A comment on the semi-colon (;) which is a full stop on top of a comma. I never use semi-colons. In all writing I have ever seen, a comma or a full stop is always better than a semi-colon (in my opinion). Semi-colons simply make sentences longer. Semi-colons are beloved by writers who use flowery language and long sentences (in my opinion).
Let me be fair to the poor semi-colon before I bury it. In careful literary writing it has a real job: it joins two complete thoughts that are closely related, where a full stop would feel too abrupt. "She loved the work; she hated the hours." Grammatically, that is perfectly correct.
But journalism is not literature, and here is the problem. A semi-colon is a signal to the reader to slow down and hold two ideas in the air at once. On a news page, where people are reading quickly and often standing on a train, that is the last thing you want. The full stop is your friend. It is clean, it is fast, and it gives the reader a place to breathe.
So take my advice and make a habit of it. When you feel a semi-colon coming on, you almost always have two better choices. Turn it into a full stop and start a fresh sentence. Or turn it into a comma with a small joining word like "and" or "but". Try it on your own copy. You will find the writing gets shorter, plainer and stronger every time.
One exception worth knowing: the semi-colon does useful work separating items in a long list when the items themselves contain commas. Outside of that, in news writing, you can live a long and happy life without ever touching the key.