight red.
Ramos, 31, has now been sent off 23 times for Madrid, and 18 times in La Liga, a joint record he shares with ex-Sevilla defender Pablo Alfaro and Xavi Aguado, formerly of Real Zaragoza.
Earlier, Barcelona also got their league campaign off to a winning start as Ernesto Valverde's side beat Real Betis 2-0 on an emotional night at the Nou Camp.
Barcelona were playing for the first time since the terror attack in the city on Thursday and both teams paid their respects to the victims with a minute's silence before kick off.
Match ends, Deportivo de La Coruña 0, Real Madrid 3.
Second Half ends, Deportivo de La Coruña 0, Real Madrid 3.
Daniel Carvajal (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Bruno Gama (Deportivo de La Coruña).
Second yellow card to Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid) for a bad foul.
Foul by Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid).
Borja Valle (Deportivo de La Coruña) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Offside, Real Madrid. Marco Asensio tries a through ball, but Lucas Vázquez is caught offside.
Corner,  Deportivo de La Coruña. Conceded by Keylor Navas.
Penalty saved! Florin Andone (Deportivo de La Coruña) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity,  right footed shot saved  in the bottom left corner.
.
Penalty conceded by Daniel Carvajal (Real Madrid) after a foul in the penalty area.
Penalty Deportivo de La Coruña. Bruno Gama draws a foul in the penalty area.
Florin Andone (Deportivo de La Coruña) is shown the yellow card.
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Florin Andone (Deportivo de La Coruña).
Attempt saved. Marco Asensio (Real Madrid) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Lucas Vázquez (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Luisinho (Deportivo de La Coruña).
Attempt saved. Florin Andone (Deportivo de La Coruña) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Borja Valle.
Pedro Mosquera (Deportivo de La Coruña) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Daniel Carvajal (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Pedro Mosquera (Deportivo de La Coruña).
Offside, Deportivo de La Coruña. Florin Andone tries a through ball, but Borja Valle is caught offside.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Marcelo (Real Madrid) because of an injury.
Corner,  Real Madrid. Conceded by Fabian Schär.
Substitution, Real Madrid. Lucas Vázquez replaces Gareth Bale.
Substitution, Deportivo de La Coruña. Borja Valle replaces Fede Cartabia.
Attempt missed. Luka Modric (Real Madrid) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Gareth Bale.
Daniel Carvajal (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Bruno Gama (Deportivo de La Coruña).
Attempt missed. Luisinho (Deportivo de La Coruña) left footed shot from long range on the left is too high. Assisted by Guilherme.
Attempt missed. Marcelo (Real Madrid) right footed shot from the left side of the box is too high.
Substitution, Real Madrid. Marcos Llorente replaces Casemiro.
Foul by Marco Asensio (Real Madrid).
Fede Cartabia (Deportivo de La Coruña) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Nacho (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Bruno Gama (Deportivo de La Coruña).
Attempt missed. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Karim Benzema.


Four people accused of blocking tram tracks on a day of anti-racism action by Black Lives Matter have been charged.

The three women and a man have been charged with the wilful obstruction of a highway in Nottingham.
Traffic in parts of the city centre was "gridlocked" when people lay across tracks during rush hour on Friday.
The four accused are due to appear before the city's magistrates' court on 22 August.
They are:
During a day of action protesters also caused disruption near Heathrow and Birmingham airports.
Police have arrested 10 people in connection with the protest at Heathrow and a further five in Birmingham.
The action came a day after the fifth anniversary of the death of Mark Duggan, who was shot by police in London.


Lisa McInerney has won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction with her debut novel The Glorious Heresies.

Her book details how a messy murder affects the lives of five misfits who exist on the fringes of Ireland's post-financial crash society.
Head judge Margaret Mountford presented McInerney with £30,000 and a limited edition bronze figurine - the Bessie - at London's Royal Festival Hall.
Mountford praised "a superbly original, compassionate novel".
She added that the judges had "a passionate discussion around a very strong shortlist", saying The Glorious Heresies "delivers insights into the very darkest of lives through humour and skilful storytelling".
This year's judges also included writer and singer Tracey Thorn, journalist Naga Munchetty, writer and journalist Laurie Penny and author Elif Shafakhe.
Novelist and co-founder of the prize Kate Mosse said: "Since 1996, we have honoured novelists of exceptional talent, have promoted and celebrated fiction from all over the world.
"Now, as we celebrate the work of Lisa McInerney  the list of those shortlisted and winning novels, past and present, stands as a tribute to women's talent, ingenuity, originality and imagination."
McInerney was one of six writers on the shortlist, which included fellow debut writers Cynthia Bond and Hannah Rothschild, along with previously shortlisted author Anne Enright plus Hanya Yanagihara and Elizabeth McKenzie.
The shortlisted books were as follows:
McInerney, who is the author of a blog which wryly documents modern life there, has also been shortlisted for the 2016 Desmond Elliott Prize and longlisted for the 2016 Dylan Thomas Prize. Her short stories have featured in The Stinging Fly, on BBC Radio 4 and in the anthologies The Long Gaze Back.
She has written in her blog about her unconventional upbringing.  Born to an unmarried mother, she was raised by her grandparents on a council estate in County Galway and later worked in the office of a construction company in Cork.
"I was raised by my grandparents because in the 1980s, children born to unmarried mothers were saddled with the legal status of 'illegitimate', and my family wanted better for me," she wrote.
Foyle's Frances Gertler said McInerney's win "won't please everyone".
"This is a brave choice of winner by the least conventional and edgiest writer on the list, whose big, gritty and compelling novel about Ireland's dark underbelly features a cast of alcoholics, drug dealers and prostitutes, leaving a trail of sex, violence and crime in their wake," she said.
Formerly known as the Orange Prize, the book award was set up in 1996 and is awarded for the best full-length novel of the year written by a woman and published in the UK.
Last year's winner was Ali Smith for How to be Both.


Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock says he struggles to motivate himself for games when his side have little to play for.

The Bluebirds beat Brentford 2-1 on Saturday to stay in 14th place in the Championship table.
With five games left in the season, Cardiff are safe from relegation but realistically out of contention for the play-offs.
"It's very difficult for me to get myself up for it when I know we're safe. I need an edge on my game as well," said Warnock.
He continued: "So I said to Blackie [assistant manager Kevin Blackwell], 'Make sure you give me a kick up the backside if you think I'm slacking'.
"Because it's easy to become complacent really and I've never been one for pre-season friendlies because there's nothing at stake.
"So all credit to the lads for taking on board what I said and making a game of it."
Cardiff trailed 1-0 against Brentford at half-time, before recovering with goals from Sean Morrison and Peter Whittingham in a strong second-half display.
Having won only one of their previous seven games, Warnock was pleased with his team's revival.
"It's easy to go through the motions and then the fans are paying their money and not getting their money's worth," he added.
"But I want fans to go home and talk about the goals and the saves. We're in an entertainment business.
"I appreciate the fans staying behind and giving the players applause because it was a hot, draining day."


Gordon Taylor has risked further controversy by appearing to compare the Ched Evans case with the Hillsborough tragedy.

After the convicted rapist's move to Oldham collapsed, the Professional Footballers' Association chief executive was asked about Evans's insistence that he is innocent.
"He wouldn't have been the first person to be found guilty, maintained their innocence and been proved right. We know what happened with Hillsborough," Taylor told BBC Sport.
"It's now unravelling and very different to how it was portrayed at the time, indeed by the police at the time."
Following a long campaign by families, new inquests are being held to investigate how 96 Liverpool fans died as a result of the Hillsborough stadium disaster on 15 April 1989.
Click here to listen to Taylor's comments.
Taylor did not elaborate further on this point but said it would be "very difficult" for Evans, 26, to stay in football following the League One club's change of heart.
"This Oldham situation has not made things any better for him, so it may well now take some time," said Taylor.
More than 70,000 people signed a petition calling on Oldham not to sign Evans, while a number of campaigners and politicians voiced opposition to the move for the Wales international.
"Having done a sentence, he is entitled to return," said Taylor, adding that then player's cause might be helped now the public knows "he is genuinely apologetic for the consequences of what happened".
The former Manchester City and Sheffield United striker was jailed in April 2012 for raping a woman, 19, at a north Wales hotel in 2011. He was released in October 2014 after serving half of a five-year sentence.
On Thursday, Evans apologised for the "effects of his actions" but continued to maintain his innocence.
He later issued a further statement blaming "mob rule" for the deal's collapse, claiming "the more radical elements of our society" had the "desired influence on some sponsors".
Oldham chief executive Neil Joy said there had been "vile and abusive threats, including death threats, made to our fans, sponsors and staff" over the proposed signing.


Standard Chartered has said it will axe jobs and shut its equities business in a continued effort to cut costs and boost profits.

The Asia-focused lender said on Thursday the move would help it save some $100m (Â£66.2m) in 2016.
It also said it plans to shed another 2,000 positions in its retail banking division, on top of the 2,000 already announced.
The bank issued three profit warnings last year.
It posted a 16% fall in operating profit in October last year due to a restructuring of its South Korean business and an increase in bad loans.
The bank's Hong Kong-listed shares were up more than 2% on Thursday as investors welcomed the cost-cutting news.
Standard Chartered told its investors in November last year it would try to deliver $400m in cost savings this year.
It said on Thursday it was on track to deliver those savings.
Some 2,000 job cuts had been announced or completed in its retail sector over the last three months, the lender said, "with a reduction of a further 2,000 expected during 2015."
The bank also said in November that it would close up to 100 bank branches in 2015 in Asia, Africa and the Middle East in an attempt to boost its profitability.
On Thursday it said it had made "good progress in closing 22 branches in the second half of 2014" and that it was on track to close up to 100.
Steven Chan, an analyst at Maybank Kim Eng Securities in Hong Kong said the moves "would certainly help improve the bank's profits."


It has been quite a change of heart for Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Only a few months ago, he said he was not in favour of legalising marijuana. Now he is making steps to allow the use of medical marijuana and considering changes to decriminalise small quantities of the drug for recreational use.
The news came just two days after he addressed the United Nations General Assembly at a special session on drug policy - a meeting that was called for by Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico in 2012 and seen as a chance to re-think the current strategy of fighting drug-trafficking.
In fact, President Pena Nieto was not even going to attend the meeting in New York until late last week when he made a U-turn.
Perhaps he realised that not showing up would send a pretty stark message about the importance he places on improving the lives of millions of Mexicans.
"My country is one of the nations that has paid a high price - an excessive price - in terms of peace, suffering and human lives, lives of children, young people, women and adults," the president said at the UN. "We know the limitations and the painful implications of the prohibitionist enigma."
The so-called war on drugs that was introduced in 2006 by his predecessor Felipe Calderon was aimed at cracking down on cartels with military might.
But rather than making things better, it has resulted in more than 100,000 deaths, 27,000 disappeared and a turf war among criminal gangs.
In the wake of the disappearance of 43 students in the town of Iguala in September 2014, there is a lot of anger about human rights abuses and the level of violence in the country.
Back in November, four people won a Supreme Court case that ruled that prohibiting people from growing marijuana for consumption was unconstitutional. It was seen as a historic vote that would pave the way to liberalising drug laws in the country.
Businessman Armando Santacruz was one of the plaintiffs. For years he has worked to improve security and justice in the country through the organisation Mexico United Against Crime. But after a while, he realised they were missing a piece of the puzzle.
"The elephant in the room that nobody was talking about was drug policy. In other words anything we did, if we did not address drug policy, would be fruitless," he says.
"Drug policy was the main driver behind violence, behind the huge power that the cartels were achieving, that organised crime was achieving through the inordinate profits they were getting from drugs."
It was then that he and three other activists formed the small club called the Mexican Society for Responsible and Tolerant Use (SMART, in Spanish). They began their campaign in 2013 and won the Supreme Court case five months ago which paved the way for a national debate on marijuana.
"I think it's hugely significant," says Hannah Herzer of the Drug Policy Alliance regarding the conversations and changes going on in Mexico.
"It wasn't done because those that are behind it want to see marijuana consumption go up. It's done because this is the smarter way to address a problem that is not going away."
For Mr Santacruz, full legalisation of marijuana - and eventually regulation of other drugs - makes economic and political sense.
"It's a very good way of depriving organised crime of one of its easiest sources of profits and cash-flow," he says.
"The more you deprive organised crime of massive cash flow the more you change the power equation between government and organised crime and make it easier for them to fight them."
But not everyone agrees.
"It's a fallacy, a huge lie and a big deception," says Consuela Mendoza Garcia, the president of the National Union of Parents and Families.
"I think that drug traffickers must be laughing about these kind of measures because marijuana isn't a business - there are lots more drugs but not only that - there's racketeering, kidnappings, extortion. That won't change because they legalise marijuana."
While the political debate continues, others are focusing on changing the future through education.
Claudia Rodon Fonte works with the Collective for an Integral Drugs Policy. She thinks the need for more open debate is more necessary than ever.
"Drug consumption here is lower than 3% of the population," she says. "That's rising because many of the drugs that used to go to the US are now staying in the country. Much of the time, as payment for transit. So now there's much more supply than there was before."
She thinks too many lies are told about drugs which does not help young people make informed decisions.
One of the projects she works with is setting up small laboratories at festivals where users can get their substances tested and make sure they are safe.
But it is a grey area - what she is doing is not illegal but some controlled substances to test the drugs properly are hard to come by. With a more liberal drugs policy, their work could be made easier.
What is happening in Mexico is an important step but it does not go far enough for people like Armando Santacruz. He is convinced a drastic change in approach is the only way to make things better.
"Mexico has had more people disappear than Argentina and Chile together during their whole military regimes," he says. "We've had more Mexicans die in the drugs war than the US has had in Afghanistan and Iraq together. It's unreal. There's no way you can justify that kind of human cost."


Pupils preparing to leave primary school are being taught how to deal with stress and to be more resilient as part of a new mental health initiative.

Children in P6 and P7 will learn how to cope with change under the Healthy Me programme developed by Northern Ireland charity, Action Mental Health.
Its chief executive David Babington said it will help prepare pupils for the stresses of the transfer test and big changes in their educational life.
Five schools took part in a pilot.
The charity is now hoping the programme will be rolled out in schools across Northern Ireland.
It consists of "interactive workshops" in which pupils are made aware of the importance of emotional wellbeing; encouraged to seek help if they are in distress and helped to identify sources of support.
The workshops also provide teachers with basic training in promoting emotional wellbeing.
The Healthy Me initiative was launched at Carrick Primary School in Lurgan, County Armagh, on Friday morning.
The school's pastoral care co-ordinator, Helen Hamilton, is also its P7 teacher and said the programme has helped pupils and parents ahead of the big move.
"I see the anxiety in kids starting to build about secondary school," Ms Hamilton told BBC News NI.
"No fault of the secondary school - they're excellent and many are very excited to be going there - but they're apprehensive too and a lot of the time, that can be fed down from parents as well, they're worried about them.
"You're going from a very close-knit family atmosphere in a primary school - where you have one teacher who sees a child every day all day, and gets to know them and their wee quirks and can spot very quickly if they're out of sorts - to the very difficult job of senior school teachers who see them maybe for half an hour.
"It's more difficult for them to pick up on those things, much as they try, so parents sometimes need the reassurance and understanding that the transition can be easier than they expect."
Getting a place in a secondary school can be source of stress however, and last month, thousands of P7 pupils began to sit this year's unofficial transfer tests, set by two different examination bodies, the Association of Quality Education (AQE) and GL Assessment.
Pupils have the choice to sit either test, both tests, or none, but figures provided to the BBC by the two organisations indicated a slight rise in the number of entrants sitting the tests this year, with a total of 14,681, a rise from 14,575 in 2015.
"Transition from primary to secondary school is a particularly stressful time for children and we believe that targeting the programme at P6/P7 children will help them cope with this transition," Mr Babington said.
"Modern life is stressful and can impact on mental health, so implementing strategies for protecting children from stress and helping them learn to cope with change is an extremely positive influence on their young lives," the Action Mental Health boss added.
Ms Hamilton said that in the workshops, children were taught breathing exercises, and "how to relax", including how to take time out from busy after-school activity regimes.
"We, as a school, value so much the amount of evidence that shows that children who, mentally and emotionally, aren't ready to learn cannot progress, so   it's so important for us that children's social and emotional needs are met," the P7 teacher added.
The need to "strengthen the resilience of young people" is one of the key challenges facing Northern Ireland's education system, according to the chief inspector of schools, Noelle Buick.
"All young people need to build resilience," she wrote in her  latest report, published last month..
The chief inspector said pupils were facing "complex challenges" because the "social context of relationships, values, attitudes and behaviours in which children and young people live and learn has changed significantly" in recent years.
"It is timely to review the need for strengthening the resilience of children and young people at all levels through stronger and more explicit preventative education within the wider taught pastoral care curriculum."


Gregor Townsend comes blinking into the light of an upstairs room at Scotstoun, a respite from what he calls the "Saracens bunker", the place where the Glasgow Warriors coaching team have been holed up for more hours across more weeks and months than any of them are capable of calculating.

This is nirvana for Townsend. A first Champions Cup quarter-final, on Sunday, in his fifth and last season at Glasgow, an away quarter-final against the English and European champions, a team that is so packed with power and class that they've never lost a European match at Allianz Park - 12 games, 12 victories - a side so full of mental and physical strength that they have not lost a game in this competition, home or away, for almost two years.
That's consistency on a mad scale. Of their last 15 Champions Cup games they have won 14 and drawn the other. Last weekend, on the domestic front, they put 53 points on Bath, the fourth best side in England. Saracens put them on the back foot, kept them there and ripped them apart when they buckled under the pressure, which most teams do when faced with this behemoth.
They say coaching rugby isn't like rocket science. That's not true. It is. It's exactly that and more when it's Saracens you're trying to coach against, but that's all part of the buzz for Townsend.
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Townsend is giddy at the thought of having 5,000 Warriors fans at the game, the biggest travelling support they've ever had.  It's been quite a journey for Glasgow, a lot of years of flattering to deceive in Europe, of coming close to making the last eight, but not close enough.
"I'd have been very disappointed to finish without having done it," he says. "There's been real frustration, but those games you lose just make you stronger. The day after we lost the Pro12 semi-final to Connacht last year all the talk from the players was about Europe and how we wanted to throw everything at it this season.
"The biggest lesson we learned along the way was that our set-piece had to improve. When you play English or French teams that seemed to be the difference. We could play better rugby, we could score more tries, but they had the edge in the line-out drive, the scrum. We've made big improvements."
And now here they are, rank underdogs, but a dog capable of taking a bite out of any team on their day. Are Saracens beatable? "Yeah, of course," answers Townsend. "We know what a good team they are, but we do believe we can go there and win. It would be the best result in the club's history."
There's been a couple of contenders for that prize already in this campaign. The deconstruction of Leicester at Scotstoun was a pearler, the away win at Racing was outstanding and then there was the one that sent them rocketing into the quarter-finals, that 43-0 drubbing at Welford Road, a place where Leicester had lost just one European match in 10 years.
"Saracens have the right to be huge favourites, they've got a home game, have been European quarter-finalists a lot more than we have [six years in a row] and have won a lot more than we have," Townsend says. "We know the challenge that faces us. We'll have the belief that the way we can play in defence and attack can be good enough to beat any team in Europe. This is as close to Test match level as you'll get. We'll have a team full of international players and so will Saracens - it's knock-out rugby. There's no tomorrow if you lose."
There will be knocking on for 800 caps on that pitch on Sunday, probably four Test Lions in the Saracens ranks - Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and the Vunipola brothers - and maybe more in the Glasgow side - Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour.
"The last two months have been about learning how to beat Saracens, but also about learning from Saracens," Townsend explains. "As a team and a coaching group we've improved just from the fact that we have drawn them, we've learned what they do well and learned what things we can improve on. Win or lose we will be a better team for that.
"I see two clubs that are role models for us in how they're run and how they get success and that's Leinster and Saracens. Leinster was a big driver for me as a coach, they were the team that everybody talked about, the standards they set and how they played, how people came into the team when international players were away and just fitted in. They were great to learn from and compete against and still are.
"Saracens are different, but they've learned from a lot of their experiences. They've had some defeats [two losing European semi-finals and a losing final before finally winning it last season] but they became stronger. They've a fantastic culture. They work really hard for each other."
In the last eight, Glasgow are the wee guy amid giants, the only team that have never been in the knock-outs before. Saracens have one European Cup to their name; Munster and Wasps have two; Toulon and Leinster have three and Toulouse have four. Even Clermont, who have never won it, have been to two finals as well as winning the second tier Challenge Cup last season.
The other seven quarter-finalists have a combined major trophy haul of 38 in the professional era: 19 domestic league titles, 15 European Cups and four Challenge Cups. All of this is grist to Townsend's mill. The task of pitting his coaching and his players against the established elite is what he's all about.
"Our players really care about each other, " says Townsend. "They're very proud of what the club has done off the field as well as on it. They're selfless. Glasgow is a football city but we now have a number of supporters who come from a football background who love watching the games and speaking to players afterwards and maybe having a drink during the game. They've really bought into it.
"A big part of it is that they're proud of their city's team, proud of being Glaswegian and getting behind a side that represents where they come from or where they've settled down. I remember a few years ago when we won our first home Pro12 semi-final against Munster we went for a few drinks in the city.
"Later on, I jumped in a taxi to go home and the driver was saying, 'did you hear about the Warriors tonight, they won!' I thought that was great. He wasn't a rugby fan, and he didn't know who I was, but he was proud of a Glasgow team doing well. And you see little snapshots like that all the time. The first year I was here nobody would have stopped to say hello in Glasgow, but now a lot of people would stop and talk and it feels like you're back in a small town in the Borders."
Will the Scotland-bound coach miss it now that he's in the final stretch of his time at Scotstoun? "Yeah, I'll miss it hugely," he responds. "This has been a big part of my life, this is five years of coming in and working with the staff and the players and I'll miss their banter, I'll miss the week-to-week and I'll miss being here for the kind of nights we've had. I'll still be watching, but as a very interested spectator as opposed to the coach."
The summer, and the Scotland job, can wait. For now, nothing else matters bar Saracens, the giant that Glasgow have to slay.


Traffic officers had a hairy moment when they stopped a van to find it was full of tarantulas.

About 200 of the large arachnids were packed in tubs in the back of the van, the Central Motorway Police Group said.
Officers drew straws on who should investigate, a spokesman said.
The van was stopped at a junction near West Bromwich on the M5. A spokesman said the spiders were healthy and had been on their way to what officers said was a "reptile show".
The van was allowed to continue on its journey.


Veteran photographer Elsa Garrison is part of Getty Images's team of 40 specialist sport photographers who will be at this year's Olympic Games in Rio which begin on 5 August.  Here Garrison has picked out some of her favourite images from past Olympics.
What grabs my attention in this picture is the sheer joy in Timea Nagy's face after retaining the gold medal for women's fencing. I am drawn to reaction pictures as they really show the human aspect of the sport. It doesn't matter if it is a winning moment or a moment of defeat, these types of pictures tell the best story.
Taken at the 1948 Olympic Games, this picture illustrates a moment that photographers strive to capture at every Olympic Games. Technology and demands for imagery have changed significantly since then, but the moments we look to capture have not.
What is great about this picture is that unlike today, this image then was a lot harder to get. It was shot on film - which had exposure limitations. The camera had no motor drive so you had one chance to get it right. And you had to manually focus on runners coming towards you.
Today, you still need a lot of skill to capture such a moment, but there are a lot more demands to get more out of each one. We are shooting multiple remote cameras at the same time as we are using our camera in our hands to get as many views of that one moment as possible.
The opening ceremony for the Olympic Games is always a show of pageantry. This image from the Sydney Olympics is a nice artistic view of the scene inside the stadium. The clever use of colour and light draw you into the frame. The composition reminds me of a blooming flower.
This picture has a nice clean background so the celebration of Usain Bolt jumps out at you. You feel as if you are right there with him.
What I like about this picture is you have happiness and sadness all in the same frame. This was from the quarter-finals at London's Earl's Court in 2012.
In my opinion, emotion pictures tell more of a story than action pictures in sport photography.
This is the moment I remember from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Gymnast, Kerri Strug completed a vault while injured to secure the gold medal.
This is one of my favourite all-time Olympic images by one of my favourite photographers, Doug Pensinger. Doug and I worked on many assignments together and I have always looked up to him and his work. He had a knack for getting the moment of the event better than anyone around him. He was a solid action photographer but he also had a very artistic eye and could make sport look like art.
Every time the opening ceremony is more elaborate and action-packed than the previous Olympics. Larger fireworks shows, fly-overs and choreographed dance routines all add to the ceremony's spectacle. It is always tough to find another vantage point from which to cover the opening ceremony.
What draws me to images like this one is that they are outside the stadium and so give you a sense of place. The dark clouds pictured here during the fly-over at the 2012 Games in London make the coloured smoke from the planes stand out even more.
Bob Beamon's long jump from 1968 maintained the Olympic and world record until the latter was broken in 1991 by Mike Powell.
This picture signals a change in the way people began to cover sporting events. Records and historic moments became more of a priority to capture. Peak action shots with telephoto lenses came into fashion because of this picture and many images like it from that time.
I like the heart shape of the water as the diver heads to the surface and this lends a beautiful graphic element to the picture.
This was taken with a remote camera placed in the pool set up several hours beforehand. Underwater camera shots are hard to get and at this year's Rio Olympics, Getty Images are using underwater rigs to capture more of this imagery which shows a fresh and unique perspective.
When covering doubles tennis it is important to have both players in the frame - otherwise it would look like singles.
Patience is the key but once both players magically come together you have to be ready to capture it as it doesn't happen often. This was a nice moment where Laura Robson and Andy Murray both went for the ball and were mirror images of each other.


Prayers have been said for three missing workers and another who died in the Didcot power station collapse.

On Tuesday afternoon a large part of the building collapsed ahead of a planned demolition.
The Revd Hannah Reynolds of St Peter's Church, Didcot, said: "It's weighing very heavily on the community. It's a feeling of agony of not knowing."
A search operation is still under way at the site as rescuers try to locate the missing workers.
The exact cause of the collapse which claimed the life of Michael Collings, 53, from East Cleveland,  area is still unknown.
Revd Hannah Reynolds, who also led prayers for the rescue workers at a service earlier, said: "It's been very shocking.
"We've had a number of things happen in Didcot in recent years and it's another tragedy that we're facing so there's almost an unbelief about it."
A book of condolence has also been opened at the town's Civic Hall.
The operation to recover the missing workers has involved sniffer dogs, listening devices and a thermal imaging drone.


Glasgow gave their European Champions Cup qualification hopes a huge boost with victory over Racing 92 in Paris.

An early converted try from Juan Imhoff put the hosts in front but two Finn Russell penalties cut the gap to one.
The Warriors repelled several Racing line-out drives and a patient attack saw Alex Dunbar put through to score.
Ali Price touched down from close in on the resumption, Russell's conversion and a third penalty taking Glasgow 23-7 clear before Dan Carter's late try.
But the All Blacks great could not muster a late turnaround for last year's beaten finalists and French champions Racing, who are pointless after two games.
Victory - only their eighth from 54 away games in Europe's elite competition - keeps Glasgow second behind leaders Munster in Pool One ahead of next Friday's return fixture against Racing at Scotstoun.
Glasgow came under the cosh almost immediately, the hosts' slick handling and off-loading out of the tackle taking them to the brink of the Warriors line within two minutes, but Price's tackle on Joe Rokocoko kept Racing out.
The reprieve lasted all of five minutes. Former All Blacks wing Rokocoko broke through from his own half and took his team into the red zone.
The ball was recycled and Warriors ran out of defenders as Imhoff went over in the corner. Carter converted but Russell opened Glasgow's account with a penalty moments later.
It was hard not to marvel at the home side's tempo and guile, but Glasgow soon served to remind us that they have some special players in their ranks too.
Russell executed a planned move to perfection, holding the defence with dummy runners from either side before slipping a pass to Tommy Seymour. The Scotland wing tore through the gap and Stuart Hogg was only denied a try by some good scramble defence.
The attack did eventually yield another three points from the boot of Russell, but it perhaps should have been more.
The visitors were unrecognisable from the team that had lost three Pro12 matches on the bounce and on the half-hour they broke through.
Again Russell held the defensive line long enough for centre Dunbar to run a dream of a line to crash through the midfield and dive over. Russell landed the extras to put Warriors 13-7 up going into the break.
Russell was revelling in direct combat against the legend that is Carter, the all-time leading points scorer in Test rugby, and he was instrumental as Glasgow stretched their lead early in the second half.
The Scotland fly-half weaved through the French defence and when the ball was recycled just short of the try-line, scrum-half Price burrowed over to score. Russell's conversion gave Warriors a deserved 20-7 advantage.
The home side, with their array of stars, seemed devoid of ideas in the face of Glasgow's ferocious defence. They kept Racing pinned back in their own territory, and as the French superstars failed to trouble the scoreboard, it was easy to forget the likes of Carter and former Glasgow totem Leone Nakarawa were on the pitch.
Russell struck again with the boot to put further daylight between the sides at 23-7 with 14 minutes left, but Carter produced a flash of the old magic to collect an off-load and side-step his way past Hogg to stretch and touch down. He converted his own try and Glasgow had seven minutes to protect a nine-point lead.
They did so comfortably, safe in the knowledge they had all the tools to repel even one of Europe's finest teams.
They have given their Champions Cup campaign a huge shot in the arm, and if they can repeat the trick against Racing on home soil next week, they will be in a terrific position to qualify for the quarter-finals for the first time.
Glasgow head coach Gregor Townsend told BBC Scotland: "After their first try, I thought the way we played was great.  We took them on with ball in hand and we also fronted up defensively.
"They have some brilliant attacking players and we knew the game would be open.  We had to take our opportunities which we did, especially the one after half-time, and then we had to defend well, which we certainly did in the second half.
"It has got to be right up there [in terms of results during Townsend's time in charge]. The Pro12 final win (in 2015) was a stand-out - the guys delivered in a game that really counted for something. Today counted for a lot, the opposition was outstanding and they delivered so it is probably the next best after the Pro12 final."
Racing 92: Brice Dulin, Joe Rokocoko, Casey Laulala, Anthony Tuitavake, Juan Imhoff, Dan Carter, Maxime Machinaud; Eddy Ben Arous, Dimitri Szarzewski, Cedate Gomes Sa, Manuel Carizza, Leone Nakarawa, Wenceslas Lauret, Antoine Claasen, Yannick Nyanga.
Replacements: Camille Chat (for Szarzewski, 54), Viliamu Afatia (for Ben Arous, 54), Luc Ducalcon (for Gomes Sa, 54), Gerbrandt Grobler (for Nakarawa, 54), Chris Masoe (for Nyanga, 64), Xavier Chauveau (for Machenaud, 67), Albert Vulivuli (for Tuitavake, 62).
Not used: Benjamin Dambielle.
Glasgow Warriors: Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour, Alex Dunbar, Sam Johnson, Lee Jones, Finn Russell, Ali Price; Gordon Reid, Fraser Brown, Zander Fagerson, Tim Swinson, Jonny Gray, Rob Harley, Simone Favaro, Ryan Wilson.
Replacements: Corey Flynn (for Brown, 57), Alex Allan (for Reid, 64), Sila Puafisi (for Fagerson, 54), Brian Alainu'uese (for Swinson, 76), Josh Strauss (for Harley, 63), Henry Pyrgos (for Price, 57), Mark Bennett (for Johnson, 57),
Not used: Sean Lamont.
Referee: JP Doyle (RFU)


A police car was allegedly stolen from a police station and driven 230 miles before being stopped on a motorway.

Police said keys to the marked car were taken during a burglary at Camelford Police Station in Cornwall in the early hours of on Friday.
The vehicle was later spotted heading east on the M4.
A 23-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman from Camelford have been charged in connection with the incident.
Officers said they used a stinger device to bring the car to a stop near the junction 7 Slough exit.
More on the stolen police car, plus more Devon and Cornwall news


A woman has been left in a critical condition after an attack with what was believed to be a meat cleaver, Essex Police said.

The victim, who is in her 40s, was hurt on Meadow Way in Jaywick, near Clacton, at about 23:45 GMT on Saturday.
A 48-year-old man, from Jaywick, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
The police said the attack involved a "bladed weapon which is believed to be a meat cleaver".


The family of a missing Bristol DJ say they believe a photo taken in London two days ago is of him.

Derek Serpell-Morris, 74, who played sets at Glastonbury and gigs across the UK, disappeared from his home in July.
His great-niece Jennifer Griffiths has been sent a photograph which was taken at Waterloo Station on Monday evening.
She said the resemblance was "uncanny" and he owned the same hat and scarf. "My gut is telling me that it's him," she said.
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said the photo had been handed to the investigations team and was forming part of their inquiry.
The picture was shared on social media and was passed to Ms Griffiths on Wednesday morning.
She said: "As soon as saw it my stomach turned. I thought, 'oh my God'.
"There were so many resemblances - the way he's dressed, underneath the coat he was smartly dressed.
"He also has a scarf and hat exactly like that. The only thing I can think is that he's lost his mind and doesn't know what he's doing."
Ms Griffiths said other family members who have seen the photo also think it is of him.
"The resemblance is uncanny," she said.
Martin Ball said he and his friend, who took the photo, spoke to the man for about five to 10 minutes.
"He looked like he was struggling. We asked if he was okay.
"He seemed quite intoxicated, he started singing. We don't know if he was drunk.
"Now I have Googled 'DJ Derek', we are 100% certain it was him. I would be very shocked if I found it wasn't."
Ms Griffiths said she was planning to contact all the homeless shelters in London, and to put up posters in the city.


The government has twice been defeated in the Lords over its Immigration Bill, shortly after losing a vote in the Commons on Sunday trading.

Peers voted to allow asylum seekers the right to work if their claims have not been processed within six months.
They also voted to allow overseas domestic workers to change employers without risking immediate deportation.
Opponents had argued the latter provision would create "a wide open door to the UK" that could be abused.
Peers voted by 280 votes to 195 in favour of a Labour, Lib Dem and crossbench amendment to the Immigration Bill on the rights of asylum seekers to work.
Lord Alton of Liverpool, who proposed it, said it would end the "enforced workhouse destitution" currently experienced by asylum seekers.
"They are frustrated at being forced to remain idle and survive on benefits," he said.
"How many of us could exist on just over Â£5 a day while an asylum application was being considered? This is way below the poverty line. Where is the justice and fairness in that?"
At present, asylum seekers are not allowed to work unless they have been waiting for a decision on their case for more than a year - and then only in national shortage occupations.
Lord Alton said 3,500 people had been waiting for six months or more by the end of last year, and they deserved to be able to work rather than "eke out" an existence on "pitiful" state benefits.
He insisted "all the available evidence shows that permission to work does not act as a pull factor for asylum seekers, or migrants."
Arguing against the amendment, crossbench peer Lord Green of Deddington warned reducing the time limit could encourage asylum seekers to "spin out" their cases with appeals.
"Not all people seeking asylum are genuine. The record is that 50% turn out not to be. We should be seeking to reduce pull factors, not increase them," he said.
For the government, Home Office minister Lord Bates said the example of Sweden - where asylum seekers can work as soon as they arrive - showed that greater employment rights "might act as a pull factor".
"We should not be doing anything to encourage more people to risk their lives. Now is not the time to make this change," the minister argued.
The second defeat will give domestic workers the right to change their employer once in the UK and to remain in the country for up to two years after doing so.
At present, changing employers is not allowed, but those in favour of the amendment argued that rule often traps individuals in an abusive workplace, as they fear they will be ordered out of the country if they try to leave.
"The scandal of abuse and exploitation has gone on for too long, sometimes in the most affluent parts of London," crossbencher Lord Hylton said.
Opposing the change, Lord Green said it would mean someone could leave their employer whether they were being ill-treated or not, adding: "It provides what will be seen by many as a wide open door to the UK."
Lord Bates said the government was committed to eradicating modern-day slavery and abuse, but argued the amendment could be open to manipulation by people who had not been placed in difficult situations.
Despite those objections, the amendment was supported by 226 votes to 198.


Syria's justice ministry has rejected a report by Amnesty International that alleged as many as 13,000 people have been executed at a government prison.

The ministry said the claims were "completely untrue and intended to harm Syria's reputation".
Amnesty said mass hangings took place every week at Saydnaya prison between September 2011 and December 2015.
It said executions had been authorised at the highest levels of the Syrian government.
The human rights group interviewed 84 people, including former guards, detainees and officials at the prison, north of Damascus, for its report.
In a statement carried by the official Sana news agency, the justice ministry dismissed the claims as "baseless" and said that all executions in Syria followed due process.
"The justice ministry denies and condemns in the strongest terms what was reported because it is not based on correct evidence but on personal emotions that aim to achieve well-known political goals," the statement said.
Amnesty said the Syrian government had not responded to its request for comment ahead of the report's publication.
The government has previously denied killing or mistreating detainees.
In its report, Amnesty said that every week, and often twice a week, groups of between 20 and 50 people, mostly opposition supporters, were executed in total secrecy at the facility.
Before their execution, detainees were brought before a "military field court" in the capital's Qaboun district for "trials" lasting only a few minutes, the report says.
A former military court judge quoted by Amnesty said detainees would be asked if they had committed crimes. "Whether the answer is 'yes' or 'no', he will be convicted... This court has no relation with the rule of law," he said.
On the basis of the testimony of witnesses, Amnesty estimates that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were executed at Saydnaya over five years.
The group said such practices amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Last August, Amnesty reported that an estimated 17,723 people had died in custody as a result of torture and the deprivation of food, water and medical care between March 2011 - when the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began - and December 2015. That figure did not include those allegedly hanged at Saydnaya.
Also last year, UN human rights experts said witness accounts and other evidence strongly suggested that tens of thousands of people were being detained and that "deaths on a massive scale" were occurring in custody.


OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder must breed earworms in a laboratory.

Over the last decade, he has written and produced hits for Beyonce (XO), Adele (Rumour Has It) and Taylor Swift (Welcome To New York), while his own band's hits include Apologise, Counting Stars and the current single Kids.
You may have heard him talking about songwriting, because that's what most interviews - including his last encounter with the BBC - tend to focus on.
But the 37-year-old is pop music's very own Renaissance Man - investing in medicine, accumulating historical artefacts and compiling the ultimate coffee bible.
So, rather than ask him about Adele and Beyonce, we used the song titles from the new OneRepublic album, Oh My My, as the jumping off point for a series of random, but revealing questions.
It turns out that some things are more important than his trophy cabinet...
What's the worst injury you've ever had?
When my Achilles heel exploded. I was playing basketball and my ankle just went off like a firework.
That was very painful, but it wasn't close to what happened next. I got to the hospital and the last little bit of tendon that was attaching my calf muscle to my ankle popped, so my entire calf muscle rolled up behind my knee. No pain in this lifetime will compare. It was so severe that I actually passed out.
What will happen to America after the election?
Oh my God. My grandfather was born in the 1930s and he says this is the worst election he's seen in his lifetime.
I don't think either candidate is the devil. If you're voting experience, Hillary clearly wins because you get two presidents for the price of one - her and Bill. But then you have all the trust issues. Trump, I don't even have to go into detail on why that's scary.
But I'll say this: The future still looks good because of the checks and balances system we have. If Trump gets in, he's going to get stonewalled.
What's the best thing about being a father?
Everything is the best thing about being a father. When our youngest kid sees me, he lights up like a Christmas tree. It's love on another level. Rare is the person you would throw yourself in front of a moving car for, but kids bring that out in you.
Do you have a recurring nightmare?
I've had one since college. It's the last week of school, and I get a call from a professor saying, "You didn't come to my class once this entire semester and I'm failing you, so you're not going to graduate".
You know why I have that dream? Because that actually happened. I was enrolled on a physical education course, but I didn't know and I missed every lesson. The guy said the only way he'd pass me was if I came in the next three days in a row, and ran two miles, then three miles, then five miles. And I had to do each one in a certain time. The three-mile race I had to do in 22 minutes, so a seven-minute mile, and I almost died.
After I did it, the guy looked at me and he shook his head, and he said, "You're lucky you're in decent shape because I was ready to fail you".
You grew up in Tulsa which is a big oil city. Are you for or against fossil fuels?
When I first made money from Apologise and Bleeding Love, I wanted to buy a solar panel farm. I was immediately looking into that as an investment strategy. I've invested in Elon Musk's [solar panel company] SolarCity and Tesla. I refuse to believe we live on a planet that doesn't have 100% renewable resources.
I don't like to invest in bonds and mutual funds, so you have to find something, whether it's a streaming service or a green technology service, or a cancer-fighting company, and invest early. I'll cold call them and be like, "Hey, you're developing an early-detection cancer system, what would it take to invest in your company?".
Is it possible for a songwriter to improve with age?
That's a really interesting question. In Nashville, there's a much greater likelihood that you can continue to have hits in your 50s and 60s.
The only pop writer I can name in the whole world who has continued to have true hits is Billy Steinberg [Madonna's Like A Virgin, The Bangles' Eternal Flame]. He still understands the craft and melody. And the key is collaboration. You have to have youth injected into your sphere.
So I'd say it's possible, but unlikely.
What was the key ingredient in the conception of this album?
Friends. Ed Sheeran influenced a few songs in terms of how I approached the lyrics. Bono made me question everything, try and beat every lyric, be more brutal.
But I have a couple of guy friends who are in their early 30s and they don't care about pop music. Those guys give me the best feedback. Their response means more to me than anyone.
Have you had your hands insured?
I'm not Elton John, I've never thought of insuring my hands! But if we're in the middle of a tour I'm not really supposed to ski. Our tour insurance policy forbids it.
Who is your most famous neighbour?
I have two. On my left is Hedi Slimane, the fashion designer, and my other next-door neighbour is Mark Hoppus from Blink 182.
Our other neighbours are the Clintons' doctors. So at least twice a year our entire cul-de-sac gets shut down. The Clintons will come over and you have to go through secret service to get to your own house.
What's the first thing you do when you arrive in a new city?
I look for the best coffee shop in the city. I get online the night before and I Google coffee shops and then I read reviews on Yelp. Then I'll go and look at photos of them - because I'm a total nerd. I do this in every city. And I mean every city: Belgrade, Bucharest, Auckland, Moscow.
Will I write a book? Maybe. I have all the notes stored in my phone.
If your house burned down, what's the one thing you'd save, apart from your family?
I would say the documents that I've collected. I have handwritten letters from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I have one of the last remaining photographs of Lincoln before he died. I have a hand-drafted letter from Napoleon while he was at the peak of his power, with the seal of Italy. I've got a photo of the first flight taking off in Kitty Hawk, signed by Orville Wright. I have coins that were minted in 2 AD in Jerusalem, as Christ was literally walking through the streets.
They're all in the same area of my house and they're mostly wood and paper, so I'd be sprinting to those with a blanket, and I'd grab them and run out the door. The Grammys can burn.
Do you read your own press?
Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It literally depends on the mood.
My issue with critics is… it's funny… I read a negative review of us a few years ago and I was like, "I need to know more about this guy because he's speaking as though he wouldn't like us if we were the last band on earth". So I go and look at who he likes, and he just went to a Black Sabbath concert, he loves Megadeth, he thinks Arcade Fire is "too pop". I was like this guy can go stuff himself.
That's the only time I get irritated. Don't review us if you are predisposed to hate us.
Oh My My is out now on Polydor Records.
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The former home of Stoke City FC is to be redeveloped into 200 homes, a park and fields, the council says.

The old Victoria Ground, next to the A500, shut in 1997 when the club moved to the Britannia Stadium and has remained vacant ever since.
Plans for the 16-acre site include 130 homes being built initially, followed by a further 70.
David Sidaway, from the council, said he was proud to have secured investment for the "very important site".
A plan to build offices there was shelved in 2004 and in 2007 St Modwen said the recession had affected development opportunities.
Further plans for housing were announced in 2013 but never happened.
Dave Smith, from developer St Modwen Homes, said: "We understand that the Victoria Ground is an important site for both the people of Stoke-on-Trent and the city council.
"Having taken the comments from the public consultation on board, particularly for the second phase of development, we are looking forward to turning our plans for the Victoria Ground site into reality and breathing new life into the community and surrounding area."
After working with the Environment Agency over potential flooding issues, a nearby primary school to include sports pitches in the development and holding a public consultation, plans will be submitted by the end of the month, the council said.


Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan and world number one Mark Selby both progressed to the second round of the Welsh Open on Tuesday.

O'Sullivan, 41, chasing a fifth Welsh Open title, recovered from going a frame down to beat Tom Ford 4-1 and set up a meeting with Mark Davis.
Fellow Englishman Selby, 33, did not drop a frame as he beat Liam Highfield.
Wales' two-time world champion Mark Williams suffered a surprise 4-3 defeat by world number 115 Elliot Slessor.
There was another surprise exit as China's world number five Ding Junhui was knocked out in the first round in a 4-2 loss to Finland's Robin Hull.
World number four Judd Trump eased through 4-1 against Andrew Higginson, while Scottish Open champion Marco Fu beat Martin Gould 4-2.
Fifteen-year-old Welsh schoolboy Jackson Page is back in action on Wednesday, when he faces John Astley in the second round.
The teenage wildcard entry eliminated world number 123 Jason Weston in the first round of his debut professional tournament on Monday.
Find out how to get into snooker, pool and billiards with our fully inclusive guide.
Sign up to My Sport to follow snooker news and reports on the BBC app.


The five council leaders of Merseyside plus Halton have "agreed in principle" a deal with the government to devolve more powers from Whitehall.

Part of the proposal will include plans for a directly elected mayor for the Liverpool city region.
The "devolution deal" will still need to be agreed by each of the six councils individually, with St Helens believed to be the most sceptical.
Last month a government minister claimed the region was not ready.
Later Lord Heseltine, who said he was working closely with Communities Secretary Greg Clark, met with the region's council leaders and urged progress.
This is a significant moment for the Liverpool city region. There will not be any fireworks or major announcement, but it marks the moment that the six councils agree in principle to have a directly-elected mayor, what's been dubbed a "Mayor for Merseyside".
The five council leaders of Merseyside, plus Halton in Cheshire, have met government ministers to agree to a "devolution deal".  We wait to see the detail but it means taking more powers and budgets from Whitehall to be controlled locally, around areas like transport, skills and housing.
But is everybody on board? Halton was sceptical, but is now expected to back the deal. Less certain is what St Helens will do. Council leaders are briefing MPs.
They will then need to get the deal ratified by their respective local authorities on 19 November. Assuming they are successful it will form the basis for another big announcement on the eve of the Chancellor's Spending Review.
Council leaders from Merseyside and Halton met with the Treasury earlier to discuss the final details of a deal on devolution for our region.
The BBC understands they agreed on the proposal in principle.
A spokesman for Liverpool City Region Combined Authority said the talks with treasury minister  Lord O'Neill were productive and the leaders are pleased with the progress. A final report on the deal will go before all councils on the 19 November.


A motorcyclist has died following a crash with a car in Neath Port Talbot.

South Wales Police said the incident, at about 08:05 GMT in Croeserw on Tuesday, involved the bike and a black Vauxhall Corsa.
The A4063 Maesteg Road was shut for about four hours after the crash.
Police have asked for anyone with information to contact them.


Nigerians often complain about the negative portrayal of their country in the international media which often focuses on corruption and violence.

So the BBC asked residents of the commercial capital, Lagos, what they thought was best about living in Africa's most populous nation and what they wanted the rest of the world to know about Nigeria.
Here are their 10 favourite things.
Readers can join the debate on Twitter using the hashtag #NaijaIsGr8.
Emeka Iluchukwu, visual artist:
Okocha Jude, businessman:
Vanessa Iloenyosi, brand executive:
Abayomi Usim, TV producer:
Alesta Wilcox, chartered accountant:
Paul Oseh, graphic designer:
Damian Nzeka, teacher:
Donatus Ezeji, IT specialist:
Iluore Loueth, fashion designer:
Orji Micah, builder:
Damula Daramola, banker:
Moses Onyibe, mobile photo trader:
Chinedu Ugochukwu, businessman:
Akpofure Tony Tegar, hotelier:
Stanley Osiaku, trader:
Chukwuma Nwana, beauty salon general manager:
Sarah Okagbue, trainer:
Uche Nzeka, broadcaster:
Join the debate on Twitter using the hashtag #NaijaIsGr8 to @BBCAfrica and on the BBC Africa Facebook page.


Pictures of police in Zimbabwe clashing with demonstrators protesting against President Robert Mugabe's handling of the economy.


We slap it on when the sun comes out, but do we know what kind of sunscreen we are applying and what it does?

It means the sun cream will give you medium protection against the sun's rays.
In the UK, sunscreens are labelled with an SPF which stands for sun protection factor.
This shows the level of protection against harmful ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation from the sun, which can cause skin cancer.
When looking for protection against sunburn, a high SPF or factor is what to look for.
SPF ratings between 6 and 14 offer low protection. SPF rating between 15 and 29 provide medium protection while SPF ratings of 30 to 50 offer high protection.
Factor 50 or more offers very high protection.
You can also think of it in terms of the time it takes for your skin to turn red.
If it takes 20 minutes for your unprotected skin to start turning red, using an SPF 15 sunscreen theoretically delays reddening by 15 times longer - for about five hours.
The British Association of Dermatologists recommends a sunscreen with an SPF of 30 as a "satisfactory form of sun protection".
There is a huge range of different sun products available, including lotions, mousses, sprays, gels and creams.
In general, they can use either organic or inorganic filters to absorb or reflect Ultraviolet rays.
The terms 'sun lotions' and 'sunscreens' are used interchangeably to describe many of them.
'Suntan lotion' is sometimes used to refer to substances designed to accelerate tanning with little or no sun protection factor.
Some people use the term 'sunblock' to refer to sunscreens that reflect rather than absorb UV rays.
But what's more important than the name used is the product's protection qualities, which can be found on the label.
The SPF figure on any product is designed to measure the amount of protection against UVB rays from the sun.
But there are also ultraviolet A rays (UVA) to consider too, which cause skin-ageing and wrinkles.
These rays are not as dangerous, but there are more of them and they do penetrate the skin more deeply.
So you need to look for UVA protection (denoted by a UVA star rating) and UVB protection (denoted by the SPF) on the bottle.
The UVA star rating ranges from 0 to 5 and indicates the percentage of UVA radiation absorbed by the sunscreen in comparison to UVB.
Moisturisers can still have an SPF or sun protection factor rating but they tend to be quite low.
Moisturisers are also less likely to be water resistant and rub resistant, and give less protection against UVA radiation.
They tend to be applied more thinly than other creams too.
So a sunscreen with a higher SPF and a UVA rating is much better suited to longer, more deliberate exposure to the sun, such as being on the beach.
You may tan through a low to medium SPF sunscreen due to the tiny amount of ultraviolet which gets through.
Unless you carefully and regularly apply lots of high SPF sunscreen which also has high UVA protection too, your skin will tan.
If no ultraviolet gets through, no damage and no tanning can occur.
Skin experts say it's important to know what skin type you have and how susceptible you are to sunburn and skin cancer.
That should determine how much protection you need and which sunscreen to buy.
It is also important to remember to wear protective clothing and spend time in the shade during the hottest parts of the day, particularly if you have fair skin.
Research shows that most people apply less than half the amount of sunscreen needed to provide the level of protection indicated on the label.
So putting on generous amounts of cream at regular intervals is vital to avoid burning.
Don't forget the back and sides of the neck, the temples and the ears which are all commonly missed.


Although the full facts of the so-called "Islamic State" assault on the Egyptian army in Sinai this week are not yet known, it is clear that this was the most brutal attack so far.

There are a few provisos to be taken into consideration when reflecting on the attack.
The first is that, regrettably, much of what we claim to know about what's going on in the peninsula is based on speculation. The north of the peninsula, in contrast to the south where the tourist resorts are located, is very difficult to access.
The tourist areas in the south are well guarded by the state's security forces, but the north and north-east have been incredibly difficult for journalists and others to investigate.
Residents in the town of Sheikh Zuweid, in the north-east of the Sinai peninsula, however, have verified that there was a huge firefight between militants, presumed to be attached toâ€Ž the so-called Sinai Province affiliate of IS,â€Ž and the security forces.
Dozens of heavily armed militants targeted a police facility, a military facility and a number of different checkpoints.
Before the conflict ended, with the military gradually taking control of the town, several dozen security officials from the army and the police were killed.
Civilians and the militants also suffered casualties - reports of landmines and booby traps by militants may also mean that the death count increases in the weeks to come.
There will be much speculation about how all of this was possible.
But some things are clear. The first is that the people of Sinai, and in this instance, the 60,000 strong population of Sheikh Zuweid, are - as one expert on the peninsula put it - being taken hostage.
The conflict between the Egyptian military and the radical Islamist militants of "Sinai Province" affects not only those involved in the fighting - but the people of Sinai in general.
Security analysts in and out of Egypt seem to be approaching a consensus on one of the key facets of the conflict in the Sinai: and that is that the Egyptian military is treating the fight like traditional military combat.
According to a number of different sources, specific counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism methods and tactics are not being focused upon - and the equipment and training that the Egyptian armed forces is reported to follow show a similar tendency.
Different experts on the Egyptian military are clear that until a durable and regional peace deal between the Arab world and the Israelis is accomplished, the Egyptian military will not change the basic structure of its fighting force.
Yet, the Egyptian military needs a different force altogether in the Sinai to focus efforts on counter-terrorism.
Secondly, human rights groups and civil rights organisations - from what little information they have been able to gather via eyewitnesses on the ground - have also raised concerns that the tactics of the Egyptian military in Sinai have not been focused on gaining the trust and co-operation of the local population.
On the contrary, according to these reports many of the tactics have been heavy-handed, leading to resentment among the local population towards the very forces fighting the insurgents.
If these reports are accurate, and the effect is widespread, then the propensity for recruitment increases - and intelligence gathering against the militants will be adversely affected.
Already, it appears to be the case that Sinai Province members know the peninsula like the back of their proverbial hands - the forces combating them must as well, and that depends on good relations with the locals.
Worse still, if bad relations are the consequence of current tactics, then the Sinai Province group's shelf-life is dramatically lengthened.
If the Egyptian authorities are to successfully address the threat in the peninsula, there are two things that need to be done.
The first is to ensure that all tactics on the peninsula fit a broader, comprehensive counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency strategy, which places addressing the grievances of the residents at its heart, and avoiding exacerbating them.
The existence of those grievances, which predate the conflict by some time, relate primarily to the overwhelming lack of development in the Sinai by the central authorities in Cairo, cannot be ignored. Such grievances do not automatically lead to successful radical recruitment - but it certainly makes the job of the recruiter easier.
Secondly, the Egyptian military needs to focus more on the need for strategic, tactical counter-terrorism equipment and training, rather than the more regular combat strategies that it has been relying on thus far.
If the last few days have shown anything, it is that the current strategy is not succeeding - and Egyptians are paying the price.
HA Hellyer is associate fellow in international security at the Royal United Services Institute in London and Arab affairs specialist at the Brookings Centre for Middle East Policy in Washington DC. @hahellyer


Sean Ervine has been named Hampshire's limited-overs captain in the absence of James Vince, who is on international duty with England.

Uncapped batsman Vince was called up to England's Test squad last week.
All-rounder Ervine, 33, has made more than 400 appearances for Hants since arriving from Zimbabwe in 2005.
"It feels great to be captain," said Ervine. "Whilst we're disappointed Vince can't be with us, it's brilliant he's been selected for England."
Ervine's first competitive match as Hampshire skipper will be the trip to Uxbridge for the T20 Blast fixture against Middlesex on 27 May.


The SNP would block a minority Conservative government by voting down its Queen's Speech if it holds the post-election balance of power, its former leader Alex Salmond has said.

Mr Salmond said the move could bring down the government if Labour joined in, with David Cameron "locked out".
The Conservatives accused him of "trying to sabotage the democratic will of the British people".
Labour has called his balance of power prediction "bluster and bluff".
In recent days Mr Salmond, who is bidding to become a Westminster MP at the 7 May general election, has claimed his party could "hold the power" in a hung Parliament and would be able to influence the Budget of a minority Labour government.
This was dismissed by Labour leader Ed Miliband, who has ruled out a formal coalition with the Scottish nationalists.
The SNP currently has six MPs at Westminster, but recent opinion polls suggest its share could increase dramatically at the general election.
James Cook, BBC News Scotland correspondent
If the Conservatives attempt to form a minority government and enough MPs vote against their Queen's Speech the administration would fall at the first hurdle and the leader of the opposition would have a shot at forming a government.
That's how parliamentary democracy works in the event of a hung Parliament.
And yet the Conservatives are saying that by planning to vote against a government he opposes Alex Salmond has "confirmed he would sabotage the democratic will of the British people in order to make Ed Miliband prime minister".
It is part of their continuing attempt to portray Mr Miliband as a weak leader whose strings are being pulled by Mr Salmond.
This kind of language causes despair among Tories north of the border who fear that the party in London is waltzing into an SNP trap.
They know that many voters in Scotland will read the phrase "democratic will of the British people" and hear "democratic will of the English people".
Because, if it is illegitimate for Scottish MPs, from whatever party, to vote against one government and support another in the British parliament, then what, voters may ask, is the point of the union?
Who is dancing to Mr Salmond's tune now?
Mr Salmond, the former Scottish first minister, told the New Statesman that in the event of a hung Parliament, a minority Conservative government would have to "go straight effectively for a vote of confidence - usually the Queen's Speech, although it could be otherwise, of course - and we'd be voting against."
If David Cameron lost this vote, he said, there would be a two-week period for another government to be formed.
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said Mr Salmond had "hardened his anti-Conservative rhetoric" in the interview.
A Conservative spokesman said:  "Alex Salmond has confirmed he would sabotage the democratic will of the British people in order to make Ed Miliband prime minister.
"That would mean chaos for Britain, with weak Ed Miliband dancing to Alex Salmond's tune."
He said the "only way to keep Britain together" was to vote Conservative.
Mr Salmond's latest comments come after Mr Miliband said the only people writing a future Labour Budget would be himself and shadow chancellor Ed Balls.
Speaking in Clydebank on Monday, he added: "It's not going to be Alex Salmond - not in a million years."


The father of a British man killed in the Alps plane crash that claimed the lives 150 people has paid tribute to his "happy and cheerful" son.

Paul Bramley, 28, from Hull, is one of three Britons known to have died when an Airbus A320 crashed in France on Tuesday. There were no survivors.
His father, Phillip Bramley said his son would be "sadly missed".
Paul Bramley had been studying hospitality and hotel management in Lucerne, Switzerland.
He was travelling to the UK via Dusseldorf after a short holiday in Barcelona.
His father said: "He was just a lovely lad, cheerful and happy. He was always hard working.
"He was just doing a hotel and management course in Switzerland. He was doing very well. He will be sadly missed.
"Our hearts go out to all the families.
"We would like to thank the Foreign Office and David Cameron for all the work they've done, they've been very good.
"[We would also like to thank] the French authorities, it must be a terrible job.
Mr Bramley's mother Carol, who lives in Majorca, said: "Paul was a kind, caring and loving son. He was the best son, he was my world."
Reverend Canon Alison White, the newly appointed Bishop of Hull, said: "It's appalling news. Our hearts go out to the people who are grieving right now.
"All we can do is just surround those people with our love and stand with them while the anguish rolls over them."


ScottishPower customers will soon be able to buy gas and electricity in bundles of days rather than signing up to standard or fixed-price deals.

The system is being based on the way people fill up their car with petrol or buy data bundles with a mobile phone.
The company says it is an attempt to simplify energy bills.
ScottishPower chief executive Keith Anderson said: "We're saying to people buy it by the day, not by kilowatts or a fancy tariff you don't understand."
Customers will use an app that has a gauge measuring consumption.
The company will tailor each customer's "day" based on a personalised forecast of how much energy they typically use.
This will also vary according to the time of year.
Customers will be able to buy packages of gas and electricity in quantities from one day to a month, and up to 180 days ahead.
The firm has been piloting the scheme and it says it could transform the way consumers buy energy.
Mr Anderson said they went back to scratch and looked at how people bought petrol for their car.
"You go to the garage and put Â£50 in your car. Inherently you know that will last you two to three weeks.
"We thought why don't we do the same thing with energy."
A fuel gauge supplied within the app will then tell customers how much energy they are using and how much they have left.
Under the scheme, called "PowerUp", customers will not have to pay a standing charge.
Scottish Power said its tariffs for the scheme would include some of the firm's most competitive prices.
It will be launched to existing customers initially, and the company firm will then consider whether to open it up to the wider market.
A two-year investigation into the energy industry by the competition authorities found that many consumers were not engaged in the energy market and failed to switch to the cheapest deals.
The new approach to buying energy has been welcomed by the industry regulator.
In a statement, Ofgem said: "We want more competition to increase choice and drive down prices for consumers.
"We encourage suppliers to offer new innovative tariffs to help people engage in the market and find the best deal which suits them.
"Innovative tariffs can be tailored to an individual consumer's needs and give people more control over their energy bill and how they pay for it."
Claire Osborne, energy expert for Uswitch.com said: "Energy bills are notoriously difficult to understand and so this approach, similar to how we buy petrol, should help consumers use less, waste less and pay less for their gas and electricity.
"The fact that the deal has no standing charge will be attractive to many customers - particularly those with second homes which are unoccupied for part of the year - as there's nothing to pay on days when no energy is used."


Floods in India's holy city of Varanasi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh have forced a halt to cremations along the banks of the river Ganges.

Officials say some people have carried out cremations on the terrace roofs of houses in the city.
Many Indians regard the Ganges as holy and use its bank for cremations.
Hindus believe that if a person is cremated in Varanasi, the deceased will achieve release from sufferings of the cycle of birth and death.
Two of the 80 ghats - a series of steps going down to the water - lining the Ganges in Varanasi specialise in the business of human cremation.
"As the ghats are not available for cremation, the roofs of havelis [old mansions] and other old houses along the ghats are being used for cremation, but with great difficulty," Uttar Pradesh government spokesman Shailendra Pandey told AFP news agency.
Utpal Upadhyay, a long-time city resident, said this was the "worst floods in the holy city since 1978".
"The Ganges has risen, the banks are inundated, and people are not able to cremate. People are praying in their homes and flooded streets," he told the BBC.
Cremations have been also affected in the Hindu holy city of Allahabad, also in Uttar Pradesh, where pyres were being lit in the nearby alleys, an official said.
Floods across large swathes of India have killed at least 40 people and displaced tens of thousands of people.
More than 100,000 people have left their homes in recent days in Uttar Pradesh and the neighbouring state of Bihar as rain-swollen rivers have burst their banks, reports say.
At least nine people have died in Uttar Pradesh and another 15 in Bihar as flood waters hit villages and cities, disaster management officials said.
Several people have also been killed in the central state of Madhya Pradesh in the last 24 hours, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
Floods are common in India during the monsoon season between June and September.
But excessive rains this year have caused the Ganges and its tributaries to rise above the danger level in about 20 districts in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.


Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says he will "fight with other coaches" to sign Gareth Bale if Real Madrid are willing to sell the Wales forward.

Bale, 28, joined the Spanish giants for a world record fee of £85m from Premier League side Tottenham in 2013.
Europa League holders United meet Madrid, who won the Champions League, in the Uefa Super Cup on Tuesday.
"If he plays, it is the clearest signal that he is staying there," said the former Real manager.
Mourinho said Bale featuring in Skopje would mean "he is in the plans of the coach and the club, and it is in his own plans and ambitions to stay there".
"Then I won't even think about it. If he is not in the club's plans and it is true that a player like Bale is at the departure gate, I will try to be there waiting for him at the other side."
Bale committed his future to Madrid at the end of last season, saying he was happy to stay with the 12-time European champions.
Last October, he signed a new deal to stay at the Bernabeu until 2022.
The former Tottenham player has won the Champions League in three of his four seasons at the club, also helping them win the Spanish La Liga title - their first since 2012 - last season.
Bale was only a substitute in the Cardiff final after missing large parts of the season with ankle and calf injuries.
He made just 17 league starts for Zinedine Zidane's side and has been linked with a move back to the Premier League.
Madrid are also reportedly keen on signing teenage Monaco forward Kylian Mbappe in a £160m deal.
Former England and Arsenal striker Ian Wright says Manchester United would win the Premier League title if they did sign Bale.
"If they get Bale, that's it - that's the league sewn up," he told BBC Radio 5 live's Monday Night Club.
And he suggested Bale's former club should do everything they can to sign him and stop that happening. "If I'm [Tottenham chairman] Daniel Levy I'm doing everything I can to get him back to Spurs.
"He's got three Champions League medals. What's he going to United for, to win another Champions League? Spurs could be saying: 'Why don't you come here and take us to the next level?'.
"You could sell that to Gareth Bale.
"It's a move that takes them to the next level - but they have to find the money for that if he becomes available."
And addressing doubts that it was a move that could happen, Wright added: "Could you see Neymar leaving Barcelona for PSG?"
BBC Sport's Simon Stone
Jose Mourinho has previously said that signing Bale is "mission impossible". But if he's available - and if Mbappe for instance comes into Madrid it may create a bit of uncertainty - Mourinho is pointing out to Real Madrid he's interested.
But just as much, he is also telling Manchester United that if someone like Gareth Bale is on the market, he expects to be in there pitching for him.
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