Netflix takes gamble with Epix film cull

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Thousands of movies will be removed from Netflix after the streaming service decided not to renew a deal with distributor Epix.

Removed titles will include the Hunger Games and Transformers movies.

Netflix, which has more than 60 million subscribers worldwide, said it wanted to focus on exclusive content.

Rival service Hulu will take on the Epix catalogue. "Our subscribers have been asking us for more, and more recent, big movies," Hulu said.

"We listened. Through this new deal with Epix, we are proud to now be able to offer a huge selection of the biggest blockbusters and premium films."

Netflix's deal with Epix - which was worth a reported $1bn - runs up until the end of September 2015, at which point the films will disappear from the service.

Explaining the move to subscribers, Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos wrote: "While many of these movies are popular, they are also widely available on cable and other subscription platforms at the same time as they are on Netflix and subject to the same drawn out licensing periods."

He then went on to list a variety of exclusive shows coming up on the service, including new work from Ricky Gervais, Idris Elba and Adam Sandler.

He also praised an upcoming Netflix-made documentary about Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards.

'Data decision'

As competition between video on demand (VOD) services intensifies, Netflix's decision may appear to be an unlikely move.

However, Forrester analyst Jim Nail said he believed the company was making a calculated gamble.

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Migrant crisis: Hundreds arrive at Austria station

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Hundreds of migrants have arrived by rail in the Austrian capital Vienna after being held for several hours at the Hungarian border.

Many of them immediately boarded trains bound for Germany.

Austria has also introduced extra checks on road vehicles entering from Hungary after 71 dead people were found in a lorry on Thursday.

The number of migrants entering Europe has reached record levels, with 107,500 arriving in July alone.

Most of those found dead on Thursday, on the A4 at Parndorf, were thought to be Syrians fleeing the country's civil war.

Five people have been detained in connection with the deaths.

Thousands of people rallied in Austria on Monday demanding better rights for migrants.

As well as the bodies in the lorry in Austria, hundreds more people drowned in the Mediterranean last week while trying to reach Europe from Libya.

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Palmyra's Temple of Bel 'destroyed'

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A satellite image confirms that a temple in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra has been destroyed, the United Nations says.

There had been earlier reports of an explosion at the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, which is held by militants from Islamic State (IS).

Syria's antiquities chief had earlier said the basic structure of the 2,000-year-old site was intact.

But UN satellite analysts Unosat say the imageshows almost nothing remains.

"Unfortunately, the images we acquired do show that the main building of the temple has been destroyed," Einar Bjorgo, Unosat's manager, told the BBC early on Tuesday.

He added that a set of columns nearby had also been destroyed.

On Monday, Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the Syrian Department of Antiquities and Museums, had said the Temple of Bel suffered a large explosion, but that he believed most of the site had remained intact.

Witnesses had struggled, however, to get close to the site to confirm the extent of the damage.

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A life shattered - and the most inspiring love story you'll ever read: How a rugby player who was paralysed in a match fought back to ski, complete a marathon... and win the woman of his dreams

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When Matthew King was paralysed from the neck down playing rugby (top right) in his teens, the list of things he could not do seemed endless and insurmountable. He could not move, breathe without a ventilator or go anywhere unattended by his support workers. He had to be washed, dressed, fed and trussed up in a corset each morning to stop his back from crumpling. For three months he could not even speak. It seemed like things would never change but then Matt (bottom right), 28, confounded everyone's expectations - even his own - and forged a new life rich in incident, achievement and purpose. Now, he speaks to the Daily Mail alongside his fiancée Ilona-Roza Kubica (pictured together left).

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