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Cartman - a budget-priced robot from Australia - has triumphed in an annual contest to create a machine that can identify, pick up and stow warehouse goods. The bot was designed from scratch to take part in 2017's Amazon Robotics Challenge and used a radically different design to past winners. Instead of building a robotic arm, the victors used a sliding mechanism that picked up products from above. The four-day event was held in Japan. The winning Australian Centre for Robotic Vision (ACRV) squad  was comprised of engineers  from Queensland University of Technology, the University of Adelaide and the Australian National University. They walk away with the $80,000 (£60,980) cash prize. Image copyright QUT Image caption Cartman was able to pick and stow more items than its rivals in the allotted time "The parts for the robot were cheap by the standards of typical industrial robots and it could be built for under 30,000 Australian dollars [£18,245; $23,935] includi...

Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has appeared at a Spanish court where he was facing allegations he evaded millions in tax. Prosecutors accuse Ronaldo, reported to be the world's highest paid athlete, of evading €14.7m ($17.3m; £13.1m) in tax. He had been expected to make a statement after the pre-trial hearing, but left without saying a word. The Real Madrid star, 32, has previously denied the allegations, saying his "conscience is clear". Ronaldo is the latest in a string of footballers to be pursued by the Spanish tax authorities. Why are Spanish football stars in legal trouble? Will Ronaldo really leave Real Madrid? Argentina's Lionel Messi, who plays for Barcelona, was handed a 21-month prison sentence after being found guilty of the same charge last year. Earlier this month, the court ruled he could pay €252,000 in place of jail time. However, Messi was only accused of evading €4.1m in tax, €10.6m less than Ronaldo. Ronaldo spent an hour-and-a-...

Actress Jeanne Moreau, one of French cinema's biggest stars of the last 60 years, has died at the age of 89. Moreau is probably best known for her role in Francois Truffaut's 1962 new wave film Jules et Jim. She won a number of awards including the best actress prize at Cannes for Moderato Cantabile in 1960. She also worked with Orson Welles on several films and won the Bafta Award for best foreign actress for Viva Maria! in 1967. Image copyright AFP Image caption Moreau appeared in Joseph Losey's Eva in 1961 Moreau was found dead at her home in Paris, the district's mayor told the AFP news agency. Paying tribute, French President Emmanuel Macron said Moreau had "embodied cinema" and was a free spirit who "always rebelled against the established order". Analysis - Nick James, editor of Sight & Sound magazine Of the three most iconic French actresses of her generation - herself, Catherine Deneuve and Brigitte Bardot - Moreau was t...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking to limit nicotine content in tobacco products, for the first time in its history. The policy announced on Friday has a goal of cutting back on nicotine levels in order to discourage addiction and lower the number of US smokers. The FDA says tobacco is responsible for 480,000 American deaths each year, and $300bn (£228bn) in medical costs. Stock market shares of tobacco plummeted after the plan was announced. On the New York Stock Exchange, shares in Altria dropped by up to 17%, British American Tobacco's stock fell as much as 11%, and Philip Morris dropped by 7% before they all recovered some of their losses. "The overwhelming amount of death and disease attributable to tobacco is caused by addiction to cigarettes - the only legal consumer product that, when used as intended, will kill half of all long-term users," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said  in a statement . The goal, Mr Gottlieb added, is to ...

A Jet2 aircraft has made a second emergency landing in as many weeks after an apparent recurrence of a technical problem. A flight from Ibiza to Leeds was diverted to Barcelona on 16 July. On Friday, the same plane was diverted to Frankfurt after a similar incident, Jet2 confirmed. It said passenger safety had not been compromised. Passengers on both flights described how oxygen masks were released as the aircraft began to descend at speed. Image copyright PHILLIPA BELL Image caption The aircraft - registration G-CELI - had taken off from Newcastle bound for Prague Friday's flight had taken off from Newcastle bound for Prague, but it was diverted to Frankfurt after what Jet2 described as a "minor technical fault" that led to oxygen masks being deployed. Philippa Bell, whose fiancé Joe Monkhouse was on the flight, told  the Chronicle the plane went into a swift decent after the pilot informed passengers of an "emergency". She said the oxygen masks c...

An Australian senator has revealed he renounced his UK citizenship, but it wasn't confirmed until after he was elected. Malcolm Roberts, from the far-right party One Nation, said he was "very confident" he could prove he was not a dual citizen. Under Australia's constitution, a person cannot run for federal office if they hold dual or plural citizenship. Three politicians have quit as a row over dual citizenship has intensified. Image copyright REUTERS Image caption Australia's first politician to breastfeed in parliament resigned due to her Canadian citizenship 'I am Australian' The Queensland senator, who was born in India to a Welsh father, said he never believed he was British citizen. Speaking in a television interview with Sky News, Senator Roberts said he contacted British authorities days before the cut-off for candidate nominations. He said he wrote three times to British authorities saying: "I believe I am not a British and j...