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Third party application support is already weak on BlackBerry 10, and the announcement this week from the company will have a chilling effect on developer support for the platform, Spence wrote. With iOS and Android always likely to top the list of supported platforms, there is arguably only space for one more platform that can be supported with any real sense of purpose.

[More from BGR: ]

Spence concludes that Microsofts Windows Phone platform is now the go-to third mobile ecosystem for developers looking to branch out.

Microsoft always said that Windows Phone would be the third ecosystem, Spence wrote. It looks like the last competitor to that title has thrown in the towel.

This article was

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Dodgers 6, Marlins 0

Clayton Kershaw enhanced his Cy Young Award credentials with eight scoreless innings and the Los Angeles Dodgers scored five runs with two outs to beat the Miami Marlins 6-0.

Los Angeles took the four-game series 3-1, and have now won 45 of their past 55 games.

Kershaw (13-7) allowed five hits and three walks, striking out six. He leads the National League in ERA (1.72) and strikeouts (188) and his scoreless streak is at 16 innings.

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Yankees 5, Blue Jays 3

Vernon Wells had a controversial go-ahead RBI fielder's choice with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning as the New York Yankees completed a four-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays with a 5-3 victory.

The Yankees were being shut out by Toronto starter J.A. Happ (3-3) through four innings before the bizarre sequence that resulted in their go-ahead run.

Wells appeared to have hit a sacrifice fly as center fielder Rajai Davis made a sliding catch but umpires ruled Davis dropped the ball on the transfer and Wells was originally credited with a single before the call was changed to a fielder's choice.

Davis threw to second base as Ichiro Suzuki advanced from first.

Suzuki avoided the tag by second baseman Munenori Kawasaki but Stewart returned to second thinking the catch had been made.

Stewart was called out trying to advance to third while Eduardo Nunez scored the go-ahead run before the play at second was made.

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Reds 2, Diamondbacks 1

Right-hander Mat Latos allowed just one run through eight innings and Shin-Soo Choo scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch in the eighth to lift the Cincinnati Reds to a 2-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Cincinnati (73-55) took three of four in the series to increase their lead over Arizona to seven games for the National League's second wild card spot.

Latos (13-4) struck out six and did not walk a batter in his 102 pitches.

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Twins 7, Tigers 6

Chris Herrmann had three hits and two RBIs to lift the Minnesota Twins to a 7-6 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park.

Ryan Doumit blasted a three-run home run for Minnesota, while Casey Fien (3-2) pitched one inning of scoreless relief to earn the victory.

Justin Verlander, who had a 9-0 record with a 1.67 ERA in his last 10 starts against the Twins, gave up six runs and 10 hits in seven innings for Detroit.

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Nationals 5, Cubs 4 (13 innings)

The Washington Nationals completed a hard-fought 5-4 win against the Chicago Cubs in 13 innings.

Denard Span scored the game-winning run on Chad Tracy's swinging bunt down the first-base line and Drew Storen finished it off in the bottom of the 13th for his third save.

Craig Stammen picked up the win in relief, while Michael Bowden took the loss.

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Phillies 5, Rockies 4

Domonic Brown singled home the decisive run in the bottom of the ninth as the Philadelphia Phillies rallied for the second straight night to beat the Colorado Rockies 5-4.

Brown's single came off Jeff Francis, who entered the game when Rockies closer Rafael Betancourt was injured while coming off the mound in pursuit of Michael Young's game-tying infield single.

Betancourt (2-5) blew his second save in as many nights. Young had also hit the game-winning single off him in the ninth on Wednesday.

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Cardinals 6, Braves 2

Joe Kelly pitched six solid innings while the offense supplied three consecutive two-out run-scoring doubles in a game-changing fifth inning as the Cardinals' won 6-2 over Atlanta at Busch Stadium.

Kelly (5-3) scattered seven hits, walked two and fanned three in winning his fifth straight decision. Braves lefthander Paul Maholm (9-10), making his first start since injuring his hand in a July 20 loss at the Chicago White Sox, allowed five hits and five runs over 5 1/3 innings.

St Louis (74-53) kept pace with National League Central leader Pittsburgh. Atlanta dropped to 77-50.

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White Sox 4, Royals 3 (12 innings)

Conor Gillaspie led off the 12th inning with a home run, and the Chicago White Sox rallied to beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3, extending their winning streak to six games.

Gillaspie drove an 0-1 pitch from Luke Hochevar (3-2) out to right for his 11th home run.

Addison Reed, who has converted saves in six consecutive games, a White Sox record, walked Billy Butler to start the bottom of the 12th. Jarrod Dyson ran for Butler and stole second on the first pitch to pitch hitter David Lough.

Reed struck out Lough, retired Chris Getz on a line drive to shortstop and got Emilio Bonifacio on a fly ball to center to end the game to log his 34th save.

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Pirates 10, Giants 5

The Pittsburgh Pirates recorded the 9,800th win in franchise history in explosive manner, bombing the San Francisco Giants with a seven-run fifth inning en route to a 10-5 victory.

Pittsburgh won the opener of a four-game series, retaining its one-game lead in the National League Central over the St Louis Cardinals.

In the fifth inning, Pedro Alvarez greeted reliever Jose Mijares with a two-run, ground-rule double, and Jose Tabata capped the game-turning rally with a three-run double.

Garrett Jones and Jordy Mercer hit solo home runs off Giants starter Matt Cain, who left the game one batter into the fourth inning after getting hit in the right forearm by a line drive off the bat of Gaby Sanchez.(Editing by Ben Everill)

The human lineage evolved in Africa, with now-extinct species of humans dispersing away from their origin continent more than a million years before modern humans did. Scientists would like to learn more about when and where humans went to better understand what drove .

Researchers investigated the Nihewan Basin, which lies in a mountainous region about 90 miles (150 kilometers) west of Beijing. It holds more than 60 sites from the Stone Age, with thousands of stone tools found there since 1972 relatively simple types, such as stone flakes altogether known as the . Researchers suspect these artifacts belonged to , "thought to be ancestral to Homo sapiens," Hong Ao, a paleomagnetist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Xi'an, told LiveScience. []

The exact age of these sites was long uncertain. To find out, Ao and his colleagues analyzed the earth above, below and in which stone tools at the Shangshazui site in the Nihewan Basin were found. The tools in question were stone blades potentially used for cutting or scraping.

The scientists analyzed the way in which the samples of earth were magnetized since thenumerous times over millions of years, looking at the manner in which the magnetic fields of minerals are oriented can shed light on how old they are. The researchers discovered this site in northern China might be about 1.6 million to 1.7 million years old, making it 600,000 or 700,000 years older than previously thought.

Horse, elephant and other fossils suggest the area back when the stone tools were made was mainly grassland interspersed with patches of woodland. A lake between the mountains there was probably a major attraction for hominid explorers, providing water and a range of other food sources, while the mountains could have represented an important material source for making stone tools. The researchers suggest hominid migrations to East Asia during the early Stone Age were a consequence of increasing cooling and aridity in Africa and Eurasia.

Given that slightly older artifacts and bones belonging to Homo erectus were previously discovered in southern China more than 1,500 miles (2,500 km) away, these new findings suggest early and now-extinct human species may potentially have occupied a huge territory in China.

"Homo erectus occupied a vast area in China by 1.7 million to 1.6 million years ago," Ao said.

The scientists detailed their findings online Aug. 15 in the journal Scientific Reports.

FollowLiveScience , & . Original article on.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Merck & Co's decision to suspend sales of its Zilmax cattle feed additive has caused such a surge in demand for rival Eli Lilly & Co's Optaflexx that Lilly is telling some new customers it cannot immediately supply them, customers told Reuters.

Zilmax became the focus of attention in the livestock industry after Tyson Foods Inc said on August 7 that it will stop buying Zilmax-fed cattle for slaughter beginning next month. Tyson, the biggest U.S. meat processor, said it was concerned about Zilmax potentially causing health problems for some cattle.

Merck announced on August 16 it was temporarily suspending sales of the product in the United States and Canada.

Optaflexx, sold by Lilly's Elanco Animal Health, and Zilmax both belong to a family of drugs called beta-agonists, a class of non-hormone growth promoters that have been deemed safe for animals and humans by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Both products are fed to cattle prior to slaughter to increase weight by as much as 30 pounds of lean meat.

Elanco denied that its supply of Optaflexx is short of the industry's current demand. The company is "managing the supply over the next two weeks as we assess the long-term market demand," company spokeswoman Colleen Parr Dekker told Reuters in a statement on Friday.

Elanco last week told Reuters that its on-hand supply of Optaflexx was sufficient to handle demand. That assessment was focused on Tyson customers before the withdrawal announcement from Merck, Elanco said on Friday.

Elanco declined to comment on how much demand for Optaflexx has increased in recent days. The company does not publicly break out sales figures for the additive.

Some new Elanco customers told Reuters they are being put on a waiting list for Optaflexx due to limited supplies. Other new customers are having their orders only partially filled, said Tom Bejot, a feedlot manager in Ainsworth, Nebraska.

Existing customers said they are being assured that their needs will continue to be filled by Elanco.

"For all their customers who have been using Optaflexx, they're calling to see how much everybody needs," said Tom Williams, manager of Chappell Feedlot in Nebraska.

Williams said an Elanco representative called his feedlot on Thursday to find out how much Optaflexx its cattle are fed each month.

About 70 percent of cattle brought to slaughter in the United States are fed beta-agonists, according to industry estimates. Merck's Zilmax was the dominant beta-agonist for U.S. cattle feeders, and last week Merck disclosed it had about $159 million in U.S. sales of Zilmax last year.

Merck has said no safety issues have been discovered in 30 studies since Zilmax was introduced in the United States in 2007.

Tight supplies of Optaflexx could temporarily pinch beef production at some feedlots, said John Nalivka, an expert on livestock and president of Sterling Marketing Inc. However, there should be little impact on the nation's overall beef supply, he said.

"We're not going to run out of beef," Nalivka said, adding that feeders can adjust feed rations and take other steps to control meat production.

Some cattle feeders who formerly used Zilmax said they are frustrated that they are having trouble immediately ordering an alternative. For many, the drugs have been a way to reduce some of the economic pain caused by high costs for grain fed to cattle.

Bejot Feedlots in Nebraska, which feeds Optaflexx to some of its 10,000 cattle, received a call on Thursday from an Elanco sales representative who said supplies of the drug were tightening, Tom Bejot said. According to Bejot, the representative said Bejot would continue to receive Optaflexx but that new customers will not be able to buy all they need.

"Guys that are switching don't get preferential treatment, at least until Elanco catches up," said John Nelson, vice president of commodities for Producers Livestock Marketing Association

(Editing by Bob Burgdorfer)

LONDON (Reuters) - Rates of tuberculosis (TB) in Britain are among the highest in western Europe and London is struggling to shed its status as the "TB capital" of the region, according to data released on Wednesday.

If trends of infection continue, within two years Britain is likely to have more new cases of TB each year than the United States, according a report from the government's health agency, Public Health England (PHE).

More than 8,750 TB cases were reported in Britain in 2012, or around 14 per 100,000 population, slightly fewer than in 2011 but still enough to put it among the worst-hit countries in its region.

"TB remains a critical public health problem, particularly in parts of London and among people from vulnerable communities, said Paul Cosford, PHE's director for health protection.

He said controlling the contagious and often drug-resistant lung disease was now one of the key priorities for PHE, which is developing a stronger national approach to be implemented in a few months' time.

"We are determined to see a sustained reduction in TB and will work tirelessly to support local partners in those areas where the burden is greatest," he said in a statement.

Often misconstrued as a disease of the past or one restricted only to marginalized communities, TB in fact inflicts annual direct health costs of more than 500 million euros ($670 million) on European governments, and costs another 5.3 billion euros in productivity losses.

The bacterial infection usually affects the lungs, and s spreads when someone who has TB coughs or sneezes.

According to the PHE report, London had the main burden of TB infections in Britain in 2012 with 3,426 cases - almost 40 percent of the national total.

"Despite considerable efforts to improve prevention, treatment and control, TB incidence in the UK remains high compared to most other Western European countries," it said.

Almost three-quarters of cases were in migrants from places such as South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where TB is common. Although the proportion of TB cases resistant to one of several drugs was low at under 2 percent, drug-resistant TB "remains a problem", the report added.

"TB is a preventable and treatable condition, but, if left untreated, can be life-threatening," said Lucy Thomas, PHE's head of TB surveillance.

She said good access to TB screening and diagnostic services for new immigrants was essential to stem the spread of the disease.

($1 = 0.7490 euros)

(Editing by Kevin Liffey)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Democrat investigating Internal Revenue Service scrutiny of conservative groups on Tuesday said interviews with 15 agency employees had found no hint of White House involvement, challenging Republicans on a lingering controversy.

Moving to reframe an affair that first rocked the tax-collecting agency in May, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee issued a 36-page memo that quoted IRS officials interviewed by panel investigators and internal IRS documents. As of late Tuesday, 16 employees have been interviewed and more are expected.

"None of these (15) witnesses reported any political motivation or White House involvement," Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings said in releasing the memo.

More than two months ago, an IRS official publicly apologized for the IRS giving extra scrutiny to conservative political groups seeking tax-exempt status, including using key words like "Tea Party" and "Patriot" to flag applications.

One IRS official quoted in Cummings' memo is described as a Republican IRS tax law specialist working in Washington.

Asked by congressional investigators if there was any evidence of political targeting by President Barack Obama, the official said, "That's kind of laughable that people think that ... unfortunately, Cincinnati didn't have enough guidance."

Processing of applications for tax-exempt status from non-profit groups is centralized in an IRS office in Cincinnati.

Of the 15 IRS employees interviewed as of Monday, six described themselves as Republicans, or said they had voted for a Republican, three identified themselves as Democrats and six said they had no party affiliation.

Another self-described Republican manager interviewed by the committee said: "I have no idea what the White House is doing."

Most Republicans, including oversight panel Chairman Darrell Issa, early on in the controversy said the targeting of conservative groups showed political bias within the IRS under the Obama administration.

A spokesman for Issa was not available for comment.

Partisan sparks are likely to fly on Thursday when two mid-level IRS workers and the Treasury inspector general for tax administration are scheduled to testify before the committee.

An inspector general report on the matter came days after the IRS official apologized, triggering the controversy.

Last week, Cummings released documents suggesting that liberal key words such as "Progressive" and "Occupy" were also used by IRS staff to sift through applications for added review, in addition to conservative key words.

Cummings and other Democrats have blasted TIGTA chief Russell George for not addressing the treatment of liberal-leaning groups in its report.

TIGTA has said it stands by its findings and testimony.

The affair led Obama to oust the IRS chief from his job and several others were removed from their posts at the agency.

Cummings on Friday released a May 3, 2013, email between George and his deputy for investigations. In those documents, the deputy concluded after a search of 5,500 IRS emails that there was no sign of political motives in Tea Party searches.

The search was omitted from the TIGTA report.

Groups seeking tax exemption may engage in limited amounts of political activity, but some types of exemption limit that activity more than others. That and the vagueness of the rules often make it difficult for IRS agents to tell which groups overstep and become ineligible for tax exemption.

"There isn't an obvious answer of how to treat these groups, so you have a hot potato," said Gene Steuerle, a top tax Treasury official for Republican President George H.W. Bush.

NO EVIDENCE OF IRS TARGETING POLITICAL CANDIDATES

Republicans have contended the controversy shows the IRS is an out-of-control agency with a track record of harassing taxpayers, including by auditing candidates and donors.

Senator Charles Grassley on Tuesday released a letter from TIGTA finding no evidence that IRS officials inappropriately targeted candidates for public office, in a search of cases since 2006.

In response to request from Grassley, the inspector general letter did identify eight allegations where IRS officials had unauthorized access to or disclosed tax records for political candidates or donors.

In four of the cases, the allegations were not backed up by evidence, the inspector general said in its letter dated July 3.

One case of willful unauthorized access was referred to the Justice Department for investigation, but it declined to prosecute.

The Justice Department said it is reviewing Grassley's request for the rationale for not prosecuting.

(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Cynthia Osterman)

A race to stop a killer begins when a piece of mail is delivered to the wrong person in "Tell No Lies," the latest thriller from Gregg Hurwitz.

Daniel Brasher gave up a high-paying job to marry the woman of his dreams. She successfully battled a rare form of cancer and now works as a community organizer. They love each other and are happy together.

Then a piece of mail with no return address arrives in Daniel's inbox at work. It warns him to admit what he's done or he'll bleed for it. There's a deadline, but that deadline has passed. Daniel shows the letter to his wife. They search for the recipient's name on the Internet and discover that he's been murdered. Other pieces of mail with deadlines are delivered to Daniel's inbox. He must convince the police that the threats are real.

Hurwitz has a gift for creating characters and elaborate plots that start with something simple and then explode. In "Tell No Lies," the setting is San Francisco instead of his usual Los Angeles area, and he wraps the story in the landscape of the region, making the city a character as well.

Menace, treachery and intrigue have never been more exciting.

___

Online:

http://gregghurwitz.net/

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- A $24 million marketing and outreach blitz underway in Arkansas will train hundreds of workers about how to sign up residents for the state's insurance marketplace under the federal health care law and pay for ads at hundreds of gas pumps.

State insurance officials are trying to reach the roughly 500,000 people who are expected to sign up for insurance through the exchange, an online marketplace where the uninsured can purchase coverage, by the time open enrollment begins Oct. 1.

"It's a pretty robust effort," Cynthia Crone, who leads the Insurance Department's Health Benefits Exchange Partnership division. "When we've got 500,000 of our less than 3 million people who are uninsured, we need to reach a lot of people."

The biggest part of that effort will be the guides who will help the uninsured connect with the exchange. Arkansas has received more than $16.2 million from the federal government to contract with various organizations around the state that will employ the guides.

In addition to the guides, Arkansas officials are using federal funds to blanket the state with advertisements about the new exchange. Arkansas awarded a nearly $4.3 million contract for marketing the insurance exchange to Mangan Holcomb Partners earlier this year.

The contract calls for purchasing $2.6 million in advertising to promote the new exchange. Beyond television, radio and print, the contract also calls for placing gas pump advertising at 100 stations around Arkansas and placing 150 billboards promoting the exchange. The company also detailed plans to purchase advertising on Pandora online radio and to use social media.

"The message the Arkansas Health Connector must deliver to the people of Arkansas is simple: affordable health insurance is now available and they need to sign up for it," MHP said in a campaign plan released by the Insurance Department.

Crone said the department has seen heavy traffic on Arkansas Health Connector website set up for the exchange, which includes a countdown to when open enrollment begins.

Arkansas' insurance marketplace is being operated as a partnership with the federal government. Under the partnership models, the federal government will be responsible for several areas, including eligibility determinations, enrollment of individuals and operating the call center. The state will determine criteria for certifying health insurance plans, monitoring plans for continued participating, providing direct consumer outreach and education and providing consumer complaint resolution.

About half of the people who will buy insurance through the exchange are doing so under a plan lawmakers approved earlier this year to purchase private insurance for low-income residents using federal Medicaid funds. The "private option" was approved as an alternative to expanding Medicaid's enrollment under the health care law. That plan must be approved by the federal government, and Arkansas is expected to submit its request next month.

UT San Diego cites (http://bit.ly/11oH5BJ) a preliminary investigation report that finds a group of skydivers were trying a multiple person maneuver over Riverside County on Saturday when one of them became entangled in a parachute.

The man was unable to free himself and fell to the ground.

Police found him in the backyard of a Lake Elsinore home. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The man was identified as Ken Oka of Mira Loma.

The newspaper says police and the Federal Aviation Administration are conducting independent investigations.

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Information from: U-T San Diego, http://www.utsandiego.com

LONDON (Reuters) - Custom at David Zambra's upmarket central London shop, once a supplier of stationery to Queen Victoria's family, has fallen 10 percent each year since 2009.

The British economy is weak and internet shopping on the rise but he blames super-rich foreign buyers who have snapped up homes in his Belgravia neighbourhood, one of the world's most affluent, leaving them empty for much of the year.

The wealthy including from the Middle East and Eastern Europe have poured money into luxury properties in places such as Mayfair and Knightsbridge, seen as safe investments during the financial crisis and footholds in a dynamic city.

Many are rarely visited by their owners, leaving parts of important economic areas deserted, squeezing local businesses already suffering in tough trading conditions.

The investment has helped estate agents, house sellers and those providing services to the owners when they are in town.

But others complain it has pushed up prices, making it harder for locals buy homes, widening the gap between the richest and poorest in London and damaging the fabric of local communities.

Several politicians say they are worried about the trend and are looking into the economic fallout.

"It (the local area) is in danger of becoming a ghost city because there aren't enough people here all the time," said Zambra, who bought the H.R. Stokes shop in 1989.

Overseas buyers of high-end London homes accounted for 38 percent of deals last year compared with 23 percent in 2005, data from property consultant Savills shows. Just over half were for use as a main home.

The figure for non-British buyers rises to 65 percent for homes worth more than five million pounds and 85 percent for new-build properties in the same price bracket.

Exacerbating the problem for retailers is a surge in the number of conversions of offices into more lucrative residential use, which further cuts passing custom. Figures from property consultant H2SO show a 168 percent rise in the amount of office floor space lost to residential last year versus 2011.

It has not dented steadily rising sales and footfall in top areas like Oxford Street or Regent Street, which ensures overall vacancy rates in London's wealthiest postcodes are below the wider averages for the city and rest of the country.

But not far from the bright lights and tourists of these world-famous shopping strips, the outlook is gloomier.

Reuters spoke to more than a dozen retailers in such areas across Mayfair, Knightsbridge, Belgravia, Earl's Court and Kensington and Chelsea who said custom was falling and most expressed concern about the effects of empty homes.

Nainesh Shah, who has worked in Knightsbridge and Belgravia for 32 years began to feel the impact in 2010, when footfall at his newsagent fell by a quarter and sales by over a fifth.

"They're (overseas homeowners) not here with the interest of staying and building a relationship," he said.

BUY-TO-LEAVE

Such comments tally with views expressed to the local government in Westminster, an area that includes many of London's wealthiest streets and accounts for about 3 percent of national gross domestic product.

"Never mind about buy-to-let property, we are concerned about buy-to-leave," said Rosemarie MacQueen, an official at Westminster City Council, which commissioned a study to be released later this year examining the impact of a rising number of homes compared with offices and shops.

"Given the contribution we (Westminster) make to the country's GDP we have to be sure about every change of use to residential."

Others spoken to by Reuters included the manager of a bakery, who declined to be named but said sales had slumped by a fifth at his Belgravia site, contrasting with the fortunes of a sister site on the main King's Road shopping strip in Chelsea.

"The area is dying somehow. We get quite a lot of Russians coming in but they come just once and never come back."

"They (small businesses) see a rich and affluent neighbourhood and think the success will rub off but that's simply not the case," said Jane Morris, managing director of interior design shop Percy Bass in Knightsbridge, less than half a mile from the Harrods department store.

Politicians are taking note of the retailers' distress, including Simon Hughes, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, the junior party in Britain's coalition government.

Hughes is lobbying for additional taxes for overseas homebuyers because of the capital's housing shortage and said local businesses were also under threat.

"London is a series of villages and villages to survive need enough customers who go to the village pub, the village shop and the village bakery," said Hughes, who is also a member of parliament for an area of central London.

Developers say politicians are just trying to win votes while ignoring the wider economic benefits of overseas money coming into London.

"These politicians have zero understanding of the London property market and make comments that are damaging and self-serving," said Alex Michelin, co-founder of high-end residential developer Finchatton, which sells homes worth between 5 and 70 million pounds.

"These guys spend more than the average person spends in a year when they are here, all without using public services. Most world cities would give their left arm to have what London has."

DISPARITIES

With the flow of overseas money showing no signs of slowing, there are risks to central London becoming a playground for the world's rich while nearby areas such as Southwark, Lambeth and Tower Hamlets are home to some of Britain's poorest parts.

Britain is second behind the United States among G20 countries for economic inequality and the disparity in central London is already more extreme than elsewhere in the country, said Stewart Lansley, an economist and author of a book on income equality.

A wide gap between rich and poor can stifle aspiration and fuel resentment as domestic buyers are pushed further afield and prices rise all the way down to the cheapest houses, making it harder for those with lower incomes to buy a home.

Lansley said economic instability also rises due to "growing levels of debt at the bottom" and a "speculative ball of money travelling the world" at the top.

"I don't think the levels of inequality you see in central London are sustainable," he said. "A whole army of cleaners and fast-food sellers on which the city depends are being forced out. Sooner or later something will have to give."

Westminster Council shares these concerns and could introduce curbs on the residential sector, said MacQueen.

"This isn't about a lack of money," she said. "When you've got five residences, it becomes a problem of too much money."

(Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs and Zhe Sun; editing by Anna Willard)